1700.
There was published “A Step to Stirbitch-fair, with remarks upon the University of Cambridge,” by Edward Ward. Like all “Ned Ward’s” books, it is written in a coarse slangy style; and I do not find anything throwing much light upon the fair, except in the matter of book auctions, of which his account is very amusing.
1701. The mayor and corporation having given a company of actors leave to perform at the fair without the sanction of the Vice-chancellor, and in defiance of his authority, the senate, on the 4th Sept. passed a grace enacting that the privileges of the University should be defended and vindicated at the public charge; and in the meantime, to prevent a breach of discipline the authority of proctors during the time of the fair was conferred on sixty-two Masters of Arts, and it was decreed that whoever disobeyed them should ipso facto incur the penalty of expulsion.
It seems that the Vice-chancellor (Dr. Bentley) committed Dogget the actor to gaol, and ordered the booth built for the theatre to be demolished.
1705. The London newspapers of this year announced “That the fair would be proclaimed on the 7th Sept. with great solemnity by the Vice-chancellor of the University, the Mayor of the Town, accompanied by Lord Duplin and Mr. Cadogan, the representatives in Parliament, the Recorder, Aldermen, &c., preceded by red-coats and other officers on horseback, with music playing before them; that it was expected there would be greater concourse of people and a more flourishing trade than had been known for several years past, owing to the conduct of a set of gentlemen who were endeavouring to revive the reputation of a fair not many years ago the most considerable in Europe.” This announcement, which in great part contained nothing out of the common, it turned out was inserted at the instance of a Londoner who was going to see the fair for the first time; and it had the effect of drawing together more people than had been seen there for ten years. The visitor in question records in the “Gentleman’s Magazine” that he regularly took coach every afternoon at the Market-hill (Cambridge) with other gownsmen, drinking tea at the Coffee-booth, “where now and then we had the company of some very agreeable ladies of Cambridge town and education, and a fortnight was thus spent.”
1709. There was published in London: “Nundinæ Sturbrigienses,” a poem in Latin hexameters, of some five hundred lines, by Th. Hill, Coll. Trin. Cant. Soc. It is included in vol. ii. “Musæ Anglicanæ,” editio quinta. Londini, ex officina J. S. R. Tonson and J. Watts, 1741. An * indicates that the poem in question was added to this edition, and not found in former ones. The poem gives a description of the fair as it existed in the reign of Queen Anne.
1710. The question of the preachership of the fair referred to under date 1650, came up this year in strong force. The corporation had usually appointed the minister of Barnwell, but this year they appointed another, a fellow of King’s College. Their right to the nomination was now disputed by the improprietor and minister of Barnwell. The corporation resolved to maintain their nominee, and the opposing parties advertised their intention of standing on what they regarded as their rights. Proceedings were accordingly commenced in the Bishop of Ely’s court. The following year (Sept. 1711) the Vicar of Barnwell published the following:—
Whereas ’tis the resolution of the corporation of Cambridge, against the present incumbent of Barnwell, to set up a preacher in Sturbridge Fair; being led thereinto by artificially persuading some of his predecessors into an illegal note, against the patron, his clerks and successors in the said living: and Sturbridge Fair being in the parish of Little St. Andrew’s, Barnwell, and the ministers thereof have (when right and law prevail) time out of mind, without any disturbance (the said corporation of Cambridge finding alwaies a pulpit) performed the service of the two Lord’s-days during the said fair, with their congregation, service-books, vestments, pulpit ornaments, and parish-clerk, in gratitude for the collection that hath been there alwaies made, for the better support of themselves under their small parochial income, till the last year 1710; for which intrusion, then, the unwary usurper was censured in the Bishop’s ecclesiastical court: These do humbly give notice to the gentlemen of the fair, that the pulpit not being allowed this year as usual, and it not being known soon enough to provide one, the service of the Lord’s day, during this present fair, will be performed in the parish-church, morning and evening, by the minister of Barnwell.