Prentice Hugh, Page 2

youngmaster's hand; Hugh watching him with deepest interest.

  "There is one thing thou hast all but forgotten," said the friar; "thenames of thy tormentors? See, they are still watching and peeping."

  The boy again hung his head.

  "What now? Hast lost thy tongue?"

  "Nay, father, but--"

  "But what?" Then as Hugh muttered something, "What, I am not to know?Yet they were for serving thee badly enough!"

  "I would fight them again," said the boy, looking up boldly.

  "I warrant thou wouldst," said the friar, laughing heartily. "Andwithout a mother, who will mend thy clothes? They have suffered moredamage than thy tough head, which looks as if 'twere made to bearblows."

  Hugh glanced with some dismay at his torn jerkin. It was not the firsttime that the question had presented itself, though the friar'squestions had driven it out of his head. And the elder lad now showedsymptoms of impatience.

  "May we not be going back, sir?" he said to his companion. "Thejongleurs were to be at their play by now, and we are not like to seemuch out in this green tangle."

  "As thou wilt," said the good-tempered friar; "I will but make one moreproffer to our valiant friend. See here, Hugh, I have a fancy to knowthe name of the biggest of thine enemies, the one who set the others onthee. Will a groat buy the knowledge? There it is before thine eyes,true English coin, and no base counterfeit pollard. Only the name, andit is thine."

  "Not I!" cried the boy. "I'll have nothing to do with getting himflogged."

  "Yet I'll answer for it thy pocket does not see many groats, and whatbrave things there be to be bought at the fair! Sweets and comfits andspices."

  "They would choke me!"

  The friar laughed long, with a fat, noiseless chuckle full of merriment.

  "Well," he said, "I keep my groat, and thou thine honour, and I see thatWolf hath shown himself, as ever, a dog of discretion. Shall we takethe boy back to thy father's lodgings, Edgar, and persuade MistressJudith to bestow some of her fair mending upon his garments?"

  "So as we waste no more time here, I care not," said the ladimpatiently.

  Bidding the boy follow, Friar Nicholas and his companion walked away,leaving the wood with its undergrowth of bracken, already looking ratherbrown and ragged with the past heat of the summer, and first touch offrost sharpening the nights in the low-lying Eastern counties, as isoften the case by Michaelmas. At that time, towards the end of thethirteenth century, it need hardly be said that the country presented avery different appearance from that which we see now. Parts weredensely wooded, and everywhere trees made a large feature in thelandscape, which was little broken by human habitations. The chiefclearings were effected in order to provide sheep walks, wool being atthat time a large, if not the largest, export; although matters had notas yet arrived at the condition of some fifty years later, when, afterEngland was devastated by the Black Death, and agricultural labourbecame ruinously dear, serfs were evicted from their huts, and eventowns destroyed, in order to gain pasturage for sheep. Under Edward theFirst things were tending the other way; marshes were drained, wasteland was brought into cultivation, and towns were increasing in size andimportance. Wheat was dear, animal food cheap. Some of the greaterbarons lived in almost royal state, but the smaller gentry in asimplicity which in these days would be considered absolute hardship.

  With an absence of shops, and with markets bringing in no more than thelocal produce of a few miles round, it will be easily understood howfairs became a need of the times. They began by people flocking to someChurch festival, camping out round the church, and requiring a supply ofprovisions. The town guilds, setting themselves to supply this want,found here such an opening for trade that the yearly fairs became thechief centres of commerce, and had a complete code of laws andregulations. Privileges were even granted to attract comers, for at afair no arrest could be made for debts, saving such as were contractedat the fair itself. And it was a fruitful source of revenue, becauseupon everything bought a small toll was paid by the buyer.

  Gradually these fairs increased in importance. English traderstravelled to those across the seas, to Leipsic, to Frankfort, even toRussia. Foreigners in their turn brought their wares to England, wherethe principal yearly fair was held at Stourbridge, near Cambridge,another of scarcely less importance at Bristol, and somewhat lesser onesat Exeter and other towns.

