But London was now to experience calamities which shook her to her foundation. Scarcely had she sheathed the sword of thousand four hundred and seventy-eight, besides twenty-nine of the plague in both years, six thousand nine hundred and eighty-six. Twenty years after, there died in the same ninety-seven and sixteen parishes, twelve thousand one hundred and ten, viz. anno 1614, five thousand eight hundred and seventy-three; and anno 1615, six thousand two hundred and thirty-seven: so as the said parishes were increased, in the said time, from seven to twelve, or very near thereabouts. The burials within the like space of the next twenty years, viz. anno 1634 and 1635, were fifteen thousand six hundred and twenty-five, viz. as about twentyfour to thirty-one which last of the three numbers, fifteen thousand six hundred and twenty-five, is much more than double the first six thousand nine hundred and eighty-six; viz. the said parishes had in forty years increased from twenty-three to fifty-two: and although necessitated to compound the said ninety-seven with the sixteen parishes, yet the sixteen parishes had increased faster than the ninety-seven. For, in the year 1620, there died within the walls two thousand seven hundred and twenty-six, and in 1660, there died but three thousand and ninety-eight, (both years being clear of the plague :) so that in forty years, the ninety-seven parishes had increased nearly from nine to ten, because the housing of the said ninety-seven parishes could be no otherwise increased, than by turning great houses into tenements, and building upon a few gardens. "In the year 1604, there died in the ninety-seven parishes one thousand five hundred and eighteen, and of the plague two hundred and eighty. And in the year 1660, three thousand and ninety-eight, and none of the plague; so that in fifty-six years the said parishes had doubled. It is to be observed, that as in the said year 1604, was the very next year after the great plague 1603 (when the city was not yet re-peopled) we shall rather make the comparison between two thousand and fourteen, which died anno 1605, and three thousand four hundred and thirty-one, anno 1659; choosing rather hence to assert, that the said ninety-seven and sixteen parishes increased from twenty to thirty-four, or from ten, to seventeen in fifty-four years, than from one to two in fifty-six. "In 1605, there died in the seventeen out-parishes two thousand nine hundred and seventy-four, and in 1659, six thousand nine hundred and eighty-eight : so as in fifty-four years, the said parishes increased from three to seven. "In 1605, died in the eight out-parishes nine hundred and sixty; in 1659, died in the same scope of ground, although now called ten parishes, (the Savoy and Covent Garden being added) four thousand three of civil war, than heaven in its dispensation destroyed her citizens by pestilence in the awful and calamitous year 1665; hundred and one: so as the said parishes had increased within the said fifty-four years, more than from one to four. There were buried in all, in 1605, five thousand nine hundred and forty-eight, and in 1659, fourteen thousand seven hundred and twenty, viz. about two to five. "Having set down the proportions, wherein was found the three great divisions of the whole pile, called London, to have increased; he comes next to shew what particular parishes had the most remarkable share in these augmentations. Thus, of the ninety-seven parishes within the walls, the increase was not discernible, but where great houses, formerly belonging to noblemen, before they built others near Whitehall, had been turned into tenements; on which account, Alhallows upon the Wall, had increased upon the conversion of the Marquis of Winchester's house, lately the Spanish ambassador's, into a new street; the same of alderman Freeman's, (now Freeman's Court,) and La Motte's, near the Exchange; of the Earl of Arundel's, in Lothbury; of the bishop of London's, the dean of St. Paul's, and the Lord River's house, now (Savage Gardens,) Tower Hill; as also of the Duke's Place, and others. "Of the sixteen newest parishes without the walls, St. Giles Cripplegate had been most inlarged, next St. Olave's, Southwark, St. Andrew's, Holborn, Whitechapel, the difference in the rest not considerable. "Of the out-parishes, then called ten, formerly nine, and before that eight, Saint Giles's and Saint Martin's in the Fields were most increased, notwithstanding Saint Paul's Covent Garden was taken out of them both. "The general observation, which arose, was, that the city of London gradually removed westward, and did not the Royal Exchange and London Bridge stay the trade, it would remove much faster: Leadenhall Street, Bishopsgate, and part of Fenchurch Street, had lost their antient trade; Gracechurch Street, had indeed, kept itself yet entire, by reason of its conjunction with and relation to London Bridge. "Canning Street, and Watling Street, had lost their trade of woollendrapery to Paul's Church Yard, Ludgate Hill, and Fleet Street: the mércery was gone out of Lombard Street and Cheapside, into Paternoster Row, and Fleet Street. "The reasons whereof were, that the king's court (in old times frequently kept in the city) was now always at Westminster. Secondly, the use of coaches, whereunto the narrow streets of the old city were unfit, had caused the building of those broader streets in Covent Garden, &c. 1665* ; and the next year her whole surface was desolated by fire. The buildings looked as if they had been formed for conflagration, whenever any wicked incendiaries should attempt it; the streets were narrow, and the houses built with timber, lath and plaster, as before described. And though by the new buildings after the fire, much ground was given up to enlarge the streets, the old houses stood generally upon more ground, were much larger upon the flat, and in many places gardens, and large yards about them: so that there are many more houses built than stood before on the same ground. "Thirdly, where the consumption of commodity was, viz. among