2-798-873 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Opening of "Horn Fair" at Charlton, in 1745, 1845. Annual fair in south London; a scene inspired by '...a drawing of that period, in the possession of Sir Thomas Maryon Wilson, of Charlton House...It was then customary for the Lord of the Manor to open the fair by reading from a scroll a sort of proclamation to the crowd assembled on the green in front of the manor-house..."An old newspaper informs us that so late as 1770, it was the custom for a procession, formed of a king, a queen, a miller, &c., to leave some of the old inns in Bishopsgate-street, accompanied by a great concourse of people, all of whom: " 'In comely sorts their foreheads did adorne, With goodly coronets of hardy horne"'. The fair was said '...to have obtained its name from the annual sale of horn drinking cups, spoons, winding-horns, and other articles manufactured of that material'. From "Illustrated London News", 1845, Vol VII.