Thursday 18 March 1668/69
Up, and to see Sir W. Coventry, and walked with him a good while in the Stone Walk: and brave discourse about my Lord Chancellor, and his ill managements and mistakes, and several things of the Navy, and thence to the office, where we sat all the morning, and so home to dinner, where my wife mighty finely dressed, by a maid that she hath taken, and is to come to her when Jane goes; and the same she the other day told me of, to be so handsome. I therefore longed to see her, but did not till after dinner, that my wife and I going by coach, she went with us to Holborne, where we set her down. She is a mighty proper maid, and pretty comely, but so so; but hath a most pleasing tone of voice, and speaks handsomely, but hath most great hands, and I believe ugly; but very well dressed, and good clothes, and the maid I believe will please me well enough. Thence to visit Ned Pickering and his lady, and Creed and his wife, but the former abroad, and the latter out of town, gone to my Lady Pickering’s in Northamptonshire, upon occasion of the late death of their brother, Oliver Pickering, a youth, that is dead of the smallpox. So my wife and I to Dancre’s to see the pictures; and thence to Hyde Park, the first time we were there this year, or ever in our own coach, where with mighty pride rode up and down, and many coaches there; and I thought our horses and coach as pretty as any there, and observed so to be by others. Here staid till night, and so home, and to the office, where busy late, and so home to supper and to bed, with great content, but much business in my head of the office, which troubles me.
21 Annotations
First Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
The Royal Society today at Arundel House — from the Hooke Folio Online
March. 18. the Curator tryed something in order to make a watch goe by the force of a Loadstone It was orderd that he should prouide against the next meeting, an house clock going half Seconds & put a flight vpon it to try what the power of the magnet will be would be. -- It was taken notice that if this contriuance would be made practicable, the Magnet would then furnish the nauigator with the Longitude as well as it hath hitherto aduantaged him with the Latitude. --
Dr Croon propos an expt. to try whether an animall would be fed by blood alone transfused into it. vizt. by inclosing 2 doggs in a box and making the blood circulate from one to the other by the way of transfusion feeding the one & not the other. he was Desird to make the Expt. and D Allen & mr Hooke to assist him in it
http://webapps.qmul.ac.uk/cell/Ho…
Tony Eldridge • Link
"Ned Pickering and his lady, and Creed and his wife"
A delicate piece of class-consciousness here? As Pickering and Mrs Creed came from the same family, perhaps Sam feels the latter married beneath her.
(I believe it is not so long ago that invitations to some regimental functions were headed "Officers and their ladies, NCO's and their wives and Privates (soldiers) and their women".)
Betsy • Link
Isn't that what you want in a maid? Nice face, sweet voice, big man hands.
arby • Link
My thought too, Betsy, Seinfeldian "manhands".
Claire • Link
Was going to post the same thing. Hands to get the job done. I suspect Sam in his heart would still like someone more *tempting.* Even if he has resolved to resist temptation.
jeannine • Link
"but hath most great hands, and I believe ugly" as I recall Sam has a 'hands thing' and in the past has been utterly turned off by servants with greasy hands, etc. I was sort of hoping that she'd be totally monstrous (aka Wife of Frankenstein) and beloved by Elizabeth. I can only imagine the Diary entries that would follow.......
Allen Appel • Link
Sam and a hands thing? Yes. Remember all the gloves he buys to give away.
JKM • Link
Re Terry's entry on the latest Royal Society inquiries: I wouldn't want to be a dog anywhere NEAR Arundel House in the 1660s!
JWB • Link
Anyone have an idea what "...put a flight upon it..." means in Hooke's notebook above?
djc • Link
“…put a flight upon it…” possibly a vane or feather of some sort that would offer an air resistance and thus indicate the strength of the motion
Australian Susan • Link
Large hands in a woman were considered masculine and in Dickens's time (remember the murderess at Mr Jaggers' in Gt Expectations) a sign of depravity - not sure if Sam would have had that particular piece of folklore lurking in his head. It's probably just the aesthetics for him.
Gloves and hands, especially tiny hands in tight leather gloves with buttons had all sorts of erotic connotations in Victorian times - again, i don't know if they had that effect on Sam.
