Evelyn's Diary. 1625. I was this year (being the first of the reign of King Charles (age 24)) sent by my father (age 38) to Lewes [Map], in Sussex, to be with my grandfather, Standsfield (age 58), with whom I passed my childhood. This was the year in which the pestilence was so epidemical, that there died in London 5,000 a week, and I well remember the strict watches and examinations upon the ways as we passed; and I was shortly after so dangerously sick of a fever that (as I have heard) the physicians despaired of me.

In 1625 a plague killed around 40,000 Londoners.