Speaker 1: Chapter sixteen of Unknown London, written by Walter George Bell.
Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by
Speaker 1: Janet Chapter sixteen Letters from London during the Great Plague.
Speaker 1: John Allen, minister of the Gospel and student of medicine,
Speaker 1: wrote these letters in sixteen sixty five, when London was
Speaker 1: sick and dying of the Great Plague. Fires like funeral
Speaker 1: pyres were kept burning in the streets, adding a foul
Speaker 1: smoke to so much other foulness. The streets were mostly empty,
Speaker 1: for few people ventured into them, and then furtively suspicious
Speaker 1: of every passer by. Once the citizen was out of
Speaker 1: doors on some needful errand his fears were made plain
Speaker 1: by his prime progress corkscrew fashion as he crossed and
Speaker 1: recrossed the road times out of number, this to avoid
Speaker 1: even a meeting on the same side with some other
Speaker 1: person approaching. Human beings are by nature neighborly, the isolation
Speaker 1: among them born of this awful visitation, the dread of
Speaker 1: contact with one's own kind as with a leper, the
Speaker 1: hideous selfishness of the time, self centered wholly on maintaining
Speaker 1: one's own existence. These were as horrible as were the
Speaker 1: ghastlier tokens of death, striking down men a thousand daily.
Speaker 1: London was a city of prisons, the locked and guarded
Speaker 1: dwellings of citizens into which plague had entered. A watcher
Speaker 1: stood before each door, ready to fetch the bare necessities
Speaker 1: for sustaining life for the stricken prisoners within, but never
Speaker 1: loosening the bolts. He took his instructions from a safe
Speaker 1: distance from a casement window thrown open above. On door
Speaker 1: after door was marked with chalk, a red cross, and
Speaker 1: the plaintive words Lord have mercy upon us. There were
Speaker 1: doors in these specter haunted streets which never opened till
Speaker 1: the dead cart came on its round, and the bodies,
Speaker 1: those of a whole family, were brought out and unceremoniously
Speaker 1: added to the heap already collected. Then the cart trundled
Speaker 1: away for the pit. There was no time for ceremony,
Speaker 1: nor with death so common an occurrence, the mood for
Speaker 1: it over the city was a strange, uncanny silence, broken
Speaker 1: only by the dirge of the church bells. Traffic had
Speaker 1: disappeared from the streets, and by withdrawing, accentuated the city's
Speaker 1: apparent emptiness. A big city, even in Stace sixteen sixty five,
Speaker 1: with all its activities suddenly stopped. Shops were closed, A
Speaker 1: goodly part of the population had fled. There was not
Speaker 1: even conversation the pleasant sound of human voices. London had
Speaker 1: become a tomb of the living and the dead, its
Speaker 1: one great artery of communication and of commerce. The River
Speaker 1: Thames had the same oppressive quietness as prevailed among the buildings,
Speaker 1: the boatmen having moved upstream, taking wives and children with
Speaker 1: them away from the infection. London Nurse heard with the
Speaker 1: distinctness that was arresting the rush of the rapids between
Speaker 1: the starlings and peers of old London Bridge. John Allen
Speaker 1: had mentioned in his letters they deal with many topics,
Speaker 1: that severe winter frost, starting about Christmas sixteen sixty four,
Speaker 1: had continued almost without a break till April. Then, on
Speaker 1: the twenty seventh April, he gives casually, in a sentence,
Speaker 1: as if of little importance, the first indication of all
Speaker 1: that was to follow. I heard yesterday there are two
Speaker 1: houses shut up in Drury Lane for the sickness. He
Speaker 1: wrote much the packet's number in all one hundred and
Speaker 1: ninety letters extending over ten years. Something impelled him to write,
Speaker 1: and frequently when the plague was raging at its worst,
Speaker 1: probably a longing for human intercourse and sympathy, even though
Speaker 1: he knew people are brutally frank at such times that
Speaker 1: his letters were received with dread. Lest contagion should be
Speaker 1: carried on the written sheet. Surely, if my friends be
Speaker 1: afraid of my letters, I would not be afraid of theirs,
Speaker 1: he writes in one half reproachfully out of his solitude.
Speaker 1: John Allen was a parson ministering at the quaint old
Speaker 1: Sinkport town of Rye, till in sixteen sixty two the
Speaker 1: Conformity Act put the problem of conscience nakedly before him.
Speaker 1: Could he serve God and do what man required of him?
