The history and antiquities of London, Westminster, Southwark, and other parts adjacent ... Continued to the present time / by Thomas Wright.
- Thomas Allen
- Date:
- 1839
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The history and antiquities of London, Westminster, Southwark, and other parts adjacent ... Continued to the present time / by Thomas Wright. Source: Wellcome Collection.
419/504 page 403
![one Farryner, a baker, in Pudding-lane, near New Fish-street-hill, and within ten houses of Thames-street, into which it spread within a few hours; nearly all the contiguous buildings being of timber, lath, and plaister, and the whole neighbourhood presenting little else than closely confined passages and narrow alleys. ‘‘ It began” says a contemporary writer, “ in a heap of bavins, and had gotten some strength ere discovered, yet [that discovery was made] sea- sonably enough to allow a merchant, who dwelt next door, to re- move all his goods ; but as soon as it felt the violent impressions of a strong east-north-east wind, leaving a small force to finish the conquest of the house where it received its birth, it ultimately di- rected its greatest strength against the adjacent ones. It quickly grew powerful enough to despise the use of buckets, and was too advantageously seated among narrow streets to be assaulted by engines: it was therefore proposed to the lord mayor, [Sir Thomas Bludworth,] who came before three o’clock, to pull down some houses to prevent its spreading; but he, with a pish, answering, that ‘ a woman might piss it out,’ neglected that prudent advice, and was not long ere undeceived of the foolish confidence; for, before 8 o’clock, it had gbtten to the bridge, and there dividing, left enough to burn down all that had been erected on it since the last great fire in 1633, and, with the main body, pressed forward into Thames.street.”* Among the various accounts of this dreadful fire, the most inte- resting are the following:—Lord Clarendon,t narrating the progress oFthe fire on its taking hold in Thames-street, says: But in the night the wind changed, and carried the danger from thence; yet, 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, were awakened before morning with their own houses being in a flame; and whilst endeavours were used to quench that, other houses were discovered to be burn- ing, 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. ‘‘ The fire and the wind continued in the same excess all Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday till afternoon, and flung and scattered brands burning into all quarters; the nights more terrible than the days, and the light the same, the light of the fire supplying that of the sun. And, indeed, whoever was an eye-witness of that terrible prospect, can never have so lively an image of the last conflagra- tion till he behold it; the faces of all people in a wonderful dejection and discomposure, not knowing where they could repose themselves * Malcolm’s Lond. Red. vol iv. p. and lent to the author by the late Rich. 74; from Manuscript Letters written Gough, Esfc[. by a resident in the Middle Temple t Printed in his History of his Life, 2 D 2](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29310775_0419.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
