The Great Plague. The Story of London\'s Most Deadly Year

220 • Surviving

Evelyn saw all along the north and south banks of the Thames were de-
signed to fumigate refuse that was constantly piling up there and routed river

rats and other vermin from their burrows.^7
The cost of these fires ranged from a few shillings in the smallest city par-
ishes, to five pounds in moderate-sized Westminster parochial units, to still
more in the largest outparishes. Seacoals were at a high price in September

because of the slowdown of shipping from the north. The expense was borne
by London’s householders, who were charged eighteen to twenty pence
apiece on top of their poor rate and a special plague-relief levy. In some
streets other combustible materials were used, such as faggots of wood,

lumber, scraps, and barrels of tar.^8
The people who ordered the fires, lit them, kept them going, and even-
tually paid for them were demonstrating the same will to survive that they
had shown for four long months. The web of authority was woven through

every level of activity, from the proclamation of the Plague Orders at the
start of the visitation to the relief of suffering and burial of the dead ever
since. Men and women had been at work in every parish, ward, and quarter
of the city and suburbs, expanding and improvising on preplague institutions

and regulations.
But how had these officials at every level managed to maintain order amid
the chaos? At the time of the fires, there were perhaps a quarter-million per-
sons still alive in Greater London, most of them struggling.

Carrying On

I do not find this visitation to have taken away in or about the city any person of

prime authority or command.

—Roger L’Estrange,Newes,October 21 , 1665

After the mass exodus at the end of June, only a few city councilmen stayed
on in their wards. The legislative council of two hundred members virtually
ceased to exist. The record of the smaller executive court of aldermen was

marginally better. Attendance fluctuated between fifteen and twenty during
the first weeks of the epidemic and then fell to twelve after plague entered
the city. The number rose again as the mayor and aldermen put the city’s
plague regulations into operation, before dropping a second time after the

king and court left Westminster. Several aldermen sequestered themselves in