Pages: 235-239:
The remarkable perversities of feeling and fluctuations in opinion which actuated the general public before, and on the occurrence of the Cholera in this country, have been in a previous page briefly alluded to. The same weakness and instability of the human mind was evinced in a striking degree in the narrow limits of this city.

The disease had raged in various parts of England; it hand approached nearer and nearer; daily accounts of its progress in a neighbouring town had been anxiously received, yet, on its bursting forth within the City, its existence was denied; the medical attendants ministering to its necessities were accused of inducing the unknown symptoms, and even of being the murderers of the people; drunkenness prevailed; derisive, blasphemous, and wanton songs were sung; rioting and opposition to the enactments of the law took place, calling for the interference of its officers, and the warnings of the judge from the bench; then, as the disease progressed, progressed, the people became appalled, and repenting, appealed, by public humiliation and prayer, to the Great Disposer of all events to stay the pestilence.

Some of the occurrences of this period are strikingly characteristic of the season of Plague, and may not be uninteresting to recall to mind.

Amongst the earlier deaths were those of a man and his wife (L. and A. T., 26 July) in James-Street. The undertaker in compliance with the law and the local orders given, proceeded more promptly than was usual in the discharge or his duty placing the body of the man who died in the coffin, its exterior was tarred and covered with brown paper and that in the same room where his wife was ill; whilst this was doing she died, and another coffin being immediately procured, her body was placed therein. The circumstances attending the death of these two persons produced much excitement, and on the removal of their bodies a vast crowd of turbulent people assembled. The unusual course of carrying underhand was now first adopted; and strongly roused their indignation. "They were buried alive" - "they were murdered" - "it was burying like a dog", etc. On arriving at the Southernhay burial-ground, fresh commotion was excited, the crowd had increased, and the officers of justice, whose assistance had been sought, were assaulted. I will remember the scene; the burial-ground was crowded with an excited, buzzing people; the police were protecting those engaged with the funeral; the clergyman, rendered conspicuous by his surplice, standing at a distance from the grave, proceeded with the service, his voice unheard, and the body lowered at the proper part of the service by a signal given. The ringleaders of this tumult were summoned before the magistrates, and cautioned against any recurrence of such acts.

Some little time after this, in another quarter of the city, Rackclose-Lane, a somewhat similar scene of tumult took place. A man (J. P., 18 Aug.) having died, the friends declared the body was being taken away too soon, and so violently resisted its being done, that for that night the attempt was abandoned, and it was only effected the next day through the interposition of the police. Nor were similar scenes of commotion and magisterial interference wanting from other causes. The removal and destruction of the clothes of those who had died, by the inspectors, was a fruitful source of altercation and petty riot, and on one occasion, in the lower part of the city, much uproar and tumult arose.

Connected with these manifestations of the disorderly state of public feeling, perhaps the most remarkable was the insult and abuse heaped upon the medical men, and originating in the most extraordinary misconceptions and unnatural suspicions. I was myself on one occasion placed amidst a scene of this kind, and though nothing absolutely insulting occurred, I could perceive lowering and suspicious looks and gestures, and overheard observations expressive of doubts of my purpose and intentions. To show the extent to which this prevailed, the following statements are quoted from the local newspapers of the day. " We regret to state that the most unfounded and shameful reports have been circulated respecting the conduct of some of the medical gentlemen of this City, who have attended the few cases of Cholera that have taken place. We can state from our own personal knowledge, that their anxiety and exertion to stay the progress of the disease has been beyond all praise and no means that could be devised have been left untried in those cases that have unfortunately proved fatal. With respect to the rumours of improper interference and treatment, they are but the idle tales of mischievous individuals or the absurd stories of weak-minded persons, who suffer their fears to get the better of their reason; and when we consider the effect of a similar outcry against the medical practitioners in Paris and other places, we would remind those who indulge in spreading false and wicked reports, that they are not only endangering the gentlemen of the medical profession but perhaps their own lives, and those of their friends and neighbours, by foolishly insulting and opposing the only men who, in case of need, can render them assistance. We hope, for the credit of the City, we shall not have occasion to advert to this circumstance again". Another journal reports, "there is one subject connected with this malady, that grieves us more than anything, namely, the treatment of the medical gentlemen by the ignorant and besotted portion of the poorer classes of the community. In many instances they have been assailed with opprobrious epithets and even menaces - those for whose benefit they act having got hold of the notion that they wish to encompass their death. One gentleman the other night was called "one of the gang of bloody murderers" who did all the mischief; and such was the diabolical feeling manifested towards him, that he was justly alarmed for his personal safety. The following is taken from a small tract published shortly after the subsidence of the disease; the writer says "It was reported that the medical gentlemen were destroying their patients by the application poisonous medicines, for the purpose of taking the bodies for dissection; also that laudanum was administered in such quantities as caused a protracted sleep so that many were buried alive by immediate interment, and various other expressions unfit for this print; they were even insulted in the streets, and when they, the poorer classes were attacked with the disease, they persisted in refusing the aid of medical assistance. till life was nearly extinct.

