66 
JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
the church ; but it being very inconvenient to have so many holi- 
days on week-days, especially in harvest-time, they were by special 
permission of the church transferred to the following Sunday. 
Thus far religion and pleasure were the only elements in these 
festivals ; but as great numbers of people attended, by degrees less 
devotion and reverence were observed, till at length, from hawkers 
and pedlars coming hither to sell their petty wares, the merchants 
came also, and set up stalls and booths in the churchyards; and not 
only those who lived in the parish to which the church belonged 
resorted thither, but others also from all the neighbouring villages. 
The greater the reputation of the saint, the greater were the num- 
bers that nocked together on this occasion. The morning was 
spent in religious services; the remaining part of the day in all 
sorts of rural pastimes, such as dancing, wrestling, and cudgelling, 
which frequently gave rise to brawls. Thus on these occasions the 
churchyard of a quiet village and the tombs of the fathers of the 
parish were desecrated, not only by the horse-play above mentioned, 
but also by the greed of non-parishioners, who exposed their goods 
there in competition with the inhabitants of the place itself. This 
could not be permitted, and we find a statute * of Edward I. 
"commandeth and forbiddeth that from henceforth neither fairs 
or markets be kept in churchyards for the honour of the church." 
The holding of these festivals, which had by the addition of the 
trade element now really become fairs, although as yet unrecognized 
as such, on Sundays, was justly objected to by the clergy ; and an 
attempt was made by the Abbot of Ely, as early as King John's 
reign, to stop so flagrant a profanation of the Sabbath; but no 
actual enactment was made against them until the reign of Henry 
VI., when most of the principal towns had acknowledged fairs 
already established for the furtherance of legitimate trade, as well 
as for the pleasure of the inhabitants, and, we may also add, for 
the profit of the lords who held them. 
Of course the festivals which remained undeveloped, being un- 
able to form the union with the trade element, continued as before 
until the Eeformation robbed them of their religious rites, and a 
few only have survived to the present day as pleasure revels, simi- 
lar to those held at Ideford and Holne, of which we shall speak 
below. 
This brings us to consider the privileges and usages of fairs 
* 13 Edward I., stat. 2 , ch. G, sec. 16. a.d. 1285. 
