There is nothing to show that a bustling town once occupied a long spit of land between two rivers on the outskirts of Lauriston. A green meadow stretches in a gentle sweep to a rising hillock at one end with a scattering of trees along its surface, but unseen beneath its undulations lie streets and alleyways; vanished churches, convents and a hospital; a royal mint and the cellars of the homes of prosperous merchants and busy journeymen. For what is only a field today was once Roxburgh, the capital of Scotland, a more important place than Edinburgh and a mecca for kings, papal legates and other important travellers.
No one knows for certain what happened to the town. It may have been abandoned because of the plague, or perhaps its buildings were razed to the ground to prevent it being taken again by invaders from south of the border. It could have been gradually deserted because it became a place of ill omen after James II, King of Scotland, blew himself up by the misfiring of a cannon when trying to blast an English garrison out of the town. Whatever the reason, soldiers and courtiers, clerics and journeymen left Roxburgh; the fine houses and churches fell into disrepair and then ruin. By the beginning of the 17th century the site had become a pasture. Today only a crumbling and haunted-looking castle broods on a hill above the vanished town and sheep graze over its sunken streets.
Until the 1930s, there was an annual reminder of the glory that once filled the empty field. This was a fair, named after St James, patron saint of pilgrims, to whom Roxburgh’s chief church had been dedicated. Churches dedicated to that saint dotted the pilgrim routes of Europe, culminating in the magnificence of St Jaime de Santiago in northern Spain.
Roxburgh’s fair was started in the 12th century and even after the town disappeared, it continued to be held on the first Monday in August every year. During fairtime, life surged back into the deserted town; voices rang over it once more and feet trod its hidden streets again. The ghosts of its dead mingled with seekers after pleasure at the fair.
This is the story of what happened during a particular St James’ Fair in the year 1816.