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Diary and Correspondence of Samuel Pepys from His MS. Cypher In

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Diary and Correspondence of Samuel Pepys from His MS. Cypher In Dear Reader, This book was referenced in one of the 185 issues of 'The Builder' Magazine which was published between January 1915 and May 1930. To celebrate the centennial of this publication, the Pictoumasons website presents a complete set of indexed issues of the magazine. As far as the editor was able to, books which were suggested to the reader have been searched for on the internet and included in 'The Builder' library.' This is a book that was preserved for generations on library shelves before it was carefully scanned by one of several organizations as part of a project to make the world's books discoverable online. Wherever possible, the source and original scanner identification has been retained. Only blank pages have been removed and this header- page added. The original book has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired. Whether a book is in the public domain may vary country to country. Public domain books belong to the public and 'pictoumasons' makes no claim of ownership to any of the books in this library; we are merely their custodians. Often, marks, notations and other marginalia present in the original volume will appear in these files – a reminder of this book's long journey from the publisher to a library and finally to you. Since you are reading this book now, you can probably also keep a copy of it on your computer, so we ask you to Keep it legal. Whatever your use, remember that you are responsible for ensuring that what you are doing is legal. Do not assume that just because we believe a book to be in the public domain for users in Canada, that the work is also in the public domain for users in other countries. Whether a book is still in copyright varies from country to country. Please do not assume that a book's appearance in 'The Builder' library means it can be used in any manner anywhere in the world. Copyright infringement liability can be quite severe. The Webmaster diary and correspondence of Samuel Pepys, esq^, f.r.s. DIARY AND CORRESPONDENCE op Samuel PppYs,Esa.,RR.s FROM HIS MS. CYPHER IN THE PEPYSIAN LIBRARY, WITH A LIFE AND NOTES BY RICHARD LORD BRAYBROOKE. DECIPHERED, WITH ADDITIONAL NOTES, BY REV. MYNORS BRIGHT, M.A., rRBSIDENT AND SENIOR FELLOW OF MAGDALENE COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGB. VOL. II. March i, i66i — October 14, 1662. NEW-YORK: DODD, MEAD & COMPANY. THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY 814474 A ASTOR. LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS R 1936 L Quidquid agunt homines, votum, timor, ira, voluptas, Gaudia, discursus, nostri est farrago libelli. Et quando uberior vitiorum copia ? quando Major, avaritise patuit sinus ? Juv. Sat. i. 85-88. Corruption was universal. All offices were made subject of open traffic. Nothing could be done without a consideration, either, accord- ing to Forgard, received beforehand, as logice, a bribe, or after the " good turn was done, as a gratification. Such were Good King Charles's golden days." If, quitting the broad path of history, we seek for minute informa- tion concerning ancient manners and customs, the progress of arts and sciences, and the various branches of antiquity, we have never seen a mine so rich as the volumes before us. The variety of Pepys's tastes and pursuits led him into almost every department of life. He was a man of business ; a man of information, if not of learning ; a man of taste; a man of whim; and, to a certain degree, a man of pleasure. He was a statesman, a bel esprit, a virtuoso, and a con- noisseur. His curiosity made him an unwearied as well as an univer- sal learner, and whatever he saw found its way into his tables. Thus his diary absolutely resembles the genial cauldrons at the wedding of Comacho, a souse into which was sure to bring forth at once abun- dance and variety of whatever could gratify the most eccentric appe- tite. — Quarterly Review. No. 66. PREFACE. Readers of Pepys's Diary will probably be inter- ested in the following particulars respecting the cipher and the publication of the Diary. "LORD GRENVILLE TO THE HON. AND REV. GEORGE NEVILLE, MASTER OF MAGDALENE COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. Dropmore, Aug. 28, 1818. "My Dear George, — When my brother quitted us for the Isle of "Wight, he left with me a MS. volume which you had put into his hands. I have a little smattering of the art of deciphering, and I was desirous to try my hand on this MS., which, if it could be made out, would, I was aware, on many accounts be extremely interesting ; and would just now, ^^t could be published, form an excellent accompaniment ^G Evelyn's delightful Diary. I am glad to say that I have j^ijcceeded to the utmost of my expectations, or rather much ^>iJfeyond them. The character employed is a shorthand, not •i|ery different in principle from those in use now, or at least ggfchose which were in use when, as a law student, I practised shorthand. The writing is for the most part alphabetical (divided into words, which gives infinite facility for decipher* VI PREFACE. ing), but generally leaving out the vowels, and there is a large collection of arbitrary signs for terminations, particles, and words of very frequent occurrence, and some, though not near so numerous, for longer and less frequent words. The alpha- bet I have entirely mastered ; the second class of signs I have so in a great measure, and a considerable portion, though not nearly the whole, of the third, which, from the less frequence of its occurrence, is, of course, the more difficult to the decipherer. " But, as it is, I could already furnish you with a transcript of the first three or four pages, with a few hiatuses, and those easily supplied (or, at least, for the most part so) by conjecture, which I have no doubt a farther progress in the MS. would soon turn into certainty. But, having got so far as to make the task (I am confident) quite easy to any person who would set himself sturdily to it, I am unwilling to go further, because I have done all that is really useful, and I find the poring over these minute characters, though amusing enough, does no good to my eyes. "What I would recommend is, that on your return to Cambridge, which under the circumstances of this year must, I suppose, be in October, you should lose no time in finding out some man who, for the lucre of gain will sacrifice a few months to the labour of making a complete transcript of the whole, for which purpose I would furnish you with my alphabet and lists of arbitrary signs, and also with the transcript of the first three or four pages, and of some other passages taken casually here and there in the volume. I must not, I believe, see him to give him verbal instructions how to proceed further in deciphering the arbitrary marks, because it might not be right that he should know the MS. to have been in my posses- PREFACE, Vll sion. But any man of ordinary talent would, I am certain, by these helps, master the whole in the course of a week or ten days of steady application, provided his eyes are young and strong, and that he is willing to work them a little. " I hope there is no restraint that would prevent you from publishing the whole when thus transcribed, and I am anxious that you should lose no time in setting about it, because it will be much best done under your own inspection this year, when you must of necessity be so much on the spot.* If published, there is no doubt that the work would amply repay the expense of the transcript, for which I suppose you will make a specific bargain beforehand, after a few days' experience shall have enabled your decipherer to judge of the nature of the work. " But if publication be impossible, it would still be a great matter to have such a transcript in the College Library, and I would willingly bear my share in the cost of such a work, to which I am persuaded others would also readily contribute, and which, indeed, need not be large, as I can safely pronounce, judging by the little trouble which I have found in doing the most difficult part of the business. Let me know where and when I shall send the book and the alphabet, &c. If you could prevail upon yourself and Lady Charlotte to find this place between Wales and Cambridge, that would be best of all. " If no one else can or will undertake it, a professed short- hand writer would dispatch your volume in a week; but I should in your place prefer a Cambridge man, to work under your eye. " Ever yours, * As Vice-Chancellor. Viii PREFACE. With this assistance Mr. Smith (then an undergrad- uate of St. John's College, Cambridge) undertook the task of deciphering the whole of the " Diary " from the six closely-written volumes of the original short- hand MS. He commenced it in the spring of 1819, and completed it in April, 1822, having worked, as he says in a letter which was published in the " Illus- trated London News," March 27, 1858, for nearly three years at it, usually for twelve and fourteen hours a day.
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