 Section 7 of A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe. But I must go back here to the particular incidents which occur to my thoughts of the time of the visitation, and particularly to the time of their shutting up houses in the first part of their sickness, for before the sickness was come to its height, people had more room to make their observations than they had afterward. But when it was in the extremity, there was no such thing as communication with one another as before. During the shutting up of houses, as I have said, some violence was offered to the watchmen. As to the soldiers, there were none to be found. The few guards which the king then had, which were nothing like the number entertained since, were dispersed, either at Oxford with the court, or in quarters in the remote parts of the country, small detachments accepted, who did duty at the tower and at Whitehall, and these but very few. Neither am I positive that there was any other guard at the tower than the warders, as they called them, who stand at the gate with gowns and caps, the same as the yeoman of the guard, except the ordinary gunners, who were twenty-four, and the officers appointed to look after the magazine, who were called armorers. As to trained bands, there was no possibility of raising any. Neither, if the lieutenancy, either of London or Middlesex, had ordered the drums to beat for the militia, with any of the companies, I believe, have drawn together whatever risk they had run. This made the watchmen be the less regarded, and perhaps occasioned the greater violence to be used against them. I mention it on this score, to observe that the setting watchmen, thus to keep the people in, was, first of all, not effectual, but that the people broke out, whether by force or by stratagem, even almost as often as they pleased. And second, that those that did thus break out were generally people infected, who, in their desperation, running about from one place to another, valued not whom they injured, and which, perhaps, as I have said, might give birth to report that it was natural to the infected people to desire to infect others, which report was really false. And I know it so well, and in so many several cases, that I could give several relations of good, pious, and religious people, who, when they have had the distemper, have been so far from being forward to infect others, that they have forbid their own family to come near them, in hopes of their being preserved, and have even died without seeing their nearest relations, lest they should be instrumental to give them the distemper, and infect or endanger them. If, then, there were cases wherein the infected people were careless of the injury they did to others, this was certainly one of them, if not the chief, namely, when people who had the distemper had broken out from houses which were so shut up, and having been driven to extremities for provision or for entertainment, had endeavored to conceal their condition, and have been thereby instrumental and voluntarily to infect others who have been ignorant and unwary. This is one of the reasons why I believed, then, and do believe still, that the shutting up houses, thus by force, and restraining, or rather imprisoning, people in their own houses, as I said above, was of little or no service in the whole. Nay, I am of opinion, it was rather hurtful, having forced those desperate people to wander abroad with the plague upon them, who would otherwise have died quietly in their beds. I remember one citizen who, having thus broken out of his house in Aldersgate Street, or there about, went along the road to Icelandton. He attempted to have gone in at the angel inn, and after that, the white horse, two ins known still by the same signs, but was refused, after which he came to the pied bull, and inn also still continuing the same sign. He asked them for lodging for one night only, pretending to be going into Lincolnshire, and assuring them of his being very sound and free from the infection, which also, at that time, had not reached much that way. They told him they had no lodging they could spare, but one bed up in the garret, and that they could spare that bed for one night, some drovers being expected the next day with cattle. So if he would accept of that lodging he might have it, which he did. So a servant was sent up with a candle with him to show him the room. He was very well dressed, and looked like a person not used to lie in a garret, and when he came to the room he fetched a deep sigh, and said to the servant, I have seldom lain in such a lodging as this. However, the servant assuring him again that they had no better. Well, says he, I must make shift. This is a dreadful time, but it is but for one night. So he sat down upon the bedside, and bade the maid, I think it was, fetch him up a pint of warm ale. Accordingly the servant went for the ale, but some hurry in the house, which perhaps employed her other ways, put it out of her head, and she went up no more to him. The next morning, seeing no appearance of the gentleman, somebody in the house asked the servant that had showed him upstairs what was become of him. She started, Alas, I, says she, I never thought more of him. He bade me carry him some warm ale, but I forgot. Upon which, not the maid, but some other person was sent up to see after him, who, coming into the room, found him stark, dead, and almost cold, stretched out across the bed. His clothes were pulled off, his jaw fallen, his eyes open in a most frightful posture, the rug of the bed being grasped hard in one of his hands, so that it was plain he died soon after the maid left him. And, tis probable, had she gone up with the ale, she had found him dead in a few minutes after he sat down upon the bed. The alarm was great in the house, as anyone may suppose, they having been free from the distemper till that disaster, which, bringing the infection to the house, it spread immediately to other houses round about it. I do not remember how many died in the house itself, but I think the maid-servant, who went up first with him, fell presently ill by the fright, and several others, for, whereas there died but two in Icelandton of the plague the week before, there died seventeen the week after, whereof fourteen were of the plague. This was the week from the eleventh of July to the eighteenth. There was one shift that some families had, and that not a few, when their houses happened to be infected, and that was this. The families who, in the first breaking out of the distemper, fled away to the country and had retreats among their friends, generally found some or other of their neighbors or relations to commit the charge of those houses to for the safety of the goods and the like. Some houses were, indeed, entirely locked up. The doors padlocked, the windows and doors having deal boards nailed over them, and only the inspection of them committed to the ordinary watchmen and parish officers. But these were but few. It was thought that there were not less than ten thousand houses forsaken of the inhabitants in the city and suburbs, including what was in the out-perishes and in Surrey, or the side of the water they call Southwick. This was besides the numbers of lodgers and of particular persons who were fled out of other families, so that in all it was computed that about two hundred thousand people were fled and gone. But of this I shall speak again. But I mention it here on this account, namely, that it was a rule with those who had thus two houses in their keeping or care, that if anybody was taken sick in a family before the master of the family let the examiners or any other officer know of it, he immediately would send all the rest of his family, whether children or servants, as it fell out to be, to such other house which he had so in charge, and then, giving notice of the sick person to the examiner, have a nurse or nurse appointed, and have another person to be shut up in the house with them, which many for money would do, so to take charge of the house in case the person should die. This was, in many cases, the saving a whole family, who, if they had been shut up with the sick person, would inevitably have perished. But, on the other hand, this was another of the inconveniences of shutting up houses, for the apprehensions and terror of being shut up made many run away with the rest of the family, who, though it was not publicly known, and they were not quite sick, had yet the distemper upon them, and who, by having an uninterrupted liberty to go about, but being obliged still to conceal their circumstances, or perhaps not knowing it themselves, gave the distemper to others, and spread the infection in a dreadful manner, as I shall explain further hereafter. And here, I may be able to make an observation or two of my own, which may be of use hereafter, to those into whose hands these may come, if they should ever see the like dreadful visitation. One. The infection generally came into the houses of the citizens by the means of their servants, whom they were obliged to send up and down the streets for necessaries, that is to say, for food or a physics, to bake houses, brew houses, shops, etc., and who, going necessarily through the streets into shops, markets, and the like, it was impossible but that they should, one way or another, meet with distempered people, who conveyed the fatal breath into them, and they brought it home to the families to which they belonged. Two. It was a great mistake that such