Page:A Journal of the Plague Year (1722).djvu/29

 One Day, being at that Part of the Town, on ſome ſpecial Buſineſs, Curioſity led me to obſerve things more than uſually; and indeed I walk'd a great Way where I had no Buſineſs; I went up Holbourn, and there the Street was full of People; but they walk'd in the middle of the great Street, neither on one Side or other, becauſe, as I ſuppoſe, they would not mingle with any Body that came out of Houſes, or meet with Smells and Scents from Houſes that might be infected.

The Inns-of-Court were all ſhut up; nor were very many of the Lawyers in the Temple, or Lincolns-Inn, or Greyes-Inn, to be ſeen there. Every Body was at peace, there was no Occaſion for Lawyers; beſides, it being in the Time of the Vacation too, they were generally gone into the Countty. Whole Rows of Houſes in ſome Places, were ſhut cloſe up; the Inhabitants all fled, and only a Watchman or two left.

When I ſpeak of Rows of Houſes being ſhut up, I do non mean ſhut up by the Magiſtrates; but that great Numbers of Perſons followed the Court, by the Neceſſity of their Employments, and other Dependencies: and as others retir'd, really frighted with the Diſtemper, it was a mere deſolating of ſome of the Streets: But the Fright was not yet near ſo great in the City, abſtractly ſo called; and particularly becauſe, tho' they were at firſt in a moſt inexpreſſible Conſternation, yet as I have obſerv'd, that the Diſtemper intermitted often at firſt; ſo they were as it were, allarm'd, and unallarm'd again, and this ſeveral times, till it began to be familiar to them; and that even, when it appear'd violent, yet ſeeing it did not preſently ſpread into the City, or the Eaſt and South Parts, the People began to take Courage, and to be, as I may ſay, a little hardned: It is true, a vaſt many People fled, as I have