Page:A Journal of the Plague Year (1722).djvu/286

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
278
Memoirs of

ſicians gave this as their Opinions, wherever they came, the Quacks got little Buſineſs.

There were indeed ſeveral little Hurries, which happen’d after the Decreaſe of the Plague, and which whether they were contriv’d to fright and diſorder the People, as ſome imagin’d, I cannot ſay, but ſometimes we were told the Plague would return by ſuch a Time; and the famous Solomon Eagle the naked Quaker, I have mention’d, prophety’d evil Tidings every Day; and ſeveral others telling: us that London had not been ſufficiently ſcourg’d, and the ſorer and fſeverer Strokes were yet behind; had they ſtop’d there, or had they deſcended to Particulars, and told us that the City should the next Year be deſtroyed by Fire; then indeed, when we had ſeen it come to paſs, we ſhould not have been to blame to have paid more than a common Reſpect to their Prophetick Spirits, at leaſt we ſhould have wonder’d at them, and have been more ſerious in our Enquiries after the meaning of it, and whence they had the Fore-knowledge: But as they generally told us of a Relapſe into the Plague, we have had no Concern ſince that about them; yet by theſe frequent Clamours, we were all kept with ſome kind of Apprehenſions conſtantly upon us, and if any died ſuddenly, or if the ſpotted Fevers at any time increaſed, we were preſently alarm’d; much more if the Number of the Plague encreaſed, for to the End of the Year, there were always between 2 and 300 of the Plague; on any of theſe Occaſions, I ſay, we were alarm’d anew.

Thoſe, who remember the City of London before the Fire, muſt remember, that there was then no ſuch Place as that we now call. Newgate-Market. But that in the Middle of the Street, which is now calld Blow-bladder Street, and which had its Name from the Butchers, who us'd to kill and dreſs their