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THE FIRE OF LONDON.

WHERE THE FIRE ORIGINATED. CHARLES II.'S NOBLE CONDUCT.
ACCOUNT OF THE FIRE.-EVELYN'S "DIARY.

-PEPYS'S

FARRYNER'S ACCOUNT OF

THE ORIGIN OF THE FIRE.ATTRIBUTED TO THE ROMAN CATHOLICS.— THE MONUMENT.-ORIGINAL INSCRIPTION.-DAMAGE CAUSED BY THE FIRE. -DESCRIPTION OF THE MONUMENT.

OW few are there, who have stood on Fish Street
Hill-

HOW

"Where London's column, pointing at the skies,

Like a tall bully, lifts the head, and lies”—

who have not lingered to ruminate on that fearful conflagration, which the magnificent column before us was raised to commemorate! Near this spot was kindled and broke out that raging and memorable flame, which, driven irresistibly forward by a furious wind, fed itself in its fierce course alike with the gilded palaces of the rich and the humble dwellings of the poor, deafening the ear with the sound of falling roofs and crackling timbers, and lighting up the Thames till it gleamed like a lake of fire; destroying out of the twenty-six wards of the City no fewer than fifteen, and leaving the remainder scorched, ruinous, and uninhabitable; consuming the massive gates of the City, the Guildhall, eighty-nine churches, the magnificent cathedral of St. Paul's, numbers of schools, hospitals, libraries, and other public structures, four hundred streets, and thirteen thousand dwelling-houses; and at last, after having raged during

FIRE OF LONDON.

297

four days and four nights, leaving a tract of ruin and desolation extending over no fewer than four hundred and thirty-six acres !

The Great Fire of London broke out at twelve o'clock on the night of the 2nd of September, 1666, at the house of one Farryner, the King's baker in Pudding Lane, at the distance of two hundred and two feet (the height of the column) to the eastward of the spot where the Monument now stands. The progress of the flames, chiefly in consequence of the high wind which prevailed, was inconceivably rapid. Unfortunately not only were the thoroughfares in the neighbourhood extremely narrow, but the houses were chiefly composed of wood and plaster, and many of them had thatched roofs. The suddenness, too, of the catastrophe, the furious rapidity with which the fire extended itself, and the awful sublimity of the scene, appear to have rendered the populace utterly helpless. "The conflagration," writes an eye-witness,* "was so universal, and the people so astonished, that from the beginning, I know not by what despondency or fate, they hardly stirred to quench it; so that there was nothing heard or seen but crying out and lamentation, running about like distracted creatures, without at all attempting to save even their goods; such a strange consternation was there upon them."

The Lord Mayor, moreover, on whose energy and presence of mind so much depended, appears to have been a person totally unqualified to act the part required of him. In singular opposition to the conduct of the affrighted functionary, was that of Charles the Second, who, hurrying personally to the scene, acted sensibly, nobly, and energetically; issuing the wisest directions, as well to preserve order, as to amelio

*

"God's Terrible Advice to the City by Plague and Famine." By the Rev. T. Vincent.

298

NOBLE CONDUCT OF CHARLES II.

rate the miserable condition of the houseless and starving inhabitants; giving orders for pulling down houses in all directions, to prevent the further progress of the flames; and himself passing the four fearful days, sometimes on horseback and sometimes on foot, in visiting the points where the fire raged most fiercely, encouraging the workmen by his presence, and exhorting them to increased exertions by promises, example, or threats. According to a contemporary MS. quoted by Echard-" All own the immediate hand of God, and bless the goodness of the King, who made the round of the fire usually twice every day, and for many hours together, on horseback and on foot, gave orders for pursuing the work by threatenings, desires, example, and good store of money, which he himself distributed to the workers, out of a hundred pound bag, which he carried with him for that purpose." It would be unfair to the memory of the Duke of York, afterwards James the Second, not to notice that he followed the example set him by his royal brother, with similar alacrity, good feeling, and zeal.

