Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
News about this site and other Pepys-related events.
29 May 2012
Usually diary entries appear at 11pm UK time, sort of simulating the idea that Pepys wrote it at the end of his day. I’m loath to break with this near decade-long tradition, but Thursday’s entry will appear two hours early, at 9pm UK time. This is so that readers in the UK are more likely to be able to read it “live”, should they wish to do so. I hope this doesn’t spoil the routine of anyone too much!
29 May 2012
Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been going through my neglected list of things on the site I’ve been meaning to fix or add. Better (very) late than never! Here’s what I’ve been doing:
20 May 2012
As we approach the end of the diary it would be great to read what your favourite moments from the diary are. Any particular phrases or events that have stuck in your head? Any especially memorable descriptions? If it’s a brief snippet, post it in a comment below, with a link to the diary entry. If you have an entire entry that you want to share, just post a link to it and tell us why you love it.
20 May 2012
This coming Friday, 25 May, there’s a commemoration service at noon at St Olave’s church:
12 May 2012
Some time ago Laura K suggested we have a roll call for readers of the diary to say hello. This seems like a good time.
1 May 2012
As we approach the end of the diary there’s a chance this site will attract some publicity. I’m not going out of my way to get lots of coverage, but then I didn’t when the site started and there was quite a bit! I mention this because if there is publicity then we will have many more visitors to our friendly part of the web.
24 April 2012
Both the previous posts about end-of-diary events in London and Massachusetts have been updated, so I thought it might be worth highlighting those here.
14 March 2012
As mentioned late last year we are planning to round off our journey through the diary with a small celebration in London on Saturday 26th May 2012. It’s only a couple of months away, so I’d like to get some idea of how many people will be coming.
13 February 2012
In case you like to keep an updated version of the Pepys Family Tree to hand, I’ve just made a couple of small updates to it. I’ve added Babs and Betty, daughters of Roger Pepys, and his new wife, Esther (all over on the far right). I’ve also added Elizabeth Pickering’s 1668 marriage to John Creed, which had gone unrecorded.
10 February 2012
I’ve just added a new section to the site, for letters to and from Samuel Pepys. It currently lists a selection of letters between Pepys and the era’s other major diarist, John Evelyn.
3 February 2012
I had a brainwave about how the Recent Activity page is generated and it seems to work. The page is now re-created every five minutes and seems to do so without keeping the database occupied for ages like it used to. Fingers crossed it’ll keep working like this from now on.
2 February 2012
I’m afraid I’ve had to stop the Recent Activity page from updating again. The database queries that make these listings are very slow and they’re holding up other features of the site, such as posting annotations.
31 January 2012
For those unable to make it to the end-of-Diary gathering in London, but might be closer to Massachusetts, here’s something for you!
21 January 2012
You may have noticed that the Recent Activity page has been problematic this past week, with the lists of recently-commented-on pages disappearing. It’s all back now, and working OK, but it won’t be updating as frequently as it used to.
3 January 2012
I keep getting asked what will happen to the website when the diary ends in 2012 (or 1669). And so that I have one place to point people for the answer, here’s the current plan, such as it is.
13 December 2011
A few weeks ago I met Regan Hutchins near Seething Lane and he recorded us chatting about Pepys for Culture File on the Irish radio station RTE Lyric FM.
The interview was broadcast on 2nd December and you can listen to it as an MP3 here.
27 November 2011
As most of you are probably aware, the diary ends next year. (Apologies if this is a spoiler for you, but I fear this particular surprise is unavoidable.) It would be great to see Sam off with a gathering in London for anyone who’s able to make it.
12 November 2011
I’ve just added another little piece of period data to the sidebar, which you’ll see on all diary entries from 11 November 1668 onwards: A brief description of the day’s weather, taken from John Gadbury’s London Weather Diary. That particular day, for example, was described as “Great winds and rain at night”.
14 October 2011
If anyone likes to keep the latest version of the extended Pepys family tree to hand, you should note that I’ve just updated it. The only addition is some of the Pickerings, distant relatives of Samuel by marriage through the Montagus. Let me know if you ever think of more people who can be added to this ever-growing chart!
4 August 2011
The BBC Radio 4 show, Woman’s Hour is soon going to be featuring a drama based on Samuel Pepys’ diary. There will be five 15 minute episodes, broadcast at 10.45am (UK time) from Monday 15th to Friday 19th August. Here’s the press release from this page: