Fumifugium; by John Evelyn, 1061. 347 



they do not now perceive a manifest alteration in their appetite 

 and clearnesse of their spirits, especially such as have lived 

 long in France and the city of Paris." But Evelyn attributes 

 more to the smoke than can well be substantiated, and conse- 

 quently often ascribes effects to its absence, which are referable 

 to other causes. " Although," says he, " London is tolerably 

 free from the plague, it is never clear of smoke, which is a 

 plague so many other ways, and indeed intolerable, because it 

 kills not at once but always, since still to languish is even worse 

 than death itself. For is there, under heaven, such coughing and 

 snuffling to be heard as in the London churches and assemblies 

 of people, where the barking and spitting is incessant and most 

 importunate. What shall I say .-' hinc hominum pecudumque 

 luci." He then goes on to inform us, that the cause of these 

 effects is the inhalation of this " infernal vapour," which irri- 

 tates the windpipe, together with those multiform and curious 

 muscles, the immediate and proper instruments of the voice, 

 which becoming rough and dry, can neither be contracted nor 

 dilated for its due modulation, so as by some of my friends stu- 

 dious in music, it has been constantly observed that, coming 

 out of the country into London, they lost three whole notes in 

 the compass of their voice, which they never again recovered 

 till their retreat." 



If therefore we consider all these evils, and " what a fuliginous 

 crust is yearly contracted and adheres to the sides of our ordi- 

 nary chimnies, and then imagine if there were a canopy over 

 London what a mass of soot would stick to it which now comes 

 down into the streets, houses, and waters, and is taken into our 

 bodies," it is certainly somewhat surprising that the means of 

 prevention have not been more attentively studied ; what these 

 are, and to what extent the proposals for the diminution of smoke 

 and of the various nuisances dependant upon it, have been, or 

 are likely to be carried, we may now proceed to examine. 



Mr. Evelyn's plan, which once might have been feasible, is at 

 present out of the question. It consisted in the removal of all 

 nuisance-involving trades from London " five or six miles down 

 the river Thames, or at the least so far as to stand behind that 



t»romontory, jutting out and securing Greenwich from the pcsti- 

 ent air of Plumstead Marshes." This is all he has to offer ; 

 he then proposes gardens and plantations in and about the me- 

 tropolis, and enumerates a variety of fragrant plants suited to 

 our climate, and calculated to sweeten and improve the air. It 

 appears probable that the lime trees in St. James's park were 

 planted in consequence of this suggestion. 



Among contingent metropolitan nuisances noticed by Mr. 



Evelyn there are two, which to the disgrace of the present age and 



in s|ute of our boasted amelioration and refinement, still exist in 



full forc«>, namely, burying-grounds and charnel-houses around 



' 2 A2 



