

To Samuell Pepys, Esqr
One of the principall officers
of his Majesties Navy at Navy Office

Sayes Court
26 March 1666




Your most affectionate, and humble servant






Sayes Court
26 March 1666



Upon examination of the Materials on the Place:

£ s d
Bricks will not be deliverd at the place under 00: 18: 00
Lime, per Load, containing 32 Bushels, per thousand 00: 16: 00
Drift Sand, by Tonn 00: 00: 14
Tyles, per thousand deliverd 01: 01: 00
Heart-Lathes, per Load, containing 36 bundles 02: 10: 00
Sawing, per hundred 00: 03: 04

Upon these Matirials we conceiv’d thus of the Scantlings.

Walls, at 1 Brick ½
Wall-plates 9 in. 5
Parallel rafters 9 6 middle 16½ feet long
11 7 ends
Single rafters
Purlins 9 6 17
Binding-beames 12 12
Windoe-frames 4 2
Dore-cases, in brick-Worke: single-doores 7 6 6 2 8in
The two outward double, with Architrave 7 6 9 9 4
Ground-floor gist 4 4 18


Gists 8 3
So’men 14 11

Besides Partitions, Posts, Interstise, Quarterage.



431 12 02
And every rod after the rate of of 18d for one foot high, in workmanship, to 01 04 09
Which for 98 rod, is 122 06 00
So as the Brick-worke for the whole will come to 650 00 00
Tyling, at 30s per square 450 00 00
Timber, at 40s per square 600 00 00
Glasse about 684 feet, at 6d per foote 17 00 00
Windoe-frames, at 4s each 22 00 00
Stone-floores 32 00 00
Stayres, per step, 3s., 76 in all 11 08 00
Levelling the ground, as computed upon view 46 10 00
Total:- 1859 18 00
The Whole would not exceede 1487 18 00
Whereoff the Timber and roofe 480 00 00
The Timber alone to 360 00 00
Which, if furnish’d from the Yard, the whole charge of the building will be reduc’d to 1127 18 00
So as the number of Bedds diminish’d, Cradeles, and Attendance proportionable, the Furniture compleate will cost 480 00 00
Total- 1607 18 00




All the Materials bought as above 1487 18 0
Furniture 480 0 0
Total- 1967 18 0
The whole Expense will be reimbours’d in 8 monethes: viz. in 400 men’s diet alone, by 6d per diem £378 per Month
4536 per Annum
Whereas the same number at his Majesties ordinary entertainement is 627 04 00 per month
7526 08 00 per annum
So as there would be saved yearely 2990 08 00


Thus I deduce the particulars:

£378 per Month
Cradle-Bedds, 200, at 11s per Cradle, at 4½ feet wide, 6 long 110 00 00
Furniture, with Bedds, Rug, Blanquet, Sheetes, at 30s per bed 300 00 00
Utensils for Hospitals, etc 70 00 00
£480 00 00
Furniture to 582 10 00
Total 2442 08 00





Your most obedient servant,



Terry Foreman  •  Link

Nicely-formatted indeed, Phil!

What great care and thorough planning -- Evelyn's had practice at Sayes Court -- detailed planning (double doors to provide entry to stretcher-bearers) --; an environmental impact statement and computation of cost!

He provides a nice justification of the savings gained by the proposed expenditure, surely a reprise and rehearsal of the arguments JE made in person to the king!

cgs  •  Link

???a measurement of no fixed size??
not unlike our modern use: scant swimming wear,


1. a. A builder's or carpenter's measuring-rod. Cf. SCANTILLON 1. Obs. rare1.
b. fig. A rule or standard of measurement or estimation.
1587 GOLDING De Mornay x. 156 That nothing in al the Worlde is made of nought, a measuring of the builder and his building by one rule or skantling....

techn. with reference to the measurement of timber and stone, and of ships or other vessels and of aircraft.
As applied to timber, the word usually denotes the sectional dimensions (thickness and breadth) of a beam etc., in contradistinction to the length. The scantling of a block of stone is its measurement in all three dimensions. In Shipbuilding, used in sing. and pl. for the dimensions of the various parts of a vessel, regarded collectively.
1615 E. S. Britain's Buss in Arber Garner III. 625 A Buss of thirty-five Last, that is, of seventy Tons, is of a very good and meet size or scantling, wherewith [etc.].

1673 TEMPLE Ess. Ireland Wks. 1731 I. 120 Forbidding any Man to cut down any Oak..unless it be of a certain Scantling.

of immaterial things. In the 17th c. often, the measure or degree of (a person's) capacity or ability. Obs.
1586 ....

d. of one (or a) scantling: of the same size; hence, much alike, ‘much of a muchness’. (Of is sometimes omitted.) Obs.
1551 ED...
e. to take a scantling of: to measure or estimate the size or amount of; hence, to judge of, estimate. So to have a scantling of. Obs.
3. a. Limited measure, space, amount, etc.: a limit.
1597 ...

5. a. A small or scanty portion or amount, a modicum (of things material or immaterial).

7. concr. in technical use (see 2b). a. A small beam or piece of wood; spec. one less than five inches square.
1663 GERBIER Counsel 42 The cutting of their Scantlings.

c. A block or slice of stone of a fixed size; also collect. sing., stone cut into scantlings.

1. A tool used by masons and carpenters for measuring the thickness of anything; a gauge.

scantling, a.
1. Very small, insignificant in size or extent.

cgs  •  Link

there be scant facts/numbers on the actual value of a scantling

Martin Martinez  •  Link

Scantlings is a term still occasionally used today in some trades such as boat building, particularly timber boat building and certainly has the same meaning today as here. It is roughly synonymous with 'specifications', in the technical sense.
In essence the dimensions of the various constructional elements, especially load bearing ones, are derived from the knowledge and experience of the builder. A floor required to take a heavy load would require stouter timber. A tiled roof would require more substantial frames than a thatch roof etc.
Evelyn skillfully uses his experience here to estimate the required dimensions and specifications or ' scantlings' for the size and type of building he intends and then estimates the cost on that basis.

Bradford  •  Link

Evelyn on Radio 3 through June 3rd, "Night Waves":

Rana Mitter and Claire Tomalin discuss the life and work of diarist, gossip and horticulturalist John Evelyn, who although now eclipsed by the fame of his friend Samuel Pepys, was the other great chronicler of the 17th century.

Like Pepys, Evelyn lived through and wrote about one of the most fascinating periods in British history - witnessing the deaths of Charles I and Oliver Cromwell, the Great Plague of London and the Great Fire of London in 1666. His special interest, however, was in horticulture, and in his day was famous for 'Sylva', a book about trees, and Directions for the Gardiner, an account of his garden at Sayes Court.

Evelyn wrote one of the earliest gardening calendars, listing each month's prime flowers and vegetables, and how best to dress and prepare a salad. He fought briefly for the Royalists during the English Civil War, escaped to Italy where he studied anatomy, and on his return to London helped to found the Royal Society. He also wrote 'Fumifugium', the first book written on the growing problem of air pollution in the capital.

Catherine Harvey Jefferson  •  Link

The term Scantlings was used twenty years ago to describe timber which was the waste from the outer cuts of the tree at the sawmill at Tavistock in Devon. We used the timber to fire a wood kiln.

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