content note: this post contains references to long-dead people
I said to myself, Self! You haven't updated your blog today! What shall you post? And I said, I don't know, Self, maybe an interesting article?
Hat tip to tempestsarekind for this interesting article:
Death is All Around Us: the Plague Pits of London
It is horrifying and fascinating at the same time, as history so often is. Consider:
At first, those who died from the plague were laid to rest in churchyards, like the ‘ordinary’ dead. But as more and more people succumbed to the disease, the churchyards became overcrowded. On any given day, there could be as many as 300 deaths in a single parish. The poorer areas of London-where people were crammed together in terribly unhygienic conditions-were hit hardest. Even today, you can see the effects of the plague in Clerkenwell and Southwark, where the churchyards are above street level due to the number of bodies buried beneath.
I am horrified, but in a way that means I also can't stop reading. Reason #4928 why I was a history major, to be honest. Modern stories of the dead tear me to pieces. Old stories still hurt, but in a far more diluted way, and with the distance of time I can see the larger picture better.
So there. That's my macabre contribution to your reading today.
Hat tip to tempestsarekind for this interesting article:
Death is All Around Us: the Plague Pits of London
It is horrifying and fascinating at the same time, as history so often is. Consider:
At first, those who died from the plague were laid to rest in churchyards, like the ‘ordinary’ dead. But as more and more people succumbed to the disease, the churchyards became overcrowded. On any given day, there could be as many as 300 deaths in a single parish. The poorer areas of London-where people were crammed together in terribly unhygienic conditions-were hit hardest. Even today, you can see the effects of the plague in Clerkenwell and Southwark, where the churchyards are above street level due to the number of bodies buried beneath.
I am horrified, but in a way that means I also can't stop reading. Reason #4928 why I was a history major, to be honest. Modern stories of the dead tear me to pieces. Old stories still hurt, but in a far more diluted way, and with the distance of time I can see the larger picture better.
So there. That's my macabre contribution to your reading today.