a great city as this had but one pest house, for had there been, instead of one pest house, viz, beyond Bunhill Fields, where at most they could receive perhaps two hundred or three hundred people, I say, had there been, instead of that one, several pest houses, every one able to contain a thousand people, without lying two in a bed, or two beds in a room, and had every master of the family, as soon as any servant, especially, had been taken sick in his house, been obliged to send them to the next pest house, if they were willing, as many were, and had the examiners done the like among the poor people, when any had been stricken with the infection, I say, had this been done, where the people were willing, not otherwise, and the houses not been shut, I am persuaded, and was all the while of that opinion, that not so many by several thousands had died, for it was observed, and I could give several instances within the compass of my own knowledge, where a servant had been taken sick, and the family had either time to send him out, or retire from the house, and leave the sick person, as I have said above, they had all been preserved, whereas when, upon one or more sickening in a family, the house has been shut up, the whole family have perished, and the bearers been obliged to go in to fetch out the dead bodies, not being able to bring them to the door, and at last none left to do it. Three. This put it out of the question to me, that the calamity was spread by infection, that is to say, by some certain steams, or fumes, which the physicians call effluvia, by the breath, or by the sweat, or by the stench of the sores of the sick persons, or some other way, perhaps, beyond even the reach of the physicians themselves, which effluvia affected the sound who came within certain distances of the sick, immediately penetrating the vital parts of the said sound persons, putting their blood into an immediate ferment, and agitating their spirits to that degree which it was found they were agitated, and so those newly infected persons communicated it in the same manner to others. And this I shall give some instances of, that cannot but convince those who seriously consider it. And I cannot but, with some wonder, find some people, now the contagion is over, talk of its being, an immediate stroke from heaven, without the agency of means, having commissioned to strike this, and that, particular person, and none other, which I look upon with contempt as to the effect of manifest ignorance and enthusiasm. Likewise, the opinion of others, who talk of infection being carried on by the air only, by carrying with it vast numbers of insects and invisible creatures, who enter into the body with the breath, or even at the pores with the air, and there generate, or emit, most acute poisons, or poisonous ove, or eggs, which mingle themselves with the blood, and so infect the body. A discourse full of learned simplicity, and manifested to be so by universal experience, but I shall say more to this case in its order. I must here take further notice that nothing was more fatal to the inhabitants of this city than the supine negligence of the people themselves, who, during the long notice or warning they had of the visitation, made no provision for it by laying in store of provisions, or of other necessaries, by which they might have lived, retired, and within their own houses, as I have observed others did, and who were in a great measure preserved by that caution, nor were they, after they were a little hardened to it, so shy of conversing with one another, when actually infected, as they were at first. No, though they knew it, I acknowledge I was one of those thoughtless ones that had made so little provision that my servants were obliged to go out of doors to buy every trifle by penny and hapeny, just as before it began, even though my experience showing me the folly I began to be wiser so late that I had scarce time to store myself sufficient for our common subsistence for a month. I had in family only an ancient woman that managed the house, a maid servant, two apprentices, and myself, and the plague beginning to increase about us, I had many sad thoughts about what course I should take, and how I should act. The many dismal objects which happened everywhere, as I went about the streets, had filled my mind with a great deal of horror for fear of the distemper, which was indeed very horrible in itself, and in some more than in others. The swellings, which were generally in the neck or groin, when they grew hard and would not break, grew so painful that it was equal to the most exquisite torture. In some not able to bear the torment, threw themselves out at windows or shot themselves, or otherwise made themselves away, and I saw several dismal objects of that kind. Others, unable to contain themselves, vented their pain by incessant roaring and such loud and lamentable cries were to be heard as we walked along the streets that would pierce the very heart to think of, especially when it was to be considered that the same dreadful scourge might be expected every moment to seize upon ourselves. I cannot say but that now I began to faint in my resolutions. My heart failed me very much, and sorely I repented of my rashness. When I had been out and met with such terrible things as these I have talked of, I say, I repented my rashness in venturing to abide in town. I wished often that I had not taken upon me to stay, but had gone away with my brother and his family. Terrified by those frightful objects, I would retire home sometimes, and resolve to go out no more, and perhaps I would keep those resolutions for three or four days, which time I spent in the most serious thankfulness for my preservation and the preservation of my family, and the constant confession of my sins, giving myself up to God every day, and applying to him with fasting, humiliation, and meditation. Such intervals as I had, I employed in reading books, and in writing down my memorandums of what occurred to me every day, and out of which afterwards I took most of this work, as it relates to my observation without doors. What I wrote of my private meditations I reserve for private use, and desire it may not be made public on any account whatever. I also wrote other meditations upon divine subjects, such as occurred to me at that time and were profitable to myself, but not fit for any other view, and therefore I say no more of that. I had a very good friend, a physician whose name was Heath, whom I frequently visited during this dismal time, and to whose advice I was very much obliged for many things which he directed me to take, by way of preventing the infection when I went out, as he found I frequently did, and to hold in my mouth when I was in the streets. He also came very often to see me, and as he was a good Christian, as well as a good physician, his agreeable conversation was a very great support to me in the worst of this terrible time. It was now the beginning of August, and the plague grew very violent and terrible in the place where I lived, and Dr. Heath, coming to visit me, and finding that I ventured so often out in the streets, earnestly persuaded me to lock myself up in my family, and not to suffer any of us to go out of doors, to keep all of our windows fast, shutters and curtains closed, and never to open them, but first to make a very strong smoke in the room where the window or door was to be opened with rosin and pitch, brimstone or gunpowder, and the like, and we did this for some time, but as I had not laid in a store of provision for such a retreat, it was impossible that we could keep within doors entirely. However, I attempted, though it was so very late, to do something towards it, and first, as I had convenience both for brewing and baking, I went and bought two sacks of meal, and for several weeks having an oven, we baked all our own bread. Also, I bought malt and brewed as much beer as all the casts I had would hold, and would seem enough to serve my house for five or six weeks. Also, I laid in a quantity of salt, butter, and cheshire, cheese, but I had no flesh-meat, and the plague raged so violently among the butchers and slaughterhouses, on the other side of our street, where they are well known to dwell in great numbers, that it was not advisable so much as to go over the street among them. And here I must observe again that this necessity of going out of our houses to buy provisions was in a great measure the ruin of the whole city, for the people catch the distemper on these occasions one of another, and even the provisions themselves were often tainted, at least I have great reason to believe so. And therefore I cannot say with satisfaction, what I know is repeated with great assurance, that the market people and such as brought provisions to town were never infected. I am certain the butchers of Whitechapel, where the greatest part of the flesh-meat was killed, were dreadfully visited, and that at least to such a degree that few of their shops were kept open, and those that remained of them killed their meat at mile end, and that way, and brought it to market upon horses. However the poor people could not lay up provisions, and there was a necessity that they must go to market to buy, and others to send servants or their children, and as this was a necessity which renewed itself daily, it brought abundance of unsound people to the markets, and a great many that went thither sound brought death home with them. It is true people used all possible