Travel Back In Time With Me

Chapter-13

Then I went to see two consecutive years of 17th-century London that experienced two tragedies. In the spring and summer of 1665, the Bubonic Plague epidemic broke out from region to region until thousands died and large potholes were stolen. In 1666 the Great Fire of London destroyed the great head of London, but it also helped kill some black rats and fleas infected with bacillus.

Bubonic Plague is known as the Black Death and has been known in England for centuries. It was a terrible disease. The victim's skin has turned black on the leaves and flammable glands or 'tubes' of the pit, combined with forced vomiting, swelling of the tongue and cracking of the head making it a deadly killer, and grief.

The disease originated in Eastern lands, perhaps even China, and spread rapidly throughout Europe. All the communities were exterminated and corpses filled the streets as there was no one left to bury.

It started in London in a poor, overcrowded district in St. Louis. Giles-in-the-Field. It started small but by May 1665, 43 had died. In June 666 people died, in July 17036 people died and in July during the peak season in August, 31159 people died. In all, 15% of people died during this terrible time.

The incubation period lasts only four to six days when the disease breaks out in the home, the house is closed, the whole family is sentenced! The houses were separated by a red cross painted on the door and the words, 'Lord have mercy on us'. At night corpses were brought in in response to the call, 'Take your corpse out', put it in a cart and take it to the morgue. One called the Great Pit was at Aldgate in London and the other was at Finsbury Fields.

The King, Charles II and his Court moved from London to Oxford. Those people could have sent their families away from London during these months, but the poor had no way of getting help without a place to live.

In his diary, Samuel Pepys gives a vivid account of the empty streets of London, as well as all those who might have gone to try to escape the disease.

It is believed that holding the flower in the nose has infected the disease and to this day the judges have not been given a nasal spray to continue the festivities to prevent the disease!

A song about the disease is still sung by children. The 'ring-a-ring of roses' describes in detail the symptoms of the disease and concludes that 'Everything has fallen to the ground'. The last word, 'dead', was released today.

The disease spread to many parts of England.  New York was one of the worst-affected cities. The victims were buried outside the city walls and are said to have been undisturbed since then, as a precaution against the resurgence of this dreaded disease. Cracks in the grass under the city walls are areas of these plague pits.