Dorsetshire.
Oct. 10.]
Dorsetshire.
Pack Monday Fair is held at Sherborne on the first Monday after the 10th of October, and is ushered in, says Hutchins (Hist. of Dorset, 1774), by the ringing of the great bell at a very early hour in the morning, and by the boys and young men perambulating the streets with cows’ horns. Tradition asserts that this fair originated at the termination of the building of the church, when the people who had been employed about it packed up their tools, and held a fair or wake in the churchyard, blowing cows’ horns in their rejoicing.—See Every Day Book, vol. ii. p. 1037.