ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 47 



chants, therefore, of any country desired to carry its products for 

 interchange or sale to another, it was necessary for them to unite 

 together for mutual protection, and move in large bodies, strongly 

 armed, at those seasons of the year most favorable for travelling. 



Though we can assume but little in respect to a period, the 

 history of which is so obscure, it is probable that the great fairs, 

 which were the chief marts for the sale of commodities carried 

 overland down to the 16th century, had their origin in the circum- 

 stance, that many of those bodies of merchants encountered each 

 other about the same period of the year, at central points in the 

 great routes of travel, where they found it more convenient to stop 

 and interchange their merchandize — an arrangement highly ad- 

 vantageous, as it enabled each merchant to bring back with him 

 the products from various parts, while at the same time he ex- 

 tended the market for his own. Another circumstance had to do, 

 not only with fixing the place for holding these great Fairs, but 

 also in giving rise to the small local Fairs, and to many usages and 

 customs connected with both. 



In the Middle Ages the devotional spirit of the people prompted 

 them to visit the shrines of particular saints, usually in those 

 places where they had suifered martyrdom, or where their relics 

 were kept, and where costly religious edifices had been erected to 

 their memory, surrounded by abbeys or great monastic establish- 

 ments. Those pilgrimages were generally made at those periods of 

 the year most favorable for travelling, or with a view of being pre- 

 sent on the occasion of the more imposing religious festivals ; and 

 as travelling, as I have said, was both difficult and dangerous, it 

 was usual for the pilgrims to set out in large bodies, receiving addi- 

 tion to their number from all who were journeying in the same 

 direction. They embraced individuals in every rank of life, the 

 trafficker in merchandize being as faithful in the discharge of the 

 duty as any other. But with that eye to business which is never 

 wanting, when the mercantile instinct points out the possibility of 

 advantage, he usually managed to carry with him a tempting 

 assortment of the kind of goods which he knew would be most in 

 request among the people assembled at the holy place, the safe 

 transportation of which was secured by the presence of the formid- 

 able body of pilgrims in whose company he travelled. In this way 

 he not only indemnified himself for the expense of his journey, but, 

 if lucky in his speculation, enjoyed the additional satisfaction of 

 knowing that he had both served God and turned an honest penny. 



When the multitude had gathered together, the religious exer- 

 cises that ensued were not more striking than the busy scene of 



