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.
428/504 page 412
![But on Wednesday night, when the people, late of London, now of the fields, hoped to get a little rest on the pound, where they had spread their beds^ a more dreadful lear falls upon them than they had before, through a rumour that the French were coming- armed against them to cut their throats, and spoil them of what they had saved out of the fire; they were now naked and weak, and in ill condition to defend themselves, and the hearts, especially ot the females, do quake and tremble, and are ready to die within them; yet many citizens, having lost their houses, and almost all that they had, are fired with rage and fury: and they begin to stir up themselves like lions, or like bears bereaved of their whelps, and now ‘arm! arm!’ doth resound the fields and suburbs with a dreadful voice. We may guess at the distress and perplexity of the people this night, which was something alleviated when the falseness of the alarm was perceived. “The ruins of the city were 396 acres: [viz. 333 acres within the walls, and 63 in the liberties of the city], of the six and twenty wards, it utterly destroyed fifteen, and left eight others shattered, and half burnt; and it consumed 400 streets, 13,200 dwelling houses, 89 churches, [besides chapels,] four of the city gates. Guild hall, many public structures, hospitals, schools, libraries, and a vast number of stately edifices.”* The following relation is by the philosophic John Evelyn,t which will acquaint the reader with as much as can here be told of the most direful visatation the metropolis ever sufiered. * In a curious pamphlet, concerning the fire, which has been reprinted in the Harleian Miscellany, vol. iii. p. 232., is the following estimation of the value of the property destroyed. “ The city, within the walls, being seated on about 460 acres, wherein were built about 15,000 houses,besides churches, chapels, schools, halls, &c. 12,000 houses were thought to be burnt, which is four parts in five, each house being valued, one with another, at 25l. per ann. rent, this, at twelve years purchase, makes 8001. the whole amounting to 3,600,0001. Eighty-seven parochial churches, besides St. Paul’s cathedral, the Exchange, Gui dhall, the Custom house, companies halls, and other pub- lic buildings, amounting to half as much, that is, 1,800,0001. The goods that every private man lost, one with another, valued at half the value of the houses, 1,80),0001. About twenty wharfs of coal and wood, valued at 10001. a-piece, 20,0001. About 100,000 boats and barges ; and 1000 cart loads, with portess, to remove the goods to and fro, as well for the houses that were burning as for those that stood in fear of it, at 20s. per load, 150,0001. In all, 7,370,0001.’’ This calculation, in all probability, does not by any means approach to the extent of the loss The city, properly so called, was, at that period, even more than at pre- sent, the very centre of trade, ma- nufactures, and commerce, and in the confusion which was excited by the ra- pid progress of the flames, but com- paratively few goc ds were preserved. The avenues of escape were, at times, completely choaked up, through the eagerness of the people to save every one their own; and “ one while the gates were shut, that no hopes of saving any thing being left, [the people] might more desperately endeavour the quenching the fire, but that was pre- sently found in vain, and occasioned the loss of much goods.” t Printed in his Diary recently edit- ed by William Bray, Esq. F. S. A.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29310775_0428.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
