THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Ex Libris [ C. K. OGDEN MEMOIRS OF BARTHOLOMEW FAIR. MEMOIRS OF BARTHOLOMEW FAIR HENRY MORLEY. WITH FACSIMILE DRAWINGS, ENGRAVED UPON WOOD, BY THE BROTHERS DALZIEL. Omnia Mors pofcit : Lex eft, non Pcena, per ire. SENECA. LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. 1859. D/US3 LONDON J BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFBIARS. WITH FRIENDSHIP TO JOHN FORSTER, BY WHOSE LIFE OF GOLDSMITH THE HOME FEELINGS ARE REFINED: AND BY WHOSE STUDIES OF THE COMMONWEALTH THE WISDOM OF GOOD CITIZENSHIP IS ENLARGED AND STRENGTHENED. PREFACE. SINCE I am here occupying virgin foil in a part of the wild diftricl beyond the bounds of cultivated hiflory, I may be pardoned perhaps if my ground is not at once flaked out in the befl manner , and my fields are not Jo trim as thofe combed by the ploughs and harrows of fuccejfive generations. 'This is not only the firfl hiflory of Bartholomew Fair, but the firfl ferious hiflory of any Fair ; even the general fubjecJ of Fairs, as far as I can learn, has never been thought worthy of a book. Tet what a diflinft chapter in facial hiflory fliould be contained in the flory, rightly told, of any Great National Fair ! When I firfl refolved upon the writing oftheje Memoirs, Iknewfimply that Bartholomew Fair was an unwritten portion of the flory of the people. Bound once to the life of the nation by the three ties of Religion, 'Trade, and Pleafure, firfl came a time when the tie of Religion was unloofened from it ; then it was a place of Trade and Pleafure. A few more generations having lived and worked, Trade was no longer bound to it. The nation flill grew, and at lafl broke from it even as a Pleafure Fair. It lived for feven centuries or more, and of its death we viii Preface. are the witneffes. Surely, me thought s there is a ftory here ; the Memoirs of a Fair do not mean only a bundle of hand- bills or a catalogue of monfters. And thus the volume was planned which is now offered to the reader, with a lively fenfe of its fliort comings. Confcious of what fuch a book might have been, and ought to be, I feel how much of crudity there is in this, and only know too well how dimly the foul of it glimmers through itsfubftance. 'There has been no lack of matter to make Jub fiance. In the Library of the Corporation of London at Guildhall is a valuable collection of cuttings, handbills, and references to authorities, made by a gentleman who had defigned the publication of a book upon Bartholomew Fair. There is in the Britifh Mufeum another collection, made with a like purpofe, lefs valuable, but containing much that is not found in the collection at Guildhall. In the Guildhall Library there are alfo handbills bought by the City, rare traEls, and various MS. notes, from which illufiration of the Jlory of the Fair was to be drawn. To the Committee of St. Bartholomew's Hofpital / am indebted for permijjion to examine the old records in their keeping. Let me add that the fault is mine if I have not made ufe enough of the great courtefy with which this formal permiffion was carried out in practice, and of the ready kindnefs with which help was offered me by Mr. White, the Treajurer, Mr. Wix, the Secretary, and the Rev. Mr. Mitchell, Chaplain of the Hofpital. Here alfo let me acknowledge the good humour with Preface. ix which the Rev. Mr. Abbifs, reclor of St. Bartholomew's the Great, permitted the irruption of a ftranger into his veftry, and fent him away not empty of the information that he fought. Private friends do not need public thanks, but even here I muft not pajs without acknowledgment the help I have had from my friend Mr. James Gairdner, of the Record Office, who has, not only faved me all trouble of Jearch among the Public Records, but who, by his exacl, know- ledge of old fources of hiftory, has now and then given the book valuable help. Moreover, it would be a capital omiffion if I did not Jpecially thank Mr. Henry Hicks, of Highbury Crejcent, for accefs to fome of the papers of the late Mr. Richard Hicks, Deputy of Caftle Baynard Ward. Mr. Richard Hicks bound his name in the memory of fellow citizens with the later hiftory of Smithfield, and was the member of the Corporation engaged mojl prominently in the final fupprejjion of Bartholomew Fair. He took notes at the time, and many of them are preferved. 'There is enough extant evidence of his refearch to have imprej/ed me greatly with a Jenje of the confcientious work that may be done even by a member of the City Parliament, when he devotes his public energies in all fincerity to any queftion. The jottings upon Mr. Hicks 's papers bring together, from all forts of books and Corporation records, a great number of details about Smithfield, about the hiftory of tolls, and about the relation of the City to the Fair. As to the JuppreJ/ion of the Fair, they contain extracts from the books x Preface. of the City Lands' Committee, now and then alfo notes written by himfelf at the time in the committee-room. It needs not many words to tell of how much ufe thoje papers have been to me. Thus, while I may expefl allowance to be made for the rough way in which I have flaked out my little claim upon virgin foil, yet is the foil Jo rich that I fear I muft go unpardoned if it Jhall prove to have yielded to my tillage but a f canty harveft. Though I have raifed and garnered all the knowledge I could get about the Fair, there certainly was more attainable : there are pamphlets and collections, doubtlefs, that I have not feen ; collectors whom I have not fought. I feel convinced alfo that I muft have overlooked, through ignorance, fa els known to many of my readers. Therefore I /hall be moft thankful for all further informa- tion that may come to me from any four ce. For as much as this volume can tell of Bartholomew Fair I have ejpecially wifhed to entitle it to credit as, at any rate, an honeft record. For aid in this refpeft it is my duty to thank Mr. H. Sydney Barton, the excellent draughtfman employed by Meflrs. Dalziel the wood- engravers, in taking Jketches and facfimiles for the pictures, varying between copies of the rudeft of old woodcuts and the imitation of fine etching upon metal, with which it is illuftrated. Mr. Barton has exactly met my wijh for minute faithfulnejs in the copying of everything reprefented. Even when, as in the cafe of the defign