Country Fair by Rubens

Pamela's favorite activity is going to the country fair with her parents. Once every summer, she and her family will dress in their Sunday-best and attend the fair in the market town. Pamela always spends weeks in advance thinking about the fair. She always goes because it is not safe for her parents to leave her at home alone. Pamela loves to look at all of the animals, see puppet shows, and perhaps be lucky enough to get a "present". Last summer, she got her very first doll as a birthday present. It was a wooden-jointed doll, and only cost a few pence!
It is exciting for Pamela to be able to leave her house for a trip like that, since she is usually expected to help out around the home. She spends much of her time sewing. She mainly works on spinning and weaving, so that she will soon be able to help make clothes for her family.

For many girls growing up in lower-class families, household work often took over the time that other children had for fun and games. Girls were expected to work within the home. Middle and lower-class girls did not have time to do fancy needlework, but rather "assisted in the spinning and weaving and fulling of the cloths and serges, by which the family made a large part of its income or supplied itself with clothes and bedding." 21 Sometimes girls might cut off some cloth to make themselves a rag doll. They would stuff the fabric, paint a face on, and perhaps take a box to make a home for their doll. Real dolls and dollhouses were too expensive for this class to buy. At the country fairs, inexpensive dolls could be purchased. The Bartholomew Babies were wooden jointed dolls sold at the Bartholomew Fair for only a few pence²².

The Lacemaker By Vermeer (1632-1675)


When parents attended an entertainment event themselves, children would frequently go with them, especially in the case of the working and lower classes. It was not safe to leave children at home with no one to look after them. Children would put on their Sunday best, usually a white dress that might be soiled by the end of the day, and enjoy fairs for either amusement or to go for the buying and selling. Usually there were stands with inexpensive items, and children might be hopefully of bringing home a souvenir at the end of the day.

Country Fair By Rubens.

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