ii s. x. DEC. 26, i9i4.] NOTES AND QUERIES,
501
LONDON, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 36, 1911,.
CONTENTS. No. 261.
NOTES : Merchants of Ypres at St. Ives Fair, 501 -Pro- posals for an Amphitheatre in London in 1620, 502 The Literary Frauds of Henry Walker the Ironmonger, 503 Inscriptions in the Ancien Cimetifere, Mentone, 504 New Year's Eve Customs The Haig Family Motto A New Mandeville Source, 505 Mootttelds : " The Barking Dogs "The Krupp Factory in 1851 Prussian Eaeles in Piccadilly, 508 " Onto " Submarine's Daring Feat " Swabos" " Walloons," 507.
QUERIES : Lady Ana de Osorio, Countess of Chinchon Pavlova Catechist at Christ Church, Oxford, 507 A. B. Burt, Miniature Portrait Painter Matt. x. 16 Robert Catesby, Jur. Mrriage in the Bride's Parish, 508 "Forwhy" "The Three Cranes" in the Vintry Thomas Skottowe : Craven County Rip van Winkle and Early Analogues The Sex of Euodias A Shakespeare Mystery, 509" The Pyramid in London," 510.
REPLIES : France and England Quarterly, 510 Dreams and Literature, 512 Concordances of English Authors Floral Emblems of Countries, 513" Madame Drury " Ortega in Nelson's Strait Eighteenth-Century Kentish Tokens "We" or "I" in Authorship, 514 Latinity Authors of Quotations Wanted Llewelyn ap Rees ap Grono, 515 Legends of Flying Pronunciation of "ow," 516 "Grim the Collier"" Kultur," 517 The Wardrobe of Sir John Wynn, 518.
NOTES ON BOOKS : Calendar of the Close -Rolls of Richard II. "The Quarterly Review' ' The Antiquary.'
Booksellers' Catalogues. William Francis Prideaux. Notices to Correspondents.
JHofes.
MERCHANTS OF YPRES AT
ST. IVES FAIR.
ST IVES, in Saxon times called Slepe, was a manor belonging to Ramsey Abbey before Domesday Book was compiled. On 24 April, 1002, some bones were reported to be dis- covered at Slepe, which by a dream were said to be St. Ivo's ; and later on the Abbots of Ramsey turned this miracle to some advantage to their convent by building a priory at the spot to the memory of St. Ivo, whence gradually the name St. Ives was substituted for Slepe. The place became somewhat of note, and in 1110 the Abbot procured a grant of a fair at St. Ives, which grew to be very profitable to the Abbey. The late Prof. Maitland aptly said : " St. Ives in Huntingdonshire seems to owe its town to its fair, and to owe its fair and its name to a miracle." By the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the fair had become one of the most important in
England, merchants coming to it from fll
the great industrial centres, and even from
the Continent. Many places in Flanders
were well represented.
Ypres, the former capital of West Flanders, was once the rival of Ghent and Bruges as a business city. In 1201 was begun the celebrated Cloth Hall of Ypres, which was not finished until 1304, and is the largest biailding of its" kind in Belgium. It should be remembered that in the glorious days of Ypres in the fourteenth century the population was something like 200,000 souls. It was noted for its linen and lace, and kept over 4,000 looms in constant activity.
It was when Ypres was at its height of fame that its merchants came over the seas to St. Ives Fair to buy wool and linen and other commodities. The records of many of these transactions are told in the Patent and Close Rolls. In 1260 Martin Munt, John Bardun, and Peter le Pyper, merchants from Ypres, are specially men- tioned for cloth taken from the fair, valued at 100Z. 24s. Sd. In 1262 John Bardun and his fellows came again to St. Ives ; and others came later whom I need not mention. In 1278 various communities of merchants are alluded to in the Court Rolls of the Abbot of Ramsey at St. Ives, and among them the communitas of Ypres. This is an early reference to Court Rolls, as those extant are not dated earlier than 1250. The accounts in the Rolls refer to merchant's law and international law, and are most instructive and interesting. Cases of dispute in tho fair were settled in the Abbot's Court, and many men from Ypres appeared there at various times. I have thought that the Court would be held in the old manor-house of St. Ives. This building was demolished to make way for the new post office in 1887. The day before the builders commenced to take down the old place I was fortunate to be able to take a photograph of it (the only one now known). The old manor-house was one of the oldest and most interesting in the town, and if not the actual Court-House where the Ypres men were tried, it was most probably on the same site.
Besides the merchants from Ypres, there were many buyers at the fair from other places in Flanders. Mention is made of Bruge in 1310, and Mechelin (Malines) and Douai. In 1301 the King of England bought his wardrobe at St. Ives. I am not recording now all the various transactions of many places, but simply drawing attention to the interesting connexion between Ypres
