One of the most striking predictions occurs in Daniel Baker's _Certaine
Warning for a Naked Heart_, Lond. 1659. After much invective against the
evil ways of the metropolis, he proceeds:
"A fire, a consuming fire, shall be kindled in the bowels of the earth,
which will scorch with burning heat all hypocrites, unstable,
double-minded workers of iniquity.... A great and large slaughter shall
be throughout the land of darkness where the unrighteous decrees and
laws have been founded. Yea, a great effusion of blood, fire, and smoke
shall encrease up in the dark habitations of cruelty; howling and great
wailing shall be on every hand in all her streets."
Thomas Ellwood disposes of the city in a very summary manner:
"For this shall be judgment of Babylon (saith the Lord); in one day
shall her plagues come upon her, _death_, and _mourning_, and famine,
and she shall be utterly burnt with fire; for great is the Lord who
judgeth her."--_Alarm to the Priests_, Lond. 1662.
George Fox also claims to have had a distinct prevision of the fire (See
_Journal_, p. 386., ed 1765.) He also relates the story of a Quaker who was
moved to come out of Huntingdonshire a little before the fire, and to--
"Scatter his money up and down the streets, turn his horse loose, untie
the knees of his breeches, and let his stockings fall down, and to tell
the people 'so they should run up and down scattering their money and
goods, half undressed, like mad people, as he was a sign to them,'
which they did when the city was burning."
Lilly's celebrated book of _Hieroglyphicks_, which procured the author the
dubious honour of an examination before the committee appointed to inquire
into the origin of the fire, is well known. In one of the plates, a large
city, understood to denote London, is enveloped in flames; and another rude
woodcut, containing a large amount of graves and corpses, was afterwards
interpreted to bear reference to the Plague. Aubrey seems to be a {174}
little jealous of the renown which Lilly acquired by these productions for
he asserts that--
"Mr. Thomas Flatman (poet) did affirm that he had seen those
_Hieroglyphicks_ in an old parchment manuscript, writ in the time of
the monks."--_Misc._, p. 125. ed. 1721.
Nostradamus also, more than a century before, is said to have foretold the
very year of the burning. In the edition, or reputed edition, of 1577,
cent. ii. quatrain 51., is the following:
"Le sang du jusse à Londres fera faute
Bruslez par foudres de vingt trois les six
La dame anticque cherra de place haute
De mesme secte plusieurs seront occis."
Those of your readers who incline to dubiety on this subject, I refer to
the copy from whence it was taken, in the Museum Library, press-mark 718. a
14. If it is a forgery (and such I take it to be), it is decidedly the best
I ever met with. Some time ago the Queries of your correspondent SPERIEND
elicited some interesting particulars relative to Nostradamus and his
prophecies; but I do not think the question of his claim to having
predicted the death of Charles I. was finally decided.
I should be glad if any of your correspondents could tell me whether the
quatrain above, or anything like it, occurs in any of the _genuine_ early
editions. Dugdale, by the way, evidently believed in its authenticity, and
has inserted a version in his _History of St. Paul's_.
Such a promising theme as the destruction of London was, of course, too
good a thing to escape the chap-book makers. During the period of the Civil
Wars, we find many allusions to it. In a little quarto brochure, published
in 1648, entitled _Twelve Strange Prophecies_, the following is placed in
the mouth of the much maligned and caricatured Mrs. Ann Shipton. The
characteristic termination I consider a fine stroke of the art
vaticinatory.
"A ship shall come sayling up the Thames till it come to London, and
the master of the ship shall weep, and the mariners shall ask him why
he weepeth, and he shall say, 'Ah, what a goodly city was this! none in
the world comparable to it! and now there is scarce left any house
_that can let us have drinke for our money_.'"
This string of notes, turned up at different times, and while in search of
more important matter, can no doubt be materially increased from the
collections of your correspondents. If my researches prove interesting, I
may trouble you with another paper: at present I leave the facts brought
together above to the candid investigation of your readers.