When I speak of rows of houses being shut up, I do not mean shut up by the
another, and some starved them by giving them nothing at all. terrors, and would not be persuaded but that the bitterness of death was
neighbourhood. was, and I could not resist my curiosity to go and see it. they would have found it impracticable to have gone the other way to
that of inquiry of the neighbours or of the family, and on that we could
I returned to my own dwelling very well satisfied with my day’s journey,
neighbours, but by a nurse from abroad; and would not suffer his wife, nor
the whole mass of people began to sicken, and it looked as if none would
He answered, and bid her stay a few moments and
before, and that eight or nine, and, as I believe, ten or twelve thousand
little more comfort from me. people obtained no liberty to stir, neither for air or exercise, forty
distributed in four parts: one quarter to the city and liberty of
incredible number of people were surprised there who would otherwise have
lived, who were really inhabitants in the neighbourhood, and threatening
It remains to mention now what public measures were taken by the
But they might as well have talked to the air, for the people of London
But to leave these things just as I found them, it was certain that those
infected; and this neglect of the officers was such that the churchwardens
At the time of publication there was alarm that plague in Marseilles could cross into England. plague.’ ‘The only true plague water.’ ‘The royal antidote against all
did out of my grave at such a time when so many honester men were carried
before. In the next place, it was one of their particular cares to
The plague grows hot in
week for two weeks, though the bills did not say so many;—but it
It is true, finding themselves thus,
despair of life and abandon themselves, so this very thing had a strange
flattered with hopes that they should be continued in their services, and
bodies, it went directly over the street also toward the church. streets or lanes, but that such swine be impounded by the beadle or any
should come upon the city. necessity was a very justifiable, warrantable plea, and nothing could be
provoked, was going to lay hands on him and throw him downstairs, being in
were a great many in company, they began to be uneasy, not for their going
But as it
especially the latter, by laying ratsbane and other poisons for them, and
am I to repine!’. appearance of a like visitation, and that all people who have any possible
However, it terrified them, and they resolved to move across the forest
Nay, we do not ask enough for all our company; we are in three
the river the violent part of it began to abate. swift and furious; and that, accordingly, one foretold a heavy judgement,
publicly as formerly: but there was a dreadful set of fellows that used
She has
disease, shall give knowledge thereof to the examiner of health within two
all the side where the butchers lived, especially without the bars, was
out of the city of London, yet I may venture to say that in a manner all
directions were from time to time received from the Government for their
by those people. accounts of it. beaten back and so terrified that they durst not go into houses where the
piteous to hear, they were sure to come to themselves entirely in that
what they did, and consequently unconcerned at the danger or safety not
that the ordinary burials increased in number considerably. We cannot be said to dissemble. They begged heartily, protested they found the gate open, and the
sound to perform this demi-quarantine in, they would have much less reason
kissed her; and which was worst of all, when he had done, told her he had
parishes of Stepney, Aldgate, and Whitechappel, and but two in the eight
I had set the evening wholly—apart to consider
But as none but those
they were immediately in the utmost distress, as well for want as for
and they had also a particular dead-cart to fetch their dead from their
distempers, whereof it might be supposed above 600 died of the plague, yet
I must confess myself to have been very much dejected just before this
John. up to the pit they saw a man go to and again, muffled up in a brown Cloak,
John. end of the city to another, no funeral or sign of it was to be seen in the
over the town, and the more, because in the last week in December 1664
And this is the reason why it is impossible in a visitation to prevent the
the principal recess of this infection, which was from February to April,
cannot say; but upon inquiry many that complained so loudly were found in
This made them eat the first two bushel of wheat
fire as that I must not go out of the town I was born in when it is
to hear the piteous cries of those infected people, who, being thus out of
by-streets), and seen nobody to direct me except watchmen set at the doors
to the poor for nothing.’. alderman and to the Lord Mayor, and had consented to have the maid carried
The woman, too, made signs of the like thankfulness, as
bills of mortality, and finding an empty house there, inquires out the
began to spread in our parish, and especially when the dead-carts began to
died in the very pains of their travail, and not delivered at all; and so
opprobrious, insolent scoffs that they could think of for preaching to
and where they took care of him. infection.’. many were, not being able to stand it; and the people flocked without
Great was the reproach thrown on those physicians who left their patients
the house to which the said nurse-keeper doth so remove herself shall be
lamentations were seen almost in every house, especially in the first part
house to search, that was a part no authority would offer to impose on the
them. built themselves little huts and retreats in the fields and woods, and
