A Tragedy of London's Past: Authors Write On The Plague

Candace Braun

Last Tuesday, Princeton authors A. Lloyd and Dorothy C. Moote discussed their recently published book, The Great Plague: London's Deadliest Year, at the Princeton Public Library. The Moote's book details the lives of nine individuals who lived through the Great Plague of London, which killed almost 100,000 between 1664 and 1665.

Recognized as a major historian of early modern Europe, Mr. Moote is an affiliated professor at Rutgers University. Ten years ago he took on the task of researching the plague with his wife, a retired medical microbiologist with a special interest in epidemiology and immunology.

Having already given four talks in England as well as radio and television interviews since The Great Plague was published in March, the couple told their large library audience about their ten-year journey to complete the book, which would have only taken five years if one of them had written it alone, joked Mr. Moote. Making the book readable was the main concern, said the couple. First, they needed to find one voice rather than using the voices of both authors. Calling his wife "the master storyteller," Mr. Moote said that once they agreed she would do most of the writing, it began falling into place.

After taking the first draft to their editor, they were told that the reader learns everything he needs to know about the plague in the first three chapters. Back at the drawing board, the couple discovered that the best way to tell the story was through the eyes of nine different people who lived during the plague and who left behind memoirs that could be pieced together into a story. Among the characters are an apothecary in a poor suburb, a rector in a wealthy parish, a silk merchant, a country gentleman, a widowed noblewoman, and Samuel Pepys, whose written accounts of the plague have provided material for historians.

Treatments

While the plague initially devastated the poor living on the outskirts of London, rather than the wealthy living in the center of town, it eventually found its way into all parts of the city, said the Mootes. Doctors were some of the first to leave, only returning during the day to treat patients. However, the Mootes found records from one doctor who did stay, but would sterilize himself each morning by washing his nose and ears with vinegar and putting nutmeg in his mouth. After treating his morning patients, he would eat a very large meal, one way to keep away the disease, it was believed.

While the cause of the plague was unknown at the time, everyone believed it was transferred through contact. The book discusses the different ways people believed they kept themselves free of the disease, either through extensive cleanliness routines, through smoking tobacco out of a pipe, children included, or by dipping mail in vinegar and placing it on the end of a stick before it was delivered to its recipient.

Using current evidence that the illness was communicated by rats and fleas, the authors were able to piece together how it spread throughout London. Discovering a list of those who died in a parish in 1665, Mrs. Moote observed that not only the number of cloth makers who died was extremely large as compared to those in other occupations, but was also able to follow a trail of cloth-making towns outside of London that were hit by the plague, one by one, evidence that fleas carrying the disease travelled on the cloths, she said.

Stories from the survivors can be found in The Great Plague, available at the Princeton Public Library and at area bookstores.