This etext was produced by John Hill.
Edited by LORD BRAYBROOKE
Notes about the etext:
There are over a thousand footnotes in the printed text that wereadded by the editor. Most of these are very short biographicaland similar notes, and have been inserted into the etext in squarebrackets close to the point where they were originally referredto by a suffix. A few of the longer notes have been given aseparate paragraph which has also been placed in square brackets.
Text that was in italics in the printed book has been written incapitals in the etext. Accents etc. have been omitted.
Where sums of money are referred to, the abreviations 'l.', 's.'and 'd.' are used to designate 'Pounds', 'Shillings', and'Pence'.
In the printed text, the year was printed at the top of each page.As this was not possible in the etext, years have been added tothe first entry for each month to make it easier for readers tokeep track of the year. Because the old-style calendarwas in use at the time the diary was written, in which the NewYear began on March 25th, the year has been given a dual numberin January, February and March, as has been done elsewhere in thediary, (eg. 1662-63 during the first months of 1663).
Pepys' spelling and punctuation have been left as they were inthe printed text.
The copy from which this etext was taken was published in 1879by Frederick Warne and Co. (London and New York), in a seriescalled "Chandos Classics."
The Celebrated work here presented to the public under peculiaradvantages may require a few introductory remarks.
By the publication, during the last half century, ofautobiographies, Diaries, and Records of Personal Character; thisclass of literature has been largely enriched, not only withworks calculated for the benefit of the student, but for thatlarger class of readers—the people, who in the byeways ofHistory and Biography which these works present, gather much ofthe national life at many periods, and pictures of manners andcustoms, habits and amusements, such as are not so readily to befound in more elaborate works.
The Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn, published in theyear 1817, is the first of the class of books to which specialreference is here made. This was followed by the publication, in1825, of the Diary and Correspondence of Samuel Pepys, a work ofa more entertaining character than that of Evelyn. There is,moreover, another distinction between the two: the Diary ofPepys was written "at the end of each succeeding day;" whereasthe Diary of Evelyn is more the result of leisure and after-thought, and partakes more of the character of history.
Pepys's account of the Great Fire of London in 1666 is full asminute as that of Evelyn, but it is mingled with a greater numberof personal and official circumstances, of popular interest: thescene of dismay and confusion which it exhibits is almost beyondparallel. "It is observed and is true in the late Fire ofLondon," says Pepys, "that the fire burned just as many parishchurches as there were hours from the beginning to the end of thefire; and next, that there were just as many churches leftstanding in the rest of the city that was not burned, being, Ithink, thirteen in all of each; which is pretty to observe."Again, Pepys was at this time clerk of the Acts of the Navy; hishouse and off