Jeremy Paxman wrote favourably in the Weekend FT about the Pepys exhibition in the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich. I went on Thursday morning.
He is right; it is full of interest. I read Claire Tomalin’s excellent biography, Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self, at least ten years ago and have forgotten most of it now. I was reminded that Pepys left his diaries to his nephew with instructions that they then be given to Magdalene College, Cambridge, with the rest of his library (some 3,000 volumes), desk and bookcases, and never leave; so don’t expect to see the real diaries. However, there are facsimiles of some pages. They are, as you know, written in shorthand. The Rev. John Smith was the first person to transcribe them, in the 19th century. It took him three painstaking years to translate them and it was only as he was almost finished that he found the key to the shorthand code was a few shelves away, also a part of Pepys’s library in Magdalene College.
At the exhibition you put a finger on the screen and a translation pops up. It is a modern, inter-active show. One of the best items is a map of London that shows where the Great Fire started and how it spread. Another exhibit shows how rapidly the Great Plague spread. In less than a year about 100,000 people died, 20% of the population of London.
Pepys wrote his diaries for only nine years, stopping in 1669 when he was thirty-six. His contemporary, John Evelyn, also a diarist, covered a much longer period: 1641-1697. I suspect Evelyn didn’t write with the humanity and candour of Pepys, which is why we are less familiar with his work. Pepys I consider to be the original diarist and an inspiration for 20th century efforts. Chips Channon, Cecil Beaton, James Lees-Milne, Alan Clark, Tommy Lascelles, Harold Nicholson all made a good fist of it. I haven’t read Dick Crossman’s but I did try Chris Mullin’s and quickly got bored. With the notable exception of Alan Clark, politicians are too keen to paint themselves in a good light, too reluctant to prick their own egos.
The exhibition continues until the end of March. Meanwhile, I will be back in Greenwich tomorrow for Max and Alex’s Recital.
There is an interesting anecdote about Peter the Great’s visit to England in 1698. John Evelyn’s house in Deptford had been let to Captain, later Admiral, Benbow who sub-let it to Peter the Great and his entourage.
“No part of the house escaped damage. All the floors were covered with grease and ink, and three new floors had to be provided. The tiled stoves, locks to the doors, and all the paint work had to be renewed. The curtains, quilts, and bed linen were ‘tore in pieces.’ All the chairs in the house, numbering over fifty, were broken, or had disappeared, probably used to stoke the fires. Three hundred window panes were broken and there were ‘twenty fine pictures very much tore and all frames broke.’ The garden which was Evelyn’s pride was ruined.” (Ian Grey, Peter the Great in England p. 229)
Unfortunately there is no reference to this in Evelyn’s diaries.
I saw the exhibition on Monday 15th February and thought it excellent.
Pepys was responsible for introducing the naval lieutenant’s exam, a reform which had fundamental consequences. It ensured that the royal navy became a professional service run by trained officers, who by and large knew what they were doing, so that eventually the service played its vital role in defeating the French and building and defending the Empire; one can only contrast the often alcoholic aristocratic amateurs who constituted rather too much of the army officer class.
Having said that Claire Tomalin correctly describes him in her biography as a ” lecher, liar, sceptic and humanist”. He was certainly a great diarist. I would recommend anyone interested in Pepys and the navy to see the exhibition and to visit his library in Magdalene College, Cambridge.
Harsh words about the army officers of Pepys’ day – harsh but generally true. However salvation was not far off. A military academy was established at Woolwich in 1720 to provide training for Royal Artillery officers. It was described as a gathering of gentleman cadets learning ‘gunnery, fortification, mathematics and a little French’ (the last a nice touch). By contrast the formal training of cavalry and infantry officers did not begin for another 80 years when Sandhurst was established.
Incidentally the Royal Artillery was formed 4 years before Woolwich on 26 May 1716. Happy birthday.