/ /



1





THE COMING OF
THE FAIRIES
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE


PREFACE
This book contains reproductions of the
famous Cottingley photographs, and gives
the whole of the evidence in connection with
them. The diligent reader is in almost as
good a position as I am to form a judgment
upon the authenticity of the pictures. This
narrative is not a special plea for that au-
thenticity, but is simply a collection of facts
the inferences from which may be accepted
or rejected as the reader may think fit.
I would warn the critic, however, not to
be led away by the sophistry that because
some professional trickster, apt at the game
of deception, can produce a somewhat simi-
lar effect, therefore the originals were pro-
duced in the same way. There are few real-
ities which cannot be imitated, and the an-
cient argument that because conjurers on
their own prepared plates or stages can pro-
duce certain results, therefore similar re-


CONTENTS
CHAPTER MM
I HOW THE MATTER AROSE 13
II THE FIRST PUBLISHED ACCOUNT, STRAND
CHRISTMAS NUMBER 1920 39
III RECEPTION OF THE FIRST PHOTOGRAPHS . . 59
IT THE SECOND SERIES 93
V OBSERVATIONS OF A CLAIRVOYANT IN THE
COTTINGLEY GLEN, AUGUST 1921 . . . 108
VI INDEPENDENT EVIDENCE FOR FAIRIES . . 123
VII SOME SUBSEQUENT CASES 152
VIII THE THEOSOPHIC VIEW OF FAIRIES . . . 171


1


ILLUSTRATIONS
Mr. E. L. Gardner Frontispiece
PAGE
ELSIE AND THE GNOME 32
ELSIE AND FRANCES 33
COTTINGLEY BECK AND GLEN 33
ELSIE IN 1920, STANDING NEAR WHERE THE GNOME
WAS TAKEN IN 1917 48
FRANCES IN 1920 48
FRANCES AND THE FAIRIES 49
ELSIE SEATED ON THE BANK ON WHICH THE FAIRIES
WERE DANCING IN 1917 (PHOTO 1920) ... 64
THE FALL OF WATER JUST ABOVE THE SITE OF LAST
PHOTOGRAPH 64
FRANCES AND THE LEAPING FAIRY 65
FAIRY OFFERING POSY OF HARE-BELLS TO ELSIE . 80
FAIRIES AND THEIR SUN-BATH 81
A VIEW OF THE BECK IN 1921 128
THE TWO GIRLS NEAR THE SPOT WHERE THE LEAP-
ING FAIRY WAS TAKEN IN 1920 129
THE PHOTOGRAPH FROM CANADA 144





THE COMING OF
THE FAIRIES





THE COMING OF THE
FAIRIES
CHAPTER I
HOW THE MATTER AROSE
The series of incidents set forth in this
little volume represent either the most elab-
orate and ingenious hoax every played upon
the public, or else they constitute an event
in human history which may in the future
appear to have been epoch-making in its
character. It is hard for the mind to grasp
what the ultimate results may be if we have
actually proved the existence upon the sur-
face of this planet of a population which
may be as numerous as the human race,
which pursues its own strange life in its own
strange way, and which is only separated
from ourselves by some difference of vibra-
13


HOW THE MATTER AROSE
This, however, is mere speculation and
leads me to the fact that early in May 1920
I heard, in conversation with my friend Mr.
Gow, the Editor of Light, that alleged photo-
graphs of fairies had been taken. He had
not actually seen them, but he referred me
to Miss Scatcherd, a lady for whose knowl-
edge and judgment I had considerable re-
spect. I got into touch with her and found
that she also had not seen the photographs,
but she had a friend, Miss Gardner,
who had actually done so. On May 13 Miss
Scatcherd wrote to me saying that she was
getting on the trail, and including an extract
from a letter of Miss Gardner, which ran as
follows. I am quoting actual documents in
this early stage, for I think there are many
who would like a complete inside view of all
that led up to so remarkable an episode.
Alluding to her brother Mr. Gardner, she
says:
"You know that Edward is a Theosophist,
has been for years, and now he is mostly en-
gaged with lecturing and other work for
the Society—and although for years I have
15


