St. Giles's, Cripplegate554
St. Sepulchre's250
Clerkenwell103
Bishopsgate116
Shoreditch110
Stepney Parish127
Aldgate92
Whitechapel104
All the 97 parishes within the walls228
All the parishes in Southwark205
1,889

So that, in short, there died more that week in the two parishes of Cripplegate and St. Sepulchre's by forty-eight than all the city, all the east suburbs, and all the Southwark parishes put together. This caused the reputation of the city's health to continue all over England, and especially in the counties and markets adjacent, from whence our supply of provisions chiefly came, even much longer than that health itself continued; for when the people came into the streets from the country by Shoreditch and Bishopsgate, or by Old Street and Smithfield, they would see the outstreets empty, and the houses and shops shut, and the few people that were stirring there walk in the middle of the streets; but when they came within the city, there things looked better, and the markets and shops were open, and the people walking about the streets as usual, though not quite so many; and this continued till the latter end of August and the beginning of September.

But then the case altered quite; the distemper abated in the west and northwest parishes, and the weight of the infection lay on the city and the eastern suburbs, and the Southwark side, and this in a frightful manner.

Then indeed the city began to look dismal, shops to be shut, and the streets desolate. In the High Street, indeed, necessity made people stir abroad on many occasions; and there would be in the middle of the day a pretty many[259] people, but in the mornings and evenings scarce any to be seen even there, no, not in Cornhill and Cheapside.

These observations of mine were abundantly confirmed by the weekly bills of mortality for those weeks, an abstract of which, as they respect the parishes which I have mentioned, and as they make the calculations I speak of very evident, take as follows.

The weekly bill which makes out this decrease of the burials in the west and north side of the city stands thus:—

St. Giles's, Cripplegate456
St. Giles-in-the-Fields140
Clerkenwell77
St. Sepulchre's214
St. Leonard, Shoreditch183
Stepney Parish716
Aldgate629
Whitechapel532
In the 97 parishes within the walls1,493
In the 8 parishes on Southwark side1,636
6,076

Here is a strange change of things indeed, and a sad change it was; and, had it held for two months more than it did, very few people would have been left alive; but then such, I say, was the merciful disposition of God, that when it was thus, the west and north part, which had been so dreadfully visited at first, grew, as you see, much better; and, as the people disappeared here, they began to look abroad again there; and the next week or two altered it still more, that is, more to the encouragement of the other part of the town. For example:—

Sept. 19-26.
St. Giles's, Cripplegate277
St. Giles-in-the-Fields119
Clerkenwell76
St. Sepulchre's193
St. Leonard, Shoreditch146
Stepney Parish616
Aldgate496
Whitechapel346
In the 97 parishes within the walls1,268
In the 8 parishes on Southwark side1,390
4,927
Sept. 26-Oct. 3.
St. Giles's, Cripplegate196
St. Giles-in-the-Fields95
Clerkenwell48
St. Sepulchre's137
St. Leonard, Shoreditch128
Stepney Parish674
Aldgate372
Whitechapel328
In the 97 parishes within the walls1,149
In the 8 parishes on Southwark side1,201
4,328

And now the misery of the city, and of the said east and south parts, was complete indeed; for, as you see, the weight of the distemper lay upon those parts, that is to say, the city, the eight parishes over the river, with the parishes of Aldgate, Whitechapel, and Stepney, and this was the time that the bills came up to such a monstrous height as that I mentioned before, and that eight or nine, and, as I believe, ten or twelve thousand a week died; for it is my settled opinion that they[260] never could come at any just account of the numbers, for the reasons which I have given already.