Speaker 1: He decided that he could not, and his name has
Speaker 1: honorable place on the role of those many hundreds of
Speaker 1: devout and brave churchmen who went out into the wilderness
Speaker 1: at the Great Ejectment. His journeyings brought him to London,
Speaker 1: and there he took up the study of medicine. He
Speaker 1: addressed his letters, which are still preserved, to two friends
Speaker 1: he had left behind at Rye. Philip frithe a solicitor
Speaker 1: and Samuel Jeek, the historian of the Sink ports, and
Speaker 1: they reveal a somewhat surprising personality. Surprising that is to
Speaker 1: us at this day, though no doubt common enough two
Speaker 1: and a half centuries ago for John Allen, priest of
Speaker 1: the Anglican Church, a man of education, probably trained at college,
Speaker 1: a lettered man, held strange beliefs. At night, he looked
Speaker 1: out upon the stars, intent on divining from them the
Speaker 1: decisions of fate. He dabbled in alchemy with something of
Speaker 1: the unbeaten faith of the old searchers after the secret
Speaker 1: of the transmutation of metals, and his astrology and alchemy
Speaker 1: mixed together in a curious pottage with those medical studies
Speaker 1: by which he hoped to give benefit to suffering humanity.
Speaker 1: He writes no connected narrative of the plague. In certain letters,
Speaker 1: especially when the infection came nearest to his home, the
Speaker 1: absorbing topic occupied all his attle tension. But at times
Speaker 1: the mention is most casual, merely the number of deaths
Speaker 1: in London for the week recorded in the published Bills
Speaker 1: of Mortality. The reader often is annoyed at omissions of
Speaker 1: what might have been told, but there is enough, remembering
Speaker 1: that these are original letters by a man who lived
Speaker 1: through the plague. The world knows that time of horror
Speaker 1: only from Defoe's Journal of the Plague, here a work
Speaker 1: that owes its apparent authenticity to the author's art alone,
Speaker 1: assisted by copious quotations from printed and manuscript records at
Speaker 1: his hand. Much unprofitable ingenuity has been spent in seeking
Speaker 1: to establish that H. F the reputed writer of the journal,
Speaker 1: was Defoe's uncle Henry Foe. The book was given to
Speaker 1: the world as fiction. Allan is worth attention as fact.
Speaker 1: May twenty six, Ye, sickness is to increase in Holland,
Speaker 1: as it also doth hear ye bill mentioned three last
Speaker 1: week and fourteen this week, But it's rather believed to
Speaker 1: be troubled the number at ye upper end of the town.
Speaker 1: Persons high and low are very fearful of it, and
Speaker 1: many removed. One house, if not two, are lately shut
Speaker 1: in Chancery Lane, and one about Cripplegate. June twenty six,
Speaker 1: I hear ye general bill this week will be about
Speaker 1: twenty five hundred. I thank god, I go about my
Speaker 1: business without any slave of sphear of it. Yet my
Speaker 1: body too apt for such a disease which proves very
Speaker 1: mortal where it comes many whole families of seven, eight, nine, ten,
Speaker 1: eighteen in family totally swept away. I think there is
Speaker 1: no fleeing from God's hand. And truly this sickness, so
Speaker 1: highly pestiential in some places, speaks it to be more
Speaker 1: a judgment than anything else. And true repentance is the
Speaker 1: best antidote and pardon of sin, the best cordial. July
Speaker 1: gave fearful indication of the terrors of plague, the deaths
Speaker 1: attributed to it that month having numbered four thousand, one
Speaker 1: hundred nineteen. But there was to be a startling leap
Speaker 1: up from these figures. On the eleventh August, Allan writes
Speaker 1: to Frith, who evidently had suggested his flight from London.
Speaker 1: I shall not think myself safer there at Rye than here,
Speaker 1: whilst my call is to stay here. Yet I am
Speaker 1: troubled at the approach of the sickness nearer every week,
Speaker 1: and at a new burying place which they have made
Speaker 1: near us, and with some piece of indiscretion used in
Speaker 1: not shutting up, but rather making great funerals for such
Speaker 1: as die of the distemper, which yet I think God
Speaker 1: will not put an end to till sin be left
Speaker 1: and suppressed more than it is. But God seems to
Speaker 1: pursue a design which doubtless he will effect before he
Speaker 1: hath done. Four thousand thirty in all, two thousand, eight
Speaker 1: hundred seventeen Plague August eighteen, five thousand, three hundred nineteen,
Speaker 1: this week's bill in general. Mister Sidney Porter, mister Miller's
Speaker 1: brother in law, died last Tuesday. I am afraid to
Speaker 1: write to mister Miller of it, lest he should be
Speaker 1: afraid of my letter. But pray let him know of
Speaker 1: his brother's death. August twenty four. I am through mercy
Speaker 1: yet well in midst of death, and that too approaching
Speaker 1: nearer and nearer. Not many doors off, and the pit
Speaker 1: open daily within view of my chamber window. The Lord
Speaker 1: fit me and all of us for our last end.
