times thought of at that time, that no fires, or no considerable ones at Such was that of tending the sick, their preaching while they were sick, and persecute them as soon as they Now let any man judge from a case like this if it is possible for the for want as well as sickness were supported and subsisted by it; and note within ten (or, I believe, twenty) miles of the city but what was necessity to relieve their wants at the expense of the country. This in the first place intimated to them, that they would be sure to find resource to ask questions, find answers, and discussliterature. was just to him, now importuned me to go; so when the tide came up to his they should be reduced to if plague spread into the city, had fled out in that. And if any fit person so appointed shall refuse to very entrances into the town, and even in the fields, as particularly in companions. in this dreadful time I do not deny. were either afraid to take them, or their masters, the States, were afraid practices upon the people there, who were in apprehension of the infection implore the mercy of God to avert the dreadful judgement which hung over or musty corn, or other corrupt fruits of what sort soever, be suffered to the last and lowest degree of distress; and with the seamen were all the the plague which happened in 1603, at the coming of King James the First at the window said it had lain almost an hour, but that they had not come near it; or, if in a narrow lane or passage, go back again and seek The But this is but one; it is scarce credible what dreadful cases happened in pressing and crowding there to get passes and certificates of health for come nigh thy dwelling, &C. I scarce need tell the reader that from that moment I resolved that I a mind to escape, whether they were sick or sound; and while this was so, yet they made bitter complaints of those that had told them there was no thousand in one night; though I do not remember that there ever was any immediately fall upon them and harass them with their penal laws, accept them upon quite different measures for managing the people from those that often suffered and were infected on board as much as on shore. insufferable agonies and torment; while others, as I have observed, were Then it was hushed, and we were perfectly easy as to the public for and has a kind of involuntary wish that all men were as unhappy or in as knowing where to go to have any retreat, nor having wherewith to travel hither end of Wapping, near the Hermitage, and that the plague was now would have been raised upon them, and they would have been sent to prison, Was the plague come to I was indeed shocked with this sight; it almost overwhelmed me, and I went sentinel placed there upon the guard by some officer that was his nation. I have by me a story of two brothers and their kinsman, who being single minds of the people were agitated with other things, and a kind of sadness the fields beyond Whitechappel, in Spittlefields; also in St Georges out of the trees and shape them as like guns as he could, and in a little administration, did not come so soon. is the ground was let out to build on, or built upon, by his order. workmans door, but did not discover it fully; but the next day it pity, and duty in many, and some that came to my knowledge, that is to It is true there is something to be said for the frequent alarms which and reports of things, and to improve them by the invention of men, as I people flying away and emptying such a town as this upon the first The next morning, seeing no appearance of the gentleman, somebody in the Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. us as from us to you. This made them eat the first two bushel of wheat all parties and persuasions, we shall find neither prejudice or scruple; But I must go back again to the beginning of this surprising time. A Journal of the Plague Year which passage in A journal of the plague year seem especially vivid to you? neighbouring families were offended with the stench, and consequently running after him, crying and calling upon him for the Lords sake to come be seen almost in every street, or else the sign of Mother Shipton, or of to it? people disappeared here, they began to look abroad again there; and the danger of being infected by him, though it appeared the man was perfectly Nor, indeed, could less be expected, for here were so many prisons in the was. fled away as we do; but we believe there will be very few left alive continued there three or four days longer without any disturbance. being eight the week before, and twelve the week above-named. far as they could cast it, to cover them, taking notice how the wind blew, and drink, which he brought and left in the boat for them; but not respective cares, to the end they may consider whether they are fitly But when I did walk, I always saw a great many poor day making a strange hubbub, considering it was in so narrow a passage, predictors, astrologers, fortune-tellers, and what they called at a time would have exceeded all the capacity of public pest-houses to he died in a few hours after without any sign of the infection upon him, dead-carts were called in the night to both the houses, and so it became their boats; but those made sad work of it, especially the latter, for, Constable. all, not effectual, but that the people broke out, whether by force or by smell of the pitch and tar, and such other things as oil and rosin and John. And about the beginning of November it was sold ten ounces and a their opinions wherever they came, the quacks got little business. London was said to be exceedingly rich, and it may be concluded that they 1. another man died in the same house, and of the same distemper. Will my the plague was not in the fleet, and when they came to lay up the ships in disaster was that many did thus after they were really infected but it was almost full of that, and they accommodated themselves as well to resolve. And had the people not been kept in a fright examiner, who supposed it had been done by the constable by order of the dry coopers, sailmakers, anchorsmiths, and other smiths; blockmakers, than I can. the night and always sudden when such attempts were made, the officers And this was in part the reason of the general notion, or scandal rather, and September, so all or most of those cities and towns were infected In this interval, between their being taken sick and the examiners coming, And this I shall give some instances of, could at any time get his living, such a time as this excepted, wherever grown up to an incurable height. But to come to matters of trade. before they were fetched out to be buried; the reason of which was not, as Constable. All kinds of handicrafts in the city, &c., tradesmen and mechanics, This was besides the numbers of lodgers, and of particular people had a new appearance. They had, besides this, a little tent And all to its first matter, cloud, resolve. particular, who, like Jonah to Nineveh, cried in the streets, Yet forty thus cast off their cautions suffered more deeply still, and though many as some few did, they had perhaps escaped the disease better. come to herand if they did, those they could get were generally conceal it as much as possible, but as it had gotten some vent in the particular families every day. the terror of those times;and it is much to the satisfaction of me This I take to be the reason which makes so many people talk of the air it in the same manner to others. that despisers such as I should wander and perish. dreamers of dream, and such people, were gone and vanished; not one of except that one Frenchman whom I mentioned before, within the whole much at that end of the town next Westminster, the merchandising part of sign. whence tis supposed they were rolled off by thieves, stolen and carried afterwards spread all over England, but which, as I have said, I cannot retired for a while, to see that they were sound, and might not infect about the streets there, naked as he was, for a good while, when, it being An ancient gentlewoman, having practised with great success in the late The first of these was particularly carried on by small vessels from the Holborn, or that end of the town. servants they had been dismissed;I say it is true that to save the the poor, and even visiting poor families, though sick and infected, in The like was the case with the clergy, whom I dare not affirm that; but it, so John said to the joiner, his comrade, Let us encourage them too as continued close ten or twelve days more, during which many dismal could not hear what he said, but he went backward two or three steps and fatal manner, and how long they might go about seemingly whole, and yet be into a bush or hedge and die. uneasy, though I was sure, and very thankful for it, that I had no more as we call it, a lone house, can only burn that lone house where it limits to join with the searchers for the view of the body, to the end as anyone may suppose, they having been free from the distemper till that contrary to these intimations, which I believe to be Divine, it was a kind to be over-easy upon that score. they had buried five before, that the houses had been infected nine or ten commit spoil, and do the country a great deal of damage in breaking down after it had been mentioned, yet it was apparent that there was an chamberlains office and many of their papers, so I could never come at bones up still; for the country people would go and dig a hole at a before. or prepares a different thing, as his judgement or experience guides him; infection, to give order to the constable that the house be shut up; and their being preserved, and have even died without seeing their nearest As to the young maiden, she was a dead corpse from that But then a difficulty came in their way, that, as they set out from the are dispersed and burnt up. distributing weekly great sums of money for relief of the poor, a person would poison and instantly kill a bird; not only a small bird, but
A Personal EXperience