Terror falls upon the people.--Rumours of a plague.--A sign in
the heavens.--Flight from the capital.--Preparations against the
dreaded enemy.--Dr. Boghurst's testimony.--God's terrible voice
in the city.--Rules made by the lord mayor.--Massacre of
animals.--O, dire death!--Spread of the distemper.--Horrible
sights.--State of the deserted capital.--"Bring out your dead."
--ashes to ashes.--Fires are lighted.--Relief of the poor.--The
mortality bills.
It came to pass during the fifth month of the year 1665, that a
great terror fell upon the city of London; even as a sombre cloud
darkens the midday sky. For it was whispered abroad a plague had
come amongst the people, fears of which had been entertained, and
signs of which had been obvious for some time. During the
previous November a few persons had fallen victims to this
dreaded pestilence, but the weather being cold and the atmosphere
clear, it had made no progress till April. In that month two men
had died of this most foul disease; and in the first week of May
its victims numbered nine; and yet another fortnight and it had
hurried seventeen citizens to the grave.
Now the memory of their wickedness rising before them, dread took
up its abode in all men's hearts; for none knew but his day of
reckoning was at hand. And their consternation was greater when
it was remembered that in the third year of this century thirty-
six thousand citizens of London had died of the plague, while
twenty-five years later it had swept away thirty-five thousand;
and eleven years after full ten thousand persons perished of this
same pestilence. Moreover, but two years previous, a like
scourge had been rife in Holland; and in Amsterdam alone twenty-
four thousand citizens had died from its effects.
And the terror of the citizens of London was yet more forcibly
increased by the appearance in April of a blazing star or comet,
bearing a tail apparently six yards in length, which rose betimes
in a lurid sky, and passed with ominous movement from west to
east. [It is worthy of notice that Lilly in his "Astrological
Predictions," published in 1648, declared the year 1656 would be
"ominous to London, unto her merchants at sea, to her traffique
at land, to her poor, to her rich, to all sorts of people
inhabiting in her or her Liberties, by reason of sundry fires and
a consuming plague."] The king with his queen and court,
prompted by curiosity, stayed up one night to watch this blazing
star pass above the silent city; the Royal Society in behalf of
science embodied many learned comments regarding it in their
"Philosophical Transactions;" but the great body of the people
regarded it as a visible signal of God's certain wrath. They
were more confirmed in this opinion, as some amongst them, whose
judgments were distorted by fears, declared the comet had at
times before their eyes assumed the appearance of a fiery sword
threatening the sinful city. It was also noted in the spring of
this year that birds and wild fowls had left their accustomed
places, and few swallows were seen. But in the previous summer
there had been "such a multitude of flies that they lined the
insides of houses; and if any threads of strings did hang down in
any place, they were presently thick-set with flies like ropes of
onions; and swarms of ants covered the highways that you might
have taken up a handful at a time, both winged and creeping ants;
and such a multitude of croaking frogs in ditches that you might
have heard them before you saw them," as is set down by one
William Boghurst, apothecary at the White Hart in St. Giles-in-
the-Fields, who wrote a learned "Treatis on the Plague" in 1666,
he being the only man who up to that time had done so from
experience and observation. [This quaint and curious production,
which has never been printed, and which furnishes the following
pages with some strange details, is preserved in the Sloane
Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum.] And from such
signs, as likewise from knowledge that the pestilence daily
increased, all felt a season of bitter tribulation was at hand.
According to "Some Observations of the Plague," written by Dr.
Hedges for use of a peer of the realm, the dread malady was
communicated to London from the Netherlands "by way of
contagion." It first made its appearance in the parishes of St.
Giles and St. Martin's, Westminster, from which directions it
gradually spread to Holborn, Fleet Street, the Strand, and the
city, finally reaching to the east, bringing death invariably in
its train.
