242 Fairy Beliefs in Galloway. 



that since there's sae much preachin' an' folk readin' the 

 Bible the fairies got frightened and disappeared." 



In Sir Walter Scott's Letters on Demonology and 

 Witchcraft, p. 175, we read : — " In the beginning of the 

 seventeenth century Dr Corbett, then Bishop of Oxford and 

 Norwich, wrote a poem named ' A proper new Ballad entitled 

 the Fairies' Farewell.' Part of the last verse may be quoted 

 here : — 



" But now, alas ! they are all dead, 

 Or gone beyond the seas ; 

 Or farther for religion fled. 

 Or else they take their ease." 



The expulsion of the fairies was represented as a consequence 

 of the Reformation. 



My friend in the Isle says there are so many things going 

 on nowadays, even in country districts, that the old way of 

 gathering round the fire on winter nights and telling stories 

 seems to have died out, as also it has in a great measure done 

 in the Highlands, and by this we are indeed the losers of so 

 many traditions and superstitions until late years so popular 

 and firmly believed in. There were, and I believe are still, 

 numerous thorn trees and bushes which were called wishing 

 thorns, and to those the people round about Whithorn used to 

 go with their tales of woes, etc., to receive the sympathy of the 

 good fairies. This was related to me by one who had for years 

 lived in Whithorn, and was glad to tell me anything he could 

 remember of old fairy beliefs. There is an Irish legend told 

 by Keating in his history of Ireland of a youth who had a 

 terrible secret, and at last, being unable to bear it any longer, 

 he consulted a Druid, who advised him to go where four roads 

 met, and to turn to the right and address the first tree he 

 met and to tell his secret to it. He did so, and found imme- 

 diate relief. In Northumberland we have a very pathetic old 

 folk-song of an old man who is fast failing, and who goes to 

 tell all his regrets at losing his youth and strength to an old 

 oak tree near his home. The song is entitled " Sair fyeld 

 hinny." In Northumberland " hinny " is a word in constant 

 use as a term of friendliness and affection, both to young and 

 old alike, the oak in this case is " hinny." 