precaution. When any one bought a joint of meat in the market, they would not take it off the butcher's hand, but took it off the hooks themselves. On the other hand the butcher would not touch the money, but have it put into a pot full of vinegar, which he kept for that purpose. The buyer always carried small money to make up any odd sum that they might take no change. They carried bottles of scents and perfumes in their hands, and all the means that could be used were used, but then the poor could not even do these things, and they went at all hazards. Innumerable dismal stories were heard every day on this very account. Sometimes a man or a woman dropped down dead in the very markets, for many people that had the plague upon them knew nothing of it till the inward gangrene had affected their vitals, and they died in a few moments. This caused that many died frequently in that manner, and the streets suddenly, without any warning. Others perhaps had time to go to the next bulk, or stall, or to any door porch, and just sit down and die, as I have said before. These objects were so frequent in the streets that when the plague came to be very raging on one side, there was scarce any passing by the streets, but that several dead bodies would be lying here and there upon the ground. On the other hand, it is observable that though at first the people would stop as they went along and call to the neighbors to come out on such an occasion, yet afterward no notice was taken of them, but that if at any time we found a corpse lying, go across the way and not come near it, or if in a narrow lane or passage go back again and seek some other way to go on the business we were upon, and in those cases the corpse was always left till the officers had noticed to come and take them away, or till night when the bearers attending the dead cart would take them up and carry them away. Nor did those undaunted creatures who performed these offices fail to search their pockets and sometimes strip off their clothes if they were well-dressed, as sometimes they were, and carry off what they could get, but to return to the markets. The butchers took that care that if any person died in the market they had the officers always at hand to take them up upon hand-bearers and carry them to the next churchyard, and this was so frequent that such were not entered in the weekly bill, found dead in the streets or fields, as is the case now, but they went into the general articles of the Great Distemper, but now the fury of the Distemper increased to such a degree that even the markets were but very thinly furnished with provisions or frequented with buyers compared to what they were before, and the Lord Mayor caused the country people who brought provisions to be stopped in the streets leading into the town and to sit down there with their goods where they sold what they brought, and went immediately away, and this encouraged the country people greatly to do so, for they sold their provisions at the very entrances into the town and even in the fields, as particularly in the fields beyond White Chapel, in Spittle Fields, also in St. George's Fields in Southwick, in Bunhill Fields, and in a great field called Woods Close near Eislington. Thither the Lord Mayor, Alderman, and magistrates sent their officers and servants to buy for their families, themselves keeping within doors as much as possible, and the like did many other people, and after this method was taken the country people came with great cheerfulness and brought provisions of all sort, and very seldom got any harm, which I suppose added also to that report of their being miraculously preserved. is in the public domain read by Denny Sayers. Section 8. As for my little family, having thus as I have said, laid in a store of bread, butter, cheese, and beer, I took my friend and physician's advice and locked myself up, and my family, and resolved to suffer the hardship of living a few months without flesh meat, rather than to purchase it at the hazard of our lives. But though I can find my family, I could not prevail upon my unsatisfied curiosity to stay within entirely myself, and though I generally came Friday and terrified home, yet I could not restrain. Only that indeed I did not do it so frequently as at first. I had some little obligations indeed upon me to go to my brother's house, which was in Coleman Street Parish, and which he had left to my care, and I went at first every day, but afterwards only once or twice a week. In these walks I had many dismal scenes before my eyes, as particularly of persons falling dead in the streets, terrible shrieks and screechings of women who, in their agonies, would throw open their chamber windows and cry out in a dismal, surprising manner. It is impossible to describe the variety of postures in which the passions of the poor people would express themselves. Passing through Token House Yard, in Lothbury, of a sudden a casement violently opened above my head, and a woman gave three frightful screeches, and then cried, oh death, death, death, in a most inimitable tone, and which struck me with horror and a chillness in my very blood. There was nobody to be seen in the whole street. Neither did any other window open, for people had no curiosity now in any case, nor could anybody help one another. So I went on to pass into Bell Alley. Just in Bell Alley, on the right hand of the passage, there was a more terrible cry than that, though it was not so directed out at the window, but the whole family was in a terrible fright, and I could hear women and children run screaming about the rooms like distracted. When a garret window opened and somebody from a window on the other side of the alley called and asked, what is the matter? Upon which, from the first window, it was answered, oh Lord, my old master has hanged himself. The other asked, is he quite dead? The first answered, aye, aye, quite dead, quite dead and cold. This person was a merchant, and a deputy alderman, and very rich. I care not to mention the name, though I knew his name too, but that would be a hardship to the family, which is now flourishing again. But this is but one. It is scarce credible what dreadful cases happen in particular families every day. People in the rage of the distemper, or in the torment of their swellings, which was indeed intolerable, running out of their own government, raving and distracted, and oftentimes laying violent hands upon themselves, throwing themselves out at their windows, shooting themselves, etc., mothers murdering their own children in their lunacy, some dying of mere grief as a passion, some of mere fright and surprise without any infection at all, others frighted into idiocism and foolish distractions, some into despair and lunacy, others into melancholy madness. The pain of the swelling was in particular very violent, and to some intolerable. The physicians and surgeons may be said to have tortured many poor creatures even to death. The swellings in some grew hard, and they applied violent drawing plasters or postises to break them. And, if these did not do, they cut and scarified them in a terrible manner. In some those swellings were made hard, partly by the force of the distemper, and partly by their being too violently drawn, and were so hard that no instrument could cut them, and then they burnt them with caustics, so that many died, raving mad with the torment, and some in the very operation. In these distresses, some, for want of help to hold them down in their beds or to look to them, laid hands upon themselves as above, some broke out into the streets, perhaps naked, and would run directly down to the river if they were not stopped by the watchmen or other officers, and plunged themselves into the water, wherever they found it, yet often pierced my very soul to hear the groans and cries of those who were thus tormented. But, of the two, this was counted the most promising particular in the whole infection, for if these swellings could be brought to a head and to break and run, or as the surgeons call it, to digest, the patient generally recovered, whereas those who, like the gentle woman's daughter, were struck with death at the beginning and had the tokens come upon them, often went about indifferent easy till a little before they died, and some till the moment they dropped down, as in apoplexies and epilepsies is often the case. Such would be taken suddenly very sick and would run to a bench or bulk, or any convenient place that offered itself, or to their own houses, if possible, as I mentioned before, and there sit down, grow faint, and die. This kind of dying was much the same as it was with those who die of common mortifications, who die swooning and, as it were, go away in a dream, such as died thus had very little notice of their being infected at all, till the gangrene was spread through their whole body, nor could physicians themselves know certainly how it was with them, till they opened their breasts or other parts of their body, and saw the tokens. We had at this time a great many frightful stories told us of nurses and watchmen who looked after the dying people, and that is to say hired nurses who attended infected people, using them barbarously, starving them, smothering them, or by other wicked means hastening their end, that is to say murdering of them, and watchmen being set to guard houses that were shut up when there has been but one person left, and perhaps that one lying sick, that they have broke in and murdered that