The Holbrook news., 1911-11-24

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 graphic title of a dread pesti- lence. The word plague" has some how come to be identified almost sole ly with the great plague of 1865. pos sibly by reason of the many records and histories of that particular visita. ton. Yet for hundreds of years the plague paid England periodical visits coming from no one anew where. For a century, perhaps. the country would go free. The plague might be heard of in other countries. now in the east, now threatening so near as Amsterdam. And then. when the peo- there would come the pestilence. striking down it's thousands
 PIague,s First Visit to Britain.
 Of the first visitation of the black death in 134S many terrible things are related. It broke out in Dorsetshire in August of that year. From there it moved on to Bristol and Gloucester shire Then 1t made a sudden ap- pearance in Oxfordshire. From there the infection was carried to London, and, while that city was busy with the burying of its dead, the black death was sweeping its way almost over the entire country.
 It is curious to note in connection with the recent outbreak in Suffolk that 1t was the eastern counties which, after London, suffered most severely from the visitation. The parsons of more than 800 parishes in East Anglia xyfa nd in some cases these clergy had to be replaced not once. but two or three times. Nineteen of the religious houses in Norfolk and Suffolk lost their abbots and priors.
 Appalling as these figures may be. they are as nothing to the toll taken by the black death from the inhabit- ants of London. Details of that time of terror are sparse enough, but such records as exist tell a grim story. Stow. in his Chronicle" says that the pestilence "so waste[ the people that scarce the tenth person of all sorts was left alive, and churchyards were not sufficient to receive the dead" Still more startling figures were set down by the same chronicler, and he states that more than 5O.o0O bodies were buried in one piece of ground, bought for the purpose by one Sir Walter Nanny. in Spittle Croft. now known as the Charterhouse.
 The number. no doubt. was exag- gerated. Indeed. such a death roll would almost have depopulated Lon don; but 1t Is likely enough that one third of the population of the whole country were carried of by the pesti- lence.
 Four scourses In 14th Century
 After that first visit four more out breaks of plague swelled the tables of mortality during the fourteenth cen tury. Between 1430 and 144O it came again four times, and there were two or three more epidemics before the great plague of 1865.
 With these recurring visitations some measures of precaution came into use. In its earlier stages the plague probably had much is own way.
 It was not until 1543 that there is any evidence of an organized attempt to prevent the spreading of the infec- | ton. The first plague order was is- sued in that year. among other things a forty days quarantine for any house | where there was a case of plague. | Those of independent means should keep within doors for one month after recovery from plague. Others who | could not live without their daily Ia- bor should refrain as much as possible | from going abroad. and for forty days, when out and abroad. had to carry Q |