The Great Fire Of London: Samuel Pepys

In his final entry on the fire, Pepys wrote a simple, profound epitaph for the week that changed his world: "It is strange to see how the poorest men look out of their burnt houses to see the King’s guards march by, as if nothing had happened."

By September 6th, the fire was out. The city was a ghost. Pepys walked through the wreckage on September 7th. His diary records the surreal silence, the ground still hot enough to burn his shoes. He saw the ruins of St. Paul’s, a hollow shell, and the remnants of his favorite shops, now unmarked heaps of ash. the great fire of london samuel pepys

That resilience, captured in one sentence by an obsessive diarist, is why we remember the fire. And it is why, nearly 400 years later, we still open the pages of Samuel Pepys. In his final entry on the fire, Pepys