d in some places, but not so universally. How it fared
with the people in Scotland, I had no opportunity to inquire.

It is to be observed, that, while the plague continued so violent in
London, the outports, as they are called, enjoyed a very great trade,
especially to the adjacent countries and to our own plantations.[296]
For example, the towns of Colchester, Yarmouth, and Hull, on that
side[297] of England, exported to Holland and Hamburg the manufactures
of the adjacent counties for several months after the trade with London
was, as it were, entirely shut up. Likewise the cities of Bristol[298]
and Exeter, with the port of Plymouth, had the like advantage to Spain,
to the Canaries, to Guinea, and to the West Indies, and particularly to
Ireland. But as the plague spread itself every way after it had been in
London to such a degree as it was in August and September, so all or
most of those cities and towns were infected first or last, and then
trade was, as it were, under a general embargo, or at a full stop, as I
shall observe further when I speak of our home trade.

One thing, however, must be observed, that as to ships coming in from
abroad (as many, you may be sure, did), some who were out in all parts
of the world a considerable while before, and some who, when they went
out, knew nothing of an infection, or at least of one so
terrible,--these came up the river boldly, and delivered their cargoes
as they were obliged to do, except just in the two months of August and
September, when, the weight of the infection lying, as I may say, all
below bridge, nobody durst appear in business for a while. But as this
continued but for a few weeks, the homeward-bound ships, especially such
whose cargoes were not liable to spoil, came to an anchor, for a time,
short of the Pool, or freshwater part of the river, even as low as the
river Medway, where several of them ran in; and others lay at the Nore,
and in the Hope below Gravesend: so that by the latter end of October
there was a very great fleet of homeward-bound ships to come up, such as
the like had not been known for many years.

Two particular trades were carried on by water carriage all the while of
the infection, and that with little or no interruption, very much to the
advantage and comfort of the poor distressed people of the city; and
those were the coasting trade for corn, and the Newcastle trade for
coals.

The first of these was particularly carried on by sma