TABLE-TALK AXD VARIETIES. 



pulpit in Westminster Abbey, I 

 perceived some people below me 

 running to and fro in a seeming 

 disquietude and consternation; im- 

 mediately almost, a report reached 

 my ears that London was in a con- 

 flagration; without any ceremony 

 I took my leave of the preacher, 

 and having ascended Parliament 

 steps, near the Thames, I soon per- 

 ceived four boats crowded with ob- 

 jects of distress. These had escaped 

 from the fire scarce under any other 

 covering except that of a blanket. 

 The wind blowing strong eastward, 

 the flames at last reached West- 

 minster ; I myself saw great flakes 

 carried up into the air at least 

 three furlongs; these at last pitching 

 Tipon and uniting themselves to 

 various dry substances, set on fire 

 houses very remote from each other 

 in point of situation. The ignorant 

 and deluded mob, who upon the 

 occasion were hurried away with a 

 kind of phrenzy, vented forth their 

 rage against Eoman Catholics and 

 Frenchmen; imagining these incen- 

 diaries (as they thought) had thrown 

 red-hot balls into the houses." 



[This bitter hostility of the com- 

 mon people towards the French 

 displayed itself in many acts of 

 violence] : 



" On the next day, John Dolben, 

 Bishop of Rochester and Dean of 

 Westminster (who in the civil wars 

 had frequently stood sentinel), col- 

 lected his scholars together in a 

 company, marching with them on 

 foot, to put a stop if possible to the 

 conflagration. I was a kind of 

 page to him, not being of the num- 

 ber of King's scholars. We were 

 employed many hours in fetching 

 water from the back side of St. 

 Dunstan's Church in the East, 

 "where we happily extinguished the 

 fire. The next day, Tuesday, just 

 after sunset at night, I went to the 

 Royal Bridge (King's Bridge) in 

 the New Palace (Yard) at West- ; 

 minster, to take a fuller view of the I 



fire. The people who lived con- 

 tiguous to St. Paul's Church raised 

 their expectations greatly concern- 

 ing the absolute security of that 

 place, upon account of the immense 

 thickness of its walls and its situa- 

 tion ; built in a large piece of 

 ground, on every side remote from 

 houses. Upon this account they 

 filled it with all sorts of goods ; and 

 besides, in the church of St. Faith, 

 under that of St. Paul's, they de- 

 posited libraries of books because 

 it was entirely arched all over ; and 

 with great caution and prudence 

 every the least avenue through 

 which the smallest spark might 

 penetrate was stopped up. But 

 this precaution availed them little. 

 As I stood upon the bridge among 

 many others, I could not but ob- 

 serve the gradual approaches of the 

 fire towards that venerable fabric. 

 About eight o'clock it broke out 

 on the top of St. Paul's Church, 

 already scorched up by the violent 

 heat of the air, and lightning too, 

 and before nine blazed so conspicu- 

 ous as to let me read very clearly 

 a 16mo edition of Terence which I 

 carried in my pocket. On Thurs- 

 day, soon after sun-rising, I en- 

 deavoured to reach St. Paul's ; 

 the ground so hot as almost to 

 scorch my shoes ; and the air so in- 

 tensely warm that unless I had 

 stopped some time upon Fleet 

 Bridge, to rest myself, I must have 

 fainted under the extreme languor 

 of my spirits. After giving my- 

 self a little time to breathe, I made 

 the best of my way to St. Paul's, 

 . . . . I forgot to mention that 

 near the east walls of St. Paul's a 

 human body presented itself to me, 

 parched up as it were with the 

 flames ; whole as to skin, meagre 

 as to flesh, yellow as to colour. 

 This was an old decrepit woman 

 who fled here for safety, im- 

 agining the flames would not hav 

 reached her there. Her clothes 

 were burnt, and every limb re- 



