Andrew Hamilton on 31 Mar 2012  •  Link

Slightly off topic (for today surely), but I thought the annotators might be amused by the following from the American political blog Instapundit. It seems Sam was a pathbreaker, at least in recording his propositions in French mixed with other foreign tongues.

ADVICE: American Men Should Be Upfront About Asking For Sex, Like French Men. (http://www.yourtango.com/20121474…)
But if you follow that advice, you’re a harasser.
UPDATE: Reader Ray Dawson writes that the trick is to ask in a French accent, so as to bypass the oikophobia. Good point!

Roy on 31 Mar 2012  •  Link

Slightly off topic, your not kidding !!!

Robert Gertz on 31 Mar 2012  •  Link

So "some are for removing..." and think Sam knows too much. Has he overdone the know-it-all control freak, offended a few of the titled with his airs, or do they just see him as an obstacle to looting the navy?

Larry on 31 Mar 2012  •  Link

Sam's business sense and acumen have instructed and guided me for quite a long time. One shouldn't mind going so much when all things are considered but the time and manner of leaving are not always what we might hope for. Not much has changed in the world of business over the last four-odd centuries. Sic transit gloria, right?

Terry Foreman on 31 Mar 2012  •  Link

"he tells me that Sir T. Clifford is inclined well enough to me, and Sir T. Osborne ; what I have lately done"

L&M note: "In undertaking work normally done b y the Treasury:" sc. 22 March instant: "Thence to the Treasury-Chamber, and there all the morning to my great grief, put to do Sir G. Downing’s work of dividing the Customes for this year...but I did thereby oblige Sir Thomas Clifford and Sir J. Duncombe" http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

rob van hugte on 2 Apr 2012  •  Link

It strikes me again how deeply Sir Penn is disliked or should I say hated by Sam. Especially when reading about another dinner at his expenses. He always enjoys the dinner first and then makes some remarks on Sir Will being a knave or a villain.... After reading the diary for years I still have no clue where this is coming from.

languagehat on 2 Apr 2012  •  Link

I do not like thee, Doctor Fell.
The reason why I cannot tell;
But this I know, and know full well,
I do not like thee, Doctor Fell.

Terry Foreman on 4 Mar 2017  •  Link

"he tells me that Sir T. Clifford is inclined well enough to me, and Sir T. Osborne ; what I have lately done"

Sir Thomas Clifford is Comptroller and Treasurer of the Household, and Treasury Commissioner; In 1668 he Sir Thomas Osborne was appointed joint Treasurer of the Navy with Sir Thomas Lyttelton.

Terry Foreman on 4 Mar 2017  •  Link

"and Sir W. Pen, the first time that he hath been here since his being last sick, which, I think, is two or three months; and I think will be the last that he will be here as one of the Board,"

Penn was about to resign on his becoming a navy victualer, recall http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

psw on 18 Feb 2018  •  Link

Right at the beginning of the diary it started with Sam and his neighbour.

SIR w penn angered Sam by the way he treated Sam so much it probably was a class thing which Sam could not get past with Penn. Probably talked down to him, etc...and only reluctantly and later Penn did some "deals" with him.

Penn treated him not as an equal. Sam never let it go.

Vincent Telford on 31 Mar 2022  •  Link

The higher you rise the faster you fall. Pepys very philosophically handling rumour that he's so competent he may lose his job and so income and balancing that against that he thinks he is losing his eyesight and therefore won't be able to do the job anyway.. he simultaneously happy that Penn is soon leaving and so for now figures in all likelihood he'll still be in his job for a while yet.

Chatting this all over with his wife seems to have put it all in perspective for him; Bess acting as his greatest supporter. Unfortunately for Bess and so ultimately Sam; Sam has recently returned to 'playing away from home', just more carefully now.

San Diego Sarah on 31 Mar 2022  •  Link

"Sir W. Pen, ... I think will be the last that he will be here as one of the Board, he now inviting us all to dine with him, as a parting dinner, on Thursday next, which I am glad of, I am sure; for he is a very villain."

