There are Pink Field, and Pink's Green, in Beoley*, in this county; Pink's Field, and Pink's Meadow, in Dymock, Co. Gloucester; Pinxton parish, in the counties of Derby and Nottingham; and two mines called "The Pink," in Cornwall f.

PIXIES,

AND

WISH OR WISKED HOUNDS.

Fairies are called pixie in some Devonshire.

parts, particularly in

There is Pykesham, or Pixam, in Powick; Picke-fields, on the border of Bordesley, in Tardebig; and Little Pickes, and Great Picks, in Upton-on-Severn.

In Devonshire, the Pixies' Cave or Grot, at Dartmoor; and the Pixies' Rock, on the Yealm River.

In Herefordshire, an eminence called Pixall, or Pixhill, near Tedstone Court; and Pixley, Pikesley, or Pykesleye, near Ledbury. The following lines are taken from Clobery's "Divine. Glimpses," 1659, p. 73

"Old countrey folk, who pixie-leading fear,

Bear bread about them to prevent that harm §."

"Pretorius informs us that a member of the German House of Alveschleben received a ring from a Nixie, to which the future fortunes of his line were to be attached.-Antherpodemus Plutonicus, i., p. 113."-(See the Editor's note to the Introduction to the " Tale of Tamlane," in the edition of Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border," published in 1833, Vol. ii., p. 277. Mrs. Bray's Borders of the Tamar and the Tavy," Vol. i., informs us that the peasantry at Dartmoor believe that the pixies are the souls of infants who died before receiving the rite of baptism.

See the Ordnance Map.

+ Can this have any reference to what are called "Knockers" in mines.

+ "Extracts particula de Gestis Abbatum," in Har. MS. 376, British Museum.

§ See Halliwell's "Fairy Mythology," Introduction, p. 17.

Also see p. 430.

South-east of Pixhill, in Tedstone Delamere, there are Wishmoor, and Inksmoor, near Sapey Bridge in Whitbourn.—(See an account of the Wish*, or Wisked, or Spectre Hounds, of Dartmoor, in the " Athenæum," No. 1013, for March, 27, 1847, p. 334.)

The writer, R. J. 1846, p. 1093, says, The pixies' name has been sought in the

K., in the Athenæum" for October 24,

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Islandic, Puke,' a demon, a fairy.

diately connected with the Welsh,

cannot find such a root in the old Cornish vocabularies. Puck, the tricksy spirit' of the fairies, and the Irish Phooka, are both from a cognate root."

MAB.

"Oh then, I see Queen Mab has been with you ‡."

So said the immortal bard, and I was curious to ascertain whether her majesty had honoured the fair midlands with her presence. That she has done so will appear as follows:-There is a piece of ground near the village of Upton Snodsbury, in Worcestershire, called Mob's Close, or Mop's Close; and an orchard at Hales-end, near Herold's Copse, in Cradley, in Herefordshire, adjoining the western side of Old Storage, in Worcestershire, called Mobbled Pleck, meaning Mab-led Plecks, or a plot where any one was liable to be Mab-led.

"The name Mab appears to have been at one time current in Warwickshire, where, as we learn from a note of Sir Henry

* Probably from the Anglo-Saxon "Wicca," a witch. In Kemble's "Saxons in England," Vol. i., p. 346, it is stated, that" in Devonshire to this day all magical or supernatural dealings go under the common name of Wishtness: can this have any reference to Woden's name, "Wysc?" And added, that there are Wishanger, (Wischangra, or Woden's Meadow); one, about four miles south-west of Wanborough in Surrey, and another near Gloucester," &c. &c. Also see the account of Bromsgrove, p. 123.

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Romeo and Juliet.

§ Pleck is a common term in the country for a plot or small piece of ground.

Ellis, in his edition of Brand, mabled, pronounced mobled, signifies led astray by a Will-o'-the-Wisp *."

The place in Cradley was, in early times, called Little Pleck, afterwards Moblee Pleck, and subsequently Mobbled Pleckt, as appears by the title deeds of Richard Yapp, Sen., Esq., the owner of the estate.

Mr. Thoms, in a communication to the " Athenæum" for Nov. 1847, observes that Mab is derived from the Celtic; Mabh in Celtic mythology being the chief of the Genii; and "no earlier instance of Mab being used as the designation of the fairy queen, has hitherto been discovered than that of Shakespeare in his Romeo and Juliet." He afterwards adds, "that Shakespeare learned that Mab was the name of the fairy queen from the folk-lore of his own time."

TOM THUMB, PATCH, GRIM, SIB, TIB, LICKE, LULL, HOP, DRYP, PIP, TRIP, PINCK, PIN, TICK, TIT, WAP, AND WIN.

These are all names of the fairies. Tom Thumb § is the thaumlin (that is Little Thumb) of Scandinavian fiction; a regular dwarf or duergar || of the mythology of that country¶. In Drayton's" Nymphidia" he is noticed as follows:

"When by Tom Thum, a fairy page **," &c.

In the "Life of Robin Good-fellow," are the following lines:

"Pinch and Patch, Gull and Grim,

Goe you together;

For you can change your shapes

Like to the weather.

