Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 December 1901 — STRATFORD’S MOP FAIR. [ARTICLE]

STRATFORD’S MOP FAIR.

The old town of Stratford-on-Avon, says the London Mail, does not forget its boast that it has the only statute fair which carries on Its rites exactly as they have been observed through many centuries. Therefore, it takes care each year that the Mop Fair shall lose none of its wonted traditions. Five oxen and twelve pig were slaughtered for this year’s “mop.” Each one was roasted in the street before a huge fire burning in a temporary brick oven. Each one as it was cooked was cut up into slices and sold for 6d., and Bd. a plate. The slices were sold as quickly as cut, and all save the carcass was demolished before 2 o’clock on Saturday had struck. A pig was roasted outside the house of William Shakespeare, but otherwise his street was almost deserted. It is too far from the center of the fair. Special trains from all parts of the country poured in hun-

dreds of visitors into the quiet old market town, and hundreds . more drove In In market carts, wagons, costermongers' carts and even In victorias and landaus. Up to a few years ago men stood In rows in the street waiting to be hired. Laborers with whipcord in their buttonholes waited for hours till they found an employer. Now few come for the purpose. The days of the “hiring” are over.