being plundered and laid waste by the multitude. Nor were the
magistrates deficient in performing their part as boldly as they
promised it; for my Lord Mayor and the sheriffs were continually in
the streets and at places of the greatest danger, and though they did
not care for having too great a resort of people crowding about them,
yet in emergent cases they never denied the people access to them,
and heard with patience all their grievances and complaints. My Lord
Mayor had a low gallery built
on purpose in his hall, where he stood a little removed from the crowd
when any complaint came to be heard, that he might appear with as
much safety as possible.
Likewise the proper officers, called my Lord Mayor’s officers,
constantly attended in their turns, as they were in waiting; and if any
of them were sick or infected, as some of them were, others were
instantly employed to fill up and officiate in their places till it was
known whether the other should live or die.
In like manner the sheriffs and aldermen did in their several stations
and wards, where they were placed by office, and the sheriff’s officers
or sergeants were appointed to receive orders from the respective
aldermen in their turn, so that justice was executed in all cases
without interruption. In the next place, it was one of their particular
cares to see
the orders for the freedom of the markets observed, and in this part
either the Lord Mayor or one or both of the sheriffs were every
market-day on horseback to see their orders executed and to see that
the country people had all possible encouragement and freedom in
their coming to the markets and going back again, and that no
nuisances or frightful objects should be seen in the streets to terrify
them or make them unwilling to come. Also the bakers were taken
under particular order, and the Master of the Bakers’ Company was,
with his court of assistants, directed to see the order of my Lord
Mayor for their regulation put in execution, and the due assize of
bread (which was weekly appointed by my Lord Mayor) observed; and
all the bakers were obliged to keep their oven going constantly, on
pain of losing the privileges of a freeman of the city of London.
By this means bread was always to be had in plenty, and as cheap as
usual, as I said above; and provisions were never wanting in the
markets, even to such a degree that I often wondered at it, and
reproached myself with being so timorous and cautious in stirring
abroad, when the country people came freely and boldly to market, as
if there had been no manner of infection in the city, or danger of
catching it.
It. was indeed one admirable piece of conduct in the said
magistrates that the streets were kept constantly dear and free from all
manner of frightful objects, dead bodies, or any such things as were
indecent or unpleasant – unless where anybody fell down suddenly or
died in the streets, as I have said above; and these were generally
covered with some cloth or blanket, or removed into the next
churchyard till night. All the needful works that carried terror with
them, that were both dismal and dangerous, were done in the night; if
any diseased bodies were removed, or dead bodies buried, or infected
clothes burnt, it was done in the night; and all the bodies which were
thrown into the great pits in the several churchyards or burying-
grounds, as has. been observed, were so removed in the night, and
everything was covered and closed before day. So that in the daytime
there was not the least signal of the calamity to be seen or heard of,
except what was to be observed from the emptiness of the streets, and
sometimes from the passionate outcries and lamentations of the
people, out at their windows, and from the numbers of houses and
shops shut up.
Nor was the silence and emptiness of the streets so much in the city
as in the out-parts, except just at one particular time when, as I have