CHAP. III. TIIK STATE OF THE ROADS. 189 



(lure. The farmers sold their wool and cattle, and hired 

 fhrir servants there. The housewives sold the surplus 

 produce of their winter's industry, and bought their 

 cutlery, bijouterie, and more tasteful articles of apparel. 

 There were caterers for all customers stuffs and ware's 

 offered for sale from all countries. And in the wake of 

 this business part of the fair there invariably followed a 

 crowd of ministers to the popular tastes quack doctors 

 and merry andrews, jugglers and minstrels, singlestick 

 players, grinners through horse-collars, and sportmakers 

 of every kind. 



Smaller fairs were held in all districts for similar 

 purposes of exchange. At these the staples of the district 

 were sold and servants usually hired. Many were for 

 special purposes cattle fairs, leather fairs, cloth fairs, 

 bonnet fairs, fruit fairs. Scatcherd says that less than a 

 century ago a large fair was held between Huddersfield 

 and Leeds, in a field still called Fairstead, near Birstal, 

 which used to be a great mart for fruit, onions, and such 

 like ; and that the clothiers resorted thither from all the 

 country round to purchase the articles, which were stowed 

 away in barns, and sold at booths by lamplight in the 

 morning. 1 



Even Dartmoor had its fair, on the site of an ancient 

 British village or temple near Merivale Bridge, testify- 

 ing to its great antiquity ; for it is surprising how an 

 ancient fair lingers about the place on which it has been 

 accustomed to be held, long after the necessity for it has 

 erased. The site of this old fair at Merivale Bridge 

 is the more curious, as in its immediate neighbour- 

 hood, on the road between Two Bridges and Tavistock, 

 is found the singular-looking granite rock, bearing so 

 remarkable a resemblance to the Egyptian sphynx, in a 

 mutilated state: it is of similarly colossal proportions, 

 and stands in a district almost as lonely as that in which 



1 Scatcherd's ' History of Morley,' 22G. 



