‘ 
2096 Notes and Illustrations. 
brook Sture, for about half a mile square, is noted for its fair which 
is kept annually on September 1gth, and continues a fortnight. It 
is surpassed by few fairs in Great Britain, or even in Europe, for 
traffic, though of late it is much lessened. The booths are placed 
in rows like streets, by the name[s |] of which they are called, as 
Cheapside, etc., and are filled with all sorts of trades. The Dud- 
dery, an area of 80 or 100 yards square, resembles Blackwell Hall. 
Large commissions are negotiated here for all parts of England in 
cheese, woolen goods, wool, leather, hops, upholsterers’ and iron- 
mongers’ ware, etc., etc. Sometimes 50 hackney coaches from 
London, ply morning and night, to and from Cambridge, as well 
as all the towns around, and the very barns and stables are turned 
into inns for the accommodation of the poorer people. After the 
wholesale business is over, the country gentry generally flock in, 
laying out their money in stage-plays, taverns, music-houses, toys, 
puppet-shows, etc., and the whole concludes with a day for the sale 
of horses. This fair is under the jurisdiction of the University of 
Cambridge.”—Walker’s Gazetteer, ed. 1801. See also index to 
Brand’s Antiquities. 
Camden says it was anciently called Steresbrigg, from the little 
river Stere or Sture that runs by it (in his Britannia, under Cam- 
bridgeshire). There have been many guesses at the name and 
origin of this fair, e.g. that of Fuller in his History of the Uni- 
versity, p. 66, concerning the clothier of Kendal. The truth of the 
matter is this: King John granted Sturbridge fair for the benefit of 
the hospital of lepers which stood there (v. decretum Hubert. Arch. 
Cantuar. in Concil. Londinen. An. 1200. Regn. Fohann.; Spelman, 
ii. 127): in the certificatorium we are told that the keeper of 
the hospital holds twenty-four and a half acres of land in the county 
of Cambridgeshire to maintain these lepers. The Vice Chancellor 
has the same power in this fair that he has in the town of Cam- 
bridge. The University is always to have ground assigned for a 
booth by the mayor. Midsummer Fair was granted to the Prior 
and Convent of Barnwell, for much the same reason that Sturbridge 
was to the Lepers,—ad ecorum sustentationem. In the reign of 
Henry the Sixth the Nuns of St. Radegund had the grant of Garlick 
Fair for the same reason. 
‘Sturbridge Fair was formerly proclaimed by both the Corpora- 
tion and the University authorities. Originally lasting six weeks, in 
1785 it lasted only three weeks, and now it lasts but one week. A 
very amusing account of its proclamation by the Vice Chancellor 
will be found in Gunning’s ‘ Reminiscences of Cambridge.’”—S. N. 
in Notes and Queries, Aug. 25, 1877. 
‘‘When th’ fair is done, I to the Colledg come, 
Or else I drinke with them at Trompington, 
Craving their more acquaintance with my heart, 
Till our next Sturbridg Fair; and so wee part.”— 
Brathwaite’s Honest Ghost, 1658, p. 189. 
