Wednesday 30 September 1668
[In this part of the “Diary” no entry occurs for thirteen days, though there are several pages left blank. During the interval Pepys went into the country, as he subsequently mentions his having been at Saxham, in Suffolk, during the king’s visit to Lord Crofts, which took place at this time (see October 23rd, host). He might also probably have gone to Impington to fetch his wife. The pages left blank were never filled up. — B.]
11 Annotations
First Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
A best-selling author of almanacs in Pepys's England died today
WING, VINCENT
(b. North Luffenhanm, Rutland, England, 19 April 1619; d. North Luffenham, 30 September 1668)
"Wing’s father, for whom he was named, was a small landowner. Young Wing had little formal education and began earning his living at an early age as a surveyor, almanac compiler, astrologer, and prolific writer of astronomical works, His almanacs were the most popular of their time; and in Flamsteed’s judgment, Wing produced “our exactest ephemerides.” He was an eager polemicist and frequently was involved in public disputes over astronomical and astrological matters.
"Wing’s career as an astronomer mirrors the development of astronomical thought during the seventeenth century. His first book, Urania practica (1649), asserted the stability of the earth and was Ptolemaic in spirit. A published attack on it by Jeremy Shakerley may have led to Wing’s conversion to Copernicanism. By 1651 he had accepted the fundamentals of Keplerian astronomy as modified by Ismael Boulliau.
"Like many astronomers in the second half of the seventeenth century, Wing, following Boulliau and Seth Ward, opted for an “empty-focus” variant of Kepler’s second law, holding that a planet moving in an elliptical orbit describes equal angles in equal times about the focus not occupied by the sun. In works published in 1651 and 1656 Wing, adopting Boulliau’s method, had his elliptical orbits, including that of the moon, generated in purely geometrical fashion by circles and epicycles. In his posthumously published Astronotnin Britannica, however, he discarded the epicycles in favor of a refined version of the theory proposed by Ward in the latter’s As tronomiu geometrice (1656), in which the elliptical orbits were assumed to be physically generated. Wing’s celestial mechanics contained a mixture of Cartesian and Keplerian components, with a rotating sun and celestial vortex pushing the planets around in their orbits." http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1…
Andrew Hamilton • Link
Thanks Terry,
Fascinating glimpse of the muddle of celestial mechanics before Newton.
Andrew
martinb • Link
13 days?! And what are we supposed to do for 13 days?
This isn't the promised end, so it must be an image of that horror.
Terry Foreman • Link
'Minute Book: September 1668, 16-31', Calendar of Treasury Books, Volume 2: 1667-1668 (1905), pp. 439-448. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…
Sept. 30. Wednesday.
The Earl of Anglesey and Mr. Pepys to come to Sir R. Long's on Tuesday next about the business of [preparing the account of] the money disposed for the ordinary of the Navy to Michaelmas last.
***
Alas, there is no entry for the 31st.
Terry Foreman • Link
"Fascinating glimpse of the muddle of celestial mechanics before Newton."
Andrew, indeed. To remind those who have forgot: the closer the planet in an elliptical orbit to the sun, the faster it moves. "As the planet moves around its orbit during a fixed amount of time, the line from the Sun to planet sweeps a constant area of the orbital plane, regardless of which part of its orbit the planet traces during that period of time. This means that the planet moves faster near its perihelion than near its aphelion, because at the smaller distance it needs to trace a greater arc to cover the same area. This law is usually stated as "equal areas in equal time.""
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan…
Vincent Wing did not know this.
AnnieC • Link
"13 days?! And what are we supposed to do for 13 days?"
I'll be going to the link on the right of the diary page and reading At Home with Mr and Mrs Pepys. There's 13 days' good reading there.
Second Reading
San Diego Sarah • Link
Pepys' letter to Sandwich yesterday arrived today.
Sandwich wrote that 'it was necessary for my occasion and no more'.
THE LETTERS OF SAMUEL PEPYS 1656 - 1703
Edited by Guy De La Bedoyere
Boydell & Brewer
ISSN 1 84383 197 X
Page 71
San Diego Sarah • Link
The volume covering correspondence from Nov. 1667 – Sept. 1668 is at
https://play.google.com/books/rea…
Pages 658 – 661 – undated correspondence is included in this, the last day of the month, not all of which have I copied.
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Sept. 30 1668.
Wevenhoe ketch, The Downs
Capt. Chris. Eveling to the Navy Commissioners.