HOW THE MATTER AROSE
went into the woods near a water-fall.
Frances ' 'ticed' them, as they call it, and
Elsie stood ready with the camera. Soon the
three fairies appeared, and one pixie danc-
ing in Frances' aura. Elsie snapped and
hoped for the best. It was a long time be-
fore the father would develop the photo, but
at last he did, and to his utter amazement
the four sweet little figures came out beauti-
fully!
"Edward got the negative and took it to
a specialist in photography who would know
a fake at once. Sceptical as he was before
he tested it, afterwards he offered £100 down
for it. He pronounced it absolutely genuine
and a perfectly remarkable photograph.
Edward has it enlarged and hanging in his
hall. He is very interested in it and as soon
as possible he is going to Bradford to see
the children. What do you think of this?
Edward says the fairies are on the same
line of evolution as the winged insects, etc.,
etc. I fear I cannot follow all his reason-
ings, but I knew you would be keenly inter-
ested. I wish you could see that photo and
17


HOW THE MATTER AROSE
ested, but he wrote that he would rather
nothing was done at present.
I think my cousin is away from home just
now. But his name is Edward L. Gardner,
and he is President of one of the branches
of the Thebsophical Society (Blavatsky
Lodge), and he lectures fairly often at their
Hall (Mortimer Hall, Mortimer Square,
W.). He lectured there a few weeks ago,
and showed the fairies on the screen and
told what he knew about them.
Yours sincerely,
E. Blomfield.
This letter enclosed the two very remark-
able photographs which are reproduced in
this volume, that which depicted the dancing
goblin, and the other of wood elves in a
ring. An explanatory note setting forth
the main points of each is appended to the
reproductions. I was naturally delighted
at the wonderful pictures, and wrote back
thanking Miss Bloomfield for her courtesy,
and suggesting that an inquiry should be set
on foot which would satisfy me as to the
genuine nature of the photographs. If this
19


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
were clearly established I hoped that I might
be privileged to help Mr. Gardner in giving
publicity to the discovery. In reply I had
the following letter:
The Myrtles, Beckeriham,
June 23,1920.
Dear Sir Arthur,
I am so glad you like the fairies! I
should be only too glad to help in any way if
I could, but there is so little I can do. Had
the photographs been mine (I mean the neg-
atives), I should have been most pleased that
anything so lovely in the way of information
should have been introduced to the public
under such auspices. But it would, as things
are, be necessary to ask my cousin. I be-
lieve he wants people to know, but, as I
wrote before, I do not know his plans, and
I'm not sure if he is ready.
It has occurred to me since writing to you
that it would have been better had I given
you his sister's address. She is a most sen-
sible and practical person, much engaged
in social work, with which her sympathetic
nature and general efficiency make her very
successful.
20


HOW THE MATTER AROSE
them will "fall in love" and then—hey
presto!!
By the way, I am anxious to avoid the
money consideration. I may not succeed,
but would far rather not introduce it. We
are out for Truth, and nothing soils the way
so quickly. So far as I am concerned you
shall have everything I can properly give
you.
Sincerely yours,
(Sgd.) Edw. L. Gardner.
This letter led to my going to London and
seeing Mr. Gardner, whom I found to be
quiet, well-balanced, and reserved—not in
the least of a wild or visionary type. He
showed me beautiful enlargements of these
two wonderful pictures, and he gave me
much information which is embodied in my
subsequent account. Neither he nor I had
actually seen the girls, and it was arranged
that he should handle the personal side of
the matter, while I should examine the re-
sults and throw them into literary shape.
It was arranged between us that he should
visit the village as soon as convenient, and
25


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
make the acquaintance of everyone con-
cerned. In the meantime, I showed the pos-
itives, and sometimes the negatives, to sev-
eral friends whose opinion upon psychic
matters I respected.
Of these Sir Oliver Lodge holds a premier
place. I can still see his astonished and in-
terested face as he gazed at the pictures,
which I placed before him in the hall of the
Athenaeum Club. "With his usual caution he
refused to accept them at their face value,
and suggested the theory that the Califor-
nian Classical dancers had been taken and
their picture superimposed upon a rural
British background. I argued that we had
certainly traced the pictures to two children
of the artisan class, and that such photo-
graphic tricks would be entirely beyond
them, but I failed to convince him, nor am
I sure that even now he is whole-hearted in
the matter.
My most earnest critics came from among
the spiritualists, to whom a new order of
being as remote from spirits as they are
from human beings was an unfamiliar idea,
and who feared, not unnaturally, that their
26


