remnant of the Druidical assistants.

Professor Burnett also

associates the curious basket of garlands, with which he his now sometimes invested on May-day, with the Druidical hunt for the mistletoe.

With respect to the legend of "Jack the Giant Killer," it appears, partly at least, to be "derived either directly or indirectly from a common source, with a story of the Giant Skrymner and the Scandinavian demi-god Thor, which is related in an ancient specimen of the literature of the north of Europe, the Edda of Snorro.'" (See Chambers's "Edinburgh Journal," for February 1844, p. 68.)

There are places called Jack Field and Jack Field Coppice, in Mathon; Jack Stile Acres, in Grimley; Jack's Croft, in the parish of Bromsgrove; Jack-butts, in Sutton, in the parish of Tenbury; Jack's Close, in Newland, near Great Malvern; Jack Meadow, in Rushock; In Jack, Upper Jack, Lower Jack, Jack Meadow, and Jack, in the Berrow; Jack Piece, Middle Jack Piece, and Far Jack Piece, in Northfield; Jack's Stile, in the Foreign of Kidderminster; and Jack Leasow, in Frankley; Jack Field, Little Jack, and Old Jack, in Hasbury, in Hales Owen.

In Warwickshire -Jack Ground and Jack's Croft, in Ipsley; and Jack Lands, in Solihull.

In Somersetshire, not far from Kilmington Church, there is a small oval camp called Jack's Castle, supposed to be Danish†.

WILL.

Will-with-a-Wisp," probably is a personification derived from the Saxon word " wile," a deceit, a fraud, a trick, a stratagem, &c., and the Swedish word "wisp," a small bundle, as of hay or straw, ignited.

See his "Amoenitates Querneæ."

+ See Gough's "Camden," Vol. i.

Some of our readers will remember an interesting picture, exhibited several years back by the Royal Academy, of " Will-o'-the-Wisp," in which a goblin horse was depicted going stealthily over a moor or bog, in the night,

In Parnell's " Fairy Tale" he is mentioned as follows:

"Then Will, who bears the wispy fire

To trail the swains among the mire," &c.

The common phrase "Wicked Will" probably refers to the same personage: we find that

"Wicked Will kill'd the dead owl† with the wash beetle."

And also that

"Wicked Willy Wilkin

Kiss'd the maids a-milking.”

Now, from the most veritable accounts which we have of the fairies, we learn that kissing the maids was no uncommon trick of theirs, and no doubt they considered the milking time as the best opportunity for them to do it; and had they merely stolen a kiss, perhaps no great harm had been done, but they occasionally stole the milk also, for it is said that they sometimes used to milk the cows at night§, and checked their yielding milk at morn, and prevented the butter forming in the churn.

In this account of 66 Will," we fancy we see pretty clear traces of our old friend, Puck; and we have it from Puck's own

ridden by a fiend, representing Will, looking backwards, and holding up a lighted wisp in his hand, in a most decoying manner.

See Halliwell's " Fairy Mythology," p. 306.

+ Meaning the screech owl, the warner of death.

In Percy's" Reliques of Ancient English Poetry," sixth edition, Vol. i., p. 84, it is stated that the most diligent inquirers after ancient English rhymes find the earliest they can discover in the mouths of the Norman nobles, such as that of Robert Earl of Leicester, and his Flemings, in 1173, temp. Henry II. (little more than a century after the Conquest), recorded by Lambarde, in his Dictionary of England," p. 36 :—

In Hone's" Every Day Book," Vol. i., p. 594, it is stated that in Ireland

a ceremony is practised during the Beal-tine on May-eve, of making the cows

leap over lighted straw or faggots, "to save the milk from being pilfered by the good people," meaning the fairies.

mouth-aye, and as far back as about Shakespeare's time, that he used to be called "Willy Wispe."

In an account of "Manners and Customs of the Irish Peasantry," in the "Saturday Magazine +," it is stated that "beetling linen by the side of a rocky stream, that murmurs through an unfrequented glen, is represented as a favourite, or rather common, female fairy occupation, where they chaunt wild and pathetic melodies, beating time with their beetles."

There are places called Wilkin's Pasture, Wilkin's Field, and Little Wilkin, in Pendock; Big Will-tree and Upper and Lower Will-tree, in Grimley; and Wilkin Close, in the parish of Bromsgrove.

In Gloucestershire, Will Fields, in Alvechurch; in Montgomeryshire, Brin Wilkin Wood and Brin Wilkin Meadow, in Church Stoke.