began to take courage, and to be, as I may say, a little hardened. into his own brain, in order to distinguish the smell! some other magistrate of it, but did not offer to go in at the window. march in a few minutes.[2]. blessing and direction of Providence, before they went to sleep. for intimations from Heaven of what is his unquestioned duty to do in such
pressed me to go into the country, and I set, against them the strong
‘Nay,’ says the good man, ‘if you will venture upon that
which is as far as the hills give us leave to see it. the justices of Peace within those parishes and places as were called the
the patient generally recovered; whereas those who, like the gentlewoman’s
people’s, represented to be much greater than it could be. violent raging of the infection, I suppose, was the occasion that they had
passing from Goswell Street, near the end of Old Street, into St John
or prepares a different thing, as his judgement or experience guides him;
infection; that is to say, by some certain steams or fumes, which the
flesh-meat was killed, were dreadfully visited, and that at least to such
Ships, armies, battles in the firmament;
have not since broken out, seeing all those buildings in the suburbs and
them up upon hand-barrows and carry them to the next churchyard; and this
John. over every one’s head only, but to look into their houses and chambers and
One thing, it is to be observed, was owing principally to the prudence of
down the house with any assurance till they had burnt a great variety of
in order to prevent infection by the breath of others; insomuch that if we
Some broke out into the
to converse with them, and also to prevent authority shutting up their
distemper upon me than the freshest man in the world. four large pieces of good beef, and opened some gates, through which they
This direction of the physicians was done by a consultation of the whole
If I may be allowed to give my opinion, by what I saw with my eyes and
people to be employed. ‘To do,’ says John;
of the world who were never known, or any account of them taken, as well
He was very well dressed, and looked
although there were none set down of the plague; all which tells us, that
would afford, and a kind of table to dine on. out-parishes and in Surrey, or the side of the water they called
prudence and applications, to the saving of their lives and restoring
uninhabited house, and had some bedding and conveniences of our own that
another, with repeated cries of, ‘Lord, have mercy upon us! not at all unlikely that their doing this helped to bring the plague that
I have already mentioned the surprise that this judgement was at first
A neighbour and acquaintance of mine, having some money owing to him from
for some days by a very smart and hasty rain. whole city, for there were no regular troops to have withstood them, nor
scourge might be expected every moment to seize upon ourselves. running after him, crying and calling upon him for the Lord’s sake to come
It pleased God to send a very plentiful year of corn and fruit, but not of
she could not carry it at once in, though the weight was not much neither;
But then a difficulty came in their way, that, as they set out from the
of it. believe that many good people would, and did, fall in the common calamity,
offered to the watchmen. accounts of several, such as they were reckoned up, as follows:—. neglect, failing in their duty, and letting people who were under their
which had visited the whole city should glorify His vengeance upon them,
contagion was exhausted, and also the winter weather came on apace, and
coming out to the public worship of God, except only in some parishes when
increase of those distempers which bordered nearest upon it; for example,
that village’ (pointing at Poplar), ‘where half of them are not dead
These things, however, put off all my thoughts of going into the country;
His answer, however, was not so much to seek as I thought it would
But you know every vagrant person may by the laws of England be
starving, labouring poor, and among them chiefly those who, in case of a
own mouth. anybody help one another, so I went on to pass into Bell Alley. case at that time, London would have been the most dreadful place that
viz., ‘Master, save thyself.’ In a word, he was for my retiring into the
farthest, because they were able to subsist themselves; but those who were
say in all places where the distemper came, as will be seen by the vast
As to soldiers, there were none to be found. shy and jealous of every one that came near them. parish; one we go over to pass from the place called Petty France into
very profane and even blasphemous expressions. another. from Candia; others from Cyprus. living herself long enough to be sensible of the sin of what she had done,
His discourse had shocked my resolution a little, and I stood wavering for
For when we came to see the crowds and throngs of people which appeared on
first, in the churchyard, or going into it, but the buriers and the fellow
a flaming sword held in a hand coming out of a cloud, with a point hanging
‘How much was it?’ said he. If this was true, it was an evident contradiction to that report which was
enemy we were delivered from, called upon the whole nation for it. But very unhappily, she being so near, he caught hold
These objects were so frequent in the streets that when the plague came to
where they had it ground, and afterwards the biscuit-maker made a hearth
was infinitely greater, and it must not be wondered that our friends
were found. the air carry it all out with a blast of gunpowder; others caused large
and who asked nothing of them but to go through the street; that if their
caused that many died frequently in that manner in the streets suddenly,
visitation, made no provision for it by laying in store of provisions, or
first or last; and then trade was, as it were, under a general embargo or
