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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on May 11, 2021 12:44:50 GMT
The great diarist Samuel Pepys had an interest in the darker side of nature. Here we reveal his dabblings with the Night Side.
The Diary entry for Monday 15 June 1663 mentions the famous poltergeist known as the DRUMMER OF TEDWORTH.
That done, by water, I in the barge with the Maister, to the Trinity House at London; where, among others, I found my Lords Sandwich and Craven, and my cousin Roger Pepys, and Sir Wm. Wheeler
Both at and after dinner we had great discourses of the nature and power of spirits, and whether they can animate dead bodies; in all which, as of the general appearance of spirits, my Lord Sandwich is very scepticall. He says the greatest warrants that ever he had to believe any, is the present appearing of the Devil in Wiltshire, much of late talked of, who beats a drum up and down. There are books of it, and, they say, very true; but my Lord observes, that though he do answer to any tune that you will play to him upon another drum, yet one tune he tried to play and could not; which makes him suspect the whole; and I think it is a good argument.
[In 1664, there being a generall report all over the kingdom of Mr.
Monpesson his house being haunted, which hee himself affirming to
the King and Queene to be true, the King sent the Lord Falmouth, and
the Queene sent mee, to examine the truth of; but wee could neither
see nor heare anything that was extraordinary; and about a year
after, his Majesty told me that hee had discovered the cheat, and
that Mr. Monpesson, upon his Majesty sending for him, confessed it
to him. And yet Mr. Monpesson, in a printed letter, had afterwards
the confidence to deny that hee had ever made any such confession"
("Letters of the Second Earl of Chesterfield," p. 24, 1829, 8vo.).
Joseph Glanville published a relation of the famous disturbance at
the house of Mr. Monpesson, at Tedworth, Wilts, occasioned by the
beating of an invisible drum every night for a year. This story,
which was believed at the time, furnished the plot for Addison's
play of "The Drummer," or the "Haunted House." In the "Mercurius
Publicus," April 16-23, 1663, there is a curious examination on this
subject, by which it appears that one William Drury, of Uscut,
Wilts, was the invisible drummer.āB.]
William Drury seems to have been a vagrant who had his drum confiscated, and the phantom drumming was his revenge. The case is mentioned in more detail in the book Saducismus Triumphatus, by Joseph Glanvill. Published in 1681. The case itself dates from 1661. Glanvill himself had links to a marvellous group of 17th century thinkers known as The Cambridge Platonists.
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Post by helrunar on May 11, 2021 13:31:25 GMT
Great thread and selection, Princess! There are so many fascinating, ribald, unexpected and diverting tales tucked away in those little books, outwardly appearing so dull and discreet.
cheers, Hel
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on May 12, 2021 12:07:48 GMT
Great thread and selection, Princess! There are so many fascinating, ribald, unexpected and diverting tales tucked away in those little books, outwardly appearing so dull and discreet. cheers, Hel They are great. You learn so much from people's diaries. It's the little things that are often the most interesting.
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on May 12, 2021 12:18:22 GMT
Today we have two entries, as Samuel goes to bed in a haunted room and has a ghostly experience during the night with a pillow. We also see his interest in pretty ladies.
Monday 8 April 1661
8th. Up early, my Lady Batten knocking at her door that comes into one of my chambers. I did give directions to my people and workmen, and so about 8 o'clock we took barge at the Tower, Sir William Batten and his lady, Mrs. Turner, Mr. Fowler and I. A very pleasant passage and so to Gravesend, where we dined, and from thence a coach took them and me, and Mr. Fowler with some others came from Rochester to meet us, on horseback. At Rochester, where alight at Mr. Alcock's and there drank and had good sport, with his bringing out so many sorts of cheese. Then to the Hillhouse at Chatham, where I never was before, and I found a pretty pleasant house and am pleased with the arms that hang up there. Here we supped very merry, and late to bed; Sir William telling me that old Edgeborrow, his predecessor, did die and walk in my chamber, did make me some what afeard, but not so much as for mirth's sake I did seem. So to bed in the treasurer's chamber.
