THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

A correspondent from the borders of the North and West Ridings tells me of the strong belief in fairies that existed among the people of his district when he was a boy.  It seems he used to talk to an old inhabitant who, as he confessed, had often ‘seen the fairies.’  Figures of men and women gaily clad, of full size, and in rapid confused motion, he said he had often watched in early summer mornings.  He used to tell of an unbelieving horse-dealer who had stayed the night with him.  At dawn the old farmer saw the fairies, as he had so often done before and called up his guest who unbeliever though he declared himself to be, hurried out as he was, very lightly clad and sat so long on a wall watching them that he caught a rheumatism that he never was cured of.

Gutch/Folklore