"September 7th.--I went this morning on foote from White-hall as far
as London Bridge, thro' the late Fleete-streete, Ludgate Hill, by
St. Paules, Cheapeside, Exchange, Bishopsgate, Aldersgate, and on
to Moorefields, thence thro' Cornehill, &c., with extraordinary
difficulty, clambering over heaps of yet smoking rubbish, and
frequently mistaking where I was....
"At my returne I was infinitely concern'd to find that goodly Church
St. Paules now a sad ruine, and that beautifull portico (for structure
comparable to any in Europe, as not long before repair'd by the late
King) now rent in pieces, flakes of vast stone split asunder, and
nothing now remaining intire but the inscription in the architrave,
shewing by whom it was built, which had not one letter of it defac'd.
It was astonishing to see what immense stones the heate had in
a manner calcin'd, so that all the ornaments, columns, freezes,
capitals, and projectures of massie Portland-stone flew off, even to
the very roofe, where a sheet of lead covering a great space (no less
than six akers by measure) was totally mealted; the ruines of the
vaulted roofe falling broke into St.
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