That the Fairies would steale away young children and putt others in their places; verily believed by old woemen of those dayes: and by some yet living.

Aubrey for Wiltshire?

Some Fairies dwell in the mines, and seem to imitate the actions of the workmen; but never unless insulted, do them harm, but rather are of semce to them. In certain silver and lead mines, in Wales, nothing is more common than these subterraneous spirits, called Knockers, who good naturedly point out where there is a rich vein. These Knockers are sometimes visible. Mr. John Lewis, iq his correspondence with Mr.Baxter, describes them as little-statured, and about half a yard long; and adds, that at this very instant. there are miners on a discovery of a vein of metal on his own lands, and that’two of them are ready to make oath they heard these Knockers in the day-time. Grose

Fairies sometimes shoot at cattle, with arrows headed with flint-stones : these are often found, and are called elf-shots. :ln order to effect the cure of an animal so injured, it is to be touched with one of these eif-shots, or to be made drink the water in which one has been dipped. Grose

Having some years since, on a Sunday afternoon, had occasion to ride on horseback between two towns in the eastern part of Cornwall, I met a christening party, also on horseback,headed by the nurse with a baby in her arms. Making a halt as I approached her, she stopped me, and producing a cake, presented it to me, and insisted on my taking it. Several years after, when in the Isle of Man, I had the opportunity of hearing an elderly person relate several pieces of folk lore respecting the witches and fairies in that island. It had been customary, within his recollection, for a woman, when carrying a child to be christened, to take with her a piece of bread and cheese, to give to the first person she met, for the purpose of saving the child from witchcraft or the fairies. Another custom was that of the ‘Queeltah,’ or salt put under the churn to keep off bad people. Stale water was thrown on the plough ‘to keep it from the little folks’. A cross was tied in the tail of a cow ‘to keep her from bad bodies’. On May morning it was deemed of the greatest importance to avoid going to a neighbour’s house for fire; a turf was therefore kept burning all night at home. Flowers growing in a hedge, especially green or yellow ones, were good to keep off the fairies. And finally, the last cake was left ‘behind the turf-flag for the little people.’ J. W. THOMAS. Dewsbury. Notes and Queries

He was not so very different from us after all, that old Roman, we are both Man the Destroyer, for we scar the landscape with cuttings for our fire-carriages — not half so picturesque as the war-chariots of our ancestors doubtless! — and  insult the blue vault of the sky with networks of telegraph lines and, crowning injury, the dastardly outrage of advertising  posters. But, thank Heavens! Z’s soap does not yet flaunt its merits in footlong letters from Beacon Hill, and the elves may dance in the fairy rings undismayed by sight of a glaring  announcement that they should take A’s pills. If any doubt  that there be elves let them go peep into a fold of the Downs  below the training-ground where Porter’s horses have their  daily gallop, and mark how the floor of the tiny vale has a  mosaic of rings as regular as though planned out with rule and  compass for fairies to race and dance in; then ask the old  shepherd by the sheep-fold on the down beyond. He will stay night after night with his dog and black-faced sheep amid  the illimitable solitudes of these hilltops, with no light but the  cold glimmer from the stars, yet not for a fortune would he  spend an hour of darkness alone in his red-tiled cottage a mile  off down the vale! But there is always some light under the  free heavens, and there is lightning every night but on Old Christmas Eve when the cattle – who have not yet learnt to  reckon new style — still kneel down. Much more he can, an  he will, which is to say the least exceeding doubtful, tell you,  and of his own knowledge and experience relate as much about  witches and fairy folk as you might hear at a twelvemonth  of meetings in Albemarle Street ! Read and Connor, Highways and byways in Hampshire (1908)

There are many farms and closes in Sussex which owe their names to having been the reputed haunts of fairies, such as Pookryde, Pookbourne, Pookhole, Pookcroft. Pookhole is a name of a field in the Manor of Otteham, in Hailsham, and one of the local names in the Chronicle of Battle Abbey. Surrey Etymologies

In Moray, oak or ivy was used, the wreaths being used on the March following that in which they are cut. A persuasion also prevails there that in consumption the fairies steal away the soul of the patient and put the soul of a fairy in the place of it. Prevalent on the East Coast of Scotland. Lean’s Collecteana

In Inverness-shire they leave children wasting from consumption (supposed to be shadows left by the fairies in the place of the real ones ta’en awa’) by a particular well on a hillside the long summer night to end or mend them. Lean’s Collecteana