First day of spring

My brother Tom and then Mr. Moore came to me this morning, and staid a while with me, and then I went out, and in my way met with Mr. Howell the Turner, who invited me to dine this day at Mr. Rawlinson’s with some friends of his, officers of the Towre, at a venison pasty, which I promised him, and so I went to the Old Bayly, and there staid and drank with him, who told me the whole story how Pegg Kite has married herself to a weaver, an ugly fellow, to her undoing, of which I am glad that I have nothing to do in it. From thence home and put on my velvet coat, and so to the Mitre to dinner according to my promise this morning, but going up into the room I found at least 12 or more persons, and knew not the face of any of them, so I went down again, and though I met Mr. Yong the upholster yet I would not be persuaded to stay, but went away and walked to the Exchequer, and up and down, and was very hungry, and from thence home, when I understand Mr. Howell was come for me to go thither, but I am glad I was not at home, and my wife was gone out by coach to Clerkenwell to see Mrs. Margaret Pen, who is at school there. So I went to see Sir W. Pen, who for this two or three days has not been well, and he and I after some talk took a coach and went to Moorfields, and there walked, though it was very cold, an hour or two, and went into an alehouse, and there I drank some ale and eat some bread and cheese, but he would not eat a bit, and so being very merry we went home again. He to his lodgings and I by promise to Sir W. Batten’s, where he and my lady have gone out of town, and so Mrs. Martha was at home alone, and Mrs. Moore and there I supped upon some good things left of yesterday’s dinner there, where dined a great deal of company — Sir R. Browne and others — and by and by comes in Captain Cox who promised to be here with me, but he staid very late, and had been drinking somewhere and was very drunk, and so very capricious, which I was troubled to see in a man that I took for a very wise and wary man. So I home and left him there, and so to bed.

my son’s old kite
I put on my velvet coat
to go to town


Erasure haiku derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Wednesday 11 December 1661.

3 Replies to “First day of spring”

  1. Always love your erasures, Dave! Any chance you’ve seen the January issue of Harper’s? Emily Anderson has a feminist erasure of the Little House books which is gorgeous. Which is actually what made me think of you & sent me here. Side note: is your banner pic a jab at Robert Frost?

    1. Thanks! No, I haven’t. I’ll go look. Erasure is definitely becoming more and more mainstream… which is fine with me; I have no desire to cast myself as hip or cutting-edge.

      Is our banner a jab at Robert Frost? You bet! (As well as, of course, a visual metaphor for the collaborative nature of a multi-author blog.)

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