History of the Plague in London

by Daniel Defoe

being as good husbands as theycould, would endeavor to live upon what they had as long as it wouldlast, and then work for more, if they could get work anywhere of anykind, let it be what it would.

  While they were considering to put this resolution in practice in thebest manner they could, the third man, who was acquainted very well withthe sailmaker, came to know of the design, and got leave to be one ofthe number; and thus they prepared to set out.

  It happened that they had not an equal share of money; but as thesailmaker, who had the best stock, was, besides his being lame, the mostunfit to expect to get anything by working in the country, so he wascontent that what money they had should all go into one public stock, oncondition that whatever any one of them could gain more than another, itshould, without any grudging, be all added to the public stock.

  They resolved to load themselves with as little baggage as possible,because they resolved at first to travel on foot, and to go a great way,that they might, if possible, be effectually safe. And a great manyconsultations they had with themselves before they could agree aboutwhat way they should travel; which they were so far from adjusting,that, even to the morning they set out, they were not resolved on it.

  At last the seaman put in a hint that determined it. "First," says he,"the weather is very hot; and therefore I am for traveling north, thatwe may not have the sun upon our faces, and beating upon our breasts,which will heat and suffocate us; and I have been told," says he, "thatit is not good to overheat our blood at a time when, for aught we know,the infection may be in the very air. In the next place," says he, "I amfor going the way that may be contrary to the wind as it may blow whenwe set out, that we may not have the wind blow the air of the city onour backs as we go." These two cautions were approved of, if it could bebrought so to hit that the wind might not be in the south when they setout to go north.

  John the baker, who had been a soldier, then put in his opinion."First," says he, "we none of us expect to get any lodging on the road,and it will be a little too hard to lie just in the open air. Though itmay be warm weather, yet it may be wet and damp, and we have a doublereason to take care of our healths at such a time as this; andtherefore," says he, "you, brother Tom, that are a sailmaker, mighteasily make us a little tent; and I will undertake to set it up everynight and take it down, and a fig for all the inns in England. If wehave a good tent over our heads, we shall do well enough."

  The joiner opposed this, and told them, let them leave that to him: hewould undertake to build them a house every night with his hatchet andmallet, though he had no other tools, which should be fully to theirsatisfaction, and as good as a tent.

  The soldier and the joiner disputed that point some time; but at lastthe soldier carried it for a tent: the only objection against it was,that it must be carried with them, and that would increase their baggagetoo much, the weather being hot. But the sailmaker had a piece of goodhap[192] fall in, which made that easy; for his master who[193] heworked for, having a ropewalk, as well as sailmaking trade, had a littlepoor horse that he made no use of then, and, being willing to assist thethree honest men, he gave them the horse for the carrying their baggage;also, for a small matter of three days' work that his man did for himbefore he went, he let him have an old topgallant sail[194] that wasworn out, but was sufficient, and more than enough, to make a very goodtent. The soldier showed how to shape it, and they soon, by hisdirection, made their tent, and fitted it with poles or staves for thepurpose: and thus they were furnished for their journey; viz., threemen, one tent, one horse, one gun for the soldier (who would not gowithout arms, for now he said he was no more a biscuit baker, but atrooper). The joiner had a small bag of tools, such as might be usefulif he should get any work abroad, as well for their subsistence as hisown. What money they had they brought all into one public stock, andthus they began their journey. It seems that in the morning when theyset out, the wind blew, as the sailor said, by his pocket compass, atN.W. by W., so they directed, or rather resolved to direct, their courseN.W.

  But then a difficulty came in their way, that as they set out from thehither end of Wapping, near the Hermitage, and that the plague was nowvery violent, especially on the north side of the city, as in Shoreditchand Cripplegate Parish, they did not think it safe for them to go nearthose parts: so they went away east, through Ratcliff Highway, as far asRatcliff Cross, and leaving Stepney church still on their left hand,being afraid to come up from Ratcliff Cross to Mile End, because theymust come just by the churchyard, and because the wind, that seemed toblow more from the west, blowed directly from the side of the city wherethe plague was hottest. So, I say, leaving Stepney, they fetched a longcompass,[195] and, going to Poplar and Bromley, came into the great roadjust at Bow.

