In those tame squares of nature attached to our homes fairies have sometimes been seen.
by RICHARD HOLLAND
Although fairies are popular figures in British folklore, creatures resembling the traditional fairy have been recorded in modern times.
In the 1920s, for example, it was reported that a Mr Lonsdale enjoyed an encounter with ‘the little people’ while relaxing in a garden in Bournemouth, Dorset. ‘Suddenly I was conscious of a movement on the edge of the lawn,’ he said. ‘I saw several little figures dressed in brown peering through the bushes… in a few seconds a dozen or more small people about two feet in height, in bright clothes and with radiant faces, ran on to the lawn, dancing hither and thither… this continued for four or five minutes. They were frightened away by a servant bringing tea.’
More recently, in 1977, Cynthia Montefiore, told readers of ‘Fate’ that while she was sitting in her garden in Somerset she saw: ‘A little figure, about 18 inches tall, [run] from the lawn, finally disappearing under a young fir tree. The sturdily built figure seemed to be dressed in a brown one-piece suit. I was not able to see the face because it was turned away from me. I immediately jumped up to investigate the area around the fir tree but there was no longer any sign of the gnome.’
Both these stories are to be found in Janet Bord’s ‘Fairies: Real Encounters with Little People’, published in 1997. The book is a prime source of stories of modern fairy sightings and even includes one I collected (and which I will refer to in a later article). A popular author and co-author with her husband Colin of many books on the mysterious, Janet has a particular interest in fairy-lore and also recently published ‘The Traveller’s Guide to Fairy Sites’ (Gothic Image). Perhaps for this reason, people have the confidence to tell Janet about sightings of beings many believe belong in the nursery.
Mr E J A Reynolds told Janet that when he was a boy of 10 travelling on the top deck of a bus at Horsham in Sussex in 1948, he saw a little man walking across the lawn of a large garden in broad daylight. He described it as ‘no more than 18 inches high and covered in hair. His face was bare but had a leathery look. The nose seemed sharp. Its arms seemed longer than a human being’s.’
Another friend of Janet’s saw a fairy in her garden in Hampshire. This one was the same size as those described above, about 18 inches high, but rather more delicate. Sylvia Pigeon told Janet: ‘It was all sort of greenish, and light… misty and leaflike… there were some draperies about it, but it was more like petals, you know, curved and intertwined and flowing.’
Mrs Pigeon saw it moving slowly across the garden but could not recall seeing any arms and legs, although it did have ‘a little sort of face of some kind’. She considered it a nature spirit and said she felt it was ‘looking at me with delight… some sort of love, friendliness.’
It’s interesting that all these beings were approximately the same size. If fairies are popularly thought to haunt the bottom of the garden, this is because once upon a time, wild country would have lain beyond it. The edge of the garden represents the boundary between the civilised and the natural world.
As one might expect, fairies (if such they are) are usually seen out of doors but are people have sometimes encountered them in their homes, too. I will continue to explore the subject of modern fairy sightings in subsequent articles. If you have seen a fairy, please let Uncanny UK know by emailing editor@uncannyuk.com
[Source: ‘Fairies' by Janet Bord, 1997, pp 39-58]
© Richard Holland 2008
