Thursday 10 September 1668
Up, and by water to White Hall, and there to Sir W. Coventry’s house, where I staid in his dining-room two hours thinking to speak with him, but I find Garraway and he are private, which I am glad of, Captain Cocke bringing them this day together. Cocke come out and talked to me, but it was too late for me to stay longer, and therefore to the Treasury chamber, where the rest met, and W. Coventry come presently after. And we spent the morning in finishing the Victualler’s contract, and so I by water home, and there dined with me Batelier and his wife, and Mercer, and my people, at a good venison-pasty; and after dinner I and W. Howe, who come to see me, by water to the Temple, and met our four women, my wife, M. Batelier, Mercer, and Deb., at the Duke’s play-house, and there saw “The Maid in the Mill,” revived — a pretty, harmless old play. Thence to Unthanke’s, and ’Change, where wife did a little business, while Mercer and I staid in the coach; and, in a quarter of an hour, I taught her the whole Larke’s song perfectly, so excellent an eare she hath. Here we at Unthanke’s ’light, and walked them to White Hall, my wife mighty angry at it, and did give me ill words before Batelier, which vexed me, but I made no matter of it, but vexed to myself. So landed them, it being fine moonshine, at the Bear, and so took water to the other side, and home. I to the office, where a child is laid at Sir J. Minnes’s door, as there was one heretofore. So being good friends again, my wife seeking, it, by my being silent I overcoming her, we to bed.
14 Annotations
First Reading
A. De Araujo • Link
"did give me ill words before Batelier, which vexed me"
Bess,some things are better done in private or were you safer in public?
Terry Foreman • Link
"I to the office, where a child is laid at Sir J. Minnes’s door, as there was one heretofore."
Neither the Index nor a Google site search mentions a previous foundling. Daniel posted a mention of homes that took in foundlings in Shakespeare's day. http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1… The Foundling Hospital in London -- an institution endowed for the purpose ---will not be set up until 1741. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foun…
Mary • Link
Garraway.
The link here is to the wrong man (Sir William Thompson, a different MP).
Garraway was MP for Chichester and a well-known critic of administration in parliament. (L&M)
JWB • Link
From "The history and objects of the Foundling Hospital", John Brownlow:
"He (Capt. Thomas Coram) knew, what every man who studies the human heart must know—that the motive to such a dereliction of maternal duty must be beyond the ordinary casualties of indigence. He was not long in discovering the true source of the evil. He found that it arose out of a morbid morality, then possessing the public mind, by which an unhappy female, who fell a victim to the seductions and false promises of a designing man, was left to hopeless contumely, and irretrievable disgrace. Neither she nor the offspring of her guilt appear to have been admitted within the pale of human compassion: her first false step was her final doom,..."
Terry Foreman • Link
"So being good friends again, my wife seeking, it, by my being silent I overcoming her, we to bed."
L&M note Pepys had done this before: "I fell to read a book...and let her talk, till she was tired and vexed that I would not hear her, and so become friends, and to bed together " http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
Robert Gertz • Link
So...Was Bess angry at being left alone at Unthankes or angry that Sam was paying so much attention to Mercer?
Terry Foreman • Link
"I by water home, and there dined with me Batelier and his wife, and Mercer, and my people, at a good venison-pasty;"
Was this venison-pasty perhaps inspired by yesterday's promise by the Duke of Richmond of a doe from Cobham Hall "when the season comes"? http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
Jenny • Link
"...and walked them to White Hall, my wife mighty angry at it, and..."
Bess did NOT want to walk to White Hall....
I do find Sam's "silent treatments" amusing. I wonder if his colleagues at the office know that he goes into sulks like a two year old.
Phil Gyford • Link
Re 'Garraway': thanks for the correction Mary. The link now goes to the correct fellow.
By the way, if you have time, it's usually best to email me corrections as I may miss them in the annotations. Thanks.
Kevin Peter • Link
I looked at it as less of a passive-aggressive silent treatment and more of a staying quiet while waiting for her temper to cool down.
Bess may have been in a mood where saying anything would just have made her angrier and the argument worse, so Sam figured that the best course was to not say anything in response and let her unleash her anger until she cools down.
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"to Sir W. Coventry’s house, where I staid in his dining-room two hours thinking to speak with him, but I find Garraway and he are private, which I am glad of"
L&M: William Garroway (M.P. for Chichester, Suss.) was a leading critic of the administration in parliament, but his considerable influence was occasionally used in the government's interest. Coventry seems to have know him well and to have thought highly of him.
Cf. https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… and https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
San Diego Sarah • Link
The volume covering correspondence from November 1667 through September 1668, is at
https://play.google.com/books/rea…
PAGES 628-629
Sept. 10. 1668
Capt. John Tinker, master attendant, to the Navy Commissioners.
Portsmouth.
Particulars of a tongue of gravel, 150 ft. long and 50 wide, in the channel between the Platform and Southsea Castle.
Thinks it would be prejudicial to the harbour to remove it, as it lies in an eddy, and if stirred, the tide would carry it into the middle and make a bed there;
it is no inconvenience to those who know the harbour or have a pilot, but would be prejudicial to an enemy;
has buoyed it that his Royal Highness may see how it lies when he comes.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 246, No. 18.]
Mary K • Link
Sir John Mennes and foundlings.
Mennes is an elderly man (69 at this date and will die in 1671) so, although not impossible, it's unlikely that the child is his own unacknowledged offspring. Indeed, he seems to have no children of his own and will leave his estate primarily to a two nieces and a nephew.
Just possibly the infant(s) literally laid at his door are the children of men employed by the Navy and left at the boss's door on the basis that one begotten "by the navy" should be the responsibility of the navy.
john • Link
@Jenny -- I would not call it a sulk. It is sometimes better to keep silent and suffer rather than respond and invoke a nasty row.