Early in June the court thought proper to remove to the city of Oxford, whither the infection did not reach. The people still continued to remove during the whole month of July though in smaller numbers than before; but in August the multitude of fugitives so increased that says our author, “I began to think there would be none but magistrates and servants left.” He informs us also that at the breaking out of this plague the city was unusually full of people; vast numbers who had served in the wars or who in times of trouble had been friends to royalty had flocked into it on the restoration of Charles II, in hopes of reaping some fruit of their former labours and sufferings; so that on the whole he supposes there must have been upwards of an hundred thousand people more than usual in the city. Indeed if we are to believe that, on a representation of the state of the poor to the lord mayor, it appeared that there were an hundred thousand ribband weavers in Spittle-fields, we must look upon the population of London at that time to have been incredibly great; and when the journalist computes the number of those who fled only at two hundred thousand, we must certainly suppose it to have been greatly underrated.
As the plague continued to become more and more violent, the magistrates thought proper to take some means for separating the infected from the healthy; but unhappily their mode of procedure was such as inspired both the infected and uninfected with the utmost terror. The houses were marked with a red cross, subscribed with the words “Lord, have mercy upon us!” in large letters. They were continually guarded, day and night; and none were allowed access to the sick, to give them either food or medicines, excepting those who guarded them; nor were the sick themselves allowed to go abroad until forty days after their recovery. But, though the distemper continually advanced, it did not get to its full height until the months of August and September. Before this time it seemed to fly from place to place; so that great hopes were entertained, though always without foundation, of its total removal; but now it invaded the whole city. Four or five thousand died in a week; once eight thousand; and, in the month of September, for some time, twelve thousand a week died. The city was reduced to the extremity of distress.
The author of this journal had the courage not only to remain in the city, during the whole time of the infection, but even took many solitary walks to the house of his brother, who had removed into the country, in order to preserve his goods from being stolen. At first he went every day, but afterwards only once or twice a week. He tells us also that he took many walks out of curiosity; and, though he generally came home frighted and terrified, he could not restrain himself. “In those walks (says he) I had many dismal scenes before my eyes; as particularly of persons falling dead in the streets, terrible shrieks, and screamings of women, who, in their agonies, would throw open their chamber windows, and cry out in a dismal, surprising manner.
“It is scarce credible what dreadful cases happened in particular families every day; people in the rage of the distemper, or in the torment of their swellings, which was indeed intolerable, running about raving and distracted; and oftentimes laying violent hands upon themselves, throwing themselves out at their windows, shooting themselves, &c. mothers murdering their own children, in their lunacy; some dying of mere grief as a passion; some of fright and surprise, without any infection at all; others frighted into idiotism and foolish distractions, some into despair and lunacy; others into melancholy madness.”
The distemper was found to rage so violently among the poorer sort, that we are told by Dr. Hodges, some gave it the name of the poor’s plague. This is confirmed by the journalist, who informs us that “the misery of that time lay chiefly upon the poor, who, being infected, had neither food nor physic; neither physician nor apothecary to assist them, nor nurse to attend them; many of those died calling for help, and even for sustenance, out of their windows, in a most miserable and deplorable manner; but it must be added, that, whenever the cases of such persons or families were represented to the lord mayor, they were always relieved.” Indeed the charity of the more opulent, upon this occasion, almost exceeds belief. Dr. Hodges informs us, that “though the more opulent had left the town, and it was left almost uninhabited, the commonalty who remained felt little of want; for their necessities were relieved with a profusion of good things from the wealthy, and their poverty was supported with plenty.” The probable reason of such devastation among the poor, Dr. Hodges promises, p. 15, to give, and does not; at least I have not been able to find it in his book; I must therefore content myself with what the journalist (though no physician) has delivered on this subject. He says, that when people began to use proper cautions, the danger of infection was the less. “But (says he) it was impossible to beat any thing into the heads of the poor; they went on with the usual impetuosity of their tempers; full of outcries and lamentations when taken, but madly careless of themselves, fool-hardy and obstinate when well: where they could get employment, they pushed into any kind of business, the most dangerous, and the most liable to infection; and, if they were spoken to, their answer would be, I must trust to God for that; if I am taken, then I am provided for, and there is an end of me, or the like; or thus: Why, what must I do? I cannot starve; I had as good have the plague, as perish for want. I have no work, &c. This adventurous conduct of the poor was what brought the plague among them in a most furious manner; and this, joined to the distress of their circumstances, when taken (with the distemper) was the reason why they died so in heaps: for I cannot say that I could observe one jot of better husbandry among them, I mean the labouring poor, while they were well and getting money, than there was before; but as lavish, as extravagant, and as thoughtless of to morrow, as ever; so that, when they came to be taken sick, they were immediately in the utmost distress, as well for want as for sickness, as well for lack of food as lack of health.”
