THIS WEEK'S GREAT DAY

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 122, 25 May 1928, Page 6

THIS WEEK'S GREAT DAY

MAY 25.—DEATH OF SAMUEL PEPYS. (Copyrighted.) Two hundred and twentjjyiive years ago, 011 May *25, 1703, Samuel Pepys, 'the famous diarist, died at the age of seventy. Ho was a member of a good family, but his father, being a younger son, followed the custom of tho day by j_ r oing into trade, and set up in business as a tailor in the city of London. Samuel was educated at St. Paul's School and Cambridge University, and at the age of twenty-six he became secretary to his cousin, the Earl of Sandwich, who commanded the fleet which brought Charles 11. back from exile at the Restoration of tho Monarchy. Pepys accompanied his cousin upon , this expedition, and a short time later he became a clerk in the Navy Office. He enjoyed tho friendship and confidence of the King and his brother, the Duke of York, afterwards James 11., and he secured many remunerative appointments in the public service by his diligence and efficiency during the tvventv-five years he was connected with the administration of the Navy, but 011 tho accession of William and Mary he was dismissed from office and retired into private life.

Pepys was one of the most versatile men of his day; he went everywhere, he saw everything. He was a skilled musician and singer, a composer in a small way and a patron of musicians. He took a keen and enlightened interest in science, and was for a time president of the Royal Society. Ho was a collector of books and pictures, and at his death he left a large and valuable library, which is still preserved at Cambridge University.

He was the author of some valuable memoirs of tho Royal Navy, and was one of the most diligent and efficient public officials of Stuart days. Iu IGGB he appeared at the Bar of the House of Commons, where he made a brilliant speech which completely exonerated the officials of the Navy Office from the serious charges of corruption and mismanagement which had been brought against them, in Parliament. His chief claim to fame, however, rests upon a private diary which he kept for a period of ten years.

This diary was written in a. mixture of cipher and shorthand and was certainly never intended for publication. To the outward world Pepys was example to his fellow citizens, upright, honest and pious, but his diary, which was first deciphered in the early part of last century, shows us the man as he really was. Relying on his cipher he wrote down all that he saw, felt, heard or imagined, every motion of his mind, every action of liis ' body. He recorded how he had kicked his cook and had blackened the eyes of his wife, and set out the details of numerous acts of immorality and corruption, all of which are related in such a quaint mixture of frankness and contrition as to be absolutely unique and richly humorous.

In addition to the unreserved chronicling of his own personal doings and thoughts, the diary contains a vivid description of contemporary life and customs, and is a truly invaluable record of Stuart times in Britain. The diary was commenced on January }, 1660, and was continued without a break until May 31, 1669, when Pepvs was forced by failing eyesight to discontinue the record, which, owing to its intimate nature, could not possibly be entrusted to the pen of another person.