Pages 240-242:
The mistaken and unfortunate feeling regarding the conduct of the medical men prevailed between two and three weeks, when the destructive nature of the complaint became so obvious, that the people in their dismay and helplessness willingly sought the assistance they had previously rejected and abused. Disgraceful as were the scenes that occurred, they fully exemplified that the disease, in its nature and symptoms, was widely different from anything with which the public mind had previously been familiar.

Some few of the more remarkable circumstances which accompanied, the infliction of this disease may now be detailed, and they will be found to illustrate the vary curious state of mind that prevailed amongst the mass of the people during this period.

The general silence of the city, save when broken by the tolling of the funeral bell, and which, as mentioned in a former page, was eventually silenced, was most remarkable; the streets were deserted, the hurried steps of the medical men and their assistants, or of those running to seek their aid, alone were heard, while the one-horse hearse, occasionally passing on its duty, was almost the only carriage to be seen in the usually busy streets. The desolation which reigned has always been most strongly marked on my mind, by the astonishment and singular feeling which engrossed me on witnessing, as the disease was subsiding, two gaily-dressed females emerge from one of the principal shops in the High-street; so foreign and unusual were they to the scene, and distracting to the train of thought that l found myself unconsciously pondering over and speculating upon what they could be doing, or why they should be there.

Amid this desolation, the profligacy and drunkenness of the lower orders increased to such an alarming extent, as to become a matter of public remark and censure. Much of this vice was induced, not only by the general excitement prevailing, but by an idea that brandy was a preventive and panacea for the Cholera; and amongst the lower orders nothing was undertaken without previously resorting to it. Many remarkable instances occurred of people being attacked with the disease during a delirium thus produced, and from which the head never cleared. One man, (H. W., 4 Aug,) in a state of drunkenness swearing and proclaiming his carelessness of the disease, was, while thus engaged, suddenly attacked, and died within eleven hours. A very similar series of events happened in the case of another, (J.R., 19 Aug.,) who, the night before he died, boasting in his strength, was swearing and speaking derisively of the pestilence. The fate of one of those who had prominently assisted in the riot which took place in the Southernhay burial-ground was remarkable, and illustrative of the accompaniments of this vice. This man (W. P, 8 Aug.,) by trade a fish porter, and of drunken and dissipated habits, had been on that occasion particularly violent, and the leader of those who assaulted the police; from this time he continued in a constant state of intoxication, the disease attacked him when drunk, and so he died; he was buried not far from the spot where were interred those about whom he had so excited himself.

Of the general ill effects of drunken habits, and illustrative of the unfortunate tone of mind thus produced, many were the examples. A man (J. R, 31 Aug.) in the station of life of a master tradesman, emerging from a spirit-shop in loose company, jeered and made game at the hearse as it passed upon its way, went home, sickened and died. Again, the undertaker whilst superintending the removal of the coffin of a young person to the hearse was abused by a man (W. R, 7 Aug.) who accused him of making a good thing of the disease, then fell to jeering, and singing the wanton song of the time: at eleven o'clock the same evening this man was taken ill in a public-house, was dead by four the following morning, and, within twenty-four hours from the time he had jeered the undertaker, was placed by him in his coffin and buried.

Cricklepit Mills : A cholera victim is removed by the undertakers while washing takes place in the mill stream (Shapter p.246)	Rose & Crown Inn, High Street : Prejudices against certain foods meant shops were shunned  Shapter p251)

Wm Kennaway Mayor. Dated Aug. 17th, 1832.

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