112 BRAMBLES AND BAY LEAVES. 



sitting in an arbour in the garden knitting, and there suddenly came 

 over the hedge six persons of small stature, all clothed in green, 

 which frightened her so much as to throw her into a sickness. They 

 continued their appearance to her, never less than two at a time, nor 

 ever more than eight. From harvest time to the Christmas following, 

 these fairies came to her and fed her ; and one day," says Moses Pitt 

 — who was either a fool or a gross deceiver — " one day she gave me 

 a piece of her [fairy] bread, which I did eat, and think it was the 

 most delicious food that ever I did eat, either before or since." The 

 same favoured Ann Jeffries was once presented with a silver cup by 

 these fairies, and was often seen dancing around the trees, alleging 

 that she was dancing with the fairies. Much as they favoured her, 

 however, in her times of prosperity, the fairies fearfully deserted her 

 in the hour of danger, for being thrown into jail as an impostor, 

 instead of aiding in her escape, they forsook her 



To dance on ringlets to the whistling wind.* 



It was one of the primary articles of Delta's faith, that 



The leaden talisman of Truth, 

 Hath disenchanted of its rainbow hues, 

 The sky ; and robbed the fields of half their flowers. 



And in his poem of Enchantment, he sets forth that poetry is being 

 shamed out of existence by the march of modern science, — an asser- 

 tion which is untrue as regards the poetry of human experience and 

 sentiment, tliough well borne out in the fate which has ah'eady fallen 

 upon the legends and fancies of poetical superstitions. Truth and 

 poetry may march together — truth widening the field and opening up 

 new resources for the growth of poetry, and poetry shedding a sem- 

 piternal lustre on the acquisitions of truth. Newton dissects the 

 rainbow, and by showing its prismatic structure, disenchants it of its 

 angel uses. Franklin analyzes the thunder, and by pointing out its 

 electrical origin, robs it of its avenging voice ; and in the same man- 

 ner, the man of science, kneeling on the green turf to speculate upon 

 the fairy ring, finds that, like other natural appearances which have 

 worn for a time poetical and superstitious attributes, this too must 

 yield an answer to the touch of that " leaden talisman," and become 

 a prose fact in the economy of natiu-e. It seems at first sight a pity 

 to sweep away a fancy so beautiful; but yet truth— though only the 



« Hone's Year Book. 



