Page:A Journal of the Plague Year (1722).djvu/191

 'till after ſeveral prolongings of their Confinement, ſome or other of thoſe that came in with the Viſitors to inſpect the Perſons that were ill, in hopes of releaſing them, brought the Diſtemper with them, and infected the whole Houſe, and all or moſt of them died, not of the Plague, as really upon them before, but of the Plague that thoſe People brought them, who ſhould ha’ been careful to have protected them from it; and this was a thing which frequently happen’d, and was indeed one of the worſt Conſequences of ſhutting Houſes up.

I had about this time a little Hardſhip put upon me, which I was at firſt greatly afflicted at, and very much diſturb’d about; tho’ as it prov’d, it did not expoſe me to any Diſaſter; and this was being appointed by the Alderman of Portſoken Ward, one of the Examiners of the Houſes in the Precinct where I liv'd; we had a large Pariſh, and had no leſs than eighteen Examiners, as the Order call’d us, the People call’d us Viſitors. I endeavour’d with all my might to be excus’d from ſuch an Employment,and uſed many Arguments with the Alderman’s Deputy to be excus'd; particularly I alledged, that I was againſt ſhutting up Houſes at all, and that it would be very hard to oblige me, to be an Inſtrument in that which was againſt my Judgment, and which I did verily believe would not anſwer the End it was intended for, but all the Abatement I could get was only, that whereas the Officer was appointed by my Lord Mayor to continue two Months, I ſhould be obliged to hold it but three Weeks, on Condition, nevertheleſs that I could then get ſome other ſufficient Houſe-keeper to ſerve the reſt of the Time for me, which was, in ſhort, but a very ſmall Favour, it being very difficult to get any Man to accept of ſuch an Employment, that was fit to be intruſted with it.

It is true that ſhutting up of Houſes had one Effect, which I am ſenſible was of Moment, namely, it confin’d the diſtemper’d People, who would