FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203   204   205   206   207   208   209   210   211   212   213  
214   215   216   217   218   219   220   221   222   >>  
has been built for ease to this great parish, and another in Petticoat Lane. There were no less than five other grounds made use of for the parish of Stepney at that time; one where now stands the parish church of St. Paul, Shadwell, and the other where now stands the parish church of St. John, at Wapping, both which had not the names of parishes at that time, but were belonging to Stepney Parish. I could name many more; but these coming within my particular knowledge, the circumstance, I thought, made it of use to record them. From the whole, it may be observed that they were obliged in this time of distress to take in new burying grounds in most of the outparishes for laying the prodigious numbers of people which died in so short a space of time; but why care was not taken to keep those places separate from ordinary uses, that so the bodies might rest undisturbed, that I cannot answer for, and must confess I think it was wrong. Who were to blame, I know not. I should have mentioned that the Quakers[324] had at that time also a burying ground set apart to their use, and which they still make use of; and they had also a particular dead cart to fetch their dead from their houses. And the famous Solomon Eagle, who, as I mentioned before,[325] had predicted the plague as a judgment, and run naked through the streets, telling the people that it was come upon them to punish them for their sins, had his own wife died[326] the very next day of the plague, and was carried, one of the first, in the Quakers' dead cart to their new burying ground. I might have thronged this account with many more remarkable things which occurred in the time of the infection, and particularly what passed between the lord mayor and the court, which was then at Oxford, and what directions were from time to time received from the government for their conduct on this critical occasion; but really the court concerned themselves so little, and that little they did was of so small import, that I do not see it of much moment to mention any part of it here, except that of appointing a monthly fast in the city, and the sending the royal charity to the relief of the poor, both which I have mentioned before. Great was the reproach thrown upon those physicians who left their patients during the sickness; and, now they came to town again, nobody cared to employ them. They were called deserters, and frequently bills were set up on their doors, and writ
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203   204   205   206   207   208   209   210   211   212   213  
214   215   216   217   218   219   220   221   222   >>  



Top keywords:

parish

 

burying

 

mentioned

 
Quakers
 

ground

 
people
 

plague

 

grounds

 

stands

 

church


Stepney

 

carried

 

Oxford

 

punish

 

received

 
directions
 

government

 

conduct

 
remarkable
 

thronged


things

 

account

 

passed

 

occurred

 

infection

 

mention

 

patients

 
sickness
 

physicians

 

reproach


thrown
 

frequently

 
deserters
 

employ

 

called

 

relief

 
charity
 

import

 

occasion

 

concerned


moment

 

telling

 

sending

 

monthly

 
appointing
 

critical

 

knowledge

 
circumstance
 

thought

 

coming