Poem About Bampton Fair
We have recently been made aware of a poem - or was it a song? - about Bampton Fair
From the book
SKETCHES OF THE WEST COUNTREE
(Original Studies of Rural Life in Devon and Cornwall in Verse and Prose)
by W. Gregory Harris
Fourth Edition
Exeter: Printed and Published by Besley and Dalgleish Ltd., South Street. 1908
BAMPTON FAIR
Now wance a year the town do wake up, Well, Varmer Menhennick, he went to the vair, Now arter the varmer’d a zold thic’ old mare, The zider were strong, an’ the weather were ‘ot, They shawed un a thoroughbred gallopin’ mare, Zo a bargain was struck – twenty poun’ was paid down, Nex day Jan comes up from the stable yard, “I zold th’ old mare, an’ had zummat to drink, “A buty her was, an’ he axed thirty poun’- Then Jan he just smiles, an’ says he, “you’m tuk in”; |
Our thanks to Mary Hoare for this. And of course, we'd love to hear from anyone who can shed any further light on the origins or earlier date for the poem.
#We have heard from Norma Paley who has suggested a date of 1888, where in the Oxford Journal references are made to the Poem “Bampton Fair”. It was recited by a Mr. Davey to which very much amused the company at a Dinner celebrating The Blenheim Estate Cricket Club’s first dinner at the Cock Inn, Combe. That could be this poem, or of course there may be another Fair poem concerned with Bampton in Oxfordshire!