Reflecting the intensity of the controversy over its value, Defoe treats the matter at length in Due Preparations as well as in the Journal. Even those writers on the plague who defended the practice agreed that it was often evaded. Two typical tracts of 1665 opposing the measure may be cited: (1) Anon., The Shutting up of Infected Houses as it is practised in England soberly debated; (2) J.V., Golgotha … with an Humble Witness against the Cruel … Practice of Shutting up unto Oppression. Both argue that the practice is ineffective and inhuman, an argument frequently advanced in the 1720s. Richard Bradley called it ‘plain Murder to shut Men up in an infected and destroying Air’ (The Plague at Marseilles consider’d (1721), 58). In an extended examination of many aspects of the plague, The Free-Thinker contended that more good would accrue by permitting ‘the free enjoyment of the open Air’ (no. 36, 9 June 1721), a view also defended by Sir John Colbatch, a member of the College of Physicians (see A Scheme for Proper Methods to be taken should it please God to visit us with the Plague (1721), 14). The plague tracts of Hodges, Pye, Place, and others contain similar arguments. Even Mead, whose tract was sanctioned by the Government, wrote that ‘the shutting up Houses in this Manner is only keeping so many Seminaries of Contagion’ (Short Discourse, 35).

Burial … before Sun-rising, or after Sun-setting: in his Diary, 12 Aug. 1665, Pepys writes: ‘The people die so, that now it seems they are fain to carry the dead to be buried by day-light, the nights not sufficing to do it in.’ In the course of that week, according to the Bills of Mortality, London suffered 4,030 deaths, of which 2,817 were of the plague.

accompany the Corps: plague orders as early as 1569 gave attention to the burial of those who died of the plague. Subsequent orders limited the number of people who might attend a funeral: for example, in 1603 only six were permitted, excluding the minister, the clerk, and the bearers.

Graves … six Foot deep: the authority of Hippocrates and Galen, as well as numberless writers throughout the ages, supported the notion that unburied carcasses corrupt the air and cause diseases. Mead, writing in 1720, says: ‘It has … been remarked in all Times, that … the Corruption of dead Carcasses lying unburied [has] occasioned infectious Diseases’ (Short Discourse, 3). Frequent complaints were made against shallow graves, and especially against ‘those Pits or Holes (called the Poor’s Holes)’ in which the poor were unceremoniously dumped. The complaint in part was against the stench of putrefying bodies, but it was also thought that the ‘Pestilential Venom’ would receive additional strength from the putrid exhalations (see Anon., Some Customs considered whether Prejudicial to the Health of this City (London, 1721), 8–9; The Free-Thinker, no. 334, 2 June 1720).

marked with a red Cross: the practice of marking infected houses dates from 1518 in England, earlier on the Continent. The use of a red cross for the purpose seems to have developed by 1593 and the inscription ‘Lord Have Mercy upon Us’, a little earlier (see F. P. Wilson, The Plague in Shakespeare’s London (1963), 61–4).

a red Rod or Wand: the earliest surviving English plague orders (1543) require that an infected person or anyone in contact with an infected person carry a white wand in his hand. In subsequent orders the wand continued to be required, sometimes white, sometimes red, the red eventually being ordered for physicians, nurses, and examiners.

Tipling in Taverns: a Lord Mayor’s proclamation, dated 4 July 1665, ordered ‘That no Vintner, Innholder, Cook, Ordinary-keeper, Seller of Strong-Waters, Ale-house-keeper, shall henceforward, during the Infection receive or entertain any person or persons … to eat or drink in their houses or shops’.

to sweat … the ordinary Remedy: ‘medicines that cause Sweat expel them from the heart to the outside of the body, and rarifie those humours into light and thin vapours, which turn into a watery sweat, as soon as they come out of the skin into the air, and thereby drive out those humours and vapours, which breed the pestilence’ (Kemp, A Brief Treatise … of the Pestilence, 54). Cf. Blackmore: ‘those physicians that prescribe Remedies at the Beginning [of the plague] to promote copious and constant Sweats, act contrary to the Laws of Reason and Observation, and do not assist Nature, but enfeeble it’ (Discourse, 92–3).

Weekly Bill … frighted: the General Bill of Mortality for 1665 lists 23 deaths under ‘Frighted’.

late Wars … Low Countries: the war against Spain in 1655 and against Holland in 1652.

long a-coming to our Parish: the Bills of Mortality report the first death from the plague in H.F.’s parish, Aldgate, the week of 27 June to 4 July. At that time 33 of 130 parishes were reported infected, and deaths from the plague totalled 470 during the week.

such Violence as in … Aldgate and White Chapel: the Bills of Mortality do not fully support H.F.’s statement. Whitechapel and Aldgate were two of the worst sufferers in the severe months of August, September, and October, but Stepney surpassed them in total number of deaths from the plague. The figures for Stepney for the year are 6,583, for Aldgate, 4,051, for Whitechapel, 3,855. Defoe measures the violence of the epidemic in particular parishes by the total number of reported deaths from the plague without regard to the size of the parishes. The parishes varied greatly. A populous parish might have more deaths but still be proportionately less afflicted than a parish less well populated.

two Weeks … 1114 Bodies: the Bills show 1,159 deaths from the plague in the two weekly reports from 5 to 19 September. It is not credible that all but 45 would have been relegated to the plague pits.

the Pit … near the three Nuns Inn: an excavation in 1859 near the Three Nuns Court revealed what was presumably H.F.’s ‘dreadful Gulph’ (see Notes and Queries, 2nd ser., 8 (1859), 288–9).

Links … Bell-man: links were torches used to light people along the streets. The ringing of a bell announced the approach of a dead-cart. A visitor to London in July wrote: ‘there dye so many that the bell would hardly ever leave ringing and so they ring not at all’ (quoted by Bell, The Great Plague in London, 80).

Coffins … not to be had: an exaggeration: Vincent, Pepys, and Evelyn report seeing coffins.