Penn's Parliamentary biography explains things better. Highlights only, but worth reading in its entirity:

"Penn’s grandfather was forced to sell his small estate in Wiltshire, and his father became a merchant, serving as consul in Morocco before the Civil War. Penn himself was apprenticed in 1638 to (Sir) William Batten, under whom he served in the parliamentary navy. When Batten went over to the Royalists in 1648, Penn came under suspicion; but he was quickly reinstated in the Irish fleet. Clarendon asserts that he offered his services to Charles II in 1655, when in command of the West Indies fleet, but it is doubtful whether his royalism took him beyond drinking the King’s health in private.
"He was knighted by Henry Cromwell in 1658 in Ireland, where he held an estate in right of his wife.
"In 1659 he crossed over to England, and offered his services to the Rump, which were refused, though George Monck undertook to support his application. ... Monck not only secured his election for Weymouth, but gave him the opportunity of performing conspicuous service in the Restoration by entrusting to him the getting to sea of the fleet which under Adm. Edward Montagu. was to bring Charles II over from Holland. "

Of the three flag rank seamen to transfer their services from the Commonwealth to the monarchy at the Restoration, according to Clarendon, ‘Penn, with much the worst understanding, had a great mind to appear better bred and to speak like a gentleman’; nevertheless, in the presence of real gentlemen, even one so ill-educated as Sir George Carteret, he found himself longing for ‘a grain or two’ of the self-confidence of the tailor’s son, Samuel Pepys. ...
".... Listed as a court dependant, he voted for the repeal of the Triennial Act only out of respect for the King’s wishes. He never acted as a government spokesman, though possessing some of the qualifications. ‘He had got many good words, which he used at a venture. He was a formal man, and spoke very leisurely but much, and left the matter more intricate and perplexed than he found [it].’
Penn served as chief of staff to the Duke of York in the 1665 campaign, putting his commander under obligations that he was never able to repay in Penn’s lifetime.
It was his good fortune that, being laid up with the gout, he could not be held liable, with Henry Brouncker, for the failure to follow up the victory off Lowestoft; but he was principally responsible for the irregular distribution of prize goods.
He was not employed in 1666 till Monck’s obstinacy and over-confidence had shattered the English fleet.

San Diego Sarah on 31 Mar 2022  •  Link

When peace was restored, Monck’s friends spread charges against Penn of cowardice, falsity and ‘bringing roguish fanatic captains into the fleet’, and on 3 Dec. 1667 he was summoned to attend the parliamentary committee of miscarriages.
He defended Harman from the imputation of sole responsibility for slackening sail in pursuit of the Dutch fleet in 1665.
On 16 Apr. 1668, he delivered ‘a well-argued and convincing defence’ on the prize issue, though doubtless ‘with so much leisure and gravity as was tiresome’.
Unfortunately he could hardly exculpate himself without inculpating Montagu (now Lord Sandwich); and the hostility of Sandwich’s friends, added to the distaste felt by the Cavaliers for a survivor of the Interregnum, resulted in an unanimous vote for his impeachment.
It must have been widely understood that this was merely a formality to prevent Penn from commanding the fleet again; for he had powerful friends on both sides of the House who laboured to save him, notably (Sir) William Coventry, his patron since 1660, who had learned from Penn all he knew of seamanship, and Secretary of State Henry Coventry.
Sir John Nicholas considered Penn ‘hath ill luck to be one of our Members, for he is likely by it to fare far worse than his companions, who are as guilty as himself’.
Sir Robert Howard;s committee drew up articles of impeachment, which were duly delivered to the Lords on 24 Apr. 1668 and he was suspended from sitting for the duration of the session.
A few days later he gave Pepys in confidence the benefit of his political experience: Charles II should dissolve Parliament as soon as the supply bill was passed, for it would never vote him any more; he had ‘great opportunity of making himself popular by stopping this Act against conventicles’; and he should replace Ormonde with Orrery (Roger Boyle).
Such opinions were predictable in an Irish Cromwellian landowner still under sentence of the House, who was also the anxious father of a notable and headstrong dissenter. They follow fairly closely the policy ascribed to Buckingham.
Nevertheless Penn continued to be reckoned a member of the court party.
His health deteriorated, and in 1669 he resigned from all his offices.

