were afraid they should, and forbade them, lest the plague should be
among them, which made them fare the better.
For the security of those northern traders, the coal-ships were
ordered by my Lord Mayor not to come up into the Pool above a
certain number at a time, and ordered lighters and other vessels such
as the woodmongers (that is, the wharf-keepers or coal-sellers)
furnished, to go down and take out the coals as low as Deptford and
Greenwich, and some farther down.
Others delivered great quantities of coals in particular places where
the ships could come to the shore, as at Greenwich, Blackwall, and
other places, in vast heaps, as if to be kept for sale; but were then
fetched away after the ships which brought them were gone, so that
the seamen had no communication with the river-men, nor so much as
came near one another.
Yet all this caution could not effectually prevent the distemper
getting among the colliery: that is to say among the ships, by which a
great many seamen died of it; and that which was still worse was, that
they carried it down to Ipswich and Yarmouth, to Newcastle-upon-
Tyne, and other places on the coast – where, especially at Newcastle
and at Sunderland, it carried off a great
number of people.
The making so many fires, as above, did indeed consume an unusual
quantity of coals; and that upon one or two stops of the ships coming
up, whether by contrary weather or by the interruption of enemies I do
not remember, but the price of coals was exceeding dear, even as high
as 4 a chalder; but it soon abated when the ships came in, and as
afterwards they had a freer passage, the price was very reasonable all
the rest of that year.
The public fires which were made on these occasions, as I have
calculated it, must necessarily have cost the city about 200 chalders of
coals a week, if they had continued, which was indeed a very great quantity;
but as it was thought necessary, nothing was spared. However, as some of
the physicians cried them down, they were not kept alight above four or
five days. The fires were ordered thus: –
One at the Custom House, one at Billingsgate, one at Queenhith,
and one at the Three Cranes; one in Blackfriars, and one at the gate of
Bridewell; one at the corner of Leadenhal Street and Gracechurch;
one at the north and one at the south gate of the Royal Exchange; one
at Guild Hall, and one at Blackwell Hall gate; one at the Lord Mayor’s
door in St Helen’s, one at the west entrance into St Paul’s, and one at
the entrance into Bow Church. I do not remember whether there was
any at the city gates, but one at the Bridge-foot there was, just by St
Magnus Church.
I know some have quarrelled since that at the experiment, and said
that there died the more people because of those fires; but I am
persuaded those that say so offer no evidence to prove it, neither can I
believe it on any account whatever.
It remains to give some account of the state of trade at home in
England during this dreadful time, and particularly as it relates to the
manufactures and the trade in the city. At the first breaking out of the
infection there was, as it is easy to suppose, a very great fright among
the people, and consequently a general stop of trade, except in
provisions and necessaries of life; and even in those things, as there
was a vast number of people fled and a very great number always sick,
besides the number which died, so there could not be above two-
thirds, if above one-half, of the consumption of provisions in the city
as used to be.
It pleased God to send a very plentiful year of corn and fruit, but not
of hay or grass – by which means bread was cheap, by reason of the
plenty of corn. Flesh was cheap, by reason of the scarcity of grass;
but butter and cheese were dear for the same reason, and hay in the