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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Black Death
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(1348–51) The name later given to the most disastrous of the many outbreaks of bubonic plague, transmitted to humans by fleas that have fed on infected rats. This outbreak spread west from China, reaching Europe in 1347. It arrived in Britain when a ship from Calais brought it to Melcombe Regis in Dorset in August 1348. It was at its most violent in London in the spring of 1349, reaching Scotland in 1350. About a third of the population of Europe is believed to have died.
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