its being the infection went also quite away with my illness, and I
went about my business as usual.
These things, however, put off all my thoughts of going into the
country; and my brother also being gone, I had no more debate either
with him or with myself on that subject.
It was now mid-July, and the plague, which had chiefly raged at the
other end of the town, and, as I said before, in the parishes of St Giles,
St Andrew’s, Holborn, and towards Westminster, began to now come
eastward towards the part where I lived. It was to be observed,
indeed, that it did not come straight on towards us; for the city, that is
to say, within the walls, was indifferently healthy still; nor was it got
then very much over the water into Southwark; for though there died
that week 1268 of all distempers, whereof it might be supposed above
600 died of the plague, yet there was but twenty-eight in the whole
city, within the walls, and but nineteen in Southwark, Lambeth parish
included; whereas in the parishes of St Giles and St Martin-in-the-
Fields alone there died 421.
But we perceived the infection kept chiefly in the out-parishes,
which being very populous, and fuller also of poor, the distemper
found more to prey upon than in the city, as I shall observe afterwards.
We perceived, I say, the distemper to draw our way, viz., by the
parishes of Clarkenwell, Cripplegate, Shoreditch, and Bishopsgate;
which last two parishes joining to Aldgate, Whitechappel, and Stepney,
the infection came at length to spread its utmost rage and violence in
those parts, even when it abated at the western parishes where it began.
It was very strange to observe that in this particular week, from the
4th to the 11th of July, when, as I have observed, there died near 400
of the plague in the two parishes of St Martin and St Giles-in-the-
Fields only, there died in the parish of Aldgate but four, in the parish
of Whitechappel three, in the parish of Stepney but one.
Likewise in the next week, from the 11th of July to the 18th, when
the week’s bill was 1761, yet there died no more of the plague, on the
whole Southwark side of the water, than sixteen.
But this face of things soon changed, and it began to thicken in
Cripplegate parish especially, and in Clarkenwell; so that by the
second week in August, Cripplegate parish alone buried 886, and
Clarkenwell 155. Of the first, 850 might well be reckoned to die of
the plague; and of the last, the bill itself said 145 were of the plague.
During the month of July, and while, as I have observed, our part of
the town seemed to be spared in comparison of the west part, I went
ordinarily about the streets, as my business required, and particularly
went generally once in a day, or in two days, into the city, to my
brother’s house, which he had given me charge of, and to see if it was
safe; and having the key in my pocket, I used to go into the house, and
over most of the rooms, to see that all was well; for though it be
something wonderful to tell, that any should have hearts so hardened
in the midst of such a calamity as to rob and steal, yet certain it is that
all sorts of villainies, and even levities and debaucheries, were then
practised in the town as openly as ever – I will not say quite as
frequently, because the numbers of people were many ways lessened.
But the city itself began now to be visited too, I mean within the
walls; but the number of people there were indeed extremely lessened
by so great a multitude having been gone into the country; and even
all this month of July they continued to flee, though not in such
multitudes as formerly. In August, indeed, they fled in such a manner
that I began to think there would be really none but magistrates and
servants left in the city.
As they fled now out of the city, so I should observe that the Court