East West Quantum Leap Silk Torrent
Cre Wallace
Throughout Scotland and Ireland there are scattered great numbers ofround towers, which have puzzled all antiquarians. They have oflate obtained the general name of Fire Towers, and our engravingrepresents the view of one of them, at Brechin, in Scotland. It consistsof sixty regular courses of hewn stone, of a brighter colour than theadjoining church. It is 85 feet high to the cornice, whence rises a low,spiral-pointed roof of stone, with three or four windows, and on the topa vane, making 15 feet more, in all 100 feet from the ground, andmeasuring 48 feet in external circumference.
Many of these towers in Ireland vary from 35 to 100 feet. One at Ardmorehas fasci at the several stories, which all the rest both in Irelandand Scotland, seem to want, as well as stairs, having only abutments,whereon to rest timbers and ladders. Some have windows regularlydisposed, others only at the top. Their situation with respect to thechurches also varies. Some in Ireland stand 25 to 125 feet from the westend of the church. The tower at Brechin is included in the S.W. angle ofthe ancient cathedral, to which it communicates by a door.
There have been numerous discussions respecting the purposes for whichthese towers were built; they are generally adjoining to churches,whence they seem to be of a religious nature. Mr. Vallencey considersit as a settled point, that they were an appendage to the Druidicalreligion, and were, in fact, towers for the preservation of thesacred fire1 of the[pg 194]Druids or Magi. To this Mr. Gough, in hisdescription of Brechin Tower,2 raises an insuperable objection. Butthey are certainly not belfries; and as no more probable conjecture hasbeen made on their original purpose, they are still known as FireTowers.
(Stirbitch Fair, as our correspondent observes, was once the Leipsic orFrankfurt of England. He has appended to his "Account" a ground plan ofthe fair, which we regret we have not room to insert; the gaps or spacesin which, serve to show how much this commercial carnival (for such itmight be termed) has deteriorated; for the remaining booths were builton the same site as during the former splendour of the fair. Ourcorrespondent accounts for this "decay, by the facilities of roads andnavigable canals for the conveyance of goods;" the shopkeepers, &c,"being able to get from London and the manufacturing districts, everyarticle direct, at a small expense, the fair-keepers find no market fortheir goods, as heretofore." His paper is, however, a curiousmatter-of-fact description of Stirbitch, "sixty years since." We havebeen compelled to reject all but one verse of the "Chaunt," on accountof some local allusions, the justice of which we do not deny, but whichare scarcely delicate enough for our pages.
Stirbitch is still a festival of considerable extent, although it haslost so much of its commercial importance. There are but few fortnightfairs left: Portsmouth, we recollect, lasts 14 days, and there isa fair held on some fine downs in Dorsetshire, which extends to thatperiod.)
Stirbitch Fair is held in a large field near Barnwell, about two milesfrom Cambridge, covering a space of ground upwards of two miles incircumference. It commences on the 16th day of September, and continuestill the beginning of October, for the sale of all kinds of manufacturedand other goods, and likewise for horses.
The etymology of the name of this fair has been much disputed. A sillytradition has been handed down, of a pedlar who travelled from the northto this fair, where, being very weary, he fell asleep at the only inn inthe place. A person coming into the room where he lay, the pedlar's doggrowled and woke his master, who called out, "Stir, bitch"; when the dogseized the man by the throat, which proved to be the master of the inn,who, to get released from the gripe of the dog, confessed his intentionwas, with the aid of the ferryman who rowed him over from Chesterton, torob the pedlar; from which circumstance the fair ever after obtained thename of Stirbitch. But a more reasonable derivation might befound in the known custom of holding a festival on the anniversary ofthe dedication of any religious foundation. There is a small and veryancient chapel, or oratory, of Saxon architecture, still standing inthe field where the fair is kept; but to what saint dedicated, is notrecorded. I know not if a St. Ower is to be found in the calendar; ifthere is, it will, by adding "wijk," or "wych," a district or boundary,be no great stretch of invention to account for a transition from "St.Ower wijch" to Stirbitch; or perhaps from a rivulet which emptiesitself into the Cam at Quy-water, small streams, in some counties, beingcalled "stours."
Should the harvest be backward, and the corn not off the ground, thebooths, nevertheless, are erected, the farmers being, as they admit,more than indemnified for their losses in that case, by the immensequantity of litter, offal, and soil left on the ground after thestandings and booths are cleared away; besides which, they seize onevery thing left upon the land after a fixed day. This has sometimesoccurred, and the forfeiture of the goods and chattels so seized hasbeen recognised judicially as a fine for the trespass. This localcustom, sanctioned by usage from time immemorial, is without appeal.
