says he, ‘you, brother Tom, that are a sailmaker, might easily make us
a little tent, and I will undertake to set it up every night, and take it
down, and a fig for all the inns in England; if we have a good tent
over our heads we shall do well enough.’
The joiner opposed this, and told them, let them leave that to him;
he would undertake to build them a house every night with his hatchet
and mallet, though he had no other tools, which should be fully to
their satisfaction, and as good as a tent.
The soldier and the joiner disputed that point some time, but at last
the soldier carried it for a tent. The only objection against it was,
that it must be carried with them, and that would increase their baggage
too much, the weather being hot; but the sailmaker had a piece of
good hap fell in which made that easy, for his master whom he
worked for, having a rope-walk as well as sailmaking trade, had a
little, poor horse that he made no use of then; and being willing to
assist the three honest men, he gave them the horse for the carrying
their baggage; also for a small matter of three days’ work that his man
did for him before he went, he let him have an old top-gallant sail that
was worn out, but was sufficient and more than enough to make a
very good tent. The soldier showed how to shape it, and they soon by
his direction made their tent, and fitted it with poles or staves for the
purpose; and thus they were furnished for their journey, viz., three
men, one tent, one horse, one gun – for the soldier would not go
without arms, for now he said he was no more a biscuit-baker, but a trooper.
The joiner had a small bag of tools such as might be useful if he
should get any work abroad, as well for their subsistence as his own.
What money they had they brought all into one public stock, and thus
they began their journey. It seems that in the morning when they set
out the wind blew, as the sailor said, by his pocket-compass, at N.W.
by W. So they directed, or rather resolved to direct, their course N.W.
But then a difficulty came in their way, that, as they set out from the
hither end of Wapping, near the Hermitage, and that the plague was
now very violent, especially on the north side of the city, as in
Shoreditch and Cripplegate parish, they did not think it safe for them
to go near those parts; so they went away east through Ratcliff
Highway as far as Ratcliff Cross, and leaving Stepney Church still on
their left hand, being afraid to come up from Ratcliff Cross to Mile
End, because they must come just by the churchyard, and because the
wind, that seemed to blow more from the west, blew directly from the
side of the city where the plague was hottest. So, I say, leaving
Stepney they fetched a long compass, and going to Poplar and
Bromley, came into the great road just at Bow.
Here the watch placed upon Bow Bridge would have questioned
them, but they, crossing the road into a narrow way that turns out of
the hither end of the town of Bow to Old Ford, avoided any inquiry
there, and travelled to Old Ford. The constables everywhere were
upon their guard not so much, It seems, to stop people passing by as to
stop them from taking up their abode in their towns, and withal
because of a report that was newly raised at that time: and that,
indeed, was not very improbable, viz., that the poor people in London,
being distressed and starved for want of work, and by that means for
want of bread, were up in arms and had raised a tumult, and that they
would come out to all the towns round to plunder for bread. This, I
say, was only a rumour, and it was very well it was no more. But it
was not so far off from being a reality as it has been thought, for in a