A Full and more Particular Account OF THE Late FIRE. With the several losses at NEWMARKET: In a Letter from thence of the 24th Instant. 1683.  
HAving seen a forged Paper (pretended to be Written in a Letter from hence) giving a short and imperfect Account of the late dreadful Fire at Newmarket, I thought myself obliged as well to Answer your Request as to satisfy others, to give you a particular and more exact Account of that unfortunate Accident.  
On the 22d Instant being Thursday, betwixt Eight and Nine a Clock at Night, by the carelessness of a Groom smoking Tobacco; it first broke out in a Stable, having seized upon the Litter, Straw, Hay, and Roof of the Stable before it was discerned, and then too violent to be overcome, till it had seized upon the next House, and so from one to another till it had run through all the Houses on that side of the Town.  
It began at the lowermost end of the Town next the Heath, the Wind being at South-west, which carrying the Flame strongly forward, no Water being near to quench it, nor Powder to blow up the Houses in less than three hours' time, all the Houses on that side of the Town were on Fire, and continued burning till the Morning, by which time they were Reduced to Ashes.  
That which made the worse for the Town, was the many Thatched Houses, Stables and Hayricks, which took Fire from one another like a train of Gunpowder, having not left a House before Twelve a Clock that the Fire had not seized upon.  
In this dreadful and terrible condition all burning at once, and most of all the Houses yet standing, the Roofs being the first that took the Flame, the Houses seemed all the way as if they had been Arched or rather Roofed with Fire. Some of them continuing burning till the next day.  
It would be Dreadful to tell you the Consternation we were in upon this so sudden and unhappy an Accident; which from the First Kindling, Burnt on with that Violence, that those who were Twelve Houses and upwards from the place where the Fire began, had scarce time to save any thing, scarce their Horses, and those that were nearer could hardly save themselves; many People by the sudden Surprise, and others who were assisting in the Quenching of the Fire, having perished therein, several of whom we have since found Buried under the Rubbish.  
Many brave Horses, Coaches, and Chariots, with all their Rich Furniture, were lost in this general Conflagration.  
Some run about the Streets half naked, with their Saddles, Bridles, and Portmantles, others run into the Houses to save what they could, till they were many of them half Burnt, and many lost, endeavouring to save their Horses; which by no means they could get to come through the Fire till they had Hoodwincked them, or the Fire had seized upon them behind, the pain of which drove them forward to seek for their Safety.  
The distracted People were in such Consternation, that many Horses which were taken out of the Flame, and set loose in the Street, to shift for themselves upon the Heath with the People, instead of making towards the Heath, made to the Stables, where they were Burnt without all possibility of preventing it.  
Many sustained great Losses, not only of Horses, but Coaches and other things; But the greatest of this Nature fell upon the Lord Sunderland, who not only lost his chief Saddle-Horses, but his best set of Coach-Horses; the Lord Clarendon, Lord Clifford, Lord Rochester, lost several Race Horses, and best Saddle-Horses, and many others, which would be too tedious to Relate.  
All that happened well in so unhappy an Accident was, that the Fire all this time, did not touch on that side of the Street where the King's House stood; which was the only Comfort we had in the midst of all our Losses.  
It would but create a trouble to tell you the miserable Estate these poor Wretches are in, exposed to the Wind and Wether upon the Heath, having neither House nor Goods, clothes nor Sustenance. I will therefore add no more, but that I am  
Your Distressed humble Servant. John Cole.   

LONDON, Printed for John Smith. 1683.