Page 195 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL FALL 2020 South Africa

around the neck or foot of the corpse--so not to And it was because of this self-enforced iso-
touch it--and drag it to a nearby garden or field, lation that the plague did not spread to sur-
where he had dug a grave. For nearly three rounding areas. The Rev. Mompesson visited
months he performed this awful task--never 76 parish families during the ordeal, comforting
dreaming that he would end up fatally infecting and praying with them. He and his beautiful
and burying both his wife Joan and only son wife Catherine had sadly and reluctantly sent
William within days of each other in August 1666. their two young children, George and Elizabeth,
Deeply grieving, he blamed himself for bringing ages 3 and 4, to live with relatives in Yorkshire,
the disease home to them. Miraculously, he sur- and they survived. However, Catherine, who
vived this evil epidemic and lived another 32 had stayed behind to be at her husband’s side,
years. died of the plague at age 27 on August 25,
(For a couple of generations, Eyam parents 1666, further devastating the townsfolk. She is
would admonish their children to obey--or else buried in the churchyard.
they would send for Marshall Howe! And some to- Just outside town are the “Riley Stones”--a
day believe that the popular children's nursery small graveyard where the farming Hancock
rhyme, “Ring around the rosy, pocket full of posy. family is buried. Mrs. Hancock, who survived
Ashes, ashes! We all fall down!” symbolizes the the plague, had the incomprehensible, tortuous
plague.) task of burying her husband and six children in
Once summer arrived, the church’s wise rector, eight days. She had one surviving son, who had
the Rev. William Mompesson, closed the Eyam left the area prior to the plague breakout.
Parish Church to worshippers, fearing that the hot By early November that year, the deaths
weather would make things worse (in fact, August ceased. As a precaution, clothing and furniture
was the worst month with many deaths). Instead were burned—and the bare necessities that re-
they met in an outdoor enclave, Cucklet Delf, mained were fumigated.
where they prayed twice weekly and held a Sunday As the Rev. Mompesson (who moved from the
service. (Today, with the town's population now village three years later) wrote a friend on No-
around 900, it’s the site of the annual Plague Com- vember 20, 1666: “Our town has become a Gol-
memoration Service, held the last Sunday in Au- gotha, the place of a skull; and had there not
gust. And the Eyam Museum--highly ranked on been a small remnant left, we had been as
TripAdvisor, but which was closed the day of my Sodom, and like to Gomorrah. My ears never
visit--pays tribute to the plague victims with many heard such doleful lamentations--my nose
displayed items.) never smelled such horrid smells, and my eyes
The pastor and his assistant, the Rev. Thomas never beheld such ghastly spectacles.”
Stanley, had earlier admonished the townsfolk not For sure, this charming, peaceful village—
to cross a certain boundary surrounding the vil- then regarded as the valley of death--was hell
lage, designated by large stone and mound land- on earth.
marks. It was at the “Boundary Stone” and
“Mompesson’s Well” where outsiders (earlier noti- IF YOU GO
fied by the pastor) would quickly leave food and
medical supplies, many donated by the Earl of De- www.eyamvillage.org.uk/
vonshire from his nearby massive Chatsworth www.derbyshireuk.net/eyam.html
House. Then they would flee, lest they themselves http://www.eyam-museum.org.uk/
fall ill. Village volunteers would retrieve the valu- http://www.visitpeakdistrict.com/
able items, leaving coins for payment that were www.visitbritain.com
disinfected with vinegar. www.visitengland.com

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