The plague in the city, 1580-1583.In the following year the plague, which had been very virulent towards the end of 1577, and from which the city was seldom entirely free, appeared at Rye (June, 1580). A twelvemonth later it was raging in[pg 522]London, but as the weather grew colder its virulence abated, allowing of the resumption of the lord mayor's feast. The respite was short. In the spring of 1582 it was again rife in the city, increasing in fatality during the hot season and continuing until the winter of 1583.1615Business was often at a standstill, the law courts had to be removed to the country, and the sittings of the London Husting suspended.1616St. Paul's Churchyard, which served as the burial ground to no less than twenty-three city parishes, became overcrowded and greatly added to the insanitary condition of the city by its shallow graves. The mayor informed the lords of the council of this state of affairs by letter (15 May, 1582), in which he says that scarcely any grave was then made without exposing corpses, and that the heat of the crowds standing over the shallow graves caused noxious exhalations. It was currently reported at the time that the gravediggers were the cause of the shallow graves "as being desirous to have the infection spred that they might gaine by burieng."1617
The plague in the city, 1580-1583.In the following year the plague, which had been very virulent towards the end of 1577, and from which the city was seldom entirely free, appeared at Rye (June, 1580). A twelvemonth later it was raging in[pg 522]London, but as the weather grew colder its virulence abated, allowing of the resumption of the lord mayor's feast. The respite was short. In the spring of 1582 it was again rife in the city, increasing in fatality during the hot season and continuing until the winter of 1583.1615Business was often at a standstill, the law courts had to be removed to the country, and the sittings of the London Husting suspended.1616St. Paul's Churchyard, which served as the burial ground to no less than twenty-three city parishes, became overcrowded and greatly added to the insanitary condition of the city by its shallow graves. The mayor informed the lords of the council of this state of affairs by letter (15 May, 1582), in which he says that scarcely any grave was then made without exposing corpses, and that the heat of the crowds standing over the shallow graves caused noxious exhalations. It was currently reported at the time that the gravediggers were the cause of the shallow graves "as being desirous to have the infection spred that they might gaine by burieng."1617
The plague in the city, 1580-1583.In the following year the plague, which had been very virulent towards the end of 1577, and from which the city was seldom entirely free, appeared at Rye (June, 1580). A twelvemonth later it was raging in[pg 522]London, but as the weather grew colder its virulence abated, allowing of the resumption of the lord mayor's feast. The respite was short. In the spring of 1582 it was again rife in the city, increasing in fatality during the hot season and continuing until the winter of 1583.1615Business was often at a standstill, the law courts had to be removed to the country, and the sittings of the London Husting suspended.1616St. Paul's Churchyard, which served as the burial ground to no less than twenty-three city parishes, became overcrowded and greatly added to the insanitary condition of the city by its shallow graves. The mayor informed the lords of the council of this state of affairs by letter (15 May, 1582), in which he says that scarcely any grave was then made without exposing corpses, and that the heat of the crowds standing over the shallow graves caused noxious exhalations. It was currently reported at the time that the gravediggers were the cause of the shallow graves "as being desirous to have the infection spred that they might gaine by burieng."1617
The plague in the city, 1580-1583.In the following year the plague, which had been very virulent towards the end of 1577, and from which the city was seldom entirely free, appeared at Rye (June, 1580). A twelvemonth later it was raging in[pg 522]London, but as the weather grew colder its virulence abated, allowing of the resumption of the lord mayor's feast. The respite was short. In the spring of 1582 it was again rife in the city, increasing in fatality during the hot season and continuing until the winter of 1583.1615Business was often at a standstill, the law courts had to be removed to the country, and the sittings of the London Husting suspended.1616St. Paul's Churchyard, which served as the burial ground to no less than twenty-three city parishes, became overcrowded and greatly added to the insanitary condition of the city by its shallow graves. The mayor informed the lords of the council of this state of affairs by letter (15 May, 1582), in which he says that scarcely any grave was then made without exposing corpses, and that the heat of the crowds standing over the shallow graves caused noxious exhalations. It was currently reported at the time that the gravediggers were the cause of the shallow graves "as being desirous to have the infection spred that they might gaine by burieng."1617
The plague in the city, 1580-1583.
The plague in the city, 1580-1583.
In the following year the plague, which had been very virulent towards the end of 1577, and from which the city was seldom entirely free, appeared at Rye (June, 1580). A twelvemonth later it was raging in[pg 522]London, but as the weather grew colder its virulence abated, allowing of the resumption of the lord mayor's feast. The respite was short. In the spring of 1582 it was again rife in the city, increasing in fatality during the hot season and continuing until the winter of 1583.1615Business was often at a standstill, the law courts had to be removed to the country, and the sittings of the London Husting suspended.1616
St. Paul's Churchyard, which served as the burial ground to no less than twenty-three city parishes, became overcrowded and greatly added to the insanitary condition of the city by its shallow graves. The mayor informed the lords of the council of this state of affairs by letter (15 May, 1582), in which he says that scarcely any grave was then made without exposing corpses, and that the heat of the crowds standing over the shallow graves caused noxious exhalations. It was currently reported at the time that the gravediggers were the cause of the shallow graves "as being desirous to have the infection spred that they might gaine by burieng."1617