England under Charles II. from the Restoration to the Treaty of Nimeguen, 1660-1678: English History from Contemporary Writers
Taylor, W. F.
1889
The Great Fire.
Letter from Sir Edward Atkyns to his brother Sir Peter Atkyns. Lincoln's Inn, Sept. 8, . | |
I received your letter, and shall give you the best account I can of our late sad fire, though it is scarcely possible for any man fully to describe it. It began in a baker's house in Pudding Lane, near Thames | |
70 | Street, on Sunday morning, about two or three of the clock, and burnt down several houses, but could not be quenched, in regard it was a narrow place where the engines could not play, and the Lord Mayor did not think fit to pull down any houses to prevent the further spreading of the fire. About ten of the clock whilst we were at church there was a cry in the streets that the Dutch and French were in arms, and had fired the city, and thereupon the ministers dismissed their several congregations, but we that were so remote thought little of it. In the afternoon I went into the Temple Garden, where I saw it had made an unhappy progress, and had consumed towards the Thames side many houses and two or three churches, as Lawrence Pountney church, which I saw strangely fired, and other churches, and at last growing somewhat violent and meeting with many wharfs, and the wind being high, it grew very formidable, and we began to think of its nearer approach. By Monday morning it had burnt all Thames Street, New Fish Street, and some part of Cannon Street, and thereupon the citizens began to neglect the fire and to secure their goods, and in fine and to be short, by Wednesday evening it had burnt all the city. Yesterday I went from St. Dunstan's Church to Bishopsgate Street, and there is not one house standing betwixt those places; there are only, within the wall, but part of these three streets remaining, viz., part of Leadenhall Street, Pasinghall and Bishopsgate Street, all the rest burnt to the ground, and not so much as a considerable piece of timber, |
71 | as I could see, secured from the fire. It is impossible almost to conceive the total destruction; all the churches burnt, nay, some of the churches as Bow Church . . . have not so much as the walls standing. All the halls, as Guildhall, Merchant Taylors' Hall, Mercers' Chapel, Old Exchange, burnt down to the ground, so that you can hardly tell where such a parish or place was. I can say but this, that there is nothing but stones and rubbish, and all exposed to the open air. So that you may see from one end of the city almost to the other. St. Paul's Church the very stones are crumbled and broken to shivers . . . and you can compare London (were it not for the rubbish) to nothing more than an open field. The citizens were forced to remove their goods into the open fields, and £10 a cart was now demanded to carry away the goods. The Inner Temple almost burnt and pulled down, except the Temple Church, the Hall much defaced, and the Exchequer Office, Serjeant's Inn in Fleet Street, and all to St. Dunstan's Church, and so on the other side of Holborn Bridge. The king and duke of York were exceedingly active, or otherwise I doubt that the suburbs had undergone the same calamity: some have conceived that it was a plot, but most and the king himself believe that it was only the hand of God. The king comforts the citizens with the rebuilding of the city, but God knows when that will be; the Exchange is now kept at Gresham College, where I heard yesterday there was a full exchange of merchants. . . Chancery Lane is yet standing |
72 | except the St. John's Head near Lincoln's Inn, which was pulled down, by way of prevention, and another house towards Holborn. . . Houses are now at an excessive rate. . . I believe the danger is well over, only we have frequent false alarms of fire, sometimes in one place, and then in another; it now burns only in cellars and warehouses, where either coals, spirits, or other combustible matters were lodged. |