the gentry, the venders of the same must seat themselves. "Fourthly, the cramming up of the void spaces and gardens within the walls with houses, to the prejudice of light and air, had made men build new ones, where they lefs feared those inconveniencies. "Conformity in building to other civil nations, had disposed us to let our old wooden dark houses fall to decay, and to build new ones, whereby to answer all the ends above mentioned. "Where note, that when Ludgate was the only western gate of the city, little building was westward thereof: but, when Holborn began to increase, Newgate was made. But now both these gates were not sufficient for the communication between the walled city, and its enlarged western suburbs, as daily appeared by the intolerable stoppages of coaches near both these gates, especially Ludgate. "The Captain next offers to consideration the inequality of parishes in and about London, evident in proportion of their respective burials; for in the same year that were buried in Cripplegate Parish one thousand one hundred and ninety-one, but twelve died in Trinity Minories, Saint Saviour's, Southwark, and Botolph's, Bishopsgate, being of the middle size, as burying five and six hundred per annum: so that according to his calculation, Cripplegate was an hundred times as big as the Minories, and two hundred times as big as St. John the Evangelist's, St. Mary Cole-Church, St. Bennet's, Gracechurch, St. Matthew, Friday Street, and some others within the city." * The number of burials this year, computed by the bills of mortality, were ninety-seven thousand three hundred and six, of which sixtyeight thousand five hundred and ninety-six, were attributed to the plague; but this estimate must certainly have been very defective, it being the general opinion at that time, that the plague destroyed at least one hundred thousand. Thus Thus Swithin's Alley, by the Royal Exchange, was a merchant's house, of that name; upon the same ground now stand about twenty-two or twenty-four houses. Copthal Court, in Throgmorton Street, was also a single house, inhabited by a Dutch merchant: as were three more courts in the same street, which were single houses, two on the same side of the way, and one on the other. One great house, with warehouses, where Mr. Kendrick formerly lived, took up almost all the ground on which a street of houses, called Prince's Street, going through into Lothbury, was erected. King's Arms Yard, in Coleman Street, now built into fine large houses, and inhabited by eminent merchants, was, a stable-yard for horses, and an inn, which gave the sign of the King's Arms. Indeed so many great houses were converted into streets, courts, alleys, and buildings, that near four thousand houses stand on the ground which the fire left desolate, more than stood on the same ground before. The most authentic account of this dreadful calamity is from the London Gazette, and the following testimony of Lord Clarendon, who was an eye witness of its progress: "It was upon the first day of that September, in the dismal year of 1666 (in which many prodigies were expected, and so many really fell out) that the memorable and terrible fire brake out in London, which began about midnight, or nearer the morning of Sunday, in a baker's house near the end of Thames Street, next the Tower, there being many little narrow alleys, and very poor houses, about the place where it first appeared; and then finding such store of combustible materials, as that street is always furnished with in timber houses, the fire prevailed so powerfully, that the whole street and the neighbourhood was in so short a time turned to ashes, that few persons had time to save and preserve any of their goods; but were a heap of people almost as dead with the sudden distraction, as the ruins were which they sustained. The magistrates of the city assembled quickly together, and with the usual remedies of buckets, which they were provided with: but the fire was too ra venous to be extinguished with such quantities of water as those instruments could apply to it, and fastened still upon new materials before it had destroyed the old. And though it raged furiously all that day, to that degree that all men stood amazed, as spectators only, no man knowing what remedy to apply, nor the magistrates what orders to give: yet it kept within some compass, burned what was next, and laid hold only on both sides; and the greatest apprehension was of the Tower, and all considerations entered upon how to secure that place. "But in the night the wind changed, and carried the danger from thence, but with so great and irresistible violence, that it scattered the fire from pursuing the line it was in with all its force, and spread it over the city so that they, who went late to bed at a great distance from any place where the fire prevailed, they were awakened before morning with their own houses being in a flame; and whilst endeavour was used to quench that, other houses were discovered to be burning, which were near no place from whence they could imagine the fire could come; all which kindled another fire in the breasts of men, almost as dangerous as that within their houses. "Monday morning produced first a jealousy, and then an universal conclusion, that this fire came not by chance, nor did they care where it began; but the breaking out in several places at so great distance from each other made it evident, that it was by conspiracy and combination. And this determination could not hold long without discovery of the wicked authors, who were concluded to be all the Dutch and all the French in the town, though they had inhabited the same places above twenty years. All of that kind, or, if they were strangers, of what nation soever, were laid hold of; and after all the ill usage that can consist in words, and some blows and kicks, they were thrown into prison. And shortly after, the same conclusion comprehended all the Roman Catholics, who were in the same predicament of guilt and danger, and quickly found that their only safety consisted in keeping 3 |