Thank you, Rhuby. Look what I found at the Quinion site, though (tsuwm, you're a genius!): The piepowder courts died out during the course of the nineteenth century along with the fairs that had brought them into being; the last is said to have been that in Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire, which last met in 1898. They must have gone out of existence in your area earlier. Let me know if you discover anything on these, will you?

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And, Jo--All right, then; either Bingley will have to don dinnerware, or I'll wash him up in some other language--perhaps en Français--ooh la la! [Bingley running for his life e]