|
 The Great Plague of London
Outbreaks of plague, the Black
Death, had occurred in Britain and Europe periodically for centuries.
In 1663 Holland suffered another outbreak and as a consequence
Charles II stopped all trade with the country to prevent its
spread into the United Kingdom.
In spite of this, outbreaks in
the poorest parts of London began to occur. By early April 1665
almost 400 deaths were recorded in one week from the Plague.
The more prosperous residents
of the city started moving their families to their country homes
and by June, unusually hot, everybody who could leave London
did so.
People showing symptoms of the
Black Death were locked in their home together with their family
for 40 days after the plague victim had either died or recovered.
Guards were set to stop people breaking out of the locked houses.
Some servants left behind by
fleeing aristocracy and prosperous merchants were employed driving
the death carts carrying plague victims and others took to looting
and robbery.
The death toll mounted to such
an extent that graveyards soon became full. Vacant land was
used for 'plague pits' and quicklime was used in them. In spite
of grave diggers literally working night and day, they could
not keep up with deaths and so corpses were piled up awaiting
burial.
The deaths increased steadily
so that by the middle of August it had risen to over 6000 in
one week. After this, the death toll very gradually declined
although many people were still dying. As late as November,
900 people died in one week.
During the summer, whilst the
plague raged in London, outbreaks were seen outside the capital.
As fear of the plague increased in the surrounding countryside
so refugees from London became more and more unwelcome. Towns
posted armed guards to keep them out.
Thousands of Londoners lived
on boats on the River Thames during the height of the plague
and many of these survived.
By Christmas of 1665 life started
to return to normal in London. Just over a month later the King
returned to St James's Palace, so encouraging other people to
return.
One legacy of the plague passed
down the generations was a nursery rhyme:
Ring a ring o' roses
A pocketful of posies.
Atishoo! Atishoo!
We all fall down.
The ring of roses was the rash
seen on plague victims, the posies were the nosegays carried
and smelt, thought to prevent somebody catching the plague,
atishoo is the sneezing of the victim and 'we all fall down'
means dying.
Now read
Samuel Pepys' first hand account of the plague.
Copyright © 2001 by Carol
Fisher
|
