Reading Pepys' diary day by day

Samuel Pepys is decidedly out of the period of history I'm interested in, and I'm not familiar with all the political scene that he was witness to.

I started reading his blogged diary because the English syntax is intriguing - a sort of personal shorthand that contemporaries would find understandable. Reminder of how English changes with use.

An entry from last week caught my eye - it's an account of a wedding that Pepys helped broker between friends for their teenage children. He's been a sort of unofficial guardian to the girl for years, and is apparently satisfied that he's made a useful and acceptable match all round for the two families. His smugness oozes through the entries!

Earlier in the month he's busy giving advice about girls to the young man, and seeing the girl get loads of new stuff for her marriage from her MiL to be.

Anyway, what I found fun was:
- him being late for the wedding (along with the groom's parents!) because they missed the morning tide
- sending on the ring and license ahead as soon as they crossed the river
- arriving late, as the couple were leaving the church
- having both a wedding dinner and supper both - an all-day celebration
- 'bedding' the bride and groom in the evening - a fairly dignified affair, rather than a rowdy one
- then retiring to bed with another guest, who is from Edinburgh, and they lie in bed having a lovely chat about the other guest's homeland:

"Whereas I feared I must have sat up all night, we did here all get good beds, and I lay in the same I did before with Mr. Brisband, who is a good scholler and sober man; and we lay in bed, getting him to give me an account of home, which is the most delightfull talke a man can have of any traveller: and so to sleep."

It reminded me of going to an event and sitting up late with folks you haven't met before, chatting in the crash space.