Famed First Friday Fairgoer

“ The great annual resort to Fairlop Fair is so well known for twenty miles around, that it is needless to say more on the subject than that in point of the number of persons who go to it, and in accomodations and articles for sale, it is not inferior to any fair near the metropolis, excepting that it is only of one day’s duration. Seven and twenty years have now elapsed since the famous Fairlop Oak ceased to attract the attention of the holiday-makers, but the mirth and festivity, gypsying, archery, donkey-riding, swinging, &c. are still to be witnessed to a great extent. ”

“ Day expanded with inexpressible delight at being the cause of happiness to others, he thought some little return due to the lads and lasses, who so graciously favoured him with their company; he provided several sacks of beans, and a sufficient quantity of bacon, dressed; the bacon was mixed in slices with the beans, and distributed from the trunk of the Tree to the multitude in pansful. The happy, frolicksome contest for the envied portion, is more easily conceived than described. Unfortunate was he who did not procure a share for his fair-one. ”

“ Day—for the friend of mankind never dies—had a small estate, whether hereditary, or a purchase, we do not know, near the Fairlop Oak, and thither he annually resorted, about a fortnight after Midsummer, to receive his rents; the congeniality of his temper would not suffer him to receive the good things of this world alone, and it was his custom to invite a few of his neighbours to accompany him, and there he would treat them with a repast of beans and bacon, &c. under the canopy of the Oak, the accomodations being provided from an adjacent small public-house, the Maypole. ”

“ Day viewed his future habitation with the utmost serenity and philosophy, and addressing himself to the carpenter, said, “Mr. Clear, I have heard that when a person dies he is much stretched, and consequently much longer than when living,” and, punning upon the man’s name, went on, “now, Mr. Clear, it is not very CLEAR to me that you have made this coffin long enough, but, however, we’ll try;” and laying himself down in the coffin, he found it too short. “Never mind it,” says the Stoic, “you must desire my executors to cut off my head and put it between my legs.” ”

“ A woman remarkable for the beauty of her person, sweetness of disposition, and the share of health she also enjoyed through life. Till her death she could play at cards, and read and work, without spectacles.
Having thus briefly introduced to the reader, an outline of the character of Mr. Daniel Day, who in the latter part of his life was called “Old Daniel Day,” we will proceed to say a few words of his favourite Oak.—This venerable and stupendous tree stood in Hainault Forest, about 10 miles from London, 3 from Ilford, and 2 from the village of Chigwell, in Essex. ”

“ He next invented a machine to go by the aid of mechanical power without horses, which, after two years successful trial, broke down in attempting the third expedition. His dernier resort was a jockey-cart, in which, attended by music, he took his annual trip up to the July preceding his death.
Long previous to Mr. Day’s exit, Fairlop Fair was known all over Essex, and the adjoining counties; and naturally the inhabitants of Wapping, and the eastern parts of London, could not be ignorant of it, consequently it was attended by a vast concourse of people. ”

“ The engine-makers, pump-makers, and block-makers of Wapping, and other places contiguous to the river, a few years before Mr. Day’s death, to the amount of about thirty or forty, every year went to the Fair in a boat made of one piece of entire fir, covered with an awning, mounted on a coach-carriage, drawn by six horses, with flags, streamers, and pendants flying, and a band of music, attended by a great many persons on horseback, in carriages, and on foot. ”

“ I give and bequeath to the Children of Blagrave Gregory the sum of one hundred pounds, to be equally divided to and amongst them, share and share alike, and to be paid to them by my Executors hereinafter named, when and so soon as they shall respectively attain their ages of twenty-one years, or days of marriage, which shall first happen; and in case any or either of them shall happen to die before they shall attain their ages of twenty-one years, or be married, then the share of him, her, or them, so dying, shall be equally divided to and amongst the survivor or survivors of them ”

“ He was not the enemy of any man, or particular description of men, but the muscles of his face were violently agitated whenever he heard of litigation in law, and he always professed to be uneasy in the company of the practitioners of it. ”

“ FAIRLOP’S FRIDAY,
1847.
p. 1The History and Origin of Fairlop Fair, with Memoirs of Mr. Daniel Day, the Founder, &c.
THIS curious and interesting account, written by a gentleman of Essex, intimate with one of the descendants of Mr. Daniel Day, will afford us an instance of its being in the power of almost every man, to add to the felicity of his neighbours and fellow creatures. ”

“ As he had lived, so he died—a devout christian, a sincere friend, a good master, and an honest man; he was just without austerity, liberal without profuseness, free without intemperance, and lively without excess; in fine, he lived merry and wise, and died universally revered and lamented on the 19th of October, 1767, in the 84th year of his age, and was buried agreeable to his Will, in his oak coffin, in the churchyard at Barking, in Essex, where the following epitaph may be seen ”

“ He would not only lend a distressed friend considerable sums, but he invariably refused the smallest interest, and very frequently forgave the principal; in short, his character for probity was such, that his neighbours were ever satisfied with his arbitrations in their disputes, to which his abilities were amply adequate ”

“ An’, our Simon, some chaps there to bouy ded beset him so,
He at last ded agree, when he foun’—they had chet him so!
To be oaf frum their “Tavin” quoite toime it now gittin’ was,—
’Sides, there was such a tarnation smudge where etch sittin’ was:
So when ’mong the stawls they had had a shote roam agin,
Frum the Forest they trapsed on to Dorcas’s home agin.
When snoug frum the boustle, fond Simon, full oft ded he,
“To her head,” tell his love such a kit ov things “soft” ded he;
An’ his Dorcas, she trusted— (but wot lover do less ded he?) ”