Fairs, past and present

by Cornelius Walford

The Quantity of Wool only, which has been sold at this Place at one Fair, has been said to amount to £50,000 or £60,000 in value, some say a great deal more.

By these Articles a Stranger may make some guess at the immense Trade carry’d on at this Place; what prodigious Quantities of Goods are bought and sold here, and what a confluence of People are seen here from all Parts of England.

I might go on here to speak of several other sorts of English Manufactures, which are brought hither to be sold; as all sorts of wrought Iron, and Brass-Ware from Birmingham; Edg’d Tools, Knives, &c., from Sheffield; Glass-Wares and Stockings from Nottingham, and Leicester; and an infinite Throng of other things of smaller value, every Morning.

To attend this Fair, and the prodigious conflux of People which come to it, there are sometimes not less than fifty Hackney Coaches, which come from London, and ply Night and Morning to carry the People to and from Cambridge; for there the gross of the People lodge; nay, which is still more strange, there are Wherries brought from London on Waggons to plye upon the little River Cam, and to row People up and down from the Town, and from the Fair as Occasion presents.

It is not to be wondered at, if the Town of Cambridge cannot Receive or Entertain the Numbers of People that come to this Fair; not Cambridge only, but all the Towns round are full; nay, the very Barns, and Stables are turn’d into Inns, and made as fit as they can to Lodge the meaner Sort of People.

As for the People in the Fair, they all universally Eat Drink and Sleep in their Booths and Tents; and the said Booths are so intermingled with Taverns, Coffee-Houses, Drinking-Houses, Eating-Houses, Cook-Shops, &c., and all in Tents too; and so many Butchers, and Hagglers from all the Neighboring Counties come into the Fair every Morning with Beef, Mutton, Fowls, Butter, Bread, Cheese, Eggs, and such things; and go with them from Tent to Tent, from Door to Door, that there’s no want of any Provisions of any kind, either dres’d or undres’d.

In a Word, the Fair is like a well Fortify’d City, and there is the least Disorder and Confusion (I believe) that can be seen anywhere, with so great a Concourse of People.

Towards the latter End of the Fair, and when the great Hurry of Wholesale Business begins to be over, the Gentry come in, from all parts of the County round; and tho’ they come for their diversion; yet ’tis not a little Money, they lay out; which generally falls to the share of the Retailers, such as Toy-shops, Goldsmiths, Brasiers, Ironmongers, Turners, Milleners, Mercers, &c., and some loose Coins, they reserve for the Puppet Shows, Drolls, Rope-Dancers, and such-like, of which there is no want, though not considerable like the rest: The last Day of the Fair is the Horse-Fair, where the whole is closed with both Horse and Foot-Races, to divert the meaner Sort of People only, for nothing considerable is offered of that Kind: Thus Ends the whole Fair, and in less than a week more, there is scarce any sign left that there has been such a thing there....

I should have mention’d, that here is a Court of Justice always open, and held every Day in a Shed built on purpose in the Fair; this is for keeping the Peace, and deciding Controversies in matters Deriving from the Business of the Fair: The Magistrates of the Town of Cambridge are Judges in this Court, as being in their Jurisdiction, or they are holding it by special Priviledge: Here they determine Matters in a Summary way, as is practis’d in those we call Pye-Powder Courts in other Places, or as a Court of Conscience; and they have a final Authority without Appeal.