… The grandest and most numerously frequented booth in the whole fair however is "The Crown and Anchor," a temporary ballroom—we forget how many feet long—the price of admission to which is one shilling…. The dancing itself beggars description—every figure lasts about an hour, and the ladies bounce up and down the middle with a degree of spirit which is quite indescribable. As to the gentlemen they stamp their feet upon the ground every time "hands four round" begins, go down the middle and up again with cigars in their mouths and silk handkerchiefs in their hands, and whirl their partners round, nothing loth, scrambling and falling and knocking up against the other couples, until they are fairly tired out and can move no longer.
Dickens, Sketches by Boz.
UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, THE GRESHAM PRESS, WOKING AND LONDON.
Footnotes
[1] Fine for buying or selling contrary to the rules of the market.
[2] Services or conveniences, yielding no direct profit, which a holder of property rights had in respect of his neighbours, e.g., right of way, lights.
[3] Foreign here denotes all persons not inhabitants of Oxford.
[4] "Prance high, and rear their supple necks." From Virgil's Georgics.
[5] Passage was probably the due payable for the use of ferries.