The Diary of Samuel Pepys

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1899. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER III. PERSONAL NOTES. WE are still unable to state with certainty where Samuel Pepys was born, but Dr. Knight's positive statement that Brampton was the place of his birth (vol. i., p. xvii) gains no corroboration from the documents of the Merchant Taylors' Company quoted on a previous page. If,as there stated, John Pepys was settled in London from his apprenticeship, and if he had no particular connection with Brampton until late in life, when his brother Robert left him his small property there, it seems highly improbable that his son should be born at that place. School. We only know from a casual reference that Pepys went to school first at Huntingdon, but the references to his attendance at St. Paul's School and to his schoolfellows there are numerous. In after life he always had a soft place in his heart for Dean Colet's famous foundation. He presented books to the library, and gloried in its continued welfare. There is no view of the old schoolhouse where he was a pupil, which was destroyed in the Great Fire of London, but the plate on the opposite page shows the building that Pepys visited, and which was pulled down to make way for a new schoolhouse in 1823. This last building was destroyed in 188o, when the school was removed to West Kensington. The plate opposite is a reproduction of the pretty invitation card to Old Paulians to attend the school festival on January 25th, 1703, which is preserved in the Pepys Collection at Magdalene College. A notice of some of his schoolfellows will be found in Chapter IV. College Life. It was stated in the " Particulars of the Life " prefixed to the first volume that Samuel Pepys was first entered at Trinity Hall, and notice was taken of Lord Braybrooke's statement that it was Trinity College. "J. S. C," not being satisfied with t...