The Diary of Samuel Pepys | Page 4

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 his pen, and his ingenious fancy at his finger's end.
The original MS. of the Diary, which gives so vivid a picture of manners in the reign of Charles II., is preserved in Magdalene College, Cambridge; it is in six volumes, containing upwards of 3000 pages, closely written in Rich's system of shorthand, which Pepys doubtless adopted from the possibility of his journal falling into unfriendly hands during his life, or being rashly communicated to the public after his death. The original spelling of every word in the Diary, it is believed, has been carefully preserved by the gentleman who deciphered it; and although Pepys's grammar has been objected to, it