THE PLAGUE THE FIRE 23 



them in pits like dead dogs ; when their new 

 Hall, their library, and the private houses of 

 their members would be destroyed in the 

 Great Fire. 



Money troubles meantime pressed heavily 

 on the Company already in debt. In 1635 

 came the demand for money to provide a 

 fleet to help Spain against Holland " ship 

 money." Five years later 300 was wanted 

 from them part of the City's compulsory 

 " loan " to Charles I. For this they were 

 compelled to let the Hall. Civil war began in 

 1642, and the City heard with alarm that the 

 King's troops had reached Hounslow. Parlia- 

 ment then demanded a loan to meet emergencies 

 and the City money for the repair of London 

 Bridge. The Apothecaries paid their share, 

 and just managed to save their small collection 

 of plate. In 1660, at the restoration, they 

 were required to contribute towards the City's 

 present to the King. Then followed the 

 Great Plague, and after the Plague the Great 

 Fire. Their Hall disappeared, and many of 

 their members' houses. 1 



But the Apothecaries' Company survived. 

 They sold their tenements, waste land, and 

 their silver plate, and in two years' time they 

 had rebuilt the Hall on its old foundations. 



1 There are scanty records of these years. It was not a time for 

 keeping careful minutes. The Apothecaries lost their books, 

 although they saved their plate. 



The College of Physicians, close by in Amen Court, were more 

 fortunate. They saved some ninety volumes, and Lord Dor- 

 chester, a Fellow of the College of Physicians, to repair their 

 losses, presented them with his great library, including the 

 beautiful Wilton Abbey Psalter of 1250, and Caxton's first book 

 printed in English in 1474, all of them to-day in excellent 

 condition. 



