Anecdote for the Day

I have previously mentioned . . . 

One who echoed that sentiment was Samuel Pepys (1633-1703), pronounced “Peeps”.

A digression: Benny Hill wrote a song called Pepys’s Diary, which contained the verse and chorus:

A shy young maid has took a room down at the Village Inn.
Her bedside light is oh so bright and the curtains oh so thin.
At nine o'clock, she enters her room, at half past nine, she sleeps.
Lord Clarendon walks quickly on, but naughty Samuel Pepys. 

Oh we know it's right.
It's in black and white.
And it's all written down in his diary!

But back to Samuel, who recorded so much in his diary that it would have put Facebook to shame.

On 2 September 1666 Pepys was awakened by his servant who told him of a great fire she had seen in the city. This was the beginning of the Great Fire of London which subsequently wiped out much the city. Pepys' house was in the path of the fire and on the 3rd he borrowed a cart to "to carry away all my money, and plate, and best things". More items were taken away the next day, to be taken away on a Thames barge. Later that evening:

Sir W. Batten not knowing how to remove his wine, did dig a pit in the garden, and laid it in there; and I took the opportunity of laying all the papers of my office that I could not otherwise dispose of. And in the evening Sir W. Pen and I did dig another, and put our wine in it; and I my Parmazan cheese, as well as my wine and some other things.

Today, parmesan cheese wheels weigh about 38 kilos/84 pounds; in Pepys’s time, wheels of Parmesan cheese could weigh up to 90 kilos/200 pounds. Matured for at least 2 years, the cheese becomes more valuable the longer it is matured. Therefore Pepys’s cheese was quite valuable. Indeed, the cheeses were in the past used as gifts in diplomacy. In 1511 the Pope made a gift to Henry VIII of one hundred Parmesan cheeses, and in 1556 the Pope made gifts of "eight great Parmesan cheeses" to Queen Mary of England

Sao what happened to Samuel’s parmesan? He did not record it but his house escaped the fire.  Hope he wrapped it in Gladwrap before he buried it.