Perhaps one of the most curious features of our provincial fairs is to be found in the odd customs associated with them, these possessing an additional interest, as they help to illustrate the social life of our forefathers. Thus, from time immemorial, it has been customary at several of our large fairs—such as those kept up at Portsmouth, Southampton, Chester, and Macclesfield—to announce their opening by hoisting a glove of unusual size in some conspicuous place. This, it has been suggested, is the earliest form of royal charter, denoting the king’s glove—the custom being thus explained in the _Speculum Saxonicum_: ‘No one is allowed to set up a market or a mint without the consent of the ordinary and judge of that place; the king ought also to send a glove, as a sign of his consent to the same.’ The charter for Lammas fair at Exeter was formerly perpetuated by a huge glove, stuffed and carried through the city on a long pole, which was eventually placed on the top of the Guildhall, where, so long as it remained, it indicated that the fair was still open. A variation of this usage prevailed at Liverpool, where, ten days before and after each fair-day, a hand was exhibited in front of the town-hall—a sign which denoted that ‘no person coming to or going from the town on business connected with the fair can be arrested for debt within its liberty.’ Englefield, in his _Walk through Southampton_ (1805), describing the fair held on Trinity Monday at Southampton, says it was dissolved by the glove being taken down, ‘which was at one time performed by the young men of the town, who fired at it till it was destroyed, or they were tired of the sport.’ Without enumerating further instances of this practice, there can be no doubt that, as Mr Leadam has shown in the _Antiquary_ (1880), the glove is the original ‘sign-manual.’