WE took notice of his woolen knit stockings of two colours mixed, and of his shoes shod with iron shoes, both at the toe and heels, and with great nails in the soles of his feet, which was mighty pretty: and, taking notice of them, “Why,” says the poor man, “the downes, you see, are full of stones, and we are faine* to shoe ourselves thus; and these,” says he, “will make the stones fly till they sing before me.” I did give the poor man something, for which he was mighty thankful, and I tried to cast stones with his home crooke.* He values his dog mightily, that would turn a sheep any way which he would have him, when he goes to fold them: told me there was about eighteen scoare sheep* in his flock, and that he hath four shillings a week the year round for keeping of them:* so we posted* thence with mighty pleasure in the discourse we had with this poor man, and Mrs Turner, in the common fields here, did gather one of the prettiest nosegays that ever I saw in my life.
* Fain, i.e. obliged or willing under the circumstances.
* Alas, Samuel Pepys did not invent golf. The sport had been around for so long that it had already been proscribed by King James II of Scotland in 1452, on the grounds that it was interfering with archery practice. Many cultures claim to have played from time immemorial a game which involved driving along stones with sticks, but so far evidence suggests that it was the Scots who first played a game that meets the definition of golf provided by the Oldest Member in P. G. Wodehouse’s short story The Heel of Achilles (1922): “You hit a ball with a stick till it falls into a hole”.
* Eighteen score is 18 x 20, or 360.
* In today’s money, a wage of about £34 each week, or £1768 per annum. When Pepys first started at the Navy in 1660, his salary was £350 per annum (nearly £53,000 today) and over the years his income received various additions.
* Hurried off, literally or metaphorically in an express carrage.