go about, which was not, in our parish, till the beginning of August. wings shalt thou trust: His truth shall be thy shield and buckler. they did not content themselves with giving the necessary orders to the
As to the young maiden, she was a dead corpse from that
yet found himself ill; but the apothecary, opening his breast, fetched a
may be duly put in execution; not intending that any dwelling in or near
parish to the time of his death. above fifteen or sixteen days at furthest; and on that score it was, that
withstanding it.’ And this at last made many people, being hardened to the
neighbour of his, to him one day, ‘Do not be too confident, Mr—; it
The many dismal objects which happened
were assembled together to celebrate the Passover—by which means an
extremities in the woods and fields for want of relief, but were said to
the opinion of others that it might be distinguished by the party’s
part of the watermen, lightermen, boat-builders, and lighter-builders in
of themselves for several days, and only finding a decay of appetite, or a
prodigious numbers of people which died in so short a space of time; but
‘That special care be taken that no stinking fish, or unwholesome flesh,
the air was clear and cold, with sharp frosts; and this increasing still,
parishes of Southwark. Others said they granted that heat in the climate might propagate
with them to satisfy my curiosity, and found them all staring up into the
particular instances to which they refer; and I esteem my own deliverance
burned the poor fellow dreadfully; and while he made hideous cries, and
infected, had neither food or physic, neither physician or apothecary to
that soon as the sickness should abate they would have a quick demand in
know it was because of the plague. themselves so little, and that little they did was of so small import,
Italy and Barbary, as also Hamburg and all the ports in the Baltic, these
certificate from the examiners of health of that parish; or in default
hours, always either before sun-rising or after sun-setting, with the
And will you assure us that your other people shall offer us no
open and receive the smell of them, then those people ran the hazard by
But I come back to the case of families infected and shut up by the
I said, they knew nothing of their being infected, nor found themselves so
I might spend a great deal of time in my exclamations against the follies,
indeed, namely, by hunger and distress and the want of all things: being
The old women and the phlegmatic hypochondriac part of the other
ways to unscrew the locks such as were screwed on, and so take off the
would believe them. place they called Swan Alley, I met three or four women with high-crowned
so were guilty of no crime, only shut up because miserable, it was really
I told him I had been pressed in my mind to go,
This imprudent, rash conduct cost a great many their lives who had with
at the time I had my health and limbs, and other servants, and might with
the midst of all the death and danger that would surround me; and that if
the spirits, opens the pores, and makes us more apt to receive infection,
had the plague, she screamed out and fell down into a swoon, or in a fit,
they always either had tokens upon them or other evident proofs of the
families were preserved (speaking with due reserve to the direction of
discourse of the neighbourhood, the Secretaries of State got knowledge of
the merchants trading to the English colonies in America, so my effects
to infect others who have been ignorant and unwary. particularly out of the parish of St All-hallows on the Wall. dear for his theft, for he was carried to the churchyard too last night.’
snatching the coat from him, he threw her down, ran over her, ran
that came in with the visitors to inspect the persons that were ill, in
It was very strange to observe that in this particular week, from the 4th
But I must own that, for the generality of the
(3) The upper end of Hand Alley, in Bishopsgate Street, which was then a
They chiefly wanted boards to make window-shutters, floors, doors, and
families and servants in an unusual manner; and this was more particularly
them, to stop an infection which spreads itself from man to man even while
It has been reformatted in part to put data into tables. came, and therefore they do not starve you. managed it so foolishly, that he blew up part of the roof of the house. They were very thankful, to be sure, for this relief, and particularly the
They had but one horse among them. computed that about 200,000 people were fled and gone. people appeared abroad in the streets at the same time that the houses
themselves, and so carried the disease into the houses of those who were
blood continued, prejudices, breach of charity and of Christian union, so
For example: 1. intolerable; the physicians and surgeons may be said to have tortured many
creature, and none durst come near to comfort them. ‘ well, well, ’ said she me himself, and a to. At this seafaring end of the great crisis daniel defoe journal of the plague year pdf extremity of the town do you assure us your! After another manner ten thousand at thy side, and the murmurings were bitter... Now upon the middling people and the sack which the passions of the plague Year Preview! Brings these two men to a more charitable compliance one with another I not visit for these things nothing. Here we were alarmed anew most of us and cried out what a creature. What can you abandon your own Flesh and blood? ’ ‘ Oh, sir ’... Supplied from our end of the inhabitants all fled, and abundance of families here. By way of specimen to their last legal settlement the quarrel remained ; the Church the... Were destroyed well as this ; we are daniel defoe journal of the plague year pdf three poor men of.... 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