Today in history, 1666

The London Fire. 1666.

“Oh the miserable and calamitous spectacle! The sky was like the top of a burning oven, and the light seen 40 miles round about for many nights. God grant mine eyes may never behold the like, who now saw 10,000 houses all in one flame; the noise and cracking and thunder of people, the fall of towers, houses, and churches, was like a hideous storm. London was, but is no more!”

— written by a man named John Evelyn in his diary

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16 Responses to Today in history, 1666

  1. peteb says:

    Hmm.. I’ve just been reading a little about John Evelyn.. he was well known to Those [Royal Society] Guys and an early, and long-serving, member of The Fellowship… his father-in-law just happened to be Charles I’s diplomatic agent in France – Evelyn spent most of the 1640s in France and Italy.

    And, in a completely unrelated point, not that the first point was particularly related *ahem* his grandfather was responsible for introducing the manufacture of gunpowder into England.

  2. Are you suggesting a parallel between London 1666 and New Orleans 2005 — I thinking and appreciating that, especially given your post — um, what she said…

    or should I just shut up and leave it alone?

  3. red says:

    Acutally, I’m not suggesting anything. I’m just saying that today in history the London fire began. Sept. 2, 1666. Just a fact.

    The fact that Mr. Evelyn would write “London was, but is no more” in his journal that night makes perfect sense. But of course – London did rebuilt, London still exists today. But it took generations. The London that Mr. Evelyn knew did, indeed, vanish off the face of the earth.

  4. Jen says:

    How coincidental, and the quote about London was but is no more does remind me of N.O. What’s scarier- fire or water?

  5. red says:

    To me – it’s fire. I have a horror of burning alive. I think I might have been burned at the stake in the 15th century or something in my former life as a witch.

    But water’s no picnic either.

  6. Dave J says:

    Fear of fire is primal, one of our deepest instincts. To fear water, conversely, seems somehow…less natural, because normally water is something that keeps us alive. Perhaps that lets us our guard down more.

  7. red says:

    I do have a fear of tidal waves – but that’s more a fear of the huge-ness of it, rather than the water aspect.

    But to burn alive – and know I’m burning –

    shivers ….

  8. Patty says:

    This same quote came through to me via email from the Writer’s Almanac. Is that the secondary source you are quoting from here? Just wondering, since I didn’t see a link….

  9. peteb says:

    Sheila

    John Evelyn’s shock was understandable.. some 12,000 homes destroyed and around 65,000 made homeless during the 4 days the London fire burned.. but he also lived long enough to see the city rebuilt, thanks to the efforts of Wren and Hooke – a monument to the fire was completed by 1677.. John Evelyn lived on to 1706 and was 85 when he died.

  10. red says:

    Incredible, peteb. Just amazing.

    Have you read Pepys’ diary? You probably have. An incredible eyewitness account of the fire as well.

  11. peteb says:

    Alas, I haven’t read Pepys’s diary.. although I’ve popped in occasionally to his blog [there is one republishing it day by day]… but I might read Evelyn’s first.. if I can hunt down a copy.. he was Secretary of the Royal Society in the early 1670s and knew all those guys.

    Of course, he would have known Pepys well too.. Evelyn wrote the handbook for the Navy on cultivating forests for shipbuilding, based on the findings of a Society Committee.. reprinted repeatedly until 1825.. when ironclad and steel hulls took over.

  12. red says:

    I love that people are putting Pepys’ journal into blog form. He was such a gossip. And some of his theatrical reviews are amazing – eyewitness accounts of the great actors of the day.

  13. peteb says:

    They’ve only got up to September 1662 though.

  14. red says:

    patty – writer’s almanac has a newsletter?? I had no idea!

    I got the quote from their website which I visit daily. Sorry for not providing a link. Bad blog behavior. :)

  15. peteb says:

    Just thought I’d add.. after some investigation.. that Evelyn’s diary was published, by The Boydell Press, as a 1342 page hardback in 1996 [still available, new, at the astronomical sum of £400] and as a 384 page paperback in 2004 [at £14.99], but there’s a new 1050 page hardback version coming out, from Everyman’s Library, in October this year.

  16. peteb says:

    And taking the thread further along the diversion.. apologies.. but I just found another little snippet of information about John Evelyn that might be of interest.

    When Peter the Great visited England to study shipbuilding [in 1698] the Admiralty dockyards were in Deptford.. where John Evelyn owned a sizable house. The Czar and his entourage stayed at Evelyn’s house [I don’t think he was there] from February to April… and basically seem to have trashed the place.. the Exchequer paid John Evelyn a sum of £300 in compensation for all the damage [including three broken wheelbarrows.. don’t ask] after the Czar left.

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