It has been claimed that the Anglo-Saxons founded alike fairs and markets in England. To Alfred the Great the honour is usually assigned. I have no doubt whatever that the Romans first introduced the practice of holding markets and fairs in England. I find very distinct traces of fairs of Roman origin at _Helston_ (Cornwall), at _Barnwell_ (by Cambridge), at _Newcastle-upon-Tyne_, and at several places along the line of the Roman wall in Northumberland. But assuming that the institutions of the country were largely recast during the Anglo-Saxon period, we may take note of the supposed re-institution of markets and fairs in the ninth century. The tithings held their sittings in their tithing or free-borough once a week, and many people coming thither to have their matters adjudicated upon, brought also their garden produce, corn, beasts, and _id genus omne_, for sale: because there they could meet one another, and buy and sell as their needs required, hence the commencement of a market weekly. From the Courts just mentioned there lay an appeal, if either plaintiff or defendant were not satisfied, to a County Court, held about Easter and Michaelmas, and over these a bishop and ealderman presided. To this superior Court also came numbers who, at the various intermediate Court-leets were not satisfied. And as large numbers came together, a greater and better opportunity was afforded for selling their wares and goods, corn, beasts, stuffs, linens. “_In this we can trace the origin of fairs_, which were generally held twice a year, on or about the times mentioned.” This is the dictum of Mr. G. Lambert, F.S.A., in a paper read before the London and Middlesex Archæological Society in 1880, the substance of which is published in the “Antiquary,” ii., pp. 102-3. The fairs here are seen to be purely secular institutions. It was by the _Normans_ that the fairs of England were moulded into the shape with which we are most familiar. The Norman kings placed themselves largely under the influence of the Papal throne; and it was to the Church, or in the interest of the Church, that nearly all fairs were granted after the Norman Conquest in the eleventh century. It was under John, early in the thirteenth century, that the power of the Church became most pronounced in England, and it is during this reign that most of the existing charters of fairs date.