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JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
transacted the little business which perhaps formed the excuse for 
the visit, seen the sights, joined in the sports, last, but not least, 
they purchased some "fairings," which consisted at first of 
small relics or rude images of the popular saint, but which in the 
course of time, or by the effect of the Eeformation, degenerated 
into small figures in gilt gingerbread, to carry to the relatives at 
home in token that amid the bustle and excitement of the fair, with 
them at least, " out of sight was not out of mind." 
The relation of the wonders and experiences of the fair must, 
have formed an amusing and lasting theme for the long winter 
evenings, and have stimulated the young in their desire to attend 
also. Thus we find the great pleasure fairs of our county which 
have survived the general decay are those which, being held at the 
leisure time of agricultural labours, such as after the tilling in 
spring and after the harvest in autumn, have always been the 
holiday for country people. It was at the fair that the material 
was bought to make a boy's first suit of cloth clothes (an important 
event in the life of our ancestors), who jumped from petticoats to 
knee-breeches and tail-coats without passing through the inter- 
mediate stages of knickerbockers and jackets. I have heard a 
person describe being taken by his father to select the cloth at 
Modbury Fair, and how, after much hesitation, a brown from 
Somersetshire was chosen, and the pride with which in due course 
it was worn for the first time on Whitsunday. * 
In Ben Jonson's time, the "sodden north countryman, who 
doth change cloth for ale at the fair here," was the only ancestor of 
the merchants of Leeds, Manchester, and Bradford at the cloth 
mart of St. Bartholomew Fair; for the woollen trade of the 
country was then in the hands of the West Country clothiers, who 
supplied all the fairs of England with cloth. This branch of the 
fair trade is now quite extinct ; and the name of " Frome " 
Somersetshire painted over a cloth stall does not now exercise the 
minds of children to account for the ignorance of people in that 
country who spelt from " frome," as I have heard was once the 
case. 
The horse fair also offered an open mart for the best horses 
* I am informed that at Modbury cloth could only be procured at the fair. 
Travelling braziers repaired the pots and pans at the fair ; and if the oppor- 
tunity was neglected, the goodwives had to wait for twelve months before a 
small job could be executed. 
