“I see a column of slow rising smoke O’ertop the lofty wood that skirts the wild. A vagabond and useless tribe there eat Their miserable meal. A kettle Slung between two poles, upon a stick transverse Receives the morsel; flesh _obscene_ hog Or vermin; or at best of cock purloined From his accustomed perch. Hard-faring race They pick their fuel out of every hedge Which, kindled with dry leaves and wood, just saves The spark of life. The sportive wind blows wide Their fluttering rags, and shows a tawny skin The vellum of the pedigree they claim.”
The publication of this poem, and the fact that large numbers of gipsy tramps were flitting about the country, with their wretched equipages, may have been the means of stirring the kind hearts of Smith, Crabb, Hoyland, William Allen, of Higham Ferrers, solicitor, and steward to Earl Fitzwilliam, and many others, some eighty or one hundred years ago, to try to reclaim the gipsies from their debasing habits and customs.
It has generally been supposed that the term “green,” given to the land upon which the annual fair is held, comes to us at this date on account of its greensward. This is an error. According to Baker’s and other histories of Northamptonshire, Boughton Green derives its name and title as follows. “In the time of Edward I., William de Nutricilla, abbot of St. Wandegisile, conveyed the lands to John de Boketon or Boughton, from whom they descended to Sir Thomas de Boketon his grandson, and who was succeeded by Sir Henry Green his son and heir, who was Lord Chief Justice of England.” Thus we see the probability of it being called at this ancient date, on account of the close relationship existing between the Boketon or Boughton and Green, Boughton and Green’s wake or fair. In course of time the “and” has been dropped, and we have now “Boughton Green fair.”
“Sir Henry Green obtained a grant or charter, dated 28th February, 1351 (25 of Edward III.), for an annual fair to be held on the manor for the space of three days, beginning with the vigil of the nativity of St. John the Baptist (June 23rd), and ending the day after it.” This being so, the adding of “green” to the fair can be easily accounted for. The site upon which the fair is held is seventeen acres.