watched for safety of men's goods and wares; a court of piepoudres was daily during the faire holden, for debts and contracts. But," continues Stow," notwithstanding all proclamations of the prince, and also the act of parliament, in place of booths within this churchyard (only letten out in the faire time, and closed up all the yeere after), bee many large houses builded, and the north wal towards Long Lane taken downe, a number of tenements are there erected, for such as will give great rents." "The forrainers," he adds, "were licenced for three daies, the freemen so long as they would, which was sixe or seven daies."* This was the origin of Bartholomew Fair, over which the charter of Henry 2d, gave the mayor and aldermen criminal jurisdiction during its continuance. LADY HOLLAND'S MOB. "Here's Lady Holland's Mob a coming!" This multitude, composed of the most degraded characters of the metropolis, was accustomed to knock at the doors, and ring the bells, with loud shouting and vociferation; and they often committed gross outrages on persons and property. The year 1822, was the last year in which they appeared in any alarming force, and then the inmates of the houses they assailed, or before which they paraded, were aroused and kept in terror by their violence. In Skinner Street, especially, they rioted undisturbed, until between three and four in the morning at one period that morning, their number was not less than 5,000, but it varied as parties went off, or came in, to and from the assault of other places. It has been supposed, that this mob first arose, and has been continued, in celebration of a verdict obtained by a Mr. Holland, which freed the fair from toll; but this is erroneous; it may be traced as far back as the Commonwealth, when the ruling powers, in an attempt to suppress the fair, were defeated by the Holland Interest. They first assemble in Cloth Fair, at the Hand and Shears. HORN FAIR. At the pleasant village of Charlton, on the north side of Blackheath, about eight miles from London, a fair is held annually on St. Luke's day. It is called Horn Fair, from the custom of carrying Horns at it formerly, and the frequenters still wearing them! Upon taking the air down the river, (from London) on the left hand, lies Ratcliffe, a considerable suburb. On the opposite shore, is fixed a long pole, with Ram's Horns upon it, the intention of which was vulgarly said to be a reflection upon wilful and contented cuckolds.† An old newspaper states, that it was formerly a custom, for a procession to go from some of the inns in Bishopsgate Street, in which were a king, a queen, a miller,‡ a counsellor, &c. and a great numher of others, with horns in their hats, to Charlton, where they went round the church three times. This was accompanied by so many indecencies on Blackheath, such as the whipping of females with furze, &c. that it gave rise to the proverb, “all is fair at Horn Fair."¡§ Others say, the horn-bearing at this fair, may be conjectured to have originated from the symbol, accompanying the figure of St. Luke; * Bartholomew Fair was limited in 1750, to three days, besides the + Hentzner. proclamation day. Cuckold's Point. § Brand. as he is represented in the act of writing, with an ox, or cow, by his side, whose horns are conspicuous. PECKHAM FAIR. "Rare doings at Camberwell."-" All holiday at Peckham." Peckham is said to be only a continuation of Camberwell, and not a district fair; yet, there is a tradition, that king John, hunting there, killed a stag, and was so well pleased with his sport, that he granted the inhabitants a charter for a fair. It may be inferred from the "right merrie" humour of this monarch at the close of his sport, that it was somewhat in different style to that of Henry 5th; for he, "in his beginning thought it meere scofferie to pursue anie fallow deere with houndes or greihounds, but supposed himselfe always to have done a sufficient act when he had tired them by his own travell on foot." * MAY FAIR. The locality adjacent to the west end of Piccadilly derives its name from a celebrated fair formerly held here, which commenced on the first of May, and from whence it was called May Fair. Mr. Carter, the antiquary, says, in a communication to his valued friend, the venerable Sylvanus Urban, and which is dated March 6th, 1816. Fifty years have passed away since this place of amusement was at its highest attraction: the spot where the fair was held, still retains the name of May Fair, and exists in much the same state as at the above period: for instance, Shepherd's Market, and houses surrounding it, on the north and east sides, with White Horse Street, Shepherd's Court, Sun Court, Market Court. Westwards, an open space extending to Tyburn, (now Park Lane) since built upon, in Chapel Street, Shepherd's Street, Market Street, Hertford Street, &c.; southwards, the noted Ducking Pond, house, and gardens, since built upon, in a large riding-school, Carrington Street, (the noted Kitty Fisher lived in this street), &c. He then proceeds to enumerate the amusements of the fair, such as dramatic performances, duck-hunting, fire-eating, sausage-eating, prize-fighting, cudgelling, ass-races, bull-baiting, grinning for a hat, running for a. shift, and various other amusements, which the Londoners in those days amused themselves with. STOURBRIDGE FAIR. Fuller relates, Stourbridge