458 
The Cambridge Meeting , 1894. 
Towards the latter end of the fair, and when the great hurry of whole- 
sale business begins to he over, the gentry come in from all parts of the 
county round ; and though they come for their diversion, yet it is not a 
little money they lay out, which generally falls to the share of the retailers, 
such as toy-shops, goldsmiths, braziers, ironmongers, turners, milliners, 
mercers, &c., and some loose coins they reserve for the puppet shows, drolls, 
rope-dancers, and such like, of which there is no want, though not con- 
siderable like the rest. The last day of the fair is the horse-fair, where the 
whole is closed with both horse and foot races, to divert the meaner sort of 
people only, for nothing considerable is offered of that kind. Thus ends the 
whole fair, and in less than a week more, there is scarce any sign left that 
there has been such a thing there, except by the heaps of dung and straw 
and other rubbish which is left behind, trod into the earth, and which is 
as good as a summer’s fallow for dunging the land ; and as I have said 
above, pays the husbandman well for the use of it. 
I should have mentioned that here is a court of justice always open, 
and held every day in a shed built on purpose in the fair ; this is for keeping 
the peace, and deciding controversies in matters deriving from the business 
of the fair. The magistrates of the town of Cambridge are judges in this 
court, as being in their jurisdiction, or they holding it by special privilege : 
here they determine matters in a summary way, as is practised in those we 
call Pye Powder Courts in other places, or as a Court of Conscience ; and 
they have a final authority without appeal. 
Conclusion. 
The second Cambridge Meeting will be remembered as a 
highly successful gathering. It could not, indeed, be other- 
wise, for not one of the chief elements that make for success 
was lacking. The Show itself possessed many features of excel- 
lence both in the live stock and in the implement sections. 
The Town and the University vied with each other in giving 
the Society a hearty and hospitable welcome. The weather, 
which might have spoilt all, was as near perfection as we can 
ever expect it to be under an English sky, even at midsummer. 
And thus it came to pass that, at a time of great stress, and 
after perhaps the most trying winter within the memory of 
farmers, the Royal Agricultural Society held in East Anglia a 
Country Meeting which, however gratifying its results may be 
to Members of the Society in general, cannot fail to be looked 
back upon with feelings of special satisfaction by those agricul- 
turists of the Eastern Counties who were mainly instrumental 
in inducing the Society to revisit the scenes of its youth. 
W. Fream. 
13 Hanover Square, W. 
