Part 3

The same gentleman says:[6] "Your looking-glasses will be snatched away, your mirrors cracked, your diamonds shivered in pieces; this goodly city all in shreds. Ye may seek for a pillar or threshold of your ancient dwellings, but not find one. All your spacious mansions and sumptuous monuments are then gone. Not a porch, pavement, ceiling, staircase, turret, lantern, bench, screen, pane of a window, post, nail, stone, or dust of your former houses to be seen. No, with wringing hands you may ask, where are those sweet places where we traded, feasted, slept? where we lived like masters, and shone like morning stars? No, the houses are fallen, and the householders dropped with them. We have nothing but naked streets, naked fields for shelter; not so much as a chamber to couch down our children or repose our own members, when we are spent or afflicted with sickness. Woe unto us! our sins have pulled down our houses, shaken down our city. We are the most harbourless people in the world; like foreigners rather than natives; yea, rather like beasts than men. Foxes have holes and fowls have nests, but we have neither holes or nests: our sins have deprived us of couch and covert. We should be glad if an hospital would receive us, dens or caves shelter us. The bleak air and cold ground are our only shades and refuges. But, alas! this is but the misery of the stonework, of arches, roofs, &c."

[Footnote 6: London's Remembrancer, page 33,--ten years before the fire.]

The following paragraph is taken from Mr. Rosewell's causes and cures of the pestilence, printed at London, in the year of the great plague 1665--a year before the fire of London.

"Is it not of the Lord that the people shall labour in the very fire, and weary themselves for vanity? It is of the Lord, surely! It comes to pass, by the secret counsel of God, that these houses and cities which they build, shall either come to be consumed by fire; or else, the people shall weary themselves in vain, for vanity to no purpose; seeing it comes so soon to be destroyed and ruinated, what they build."

SECTION II.

ACCOUNT OF THE FIRE OF LONDON, PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY, FROM THE "LONDON GAZETTE."

Sept. 2.--About two o'clock this morning, a sudden and lamentable fire broke out in this city; beginning not far from Thames-street, near London Bridge, which continues still with great violence, and hath already burnt down to the ground many houses thereabouts: which said accident affected his Majesty with that tenderness and compassion, that he was pleased to go himself in person, with his royal highness, to give orders that all possible means should be used for quenching the fire, or stopping its further spreading: in which care the right honourable the Earl of Craven was sent by his Majesty, to be more particularly assisting to the Lord Mayor and magistrates; and several companies of his guards sent into the city, to be helpful in what means they could in so great a calamity.

Whitehall, Sept. 8.--The ordinary course of this paper being interrupted by a sad and lamentable accident of fire, lately happened in the city of London, it hath been thought fit to satisfy the minds of so many of his Majesty's good subjects who must needs be concerned for the issue of so great an accident, to give this short but true account of it.

On the 2nd inst., at one o'clock in the morning, there happened to break out a sad and deplorable fire in Pudding-lane, New Fish-street, which falling out at that hour of the night and, in a quarter of the town so close built with wooden pitched houses, spread itself so far before day, and with such distraction to the inhabitants and neighbours, that care was not taken for the timely preventing the further diffusion of it, by pulling down houses, as ought to have been; so that the lamentable fire in a short time became too big to be mastered by any engines, or working near it. It fell out most unhappily too, that a violent easterly wind fomented it, and kept it burning all that day, and the night following, spreading itself up to Gracechurch-street, and downward from Cannon-street to the water side, as far as the Three Cranes in the Vintry.

The people in all parts about it were distracted by the vastness of it, and their particular care was to carry away their goods. Many attempts were made to prevent the spreading of it by pulling down houses, and making great intervals; but all in vain, the fire seizing upon the timber and rubbish, and so continuing itself, even through those places, and raging in a bright flame all Monday and Tuesday, notwithstanding his Majesty's own, and his royal highness's indefatigable and personal pains to apply all possible means to prevent it; calling upon and helping the people with their guards, and a great number of nobility and gentry unweariedly assisting therein, for which they were requited with a thousand blessings from the poor distressed people. By the favour of God the wind slackened a little on Tuesday night, and the flames meeting with brick buildings at the Temple, by little and little it was observed to lose its force on that side, so that on Wednesday morning we began to hope well, and his royal highness never departing nor slackening his personal care, wrought so well that day, assisted in some parts by the lords of the council before and behind it, that a stop was put to it at the Temple Church; near Holborn Bridge; Pye Corner; Aldersgate; Cripplegate; near the lower end of Coleman-street; at the end of Basinghall-street; by the Postern at the upper end of Bishopsgate-street; and Leadenhall-street; at the Standard, in Cornhill; at the church in Fenchurch-street; near Clothworkers' Hall in Mincing-lane; in the middle of Mark-lane; and at the Tower-dock.

