Riding Ovingham fair behind the duke’s pipers

On the morning of Ovingham fair, held on 26 April and again on 26 October, the fair was ridden by a procession from the chief alehouse behind the Duke of Northumberland’s two pipers in light blue cloaks with silver half-moons on their arms. The duke’s agent, bailiff, constable and tenant farmers followed them through the fair while the proclamation was read, then walked the bounds of the common and waste land and came back to drink punch at the duke’s expense, some farmers mounting their sons on donkeys so they could join in. The April show was of male cattle and horses and the October one of females, and the fair supplied pigs to the feeders of Cumberland and Westmorland.