Customs and Traditions Continued...

Originally, they were simply markets to which farmers would bring their livestock to sell and trade.  Widecombe Fair was always held in the fall, today specifically on the second Tuesday in September.  The autumn event originally benefited the farmers because this enabled them to thin out their herds before the winter came and the weather limited opportunities to obtain extra fodder for the animals.  The farmers reduced their count to what they knew they could support through the winter months.  

The original function of the fair survived up until World War II when the fair was suspended and farmers were obliged to travel to other villages to sell their livestock.  After the war ended Widecombe Fair was reinstated, but then its primary function became more of a show and a pleasure fair.  Pony, horse, and sheep shows as well as dressage competitions are now common; there are sports for adults and children as well as a tug of war contest.

Although the fair does not play a central role in Phillpotts’s story, there is a chapter towards the end of the novel where he features it.  Quite interestingly, Phillpotts describes it already at the beginning of the 20^th century as having lost some of its original luster.  One small bit of conversation explains:

“‘Yes,’ Thirza was saying, ‘the fair is not what it was, Joyce.  These things die out under the advance of progress.’

‘ ’Tis they pony-races have spoiled it, my Daniel used to say,’ answered the old woman; ‘but I call home when ’twas a brighter business.  Us had merry-go-rounds and a doom-show, and suchlike; now, ’tis nought but a ram fair, and the revel be died out of it’” (Widecombe 388).

We can see from this dialogue that even as the purpose of the fair was changing, Phillpotts was determined to capture it for posterity.  In fact, recording the events of the fair at this time actually allowed him to put down more than one version of the tradition as the conversation above indicates.  It is also noteworthy that the fair today seems to be reverting back to what Phillpotts claimed as a previous function of the fair before the selling and trading of livestock was introduced; although it is possible that Phillpotts was taking some liberties with the chronological order of events.

It is pretty certain though that by the time Phillpotts started writing Widecombe Fair he would have been familiar with the song “Widecombe Fair” recorded by the Reverend Sabine Baring Gould in 1890 in his Songs of the West.  He makes no explicit mention of the song in the novel, but Uncle Tom Cobley, one of the famous riders of the Grey mare in the song, does feature as a member of the village.  

Of course, Widecombe Fair is not the only fair of note in the area.  Such fairs have a long and noble tradition in Devon; also usually accompanied by their own special customs, dating back sometimes centuries.   Two other well-known fairs in Devon take place at Barnstaple and Honiton, but are quite different in their customs from the fair at Widecombe . 

These old traditions and customs are not limited to Fairs.  Another charming tradition that generally takes place around Christmas time, usually on the eve of Twelfth day, is the Wassailing of the Apple Trees, which Phillpotts included in Children of the Mist.  The tradition varies slightly from district to district, but the general concept is the same.  The word “wassail” is derived from the Anglo-Saxon “woes hall” or “waes hael” meaning “be thou of good health.”  So in effect, the farmers are blessing the apple trees to ensure a good harvest for the coming year.

The general custom was for the farmers to go into the apple orchards with a big pitcher of spiced alcoholic cider or “wassail” to sprinkle on the roots of the best apple trees while they said a blessing and then they would beat pots and pans (or more recently, fire their shot guns into the branches of the trees) to scare away the evil spirits said to inhabit the trees.  There are many different variations on the blessing that is said over the tree, this is the version that Phillpotts used in Children of the Mist:

“Here’s to thee, auld apple-tree,

Be sure you bud, be sure you blaw,

And bring forth apples good enough—

Hats full, caps full, three-bushel bags full,

Pockets full and all—

            Hurrah!  Hurrah!  Hurrah!

                        Hats full, caps full, three-bushel bags full,

                                    Hurrah!  Hurrah!  Hurrah!” (65)

Including such a scene in Children of the Mist further illustrates Phillpotts’s desire to preserve the old customs that he saw as in danger of being lost forever.  Even in the novel, the characters remark on how little the custom is still observed:

“‘’Tis an ancient rite, auld as cider—maybe auld as Scripture, tu, for anything I’ve ever heard to the contrary,’ said Mr. Lezzard.

‘Ay, so ’tis,’ declared Billy Blee, ‘an’ a custom tu little observed nowadays’” (63).  Phillpotts makes the same effort here, as in Widecombe Fair, to honor these ancient customs as well as pass them on to future generations in hopes that they might outlive, at least as recorded in his stories, the modernization of the world and the gradual disappearance of a folk-culture that he saw occurring all around him as he wrote.

All of these customs and traditions performed the very important task of bringing the village together and preserved the sense of community that was indispensable to the villages of Dartmoor and Devon which were originally so isolated.  It is hard to imagine now, hopping on the motorway, what a trial it was to travel from place to place at the turn of the twentieth century, but these functions provided times during the year when everyone traveled for business, but also to catch up on gossip in the neighboring villages and towns and also perhaps to see relatives who lived further away.  The dual functions of social gathering and business trading have been lost in today’s restructuring of these events, but hopefully with the towns’ efforts to preserve the traditions of these events they will not disappear completely.