In the time of so great a calamity, the magistrates exerted themselves as far as their power and skill would permit, to lessen the sufferings of the people. It was natural also in such a dreadful emergency to call upon the physicians to exert themselves. Accordingly the king (Charles II) by his royal authority commanded the College of Physicians of London jointly to write somewhat in English, that might be a general directory in this calamitous exigence; nor was it satisfactory to this honoured society to discharge their regards for the public in that only; but some were chosen out of their number, and appointed particularly to attend the infected on all occasions; two also out of the court of aldermen were required to see this hazardous task executed.[215]
Our author then proceeds to mention the names of some who were employed in this laudable undertaking; particularly Dr. Glisson, regius professor at Cambridge, Dr. Nathaniel Paget, Dr. Wharton, Dr. Berwick and Dr. Brookes; many others he says were employed; “but (he adds) eight or nine fell in the work, who were too much loaded with the spoils of the enemy; among whom was Dr. Conyers, &c. After, then, all endeavours to restrain the contagion had proved of no effect, we applied ourselves altogether to the cure of the diseased.”
We shall not doubt of the good intentions of the physicians: of their success we may judge from what Dr. Hodges himself says, that many died while prescribing cures for others. To the same purpose the journalist, p. 43: “I shall not be supposed to lessen the authority or capacity of the physicians, when I say that the violence of the distemper, when it came to its extremity, was like the fire the next year (1666). The fire which consumed what the plague could not touch, defied all the application of remedies; the fire-engines were broken, the buckets thrown away, and the power of man was baffled and brought to an end; so the plague defied all medicine; the very physicians were seized with it, with their preservatives in their mouths; and men went about prescribing to others, and telling them what to do, till the tokens were upon them, and they dropped down dead, destroyed by that very enemy they directed others to oppose. This was the case of several physicians, even some of the most eminent, and of several of the most skilful surgeons; abundance of quacks too died, who had the folly to trust to their own medicines,” &c.
Thus, in defiance of every effort of human skill, the calamity continued. “The contagion (says Dr. Hodges) spread its cruelties into the neighbouring countries; for the citizens, who crowded in multitudes into the adjacent towns, carried the infection along with them, where it raged with equal fury; so that the plague, which at first crept from one street to another, now reigned over whole counties, leaving hardly any place free from its insult, and the towns upon the Thames were more severely handled; not, perhaps, from a greater moisture in the air from thence, but from the tainted goods rather, that were carried upon it: moreover some cities and towns, of the most advantageous situation for a wholesome air, did, notwithstanding, feel the common ruin. Such was the rise, and such the progress, of this cruel destroyer, which first began at London.”[216]
But it is now time to turn from those scenes of horror. The power of the pestilential contagion was not absolutely immeasurable. It had its rise, its progress, its state and declension. Dr Hodges tells us that, when “the worst part of the year was over, and the height of the disease, the plague by leisurely degrees declined, and before the number infected decreased, its malignity began to relax, insomuch that few died, and those chiefly such as were ill managed; hereupon that dread which had been upon the minds of the people wore off; and the sick cheerfully used all the means directed for their recovery; and even the nurses grew either more cautious, or more faithful; insomuch that after some time a dawn of health appeared, as sudden, and as unexpected, as the cessation of the following conflagration; wherein, after blowing up of houses, and using all means for its extinction to little purpose, the flames stopped as it were of themselves for want of fuel, or, out of shame, for having done so much mischief. The pestilence, however, did not stop for want of subjects to act upon, (as then commonly rumoured) but from the nature of the distemper. Its decrease was, like its beginnings, moderate, &c. About the close of the year, that is, on the beginning of November, people grew more healthful,” &c.