of fact, Mr. Bright left roughly speaking about one-fifth of
the whole Diary still unprinted, although he transcribed the whole, and
bequeathed his transcript to Magdalene College.

It has now been decided that the whole of the Diary shall be made public,
with the exception of a few passages which cannot possibly be printed. It
may be thought by some that these omissions are due to an unnecessary
squeamishness, but it is not really so, and readers are therefore asked to
have faith in the judgment of the editor. Where any passages have been
omitted marks of omission are added, so that in all cases readers will
know where anything has been left out.

Lord Braybrooke made the remark in his "Life of Pepys," that "the cipher
employed by him greatly resembles that known by the name of 'Rich's
system.'" When Mr. Bright came to decipher the MS., he discovered that
the shorthand system used by Pepys was an earlier one than Rich's, viz.,
that of Thomas Shelton, who made his system public in 1620.

In his various editions Lord Braybrooke gave a large number of valuable
notes, in the collection and arrangement of which he was assisted by the
late Mr. John Holmes of the British Museum, and the late Mr. James
Yeowell, sometime sub-editor of "Notes and Queries." Where these notes
are left unaltered in the present edition the letter "B." has been affixed
to them, but in many instances the notes have been altered and added to
from later information, and in these cases no mark is affixed. A large
number of additional notes are now supplied, but still much has had to be
left unexplained. Many persons are mentioned in the Diary who were little
known in the outer world, and in some instances it has been impossible to
identify them. In other cases, however, it has been possible to throw
light upon these persons by reference to different portions of the Diary
itself. I would here ask the kind assistance of any reader who is able to
illustrate passages that have been left unnoted. I have received much
assistance from the various books in which the Diary is quoted. Every
writer on the period covered by the Diary has been pleased to illustrate
his subject by quotations from Pepys, and from these books it has often
been possible to find information which helps to explain difficult
passages in the Diary.

Much illustrative matter of value was obtained by Lord Braybrooke from the
"Diurnall" of Thomas Rugge, which is preserved in the Brit