The Exeter Road: the story of the west of England highwayHarper, Charles G. (Charles George)
History
The Exeter Road: the story of the west of England highway
Harper, Charles G. (Charles George)
England -- Description and travel; England -- Social life and customs; Exeter Road
There is certainly every opportunity of spending money on the spot.
Steam merry-go-rounds keep up a continual screeching and bellowing;
stalls with all manner of toys and nick-nacks of the most grotesque
shapes and hideous colouring; cake and sweetmeat stalls, loaded, as
Weyhill stalls have been from time immemorial, with Salisbury
gingerbread; Aunt Sallies; try-your-strength machines, and a hundred
others compete for the rustic’s coin. Then, if he wants a new suit of
clothes, here is the clothier’s stall, where Hodge can bespeak a suit,
wear it during the next twelve months, and pay for it next Fair, just as
his father and grandfather used to do before him. All the booths
visited, the horse medicines stall inspected, the latest improvements in
agricultural machinery gaped at, Hodge repairs to the refreshment
hovels, wherein certain crafty men who have come down for the occasion
from London are awaiting him, to treat the unsuspecting yokel to drinks,
to lure him on to play cards, and finally to cheat him and pick his
pockets in the most finished and approved fashion. For these gentry, and
for the disorderly in general, there is a police-station on the ground,
with cells all complete, and with local magistrates every morning to
hear cases, and to consign prisoners, if necessary, to Winchester Gaol,
sixteen miles away.
The third and fourth days are now given up to the Pleasure and Hop
Fairs. One of the smaller trades connected with the malting and general
agricultural industries is that of malt-shovel and barn-shovel making.
These are wooden shovels of a peculiar shape, and are sold only at one
stall. Another of the minor businesses is that of umbrella selling. The
umbrellas are very fine and large, and of a kind that would make a
marked man of any Londoner who should use one in town.
The Cheese Fair is now a small one, dealings generally being confined to
local folks, who delight in the Blackmore and ‘Blue Vinney’ cheeses of
this and the adjoining counties. London dealers still attend the Hop
Fair, in which many thousands of pounds’ worth of hops change hands to
the drinking of much champagne, brought on to the ground by the
cart-load, as in the brave days of yore. There are two distinct hop
markets, the Farnham Row and the Country Side. Hops from Farnham,
Bentley, Petersfield, Liphook, and other neighbouring places find a
ready market. They are sold more exclusively by sample than formerly,
and so only a few ‘pockets,’ as the tightly packed sacks are named, are
visible. Round them dealers may be seen, rubbing the hops in their hands
and smelling them with a knowing look, while the vendor cuts another
sample out of the pocket for the next likely customer. He does this with
a singular steel instrument called a ‘sample drawer.’ First a sharp and
long-bladed knife is thrust into the hard mass, and two sides cut, and
then the broad-bladed ‘drawer’ driven in and screwed tight, bringing out
a compact square of hops to be tested.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account