BOOTH. Throughout all Europe, in early times, trade was carried on chiefly by fairs, as indeed is still the case in some parts of it, and in many parts of Asia. The tents, huts, or other temporary or movable structures in which the traders exposed their goods for sale, were called booths. Though the corresponding German bade is generally referred to batten, to build, our booth is traced by some to the Gaelic both or bothag, a bothy or hut; by others to the Greek apotheke, through the Latin apothem, the Italian &Wm, and the French boutique—all signifying an office, shop, store-house, or tavern. From this, its primary sense, B. gradually came to mean a fixed shop or warehouse. As townssprang up, the yearly fair was more or less supplanted by the weekly market. The slight B. which was set up in the same spot every week, had an irresistible tendency to become substantial and permanent; and the records of the 12th and some following centuries are full of unavailing complaints against the encroachments which were in this way made upon the market-places and streets. Thus, Joceline of Brakelond chronicles the ineffec tual efforts of his great and wealthy abbey, in 1192, to dislodge the burgesses of Bury St. Edmunds from the shops, sheds, and stalls which they had erected on the market place without leave of the monks. So in the Winton Domesday Book, compiled in 1148, notice is taken of "houses" in Winchester which had been "stalls." So, also, Stow relates that the houses in Old Fish street, in London, "were at the first but movable boards set out on market-days to show their fish there to be sold; but procunmglicense to set up sheds, they grew to shops, and by little and little, to tall houses." So, again, the same chronicler tells us that "in Cheapside, from the great conduit w., were many fair and large houses, which houses in former times were but sheds or shops, with solars (that is, lofts or upper chambers) over them." So in Edinburgh the range called at first "the Boothraw," and afterwards "the Luekenbooths," arose in the very center of the High street. So, likewise, in Edinburgh and elsewhere, the trader who for years had spread his stall under the shelter of • the same buttress of the church or town-hall, b to -rest a fixed wooden B. against it, gradually•transforming the timber beams into lath and plaster, or even into brick or stone, until at length the basement of the stately cathe dral, or hi.41 de Tale, was incrusted all over with unseemly little booths (or krame8, as they were called in Scotland), like limpets on a rock. The B. which thus arose had often
but ono apartment, which opened on the street by a narrow door, and a broad unglazed window,•closed at night by a wooden shutter, dividing in the middle, and hinged at to and bottom, so that the upper half formed a sort of awning, while the lower half served as a•table for the display of the trader's wares. It was at this window that business was conducted, the trader standing within, the buyer without. Occasionally a flight of steps led down to a cellar under the B., which as a store-room. In other cases, a chamber behind was the warehouse of the merchant's B., or the workshop of the crafts man's B., or the-sleeping-place of either. As civilization advanced, a "solar" or chain. ber was raised above the B. for the dwelliag-house of the trader. occasionally with a store-room in the roof, to which goods were hoisted by a crane. There is mention of a goldsmith's B., with a "solar" above it, at Perth, about 1220. Traces of the middle-age 13 still remain iu this country. There am many perfect examples in France, some of tliein believed to be of the 12th century. • Booms, UNLICENSED, are, by the law of England, public nuisances, and may, upon indictment, be suppressed, and the keepers of them fined. But by the 6 and 7 Viet. c. 63, s. 23, theatrical representations in booths, or shows at fairs, feasts, or customary meet ings of the like kind, when allowed by the justice of the peace of the district, or other local authorities, are lawful. See TREATERS, LAWS AS,TO.
3300TH, B.kirrox, a celebrated actor of tho 18th c., was born in 1681, his father being nearly related to Henry Booth, earl of Warrington. Having received a good education at Westminster,- he Was -sent at the age .of•17 to Cambridge university, from which ho ran away to join a cotapany of strolling-players, who were Shortly after dispersed by the law. B. next performed at Bartholomew fair with such success that Betterton would have him for Drury Lane had be not been afraid of offending his family by doing so. a successful engagement in Dublin, he returned to London, and was pow engaged at Drury Lane, where he appeared in 1701, and made a great " sensation." He became quite the rage among the nobility, who vied with each other in placing their carriages at his disposal; and lie frequently stayed over night at Windsor, where the Court was then held. His greatest character was the ghost in hamlet, in which he is said never 'to have had an equal; and his Othello, according to Cibbcr, was also a very masterly performance,' lie died May 10, 1733.