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.
447/504 page 431
![npori the Dutch; but he could hear no news of those who had sent that proposition to Burnet says of Hubert, that “ he was a French Papist, seized on in Essex, as he was g'etting* out of the way in great confusion. He confessed he had begun the fire, and persisted in his confes- sion to his death; for he was hanged upon no other evidence but that of his own confession. It is true, he gave so broken an account of the whole matter, that he was thought mad ; yet he was blindfolded, and carried to several places of the city, and then his eyes being opened, he was asked if that was the place : and he being carried to wrong places, after he had looked round about for some time, he said that was not the place; but when he was brought to the place where it first broke out, he affirmed that was the true place. And Tiilotson told me, that Howell, then the recorder of London, was with him, and had much discourse with him ; and that he concluded it was impossible that it could be a melancholy dream. The horror of the fact, and the terror of death, and perhaps some engagements in confession, might put him in such disorder, that it was not possible to draw a clear account of any thing from him but of what related to himself. Tiilotson believed that the city was burnt on design.’’t The report made to the house of commons, concludes with the following very singular sentence:—I [the chairman] had order from the committee to acquaint you, that we traced several per- sons apprehended upon strong suspicion (during the fire) to the guards, but could not make further discovery of them. Amidst all the confusion and multiplied dangers that arose from the fire, it does not appear that more than six persons lost their lives; and of these, two or three met their deaths through being too venturesome in going over the ruins, and thus ‘ sinking into vaults beneath their feet,’ perished horribly.§ Whilst the city lay in ruins, various temporary edifices were raised for the public accommodation; both in respect to divine worship, and to general business. Gresham college, which had escaped the flames, was converted into an Exchange and Guild- hall ; and the Royal Society removed its sittings to Arundel House. The affairs of the Custom-house were transacted in Mark-lane; the business of the Excise-office was carried on in Southampton-tields, near Bedford-house; the General Post- office was removed to Brydges-street, Covent Garden; the offices of Doctors’ Commons were held at Exeter-house, in the Strand ; and the king’s wardrobe was consigned from Puddle Wharf to York-buildings. The inhabitants, for a time, were mostly lodged in small huts, built in Finsbury and Moor-fields, in Smithfield, and on all the open spaces in the vicinity of the metropolis. ♦ Burnet’s Hist* of his own time, i. 23(7. Ibid. J True and Faithful Acc. p. 10. § Brayley's London, i. 432.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29310775_0447.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
