Narrative of the Great Fire -- Great Fire Monument, City of London, UK
N 51° 30.612 W 000° 05.155
30U E 702209 N 5710590
A narrative of the Great Fire is inscribed in Latin on the north side of the elegant Great Fire Monument. Fortunately, a bronze plaque with an English translation was added later.
Waymark Code: WMT305
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 09/16/2016
Views: 3
In 1666, many more folks spoke Latin than do today. Helpfully, the contemporaneous narrative of the Great Fire of London of 1666 is not lost to us, a translation being helpfully affixed to the memorial under the original Latin description sometime later.
Blasterz are not going to try to transcribe the Latin -- the interchangeable Us and Vs confuse us. We WILL transcribe the English translation, which reads as follows:
"TRANSLATION OF THE LATIN INSCRIPTION ABOVE
In the year of Christ 1666, on the second September, at a distance eastward from this place of 202 feet, which is the height of this column, a fire broke out in the dead of night, which, the wind blowing, devoured even distant buildings and rushed devastating through every quarter the astonishing swiftness and noise. It consumed 89 churches, gates, the Guildhall, public edifices, hospitals, schools, libraries, a great number of blocks of buildings, 13,200 houses, 400 streets. Of the 26 wards, it utterly destroyed 15, and left three mutilated and half-burnt. The ashes of the city, covering as many as 436 acres, extended on one side from the tower along the bank of the Thames to the church of the Templars, on the other side from the Northeast gate along the walls to the head of Fleet-Ditch. Merciless to the wealth and the states of the citizens, it was harmless to their lives, so as throughout to remind us of the final destruction of the world by fire. The havoc was swift. A little space of time saw the same city most prosperous and no longer in being. On the third day, when it had now altogether vanquished all human counsel and resource, at the bidding, as we may well believe of heaven, the fatal fire stayed its course and everywhere died out [removed text].
*(But Popish frenzy, which wrought such horrors is not yet quenched.)
*These last words were added in 1681, and finally deleted in 1830."
Type of Historic Marker: plaque
Historical Marker Issuing Authority: City of London
Age/Event Date: 09/02/1666
Related Website: [Web Link]
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