The Diary of Samuel Pepys | Page 4

use at the time the diary was
written, in which the New Year began on March 25th, the year has been
given a dual number in January, February and March, as has been done
elsewhere in the diary, (eg. 1662-63 during the first months of 1663).
Pepys' spelling and punctuation have been left as they were in the
printed text.
The copy from which this etext was taken was published in 1879 by
Frederick Warne and Co. (London and New York), in a series called
"Chandos Classics."

PREFACE TO THE PRESENT EDITION.
The Celebrated work here presented to the public under peculiar
advantages may require a few introductory remarks.
By the publication, during the last half century, of autobiographies,
Diaries, and Records of Personal Character; this class of literature has
been largely enriched, not only with works calculated for the benefit of
the student, but for that larger class of readers--the people, who in the
byeways of History and Biography which these works present, gather
much of the national life at many periods, and pictures of manners and
customs, habits and amusements, such as are not so readily to be found
in more elaborate works.
The Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn, published in the year
1817, is the first of the class of books to which special reference is here
made. This was followed by the publication, in 1825, of the Diary and
Correspondence of Samuel Pepys, a work of a more entertaining
character than that of Evelyn. There is, moreover, another distinction
between the two: the Diary of Pepys was written "at the end of each
succeeding day;" whereas the 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 as minute as
that of Evelyn, but it is mingled with a greater number of personal and
official circumstances, of popular interest: the scene of dismay and
confusion which it exhibits is almost beyond parallel. "It is observed
and is true in the late Fire of London," says Pepys, "that the fire burned
just as many parish churches as there were hours from the beginning to
the end of the fire; and next, that there were just as many churches left
standing in the rest of the city that was not burned, being, I think,
thirteen in all of each; which is pretty to observe." Again, Pepys was at
this time clerk of the Acts of the Navy; his house and office were in
Seething-lane, Crutched Friars; he was called up at three in the morning,
Sept. 2, by his maid Jane, and so rose and slipped on his nightgown,
and went to her window; but thought the fire far enough off, and so
went to bed again, and to sleep. Next morning, Jane told him that she
heard above 300 houses had been burnt down by the fire they saw, and
that it was then burning down all Fish-street, by London Bridge. "So,"
Pepys writes, "I made myself ready presently, and walked to the Tower,
and there got upon one of the high places, and saw the houses at that
end of the bridge all on fire, and an infinite great fire at the other end of
the bridge." On Sept. 5, he notes, "About two in the morning my wife
calls me up, and tells me of new cries of fire, it being come to Barking
Church, which is at the bottom of our lane." The fire was, however,
stopped, "as well at Mark-lane end as ours; it having only burned the
dyall of Barking Church, and part of the porch, and there was
quenched." This narrative has all the advantage of being written at the
time of the event, which kind of record has been pronounced preferable
to "a cart- load of pencillings." Of this very attractive particularity is
the Diary of Pepys, which is here submitted to the reader in the most
elegant and economical as well as complete form.
Of the origin of this work, details are given the accompanying Preface,
by the noble Editor--Lord Braybrooke. The diarist--Mr. Secretary
Pepys--was a great virtuoso in collections of English history, both by
land and sea, much relating to the admiralty and maritime affairs. He
gathered very much from records in the Tower, had many fine models,
and new inventions of ships, and historical paintings of them; had many
books of mathematics and other sciences; many very costly curiosities

relating to the City of London, as views, maps, palaces, churches,
coronations, funerals, mayoralties, habits, heads of all our famous men,
drawn as well as painted, the most complete collection of anything of
its kind. He was a man whose free and generous spirit appeared in