Helen Douglas-Irvine

“ The grandest and most numerously frequented booth in the whole fair however is "The Crown and Anchor," a temporary ballroom—we forget how many feet long—the price of admission to which is one shilling.... The dancing itself beggars description—every figure lasts about an hour, and the ladies bounce up and down the middle with a degree of spirit which is quite indescribable. ”

“ It is noteworthy that the king was regarded as the original holder of all market right in England. The lord who had a market on his manor, whether in virtue of a royal charter or by force of a custom of which the beginning had been forgotten, was considered to exercise a right which initially had been derived from the king. In historic times the establishment of new markets has been, until recently, only possible by means of a royal grant. ”

“ We forbid that any market or fair be held or suffered except in the cities of our realm and in the walled boroughs and in castles and in the safest places, where the customs of our realm, and our common right, and the dues of our crown, which were constituted by our good predecessors, cannot suffer loss nor fraud nor violation ”

“ Charter of Canute.
We admonish that men keep Sunday's festival with all their might, and observe it from Saturday's noon to Monday's dawning; and no man be so bold that he either go to market or seek any court on that holy day. ”

“ William Staundone, the mayor, and the aldermen of the said city, have been given to understand that divers persons at night and by candlelight do sell in the common hostels there and in other places, in secret, divers wares that have been larcenously pilfered and some falsely wrought and some that are old as being new; and that other persons do there practise the sin of harlotry, under colour of the sale of their said wares, to the very great damage and scandal of good and honest folks of the said city. ”

“ And that every lord at the beginning of his fair shall there do, cry and publish how long the fair shall endure, to the intent that merchants shall not be at the same fairs over the time so published, upon pain to be grievously punished before the king. Nor the said lords shall not hold them over the due time upon pain to seize the fairs into the king's hands, there to remain until they have made a fine to the king for the offence, after it be duly found that the lords held the same fairs longer than they ought, or that the merchants have sitten above the time so published. ”

“ And when they come to fairs they shall take the wares and merchandise for which they have been sent at once and without long delay, lest any merchants be unjustly burdened by them, as formerly they have been burdened. And such bailiffs shall have letters so that four legal merchants of each fair, in the faith which binds them to God and the king, reasonably impose prices on the merchandise, in accordance with the diverse kinds of merchandise which the bailiffs have to buy. ”

“ To the Sheriff of Lincoln.
Order to cause proclamation to be made that all persons having fairs by charters of the king or of his progenitors or otherwise, shall cause the fairs to be held in the manner and form and on the days and times according to the tenor of the charters, or as they ought to do according to the title, to wit from time out of mind, and upon no other days and times, and to summon all persons claiming to have fairs to be before the king's council at Westminster. ”

“ All teachers of history are agreed as to the value of using the "original documents" in their work as a means of making their pupils realise that they are studying human life in past ages, but hitherto the consideration of price has confined the use of them almost entirely to the teachers themselves. ”

“ Know that we have granted by our charter for us and our heirs to our beloved citizens of Cologne that they may go freely to the fairs throughout our land, and buy and sell in the town of London and elsewhere, save for the liberty of our city of London. ”

“ The exhibitions next in popularity to these itinerant theatres are the travelling menageries, or, to speak more intelligibly, the "Wild beast shows," where a military band in beef-eater's costume, with leopardskin caps, play incessantly, and where large highly coloured representations of tigers tearing men's heads open, and a lion being burnt with red hot irons to induce him to drop his victim, are hung up outside, by way of attracting visitors. ”

“ Charter of Edward III. to the city of London.
And forasmuch as the citizens, in all good fairs of England, were wont to have among themselves keepers to hold the pleas touching the citizens of the said city assembling at the said fairs: we will and grant, as much as in us is, that the same citizens may have suchlike keepers, to hold such pleas of their covenants, as of ancient time they had, except the pleas of land and crown. ”

“ In which court it hath been all times accustomed, that every person coming to the same fairs, should have lawful remedy of all manner of contracts, trespasses, covenants, debts, and other deeds made or done within any of the same fair, and within the jurisdiction of the same, and to be tried by merchants being of the same fair. ”

“ William Cokke of Hees (Hayes) was taken because that on the same day he, the same William, carrying a sample of wheat in his hand, in the market within Newgate in London followed one William, servant of Robert de la Launde, goldsmith, who wanted to buy wheat, from sack to sack, and said that such wheat as that he would not be able to buy at a lower price than 21 pence; whereas on the same day and at that hour the same servant could have bought such wheat for 21 pence. ”

“ Touching them that take outrageous toll, contrary to the common custom of the realm, in market towns, it is provided that if any do so in the king's town, which is let in fee-farm, the king shall seize into his own hand the franchise of the market ”

“ The sellers of furs (? monianiorum) and linendrapers and langdrapers shall stand from the tenement which was John the Goldsmith's to the tenement of the abbot of Osney, in the corner, which John Smith sometime inhabited.
The bakers selling bread called Tutesyn shall stand between the shop which Nicholas the Spicer now holdeth and the tenement which John Coyntroyer holdeth.
The foreign [3] sellers of fish and those that are not free or of the Gild shall stand on market days behind the said sellers of bread, towards the middle of the street. ”

“ There is no direct evidence as to the origin of markets and fairs in England. Early Oriental and classical literature indicate that they have served all peoples whose development has reached a certain stage. As communities cease to be entirely self-supporting trade arises naturally; and trade is obviously facilitated by a concentration in particular places at particular times of sellers and buyers. ”