On Thursday, by the blessing of God, it was wholly beat down and extinguished. But so as that evening it burst out afresh at the Temple, by the falling of some sparks (as is supposed, upon a pile of wooden buildings); but his royal highness, who watched there the whole night in person, by the great labour and diligence used, and especially by applying powder to blow up the houses about it, before day, happily mastered it.

Divers strangers, Dutch and French, were, during the fire, apprehended, upon suspicion that they contributed maliciously to it, who are all imprisoned, and informations prepared to make severe inquisition hereupon by my Lord Chief Justice Keeling, assisted by some of the Lords of the privy council, and some principal members of the city: notwithstanding which suspicions, the manner of the burning all along in a train, and so blown forward in all its ways by strong winds, makes us conclude the whole was an effect of an unhappy chance, or to speak better, the heavy hand of God upon us, for our sins, shewing us the terror of his judgment, in thus raising the fire, and immediately after, his miraculous and never enough to be acknowledged mercy, in putting a stop to it when we were in the last despair, and that all attempts for the quenching it, however industriously pursued, seemed insufficient. His Majesty then sat hourly in council, and ever since hath continued making rounds about the city, in all parts of it where the danger and mischief was greatest, till this morning that he hath sent his Grace the Duke of Albemarle, whom he hath called for to assist him in this great occasion: to put his happy and successful hand to the finishing this memorable deliverance.

About the Tower, the seasonable orders given for pulling down houses to secure the magazines of powder, was most especially successful, that part being up the wind; notwithstanding which, it came almost to the very gates of it, so as, by the early provision, the several stores of war lodged in the Tower were entirely saved; and we have hitherto this infinite cause particularly to give God thanks that the fire did not happen in any of those places where his Majesty's naval stores are kept; so as though it hath pleased God to visit us with his own hand, he hath not, by disfurnishing us with the means of carrying on the war, subjected us to our enemies.

It must be observed, that this fire happened at a part of the town, where, though the commodities were not very rich, yet they were so bulky that they could not be removed, so that the inhabitants of that part where it first began, have sustained very great loss; but, by the best inquiry we can make, the other parts of the town, where the commodities were of greater value, took the alarm so early, that they saved most of their goods of value, which possibly may have diminished the loss; though some think, that if the whole industry of the inhabitants had been applied to the stopping of the fire, and not to the saving their particular goods, the success might have been much better; not only to the public, but to many of them in their own particulars.

Through this sad accident it is easy to be imagined how many persons were necessitated to remove themselves and goods into the open fields, where they were forced to continue some time, which could not but work compassion in the beholders; but his Majesty's care was most signal on this occasion, who, besides his personal pains, was frequent in consulting all ways for relieving those distressed persons, which produced so good effect, as well by his Majesty's proclamations and orders issued to the neighbouring justices of the peace, to encourage the sending provisions into the markets, which are publicly known, as by other directions, that when his Majesty, fearing lest other orders might not yet have been sufficient, had commanded the victualler of his navy to send bread into Moorfields for the relief of the poor, which, for the more speedy supply, he sent in biscuit out of the sea stores; it was found that the market had been already so well supplied that the people, being unaccustomed to that kind of bread, declined it, and so it was returned in great part to his Majesty's stores again, without any use made of it.

And we cannot but observe, to the confusion of all his Majesty's enemies, who endeavoured to persuade the world abroad of great parties and disaffection at home, against his Majesty's government, that a greater instance of the affections of this city could never be given, than hath now been given in this sad and most deplorable accident, when, if at any time, disorder might have been expected, from the losses, distractions, and almost desperation of some persons in their private fortunes--thousands of people not having habitations to cover them. And yet all this time it hath been so far from any appearance of designs or attempts against his Majesty's government, that his Majesty and his royal brother, out of their care to stop and prevent the fire, exposing frequently their persons, with very small attendants, in all parts of the town, sometimes even to be intermixed with those who laboured in the business; yet, nevertheless, there hath not been observed so much as a murmuring word to fall from any; but, on the contrary, even those persons whose losses render their conditions most desperate, and to be fit objects of others' prayers, beholding those frequent instances of his Majesty's care of his people, forgot their own misery, and filled the streets with their prayers for his Majesty, whose trouble they seemed to compassionate before their own.

Whitehall, Sept. 12.--His Majesty, in a religious sense of God's heavy hand upon this kingdom, in the late dreadful fire happened in the city of London, hath been pleased to order that the tenth of October next, be observed as a general and solemn fast throughout England, Wales, &c.; and that the distresses of those who have more particularly suffered in that calamity be on that day most effectually recommended to the charity of all well-disposed Christians, in the respective churches and chapels of this kingdom, to be afterward, by the hands of the Lord Mayor of the city of London, distributed for the relief of such as shall be found most to need it.

