A journal of the Plague Year, or, Memorials of the great pestilence in London, in 1665 / By Daniel De Foe.

  • Daniel Defoe
Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A journal of the Plague Year, or, Memorials of the great pestilence in London, in 1665 / By Daniel De Foe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    39/418 (page 7)
    This last Bill was really frightful, being a higher number than had been known to have been buried in one week, since the preceding Visitation of 1636 *. However, all this went off again, and the weather proving cold, and the frost, which began in December, still continuing very severe, even till near the end of February t, attended with sharp though moderate winds, the bills decreased again, and the city [town ] grew healthy, and every body began to look upon the danger as good as over; only that still the burials in St. Giles’s continued high: from the be- ginning of April especially, they stood at twenty-five * In March 1665, the importation of English Manufactures, even to Beer, was prohibited in Holland, (on account of the Plague) under a penalty of 1000 guilders, besides confiscation of the property. This, probably, was in retaliation for the Govern- ment measure of the preceding year, when the King (Charles IT.) excused his prohibition of merchandise from Holland, ‘‘ on account of the Plague having been introduced into that Country.’’ ¢ In Evelyn’s “ Diary,” vol.i. p. 370, is the following entry, under the date December 22. ‘‘ It was now exceeding cold, and a hard long frosty season, and the Comet was very visible.” Under January 4th, 1665, he says, ‘excessive sharp frost and snow.” Pepys also, on the 6th of February, in the same year, made the following entry in his ‘¢ Diary :”—‘‘ One of the coldest days, all say, they ever felt in England.” The Comet was also noticed in a letter from Erfurt, bearing date, December 27th, 1664-5, together with other appearances, which were then regarded as indications of forthcoming calamities.— ‘‘We have had our part here of the Comet, as well as other places, besides which here have been other terrible apparitions and noises in the ayre, as fires and sounds of cannon and musket-shot ; and here has likewise appeared several times the resemblance of a Black Man, which has made our Sentinels to quit their posts ; and ene of them was lately thrown down by him from the top of the wall.” Vide “The ewes, published for the Satisfaction and Information of the People; (with Privilege) Numb. 2,”