he Brook of Beaumont, for example, which passes in its course by
numerous linns and caverns, is notorious for being haunted by the
fairies; and the perforated and rounded stones which are formed by
trituration in its channels are termed by the vulgar fairy cups and
dishes. A beautiful reason is assigned by Fletcher for the fays
frequenting streams and fountains. He tells us of

"A virtuous well, about whose flowery banks
The nimble-footed fairies dance their rounds
By the pale moonshine, dipping oftentimes
Their stolen children, so to make them free
From dying flesh and dull mortality."

It is sometimes accounted unlucky to pass such places without performing
some ceremony to avert the displeasure of the elves. There is upon the
top of Minchmuir, a mountain in Peeblesshire, a spring called the Cheese
Well, because, anciently, those who passed that way were wont to throw
into it a piece of cheese as an offering to the fairies, to whom it was
consecrated.

Like the _feld elfen_ of the Saxons, the usual dress of the fairies is
green; though, on the moors, they have been sometimes observed in heath-
brown, or in weeds dyed with the stone-raw or lichen. They often ride in
invisible procession, when their presence is discovered by the shrill
ringing of their bridles. On these occasions they sometimes borrow
mortal steeds, and when such are found at morning, panting and fatigued
in their stalls, with their manes and tails dishevelled and entangled,
the grooms, I presume, often find this a convenient excuse for their
situation, as the common belief of the elves quaffing the choicest
liquors in the cellars of the rich might occasionally cloak the
delinquencies of an unfaithful butler.

The fairies, besides their equestrian processions, are addicted, it would
seem, to the pleasures of the chase. A young sailor, travelling by night
from Douglas, in the Isle of Man, to visit his sister residing in Kirk
Merlugh, heard a noise of horses, the holloa of a huntsman, and the sound
of a horn. Immediately afterwards, thirteen horsemen, dressed in green,
and gallantly mounted, swept past him. Jack was so much delighted with
the sport that he followed them, and enjoyed the sound of the horn for
some miles, and it was not till he arrived at his sister's house that he
learned the danger which he had incurred. I must not omit to mention
that these little personages are expert jockeys, and scorn to ride the
little Ma