In the "Annalia Dvbrensia upon the yearly celebration of Mr. Robert Dover's Olympic Games upon Cotswold Hills," published in 1636, there are the following lines, in Mr. Robert Durham's address::

"As Phoebus is Heaven's curl'd-pate chariter,

And Twinkling Will, the Northern Waggoner."

With respect to this waggoner, there is an allusion to him in Thorpe's "Northern Mythology §," among the North German traditions, as follows:

"The Night Raven, or Eternal Waggoner.

"In the night, the hor, hor,' or 'hrok, hrok," of the night raven is frequently to be heard. This bird is much larger than the common raven, and almost as large as a full-grown hen. By

* See p. 422. There is "Wisp Hill," in Roxburghshire, and a hill called "Brown Willy," in Cornwall. Now, whether the name Brown in this instance has reference to the Scotch fairies called "Brownies," I cannot pretend to say. † Vol. viii., February 13th, 1836, p. 66.

See the account of "Pinket," p. 435. § Vol. iii., pp. 97, 98.

FF

some he is called the Eternal Waggoner, who also say that he wished, for his share of heaven, to drive to all eternity; and he accordingly drives without cessation, sitting on the middle horse of the celestial wain, of which the four large stars behind are the four wheels, but the three foremost stars, which stand in a crooked line, the three horses; and the little star over the middlemost, is the Eternal Waggoner. He guides the horses; and as the waggon always goes in a circle, they do not stand in a right line with one another, but in a curve, being always on the turn. Before midnight, the waggon is said to be going out, when the pole inclines upwards; and after midnight it goes home, and then the pole inclines downwards.”

ELF.

In the Introduction to the Tale of Tamlane," in the "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border," by Sir Walter Scott, he says:— "The word elf,' which seems to have been the original name of the beings afterwards denominated fairies, is of Gothic origin, and probably signified simply a spirit of a lower order."

In a paper upon this subject, in the Athenæum" for October 2nd, 1847, p. 1030, it is stated that " our English name 'elf' is the same as the Ango-Saxon alf,' the old High-German and middle High-German alf,' the old Norse alfr,' and the Gothic albs;' and that corresponding with our English elf,' in the plural ́elves,' we have the Swedish elf' in the plural, 'elfvar' masculine, and elfvor' feminine; the Danish elv' and elve in the plural.

6

"This word elf' has, however, undergone some strange

modifications. In Beowulf we read of

In Alfrick there is a place called Halvens, or Halvins¦, and there are two wells adjoining each other on the side of the road

See p. 9 of Mr. Kemble's edition.

+ Or Titans. (See Kemble's" Saxons in England," Vol. i., pp. 379, 381.) Probably Elvins or Elfvins.

between the Upper House and Bewell, or Buall, which are called Oughton Wells, most probably a corruption of Eoten Wells; for the peasantry say outing for hooting. They are situated just below Norgrove, or Hoar Grovet, and used to be much esteemed by the peasantry; and, although close together, their springs must come from opposite directions, as the water of the northern one is clear; while that of the southern one is of a milky hue, caused probably by its coming through a stratum of what is called Walker's or Fuller's clay, which in some places appears in the neighbourhood. The difference in the colour of these two springs, and the supposed virtues of that of a milky hue, as a remedy for weak or inflamed eyes, most probably tended to throw an air of mystery about these twin wells §.

There is a place called Elvins, in Beoley; and in Warwickshire, Elvins Close, in Great Alne; and, Upper, Far, and Lower Elkin, in Solihull.

This latter name (Elkin) appears to connect our fairy names with the more ancient mythology, and means either the little gods, or of kin to the gods.

PINKET.

The ignis fatuus is called Pinket in the parish of Badsey. This name, perhaps, is derived from the Dutch word "pinken," which means to wink with the eyes, and alludes probably to the twinkling motion of these meteors.

A fairy of the name of Pinck was one of the waiting maids of Queen Mab T.

They are more generally known by the appellation of "Hayward's Wells," a person of that name having probably at some time occupied the neighbouring cottage.

+ See p. 246.

A Walker, or Fuller.-See Droitwich, p. 100.

That the Anglo-Saxons were addicted to well-worship, see Kemble's "Saxous in England," Vol. i., p. 524.

See the account of Elbury Hill, p. 225. The place there noticed as Allsborough Hill is also called Alesborough, and Aylesborough.-See infra.

See Drayton's "Nymphidia ;" and also Halliwell's "Fairy Mythology,"

p. 200.