Since his diary was deciphered in the early nineteenth century, Samuel Pepys has never ceased to fascinate, instruct and amuse. In a resonant phrase, his biographer Claire Tomalin pays tribute to the “romantic and tempestuous nature that made almost every day an adventure of the spirit and the senses”. Now an engrossing show (until 28 March) seeks to do justice to the various facets of the man: the Navy administrator, the theatregoer, the musician, the adviser to kings, the fond husband. But as the title suggests, the focus is on Pepys as observer of momentous historical events.The famous diary only spanned a decade in a turbulent life. Accordingly, the exhibition begins with the cataclysmic event witnessed by Pepys as a schoolboy: the execution of Charles I. It is represented