Page:The George Inn, Southwark.djvu/50

 "to pass an Act of Parliament for appointing a Court of Judicature, to determine differences between owner and tenants of the houses and buildings destroyed. The records of the proceedings under that Act are preserved at Guildhall.

The following is an account of the fire of Southwark from the "London Gazette," 29th May, 1676:—

"London, May 27th.—Yesterday, about four in the morning, broke out a most lamentable fire in the Borough of Southwark, and continued with much violence all that day and part of the night following, notwithstanding all the care and endeavours that were used by his Grace the Duke of Monmouth, the Earl of Craven, and the Lord Mayor, to quench the same, as well by blowing up of houses as other ways. His Majesty, accompanied by his Royal Highness the Duke of York, in a tender sense of the calamity, being pleased himself to go down to the bridge in his barge, to give such orders His Majesty found fit for putting a stop to it, which, through the mercy of God, was finally effected, after about 600 houses had been burnt or blown up."

The following is from the Diary of the Rev. John Ward written a few years later:—

"Grover and his Irish ruffians burnt Southwark, and had 1,000 pounds for their pains, said the narrative of Bedloe. Gifford, a Jesuit, had the management of the fire. The 26th of May, 1676, was the dismal fire of Southwark. The fire begunne att one Mr. Welsh, an oilman, near St. Margaret's Hill, betwixt the "George" and "Tabard" innes, as Bedloe in his Narrative relates."—Diar. of the Rev. John Ward, 8vo, 1839, p. 155."