The distemper was not only fatal in its termination, but
loathsome in its progress; for the blood of those affected being
poisoned by atmospheric contagion, bred venom in the body, which
burst forth into nauseous sores and uncleanness; or otherwise
preyed with more rapid fatality internally, in some cases causing
death before its victims were assured of disease. Nor did it
spare the young and robust any more than those weak of frame or
ripe with years, but attacking stealthily, killed speedily. It
was indeed the "pestilence that walketh in darkness, and the
destruction that wasteth in the noonday." In the month of May,
when it was yet uncertain if the city would be spared even in
part, persons of position and wealth, and indeed those endowed
with sufficient means to support themselves elsewhere, resolved
to fly from the capital; whilst such as had neither home,
friends, nor expectation of employment in other places, remained
behind. Accordingly great preparations were made by those who
determined on flight; and all day long vast crowds gathered round
my lord mayor's house in St. Helen's, Bishopsgate, seeking
certificates of health, so that for some weeks it was difficult
to reach his door for the throng that gathered there, as is
stated by John Noorthouck. Such official testimonies to the good
health of those leaving London had now become necessary; for the
inhabitants of provincial towns, catching the general alarm,
refused to shelter in their houses, or even let pass through
their streets, the residents of the plague-stricken city, unless
officially assured they were free from the dreaded distemper.
Nay, even with such certificates in their possession, many were
refused admittance to inns, or houses of entertainment, and were
therefore obliged to sleep in fields by night, and beg food by
day, and not a few deaths were caused by want and exposure.
And now were the thoroughfares of the capital crowded all day
long with coaches conveying those who sought safety in flight,
and with waggons and carts containing their household goods and
belongings, until it seemed as if the city mould be left without
a soul. Many merchants and shipowners together with their
families betook themselves to vessels, which they caused to be
towed down the river towards Greenwich, and in which they resided
for months; whilst others sought refuge in smacks and fishing-
boats, using them as shelters by day, and lodging on the banks by
night. Some few families remaining in the capital laid in stores
of provisions, and shutting themselves up securely in their
houses, permitted none to enter or leave, by which means some of
them escaped contagion and death. The court tarried until the
29th of June, and then left for Hampton, none too soon, for the
pestilence had reached almost to the palace gates. The queen
mother likewise departed, retiring into France; from which
country she never returned.
All through the latter part of May, and the whole of the
following month, this flight from the dread enemy of mankind
continued; presenting a melancholy spectacle to those who
remained, until at last the capital seemed veritably a city of
the dead. But for the credit of humanity be it stated, that not
all possessed of health and wealth abandoned the town. Prominent
amongst those who remained were the Duke of Albemarle, Lord
Craven, the lord mayor, Sir John Laurence, some of his aldermen,
and a goodly number of physicians, chirurgeons, and apothecaries,
all of whom by their skill or exertions sought to check the
hungry ravages of death. The offices which medical men
voluntarily performed during this period of dire affliction were
loathsome to a terrible degree. "I commonly dressed forty sores
in a day," says Dr. Boghurst, whose simple words convey a
forcible idea of his nobility; "held the pulse of patients
sweating in their beds half a quarter of an hour together; let
blood; administered clysters to the sick; held them up in their
beds to keep them from strangling and choking, half an hour
together commonly, and suffered their breathing in my face
several times when they were dying; eat and drank with them,
especially those that had sores; sat down by their bedsides and
upon their beds, discoursing with them an hour together. If I
had time I stayed by them to see them die. Then if people had
nobody to help them (for help was scarce at such time and place)
I helped to lay them forth out of the bed, and afterwards into
the coffin; and last of all, accompanied them to the ground."
Of the physicians remaining in the city, nine fell a sacrifice to
duty. Amongst those who survived was the learned Dr. Nathaniel
Hodges, who was spared to meet a philanthropist's fate in penury
and neglect. [Dr. Hodges subsequently wrote a work entitled
"Loimologia; or, an Historical Account of the Plague of London,"
first published in 1672; of which, together with a collection of
the bills of mortality for 1665, entitled "London's Dreadful
Visitation," and a pamphlet by the Rev. Thomas Vincent, "God's
Terrible Voice in the City," printed in 1667, De Foe largely
availed himself in writing his vivid but unreliable "Journal of
the Plague Year," which first saw the light in 1722.] The king
had, on outbreak of the distemper, shown solicitude for his
citizens by summoning a privy council, when a committee of peers
was formed for "Prevention and Spreading of the Infection."
Under their orders the College of Physicians drew up "Certain
necessary Directions for the Prevention and Cure of the Plague,
with Divers remedies for small Change," which were printed in
pamphlet form, and widely distributed amongst the people. [We
learn that at this time the College was stored with "men of
learning, virtue, and probity, nothing acquainted with the little
arts of getting a name by plotting against the honesty and
credulity of the people." The prescriptions given by this worthy
body were consequently received with a simple faith which later
and more sceptical generations might deny them. Perhaps the most
remarkable of these directions, given under the heading of
"Medicines External," was the following: "Pull off the feathers
from the tails of living cocks, hens, pigeons, or chickens, and
holding their bills, hold them hard to the botch or swelling, and
so keep them at that part until they die, and by that means draw
out the poison. It is good to apply a cupping glass, or embers
in a dish, with a handful of sorrel upon the embers."]
