Sir,

Can any of your readers give first-hand accounts of fairies seen in this country? There seem to be many who do see them, but who are chary of relating their experiences. In this part of Wales some queer things happen occasionally. An elderly woman once saw a crowd of tiny men a meadow on a moonlit evening one February. She stood still, peeped through the hedge, and watched them gather round a little lady who sat in their midst on a stone. She told them various things that the woman could understand, for they spoke in Welsh. One was that they should not be able to use the meadow much longer, for a rich man would buy it and build a house there, and keep a carriage to run the roads without horses. There was then no idea of such a thing in the village. However, in the course of a year, it came to pass. This is a first-hand account.

I have been told of queer, round, goblin shapes on high legs, that escort people along lonely roads after dark, hopping and skipping in front and then leaping a high gate and disappearing into the grounds of gardens or of learned colleges. And the tellers of these tales are steady folk. Wales.

E Bayly Lampeter

Lampeter, E. Bayly ‘Fairies are Not Dead!’, John O’London’s Weekly (7 March 1936), 885: for other John O’London fairy letters follow the link.