Sketcher.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 401, 14 January 1904, Page 7

Sketcher.

PLAQUE STONES.

Miff Btor * o» the Great Piagufl„pf MflS ii^ ndon Js familiar to all" readers Sfife» of history, and has been dealt . with by many Writers of flotioa. Defoe haa given us a most vivid picture of the times and ofpto f|irr|ble peßtitenW that c&Bt ifiuch ftfgloom over the city. Even the Supply inuoh suggestive matterj?j|hile;iidaen away iii church wardens' and" other old aoo'ounts are many items that remind us of those: d *JB" for example, are two entries horn the parish accounts of St. "Mary Woolnoth, Landon: , •1593-4. Item, for Betting a crosse upon due Allen's doore in the siokaessa time...ijd. ~•■•:'■; - , <; Item, paid for setting two red creases upon Anthony Sound his dore...iiijd.' Many sudh charges might be reproduced. The crosees were about a foot in length.- It has been suggested -by Bomea students of the past that the origin of the] practice of marking -the doors of infected houses with red orossaswas the is junction given by Moses at the Passover. sHowever; the crosses served the important purpose for which they were intended—namely, as a : caution against entering such houses, ';

' In various parts of England the plaguestones are silent reminders, of the time when epidemics laid low many inhabitants both in town and country. It is only to the more important of theae memorials, however, that we direct attention. The two to which we wilirlrst refer are specially interesting on account o! the inscriptions attached to them

We le*rn from the parish registers and other ancient records of Derbyifcaatf the old Midland town has several times Buffered severely from visitations of the plague. A atone in the Derby Arboretum bears the following inecriptioa, which iaoludes an extract from th<3 pen of William Hatton, the famous local historian of Birmingham and Darby, and author of other valuable volumes:— - i

* Headless; Croaß or Market Stone rhftfStbne formed part of the ancient Cross-at the upper end of Friar Gate, r and was used by the inliabitants of Darby as a market stone daring the visitation of the plague, ■ 1665.' It is thus described by Huttonin his History of Derby: '166& Derby was again visited by the plague at the same time in which* London fell under the severe calamity, The town was forsaken; the farmers declined the market-place; aad grass grew upon that spot which had furnished the supports of life- To pieveat*' irihabitaats erected at f ihe of*«uas' Green, one or two hundred yardsfiba* Ihbbuildings, now Friar Gate, which bore the name of Headless Cross, coasistiag of about four quadrangular steps, five,feet, high. I knew it ia perfection. Hithff the market people, having their mouth primed with tobacco as a preservative, 'brought their provisions, stood at a distance from their property and at a gieater from the town's peoplo, with whom they were to traffic. The buyer was not suffered to touch any of the articles before purchase) whea the agreement was finished he toot the goods, and, deposited the money ia a vessel filled; with viaegar, set for that purpose.* ; ; ;■; f C ."■ V • The mention of tobacco in the fore. going inscription is a curiosity, showiag tfcat the weed was then regarded as a very efficacious preventative. There is a curious entry in Thomas Hearae's Diary, 1710-11, bearing oa this popular belief, under date 21st January: 'I have been told that in the last great plague in London, none that kept tobacconists' shops had the plagua. It is certain that smoakiag was looked vpoa as an excellent preventative, ia so much that evea children were allowed tostaqak. And I remember that I had heard formerly Tom Rogers, who waa yeoman-beadle, say that when he was, that year wbenfiiae plague;, raged, a schoolboy at Eton,* all" the boys of that school were obliged to Bmoak ia the school every moraiag, and that- he was never whipped so much in his life &s he -was one morning for not smoking.' The plague ragediab Eyam, ia Derbyshire; and fromSfch Seetember, 1665, to 11th October, 1666, no fewer than two hundred aad seveaty-seven died out of a populatioa tof M three huadred and fifty persoas—a j higher death rat 3 thaa ia London. There are many touching memorials of these, <dark: day's in the annals Of the village, and history has recorded the heroic deeds of the iahabi-., tants who remained within their own village to prevent the spreading of tho epidemic. ■ /,<■■ Winchester suffered much from the plague of 1666y Di| the/ Downs near ihel city are numerous Curiously shaped' monads, which are said to cover the pits into which the dead were cast. Whea the pestilence raped a primitive ?kiad of quarantine was practised. The, country folk supplied food, which was placed 6a a stone outside the city, aad ia exchange the citizens placed money in a bowl of water. ■ : The old plague.jp.t9.lei still remains bailt into the base of a monument, which bears an iaseriptioa as follows:—' - 'This monument is erected by the Society of Natives on the very spot of 3 ground from the markets were removed, and thevery stone* en which exchanges were nude whilst the city lay under the Boourge of the destroying pestilesca, in the year sixteen hundred sixty-aix. The- Society cf Natives was founded on the 26 th. of Auguat, 1668 for the relief of the widows aad orphans of their fellow-citizena who died of the great plague.'