September 4

Horn Fair

 

The Charlton Horn Fair was one of London’s most popular lar and longest-running fairs until it was discontinued in 1872. The fair was famous for its fixation on “horns.” During the fair’s heyday, thousands sands of people from all over England flocked to the fair wearing, carrying, and displaying horns. Every sort of horn imaginable inable and everything made from horn was for sale.

The legend behind the fair relates how King John was out hunting on Shooter’s Hill when he stopped to rest at the miller’s house. The only person home was the miller’s charming wife. It seems that the king and the young woman began kissing when the miller walked in and caught them. He drew his dagger, threatening to kill them both, but, when he realized who he was dealing with, decided on some other compensation instead. The king thus granted him all the land visible from the Charlton to the river beyond the Rotherhithe and the right to hold a fair each year. However, it seems that the miller’s neighbors became jealous and renamed the river boundary “Cuckold’s Point.” Each year at the fair, the disgruntled neighbors would wear horns and horned helmets to the fair in a mocking gesture. ture. In popular culture, the phrase “he wears the horns” was used to identify the cuckold husband. Later on, the fair was moved to October, and then disbanded.