A CHRISTMAS MARKET

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 30, 3 December 1943, Page 7

A CHRISTMAS MARKET

IN GOOD OLD ENGLAND

OLD-TIME PICTURE

Bellowing ol' bullocks, squealing of pigs, roaring ot' drovers,, thwacking ol" .sticks, and jangling ol salesmen's bells; lumbering bolt of a beast at your side, and screaming scurry of "pigs yonder: mud galore, land abundant good humour. So in hours of hullabaloo the Christinas market is held, one might say waged, on the stones of the old .square. I Every inn-yard Is choked with cais,, gigs, and dog-carts. Every inn kitchen is preparing an "ordinary" of more than usual sumptuousuess. And as the hands of the Corn Hall eloA approach the hour for eating every inn parlours tills 'with larmers completing their deals, giving "Good health," and writing cheques.

Men of a gay mind wear a sprig of mistletoe in their buttonholes. Youths fasten the frivolous berries in 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 in clamour of its own.

By narrow ways through Ihe old town the livestock began to gather] in the early morn'ing on foot, and in tumbrils and, waggons. About noon the. backward stream becomes continuous", and it is slow going tor anyone oil wheels, 'the streets are. lull of pedestrians. Bullocks break away and scatter the crowd. Pigs dash from the stick and scamper back over their tracks pursued by voluble, drovers.