We did not communicate the affair to his excellency; but one of his servants concealed him in his own room till Wednesday, on which day the ambassador’s coach and six was to go down to Dover to meet his brother. My lord put on a livery, and went down in the retinue, without the least suspicion, to Dover, where Mr. Mitchell (which was the name of the ambassador’s servant) hired a small vessel, and immediately set sail for Calais. The passage was so remarkably short, that the captain threw out this reflection, that the wind could not have served better if his passengers had been flying for their lives, little thinking it to be really the case. Mr. Mitchell might have easily returned without being suspected of being concerned in my lord’s escape; but my lord seemed inclined to have him continue with him, which he did, and has at present a good place under our young master.
This is as exact and full an account of this affair, and of the persons concerned in it, as I could possibly give you, to the best of my memory, and you may rely on the truth of it. I am, with the strongest attachment, my dear sister, your’s most affectionately,
WINIFRED NITHSDALE.
ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST RISE OF FAIRS IN ENGLAND, AND THE MANNER OF LIVING IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES.
Before the necessaries or ornaments of life from the convenience of communication and the increase of provincial intercourse could be procured in towns, through the medium of shops, goods and commodities of every kind were chiefly sold at fairs, to which, as to one universal mart, the people resorted periodically, and supplied most of their wants for the ensuing year.
Fairs and markets were at first held near the castles of the great barons, and near the cathedrals and principal churches in the cities and great towns, not only to prevent frauds in the king’s duties or customs, but also as they were esteemed places where the laws of the land were observed, and as such had a very particular privilege.
The display of merchandize and the conflux of customers at these principal and only emporia of domestic commerce were prodigious, and they were, therefore, often held on open and extensive plains.
It appears from a curious record containing the establishment and expenses of the Earl of Northumberland in the year 1512, that the stores of his lordship’s house at Wressle, for the whole year were laid in from fairs; “He that stands charged with my lord’s house for the whole year, if he may possible, shall be at all fairs, where the gross emptions (that is the principal articles) shall be bought for the house for the whole year, as wine, wax, beeves, muttons, wheat and malt.”
This quotation is a proof that fairs were at that time the principal marts for purchasing necessaries in large quantities, which now are supplied by trading towns, and the mention of buying beeves and muttons, (oxen and sheep) shews that at so late a period they knew but little of breeding cattle.
The great increase of shops in the retail trade in all the towns and villages through the kingdom since the commencement of the eighteenth century, by means of which the inhabitants are supplied with every article necessary for subsistence as well as for luxury, has in a great measure rendered useless the purposes for which fairs were originally established. This change in the domestic trade of the country may be attributed partly to the facility of payment given by the notes of the bank of England and inland bills of exchange, and partly to the more speedy and certain intercourse which has been produced by the regularity of the post office. The latter may be looked upon as the cause and the former the effect of this change which has so completely altered the state of fairs throughout the kingdom.