Viccars became ill not long after opening the box. At the time it is unlikely that the villagers would have known what was happening, but we now know that fleas, or their eggs, on the cloth, started a plague epidemic in Eyam. When the cloth was unfolded, the fleas would have moved out in search of nourishment. Normally they would feed on the blood of rats—it’s believed that rats brought the disease to London in the first place, aboard ships from the continent—but in their absence they would settle for any other creature. And it so happened that George Viccars was the first source of blood that the fleas found. He died a few days later.
Sadly this was not an isolated incident. Within about a fortnight, the plague claimed its next victim, Edward, one of Mary Hadfield’s sons from her first marriage. Things quickly escalated and within three weeks there had been six deaths, which in a village of around three hundred and fifty people—though this figure has been disputed and has also been given at around eight hundred—was a big deal, especially since those mortalities had been from four neighboring houses. The villagers quickly realized that this was no coincidence—something was seriously wrong, and panic spread. The lack of medical knowledge in those days would have exacerbated the situation greatly.
People began to leave the village, particularly the more affluent families who had somewhere else to go and the means of getting there. Those who could not abandon their homes and their livelihoods were forced to stay. Many stayed as they believed they were being punished by God for their sins, and therefore believed that their punishment must be endured. Neither group had an easy time. Many of those who left the village were persecuted by people in neighboring villages and towns, as they knew where the people had come from and they didn’t want the disease in their homes. The people of Sheffield, for example, erected barriers and manned guard posts to stop any strangers from entering the town. Many Eyam refugees were driven away with violence. People were afraid, and with good cause.
Meanwhile, back in Eyam, the plague had claimed more victims. Twenty-three people died in October, and the total number of deaths from the disease, twenty-nine, already exceeded the annual mortality rate over the previous decade. So it is easy to see why the villagers were so terrified—this was no ordinary illness. It was a ruthless killer.
The winter of 1665 slowed down the spread of the disease, but the organism causing it was resilient and managed to find warm places in the village cottages in which to survive the cold weather. Rats were much more common due to the poor hygiene of the time, and would likely have been nesting in the thatch and roofs of the cottages, unaware of the disease they were harboring. The death rate was still well above the normal winter average, and by the end of April 1666 there had been seventy-three deaths, though it is thought that some of these were from other causes.
As the winter slowed down the disease, it was thought that the summer would bring a huge resurgence. However, the total deaths in May were only four, and two were not believed to be due to the plague. Things were getting back to normal in London too, so the villagers could be excused for thinking that the worst was over. There were strong grounds for hope, but unfortunately it was not to be.
June 1666 brought a dramatic increase in the death toll. Families had already suffered huge losses, including the Sydalls, where six of eight members were dead, and the Thorpes, where all nine people had died.
Some people had succeeded in fleeing the area, and many children were sent away, including those of the rector, William Mompesson, and his wife Catherine. Catherine had previously tried to persuade her husband that they should all leave, but he refused, as he felt his duty lay in the village. So Catherine stayed with her husband, a decision that later cost her her life. It is thought that some time in June, Mompesson realized that the summer months were only going to make things worse and so he took positive action. He was a newcomer to the village, so this would not have been easy, but someone had to take charge—and this fell to him.
It wasn’t easy for him. Much religious unrest had taken place in the village prior to his appointment, and one of the men involved, Thomas Stanley, returned to the village despite the Act of Parliament that prevented dissenting clergy from coming within five miles of their former parish. Stanley was a staunch Puritan, and due to the unrest he and nearly a thousand priests with similar beliefs were all but forced to resign their livings. He was able to live the last five years of his life in Eyam, and part of this was taken up with working with Mompesson against the spread of the plague.
The age difference and the varying religious beliefs between Mompesson and Stanley meant they had very little in common, but they managed to put all of this aside for the good of the village. Their united front meant that they could get all the villagers on board, whatever their approaches to faith. If the two men had worked separately, they would likely have divided the village. As it was, their teaming up worked to everyone’s benefit, and they devised a scheme, which they put to the villagers. This plan that was, to this day, the most important event ever to take place in the village of Eyam. It brings visitors from all over the world to hear the tragic story that resulted in many deaths but prevented even more.
The two clergymen proposed three parts of a larger plan, which the villagers agreed to. One was that there would no longer be any formal funerals or churchyard burials. The demand for graves could not be met—particularly as the sexton had passed away—and it was felt that the clergy would be better off shifting their focus to the sick, dying and bereaved. Thomas Stanley would also make the preparation of wills one of his main tasks. Therefore, people were told to bury their own dead wherever they could—in gardens, fields or anywhere they could find. This was disturbing for many reasons—having to physically dig a grave and bury a relative would have been heartbreaking, plus the religious implications of not being buried with loved ones on consecrated ground were not favorable. The corpses also needed to be disposed of quickly, as once they were cold, the infection would be released from the body and into the atmosphere. According to Daniel Defoe’s book, Journal of the Plague Year,the practice of burying bodies in graves six feet deep began at this time, in the hope that infection could not rise up from this depth.
The second part of Mompesson and Stanley’s plan was that the village church should no longer be used for services—having the villagers in close proximity would increase the spread of the disease. At the time, they weren’t sure exactly how people were becoming infected, and there was lots of contradictory information, but everyone agreed that locking the church and holding services out in the open air was a good plan. A safe distance of about twelve feet was agreed, and it was a happy medium, because it meant the deeply religious villagers could still unite in prayer without putting themselves at a greater risk.