Fair is so called, from Stour, a little rivulet, (on both sides whereof it is kept) on the east of Cambridge, whereof this original is reported. A clothier of Kendal, a town characterized to be lani ficii gloria et industria præcellens, casually wetting his cloth in water, in his passage to London, exposed it there to sale, on cheap terms, as the worse for wetting, and yet, it seems, saved by the bargain. Next year he returned again, with some other of his townsmen, proffering drier and dearer cloth to be sold. So that within a few years, hither came a confluence of buyers, sellers, and lookers-on, which are the three principals of a fair. In memoriâ thereof, Kendal men challenge some privilege in that place, annually choosing one of the town to be chief, before whom * Holingshead. an antic sword was carried with some mirthful solemnities, disused of late, since these sad times, which put men's minds into more serious employments. This was about 1417. ASTLEY'S PRIZE WHERRY. Formerly, Philip Astley, the celebrated proprietor of the theatre, called after him, was accustomed to give fire-works, on our late venerable monarch's birth-day, from barges moored in the centre of the Thames, off Stangate, when the performances of the theatre were over. An accident, however, happening on one occasion, and many lives being lost, they were discontinued, and a Prize Wherry given away every anniversary, till a year or so after Mr. Astley's death, when the old custom was done away with. DOGGETT'S COAT AND BADGE. The first of August has long been famed for the rowing match for "Doggett's Coat and Badge"; so called, from Thomas Doggett, the actor, who died 1721. He left a sum of money, vested in the Fishmonger's Company, for the annual purchase of a waterman's coat, and silver badge, to be rowed for on the first of August, by young watermen, who had finished their apprenticeship; betwixt Old Swan Stairs, London Bridge, and the Old Swan at Chelsea. Such is the origin of this annual custom. RIDING THE BLACK LAD. A singular custom prevails at Ashton-under-Lyne, on Easter Monday. Every year, on that day, a rude figure of a man, made of an old suit of clothes stuffed with rags, hay, &c., is carried on a horse through all the streets. The people who attend it call at every public house, for the purpose of begging liquor for its thirsty attendants, who are always numerous. During its progress the figure is shot at from all parts. When the journey is finished, it is tied to the market cross, and the shooting is continued till it is set on fire, and falls to the ground. This custom, it is said, originated with one of the Ashetons, who possessed a considerable landed property in this part of Lancashire. He was Vice Chancellor to Henry 6th, who exercised great severity on his own lands, and established the gool or guld riding. He is said to have made his appearance on Easter Monday, clad in black armour, and on horseback, followed by a numerous train, for the purpose of claiming the penalties, arising from the neglect of farmers clearing their corn of the "carr gulds." "The tenants looked upon this visit with horror, and tradition has still perpetuated the prayer that was offered for a deliverance from his power: "Sweet Jesu, for thy mercy's sake, Save us from the axe of the Tower, It is alledged, that on one of his visits on Easter Monday, he was shot, as he was riding down the principal street, and that the tenants took no trouble to find out the murderer, but entered into a subscription, the interest of which was to make an effigy to his memory. At the present day, however, the origin is never thought of, and the money is derived from publicans, whose interests it is to keep up the custom. * Corn Marygold. I RIDING STANG. This is a custom peculiar to the north of England; its origin, however, is uncertain. The Stang is a Cowlstaff; the Cowl is a water vessel, borne by two persons on the Cowl-staff, which is a stout pole whereon the vessel hangs. "Where's the Cowl-staff!" cries Ford's wife, when she purposes to get Falstaff into a large buck basket, with two handles; the Cowl-staff, or Stang, is produced, and being passed through the handles, the fat knight is born off by two of Ford's A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1791, says, that “in Westmoreland and Cumberland, on the first of January, multitudes assemble early in the morning with baskets and Stangs, and whoever does not join them, whether inhabitant or stranger, is immediately mounted across the Stang, and carried, shoulder height, to the next public house, where sixpence liberates the prisoner men. Riding the Stang is adopted in Yorkshire, among the lower orders, on the discovery of any frailty, on the side of either man or wife. A stang is then procured, on which "a good natured friend" mounts, and is borne through the streets in the dusk of the evening, on the shoulders of two men, preceded by a man carrying a lanthorn. every 50 yards, or so, they make a halt, when the exalted personage roars out somewhat similar to the following: Good neighbours attend, while I you harangue, "Tis neither for your sake, nor my sake, That I ride the Stang. But it is for the wife of Oliver Gray That I ride the Stang. At This oration being concluded, the mob hurrahs, and after repeating it in different places, proceed to the residence of the frail one, where they conclude with hootings and jeerings, and then disperse. 