for a Bartholomew Fan, or Rowlandfon's fcenes of the Fair, comprehenfive pictures have been broken up into the feveral groups which Preface. xi they contain, no artiJVs liberty whatever has been taken with any one of the fragments Jo detached. Accurate work is 'very hard to find. Moft of the illuflrations in this book are now for the firfl time drawn (ujually on a reduced Jcale) from the illuminations, looje engravings, or handbills, in which they firjl appeared; about half a dozen of them, however, have been reproduced before in other works, and not even in one injlance has the copy truly reprejented the original. In this book, with the exception mentioned in a note upon page 7, nothing of which the original is extant has been reprefented from a copy. A Jecond exception, mentioned by anticipation in that note, was Jet ajide after the jheet had gone to prejs, by the difcovery of an original map older and more fitted to the text than that of which a copy was to have been ujed. Outfide oration is the Fa/hion of the Fair ; therefore I hope, that I have not Jaid too much from the platform of my little /how. Secretly I fear that, like all other Jhows, it will be found more tempting in promije than Jujficient in performance. But it is not the part of a wife fliowman to Jay that. He has his own appointed peroration. Let him, therefore, dijcreetly remember that he mufl ajk Gentlemen, Ladies, and Children, to walk in. 'To maids and boys I Jing. The place about our Jlanding is well Jwept, and there is no dirt of the Fair here to offend them. NEVER BEFORE EXHIBITED. BARTHOLOMEW THE ROYAL SMITHFIELD GIANT. SEVEN HUNDRED YEARS OF AGE. HlS MOTHER *S AT ROME AND HIS FATHER'S AT BRADFORD. To BE SEEN A-LIVE. Vivat Regina ! <{ Shall there be good Vapour ? " xii Preface. demands an acquaintance of Ben Jonfon's, Captain Knockem Jordan. 'The little o of the Fair is vapour now, and it was vapour from the fir ft Slth all that in the 'world is great and gay, Doth as a Vapour *uanijk and decay As much alive as ever, then. The fliow is open. BARTHOLOMEW THE ANCIENT KING OF SMITH- FIELD, IN HIS ROYAL ROBES, SURROUNDED BY HIS COURT OF CELEBRATED MONSTERS, ALL ALIVE ! Jujl opened ! May it pleafe you to look in / H. M. 4., UPPER PARK ROAD, HAVERSTOCK HILL, December, 1858. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Page THE FOUNDER OF THE FAIR I CHAPTER II. THE FIRST FAIRS . . . . ' . . . . . .16 CHAPTER III. BARTHOLOMEW JUGGLERS . . 25 CHAPTER IV. THE FAIR IN THE PRIORY CHURCHYARD . . . . 44 CHAPTER V. OLD CHRONICLES 65 CHAPTER VI. LITERATURE AND COMMERCE . 80 CHAPTER VII. THE CITY FAIR . . . . IO1 CHAPTER VIII. A CHANGE OF MASTERS: LONDON AND LORD RICH . . . 169 xiv Contents. CHAPTER IX. Page TO THE YEAR SIXTEEN HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN . . .119 CHAPTER X. IN BEN JONSON'S TIME 145 CHAPTER XI. OLIVER'S DAY 182 CHAPTER XII. DAGON . ..... 229 CHAPTER XIII. THE HUSTLING OF THE POPE 254 CHAPTER XIV. REVELLERS 282 CHAPTER XV. AFTER THE REVOLUTION ........ 298 CHAPTER XVI. MONSTERS 315 CHAPTER XVII. AT THE BEGINNING OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY . . . 333 CHAPTER XVIII. THE PLAYHOUSE AT THE FAIR ELKANAH SETTLE . . . 357 CHAPTER XIX. THE CITY AGAINST THE FAIR 378 Contents. CHAPTER XX. Page UNDER THE FIRST GEORGES 387 CHAPTER XXI. FIELDING'S BOOTH AT THE GEORGE INN YARD .... 400 CHAPTER XXII. STATE PAPERS 422 CHAPTER XXIII. LAST YEARS OF THE CONDEMNED 441 CHAPTER XXIV. EARTH TO EARTH .......... 489 INDEX 495 ERRATA. Page 7, line 2 in note, for Profeflbr read brother of the ProfefTor. 4 J 9> 9 from bottom, omit was. 5 from bottom, for with the old name readin her old part. 420, laft line but one, for memoirs read memories. LIST OF ENGRAVINGS. PAGE An Evening in Smithfield : Fair time, 1808 [Extract from a picture by Rovvlandfon] Title-page Initial Letter [from MS. Book of the Foundation of the Priory, now in the Britifh Mufeum] . . . i Priory Seal : St. Bartholomew [from a copy by Mr. W. A. Delamotte] . . , . 7 Priory Seal: Rayer [from the fame] . . . .14 Pike and Gudgeon [from John Cok's MS. Rental at St. Bar- tholomew's Hofpital] . .45 Fox and Goofe [from the fame] 27 Effigy of Rayer [from his tomb in the Church of St. Bartho- lomew the Great] . . 32 Cripples at a Shrine [from a MS. of Gregory's Decretals (i3th century), formerly belonging to the Priory of St. Bartho- lomew, now in the Britifh Mufeum] . . . .43 Middlefex PafTage : fragment of the old Priory [drawn on the r P0 45 From the Church of St. Bartho- lomew the Great : fragment PAGE of the old Priory [drawn on the fpot] . . . .47 Head of Rayer [from the effigy on his tomb, drawn on the fpot] 48 A Knight from the Horfe Market [MS. Decretals] ... 54 Smithfield Games (i3th cen- tury): whip-top, bat and ball, bowls, nine -pins, dice [MS. Decretals] . . . .56 Female Tumbler, Stilt-walker, Acrobats of the 1 3th century [MS. Decretals] . . .57 Wreftling, Buckler - fighting, Putting the Stone : i3th cen- tury [MS. Decretals] . . 59 The Monk at the Flefhpots [MS. Decretals] . . . .60 Mediaeval Demon [MS. Decre- tals] 65 Smithfield Joufts [MS. Decretals] 74 A Martyrdom on the fite of the Fair [from the firft edition of Fox's Martyrs] . . .79 The Hell Mouth of the Miracle Plays [MS. Decretals] . . 80 Satan Vanquifhed ; Perfons of a Miracle Play [MS. Decretals] 86 b Lift of Engravings. PAGE A Soul Saved: Perfons of a Miracle Play [MS. Decretals] 87 Weft Smithfield with the Priory and Hofpital, 1533 [from the oldeft extant Map of Lon- don, at the City Library, Guildhall] . . . . in Houfes in Cloth Fair [drawn on the fpot] . . . .122 Ben Jonfon's Bartholomew Fair [frontifpiece in Whalley's edi- tion, iflued as a loofe engrav- ing] 167 The Hare of the Tabor [from an illuminated MS. of Hours of the Virgin : Harleian, No. 6563] . . . .170 Blowing the Serpent [facfimile of woodcut on the title of Bar- tholomew Faire, or a Variety of Fancies, &c., 164.1] . .185 The Hand and Shears [no longer ftanding; copied from Wilkin- fon's Londina \llujlratd\ . 237 The Foppifh Rope-Dancer [from the title-page to News from Bartholomew Fair (circa 1663)] 239 Jacob Hall, the Rope -Dancer [from an engraved copy (pub- limed 1 792) of a rare print after Van Ooft, formerly poffeffed by Sir John St. Aubyn] . 24.6 Ballad Singers [from a detached print, the drawing by N. Lauron, part of a feries, "fold by H. Overton, without New- gate"] 283 Mountebank [from the fame] . 