Was ordered by the Governor of Tangiers to make his way for Deptford,
to receive their commands;
departed thence on the 2nd inst., and went to Cadiz to stop leaks, where Sir ThosAllin arrived with his fleet in good condition on the 4th.
The Earl of Sandwich sailed in the Greenwich out of Tangiers Road for England on 29 Aug.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 247, No. 30.]
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Sept. 30 1668.
Stockwith
John Russell to the Navy Commissioners.
Particulars of the loading of the Adam and Eve and other hoys with timber;
desires they will send the hoys again before winter, to take away the remainder.
Begs that his accounts may be passed, and that he may have a bill to clear his imprest bills, which have lain 4 years;
hopes they will not let him suffer by his accounts lying in the office so long.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 247, No. 32.]
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Sept. 30 1668.
Bristol
James Baskerville to Williamson.
The new mayor and sheriffs have been sworn.
Hears that Capt. Rooth has made a peace with Sallee.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 247, No. 33.]
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Sept. 30 1668.
Milford
John Powell to Williamson.
A ship from Bordeaux, with wines for Bristol, put into that port by contrary winds,
and one from the Barbados, with tobacco, indigo, and cotton.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 247, No. 34.]
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Sept. 30 1668.
Pembroke
John Powell to Hickes.
To the same effect.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 247, No. 35.]
---
Yes, I checked the book, and it does give Powell sending letters on the same day from two different locations.
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Sept. 30 1668.
Falmouth
Thos. Holden to Hickes.
Two more of the Barbadoes fleet have arrived.
The Swallow of London and John of Dover from Malaga have come in.
The James of Dartmouth from Newfoundland, laden with fish, reports that they have made a great year of fishing, yet huld their fish at a great price.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 247, No. 36.]
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Sept. 30 1668.
Deal
Rich. Watts to Williamson.
Three ships arrived from Barbados report that a considerable fleet came out with them, but were lost by the way;
two others from Tangiers and Virginia have also come in.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 247, No. 38.]
San Diego Sarah • Link
Sept. 30 1668.
Licence
to Sir Thos. Sandys, Bart., and other trustees for loyal indigent officers in London and Westminster,
to set up plate lotteries in England and Wales for the support of the said officers for 6 years, with prohibition of all other lotteries during that time.
Endorsed with a note from the King for it to pass by immediate warrant.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II., Case C, No. 9.]
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Sept.? 1668
Report
by the Bishop of Hereford — on a petition in a controversy between the Countess of Dysart and John Ramsay, as to which of them should present to the vicarage of Kingston [co. Warwick] -- that as controversy may long continue, and the success be doubtful, it is not fit that the town of Kingston should remain destitute of a minister, nor that Thos. Willis, who has been presented by the Countess, should run the hazard of losing his right and interest in the rectory of Dunton (co . Warwick), of which he is possessed by his acceptance of it, and recommending a dispensation for him to hold the two, if within 33 miles.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 247, No. 43.]
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Deal
Sept.? 1668
Lists sent by Mor. Lodge to Williamson,
of ships in the Downs,
the state of the wind, arrival and despatch of mails, &c., during the month,
as follows:
PLEASE SEE THE ORIGINAL BOOK AS THE CHART DOES NOT COPY
Stephane Chenard • Link
And so concludes the month of September, anno 1668, God save the king. In what vortex has our hero disappeared? Here is a mysterie for our Society to tease, but, to Entertain us in these 13 days, be advised that our book-seller Mr. Google offers volume IX of the State Papers (Domestic) of the reign of Charles II, covering October 1668 to December 1669 in the 1894 edition printed by Eyre & Spottiswood on Fleet Street, at
https://books.google.fr/books?id=…
Aye, in this volume we get all of 14 months, of ships arriving laden with pilchards, passes granted for horses to France and complaints about unpaid bills, clear through December 1669. Why, this should be more than enough for our Purpose, judging by certain prophecie we heard. As we emerged from Mr. Google's, our boy struggling to carry our 800-page tome, this crazy Astrologer was marching by, shouting "the world will end on May 31st, 1669!" Not for nothing does His Majestie wisely forbid such horoscopes. Who will rid us of these phanatickes and charlatans? We promptly had the Watch bundle away the old fool to Newgate.
JayW • Link
Milford and Pembroke.
Milford Haven is in Pembrokeshire. I suspect that might be the explanation for John Howell apparently sending letters from different addresses.