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pepysdiary_feed - Saturday 11 July 1663conuly - One thread, two contradictory arguments....yourlibrarian - Tasks Galoreoursin - 2 or 3 families in a country parish, and then someone murders somebody*fflo - Postcard of the Daysistawendy - adventures in the non-profit sectoroursin - (no subject)weofodthignen - D.O.P.-T.conuly - I'm reading a fanfic wherepepysdiary_feed - Friday 10 July 1663yourlibrarian - Down to One a Dayfirecat - I’ve never read any Stephen Kingoursin - Bits and piecesyourlibrarian in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
common_nature - 2026 2nd Set of Ducklingsofearthandstars - Friday Five: Unlimited Editionconuly - A video to get you through some trying timesoursin - (no subject)weofodthignen - D.O.P.-T.pepysdiary_feed - Thursday 9 July 1663timeasmymeasureUp early and to the Dock, and with the Storekeeper and other officers all the morning from one office to another. At noon to the Hill-house in Commissioner Pett’s coach, and after seeing the guard-ships, to dinner, and after dining done to the Dock by coach, it raining hard, to see “The Prince” launched, which hath lain in the Dock in repairing these three years. I went into her and was launched in her. Thence by boat ashore, it raining, and I went to Mr. Barrow’s, where Sir J. Minnes and Commissioner Pett; we staid long eating sweetmeats and drinking, and looking over some antiquities of Mr. Barrow’s, among others an old manuscript Almanac, that I believe was made for some monastery, in parchment, which I could spend much time upon to understand. Here was a pretty young lady, a niece of Barrow’s, which I took much pleasure to look on.
Thence by barge to St. Mary Creek; where Commissioner Pett (doubtful of the growing greatness of Portsmouth by the finding of those creeks there), do design a wett dock at no great charge, and yet no little one; he thinks towards 10,000l. And the place, indeed, is likely to be a very fit place, when the King hath money to do it with.
Thence, it raining as hard as it could pour down, home to the Hillhouse, and anon to supper, and after supper, Sir J. Minnes and I had great discourse with Captain Cox and Mr. Hempson about business of the yard, and particularly of pursers’ accounts with Hempson, who is a cunning knave in that point.
So late to bed and, Mr. Wayth being gone, I lay above in the Treasurer’s bed and slept well.
About one or two in the morning the curtains of my bed being drawn waked me, and I saw a man stand there by the inside of my bed calling me French dogg 20 times, one after another, and I starting, as if I would get out of the bed, he fell a-laughing as hard as he could drive, still calling me French dogg, and laid his hand on my shoulder. At last, whether I said anything or no I cannot tell, but I perceived the man, after he had looked wistly upon me, and found that I did not answer him to the names that he called me by, which was Salmon, Sir Carteret’s clerk, and Robt. Maddox, another of the clerks, he put off his hat on a suddaine, and forebore laughing, and asked who I was, saying, “Are you Mr. Pepys?” I told him yes, and now being come a little better to myself, I found him to be Tom Willson, Sir W. Batten’s clerk, and fearing he might be in some melancholy fit, I was at a loss what to do or say. At last I asked him what he meant. He desired my pardon for that he was mistaken, for he thought verily, not knowing of my coming to lie there, that it had been Salmon, the Frenchman, with whom he intended to have made some sport. So I made nothing of it, but bade him good night, and I, after a little pause, to sleep again, being well pleased that it ended no worse, and being a little the better pleased with it, because it was the Surveyor’s clerk, which will make sport when I come to tell Sir W. Batten of it, it being a report that old Edgeborough, the former Surveyor, who died here, do now and then walk.
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Flitted past me yesterday something about 'village mysteries what is the attraction' and as it appeared to be a podcast DO.NOT.WANT I scrolled right on past, but did think about the question.
Which also resonated with something I saw on somebody's post about a village-set mystery which was that as a mystery it was somewhat subpar and pretty contrived and one got the impression that actually, the author would have been a lot happier writing about the squabbles of village life without actual mayhem.
And what people say about reading certain mysteries/thrillers/series not such much for the detection/puzzle aspect but for the people/communities/whatever that they are happening among.
