MEMOIRS

OF

THE PLAGUE.

It was about the beginning of September, 1664, that I, among the rest of my neighbours, heard, in ordinary discourse, that the plague was returned again in Holland; for it had been very violent there, and particularly at Amsterdam and Rotterdam, in the year 1663, whither they say it was brought, some said from Italy, others from the Levant, among some goods which were brought home by their Turkey fleet; others said it was brought from Candia; others from Cyprus. It mattered not from whence it came; but all agreed, it was come into Holland again.

We had no such thing as printed newspapers, in those days, to spread rumours and reports of things; and to improve them by the invention of men, as I have lived to see practised since. But such things as those were gathered from the letters of merchants, and others, who corresponded abroad, and from them was handed about by word of mouth only; so that things did not spread instantly over the whole nation as they do now. But it seems that the Government had a true account of it, and several councils were held, about ways to prevent its coming over; but all was kept very private. Hence it was that this rumour died off

again, and people began to forget it, as a thing we were very little concerned in, and that we hoped was not true; till the latter end of November, or the beginning of December, 1664, when two men, said to be Frenchmen, died of the plague in Long-acre, or rather at the upper end of Drury-lane. The family they were in endeavoured to conceal it as much as possible; but as it had gotten some vent in the discourse of the neighbourhood, the Secretaries of State gat knowledge of it; and concerning themselves to inquire about it, in order to be certain of the truth, two physicians and a surgeon were ordered to go to the house and make inspection. This they did; and finding evident tokens of the sickness upon both the bodies that were dead, they gave their opinions publicly, that they died of the plague; whereupon it was given in to the parish-clerk, and he also returned them to the hall; and it was printed in the weekly bill of mortality in the usual manner, thus :—

"Plague, 2. Parishes infected, 1."

The people showed a great concern at this, and began to be alarmed all over the town, and the more, because in the last week in December, 1664, another man died in the same house, and of the same distemper: and then we were easy again for about six weeks, when none having died with any marks of infection, it was said the distemper was gone; but after that, I think it was about the 12th. of February, another died in another house, but in the same parish, and in the same manner.

This turned the people's eyes pretty much towards that end of the town; and the weekly bills showing an increase of burials in St. Giles's parish more than usual, it began to be suspected that the plague was among the people at that end of the town; and that many had died of it, though they had taken care to keep it

as much from the knowledge of the public as possible; this possessed the heads of the people very much, and few cared to go through Drury-lane, or the other streets suspected, unless they had extraordinary business that obliged them to it.

This increase of the bills stood thus: the usual number of burials in a week in the parishes of St. Giles's-in-the-Fields, and St. Andrew's, Holborn, were from twelve to seventeen or nineteen each, few more or less; but from the time that the plague first began in St. Giles's parish, it was observed that the ordinary burials increased in number considerably. For example-From

The like increase of the bills was observed in the parishes of St. Bride's, adjoining on one side of Holborn parish, and in the parish of St. James, Clerkenwell, adjoining on the other side of Holborn; in both which parishes the usual numbers that died weekly were from four to six or eight, whereas at that time they were increased as follows:-From

Besides this, it was observed with great uneasiness by the people, that the weekly bills in general increased very much during these weeks, although it was at a time of the year when usually the moderate.

bills are very

The usual number of burials within the bills of mortality for a week, was from about 240, or thereabouts, to 300. The last was esteemed a pretty high bill; but after this we found the bills successively increasing, as follows:-From

This last bill was really frightful, being a higher number than had been known to have been buried in one week, since the preceding visitation of 1656.

However, all this went off again, and the weather proving cold, and the frost which began in December, still continuing very severe, even till near the end of February, attended with sharp though moderate winds, the bills decreased again, and the

City grew healthy, and everybody began to look upon the danger as good as over; only that still the burials in St. Giles's continued high: from the beginning of April especially, they stood at twenty-five each week, till the week from the 18th. to the 25th., when there was buried in St. Giles's parish thirty, whereof two of the plague, and eight of the spotted fever, which was looked upon as the same thing; likewise the number that died of the spotted fever in the whole increased, being eight the week before, and twelve the week above named.

This alarmed us all again, and terrible apprehensions were among the people, especially the weather being now changed and growing warm, and the summer being at hand: however, the next week there seemed to be some hopes again, the bills were low, the number of the dead in all was but 388, there was none of the plague, and but four of the spotted fever.

But the following week it returned again, and the distemper was spread into two or three other parishes, viz. St. Andrew'sHolborn, St. Clement's-Danes, and to the great affliction of the City, one died within the walls, in the parish of St. Mary-WoolChurch, that is to say, in Bear-binder-lane, near the Stock's market; in all there were nine of the plague, and six of the spotted fever. It was, however, upon enquiry found, that this Frenchman, who died in Bear-binder-lane, was one who, having lived in Long-acre, near the infected houses, had removed for fear of the distemper, not knowing that he was already infected.

This was the beginning of May, yet the weather was temperate, variable, and cool enough, and the people had still some hopes: that which encouraged them was that the City was healthy.. The whole ninety-seven parishes buried but fifty-four, and we began to hope, that as it was chiefly among the people at that end of the town, it might go no farther: and the rather because