Wednesday 27 January 1668/69
Up, and with Sir John Minnes in his coach to White Hall, where first we waited on the Lords of the Treasury about finishing the Victualling Contract; and there also I was put to it to make good our letter complaining against my Lord Anglesey’s failing us in the payment of the moneys assigned us upon the Customs, where Mr. Fenn was, and I know will tell my Lord; but it is no matter, I am over shy already, and therefore must not fear. Then we up to a Committee of the Council for the Navy, about a business of Sir D. Gawden’s relating to the Victualling, and thence I by hackney to the Temple to the Auditor’s man, and with him to a tavern to meet with another under-auditor to advise about the clearing of my Lord Bellasses’ accounts without injuring myself and perplexing my accounts, and so thence away to my cozen Turner’s, where I find Roger Pepys come last night to town, and here is his mistress, Mrs. Dickenson, and by and by comes in Mr. Turner, a worthy, sober, serious man — I honour him mightily. And there we dined, having but an ordinary dinner; and so, after dinner, she, and I, and Roger, and his mistress, to the Duke of York’s playhouse, and there saw “The Five Hours’ Adventure,” which hath not been acted a good while before, but once, and is a most excellent play, I must confess. My wife and The. come after us, after they had been to buy some things abroad, and so after the play done we to see them home, and then home ourselves, and my wife to read to me, and so to supper and to bed.
11 Annotations
First Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"I am over shy already" -- L&M transcribe "I am over-shoes already" and their Large Glossary in the Companion defines "OVERSHOES" as "committed, irreversibly involved."
Terry Foreman • Link
"my Lord Anglesey’s failing us in the payment of the moneys assigned us "
L&M note Anglesey had diverted money assigned for naval stores.
Tony Eldridge • Link
"over-shoes". What a fine descriptive expression.
Anyone who has walked down a muddy lane in the wrong footwear wil know what it means.
Robert Gertz • Link
John Turner in London...Usually he stays in Yorkshire, I wonder what brought him? I note he doesn't seem to have gone on to the play with Jane and The. Interesting marriage he and Jane seem to have, he does provide her a lot of liberty to travel even without her own old London house which burned. Too bad we don't see more of him Diarywise, Tomalin's mention of him makes him quite intriguing...Does he love Jane so much he indulges her or he is simply overwhelmed by her drive? A little of both, I'd suppose.
Australian Susan • Link
Yesterday, Sam dropped Bess off at the tailor's and then collected her again later. Today, she (with little miss The) has the coach and Sam hitches a lift with Sir John and then has to get a hackney. Maybe Sam, looking at books, kept her waiting too long, even though, according to Tomalin, Unthanks served as a kind of ladies' club, so maybe was quite congenial to pass time in/at.
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"we up to a Committee of the Council for the Navy, about a business of Sir D. Gawden’s relating to the Victualling"
Alterations for which the Board had to have Treasury approval, were to be made in the new contract. It was to be signed on 24 February. (Per L&M note)
San Diego Sarah • Link
"I was put to it to make good our letter complaining against my Lord Anglesey’s failing us in the payment of the moneys assigned us upon the Customs, where Mr. Fenn was, and I know will tell my Lord; but it is no matter, I am over shy already, and therefore must not fear."
"... to the Auditor’s man, and with him to a tavern to meet with another under-auditor to advise about the clearing of my Lord Bellasses’ accounts without injuring myself and perplexing my accounts, ..."
L&M: Expenses incurred when Belasyse was Governor of Tangier 1665 - 1667.
God forbid your accounts should be perplexed, or you financially injured by settling up, Pepys.
Sounds like the Treasury Committee is venturing into the more contraversial aspects of Pepys' business. Too late to go back for a rewrite.
Stephane Chenard • Link
The Treasurers, as their minutes retell it (at https://www.british-history.ac.uk…) had briefly "considered" the letter Re. my Lord Anglesey yesterday, and quite reasonably put it off to today's session, which "the said Commissioners and the Earl [Anglesey] to attend".
In today's minutes however the matter looks rather more ominous: "the Navy letter is read about money diverted by the Earl of Anglesey after being designed for stores". Anglesey is not there. Arthur Fenn, a Navy man, assures the Treasury that "the Earl of Anglesey did intend to pay" as intended, but apparently does not explain why that did not happen. We didn't peruse dictionaries on the nuances of "money diverted", but there doesn't seem to be a way to make it look good. Interestingly the minutes also record that while two Anglesey allies with a much longer reach than Mr. Fenn, my Lord Ormonde and Sir G. Carteret, had been present on unrelated business at the beginning of the session, the Anglesey problem was taken up after they, "the Lords of Ireland", had left the room.
Could this balloon to a larger cabal, in which gears Sam will have inserted his fingers, with the free-minded Anglesey another Clarendon? Such whispers are how the downfall of great men can be brought about. (Spoiler: Nay. He'll be fine).
Gerald Berg • Link
I am perplexed on account of what overshoes might look like before we had rubber?
Gillian Bagwell • Link
Gerald--I don't believe Sam saying "I am over-shoes already" refers to overshoes, but means something along the lines of "I'm in too deep," "I'm getting in over my head," etc.
San Diego Sarah • Link
Agreed, Gillian ... if the Committee pulls too hard on this thread, Pepys' construction may fall apart and his double-bookkeeping (or whatever he did) revealed.
I still wonder at Pepys taking a couple of the auditors out to lunch and asking for their advice.
Maybe that was designed to indicate an innocent desire to meet current / changing standards by an overwhelmed bureaucrat who may have inadvertently made some trivial allocation errors in the fog of war / pandemic / fire. Should these mistakes be revealed later, the auditors can say "Oh, yes, Pepys realized his errors and we've known about them for ages. We corrected it with this Journal entry in 1669. No worries; nothing to see here. Next ..."
Damn his eyes; I want more details.
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…