A. D. 1666. 527 



to prevent inundations. Conduits, blocking up itreets, were removed, 

 and alio i'undry middle rows of houfes in many parts. The new aiid 

 widened ftreets were to be at lead 24 feet in breadth. Hereby alfo we 

 learn, that the water-houfe adjoining to London-bridge had fupplicd the 

 fouth fide of the city with water for almofh a hundred years preceding. 

 From Mincing-lane down a new way to the Cuftomhouie fevera^ other 

 flreets now paiTable by coaches were only foot-way thoroughfares, as 

 Princes- ftreet near the new Manfion-houfe ; others were only open by 

 inean gateways, as Shoe-lane, &c. and fome, as Bartholomew-lane, be- 

 hind the royal exchange, had no exifience at all. 



In order to widen the more public ftreets, much ground before built 

 on was fet apart, fuch as middle rows of houfes in many ftreets, now quite 

 clear of fuch nuifances, gateways turned into open ftreets. On the 

 other hand, it is known that many of the great merchants houfts and 

 city-halls flood ota much more ground than at prefent, with gaVdens 

 and large court-yards ; lb that, according to fome opinions, there were 

 near 4000 more houfes erected after this conflagration than had been 

 in the city before, and that confequently there are more people in 

 it. Thus, for a few inftances, the famous Exchange-alley, on which 

 fo confiderable a number of capital tenements now ftand, was till that 

 period only one fmgle merchant's houfe and garden, running between 

 Cornhill and Lombard-ftreet ; and the like of Sv/eething's-alley at the 

 eaft end of the Royal-exchange. All Crofby-fquare, though not then 

 burnt down, was, it feems, only the houfe and garden of Sir James 

 Langham, a merchant. The like might be faid of Princes-ftreet, Copt- 

 hall-court, Angel-court, and Warneford-court in Throgmorton-ftreet, 

 and of King's-arms-yard in Coleman- ftreet, formerly fingle houfes, now 

 containing many emitient merchants and traders habitations. Devon- 

 ftiire-fquare, with the adjoining back ftreets and alleys, were all built 

 on the earl of Devonfnire's houfe and garden, as were Bridgewater- 

 fquare and adjoining flreets on that of the earl of Bridgewat^r, which 

 was burnt down in 1687. "^^^ ground-plots of many other of the great 

 lioufes of the nobility and great merchants have had the like improve- 

 ments fome few years before this great fire, though moftly iince, fuch 

 as Prince Rupert's in Barbican, tlie duchefs of Suffolk's m Alderfgate- 

 ftreet, where the earl of Shaftfbury's and the bifhop of London's palaces 

 ftill remain entire, the bifliop of Winchefter's in Winchefter-ftreet, 

 &c. all which, though happening in various periods of time, we have 

 thrown together in this place, that we may not any more have recourle 

 to them hereafter. 



This year Captain Sayle, in the fervice of the new colony of Caroli- 

 na, in his way thither, was driven by a ftorm on Providence, the chirr 

 of the Bahama or Lucay ilLands ; and on his return to England, with a 



