Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
Longer articles on broader topics.
14 April 2019
A while back I asked for some questions to put to Dr Kate Loveman, who has written a lot about Pepys over the years… see our review of Samuel Pepys and His Books, and read more about her new abridged edition of the diaries.
8 March 2018
3 September 2017
Over on the London Historians’ Blog there’s a review of The Curious World of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn by Margaret Willes. In lieu of our own review of the book I thought it worth linking to this one, by Mike Paterson.
13 November 2016
19 August 2016
[Disclaimer: The author sent us a free copy of the book; we were under no obligation to say something good about it! Phil.]
9 February 2016
29 January 2016
[Disclaimer: The author sent us a free copy of the book; we were under no obligation to say something good about it! Phil.]
31 August 2014
[Disclaimer: The author sent me a free copy of the book, which I passed on to Jeannine to review; we were under no obligation to say something good about it! Phil.]
1 April 2014
We are sitting in St Olave’s church, in the navy pew, a gallery on the south side with its own entrance from Seething Lane. Precedence is important and as guests of Samuel and Elizabeth Pepys, we are seated in front, with servants and clerks behind us. The vicar, Mr Mills, is just concluding the service. Wives are discreetly elbowing sleeping husbands and we wait for more senior officers, Sir John Mennes and Sir William Coventry, to rise before making our exit down the canopied staircase and out into the churchyard. Going through the gate we cross Seething Lane. The cobbled surface is sticky with black, tarry London mud. Will Griffin the doorkeeper opens the heavy wooden gate and bows as we enter the Navy Office site.
2 March 2014
There was a large garden at the Navy Office where Pepys lived and worked during the diary years. It stretched from behind the Office buildings down to the “Merchant’s Gate” or tradesman’s entrance, on Tower Hill.
The premises on Seething Lane (where Pepys lived during the diary years) had been acquired by the Navy Office in 1654 and had once been the home of Sir John Wolstenholme. Adjacent to this was a house and gardens belonging to Lord Lumley, which can be seen (middle right, north of Tower Hill) in the Agas map of 1591.