Daily Life in London, 1662, June 20
We already posted the Samuel Pepys site, but I just want to underline how fine it is. You can just follow him through day by day, without having to sit in bed with the heavy book or the big volumes. This has become a fine moment in my day, along with Pejmanesque, Powerline, etc. Part of the charm is his writing, part of the charm are the details, and part of the interest is how similar his life was to ours - balancing his checkbook, and doing errands and buying a pair of tweezers! Sam would have been an interesting slice-of-life blogger. Name pronounced "peeps." A bit about his impressive career - did not realize that he had been First Sea Lord - here. June 20 excerpt:
Then I went to the Exchange, and hear that the merchants have a great fear of a breach with the Spaniard; for they think he will not brook our having Tangier, Dunkirk, and Jamaica; and our merchants begin to draw home their estates as fast as they can. Then to Pope’s Head Ally, and there bought me a pair of tweezers, cost me 14s., the first thing like a bawble I have bought a good while, but I do it with some trouble of mind, though my conscience tells me that I do it with an apprehension of service in my office to have a book to write memorandums in, and a pair of compasses in it; but I confess myself the willinger to do it because I perceive by my accounts that I shall be better by 30l. than I expected to be. But by tomorrow night I intend to see to the bottom of all my accounts. Then home to dinner, where Mr. Moore met me. Then he went away, and I to the office and dispatch much business. So in the evening, my wife and I and Jane over the water to the Halfway-house, a pretty, pleasant walk, but the wind high. So home again and to bed.
