direction, and all who could leave danger behind were in the bustle of departure.

“I lived without Aldgate, about mid-way between Aldgate church and White. chapel-bars, on the left hand or north side of the street; and as the distemper had not reached to that side of the city, our neighbourhood continued very easy: but at the other end of the town, their consternation was very great; and the richer sort of people, especially the nobility and gentry, from the west part of the city, thronged out of town, with their families and servants, in an unusual manner; and this was more particularly seen in Whitechapel; that is to say, the broad street where I lived: indeed nothing was to be seen but wagons and carts, with goods, women, servants, children, &c. coaches filled with people of the better sort, and horsemen attending them, and all hurrying away; then empty wagons and carts appeared, and spare horses with servants, who it was apparent were returning or sent from the countries to fetch more people: besides innumerable numbers of men on horseback, some alone, others with servants, and, generally speaking, all loaded with baggage and fitted out for travelling, as any one might perceive by their appearance.

“ This was a very terrible and melancholy thing to see, and as it was a sight which I could not but look on from morning to night, for indeed there was nothing else of moment to be seen, it filled me with very serious thoughts of the misery that was coming upon the city, and the unhappy condition of those that would be left in it.

“ This hurry of the people was such for some weeks, that there was no getting at the Lord Mayor's door without exceeding difficulty; there was such pressing and crowding there to get passes and certificates of health, for such as travelled abroad; for, without these, there was no being admitted to pass through the towns upon the road, or to lodge in any inn: now as there had none died in the city for all this time, my Lord Mayor gave certificates of health without any difficulty to all those who lived in the ninety-seven parishes, and to those within the liberties too for awhile,

“ This hurry, I say, continued some weeks, that is to say, all the month of May and June, and the more, because it was rumoured, that an order of the Govern. ment was to be issued out, to place turnpikes and barriers on the road, to prevent people's travelling; and that the towns on the road would not suffer people from London to pass, for fear of bringing the infection along with them, though neither of these rumours had any foundation, but in the imagination ; especially at first.”

The ravages of the disease began now to travel eastward with more rapid strides, and there could be no doubt in believing, that the whole of the metropolis would be visited in turn. The passengers in the streets began cautiously to keep the middle of the streets, to avoid one another, and only cast mournful and suspicious glances at those whom they had been used to greet with joy; shops were closed; all trade suspended; and all manufacturers discharged, to brood sure over starvation and disease. The court was removed to Oxford, the courts of justice and the inns of court were all closed, all egress out of the city was barred by the apprehensions of the country, and, by the middle of summer, London was in a state of siege.

“The face of London was now indeed strangely altered, I mean the whole mass of buildings, city, liberties, suburbs, Westminster, Southwark, and altogether; for as to the particular part, called the city, or within the walls, that was not yet much infected; but in the whole, the face of things, I say, was much altered; sorrow and sadness sat upon every face; and though some part were not yet overwhelmed, yet all looked deeply concerned; and as we saw it apparently coming on, so every one looked on himself and his family as in the utmost danger: were it possible to represent those times exactly to those who did not see them, and give the reader due ideas of the horror that every where presented itself, it must make just impressions upon their minds, and fill them with surprise. London might weil be said to be all in tears; the mourners did not go about the streets indeed, for nobody put on black, or made a formal dress of mourning for their nearest friends; but the Vol. I. No. 4.Museum.

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voice of mourning was truly heard in the streets; the shrieks of women and children at the windows and doors of their houses, where their dearest relations were, perhaps, dying, or just dead, were so frequent to be heard, as we passed the streets, that it was enough to pierce the stoutest heart in the world, to hear them. Tears and lamentations were seen in almost every house, especially in the first part of the visitation for towards the latter end, men's hearts were hardened, and death was so always before their eyes, that they did not so much concern themselves for the loss of their friends, expecting that themselves should be summoned the next hour."

Superstition, as it always does, ushered in misfortune, and furnished another melancholy feature in the funereal aspect which the city presented. Amulets, charms, and mystical signs, were never in such request, and the brazen head of Friar Bacon, the fortune-tellers' sign, was mounted in every street.