On the outskirts of the village is a natural amphitheater called Cucklett Delph, and it was here that Mompesson delivered his sermons to the congregation from a large outcrop of limestone where he could stand and see everyone and be heard. Now an annual service is held there on the last Sunday of every August to commemorate the outbreak of the plague.
The third and perhaps the most famous measure the villagers took was to cut themselves off from the outside world, put themselves in quarantine. It was a tough and very heroic thing to do, and it is believed that only the strong religious faith of the villagers compelled them to agree to this. They would essentially be sacrificing themselves to save others, as Jesus Christ had done.
The decision wasn’t only difficult to make, but difficult to carry out. The small village could not support itself and needed supplies from the outside world. So Mompesson and Stanley had to find a way of ensuring the villagers would not starve to death. In the end, the Earl of Devonshire of Chatsworth House, a few miles away, arranged for food and medical supplies to be sent to the village. They were left at the southern boundary of the village, and the people of Eyam would collect the things some time later, so no one actually came into contact with the outside world. This was a hug
e help, of course, but additional requests were left at the Boundary Stone—a large rock with holes in the top, which can still be seen on the edge of the village—along with money that was put in the holes and covered with vinegar. The vinegar was thought to kill infection.
There were other such points on the edges of the village, including Mompesson’s Well and Wet Withens stone circle, which lies on a now very difficult to access part of Eyam Moor. Wherever possible, money was put in running water or in vinegar. And so the villagers had the solution to their supply problem, while preventing the spread of the disease.
The scheme worked, as there were no plague deaths outside the parish, and only two people tried to leave the village once the measures had been put in place. One person even tried to get into Eyam. Overall, it was an utter success, and many lives were saved.
Although the plague didn’t spread, it continued to rage within Eyam, and by the August of 1666 there had been in excess of two hundred victims. Then as winter approached, the number of deaths declined once more, then dwindled to nothing. As the Christmas of 1666 grew closer, fourteen months of pain and anguish were over and life began to get back to normal in the village. Some people who had left the village returned, children played and friends and neighbors could once more converse. Contact with the outside world was reestablished, though understandably the people from surrounding villages were a little wary.
After everything the villagers had been through, it’s not difficult to understand why they would want to do everything in their power to prevent the plague from returning again the following summer. So there was a great burning—or possibly a great burying, some records vary—wherein Mompesson made himself an example and destroyed everything except the clothes he was wearing, to get rid of anything that might hold the plague “seeds” as they were then called. The villagers followed suit and their efforts paid off.
Not only did the plague disappear from Eyam, but it started to disappear from Europe as a whole. The Great Plague of London died out at a similar time to the plague in Eyam, and since then there has never been a major outbreak in England. Western Europe was mostly clear of the disease by the middle of the eighteenth century, when improvements in hygiene, building materials and the way houses were decorated made it so that much of the black rat’s habitat was destroyed, which led to the decline and disappearance of the species.
However, plague has not entirely disappeared from the planet. Outbreaks have been recorded, in Hong Kong in 1894 and India in 1994, which spread as far as Calcutta. There have been no cases in Europe, but the disease appeared in the USA in 1906, and there are occasional reports today. For example, in 2012 in Oregon, a man was bitten by the family cat after he tried to help it. It was choking on something, which turned out to be a rodent carcass, and a couple of days after the cat bite, the man awoke with flu-like symptoms, which ended up with him having to have his fingers and toes amputated. It is cases like this that make the authorities in the Yellowstone and Yosemite National Parks put up signs discouraging tourists from playing with rodents. They may be cute, but their fleas can spread the plague. Naturally, advances in medicine mean that an early diagnosis and the correct treatment can stop the plague in its tracks, but although the man in Oregon escaped with his life, his existence has been irrevocably changed.
Eyam is a beautiful village, but it is impossible to turn a corner without some reminder of what happened there. Things that can still be seen today include the small group of cottages where the plague broke out, the church—though of course it is much bigger now than it was at the time—Cucklett Delph, the outdoor church used during the outbreak, Mompesson’s Well, the Lydgate and Riley Graves, the Boundary Stone and much more. It is both a fascinating and humbling place, a living testament to the sacrifice of a relatively small number of people in order to save scores more. A truly admirable sacrifice, and one that undoubtedly changed lives. Many of the people of towns and villages surrounding Eyam might never have been born were it not for Mompesson and Stanley and their plan.
The villagers today, some of whom are descendants of those who survived the plague, are proud of Eyam and its heritage. A visit to Eyam Museum gives more in-depth detail, including statistics and information on how the village got back on its feet after the fatal disease had swept through. The museum staff is enthusiastic and knowledgeable, not to mention incredibly helpful.
If you ever get the opportunity to visit this amazing village, please do. You’ll soon see why this author was inspired to write fiction based on utterly fascinating fact.
About Lucy Felthouse
Lucy Felthouse is a graduate of the University of Derby, where she studied Creative Writing. During her first year, she was dared to write an erotic story—so she did. It went down a storm and she's never looked back. Lucy is multi-published across many subgenres of erotica and erotic romance and continues to try new subgenres and lengths of work in order to get all the ideas in her head onto paper, and eventually out into the world.
Lucy welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email addresses on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.
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Also by Lucy Felthouse
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Ellora’s Cave Publishing
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Pack of Lies
ISBN 9781419993022
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Pack of Lies Copyright © 2014 Lucy Felthouse
Edited by Rebecca Hill
Cover design by Dar Albert
Cover photography Springfield Gallery, venerate, _italo_, Vitaly Krivosheev
Electronic book publication August 2014
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