History of the Plague in London

buried, or infected clothes burned, it wasdone in the night; and all the bodies which were thrown into the greatpits in the several churchyards or burying grounds, as has beenobserved, were so removed in the night, and everything was covered andclosed before day. So that in the daytime there was not the least signalof the calamity to be seen or heard of, except what was to be observedfrom the emptiness of the streets, and sometimes from the passionateoutcries and lamentations of the people, out at their windows, and fromthe numbers of houses and shops shut up.

  Nor was the silence and emptiness of the streets so much in the city asin the outparts, except just at one particular time, when, as I havementioned, the plague came east, and spread over all the city. It wasindeed a merciful disposition of God, that as the plague began at oneend of the town first, as has been observed at large, so it proceededprogressively to other parts, and did not come on this way, or eastward,till it had spent its fury in the west part of the town; and so as itcame on one way it abated another. For example:--

  It began at St. Giles's and the Westminster end of the town, and it wasin its height in all that part by about the middle of July, viz., in St.Giles-in-the-Fields, St. Andrew's, Holborn, St. Clement's-Danes, St.Martin's-in-the-Fields, and in Westminster. The latter end of July itdecreased in those parishes, and, coming east, it increased prodigiouslyin Cripplegate, St. Sepulchre's, St. James's, Clerkenwell, and St.Bride's and Aldersgate. While it was in all these parishes, the city andall the parishes of the Southwark side of the water, and all Stepney,Whitechapel, Aldgate, Wapping, and Ratcliff, were very little touched;so that people went about their business unconcerned, carried on theirtrades, kept open their shops, and conversed freely with one another inall the city, the east and northeast suburbs, and in Southwark, almostas if the plague had not been among us.

  Even when the north and northwest suburbs were fully infected, viz.,Cripplegate, Clerkenwell, Bishopsgate, and Shoreditch, yet still all therest were tolerably well. For example:--

  From the 25th of July to the 1st of August the bill stood thus of alldiseases:--

  St. Giles's, Cripplegate 554 St. Sepulchre's 250 Clerkenwell 103 Bishopsgate 116 Shoreditch 110 Stepney Parish 127 Aldgate 92 Whitechapel 104 All the 97 parishes within the walls 228 All the parishes in Southwark 205 ----- 1,889

  So that, in short, there died more that week in the two parishes ofCripplegate and St. Sepulchre's by forty-eight than all the city, allthe east suburbs, and all the Southwark parishes put together. Thiscaused the reputation of the city's health to continue all over England,and especially in the counties and markets adjacent, from whence oursupply of provisions chiefly came, even much longer than that healthitself continued; for when the people came into the streets from thecountry by Shoreditch and Bishopsgate, or by Old Street and Smithfield,they would see the outstreets empty, and the houses and shops shut, andthe few people that were stirring there walk in the middle of thestreets; but when they came within the city, there things looked better,and the markets and shops were open, and the people walking about thestreets as usual, though not quite so many; and this continued till thelatter end of August and the beginning of September.

  But then the case altered quite; the distemper abated in the west andnorthwest parishes, and the weight of the infection lay on the city andthe eastern suburbs, and the Southwark side, and this in a frightfulmanner.

  Then indeed the city began to look dismal, shops to be shut, and thestreets desolate. In the High Street, indeed, necessity made people stirabroad on many occasions; and there would be in the middle of the day apretty many[259] people, but in the mornings and evenings scarce any tobe seen even there, no, not in Cornhill and Cheapside.

  These observations of mine were abundantly confirmed by the weekly billsof mortality for those weeks, an abstract of which, as they respect theparishes which I have mentioned, and as they make the calculations Ispeak of very evident, take as follows.

  The weekly bill which makes out this decrease of the burials in the westand north side of the city stands thus:--

  St. Giles's, Cripplegate 456 St. Giles-in-the-Fields 140 Clerkenwell 77 St. Sepulchre's 214 St. Leonard, Shoreditch 183 Stepney Parish 716 Aldgate 629 Whitechapel 532 In the 97 parishes within the walls 1,493 In the 8 parishes on Southwark side 1,636 ----- 6,076

  Here is a strange change of things indeed, and a sad change it was;and, had it held for two months more than it did, very few people wouldhave been left alive; but then such, I say, was the merciful dispositionof God, that when it was thus, the west and north part, which had beenso dreadfully visited at first, grew, as you see, much better; and, asthe people disappeared here, they began to look abroad again there; andthe next week or two altered it still more, that is, more to theencouragement of the other part of the town. For example:--

  Sept. 19-26. St. Giles's, Cripplegate 277 St. Giles-in-the-Fields 119 Clerkenwell 76 St. Sepulchre's 193 St. Leonard, Shoreditch 146 Stepney Parish 616 Aldgate 496 Whitechapel 346 In the 97 parishes within the walls 1,268 In the 8 parishes on Southwark side 1,390 ----- 4,927

  Sept. 26-Oct. 3. St. Giles's, Cripplegate 196 St. Giles-in-the-Fields 95 Clerkenwell 48 St. Sepulchre's 137 St. Leonard, Shoreditch 128 Stepney Parish 674 Aldgate 372 Whitechapel 328 In the 97 parishes within the walls 1,149 In the 8 parishes on Southwark side 1,201 ----- 4,328

  And now the misery of the city, and of the said east and south parts,was complete indeed; for, as you see, the weight of the distemper layupon those parts, that is to say, the city, the eight parishes over theriver, with the parishes of Aldgate, Whitechapel, and Stepney, and thiswas the time that the bills came up to such a monstrous height as that Imentioned before, and that eight or nine, and, as I believe, ten ortwelve thousand a week died; for it is my settled opinion that they[260]never could come at any just account of the numbers, for the reasonswhich I have given already.

  Nay, one of the most eminent physicians, who has since published inLatin an account of those times and of his observations, says that inone week there died twelve thousand people, and that particularly theredied four thousand in one night; though I do not remember that thereever was any such particular night so remarkably fatal as that such anumber died in it. However, all this confirms what I have said above ofthe uncertainty of the bills of mortality, etc., of which I shall saymore hereafter.

  And here let me take leave to enter again, though it may seem arepetition of circumstances, into a description of the miserablecondition of the city itself, and of those parts where I lived, at thisparticular time. The city, and those other parts, notwithstanding thegreat numbers of people that were gone into the country, was[261] vastlyfull of people; and perhaps the fuller because people had for a longtime a strong belief that the plague would not come into the city, norinto Southwark, no, nor into Wapping or Ratcliff at all; nay, such wasthe assurance of the people on that head, that many removed from the
suburbs on the west and north sides into those eastern and south sidesas for safety, and, as I verily believe, carried the plague amongst themthere, perhaps sooner than they would otherwise have had it.

  Here, also, I ought to leave a further remark for the use of posterity,concerning the manner of people's infecting one another; namely, that itwas not the sick people only from whom the plague was immediatelyreceived by others that were sound, but the well. To explain myself: bythe sick people, I mean those who were known to be sick, had takentheir beds, had been under cure, or had swellings or tumors upon them,and the like. These everybody could beware of: they were either in theirbeds, or in such condition as could not be concealed.

  By the well, I mean such as had received the contagion, and had itreally upon them and in their blood, yet did not show the consequencesof it in their countenances; nay, even were not sensible of itthemselves, as many were not for several