COUNTRY FAIRS AND REVELS. 
77 
houses, exempts those who sell ale or beer at fairs during the 
proper time of the fair, in manner and sort as has been done in 
times past for the relief of the king's subjects who repair there. 
A bush of evergreen hanging, or a green bough standing, before 
a door was the sign that liquor was sold within. I do not know 
how recently this exemption from the licensing act in the case of 
fairs has been repealed ; but within the last fifty years it was cus- 
tomary at Modbury. A holly bush hung from a private house 
served for an excise license during St. George's Fair ; hence the old 
saying, " Good wine needs no bush." 
The last vestige of a religious gathering forsook the fair at the 
Eeformation, when even, according to Ben Jonson,* a basket of 
gingerbread fairing was denounced as "a basket of popery, a 
nest of images, and whole legend of ginger- work." 
The Reformed Church took no tribute from them, and paid no 
more heed than to other assemblages of men in pursuit of gain or 
pleasure. The holy houses also, which gave birth to and nurtured 
the institution, passed into lay hands with the tolls. But fairs still 
lived, and continued to fulfil the need of such a gathering-place 
for traders as the cloth fair and horse fair offered ; moreover, the 
centres of special trades became connected with the speciality of 
the place, as the Bristol \Yool Fair, the Cheddar Cheese Fair, 
Exeter Leather Fair, &c. As cattle markets alone have they been 
able to keep their place in connection with trade ; but as such they 
were too wide apart to meet the requirements of the farmer. Great 
markets have therefore sprung up to supplement the fairs in our 
country towns, and with such assistance they may linger a few 
years still ; but rather as cattle markets than fairs. 
For centuries fairs represented the true need of amusement for 
the people, and were attended by the families of the county gentry, 
and the merchants of our country towns, who patronized the 
theatres, booths, and shows. But as knowledge advanced and re- 
finement spread, better enjoyments than they could offer drew 
away, beginning from above, class after class, till such pleasure as 
it was their nature to afford remained an amusement only to the 
lowest. Thus many fairs have quite died out (as for instance that 
at Plymouth) which had long ceased to be places for worship or 
marts for trade ; so also they were outgrown by the people as haunts 
of pleasure. 
* Vide the Rabbi in Ben Jonson's comedy of " Bartholomew Fair." 
