Highways and Byways in the Border: IllustratedLang, Andrew
History
Highways and Byways in the Border: Illustrated
Lang, Andrew
Scottish Borders (Scotland) -- Description and travel
But there lingers yet one relic of the days when her Markets and Trysts
were famed throughout the country. St. James's Fair, which w-as held
at Roxburgh as long ago as the days of King David I, is still kept each
August in the pleasant haugh by the ruins of the castle, between Teviot
and Tweed. There, on a little eminence, the Town Clerk of Jedburgh each
year reads this Proclamation: "OYEZ, OYEZ, OYEZ." {082}Whereas the Fair
of St. James is to be held this ----th day of August 19----, and is to
continue for the space of eight days from and after this proclamation.
Therefore, in name and authority of Our Sovereign King George V, by the
Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, King,
Defender of the Faith, and in name and authority of the Honourable the
Provost and Bailies of the Royal Borough of Jedburgh, and in name and
authority of a High and Potent Prince the Duke of Roxburgh, and his
Bailie of Kelso, I make due and lawful proclamation that no person or
persons shall presume to trouble or molest the present Fair, or offer
any injury one to another, or break the King's peace,--Prohibiting all
old Feuds and new Feuds, or the doing of anything to disquiet the said
Fair, under the highest pains of law. As also--that no person or persons
make any private bargains prejudicial to the customs and Proprietors
of said Fair,--Certifying those who contravene any part of said customs
that they will be prosecuted and fined according to law. "GOD SAVE THE
KING."
In these degenerate days, the Fair lasts but one day in place of eight,
and Feuds, new or old, are unknown. But not so very long ago the rivalry
at this Fair of the neighbouring towns of Kelso and Jedburgh was very
bitter. Roxburgh had ceased to be, indeed, but the Fair survived, and it
chanced that the Provost and Bailies of Jedburgh--like Roxburgh, a Royal
burgh,--having under some old charter acquired a right to "proclaim"
the Fair and collect the market dues, duly came in state each August in
order to exercise this privilege at the ancient stance. Now, Kelso
in the course of time became a larger and more important town than
Jedburgh; it is, moreover, in close proximity to the ground on which the
Fair is held, whereas Jedburgh was no better than a foreign land, miles
removed--ten, at least,--from Roxburgh. Hence Kelso resented what it
considered to be an outrage on the part of her officious neighbour. What
was Jedburgh that she should oust them from those market tolls and dues!
A beggarly interloper, no less! The outcome of such a frame of mind was
generally what might be expected amongst men whose forebears for many
{083}hundreds of years had been fierce fighters. As the procession of
Jedburgh magistrates, all in their robes and escorted by a compact
body of townsmen, advanced towards the place of proclamation, taunts of
"Pride and Poverty!"--"Pride and Poverty!" were hurled at their ears
by the irritated men of Kelso. "Doo Tairts an' Herrin' Pies!" fiercely
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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