“Strange to see how a good dinner and feasting reconciles everybody.”
“The truth is, I do indulge myself a little the more in pleasure, knowing that this is the proper age of my life to do it”
“But Lord! To see the absurd nature of Englishmen that cannot forbear laughing and jeering at everything that looks strange.”
“Strange, to see what delight we married people have to see these poor fools decoyed into our condition”
“Up and with my wife to church, where Mr. Mills made an unnecessary sermon on Original Sin, neither understood by himself, nor the people.”
“she costing me but little compared with other wives, and I have not many occasions to spend on her.”
“Mighty proud I am that I am able to have a spare bed for my friends.”
“We saw the fire grow; and, as it grew darker, appeared more and more, and in corners and upon steeples, and between churches and houses, as far as we could see up the hill of the City, in a most horrid malicious bloody flame … It made me weep to see it.”
“This morning, I put all of my best things in a cart and took them to my friend’s house. I was in a hurry so I just wore my nightgown! I will have to bury my wine and cheese in the garden if this fire gets worse.”
“As happy a man as any in the world, for the whole world seems to smile upon me!”
“I went out to Charing Cross to see Major General Harrison hanged, drawn, and quartered; which was done there, he looking as cheerful as any man could in that condition.”
“And so to bed.”
– Samuel Pepys, died 26 May 1703
ANYONE who has followed the growing success of peregrine falcons finding lofty nest sites on our ancient cathedrals and other high buildings will probably know that Salisbury Cathedral now has a long-established peregrine roost on the tower.