Samuel
Pepys,
famed diarist, recorded it thusly,
So I
(went) down to the
water-side and there got a boat and through bridge, and there saw a
lamentable fire. Poor Michells house, as far as the Old Swan,
already burned that way and the fire running further, that in a very
little time it got as far as the Stillyard while I was there. Everybody
endeavoring to remove their goods, and flinging into the River or
bringing them into lighters that lay off. Poor people staying in
their houses as long as till the very fire touched them, and then
running into boats or clambering from one pair of stair by the
water-side to another.
. . . .saw how horridly
the sky looks, all on fire in the night, was enough to put us out of
our wits; and endeed it was extremely dreadfull -- for it looks just
as if it was at us and the whole heaven on fire.
A monument was erected and still
stands in London, tho' the original text was removed. It
attributed the Great Fire to the
"treachery and malice of the Popish faction and carrying on their
horrid plot for extirpating the Protestant religion and old English
liberty and introducing Popery and slavery." This
is obviously a references to the MacThoy antipopes and
their fabrication of Papal Indulgences. 
Recent evidence
has been uncovered to reveal that it
was not unattended coals that started the blaze but a more unfortunate
mishap.
Prior
to this time in history, people did not spend a lot of time with
personal hygiene and Clan MacThoy
was no exception.
 |
The
Great Fire of London has been a pet project of researcher, Bacchus
d'Machina.
His
work shows that Blar Seeker, a
member of Clan MacThoy was visiting
the King's baker on the night of the blaze. |
D'Machina found amongst
the family letters a note to Seeker's cousins describing the
night that the London fire started. |
