Fairs, past and present

by Cornelius Walford

If it is a Diversion worthy of a Book to treat of Trifles, such as the Gayety of Bury Fair, it cannot be very unpleasant, especially to the Trading part of the World, to say something of this Fair, which is not only the greatest in the whole Nation, but in the World; nor, if I may believe those who have seen them all, is the Fair at Leipsick in Saxony, the Mart at Frankfort on the Main, or the Fairs at Nuremberg or Ausburg, any way to compare to this Fair at Sturbridge.

It is kept in a large Corn-field, near Casterton, extending from the side of the River Cam, towards the Road, for about half a Mile square.

If the Husbandmen who rent the Land, do not get their Corn off before a certain Day in August, the Fair-Keepers may trample it under foot, and spoil it, to build their Booths: On the other Hand, to ballance that Severity, if the Fair-Keepers have not done their Business of the Fair, and remov’d and clear’d the field by another certain Day in September, the Plowmen may come in again, with Plow and Cart, and overthrow all and trample it into the Dirt; and as for the Filth, Dung, Straw, &c., necessarily left by the Fair-Keepers, the Quantity of which is very great, it is the Farmers Fees, and makes them full amends for the trampling, riding, and carting upon, and hardening the Ground.

It is impossible to describe all the Parts and Circumstances of this Fair exactly; the Shops are placed in Rows like Streets, whereof one is call’d Cheapside; and here, as in several other Streets, are all sorts of Trades, who sell by Retale, and who come principally from London with their Goods; scarce any trades are omitted, Goldsmiths, Toy-shops, Braziers, Turners, Milleners, Haberdashers, Hatters, Mercers, Drapers, Pewterers, China-Warehouses, Taverns, Brandy-Shops, and Eating-Houses, innumerable, and all in Tents, and Booths, as above.

This great Street reaches from the Road, which as I said goes from Cambridge to Newmarket, turning short out of it to the Right towards the River, and holds in a Line near half a Mile quite down to the River-side: In another Street parallel with the Road are like Rows of Booths, but larger, and more intermingled with Wholesale Dealers, and on one side, passing out of this last Street to the Left Hand, is a formal great Square, form’d by the largest Booths, built in that Form, and which they called the Duddery; whence the name is deriv’d, and what its Signification is, I could never yet learn, tho’ I made all possible search into it. [Duddery is evidently derived from the old word Dudde, signifying cloth (“Promptorium Parvulorum,” ed. Way, i. 134). Duds for clothes is still used as a cant word, and by the Scotch (Bailey’s “Dictionary;” Glossaries to Burns and Walter Scott).] The area of this Square is about 80 to 100 yards, where the Dealers have room before every Booth to take down, and open their Packs, and to bring in Waggons to load and unload.

This place is separated, and Peculiar to the Wholesale Dealers in the Woollen Manufacture. Here the Booths, or Tents are of a vast Extent, have different apartments, and the Quantities of Goods they bring are so Great, that the Insides of them look like another Blackwell Hall, being as vast Ware-Houses pil’d up with Goods to the Top. In this Duddery, as I have been inform’d, there have been sold £100,000 worth of Woollen Manufactures in less than a Week’s time, besides the prodigious Trade carry’d on here, by Wholesale Men, from London, and all Parts of England, who transact their Business wholly in their Pocket-Books, and meeting their Chapmen from all Parts, make up their Accounts, receive money chiefly in Bills, and take Orders: These they say exceed by far the Sales of Goods actually brought to the Fair, and deliver’d in Kind; it being frequent for the London Wholesale Men to carry back orders from their Dealers for £10,000 worth of Goods a Man, and some much more. This especially respects those People, who deal in heavy Goods, as Wholesale Grocers, Salters, Brasiers, Iron-Merchants, Wine-Merchants, and the like; but does not exclude the Dealers in Woollen Manufactures, and especially in Mercery Goods of all sorts, the Dealers in which generally manage their Business in this manner.

Here are Clothiers from Hallifax, Leeds, Wakefield and Huthersfield in Yorkshire, and from Rochdale, Bury, &c., in Lancashire, with vast Quantities of Yorkshire Cloths, Kerseyes, Pennistons, Cottons, &c., with all sorts of Manchester Ware, Fustians, and things made of Cotton Wool; of which the Quantity is so great, that they told me there were near a thousand Horse-Packs of such Goods from that side of the Country, and these took up a side and a half of the Duddery at least; also a part of a street of Booths were taken up with Upholsterer’s Ware, such as Tickings, Sackings, Kidderminster Stuffs, Blankets, Rugs, Quilts, &c.

In the Duddery I saw one Ware-house or Booth with six Apartments in it, all belonging to a Dealer in Norwich Stuffs only, and who they said had there above £20,000 value in those Goods, and no other.

Western Goods had their Share here also, and several Booths were fill’d as full with Serges, Du-Roys, Druggets, Shalloons, Cantaloons, Devonshire Kersies, &c., from Exeter, Taunton, Bristol, and other Parts West, and some from London also.