and had it held for two months more than it did, very few people
would have been left alive. But then such, I say, was the merciful
disposition of God that, when it was thus, the west and north part
which had been so dreadfully visited at first, grew, as you see, much
better; and as the people disappeared here, they began to look abroad
again there; and the next week or two altered it still more; that is,
more to the encouragement of tile other part of the town. For
example: –
From the 19th of September to the 26th –
St Giles, Cripplegate 277
St Giles-in-the-Fields 119
Clarkenwell 76
St Sepulchers 193
St Leonard, Shoreditch 146
Stepney parish 616
Aldgate 496
Whitechappel 346
In the ninety-seven parishes within the walls 1268
In the eight parishes on Southwark side 1390
—–
Total 4927
From the 26th of September to the 3rd of October –
St Giles, Cripplegate 196
St Giles-in-the-Fields 95
Clarkenwell 48
St Sepulchers 137
St Leonard, Shoreditch 128
Stepney parish 674
Aldgate 372
Whitechappel 328
In the ninety-seven parishes within the walls 1149
In the eight parishes on Southwark side 1201
—–
Total 4382
And now the misery of the city and of the said east and south parts
was complete indeed; for, as you see, the weight of the distemper lay
upon those parts, that is to say, the city, the eight parishes over the
river, with the parishes of Aldgate, Whitechappel, and Stepney; and
this was the time that the bills came up to such a monstrous height as
that I mentioned before, and that eight or nine, and, as I believe, ten or
twelve thousand a week, died; for it is my settled opinion that they
never could come at any just account of the numbers, for the reasons
which I have given already.
Nay, one of the most eminent physicians, who has since published
in Latin an account of those times, and of his observations says that in
one week there died twelve thousand people, and that particularly
there died four thousand in one night; though I do not remember that
there ever was any such particular night so remarkably fatal as that
such a number died in it. However, all this confirms what I have said
above of the uncertainty of the bills of mortality, &c., of which I shall
say more hereafter.
And here let me take leave to enter again, though it may seem a
repetition of circumstances, into a description of the miserable
condition of the city itself, and of those parts where I lived at this
particular time. The city and those other parts, notwithstanding the
great numbers of people that were gone into the country, was vastly
full of people; and perhaps the fuller because people had for a long
time a strong belief that the plague would not come into the city, nor
into Southwark, no, nor into Wapping or Ratcliff at all; nay, such was
the assurance of the people on that head that many removed from the
suburbs on the west and north sides, into those eastern and south sides
as for safety; and, as I verily believe, carried the plague amongst them
there perhaps sooner than they would otherwise have had it.
Here also I ought to leave a further remark for the use of posterity,
concerning the manner of people’s infecting one another; namely, that
it was not the sick people only from whom the plague was
immediately received by others that were sound, but the well. To
explain myself: by the sick people I mean those who were known to
be sick, had taken their beds, had been under cure, or had swellings
and tumours upon them, and the like; these everybody could beware
of; they were either in their beds or in such condition as could not
be concealed.
By the well I mean such as had received the contagion, and had it
really upon them, and in their blood, yet did not show the
consequences of it in their countenances: nay, even were not sensible
of it themselves, as many were not for several days. These breathed
death in every place, and upon everybody who came near them; nay,