Hampshire.
Sept 12.]
Hampshire.
A fair used to be celebrated at Winchester on the 12th of September, and was by far the greatest fair in the kingdom. The mayor resigned the keys of the four gates to a magistrate appointed by the bishop, and collectors were stationed on all the roads. Merchants resorted to it from distant parts of Europe, and it formed a temporary city; each street being appropriated to different commodities.—Historical and Descriptive Guide to Winchester, 1829, p. 86.
Sept. 14.] HOLY-ROOD DAY.
Sept. 14.]
HOLY-ROOD DAY.
This festival, called also Holy-Cross Day, was instituted by the Romish Church on account of the recovery of a large piece of the cross by the Emperor Heraclius, after it had been taken away on the plundering of Jerusalem by Chosroes, King of Persia.
It appears to have been customary to go a-nutting upon this day, from the following passage in the old play of Grim the Collier of Croydon: