I've started working backwards as well as forward, so here's 29th June and 30th June 1661.
On the 29th, Samuel receives a letter from the Duke of York (James Stuart, the brother of the King), complaining about a delay in a fleet. As a result, Pepys goes with William Penn and William Batten to Deptford, where he examines the boats. He then goes to a tavern, the Bell, and meets friends (from ‘our old club’) with whom he stays and drinks; James Chetwind recommends a book.
On the 30th Samuel and wife go to church, and then dine at home. Samuel then goes with ‘Sir Williams both’ to Whitehall where they meet the Duke of York, and relay to him the cause of the above delays. Pepys then walks in Gray's Inn Walk, and appreciates the ladies.
Pepys also comments on his wife being unwell, the Portuguese Ambassador visiting the King prior to returning to Portugal (the Queen, Catherine of Braganza is in Portugal and arrangements are being made for her coming over), and on his father going to Brampton to visit the ill Robert Pepys.
22nd August later today.
The letter from the Duke is the ‘cause’ of some subsequent events, but it occurs to me that we should break the cause-result association into more fine-grained subclasses. I can think of three types of cause and effect:
- elective results, such as the above, in which an individual has chosen to act in a certain way as a result of another event;
- imperative results, in which an event follows on from another by virtue of social or legal unavoidability, but is not physically necessary; such as an execution order leading to the death of the individual; and
- necessary results – those that are a result of nature and have no human agency, such a Robert Pepys' illness leading to his death.
Does this seem a reasonable or necessary breakdown? Comments on a popup, please.
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