66 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



' culties that it became irksomy to him. He had formerly been 

 at the liead of a large commercial house at Nantes; had travelled 

 a great deal both in Europe and in this country, and had mixed 

 during his time in the very best society of London and Paris. To 

 such a man an isolated life upon a New England farm was a depri- 

 vation of many things of a social and intellectual nature which are to 

 be found only in cities, and accordingly in IS'15 he sold his property 

 in Berkshire and returned to Albany, where he had formerly re- 

 sided, ending his days in this State at the ^advanced age of 85, 

 after having rendered many valuable disinterested public services 

 in aid of our canals, manufactures, banks, roads and our system of 

 public education. The regret which his departure created in 

 Berkshire was expressed by a public testimonial acknowledging 

 the value of the services he had rendered to the cause of agricul- 

 ture and manufactures, and by a tender leave taking on the part 

 of a people who felt how nnich they had been indebted to him. 

 Upon returning to this State he introduced what he called his 

 Berkshire plan, and published a pamphlet detailing its history and 

 the beneficial eifects it had produced. Between 1817 and 1819 

 similar exhibitions were given in this State, chiefly through his 

 instrumentality in the counties of Otsego, Schoharie, Cayuga, Jef- 

 ferson. Montgomery and Rensselaer, which among the people were 

 called fairs. Fairs had existed in the State previously. The 

 Dutch established them as early as lG-41. After the colony was 

 ceded to the English an act was passed by the Colonial Legisla- 

 ture in 1691, providing for the holding of one annually in each of 

 the counties, with all the "liberties, free customs and usages apper- 

 taining to fairs in England," including a Court of Pie powder, with 

 authority to sit from hour to hour, upon all occasions during the 

 fair, and issue writs, make arrests, impose fines, and exercise all 

 the power belonging to such a tribunal. This is the^peculiar Court 

 before described, the name of which "Pie powder,'' we are told by 

 Pliillips, an old English lexicographer, is from two French 

 words, ^^ pied" foot, and "■ poudre" dust, indicating the dusty 

 appearance of the suitors, and that their causes were sum- 

 marily disposed of before they could shake the dust from oflf their 

 feet. And about 1740 the Irish colony that settled Londonderry 

 in New Hampshire established fairs there, after the manner of the 

 parent country, which were held annually for many years. 



In 1815 the Society for the Promotion of the Useful Arts recom- 

 mended the liolding of fairs annually in every county of the State, 

 for the sale of agricultural products and domestic manufactures, 

 each county rotating in turn — the time, place and manner of hold- 