The lord mayor, having likewise the welfare of the people at
heart, "conceived and published" rules to be observed, and orders
to be obeyed, by them during this visitation. These directed the
appointment of two examiners for every parish, who were bound to
discover those who were sick, and inquire into the nature of
their illness: and finding persons afflicted by plague, they,
with the members of their family and domestics, were to be
confined in their houses. These were to be securely locked
outside, and guarded day and night by watchmen, whose duty it
should be to prevent persons entering or leaving those
habitations; as likewise to perform such offices as were
required, such as conveying medicines and food. And all houses
visited by the distemper were to be forthwith marked on the door
by a red cross a foot long, with the words LORD HAVE MERCY UPON
US set close over the same sacred sign. Female searchers, "such
as are of honest reputation, and of the best sort as can be got
of the kind," were selected that they might report of what
disease people died; such women not being permitted during this
visitation to use any public work or employment, or keep shop or
stall, or wash linen for the people. Nurses to attend the
afflicted deserted by their friends were also appointed. And
inasmuch as multitudes of idle rogues and wandering beggars
swarming the city were a great means of spreading disease, the
constables had orders not to suffer their presence in the
streets. And dogs and cats, being domestic animals, apt to run
from house to house, and carry infection in their fur and hair,
an order was made that they should be killed, and an officer
nominated to see it carried into execution. It was computed
that, in accordance with this edict, forty thousand dogs, and
five times that number of cats, were massacred.
All plays bear-baitings, exhibitions, and games were forbidden;
as were likewise "all public feasting, and particularly by the
companies of the city, and dinners at taverns, alehouses, and
other places of common entertainment; and the money thereby
spared, be employed for the benefit and relief of the poor
visited with the infection." Pest-houses were opened at Tothill
Fields, Westminster, and at Bunhill Fields, near Old Street, for
reception of the sick: and indeed every possible remedy
calculated to check the disease was adopted. Some of these,
though considered necessary to the well-being of the community,
were by many citizens regarded as hardships, more especially the
rule which related to closing of infected houses.
The misery endured by those in health suffering such confinement,
was scarcely less than that realized by the afflicted. And fear
making way for disease, it frequently occurred a whole family,
when confined with one infected member, speedily became stricken
by plague, and consequently overtaken by death. It therefore
happened that many attempts were made by those in health to
escape incarceration. In some cases they bribed, and in others
ill-treated the watchmen: one of whom was actually blown up by
gunpowder in Coleman Street, that those he guarded might flee
unmolested. Again, it chanced that strong men, rendered
desperate when brought face to face with loathsome death, lowered
themselves from windows of their houses in sight of the watch,
whom they threatened with instant death if they cried out or
stirred.
The apprehension of the sick, who were in most cases deserted by
their friends, was increased tenfold by the practices of public
nurses: for being hardened to affliction by nature of their
employment, and incapable of remorse for crime by reason of their
vileness, they were guilty of many barbarous usages. "These
wretches," says Dr. Hodges, "out of greediness to plunder the
dead, would strangle their patients, and charge it to the
distemper in their throats. Others would secretly convey the
pestilential taint from sores of the infected to those who were
well; and nothing indeed deterred these abandoned miscreants from
prosecuting their avaricious purposes by all methods their
wickedness could invent; who, although they were without
witnesses to accuse them, yet it is not doubted but divine
vengeance will overtake such wicked barbarities with due
punishment. Nay, some were remarkably struck from heaven in the
perpetration of their crimes; and one particularly amongst many,
as she was leaving the house of a family, all dead, loaded with
her robberies, fell down lifeless under her burden in the street.
And the case of a worthy citizen was very remarkable, who, being
suspected dying by his nurse, was beforehand stripped by her; but
recovering again, he came a second time into the world naked."
But notwithstanding all precautions and care taken by the Duke of
Albemarle and the worthy lord mayor, the dreadful pestilence
spread with alarming rapidity; as may be judged from the fact
that the number who died in the first week of June amounted to
forty-three, whilst during the last week of that month two
hundred and sixty-seven persons were carried to their graves.
