Set piece · The plague and the news

The plague and the news, 1660–1669

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Pepys was not a historian. He was a man with a job at the centre of things, and he wrote the news down as it reached him, before anyone knew how it would end.

The news as it reached him

1. Wednesday 23 May 1660

   Charles II sails for England

   The King comes aboard the Naseby, renames it the Charles, and the fleet sails from Holland for England; on deck he tells of his escape after Worcester.

   we weighed anchor, and with a fresh gale and most happy weather we set sail for England. 23 May 1660

2. Friday 25 May 1660

   The King lands at Dover

   Charles II lands at Dover, is received by General Monck, whose army had made the Restoration possible, and sets off for Canterbury amid huge crowds.

   The shouting and joy expressed by all is past imagination. 25 May 1660

3. Tuesday 23 April 1661

   Coronation of Charles II

   Charles II is crowned in Westminster Abbey; Pepys watches from a scaffold, sees the banquet and the King's Champion, and ends the night drunk.

   I may now shut my eyes against any other objects, nor for the future trouble myself to see things of state and show, as being sure never to see the like again in this world. 23 Apr 1661

4. Wednesday 7 June 1665

   The Great Plague

   Pepys sees his first plague houses, marked with red crosses in Drury Lane, as the Great Plague takes hold in London.

   I did in Drury Lane see two or three houses marked with a red cross upon the doors, and “Lord have mercy upon us” writ there; which was a sad sight to me 7 Jun 1665

5. Sunday 2 September 1666

   The Great Fire of London

   Fire breaks out in Pudding Lane and spreads through the City; Pepys tells the King houses must be pulled down, and watches the City burn from the river.

   in a most horrid malicious bloody flame, not like the fine flame of an ordinary fire. 2 Sep 1666

   The Fire, step by step

6. Wednesday 12 June 1667

   The Dutch raid on the Medway

   The Dutch break the chain at Chatham, burn ships laid up there, and take the Royal Charles and tow her away; London panics. That night Pepys believes she was burned, and learns the next day that she was taken.

   all our hearts do now ake; for the newes is true, that the Dutch have broke the chaine and burned our ships 12 Jun 1667

28 more events, dated by the day he wrote about them

• 2 May 1660 Parliament votes for the King's return (1 May)
• 13 Oct 1660 Major-General Harrison executed
• 9 Jan 1661 Venner's Fifth Monarchist rising
• 22 Apr 1661 The coronation procession
• 30 Sep 1661 Spanish and French ambassadors fight in the streets
• 14 Jun 1662 Sir Henry Vane beheaded
• 23 Aug 1662 The new Queen's river entry
• 4 Jul 1663 The Guards' muster in Hyde Park
• 13 Jul 1663 Lady Castlemaine out of favour
• 7 Dec 1663 The greatest tide in memory floods Whitehall
• 21 Jan 1664 Colonel Turner hanged
• 26 Jul 1664 Butchers and weavers fight in Moorfields
• 21 Nov 1664 The Dutch war begins at sea
• 4 Mar 1665 War declared on the Dutch
• 8 Mar 1665 The London blows up (7 March)
• 8 Jun 1665 Victory off Lowestoft (3 June)
• 20 Sep 1665 The plague at its height
• 4 Jun 1666 The Four Days' Battle
• 25 Jul 1666 The St James's Day Fight
• 15 Oct 1666 The King's new vest
• 14 Jun 1667 Mob attacks Clarendon's house
• 29 Jul 1667 A naked Quaker in Westminster Hall
• 24 Aug 1667 Peace with the Dutch proclaimed
• 31 Aug 1667 Clarendon's Great Seal taken from him (30 August)
• 17 Jan 1668 Buckingham's duel with Lord Shrewsbury (16 January)
• 24 Mar 1668 The bawdy-house riots
• 17 Feb 1669 Rochester strikes Killigrew before the King (16 February)
• 4 Mar 1669 Sir William Coventry sent to the Tower

The plague year, week by week

Weekly burials in London from 20 December 1664 to 26 December 1665, as printed in the Bills of Mortality, with burials of plague shown separately. Below the chart are passages from Pepys's diary in which he writes about the plague.

