[333] Text B, pas. v. l. 232. [334] Statute 2 of 27 Ed. III, A.D. 1353. Canterbury was made a staple town “en l’onur de Saint Thomas,” “Rolls of Parliament,” vol. ii. p. 253, same year. As an example of the changes affecting the staple system, see the statute 2 Ed. III, chap. 9 (A.D. 1328), by which all staples were abolished—for a time. [335] “_Pedis pulverisati curia._ Ea est quæ in nundinis constituitur, ad nundinalium rixas litesque celerrime componendas. . . . Dictum præcipue de mercatoribus vagabundis, qui nundinas pagatim insectantes omnes discurrunt provincias, nec sistendi locum agnoscunt, sed de his etiam qui ex omni parte ad nundinas confluunt.” H. Spelman, “Glossarium archaiologicum,” ed. tertia, Londini, 1687, p. 455. [336] These and other particulars about the way in which fairs were managed at Westminster and Winchester are to be found in a petition with an inquest of the year 1302, 30 Ed. I, in the “Rolls of Parliament,” vol. i. p. 150. The Winchester Fair on St. Giles’ hill, “Montem sancti Egidii,” was one of the most famous English fairs. Langland mentions it, and gives a graphic account of the cheating that went on among unscrupulous merchants. “Visions,” Text C, pas. vii. l. 211. [337] See “Charter of Edward III [as to] St. Giles’ Fair, Winchester,” ed. G. W. Kitchin, London, 1886. [338] This fair, immortalized by Ben Jonson, disappeared only in 1855. See H. Morley’s “Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair” (2nd ed. 1874). [339] Mentioned as “Wy,” text C, passus vii. l. 211. Weyhill fair, near Andover, Hampshire, “is a famous one to this day, and lasts eight days. The fair for horses and sheep is on October 10th, that for cheese, hops, and general wares, on October 11th and the six days following.” W. W. Skeat, “Vision concerning Piers the Plowman,” ii, 83. See a list of English fairs in Mr. Elton’s Report, Market Rights Commission, 1889, vol. i. 5. There were fairs established especially for herrings and other fishing produce at Yarmouth, Scarborough, and other towns on the sea-coast. The rigours of Lent and the number of fasting days throughout the year gave particular importance to these articles of consumption. Hence, too, the attention paid to fisheries and the regulations to prevent the catching of small fish, the destruction of spawn and bait, etc. Great complaints are made against the use of the net called “wondyrchoun,” which drags from the bottom of the sea all the bait “that used to be the food of great fish.” Through means of this instrument fishermen catch “such great plenty of small fish that they do not know what to do with them, but fatten their pigs with them.” “Rolls of Parliament,” 1376–7, vol. ii. p. 369. As to salmon fishing in the Thames, see ibid., vol. ii. p. 331, A.D. 1376. [340] Harrison’s “Description of England,” ed. Furnivall, 1877, first published 1577, part i. book ii. chap xviii. pp. 295, 302.