Tuesday 9 April 1661
And lay and slept well till 3 in the morning, and then waking, and by the light of the moon I saw my pillow (which overnight I flung from me) stand upright, but not bethinking myself what it might be, I was a little afeard, but sleep overcame all and so lay till high morning, at which time I had a candle brought me and a good fire made, and in general it was a great pleasure all the time I staid here to see how I am respected and honoured by all people; and I find that I begin to know now how to receive so much reverence, which at the beginning I could not tell how to do. Sir William and I by coach to the dock and there viewed all the storehouses and the old goods that are this day to be sold, which was great pleasure to me, and so back again by coach home, where we had a good dinner, and among other strangers that come, there was Mr. Hempson and his wife, a pretty woman, and speaks Latin; Mr. Allen and two daughters of his, both very tall and the youngest very handsome, so much as I could not forbear to love her exceedingly, having, among other things, the best hand that ever I saw. After dinner, we went to fit books and things (Tom Hater being this morning come to us) for the sale, by an inch of candle, and very good sport we and the ladies that stood by had, to see the people bid. Among other things sold there was all the State's arms, which Sir W. Batten bought; intending to set up some of the images in his garden, and the rest to burn on the Coronacion night. The sale being done, the ladies and I and Captain Pett and Mr. Castle took barge and down we went to see the Sovereign, which we did, taking great pleasure therein, singing all the way, and, among other pleasures, I put my Lady, Mrs. Turner, Mrs. Hempson, and the two Mrs. Allens into the lanthorn and I went in and kissed them, demanding it as a fee due to a principall officer, with all which we were exceeding merry, and drunk some bottles of wine and neat's tongue, &c. Then back again home and so supped, and after much mirth to bed.
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on May 12, 2021 12:30:56 GMT
The next days entry includes a somewhat gruesome tradition concerning the great west doors of Rochester Cathedral.
Wednesday 10 April 1661
In the morning to see the Dockhouses. First, Mr. Pett's, the builder, and there was very kindly received, and among other things he did offer my Lady Batten a parrot, the best I ever saw, that knew Mingo so soon as it saw him, having been bred formerly in the house with them; but for talking and singing I never heard the like. My Lady did accept of it: Then to see Commissioner Pett's house, he and his family being absent, and here I wondered how my Lady Batten walked up and down with envious looks to see how neat and rich everything is (and indeed both the house and garden is most handsome), saying that she would get it, for it belonged formerly to the Surveyor of the Navy. Then on board the Prince, now in the dock, and indeed it has one and no more rich cabins for carved work, but no gold in her. After that back home, and there eat a little dinner. Then to Rochester, and there saw the Cathedrall, which is now fitting for use, and the organ then a-tuning. Then away thence, observing the great doors of the church, which, they say, was covered with the skins of the Danes, and also had much mirth at a tomb, on which was "Come sweet Jesu," and I read "Come sweet Mall," &c., at which Captain Pett and I had good laughter.
[Traditions similar to that at Rochester, here alluded to, are to be
found in other places in England. Sir Harry Englefield, in a
communication made to the Society of Antiquaries, July 2nd, 1789,
called attention to the curious popular tale preserved in the
village of Hadstock, Essex, that the door of the church had been
covered with the skin of a Danish pirate, who had plundered the
church. At Worcester, likewise, it was asserted that the north
doors of the cathedral had been covered with the skin of a person
who had sacrilegiously robbed the high altar. The date of these
doors appears to be the latter part of the fourteenth century, the
north porch having been built about 1385. Dart, in his "History of
the Abbey Church of St. Peter's, Westminster," 1723 (vol. i., book
ii., p. 64), relates a like tradition then preserved in reference to
a door, one of three which closed off a chamber from the south
transeptānamely, a certain building once known as the Chapel of
Henry VIII., and used as a "Revestry." This chamber, he states, "is
inclosed with three doors, the inner cancellated, the middle, which
is very thick, lined with skins like parchment, and driven full of
nails. These skins, they by tradition tell us, were some skins of
the Danes, tann'd and given here as a memorial of our delivery from
them." Portions of this supposed human skin were examined under the
microscope by the late Mr. John Quekett of the Hunterian Museum, who
ascertained, beyond question, that in each of the cases the skin was
human. From a communication by the late Mr. Albert Way, F.S.A., to
the late Lord Braybrooke.]
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on May 12, 2021 14:12:38 GMT
Great thread and selection, Princess! There are so many fascinating, ribald, unexpected and diverting tales tucked away in those little books, outwardly appearing so dull and discreet. cheers, Hel They are great. You learn so much from people's diaries. It's the little things that are often the most interesting. Great being the diaries. Not my thread or selection. Obviously.
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on May 12, 2021 15:28:59 GMT
They are great. You learn so much from people's diaries. It's the little things that are often the most interesting. Great being the diaries. Not my thread or selection. Obviously. Your not supposed to agree with me Dr Strange! When will we see your occult diaries? They should be far more interesting.