Many accounts have been handed down to us of the great fire of London, but none are so truthful, or so graphically written as those of Evelyn and Pepys, who were not only eye-witnesses of what they describe, but were well-qualified to appreciate the greatness of the calamity, and the awful sublimity of the scene. The extracts from their several Diaries are somewhat lengthy, but are too interesting to be much curtailed. Pepys, who was at this period residing in Seething Lane, Crutched Friars, thus writes under date the 2nd of September:

"Lord's Day. Some of our maids sitting up late last night to get things ready against our feast to-day, Jane called us up about three in the morning, to tell us of a great fire they saw in the City. So I rose, and slipped on

PEPYS'S ACCOUNT OF THE FIRE.

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my night-gown, and went to her window, and thought it to be on the back side of Mark Lane at the farthest, but being unused to such fires as followed, I thought it far enough off, and so went to bed again, and to sleep. About seven, rose again to dress myself, and there looked out at the window, and saw the fire not so much as it was, and further off. By-and-by, Jane comes and tells me that she hears that above three hundred houses have been burned down to-night by the fire we saw, and that it is now burning down all Fish Street, by London Bridge. So I made myself ready presently, and walked to the Tower, and there got up upon one of the high places; Sir J. Robinson's little son going up with me; and there I did see the houses at that end of the bridge all on fire, and an infinite great fire on this and the other side of the end of the bridge; which, among other people, did trouble me for poor little Michell and our Sarah on the bridge. So down, with my heart full of trouble, to the Lieutenant of the Tower, who tells me that it begun this morning in the King's baker's house in Pudding Lane, and that it hath burned down St. Magnus's Church, and most part of Fish Street already. So I down to the water-side, and there got a boat, and through bridge, and there saw a lamentable fire. Poor Michell's house, as far as the Old Swan, already burned that way, and the fire running further, that in a very little time it got as far as the Steel-Yard, while I was there. Everybody endeavouring to remove their goods, and flinging into the river, or bringing them into lighters that lay off; poor people staying in their houses as long as till the very fire touched them, and then running into boats, or clambering from one pair of stairs by the water-side to another. And among other things, the poor pigeons, I perceive, were loth to leave their houses, but hovered about the windows and balconies, till they burned their wings, and

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PEPYS'S ACCOUNT OF THE FIRE.

fell down. Having stayed, and in an hour's time seen the fire rage every way, and nobody, to my sight, endeavouring to quench it, but to remove their goods, and leave all to the fire, and having seen it get as far as the Steel-Yard, and the wind mighty high, and driving it into the City: and everything after so long a drought proving combustible, even the very stones of churches, and among other things, the poor steeple by which pretty Mrs. lives, and whereof my old schoolfellow Elborough is parson, taking fire in the very top, and there burned till it fell down: I to Whitehall in my boat, and there up to the King's closet in the Chapel, where people come about me, and I did give them an account dismayed them all, and word was carried in to the King. So I was called for, and did tell the King and Duke of York what I saw, and that unless his Majesty did command. houses to be pulled down, nothing could stop the fire.

"They seemed much troubled; and the King commanded me to go to my Lord Mayor from him, and command him to spare no houses, but to pull down before the fire every way. The Duke of York bid me tell him, that if he would have any more soldiers, he shall; and so did my Lord Arlington afterwards, as a great secret. Here, meeting with Captain Cocke, I in his coach, which he lent me, to Paul's, and there walked along Watling Street, as well as I could-every creature coming away loaded with goods to save, and here and there sick people carried away in beds. Extraordinary good goods carried in carts and on backs. At last met my Lord Mayor in Cannon Street, like a man spent, with a handkercher about his neck. To the King's message he cried, like a fainting woman, 'Lord, what can I do? I am spent people will not obey me. I have been pulling down houses; but the fire overtakes us faster than we can do it.. * St. Laurence Poultney.

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