San Diego Sarah on 31 Mar 2022  •  Link

He had already laid by considerable wealth for a man of his modest origins; he was reported to have given £4,000 to his daughter on her marriage with Anthony Lowther and his Irish estates grew in value from £300 p.a. in 1654 to £1,500 p.a. at his death, when in addition he was owed £12,000 by the crown.

It is hard to see how this wealth can have been acquired except by a very broad interpretation of official perquisites.
For the rest, Penn’s character has suffered from the persistent denigration of Pepys, who ill requited his neighbour’s constant kindness and respect. The charge of ‘falsity’, so frequently repeated, probably arises from Penn’s lack of confidence; that of ‘cowardice’ seems to be baseless.

Penn had the highest ambitions for his son, and was long ‘put off the hooks’ by his earlier religious vagaries. But these were as nothing to the young man’s open defiance of the Conventicles Act and of conventional manners in the autumn of 1670, when the doctors had already told Lady Penn that her husband would not ‘live beyond the fall of leaf or winter’.

Indulgent to the last, Penn paid his son’s fine and died a few days later on 16 Sept. 1670."
https://www.historyofparliamenton…

San Diego Sarah on 12 May 2022  •  Link

"... or do they just see him as an obstacle to looting the navy?"

"... some are for removing; and some for keeping us. He told my Lord Keeper that it would cost the King 10,000/. before he hath made another as fit to serve him in the Navy as I am; which, though I believe it is true, yet I am much pleased to have that character given me by W. Coventry, whatever be the success of it. But I perceive they do think that I know too much, and shall impose upon whomever shall come next, and therefore must be removed, ..."

I think Mr. Gertz is right here. This is the start of the CABAL mal-administration, and the Committee is supposedly trying to save money to avoid national default and bankruptcy.
Is their intent to lose the next war? Probably not consciously.

Recently Pepys told us that he had been considered as Coventry's replacement, in the post taken by Matthew Wren, as Secretary to the Lord High Admiral, James, Duke of York. A logical and appropriate promotion; his Navy Board replacement(s) -- all bureaucrats without Navy experience -- wouldn't know how to keep the books so clean and to the King's benefit. And who would benefit from that? Not the Navy, that's for sure.
Or maybe Pepys means that the replacements for Penn, Mennes and Carteret are/will all be supervised by Pepys, who is pocketing all the kickbacks because they don't know the ropes yet?

He tells us so much, but sometimes not quite enough.

San Diego Sarah on 18 Dec 2022  •  Link

Today Cosmo, the future Grand Duke of Turin, leaves Axminster on his way to London.

I've standardized the spelling of names I know, corrected scanning errors I could figure out, and increased the number of paragraphs. I apologize if I guessed incorrectly:
I've standardized the spelling of names I know, corrected scanning errors I could figure out, and increased the number of paragraphs. Sometimes I got confused making the N.S./O.S. date conversions, so I apologize if they are wrong:

@@@

On 30 March/9 April, 1669, having travelled 12 miles through a country more cultivated, pleasanter, and more fertile than on the preceding day, we arrived at Hinton St. George, a villa of my Lord John Paulet, so called from a village of that name, from which he takes the title of baron, in addition to the others which this noble and ancient family enjoys, and which were conferred upon it by Edward VI in the year 1552; that of duke, however, which it enjoyed in right of the lordship of the island of Jersey, it lost, having been deprived of it after the death of Queen Mary, daughter of Henry VIII, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.