* Popular Antiquities, Vol. iii., p. 218, ed. 1841.

It is called "Mobblede Plecks Orchard," in the apportionment to the tithe commutation.

Page 1150.

§ There is "Thumb's Close," in Doderhill.

|| A small person is, by way of ridicule, called a “ durgie" in these parts. See Chambers's "Edinburgh Journal," for February 1844, p. 68.

** Also see Halliwell's "Fairy Mythology," p. 199.

Sib and Tib, Licke* and Lull,

You have trickes too;

Little Tom Thumb that pipes +

Shall goe betwixt you ‡."

In Drayton's "Nymphidia" it is stated that the undermentioned fairies formed the retinue of Queen Mab :

"Hop, and Mop, and Dryp so clear,

Pip, and Trip, and Skip that were
To Mab, their sovereign, ever dear,
Her special maids of honour;
Fib, and Tib, and Pinck, and Pin,
Tick, and Quick, and Jil, and Jin,
Tit, and Nit, and Wap, and Win,

The train that wait upon her §."

:

In connection with the above fairy names I have collected the following from the neighbouring and other counties. Tib's Lands, near Bringsty or Brinksty Common, in Herefordshire; Tib's Hall, near Wiggins Hall, in Warwickshire; Tibthorp, in Yorkshire; Tibshelf, not far from Pinxton, Cos. Derby and Nottingham; Tib Brook, near Manchester; Wapley Hill, in Herefordshire (which contains a camp called the Warren); Pinswell Camp, in Gloucestershire; Pinwell, in Sussex; Grimsdyke, in Hants; and a remarkable place called Grimspound, at Dartmoor |].

The following are in this county :-Pippin Hill, in Acton Beauchamp; Tibb Ribbin, south of Tardebig; Tibley, in Birlingham; Pin's Green, by Newland Green, in the parish of Great Malvern; Pennils or Pinhill, in Alvechurch; Tickridge Piece, in Bromsgrove; Great Tickridge, in Hanley Castle; Ticknell, or Tickenhill, near Bewdley; Tidsley Wood ¶, by Alls

* There is Lick Hill between Stagbury Hill and Lower Mitton.

+ "The Swedes delight to tell of the Stromkerl, or boy of the stream, who haunts the glassy brooks that steal silently through green meadows, and sits on the silver waves at moonlight, playing his harp to the elves, who dance on the flowery margin."-Washington Irving.

See Halliwell's "Fairy Mythology," p. 149.

§ Ibid., p. 200.

See "Notes and Queries," Feb. 14, 1852, p. 163.

Perhaps this name means Titsley Wood, and comes from Tad, Ted, or Tet, which words are said to mean the Celtic god Mercury. See the account of the Toot Hills, p. 235.

64

66

borough, Alesborough, or Aylesborough Hill, near Pershore; Wintill, in Acton Beauchamp; Winstile in the Anglo-Saxon boundaries of Hymelton, Hemelton, or Himbleton; and Wynn Meadow, in the Anglo-Saxon boundaries of Bredicot or Bradicote. There is also a farm called "Patches" or Paches §;" an eminence called " Patch Hill;" an estate called "Grimsend;" pieces of land called "Sibhay or Tibhay," and the "Tibbins ;" and a hole in a rock called the Fairies' Cave," in the hamlet of Alfrick; a hamlet called "Lulsley," adjoining Grimsend; "Patch-ham," in Lulsley; Tib's Hill," in Bransford, in Leigh; "Patch Hill," Pin's Hill," and "Win's Grave," in Leigh, adjoining to Alfrick; and "Drip's Hill," in Madresfield. It seems probable that such places, or most of them, were so called after the corresponding names of some of the above-mentioned fairies.

There were several places of the name of Grim in AngloSaxon times, as we shall after state. "Domesday Book" mentions Gremanhil and Grimanleh, in Worcestershire, and persons of the name of Grim, as land-owners in Devon, Cornwall, and Worcestershire, and as under-tenants in Warwickshire and Essex.

66

Drip's Hill," in Madresfield, is sometimes called "Trip's Hill," and is so designated in Isaac Taylor's map, published in 1772; but I rather think "Dryps" title to the hill is better than "Trips."

66

"Tib's Hill," in Bransford, in Leigh, abuts upon Powick; · Patch Hill," in Leigh, borders upon the river Teme, opposite to Broadwas, and lies near to the Red Cliff, the Devil's Pig-trough || and Omber's Hill, and not far from Alfrick and Lulsley; and

See the map in Gibson's " Camden," 1st ed., 1695, and the account in the 2nd ed., 1722, Vol. i., p. 629.

+ This name probably means Elsborough Hill. See Elbury Hill, p. 225. See Nash, Vol. ii., App., 52, 53, and Heming's "Cartulary," pp. 355, 356, 357. § It is spelt" Paches," in a deed of 1735.

This is either a natural trench, or an ancient artifical cutting through the declivity there. It lies on the north side of the present bye-road.

A fine head-land overlooking the Teme. The name probably is a corruption of Amber's Hill, in like manner as the name Ombersley is of Ambreslege or Ambersley; for the peasantry to this day call a hammer "Omber." The ancients distinguished stones, erected with a religious view,