Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1874-07-29
FAIRLOP FRIDAY.

The London Telegraph has the fol-
lowing description of the origin and oh
seryance of the holiday knowna as Faialop
Friday
" In that entertaining and not less
Instructive work, The Book of DAYS.
will be found an account Of the Fairiod
Oak Fair, local festival that had it's
growth III very simple but curious
cham OF circumstances. In Hainault
Forest was formerly an oak of prodig-
lous size, known far and wide beyond
the county Of Essex as Fairlop Oak. It
fell into decay at the beginning of the
present century and its venerable ruin
was III great part destroyed by
ire III 1905. When entire it is said to
have girthed thirty-six feet, and to have
had seventeen branches, each as large
as respectable tree. A vegetable
prodigy SO astounding to strangers
could not fail to be an object of yene-
ration and pride among the good folks
IN whose midst it grew. Far back in
the last century there lived in Mapping
an estimable pump and block maker,
by name Daniel Day, more generally
known as Good Day Haunting a
small rural retreat which he had &C
qulred in Essex, this worthy citizen be-
came deeply interested in the grand old
oak and on the first Friday of every
July he made point of inviting large
number OF friends to dine under its
branches on the once not only tolerated
but admired dish of beans and bacon.
So it came to pass that this rustic fair was
identified with the festival in after years:
| II II
with the hallowed associations of that
anniversary had anyone ventured to
suggest the addition, say, of lobster
or two, a pigeon pie, some roast chick
ems, York ham, a few tarts and iellies,
and any other simple kind of food.
:" AS the block and pump maker wax
ed IN years, he, too, became rs celebrated
as the oak; and multitudes of unbidden
guests focked to his festival, which he
had the qualification of seeing firmly
established in the customs Of Essex
long before he died. As a necessary
consequence Of the gathering together
OF many hundreds of people, vendors of
all sorts OF hard and soft wares came
also to the spot; shows Of the approved
country pattern followed; and a regu-
lar fair conyerged around Fairlop Oak,
for poetical decription see Gay. Fun,
like fame, gathers force in going. Some
years before the death of Mr.. Day,
which event took place in 1857, all the
pump and block makers in Mapping,
who numbered at that time between
thirty and forty, used to make the pill
grimage to Fairlop Oak in a boat
mounted on wheels drawn by six horses.
This boat was made in negro fashion.
out Of solid log, followed first by the
agency of fire, and then shaped with
AIDES. The notion of the boat had
rather a lugubrious origin. It seems
that when Daniel Day was old and
feeble, and near the last scene of all, a
bough fell from his beloved old oak.
and this bough he caused to be fash
Toned into coffin. Having had all
his life, al ineradicable dislike to land
travelling whenever it was possible to
go anywhere by water, he had it wrote
down in his will, as cousin Joe says,
that he was to be bone by boats to his
rest III Barking Churchyard; and so he
was carried, like her who sang The
Song of Love and Death, along the
quiet waters, leaving legend not
without kindness of the unromantic
sort The followed coffin and the boat
came in process Of tradition to oe
Jumbled up together; and, as {, party
mastering two score would find it hard
to journey into Hainault Forest by
water, the vessel was, by compulsion of
circumstances turned into a chor-a
banc. Pump and block makers appear
to have lost that fine sense of practical
humor which characterized their guild
Id times Of yore but licensed vitual-
lers are less degenerate, and the trade
manages to support in fourishing con-
dition a Fairlop Boat Society which is
held at the Earl Grey, in the Mile End
Road
Crime has changed the Fairlop festi-
val as it changes all things, except it's
own memorable DEGREES. The Fair has
gone the way of Greenwich and of
Bartlemy;' and, on the other hand, the
rough-hewn boat has given place to
trim built vessel fully rugged, more like
a magnificent toy ship than anything
| else. AS for the beans and bacon,
alas! they would be no treat in this
epicurean age SO good luncheon and
dinner were bespoken, the latter at the
George Inn, at Woodford. Fairlop
Friday is now honored with a much
heartier observance in the Mile End
Road, and away down beyond Stratford,
towards Leydonstone, than in it's olden
locality, where, as we have already OBJ
served, the fair has fallen completely
into disuetude. Thousands of East
Enders wers assembled to see the ship
start and give her farewell cheer.
She was so full of passengers that a
break and four had to carry a supple
mental party; and the marine cavalcade
went away with fair weather to cheer it
onward. The country traversed on the
run to Chigwell Row, with it's hiAor-
ical May-pole, never looked more inyit-
ing and the day was passed most Joy
ably. It was, however, in the evening
and at Mile End, that Fairlop Friday
asserted its character as popular holl-
day. In expectation of the ships return
the wholepopulation turned out into the
broadcast road which leads to and from
London. Broad, in truth, it need be,
g. Il j.