John Evelyn

“ But if it be objected that the purest Aers are soonest infected; it is answered, that they are also the soonest freed again; and that none would therefore choose to live in a corrupt Aer, because of this Article: London 'tis confess'd, is not the only City most obnoxious to the Pestilence; but it is yet never clear of this Smoake which is a Plague so many other ways, and indeed intolerable; because it kills not at once, but always, since still to languish, is worse then even Death it self. ”

“ I can no waies doubt or make question of; since having respect to the nobleness of the situation of London, we shall every way finde it to have been consulted with all imaginable Advantages, not onely in relation to Profit, but to Health and Pleasure; and that, if there be any thing which seems to impeach the two last Transcendencies, it will be found to be but something Extrinsecal and Accidental onely, which naturally does not concern the Place at all; but, which may very easily be reformed, without any the least inconvenience, as in due time we shall come to demonstrate. ”

“ And there is reason, that we, who are compos'd of the Elements, should participate of their qualities: For as the Humours have their sourse from the Elements; so have our Passions from the Humors, and the Soul which is united to this Body of ours, cannot but be affected with its Inclinations: The very dumb creatures themselves being sensible of the alteration of the Aer, though not by ratiocination, yet by many notorious Symptomes. ”

“ I report my self to all those who (during these sad confusions) have been compelled to breath the Aer of other Countries for some years: if they do not now perceive a manifest alteration in their Appetite, and clearnesse of their Spirits; especially such as have liv'd long in France, and the City of Paris; where, to take off that unjust reproch, the Plague as seldome domineers, as in any part of Europe, which I more impute to the Serenity and Purity of the Aer about it, then to any other qualities which are frequently assign'd for the cause of it by divers Writers. ”

“ Yea, though a Chamber be never so closely locked up, Men find at their return, all things that are in it, even covered with a black thin Soot, and all the rest of the Furniture as full of it, as if it were in the house of some Miller, or a Bakers Shop, where the Flower gets into their Cupboards, and Boxes, though never so close and accurately shut. ”

“ But, it is manifest, that those who repair to London, no sooner enter into it, but they find a universal alteration in their Bodies, which are either dryed up or enflam'd, the humours being exasperated and made apt to putrifie, their sensories and perspiration so exceedingly stopp'd, with the losse of Appetite, and a kind of general stupefaction, succeeded with such Cathars and Distillations, as do never, or very rarely quit them, without some further Symptomes of dangerous Inconveniency so long as they abide in the place ”

“ If over cold and keen, it too much abates the heat, but renders the body robust and hardy; as those who are born under the Northern Bears, are more fierce & stupid, caused by a certain internal Amiperistasis and universal Impulsion. The drier Aer is generally the more salutary and healthy, so it be not too sweltery and infested with heat or fuliginous vapours, which is by no means a friend to health and Longevity, as Avicen notes of the Æthiops who seldome arived to any considerable old Age. ”

“ But it was this alone, and the trouble that it must needs procure to Your Sacred Majesty, as well as hazzard to Your Health, which kindled this Indignation of mine, against it, and was the occasion of what it has produc'd in these Papers.
Your Majesty who is a Lover of noble Buildings, Gardens, Pictures, and all Royal Magnificences, must needs desire to be freed from this prodigious annoyance ”

“ Yea, even to good humour and friendly inclinations, we many times find our selves when the Heavens are clowded, and discompos'd? when the South-winds blow, and the humours are fluid, for what we are when the Skie is fair, and the Aer in good temper? ”

“ But as it is not (I perswade my self) out of choyce, that these Men affect them; so nor will any man, I think, commend and celebrate their manner of Living. A Tabid Body might possibly trail out a miserable Life of seven or eight years by a Sea-cole Fire, as 'tis reported the Wife of a certain famous Physician, did of late by the Prescription of her Husband; but it is to be considered also, how much longer, and happier she might have survived in a better and more noble Aer ”

“ For Diseases proceed not from so long a Series of causes, as we are apt to conceive; but, most times from those obvious, and despicable mischiefs, which yet we take lesse notice of, because they are familiar: But how frequently do we hear men say (speaking of some deceased Neighbour or Friend) He went up to London, and took a great Cold, &c. ”

“ Boetius a Boet.New Castle Cole, as an expert Physician affirms, causeth Consumptions, Phthisicks, and the Indisposition of the Lungs, not only by the suffocating aboundance of Smoake; but also by its Virulency: For all subterrany Fuell hath a kind of virulent or Arsenical vapour rising from it; which, as it speedily destroys those who dig it in the Mines; so does it by little and little, those who use it here above them: Therefore those Diseases (saith this Doctor) most afflict about London, where the very Iron is sooner consum'd by the Smoake thereof, then where this Fire is not used. ”

“ Spike, Cammomile, Balm, Mint, Marjoram, Pempernel, and Serpillum, &c. which upon the least pressure and cutting, breathe out and betray their ravishing odors.
That the Fields, and Crofts within these Closures, or Invironing Gardens, be, some of them, planted with wild Thyme, and others reserved for Plots of Beans, Pease (not Cabbages, whose rotten and perishing stalks have a very noisom and unhealthy smell, and therefore by Hyppocrates utterly condemned near great Cities) but such blossom-bearing Grain as send forth their virtue at farthest distance, and are all of them marketable at London ”

“ That Men should burn, or bury the Dead within the City Walls, was expresly prohibited by a Law of the XII. Tables; and truely, I am perswaded, that the frequency of Church-yards, and Charnel-House contamminate the Aer, in many parts of this Town, as well as the Pumps and Waters, which are any thing near unto them, so that those Pipes and Conveyances which passe through them (obnoxious to many dangerous accidents) ought either to be directed some other way, or very carefully to be looked after. ”

