If It Is A Diversion Worthy A Book To Treat Of Trifles, Such As The
Gaiety Of Bury Fair, It
Cannot be very unpleasant, especially to
the trading part of the world, to say something of this fair, which
is
Not only the greatest in the whole nation, but in the world;
nor, if I may believe those who have seen the mall, is the fair at
Leipzig in Saxony, the mart at Frankfort-on-the-Main, or the fairs
at Nuremberg, or Augsburg, any way to compare to this fair at
Stourbridge.
It is kept in a large corn-field, near Casterton, extending from
the side of the river Cam, towards the road, for about half a mile
square.
If the husbandmen who rent the land, do not get their corn off
before a certain day in August, the fair-keepers may trample it
under foot and spoil it to build their booths, or tents, for all
the fair is kept in tents and booths. On the other hand, to
balance that severity, if the fair-keepers have not done their
business of the fair, and removed and cleared the field by another
certain day in September, the ploughmen may come in again, with
plough and cart, and overthrow all, and trample into the dirt; and
as for the filth, dung, straw, etc. necessarily left by the fair-
keepers, the quantity of which is very great, it is the farmers'
fees, and makes them full amends for the trampling, riding, and
carting upon, and hardening the ground.
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