ABSTRACT
In George Eliot’s novel The Mill on the Floss, there is a description of a charity bazaar in the town of St Ogg’s at which the heroine Maggie Tulliver has a stall for the sale of ‘large plain articles’, including gentlemen’s dressing gowns, not wanting to sell ‘elaborate products, of which she had but a dim understanding’. The bazaar was attended by ‘All well-dressed St Ogg’s and its neighbourhood’ and as well as the stalls for the sale of goods there was an orchestra and a room for refreshments. 1 Charity bazaars grew in popularity from the 1820s onwards. In December 1827 a four-day fancy fair in Brighton raised £1,315 for the Sussex County Hospital while in June 1833 a four-day bazaar in the Hanover Square Rooms in London raised £5,106 for the Society of Friends of Foreigners in Distress. A typical bazaar raised perhaps £1,000 and by the middle of the century there were around 1,000 advertisements a year in the provincial press for bazaars. They were predominately organized and run by women. 2 The Anti-Corn Law League Bazaar of 1845 was the most spectacular of these. It opened on 8 May for viewing only and included stalls from 46 provincial towns and 12 London districts. Admission was 10s 6d. Selling began a week later and in the course of 17 days the bazaar was visited by 170,000 people and made £25,000. All the latest consumer goods were on display in what was described as a museum of British manufacture. It was largely organized by the wives and daughters of the local and national leaders of the Anti-Corn Law League. As well as raising money, charity bazaars conveyed a message that shopping and consumption could be virtuous pursuits not just self-indulgence. 3 This message found growing acceptance in Victorian England.
