ose
cases the corpse was always left till the officers had notice to come
and take them away, or till night, when the bearers attending the dead
cart would take them up and carry them away. Nor did those undaunted
creatures who performed these offices fail to search their pockets, and
sometimes strip off their clothes, if they were well dressed, as
sometimes they were, and carry off what they could get.

But to return to the markets. The butchers took that care, that, if any
person died in the market, they had the officers always at hand to take
them up upon handbarrows, and carry them to the next churchyard; and
this was so frequent that such were not entered in the weekly bill,
found dead in the streets or fields, as is the case now, but they went
into the general articles of the great distemper.

But now the fury of the distemper increased to such a degree, that even
the markets were but very thinly furnished with provisions, or
frequented with buyers, compared to what they were before; and the lord
mayor caused the country people who brought provisions to be stopped in
the streets leading into the town, and to sit down there with their
goods, where they sold what they brought, and went immediately away. And
this encouraged the country people greatly to do so; for they sold their
provisions at the very entrances into the town, and even in the fields,
as particularly in the fields beyond Whitechapel, in Spittlefields.
Note, those streets now called Spittlefields were then indeed open
fields; also in St. George's Fields in Southwark, in Bunhill Fields, and
in a great field called Wood's Close, near Islington. Thither the lord
mayor, aldermen, and magistrates sent their officers and servants to buy
for their families, themselves keeping within doors as much as possible;
and the like did many other people. And after this method was taken, the
country people came with great cheerfulness, and brought provisions of
all sorts, and very seldom got any harm, which, I suppose, added also
to that report of their being miraculously preserved.[134]

As for my little family, having thus, as I have said, laid in a store of
bread, butter, cheese, and beer, I took my friend and physician's
advice, and locked myself up, and my family, and resolved to suffer the
hardship of living a few months without flesh meat rather than to
purchase it at the hazard of our lives.

But, though I confined my family, I could not prevail upon my
unsa