ashes, dust, dirt, and other filth," into the streets, | being a baker's house or shop in Pudding Lane, lanes, and alleys-a sure welcome to the plague, near Fish Street Hill, kept by one Farryner. as well as aggravation of its violence. These Pepys was awoke by a servant at three o'clock, evils were ordered to be immediately repaired, with the information that there was a fire in the by new paving the great streets between London city, which was sufficient to hurry him to the and Westminster, which were specified by name. window; but, thinking that the spectacle was too Every inhabitant, also, was to sweep the street trivial, and too far off to tempt him from his home, before his own house twice a-week, under a pen- he returned to bed, but was told, soon after seven alty of 38. 4d. for every case of omission. And o'clock, that the fire had already burned down as a cure for total darkness, and those deeds of 300 houses, and was now burning down all Fish darkness with which the streets of London aboun- Street by London Bridge. This was enough for ded at midnight, when the "sons of Belial" sal- the indefatigable sight-seer, who repaired to the lied out, "flown with insolence and wine," every Tower, and mounted one of its highest places, householder whose dwelling fronted the street from which he saw "the houses, at that end of was ordered to hang out candles, or lights in the bridge, all on fire, and an infinite great fire on lanterns, or otherwise, in some part of his house this and the other side the end of the bridge;" next the street, every night between Michaelmas and, on descending, he was told by the lieutenant and Lady Day, from sunset until nine o'clock in of the Tower that St. Magnus' Church, and the the evening, under penalty of 18. Here was greater part of Fish Street, were already deat best a glimmer-more perplexing, it may be, stroyed. He went down to the water-side, took than darkness itself-lasting only until the sober boat, and passed through the bridge, where the part of the community had gone to bed, and kept whole spectacle was opened to his view. The up only during the winter. Thus was London previous drought of the weather, and the abunlighted, not only at this time but for a long period dance of old lath and timber, of which the houses afterwards; and those who went abroad after the were mainly built, made the fire go onward like hour of nine, had either to grope their way in a torrent: "everybody endeavouring to remove the dark through the filth and pitfalls of the their goods, and flinging into the river, or bringstreets, or carry a flambeau, link, or lantern. ing them into lighters that lay off; poor people Thus a regeneration of London, without a pre- staying in their houses as long as till the very vious destruction, appears to have been impossi- fire touched them, and then running into boats, ble, more especially when we take into account or clambering from one pair of stairs, by the the decayed timber and lath and plaster of which water-side, to another." After waiting an hour, it was principally composed. Nothing, however, marking the rapid progress of the fire, and seeing but the commercial wealth of London, aided by that none attempted to extinguish it, all being the lately aroused enterprise of the people, could employed in saving their lives or property, Pepys have rebuilt, in so short a time, a metropolis far went up the river for Whitehall to carry the surpassing the old both in extent and grandeur. tidings to the court. On the king being adverEven only eight years after the fire, it so much tised of the danger, he sent Pepys into the city exceeded its former limits that the old state alarm with his commands to the lord-mayor to spare was excited on the occasion, and the former pro- no houses-to pull down before the fire in every hibitions upon metropolitan extension were re-direction; and, on entering the city for the purnewed. These, however, were now so little pose, the active messenger found that the fire heeded, that court and parliament were obliged had entered before him, destroying churches, to submit, more especially as the extension chiefly public buildings, and houses by wholesale, while went westward with the courtiers and aristo- the streets were crowded with people removing cracy; and in 1685 new acts of parliament were their goods in carts or upon their backs. Threadvouchsafed, erecting two new parishes, which ing his way with difficulty amidst the throng, were those of St. Anne's and St. James's, in Pepys reached Cannon Street, where he found Westminster. Bludworth, the lord-mayor, stupified and exAn event so important as the great fire of Lon-hausted; who, on receiving the royal message, don, that has no parallel in history except the burning of Rome in the reign of Nero, is too momentous to be dismissed with a passing notice. It was also a conflagration, in the strong glare of which the national character, both in its good and evil qualities, was manifested with most impressive distinctness. Its commencement was at ten o'clock on Sunday evening, the 2d of September, 1666; and its origin was humble enough,

VOL. II.

