The Diary · Chapter
July 1666 explained
Pepys grapples with the pressing of men for the fleet, witnessing the heartbreak of families and the tyranny of the press.
What happens
Pepys grapples with the pressing of men for the fleet, witnessing the heartbreak of families and the tyranny of the press. He navigates naval administration, social obligations with Sir W. Penn, and the aftermath of a sea fight, while attending court and enjoying domestic pleasures.
Themes in this chapter
Naval Administration and Corruption
Pepys deals with pressing men, victualling, and the logistics of the fleet, highlighting the challenges and inefficiencies of naval administration.
Social Ambition and Class
Pepys dines with Sir W. Penn for strategic reasons, observes courtly life, and reflects on the social dynamics of power and favor.
Daily Life and Domesticity
Pepys enjoys domestic pleasures: dining, singing with Mercer, walking in the garden, and spending time with family and friends.
Characters to notice
- Samuel Pepys
Busy with pressing men, office work, and social visits; reflects on the tyranny of the press and the management of the fleet.
- Sir William Penn
Returns to town; Pepys dines with him and his family, noting the necessity of keeping in with him due to his praised service at Sheerness.
- Sir William Coventry
Corresponds with Pepys about pressing men and approves Pepys's paper on victualling.
- Elizabeth Pepys
Dines with Pepys and the Penns; spends time with friends and family, dancing and singing.
- Mr. Creed
Joins Pepys at Pegg Penn's house and later walks with him in Westminster Hall discussing the late fight.
- Sir William Batten
Accompanies Pepys to St. James's to present the victualling paper.
- Sir George Carteret
Pepys attempts to meet him at Whitehall but finds him gone abroad.
Key passages
“But, Lord! how some poor women did cry; and in my life I never did see such natural expression of passion as I did here in some women's bewailing themselves, and running to every parcel of men that were brought, one after another, to look for their husbands, and wept over every vessel that went off, thinking they might be there, and looking after the ship as far as ever they could by moone-light, that it grieved me to the heart to hear them.”
Pepys is deeply moved by the sight of women desperately searching for their husbands among the pressed men, weeping and watching the ships depart by moonlight.
Highlights the human cost of naval impressment.
“It is a great tyranny.”
Pepys condemns the pressing of men as a severe injustice.
Pepys's moral judgment on the practice.
“The public matters looking more safe for the present than they did, and we having a victory over the Dutch just such as I could have wished, and as the kingdom was fit to bear, enough to give us the name of conquerors, and leave us masters of the sea, but without any such great matters done as should give the Duke of Albemarle any honour at all, or give him cause to rise to his former insolence.”
Pepys is satisfied with the limited victory over the Dutch, which secures English naval dominance without enhancing the Duke of Albemarle's reputation.
Reflects Pepys's political and personal calculations regarding the war.