ny
other view, and therefore I say no more of that.

I had a very good friend, a physician, whose name was Heath, whom I
frequently visited during this dismal time, and to whose advice I was
very much obliged for many things which he directed me to take by way of
preventing the infection when I went out, as he found I frequently did,
and to hold in my mouth when I was in the streets. He also came very
often to see me; and as he was a good Christian, as well as a good
physician, his agreeable conversation was a very great support to me in
the worst of this terrible time.

It was now the beginning of August, and the plague grew very violent and
terrible in the place where I lived; and Dr. Heath coming to visit me,
and finding that I ventured so often out in the streets, earnestly
persuaded me to lock myself up, and my family, and not to suffer any of
us to go out of doors; to keep all our windows fast, shutters and
curtains close, and never to open them, but first to make a very strong
smoke in the room, where the window or door was to be opened, with
rosin[130] and pitch, brimstone and gunpowder, and the like; and we did
this for some time. But, as I had not laid in a store of provision for
such a retreat, it was impossible that we could keep within doors
entirely. However, I attempted, though it was so very late, to do
something towards it; and first, as I had convenience both for brewing
and baking, I went and bought two sacks of meal, and for several weeks,
having an oven, we baked all our own bread; also I bought malt, and
brewed as much beer as all the casks I had would hold, and which seemed
enough to serve my house for five or six weeks; also I laid in a
quantity of salt butter and Cheshire cheese; but I had no flesh
meat,[131] and the plague raged so violently among the butchers and
slaughterhouses on the other side of our street, where they are known to
dwell in great numbers, that it was not advisable so much as to go over
the street among them.

And here I must observe again, that this necessity of going out of our
houses to buy provisions was in a great measure the ruin of the whole
city; for the people catched the distemper, on these occasions, one of
another; and even the provisions themselves were often tainted (at least
I have great reason to believe so), and therefore I cannot say with
satisfaction, what I know is repeated with great assurance, that the
market people, and such as brought provisions to