The two classes of tradesmen who dealt in books were well described by Fuller in the seventeenth century. The one he calls “stationarii, publickly avouching the sale of staple books in standing shops, whence they have their names,” the other he designates “circumforanean pedlers, ancestors to our modern Mercuries and hawkers.” No doubt, as on the Continent, the stationer was accustomed to send round periodically a van laden with books from town to town, and village to village, and, putting up at the village inn, advertise and show his wares there. The chief opportunity for selling books was at the various fairs, and to these the agents of the London booksellers would journey, not only to sell books to the public, but to do wholesale business with the local stationers. It is quite clear that a large number of important foreign printers and publishers kept premises in London, and their representatives would also be present at the fairs. These fairs were very important centres of trade. They continued for a week, sometimes two, and while they continued, the ordinary shops of the town were compelled to close. There is evidence to show that to the principal fairs many of the London booksellers went themselves, leaving their shops in charge of an assistant. In 1487 an attempt was made by the Corporation of London to prevent London freemen attending local fairs, but a general outcry was made that many goods, amongst them books, would not be obtainable, and the ordinance was repealed. The subject of the book trade at fairs is too large to be considered here, but it must be remembered that by far the largest fair in England, a not unworthy rival to Frankfurt, was held at Sturbridge by Cambridge, and it retained its reputation for bookselling for some centuries. After the first quarter of the sixteenth century the freedom of the foreign book trade was menaced by many ominous acts culminating in the act of 1534, which seriously interfered with the sale of foreign books and the trade of the foreign stationer, and about the same time the disuse and suppression of the various service books destroyed another branch of the trade. The book trade received a further severe blow from the literary side by the advent in England of what was contemptuously styled by many of the old scholars with distrust and dislike, the “New Learning,” the teachings of Luther, Melanchthon, and the reformers. The revival of learning and classical study which had given so great an impetus to the book trade was superseded by religious and doctrinal quarrelling, which, though for a time encouraging the importation of controversial pamphlets, soon brought down upon all concerned the heavy hand of authority, with the result that, while the literature of the “New Learning” was prohibited, the demand for books of other classes had ceased.