uncommon to see an Inheritance pass successively to three or four Heirs in as many Days; the Number of Sextons were not sufficient to bury the Dead; the Bells seemed hoarse with continual tolling, until at last they quite ceased; the burying Places would not hold the Dead, but they were thrown into large Pits dug in waste Grounds, in Heaps, thirty or forty together; and it often happened that those who attended the Funerals of their Friends one Evening, were carried the next to their own long Home: ———————— _Quis talia fundo Temperet à Lachrymis?_ ———————— Even the Relation of this Calamity melts me into Tears, and yet the worst was not certain, although the City was near drained by her Funerals; for the Disease as yet had no Relaxation. ABOUT the Beginning of _September_, the Disease was at the Height; in the Course of which Month more than twelve Thousand died in a Week: But at length, that nothing might go untried to divert the Contagion, it was ordered by the Governours who were left to superintend those calamitous Affairs, (for the Court was then removed to _Oxford_) to burn Fires in the Streets for three Days together; yet while this was in Debate, the Physicians concerned were diffident of the Success, as the Air in it self was un-infected; and therefore rendred such a showy and expensive a Project superfluous, and of no Effect; and these Conjectures we supported by the Authority of Antiquity, and _Hippocrates_ himself; notwithstanding which, the Fires were kindled in all the Streets. But alas! the Controversie was soon decided; for before the three Days were quite expired, the Heavens both mourned so many Funerals, and wept for the fatal Mistake, so as to extinguish even the Fires with their Showers. I shall not determine any other Person’s Conjecture in this Case, whether these Fires may more properly be deemed the ominous Forerunners of the ensuing Conflagration, or the ensuing Funerals; but whether it was from the suffocating Qualities of the Fuel, or the wet Constitution of Air that immediately followed, the most fatal Night ensued, wherein more than four Thousand expired. May Posterity by this Mistake be warned, and not, like Empyricks, apply a Remedy where they are ignorant of the Cause. THE Reader is by the Way to be advertised, that this Year was luxuriant in most Fruits, especially Cherries and Grapes, which were at so low a Price, that the common People surfeited with them; for this might very much contribute to that Disposition of Body as made the pestilential Taint more easily take Place.