Oxon]

There is no reverence paid in these modern gatherings to old-fashioned
ways and ancient picturesque customs, but in some places these are
still observed with punctilious exactness. The quaint custom of
"proclaiming the fair" at Honiton, in Devonshire, is observed every
year, the town having obtained the grant of a fair from the lord of
the manor so long ago as 1257. The fair still retains some of the
picturesque characteristics of bygone days. The town crier, dressed in
old-world uniform, and carrying a pole decorated with gay flowers and
surmounted by a large gilt model of a gloved hand, publicly
announces the opening of the fair as follows: "Oyez! Oyez! Oyez! The
fair's begun, the glove is up. No man can be arrested till the glove
is taken down." Hot coins are then thrown amongst the children. The
pole and glove remain displayed until the end of the fair.

Nor have all the practical uses of fairs vanished. On the Berkshire
downs is the little village of West Ilsley; there from time immemorial
great sheep fairs are held, and flocks are brought thither from
districts far and wide. Every year herds of Welsh ponies congregate at
Blackwater, in Hampshire, driven thither by inveterate custom. Every
year in an open field near Cambridge the once great Stourbridge fair
is held, first granted by King John to the Hospital for Lepers, and
formerly proclaimed with great state by the Vice-Chancellor of the
University and the Mayor of Cambridge. This was one of the largest
fairs in Europe. Merchants of all nations attended it. The booths were
planted in a cornfield, and the circuit of the fair, which was like a
well-governed city, was about three miles. All offences committed
therein were tried, as at other fairs, before a special court of
_pie-poudre_, the derivation of which word has been much disputed, and
I shall not attempt to conjecture or to decide. The shops were built
in rows, having each a name, such as Garlick Row, Booksellers' Row, or
Cooks' Row; there were the cheese fair, hop fair, wood fair; every
trade was represented, and there were taverns, eating-houses, and in
later years playhouses of various descriptions. As late as the
eighteenth century it is said that one hundred thousand pounds' worth
of woollen goods were sold in a week in one row alone. But the glories
of Stourbridge fair have all departed, and it is only a ghost now of
its former greatness.

The Stow Green pleasure fair, in Lincolnshire, which