Thought I, for sure this massie forester The bishop was right, for it proved to be the keeper of the forest, who showed them their way which they had lost. In a curious and rare book entitled "Paradoxical Assertions and Philosophical Problems," by R. H., 8vo. Lond. 1664, 2nd part, p. 14, "Why Englishmen creep to the chimney in winter and summer also?" we read: "Doth not the warm zeal of an Englishman's devotion (who was ever observed to contend most stifly pro aris et focis) make them maintain and defend the sacred hearth, as the sanctuary and chief place of residence of the tutelary lares and household gods, and the only court where the Lady Fairies convene to dance and revel?" Aubrey, in his "Miscellanies," p. 159, gives us the following most important piece of information respecting fairies: "When fairies remove from place to place they are said to use the words horse and hattock." (a) In Sir John Sinclair's "Statistical Account of Scotland," vol. iv. 8vo. Edinb. 1792, p. 560, the minister of the parishes of Strachur and Stralachlan in Argyleshire tells us, in his description of them, that " About eight miles to the eastward of Cailleach-vear a small conical hill rises considerably above the neighbouring hills. It is seen from Inverary, and from many parts at a great distance. It is called Sien-Sluai, the fairy habitation of a (a) In the "British Apollo," fol. Lond. 1708, vol. i. No. 1, supernumerary for April, we are told, "The opinion of fairies has been asserted by Pliny and several historians, and Aristotle himself gave some countenance to it, whose words are these: Es de ò TOTOS, &c. i. e. Hic locus est quem incolunt pygmei, non est fabula, sed pusillum genus ut aiunt: wherein Aristotle plays the sophist. For though by non est fabula' he seems at first to confirm it, yet, coming in at last with his ut aiunt,' he shakes the belief he had before put upon it. Our society, therefore, are of opinion that Homer was the first author of this conceit, who often used similes, as well to delight the ear as to illustrate his matter: and in his third Iliad compares the Trojans to cranes, when they descend against fairies. So that that which was only a pleasant fiction in the fountain became a solemn story in the stream, and current still among us." In the same work, vol. i. No. 25, fairy rings are ascribed to lightning. multitude." Adding in a note, "a belief in fairies prevailed very much in the Highlands of old; nor at this day is it quite obliterated. A small conical hill, called Sien, was assigned them for a dwelling, from which melodious music was frequently heard, and gleams of light seen in dark nights." Ibid. vol. xii. p. 461, Statistical Account of Kirkmichael, we read: "Not more firmly established in this country is the belief in ghosts than that in fairies. The legendary records of fancy, transmitted from age to age, have assigned their mansions to that class of genii, in detached hillocks, covered with verdure, situated on the banks of purling brooks, or surrounded by thickets of wood. These hillocks are called sioth-dhunan, abbreviated sioth-anan, from sioth, peace, and dun, a mound. They derive this name from the practice of the Druids, who were wont occasionally to retire to green eminences to administer justice, establish peace, and compose differences between contending parties. As that venerable order taught a saoghl hal, or world beyond the present, their followers, when they were no more, fondly imagined that seats where they exercised a virtue so beneficial to mankind were still inhabited by them in their disembodied state. autumnal season, when the moon shines from a serene sky, often is the wayfaring traveller arrested by the music of the hills, more melodious than the strains of Orpheus. Often struck with a more solemn scene, he beholds the visionary hunters engaged in the chace, and pursuing the deer of the clouds, while the hollow rocks, in long-sounding echoes, reverberate their cries." In the "There are several now living who assert that they have seen and heard this aërial hunting, and that they have been suddenly surrounded by visionary forms, and assailed by a multitude of voices. "About fifty years ago a clergyman in the neighbourhood, whose faith was more regulated by the scepticism of philosophy than the credulity of superstition, could not be prevailed upon to yield his assent to the opinion of the times. At length, however, he felt from experience that he doubted what he ought to have believed. One night as he was returning home, at a late hour, from a pres bytery, he was seized by the fairies, and carried aloft into the air. Through fields of æther and fleecy clouds he journeyed many a mile, descrying, like Sancho Panza on his clavileno, the earth far distant below him, and no bigger than a nut-shell. Being thus sufficiently convinced