A CHRISTMAS MARKET

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 101, 15 December 1939, Page 4 (Supplement)

A CHRISTMAS MARKET

IN GOOD OLD ENGLAND OLD-TIME PICTURE V ■ Bellowing of bullocks, squealing of pigs, roaring of drovers, thwacking of sticks, and jangling of salesmen's bells; lumbering bolt of a beast at your side, and screaming scurry of pigs yonder: mud galore, and abundant good humour. So in hours of hullabaloo the Christmas market is held, one might say waged, on the stones of the old square. Every inn-vard is choked with cars gigs, and dog-carts. Every inn kitchen is preparing an "ordinary" of more than usual sumptuousness. And as the hands of the Corn Hall clock f~ : approach the hour for eating every inn parlours fills with farmers com- I pleting their deals, giving "Good | health," and writing cheques. Men of a gay mind wear a sprig; of mistletoe in their buttonholes. Vouths fasten the frivolous berries their caps, and here and there a merry-eyed wench displays a like* ' symbol. The spirit of Yule is on the market. Fat beeves and porkers in the square, have their Christmas, complement in the fat turkey, geese, and fowls in a range of pens along its side, the bartering of Which proceeds '4i in clamour of its own. " | By narrow ways through the old town the livestock began to gather in the early morning on foot and tumbrils and waggons. About noon ; the backward stream becomes con- -3 tinuous, and it is sloV going for anyone on wheels. The streets are full of pedestrians. Bullocks break away and scatter the crowd. Pigs dash % from the stick and scamper back " i over their tracks pursued by voluble drovers. j ..