"cried like a fainting woman," and exclaimed, "Lord! what can I do? I am spent: people will not obey me. I have been pulling down houses; but the fire overtakes us faster than we can do it." The inept civic functionary also added that he must go and refresh himself, for he had been up all night. By this time it was mid-day. The houses in Thames Street being chiefly warehouses filled with pitch and tar, oil, wine, and spirits,

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all past experience was useless, and all natural courage quelled and paralyzed: "all men stood amazed as spectators," says Clarendon, " only no man knowing what remedy to apply, nor the magistrates what orders to give." The first prudent suggestion had been to pull down the houses nearest the fire, by which its progress might have been stopped at once; but the selfishness of the

and street to street, at great distances one from the other; for the heat, with a long set of fair and warm weather, had even ignited the air, and prepared the materials to conceive the fire, which devoured after an incredible manner houses, furniture, and everything. . . Oh, the miserable and calamitous spectacle! such as, haply, the world had not seen since the foundation of it, nor to be outdone till the universal conflagration | owners opposed this proceeding until it was too thereof. All the sky was of a fiery aspect, like the top of a burning oven; and the light seen above forty miles round about for many nights. God grant mine eyes may never behold the like, who now saw above 10,000 houses all in one flame. The noise, and cracking, and thunder of the impetuous flames, the shrieking of women and children, the hurry of people, the fall of towers, houses, and churches, was like an hideous storm, and the air all about so hot and inflamed, that, at the best, one was not able to approach it; so that they were forced to stand still and let the flames burn on, which they did for near two miles in length and one in breadth. The clouds, also, of smoke were dismal, and reached, upon computation, near fifty miles in length. Thus I left it this afternoon burning, a resemblance of Sodom, or the last day. It forcibly called to my mind that passage, non enim hic habemus stabilem civitatem [here we have no abiding city]; the ruins resembling the picture of Troy. London was, but is no more."

It will be perceived that the greater part of the mischief was effected during the first twentyfour hours. But on the following day, the fire had got as far as the Inner Temple, while all Fleet Street, the Old Bailey, Ludgate Hill, Warwick Lane, Newgate, Paul's Chain, and Watling Street were in a flame, and for the most part reduced to ashes. St. Paul's Church could not escape amidst the ruin; and it the more easily caught fire from the scaffolding with which it was surrounded, as it was about to undergo a thorough repair. The stones of this church, Evelyn tells us, "flew like grenadoes, the melting lead running down the streets in a stream, and the very pavements glowing with fiery redness, so as no horse nor man was able to tread on them, and the demolition had stopped all the passages, so that no help could be applied." And still no means appear to have been used to check the wide-wasting and continually spreading destruction. At the first, men had hurried, as we have seen, to preserve their lives and goods, each only thinking of his own safety; but when they were driven from one shelter to another, they either fled from the city leaving all behind them, or gazed in stupid apathy, and did nothing. It was no wonder, if we consider the nature of the calamity, so great, so terrible, and unprecedented, in which

|

late. At last, and when it was scarcely worth while, the remedy was used which should have been adopted at first: it was to blow up the houses with gunpowder wherever the flames were advancing, and thus to save what portion of the metropolis yet remained. This process did not commence until the afternoon of the second day, and with the buildings nearest the Tower; but although the noise of the exploding buildings, as Pepys informs us, frightened the people more than anything, its good effects were soon experienced, so that the practice became general; and such large gaps were made in every direction, as to confine the fire, while the abatement of the wind prevented it from spreading. The couflagration, after continuing to blaze, and finally to smoulder for several days, was exhausted, so that on the eighth day from the commencement Evelyn was able to note in his diary, "I went again to the ruins, for it was now no longer a city."

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Miserable in the meantime was the condition of those whom a few hours had unhoused, and driven out in myriads. They had taken refuge in St. George's Fields, Moorfields, and as far as Highgate, and in a circle of several miles, some under miserable huts and hovels, many without a rag or any necessary utensils, bed or board, who from delicateness, riches, and easy accommodations in stately and well-furnished houses, were now reduced to extremest misery and poverty." Of these, there were 200,000 persons of all ranks and degrees, standing beside what little property they had been able to save; but though they were ready to perish with hunger, not one condescended to beg for relief" which to me," says Evelyn, "appeared a stranger sight than any I had seen."

While they occupied this miserable encampment, a rumour was suddenly raised among them that the French and Dutch, with whom we were at war, had not only landed, but were even entering the city. The thought of the horrors of war thus about to be added to those of pestilence and fire maddened the sufferers; they snatched what weapons were at hand, and could scarcely be prevented from a rush upon the burning city, and an attack upon the strangers who belonged to these countries, until soldiers and guards were sent to lead them back into the fields, and mount guard over them to prevent a

further outbreak. To feed such a multitude, it without wondering where the wealth could be also, the king and council had issued a procla- found to bear so vast a loss as was made by the mation requiring all the country round to bring fire, and so prodigious an expense as was laid daily and constantly provisions to the various out in rebuilding the city." markets established for their relief; to open all churches, chapels, schools, and other places, for the stowage of the goods they had saved; and to make every town patent to the free reception of such as exercised manual occupations.