66 ROAST PIG! "A flower-cropped in its prime." Elia, maintains, that of all the delicacies in the whole eatable world, Roast Pig is the most delicious and delicate. "I speak," he says, not of your grown porkers, things between pig and pork, those hobydehoys, but a young and tender suckling, under a moon old, guiltless as yet of the stye, with his voice as yet not broken, but something between a childish treble and a grumble, the mild forerunner, or proeludium of a grunt." Elia, quotes from a Chinese MS. that roast pig, like a great many other important discoveries, was purely accidental, as follows, viz. "the swine-herd, Hoti, having gone out into the woods one morning, as his manner was, to collect mast for his hogs, left his cottage in the care of his eldest son, Bo-bo, a great lubberly boy, who, being fond of playing with fire, as younkers of his age commonly are, let some sparks escape into a bundle of straw, which, kindling quickly, spread the conflagration over every part of their poor mansion, till it was reduced to ashes. Together with the cottage, (a sorry antediluvian makeshift of a building, you may think it) what was of much more importance, a fine litter of new-farrowed pigs, no less than nine in number, perished. China pigs have been esteemed a luxury all over the East, from the remotest periods that we read of. Bobo, was in the utmost consternation, as you may think, not so much for the sake of the tenement, which his father and he could easily build up again with a few dry branches, and the labour of an hour or two, at any time, as for the loss of the pigs. While he was thinking what he should say to his father, and wringing his hands over the smoaking remnants of one of those untimely sufferers, an odour assailed his nostrils, unlike any scent which he had before experienced. What could it proceed from? not from the burnt cottage; he had smelt that smell before indeed, this was by no means the first accident of the kind, which had occurred through the negligence of this unlucky young fire-brand. Much less did it resemble that of any known herb, weed, or flower. A premonitory moistening at the same time overflowed his nether lip. He knew not what to think. He next stooped down to feel the pig, if there were any signs of life in it. He burnt his fingers, and to cool them, he applied them, in his booby fashion, to his mouth. Some of the crumbs of the scorched skin had come away with his fingers, and for the first time in his life, (in the world's life indeed, for before him no mau had known it), he tasted-crackling! Again he felt and fumbled at the pig. It did not burn him so much now, still he licked his fingers from a sort of habit. The truth, at length, broke into his slow understanding, that it was the pig that smelled so, and the pig that tasted so delicious; and, surrendering himself up to the new-born pleasure, he fell to tearing up whole handfulls of the scorched skin with the flesh next it, and was cramming it down his throat in his beastly fashion, when his sire entered, amid the smoaky rafters, armed with a retributory cudgel, and finding how affairs stood, began to rain blows upon the young rogue's shoulders, as thick as hailstones, which Bo-bo heeded not, any more than if they had been flies. The tickling pleasure which he experienced in his lower regions, had rendered him quite callous to any inconveniences he might feel in those remote quarters. His father might lay on, but he could not beat him from his pig. Bo-bo, in the afternoon, regardless of his father's wrath, and with his scent wonderfully sharpened since morning, soon raked out another pig, and fairly rending it asunder, thrust the lesser half by main force into the fists of Ho-ti; still shouting out, "Eat, eat, eat the burnt pig, father: only taste; O Lord!" with such like barbarous ejaculations, cramming all the while as if he would choke. The narrative relates, that Ho-ti trembled every joint while he grasped the abominable thing, wavering whether he should not put his son to death for an unnatural young monster, when the crackling scorched his fingers, as it had done his sons, and applying the same remedy to them, he in his turn tasted some of its flavour, which, make what sour mouths he would for a pretence, proved not altogether displeasing to him. In conclusion, (for the manuscript here is a little tedious), both father and son fairly set down to the mess, and never left off till they had dispatched all that had remained of the litter. Bo-bo was strictly enjoined not to let the secret escape, for the neighbours would certainly have stoned them for a couple of abominable wretches, who could think upon improving the good meat which God had sent them. Nevertheless, strange stories got about. It was observed, Ho-ti's cottage was burnt down now, more frequently than ever. Nothing but fires from this time forward. Some would break out in broad day, others in the night-time. As often as the sow farrowed, so sure was the house of Ho-ti to be in a blaze; and Ho-ti himself, which was the more remarkable, instead of chastising his son, seemed to grow more indulgent to him than ever. At length they were watched, the terrible mystery discovered, and father and son summoned to take their trial at Pekin, then an inconsiderable assize-town. |