body, and immediately thrown them out into the dead cart, and so they have gone scarce cold to the grave. I cannot say but that some such murders were committed, and I think two were sent to prison for it, but died before they could be tried, and I have heard that three others at several times were excused for murders of that kind, but I must say I believe nothing of its being so common a crime as some have since been pleased to say, nor did it seem to be so rational where the people were brought so low as not to be able to help themselves, for such seldom recovered, and there was no temptation to commit a murder, at least none equal to the fact, where they were sure persons would die in so short a time, and could not live, that there were a great many robberies and wicked practices committed even in this dreadful time, I do not deny. The power of avarice was so strong in some that they would run any hazard to steal and to plunder, and particularly in houses where all the families or inhabitants have been dead and carried out, they would break in at all hazards, and without regard to the danger of infection, take even the clothes off the dead bodies, and the bed clothes from others where they lay dead. This, I suppose, must be the case of a family in Hounstich, where a man and his daughter, the rest of the family being, as I suppose carried away before by the dead cart, were found stark naked, one in one chamber and one in another lying dead on the floor, from wents to supposed they were rolled off by the thieves, stolen and carried quite away. It is indeed to be observed that the women were, in all this calamity, the most rash, fearless and desperate creatures, and as there were vast numbers that went about as nurses to tend those that were sick, they committed a great many petty thieverys in the houses where they were employed, and some of them were publicly whipped for it, when perhaps they ought rather to have been hanged, for examples, for numbers of houses were robbed on these occasions, till at length the parish officers were sent to recommend nurses to the sick, and always took an account whom it was they sent, so as that they might call them to account, if the house had been abused where they were placed. But these robberies extended chiefly to wearing clothes, linen, and what rings or money they could come at when the person died who was under their care, but not to a general plunder of the houses, and I could give you an account of one of these nurses who, several years after being on her deathbed, confessed with the utmost horror the robberies she had committed at the time of her being a nurse, and by which she had enriched herself to a great degree, but as for murders, I do not find that there was ever any proof of the facts in the manner as it has been reported, except as above. They did tell me indeed of a nurse in one place that laid a wet cloth upon the face of a dying patient whom she tended, and so put an end to his life, who was just expiring before, and another that smothered a young woman she was looking to when she was in a fainting fit, and would have come to herself, some that killed them by giving them one thing, some another, and some starved them by giving them nothing at all, but these stories had two marks of suspicion that always attended them, which caused me always to slight them and to look on them as mere stories that people continually frighted one another with, one that wherever it was that we heard it, they always placed the scene at the farther end of the town opposite or most remote from where you were to hear it. If you heard it in Whitechapel, it happened at St. Giles, or at Westminster, or Hallburn, or that end of the town. If you heard of it at that end of the town, then it was done in Whitechapel, or the Mineries, or about Cripplegate Parish. If you heard of it in the city, why, then it happened at Southwick, and if you heard of it in Southwick, then it was done in the city, and the like. In the next place, of what partsoever you heard the story, the particulars were always the same, especially that of laying a wet double clout on a dying man's face, and that of smothering a young gentlewoman, so that it was apparent, at least to my judgment, that there was more of tale than of truth in those things. However, I cannot say but it had some effect upon the people, and particularly that, as I said before, they grew more cautious, whom they took into their houses, and whom they trusted their lives with, and had them always recommended if they could, and where they could not find such, for there were not very plenty, they applied to the parish officers. But here again the misery of that time lay upon the poor, who, being infected, had neither food or physics, neither physician or apothecary to assist them, or nurse to attend them. Many of those died calling for help, and even for sustenance, out at their windows in a most miserable and deplorable manner. But it must be added that whenever the cases of such persons or families were represented to my Lord Mayor, they always were relieved. It is true, in some houses where the people were not very poor, yet where they had sent perhaps their wives and children away, and if they had any servants, they had been dismissed. I say it is true that to save the expenses, many such as these shut themselves in, and not having help, died alone. A neighbor and acquaintance of mine, having some money owing to him from a shopkeeper in White Cross Street, or thereabouts, sent his apprentice, a youth about 18 years of age, to endeavor to get the money. He came to the door, and finding it shut, knocked pretty hard, and as he thought, heard somebody answer within, but was not sure, so he waited, and after some stay, knocked again, and then a third time, when he heard somebody coming downstairs. At length the man of the house came to the door. He had on his britches or drawers, and a yellow flannel waistcoat, no stockings, a pair of slipped shoes, a white cap on his head, and, as the young man said, death in his face. When he opened the door, says he, What do you disturb me thus for? The boy, though a little surprised, replied, I come from such a one, and my master sent me for the money, which he says you know of. Very well, child, returns the living ghost. Call as you go by at Cripplegate Church, and bid them ring the bell, and with these words shut the door again, and went up again, and died the same day, nay, perhaps the same hour. This the young man told me himself, and I have reason to believe it. This was while the plague was not come to a height. I think it was in June, towards the latter end of the month. It must be before the dead carts came about, and while they used the ceremony of ringing the bell for the dead, which was over for certain. In that parish, at least, before the month of July, for by the 25th of July, there died five hundred and fifty in upwards in a week, and then they could no more bury in form, rich or poor. I have mentioned above that notwithstanding this dreadful calamity, yet the numbers of thieves were abroad upon all occasions, where they had found any prey, and that these were generally women. It was one morning, about eleven o'clock, I had walked out to my brother's house in Coleman Street Parish, as I often did, to see that all was safe. My brother's house had a little court before it, and a brick wall and a gate in it, and within that several warehouses were his goods of several sorts lay. It happened that in one of those warehouses were several packs of women's high-crowned hats, which came out of the country, and were, as I suppose, for exportation. Wither I know not. I was surprised that when I came near my brother's door, which was in a place they called Swan Alley, I met three or four women with high-crowned hats on their heads, and as I remembered afterwards, one, if not more, had some hats likewise in their hands. But as I did not see them come out at my brother's door, and not knowing that my brother had any such goods in his warehouse, I did not offer to say anything to them, but went across the way to Shun, meeting them, as was usual to do at that time, for fear of the plague. But when I came nearer to the gate, I met another woman with more hats come out of the gate. What business, Mistress, said I, have you had there? There are more people there, said she. I have had no more business there than they. I was hasty to get to the gate then, and said no more to her, by which means she got away. But just as I came to the gate, I saw two more coming across the yard to come out with hats also on their heads, and under their arms, at which I threw the gate, too, behind me, which, having a springlock, fastened itself, and, turning to the woman, forsooth, said I, what are you doing here? And seized upon the hats, and took them from them. One of them, who, I confess, did not look like a thief. Indeed, says she, we are wrong, but we were told that these were goods that had no owner. Be pleased to take them again, and look, Yonder, there are more such customers as we. She cried, and looked pitifully. So I took the hats from her, and opened the gate, and bade them be gone, for I pitted the women, indeed. But when I looked towards the warehouse, as she directed, there were six or seven more all women, fitting themselves with hats as unconcerned and quiet as if they had been in a hatter's shop buying for their money. I was surprised, not at the sight of so many thieves only, but at the circumstances I was in, being