Speaker 1: Here are many who are amulets made of the poison
Speaker 1: of the toad, which, if there be no infection, works nothing,
Speaker 1: but upon any infection invading from time to time raise
Speaker 1: a blister, which a plaster heals. And so they are well.
Speaker 1: Perhaps I may, by ye next get the true preparation
Speaker 1: of it, and send it to you, I saw this
Speaker 1: day some prima materia in our streets. Let us, not
Speaker 1: presuming on the fuller knowledge that now is common property,
Speaker 1: call the honest man quack. The ex Vicar of Rye A. Scoffer,
Speaker 1: as above made plane at simple folk who placed their
Speaker 1: faith in the toad amulet. Was himself an earnest seeker
Speaker 1: after the true elixir that should conquer the plague, on
Speaker 1: the essential merit of cleanliness, sanitation, fresh air, purity, and
Speaker 1: food and water. He, in common with medical men of
Speaker 1: his ais age, had no enlightenment, his mind confused with
Speaker 1: alchemy and astrology. He believed the cure would be found
Speaker 1: in an extract from the little plant growth best known
Speaker 1: as califolium. It fell from heaven in the night, was
Speaker 1: once the popular belief. The plant which is indicated so
Speaker 1: often in these letters by the general term materia prima,
Speaker 1: was the tremella no stock lynn. It appears in summer
Speaker 1: after rain on sandy and parched soils, is agitated with
Speaker 1: a tremulous motion when fresh, and is so frail that
Speaker 1: gatherers must be out before sunrise. Once heated by the
Speaker 1: sun's rays, it dries and shrivels up, and nothing remains
Speaker 1: except some membranes brownish in color. Distilled, the plant yields
Speaker 1: a dark fetid oil, believed by the alchemists to contain
Speaker 1: the universal spirit, which, when extracted pure, would be the
Speaker 1: solvent of gold so long sought. After Allan employed a
Speaker 1: man to gather the plant for him, and moreover pestered
Speaker 1: his correspondents for supplies. In the true spirit of the
Speaker 1: scientific inquirer, he asks also for the moss that grows
Speaker 1: on dead man's skulls and bones, instancing a certain churchyard
Speaker 1: at Winchelsea, where it might be found that churchyard can
Speaker 1: have been kept with little reverence. He resumes the story
Speaker 1: of a stricken London in his Weekly Letters of the
Speaker 1: twenty ninth August. Meantime, much has happened. The troops had
Speaker 1: been moved into Hyde Park, the Court of Charles two
Speaker 1: had gone first to Hampton Court, and thence to Salisbury,
Speaker 1: but on the appearance of plague in that cathedral city
Speaker 1: fled precipitously to Oxford, whither the Michaelmas Law term was
Speaker 1: ordered to be taken, and a Royal proclamation was issued
Speaker 1: directing Parliament to meet there August twenty ninth, Ye sickness
Speaker 1: here is very much increased this week. I fear ye
Speaker 1: bill will be near double the former, And truly I
Speaker 1: know not how to think it should lessen, when as
Speaker 1: the greatest thing done to stop it fits taking ye
Speaker 1: fanatics out of their own houses, and sometimes caught meeting
Speaker 1: and carrying them to infected prisons of which we have none,
Speaker 1: free will be found in the end to heighten it,
Speaker 1: though it said when major of ye soldiers hath threatened
Speaker 1: by that means quickly to drive that plague away. Remember
Speaker 1: that there will be little prima materia found after a
Speaker 1: rainy but most in a dry night after a rainy
Speaker 1: day or weather the wind southwest. That month of August
Speaker 1: twenty thousand, forty six persons had died in London. September two,
Speaker 1: Ye sickness increased very much last Bill Fist. One thousand,
Speaker 1: nine hundred twenty eight increase ye total seven thousand, four
Speaker 1: hundred ninety six of ye plague six thousand, one hundred two.
