Fire! Fire! That’s the Way to Do It!

Shaken by the account from fellow blogger, George Orwell of the German onslaught on Poland, I determined to visit an Italian puppet play named Punchinello.

I was sorely sorry that Pietro Gimonde, or ‘Senor Bologna’ did not “pull the strings”, as his conduction had delighted me and Sam greatly when we first witnessed him on Friday 9 May 1662.

There I chanced to encounter another good frynde of mine and principled blogger, Samuel Pepys. A most strange event occurred when I also espied Young Killigrew, as Sam appeared to vanish like morning mist.

As I was going home to bed, I detected a strange smell of burning from Pudding Lane.

UPDATE – I have waked about three or four in the morning in a fearful state, as I did two nights ago. Fortunately, I recollected that my parmesan cheese is secure, so back to bed.

Worrisome Dreams

I am most sorely vexed. I waked this morning in a fearful state following visitation in the night of most terrible images. All around me the streets were aflame and I felt helpless, as I knew in the bowels of Christ that it were to come to pass.

I will meet with my good frynde and principled blogger, Samuel Pepys on the morrow, which will be Lord’s Day 2 September 1666. I will ask for his sage advice.

Now to bed.

He Got Blood on My Carpet

A goode frynde of mine and principled blogger is Samuel Pepys.  His missive for Saturday 20 January 1666 was shorter than usual:

To the office, where upon Mr. Kinaston’s coming to me about some business of Colonell Norwood’s, I sent my boy home for some papers, where, he staying longer than I would have him, and being vexed at the business and to be kept from my fellows in the office longer than was fit, I become angry, and boxed my boy when he came, that I do hurt my thumb so much, that I was not able to stir all the day after, and in great pain.

I sympathize with Sammy and entrust, as did Eric Walla in the annotations, that “hit him again for having the effrontery to hurt your thumb”. Poor Sammy has experienced difficulties with this impudent pup before, and inevitably ends up hurting himself more when he whips the cur.

His missive from Friday 28 February 1662 states:

The boy failing to call us up as I commanded, I was angry, and resolved to whip him for that and many other faults…I called the boy … and there I reckoned all his faults, and whipped him soundly, but the rods were so small that I fear they did not much hurt to him, but only to my arm, which I am already, within a quarter of an hour, not able to stir almost.

Samuel Pepys: Techno Geek; Blogger

One the most prominent Restoration bloggers is Samuel Pepys, who can be described as a techno-geek.

In his blog missive for Monday 11 February 1661 he recounts witnessing the “many pretty pleasures in persectives” (cf. microscopes) at the premises of young Mr. Reeve – optical instrument maker to the King. So taken was he, that he immediately bought one for the modest sum of 5 shillings.

Like so many new toys, this appears to have gone into a drawer to gather dust. Soon, however, he was using the fashionable term for persectives – that is microscopes (and telescopes) – making furture trips to the young Mr. Reeves to sate his desire to “discover a louse or sand or mites most perfectly and largely“.

On Monday 25 July 1664, an urge came over him to return to the young Mr. Reeves, as it had come “just now in my head to buy a microscope”. The young Mr. Reeves was not within, so Sammy descended into a gloom “I walked all round that end of the town among the loathsome people and houses, but, God be thanked! had no desire to visit any of them”.

The next day, he returned to the young Mr. Reeves and choose a microscope which he would have. Microscopes remained on his mind, and about a fortnight later, on Lord’s Day – after a laying long during his he caressed and talked to his wife – he was conversing with John Spong, his musical friend and suspected traitor. Mr. Spong builds his own microscopes, and recounted to Sammy that he had discovered “that the wings of a moth is made just as the feathers of the wing of a bird, and that most plainly and certainly”.

This appears to have galvinized Sammy into splashing out, and that he did on Saturday 13 August 1664 when the young Mr. Reeve made a personal delivery of a microscope, for which Sammy paid the princely sum of 5 pounds 6 shillings. This was assured to be the latest model, and shit-hot. Sammy also purchased a scotoscope, the function of which he was greatly unsure.

Sammy then rushed out to buy the first published work in English on microscopy, Henry Power’s Experimental philosophy, in three books : containing new experiments microscopical, mercurial, magnetical : with some deductions, and probable hypotheses, raised from them, in avouchment and illustration of the now famous atomical hypothesis.

With the microscope-craze sweeping the country, new publications inevitably appear: notably Robert Hooke’s Micrographia: or, some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses. On Monday 2 January 1666, after spending a good while sporting with a serving wench at Swan Inn, Sammy visited his bookseller, Joshua Kirkton, and espied a copy in binding; which he impulsively ordered.

I would be interested to know if Sammy pursues his interest in microscopy. Mr. Hooke’s observations, especially those of a compartments within the tissue of cork (I believe they are termed “cells”), and knowledge of such matters of natural philosophy interest me greatly.

Sammy’s latest blog missive is for Wednesday 27 June 1666. I have had a strange premonition that, on Lord’s Day 2 September 1666, he will write:

Bit of plague down at Cheapside, strange scent of burning from Pudding Lane. Next day, I will present myself at the blasted microscope seller. Now to bed.