Whitehall, Sept. 15.--His Majesty pursuing, with a gracious impatience, his pious care for the speedy restoration of his city of London, was pleased to pass, the twelfth instant, his declaration, in council to his city of London upon that subject, full of that princely tenderness and affection which he is pleased on all occasions to express for that, his beloved city.

In the first place, upon the desires of the lord mayor and court of aldermen, he is pleased to prohibit the hasty building of any edifice, till such speedy care be taken for the re-edification of the city as may best secure it from the like accidents, and raise it to a greater beauty and comeliness than formerly it had; the lord mayor and aldermen being required to pull down what shall, contrary to this prohibition be erected, and return the names of such refractory persons to his Majesty and his council, to be proceeded against according to their deserts.

That any considerable number of men addressing themselves to the court of aldermen, and manifesting in what places their ground lies upon which they intend to build, shall in short time receive such order and direction that they shall have no cause to complain.

That no person erect any house or building, but of brick or stone, that they be encouraged to practise the good husbandry of strongly arching their cellars, by which divers persons have received notable benefit in the late fire.

That Fleet-street, Cheapside, Cornhill, and all other eminent streets, be of a breadth to prevent the mischief one side may receive from the other by fire; that no streets, especially near the water be so narrow as to make the passages uneasy or inconvenient; nor any allies or lanes erected, but upon necessity, for which there shall be published rules and particular orders.

That a fair quay and wharf be left on all the river side, no houses to be erected, but at a distance declared by the rules. That none of those houses next the river be inhabited by brewers, dyers, or sugar-bakers, who by their continual smokes contribute much to the unhealthiness of the adjacent places; but that such places be allotted them by the lord mayor and court of aldermen, as may be convenient for them, without prejudice of the neighbourhood.

That the lord mayor and court of aldermen cause an exact survey to be made of the ruins, that it may appear to whom the houses and ground did belong, what term the occupiers were possessed of, what rents were paid, and to whom the reversions and inheritances did appertain, for the satisfying all interests, that no man's right be sacrificed to the public convenience. After which a plot and model shall be framed of the whole building, which no doubt may so well please all persons, as to induce them willingly to conform to such rules and orders as shall be agreed to.

His majesty likewise recommends the speedy building some of those many churches which have been burnt, to the charity and magnanimity of well-disposed persons, whom he will direct and assist in the model, and by his bounty encourage all other ways that shall be desired.

And to encourage the work by his example, his majesty will use all expedition to rebuild the Custom House, and enlarge it for the more convenience of the merchants, in the place where it formerly stood: and upon all his own lands, will part with any thing of his own right and benefit, for the advancement of the public benefit and beauty of the city; and remit to all persons who shall erect any new buildings, according to this his gracious declaration, all duties arising from hearth-money for the space of seven years; as by the declaration itself more at large appears.

Whitehall, Sep. 18. This day was presented to his Majesty, by his highness the Duke of York, Edmundbury Godfrey, Esq.; one of his Majesty's justices of the peace for the county of Middlesex, and city and liberty of Westminster, who, after the public thanks and acknowledgment of his eminent services done in helping to suppress the late fire in the city and liberty of London, received the honour of knighthood.

Whitehall, Sep. 29. This day, by warrant from his Majesty's principal secretaries of state, the person of Valentine Knight was committed to the custody of one of his Majesty's messengers in ordinary, for having presumed to publish in print certain propositions for rebuilding the city of London, with considerable advantages to his Majesty's revenue by it, as if his Majesty would draw a benefit to himself from so public a calamity of his people of which his Majesty is known to have so deep sense, that he is pleased to seek rather by all means to give them ease under it.

Westminster, Sep. 28. This day the House of Commons resolved, that the humble thanks of the house should be given his Majesty for his great care and endeavour to prevent the burning of the city.

Leghorn, Oct. 18. The merchants here, in consideration of the losses sustained in London, by the late fire, have out of their charity, raised near 300_l._ towards their relief, which they intend speedily to return, to be distributed as his Majesty pleases.

London, Oct. 29. This day Sir William Bolton, lord mayor for the year ensuing, went in his coach to Westminster, attended by his brethren the aldermen, the sheriffs, and other eminent citizens in their coaches, where he was sworn with the usual ceremonies.

Whitehall, Oct. 30. Sir Jonas Moore, with some other proprietors of houses lately demolished by the fire, in Fleet-street, having prayed liberty to rebuild the same, according to such model, form and scantling as should be set them by the committee appointed by his Majesty for the advancement of that great work, (to which they offered with all willingness to submit and conform themselves); it was this day ordered by his Majesty in council, that the said proprietors shall have their liberty to re-edify their buildings accordingly.