Maybe there is no market anymore - or perceived to be no market? - for novels of small community shenanigans and hostile feelings over who does the church flowers and problems with incomers and so on and so forth (?decline of the middlebrow, o, come back, Provincial Lady).
So if some new writer rocks up to an agent or editor and Shows Promise, the agent/editor will make encouraging noises but say, could you not have the village schoolmistress Fight Crime?
I also wondered if this afflicts other genres and people who write sff are being besought to Make It Romantasy. (In bygone days when I was writing sf I got as far as Talking To An Editor and they had Requirements, though at least it was not that.)
*As I commented during my Jane Austen binge-read, she is surely the ancestress of the country-house/village murder-mystery. (Why did no-one bop Emma on the bonce? or put poison in Mrs Norris's tea or push her down the stairs?)
Up late and by water to Westminster Hall, where I met Pierce the chirurgeon, who tells me that for certain the King is grown colder to my Lady Castlemaine than ordinary, and that he believes he begins to love the Queen, and do make much of her, more than he used to do. Up to the Lobby, and there sent out for Mr. Coventry and Sir W. Batten, and told them if they thought convenient I would go to Chatham today, Sir John Minnes being already there at a Pay, and I would do such and such business there, which they thought well of, and so I went home and prepared myself to go after, dinner with Sir W. Batten.
Sir W. Batten and Mr. Coventry tell me that my Lord Bristoll hath this day impeached my Lord Chancellor in the House of Lords of High Treason. The chief of the articles are these:
These are the main of the Articles. Upon which my Lord Chancellor desired that the noble Lord that brought in these Articles, would sign to them with his hand; which my Lord Bristoll did presently. Then the House did order that the judges should, against Monday next, bring in their opinion, Whether these articles are treason, or no? and next, they would know, Whether they were brought in regularly or no, without leave of the Lords’ House?
After dinner I took boat (H. Russell) and down to Gravesend in good time, and thence with a guide post to Chatham, where I found Sir J. Minnes and Mr. Wayth walking in the garden, whom I told all this day’s news, which I left the town full of, and it is great news, and will certainly be in the consequence of it.
By and by to supper, and after long discourse, Sir J. Minnes and I, he saw me to my chamber, which not pleasing me, I sent word so to Mrs. Bradford, that I should be crowded into such a hole, while the clerks and boarders of her own take up the best rooms. However I lay there and slept well.
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After Politico reported an allegation in July 2026 that Maine's former Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner had raped a woman, author Stephen King said, "Tell you what — if you knew the whole truth about everyone in the Senate and House of Reps, those chambers would be dead empty. Jesus said, 'Let him without sin cast the first stone.'"
I suppose people will never not be interested in the Mary Toft rabbit-birth case: this however is a somewhat different take born of going into a particular archive, Mary Toft and the Radical Birth Control Movement (an archive of which I have knowledge), though I am perhaps more interested that Griffith was asking Helena Wright to ask her side-piece, Kenneth Bruce MacFarlane, a distinguished historian, for reading recommendations. But that is because the ladies running that clinic, who were trying to make birth control a respectable cause were all into all sorts of what would now be considered polyamorous configurations.
(I will not advance my critiques from my personal knowledge of the birth control movement of the 20s and 30s....)
***
When the abolitionist Thomas Clarkson gave a sermon in 1787 at Manchester Cathedral – during the city’s first mass meeting against the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans – he saw a “great crowd of black people standing round the pulpit”.
However, little is known about Black Mancunians in the Georgian era, which makes one recently rediscovered entry in parish records at Manchester Cathedral particularly significant.
The 6‑7 craze offered a brief window into the hidden world of children:
But as media scholars who study children’s culture, we didn’t view the meme with bewilderment or exasperation. Instead, we thought back to our own childhoods on three different continents – and all the secret languages we spoke.
....
With or without access to the internet, children will continue to transform language and games to suit their needs – which, yes, includes getting under the skin of adults.
***
Not precisely 'history from below' - this was still the monarch's court, after all - but looking beyond the obvious players and how much there is to discover about them beyond the immediately apparent: Dwarfism, Institutionalisation and Marginalisation at the Court in Early Bourbon France:
I aim to demonstrate through my new Transactions article that a meticulous examination of archival sources can reveal far more about the lives and activities of people with dwarfism – and marginalised people in general – than the archive’s apparent silence initially suggests.
