THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

Throughout the ages there have been adventurous spirits who have gone forth into the great world beyond.  Many of these returned, drawn, as it were by the lodestone of the everlasting hills, to die and be buried in their homeland; always they have left behind kinsfolk to maintain the unbroken succession, to marry and inter-marry amongst dalesfolk and to lead pretty much the same primitive life as did their forebears.

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The youth of today has little interest and less respect for such tradition, or for the holy places which gave solace and spiritual refreshment to others of quite recent times.  Their attitude towards the past, its lore and traditions deny to them the power of seeing fairies disporting themselves, or restless spirits, and these same youths were denied the power of seeing witches in the form of hares, the Devil masquerading as a black fox, or the astrals of those whose bodies had hung on local gibbets.  Only those with a long heritage of faith saw all these things.

Fairfax-Blakeborough/Spirits, 1954