“You know where it began, because you’ve been up the Monument at London Bridge, and that commemorates the place of its outbreak. We must go to Smithfield to find the spot where it was checked.”
“Close to the Charterhouse, then?” murmured Betty.
“There!” Godmother said presently, when they reached Smithfield from a turning out of Holborn. “The figure of that fat boy on the corner house of Cock Lane, then called Pye Corner, marks the place where the flames were at last quenched by pulling down houses to make an open space.”
“I wonder what the fat boy has to do with the Great Fire?” Betty said.
Godmother laughed. “There used to be an inscription under the figure to say that the Fire was caused by ‘the sin of gluttony.’ But that was probably only because ‘Pudding Lane’ and ‘Pie Corner’ suggested eating too much of either or both!” she explained.
“Is there anything in the London Museum about the time of Charles the Second?” Betty asked on the homeward drive.
“Yes. You’d better go there before next Saturday. You’ll find plenty to interest you, and to remind you of the terrible as well as of the charming things you’ve lately seen. Look for the placards that were posted up in the streets at the time of the Great Plague. One is headed ‘Lord have mercy upon us’ and gives some curious directions about the sort of medicine people should take to prevent infection. Then just above these old placards, you will see one of the very hand-bells that were tolled in the streets when men went round with the carts crying, ‘Bring out your dead.’ Go downstairs into the basement if you want to see a splendid model of London burning.”
“Burning?” echoed Betty in surprise.
“Yes, and very cleverly managed too, as you’ll discover. Look at all the other models while you’re in the basement part of the Museum. There’s one of old St. Paul’s as it appeared before the Fire, and as you saw it for the last time in the early years of Charles the Second’s reign.”
“London will be almost a new city the next time we see it,” remarked Betty. “I wonder whether I shall like it so well as the old one?”