It had been a rather heady end to the month of July in plague ridden London for Samuel Pepys, as he conspired on a love match between Lady Jemima Montagu and Philip Carteret, the younger son of Sir George Carteret.
In August 1665, we find Sam in amorous form with his wife Elizabeth out of town practicing her painting and keeping away from the sickness sweeping through the city. Perhaps his carnal profligacy tells us something of the moment in which he lives.
Although no stranger to such escapades, one wonders if human passions are heightened in Mr Pepys by the joy of the nupitals, the peak of summer madness and the heady mortal fear of London under the shadow of the Great Plague of 1665.
I present to you here two installments from August 1665 recorded during lockdown in the age of coronavirus here in London, England during April and May 1665.