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                         FOLK–LORE AND LEGENDS

                               _ENGLISH_




                               FOLK–LORE
                                  AND
                                LEGENDS

                                ENGLISH

[Illustration: DECORATION]

                            W. W. GIBBINGS
                       18 BURY ST., LONDON, W.C.
                                 1890




INTRODUCTORY NOTE.


The old English Folklore Tales are fast dying out. The simplicity of
character necessary for the retaining of old memories and beliefs is
being lost, more rapidly in England, perhaps, than in any other part of
the world. Our folk are giving up the old myths for new ones. Before
remorseless “progress,” and the struggle for existence, the poetry
of life is being quickly blotted out. In editing this volume I have
endeavoured to select some of the best specimens of our Folklore. With
regard to the nursery tales, I have taken pains to give them as they
are in the earliest editions I could find. I must say, however, that,
while I have taken every care to alter only as much as was absolutely
necessary in these tales, some excision and slight alteration has at
times been required.

  C. J. T.




                               CONTENTS.


                                                 PAGE

  A Dissertation on Fairies,                        1

  Nelly the Knocker,                               39

  The Three Fools,                                 42

  Some Merry Tales of the Wise Men of Gotham,      46

  The Tulip Fairies,                               54

  The History of Jack and the Giants,              57

  The Fairies’ Cup,                                84

  The White Lady,                                  86

  A Pleasant and Delightful History of Thomas
  Hickathrift,                                     89

  The Spectre Coach,                              117

  The Baker’s Daughter,                           123

  The Fairy Children,                             126

  The History of Jack and the Beanstalk,          129

  Johnny Reed’s Cat,                              150

  Lame Molly,                                     156

  The Brown man of the Moors,                     159

  How the Cobbler cheated the Devil,              161

  The Tavistock Witch,                            165

  The Worm of Lambton,                            168

  The Old Woman and the Crooked Sixpence,         174

  The Yorkshire Boggart,                          177

  The Duergar,                                    181

  The Barn Elves,                                 185

  Legends of King Arthur,                         187

  Silky,                                          192




A DISSERTATION ON FAIRIES.

BY JOSEPH RITSON, ESQ.


The earliest mention of Fairies is made by Homer, if, that is, his
English translator has, in this instance, done him justice:—

  “Where round the bed, whence Achelöus springs,
  The wat’ry Fairies dance in mazy rings.”

  (_Iliad_, B. xxiv. 617.)

These Nymphs he supposes to frequent or reside in woods, hills, the
sea, fountains, grottos etc., whence they are peculiarly called Naiads,
Dryads and Nereids:

  “What sounds are those that gather from the shores,
  The voice of nymphs that haunt the sylvan bowers,
  The fair–hair’d dryads of the shady wood,
  Or azure daughters of the silver flood?”

  (_Odyss._ B. vi. 122.)

The original word, indeed, is _nymphs_, which, it must be confessed,
furnishes an accurate idea of the _fays_ (_fées_ or _fates_) of the
ancient French and Italian romances; wherein they are represented as
females of inexpressible beauty, elegance, and every kind of personal
accomplishment, united with magic or supernatural power; such, for
instance, as the Calypso of Homer, or the Alcina of Ariosto. Agreeably
to this idea it is that Shakespeare makes Antony say in allusion to
Cleopatra—

  “To this great fairy I’ll commend thy acts,”

meaning this grand assemblage of power and beauty. Such, also, is the
character of the ancient nymphs, spoken of by the Roman poets, as
Virgil, for instance:

  “Fortunatus et ille, deos qui novit agrestes,
  Panaque, Sylvanumque senem, Nymphasque sorores.”

  (_Geor._ ii. 493.)

They, likewise, occur in other passages as well as in Horace—

  “——gelidum nemus
  Nympharumque leves cum Satyris chori.”

  (_Carmina_, I., O. 1, v. 30.)

and, still more frequently, in Ovid.

Not far from Rome, as we are told by Chorier, was a place