Speaker 1: Since that bill, I have not particularly heard anything whither
Speaker 1: still increasing or not, but fear by the doleful and
Speaker 1: almost universal and continual ringing and tolling of bells, it
Speaker 1: doth increase. I am sure it approacheth to me. I
Speaker 1: mean my concernment for it. Hath pleased God to take
Speaker 1: from me the best friend I have in ye world,
Speaker 1: and one wherein my children he had three stood as
Speaker 1: much concerned as in myself with reference to what they
Speaker 1: should have expected from the relations of my wife. It
Speaker 1: is my brother Peter Smith, who is abroad on Lord's Day.
Speaker 1: Last in the morning towards evening a little ill then
Speaker 1: took something to sweat, which that night brought forth a
Speaker 1: stiffness under his ear, where he had a swelling that
Speaker 1: could not be brought to rise and break, but choked him.
Speaker 1: He died Thursday night last. I bless God. I am
Speaker 1: well was not with my brother after we see what
Speaker 1: it would be as little else upon every distemper here
Speaker 1: can be expected. It is a great mercy now counted
Speaker 1: to die of another disease September seventh, to frithe The
Speaker 1: increasing sickness hath now drawn very nigh me. And God
Speaker 1: knoweth whither I may write one more or no. It
Speaker 1: is at the next door, on both hands of me,
Speaker 1: and under the same roof. But I have no place
Speaker 1: of retiring. Neither in the city nor country, none in
Speaker 1: heaven nor earth to go on too. But God, only
Speaker 1: the Lord, lodge me in the bosom of his love,
Speaker 1: and then I shall be safe whatever betides. If I live.
Speaker 1: I hope to have some materia prima from you. If
Speaker 1: you could enclose a little dust in a letter, I
Speaker 1: shall be glad to receive it. Figures this week eight thousand,
Speaker 1: two hundred fifty two of plague six thousand, nine hundred
Speaker 1: seventy eight. It is truly still increasing. These three days.
Speaker 1: Hath been sea coal friars made in the streets about
Speaker 1: every twelfth door. But that will not do ye work
Speaker 1: of stopping God's hand. Nothing but repentance will do that
Speaker 1: of which no sign yet but oppressions and yet increasing.
Speaker 1: With increasing heat and continued drought, the plague grew in
Speaker 1: virulence in the first weeks of September, and the deaths
Speaker 1: scaled ever higher. Not a cloud drifted across the blue sky,
Speaker 1: and the sun scorched down upon the fever stricken city.
Speaker 1: Rain fell at last on the fifteenth of the month,
Speaker 1: putting out the fires in the streets and bringing new
Speaker 1: life to the parched grass that had grown up unchecked
Speaker 1: between the stones. The temperature fell, and the bills began
Speaker 1: to show a decline. But September, by reason of the
Speaker 1: vast mortality with which it was ushered in as the
Speaker 1: worst record of the plague, gear Allan at this time
Speaker 1: tells the facts of a medical investigation and its frightful sequel.
Speaker 1: September fourteenth. This sickness, though more die because more are infected,
Speaker 1: yet thanks be to God, is not so mortal as
Speaker 1: at the first, for more recover of it now than formerly.
Speaker 1: If we knew how to trust the bills, it is
Speaker 1: decreased in the general. The general bill is seven thousand,
Speaker 1: six hundred ninety buried this week, whereof of the plague
Speaker 1: six thousand, five hundred forty four, our friend doctor Starkey
Speaker 1: is dead of this visitation, with about six more of
Speaker 1: them chemical practitioners, who in an insulting way over other galonists,
Speaker 1: and in a sort over this visitation sickness, which is
Speaker 1: more a judgment than a disease. Because they could not
Speaker 1: resist it by their galinical medicines, which they were too
Speaker 1: confident that their chemical medicines could do. They would give
Speaker 1: money for the most infected body they could hear of
Speaker 1: to dissect which they had and opened to search the
Speaker 1: seat of this disease, et cetera. Upon ye opening, whereof
Speaker 1: a stench ascended from the body and infected them every one.
Speaker 1: And it is said they are all dead, since the
Speaker 1: most of them distractedly mad. Whereof g Starkey is one.
Speaker 1: I hear also that above seven score doctors, apothecaries and
Speaker 1: surgeons are dead of this distemper in and about ye city.
