2 26 History of the English Landed Interest. 



winter's supply of meat ; iron from Sussex for implements ; 

 millstones from Paris for corn grinding ; and tar from Norway 

 as a preventive of scab in slieep. 



But the commutation of boon and regular predial services 

 for money had thrown a large bulk of the national farm pro- 

 duce on the markets, so that seignorial rights to toll repre- 

 sented a handsome item in the yearly income of the landed 

 proprietor. 



The great drawback to the market and fair was the heavy 

 expenses incurred by the vendor. We are not surprised to 

 find that the villein showed a preference for disposing of his 

 produce at home, when we come to examine the multitude of 

 market tolls payable by him before he could commence bar- 

 gaining. Long before he entered the fair, he had been mulcted 

 of pontage and passage dues every time he crossed a bridge or 

 conveyed his goods over a stream. Then there was, besides the 

 market toll, the piccage fee payable to the lord of the soil for 

 the ground damaged in setting up a booth, the lastage fees on 

 each twelve dozen of hides, ten quarters of corn, 200 skins of 

 leather, or twelve barrels of pitch, and there were the stallage 

 dues if he wished to show off his goods to better advantage 

 by arranging them on a stall. It is doubtful, too, if the Court 

 of Piepowder,^ which administered justice to buyers and sellers 

 at fairs, sufficiently compensated him for these drawbacks. At 

 any rate there would be no pontage or passage fees at the Sun- 

 day auction at home, when he could hang his meat on the 

 church doors and fold his live stock in the yard,- as an adver- 

 tisement, while he attended morning service. So we may sup- 

 pose that the general farmer did not trouble himself to travel 

 to the great annual fairs, such as Stourbridge, Abingdon, or 

 Winchester, but just preferred to await the feast of his own 

 village saint, when the place was sure to be full both of merry- 

 makers and customers. 



But a distinction must be drawn between the two terms 

 market and fair ; ibr though every fair was a market, every 

 market was not a fair. The latter was held far less frequently. 



' " Curia pedis pulverei," so called from the dusty feet of tlie suitors. 

 " Put a stop to by the Statute of Winchester. 



