both the folly and danger of it; and this checked it a little, so that they
grew more cautious. But it had another effect, which they could not
check; for as the first rumour had spread not over the city only, but
into the country, it had the like effect: and the people were so tired
with being so long from London, and so eager to come back, that they
flocked to town without fear or forecast, and began to show
themselves in the streets as if all the danger was over. It was indeed
surprising to see it, for though there died still from 1000 to 1800 a
week, yet the people flocked to town as if all had been well.
The consequence of this was, that the bills increased again 400 the
very first week in November; and if I might believe the physicians,
there was above 3000 fell sick that week, most of them new-comers, too.
One John Cock, a barber in St Martin’s-le-Grand, was an eminent
example of this; I mean of the hasty return of the people when the
plague was abated. This John Cock had left the town with his whole
family, and locked up his house, and was gone in the country, as many
others did; and finding the plague so decreased in November that
there died but 905 per week of all diseases, he ventured home again.
He had in his family ten persons; that is to say, himself and wife, five
children, two apprentices, and a maid-servant. He had not returned to
his house above a week, and began to open his shop and carry on his
trade, but the distemper broke out in his family, and within about five
days they all died, except one; that is to say, himself, his wife, all his
five children, and his two apprentices; and only the maid remained alive.
But the mercy of God was greater to the rest than we had reason to
expect; for the malignity (as I have said) of the distemper was spent,
the contagion was exhausted, and also the winter weather came on
apace, and the air was clear and cold, with sharp frosts; and this
increasing still, most of those that had fallen sick recovered, and the
health of the city began to return. There were indeed some returns of
the distemper even in the month of December, and the bills increased
near a hundred; but it went off again, and so in a short while things
began to return to their own channel. And wonderful it was to see
how populous the city was again all on a sudden, so that a stranger
could not miss the numbers that were lost. Neither was there any miss
of the inhabitants as to their dwellings – few or no empty houses were
to be seen, or if there were some, there was no want of
tenants for them.
I wish I could say that as the city had a new face, so the manners of
the people had a new appearance. I doubt not but there were many
that retained a sincere sense of their deliverance, and were that
heartily thankful to that Sovereign Hand that had protected them in so
dangerous a time; it would be very uncharitable to judge otherwise in
a city so populous, and where the people were so devout as they were
here in the time of the visitation itself; but except what of this was to
be found in particular families and faces, it must be acknowledged
that the general practice of the people was just as it was before, and
very little difference was to be seen.
Some, indeed, said things were worse; that the morals of the people
declined from this very time; that the people, hardened by the danger
they had been in, like seamen after a storm is over, were more wicked
and more stupid, more bold and hardened, in their vices and immoralities
than they were before; but I will not carry it so far neither. It would
take up a history of no small length to give a particular of all the
gradations by which the course of things in this city came to be