284 Merry Andrew : William Phil- lips [from a detached print, PAGE drawing by N. Lauron, one of the fame feries] . . . 293 The Bartholomew Fair Mufi- cian : W. Phillips [from a loofe print, of another feries] . 294. Mountebank and Zany [from the frontifpiece to The Harangues of Famous Mountebanks'] . .297 Jofeph Clark, the Pofture Mafter [from a loofe print] . -357 Gin -Stall, 1728 [from the fac- fimile of a drawing on a Bartholomew Fan, of the year 1728, publiftied (as Bartho- lomew Fair, 1721) by J. F. Setchel] . . . -393 Pickpockets' Harveft, 1 728 [from the fame] . . . -393 Familiar yet Diftant [from the fame] 393 Peepftiowof the Siege of Gibral- tar [from the fame] . -394 Lee and Harper's Booth, 1728 [from the fame] . . -394 Rope-dancing Booth, 1728 [from the fame] .... 395 Fawkes, the Conjuror's Booth, 1728 [from the fame] . . 396 The Ups and Downs, 1728 [from the fame] .... 397 Delicate Pig and Pork [from the fame] ..... 398 Tiddy Doll, the Gingerbread Baker ... 1750 ... [from a loofe print, a copy of this figure from Hogarth's Idle Appren- tice at Tyburn] . . .435 Powell the Fire Eater . . . 1760 . . . [from a loofe print] . 439 Lift of Engravings. PAGE Roger Smith, of the Cap and Bells . . . 1760 . . . [from the fame] . . . . . 439 A Caufe before the Court of Pie- powder [loofe print] . -445 Booth-aftors' Refrefhment [from a loofe print, drawn and en- graved by Theo. Lane] . . 446 Punch's Puppet Show [the title to a folding meet fold in the Fair, 1790] . . . .455 Scene in a Puppet Show : Pull Devil, pull Baker [from the folding meet] . . . 456 Mr. Lane the Conjuror [from his bill of performance] . . 457 Kelham Whitelamb [from a pen and ink (ketch in the Collection of Cuttings, &c., on the fubje6l of Bartholomew Fair, at the Britim Mufeum] . . . 460 The Unicorn Ram [from a loofe print to be had at the Show] . 460 The Ram with Six Legs [from the fame] . . . .461 The Show Booths of the Fair [from a print by Rowlandfon, in which the drawing is afcribed to John Nixon, Efq.] . . 464 Grand Theatrical Booth, exit and entrance of the public [from the fame] . . . .465 The Swings [from the fame] . 466 Quiet People leave the Fair [from the fame] .... 467 Gambling and Feafting in the Saufage Market [from another fcene of the Fair by Rowland- fon and Pugin] . . .467 PAGE Noife of the Fair [from the fame] ..... 467 Mifs Biffin [from a lithograph published in 1823] . . .468 Mafter Vine [from a loofe print, publifhed by G. Smeeton, Old Bailey] - ' . -" - . . 469 The Beautiful Albinefs [from a mezzotint, published, 1816, by John Bell] .... 470 Mrs. Carey [from a coloured lithographic miniature] . . 474 Madame Giradelli,the Fire-proof Lady [from a loofe print, vividly coloured, C. W. fecit"] 475 Mr. Simon Paap, the Dutch Dwarf [from a portrait by S. Woolley, engraved and pub- limed by W. Worfliip] . .476 His Autograph [from the Col- leclion of Bartholomew Fair Cuttings, &c., Brit. Mufeum] 476 James Sharp England, the Flying Pieman [from a loofe engrav- ing] 479 Hot Gingerbread ! [from the fame] ..... 479 A Long-tail Pig or a Short-tail Pig [from the fame] . -479 Toby, the Learned Pig [from his bill of performance] . . 480 The Amazing Pig of Know- ledge [from the fame] . .481 The Beautiful Spotted Negro Boy [from the fame] . .483 Among the Wild Beafts [from one of Wombwell's bills] . 484 Elephant and Zebra [from the fame] . . . . 484 Lift of Engravings. PAGE The Mermaid [from a coloured etching by George Cruik- fhank, 1822] . . . 4.86 The Learned Cats [from their bill of performance] . . .487 Tail-piece [from the Head-piece to a Seven Dials reprint of PAGE Mathews's Humours of Bar- tholomew Fair] . . .488 An Evening in Smithfield : Fair time, 1858 [drawn on the fpot, at the gateway leading into Cloth Fair the place of Pro- clamation] .... 494 OF BARTHOLOMEW FAIR, CHAPTER I. vJ ffnrst sljal be feus ftunkr of ofcrm HE beginning of Bartholomew Fair was a grant from Henry the Firft to a Monk who had been formerly his Jefter. It was that Jefter, Rayer, who founded the Priory of St. Bartholomew, in later times transformed into a Hofpital for the Sick Poor. By a friar who lived in the Priory not long after the death of Rayer (or as he was called in Latin, Raherus, Englifhed back into Ra- here,) the life of the Founder was written ; all its laft incidents being fupplied from the memory of perfons Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair. CHAP. I. on the fpot. By two other friars who lived afterwards in the Priory, this life in Latin and in later Englifh was engrofled on parchment, carefully adorned with orna- mental fcrolls and gay illuminated letters. Among the gilt ornaments and the illuminations we find the begin- ning of the ftory of the Fair.* Rayer of good remembrance, as the manufcript informs us, founded the Priory in honour of the moft blefled Bartholomew Apoftle, after the rule of the moft holy Father Auftin, and lived in it twenty-two years, ufing the office and dignity of a Prior ; not having cunning of liberal fcience, but having that which is more eminent than all cunning, for he was richeft in purity of confcience. Among all the virtues fet down to his credit we find bright manners and prudent bufinefs in temporal miniftration. Bufy he was ; and it concerns us that his bufy mind begot the fair for the advantage of his order : he had alfo a cunning fuited to the prefent meaning of the word, for in his friar's robes he made much money as a juggler. But, fays the biographer, c< in what order he fet the fundament of this temple, in few words let us mew as they teftified to us that faw him, heard him, and were prefent in his works and deeds ; of the which fome have taken their fleep in Chrift, and fome of them be yet alive and witnefleth of that that we mall after fay. ff This man, born of low lineage, when he attained In the Britifh Mufeurn, Cotton MSS. Vefpafian B ix., Liber Fundacionis ecclie fancti Bartholomei Londinarum ptinent. prioratui eiufdem in Wefte Smythfelde (Latin and Englifh). The initial letter to this Chapter is that of the Manufcript. The heading also, with change of a word, is that of its firft Englifli chapter. A.D. II2O. The Founder of the Fair. the flower of youth, he began to haunt the houfeholds of noblemen and the palaces of princes, where, under every elbow of them, he fpread their cumions with japes and flatterings, delectably