Speaker 1: Since this visitation, God is resolved to stain the pride
Speaker 1: of all glory, there is no boasting before him, and
Speaker 1: much less against him. Again, about a week later, he
Speaker 1: writes to Jeek September twenty, it is somewhat refreshing to
Speaker 1: me to think you are yet willing to receive a
Speaker 1: line from me. It was an affliction to me that
Speaker 1: I knew not to whom I might send a letter
Speaker 1: with acceptance, except mister Fryth. Onely, I am afraid that
Speaker 1: some of my friends there are this day too much afraid,
Speaker 1: where no fear need to be, for were my pen infectious,
Speaker 1: my hand would soon let it drop. Gracious mister Cobb,
Speaker 1: one whom God sometimes employed in the work of comforting
Speaker 1: and supporting others. In this dark and gloomy day of
Speaker 1: the Lord, who yet fell by this sickness, and last
Speaker 1: Lord's day entered into his father's bosom. Clouds are gathering
Speaker 1: thicker and thicker, and I think verily the day of
Speaker 1: the Lord will yet prove more blacker. Whither the Lord
Speaker 1: will make good that word spoken by a child here
Speaker 1: concerning the increase of ye plague till eighteen thousand, three
Speaker 1: hundred seventeen die in a week, which all endeavors are
Speaker 1: used to conceal, though still goeth on in reality to
Speaker 1: increase it. And that word too, of a year's time
Speaker 1: of great and sad persecution, spoken by the same mouth
Speaker 1: after death had once cooled it. In this visitation time
Speaker 1: will show, did ever the brain of Edgar Allan Poe
Speaker 1: yield anything quite so morbid as the doctor's story just told.
Speaker 1: Even more gruesome, badly phrased as it is, is this
Speaker 1: of the child stricken dead with plague, yet after death,
Speaker 1: prophesizing by word of mouth another year of great and
Speaker 1: sad persecution before the plague should be lifted from the city.
Speaker 1: Distraught minds gave willing belief to the most incredible things.
Speaker 1: The public desired marvels. A blazing star had appeared in
Speaker 1: the skies, visible till daylight. A month before the plague
Speaker 1: struck London, Mister Secretary Morris's cistern of water turned into
Speaker 1: blood during a night lily. The popular astrologer, soothsayer and
Speaker 1: Charlatan had an eager audience for his almanacs and writings.
Speaker 1: Allan's next letter to his friends after two days Interval
Speaker 1: reports the week's deaths in London to have been eight thousand,
Speaker 1: two hundred ninety seven of plague seven thousand, one hundred
Speaker 1: sixty five, And on the twenty seventh September, he writes,
Speaker 1: I am where ye Lord hath hitherto amidst one hundred
Speaker 1: dying weekly preserved me, and yet through mercy am in
Speaker 1: health the Lord be praised. The Lord hath decreased this
Speaker 1: week's bill one thousand, eight hundred thirty seven. There dying
Speaker 1: this week, but six thousand, four hundred sixty plague five thousand,
Speaker 1: five hundred thirty three, And in our parish there was
Speaker 1: fifty decreased. But it is still very hot near me.
Speaker 1: I fear it will increase with you if you send
Speaker 1: any prima materia in a glass. I pray cover it
Speaker 1: over with paper and double seal it, that nothing of
Speaker 1: it be seen. The worst was over, and September plague
Speaker 1: had claimed in London twenty six thousand, two hundred thirty victims.
Speaker 1: So attributed and probably by far the largest proportion of
Speaker 1: others whose deaths were accounted for by various causes in
Speaker 1: the Bills of Mortality, save himself, Allan imparted to frith
Speaker 1: at Rye, the precautionary measure to which in part at
Speaker 1: least he attributed his own immunity. Friend, he writes, get
Speaker 1: a piece of angel gold, if you can, of a
Speaker 1: liz coin that is ye best, which is philosophical gold,
Speaker 1: and keep it always in your mouth. When you walk
Speaker 1: out or any sick persons come to you. You will
Speaker 1: find strange effects of it, for good and freedom of breathing,
Speaker 1: et cetera, as I have done. If you lie with
Speaker 1: it in your mouth without your teeth as I do,
Speaker 1: vist in one side between your cheek and gums, and
Speaker 1: so turning it sometimes on one side, sometimes on ye other. Thereafter,
Speaker 1: the references to the plague are shorter. October seventh, The
Speaker 1: sickness is now very hot at the next house to
Speaker 1: us one way, but hath been nearer, though none of
Speaker 1: our family hath been ill at all yet through a mercy,
Speaker 1: what with some employment on Lord's days at other days
Speaker 1: sometimes in this scarcity of ministers, many being dead, though
Speaker 1: more fled, I am straightened in time. At Yarmouth, Colchester, Ipswich.