  Here the watch placed upon Bow Bridge would have questioned them; butthey, crossing the road into a narrow way that turns out of the higherend of the town of Bow to Oldford, avoided any inquiry there, andtraveled on to Oldford. The constables everywhere were upon their guard,not so much, it seems, to stop people passing by, as to stop them fromtaking up their abode in their towns; and, withal, because of a reportthat was newly raised at that time, and that indeed was not veryimprobable, viz., that the poor people in London, being distressed andstarved for want of work, and by that means for want of bread, were upin arms, and had raised a tumult, and that they would come out to allthe towns round to plunder for bread. This, I say, was only a rumor, andit was very well it was no more; but it was not so far off from being areality as it has been thought, for in a few weeks more the poor peoplebecame so desperate by the calamity they suffered, that they were withgreat difficulty kept from running out into the fields and towns, andtearing all in pieces wherever they came. And, as I have observedbefore, nothing hindered them but that the plague raged so violently,and fell in upon them so furiously, that they rather went to the graveby thousands than into the fields in mobs by thousands; for in the partsabout the parishes of St. Sepulchre's, Clerkenwell, Cripplegate,Bishopsgate, and Shoreditch, which were the places where the mob beganto threaten, the distemper came on so furiously, that there died inthose few parishes, even then, before the plague was come to its height,no less than 5,361 people in the first three weeks in August, when atthe same time the parts about Wapping, Ratcliff, and Rotherhithe were,as before described, hardly touched, or but very lightly; so that in aword, though, as I said before, the good management of the lord mayorand justices did much to prevent the rage and desperation of the peoplefrom breaking out in rabbles and tumults, and, in short, from the poorplundering the rich,--I say, though they did much, the dead cart didmore: for as I have said, that, in five parishes only, there died abovefive thousand in twenty days, so there might be probably three timesthat number sick all that time; for some recovered, and great numbersfell sick every day, and died afterwards. Besides, I must still beallowed to say, that, if the bills of mortality said five thousand, Ialways believed it was twice as many in reality, there being no room tobelieve that the account they gave was right, or that indeed they[196]were, among such confusions as I saw them in, in any condition to keepan exact account.

  But to return to my travelers. Here they were only examined, and, asthey seemed rather coming from the country than from the city, theyfound the people easier with them; that they talked to them, let themcome into a public house where the constable and his warders were, andgave them drink and some victuals, which greatly refreshed andencouraged them. And here it came into their heads to say, when theyshould be inquired of afterwards, not that they came from London, butthat they came out of Essex.

  To forward this little fraud, they obtained so much favor of theconstable at Oldford as to give them a certificate of their passing fromEssex through that village, and that they had not been at London; which,though false in the common acceptation of London in the country, yet wasliterally true, Wapping or Ratcliff being no part either of the city orliberty.

  This certificate, directed to the next constable, that was at Homerton,one of the hamlets of the
parish of Hackney, was so serviceable to them,that it procured them, not a free passage there only, but a fullcertificate of health from a justice of the peace, who, upon theconstable's application, granted it without much difficulty. And thusthey passed through the long divided town of Hackney (for it lay then inseveral separated hamlets), and traveled on till they came into thegreat north road, on the top of Stamford Hill.

  By this time they began to weary; and so, in the back road from Hackney,a little before it opened into the said great road, they resolved to setup their tent, and encamp for the first night; which they didaccordingly, with this addition: that, finding a barn, or a buildinglike a barn, and first searching as well as they could to be sure therewas nobody in it, they set up their tent with the head of it against thebarn. This they did also because the wind blew that night very high, andthey were but young at such a way of lodging, as well as