230 BRAMBLES AND BAY LEAVES. 
so much as to throw her into a sickness. They con¬ 
tinued 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 gaol as an impostor, instead of aiding in her escape, 
they forsook her— 
u 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 assertion which is untrue as regards 
the poetry of human experience and sentiment, though 
well borne out in the fate which has already 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 
* Hone’s “ Year Book. 
