Cherry Fairs

Now called teagardens. Nothing to do with cherries; it is cheery fairs—i.e. gay or recreation fairs. A “cheering” is a merry-making. Halliwell tells us that “Cherry (or rather chery) fairs are still held in Worcestershire.” Gower says of this world, “Alle is but a cherye-fayre,” a phrase frequently met with.

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“This life, my son, is but a chery-fayre.”—MS. Bodl. 221 (quoted by Halliwell).