By Stat. 19 and 20 Car. 2, any three or more of the judges were authorised to hear and determine all differences between landlords and tenants, or occupiers of buildings or other things by the fire demolished. They were, without the formalities of courts of law or equity, upon the inquisition or verdict of jurors, testimonies of witnesses upon oath, examination of persons interested, or otherwise, to determine all differences: they were, in complaints, to issue out notes of time and place for the parties' attendance, and proceed to make orders: their determinations were final, without appeal, writ of error, or reversal. Their orders were to be obeyed by all persons, and binding to representatives for ever. The judgments and determinations were recorded in a book by them signed: which book is placed and intrusted in the custody of the lord mayor and aldermen for the time being, to remain as a perpetual and lasting record. The judges were not to take any fee or reward, directly or indirectly, for any thing they did by virtue of that act. All differences not being determined, the act was continued in force till Sept. 29, 1672.

In gratitude to the memory of these judges, the city caused their pictures, in full proportion in their scarlet robes, to be set up in the Guildhall, with their names underneath, viz.

Sir Heneage Finch, Sir Orlando Bridgman, Sir Matthew Hale, Sir Richard Rainsford, Sir Edward Turner, Sir Thomas Tyrril, Sir John Archer, Sir William Morton, Sir Robert Atkins, Sir Samuel Brown, Sir Edward Atkins, Sir John Vaughan, Sir John North, Sir Thomas Twisden, Sir Christopher Turner, Sir William Wyld, Sir Hugh Windham, Sir William Ellys, Sir Edward Thurland, Sir Timothy Lyttleton, Sir John Kelynge, Sir William Windham.

The city rose out of its ashes after the dreadful fire, as it was first built, not presently, by building continued streets, in any one part, but first here a house and there a house, to which others by degrees were joined; till, at last, single houses were united into whole streets; whole streets into one beautiful city; not merely, as before, a great and magnificent city, for in a short time it not only excelled itself, but any other city in the whole world that comes near it, either in largeness, or number of inhabitants.

The beginning of the year 1670, the city of London was rebuilt, with more space and splendour than had been before seen in England. The act for rebuilding it was drawn by Sir Matthew Hale, with so true judgment and foresight, that the whole city was raised out of its ashes without any suits of law; which if that bill had not prevented them, would have brought a second charge on the city, not much less than the fire itself had been. And upon that, to the amazement of all Europe, London was, in four years' time, rebuilt with so much beauty and magnificence, that they who saw it in both states, before and after the fire, could not reflect on it, without wondering where the wealth could be found to bear so vast a loss as was made by the fire, and so prodigious an expense as was laid out in the rebuilding. This good and great work was very much forwarded by Sir William Turner, lord mayor, 1669. He was so much honoured and beloved, that at the end of the year they chose him again; but he refused it, as being an unusual thing.

Whatever the unfortunate citizens of London suffered by this dreadful fire, it is manifest, that a greater blessing could not have happened for the good of posterity; for, instead of very narrow, crooked, and incommodious streets, dark, irregular and ill-contrived wooden houses, with their several stories jutting out, or hanging over each other, whereby the circulation of the air was obstructed, noisome vapours harboured, and verminious, pestilential atoms nourished, as is manifest, by the city not being clear of the plague for twenty-five years before, and only free from contagion three years in above seventy; enlarging of the streets, and modern way of building, there is such a free circulation of sweet air through the streets, that offensive vapours are expelled, and the city freed from pestilential symptoms: so that it may now justly be averred that there is no place in the kingdom where the inhabitants enjoy a better state of health, or live to a greater age, than the citizens of London.

SECTION III.

VARIOUS OPINIONS CONCERNING THE CAUSES OF THE GREAT FIRE.

Whether the fire came casually, or on design, remains still a secret: though the general opinion might be that it was casual, yet there were presumptions on the other side of a very odd nature. Great calamities naturally produce various conjectures; men seldom considering, that the most stupendous effects often proceed from the most minute causes, or most remote accidents. People failed not to give a scope to their imagination, and to form guesses concerning the causes and authors of this afflicting and astonishing misfortune.

The king in his speech calls it "God's judgment;" the pious and religious, and at first all other men, generally and naturally ascribed it to the just vengeance of Heaven, on a city where vice and immorality reigned so openly and shamefully, and which had not been sufficiently humbled by the raging pestilence of the foregoing year.

Sir Edward Turner, speaker of the House of Commons, at presenting bills for the royal assent, says, "We must for ever with humility, acknowledge the justice of God in punishing this whole nation by the late dreadful conflagration of London."

The act of common-council for rebuilding, says, "The fire was by all justly resented as a most sad and dismal judgment of Heaven."

But time soon produced abundance of suspicions and variety of opinions concerning the means and instruments made use of.

There were some so bold as even to suspect the king. Those reports, and Oates's and Bedloe's narratives, are suppositions too monstrous, and the evidence too wretchedly mean to deserve consideration.