now, to thrust myself in among so many people, who for some weeks had been so shy of myself, that if I met anybody in the street, I would cross the way from them. They were equally surprised, though on another account. They all told me they were neighbors, that they had heard anyone might take them, that they were nobody's goods and the like. I talked big to them at first, went back to the gate, and took out the key, so that they were all my prisoners, threatened to lock them all into the warehouse, and go and fetch my Lord Mayor's officers for them. They begged heartily, protested they found the gate open, and the warehouse door open, and that it had no doubt been broken open by some people who expected to find goods of greater value, which indeed was reasonable to believe, because the lock was broke, and a padlock that hung to the door on the outside also loose, and not abundance of the hats carried away. At length I considered that this was not a time to be cruel and rigorous, and besides that, it would necessarily oblige me to go much about, to have several people come to me, and I go to several whose circumstances of health I knew nothing of, and that even at this time, the plague was so high as that there died four thousand a week, so that in showing my resentment, or even in seeking justice for my brother's goods, I might lose my own life. So I contented myself with taking the names and places where some of them lived, who were really inhabitants in the neighborhood, and threatening that my brother should call them to an account for it, when he returned to his habitation. Then I talked a little upon another foot with them, and asked them how they could do such things as these in a time of such general calamity, and as it were, in the face of God's most dreadful judgments, when the plague was at their very doors, and it may be in their very houses, and they did not know but that the dead cart might stop at their doors in a few hours to carry them to their graves. Section 9. I could not perceive that my discourse made much impression upon them all that while, till it happened that there came two men of the neighborhood, hearing of the disturbance, and knowing my brother, for they had been both dependence upon his family, and they came to my assistance. These being, as I said, neighbors presently knew three of the women, and told me who they were and where they lived, and it seems they had given me a true account of themselves before. This brings these two men to a further remembrance. The name of one was John Hayward, who was at that time under Sexton of the parish of St. Stephen Coleman Street. By under Sexton was understood, at that time, grave-digger and bearer of the dead. This man carried, or assisted to carry, all the dead to their graves, which were buried in that large parish, and who were carried in form. And after that form of burying was stopped, went with the dead cart and the bell to fetch the dead bodies from the houses where they lay, and fetched many of them out of the chambers and houses. For the parish was, and is still, remarkable, particularly among all the parishes in London, for a great number of alleys and thoroughfares, very long, into which no carts could come, and where they were obliged to go and fetch the bodies a very long way. Which alleys now remain to witness it, such as Whites Alley, Cross Quay Court, Swan Alley, Bell Alley, White Horse Alley, and many more. Here they went with a kind of hand-barrow, and laid the dead bodies on it, and carried them out to the carts. Which work he performed, and never had the distemper at all, but lived about twenty years after it, and was Sexton of the parish to the time of his death. His wife at the same time was a nurse who infected people, and tended many that died in the parish. Being, for her honesty, recommended by the parish officers. Yet she never was infected, neither. He never used any preservative against the infection, other than holding garlic and roux in his mouth, and smoking tobacco. This I also had from his own mouth. And his wife's remedy was washing her head in vinegar, and sprinkling her head-clothes so with vinegar as to keep them always moist. And if the smell of any of those she waited on was more than ordinary offensive, she snuffed vinegar up her nose, and sprinkled vinegar upon her head-clothes, and held a handkerchief wetted with vinegar to her mouth. It must be confessed that, though the plague was chiefly among the poor, yet were the poor the most venturous and fearless of it, and went about their employment with a sort of brutal courage. I must call it so, for it was founded neither on religion nor prudence. Scarce did they use any caution, but ran into any business which they could get employment in, though it was the most hazardous. Such was that of tending the sick, watching houses shut up, carrying infected persons to the pest house, and, which was still worse, carrying the dead away to their graves. It was under this John Hayward's care, and within his bounds, that the story of the piper, with which people have made themselves so merry, happened, and he assured me that it was true. It is said that it was a blind piper, but, as John told me, the fellow was not blind, but an ignorant, weak, poor man, and usually walked his rounds about ten o'clock at night, and went piping along from door to door, and the people usually took him in at public houses, where they knew him, and would give him drink and victuals, and sometimes farthings, and he, in return, would pipe and sing and talk simply, which diverted the people, and thus he lived. It was but a very bad time for this diversion, while things were, as I have told, yet the poor fellow went about as usual, but was almost starved, and when anybody asked how he did, he would answer, the dead cart had not taken him yet, but that they had promised to call for him next week. It happened one night that this poor fellow, whether somebody had given him too much drink or no, John Hayward said he had not drank in his house, but that they had given him a little more victuals than ordinary at a public house in Coleman Street, and the poor fellow, having not usually had a bellyful, for perhaps not a good while, was laid all along upon the top of a bulk, or stall, and fast asleep, at a door in the street near London Wall, towards Cripplegate, and that upon the same bulk, or stall, the people of some house, in the alley of which the house was a corner, hearing a bell, which they always rang before the cart came, had laid a body really dead of the plague just by him, thinking too that this poor fellow had been a dead body, as the other was, and laid there by some of the neighbors. Accordingly, when John Hayward, with his bell and the cart came along, finding two dead bodies lie upon the stall, they took them up with the instrument they used, and threw them into the cart, and all this while the piper slept soundly. From hence they passed along and took in other dead bodies, till, as honest John Hayward told me, they almost buried him alive in the cart, yet all this while he slept soundly. At length the cart came to the place where the bodies were to be thrown into the ground, which, as I do remember, was at Mount Mill, and as the cart usually stopped some time before they were ready to shoot out the melancholy load they had in it, as soon as the cart stopped, the fellow awaked, and struggled a little to get his head out from among the dead bodies. When raising himself up in the cart he called out, hey, where am I? This frighted the fellow that attended about the work, but after some pause, John Hayward, recovering himself, said, Lord bless us, there's somebody in the cart not quite dead. So another called to him and said, who are you? The fellow answered, I am the poor piper. Where am I? Where are you? says Hayward. Why, you are in the dead cart, and we are going to bury you. But I am dead, though. Am I? says the piper, which made them laugh a little, though, as John said, they were hardly frighted at first, so they helped the poor fellow down, and he went about his business. I know the story goes. He set up his pipes in the cart, and frighted the bearers, and others, so that they ran away. But John Hayward did not tell the story so, nor say anything of his piping at all. But that he was a poor piper, and that he was carried away as above, I am fully satisfied of the truth of. It is to be noted here that the dead carts in the city were not confined to particular parishes, but one cart went through several parishes, according as the number of dead presented, nor were they tied to carry the dead to their respective parishes, but many of the dead taken up in the city were carried to the burying ground in the outparts for want of room. I have already mentioned the surprise that this judgment was at first among the people. I must be allowed to give some of my observations on the more serious and religious part. Surely, never city, at least of this bulk and magnitude, was taken in a condition so perfectly unprepared for such a dreadful visitation, whether I am to speak of the civil preparations or religious. They were, indeed, as if they had had no warning, no expectation, no apprehensions, and consequently the least provision imaginable was made for it in a public way. For example, the Lord Mayor and sheriffs had made no provision as magistrates for the regulations which were to be observed. They had gone into no measures for relief of the poor, the citizens had no public magazines or