Bartholomew Fair

Bartholomew Fair, held at West Smithfield, London, from 1133 till 1855, the charter for it having been granted by Henry I. to a monk named Rahere, who had been his jester, and had founded the priory of St Bartholomew (see below). The fair was held annually at the festival of St Bartholomew (August 24, old style); but in 1753, owing to the alteration of the calendar, it was for the first time proclaimed on 3d September, having in 1691 been curtailed from fourteen to four days. In the first centuries of its existence, Bartholomew Fair was one of the great annual markets of the nation, and the chief cloth-fair of the kingdom. Its articles of traffic were besides cloth stuffs, leather, pewter, and live-stock; while it was rendered attractive to the crowds that attended it by a variety of popular amusements. All manner of shows, exhibitions, theatrical booths, &c. thronged the fair; and tumblers, acrobats, stilt-walkers, mummers, mountebanks, and merry-andrews resorted to it in great numbers. In 1685 the fair was leased by the city to the sword-bearer, and thenceforth it began to decay as a place of trade. In 1840 the exhibitions were removed to Islington; in 1850 the last proclamation by the lord mayor took place, and in 1855 the once famous fair came to an end. See Professor H. Morley's Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair (1859).