The old fairs and markets is a topic which I have returned to repeatedly (a bit like witchcraft, which I have also covered in many articles) as new information comes to my attention. Much of the information is fragmentary or otherwise incomplete, but it's all still interesting. Those who want to know more about the subject are advised to follow the links to previous posts at the bottom of this article.
One of Dundee's principal fairs was Lady Mary's Fair. George Martin in Dundee Worthies (1934, p. 163) describes this in the late 19th century as being 'A very miscellaneous collection of stalls...erected round the square [in the High Street] and in adjoining streets on which were displayed all sorts of wares.' Among the stall were many of the tinker variety, including the 'Umbrella Man' whose stall was beneath an enormous umbrella and who orated the virtue and economic value of all his wares: 'You may take it or leave it or go home without it, I won't take the ninety-ninth part of a farthing less than 2s. d.'
Martin's 83 year old correspondent remembered the excitement of the Greemarket fair in the mid 19th century:
I sometimes visited the Greenmarket when I was a boy and I well remember the Lemon and Kali man who sold it at the prince of a ha'penny the tumbler 'or you can have it in the powder a penny an ounce, or two ounces for three ha'pence and a teaspoonful l makes a large tumbler. It's called the real American Lemonade and Kalie because it was first imported from America.'
Among the side shows were test your strength machines, boxing booths, a boxing kangaroo, plus various physically disadvantaged adults advertised as 'freak shows'. There was also:
'Professor' Cottrill who performed marvellous aquatic feats among which was eating, smoking and sleeping under the water and the outstanding item of 60 or 70 shillings being thrown into the tank which the 'Professor' retrieved with his mouth. On one occasion he disgorged over £3 in shillings after he came to the surface.
The fair seems to have declined around 1906 when local shopkeepers outbid stallholders and thus outbid their competition. The roots of Lady Mary's Fair are century old and was likely first held on 15th August, Old Style. A later fair, the Latter Mary Fair was brought it and held on 8th September, Old Style. The original fair survived until the 1930s.
I fell in with an old sweetheart, and he being on a spree
His company I did accept and with him I did go
But to my sad misfortune it proved my overthrow
We wandered east, we wandered west, we wandered through the lawn
He said he'd see me home that night, but home I never saw
He kept beside me all the while resolved to have his will
And by and by we lost our way at the back of Rare's Hill
And when we got to Rare's Hill, the laddie said to me
"We can't go home tonight, my dear, it's far too late, you'll see
But the night is warm and in my pouch, I've got another gill
So we can lie down here content at the back of Rare's Hill
When I awoke in the morning, we were locked in each other's arms
He handed me the bottle another glass to fill
And I drank his health in store o' wealth at the back of Rare's Hill
And then the lad, he said to me, "Oh lassie, do not mourn
For while I draw the breath of life, from you I'll never turn
If you will come to yonder town, my wedded wife to be
We'll be the happiest couple yet 'twas ever in Dundee"
Well, it's may I never prosper and may I never thrive
In anything I take in hand as long as I'm alive
If e'er I say I rue the day my laddie had his will
Success to Lady Mary's fair and the back of Rare's Hill
(The ballad is also known as 'The Jilted Lover'. Notes on different modern renditions can be found in the following link: here.)
