out; L20 a year maintains them."

As already noted, Pepys was married on December 1st, 1655. This date
is given on the authority of the Registers of St. Margaret's Church,
Westminster,

[The late Mr. T. C. Noble kindly communicated to me a copy of the
original marriage certificate, which is as follows: "Samuell Peps
of this parish Gent. & Elizabeth De Snt. Michell of Martins in the
fields, Spinster. Published October 19tn, 22nd, 29th 1655, and
were married by Richard Sherwin Esqr one of the justices of the
Peace of the Cittie and Lyberties of Westm. December 1st. (Signed)
Ri. Sherwin."]

but strangely enough Pepys himself supposed his wedding day to have been
October 10th. Lord Braybrooke remarks on this,

"It is notorious that the registers in those times were very ill
kept, of which we have here a striking instance.... Surely a
man who kept a diary could not have made such a blunder."

What is even more strange than Pepys's conviction that he was married on
October 10th is Mrs. Pepys's agreement with him: On October 10th, 1666,
we read,

"So home to supper, and to bed, it being my wedding night, but how
many years I cannot tell; but my wife says ten."

Here Mrs. Pepys was wrong, as it was eleven years; so she may have been
wrong in the day also. In spite of the high authority of Mr. and Mrs.
Pepys on a question so interesting to them both, we must accept the
register as conclusive on this point until further evidence of its
incorrectness is forthcoming.

Sir Edward Montage (afterwards Earl of Sandwich), who was Pepys's
first cousin one remove (Pepys's grandfather and Montage's mother being
brother and sister), was a true friend to his poor kinsman, and he at
once held out a helping hand to the imprudent couple, allowing them
to live in his house. John Pepys does not appear to have been in
sufficiently good circumstances to pay for the education of his son,
and it seems probable that Samuel went to the university under his
influential cousin's patronage. At all events he owed his success in
life primarily to Montage, to whom he appears to have acted as a sort of
agent.

On March 26th, 1658, he underwent a successful operation for the stone,
and we find him celebrating each anniversary of this important event of
his life with thanksgiving. He went through life with little trouble
on this score, but when he died at the age of seventy a nest of sev