OLD SAINT PAUL'S

_A TALE OF THE PLAGUE
AND THE FIRE_


BY
WILLIAM HARRISON AINSWORTH




The portion of the ensuing Tale relating to the Grocer of Wood-street,
and his manner of victualling his house, and shutting up himself and his
family within it during the worst part of the Plague of 1665, is founded
on a narrative, which I have followed pretty closely in most of its
details, contained in a very rare little volume, entitled,
"_Preparations against the Plague, both of Soul and Body_," the
authorship of which I have no hesitation in assigning to DEFOE. Indeed,
I venture to pronounce it his masterpiece. It is strange that this
matchless performance should have hitherto escaped attention, and that
it should not have been reprinted with some one of the countless
impressions of the "_History of the Plague of London_," to which it
forms an almost necessary accompaniment. The omission, I trust, will be
repaired by Mr. HAZLITT the younger, DEFOE'S last and best editor, in
his valuable edition of the works of that great novelist and political
writer, now in the course of publication. It may be added, that a case
precisely similar to that of the Grocer, and attended with the same
happy results, occurred during the Plague of Marseilles, in 1720.