The Plague

Horowhenua Chronicle, 22 March 1911, Page 4

The Plague

EARLY RAV.UJKS l.\ ENGLAND. There wib a time, says the Globe, when the word plague was the most ominous thai could be spoken. The bare mcjitinii of a case ot plague sent a thrill of horror through the conntrv. and those who had come into conia:. t with the sick person were ostracised from their lellowbeing*. Fortunately, modern sanitation and mo'.lern ideas of cleanli- ... iicss have ma tie the spread of plague aliiuiNt impossible in civilised conntries. It is generally recognised that from the earliest ages Asia has been the homo of the plague, and that its introduction to lOurope has been along the caravan routes, but all are not agreed that every one of the pestilences that devastated Europe during the Middle Ages was the true bubonic plague. Home authorities maintain that it originated in the valley of the Euphrates, and that the exhalations arising from the swamps (eft behind after the great inundations caused by that river engendered the outbreaks, but the cause has never been exactly determined. England was sadly devastated by pestilence during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, which is not surprising when, the social conditions of the time are taken into considera-

tion. Before the advent of the Black Dentil in 1318, the English countryside was in a most prosperous condition, lint after its terrible ravages scenes of desolation were to he met everywhere. It-is supposed to have been brought to Bristol from Italy, and from the western port it spread : all over the kingdom; and after its first devastation had been got over, the country benefited by its visitation to some extent, at any rate for a time. Labour was scarce, so wages rose, while many lords of manors could not afford to farm their own lands, and handed them over to their tenants, who became more wealthy and independent until succeeding plagues and the Wars of the Hoses brought sore affliction to the peasantry. Of course we know more about the Great Plague of lfifio than <of any of the earlier ones. Contemporary records are full of accounts of its ravages, for although it is so oMc-n cali ed the Great Plague of London, it was not confined to the metropolis by any means. But the sufferings of some of the provincial towns are perhaps less well ku'own. Colchestci suffered severely, the deatb-ra-d being higher than that of London. Hct«<n A<ig is-,, ;\hei 'f l;e----gan, and December, 1666, when it ended, 1731 persons died. _ Tracer of tie Or;it Plfgne"ri:.<' be met with in all sorts of unexpected places. At Brentford there is a. spot well known as Dead" Graves, which is supposed to mark the burial place of plague victims. tell.s us that the pestilence was virulent- in the town, which was not surprising .as even in these days it is not altogether a /salubrious place, while Gav speaks of its dirt an dothcr writers of its mud. i*