storehouses for corn or meal for the subsistence of the poor, which, if they had provided themselves, as in such cases is done abroad, many miserable families who are now reduced to the utmost distress would have been relieved, and that in a better manner than now could be done. The stock of the city's money, I can say, but little to. The Chamber of London was said to be exceedingly rich, and it may be concluded that they were so by the vast of money issued from thence in the rebuilding the public edifices after the fire of London, and in building new works, such as, for the first part, the Guild Hall, Blackwell Hall, part of Leadon Hall, half the Exchange, the Session House, the Compteur, the Prisons of Ludgate, Newgate, and etc., several of the wharves and stairs and landing places on the river, all which were either burned down or damaged by the great fire of London the next year after the plague, and of the second sort, the Monument, the Fleet Ditch with its bridges, and the Hospital of Bethlen or Bedlam, etc., but possibly the managers of the city's credit at that time made more conscience of breaking in upon the orphan's money to show charity to the distressed citizens than the managers in the following years did to beautify the city and re-edify the buildings, though in the first case the losers would have thought their fortunes better bestowed, and the public faith of the city have been less subjected to scandal and reproach. It must be acknowledged that the absent citizens, who, though they were fled for safety into the country, were yet greatly interested in the welfare of those whom they left behind, forgot not to contribute liberally to the relief of the poor, and large sums were also collected among trading towns in the remotest parts of England, and, as I have heard also, the nobility and the gentry in all parts of England took the deplorable condition of the city into their consideration, and sent up large sums of money in charity to the Lord Mayor and the magistrates for the relief of the poor. The king also, as I was told, ordered a thousand pounds a week to be distributed in four parts, one quarter to the city and liberty of Westminster, one quarter or part among the inhabitants of the southwork side of the water, one quarter to the liberty and parts within of the city, exclusive of the city within the walls, and one fourth part to the suburbs in the county of Middlesex and the east and north parts of the city. But this latter I only speak of as a report. Certain it is, the greatest part of the poor or families who formerly lived by their labour, or by retail trade, lived now on charity, and had there not been prodigious sums of money given by charitable, well-minded Christians for the support of such, the city could never have subsisted. There were, no question, accounts kept of their charity and of the just distribution of it by the magistrates. But as such multitudes of those very officers died through whose hands it was distributed, and also that, as I have been told, most of the accounts of those things were lost in the great fire which happened in the very next year, and which burnt even the Chamberlain's office and many of their papers. So I could never come at the particular account, which I used great endeavours to have seen. It may, however, be a direction in case of the approach of a like visitation, which God kept the city from. I say it may be of use to observe that, by the care of the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, at that time in weekly distributing great sums of money for relief of the poor, a multitude of people who would otherwise have perished were relieved and their lives preserved. And here let me enter into a brief state of the case of the poor at that time, and what way apprehended from them, from whence may be judged hereafter what may be expected, if the like distress should come upon the city. At the beginning of the plague, when there was now no more hope but that the whole city would be visited, when, as I have said, all that had friends or estates in the country retired with their families, and when, indeed, one would have thought the very city itself was running out of the gates, and that there would be nobody left behind, you may be sure from that hour all trade, except such as related to immediate subsistence, was, as it were, at a full stop. This is so lively a case, and contains in it so much of the real condition of the people that I think I cannot be too particular in it, and therefore I descend to the several arrangements or classes of people who fell into immediate distress upon this occasion. For example, one, all master workmen in manufacturers, especially such as belong to ornament, and the less necessary part of the people's dress, clothes and furniture for houses, such as riband weavers and other weavers, gold and silver lace makers, and golden silver wire drawers, seamstresses, milliners, shoemakers, hat makers, and glove makers, also upholsterers, joiners, cabinet makers, looking glass makers, and innumerable trades which depend upon such as these. I say the master workmen in such stopped their work, dismissed their journeymen and workmen, and all their dependents. Two, as merchandising was at a full stop for very few ships ventured to come up the river, and none at all went out. So all the extraordinary officers of the customs, likewise the watermen, carmen, porters, and all the poor whose labor depended upon the merchants, were at once dismissed and put out of business. Three, all the tradesmen usually employed in building or repairing of houses were at a full stop, for the people were far from wanting to build houses when so many thousand houses were at once stripped of their inhabitants, so that this one article turned all the ordinary workmen of that kind out of business, such as bricklayers, masons, carpenters, joiners, plasterers, painters, glaciers, smiths, plumbers, and all the laborers depending on such. Four, as navigation was at a stop, our ships neither coming in or going out as before, so the seamen were all out of employment, and many of them in the last and lowest degree of distress, and with the seamen were all the several tradesmen and workmen belonging to and depending upon the building and fitting out of ships, such as ship carpenters, caulkers, rope makers, dry coopers, sail makers, anchor smiths, and other smiths, block makers, carvers, gunsmiths, ship chandlers, ship carvers, and the like. The masters of those perhaps might live upon their substance, but the traders were universally at a stop, and consequently all their workmen discharged. Add to these that the river was in a manner without boats, and all or most part of the watermen, lighter men, boat builders, and lighter builders, in like manner, idle, and laid by. Five, all families retrenched their living as much as possible, as well those that fled, as those that stayed, so that an innumerable multitude of footmen, serving men, shopkeepers, journeymen, merchants, bookkeepers, and such sort of people, and especially poor maid servants, were turned off, and left friendless and helpless, without employment and without habitation, and this was really a dismal article. I might be more particular as to this part, but it may suffice to mention in general all trades being stopped, employment ceased, the labor, and by that the bread of the poor were cut off, and at first indeed the cries of the poor were most lamentable to hear, though by the distribution of charity their misery that way was greatly abated. Many indeed fled into the counties, but thousands of them having stayed in London till nothing but desperation sent them away. Death overtook them on the road, and they served for no better than the messengers of death. Indeed, others carrying the infection along with them spread it very unhappily into the remotest parts of the kingdom. Many of these were the miserable objects of despair which I have mentioned before, and were removed by the destruction which followed. These might be said to perish not by the infection itself, but by the consequence of it, indeed, namely by hunger and distress, and the want of all things, being without lodging, without money, without friends, without means to get their bread, or without anyone to give it them. For many of them were without what we call legal settlements, and so could not claim of the parishes, and all the support they had was by application to the magistrates for relief, which relief was to give the magistrates their due, carefully and cheerfully administered as they found it necessary, and those that stayed behind never felt the want and distress of that kind which they felt who went away in the manner above noted. Let anyone who is acquainted with what multitudes of people get their daily bread in this city by their labour, whether artificers or mere workmen, I say, let any man consider what must be the miserable condition of this town if, on a sudden, they should be all turned out of employment, that labour should cease, and wages for work be no more. This was the case with us at that time, and had not the sums of money contributed in charity by well-disposed people of every kind, as well abroad as at home, been prodigiously great, it had not been in the power of the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs to have kept the public peace. Nor were they without apprehensions, as it was, that desperation should push the people upon tumults, and cause them to rifle the houses of rich men and