Page:A Journal of the Plague Year (1722).djvu/197

 many People dy’d in the Streets as dy’d in their Houſes; for when the Diſtemper was at its height, it generally made them Raving and Dilirious, and when they were ſo, they wou’d never be perſwaded to keep in their Beds but by Force; and many who were not ty'd,threw themſelves out of Windows, when they found they cou’d not get leave to go out of their Doors.

It was for want of People converſing one with another, in this time of Calamity, that it was impoſſible any particular Perſon cou’d come at the Knowledge of all the extraordinary Cafes that occurr’d in different Families; and particularly I believe it was never known to this Day how many People in their Diliriums drowned themſelves in the Thames, and in the River which runs from the Marſhes by Hackney, which we generally call’d Ware River, or Hackney River; as to thoſe which were ſet down in the Weekly Bill, they were indeed few; nor cou’d it be known of any of thoſe, whether they drowned themſelves by Accident or not: But I believe, I might reckon up more, who, within the compaſs of my Knowledge or Obſervation, really drowned themſelves in that Year, than are put down in the Bill of all put together, for many of the Bodies were never found, who, yet were known to be ſo loſt; and the like in other Methods of Self-Deſtruction. There was alſo One Man in or about Whitecroſs-ſtreet, burnt himſelf to Death in his Bed; ſome ſaid it was done by himſelf, others that it was by the Treachery of the Nurſe that attended him; but that he had the Plague upon him was agreed by all.

It was a merciful Diſpoſition of Providence alſo, and which I have many times thought of at that time, that no Fires, or no conſiderable ones at leaſt, happen’d in the City, during that Year, which, if it had been otherwiſe, would have been very dreadful; and either the People muſt have let them alone unquenched, or have come together in great Crowds