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Post by Dr Strange on May 12, 2021 15:47:39 GMT
When will we see your occult diaries? They should be far more interesting. I doubt it. There would be nothing about cheese or young girls' hands.
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on May 12, 2021 16:06:23 GMT
When will we see your occult diaries? They should be far more interesting. I doubt it. There would be nothing about cheese or young girls' hands. Don't read the thread then if it doesn't interest you and you find it boring. No one is forcing you. Amazing as it might seem some people find the everyday lives of people in the past to be interesting.
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Post by Dr Strange on May 12, 2021 18:34:22 GMT
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on May 13, 2021 15:00:00 GMT
If you are easily shocked by the sexual morals of Samuel Pepys then wait until you find out what the rest of them got up to in the Restoration Period.
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on May 13, 2021 15:04:51 GMT
If you want to read something from the period then I recommend trying the china scene in William Wycherley's The Country Wife.
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on May 13, 2021 15:24:50 GMT
New post from the diary or Dr Strange's favourite 17th century feminist. Dated Thursday 23 May 1661. Jonas Moore, Mr. Ashmole and raining frogs, and how to deal with boys on a holy day.
This day I went to my Lord, and about many other things at Whitehall, and there made even my accounts with Mr. Shepley at my Lordās, and then with him and Mr. Moore and John Bowles to the Rhenish wine house, and there came Jonas Moore, the mathematician, to us, and there he did by discourse make us fully believe that England and France were once the same continent, by very good arguments, and spoke very many things, not so much to prove the Scripture false as that the time therein is not well computed nor understood. From thence home by water, and there shifted myself into my black silk suit (the first day I have put it on this year), and so to my Lord Mayorās by coach, with a great deal of honourable company, and great entertainment. At table I had very good discourse with Mr. Ashmole, wherein he did assure me that frogs and many insects do often fall from the sky, ready formed. Dr. Batesās singularity in not rising up nor drinking the Kingās nor other healths at the table was very much observed. From thence we all took coach, and to our office, and there sat till it was late. And so I home and to bed by day-light. This day was kept a holy-day through the town; and it pleased me to see the little boys walk up and down in procession with their broom-staffs in their hands, as I had myself long ago gone.
[Pepys here refers to the perambulation of parishes on Holy
Thursday, still observed. This ceremony was sometimes enlivened by
whipping the boys, for the better impressing on their minds the
remembrance of the day, and the boundaries of the parish, instead of
beating houses or stones. But this would not have harmonized well
with the excellent Hooker's practice on this day, when he "always
dropped some loving and facetious observations, to be remembered
against the next year, especially by the boys and young people."
Amongst Dorsetshire customs, it seems that, in perambulating a manor
or parish, a boy is tossed into a stream, if that be the boundary;
if a hedge, a sapling from it is applied for the purpose of
flagellation.āB.]
Mr Ashmole is Elias Ashmole, the famous collector, whose collection founded the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on May 13, 2021 19:41:40 GMT
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on May 21, 2021 15:31:31 GMT
A spell
Monday 31 July 1665
This evening with Mr. Brisband, speaking of enchantments and spells; I telling him some of my charms; he told me this of his owne knowledge, at Bourdeaux, in France. The words these:
Voyci un Corps mort,
Royde come un Baston,
Froid comme Marbre,
Leger come un esprit,
Levons to au nom de Jesus Christ.
He saw four little girles, very young ones, all kneeling, each of them, upon one knee; and one begun the first line, whispering in the eare of the next, and the second to the third, and the third to the fourth, and she to the first. Then the first begun the second line, and so round quite through, and, putting each one finger only to a boy that lay flat upon his back on the ground, as if he was dead; at the end of the words, they did with their four fingers raise this boy as high as they could reach, and he [Mr. Brisband] being there, and wondering at it, as also being afeard to see it, for they would have had him to have bore a part in saying the words, in the roome of one of the little girles that was so young that they could hardly make her learn to repeat the words, did, for feare there might be some sleight used in it by the boy, or that the boy might be light, call the cook of the house, a very lusty fellow, as Sir G. Carteretās cook, who is very big, and they did raise him in just the same manner.
This is one of the strangest things I ever heard, but he tells it me of his owne knowledge, and I do heartily believe it to be true. I enquired of him whether they were Protestant or Catholique girles; and he told me they were Protestant, which made it the more strange to me.
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