Editing Samuel Pepys (section)

====Great Fire of London====
{{Further|Great Fire of London}}

[[File:Great fire of london map.png|thumb|Map of London after the [[Great Fire of London|Great Fire]] in 1666, showing Pepys' home]]

In the early hours of 2 September 1666, Pepys was awakened by Jane the maid, his servant, who had spotted a fire in the [[Billingsgate]] area. He decided that the fire was not particularly serious and returned to bed. Shortly after waking, his servant returned and reported that 300 houses had been destroyed and that [[London Bridge]] was threatened. Pepys went to the [[Tower of London]] to get a better view. Without returning home, he took a boat and observed the fire for over an hour. In his diary, Pepys recorded his observations as follows:

{{blockquote|I down to the water-side, and there got a boat and through bridge, and there saw a lamentable fire. Poor Michell's house, as far as the Old Swan, already burned that way, and the fire running further, that in a very little time it got as far as the Steeleyard, while I was there. Everybody endeavouring to remove their goods, and flinging into the river or bringing them into lighters that layoff; poor people staying in their houses as long as till the very fire touched them, and then running into boats, or clambering from one pair of stairs by the water-side to another. And among other things, the poor pigeons, I perceive, were loth to leave their houses, but hovered about the windows and balconys till they were, some of them burned, their wings, and fell down. Having staid, and in an hour's time seen the fire: rage every way, and nobody, to my sight, endeavouring to quench it, but to remove their goods, and leave all to the fire, and having seen it get as far as the Steele-yard, and the wind mighty high and driving it into the City; and every thing, after so long a drought, proving combustible, even the very stones of churches, and among other things the poor steeple by which pretty Mrs.———— lives, and whereof my old school-fellow Elborough is parson, taken fire in the very top, and there burned till it fell down...| {{ws |[[s:Diary of Samuel Pepys/1666/September#2nd (Lord's day)|''Diary of Samuel Pepys'', Sunday, 2 September 1666]]}}}}

The wind was driving the fire westward, so he ordered the boat to go to [[Palace of Whitehall|Whitehall]] and became the first person to inform the king of the fire. According to his entry of 2 September 1666, Pepys recommended to the king that homes be pulled down in the path of the fire in order to stem its progress. Accepting this advice, the king told him to go to [[Lord Mayor of the City of London|Lord Mayor]] [[Thomas Bloodworth]] and tell him to start pulling down houses. Pepys took a coach back as far as [[Old St Paul's Cathedral|St Paul's Cathedral]] before setting off on foot through the burning city. He found the Lord Mayor, who said, "Lord! what can I do? I am spent: people will not obey me. I have been pulling down houses; but the fire overtakes us faster than we can do it." At noon, he returned home and "had an extraordinary good dinner, and as merry, as at this time we could be", before returning to watch the fire in the city once more. Later, he returned to Whitehall, then met his wife in [[St James's Park]]. In the evening, they watched the fire from the safety of [[Bankside]]. Pepys writes that "it made me weep to see it". Returning home, Pepys met his clerk Tom Hayter who had lost everything. Hearing news that the fire was advancing, he started to pack up his possessions by moonlight.

[[File:Old.St.Pauls.Ruins.1666.png|thumb|The ruins of the [[old St Paul's Cathedral]], by [[Thomas Wyck]], as it looked roughly seven years after the fire]]

A cart arrived at 4 a.m. on 3 September and Pepys spent much of the day arranging the removal of his possessions. Many of his valuables, including his diary, were sent to a friend from the Navy Office at [[Bethnal Green]].{{sfnp|Tomalin|2002|p=230}} At night, he "fed upon the remains of yesterday's dinner, having no fire nor dishes, nor any opportunity of dressing any thing." The next day, Pepys continued to arrange the removal of his possessions. By then, he believed that Seething Lane was in grave danger, so he suggested calling men from [[Deptford]] to help pull down houses and defend the king's property.{{sfnp|Tomalin|2002|p=230}} He described the chaos in the city and his curious attempt at saving his own goods:

{{blockquote|Sir W. Pen and I to Tower-streete, and there met the fire burning three or four doors beyond Mr. Howell's, whose goods, poor man, his trayes, and dishes, shovells, &c., were flung all along Tower-street in the kennels, and people working therewith from one end to the other; the fire coming on in that narrow streete, on both sides, with infinite fury. Sir W. Batten not knowing how to remove his wine, did dig a pit in the garden, and laid it in there; and I took the opportunity of laying all the papers of my office that I could not otherwise dispose of. And in the evening Sir W. Pen and I did dig another, and put our wine in it; and I my Parmazan cheese, as well as my wine and some other things.| {{Ws |[[s:Diary of Samuel Pepys/1666/September#4th|''Diary of Samuel Pepys'', Tuesday, 4 September 1666]]}}}}

Pepys had taken to sleeping on his office floor; on Wednesday, 5 September, he was awakened by his wife at 2 a.m. She told him that the fire had almost reached [[All Hallows-by-the-Tower]] and that it was at the foot of Seething Lane. He decided to send her and his gold — about £2,350 — to Woolwich. In the following days, Pepys witnessed looting, disorder, and disruption. On 7 September, he went to Paul's Wharf and saw the ruins of St Paul's Cathedral, of his old school, of his father's house, and of the house in which he had had his bladder stone removed.{{sfnp|Tomalin|2002|p=232}} Despite all this destruction, Pepys' house, office, and diary were saved.