234
NOTES AND QUERIES, [ii F. xn. SEPT. 25, 1915.
THE GREAT FIRE.
THE following letter, containing many details relative to the Great Fire of London, which I find in an issue of The Salopian Journal in the year 1818, may prove of interest to readers of * N. & Q.'
Mr. Henry Griffith, the recipient of the letter, was son of a Mr. Thomas Griffith, and a member of a family long seated at Benthall, in the parish of Alberbury, in Shropshire. During the Civil War he was resident in London, and afterwards be- came one of the Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber to King Charles II.
DEARE SIB
Yesterday I received yours of the 6 th present. It being left for mee. I hope long before this time you received one from mee, dated about the same time, wherein I gave you in short the sad relacion of our late mis- fortunes. I suppose you have had itt att large before this time ; had not my beinge out of towne prevented mee I should have given itt you myselfe. Therefore, in fine, be pleased to take notice that I have viewed this sad desolacion, and find the fire, as I then told you, began in Pudding Lane, not- far from Billingsgate, in a baker's house, about one or two in the morninge, on Sunday, 2 d instant, and the winde full east being very strong. And by such time it had con- sumed 15 or 16 houses raged soe high that there was no hopes of quenching itt, insoe- much that the only remedy was conceav'd to pull downe severall houses far before the fire, thinking thereby to stop itt, but all in vaine, and then 'twas too late, for in raging soe much and burning soe many wayes and wonderfully against the winde, that before one house could be pull'd down 10 would be burnt, for that that very fire that sett St. Paul's church a burning flew thence into Salisbury Court, in Fleet Street, over the heads of those that were at worke on the houses at Fleetbridge. This caused people to give itt cleerly over, and they began to secure their best goods. Sqme went to stealing, others to looke on, but all stood to the mercy of an enraged fire, which did in 3 dayes time almost destroy the metropolis of this our Isle, had not God of his infinite mercy stayed the fury thereof, which was done by his Majesty's and the Duke of York's singular caje and paines, handing the water in bucketts when they stood up to the ancles in water, and playing the engines for many houres together, as they did at the Temple and Cripplegate, which people seeing
fell to work with effect, having soe good
fellow labourers.
5t has burnt all from the Towre to the Temple, and part of that too along the Thames side, carrying before itt the Custome House, Billingsgate, London Bridge, Cole- harbour, Queenehith, Baynard's Castle, Black and White Fryers, from east to west. Northwards itt burnt to Cripple and Moore- gate, and something further to Moor Fields,, carrying before itt Cannon and Lumbort Street, Cornehill Exchange, Bartholomew Lane, Lothbury, and most of the buildings towards Moor Fields, Guildhall. Alderman- bury, Basinghall, and Colman-street. North- westward it burnt the Poultry, Cheapside, Bread and Friday streets, Fishstreet, Doc- tors' Commons, Paul's Church-yard , Newgate Market, Catteaton street, Wood and Milk streets, Frost Lane, St. Martens to and from Aldersgate, Pye Corner to Smithfield, Holborn to the bridge, Ludgate-hill, Old Bailey, the Fleet and Fleet street* to the Church, all Shoce and part of Fetter lanes.. Northeastward, Threedneedle street, Augus- tine Fryers, part of Bishopsgate streefe, Gratia street, Eastcheape, Fenchurch street,, almost to Marke Lane End a good way past the Church, part of Line street, Minsing Lane, Tower stree.t, and most of Marke Lane r together with all lanes, alleys, streets, and parish churches within this compasse, being in all burnt 89 : besides St. Paul's church. And thus have I given you an account of the sad devastacions, which to relate, much more to behold, cannot be done without great pitty and sorrow for the losse thereof and the ruine of its late inhabitants. And now that wee cry out a plott, a plott, and 'twas treachery has done this unto us, when alasse 'twas for those personal and national sinns that this kingdome is guilty of, for their unthankfullness for all his mercyes in pre- serving them during some years under a tyrannical government, restoreing their king,, and their just liberties, giveing them victory over their enemies at home and abroad r whereby every man sate peaceably under his own vine, but this wrought noe good re- f ormacion, wherefore He stirred up an enemy to warr with us, and brought the plague upon us, both which I may say have swept away in a short time some hundreds of thousands, yett did He deliver us from both, but was noe better rewarded ; wherefore He has brought this evill upon us, yett cannot many of us be perswaded itt to be His severe hand upon us. When, indeed, if all our enemies at home and abroad had had free liberty and other assistance to have-
