Stranica 102 [102]
80 THE GROWTH OF THE CITY
sanitary, were invented to account for the constant inroads of the
plague. The water supply, to which we now know it to have been due,
was never suspected ; and in 1500 it was computed that the death-rate
from this cause alone had reached 30,000. This is a moderate estimate
beside the 50,000 said to have died in 1349. In many houses there
were private wells, and a spring in the churchyard of Cripplegate was
especially popular, though it received the drainage of one of the largest
of the cemeteries. Until our own day the causes of these frightful
epidemics were absolutely unknown, though they were connected rightly
with want of cleanliness. Only fifty years ago, Hecker, one of the best
authorities, was inclined to attri¬
bute the Black Death to atmo¬
spheric causes and a series of
earthquakes.
Another plunge of two hundred
years down the stream of time
would take us to 1666, the year of
the Great Fire. For that period,
and, indeed, from the reign of
Queen Elizabeth, we have many
contemporary authorities. Stow’s
marvellous Swrvey, one of the best
topographical books ever written,
a wonder even in the age which
produced Shakespeare, tells us what
London looked like immediately
after the Reformation. The old
churches at the Grey, Black, White,
and Austin Friars were still stand¬
= =a i
am.
rT, = dás , úti
tú ő ta a ka" ü
98 - ú A q i Lőj "iz
ke Fr ? ee
~ fe
: t [d 7 2 Pr 4 a
Sete 4
a a e a nailed _ “ ai —
ing. So were parts of St. Martin s
WILLIAM IV STATUE, KING WILLIAM STREET