From the 4th of July to the 11th, seven hundred and fifty-five
deaths were chronicled; the following eight days the death rate
rose to one thousand and eighty-two; whilst the ensuing week this
high figure was increased by over eight hundred. For the month
of August, the mortality bill recorded seventeen thousand and
thirty-six deaths; and during September, twenty-six thousand two
hundred and thirty persons perished in the city.
The whole British nation was stricken with consternation at the
fate of the capital. "In some houses," says Dr. Hodges, speaking
from personal experience, "carcases lay waiting for burial, and
in others were persons in their last agonies. In one room might
be heard dying groans, in an other the ravings of delirium, and
not far off relations and friends bewailing both their loss and
the dismal prospect of their own sudden departure. Death was the
sure midwife to all children, and infants passed immediately from
the womb to the grave. Some of the infected run about staggering
like drunken men, and fall and expire in the streets; whilst
others lie half dead and comatose, but never to be waked but by
the last trumpet." The plague had indeed encompassed the walls
of the city, and poured in upon it without mercy. A heavy
stifling atmosphere, vapours by day and blotting out all traces
of stars and sky by night, hovered like a palpable shape of dire
vengeance above the doomed city. During many weeks "there was a
general calm and serenity, as if both wind and rain had been
expelled the kingdom, so that there was not so much as to move a
flame." The oppressive silence of brooding death, unbroken now
even by the passing bell, weighed stupor-like upon the wretched
survivors. The thoroughfares were deserted, grass sprang green
upon side-paths and steps of dwellings; and the broad street in
Whitechapel became like unto a field. Most houses bore upon
their doors the dread sign of the red cross, with the
supplication for mercy written above. Some of the streets were
barricaded at both ends, the inhabitants either having fled into
the country or been carried to their graves; and it was estimated
in all that over seven thousand dwellings were deserted. All
commerce, save that dealing with the necessaries of life, was
abandoned; the parks forsaken and locked, the Inns of Court
closed, and the public marts abandoned. A few of the church
doors were opened, and some gathered within that they might
humbly beseech pardon for the past, and ask mercy in the present.
But as the violence of the distemper increased, even the houses
of God were forsaken; and those who ventured abroad walked in the
centre of the street, avoiding contact or conversation with
friend or neighbour; each man dreading and avoiding his fellow,
lest he should be to him the harbinger of death. And all
carried rue and wormwood in their hands, and myrrh and zedoary in
their mouths, as protection against infection. Now were the
faces of all pale with apprehension, none knowing when the fatal
malady might carry them hence; and moreover sad, as became those
who stand in the presence of death.
And such sights were to be witnessed day after day as made the
heart sick. "It would be endless," says the Rev. Thomas Vincent,
"to speak what we have seen and heard; of some, in their frenzy,
rising out of their beds and leaping about their rooms; others
crying and roaring at their windows; some coming forth almost
naked and running into the streets; strange things have others
spoken and done when the disease was upon them: but it was very
sad to hear of one, who being sick alone, and it is like frantic,
burnt himself in his bed. And amongst other sad spectacles
methought two were very affecting: one of a woman coming alone
and weeping by the door where I lived, with a little coffin under
her arm, carrying it to the new churchyard. I did judge that it
was the mother of the child, and that all the family besides was
dead, and she was forced to coffin up and bury with her own hands
this her last dead child. Another was of a man at the corner of
the Artillery Wall, that as I judge, through the dizziness of his
head with the disease, which seized upon him there, had dashed
his face against the wall; and when I came by he lay hanging with
his bloody face over the rails, and bleeding upon the ground;
within half an hour he died in that place."
And as the pestilence increased, it was found impossible to
provide coffins or even separate graves for those who perished.
