15/12/2025
📜 On This Day in West Middlesex 📜
15th December 1664 - The Great Comet
The Great Comet of 1664 first appeared in late October, but as it drew closer to Earth its brilliance soon became the talk of the town. It blazed so brightly in the night sky that people across West Middlesex would have seen it clearly from vantage points such as Hounslow Heath, particularly around 15 December, when it shone at its peak.
The comet made a remarkable impression on Samuel Pepys, who recorded several observations in his diary. On this day he wrote:
“To the Coffeehouse, where great talk of the comet seen in several places; and among our men at sea, and by my Lord Sandwich, to whom I intend to write about it to-night.”
Later, on 17 December, he noted:
“Mighty talk there of this comet that is seen a’ night; and the King and the Queen did sit up last night to see it, and did, it seems. And to-night I thought to have done so too, but it is cloudy and so no stars appear. But I will endeavour it.”
By 21 December, the excitement had grown further:
“My Lord Sandwich this day writes me word that he hath seen (at Portsmouth) the comet, and says it is the most extraordinary thing that ever he saw.”
Sir Christopher Wren, a Hampton Court resident later in life, was also studying the phenomenon, recording its nightly position with scientific precision. Comets were a subject of growing fascination among astronomers of the age, including Sir Isaac Newton.
Yet for many, comets were far from harmless celestial wonders. They were often linked with disaster and divine displeasure. In the wake of the Great Plague of 1665, some Londoners believed that the spectacular comet of 1664 had been a forewarning — a belief strengthened when a second comet appeared in 1665, shortly before the Great Fire of London.
Photo Credit: Cambridge University Press
