66 houses builded, and the north wall 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 II. gave the mayor and aldermen criminal jurisdiction during its continuance. This Fair can now hardly be said to exist, as it consists of only a few toy stalls and fruit barrows. LADY HOLLANDS' MOB. 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 number of others, with horns in their hats, to *Bartholomew Fair was limited in 1750 to three days, besides the proclamation day. † Hentzner. 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; as he is represented in the act of writing, with an ox or cow by his side, whose horns are conspicuous. PECKHAM FAIR. 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 V.; 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.”—Hollinshed. MAY FAIR. The locality adjacent to the west end of Piccadilly, derives its name from a celebrated fair as early as the reign of Charles II. 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, duckhunting, fire-eating, sausage-eating, prize-fighting and cudgeling, 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. This Fair was finally abolished in the reign of George III., when George, sixth Earl of Coventry, then a * Brand. resident in Piccadilly, disturbed with the riots and uproar of the place, procured its abolition. 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 characterised to be lanificii gloriâ 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 principles 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 an antic sword was carried, with some mirthful solemnities, disused of late, since these sad times, which put men's minds into more serious employment. 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 ou our late venerable monarch's birthday, 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 discontinued. 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 in 1721. He left a sum of money, vested in the Fishmongers' 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, the rude figure of a man, P 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 VI., 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 alleged, 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. RIDING STANG. This is a custom peculiar to the north of England; its origin, however, is uncertain. The Stang is a Cowl-staff; 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 borne off by two of Ford's men. 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.” * Corn Marygold. 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 lantern. At every fifty 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." 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. ROAST PIG! 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 not yet broken, but something between a childish treble and a grumble, the mild forerunner, or præludium 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 swineherd, 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 make-shift 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 period that we read of. Bo-bo 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 smoking 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} |