“ Order to restore upon this present occasion to the merchants of Douay in Flanders their goods arrested by John and Philip; for the king lately ordered John and Philip to arrest the wool and goods of merchants of Flanders in Boston Fair and at Lynn and Lincoln, yet it was not his intention that the goods of certain persons should be arrested, but that all goods and wares of Flemings should be arrested at one and the same time everywhere in the realm, by reason of the debt which the countess of Flanders owes to him and the merchants of the realm ”

“ Some of your cutpurses are in fee with cheating costermongers, who have a trick now and then to throw down a basket of refuse pears, which prove cloak-pears to those that shall lose their hats and cloaks in striving who shall gather fastest. They have many dainty baits to draw a bit, and if you be not vigilant you shall hardly escape their nets. Fine fowlers they are, for every finger of theirs is a lime twig with which they catch dotterels. ”

“ They are excellently well read in Physiognomy; for they will know how strong you are in the purse by looking in your face, and for more certainty thereof they will follow you close, and never leave you till you draw your purse, or they for you, which they'll be sure to have if you look not to it though they kiss Newgate for it. ”

“ Oxford Hist. Soc., Collectanea, II. 13 (reprint of MS. of Anthony Wood) .
SMITHFIELD HORSE AND CATTLE MARKET UNDER HENRY II.
Outside one of the gates there (in London) , immediately in the suburb, is a certain field, smooth (Smith) field in fact and name. Every Friday, unless it be a higher day of appointed solemnity, there is in it a famous show of noble horses for sale. Earls, barons, and many citizens who are in town, come to see or buy. It is pleasant to see the steppers in quick trot going gently up and down, their feet on each side alternately rising and falling. ”

“ And that no one shall sell in common hostels any wares that in the said market are wont to be sold, or anywhere else within the said city or in the suburbs thereof, but only in their own shops and in the places and at the days and hours aforesaid, on pain of forfeiture to the use of the said chamber of all the wares that shall otherwise be sold. ”

“ Confirmation of Edward's grant by Edgar.
Here is made known in this writing how King Edgar renewed the liberty of Taunton, for the Holy Trinity and St. Peter and St. Paul, to the episcopal see of Winchester, as King Edward had before freed it, ...; and let the town's market and the produce of the town-dues go to the holy place, as they did before, in the days of my forefathers, and were levied for Bishop Aelfeah and every one of those who enjoyed the land. Whoever will increase this liberty, may God increase his prosperity in a long life here and in eternity. ”

“ As to the gentlemen they stamp their feet upon the ground every time "hands four round" begins, go down the middle and up again with cigars in their mouths and silk handkerchiefs in their hands, and whirl their partners round, nothing loth, scrambling and falling and knocking up against the other couples, until they are fairly tired out and can move no longer. ”

“ In their stepping the buyers first try for the gentler, then for the quicker pace, which is by the fore and the hind feet moving in pairs together. When a race is ready for such thunderers, and perhaps for others of like kind, powerful to carry, quick to run, a shout is raised, orders are given that the common horses stand apart. ”

“ Some precautions were taken that new markets and fairs should not be established where they would damage those which already existed. A saving clause to this end was usually inserted in the grants.
1205. Grant of a market at Wilton.
The King to the Sheriff of Hereford greeting.
Know that we have granted to Henry de Longchamp that he have a market at Wilton every Tuesday, so that it be not to the injury of neighbouring markets. And therefore we command you to cause that he hold it, and to cause this to be proclaimed throughout your bailiwick.
Cal. Rot. Lit. Claus. (Rec. Com.) , I. 50. ”

“ To all stewards, bailiffs, and officers of the fair of St. Botolph and other faithful of Christ to whom the present letters shall come, Henry le Galeys, mayor of the city of London, as well as the whole commune send greeting. Know ye that we have made and constituted our beloved in Christ Elyas Russel, John de Armenters, William de Paris and William de Mareys, our wardens and attorneys at the present fair of St. ”

“ For this chiefly they care, that no one should get before another in the course. The horses rise too in their own way to the struggle of the race; their limbs tremble, impatient of delay they cannot keep still in their place ”

“ Now therefore it is held on Friday, but the market of Eye still takes place on Sunday.
Domesday (Rec. Com.) , II. 379.
1087. Abolition of Launceston Market.
The canons of St. Stephen hold Launceston. Thence the count of Mortain has now taken a market, which was situated there in the days of King Edward, and which was worth 20s.
Domesday (Rec. Com.) , I. 120b.
It appears always to have been the intention of the Government that markets and fairs should be held only in the stronger places of the country, where the just and peaceful transaction of business could be secured. ”

“ And although the burgesses have repeatedly requested the earl to deliver the aforesaid men and to restore their said goods and chattels, the earl has neglected to do anything in the matter; wherefore the burgesses have besought the king to provide a remedy. ”

“ Thus, one will be on "Markets and Fairs," for use when the teaching has an economic basis, another will deal with political events, and another with the social side of history. Great care has been taken to secure extracts from contemporary and reliable authorities. ”

“ So always that the said lane be not obstructed by the people of the said market, who are not to stand near to the shops there for the sale of divers wares that in such shops are wont to be sold. And that too by daylight only, between the first bell rung and the second, for the said markets ordained. ”

“ Fine for buying or selling contrary to the rules of the market. [2] Services or conveniences, yielding no direct profit, which a holder of property rights had in respect of his neighbours, e.g., right of way, lights. [3] Foreign here denotes all persons not inhabitants of Oxford. ”