of the times of trouble, when the trades paraded with war-like
weapons, and the banners of their respective crafts; and in every
seventh year we had a resuscitation of King Crispianus in all his
glory and regality, with the man in the coat-of-mail, of bell-metal,
and the dukes, and lord mayor of London, at the which, the influx of
lads and lasses from the country was just prodigious, and the
rioting and rampaging at night, the brulies and the dancing, was
worse than Vanity Fair in the Pilgrim's Progress.

To put down, and utterly to abolish, by stress of law, or authority,
any ancient pleasure of the commonality, I had learned, by this
time, was not wisdom, and that the fairs were only to be effectually
suppressed by losing their temptations, and so to cease to call
forth any expectation of merriment among the people. Accordingly,
with respect to the fairs of pious origin, I, without expounding my
secret motives, persuaded the council, that, having been at so great
an expense in new-paving the streets, we ought not to permit the
heavy caravans of wild beasts to occupy, as formerly, the front of
the Tolbooth towards the Cross; but to order them, for the future,
to keep at the Greenhead. This was, in a manner, expurgating them
out of the town altogether; and the consequence was, that the
people, who were wont to assemble in the High Street, came to be
divided, part gathering at the Greenhead, round the shows, and part
remaining among the stands and the booths; thus an appearance was
given of the fairs being less attended than formerly, and gradually,
year after year, the venerable race of sweety-wives, and chatty
packmen, that were so detrimental to the shopkeepers, grew less and
less numerous, until the fairs fell into insignificance.

At the parade fair, the remnant of the weapon-showing, I proceeded