288 [A&SEMBLT 



secuting, and the remainder to the king — the oyster for the govern- 

 ment and the shell for the people. 



A toll was usually levied at fairs for privileged stalls, erected 

 either f#r the sale of goods, or for entertainment or pastime. 



Formerly no person could claim a fair or a market, unless by the 

 King's grant, or by prescription, which supposes a grant. Owners 

 and governors of fairs were to take care that everything was sold 

 according to just weight and measure, and for that and other purpo- 

 ses appointed a clerk, for which he was entitled to take reasonable 

 and just fees. 



The clerk of the market was an officer incident to every fair in 

 England, and was ex officio the supreme ruler of the court, known 

 and distinguished by the dignified title of pie poudre. Blackstone 

 says that this was the lowest and most expeditious of all the English 

 courts, and it was properly called pie poudre, from the dusty feet of 

 the suitors. Sir Edward Coke was of the learned opinion that justice 

 was done as speedily as dust could fall from the feet, upon the same 

 principle that justice was administered at the gate of the city, that 

 the proceedings might be more speedy and public. It was a court of 

 record, and its jurisdiction extended to administer justice for all com- 

 mercial injuries in that very fair or market, and not in any preceding 

 one; so that the injury must be done, complained of, heard and de- 

 termined, within one and the same day, unless the fair continued 

 longer. ^ 



The motive of their original institution seems to have been to do 

 justice expeditiously among the variety of persons that resort from 

 distant places, since it is probable that no other inferior court might 

 be able to serve its process, and unless it had been erected the com- 

 plainant must necessarily have resorted, even in the first instance, to 

 a superior judicature. 



The object of this jurisdiction was principally in weights and mea- 

 sures, and to try whether they were according to the true standard, 

 which were anciently committed to the custody of the bishop, who 

 appointed some clerk under him to inspect the abuse of them more 

 narrowly; and hence this officer, though latterly a layman, was call- 

 ed the clerk of the market. 



Formerly, the owner of a house next a fair, was not allowed to 

 open his shop during the same, without paying stallage, or toll for 