At the same time, I hope this study can serve as another example, alongside my book on Louis XIII’s court, of the rich potential in an approach to court studies that de-centres the monarch, his ministers and absolutism to better understand the court – its institutions and its culture – in its own right.
The man who invented the Tube: or rather, had the idea and campaigned for it, died shortly before the opening of the Metropolitan line, which may have something to do with his absence from the annals.
thefridayfive, and actually accomplished on a Friday!
1. What would you do right now, if money were not an issue?
Pay off the house, then buy houses for each of the boys and their SOs. Paying cash, so the issue of trying to get into housing is no longer an issue. Then I'd rage quit my job and wander into the sunset to rediscover myself.
2. What would you do for the next three years, if money were not an issue?
Write, heal, make art. Take a clay class despite them being so expensive. Engage in local groups and actually work on building community. Return to more active (and creative) activism. Why does capitalism interfere with our means/times to build community and improve the social fabric? Buy more art from my artsy friends, and then make more of my own.
3. What is bringing you the most joy right now that requires little or no money?
It usually involves sitting with the dog or cat and a decent book (can be free if from the library). Lately, sitting on the back porch in the evenings during storms and letting the wind and rains revive the parched world around me.
4. What types of things do you find enjoyable that require no money?
Hiking is usually free, except funds for travel and/or if we need to stay the night due to distance. We could camp but I am not sure we are good camping people, I'm technically allergic to much of the outdoors and either become a giant red welt or have trouble breathing. But sitting by the water is free. Sitting beneath or hugging a tree is free. Even clearing the yard, which is a pain until it's done, is largely free since most of the tools are acquired. Libraries are largely free. But I also believe that in the current social fabric, artists and writers and creators should be paid for their work, like reasonably and well-paid, and I love doing that for things that bring me great joy.
5. Is there anything you've been meaning to do for a long time, but put off because of money?
The clay classes. Going back to school and getting a new degree. Buying an electric vehicle/truck (this is also a matter of using what I have until it is unusable). Repairs, including energy-efficiency changes, on the house (replace screenings and questionable railing situations on back porch, new insulation and/or closing in the crawl space, new windows, new HVAC, etc.).
Up. Making water this morning, which I do every morning as soon as I am awake, with greater plenty and freedom than I used to do, which I think I may impute to last night’s drinking of elder spirits. Abroad, it raining, to Blackfriars, and there went into a little alehouse and staid while I sent to the Wardrobe, but Mr. Moore was gone out. Here I kissed three or four times the maid of the house, who is a pretty girl, but very modest, and, God forgive me, had a mind to something more. Thence to my lawyer’s; up and down to the Six Clerks’ Office, where I found my bill against Tom Trice dismissed, which troubles me, it being through my neglect, and will put me to charges. So to Mr. Phillips, and discoursed with him about finding me out somebody that will let me have for money an annuity of about 100l. per annum for two lives. So home, and there put up my riding things against the evening, in case Mr. Moore should continue his mind to go to Oxford, which I have little mind to do, the weather continuing so bad and the waters high. Dined at home, and Mr. Moore in the afternoon comes to me and concluded not to go. Sir W. Batten and I sat a little this afternoon at the office, and thence I by water to Deptford, and there mustered the Yard, purposely, God forgive me, to find out Bagwell, a carpenter, whose wife is a pretty woman, that I might have some occasion of knowing him and forcing her to come to the office again, which I did so luckily that going thence he and his wife did of themselves meet me in the way to thank me for my old kindness, but I spoke little to her, but shall give occasion for her coming to me. Her husband went along with me to show me Sir W. Pen’s lodging, which I knew before, but only to have a time of speaking to him and sounding him. So left and I went in to Sir W. Pen, who continues ill, and worse, I think, than before. He tells me my Lady Castlemaine was at Court, for all this talk this week, which I am glad to hear; but it seems the King is stranger than ordinary to her.
Thence walked home as I used to do, and to bed presently, having taken great cold in my feet by walking in the dirt this day in thin shoes or some other way, so that I begun to be in pain, and with warm clothes made myself better by morning, but yet in pain.