What he wrote as it spread

• First mention: rumours of houses shut up in the City. Great fears of the sickenesse here in the City, it being said that two or three houses are already shut up 30 Apr 1665
• Coffee-house talk turns to the plague and its remedies. the plague growing upon us in this towne; and of remedies against it: some saying one thing, some another 24 May 1665
• Lady Sandwich wants to leave town for fear of it. my poor Lady, who is afeard of the sickness, and resolved to be gone into the country 28 May 1665
• His first sight of marked houses; he buys tobacco to chew against the smell. I did in Drury Lane see two or three houses marked with a red cross upon the doors 7 Jun 1665
• It reaches his neighbour Dr Burnett in Fenchurch Street; he thinks of making his will. to my great trouble, hear that the plague is come into the City 10 Jun 1665
• He passes Dr Burnett's shut door. he discovered it himself first, and caused himself to be shut up of his own accord: which was very handsome 11 Jun 1665
• He copies the weekly figure: 112 plague deaths, up from 43. The towne grows very sickly, and people to be afeard of it 15 Jun 1665
• His hackney coachman falls sick at the wheel; Pepys fears it is the plague. he was suddenly struck very sicke, and almost blind, he could not see 17 Jun 1665
• The flight from London at Cripplegate. I find all the towne almost going out of towne, the coaches and waggons being all full of people going into the country 21 Jun 1665
• The Court packs up to leave Whitehall. The Mortality Bill is come to 267; which is about ninety more than the last: and of these but four in the City 29 Jun 1665
• He resolves to put his affairs in order. the season growing so sickly, that it is much to be feared how a man can escape having a share with others in it 3 Jul 1665
• The weekly toll passes 700. Above 700 died of the plague this week. 13 Jul 1665
• Burials in open ground at Westminster. the officers do bury the dead in the open Tuttle-fields, pretending want of room elsewhere 18 Jul 1665
• 1,089 deaths this week; Lady Carteret gives him plague-water. But, Lord! to see how the plague spreads 20 Jul 1665
• Only two coaches and two carts between Whitehall and his house. the streets mighty thin of people 22 Jul 1665
• The plague reaches his own parish on one of his happiest days. forty last night, the bell always going 26 Jul 1665
• The St Olave's bell tolls five or six times in a day. It was a sad noise to hear our bell to toll and ring so often to-day 30 Jul 1665
• Travellers on the road keep asking him for the week's bill. methought it was a sad question to be so often asked me 3 Aug 1665
• The bill passes 4,000; he rewrites his will. a man cannot depend upon living two days to an end 10 Aug 1665
• Burials by day and a 9 p.m. curfew. they are fain to carry the dead to be buried by day-light, the nights not sufficing to do it in 12 Aug 1665
• A corpse carried past him at night. to my great trouble, I met a dead corps of the plague, in the narrow ally just bringing down a little pair of stairs 15 Aug 1665
• Two shops in three shut; he is wary of every shut door. how sad a sight it is to see the streets empty of people 16 Aug 1665
• A plague coffin left unburied in a field at Coome Farm. this disease making us more cruel to one another than if we are doggs 22 Aug 1665
• The parish clerk admits under-reporting plague deaths. how every body’s looks, and discourse in the street is of death, and nothing else 30 Aug 1665
• He copies 7,496 deaths, 6,102 of plague, and doubts they are complete. it is feared that the true number of the dead, this week is near 10,000 31 Aug 1665
• He wonders what will become of periwigs after the plague. nobody will dare to buy any haire, for fear of the infection 3 Sep 1665
• Fires lit against the infection; crowded burials on Bankside. saw fires burning in the street, as it is through the whole City, by the Lord Mayor’s order 6 Sep 1665
• The near-peak bill. find 8,252 dead in all, and of them 6,878 of the plague; which is a most dreadfull number 7 Sep 1665
• The bill falls for the first time, but the plague kills people around him. giving matter for as much content on one hand and melancholy on another, as any day in all my life 14 Sep 1665
• The highest bill of the year: 8,297 dead, 7,165 of plague. grass grows all up and down White Hall court, and nobody but poor wretches in the streets! 20 Sep 1665
• The first big fall. blessed be God! there is above 1800 decrease, being the first considerable decrease we have had 27 Sep 1665
• A plague corpse carried past him in the road. Lord! to see what custom is, that I am come almost to think nothing of it 7 Oct 1665
• In Westminster no physician is left alive. how empty the streets are and melancholy, so many poor sick people in the streets full of sores 16 Oct 1665
• The bill falls to 1,300 and odd. The plague, blessed be God! is decreased 400 15 Nov 1665
• His oyster-woman has survived. which now is the first observation or inquiry we make at London concerning everybody we knew before it 24 Nov 1665
• Hopes of returning to London. Great joy we have this week in the weekly Bill, it being come to 544 in all, and but 333 of the plague 30 Nov 1665
• The year's last bill he records. with great content that the plague is decreased to 152, the whole being but 330 27 Dec 1665
• His verdict on the year. I have never lived so merrily (besides that I never got so much) as I have done this plague time 31 Dec 1665

The weekly bills

The worst week ended on Tuesday 19 September 1665: 8,297 burials, 7,165 of them of the plague.

Source: London's Dreadful Visitation (1665) (opens in a new tab)

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