And therefore, in order to bury the deceased, great carts passed
through the streets after sunset, attended by linkmen and
preceded by a bellman crying in weird and solemn tones, "Bring
out your dead." At the intimation of the watchmen stationed
before houses bearing red crosses upon their doors, the sad
procession would tarry, When coffinless, and oftentimes
shroudless, rigid, loathsome, and malodorous bodies were hustled
into the carts with all possible speed. Then once more the
melancholy cortege took its way adown the dark, deserted street,
the yellow glare of links falling on the ghastly burden they
accompanied, the dirge-like call of the bellman sounding on the
ears of the living like a summons from the dead. And so,
receiving additional freight upon its way, the cart proceeded to
one of the great pits dug in the parish churchyards of Aldgate
and Whitechapel, or in Finsbury Fields close by the Artillery
Ground. These, measuring about forty feet in length, eighteen in
breadth, and twenty in depth, were destined to receive scores of
bodies irrespective of creed or class. The carts being brought
to these dark and weirdsome gulphs, looking all the blacker from
the flickering lights of candles and garish gleams of lanterns
placed beside them, the bodies, without rite or ceremony, were
shot into them, and speedily covered with clay. For the
accomplishment of this sad work night was found too brief. And
what lent additional horror to the circumstances of these burials
was, that those engaged in this duty would occasionally drop
lifeless during their labour. So that it sometimes happened the
dead-carts were found without driver, linkman, or bell-man. And
it was estimated that the parish of Stepney alone lost one
hundred and sixteen gravediggers and sextons within that year.
During the month of September, the pestilence raged with
increased fury; and it now seemed as if the merciless distemper
would never cease whilst a single inhabitant remained in the
city. The lord mayor, having found all remedies to stay its
progress utterly fail, by advice of the medical faculty, ordered
that great fires should be kindled in certain districts, by way
of purifying the air, Accordingly, two hundred chaldrons of coal,
at four pounds a chaldron, were devoted to this purpose. At
first the fires were with great difficulty made to burn, through
the scarcity, it was believed, of oxygen in the atmosphere; but
once kindled, they continued blazing for three days and three
nights, when a heavy downpour of rain falling they were
extinguished. The following night death carried off four
thousand souls, and the experiment of these cleansing fires was
discontinued. All through this month fear and tribulation
continued; the death rate, from the 5th of September to the 3rd
of October, amounting to twenty-four thousand one hundred and
seventy-one.
During October, the weather being cool and dry, the pestilence
gave promise of rapid decrease. Hope came to the people, and was
received with eager greeting. Once more windows were
unshuttered, doors were opened, and the more venturous walked
abroad. The great crisis had passed. In the middle of the month
Mr. Pepys travelled on foot to the Tower, and records his
impressions. "Lord," he says, "how empty the streets are and
melancholy, so many poor sick people in the streets full of
sores; and so many sad stories overheard as I walk, everybody
talking of this dead, and that man sick, and so many in this
place, and so many in that. And they tell me that in Westminster
there is never a physician and but one apothecary left, all being
dead; but that there are great hopes of a decrease this week.
God send it."
The while, trade being discontinued, those who had lived by
commerce or labour were supported by charity. To this good
purpose the king contributed a thousand pounds per week, and Dr.
Sheldon, Archbishop of Canterbury--who remained at Lambeth during
the whole time--by letters to his bishops, caused great sums to
be collected throughout the country and remitted to him for this
laudable purpose. Nor did those of position or wealth fail in
responding to calls made upon them at this time; their
contributions being substantial enough to permit the lord mayor
to distribute upwards of one hundred thousand pounds a week
amongst the poor and afflicted for several months.
In October the death rate fell to nine thousand four hundred and
forty-four; in November to three thousand four hundred and forty-
nine; and in December to less than one thousand. Therefore,
after a period of unprecedented suffering, the people took
courage once more, for life is dear to all men. And those who
had fled the plague-stricken city returned to find a scene of
desolation, greater in its misery than words can describe. But
the tide of human existence having once turned, the capital
gradually resumed its former appearance. Shops which had been
closed were opened afresh; houses whose inmates had been carried
to the grave became again centres of activity; the sound of
traffic was heard in streets long silent; church bells called the
citizens to prayer; marts were crowded; and people wore an air of
cheerfulness becoming the survivors of a calamity. And so all
things went on as before.
The mortality bills computed the number of burials which took
place in London during this year at ninety-seven thousand three
hundred and six, of which sixty-eight thousand five hundred find
ninety-six were attributed to the plague. This estimate has been
considered by all historians as erroneous. For on the first
appearance of the distemper, the number of deaths set down was
far below that which truth warranted, in order that the citizens
might not be affrighted; and when it was at its height no exact
account of those shifted from the dead-carts into the pits was
taken. Moreover, many were buried by their friends in fields and
gardens. Lord Clarendon, an excellent authority, states that
though the weekly bills reckoned the number of deaths at about
one hundred thousand, yet "many who could compute very well,
concluded that there were in truth double that number who died;
and that in one week, when the bill mentioned only six thousand,
there had in truth fourteen thousand died."