plunder the markets of provisions, in which case the country people, who brought provisions very freely and boldly to town, would have been terrified from coming any more, and the town would have sunk under an unavoidable famine. But the prudence of my Lord Mayor and the court of Alderman within the city, and of the justices of the peace in the outparts, was such, and they were supported with money from all parts so well, that the poor people were kept quiet, and their wants everywhere relieved, as far as it was possible, to be done. Two things besides this contributed to prevent the mob doing any mischief. One was that, really, the rich themselves had not laid up stores of provisions in their houses, as indeed they ought to have done, and which, if they had been wise enough to have done, and locked themselves entirely up, as some few did, they had perhaps escaped the disease better. But, as it appeared, they had not, so the mob had no notion of finding stores of provisions there, if they had broken in, as it is plain, they were sometimes very near doing, and which, if they had, they had finished the ruin of the whole city, for there were no regular troops to have withstood them, nor could the trained bands have been brought together to defend the city, no men being to be found to bear arms. But the vigilance of the Lord Mayor and such magistrates as could be had, for some, even of the alderman, were dead, and some absent, prevented this. And they did it by the most kind and gentle methods they could think of, as, particularly, by relieving the most desperate with money, and putting others into business, and particularly, that employment of watching houses that were infected and shut up. And as the number of these were very great, for it was said, there was at one time ten thousand houses shut up, and every house had two watchmen to guard it, vis one by night and the other by day. This gave opportunity to employ a very great number of poor men at a time. The women and servants that were turned off from their places were likewise employed as nurses to tend the sick in all places, and this took off a very great number of them. And, which though a melancholy article in itself, yet was a deliverance in its kind, namely, the plague, which raged in a dreadful manner from the middle of August to the middle of October, carried off in that time thirty or forty thousand of these very people, which, had they been left, would certainly have been an insufferable burden by their poverty. That is to say, the whole city could not have supported the expense of them, or have provided food for them, and they would in time have been even driven to the necessity of plundering either the city itself or the country adjacent, to have subsisted themselves, which would first or last have put the whole nation, as well as the city, into the utmost terror and confusion. End of Section 9 Section 10 from A Journal of the Plague Year This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, visit LibriVox.org Read by Dennis Sayers A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe Section 10 It was observable, then, that this calamity of the people made them very humble. For now, for about nine weeks together, there died near a thousand a day, one day with another. Even by the account of the weekly bills, which yet I have reason to be assured, never gave a full account by many thousands, the confusion being such, and the carts working in the dark when they carried the dead, that in some places no account at all was kept, but they worked on. The clerks and sextons not attending for weeks together, and not knowing what number they carried. This account is verified by the following bills of mortality. August 8th to August 15th of all diseases, 5,319. Of the plague, 3,880. August 15th to August 22nd of all diseases, 5,568. Of the plague, 4,237. From August 22nd to August 29th, 7,496 of all diseases, of the plague, 6,102. August 29th to September 5th, 8,252 of all diseases, of the plague, 6,988. September 5th to September 12th, 7,690 of all diseases, of the plague, 6,544. September 12th to September 19th, 8,297 of all diseases, of the plague, 7,165. September 19th through September 26th, 6,460 of all diseases, of the plague, 5,533. September 26th to October 3rd, 5,720 of all diseases, of the plague, 4,979. October 3rd to October 10th, 5,068 of all diseases, of the plague, 4,327. Total of all diseases, 59,870 of the plague, 49,705. So that the gross of the people were carried off in these two months, for as the whole number, which was brought in to die of the plague was but 68,590, here is 50,000 of them within a trifle in two months. I say 50,000 because as there wants 395 in the number above, so there wants two days of two months in the account of time. Now when I say that the parish officers did not give in a full account or were not to be depended upon for their account, let anyone consider how men could be exact in such a time of dreadful distress, and when many of them were taken sick themselves and perhaps died in the very time when their accounts were to be given in. I mean the parish clerks besides inferior officers. For though these poor men ventured at all hazards, yet they were far from being exempt from the common calamity, especially if it be true that the parish of Stepney had within the year 116 sextants gravediggers and their assistants, that is to say, bearers, bellmen, and drivers of carts for carrying off the dead bodies. Indeed, the work was not of such a nature as to allow them leisure to take an exact tale of the dead bodies which were all huddled together in the dark into a pit, which pit or trench no man could come nigh but at the utmost peril. I have observed often that in the parishes of Aldgate, Cripplegate, Whitechapel, and Stepney there were five, six, seven, and eight hundred in a week in the bills, whereas if we may believe the opinion of those that lived in the city all the time, as well as I, there died sometimes two thousand a week in those parishes. And I saw it under the hand of one that made as strict an examination in that park as he could, that there really died a hundred thousand people of the plague in that one year, whereas in the bills, the articles of the plague, it was but sixty-eight thousand five hundred and ninety. If I may be allowed to give my opinion by what I saw with my eyes and heard from other people that were eyewitnesses, I do verily believe the same, that is, that there died at least a hundred thousand of the plague only besides other distempers, and besides those which died in the fields, and highways, and secret places, out of the compass of the communication, as it was called, and who were not put down in the bills, though they really belonged to the body of the inhabitants. It was known to us all that abundance of poor, despairing creatures who had the distemper upon them and were grown stupid or melancholy by their misery as many were, wandered away into the fields and woods and into secret uncouth places, almost anywhere, to creep into a bush or hedge and die. The inhabitants of the village adjacent would in pity carry them food and set it at a distance that they might fetch it if they were able, and sometimes they were not able, and the next time they went they would find the poor wretches lie dead, and the food untouched. The number of these miserable objects were many, and I know so many perished, thus and so exactly where, that I believe I could go to the very place and dig their bones up still. For the country people would go and dig a hole at a distance from them, and then, with long poles and hooks at the end of them, drag the bodies into these pits, and then throw the earth in front, as far as they could cast it, to cover them, taking notice how the wind blew, and so come on that side, which the seamen called to windward, that the scent of the bodies might blow from them, and thus great numbers went out of the world who were never known, or any account of them taken, as well within the bills of mortality, as without. This indeed I had in the main only from the relation of others, for I seldom walked into the fields, except towards Bethnal Green and Hackney, or as hereafter. But when I did walk I always saw a great many poor wanderers at a distance, but I could know little of their cases for whether it were in the street or in the fields, if we had seen anybody coming it was a general method to walk away. Yet I believe the account is exactly true. As this puts me upon mentioning my walking, the streets, and fields, I cannot omit taking notice what a desolate place the city was at that time. The great street I lived in, which is known to be one of the broadest, of all the streets of London, I mean of the suburbs as well as the Great Liberties, all the side where the butchers lived, especially without the bars, was more like a green field than a paved street, and the people generally went in the middle with the horses and carts. It is true that the farthest end, towards Whitechapel Church, was not all paved, but even the part that was paved was full of grass also. But this need not seemed strange, since the great streets within the city, such as Leadin Hall Street, Bishopsgate Street, Corn Hill, and even the exchange itself, had grass growing in them in several places. Neither cart nor coach was seen in the streets from morning to evening, except some country carts to bring roots and beans or peas, hay and straw to the market, and those but very few compared to what was usual. As