of the reality of their existence, they let him down at the door of his own house, where he afterward often recited to the wondering circle the marvellous tale of his adventure." (a) A note in page 462 adds: "Notwithstanding the progressive increase of knowledge and proportional decay of superstition in the Highlands, these genii are still supposed by many of the people to exist in the woods and sequestered valleys of the mountains, where they frequently appear to the lonely traveller, clothed in green, with dishevelled hair floating over their shoulders, and with faces more blooming than the vermil blush of a summer morning. At night in particular, when fancy assimilates to its own preconceived ideas every appearance and every sound, the wandering enthusiast is frequently entertained by their music, more melodious than he ever before heard. It is curious to observe how much this agreeable delusion corresponds with the superstitious opinion of the Romans concerning the same class of genii, represented under different names. The Epicurean Lucretius describes the credulity in the following beautiful verses: "Hæc loca capripedes satyros, nymphasque Tibia quas fundit digitis pulsata canentum.' "The fauni are derived from the eubates or faidhin of the Celta. Faidh is a prophet; hence is derived the Roman word fari, to prophesy." (a) In plain English, I should suspect that spirits of a different sort from fairies had taken the honest clergyman by the head, and, though he has omitted the circumstance in his marvellous narration, I have no doubt but that the good man saw double on the occasion, and that his own mare, not fairies, landed him safe at his own door. J. B. In the same work, vol. xv. (8vo. Edinb. 1795), p. 430, parishes of Stronsay and Eday, county of Orkney, we read: "The common people of this district remain to this day so credulous as to think that fairies do exist, that an inferior species of witchcraft is still practised, and that houses have been haunted, not only in former ages, but that they are haunted; at least noises are heard which cannot be accounted for on rational principles, even in our days. An instance of the latter happened only three years ago in the house of John Spence, boat-carpenter." (a) The following from O'Brien's Dict. Hib. is cited by Gen. Vallancey in a note in his "Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis," vol. iii. p. 461. "Sith-bhreog, the same as sigh-brog, a fairy; hence bean-sighe, plural mna-sighe, women-fairies; credulously supposed by the common people to be so affected to certain families, that they are heard to sing mournful lamentations about their houses by night whenever any of the family labours under a sickness which is to end by death: but no families which are not of an ancient and noble stock" (of Oriental extraction he should have said)" are believed to be honoured with this fairy-privilege." In a very rare tract in my possession, entitled "Strange and Wonderful News from the County of Wicklow in Ireland, &c.; what happened to one Dr. Moore (late schoolmaster in London), how he was invisibly taken from his friends," &c. 4to. Lond. 1678, we read, page 1, how Dr. Moore said to his friend that "he had been often told by his mother, and several others of his relations, of spirits which they called fairies, who used frequently to carry him away, and continue him with them for some time, without doing him the least prejudice: but his mother, being very much frighted and concerned thereat, did, as often as he was missing, send to a certain old woman, her neighbour in the country, who, by repeating some spells or (a) "The Queen of Fairie, mentioned in Jean Weir's indictment, is probably the same sovereign with the Queen of Elf-land, who makes a figure in the case of Alison Pearson, 15th May, 1588; which I believe is the first of the kind in the record." Additions and Notes to "Maclaurin's Arguments and Decisions in remarkable Cases. Law Courts, Scotland." 4to. Edinb. 1774, p. 726. exorcisms, would suddenly cause his return." His friend very naturally disbelieved the facts, "while the doctor did positively affirm the truth thereof." But the most strange and wonderful part of the story is, that during the dispute the doctor was carried off suddenly by some of those invisible gentry, though forcibly held by two persons; nor did he return to the company till six o'clock the next morning, both hungry and thirsty, having, as he asserted, "been hurried from place to place all that night." At the end of this marvellous narration is the following advertisement: "For satisfaction of the licenser, I certifie this following" (it ought to have been preceding) "relation was sent to me from Dublin by a person whom I credit, and recommended in a letter bearing date the 23rd of November last as true news much spoken of