12 January 1661

With Colonel Slingsby and a friend of his, Major Waters (a deaf and most amorous melancholy gentleman, who is under a despayr in love, as the Colonel told me, which makes him bad company, though a most good-natured man), by water to Redriffe, and so on foot to Deptford …  where we fell to choosing four captains to command the guards, and choosing the places where to keep them, and other things in order thereunto. … Never till now did I see the great authority of my place, all the captains of the fleet coming cap in hand to us.
Having staid very late there talking with the Colonel, I went home with Mr. Davis, storekeeper … there, most prince-like lodged, with so much respect and honour that I was at a loss how to behave myself.

Col. Robert Slingsby (Comptroller of the Navy, 1660-1)

Major Waters
Sam’s  ability to concisely paint a picture of characters with such depth and nuance is one of the reasons why his diary is so much fun to read.

Rotherhithe (Redriffe)
Located half way between London and Greenwich, a village and dockyards, referred to as Redriffe by Pepys, describing the distinctive red gravel visible at low tide in the Thames.

“Love would not be such sweet misery, if Cupid would only practice archery.  He is such a miserably poor shot.”
-The Wisdom of the Foolish and the Folly of the Wise :Minna Thomas Antrim

despayr in love
Venus Blindfolding Cupid is an oil on canvas painting by Titian, from 1565.  
Lucas Cranach the Elder, Cupid Complaining to Venus, 1526–27, National Gallery, London.