Speaker 1: The sickness is very much, and now pretty much at Norwich,
Speaker 1: Southampton is reported to be almost depopulated. October nineteenth. We
Speaker 1: have had this week, God be praised a very merciful
Speaker 1: abatement of ye bill of mortality fixed one thousand, eight
Speaker 1: hundred forty nine, decreased this week, ye whole bill being
Speaker 1: three thousand, two hundred nineteen, whereof plague two thousand, six
Speaker 1: hundred sixty five. But yet it doth creep into fresh houses. Still,
Speaker 1: Ye Lord fit me for what is good will and pleasure?
Speaker 1: Is the long trial had told upon allen My head
Speaker 1: aketh at ye present, he writes in his first life
Speaker 1: letter of November. Again he repeats the prayer, Y Lord
Speaker 1: fit me for what he intends towards me. He looked
Speaker 1: at night into the vault of the heavens to read
Speaker 1: his fate the portense boded ill. It is pitiable to
Speaker 1: realize from the next letter that the man who had
Speaker 1: lived so long in daily and intimate contact with the
Speaker 1: facts of life and death, in extreme peril himself at
Speaker 1: the end of it all found no peace, but must
Speaker 1: needs worry his racked nerves with faint imagings about the
Speaker 1: malign influence of the stars. His mind remained simple. Allan
Speaker 1: clearly was a fatalist, but with faith undiminished, the faith
Speaker 1: he held while thousands were dying around him, and weary
Speaker 1: months passed in his unfruitful researches in the efficacy of
Speaker 1: the little plant, if if only its secret should be
Speaker 1: vouchsafe to him. November eight through mercy, I am yet
Speaker 1: very well, though never without daily fears, and truly not
Speaker 1: without cause, if I either consider the will of mine
Speaker 1: own heart, or yet if there be any truth in any
Speaker 1: language of the stars for Mars's coming to my ascendant
Speaker 1: in my nativity, which was their Lord of the eighth,
Speaker 1: and in my revolution this year, Lord of the Esque,
Speaker 1: and in his course of progress and regradation. He will
Speaker 1: continue within the compass of my ascendant in my nativity
Speaker 1: till first July next send as much prima materia as
Speaker 1: you can get gathered in Scorpio by itself, if in
Speaker 1: Virgo by itself November fourteen to jik, it is yet
Speaker 1: dying time with us. Though the bill hoped to have
Speaker 1: decreased this week November sixteenth, to thrive, you will see
Speaker 1: a little decrease in this bill. But truly God seems
Speaker 1: now in divers families to visit the second time after
Speaker 1: they have been all well six or eight weeks, and
Speaker 1: fresh houses in divers places, besides whole families swept away
Speaker 1: that have returned to Ye city already December seventh, some
Speaker 1: fresh houses in divers parishes are still visited, besides more
Speaker 1: of them that come to town or are employed in the
Speaker 1: airing of others houses. December twelfth. Divers persons and families,
Speaker 1: at their return home to the city have met with
Speaker 1: what they fled from. Insomuch that I fear and hear
Speaker 1: this week's bill hath an increase. I hear there is
Speaker 1: a new blazing star seen last week four or f
Speaker 1: five nights together about northeast December fourteenth, Ye sickness is
Speaker 1: now again increasing, as by Ye totals doth appear, But
Speaker 1: yet is increased in the sickness thirty three, and wholly
Speaker 1: in the city divers fresh houses since the return of
Speaker 1: fresh persons hither visited and swept December twenty sixth. The
Speaker 1: total of the General Bill this year is of all
Speaker 1: diseases ninety seven thousand, three hundred six, whereof the plague
Speaker 1: sixty eight thousand, five hundred ninety six. The sickness we
Speaker 1: fear is still increasing this week again next year. The
Speaker 1: deaths in London from all causes fell to twelve thousand,
Speaker 1: eight hundred thirty eight, as few persons dying in a
Speaker 1: month as had died in a day when the great
Speaker 1: plague raged. If allowance be made for the many thousands
Speaker 1: of those who fled from the infection into the country,
Speaker 1: the toll of the plague cannot have been less than
Speaker 1: one person out of every five who remained. End of
Speaker 1: Chapter sixteen.