INTRODUCTION xli 



of it, nor be outdon till the universal conflagration thereof. 

 All the skie was of a fiery aspect, like the top of a burning 

 oven, and the light scene above 40 miles round about for 

 many nights. God grant mine eyes may never behold the 

 like, who now saw above 10,000 houses all in one flame; 

 the noise and cracking and thunder of the impetuous flames, 

 ye shreiking of women and children, the hurry of people, the 

 fall of towers, houses, and churches, was like an hideous 

 storme, and the aire all about so hot and inflam'd that at the 

 last one was not able to approach it, so that they were forc'd 

 to stand and let ye flames burn on, which they did for neere 

 two miles in lengh and one in breadh. The clowds also of 

 smoke were dismall and reach'd upon computation neer 

 50 miles in length. Thus 1 left it this afternoone burning, 

 a resemblance of Sodom, or the last day. It forcibly call'd 

 to my mind that passage non enim hie habemus stabilem 

 civitatem : the ruines resembling the picture of Troy. 

 London was, but is no more ! Thus I returned.' 



For days the conflagration raged, although the whole situa- 

 tion might probably have been saved if the ad vice of seamen, 

 then as now amongst the bravest and most practical of 

 Britain's sons, had been followed. When the court suburb 

 of Whitehall began to be threatened, c but oh, the confusion 

 there was then at the Court ! ' the gentlemen, ' who 

 hitherto had stood as men intoxicated, with their hands 

 acrosse,.... began to consider that nothing was likely to put 

 a stop but the blowing up of so many houses as might make 

 a wider gap than any had yet been made by the ordinary 

 method of pulling them downe with engines ; this some 

 stout seamen propros'd early enough to have sav'd neere ye 

 whole citty, but this some tenacious and avaritious men, 

 aldermen, etc., would not permitt, because their houses 

 must have been of the first. ' At length, however, the fire 

 died out, the houseless citizens finding refuge in tents and 

 miserable huts and hovels hastily erected about St. George's 

 fields and Moorfields as far as Highgate. But Evelyn's 

 abode had remained untouched. From reviewing the now 

 poverty-striken people 'in this calamitous condition I return'd 

 with a sad heart to my house, blessing and adoring the 

 distinguishing mercy of God to me and mine, who in the 



