RATELY PRINTED; which passage, by the way he himself "being quoting," as he pretends " from memory," (though he is not willing to allow a similar apology to any one else, in the same case,) had already corrupted, "the better," in his own words,

to favour a position" that Maggy Lawder is an "old song."

Burton, speaking of fairies, says that " a bigger kind there is of them, called with Hobgoblins, and Robin Good-fellowes, that would in those superstitious times, grinde corne for a messe of milke, cut wood, or do any kind of drudgery worke." Afterward, of the dæmons that mislead men in the night, he says, "We commonly call them Pucks Cartwright, in The ordinary, introduces Moth, repeating this curious charm :

"Saint Francis, and Saint Benedight,
Blesse this house from wicked wight;
From the night-mare, and the goblin
That is hight GOOD-FELLOW ROBIN ;
Keep it from all evil spirits,
FAIRIES, weezels, rats, and ferrets:
From curfew time,
To the next prime+.”

*Anatomy of melancholie.
† Act 3, scene 1.

This Puck, or Robin Good-fellow, seems, likewise, to be the illusory candle-holder, so fatal to travellers, and who is more usually called Jack-alantern, or Will-with-a-wisp; and, as it would seem from a passage elsewhere cited from Scot "Kit with the canstick." Thus a fairy, in a passage of Shakspeare, already quoted, asks Robin,

That fright the maidens of the villagery,

Mislead night-wanderers laughing at their harm ?"

Milton alludes to this deceptive gleam in the following lines:

Compact of unctuous vapour, which the night
Condenses, and the cold environs round,
Kindled through agitation to a flame,

Which oft, they say, some EVIL SPIRIT attends,
Hovering and blazing with delusive light,
Misleads th' amaz'd night-wanderer from his way
To bogs, and mires, and oft through pond and pool *."
He elsewhere calls him "the friers lanternt."

* Paradise lost, B. 9. This great poet is frequently content to pilfer a happy expression from Shakspeare.On this "night-wanderer," on a former "the eastern

occasion

gate."

+ L'allegro:

"And by the friers lantern led.”

This facetious spirit only misleads the benighted traveller (generally an honest farmer, in his way from the market, in a state of intoxication) for the jokes sake; as one, very seldom, if ever, hears any of his deluded followers (who take it to be the torch of Hero in some hospitable mansion, affording

provision for man and horse") perishing in these ponds or pools, through which they dance or plunge after him so merrily.

"There go as manie tales," says Reginald Scot,

upon Hudgin, in some parts of Germanie, as there did in England of Robin Good-fellow.... Frier Rush was for all the world such another fellow as this Hudgin, and brought up even in the same schoole; to wit, in a kitchen: insomuch as the selfe-same tale is written of the one as of the other, concerning the skullian, who is said to have beene slaine, &c. for the reading whereof I referre you to frier Rush his storie, or else to John Wierus, De præstigiis dæmonum*.'

In the old play of Gammer Gurtons needle, printed in 1575, Hodge, describing a great black devil,"

66

*Discoverie of witchcraft, p. 521. The historie of frier Rushe, a common stall, or chap, book, in the time of queen Elizabeth, and even down to the fire of London; since which event it has never been met with. The story of Hudgin will be found among the Tales.

which had been raised by Diccon the bedlam, and, being asked by Gammer,

replies:

"But, Hodge, had he no horns to push ?"

"As long as your two arms. Saw ye never FRYER RUSHE, Painted on a cloth, with a side-long cowes tayle,

And crooked cloven feet, and many a hoked nayle.

For al the world (if I schuld judg) chould reckon him his

brother;

Loke even what face frier Rush had, the devil had such another."

The fairies frequented many parts of the bishopric of Durham. There is a hillock, or tumulus, near Bishopton, and a large hill near Billingham, both which used, in former time, to be "haunted by fairies." Even Ferry-hill, a wellknown stage between Darlington and Durham, is evidently a corruption of Fairy-hill. When seen, by accident or favour, they are described as of the smallest size, and uniformly habited in green. They could, however, occasionally, assume a different size and appearance; as a woman, who had been admitted into their society, challenged one of the guests, whom she espied, in the market, selling fairy-butter*. This freedom was deeply resented,

* This is well known, and frequently found on old trees, gate-posts, &c.

and cost her the eye she first saw him with. Mr. Brand mentions his having met with a man, who said he had seen one that had seen fairies. Truth, he adds, is to come at, in most cases; none he believes ever came nearer to it, in this, than he has done. However that may be, the present editor cannot pretend to have been more fortunate. His informant related that an acquaintance, in Westmoreland, having a great desire, and praying earnestly to see a fairy, was told, by a friend, if not a fairy in disguise, that on the side of such a hill, at such a time of day, he should have a sight of one; and, accordingly, at the time and place appointed, "the hob goblin," in his own words, "stood before him in the likeness of a green-coat lad;" but, in the same instant, the spectators eye glancing, vanished into the hill. This, he said, the man told him.

The streets of Newcastle, says Mr. Brand, "were formerly (so vulgar tradition has it) haunted by a nightly guest, which appeared in the shape of a mastiff dog, &c. and terrified such as were afraid of shadows. I have heard," he adds, "when a boy, many stories concerning it." It is to be lamented that, as this gentleman was endeavouring to illustrate a very dull book, on this and similar subjects, he did not think it worth his while to make it a