“It has been reported, that during the awful time when London was being devastated by the terrible Plague of 1665, the inhabitants of the Bridge were free from its ravages; which is attributed to the ceaseless rushing of the river beneath it. I have not yet discovered, however, the least foundation for such a tradition in any of the numerous publications which appeared concerning the pestilence; and, indeed, the only place in which I find this edifice at all mentioned, is in that terrible volume attributed to Daniel Defoe, and called ‘_A Journal of the Plague Year, by a Citizen who continued all the while in London_;’ London, 1722, octavo, where, on page 255, when speaking of the fires made in the streets for clearing the air after the pestilence, he says, ‘I do not remember whether any was at the City gates, but one at the Bridge foot there was, just by St. Magnus’ Church.’
“I cannot imagine, Mr. Geoffrey Barbican, that in the fearful conflagration of London, which occurred between the night of Saturday and the morning of Sunday, the 2nd of September, 1666, the Bridge suffered in any proportion to the rest of the City; for I have already shewn you, from Strype’s Stow’s ‘_Survey_,’ that some of the original houses of King John’s time, were subsequently standing at the Southwark end. I attribute this preservation to the vacancy opposed to the flames at the North end of the Bridge; but as the fire forms so memorable an epoch in the history of London, I shall bring before you some evidence concerning its actual effect upon this building. ‘’Twas at still midnight,’ says one of the most particular accounts of it extant, ‘when all was wrapt in a peaceful silence, and every eye shut up in quiet slumber, that this dreadfull fire brake forth, whose hidden flames at first obscurely crept within close limits; but quickly scorning to be so confined, in a bright blaze brake openly upon us. And now the voice of fire in every street--with horrid emphasis,--is echoed forth: these dreadfull screems disturb our midnight quiet, and raise affrighted people from their beds, who, scarce awake, all seems to be a dream. Each one appears but as a moving statue, as once Lot’s wife, viewing her flaming Sodom, transformed into a pillar: a powerfull wind aided these raging flames, which, like a growing foe, increaseth still.’ Such is the commencement of a broadside, entitled ‘_A Short Description of the fatal and dreadfull Burning of London; divided into every day and night’s progression. Composed by Samuel Wiseman_;’ but yet this most particular sheet relates nothing concerning the Bridge. We have, however, some little information in a narrative written by Thomas Vincent,--a non-conformist Minister, who was ejected from the living of St. Mary Magdalen, in Milk-street;--and called ‘_God’s terrible Judgements in the City, by Plague and Fire_.’ Now, says the Author, it ‘rusheth down the hill towards the Bridge; crosseth Thames-street, invadeth St. Magnus’ Church at the Bridge-foot; and, though that Church were so great, yet it was not a sufficient barricado against this Conqueror; but, having scaled and taken this fort, it shooteth flames with so much the greater advantage into all places round about; and a great building of houses upon the Bridge is quickly thrown to the ground: then the conqueror, _being stayed in his course at the Bridge_, marcheth back to the City again, and runs along with great noise and violence through Thames-street, Westward.’ The minute and pathetic narrative of the accomplished John Evelyn, adds nothing to these particulars; for he says only in his ‘_Diary_,’ edit. 1818, volume i., page 375, on September the 7th, upon the destruction of certain houses erected about the Tower, if they had ‘taken fire and attacked the White Tower, where the magazine of powder lay, they would undoubtedly not only have beaten and destroyed all y^e Bridge, but sunke and torne the vessells in y^e River.’ The report of Samuel Pepys, in his ‘_Diary_,’ already quoted, does not give us much additional information; though he tells us in volume i., page 445, that on the morning of the 2nd, he went on the Tower battlements, whence he saw ‘the houses at that end of the Bridge all on fire; and an infinite great fire on this and the other side the end of the Bridge, which, with other people, did trouble me for poor little Michell and our Sarah on the Bridge.’ He subsequently adds that the fire increased on both sides the North end of London Bridge, but there is nothing said farther concerning its attack upon the edifice itself.