Requiem for London • 183Knells and Bells
Ye bells never cease to putt us in mind of our own mortality.
—John Tillisonto Dean Sancroft, September 14 , 1665Day and night the church bells of London tolled their requiem message.
Hodges said they were hoarse from continual use. The bell ringing might
stop in a parish when the ropes broke or the bell ringer had so many deaths
to ring for that he gave up ringing altogether. But nearby the bells sounded
out the passing of yet another citizen.Fig. 11 .Plague coffins and dead-carts in 1665. The first frame shows men with coffins
on their shoulders and a woman bearing the small coffin of her child past the body of
a fallen plague victim. The second frame features bearers with their identifying wands
leading horses drawing an open dead-cart with coffins and a covered cart possibly
holding uncoffined bodies.Courtesy of the Museum of London