HOW THE MATTER AROSE
intrusion would complicate that spiritual
controversy which is vital to so many of us.
One of these was a gentleman whom I will
call Mr. Lancaster, who, by a not unusual
paradox, combined considerable psychic
powers, including both clairvoyance and
clairaudience, with great proficiency in the
practice of his very prosaic profession. He
had claimed that he had frequently seen
these little people with his own eyes, and I,
therefore, attached importance to his opin-
ion. This gentleman had a spirit guide (I
have no objection to the smile of the sceptic),
and to him he referred the question. The
answer showed both the strength and the
weakness of such psychic inquiries. Writ-
ing to me in July 1920, he said:
"Re Photographs: The more I think of it
the less I like it (I mean the one with the
Parisian-coiffed fairies). My own guide
says it was taken by a fair man, short, with
his hair brushed back; he has a studio with a
lot of cameras, some of which are 'turned by
a handle.' He did not make it to sell Spir-
itualists a 'pup,' but did it to please the
27


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
little girl in the picture who wrote fairy
stories which he illustrated in this fashion.
He is not a Spiritualist, but would laugh
very much if anyone was taken in by it. He
does not live near where we were, and the
place is all different, i.e. the houses, instead
of being in straight lines, are dropped about
all over the place. Apparently he was not
English. I should think it was either Den-
mark or Los Angeles by the description,
which I give you for what it is worth.
"I should very much like the lens which
would take persons in rapid motion with the
clarity of the photo in question, it must
work at F 4-5 and cost fifty guineas if a
penny, and not the sort of lens one would
imagine the children in an artisan's house-
hold would possess in a hand camera. And
yet with the speed with which it was taken
the waterfall in the background is blurred
sufficiently to justify a one second's expo-
sure at least. What a doubting Thomas! I
was told the other day that, in the unlikely
event of my ever reaching heaven, I should
(a) Insist on starting a card file index of
the angels, and (b) Starting a rifle range to
28


HOW THE MATTER AROSE
guard against the possibility of invasion
from Hell. This being my unfortunate rep-
utation at the hands of the people who claim
to know me must discount my criticisms as
carping—to a certain extent, at all events."
These psychic impressions and messages
are often as from one who sees in a glass
darkly and contain a curious mixture of
truth and error. Upon my submitting this
message to Mr. Gardner he was able to as-
sure me that the description was, on the
whole, a very accurate one of Mr. Snelling
and his surroundings, the gentleman who
had actually handled the negatives, subjected
them to various tests and made enlarged
positives. It was, therefore, this interme-
diate incident, and not the original inception
of the affair, which had impressed itself
upon Mr. Lancaster's guide. All this is, of
course, quite non-evidential to the ordinary
reader, but I am laying all the documents
upon the table.
Mr. Lancaster's opinion had so much
weight with us, and we were so impressed
by the necessity of sparing no possible pains
29


HOW THE MATTER AROSE
Mr. Snelling's report on the two negatives
is positive and most decisive. He says he is
perfectly certain of two things connected
with these photos, namely:
1. One exposure only;
2. All the figures of the fairies moved dur-
ing exposure, which was "instantaneous."
As I put all sorts of pressing questions to
him, relating to paper or cardboard figures,
and backgrounds and paintings, and all the
artifices of the modern studio, he proceeded
to demonstrate by showing me other nega-
tives and prints that certainly supported
his view. He added that anyone of consid-
erable experience could detect the dark back-
ground and double exposure in the negative
at once. Movement was as easy, as he
pointed out in a crowd of aeroplane photos
he had by him. I do not pretend to follow
all his points, but I am bound to say he
thoroughly convinced me of the above two,
which seem to me to dispose of all the ob-
jections hitherto advanced when they are
taken together! Mr. S. is willing to make
31


