Fairs, past and present

by Cornelius Walford

The fair, which lasted ten days from the 10th of October, was opened by a procession of monks from the Abbey of St. Denis; and in later times it was usual for the Parliament of Paris to allow itself a holiday, called Landi, in order that its members might take part in the great marriage-feast of commerce and religion: just as the English Parliament usually finds relaxation in horse-flesh and mammon on the “Derby day” at Epsom!

English merchants frequented this fair in the ninth century, vide Cunningham’s “English Industry and Commerce,” 1882, p. 82.

But St. Denis had another fair, at one time famous, to which tradition has accorded the following origin. The Paris Cathedral received from Constantinople, in 1109, some fragments of the cross, regarded as authentic. The populace could not find room in the church where they were deposited in any one day; hence the bishop carried them in great pomp to the plain of St. Denis, where there was room enough for the vast concourse of worshippers who assembled to contemplate and adore. This ceremony and procession were renewed at stated periods. The schools of the cloister of Notre Dame had early taken part in the processions; and finally the students of the University of Paris claimed it as a patron festival, which it certainly was not.

In process of time a mart or fair became established on the recurrence of this Church festival. The ground was regarded as consecrated for the purpose. On each 12th of June (the day after the festival of St. Barnabas) the procession took place. It was at a later period called the “Feast of the Parchment.”

Early in the morning of the day of procession, the students, attired in their best, assembled on horseback at the top of Mount St. Geneviève, to accompany the Rector of the University, who, arrayed in his scarlet cloak, and wearing his doctor’s cap, proceeded on a mule or hackney, accompanied by the deans, proctors and myrmidons, to the plain of St. Denis, where the market for the sale of parchment was already opened. The rector upon reaching the fair caused to be put aside as much parchment as would be required by the University for the coming year, and received from the sellers a donation equivalent to £100 of the present day. This I assume was the toll paid for the right of holding the fair.

After this the students alighted from their horses, and instead of forming part of the procession back to Paris, amused themselves at the fair. This invariably led to riot and disorder, and not a year passed without blood being spilt. Thus from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the decrees of parliament against the carrying of arms or sticks, which were continually being renewed and always neglected, testify to the gravity of the evil, and to the difficulties of putting an end to it.

At last, in 1566, the fair was transferred from the plain to the town of St. Denis, and at about the same period paper began to supersede parchment even for public documents. The rector, therefore, ceased getting a supply of parchment at the fair, and the students having no further pretext for attending, it speedily fell into disuse. By the beginning of the seventeenth century the only vestige of it left was the general holiday which the rector granted to the students of the University upon the first Monday after the feast of St. Barnabas, vide Lecroix’s “Science and Literature in the Middle Ages,” pp. 34-36.

St. Germain.—This fair was held in a large permanent building specially provided, constituting something like twin market halls, elegantly constructed of timber, and long regarded as models of construction. The two halls embraced nine streets in line intersecting each other and divided into twenty-four sections or aisles; the shops having little rooms or store-houses over them, and behind some of them were open spaces, with wells—regarded as of importance in case of fire, although not proving of much avail when the event occurred. The streets were distinguished by the names of the different trades conducted in them—as Goldsmiths’ Street, Mercers’ Street, &c.

The fair was opened the day after Candlemas Day. It was greatly frequented by traders from Amiens, Beaumont, Rheims, Orleans, and Nugent, with various sorts of cloth and textile fabrics. The goldsmiths, jewellers, and toymen of Paris made a fine display of their wares.

There were brought to this fair, one year with another, some 1,400 bales of cloth and other woollen stuffs, of which the inspector of manufactures at the Custom-house, Paris, was required to keep a particular register. Two inspectors of the fair were required to be present at the opening of the bales of goods. There was also a further inspection made by the Masters and Wardens of the Guilds of Drapery and Mercery.