DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70267#0216
188 THE LATE MR. DANIEL DAY, OF WAPPING J
turn, it was his constant custom to invite a few of his neigh-
bours to accompany him from town, and treat them with a
repast of beans, bacon, &c. under the canopy of the oak ;
the accommodations being provided from the May-pole, a
small public-house. At length Mr. Day’s friends were so
well pleased with the rural novelty, that they pledged them-
selves, one and all, to accompany him on the same occasion
every year, the first Friday in July, during their lives.
This meeting being noticed by the neighbouring gentry,
farmers, and yeomanry, they could not resist visiting the
place annually, on Mr. Day’s jubilee; and as suttling booths
were soon found necessary, various others sprung up in
succession around this huge oak ; so that about the year
1725, this pleasant spot began towear every kind of re-
semblance to a regular fair; and puppet-shews, wild beasts,
fruits, gingerbread, ribbands, and toys of all sorts sue-
ceeding, this new generation of Mr. Day’s creating, be-
came his principal hobby-horse ; and as he thought some
return due to the lads and lasses who had paid him so much
attention, he provided several sacks of beans and a sufficient
quantity of dressed bacon, which were distributed from the
trunk of the tree to the multitude in pans full; and this
custom he continued till his death in 1767.
Tn the former part of Mr. Day’s life, he usually walked
to his favourite spot and back again ; later in life, he rode
a horse, but receiving a fall, he declared he would never
cross another, and kept his word. Fie then kept a mule ;
but being again thrown into the mire, he discarded the
mule as he had done the horse, and determined never to
trust himself upon the back of any four-legged anima].—
His next resource was a post-chaise ; but again meeting
with an accident, he was even resolved not only to ride no
more in coach or chaise, but that his remains should be con-
veyed, as the-safest mode, by water, to the place of burial.
He next invented a machine to go without horses to Fairlop
Fair,
turn, it was his constant custom to invite a few of his neigh-
bours to accompany him from town, and treat them with a
repast of beans, bacon, &c. under the canopy of the oak ;
the accommodations being provided from the May-pole, a
small public-house. At length Mr. Day’s friends were so
well pleased with the rural novelty, that they pledged them-
selves, one and all, to accompany him on the same occasion
every year, the first Friday in July, during their lives.
This meeting being noticed by the neighbouring gentry,
farmers, and yeomanry, they could not resist visiting the
place annually, on Mr. Day’s jubilee; and as suttling booths
were soon found necessary, various others sprung up in
succession around this huge oak ; so that about the year
1725, this pleasant spot began towear every kind of re-
semblance to a regular fair; and puppet-shews, wild beasts,
fruits, gingerbread, ribbands, and toys of all sorts sue-
ceeding, this new generation of Mr. Day’s creating, be-
came his principal hobby-horse ; and as he thought some
return due to the lads and lasses who had paid him so much
attention, he provided several sacks of beans and a sufficient
quantity of dressed bacon, which were distributed from the
trunk of the tree to the multitude in pans full; and this
custom he continued till his death in 1767.
Tn the former part of Mr. Day’s life, he usually walked
to his favourite spot and back again ; later in life, he rode
a horse, but receiving a fall, he declared he would never
cross another, and kept his word. Fie then kept a mule ;
but being again thrown into the mire, he discarded the
mule as he had done the horse, and determined never to
trust himself upon the back of any four-legged anima].—
His next resource was a post-chaise ; but again meeting
with an accident, he was even resolved not only to ride no
more in coach or chaise, but that his remains should be con-
veyed, as the-safest mode, by water, to the place of burial.
He next invented a machine to go without horses to Fairlop
Fair,