Page:A Journal of the Plague Year (1722).djvu/178

 The good charitable Gentleman encourag'd them to quit the Place, for fear they ſhould be cut off from any Retreat at all, by the Violence of the Diſtemper; but whither they ſhould go, that he found very hard to direct them to. At laſt John ask'd of him, whether he (being a Juſtice of the Peace) would give them Certificates of Health to other Juſtices who they might come before, that ſo whatever might be their Lot they might not be repulſed now they had been alſo ſo long from London. This his Worſhip immediately granted, and gave them proper Letters of Health, and from thence they were at Liberty to travel whither they pleaſed.

Accordingly they had a full Certificate of Health, intimating, That they had reſided in a Village in the County of Eſſex ſo long, that being examined and ſcrutiniz'd ſufficiently, and having been retir'd from all Corverſation for above 40 Days, without any appearance of Sickneſs, they were therefore certainly concluded to be Sound Men, and might be ſafely entertain'd any where, having at laſt remov'd rather for fear of the Plague, which was come into ſuch a Town, rather than for having any ſignal of Infection upon them, or upon any belonging to them.

With this Certificate they remov'd, tho' with great Reluctance; and John inclining not to go far from Home, they mov'd towards the Marſhes on the ſide of Waltham: But here they found a Man, who it ſeems kept a Weer or Stop upon the River, made to raiſe the Water for the Barges which go up and down the River, and he terrified them with diſmal Stories of the Sickneſs having been ſpread into all the Towns on the River, and near the River, on the ſide of Middleſex and Hertfordſhire; that is to ſay, into Waltham, Waltham-Croſs, Enfield and Ware, and all the Towns on the Road, that they were afraid to go that way; tho' it ſeems the Man impos'd upon them, for that the thing was not really true. How-