anointing their ears, by this manner to draw to him their friendfhips. And yet he was not content with this, but oft haunted the King's palace, and among the noifeful prefs of that tumultuous court inforced himfelf with jollity and carnal fuavity, by the which he might draw to him the hearts of many one there. In fpectacles, in meats, in plays, and other courtly motleys and trifles intending, he led forth the bufinefs of all the day. And now to King's attendance, now following the intent of great men, prefled in proffering fervice that might pleafe them, bufily fo occupied his time that he might obtain the rather the petitions that he mould defire of them. Thiswife to king and great men gentle and courteous, known, familiar, and fellowly he was. This manner of living he chofe in his beginning, and in this exercifed his youth." So runs the record. So in fpectacles, meats, plays, and other courtly motleys were laid the foundations of the Royal favour that beftowed on Bartholomew in Weft Smithfield the fite of his Priory and of his Fair. Henry the Firft was the king upon whom Rayer waited as jefter, or minftrel. He was a king eafily moved through fuperftition. In one year, we are told by Fabian's Chronicle, he had divers monitions and vifions ; for, among other fearful dreams, he faw a great company of clerks, with divers weapons, which menaced him for debt that he mould owe unto 4 Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair. CHAP. i. them ; and, when they were patted, he was menaced to death of his own knights ; and laftly appeared to him a great company of bifhops, which threatened him, and would have fmitten him with their crofTes. By this monition, he took remorfe in his confcience, and did great deeds of charity in Normandy and England. One of them was the building of Reading Abbey, which was founded at about the fame time as Rayer's Priory of St. Bartholomew. When Henry died he left two characters behind him. " The fame of him faid that he patted other men in three things, in wit, in eloquence, and in fortune of battle ; and other faid he was over- comen with three vices, with covetife, with cruelty, and with luft of lechery." * Of our next king, Stephen, Malmefbury records the "readinefs to joke." Even Henry the Second, by whofe charter, foon after Rayer's death, the fair was confirmed, relifhed buffoonery. A robufl man, who kept down a tendency to corpulence by incettant activity of body, he was a mighty hunter, and, when not reading or at council, had always in his hand a fword, a hunting-fpear, or a bow. In difcutting bufinefs, he flood or walked. Yet his wit was lively, and with his intimate friends he was exceedingly familiar. In the day of Becket's power, he and Becket, after they had made an end of ferious affairs, would play together like two boys of the fame age. Fitzftephen, who fays this in his Life of Becket, gives an inftance, which will fhew clearly enough that there was yet vocation for a jefter at the court of the wifeft and moft vigorous of the Plantagenets. One * Fabian's Chronicle, cap. 229. A.D. H2i. The Founder of the Fair. 5 day the king was riding by the fide of his chancellor through the ftreets of London, in cold, ftormy weather, when his Majefty faw coming towards them a poor old man, in a thin coat, worn to tatters. " Would it not be a great charity," (faid he to the chancellor) pontaticum, repaticum, and -portulaticum, abforbed one-half of a foreign merchant's goods upon their firft arrival and debarkation. But to the fair chartered by Dagobert, tc in honour of the Lord and to the glory of St. Denys at his feftival," traders came, exempt, not only from imperial taxation, but from many of the ordinary rifks of travel ; and it became, therefore, under the name of forum indiftum (whence Findift and its corruption to landit} an emporium for the iron and lead of the Saxons, for flaves, for the jewellery and perfumes of the Jews, for the oil, wine and fat of Provence and Spain, for the honey and madder of Neuftria and Brittany, for merchandife from Egypt and the Eaft. The fair which lafted for ten days following the tenth of October, was opened by a proceflion of monks from the Abbey of St. Denis ; and, in later times, it was ufual for the Parliament of Paris to allow itfelf a holiday called C 2 2.O Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair. CHAP. H. Landi, in order that its members might take part in the great marriage-feaft of commerce and religion. The granting of the King's f f firm peace," or " firmed peace," to all perfons coming to, flaying in, or returning from a fair, was not a mere technical form. Otto the Great ufed the fame phrafe on behalf of German fairs in the tenth century ; breakers of fuch peace were fet under ban ; and, where the right of private feud was recognifed, it was fufpended during fair time. Traders, on their way to or from a fair, and in the fair, were free from arreft, except for debts arifing out of commerce in the fair itfelf. This immunity was defined in the cafe of the then ancient Frankfort fair, by Charles the Fourth, in the fourteenth century, as freedom to fair- goers for eighteen days before and after the fair, during which they were to fear nothing from Imperial mandate, interdict, ban, or arreft. As further fecurity, Frederic the Firft had ordained that fuch traders mould carry fwords tied to their faddles, or fattened to the vehicles in which they rode, ff not for the hurt of the innocent, but for defence againft the robber." Again, becaufe there was no fettled provision for the feeding and lodging of a large number of travellers, who pafled but once a year over roads ufually unfrequented, and through towns but thinly peopled, fpecial licence was given to the inhabitants of any diftrict fo traverfed to convert their houfes during fair time into inns. The Free Fairs of the continent were thofe which invited foreign trade, for to them all merchants might enter from abroad exempt from every public impoft, and fecure againft all detention of their goods ; they had A.D. 3001300. The Firft Fairs. 