142 JOURNEYS AND MARKETS. 



grown on the spot if it were not cleared before that time, 

 and on the other hand, the owner of the soil was empowered 

 to destroy the booths on Michaelmas-day., if they were not 

 removed before that time. 



The space occupied by the fair, which was about half a mile 

 square, was divided out into streets, in each of which some 

 special trade was carried on, some of the principal being those 

 of ironmongery, cloth, wool, leather, and books ; as well as, in 

 the course of time, every conceivable commodity which could 

 be made and sold. On the 25th of September, the chief 

 business of the fair was the buying and selling of horses. The 

 port of Lynn, and the rivers Ouse and Cam, were the means 

 by which water-carriage was made available for goods. 



A court of pie powder was held in the fair, under the pre- 

 sidency of the Mayor of Cambridge or his deputy, where suits 

 were determined from morning to night, no appeal being 

 allowed. The assize of the fair and its general superin- 

 tendence were, though not it seems without some dispute, 

 the privilege of the corporation of Cambridge. 



The concourse must have been a singular medley. Besides the 

 people who poured forth from the great towns from London, 

 Norwich, Colchester, Oxford, places in the beginning of the 

 fourteenth century of great comparative importance, and who 

 gave their names, or, in case certain branches of commerce had 

 been planted in particular London streets, the names of such 

 streets, to the rows of booths in the three-weeks' fair of Stour- 

 bridge there were, beyond doubt, the representatives of many 

 nations collected together to this great mart of medieval com- 

 merce. The Jew, expelled from England^ had given place to the 

 Lombard exchanger. The Venetian and Genoese merchant came 

 with his precious stock of Eastern produce, his Italian silks and 

 velvets, his store of delicate glass. The Flemish weaver was 

 present with his linens of Liege and Ghent. The Spaniard 

 came with his stock of iron, the Norwegian with his tar and 

 pitch. The Gascon vine-grower was ready to trade in the 

 produce of his vineyard and, more rarely, the richer growths 



