of the realm, who would therefore carry the sickness back with them over the whole country, if the fair were to be kept as usual. It was too necessary, however, to the public convenience to be altogether suppressed even for a single year: all that was attempted, therefore, was to establish certain regulations with the object of diminishing, as much as possible, the concourse of people, or the danger thence arising. These regulations give a good view of what Bartholomew fair was two hundred and fifty years ago. Her majesty commands, "That, in the usual place of Smithfield, there be no manner of market for any wares kept, nor any stalls or booths for any manner of merchandise, or for victuals, suffered to be set up; but that the open place of the ground called Smithfield be only occupied with the sale of horses and cattle, and of stall wares, as butter, cheese, and such like, in gross, and not by retail; the same to continue for two days only. And, for vent of woollen cloths, kerseys, and linen cloths, to be all sold in gross, and not by retail, the same shall be all brought within the Close Yard [afterwards called the Cloth Fair] of St. Bartholomew's, where shops are there continued, and have gates to shut the same place in the nights, and there such cloth to be offered for sale, and to be bought in gross, and not by retail; the same market to continue but three days. And that the sale and vent for leather be kept in the outside of the ring in Smithfield, as hath been accustomed, without erecting any shops or booths for the same, or for any victualler or other occupier of any ways whatsoever." From this we may gather that Bartholomew fair was in those days a great annual mart to which merchants used to come up from the various parts of the country, and perhaps from other countries, to make their wholesale purchases, just as some of the continental fairs still are. The object of the regulations was to prevent the holding of the retail market, by which, of course, the crowd of visitors was chiefly attracted; but the wholesale market was too indispensable to the general trade of the country to be interfered with.
Our space will only allow us to add a few out of many