"The apprehensions of the people were likewise strangely increased by the error of the times; in which, I think, the people, from what principle I cannot imagine, were more addicted to prophecies, and astrological conjurations, dreams, and old wives' tales, than ever they were before or since: whether this unhappy temper was originally raised by the follies of some people who got money by it, that is to say, by printing predictions and prognostications, I know not; but certain it is, books frighted them terribly; such as Lilly's Almanack, Gadbury's Astrological Predictions, Poor Robin's Almanack, and the like; also several pretended religious books; one entitled, Come out of her my People, lest you be partaker of her Plagues; another, called Fair Warning; another, Britain's Remembrancer; and many such; all, or most part of which, foretold, directly or covertly, the ruin of the city; nay, some were so enthusiastically bold as to run about the streets, with their oral predictions, pretending they were sent to preach to the city; and one, in particular, who, like Jonah to Nineveh, cried in the streets,-yet forty days, and LONDON shall be destroyed. I will not be positive whether he said yet forty days, or yet a few days. Another ran about naked, except a pair of drawers about his waist, crying day and night, like a man that Josephus mentions, who cried, Wo to Jerusalem!' a little before the destruction of that city; so this poor naked creature cried, 'O the great and the dreadful God!' and said no more, but repeated those words continually with a voice and countenance full of horror, a swift pace, and nobody could ever find him to stop, or rest, or take any sustenance, at least, that ever I could hear of. I met this poor creature several times in the streets, and, would have spoken to him, but he would not enter into speech with me, or any one else, but held on his dismal cries continually."

Quacks and mountebanks, it will be readily imagined, followed in the train of prophets and astrologers.

"On the other hand, it is incredible, and scarce to be imagined, how the posts of houses and corners of streets were plastered over with doctors' bills and papers of ignorant fellows, quacking and tampering in physic, and inviting the people to come to them for remedies, which was generally set off with such flourishes as these, viz.-Infallible preventive pills against the plague,-Never-failing preservatives against the infection,-Sovereign cordials against the corruption of the air,— Exact regulations for the conduct of the body in case of an infection,—Anti-pestilential pills,-Incomparable drink against the plague, never found out before,-An universal remedy for the plague,-The only true plague water,-The royal antidote against all kinds of infection; and such a number more that I cannot reckon up, and if I could, would fill a book of themselves to set them down."

When the infection began to spread, the magistrates consulted, to devise means for stopping, or, at least, impeding its progress. The result of their deliberations was a series of orders which appointed examiners, searchers, chirurgeons, and buryers, to each district, acting under certain regulations, and which directed the provisions of an old act of parliament to be enforced, for shutting up all such houses as appeared to the proper officers to contain any infected person. Every

house which was visited, as it was called, was by these orders “marked with a red cross of a foot long, in the middle of the door, evident to be seen, and with these usual printed words, that is to say, Lord have mercy upon us, to be set close over the same cross, there to continue until the lawful opening of the same house." Two watchmen were appointed to the front and back of each house so closed, who forbid all ingress and egress; thus leaving the wild pestilence to do its worst within a limited space, and, as it were, feeding it with a small prey, to induce it to abstain from greater. All the other regulations appear to have been dictated by wisdom and experience; but this was one of the greatest mistakes that could have been committed, and tended materially to prolong the ravages, and to increase the mortality of the disease. For it can easily be conceived, that every family would submit most reluctantly to be thus made a victim for the common good; the more especially, as it often happened, that a whole house would be, in this manner, doomed to certain destruction by the illness of a servant or an inmate, whom they would otherwise have removed to a pest-house. The consequence was, that, in despair, families would often break out, overpower the watchmen, and escape in

every

direction ; thus spreading the disorder they were confined to check. Every artifice was used for the purpose of deluding the vigilance of the watchmen, and when dexterity failed, bribery was resorted to, and all together succeeded to such an extent, as to render the order worse than useless. For, a temporary continement only increased the number of the infected, and their escape scattered over the city unhealthy fugitives, who left their malady at every abiding place. As it was difficult to ascertain when any individual was infected, through its being the interest of the whole to conceal it, it often happened, that the plague was raging in a house not closed up, which partial carrying into eifect of the order produced much false confidence, and, consequently, much mischief. Not to mention the injury caused by concealment, and the objection to apply for medical aid, lest it should lead to a discovery, and, as a sort of penalty upon misfortune, a close imprisonment. The orders respecting the burying of the dead had in them somewhat of harshness, but only such as the necessity of the times demanded. Every morning before suprise, and every night, the dead-cart went its rounds; every family was compelled to bring out its dead at the ringing of the driver's bell, and throw them into the cart, which instantly proceeded to pits of tremendous size and depth, where they shot their melancholy burden, like a load of dust or bricks. No service was performed, no bells were tolled, every friend was forbidden to attend, and no spectator allowed. The funeral rites and ceremonies could not have been celebrated bad clergymen been found to do the duty; for the numbers were so great, that the inhabitants of whole streets, courts, and alleys, were sometimes lying dead together: it may be imagined, in too deep a slumber to obey the call of the dead-bell, so that the buryers were sometimes led to infer the real state of the case by the absence of the usual tribute of a corpse, as they passed the doors. The following anecdote will give a lively idea of the state of great numbers of houses, placed in the same situation.

“A watchman, it seems, had been employed to keep his post at the door of a house which was infected, or said to be infected, and was shut up; he had been

there all night for two nights together, as he told his story, and the day-watchman had been there one day, and was now come to relieve him: all this while no poise had been heard in the house, no light had been seen; they called for nothing, sent him of no errands, which used to be the chief business of the watchmen; neither had they given him any disturbance; as he said, from the Monday afternoon, when he heard great crying and screaming in the house, which, as he supposed, was occasioned by some of the family dying just at that time; it seems the night before, the dead cart, as it was called, had been stopt there, and a servant maid had been brought down to the door, dead, and the buriers or bearers, as they were called, put her into the cart, wrapped only in a green rug, and carried her away.

“The watchman had knocked at the door, it seems, when he heard that noise and crying, as above, and nobody answered a great while; but at last one looked out, and said, with an angry quick tone, and yet a kind of crying voice, or a voice of one that was crying, “What do ye want, that ye make such a knocking” he answered, “I am the watchman! how do you do? what is the matter?' the person answered, “What is that to you? stop the dead cart.' This, it seems, was about one o'clock : soon after, as the fellow said, he stopped the dead cart, and then knocked again, but nobody answered: he continued knocking, and the bellman called out several times, ‘Bring out your dead!' but nobody answered, till the man that drove the cart, being called to other houses, would stay no longer, and drove away.

“The watchman knew not what to make of all this, so he let them alone till the morning-man, or day-watchman, as they called him, came to relieve him, giving him an account of the particulars; they knocked at the door a great while, but nobody answered; and they observed, that the window or casement at which the person had looked out who had answered before, continued open, being up two pair of stairs.

“Upon this, the two men, to satisfy their curiosity, got a long ladder, and one of them went up to the window, and looked into the room, where he saw a woman lying dead upon the floor in a dismal manner, having no clothes on her but her shift: but though he called aloud, and putting in his long staff, knocked hard on the floor, yet nobody stirred or answered; neither could he hear any noise in the house.

“ He came down again upon this, and acquainted his fellow, who went up also, and finding it just so, they resolved to acquaint either the Lord Mayor, or some other magistrate, of it, but did not offer to go in at the window: the magistrate, it seems, upon the information of the two men, ordered the house to be broke open, a constable and other persons being appointed to be present, that nothing might be plundered; and accordingly it was so done, when nobody was found in the house but that young woman, who, having been infected, and past recovery, the rest had left her to die by herself, and were every one gone, having found some way to delude the watchman, and to get open the door, or get out at some backdoor, or over the tops of the houses, so that he knew nothing of it; and as to those cries and shrieks which he heard, it was supposed they were the passionate cries of the family at the bitter parting which, to be sure, it was to them all; this being the sister to the mistress of the family. The man of the house, his wife, several children, and servants, being all gone and filed, whether sick or sound, that I could never learn; nor, indeed, did I make much inquiry after it.”