[John Paulett, 5th Marquis of Winchester = http://bcw-project.org/biography/… and http://www.berkshirehistory.com/b… ]
[The Paulett’s home at Hinton St. George https://www.british-history.ac.uk… ]
His highness dined there, entertaining at his table, besides Major Andrews, Mr. Dennis Rolle.
[ Dennis Rolle was a son of John Rolle, MP https://www.historyofparliamenton…
[ Major Andrews was deputy to Sir Charles Cotterell, the master of the ceremonies at the court of Charles II. ]

San Diego Sarah on 18 Dec 2022  •  Link

PART 2

His highness amused himself in the morning with riding in the park, and in the afternoon with walking in the garden, where Mr. John Sidney, cousin of my Lord Paulet, arrived from his villa, 6 miles distant, bringing his lady with him, to pay his respects. His highness took her by the hand, and conducted her to a gallery hard by, and, departing after a short conversation, continued in discourse with the above gentleman till the close of the day.

[ I can find nothing on John Sidney and his wife – but Lady Isabella Theresa Mary Howard Paulet, soon to be the Marchioness of Winchester, was mentioned by Pepys. See https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… ]

141

The villa of my Lord Paulet is an ancient irregular building, faced on the outside with a sort of porous stone; the house, therefore, is of a noble appearance, good, and spacious, nor are gardens wanting, both for utility and pleasure. One of them contains every kind both of culinary vegetables and fruit that grows in this climate: in the other there is a parterre very different from the common style of English gardens; these are, usually, walks of sand, made perfectly level, by rolling them with a stone cylinder, through the axis of which a lever of iron is passed, whose ends being brought forward, and united together in form of a triangle, serve to move it backwards or forwards; and between the walks are smooth grass-plats covered with the greenest turf, without any other ornament.

This of my Lord Paulet is a meadow divided into several compartments of brickwork, which are filled with flowers.

Round the house is the park, 3 miles in circumference, surrounded by a thick row of trees, between each of which is a terrace of turf; and where the trees begin to shoot out branches; these, intertwined together, form, along with the earth of the terraces, a fence of the strongest description.

San Diego Sarah on 18 Dec 2022  •  Link

PART 3

142

In this park are 600 deer, to which the mixture of plain, of hill, of coppice-wood, and meadowland, together with two plentiful springs of water, which are within the same enclosure, afford a most suitable abode. The deer are of two sorts, black and red; the latter, though smaller, fatten sooner than the others.

They begin to hunt them early in June and continue it for 6 weeks; they hunt only the fattest, driving them with dogs into a corner of the park; they kill about 100 annually.

In winter, when the pasture fails, they give them hay and leaves of trees, particularly when snow falls (although it soon melts in these parts); making this observation, that where the moles dwell (of which there is a great abundance, and, on this account, they keep strict watch, to prevent them spoiling the land) deer seldom resort.

Near the house is a wood for pheasants, with its walks cut with the greatest exactness, which greatly enhances its pleasantness.

On the other side, towards the village, is the parish church, an ordinary building, and by no means large, where the people assemble for the exercise of their worship. It has no altar; but in the body of the church are suspended solely the king's arms, as is the case in the greater part of the churches or temples of England, in which they were placed by an edict of Edward VI, who, when the images of saints were prohibited, caused them to be removed from the churches; and, instead of the crucifix, which was usually placed in the principal part of them, ordered the armorial bearings of the kings of England to be engraved and put up.

143

On the Gospel-side of the church is a chapel of the family of Paulet, in which are deposited several members of the family; amongst the most distinguished, is that of my Lord Paulet, father of the present baron, which, besides being more modern, is worthy of notice, from its being built in good style, of colored stone, and illuminated with gold; it is also adorned with a sepulchral urn, supported by two satyrs, under which is the epitaph.

Three leagues from Axminster you leave Devonshire and, crossing a small tongue of the county of Dorset, enter that of Somerset, in which is Hinton St. George.

@@@

From:
TRAVELS OF COSMO THE THIRD, GRAND DUKE OF TUSCANY,
THROUGH ENGLAND,
DURING THE REIGN OF KING CHARLES THE SECOND (1669)
TRANSLATED FROM THE ITALIAN MANUSCRIPT
https://archive.org/stream/travel…

His highness, Cosmo, must be considered only as a traveler. Under his direction, the narrator of the records was Count Lorenzo Magalotti, afterwards Secretary to the Academy del Cimento, and one of the most learned and eminent characters of the court of Ferdinand II.