. The changed
condition of education puzzles them. They can most of them read, and
perhaps write a little, but they prefer to make their mark and get you
to attest it with the formula, "the mark of J----N." Their schooling
was soon over. When they were nine years of age they were ploughboys,
and had a rough time with a cantankerous ploughman who often used to
ply his whip on his lad or on his horses quite indiscriminately. They
have seen many changes, and do not always "hold with" modern notions;
and one of the greatest changes they have seen is in the fairs. They
are not what they were. Some, indeed, maintain some of their
usefulness, but most of them have degenerated into a form of mild
Saturnalia, if not into a scandal and a nuisance; and for that reason
have been suppressed.

Formerly quite small villages had their fairs. If you look at an old
almanac you will see a list of fair-days with the names of the
villages which, when the appointed days come round, cannot now boast
of the presence of a single stall or merry-go-round. The day of the
fair was nearly always on or near the festival of the patron saint to
whom the church of that village is dedicated. There is, of course, a
reason for this. The word "fair" is derived from the Latin word
_feria_, which means a festival, the parish feast day. On the festival
of the patron saint of a village church crowds of neighbours from
adjoining villages would flock to the place, the inhabitants of which
used to keep open house, and entertain all their relations and friends
who came from a distance. They used to make booths and tents with
boughs of trees near the church, and celebrated the festival with much
thanksgiving and prayer. By degrees they began to forget their prayers
and remembered only the feasting; country people flocked from far and
near; the pedlars and hawkers came to find a market for their wares.
Their stalls began to multiply, and thus the germ of a fair was
formed.

[Illustration: Stalls at Banbury Fair]

In such primitive fairs the traders paid no toll or rent for their
stalls, but by degrees the right of granting permission to hold a
fair was vested in the King, who for various considerations bestowed
this favour on nobles, merchant guilds, bishops, or monasteries. Great
profits arose from these gatherings. The traders had to pay toll on
all the goods which they brought to the fair, in addition to the
payment of stallage or rent for the ground on which