FAIR 



3066 



FAIRBAIRN 



may be given. When feelings of 

 faintness first come on, complete 

 loss of consciousness can often be 

 prevented by the person bending 

 forwards and placing his head 

 between his knees at as low a level 

 as possible. ** 



Fair (Lat. feria, holiday). Peri- 

 odical assembly of traders at a 

 place and time fixed by charter, 

 statute, or immemorial custom. In 

 early times certain localities came 

 to be used for the periodical 

 exchange of commodities, either by 

 reason of their situation or be- 

 cause they were resorted to at 

 stated times for religious or other 

 purposes. In Greece the Olympic 

 games and such religious festivals 

 as those of Delos and Delphi pro- 

 vided occasions for trading. Among 

 the Incas of Peru fairs were held 

 thrice a month in the most populous 

 places and were visited by the out- 

 lying agricultural populations. In 

 ancient Mexico, fairs took place 

 every fifth day in the chief cities. 



The earliest royal charter for a 

 fair was granted in 642 by the 

 Frank king Dagobert to the monks 

 of S. Denis, Paris. The concourse 

 of worshippers at a famous shrine 

 afforded great opportunities for 

 trade, and nearly all medieval fair 

 charters were granted to ecclesias- 

 tics. The fairs were usually held 

 on a saint's day and on its vigil and 

 morrow, and often, until prohibited 

 by statute, in the churchyard. The 

 religious associations of medieval 

 fairs are indicated by the German 

 word for " fair," Messe (mass), and 

 in the term kermesse or kirmess 

 (church mass) used for the quasi- 

 religious carnivals of Brittany and 

 the Low Countries. In every fair 

 there was a court specially ap- 

 pointed for settling disputes, called 

 in England pie-powder courts (q.v. ). 

 Fairs and Trade 



To promote trade, fairs were 

 encouraged by the sovereigns of 

 Europe. During fair time in the 

 10th century Otto the Great pro- 

 nounced the ban on breakers of the 

 peace and suspended the right of 

 private feud. In the 14th century 

 the emperor Charles IV's charter 

 for the great fair of Frankfort-on- 

 Main declared fair-goers free from 

 arrest and imperial taxes during 

 the fair as well as for 18 days 

 before and after. 



Though fairs were invaluable 

 for international trading, local 

 traders were usually compelled to 

 close their shops in fair time. 

 During the Westminster fair the 

 city tradesmen were commanded 

 to shut their shops, and during the 

 fair on St. Giles's Hill, near Win- 

 chester, which lasted 16 days, the 

 Winchester and the Southampton 

 shopkeepers were only allowed to 



trade in the fair. The bishop of 

 Winchester was the lord of the 

 fair, and while it lasted the powers 

 of the regular city officers were in 

 abeyance. On the Eve of S. Giles 

 the keys of the city gates were 

 handed over to the bishop, who 

 appointed a mayor, bailiff, and 

 coroner of his own for the duration 

 of the fair. 



The influence of country fairs 

 was far-reaching. In 1338 the 

 statutes of St. Mary Ottery's College 

 in Devonshire ordained that 200 Ib. 

 of wax for the choir should be 

 bought annually at Winchester 

 fair. In the 15th century the monks 

 of Maxstoke and Bicester laid in 

 their yearly stores at Stourbridge 

 fair, and in the 16th century it was 

 still customary for stewards of 

 country houses to purchase their 

 year's supply of household stores 

 at remote fairs. With the improve- 

 ment in communications the im- 

 portance of fairs diminished, and 

 by 1855 all those in London were 

 abolished. 



" Fun of the Fair " 



Amusements formed an import- 

 ant feature of fairs, many of which 

 became mere disorderly revels and 

 were suppressed as nuisances. This 

 was the fate of Donny brook fair in 

 Dublin, of Charlton or Horn fair, 

 of Greenwich fair, and of all the 

 London fairs. The " fun of the 

 fair" included jugglers, mounte- 

 banks, rope-dancers, acrobats, 

 wrestling and other sports, wild 

 beasts, learned animals, freaks and 

 monstrosities, puppet-shows, mira- 

 cle plays, mysteries, moralities, and 

 stage plays of every description ; 

 ballad-singing, grinning through 

 horse-collars, swings, roundabouts, 

 and, in modern times, steam music. 

