Samuel Pepys, and the World He Lived In. By Harry
B. Wheatley. (Bickers and Son.)—Those who have not time or inclination to grapple with the famous Diary may find a very valuable substitute in this volume, which gives within a short compass much of what is most characteristic in the original. Those readers, too, who are more or less well acquainted with the Diary may read the book with advantage. It tells them much about the man, about his surround- ings, his family, relatives, &c ; and it is an eminently readable book The chief characters which live in Pepys' pages are introduced to us the King, the Duke, the great ladies of the Court ; and not less interesting in their way, Pepys' own people,—the beautiful wife, of whom he was so jealous, his strange old father-in-law, a projector,. who know all about King Solomon's mines (" better," he declared, "than those in King Solomon's time "), but was very glad of a poor pittance of some seven or eight shillings a week ; about these and others Mr. Wheatley tells much that is very interesting.
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