21 fimply to pay the tolls of the fair to the church, city, or perfon on whom they had been conferred by royal grant. But this privilege was forfeited if goods were fold out of the fair, or if the trader did not remain during the whole fair time, feeking or awaiting pur- chafers. There were alfo in France and Germany fmall fairs that received only local privileges, and to which foreign trade was not brought by a free opening of ports ; but the great national fairs were always centres of free trade, and the refort to them of merchants from abroad was not only expected, but fometimes even folicited. Thus in the year 1314, Philip the Second, of France, complained to our King Edward the Second, that Britifh merchants had ceafed to frequent the French fairs with wood and other goods, and defired that they might be perfuaded or compelled to do fo. To add to the attractions of a fair, and more efpecially to induce the rich and powerful to refort to it with full purfes in their purfuit of pleafure, amufements were introduced. The beft entertainment offered to the curious in the firft days of modern hiftory was to be found, not in fixed cities, but among the tents of thofe great mifting capitals of trade. Thus the nobles of Languedoc betook themfelves in pleafure parties to the fair of Beaucaire, the nobles of Normandy to that of Guibray, German princes and lords amufed themfelves once a year at Frankfort and Leipfic, and in Bartho- lomew Fair there was entertainment good enough for royal vifitors. Grant of the tolls of a fair was then a conceflion from the crown of no mean value. It would help largely 22 Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair. CHAP. n. to the eftablimment and enrichment of a religious houfe, and was prudently fecured by Rayer when he laid the foundation of his priory of St. Bartholomew. Stour- bridge Fair, at one time perhaps the largeft in the world, is traced back to Caraufius ; but it was fpecially granted by King John for the maintenance of a hofpital for lepers, which had a chapel in the neighbourhood. Sometimes a fair was granted for the reftoration of a town or village that had been confumed by fire; this was, in the reign of Edward the Third, the origin of a fair held at Burley, in Rutlandshire. Owners and governors of fairs were bound to take care that everything was fold according to juft weight and meafure ; all goods fold were fold abfolutely, how- ever bad the title to them of the feller, faving only the rights of the King. In every fair there was its own court of prompt juftice, or Pie Poudre Court. Proprietors of fairs were authorifed alfo to appoint a clerk to mark and allow weights, and to take reafonable fees. By extortion they might lofe their franchife, or the franchife might fall by voluntary abandonment or difufe for ten years, and might be forfeited by revolt or excommuni- cation, or if the market was kept open beyond the period fpecified in the grant, a time that was to be declared at each opening by proclamation. Any perfon felling goods in the fair after its time was expired, forfeited double their value, one fourth of the forfeit being due to the profecutor, the reft to the King. Such ftrictnefs was the more neceflary, becaufe thefe inftitu- tions, however free to thofe ufing them, were commonly oppreflive to adjacent traders. Not only was it unlawful A.D. 3001300. The Firft Fairs. 23 for any two fairs to be fet up within feven miles of each other, but it was ufual to compel all mopkeepers to ceafe from independent bufinefs in the neighbourhood of any fuch privileged market. Thus in the year 1248, when Henry the Third ordered a fair at Weftminfter, he compelled the city tradefmen to fhut up their mops while it was open, and even fupprefled the fair at Ely for the further leflening of competition. cc Which was done," fays Holinfhed, "not without great trouble and pains to the citizens, which had not room there, but, in booths and tents, to their great difquieting and difeafe, for want of necefTary provifion, were turmoiled too pitifully in mire and dirt, through occafion of rain that fell in that unfeafonable time of year." The fair on St. Giles's Hill, given to the Bifhop of Winchefter by William the Conqueror for three days, and by Henry the Third for fixteen days, clofed the mops not only in Winchefter but alfo in Southampton, which was a capital trading town. Wares fold out of the fair within feven miles of it were forfeit to the Bifhop. Officers were placed on roads and bridges to take toll upon all merchandife travelling towards Winchefter. The Bifhop received toll on every parcel of goods entering the city gates. In the fair itfelf was a tent of juftice called the Pavilion, in which the Bifhop's officers had power to try caufes for feven miles around. No lord of a manor could during fair time hold a court baron within that circuit, except by licence had from the Pavilion. On St. Giles's-eve the mayor, bailiffs, and citizens of Winchefter gave up to the Bifhop's officers the keys of the four city gates, and while the 24 Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair. CHAP. H. fair lafted the Church appointed its own mayor, bailiff, and coroner. Foreign merchants came to this fair and paid its tolls. Monafteries had alfo mops or houfes in its drapery, pottery, or fpicery ftreets, ufed only at fair time, and held often by leafe from the Bifhop. Such was the place occupied in focial hiftory by the firft fairs of modern Europe. For many years after the death of Rayer they continued to be the chief reforts of trade, and even in the flxteenth century there was fo little of commercial life in Englifh towns, that ftewards of country houfes made annual purchafes of houfehold ftores at fairs that might be a hundred miles diftant from the eftablimments for which they were providing. Robbery from booths was a capital offence, for which two perfons were executed in the reign of Henry the Eighth. Many a purchafer, however, fuffered robbery at booths, if the complaints of old writers again ft cheating in trade be credible. Thus the monk who wrote in the fourteenth century the Vifion of Piers Ploughman, makes Covetoufnefs tell us : Firft I learned to lie : wickedly to weigh was my firft leffon. To Wye and to Winchefter I went to the Fair, with many manner merchandife, as my mafter me hight, and it had been unfold this feven year, fo God me help, had not there gone the Grace of Guile among my chaffer. A.D. 1133. Bartholomezv Jugglers. CHAPTER III. ^arifjolanufo fnggltrs. N the name of the holy and undi- vided Trinity, I, Henry King of England, William of Canterbury, and George Bifhop of London, to all Bimops and Abbots, Counts, Barons, Juftices, Gentlemen, and