‘Half a century ago,’ says Mr. George Tate, in his History of Alnwick, i. p. 438, ‘the fairies were supposed to have local habitations in our district. There was a Fairies’ Green not far from Vittry’s Cross; but on moonlight nights these tiny folk trooped out of dell, and cavern, and mine, and from beneath the bracken, and from under green knowes, and out of other lonely places, to hold their revels with music and dance in the Fairies’ Hollow at the top of Clayport Bank. Their favourite haunt was the Hurle Stane, near to Chillingham New Town, around which they danced to the sound of elfin music, singing:

Wind about and turn again,

And thrice around the Hurle Stane;

Round about and wind again,

And thrice around the Hurle Stane. (Denham 142-143)