At The Sign Of The Sugared Plum Part 12

cony rabbit.

cutpurse a thief or pickpocket who stole by cutting the drawstrings of money purses.

electuary a purgative medicine mixed with honey or sugar syrup in some sweet confection.

fustian a hard-wearing fabric with short velvety nap (pile); made of twilled cotton, or cotton mixed with linen or wool.

groundlings those who stood on the ground, the cheapest part of a playhouse, to watch a theatrical performance.

haberdashery small items for the dressmaker, such as ribbons, laces and silks, as well as hats and caps, and fabric articles for the household.

halberd a weapon which combined a spear and battleaxe on a pole of up to about two metres in length.

marchpane an archaic word for marzipan, the main ingredients of which are ground almonds and sugar.

meet an archaic word meaning proper, fitting, or correct.

milch-a.s.s an a.s.s, or donkey, whose milk was sold by its owner.

patch Through the 17th and 18th centuries fashionable men and women wore patches, like beauty spots, on their face and/or visible parts of the upper body to make them look more attractive and often to cover blemishes.

patten a wooden-soled over-shoe raised up on a circular metal frame and worn to keep one's shoes and long skirts above the muck on the ground.

periwig In the 1660s, a periwig of false hair hanging in curls from a central parting was an essential part of a fashionable man's attire and often disguised a lack of his own hair.

pesthouse a hospital that cared for people with an infectious disease.

poultice a moist and often heated mixture of substances applied to sore or inflamed parts of the body to improve blood circulation and reduce inflammation.

Puritan In the 16th and 17th centuries the more extreme English Protestants aimed to purify the Church of England of most of its ceremony and other aspects they deemed to be Catholic. Adhering to strict moral and religious principles, the Puritans were opposed to luxury and sensual enjoyment.

quarantine enforced isolation, usually of people and animals who have an infectious disease or who may be carriers of it.

swaddle In the 16th century it was thought beneficial to swaddle a new-born baby by wrapping it tightly in linen or other cloth.

worsted a fabric with a hard, smooth, close-textured surface, made from a closely twisted woollen yarn.

Notes on London's Plague, 1665.

All the quotations at the chapter headings are from Pepys's Diary, which I used for background information. I also used a book published in 1926 called The Great Plague of London by W. G. Bell, where I found most of the stories of ordinary people. Restoration London by Liza Picard was also invaluable. The idea for Sarah's sweetmeat shop came to me when I read in seventeenth-century Court Records a young girl's answer to the question of what she did for a living: *I make sweetmeats and chocolett cakes for persons of quality and gentlemen's houses . . .'

During September, after Hannah and Sarah had left London, the numbers of people dying of plague continued to rise. Over 8,000 people died every week in September. Following this, as the weather became colder, the numbers on the Bills of Mortality slowly began to fall. The end of the Great Plague was at last in sight. By the following February, the city was deemed to be free enough of plague for the king and his court to return.

Although London was far and away the largest city in Britain, it was small compared to the size it is now. It is thought that about 300,000 people lived in it a and that one third of those (that is, more than 100,000) perished during the Great Plague. Most of these were the poor, who could not get away from the city.

Accounts have been found for the killing of as many as 4,380 dogs in the city alone and probably three times as many cats. This was, of course, misguided, because the animals may have been controlling the very vermin that are thought to have spread the plague.

Nell Gwyn, the orange seller who rose to become a mistress to King Charles II, was fifteen in 1665. She is depicted in records as merry, witty and lovable as well as strikingly attractive. Pepys was an admirer, referring to her as *pretty, witty Nelly'.

The plague was a terrifying and mystifying disease and people were prepared to try anything to avoid catching it. Everyone was very superst.i.tious a even Pepys carried a *lucky rabbit's foot' in his pocket. People saw what they thought were portents of death in the form the clouds took, or in natural but inexplicable phenomena like comets. They sometimes carried a piece of paper with the word ABRACADABRA written in a triangle, thus: A.

AB.

ABR.

ABRA.

ABRAC.

ABRACA.

ABRACAD.

ABRACADA.

ABRACADAB.

ABRACADABR.

ABRACADABRA.

They took all the conconctions mentioned in this book and many more. One of these recipes begins: *Take black snails and cut and gash them with your knife, then take the liquor which comes from them and add it to a goodly quant.i.ty of wine . . .' It was also thought to be beneficial to drink your medicine from a hanged man's skull.

It is now known that the plague was spread by rat fleas carrying the plague bacilli and jumping from their hosts, the rats, to humans. The bacilli attacked the body's lymphatic system, causing inflamed and painful swellings in the lymph glands, called *buboes'. No one knows exactly why or how it died out, but bubonic plague never again hit this country quite as badly as it did in 1665. It was feared that it would return as the weather grew warmer in 1666, but it did not, and although the rest of the country was. .h.i.t, London remained relatively free of the plague. On 2 September, 1666, however, another terrible disaster occurred: The Great Fire.

Note on the author.

Mary Hooper has been writing books for young adults for over twenty years and has ama.s.sed a stunning collection of historical and contemporary novels to her name, each with unforgettable heroines and breathtaking plots. Mary lives in Henley-on-Thames.

Also by Mary Hooper.

Historical fiction.

Petals in the Ashes.

The Fever and the Flame.

(a special omnibus edition of the two books above).

The Remarkable Life and Times of Eliza Rose.

At the House of the Magician

By Royal Command

The Betrayal.

Fallen Grace

Contemporary fiction Megan

Megan 2

Megan 3.

Holly