all men and faithful citizens greeting, grant to Rayer the Prior and the regular Canons, their Hofpital free of all authority beyond epifcopal ufage, defend all the rights of Rayer and the Canons, and forbid that any one moleft Rayer. I grant alfo my firm peace and the fulleft privileges to all perfons coming to and returning from the Fair of St. Bartholomew." The charter of 1133, whereof this is a fummary, and from which the paflage that efpecially concerns us has already been quoted, was written in a book with other records, and efpecially the Rental of the Priory, by Brother John Cok, in the middle of the fifteenth century. His maflive volume (worded, of 26 Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair. CHAP. HI. courfe, in Latin) is fuperfcribed "The Rental of the Hofpital of Saint Bartholomew in Weft Smithfield, London ; of all the returns pertaining to the fame Hofpital, whether within or without the city of London. Compiled and written by Brother John Cok, Treafurer of the Hofpital, at Eafter A.D. 1456 ; and in the thirty -fixth year of King Henry the Sixth, in the time of Mafter John Wakeryngs, the thirty-fifth year of his Mafterfhip, the thirty-feventh of the profeflion of the aforefaid J. Cok, and fixty-fourth of his age." At the end we read: "Written by Brother John Cok in the evening of his life, A.D. 1468. To whom may God be merciful. Amen." Brother Cok, therefore, fpent twelve years in copying into one volume the charters, bulls, and other vital documents, relating to the Priory, and in the compilation of its then very extenfive rent-roll. His age was almoft four- fcore when he had finimed, and ftill he had left the initial letters, chief ornaments of a manufcript, to be inferted by another hand. In Queen Elizabeth's time there was extant a manufcript Bible, written by John Cok, aged fixty-eight, of which Stow fays it is " the faireft Bible that I have feen." After John Cok's death, there arofe within the Church a fpirit of refiftance againft Church corruption; and there feems to have been a friar in the Priory of St. Bartholomew, perhaps even a treafurer, who had licence to complete the decorations of the Rental, and fupplied the vacant fpaces in a paler ink, with grotefque letters, among which are two that prove him to have been of doubtful faith. Of his initial letter to the firft charter eftablifhing the power of the Prior A.D. 1133-43- Bartholomew Jugglers. and the Canons, a tracing is prefixed to the fummary at the beginning of this chapter. Having illuftrated this document with a pike fwallowing a gudgeon, he, on a later page, adorns a bull of Pope Honorius for the raifing of alms from the faithful on behalf of the poor fuftained in St. Bartholomew's, with an initial letter H, prefenting this {ketch of a paftoral kifs from the fox faithfully accepted by the goofe : The Grace of Guile undoubtedly aflifted in the found- ing of the Priory. Even in its firft days it contained friars who before his deceafe faid that Rayer was a deceiver. Cornelius Agrippa, whom the world has denounced as a juggler, was an honeft fpiritual man ; Rayer, whofe fame as a faint nobody has questioned, was a juggler. Yet the honeft man lived a wafte life, and the cheat laid the foun- dations of what is now one of the nobleft charities in Europe. I can compare only the men themfelves. In old times the Church faved or the Church deftroyed a reputa- tion, but the Church was very fallible indeed, and not difinterefted. It was by the production of falfe miracles at the feaft and fair of St. Bartholomew, that Rayer made his inftitution famous and drew crowds to Smithfield. 28 Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair. CHAP. m. In his church, on St. Bartholomew's day, there lay among the glitter of the votive tapers wretched men, women, and children : fome truly wretched, hoping in vain for miraculous relief; fome noifily wretched, who were in the prefence of God mocking his difpenfations, and intending, with connivance of the Prior, to perform a lie before the altar. After the death of Rayer miracles became more fcarce ; " Forafmuch," fays the monk who in the next generation wrote their hiftory, " forafmuch as the beginning of great things needeth greater help, when the remembered prior was yet alive there was then plenty of miniftered grace." He diftinctly eftablifhed miracles as a means of attraction to his feaft and fair. It was a folemnity, we read, " for obventions and gifts, in money, in houfehold, in corn, and in moveable goods, great number; and then after a jocund feaft, bufy in this place was had of recovering men into health ; of them that languifhed, of dry men, of contract men, of blind men, dumb men, and deaf men ; for this caufe when the day of his " [the faint's] the fale, century after century, of certain forms of cooked meat, we have, partly, the continuance of a cuftom that arofe out of the neceffities prefling upon the fair when it was firft eftablimed. In the churchyard of the Priory, the fair chiefly con- fifted of the booths and {landings of the clothiers of all England and drapers of London, who were there clofed within walls of which the gates were locked every night and watched, for fafety of men's goods and wares. A.D. 1135-89. Old Chronicles. CHAPTER V. $lb Chronicles. XCEPT when they alfo conftitute the annals of the Fair, we muft refufe attention to the annals of the Priory. The general profpe- rity of the eftablifhment, and a few points in the character of the Black Canons, by whom it was occupied, concern us, for the ftrength of the Fair at firft lay in their privileges and their power. In the days of Stephen, and of his fuccefTor, not lefs than the king, even in England, as a fource of power, was the Pope of Rome. Rayer, as we have feen, defigned to obtain for his foundation a fubftantial blerTmg out of Rome, but died before his purpofe was accomplifhed. tc After his deceafe," writes the recorder of his life, 1 533, and in the part which reprefents Weft Smithfield with the Priory and Hofpital A.D. 1533. A Change of Mafters. in we have a rude picture of the arrangement of the ground when it was on the point of parling out of the hands of the monks. It is evident that the conftruclor of the map kept very bad proportion in his {ketches, and we may not be abfolutely fure that there were no houfes where none are mown. On the whole, however, this