第 9 节
作者:雨来不躲      更新:2021-10-16 18:43      字数:9321
  nay; even into the same beds; with those that had the distemper upon
  them; and were not recovered。
  Some; indeed; paid for their audacious boldness with the price of
  their lives; an infinite number fell sick; and the physicians had more
  work than ever; only with this difference; that more of their patients
  recovered; that is to say; they generally recovered; but certainly there
  were more people infected and fell sick now; when there did not die
  above a thousand or twelve hundred in a week; than there was when
  there died five or six thousand a week; so entirely negligent were the
  people at that time in the great and dangerous case of health and
  infection; and so ill were they able to take or accept of the advice of
  those who cautioned them for their good。
  The people being thus returned; as it were; in general; it was very
  strange to find that in their inquiring after their friends; some whole
  families were so entirely swept away that there was no remembrance
  of them left; neither was anybody to be found to possess or show any
  title to that little they had left; for in such cases what was to be found
  was generally embezzled and purloined; some gone one way; some another。
  It was said such abandoned effects came to the king; as the universal
  heir; upon which we are told; and I suppose it was in part true; that the
  king granted all such; as deodands; to the Lord Mayor and Court of
  Aldermen of London; to be applied to the use of the poor; of whom
  there were very many。  For it is to be observed; that though the
  occasions of relief and the objects of distress were very many more in
  the time of the violence of the plague than now after all was over; yet
  the distress of the poor was more now a great deal than it was then;
  because all the sluices of general charity were now shut。  People
  supposed the main occasion to be over; and so stopped their hands;
  whereas particular objects were still very moving; and the distress of
  those that were poor was very great indeed。
  Though the health of the city was now very much restored; yet
  foreign trade did not begin to stir; neither would foreigners admit our
  ships into their ports for a great while。  As for the Dutch; the
  misunderstandings between our court and them had broken out into a
  war the year before; so that our trade that way was wholly interrupted;
  but Spain and Portugal; Italy and Barbary; as also Hamburg and all the
  ports in the Baltic; these were all shy of us a great while; and would
  not restore trade with us for many months。
  The distemper sweeping away such multitudes; as I have observed;
  many if not all the out…parishes were obliged to make new burying…
  grounds; besides that I have mentioned in Bunhill Fields; some of
  which were continued; and remain in use to this day。  But others were
  left off; and (which I confess I mention with some reflection) being
  converted into other uses or built upon afterwards; the dead bodies
  were disturbed; abused; dug up again; some even before the flesh of
  them was perished from the bones; and removed like dung or rubbish
  to other places。  Some of those which came within the reach of my
  observation are as follow:
  (1) A piece of ground beyond Goswell Street; near Mount Mill;
  being some of the remains of the old lines or fortifications of the city;
  where abundance were buried promiscuously from the parishes of Aldersgate;
  Clerkenwell; and even out of the city。  This ground; as I take it; was
  since made a physic garden; and after that has been built upon。
  (2) A piece of ground just over the Black Ditch; as it was then
  called; at the end of Holloway Lane; in Shoreditch parish。 It has been
  since made a yard for keeping hogs; and for other ordinary uses; but is
  quite out of use as a burying…ground。
  (3) The upper end of Hand Alley; in Bishopsgate Street; which was
  then a green field; and was taken in particularly for Bishopsgate
  parish; though many of the carts out of the city brought their dead
  thither also; particularly out of the parish of St All…hallows on the
  Wall。 This place I cannot mention without much regret。 It was; as I
  remember; about two or three years after the plague was ceased that
  Sir Robert Clayton came to be possessed of the ground。 It was
  reported; how true I know not; that it fell to the king for want of heirs;
  all those who had any right to it being carried off by the pestilence;
  and that Sir Robert Clayton obtained a grant of it from King Charles
  II。 But however he came by it; certain it is the ground was let out to
  build on; or built upon; by his order。 The first house built upon it was
  a large fair house; still standing; which faces the street or way now
  called Hand Alley which; though called an alley; is as wide as a street。
  The houses in the same row with that house northward are built on the
  very same ground where the poor people were buried; and the bodies;
  on opening the ground for the foundations; were dug up; some of them
  remaining so plain to be seen that the women's skulls were
  distinguished by their long hair; and of others the flesh was not quite
  perished; so that the people began to exclaim loudly against it; and
  some suggested that it might endanger a return of the contagion; after
  which the bones and bodies; as fast as they came at them; were carried
  to another part of the same ground and thrown all together into a deep
  pit; dug on purpose; which now is to be known in that it is not built
  on; but is a passage to another house at the upper end of Rose Alley;
  just against the door of a meeting…house which has been built there
  many years since; and the ground is palisadoed off from the rest of the
  passage; in a little square; there lie the bones and remains of near two
  thousand bodies; carried by the dead carts to their grave in that one year。
  (4) Besides this; there was a piece of ground in Moorfields; by the
  going into the street which is now called Old Bethlem; which was
  enlarged much; though not wholly taken in on the same occasion。
  'N。B。 … The author of this journal lies buried in that very ground;
  being at his own desire; his sister having been buried there a few
  years before。'
  (5) Stepney parish; extending itself from the east part of London to
  the north; even to the very edge of Shoreditch Churchyard; had a piece
  of ground taken in to bury their dead close to the said churchyard; and
  which for that very reason was left open; and is since; I suppose; taken
  into the same churchyard。 And they had also two other burying…places
  in Spittlefields; one where since a chapel or tabernacle has been built
  for ease to this great parish; and another in Petticoat Lane。
  There were no less than five other grounds made use of for the
  parish of Stepney at that time: one where now stands the parish church
  of St Paul; Shadwell; and the other where now stands the parish
  church of St John's at Wapping; both which had not the names of
  parishes at that time; but were belonging to Stepney parish。
  I could name many more; but these coming within my particular
  knowledge; the circumstance; I thought; made it of use to record
  them。 From the whole; it may be observed that they were obliged in
  this time of distress to take in new burying…grounds in most of the out…
  parishes for laying the prodigious numbers of people which died in so
  short a space of time; but why care was not taken to keep those places
  separate from ordinary uses; that so the bodies might rest undisturbed;
  that I cannot answer for; and must confess I think it was wrong。 Who
  were to blame I know not。
  I should have mentioned that the Quakers had at that time also a
  burying…ground set apart to their use; and which they still make use of;
  and they had also a particular dead…cart to fetch their dead from their
  houses; and the famous Solomon Eagle; who; as I mentioned before;
  had predicted the plague as a judgement; and ran naked through the
  streets; telling the people that it was come upon them to punish them
  for their sins; had his own wife died the very next day of the plague;
  and was carried; one of the first in the Quakers' dead…cart; to their new
  burying…ground。
  I might have thronged this account with many more remarkable
  things which occurred in the time of the infection; and particularly
  what passed between the Lord Mayor and the Court; which was then
  at Oxford; and what directions were from time to time received from
  the Government for their conduct on this critical occasion。 But really
  the Court concerned themselves so little; and that little they did was of
  so small import; that I do not see it of much moment to mention any
  part of it here: except that of appointing a monthly fast in the city and
  the sending the royal charity to the relief of the poor; both which I
  have mentioned before。
  Great was the reproach thrown on those physicians who left their
  patients during the sickness; and now they came to town again nobody
  cared to