morning about eleven o'clock
I think it was in June , towards the latter end of the month . It must have been before the dead carts came about , and while they used the ceremony of ringing the bell for the dead , which was over for certain , in that parish at least , before the month of July ; for by the 25th of July there died five hundred and fifty and upwards in a week , and then they could no more bury in form -LSB- 144 -RSB- rich or poor . I have mentioned above , that , notwithstanding this dreadful calamity , yet that -LSB- 145 -RSB- numbers of thieves were abroad upon all occasions where they had found any prey , and that these were generally women . It was one morning about eleven o'clock , I had walked out to my brother 's house in Coleman Street Parish , as I often did , to see that all was safe . My brother 's house had a little court before it , and a brick wall and a gate in it , and within that several warehouses , where his goods of several sorts lay . It happened that in one of these warehouses were several packs of women 's high-crowned hats , which came out of the country , and were , as I suppose , for exportation , whither I know not . I was surprised that when I came near my brother 's door , which was in a place they called Swan Alley , I met three or four women with high-crowned hats on their heads ; and , as I remembered afterwards , one , if not more , had some hats likewise in their hands .