Beschreibung:

Samuel Pepys Autograph letter, signed, to John Evelyn ("Dearest Sr") affirming their deep friendship on the eve of Pepys's departure from London to his country home in Surrey ("...I dare not expect to see you to day, though the Day won't Lett mee forgett to wish it..."), 2 pages, 8vo, n.p., 7 June 1701, strengthened at edges A FINE LETTER IN PRAISE OF FRIENDSHIP AND CONVERSATION. Pepys wrote this letter as a response to Evelyn, who had written with "superlative Expressions of respect to mee & my (at the best) Poore Conversation, when placed against yours". Pepys replies with the grace of a man who has learnt the importance of friendship. He is leaving London for his new home in the country, and he wants to tell Evelyn that what he misses of London life above all is the company of friends, of whom none were more important than Evelyn himself: "Lett me in one Word tell you, that I had but the Pleasure of that of yours, & some very few more, whom Time has now, one way or other, allmost quite seperated; to make mee amends for the Benefitt I have for some time most sensibly quitted, of the Ayre I am by my Physician's Injunctions now hastening my returne to; with some prospect of setting up my future Rest there : But 'tis in Surry, & soe not out of the reach of him (my most honored, Mr Evelin) whom of all ye surviveing World I Would last quitt ye Neighbourhood of." Pepys was in his late 60s by the time he wrote this letter and had been advised by his doctors to leave London for the healthier air of his country house in Clapham (this was long before the area was swallowed by the burgeoning metropolis). The move was permanent, and Pepys died less than two years after writing this letter. This is a comparatively rare example of a letter written entirely in Pepys's own hand. PROVENANCE:Arthur A. Houghton, Jnr; sale of his library, part 2, Christie's, London, 11-12 June 1980, lot 365