map is a valuable witnefs. It tells us that the Priory wall abutting on Long Lane, was not built againft in the time of the Black Canons ; that they raifed no permanent houfes along the line of Cloth Fair, but that they had, north of the church, for the annual ufe of the trades, an oblong fpace of ground containing only graves. The houfes have throughout the map con- ventional forms ; but a ftructure of unufual fize indicates fufficiently the fite of the great dining-hall above the crypt, and the fquare enclofed by cloifters is defined, though we are not mown the ecclefiaftical character of the buildings that furround it. There are the houfes fronting 112 Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair. CHAP. vm. outwards upon Smithfield and Little Britain, let to lay tenants and parifhioners. We are ftiown the fite of the feveral detached buildings and outhoufes, behind which there was a confiderable garden ; this was the Mulberry Garden, in which, at Fair time, the young fcholars of London held grammatical difputes under the trees. On the fouthern fide of the angle of Smithfield occupied by the Friars, with Duck or Duke Street between it and the Priory, we fee the old hofpital with its church that is ftill known as the church of St. Bartholomew the Lefs. The thirteenth Act of the thirty-firft year of King Henry the Eighth (May, 1539) confirmed the furrender of religious houfes diflblved fince the parting of the previous Act, and empowered the king to extend its provifions at pleafure to thofe that remained (landing. The Priory and Hofpital of St. Bartholomew then pafled through the king's hands, and were for ever fundered from each other. By the fame focial law that deftroyed one, the other was developed. Rayer had founded the Hofpital connected with his Priory for the rick and infirm, for lying-in women, and for maintenance of infants born within its walls until the age of feven. King John, in the fifth year of his reign, had confirmed the bond between the Hofpital and Priory. There had been many royal grants and charters to fuftain the place ; tenements had been given by the pious to fecure prayer for their fouls. Shortly before the diflblution of the monafteries the Hofpital received from rents in London, Middlefex, EfTex, Berks, North- ampton, Somerfet, and St. Albans, after deducting payments to be made, about three hundred pounds, A.D. 1533-44- A Change of Mafters. 1 13 equivalent to not much Jefs than three thoufand in money of the prefent day. The fuppreflion of religious houfes threw upon the roads and ftreets many fick, lame, and impotent people ; for the place occupied by almfgiving in the fyftem of the Roman Church was one means of its happy adaptation to the wants of a more barbarous time, and when the endowed afylums main- tained by the Church on behalf of rick and poor ceafed to exift in England, fudden thought had to be taken for the difcharge of a new duty impofed upon men, not as fons of the Church, but as citizens. Anticipating the suppreffion of religious hofpitals in London, Sir Thomas Grefham, the lord mayor, with the aldermen and citizens, in the year 1537 prayed to the king for the governance of the three hofpitals of St. Mary, St. Thomas, St. Bartholomew, and the new abbey at Tower Hill, fc founded of good devotion by ancient fathers, and endowed with great pofleflions and rents, only for the relief, comfort, and aid of the poor and indigent people not being able to help themfelves ; and not to the main- tenance of priefts, canons, and monks, carnally Jiving as they of late have done, nothing regarding the miferable people lying in the ftreet, offending every clean perfon parting by the way with their filthy and nafty favours." In 1544 the king, in order that there might be comfort to the prifoners, viiitation to the fick, food to the hungry, drink to the thirfty, clothes to the naked, and fepulture to the dead, eftablifhed on the old fite a new hofpital of St. Bartholomew, under a mafter, who was a prieft, and four chaplains, namely, a vice-mafter, a curate, a hofpitaller, and a vifitor of prifoners in New- H4 Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair. CHAP. vm. gate. But the place was neglected and mifmanaged. The king offering to give the city charge of hofpitals, if it would provide a portion of the neceffary funds, the Corporation at once pafled a profpective and conditional vote of five hundred marks a year. At laft the Bifhop of Rochefter announced the king's gift and the purpofe of it in a fermon at St. Paul's Crofs ; and on the zyth of December, 1546, a month before the king's death, the indenture was figned between Henry the Eighth and the city of London, which gave to the city, with other places, Little St. Bartholomew, to be " the Houfe of the Poor in Weft Smithfield, in the fuburbs of the city of London, of King Henry the Eighth's foundation." In the parim of Little St. Bartholomew there was to be a vicar and a hofpitaller. London was to give refidence and income to the vicar ; and to lodge and tend in the Hofpital a hundred poor men and women, maintaining one matron, with twelve women under her, for neceffary fervice to the poor, a fteward, a receiver and collector, porter, butler, cook, as well as eight beadles, who were to traverfe London and fetch in the poor, fick, lame, and impotent found in the city and fuburbs, but to expel valiant and fturdy vagabonds and beggars. A phyfician and furgeon alfo were to be maintained, with provifion of apothecary's wares. In confideration of this charge, the city took the lands of the endowment with a right to acquire lands to the value of another thoufand marks. All profit of the eftablimment was to be fpent on the poor. There was no profit, but there was a brave outlay of money and exertions. The Hofpital was in difrepair, and applied to the ufe only of a few women with their A.D. 154.6. London s? Lord Rich. 115 infants born there under queftionable circumftances. It is no part of this narrative to tell how the mayor and corpo- ration were-abufed becaufe the London ftreets were not at once cleared of all objects of mifery. They acquired St. Thomas's for the city ; the citizens cheerfully bore a tax that was in fact a poor's rate. The noble work was nobly done. The hofpitals for the rick then formed have grown with the growth of fociety, and thanks, in no fmall meafure, to the