received it from the mouth of one of the late churchwardens of the parish where he lived, which is, that Sir Edmondberry, not long ago, gave him an hundred pounds to bestow upon such poor people in the parish as he knew were in want; neither was that the first time that Sir Edmondberry had employed him in works of that nature, having often made him the distributor of his charity, because he did not desire the applause of men for it. This, without all doubt, proceeded from so remarkable and so sincere a piety, that, though it may be commended, I am afraid it will scarce be imitated." : The murder of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey became the subject of several medals, as may be seen in Evelyn's Treatise. On one, a bust of Sir Edmund is represented, with two hands in the act of strangling him the reverse exhibits the Pope giving his benediction to a man who is strangling another man upon the ground. On a second, with a similar bust, is a representation of the carrying the deceased, on horseback, to Primrose Hill. On a third medal, evidently designed in ridicule of the others, Sir Edmund appears walking, with a broken neck, and a sword buried in his body on the reverse is St. Denis, bearing his head in his hand, with this inscription ; Godfrey walks up hill after he was dead, GREAT PLAGUE IN THE YEAR 1665. The interesting nature of the following article, which appeared in the "Gentleman's Magazine," for May, 1825, and relates to the conduct of a Citizen during the direful calamity of the above year, will jus tify its insertion in these pages, notwithstanding the account given of the Plague in the preceding volume. The firmness and good sense exhibited by the Grocer, furnish an excellent example of proper conduct, should our metropolis be ever again so unfortunate as to be chastised with the scourge of pestilence. Account of a Grocer in Wood Street, Cheapside, who preserved himself and Family from Infection during the great Plague in 1665. This family consisted of the master and his wife, each of them between forty and fifty years of age, besides five children, three daughters and two sons, two maid servants, and an apprentice. This tradesman, who was a wholesale grocer, had another apprentice nearly out of his time, a porter, and a boy, whom he kept some time; but seeing the desolation that was coming upon them, he sent the boy down to his friends in Staffordshire, and gave up to his eldest apprentice the remainder of his time. As to the porter, he did not lodge in the house before, so there was no occasion for dismissing him; but being a poor man, and likely to fall into distress for want of employ, he was engaged to come every day and sit at the door as a watchman from nine in the morning till six in the evening, to receive orders, go upon errands, &c. The tradesman had a wicket made in the door to take in or send out any thing they thought fit; besides, there was a rope fastened to a little pulley to draw up, or let any thing down into the street. By this rope they often let down victuals and cordials or what else they thought fit to the porter, and especially his wages constantly every week, or oftener, as he required. The master having resolved to shut himself up with his family, had stored himself with all manner of provisions, and resolved to make it a standing rule that the door should not be opened on any account, fire excepted. No person within was permitted to look out of the windows into the street, or open any casement, except a wooden window made for the purpose, where the pulley and rope was, and that up two pair of stairs; and this wooden window he caused to be covered with tin, that nothing infected should stick to it. Whenever the wooden window was opened, he caused a flash of gunpowder to be made in the room, so as to fill it with smoke, which, as soon as the window was opened, would gush out with some force, so that it carried away what air was in the window, not suffering any to come in from abroad till it was purified by the sulphur in the gunpowder smoke. While this smoke lasted, business might be transacted with the porter; but the moment the smoke abated, another flash was made with the powder within. At first, whilst they were ten in the family, the master allowed each of them a pound of bread per day; but as he had laid in a quantity of meal, he reduced one sixth part for cake-bread, and such other sorts as might be made in the house. He also bought three thousand pound weight of biscuit, and had it put up in hogsheads as if it was going to be shipped off; so that the baker thought the biscuits were for a ship the grocer was fitting out. This he caused to be taken away in a boat, and being brought up to Queenhithe, it was landed there and carted to his warehouse under the appearance of grocery. In the same manner he acted with twenty barrels of fine flour. He then caused a small oven to be fixed in the chimney of one of his upper apartments. Being well provided with beer, as the physicians advised every one that could afford it to drink moderately, and not let their spirits sink or be dejected, he laid in a reasonable quantity of wines, cordial waters and brandy, and also some of the new and costly cordial at that time called plague water, besides medicines, &c. Having furnished himself with bread, flour, and beer, he then went to a butcher at Rotherhithe, none having yet died of the plague on that side of the water, and purchased three fat bullocks, which being killed, were pickled and barrelled up, together with six barrels of pork. These he also brought by water to Trigg Stairs, where he landed and carted them to his warehouse, as if it had been grocery. Bacon, cheese, and butter, he procured out of the country. In fine, nothing was wanting that the situation he was going into could probably require. These preparations being made, he forebore shutting himself quite up for some months after the plague had begun, and even till there died about a thousand a week. But though the infection was very terrible in the out-parishes, especially about Holborn, St. Giles, Fleet-street, and the Strand, the City was very healthy, nor was the distemper felt in any great degree within the walls, till the end of June or the beginning of July; in the second week of which it appeared, from the weekly bills, that 1268 had died in the out-parts of different distempers. But in the whole of the 97 parishes within the walls only 28 had died of the distemper, and not more than 16 in all the buildings on the Surrey side of the water. However, the next week after, it was doubled, and began to overspread the whole city and all the out-parts like a torrent. None of this family now were suffered to go out of the City to any public place, market, exange, or church; and the master also warned his deal d correspondents in the country not to send him re goods, as he could no longer send goods away, ve any sent to him, the the first of July, he began to place his porter on outside of the door, where he built him a little hutch to sit in. By the 14th of July, the weekly bills amounted to 1762 of all distempers; and as the parish of St. Alban's, Wood-street, was the second in the city that was infected, this tradesman, bolted, barred, and locked himself in with all his house, taking the keys into his own keeping, and declared to all his family, that if any one of them, though it were his eldest son or daughter, should offer to stir out of the door, though but a yard off, they should not come in again upon any terms whatever. At the same time he nailed up all the casements of his windows, or fastened the wooden shutters on the inside; those windows were excepted which were kept open for conversing with his porter, as before observed. Till this time he had taken fresh meat of a countrywoman, a higgler, who assuring him that she brought it from Waltham Abbey market, without opening it till she came to his door, he was satisfied, but now he forbade her to come any more. Being now closely shut up, they scarcely knew how it fared with their neighbours, except that they heard the bells continually tolling, and their porter gave them in the weekly bills of mortality, and at length informed them that the next house but two was infected; that three houses on the other side of the way were shut up, and that two servants out of another house, on the same side of the way, but on the other side of their house, were sent away to the Pest-house beyond Old-street. It was observable that it went hard with the poor servants being obliged to go out on errands, particularly to the markets, to apothecaries and chandlers' shops: the latter were at that time the principal places for all necessaries except meat or fish. It was a great satisfaction to them that the people in the next house on one side |