Samuel Pepys and the World He Lived In

moulding, grinding or rubbing of bricks in any forme or shape w

soever fit for the internall & externall ornam

of any buildings within any of these Our Dominions. And whereas the s

. Alex. Marchant a✝s S

. Michael hath humbly besought us y

Wee would bee graciously pleased to grant unto him Our Lr̃es Patents of licence & priviledge for y

sole use & benefit of his severall Invenc̃ons for y

terme of 14 yeares according to ye statute in such case made & provided. Our &c: containing our Grant, licence or priviledge unto y

s

Alexander Merchant a✝s S

. Michael of y

sole use & benefit of his s

s̃rall invenc̃ons within these Our Realmes & Dominions for y

terme of 14 yeares according to y

statute in y

behalfe made with such powers clauses & provisoes as are usually incerted in grants of like nature.

“Snd. &c. y

7th of July, 1665.

“To Our Attorney Genr̃all.

    ARLINGTON.”

Not contented with curing smoky chimneys, purifying water, and moulding bricks, St. Michel proposed in 1667 to raise submerged ships, and to prevent others from being submerged.

“Propositions dedicated to the King by Alex. Marchant, Sieur de St. Michel sur Couanon les Bauges, in Anjou, Captain and Major of English troops in Italy and Flanders, offering to show that he can draw up all submerged ships; can prevent others from being submerged; has discovered King Solomon’s gold and silver mines, much vaster than those discovered by Columbus, and now much fuller than they were in that King’s time. He wishes to satisfy His Majesty on his first proposition, lest the other should be deemed unworthy an audience.”—Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1667, pp. 252–3.

What a curious comment upon this statement of the discovery of gold and silver mines is to be found in the following extract from the “Diary”:—

March 29, 1667: “4s. a week which his (Balty St. Michel’s) father receives of the French Church is all the subsistence his father and mother have, and about 20l. a year maintains them.”

APPENDIX III.

PEPYS’S MANUSCRIPTS AT OXFORD

CHAPTER V. p. 82 (#x12_x_12_i19).—Pepys’s manuscripts in the Rawlinson Collection at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, are very fully described in the “Oxford Catalogue of Manuscripts,” and the Rev. W. D. Macray’s Index to the same. Besides the letters from various persons which are noted further on in the list of Pepys’s correspondents, are a large number of copies of letters from Pepys himself. The other papers are described as (1) Naval and Official, (2) Personal and Miscellaneous. In the first class are various notes on the state of the navy at different periods, questions respecting shipbuilding, memorials, minutes, and reports. In the second class are accounts of expenses, bonds, inventories, lists of books, &c.; and in both classes are papers of considerable interest for the purpose of elucidating the particulars of Pepys’s life. Besides the above there are papers relating to other members of the family.

APPENDIX IV.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

CHAPTER V. p. 98 (#x12_x_12_i79).—The following notice of old musical instruments will help to illustrate some of Pepys’s allusions:—

“The lute about three hundred years ago was almost as popular as is at the present day the pianoforte. Originally it had eight thin catgut strings arranged in four pairs, each being tuned in unison; so that its open strings produced four tones; but in the course of time, more strings were added. Until the sixteenth century twelve was the largest number, or rather, six pairs. Eleven appear for some centuries to have been the most usual number of strings: these produced six tones, since they were arranged in five pairs and a single string. The latter, called the chanterelle, was the highest. According to Thomas Mace, the English lute in common use during the seventeenth century had twenty-four strings, arranged in twelve pairs, of which six pairs ran over the finger-board and the other six by the side of it. This lute was therefore, more properly speaking, a theorbo. The neck of the lute, and also of the theorbo, had frets consisting of catgut strings tightly fastened round it at the proper distances required for ensuring a chromatic succession of intervals.... The lute was made of various sizes according to the purpose for which it was intended in performance. The treble lute was of the smallest dimensions, and the bass lute of the largest. The theorbo, or double-necked lute, which appears to have come into use during the sixteenth century, had, in addition to the strings situated over the finger-board, a number of others running at the left side of the finger-board, which could not be shortened by the fingers, and which produced the bass tones. The largest kinds of theorbo were the archlute and the chitarrone.

“The most popular instruments played with a bow at that time [1659] were the treble-viol, the tenor-viol and the bass-viol. It was usual for viol players to have ‘a chest of viols,’ a case containing four or more viols of different sizes. Thus Thomas Mace, in his directions for the use of the viol, ‘Musick’s Monument,’ 1676, remarks: ‘Your best provision and most complete, will be a good chest of viols six in number, viz., two basses, two tenors, and two trebles, all truly and proportionably suited.’ The violist, to be properly furnished with his requirements, had therefore to supply himself with a larger stock of instruments than the violinist of the present day.

“That there was, in the time of Shakespeare, a musical instrument called recorder is undoubtedly known to most readers from the stage-direction in ‘Hamlet’: ‘Re-enter players with recorders.’ But not many are likely to have ever seen a recorder, as it has now become very scarce.”—Engel’s Musical Instruments (S. K. M. Art Handbooks), pp. 114–119.

APPENDIX V.

PEPYS’S CORRESPONDENTS

CHAPTER VII. (#x14_x_14_i2)—The following is a list of those friends and acquaintances whose letters to Pepys are still extant. The greater proportion of the letters are at Oxford, but some printed in the “Diary” are at Cambridge.

[The date is that of the letter. B. affixed shows that the MS. is in the Bodleian Library; S. that the letter is printed in Smith’s “Life, &c., of Pepys;” and P. that it is printed in the Correspondence attached to the “Diary.”]

Ackworth, William, Storekeeper in Woolwich Dockyard, 1664. B.

Agar, Thomas, 1679–87. B.

Ailesbury, Robert Bruce, Earl of, 1684. B.

Alberville, Marquis d’ [otherwise White], 1687. B.

Alcock, Thomas, Master Caulker at Portsmouth, 1682–6. B.

Allais, Denise d’, 1680. B.

Andrewes, Sir Matthew, 1686–87. B.

Andrews, Thomas, Contractor for the Victualling of Tangier, 1664. B.

Anglesey, Arthur Annesley, 1st Earl of, 1672. B., S.

Atkins, Samuel. B.

Aylmer, Lieut. George, 1677–78. B.

Baesh, Sir Edward, 1689. B., S. (spelt Beash).

Bagwell, William, Carpenter of H.M.S. “The Prince,” 1668, 1681. B.