“ Let any man observe it, upon a Sunday, or such time as these Spiracles cease, that the Fires are generally extinguished, and he shall sensibly conclude, by the clearnesse of the Skie, and universal serenity of the Aer about it, that all the Chimnies in London, do not darken and poyson it so much, as one or two of those Tunnels of Smoake ”

“ Whereas the Columns and Clowds of Smoake, which are belched forth from the sooty Throates of those Works, are so thick and plentiful, that rushing out with great impetuosity, they are capable even to resist the fiercest winds, and being extremely surcharg'd with a fuliginous Body, fall down upon the City, before they can be dissipated, as the more thin and weak is ”

“ We have a Prince who is Resolv'd to be a Father to his Country; and a Parliament whose Decrees and Resentiments take their Impression from his Majesties great Genius, which studies only the Publick Good. It is from them therefore, that we Angure our future happinesse; since there is nothing which will so much perpetuate their Memories, or more justly merit it. ”

“ For as much as thereby happeneth yearly a great destruction of the Brood of Wild-fowle, and Moore-game, and by the multitude of grosse vapours, and Clouds arising from those great fires, the Aer is so distemper'd, and such unseasonable and unnatural storms are ingendred, as that the Corn, and the Fruites of the Earth are thereby in divers places blasted, and greatly hindered in their due course of ripening and reaping. ”

“ That any Profit (besides what is of absolute necessity) should render men regardlesse of what chiefly imports them, when it may be purchased upon so easie conditions, and with so great advantages: For it is not happiness to possesse Gold, but to enjoy the Effects of it, and to know how to live cheerfully and in health, Non est vivere, sed valere vita. That men whose very Being is Aer, should not breath it freely when they may ”

“ So as it was not ill said by Paracelsus, that of all things, Aer only could be truly affirm'd to have Life, seeing to all things it gave Life. Argument sufficient to demonstrate, how prejudicial it is to the Bodies of men; for that can never be Aer fit for them to breath in, where nor Fruits, nor Flowers do ripen, or come to a seasonable perfection. ”

“ What if there appear to be an Arsenical vapour, as well as Sulphur, breathing sometimes from this intemperate use of Sea-Cole, in great Cities? That there is, what does plainly stupifie, is evident to those who sit long by it; and that which fortun'd to the Dutchmen who Winter'd in Nova Zembla, was by all Physicians attributed to such a deleterious quality in the like fuell, as well as to the Inspissation of the Aer, which they thought only to have attemper'd, as is by most esteem'd to be the reason of the same dangerous halitus of Char-Cole, not fully enkendl'd. ”

“ Adde to this, that the Soil is universally Gravell, not onely where the City it self is placed; but for severall Miles about the Countreys which environ it: That it is plentifully and richly irrigated, and visited with Waters which Christalize her Fountains in every Street, and may be conducted to them in such farther plenty, as Rome her self might not more abound in this liquid ornament, for the pleasure and divertisement, as well as for the use and refreshment of her Inhabitants. ”

“ Sine his enim rationibus nulla salubris habitatio fieri potest: there is no dwelling can be safe or healthy without it. 'Tis true, he does likewise adde Water also, which is but a kinde of condensed Aer; though he might have observ'd, that Element to be seldome bad, where the other is good; omitting onely some peculiar Fountains and Mineral waters, which are percolated through Mines and Metalique Earths less frequent, and very rarely to be encounter'd. ”

“ That the Streets should be so narrow and incommodious in the very Center, and busiest places of Intercourse: That there should be so ill and uneasie a form of Paving under foot, so troublesome and malicious a disposure of the Spouts and Gutters overhead, are particulars worthy of Reproof and Reformation ”

“ II.
but so universally mixed with the otherwise wholsome and excellent Aer, that her Inhabitants breathe nothing but an impure and thick Mist accompanied with a fuligimous and filthy vapour, which renders them obnoxious to a thousand inconveniences, corrupting the Lungs, and disordring the entire habit of their Bodies; so that Catharrs, Phthisicks, Coughs and Consumptions rage more in this one City than in the whole Earth besides. ”

“ It must be confess'd, that the Aer of those Climates, is not so pure and Desecate as those which are neerer the Tropicks, where the Continent is lesse ragged, and the Weather more constant and steady, as well as the Inclination and Temper of the Inhabitants. ”

“ I affirme, more then even the very Meat we eat, whereof so little and indifferent nourishes and satisfies the most temperate and best Educated persons. Besides, Aer that is corrupt insinuates it self into the vital parts immediately; whereas the meats which we take though never so ill condition'd, require time for the concoction, by which its effects are greatly mitigated ”

“ And that all and every Person and Persons, which from and after the said last day of July, shall offend contrary to the true intent, and meaning of this Statute, the same offence being proved by contession of the Party, or by the Testimonies of two sufficient Witnesses upon Oath, before one or more Justices of the Peace of the same County, City, or Town Corporate, where the offence shall be committed ”

“ The remainder of the Fields included, yielding the same, and better Shelter, and Pasture for Sheep and Cattel then now; that they lie bleak, expos'd and abandon'd to the winds, which perpetually invade them. ”

“ So corrosive is this Smoake about the City, that if one would hang up Gammons of Bacon, Beefe, or other Flesh to fume, and prepare it in the Chimnies, as the good House-Wifes do in the Country, where they make use of sweeter Fuell, it will so Mummifie, drye up, wast and burn it, that it suddainly crum∣bles away, consumes and comes to nothing. ”

“ That these Palisad's be elegantly planted, diligently kept and supply'd, with such Shrubs, as yield the most fragrant and odoriferous Flowers, and are aptest to tinge the Aer upon every gentle emission at a great distance: Such as are (for instance amongst many others) the Sweet-brier, all the Periclymena's and Woodbinds ”