CHAPTER XIV 



FAIRIES AND THEIR FLOWER LORE 



" And lo ! upon my fixed delighted ken 



Appeared the loyal Fays. Some by degrees 

 Crept from the primrose buds that opened then, 



And some from bell-shaped blossoms like the bees, 

 Some from the dewy meads, and rushy leas. 



Flew up like chafers when the rustics pass; 

 Some from the rivers, others from tall trees 



Dropped like shed blossoms, silent to the grass. 

 Spirits and elfins small, of every class." 



How much poetry has left the world since Oberon 

 and Titania 



" Danced full oft in many a grene mead," 



and the cowslips were the pensioners of the Fairy 

 Queen ? In those days there was scarcely a flower 

 in wood or on the river-bank but had its mysterious 

 connection with the elfin world. 



Hardly a tree in the greenwood, from the great 

 oak of Thor to the elder with its white blossoms 

 glimmering through the shade, but had its special 

 legends and marvellous properties. Nowadays, 

 though the flowers are as bright, and the green- 

 wood as spreading as ever, the elf is but rarely 

 seen. 



The belief which in those old days gave life 

 to the moorland and forest has, alas ! disappeared. 

 But it is still possible to trace their presence, not 



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