75. Memoirs " Of " Samuel Pepys, Esq. F.R.S. " [Two lines] Comprising " His Diary " From 1659-1669, " Deciphered By The Rev. John Smith, A.B. Of St. John's College, Cambridge, " From The Original Short-Hand MS. In The Pepysian Library, " [Two lines] [Copy of one of Pepys's book-plates] Edited By " Richard, Lord Braybrooke. " In Two Volumes. " Vol. I. " London: " Henry Colburn, New Burlington Street. " MDCCCXXV.

To the information given on the title-page, the noble editor adds some further facts in a preface. He says that the six volumes, closely written in short-hand by Pepys himself, had formed a part of the collection of books and prints bequeathed to Magdalen College, where they had remained unexamined (from the date of Pepys's death) until the appointment of Lord Braybrooke's brother, George Neville, afterwards called Grenville, as master of the College. Under Neville's auspices they were deciphered by Mr. Smith, whom his lordship had not the pleasure of knowing.

Pepys used short-hand for his notes because he often had things to say which he did not think fit for all the world to know; and Lord Braybrooke found it "absolutely necessary" to "curtail the MS. materially." The complete journal, all that it is possible to print, was not issued until 1893.

Colburn, the publisher, known for his successful ventures, and especially for the series called Colburn's Modern Standard Novelists and The Literary Gazette, containing works by Bulwer Lytton, Lady Morgan, Captain Marryat, and others, had been so fortunate with an issue of Evelyn's Diary that he was led into the present undertaking. With this edition, which sold at six pounds six shillings, and with two succeeding editions selling at five guineas, he is reputed to have made a handsome profit on the twenty-two hundred pounds paid for the copyright.

The large volumes with their broad margins are handsome specimens of the excellent typographical work of the Bentleys. They are embellished with two illustrations in the text, and thirteen engraved plates. A frontispiece portrait of the author, after the painting by Kneller, was engraved by T. Bragg, and a smaller portrait used as a head-piece to the Life is signed R. W. ?culp. This last is a copy of one of Pepys's book-plates; it has the motto "Mens cujusque is est Quisque" above the oval frame, and "Sam. Pepys. Car. Et. Iac. Angl. Regib. A. Secretis AdmiraliÆ" in two lines below. Another book-plate used by the Secretary is copied on the title-page. Of the remaining portraits, one was engraved by John Thomson, while five were the work of R. Cooper, who also engraved the "View of the Mole at Tangier" and the "View of Mr. Pepys' Library." The other plates, including one showing facsimiles of Pepys's short- and long-hand; two of pedigrees, and a folded map, are signed "Sid^y. Hall, Bury Str^t. Bloomsb^y."

Some copies of the book on fine paper, with beautiful impressions of the plates, are marked in red on the half-title page, "Presentation Copies."

Quarto

Collation: Two volumes. Volume I: 1 l., xlii, 498, xlix pp. Volume II: 2 ll., 348, vii, 311 pp. Seven portraits. Six plates.