Doncaster Fair or the industrious Yorkshirebites

Rowlandson, Thomas, 1756-1827 · [1818?]

The principal figure in the foreground group is a buxom but hardly gentle keeperess of a knock- em-down stand. The lady, clad in a soldier's old jacket, with ragged skirts and defective hose, is holding in one arm an installment of sticks ' three throws a penny ' and is demanding her fee, a trifle boisterously, from a smockclad yokel, who is diving into his short-clothes pocket for the coppers which do not appear to be forthcoming. Other rustics are taking their pastime at the same amusement, and one, in perplexity, is scratching his head. The bustle of a country fair is set forth in the distance ; there is the usual display of booths and mountebanks, countrymen on horseback, love-making in carts, stalls, and struggling groups of sightseers.