  The scene at these fairs, when the weather was favourable, was one ofextreme gaiety and stir. As the friar and his young companion, followedby Hugh, walked back towards the town a soft autumnal sun was shining onthe fields, where were all sorts of quaint and fantastic erections, andwhere the business of the fair was at its height. Such people as couldfind house-room were lodged in the town, but these only bore a moderateproportion to the entire throng, and the less fortunate or poorer oneswere forced to be content with tents, rude sheds, and even slighterprotection. These formed the background, or were tacked on to thebooths on which the varied collection of wares were set forth, and whichwith their bright colourings gave the whole that gay effect which we nowonly see in the markets of the more mediaeval of foreign towns. To thismust be added a large number of motley costumes: here not only were seenthe different orders of English life--the great baron with his wife andchildren, his retinue, squires, men-at-arms, pages; the abbot riding inlittle less state; friars, grey, black, and white; pilgrims--butforeigners, men of Flanders with richly dyed woollen stuffs, woven fromEnglish wool; merchants from the Hans towns displaying costly furs;eastern vendors of frankincense, and spices, and sugar; Lombard usurers;even the Chinaman from Cathay, as China was then called, with his storesof delicate porcelain--each and all calling attention to their wares,and inviting the passers-by, whether nobles or churls, to buy.

  The fair originated in a grant to the hospital of lepers at Cambridge,bestowed by King John. It opened on the nineteenth of September,continued for two or three weeks, and was under the control of themaster of the leper-house, no slight undertaking when the greatconcourse of people is considered, for not only had they to be housedand fed, but at a time when carriages and carts were unknown, and menand merchandise were alike carried on horses and mules, there mustnecessarily have been a vast number of beasts to keep. Protection hadto be afforded against possible attacks of robbers or outlaws, and--almost the most difficult task of all--it was necessary to check as faras possible quarrels which frequently arose between the haughty baronsor their retainers, as also to protect the foreigners from the roughtreatment which it was not unlikely they would receive should anythingexcite the people against them. Particularly, and it must be ownedjustly, was this at times the case with the usurers.

  But though the nominal business of the fair consisted in trading,money-getting, and money-lending, there were plenty of shows andamusements to attract those who loved laughter. In one part a number oflads were throwing the bar, in another they were playing at what seemeda rough kind of tennis. Merry Andrews tumbled on the green, ropedancers performed prodigies of activity; here men played atsingle-stick, wrestled, or shot at a mark; at another place were thejongleurs or conjurers, and in yet another a bespangled company ofdancing dogs, which excited the lordly contempt of Wolf.

  "These fellows have rare skill," said Edgar, watching a conjurer effecta neat multiplication of balls.

  "Stay and watch them," said the friar. "Thy father will not yet haveridden back from Cambridge, and thou art not wanted in the house. Iwill go and do my best to gain Mistress Judith's good aid for thisurchin, and after that, if he will, he may show me where he lodges."

  Sir Thomas de Trafford, knight of the shire, and father of the ladEdgar, had found accommodation for his family in a house which we shouldnow consider very inadequate for such a purpose, though it was then heldto have made a considerable stride towards absolute luxury from beingable to boast a small parlour, or talking room. Neither glass norchimneys, however, were yet in use, although the latter were notunknown, and had crept into so
me of the greater castles. Fires weremade in the centre of the rooms, and the pungent wood smoke made itsescape as best it could through door or windows, which in rough weatheror at night were protected by a lattice of laths.

  The friar, however, went no further than the passage, where he calledfor Mistress Judith, and was presently answered in person by a somewhatcrabbed-looking personage, who listened sourly to his entreaty that shewould do something towards stitching together Hugh's unfortunate jerkin.

  "The poor varlet has no mother," he ended. But Mistress Judith pursedher mouth.

  "The more need he should be careful of his clothing," she was beginning,when suddenly with a rush two little golden-haired girls of not morethan four or five came running along the passage, calling joyfully uponFriar Nicholas,