They were also fully alive to the necessity of keeping life-saving appliances in their houses. 'This is to give Notice, That the Rope Ladders and other Ropes, so useful for preserving whole Families from the dismal Accidents of Fire, are to be sold,' etc.
There were three fire insurance companies, whose leaden badges used to be nailed on to the houses, to show they were insured, and in what office; and a reward was offered by the Friendly Society on July 14, 1705, for the discovery of persons who had stolen some of them.
These three insurance companies were: first, the Phœnix, which was at the Rainbow Coffee House, Fleet Street, and also by the Royal Exchange, established about the year 1682, and the assurers in 1710 numbered about 10,000. The system was to pay 30s. down, and insure 100l. for seven years. Second, the Friendly Society, in Palsgrave Court, without Temple Bar, which was the first (in 1684) that insured by mutual contribution, where you could insure 100l. for seven years by paying 6s. 8d. down, and an annual subscription of 1s. 4d. In 1710 the number of assured was 18,000. And thirdly, the Amicable Contributors, at Tom's Coffee House in St. Martin's Lane (commenced about 1695). Here a payment of 12s. would insure 100l. for seven years, at the expiration of which time 10s. would be returned to the assured—who in 1710 numbered over 13,000. This society seems to have changed its name to the Hand-in-Hand Fire Office, who gave up their two establishments at Tom's Coffee House and the Crown Coffee House, behind the Exchange, for more suitable premises in Angel Court, Snow Hill, and notified the change in the Gazette of Jan. 1, 1714.
A FIRE.
All these employed several men in liveries, and with badges on their arms, to extinguish fire. The accompanying contemporary illustration is very rude, but it gives a vivid representation of a fire at that time.
Gay gives the following graphic description of a fire, so that we may almost fancy we see the firemen at work.
But hark! Distress with Screaming Voice draws nigh'r,
And wakes the slumb'ring Street with Cries of Fire.
At first a glowing Red enwraps the Skies,
And borne by Winds the scatt'ring Sparks arise;
From Beam to Beam, the fierce Contagion spreads;
The Spiry Flames now lift aloft their Heads,
Through the burst Sash a blazing Deluge pours,
And splitting Tiles descend in rattling Show'rs.
Now with thick Crouds th' enlighten'd Pavement swarms,
The Fire-man sweats beneath his crooked Arms,
A leathern Casque his vent'rous Head defends,
Boldly he climbs where thickest Smoak ascends;
Mov'd by the Mother's streaming Eyes and Pray'rs,
The helpless Infant through the Flame he bears;
With no less Virtue, than through hostile Fire,
The Dardan Hero bore his aged Sire.
See forceful Engines spout their levell'd Streams,
To quench the Blaze that runs along the Beams;
The grappling Hook plucks Rafters from the Walls,
And Heaps on Heaps the smoaky Ruine falls.
Blown by strong Winds the fiery Tempest roars,
Bears down new Walls, and pours along the Floors:
The Heav'ns are all a blaze, the Face of Night
Is cover'd with a sanguine dreadful Light.
........
Hark! the Drum thunders! far, ye Crouds retire;
Behold the ready Match is tipt with Fire,
The Nitrous Store is laid, the smutty Train
With running Blaze awakes the barrell'd Grain;
Flames sudden wrap the Walls; with sullen Sound,
The shatter'd Pile sinks on the smoaky Ground.
The sanitary arrangements of these houses were very defective, and the streets at night time must have been anything but pleasant walks.
'We had not walk'd the usual distance between a Church and an Alehouse, but some Odoriferous Civet Box perfum'd the Air, and saluted our Nostrils with so refreshing a Nosegay, that I thought the whole City (Edenborough-like) had been over-flow'd with an inundation of Surreverence.'[82]