there. John Cother." The licenser of the day must have been satisfied, for the tract was printed; but who will undertake to give a similar satisfaction on the subject to the readers of the present age? ROBIN GOODFELLOW, ALIAS PUCKE, ALIAS HOBGOBLIN. Whene'er such wanderers I meete, As from their night-sports they trudge With counterfeiting voice I greete To play some tricke And frolicke it, with ho, ho, ho! My backe they stride, Ore hedge and lands, I whirry, laughing, ho, ho, ho! With possets and with juncates fine, I eat their cakes and sip their wine; I fart and snort, And out the candles I do blow: The maids I kiss; They shrieke-who's this? I answer nought, but ho, ho, ho! Yet now and then, the maids to please, At midnight I card up their wooll; And while they sleepe, and take their ease, With wheel to threads their flax I pull. I grind at mill Their malt up still; I dress their hemp, I spin their tow. And would me take, I wend me, laughing, ho, ho, ho! When house or harth doth sluttish lye, I pinch the maidens black and blue; And on the key-cold floor them throw. And loudly laugh out, ho, ho, ho! We lend them what they do require, And for the use demand we nought, Our owne is all we do desire. If'to repay They do delay, Abroad amongst them then I go, And night by night I them affright We leave instead, And wend us, laughing, ho, ho, ho! Thus nightly revell'd to and fro; My feates have told, So Vale, Vale, ho, ho, ho!" Shakspeare has also given us a description of Robin Good fellow in the "Midsummer Night's Dream :" "Either I mistake your shape and making 66 "This account of Robin Good-fellow," says Mr. Warton, corresponds, in every article, with that given of him in Harsenet's 'Declaration," " ch. xx. p. 134: "And if that the bowle of curds and creame were not duly set out for Robin Good-fellow, the frier, and Sisse the dairy-maid, why then either the pottage was burnt to next day in the pot, or the cheeses would not curdle, or the butter would not come, or the ale in the fat never would have good head. But, if a peeterpenny or an housle-egge were behind, or a patch of tythe unpaid, then 'ware of bullbeggars, sprites, &c." He is mentioned by Cartwright, in his "Ordinary," act iii. sc. 1, as a spirit particularly fond of disconcerting and disturbing domestic peace and economy. Reginald Scot gives the same account of this frolicsome spirit, in his "Discoverie of Witchcraft," 4to. Lond. 1584, p. 66: "Your grandame's maids were wont to set a bowl of milk for him, for his pains in grinding malt and mustard, and sweeping the house at midnight-this white bread, and bread and milk, was his standing fee." (1) There is the following pleasant passage concerning Robin Goodfellow in "Apothegms of King James, the Lord Bacon, &c.," 12mo. Lond. 1658, p. 139, showing that persons of the first distinction were anciently no strangers to the characters of fairies: "Sir Fulk Greenvil had much and private accesse to Queen Elizabeth, which he used honourably, and did many men good. Yet he would say merrily of himself that he was like Robin Goodfellow, for when the maides spilt the milkpannes, or kept any racket, they would lay it upon Robin; so what tales the ladies about the queen told her, or other bad offices that they did, they would put it upon him." In Hampshire they give the name of Coltpixy to a supposed spirit or fairy, which, in the shape of a horse, wickers, i. e. neighs, and misleads horses into bogs, &c. See Grose's "Provincial Glossary," in verbo. I suspect Pixy to be a corruption of "Puckes," which anciently signified little better than the devil, whence, in Shakspeare, the epithet of "sweet" is given to Puck, by way of qualification.(2) Junius gives the following etymon of Hobgoblin. Casaubon, he says, derives Goblin from the Greek Kolaλos, a kind of spirit that was supposed to lurk about houses. The hobgoblins were a species of these, so called because their motion was fabled to have been effected not so much by walking as hopping on one leg. See Lye's "Junii Etymologic." Hob, however, is nothing more than the usual contraction for Robert. In a curious old quarto tract by Samuel Rowlands, entitled "More Knaves yet. The weare, Who came a nights and would make kitchens cleane, And in the bed bepinch a lazy queane. Was much in mils about the grinding meale (And sure, I take it, taught the miller steale); Amongst the creame-bowles and milkepans would be, And with the country wenches, who but he To wash their dishes for some fresh cheese hire, Or set their pots and kettles 'bout the fire. 'Twas a mad Robin that did divers pranckes, For which with some good cheare they gave him thankes, And that was all the kindness he expected, With gaine (it seemes) he was not much infected. But as that time is past, that Robin's gone, say), The other takes them quite and cleane away. |