The booths were from 15 to 20 feet wide by 25 to 30 feet deep; they wereset out in two apartments, the one behind, about 10 feet wide, servingfor bed-room, dining-room, parlour, and dressing-room, The bedstead wasof four posts and a lath bottom, on which was laid a truss ofclean, dry straw, serving as a palliasse, with bed and bedding. Thefront was fitted up with counters and shelves. The stubble was welltrodden into the ground; over which were laid sawdust and boards behindand before the counters, to secure the feet from damp. The shutters, ofthe space allowed for the windows, were fixed with hinges, and when letdown, rested upon brackets, serving as showboards for goods. The boothswere constructed of new boards, with gutters for carrying the rain off,and covered with stout hair cloth, with which also a covering was madeto an arcade in front, about 10 feet wide. Under this the companywalked, protected from rain or the heat of the sun.
The proclamation being made, the clamour and din from the trumpets,drums, gongs, and other noisy instruments, began. The road fromCambridge was actually covered with post-chaises, hackney-coaches fromLondon, gigs, and carts, which brought visiters to the fair fromJesus-lane, in Cambridge, at sixpence each. As soon as you passed thevillage of Barnwell, your attention was attracted by flags streamingfrom the show-booths, suttling-booths, &c.; whilst your ears werestunned with the "harsh discord" of a thousand Stentorian bawlers, andthe clang of jarring instruments of music. The show-booths were thefirst on entering the fair, being situated on the north side of the highroad. Here were three companies of players, viz. the Norwich company, avery large booth; Mrs. Baker's, whose clown, Lewy Owen, was "a fellow ofinfinite jest and merriment;" and Bailey's. The latter had formerly beena merchant, and was the compiler of a Directory which bore his name, andwas a work of some celebrity and great utility. Fronting these were thefruit and gingerbread stands. On the opposite side of the road stood thecheese fair, attended by dealers from all parts, and where many tons'weight changed hands in a few days, some for the London market, by thefactors from thence; and such cheeses as were brought from Gloucester,Cheshire, and Wiltshire, and not made elsewhere, were purchased by thedealers and farmers of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex. Opposite the cheesefair, on the north side of the road, stood the small chapel, which wasthen used as a warehouse for wool, hops, seed, and leather3. Here werethe wool-staplers, hop-factors, leather-sellers, and seedsmen. The rangeof booths in the front were for glovers, leather-breeches makers,saddlers, and other dealers in leather. Opposite to this, at the end ofthe line of show-booths, Garlick-row commenced; the first range beingoccupied by hardwaremen, silversmiths, jewellers, and fine ironmongery.The next range was the row of mercers and linen-drapers, where a draperfrom Holborn had a stock of not less than 5,000l. value. The nextrange of booths was occupied by stuff-merchants, hosiers, lacemen,milliners, and furriers; here one vender has been known to receive from1,000l. to 1,200l. for Norwich and Yorkshire goods. A lace-dealerfrom Tavistock-street likewise attended here with a stock of 2,000l.value, together with many other respectable tradesmen, with goodsaccording to the London fashion. Then followed the ladies andgentlemen's shoe-makers, hatters, and perfumers; and next to the inn wasan extensive store of oils, colours, and pickles, kept by an oilman fromLimehouse, whose returns were seldom less than 2,000l. during thefair; and the father of the writer of this article, who attended thefair during forty years, usually brought away from 1,200l. to1,500l. for goods sold and paid for on the spot, exclusive ofthose sold on credit to respectable dealers, farmers, and gentry. On[pg 196]the outside of the inn were temporary stables for baiting the horsesbelonging to the visiters. The carriages were drawn up in the fields ina line with the stables or standings for the horses.
Next was the oyster fair; the oysters from Lynn, called the Lynnchannel, were the size of a horse's hoof, and were opened with a pair ofpincers. At the bottom, in the Mead, next the river, was the coal fair;opposite which were the pottery and fine Staffordshire wares. Returningto and opposite the oyster fair was the horse fair, held on the Fridayin the week after the proclamation. The show of beautiful animals herewas, perhaps, unrivalled by any fair in the empire; the choicest huntersand racers from Yorkshire, muscular and bony draught-horses from Suffolkand every other breeding county, drew together dealers and gentlemenfrom all quarters, so that many hundreds of valuable animals changedmasters in the space of twelve hours. Higher up was Dockrell'scoffee-house and tavern, spacious and well stored with excellentaccommodations. About 200 yards onward was Ironmonger-row, where thedealers from Sheffield, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, and other parts,kept large stocks of all sorts of iron and tin wares, agriculturalimplements, and tools of every description. About 20 yards from them,westward, and bordering on the road, were slop-sellers, dealers inhaubergs, wagoners' frocks, and other habiliments for ploughmen; andnext, the Hatters'-row. Behind Garlick-row, next the show booths, stoodthe basket fair, where were sold rakes for haymakers, scythe-hafts, andother implements of husbandry, of which one dealer has been known tosell a wagon-load or two.
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