The scheme worked, as there were no plague deaths outside the parish, and only two people tried to leave the village once the measures had been put in place. One person even tried to get into Eyam. Overall, it was an utter success, and many lives were saved.
Although the plague didn’t spread, it continued to rage within Eyam, and by the August of 1666, there had been in excess of two hundred victims. Then, as winter approached, the number of deaths declined once more, then dwindled to nothing. As the Christmas of 1666 grew closer, fourteen months of pain and anguish were over and life began to get back to normal in the village. Some people who had left the village returned, children played, and friends and neighbours could once more converse. Contact with the outside world was re-established, though understandably the people from surrounding villages were a little wary.
After everything the villagers had been through, it’s not difficult to understand why they would want to do everything in their power to prevent the plague from returning again the following summer. So there was a great burning—or possibly a great burying; some records vary—wherein Mompesson made himself an example and destroyed everything except the clothes he was wearing, to get rid of anything that might hold the plague “seeds,” as they were then called. The villagers followed suit and their efforts paid off.
Not only did the plague disappear from Eyam, but it started to disappear from Europe as a whole. The Great Plague of London died out at a similar time to the plague in Eyam, and since then there has never been a major outbreak in England. Western Europe was mostly clear of the disease by the middle of the eighteenth century, when improvements in hygiene, building materials, and the way houses were decorated made it so that much of the black rat’s habitat was destroyed, which led to the decline and disappearance of the species.
However, plague has not entirely disappeared from the planet. Outbreaks have been recorded, in Hong Kong in 1894 and India in 1994, which spread as far as Calcutta. There have been no cases in Europe, but the disease appeared in the USA in 1906, and there are occasional reports today. For example, in 2012 in Oregon, a man was bitten by the family cat after he tried to help it. It was choking on something, which turned out to be a rodent carcass, and a couple of days after the cat bite, the man awoke with flu-like symptoms, which ended up with him having to have his fingers and toes amputated. It is cases like this that make the authorities in the Yellowstone and Yosemite National Parks put up signs discouraging tourists from playing with rodents. They may be cute, but their fleas can spread the plague. Naturally, advances in medicine mean that an early diagnosis and the correct treatment can stop the plague in its tracks, but although the man in Oregon escaped with his life, his existence has been irrevocably changed.
Eyam is a beautiful village, but it is impossible to turn a corner without some reminder of what happened there. Things that can still be seen today include the small group of cottages where the plague broke out, the church—though of course it is much bigger now than it was at the time—Cucklett Delph, the outdoor church used during the outbreak, Mompesson’s Well, the Lydgate and Riley Graves, the Boundary Stone, and much more. It is both a fascinating and humbling place, a living testament to the sacrifice of a relatively small number of people in order to save scores more. A truly admirable sacrifice, and one that undoubtedly changed lives. Many of the people in towns and villages surrounding Eyam might never have been born were it not for Mompesson and Stanley and their plan.
The villagers today, some of whom are descendants of those who survived the plague, are proud of Eyam and its heritage. A visit to Eyam Museum gives more in-depth detail, including statistics and information on how the village got back on its feet after the fatal disease had swept through. The museum staff is enthusiastic and knowledgeable, not to mention incredibly helpful.
If you ever get the opportunity to visit this amazing village, please do. You’ll soon see why this author was inspired to write fiction based on utterly fascinating fact.
*Author’s note: Since I first researched and wrote this book, additional studies have been done on the plague and the way it spread. These studies are now leaning towards a theory that it was actually fleas and lice that live on humans and their clothes that were responsible, which helps to explain how it could spread so quickly.
About the Author
Lucy Felthouse is the award-winning author of erotic romance novels Stately Pleasures (named in the top 5 of Cliterati.co.uk’s 100 Modern Erotic Classics That You’ve Never Heard Of), Eyes Wide Open (winner of the Love Romances Café’s Best Ménage Book 2015 award), The Persecution of the Wolves, Hiding in Plain Sight, and The Heiress’s Harem and The Dreadnoughts series. Including novels, short stories and novellas, she has over 170 publications to her name. Find out more about her writing at http://lucyfelthouse.co.uk, or on Twitter or Facebook. Join her Facebook group for exclusive cover reveals, sneak peeks and more! Sign up for automatic updates on BookBub. Subscribe to her newsletter here: http://www.subscribepage.com/lfnewsletter
If You Enjoyed The Persecution of the Wolves
I hope you enjoyed reading The Persecution of the Wolves as much as I enjoyed writing it. If so, you may also like these other books. My full backlist is on my website.
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Search and Rescue (The Dreadnoughts Book One)
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Enter Jason Chastain—owner and operator of a private security firm—and his friends Aidan Smith and twins Taylor and Joshua Greig. The foursome are also ex-military, so rescuing Kim should be a walk in the park for them. However, her discovery is so top secret she has
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Should she have left things well alone, or can this colossal mess be turned into something positive? This is about so much more than just five human beings, after all.
PLEASE NOTE: Search and Rescue has a cliffhanger ending.
Search and Rescue is the first book in The Dreadnoughts reverse harem romance series.
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