Race at Yetholm

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fairy crowd

An adventure with the fairies near Yetholm, which unfortunately breaks off abruptly, I find in the MS. of ‘William  Jackson, a native of Wooler, supplementary to his brother  James Jackson’s enumeration of the inhabitants of that place  when he was a young man. It was written in 1837, and  James Jackson was then seventy-four years old, and had been  absent fifty-five or fifty-six years from Wooler, which affords  the date of 1782. ‘My old schoolmistress, Stilty Mary (Mary  Turnbull, who lived with her sister Isabel), had a brother whose  name was Thomas. He occasionally came from Yetholm and  resided with his sisters for a fortnight or three weeks. When  Thomas was at Wooler the boys in passing used to shout,  ‘Peace be here till Thomas Turnbull, the king’s toller, pass  bye.’ This was very annoying to the brother and sisters; and  Thomas used sometimes to stand behind the door, with the  sneck in his hand, and bolt out upon them, and if he caught hold of any of them the punishment was not so imaginary as the offence. The origin of the reproach was this. Their father  was the collector of tolls at Yetholm. He had occasion to visit Edinburgh, and in coming home, a few miles before he reached the town, he came upon a large assemblage of fairies, dressed in green jackets and other splendid equipments, dancing upon a sunny brae to the sound of a great variety of musical instruments and drums. At this sight and sound old Thomas’s horse  stood right sore astonished,and startled and curvetted in such a manner as to endanger its rider. In this emergency he  bethought himself that the king’s name might possess some  authority, so he shouted out with all his might, ‘Peace be here till Thomas Turnbull, the king’s toller, pass bye.’ The fairies  were so much engaged with their sport that they had not observed him before; but on hearing the order, instead of  obeying it, they came running in great…’  (Caetera desunt.) Denham writes: The remainder cannot be recovered, but Thomas probably won the race that would ensue.  (Denham 147-148)

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