Many of the clergymen fled from their cures; and it was a novel spectacle to see ministers of all sects mounting any pulpit that happened to be vacant in church or chapel. Wherever it might be they never wanted an audience, for the awfulness of the times turned multitudes to prayer, who never thought of religion before. The preacher had no sooner done than he gave way to another of perhaps quite opposite doctrine, a harmony which, however, only lasted while the plague raged. One of the earliest signs of returning health was, the separation into sects, and the struggle for pulpits between contending preachers. It was only in the height of the disorder, when pollution from meeting one's neighbour was more to be dreaded than ever, that the churches became thinner. For it was one of the miseries of this visitation, that every body was afraid of his neighbour; who might be walking about in apparent health, and yet, unknown to himself, bear about him his own death, and the pollution of all who came near him. The modes in which the disease made its attack were various; dizziness, vomiting, delirium, stupor, blains, and carbuncles, were different indications of infection; but it frequently happened, that the patient did not know he was ill till three hours before his death, when there was one fatal sign which never failed to show that death had marked that person for his own on whom they appeared. These were pestilential characters, called tokens, minute and distinct spots which appeared on the surface of the body, and chiefly on the breast. A person, who had not the slightest suspicion of his being infected, would not unfrequently be told by a friend, who would look upon his breast for that purpose, that he had but a few hours to live. We will extract two instances of cases similar to this from the Loimologia ; or an Historical Account of the Plague in London, in 1665. By Nath. Hodges, M.D. and Fellow of the College of Physicians, who resided in the City all that time ; originally written in Latin.

“ I was called to a girl the first day of her seizure, who breathed without any difficulty, her warmth was moderate and natural, her inwards free from glowing and pain, and her pulse not unequal or irregular; but, on the contrary, all things genuine and well, as if she had ailed nothing; and, indeed, I was rather inclined to think she counterfeited being sick, than really to be out of order, until examining her breast, I found the certain characters of death imprinted in many places; and in that following night she died, before she herself, or any person about her, could discern her otherwise out of order.

“Some time after I visited a widow of sixty years of age, whom I met with at dinner, where she eat heartily of mutton, and filled besides her stomach with broth; after I had inquired into several particulars relating to her health, she affirmed herself to have never been better in her life, but upon feeling her pulse, I perceived it to intermit, and upon examining her breast, I found an abundance of tokens, which proved too true a prognostic, that even after so good a dinner she would, by the evening, be in another world.”

This book affords us a very near view of the sabject of this article, and is of great authority, as the composition of one of the most eminent physicians of the time. His theory, with respect to the origin and nature of this malignant fever, may be erroneous and perhaps un. philosophical, but his practical notions are, in general, good; and his immense experience, during the whole course of that dismal period, renders him an undeniable witness. The following passage from his book gives us as lively a picture of the wretchedness of these times as any in the pages of the novelist.

" In the months of August and September, the contagion changed its former slow and languid pace, and having, as it were, got master of all, made a most terrible slaughter, so that three, four, or five thousand died in a week, and once eight thousand; who can express the calamities of such times? The whole British nation wept for the miseries of her metropolis. In some houses carcases lay waiting for burial, and in others, persons in their last agonies; in one room might be heard dying groans, in another the ravings of a 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 widwife to all children, and infants passed immediately from the womb to the grave; who would not burst with grief, to see the stock for a future generation hang upon the breasts of a dead mother? Or the marriage-bed changed the first night into a sepulchre, and the unhappy pair meet with death in their first embraces! Some of the infected run about staggering like drunken men, and fall and expire in the streets ; while others lie half dead and comatose, but Rever to be waked but by the last trumpet; some lie vomiting as if they had