Samuel Pepys
Published: 2010-03
Total Pages: 314
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This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1865. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... a while since we rode at his house. And he hath rode, ho says, now his journey, many miles in it with one horse, and out-drives any coach, and out-goes any horse, and so easy, he says. So, for curiosity, I went into it to try it, and up the hill1 to the heath,2 and over the cart ruts, and found it pretty well, but not so easy as he pretends. 6th. To London, to pack up more things; and there I saw fires burning in the street, as it is through the whole City, by the Lord Mayor's order. Thence by water to the Duke of Albemarle's: all the way fires on each side of the Thames, and strange to see in broad daylight two or three burials upon the bankside, one at the very heels of another: doubtless, all of the plague; and yet at least forty or fifty people going along with every one of them. The Duke mighty pleasant with me; telling me that he is certainly informed that the Dutch were not come home upon the 1st instant, and so he hopes our fleete may meet with them. 7th. To the Tower, and there sent for the Weekly Bill, and find 8252 dead in all, and of them 6978 of the plague; which is a most dreadful number, and shows reasons to fear that the plague hath got that hold that it will yet continue among us. Thence to Branford, reading " The Villaine," a pretty good play, all the way. There a coach of Mr. PovyV stood ready for me, and he at his house ready to come in, and so we together merrily to Swakely,4 to Sir R. Viner's: 1 Shooter's Hill. 2 Blackheath. 3 Aug. 6, 1666. Dined with Mr. Povy, and then went with him to see a country-house he had bought near Brentford.--Evelyn's Diary. 1 Swakeley House, in the parish of Ickenham, Middlesex, was built in 1638, by Sir Edmund Wright, whose daughter marrying Sir James Harrington, one of Charles I.'s judges, he became possessed ...