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JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
hourly friendship, and rememhered as such, " For one good turn 
deserves another." 
Bishops and abhots of course did not overlook the reasonable 
source of profit to their shrines, to be derived from tolls levied 
upon the trade occasioned by themselves, and carried on within the 
bounds of their lawful jurisdiction. The influence of the Church 
very early obtained charters from the Crown to hold fairs and levy 
tolls on the dedication feasts of their churches and monasteries, or 
on popular saint's-days. For instance, in 1310, Stapleton,* then 
Bishop of Exeter, who held the manor of Ashburton, procured 
fairs of three days on the festivals of St. Lawrence and St. Martin, 
which were called the fairs of these saints, and are still held at 
Ashburton ; as also St. Bartholomew Fair, at Smithfield, and St. 
George's Fair, at Modbury, are known by the names of the saints, 
and were concessions of no mean value. They usually lasted for a 
period of three days ; namely, the eve of the feast, the feast-day, 
and the morrow, when farewells were to be said to friends and 
business transactions to be wound up. In certain cases, however, 
the time was nine days, as in the case of Modbury. I think it is 
a fact that charters for fairs were always granted by the Crown to 
the clergy or nobles of high rank, whereas those for markets were 
by the state to lords of the manor or municipal bodies. 
The small size of the towns and villages in early times, and the 
infrequent resort of strangers to any place except upon occasions of 
religious festival, allowed few towns to become centres of trade ; 
and hence the fairs of the most popular saints, to which men 
nocked from afar in greatest numbers, became the chief marts in 
every country. One great cause of their prosperity was, that the 
privileges granted by the Crown for the holding of fairs were equiva- 
lent to a concession of some channels for " free trade," through the 
labyrinth of taxes and restrictions. Besides being free from im- 
perial taxation and the restrictions as to price above mentioned, 
traders were also protected from many of the ordinary risks of 
travel. The charter of Bartholomew Fair, granted by Henry I. in 
1133, runs thus : t 
" I grant also my firm peace to all persons coming to and returning from 
' the fair ' which is wont to he celebrated at the Feast of St. Bartholomew ; 
and I forbid any of the royal servants to implead any of their persons on 
* "Life of Stapleton," "Dev. Assoc.," vol viii., 1876, p. 447. 
f ' Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair," by Henry Morlcy, p. 12. 
