only the sick and wounded, but also all prisoners of war. On fifth September, he says, "To Chatham to inspect my charge with £900 in my coach (for the prisoners' necessities). On seventh came home, there perishing neere 10,000 poore creatures weekly; however, I went all along the Citty and suburbs from Kent Street to St. James's; a dismal passage and dangerous, to see so many coffines expos'd in the streetes, now thin of people; the shops shut up, and all in mournful silence, as not knowing whose turn might be next."

And then followed that fearful calamity of the Fire of London, one of the most providential judgments that ever occurred, for from that time the fearful pestilence called the plague, has never again appeared; and yet what has this to do with Southwark ? that from Southwark alone could it be seen. The Southwark people in safety themselves, could watch the fearful sight from their own side of the river, which was thronged with spectators. The fire began on September second, and the next day Evelyn says, “I took coach with my wife and son, and went to the Bankside in Southwark, when we beheld the dismal spectacle, the whole City in dreadful flames neare the water-side; all the houses from the Bridge, all Thames Street, and upwards towards Cheapside, down to the Three Cranes, were now consumed. The fire having continued all this night (if I may call that night which was light as day for ten miles round about, after a dreadful manner), I went on foot to the same place, and saw the whole south part of the City burning from Cheapside to the Thames and along Cornhill (for it likewise kindled back against the wind as well as forward), Tower Street, Fenchurch Street, Gracious Street, and so along to Barnard's Castle, and was now taking hold of St. Paul's Church, to which the scaffolding (for it was under repairs) contributed exceedingly."

He describes how "the Thames was covered with goods floating, all the barges and boates laden with what some had time and courage to save, as, on the other hand, the carts, etc., carrying out to the fields, which for many miles were strew'd with moveables of all sorts, and tents erecting to shelter both people and what goods they could get away. Oh the miserable and calamitous spectacle ! such as happily the world had not seen the like since the foundation of it, nor will be out-done till the universal conflagration of it. All the skie was of a fiery aspect, like the top of a burning oven, and the light seene above 40 miles round for many nights. God grant mine eyes may never behold the like, who now saw above 10,000 houses all in one flame; the noise and crackling and thunder of the impetuous flames, the shrieking of women and children, the hurry of people, the aire so hot and inflam'd, that they were forced to stand still and let the flames burn on, which they did for neere two miles in length and one in breadth. The clowds also of smoke, were dismall, and reach'd upon computation neer fifty-six miles in length. It seemed a resemblance of Sodom, or the last day. It forcibly called to my mind that passage-non enim hic habemus stabilem civitatem; the ruines resembling the picture of Troy. London was, but is no more! Thus I returned home." There is much more of interest about the great fire, but it was not seen from Bankside and so must not have a place here.

But let me now give as a companion sketch Pepy's account of what he saw from the river; it is perhaps more graphic even than Evelyn's. "I to James's wharf, where I had appointed a boat to attend me, and took in Mr. Carcasse and his brother, whom I met in the street, and carried them below and above bridge too. And again to see the fire, which was now got further, both below and

above, and no likelihood of stopping it. Met with the King and Duke of York in their barge, and with them to Queenhithe, and then called Sir Richard Brown* to them. Their order was only to pull down houses apace, and so below the bridge at the water-side; but little was or could be done, the fire coming up on them so fast. Good hopes there was of stopping it at the Three Cranes above, and at Bottolph's Wharf below bridge, if care be used; but the wind carries it into the City, so as we know not, by the water-side, what is to do there. River full of lighters and boats taking in goods, and good goods swimming in the water; and only I observed that hardly one lighter or boat in three that had the goods of a house in it, but there was a pair of Virginals in it.

Having seen as much as I could now, I away to Whitehall by appointment, and then walked to St. James's Park, and then upon the water again, and to the fire up and down, it still encreasing, and the wind great. So near the fire as we could for smoke, and all over the Thames, with one's faces in the wind, you were almost burned with a shower of fire drops. When we could endure no more upon the water, we to a little ale-house on the Bankside, over against the three Cranes, and there stayed till it was dark almost, and saw the fire grow; and, as it grew darker, appeared more and more, and in corners and upon steeples, and between Churches and houses, as far as we could see up the hill of the City, in a most horrid, malicious, bloody flame, not like the fine flame of an ordinary fire. We staid till it being darkish, we saw the fire as only one entire arch of fire from this to the other side of the bridge, and in a bow up the hill for an arch of above a mile long, it made me weep to see it. The Churches, houses, and all

*Father-in-law to John Evelyn.

on fire, and flaming at once, and a horrid noise the flames made, and the crackling of houses at their ruine. So home with a sad heart."

In November of the same year, Hollar, the celebrated engraver, was sworn in the King's Servant, and received his commands to go on with his great map of the City, which he was engaged upon before it was burned. This map or plan of the City etched by him, was taken from the Tower of St. Saviour's Church.

In 1684, occurred the great frost. Evelyn begins his diary on that year, 1st January. "The weather continuing intolerably severe, streetes of booths were set upon the Thames, the aire was so very cold and thick, as of many years there had not been the like. 6. "The river quite frozen.” 9. "I went cross the Thames on the ice, now become so thick as to beare not only streets of booths in which they roasted meate, and had divers shops of wares quite across as in a towne, but coaches, carts, and horses passed over." 16. "The Thames was filled with people and tents, selling all sorts of wares as in the City." Nevertheless the distress was fearful, and hundreds died from cold and fog. I have met with no special details of the frost as connected with the Borough, except that the waterway being stopped necessitated an enormous amount of traffic through our streets, all goods having to come up by road. But these three sore judgments of plague and fire and frost seem to have had little or no lasting effect on King or people.

CHAPTER XIV.

SOUTHWARK FAIR.

TRADESMEN'S TOKENS.

ND now let me endeavour to reproduce some of the departed glories of one of the great amusements of the Southwark folk in olden times-their Fair.

The original grant for it was contained in the Charter given to the Borough by Edward IV. in 1462, when it was appointed to be held on the 7th, 8th, and 9th days of September, the Eve, the Feast, and the morrow of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, whence it was frequently called the Lady Fair. This fair, then, was no exception to the general custom of the middle ages, for it was held on the Feast Day of the adjoining Priory Church of St. Mary Overies, and indeed, on examination it will be found that almost all fair days coincide with the dedication feast of the principal monastic church in the neighbourhood. In later times, however, we find from Evelyn's Diary, that it had the name of St. Margaret's Fair, of course from St. Margaret's Church, on St. Margaret's Hill, which has now disappeared.

The Charter given by Edward IV. was confirmed by Edward VI., and a Court of Pye Powders was attached to the fair, with the "power of assisting and carrying away all felons to Newgate." Lest any of my readers should be as ignorant as I was myself as to the meaning