Samuel Pepys on YouTube and Google

by | May 20, 2017 | Latest Post | 0 comments

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Thursday 19th May 1664

Up, and it being very rayny weather, which makes it cooler than it was, by coach to Charing Cross with Sir W. Pen, who is going to Portsmouth this day, and left him going to St. James’s to take leave of the Duke, and I to White Hall to a Committee of Tangier; where God forgive how our Report of my Lord Peterborough’s accounts was read over and agreed to by the Lords, without one of them understanding it! And had it been what it would, it had gone: and, besides, not one thing touching the King’s profit in it minded or hit upon.

Thence by coach home again, and all the morning at the office, sat, and all the afternoon till 9 at night, being fallen again to business, and I hope my health will give me leave to follow it.

So home to supper and to bed, finding myself pretty well. A pretty good stool, which I impute to my whey to-day, and broke wind also.

‘The Ajax’ a running toilet invented by Sir John Harrington in 1596. Elizabeth 1st refused to use it on the grounds that it make too much noise. Sir John was ridiculed by his peers embarrassing him to the point of retirement.

Well, that’s a relief to know. Our lovely Samuel Pepys is passing motions and farting. it has drawn my attention to the fact that bearing in mind his sufferings of two days ago the body does have an ability to heal itself.

I’ve had a look at YouTube and find that there are no less than 6.500 results. if I look at Google I find 478,000 references to the great man. it is interesting that an ordinary diary which I’m sure Pepys wrote primarily for his own use has attracted such attention. It is an ordinary account of his day’s activities, his relationships, his bodily functions, his observations, so why is it that he is so well known? I find it a bit like watching a long movie, a 10 year movie, and it gets cumulatively more addictive as my understanding of this man becomes more and more comprehensive in its aspects.

It is my wish that everyone would consider writing a diary. I find inevitably that I only know what I really think about something if I have closure and writing diaries such as you have seen adds immeasurably to this.

By the way, I have been a great enthusiastic contributor to Trip advisor.com but it looks like a change of policy has taken place. They are now more interested in becoming a travel agent then asking the public what they think about various hotels and activities. If I want to make a review it is much more difficult to find how to do it. Once again, money or the lure of money – or more money – influences the American decision-makers of this site.

 

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