AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 37 



During the time of the Fair, a stuffed glove is extended 

 on a pole, at the Market House, and continued there until 

 its conclusion, to designate the right.* 



Formerly, there was an extensive business transacted 

 in woollen goods at the time of the annual fair, but this 

 is no longer the case. Cattle and horses are brought for 

 sale on the first day only; and on the other days, when 

 wild beasts, acrobats, bands of music, Punch and Judy, 

 sweetmeats, and various other attractions, used to be 

 present, there is now very little to draw the people from 

 the country, save the pleasure of exchanging an annual 

 greeting. The fair, at least that part of it known as the 

 " pleasure fair," is gradually dwindling away. Witness 

 the report of it in the Kingsbridge Gazette of last year 

 (1873). "The fair this season has been, with the ex- 

 ception of the first day, one of the smallest we have 

 seen for years. There was but one show, and a rifle 

 shooting tube, besides the usual fairing stalls; and the 



* In explanation of this old custom, we copy the following from a 

 newspaper of last year (1873): — "Judges used to be prohibited from 

 wearing gloves on the bench, and gloves were not tolerated in the 

 presence of royalty. The covered hands were considered discourteous in 

 the latter case because, the first gloves being gauntlets, it was equivalent 

 to presenting the mailed and, consequently, threatening hand to the king. 

 If we carry the matter a little further, we here find the reason why it is 

 at present considered discourteous to shake hands with gloves on. In many 

 parts of England it was common to hang out a large gilt glove from the 

 Town Hall in fair time, as a token of freedom from arrest while the fair 

 lasted. Here, again, we have the hand and the glove representing power 

 and protection. This typical use of the glove probably originated at 

 Chester, a city which was noted for its glove manufacture for several 

 centuries. The annals of the city shew that Hugh Lupus, the first Norman 

 Earl of Chester, granted to the Abbot and Convent of St. Werburgh ' the 

 extraordinary privilege that no criminals resorting to their fairs at Chester 

 should be arrested for any crime whatever, except such as they might have 

 committed during their stay in the city.' Hence this sign. A glove was 

 hung out from the Town Hall, at the High Cross, while the fair lasted ; and 

 under its safeguard non-freemen and strangers carried on a roaring trade, 

 which at other times was restricted to the citizens. The custom ceased 

 about thirty years ago." 



