Samuel Pepys wrote his last entry in his diaries on May 31, 1669.

And so, the diary comes to an end.
Samuel Pepys
Monday 31 May 1669

To the utter shame of the Royal Mail, there are no stamps celebrating Pepys. I could only find 2 stamps, neither I particularly like so I created my own to honour one of history’s great diarists. 

Prolific diarist, Samuel Pepys documented his everyday life for nearly a decade, from 1660 to 1669.  Although he wrote about the big events like   politics of the day, the plague returning to London, The Great Fire of London, the diaries are best known for offering a glimpse into daily life in the 1600s. Pepys also documented everyday events such as meals with his wife and friends, what wines he drank, simple interactions with the world around him. It’s a rare personal view of Restoration London.

Pepys wrote his diary in shorthand, using a popular seventeenth-century system called ‘Tachygraphy’, invented by Thomas Shelton.

Shorthand uses symbols in place of letters for speed of writing. It also serves to disguise the content of the text from anyone who doesn’t know the system. This was important to Pepys, who was writing much in his diary that he did not want other people to read.

Reading Pepys’s shorthand – Reimagining the Restoration (le.ac.uk)

And thus ends all that I doubt I shall ever be able to do with my own eyes in the keeping of my journal, I being not able to do it any longer, having done now so long as to undo my eyes almost every time that I take a pen in my hand; and, therefore, whatever comes of it, I must forbear: and, therefore, resolve, from this time forward, to have it kept by my people in long-hand, and must therefore be contented to set down no more than is fit for them and all the world to know; or, if there be any thing, which cannot be much, now my amours to Deb. are past, and my eyes hindering me in almost all other pleasures, I must endeavour to keep a margin in my book open, to add, here and there, a note in short-hand with my own hand. And so I betake myself to that course, which is almost as much as to see myself go into my grave: for which, and all the discomforts that will accompany my being blind, the good God prepare me!

And so, the diary comes to an end.
Samuel Pepys
Monday 31 May 1669

For Alina. I’m sure she would be equally appalled at the lack of recognition by Royal Mail.