Month: August 2017

Monday 8 August 1664 Whilst all southern Europe is enduring heat of 35°C and upwards we are having to endure front after front of rain coming from the Atlantic with temperatures to match. I blame the Jet Stream. I wrote to a professional friend of mine this morning telling him that I was concerned that he was overloading himself with having too many clients in too short a time. When I mentioned...

Sunday 7 August 1664 Above - a sunday morning lie-in for Samuel Pepys- worth a read so I have reproduced it in full below. (Lord’s day). Lay long caressing my wife and talking, she telling me sad stories of the ill, improvident, disquiett, and sluttish manner that my father and mother and Pall live in the country, which troubles me mightily, and I must seek to remedy it. So up and ready, and my...

And so, on to Mells. No matter how many times I visit this small out of the way village, it has something new to offer. it has a church with a row of monastic dwellings, a garden tea place, a barn built in 1400 A.D., a clear water stream, plus a post office come shop, baker, newsagent and cafe rolled into one. It is the ideal unit for a small village come tourist centre.

Saturday 6 August 1664 Pepys has a social day, plays bowles - 'eat, drink and be merry' We had invited our friend at the  previously mentioned One World Festival to come and join as overnight and take part in Francoises'  birthday celebrations. she duly turned up having had the experience of using a GPS for the first time but have not found the neck of turning up the volume so she had to keep on...

Thursday 4 August 1664 Up betimes and to the office, fitting myself against a great dispute about the East India Company, which spent afterwards with us all the morning. At noon dined with Sir W. Pen, a piece of beef only, and I counterfeited a friendship and mirth which I cannot have with him, yet out with him by his coach, and he did carry me to a play and pay for me at the King’s house, which...

Wednesday 3 August 1664 complicated negotiations - bargaining - bartering - mutual back-scratching It is some time since I went to anything  that could be remotely described as New Age in the formal festival style. I exclude from this the phenomenon of Glastonbury about which I wrote yesterday. There is an organisation, if you can call it that, that has been going on for to my memory at least 20...