The Diary Samuel Pepys (love books to read .TXT) 📖

It is cited by Coke, Selden, Ussher, Dugdale, and Spelman, not to mention inferior names. Three copies existed; the finest and most complete, and probably the same which is here mentioned by Taylor, is now in the Harleian Collection in the British Museum. It is fully described in the Dissertatio Epistolaris (p. 86), prefixed by Hickes to his Thesaurus Linguarum Septentrionalium, and an engraved facsimile of the whole is given by him at the end. It is right to say that the charter is now generally considered to be a forgery executed in later times. —⁠B. ↩

Evertsen. There were two admirals of this name, John and Cornelius. ↩

Captain John Golding and nine of his men were killed. ↩

A comedy, on the authority of Downes (p. 26) attributed to a Mr. Holden, and probably never printed. —⁠B. ↩

John, Lord Robartes, Lord Privy Seal, 1661⁠–⁠73; created Earl of Radnor, 1679. Died July 17th, 1685. ↩

Sara Bodville, wife of Robert Robartes. See note 2152. ↩

“Sir Robert Moray presented the Society from the King with a phial of Florentine poison sent for by his Majesty from Florence, on purpose to have those experiments related of the efficacy thereof, tried by the Society.” The poison had little effect upon the kitten (Birch’s History, vol. ii, p. 31). ↩

Dr. Hueffer wrote respecting this passage:

“If one may at this day decide such a question it would appear that Mr. Pepys had decidedly the best of the argument. We all know that the courante is a lively dance in 3:4 or 3:2 time, beginning with a short note at the end of the bar, and expressing, as Mattheson, writing a good many years after Pepys, discovered, ‘sweet hope, and in fact a combination of confidence, desire, and joy.’ But neither the Italian corrente of Corelli, nor yet the French courante as developed by Couperin and the great Bach, seems to bear out the law laid down by Captain Taylor.”

Italian and Other Studies, p. 252

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An obsolete proverb, signifying to lose one’s hopes, a cake coming out of the oven in a state of dough being considered spoiled.

“My cake is dough; but I’ll in among the rest;
Out of hope of all, but my share in the feast.”

Shakespeare, Taming of the Shrew, act v, sc. i

—⁠M. B. ↩

Among the State Papers are lists of watermen impressed and put on board the victualling ships. Attached to one of these is a “note of their unfitness and refractory conduct; also that many go ashore to sleep, and are discontent that they, as masters of families, are pressed, while single men are excused on giving money to the pressmen” (Calendar, Domestic, 1664⁠–⁠65, p. 323). ↩

At Wricklesmarsh, in the parish of Charlton, which belonged in 1617 to Edward Blount, whose family alienated it towards the end of the seventeenth century. The old mansion was pulled down by Sir Gregory Page, Bart., who erected a magnificent stone structure on the site; which, devolving to his great-nephew, Sir Gregory Page Turner, shared the same fate as the former house, having been sold in lots in 1784. The site of Colonel Blount’s house is now covered with villas, and is called Blackheath Park. —⁠B.

“Col. Blount produced another model of a chariot with four springs, esteemed by him very easy both to the rider and horse, and at the same time cheap. It was ordered that the committee formerly appointed, viz., the President, Sir Robert Moray, Sir William Petty, Dr. Wilkins, Col. Blount, and Mr. Hooke, should be desired to meet at Col. Blount’s house at Writlemarsh, about this matter, on the Monday following, and give an account of what they had done there at the next meeting of the Society.” On May 3rd Hooke reported (Birch’s History, vol. ii, pp. 41, 45). ↩

Sayes Court, the well-known residence of John Evelyn. ↩

“Mr. Daniel Coxe read an account of the effects of tobacco-oil distilled in a retort, by one drop of which given at the mouth he had killed a lusty cat, which being opened, smelled strongly of the oil, and the blood of the heart more strongly than the rest.⁠ ⁠… One drop of the Florentine oglio di tobacco being again given to a dog, it proved stupefying and vomitive, as before.”

Birch’s History of the Royal Society, vol. ii, pp. 42, 43

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Sir Robert Hyde, cousin of the Earl of Clarendon, appointed Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, October 10th, 1663. Born 1595, died May 1st, 1665. He was buried in Salisbury Cathedral. ↩

Christopher Pett wrote to Pepys from Woolwich on April 22nd, 1665, and begged for “allowance for two divers employed when the estimate for the mast dock at Blackwall was made” (Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1664⁠–⁠65, p. 324). ↩

Alexander Browne, a printseller, who taught drawing, and practised it with success. He published in 1669, Ars Pictoria, or an Academy treating of Drawing, Painting, Limning and Etching. ↩

The Gunfleet Sand off the Essex coast. ↩

I.e. the watch. ↩

Thomas Pepys, of Hatcham Barnes, Surrey, Master of the Jewel House to Charles II and James II. ↩

For note on Sir Robert Brooke, Lord of the Manor of Wanstead, see note 24. ↩

Loves Maistresse, or the Queen’s Masque, by Thomas Heywood, printed 1636, 1640. ↩

Formosa = handsome (Italian). ↩

Captain Edward Nixon, of the Elizabeth, and