SOURCE: Introduction to Particular Friends: The Correspondence of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn, Boydell Press, 1997, pp. 7-16.

In the essay that follows, Bédoyère examines the significance of the correspondence between Pepys and John Evelyn as a complement to their better-known diaries.

The existence of the correspondence of Evelyn and Pepys has been widely known ever since their respective diaries were first transcribed and published in the early nineteenth century. Not only had Evelyn and Pepys recorded many of their personal experiences but they had both enjoyed significant contemporary reputations. Their friendship, and their relationships with others, recorded in the diaries and in the letters, give us an exceptional opportunity to experience something of life at the heart of Restoration England and the remainder of the seventeenth century.

Almost any discussion of Pepys and Evelyn invites a comparison of their origins. This is not the place to...