the poor were just dumped into mass graves unrecorded. it is not clear how many people caught the disease and made a recovery because only deaths were recorded and many records were destroyed in the great fire of london the following year. in the few districts where intact records remain, plague deaths varied between 30% and over 50% of the total population. vincent wrote:it was very dismal to behold the red crosses, and read in great letters "lord, have mercy upon us" on the doors, and watchmen standing before them with halberds...people passing by them so gingerly, and with such fearful looks as if they had been lined with enemies in ambush to destroy them...a man at the corner of artillery-wall, that as i judge, through the dizziness of his head with the disease, which seized upon him there, had dasht his face against the wall; and when i came by, he lay hanging with his bloody face over the rails, and bleeding upon the ground...i went and spoke to him; he could make no answer, but rattled in the throat, and as i was informed, within half an hour died in the place. it would be endless to speak of what we have seen and heard, of some in their frenzy, rising out of their beds, and leaping about their rooms; others crying and roaring at their windows; some coming forth almost naked, and running into the streets...scarcely a day passed over my head for, i think, a month or more together, but i should hear of the death of some one or more that i knew. the first day that they were smitten, the next day some hopes of recovery, and the third day, that they were dead. the outbreak was concentrated in london, but it affected other areas as well. perhaps the best known example occurred in the village of eyam in derbyshire. the plague allegedly arrived with a merchant carrying a parcel of cloth sent from london. the villagers imposed a quarantine on themselves to stop the further spread of the disease. this prevented the disease from moving into surrounding areas, but around 33% of the village's inhabitants died over a period of fourteen months. other places hit hard included derby and norwich. in bristol strenuous efforts by the city council seems to have limited the death rate to c.0.6 percent during an outbreak lasting from april to september 1666. aftermath great fire of london by late autumn, the death toll in london and the suburbs began to slow until, in february 1666, it was considered safe enough for the king and his entourage to come back to the city. with the return of the monarch, others began to return: the gentry returned in their carriages accompanied by carts piled high with their belongings. the judges moved back from windsor to sit in westminster hall; parliament, which had been prorogued in april 1665, did not reconvene until september 1666. trade recommenced and businesses and workshops opened up. london was the goal of a new wave of people who flocked to the city in expectation of making their fortunes. writing at the end of march 1666, lord clarendon, the lord chancellor, stated "... the streets were as full, the exchange as much crowded, the people in all places as numerous as they had ever been seen ...". plague cases continued to occur sporadically at a modest rate until mid-1666. that september, the great fire of london destroyed much of the city of london, and some people believed that the fire put an end to the epidemic. it is now thought that the plague had largely subsided before the fire took place. most of the later cases of plague were found in the suburbs, and it was the city of london that was destroyed by the fire. according to the bills of mortality, there were in total 68,596 deaths in london from the plague in 1665. lord clarendon estimated that the true number of mortalities was probably twice that figure. 1666 saw further deaths in other cities but on a lesser scale. dr thomas gumble, chaplain to the duke of albemarle, both of whom had stayed in london for the whole of the epidemic, estimated that the total death count for the country from plague during 1665 and 1666 was about 200,000. the great plague of 1665/1666 was the last major outbreak of bubonic plague in great britain. the last recorded death from plague came in 1679, and it was removed as a specific category in the bills of mortality after 1703. it spread to other towns in east anglia and the southeast of england but fewer than ten percent of parishes outside london had a higher than average death rate during those years. urban areas were more affected than rural ones; norwich, ipswich, colchester, southampton and winchester were badly affected, while the west of england and areas of the english midlands escaped altogether. the population of england in 1650 was approximately 5.25 million, which declined to about 4.9 million by 1680, recovering to just over 5 million by 1700. other diseases, such as smallpox, took a high toll on the population without the contribution by plague. the higher death rate in cities, both generally and specifically from the plague, was made up by continuous immigration, from small towns to larger ones and from the countryside to the towns. there were no contemporary censuses of london's population, but available records suggest that the population returned to its previous level within a couple of years. burials in 1667 had returned to 1663 levels, hearth tax returns had recovered, and john graunt contemporarily analysed baptism records and concluded they represented a recovered population. part of this could be accounted for by the return of wealthy households, merchants and manufacturing industries, all of which needed to replace losses among their staff and took steps to bring in necessary people. colchester had suffered more severe depopulation, but manufacturing records for cloth suggested that production had recovered or even increased by 1669, and the total population had nearly returned to pre-plague levels by 1674. other towns did less well: ipswich was affected less than colchester, but in 1674, its population had dropped by 18%, more than could be accounted for by the plague deaths alone. as a proportion of the population who died, the london death toll was less severe than in some other towns. the total of deaths in london was greater than in any previous outbreak for 100 years, though as a proportion of the population, the epidemics in 1563, 1603 and 1625 were comparable or greater. perhaps around 2.5% of the english population died. impact great plague of london in 1665 the plague in london largely affected the poor, as the rich were able to leave the city by either retiring to their country estates or residing with kin in other parts of the country. the subsequent great fire of london ruined many city merchants and property owners. as a result of these events, london was largely rebuilt and parliament enacted the rebuilding of london act 1666. the street plan of the capital remained relatively unchanged, but some improvements were made: streets were widened, pavements were created, open sewers abolished, wooden buildings and overhanging gables forbidden, and the design and construction of buildings controlled. the use of brick or stone was mandatory and many gracious buildings were constructed. not only was the capital rejuvenated, but it became a healthier environment in which to live. londoners had a greater sense of community after they had overcome the great adversities of 1665 and 1666. rebuilding took over ten years and was supervised by robert hooke as surveyor of london. the architect sir christopher wren was involved in the rebuilding of st paul's cathedral and more than fifty london churches. king charles ii did much to foster the rebuilding work. he was a patron of the arts and sciences and founded the royal observatory and supported the royal society, a scientific group whose early members included robert hooke, robert boyle and sir isaac newton. in fact, out of the fire and pestilence flowed a renaissance in the arts and sciences in england. plague pits have been archaeologically excavated during underground construction work. between 2011 and 2015, 3,500 burials from the 'new churchyard' or 'bethlam burial ground' were discovered during the construction of the crossrail railway at liverpool street. yersinia pestis dna was found in the teeth of individuals found buried in pits at the site, confirming they had died of bubonic plague.