188 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS INFLUENCED BY PART III. 



merchants travelling thither in caravans, bearing with 

 them all manner of goods, and bringing back the wool 

 purchased by them in exchange. 



Winchester Great Fair attracted merchants from all 

 parts of Europe. It was held on the hill of St. Giles, 

 and was divided into streets of booths, named after the 

 merchants of the different countries who exposed their 

 wares in them. " The passes through the great woody 

 districts, which English merchants coming from London 

 and the West would be compelled to traverse, were on 

 this occasion carefully guarded by mounted 4 serjeants- 

 at-arms,' since the wealth which was being conveyed to 

 St. Giles' s-hill attracted bands of outlaws from all parts 

 of the country." l Weyhill Fair, near Andover, .was 

 another of the great fairs in the same district, which wn s 

 to the West country agriculturists and clothiers what 

 Winchester St. Giles's Fair was to the general merchant. 

 That of St. Botolph's Town was one of the principal fairs 

 for the northern districts, to which people resorted from 

 great distances to buy and sell. Thus we find, from 

 the ' Compotus ' of Bolton Priory, 2 tliat the monks of 

 that house sent their wool to St. Botolph's Fair to be sold, 

 though it was a good hundred miles distant, and there 

 they bought their groceries, spiceries, and other necessary 

 articles. That fair, too, was often beset by robbers, and 

 on one occasion a strong party of them, under the disguise 

 of monks, attacked and robbed certain booths, setting 

 fire to the rest ; and such was the amount of destroyed 

 wealth, that it is said the veins of molten gold and 

 silver ran along the streets. 



The concourse of persons attending these fairs was 

 immense. The nobility and gentry, the heads of the 

 religious houses, the yeomanry and the commons, resort c< 1 

 to them to buy and sell all manner of agricultural pro- 



1 Murray's 'Handbook of Surrey, I 2 Wbitaker's * History of Craven.' 

 Hunts, and Isle of Wight,' 168. 