 Ballad-singers were very popular 

 at fairs ; Outroaring Dick and Wat 

 Wimbers, two Elizabethan trebles, 

 were paid as much as 20 shillings a 

 day at Braintree fair. Of fairings, 

 or gifts bought at fairs, the most 

 familiar are the little gingerbread 

 figures, usually gilt, possibly a 

 survival of images of saints. 



The most celebrated London fair 

 was Bartholomew fair (q.v.), and 

 among existing English livestock 

 fairs may be mentioned those for 

 horses at Horncastle (described in 

 George Borrow' s Romany Rye), 

 Bamet, and Woodbridge ; Weyhill, 

 for sheep, and Ipswich, for lambs ; 

 Exeter, for cattle and horses ; and 

 Carlisle and Ormskirk, for cattle. 

 Nottingham has a goose fair ; 

 Falkirk, a fair, or tryst, for cattle, 

 sheep, and horses ; and Ballinasloe, 

 co. Galway, one for cattle. Glouces- 

 ter cheese fair is well known. In 

 parts of England and Wales, and 

 in Scotland, servants are engaged 

 at the hiring, or statute, fairs. 



- On the continent of Europe, the 

 Lyons fair is supposed to have 

 been founded by the Romans and 

 long enjoyed a great reputation ; 

 bills of exchange from all parts of 

 Europe were often made payable at 

 Lyons fair. The fairs of Champagne 

 and Brie were world renowned, and 

 are referred to as early as the 5th 

 century. Those of Frankfort-on- 

 Main and Frankfort-on-Oder and 

 those of Leipzig, especially the 

 great Easter book-fair, are the 

 best known German fairs. The 

 most important Russian fair is the 

 Makaryevskaya fair at Nijni- 

 Novgorod, which lasts from July 29 

 to Sept. 10. It has been held from 

 remote times at various points on 

 the river Volga, and was settled at 

 Nijni in 1817, taking its name from 

 a monastery near Makaryev, where 

 it was formerly held. The fair 

 comprises over 8,000 shops as 

 well as circuses, theatres, banks, 

 and other buildings. Trade is 

 carried on in cotton, woollens, 

 silk and linen goods, furs, iron, 

 corn, salt, etc. 



In the Nile delta Tanta is famous 

 for its fairs, held thrice yearly at 

 the tomb of Said el Bedawi, a 13th 

 century saint. One of the largest 

 fairs in Asia is that at Hardwar, or 

 Hurdwar, in Upper India. The 

 Meccan fairs existed long before the 

 time of Mahomet. In America the 

 term " fair " denotes an industrial 

 exhibition. See Exhibition 



Bibliography. Fairs, Past and 

 Present, C. Walford, 1883: Memoirs 

 of Bartholomew Fair, H. Morley, 

 1859; History of English Poetry, T. 

 Warton, 1871, for an account of 

 Winchester fair ; Treatise on the Law 

 of Markets and Fairs, J. G. Pease 

 and H. Chitty, 1899. 



Fair bairn, ANDREW MARTIN 

 (1838-1912). British theologian. 

 Born near . Edinburgh, Nov. 4, 

 1838, and edu- 

 cated at the 

 university 

 there and at 

 Berlin, for some 

 years he was a 

 Congregational 

 minister at 

 Bathgate and 

 Aberdeen. He 

 became princi- 

 pal of the Aire- 

 dale Congrega- 

 tional College, Bradford, nf 1877, 

 and in 1889-1909 was principal of 

 Mansfield College, Oxford. He was 

 Muir Lecturer at Edinburgh, Gifford 

 Lecturer at Aberdeen, and Lyman 

 Beecher Lecturer at Yale. He 

 published numerous books chiefly 

 on the philosophy of religion, 

 among them The Place of Christ 

 in Modern Theology, 1893, and 

 Philosophy of the Christian Re- 

 ligion, 1902. He died Feb. 9, 1912. 



Andre w M. Fairbairn, 

 British theologian 



Elliott & Fry 



