The Diary by Samuel Pepys (children's ebooks online TXT) π
Description
Pepysβ Diary is an incredibly frank decade-long snapshot of the life of an up and coming naval administrator in mid-17th century London. In it he describes everything from battles against the Dutch and the intrigues of court, down to the plays he saw, his marital infidelities, and the quality of the meat provided for his supper. His observations have proved invaluable in establishing an accurate record of the daily life of the people of London of that period.
Pepys eventually stopped writing his diary due to progressively worse eyesight, a condition he feared. He did consider employing an amanuensis to transcribe future entries for him, but worried that the content he wanted written would be too personal. Luckily for Pepys, his eyesight difficulties never progressed to blindness and he was able to go on to become both a Member of Parliament and the President of the Royal Society.
After Pepysβ death he left his large library of books and manuscripts first to his nephew, which was then passed on to Magdalene College, Cambridge, where it survives to this day. The diary, originally written in a shorthand, was included in this trove and was eventually deciphered in the early 19th century, and published by Lord Baybrooke in 1825. This early release censored large amounts of the text, and it was only in the 1970s that an uncensored version was published. Presented here is the 1893 edition, which restores the majority of the originally censored content but omits βa few passages which cannot possibly be printed.β The rich collection of endnotes serve to further illustrate the lives of the people Pepys meets and the state of Englandβs internal politics and international relations at the time.
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- Author: Samuel Pepys
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John Frederic de Friesendorff, ambassador from Sweden to Charles II, who created him a baronet, 1661. β©
An angelique is described as a species of guitar in Murrayβs New English Dictionary, and this passage from the Diary is given as a quotation. The word appears as angelot in Phillipsβs English Dictionary (1678), and is used in Browningβs Sordello, as a βplaything of page or girl.β β©
Alderman Edward Backwell, an eminent banker and goldsmith, who is frequently mentioned in the Diary. His shop was in Lombard Street. He was ruined by the closing of the Exchequer by Charles II in 1672. The crown then owed him Β£295,994 16s. 6d., in lieu of which the King gave him an annuity of Β£17,759 13s. 8d. Backwell retired into Holland after the closing of the Exchequer, and died there in 1679. See Hilton Priceβs Handbook of London Bankers, 1876. β©
Thomas Turner (or Tourner) was General Clerk at the Navy Office, and on June 30th he offered Pepys Β£150 to be made joint Clerk of the Acts with him. In a list of the Admiralty officers just before the King came in, preserved in the British Museum, there occur, Richard Hutchinson; Treasury of the Navy, salary Β£1,500; Thomas Tourner, General Clerk, for himself and clerk, Β£100. β©
Elizabeth, daughter of William Whittle of Lancashire, married to Mr., afterwards Sir Stephen Fox. See note 493. β©
Sir Edward Nicholas, Secretary of State to Charles I and II He was dismissed from his office through the intrigues of Lady Castlemaine in 1663. He died 1669, aged seventy-seven. β©
Montagu changed his mind, and ultimately took his title from the town of Sandwich, leaving that of Portsmouth for the use of a Kingβs mistress. β©
There is a token of βThomas Darling at the Three Tuns neare Charing Cross.β See Boyneβs Trade Tokens, vol. i p. 557. β©
Puddlewharf was at the foot of St. Andrewβs Hill, Upper Thames Street, Blackfriars. β©
The letters patent, dated July 13th, 12 Charles II, recite and revoke letters patent of February 16th, 14 Charles I, whereby the office of Clerk of the Ships had been given to Dennis Fleming and Thomas Barlow, or the survivor. D. F. was then dead, but T. B. living, and Samuel Pepys was appointed in his room, at a salary of Β£33 6s. 8d. per annum, with 3s. 4d. for each day employed in travelling, and Β£6 per annum for boathire, and all fees due. This salary was only the ancient βfee out of the Exchequer,β which had been attached to the office for more than a century. Pepysβs salary had been previously fixed at Β£350 a year. β©
A token of William Burges, at the Swan at Dowgate Conduit, 1668, is described in Boyneβs Trade Tokens, by Williamson, vol. i, 1889, p. 583. β©
Sir Thomas Ingram was appointed Commissioner for Tangier. β©
Matthew Wren, born 1585, successively Bishop of Hereford, Norwich, and Ely. At the commencement of the Rebellion he was sent to the Tower, and remained a prisoner there eighteen years. Died April 24th, 1667. β©
βA Proclamation for setting apart a day of Solemn and Public Thanksgiving throughout the whole Kingdom,β dated June 5th, 1660. β©
Clothworkersβ Hall, in Mincing Lane. The original Hall was burned in the Great Fire. It will be seen from this entry that ladies were admitted to the dinners. β©
Mr., afterwards Sir Francis Chaplin, from Bury St. Edmundβs, Alderman of Vintry Ward and Clothworker. He was Sheriff in 1668, and Lord Mayor in 1677. β©
This must either have been in Davenantβs Siege of Rhodes, acted at Rutland House in 1656, or in the same authorβs Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru, acted at the Cockpit in 1658. It is unfortunate that the Diarist does not tell us who it was that sang behind the scenes. β©
Dennis Gauden, Victualler to the Navy, subsequently knighted while sheriff of London: the large house at Clapham, in which Pepys died, was built by him, and intended as a palace for the Bishops of Winchester; his brother, Dr. John Gauden, then expecting to be translated from Exeter to that See, but he was promoted to Worcester. Sir Dennis was ultimately ruined, and his villa purchased by William Hewer. β©
Daniel Rawlinson kept the Mitre in Fenchurch Street, and there is a farthing token of his extant, βAt the Mitetr in Fenchurch Streete, D. M. R.β The initials stand for Daniel and Margaret Rawlinson (see Boyneβs Trade Tokens, ed. Williamson, vol i, 1889, p. 595) In ReliquiΓ¦ HearnianΓ¦ (ed. Bliss, 1869, vol. ii p. 39) is the following extract from Thomas Rawlinsonβs Note Book R.: βOf Daniel Rawlinson, my grandfather, who kept the Mitre tavern in Fenchurch Street, and of whose being sequestred in the Rump time I have heard much, the Whiggs tell this, that upon the kingβs murder he hung his signe in mourning. He certainly judged right. The honour of the Mitre was much eclipsed through the loss of so good a parent of the church
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