Page:A Journal of the Plague Year (1722).djvu/126

 ; all the Side where the Butchers lived, eſpecially without the Bars was more like a green Field than a paved Street, and the People generally went in the middle with the Horſes and Carts: It is true, that the fartheſt End towards White-Chappel Church, was not all pav’d, but even the Part that was pav'd was full of Graſs alſo; but this need not ſeem ſtrange ſince the great Streets within the City, ſuch as Leaden-hall-Street, Biſhopgate-Street, Cornhill, and even the Exchange it ſelf, had Graſs growing in them, in ſeveral Places; neither Cart or Coach were ſeen in the Streets from Morning to Evening, except ſome Country Carts to bring Roots and Beans, or Peaſe, Hay and Straw, to the Market, and thoſe but very few, compared to what was uſual: As for Coaches they were ſcarce uſed, but to carry ſick People to the Peſt-Houſe, and to other Hoſpitals; and ſome few to carry Phyſicians to ſuch Places as they thought fit to venture to viſit; for really Coaches were dangerous things, and People did not Care to venture into them, becauſe they did not know who might have been carried in them laſt; and ſick infected People were, as I have ſaid, ordinarily carried in them to the Peſt-Houſes, and ſometimes People expired in them as they went along.

It is true, when the Infection came to ſuch a Height as I have now mentioned, there were very few Phyſicians, which car’d to ſtir abroad to ſick Houſes, and very many of the moſt eminent of the Faculty were dead as well as the Surgeons alſo, for now it was indeed a diſmal time, and for about a Month together, not taking any Notice of the Bills of Mortality, I believe there did not die leſs than 1500 or 1700 a-Day, one Day with another. One of the worſt Days we had in the whole Time, as I thought, was in the Beginning of September, when indeed good People began to think, that God was reſolved to make a full End of the People in this miſerable City. This was at that Time when the