was lying on his death-bed, and favour was to flow from another
source, still Pepys's Diary was unequalled in its peculiar quality
of amusement. The lightest part of the Diary was of value,
historically, for it enabled one to see London of 200 years ago,
and, what was more, to see it with the eager eyes of Pepys. It was
not Pepys the official who had brought that large gathering together
that day in honour of his memory: it was Pepys the Diarist."

In concluding this account of the chief particulars of Pepys's life it may
be well to add a few words upon the pronunciation of his name. Various
attempts appear to have been made to represent this phonetically. Lord
Braybrooke, in quoting the entry of death from St. Olave's Registers,
where the spelling is "Peyps," wrote, "This is decisive as to the proper
pronunciation of the name." This spelling may show that the name was
pronounced as a monosyllable, but it is scarcely conclusive as to anything
else, and Lord Braybrooke does not say what he supposes the sound of the
vowels to have been. At present there are three pronunciations in
use--Peps, which is the most usual; Peeps, which is the received one at
Magdalene College, and Peppis, which I learn from Mr. Walter C. Pepys is
the one used by other branches of the family. Mr. Pepys has paid
particular attention to this point, and in his valuable "Genealogy of the
Pepys Family" (1887) he has collected seventeen varieties of spelling of
the name, which are as follows, the dates of the documents in which the
form appears being attached:

1. Pepis (1273); 2. Pepy (1439); 3. Pypys (1511); 4. Pipes (1511);
5. Peppis (1518); 6. Peppes (1519); 7. Pepes (1520); 8. Peppys (1552);
9. Peaps (1636); 10. Pippis (1639); 11. Peapys (1653); 12. Peps (1655);
13. Pypes (1656); 14. Peypes (1656); 15. Peeps (1679); 16. Peepes (1683);
17. Peyps (1703). Mr. Walter Pepys adds:--