for the coaches, they were scarce used, but to carry sick people to the pest house and to other hospitals, and some few to carry physicians to such places as they thought fit to venture to visit. For really coaches were dangerous things, and people did not care to venture into them, because they did not know who might have been carried in them last, and sick infected people were, as I have said, ordinarily carried in them to the pest houses, and sometimes people expired in them as they went along. It is true, when the infection came, to such a height as I have now mentioned, there were very few physicians who cared to stir abroad to sick houses, and very many of the most eminent of the faculty were dead, as well as the surgeons also. For now it was indeed a dismal time, and for about a month together, not taking any notice of the bills of mortality, I believe there did not die less than fifteen or seventeen hundred a day, one day with another. One of the worst days we had in the whole time, as I thought, was in the beginning of September, when, indeed, good people were beginning to think that God was resolved to make a full end of the people in this miserable city. This was at the time when the plague was fully come into the eastern parishes. The parish of Aldgate, if I may give my opinion, buried above one thousand a week for two weeks, though the bills did not say so many. But it surrounded me at so dismal a rate that there was not a house in twenty uninfected. In the menories, in Houndsditch, and in those parts of the Aldgate parish, about the Butcher Row, and the alleys over against me, I say, in those places death reigned in every corner. Whitechapel parish was in the same condition, and though much less than the parish I lived in, yet buried near six hundred a week by the bills, and in my opinion, near twice as many. Whole families, and indeed whole streets of families, were swept away together, in so much that it was frequent for neighbors to call to the bellmen to go to such and such houses and fetch out the people, for that they were all dead. And, indeed, the work of removing the dead bodies by carts was now grown so very odious and dangerous that it was complained of that the bearers did not take care to clear such houses where all the inhabitants were dead, but that sometimes the bodies lay till the neighboring families were offended by the stench, and, consequently, infected. And this neglect of the officers was such that the church wardens and constables were summoned to look after it, and even the justices of the hamlets were obliged to venture their lives among them, to quicken and encourage them, for innumerable of the bearers died of the distemper, infected by the bodies they were obliged to come so near. And had it not been that the number of poor people who wanted employment and wanted bread, as I have said before, was so great that necessity drove them to undertake anything and venture anything, they would never have found people to be employed, and then the bodies of the dead would have lain above ground and have perished and rotted in a dreadful manner. But the magistrates cannot be enough commended in this that they kept such good order for the burying of the dead, that as fast as any of those they employed to carry off and bury the dead fell sick or died, as was many times the case, they immediately supplied the places with others, which, by reason of the great number of poor that was left out of business, as above, was not hard to do. This occasioned that, notwithstanding the infinite number of people which died and were sick almost altogether, yet they were always cleared away, and carried off every night, so that it was never to be said of London that the living were not able to bury the dead. As the desolation was greater during those terrible times, so the amazement of the people increased, and a thousand unaccountable things they would do and the violence of their fright, as others did the same in the agonies of their distemper, and this part was very affecting. Some went roaring and crying and wringing their hands along the street. Some would go praying and lifting up their hands to heaven, calling upon God for mercy. I cannot say, indeed, whether this was not in their distraction, but, be it so, it was still an indication of a more serious mind when they had the use of their senses, and was much better, even as it was, than the frightful yellings and cries that every day, and especially in the evenings, were heard in some streets. I suppose the world has heard of the famous Solomon Eagle, an enthusiast. He, though not infected at all, but in his head, went about denouncing of judgment upon the city in a frightful manner, sometimes quite naked, and with a pan of burning charcoal on his head. What he said, or pretended, indeed, I could not learn. I will not say whether that clergyman was distracted or not, or whether he did it out of pure zeal for the poor people who went every evening through the streets of Whitechapel, and with his hands lifted up, repeated that part of the liturgy of the church continually, quote, Spare us, good Lord, spare thy people whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious blood, close, quote. I say I cannot speak positively of these things because these were only the dismal objects which represented themselves to me as I looked through my chamber windows, for I seldom opened the casements, while I confined myself within doors during the most violent raging of the pestilence, when indeed, as I have said, many began to think, and even to say, that there would none escape. And indeed I began to think so too, and therefore kept within doors for about a fortnight, and never stirred out. But I could not hold it. Besides, there were some people who notwithstanding the danger did not omit publicly to attend the worship of God, even in the most dangerous times. And though it is true that a great many of the clergy did shut up their churches and fled, as other people did, for the safety of their lives, yet all did not do so. Some ventured to officiate, and to keep up the assemblies of the people by constant prayers, and sometimes sermons or brief exhortations to repentance and reformation. And this as long as any would come to hear them. And dissenters did the like also, and even in the very churches where the parish ministers were either dead or fled. Nor was there any room for making difference at such a time as this was. It was indeed a lamentable thing to hear the miserable lamentations of poor dying creatures, calling out for ministers to comfort them and pray with them, to counsel them and direct them, calling out to God for pardon and mercy, and confessing aloud their past sins. It would make the stoutest heart bleed to hear how many warnings were then given by dying penitents to others not to put off and delay their repentance to the day of distress. That such a time of calamity as this was no time for repentance, was no time to call upon God. I wish I could repeat the very sound of those groans and of those exclamations that I heard from some poor dying creatures, when in the height of their agonies and distress, and that I could make him that reads this here as I imagine I now hear them, for the sound seems still to ring in my ears. If I could but tell this part in such moving accents as should alarm the very soul of the reader, I should rejoice that I recorded those things, however short and imperfect. It pleased God that I was still spared, and very hearty and sound in health, but very impatient of being pent up within doors without air, as I had been for fourteen days or thereabouts. And I could not restrain myself, but I would go out and carry a letter from my brother to the post house, and then it was, indeed, that I observed a profound silence in the streets. When I came to the post house, as I went to put in my letter, I saw a man stand in one corner of the yard, and talking to another at a window, and a third had opened a door belonging to the office. In the middle of the yard lay a small leather purse, with two keys hanging at it, with money in it, but nobody would meddle with it. I asked how long it had lain there. The man at the window said it had lain almost an hour, but they had not meddled with it, because they did not know but the person who dropped it might come back to look for it. I had no such need of money, nor was the sum so big that I had any inclination to meddle with it, or to get the money at the hazard it might be attended with. So I seemed to go away. When the man who had opened the door said he would take it up, but so that, if the right owner came for it, he should be sure to have it. So he went in and fetched a pail of water, and set it down hard by the purse. Then went again and fetched some gunpowder, and cast a good deal of powder upon the purse, and then made a train from that which he had thrown loose upon the purse. The train reached about two yards. After this he goes in a third time, and fetches out a pair of tongs, red hot, which he had prepared, I suppose, on purpose, and first setting fire to the train of powder that sent the purse, and also smoked the air sufficiently. But he was not content with that, but he then takes up the purse with the tongs, holding it so long that the tongs burnt through the purse, and then he shook the money out into the pail of water. So he carried it in. The money, as I remember, was about thirteen shillings, and some smooth grotes, and brass farthings. End of Section 10