Fickleness in the habits of civilized nations is in no manner more clearly exemplified than in the pastimes of the people; for although many sports are characterised as national, and are of great antiquity, modernization has greatly destroyed their originality, and refinement has detracted from the natural enjoyment of them. Even in the rural districts of England, Harvest Home possesses but little of the rustic homeliness and jollity of yore, and the happy season of Christmas lacks the “Squires of Old,” and the festivities and the freely dispensed bounties of the Baronial Halls. In towns, especially those which come under the denomination fashionable, there is a constant revolution in the “rounds of amusements.” Brighton has been particularly prominent in this respect, a vast variety having run its course during the past century. Without doubt the Toy Fair, now in a wretched state of decadence, was the earliest people’s festival. It was formerly held on the Cliff, between Ship Street and Black-Lion Street; but the town increasing and the Fair assuming a corresponding magnitude, Belle Vue field, whereon now stands Regency Square, was its location. From thence it was translated to the Level, where, on the 4th of September, 1807, a Sheep Fair was first held, notification of the same having been in the _Brighton Herald_, and in the _Weekly Journal_, published at Lewes, as follows:— The rapid strides which agriculture has made within the last ten years, in this country, and the extreme utility which has been the result of its present scientific mode of practice, has commanded the attention and admiration not only of all England, but of all civilised Europe. To those who are interested in the purchase of any particular breed of stock, it must be of extreme importance that their stock be _genuine_ and uncontaminated.