A pea-green jerkin on his back,
All dabbled by a splashing hack.—
The dress of this little stranger, and his manner of introducing himself to the festival, must satisfy the reader that the Goblin Groom is one of those supernatural sportsmen usually termed Fairies. In the sequel, however, it will appear evident, that he owes his origin to the hardy race of northern Elves, rather than to the more delicate family of eastern Peris.[16]
The existence of the Fairy, like that of the Mermaid, no longer rests on the credulity of the ignorant, but is confirmed and established by attestations no less respectable than the affidavits so frequently made before the Lord Mayor of London, in support of the infallibility of a quack and his nostrums.
In the isle of Man, where sportsmen of more tangible materials enjoy a temporary security, these little supernaturals, probably under similar circumstances, find an agreeable retreat. In the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Borders, on the unrefuted authority of Mr. Waldron, we have the following interesting particulars.—
“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 stoneraw, 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, (see the story of Lord Duffus below), might occasionally cloak the delinquencies of an unfaithful butler.
“The Fairies, beside their equestrian processions, are addicted, it would seem, to the pleasures of the chace. A young sailor, travelling by night from Douglas, in the Isle of Man, to visit his sister, residing in Kirk Merlugh, heard the noise of horses, the holla 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 Manks ponies, though apparently well suited to their size. The exercise, therefore, falls heavily upon the English and Irish horses brought into the Isle of Man. Mr. Waldron was assured by a gentleman of Ballafletcher, that he had lost three or four capital hunters by these nocturnal excursions.
WALDRON’S WORKS, P. 132.”
It is to be lamented, for the comfort of that valuable class of society denominated Hunting-Grooms, that their masters do not look into the casualties of their studs with the discriminating eye of the worthy gentleman of Ballafletcher.
NOTE V, P. 29.
And every toast with ready will
His elfin hand consents to fill.
Heavens! what a wondrous draught he drew
Whene’er they toasted bold B— —h.