enlightened liberality with which their principle has been fupported by the medical pro- feflion they now rank among the foundeft inftitutions of the land. While the Hofpital of St. Bartholomew was being thus difpofed of, courtiers and others eagerly put forward their requefts to purchafe houfes and lands taken from the feveral religious bodies ; and among thefe was Sir Richard Rich, Knight, Chancellor of the Court of Augmentations, and in the reign of the next king, Lord Chancellor. He it was who, as Solicitor-General, gave a turn with his own hand to the rack by which Anne Afcue was tortured. Sir Richard Rich was the fon and grandfon of two thriving London mercers. He was born in the city, was in youth light of his tongue and quick of wit, a great dicer and gamefter, and not of any com- mendable fame. He bore no good character for honefty as a law fludent in the Middle Temple, but was efteemed for the quicknefs of his parts, and throve as a practitioner. In 1532 he was appointed for life Attorney-General of Wales, and in the year following Solicitor- General to the King. He had an eafy confcience in the fervice of the crown betrayed his friends and ferved his fovereign. n6 Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair. CHAP. vm. In 1535 he was rewarded with a valuable finecure, and .two years afterwards he was made Speaker of the Houfe of Commons, in which office he was the king's abject flatterer, and an important agent in the reconcilement of the Commons to the fuppreflion of the greater monaf- teries. When the king had taken their eftates, they were put under the management of a royal commiflion, with Sir Richard Rich, under the ftyle of Chancellor of the Court of Augmentations, at its head. He proceeded to fecure the reward of his fervice in the augmentation of his fortunes, and the firft bargain he made was the purchafe (for io64/. IIJ - 3^0 of the Priory in Weft Smithfield, with all that was upon the ground within its enclofure, and all rights thereto pertaining. Among his other bargains made within the next two years, upon the lands fubject to his commiflion, were the manor and rectory of Little Badowe, in Eflex ; the manor of Newarks, in Goodefter (Eflex), with its tithes ; and the tithes of Newland Fee, of the rectory of Goodefter, and of four prebends late of St. Peter's, Weftminfter. He received alfo four manors in Eflex that had belonged to Canterbury Cathedral, one that had belonged to the monaftery of St. Ofyth, and four Eflex marfhes that had belonged to Holywell. Thefe and other acquifitions, with the grant of the diflblved priory of Leeze in Eflex, enabled him to endow fufficiently the two earldoms acquired by his defcendants. The love of money grew upon him. He was made Treafurer of the King's Wars in France and Scotland. After the king's death he became as Lord Rich an Englifh baron, and in October, 1 547, Lord Chancellor of England. A.D. 1547. London & Lord Rich. 117 This was the man who profpered in the day of change, when a new world was opened to the minds and hearts of men when the way of fociety was not the lefs furely forward and upward, becaufe it was marching with foiled feet upon a miry path. The monks mingle no more with the fairgoers. The Fair has not departed from the Priory ; the Priory itfelf melted away, and has been loft out of the midft of the aflembly of the people. The Prior's houfe was made into Lord Rich's town manfion in Great St. Bartholomew, and there he lived as Lord Chancellor : for there had been affigned to him, his heirs and affigns for ever, the fite and capital mefTuage and manfion houfe of the late monastery or prior)' of St. Bartholomew in Weft Smithfield, and alfo the clofe of the faid late monaftery or priory, called Great St. Bartholomew Clofe, and all the limits and precincts of the faid Clofe ; alfo, all thofe clofes, houfes, and edifices, called the fermery, the dorter, the frater, the cloifters, che galleries, the hall, the kitchen, the buttery, the pantry, the old kitchen, the woodhoufe, the garner, and the prior's ftable, of the faid late monaftery within the churchyard; and all thofe houfes (fifty-one tenements), gardens, void grounds, land and foil whatever, within the faid clofe to the faid fite of the faid late monaftery and priory belonging ; and alfo all that water, and the aqueduct and water-courfe coming from the conduit head of St. Bartholomew in the manor of Canonbury. By the fame letters patent, the king farther granted to Sir Richard Rich, knight, his heirs and affigns, " all that Our Fair and Markets, commonly named and called Bartholomew Fair, holden and to be holden every 1 1 8 Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair. CHAP. vin. year within the aforefaid clofe, called Great St. Bartho- lomew Clofe and in Weft Smithfield aforefaid, to con- tinue yearly for three days, viz. on the Eve of the day of St. Bartholomew the Apoftle, on the Day . . . and on the Morrow . . . ; and alfo all the ftallage, piccage, toll and cuftoms of the fame fair and markets ; and alfo all our courts of Piepowders within the fair and markets aforefaid" .... (I omit only the legal wafte of words) ; "and all our rights . . . whatever, of fuch court of Pie powders . . . : and alfo, all the fcrutiny, emendment, and correction of weights and meafures . . . and of other things whatfoever expofed to fale . . . and alfo the aflize and aflay of bread, wine, and ale, and other victuals . . . and all and fingular fines . . . iflues, profits, and other rights ... as fully, freely, and entirely, and in as ample and the like manner and form as William Bolton, formerly prior ... or any of his predeceflbrs . . . have or hath held or enjoyed, or in anywife ought to have, hold and enjoy, ... as fully and entirely and freely as all and fingular the premifes came to our hands by reafon or pretext of the difTolution of the faid late monaftery or priory of St. Bartholomew." This grant, it will be obferved, faves all the rights of the city to the Fair outfide St. Bartholomew's enclofure. It gave, however, to the family of Lord Rich the tolls of the Cloth Fair, and of all that part which was contained within the parim of St. Bartholomew the Great. A.D. 1547. and all to pleafe your mind With The feverall Enormityes and mifdemea- nours, which are there feene and acted LONDON Printed for Richard Harper at the Bible and Harpe in Smithfield, 1641.