Pepys diary entries April to July 1665

 

so the intent of this overview of the diary entries was to see the similarities and the differences, to the virus of now.

the first entry I could find was the end of April - the 30th.

"Great fears of the sickenesse here in the City, it being said that two or three houses are already shut up. God preserve as all!"

which displays how quickly the powers that were implemented in their version of the modern lock down. This entry is a brief document of the early fear of a rumor transforming into fact. This is the one entry of two talking about the "sicknesse", toward the end of May the term "plague" is part of the daily lexicon.

now in early March the Anglo-Dutch war had started, so there were a lot of political discussion going on. I don't know how you would compare such discussions with now.

"Thence to the Coffee-house with Creed, where I have not been a great while, where all the newes is of the Dutch being gone out, and of the plague growing upon us in this towne; and of remedies against it: some saying one thing, some another."

remedies and rumors. 

one remedy that was on offer was plague water

"A name given to a variety of medicinal waters of supposed efficacy against the plague. Most commonly it was a distillation of various herbs and roots that were believed to be efficacious. The recipe given by Eliza Smith was typical in that it contained no less than 22 herbal products, both leaves and roots, all steeped in WHITE WINE and BRANDY and then distilled"

now the majority of these entries focus on June and July, which gives you an idea of how voracious this plague was. 1 entry each for April and May; 9 for June and 14 for July.

so now come the rumors and warnings. June (8/6)

"Alone at home to dinner, my wife, mother, and Mercer dining at W. Joyce’s; I giving her a caution to go round by the Half Moone to his house, because of the plague."

then, two days later (10/6); a rampant transition, the plague is on the way - 

"to my great trouble, hear that the plague is come into the City (though it hath these three or four weeks since its beginning been wholly out of the City); but where should it begin but in my good friend and neighbor's, Dr. Burnett, in Fanchurch Street: which in both points troubles me mightily."

there is the discussion of actual numbers (15/6)

"The towne grows very sickly, and people to be afeard of it; there dying this last week of the plague 112, from 43 the week before, whereof but [one] in Fanchurch-streete, and one in Broad-streete, by the Treasurer’s office."

discussion of outbreaks confined to certain areas (20/6)

"This day I informed myself that there died four or five at Westminster of the plague in one alley in several houses upon Sunday last, Bell Alley, over against the Palace-gate; yet people do think that the number will be fewer in the towne than it was the last weeke!"

more evidence of "lock down" and actual fear and loathing that the plague has taken hold (26/6)

"So, weary, home, and to my office a while, till almost midnight, and so to bed. The plague encreases mightily, I this day seeing a house, at a bitt-maker’s over against St. Clement’s Church, in the open street, shut up; which is a sad sight."

by the end of June (29/6) weekly death reporting is embraced. At this stage there also seems to be an exodus from the City. One notable was the Queen Mother who left for France, never to return as she died there of opiate assisted death in 1670.

also at the end of June (30/6), the feeling of being grateful but wholly aware of the plague

"Thus this book of two years ends. Myself and family in good health, consisting of myself and wife, Mercer, her woman, Mary, Alice, and Susan our maids, and Tom my boy. In a sickly time of the plague growing on." 

the start of July (1/7) and things are escalating

"Thence by coach and late at the office, and so to bed. Sad at the newes that seven or eight houses in Bazing Hall street, are shut up of the plague."

the troubles of performing your daily work and the nature of isolation and separation (5/7)

"Being come to Deptford, my Lady not being within, we parted, and I by water to Woolwich, where I found my wife come, and her two mayds, and very prettily accommodated they will be; and I left them going to supper, grieved in my heart to part with my wife, being worse by much without her, though some trouble there is in having the care of a family at home in this plague time, and so took leave, and I in one boat and W. Hewer in another home very late, first against tide, we having walked in the dark to Greenwich.

Late home and to bed, very lonely."

by the middle of July (13/7), mention of the Plague becomes a depressing footnote

"Above 700 died of the plague this week."

now there is some concern over where people are being buried (18/7), maybe for two reasons, not only health but religious. There had been some mention of being buried in the walled security grounds of a parish

"I was much troubled this day to hear at Westminster how the officers do bury the dead in the open Tuttle-fields, pretending want of room elsewhere; whereas the New Chappell churchyard was walled-in at the publick charge in the last plague time, merely for want of room and now none, but such as are able to pay dear for it, can be buried there."

now the plague is established as a grim mindset (20/7), there is also the introduction of the plague water mentioned earlier

"So walked to Redriffe, where I hear the sickness is, and indeed is scattered almost every where, there dying 1089 of the plague this week. My Lady Carteret did this day give me a bottle of plague-water home with me." 

once again, further evidence of the grim mindset (21/7)

"So home and late at my chamber, setting some papers in order; the plague growing very raging, and my apprehensions of it great."

further debate over burials (22/7)

"Only, while I was there, a poor woman come to scold with the master of the house that a kinswoman, I think, of hers, that was newly dead of the plague, might be buried in the church-yard; for, for her part, she should not be buried in the commons, as they said she should."

plus, on the same day, strange gossip in the newspapers

"I met this noon with Dr. Burnett, who told me, and I find in the newsbook this week that he posted upon the ’Change, that whoever did spread the report that, instead of the plague, his servant was by him killed, it was forgery, and shewed me the acknowledgment of the master of the pest-house, that his servant died of a bubo on his right groine, and two spots on his right thigh, which is the plague."

reporting seems to be fully embraced (25/7)

"But sad the story of the plague in the City, it growing mightily. This day my Lord Brunker did give me Mr. Grant’s book upon the Bills of Mortality, new printed and enlarged."

the fear that the plague has made it so close to home (26/7)

"The sicknesse is got into our parish this week, and is got, indeed, every where; so that I begin to think of setting things in order, which I pray God enable me to put both as to soul and body."

although weekly, it seems the reporting is about to be something of a daily occurrence (27/7)

"At home met the weekly Bill, where above 1000 encreased in the Bill, and of them, in all about 1,700 of the plague"

so there it is; an overview of the first four months of the plague of 1665, which kind of feels like the first two months as far as the intensity of spreading goes.

maybe a person could draw some similarities to now. In my mind, some of the differences have their own qualities