Terry Foreman • Link
John Evelyn's Diary
18th March, 1669. I went with Lord Howard of Norfolk, to visit Sir William Ducie at Charlton, where we dined; the servants made our coachmen so drunk, that they both fell off their boxes on the heath, where we were fain to leave them, and were driven to London by two servants of my Lord's. This barbarous custom of making the masters welcome by intoxicating the servants, had now the second time happened to my coachmen. My son finally came from Oxford.
http://goo.gl/rjHJo
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"to see Sir W. Coventry, and walked with him a good while in the Stone Walk"
"the Stone Walk, which is called, it seems, my Lord of Northumberland’s walk"
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
Terry Foreman • Link
"gone to my Lady Pickering’s in Northamptonshire, upon occasion of the late death of their brother, Oliver Pickering,"
He was buried at Tichmarsh (near Thrapston), Northamptonshire
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…
Terry Foreman • Link
"So my wife and I to Dancre’s to see the pictures"
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
Terry Foreman • Link
"my wife mighty finely dressed, by a maid that she hath taken, and is to come to her when Jane goes; and the same she the other day told me of, to be so handsome."
L&M: Matt; she began work on 29 March.
LKvM • Link
"She is a mighty proper maid, and pretty comely, but so so;"
There is a little town in Mississippi called SoSo, presumably because it is nothing special.
john • Link
"and thence to Hyde Park, the first time we were there this year, or ever in our own coach, where with mighty pride rode up and down, and many coaches there; and I thought our horses and coach as pretty as any there, and observed so to be by others."
To be seen and see others admire. I imagine both Samuel and Elizabeth positively glowing with pride.
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... and thence to Hyde Park, the first time we were there this year, or ever in our own coach, where with mighty pride rode up and down, and many coaches there; and I thought our horses and coach as pretty as any there, and observed so to be by others."
For an explanation of The Tour, see
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
How interesting that so many people of quality went, considering the Court is away at Newmarket.
But spring time is spring time, and flirting doesn't need a King or Queen to happen.
Maybe the Pepys went BECAUSE Charles II and James were not there, come to think of it.
San Diego Sarah • Link
NOTES ON EVELYN'S DIARY:
In Thursday 19 June 1662, dirk posted:
John Evelyn's diary: "I went to Albury in Surrey, to visit Mr. Henry Howard, Duke of Norfolk, soon after he had procured the Dukedom to be restored &c: This Gent: had now compounded a debt of near 200,000 pounds, contracted by his Grandfather: I was much obliged to that great virtuoso and to this young Gent: so as I stayed a fortnight with him."
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Charlton House, Greenwich, was built between 1607 and 1612 for Prince Henry, Sir Adam Newton, Dean of Durham. Newton was tutor to Prince Henry, eldest son of King James.
John Evelyn, who was well acquainted with Dean Newton's son, Sir Henry Newton, stated that the House was built for Prince Henry. Newton ceased to be the Prince's tutor in 1610; the Prince Henry died in 1612 at 18 and so he never saw the house completed and it is unlikely the house was at any time a royal residence.
Sir Adam Newton continued in King James’ employment and to live in at Charlton until his death in 1629. He is buried in Charlton Church where there is a large monument, commemorating both Sir Adam Newton and his wife Catherine Puckering, in black and white marble.
The estate passed to his son, Sir Henry Puckering Newton, who as a royalist, had to leave Charlton during the Civil Wars although his family continued to reside at Charlton House.
In 1658 the estate was purchased by Sir William Ducie, who made additions and improvements to the house. He lived at Charlton House in great style until he died in 1679.
Sir William Langhorne was a wealthy East India merchant who purchased the estate from William Ducie in 1680.
https://www.greenwichheritage.org…
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Sir William Ducie was the son of a Lord Mayor of London. He wasn't an MP and Librarian Google doesn't reveal much about him. So it sounds like Evelyn and Lord Howard of Norfolk went out to lunch with friends, and ended up having to leave their drunken chauffeurs!
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... much business in my head of the office, which troubles me."
Much rides on this defense of the present constitution of the Navy ... probably James will be out if Pepys fails to justify their actions with legal precedents. The research was the fun part. Putting the information into a document which skeptical courtiers will understand and accept is a whole other challenge.