<P> Although there had been only three official cases in April, which level of plague in earlier years had not induced any official response, the Privy Council now acted to introduce household quarantine . Justices of the Peace in Middlesex were instructed to investigate any suspected cases and to shut up the house if it was confirmed . Shortly after, a similar order was issued by the King's Bench to the City and Liberties . A riot broke out in St. Giles when the first house was sealed up; the crowd broke down the door and released the inhabitants . Rioters caught were punished severely . Instructions were given to build pest - houses, which were essentially isolation hospitals built away from other people where the sick could be cared for (or stay until they died). This official activity suggests that despite the few recorded cases, the government was already aware that this was a serious outbreak of plague . </P> <P> With the arrival of warmer weather, the disease began to take a firmer hold . In the week 2--9 May, there were three recorded deaths in the parish of St Giles, four in neighbouring St Clement Danes and one each in St Andrew, Holborn and St Mary Woolchurch Haw . Only the last was actually inside the city walls . A Privy Council committee was formed to investigate methods to best prevent the spread of plague, and measures were introduced to close some of the ale houses in affected areas and limit the number of lodgers allowed in a household . In the city, the Lord Mayor issued a proclamation that all householders must diligently clean the streets outside their property, which was a householder's responsibility, not a state one (the city employed scavengers and rakers to remove the worst of the mess). Matters just became worse, and Aldermen were instructed to find and punish those failing their duty . As cases in St. Giles began to rise, an attempt was made to quarantine the area and constables were instructed to inspect everyone wishing to travel and contain inside vagrants or suspect persons . </P> <P> People began to be alarmed . Samuel Pepys, who had an important position at the Admiralty, stayed in London and provided a contemporary account of the plague through his diary . On 30 April he wrote: "Great fears of the sickness here in the City it being said that two or three houses are already shut up . God preserve us all!" Another source of information on the time is a fictional account, A Journal of the Plague Year, which was written by Daniel Defoe and published in 1722 . He had been only six when the plague struck but made use of his family's recollections (his uncle was a saddler in East London and his father a butcher in Cripplegate), interviews with survivors and sight of such official records as were available . </P> <P> By July 1665, plague was rampant in the City of London . King Charles II of England, his family and his court left the city for Salisbury, moving on to Oxford in September when some cases of plague occurred in Salisbury . The aldermen and most of the other city authorities opted to stay at their posts . The Lord Mayor of London, Sir John Lawrence, also decided to stay in the city . Businesses were closed when merchants and professionals fled . Defoe wrote "Nothing was to be seen but wagons and carts, with goods, women, servants, children, coaches filled with people of the better sort, and horsemen attending them, and all hurrying away". As the plague raged throughout the summer, only a small number of clergymen, physicians and apothecaries remained to cope with an increasingly large number of victims . Edward Cotes, author of London's Dreadful Visitation, expressed the hope that "Neither the Physicians of our Souls or Bodies may hereafter in such great numbers forsake us". </P>

Whose diary describes the great plague of london