Portrait of Samuel Pepys

Samuel Pepys

The Diary of Samuel Pepys

Ed. Robert Latham and William Matthews. Vol. 9, 1668-1669. G. Bell & Sons, 1976.

...We abroad to Marrowbone and there walked in the garden [Marylebone Gardens], the first time I ever there, and a pretty place it is; and here we eat and drank and stayed till 9 at night; and so home by moonshine, I all the way having mi mano abaxo la jupe de Knepp [my hand up Knepp's skirt] con much placer and freedom...

Pepys was Clerk of the Acts (Secretary) at the Navy Board (the Admiralty) when he took Elizabeth Knepp (or Knipp), an actress in the King's Company, for an outing on 7th May 1668. The usual hanky-panky, recorded in a mixture of foreign phrases, ensued in the coach on the way home, but despite the softening effects of wine and moonlight he didn't get everything he was after.