This turned the people's eyes pretty much towards that end of the town; and, the weekly bills showing an increase of burials in St. Giles's Parish more than usual, it began to be suspected that the plague was among the people at that end of the town, and that many had died of it, though they had taken care to keep it as much from the knowledge of the public as possible. This possessed the heads of the people very much; and few cared to go through Drury Lane, or the other streets suspected, unless they had extraordinary business that obliged them to it.
This increase of the bills stood thus: the usual number of burials in a week, in the parishes of St. Giles-in-the-Fields and St. Andrew's, Holborn,[11] were[12] from twelve to seventeen or nineteen each, few more or less; but, from the time that the plague first began in St. Giles's Parish, it was observed that the ordinary burials increased in number considerably. For example:—
| Dec. 27 to Jan. 3, | St. Giles's | 16 |
| St. Andrew's | 17 | |
| Jan. 3 to Jan. 10, | St. Giles's | 12 |
| St. Andrew's | 25 | |
| Jan. 10 to Jan. 17, | St. Giles's | 18 |
| St. Andrew's | 18 | |
| Jan. 17 to Jan. 24, | St. Giles's | 23 |
| St. Andrew's | 16 | |
| Jan. 24 to Jan. 31, | St. Giles's | 24 |
| St. Andrew's | 15 | |
| Jan. 31 to Feb. 7, | St. Giles's | 21 |
| St. Andrew's | 23 | |
| Feb. 7 to Feb. 14, | St. Giles's | 24 |
| Whereof one of the plague. | ||
The like increase of the bills was observed in the parishes of St. Bride's, adjoining on one side of Holborn Parish, and in the parish of St. James's, Clerkenwell, adjoining on the other side of Holborn; in both which parishes the usual numbers that died weekly were from four to six or eight, whereas at that time they were increased as follows:—
| Dec. 20 to Dec. 27, | St. Bride's | 0 |
| St. James's | 8 | |
| Dec. 27 to Jan. 3, | St. Bride's | 6 |
| St. James's | 9 | |
| Jan. 3 to Jan. 10, | St. Bride's | 11 |
| St. James's | 7 | |
| Jan. 10 to Jan. 17, | St. Bride's | 12 |
| St. James's | 9 | |
| Jan. 17 to Jan. 24, | St. Bride's | 9 |
| St. James's | 15 | |
| Jan. 24 to Jan. 31, | St. Bride's | 8 |
| St. James's | 12 | |
| Jan. 31 to Feb. 7, | St. Bride's | 13 |
| St. James's | 5 | |
| Feb. 7 to Feb. 14, | St. Bride's | 12 |
| St. James's | 6 |
Besides this, it was observed, with great uneasiness by the people, that the weekly bills in general increased very much during these weeks, although it was at a time of the year when usually the bills are very moderate.
The usual number of burials within the bills of mortality for a week was from about two hundred and forty, or thereabouts, to three hundred. The last was esteemed a pretty high bill; but after this we found the bills successively increasing, as follows:—
| Buried. | Increased. | |
| Dec. 20 to Dec. 27 | 291 | 0 |
| Dec. 27 to Jan. 3 | 349 | 58 |
| Jan. 3 to Jan. 10 | 394 | 45 |
| Jan. 10 to Jan. 17 | 415 | 21 |
| Jan. 17 to Jan. 24 | 474 | 59 |
This last bill was really frightful, being a higher number than had been known to have been buried in one week since the preceding visitation of 1656.
However, all this went off again; and the weather proving cold, and the frost, which began in December, still continuing very severe, even till near the end of February, attended with sharp though moderate winds, the bills decreased again, and the city grew healthy; and everybody began to look upon the danger as good as over, only that still the burials in St. Giles's continued high. From the beginning of April, especially, they stood at twenty-five each week, till the week from the 18th to the 25th, when there was[13] buried in St. Giles's Parish thirty, whereof two of the plague, and eight of the spotted fever (which was looked upon as the same thing); likewise the number that died of the spotted fever in the whole increased, being eight the week before, and twelve the week above named.