Addendum—the History of the Plague in Eyam
In early September of 1665, the bubonic plague came to a small village called Eyam—pronounced Eem—in Derbyshire, England. The disease was rife in London at the time, and it is thought it was brought into Eyam on some cloth from the capital. The cloth had been transported in a box, and when it arrived in the village, was found to be damp and was laid out to dry off. This took place in the house of Mary Hadfield, previously Mary Cooper, where the travelling tailor, George Viccars, was living at the time.
Viccars became ill not long after opening the box. At the time, it is unlikely the villagers would have known what was happening, but we now know that fleas, or their eggs*, on the cloth, started a plague epidemic in Eyam. When the cloth was unfol