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
any declaration embodying the above and
stakes his reputation unhesitatingly on
their truth.
I am away from London from Wednes-
day next till the 28th when I go on to Bing-
ley for one or two days' investigation on the
spot. I propose that you have the two nega-
tives, which are carefully packed and can
be posted safely, for this fortnight or so.
If you would rather not handle them I will
send them to Mr. West of Kodak's, or have
them taken to him for his opinion, for I
think, as you say, it would be worth having, ,
if he has had direct and extensive practical
experience.
I am very anxious now to see this right
through, as, though I felt pretty sure before,
I am more than ever satisfied now after that
interview the other day.
Yours sincerely,
Edw. L. Gardner.
After receiving this message and getting
possession of the negatives I took them my-
self to the Kodak Company's Offices in
32





HOW THE MATTER AROSE
Kingsway, where I saw Mr. West and an-
other expert of the Company. They ex-
amined the plates carefully, and neither of
them could find any evidence of superposi-
tion, or other trick. On the other hand, they
were of opinion that if they set to work with
all their knowledge and resources they could
produce such pictures by natural means, and
therefore they would not undertake to say
that these were preternatural. This, of
course, was quite reasonable if the pictures
are judged only as technical productions, but
it rather savours of the old discredited anti-
spiritualistic argument that because a
trained conjurer can produce certain effects
under his own conditions, therefore some
woman or child who gets similar effects must
get them by conjuring. It was clear that at
the last it was the character and surround-
ings of the children upon which the inquiry
must turn, rather than upon the photos
themselves. I had already endeavoured to
open up human relations with the elder girl
by sending her a book, and I had received
the following little note in reply from her
father:
33


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
31 Main Street, Cottingley, Bingley,
July 12, 1920.
Dear Sir,
I hope you will forgive us for not an-
swering your letter sooner and thanking you
for the beautiful book you so kindly sent to
Elsie. She is delighted with it. I can as-
sure you we do appreciate the honour you
have done her. The book came last Satur-
day morning an hour after we had left for
the seaside for our holidays, so we did not
receive it until last night. We received a
letter from Mr. Gardner at the same time,
and he proposes coming to see us at the end
of July. Would it be too long to wait until
then, when we could explain what we know
about it?
Yours very gratefully,
Arthur Wright.
It was evident, however, that we must get
into more personal touch, and with this ob-
ject Mr. Gardner went North and inter-
viewed the whole family, making a thorough
investigation of the circumstances at the
spot. The result of his journey is given in
34


HOW THE MATTER AROSE
the article which I published in the Strand
Magazine, which covers all the ground. I
will only add the letter he wrote to me after
his return from Yorkshire.
5 Craven Road, Harlesden, N.W.10,
July 31, 1920.
My dear Conan Doyle,
Yours just to hand, and as I have now
had an hour to sort things out I write at once
so that you have the enclosed before you at
the earliest moment. You must be very
pressed, so I put the statement as simply as
possible, leaving you to use just what you
think fit. Prepared negatives, prints of
quarter, half-plate, and enlarged sizes, and
lantern slides, I have all here.
Also on Tuesday I shall have my own
photographs of the valley scenery includ-
ing the two spots shown in the fairy prints,
and also prints of the two children taken in
1917 with their shoes and stockings off, just
as they played in the beck at the rear of their
house. I also have a print of Elsie showing
her hand.
With regard to the points you raise:
35


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
1. I have definite leave and permission to
act as regards the use made of these photo-
graphs in any way I think best.
Publication may be made of them, the
only reserve being that full names and ad-
dresses shall be withheld.
2. Copies are ready here for England and
U. S. A.
3. . . . The Kodak people and also the
Illingworth Co. are unwilling to testify. The
former, of course, you know of. Illing-
worths claim that they could produce, by
means of clever studio painting and model-
ling, a similar negative. Another Com-
pany's expert made assertions concerning
the construction of the "model" that I found
were entirely erroneous directly I saw the
real ground! They, however, barred any
publication. The net result, besides Snell-
ing's views, is that the photograph could be
produced by studio work, but there is no
evidence positively of such work in the neg-
atives. (I might add that Snelling, whom
I saw again yesterday evening, scouts the
claim that such negatives could be produced.
■
36


CHAPTER II
THE FIRST PUBLISHED ACCOUNT—"STRAND"
CHRISTMAS NUMBER, 1920
Should the incidents here narrated, and
the photographs attached, hold their own
against the criticism which they will excite,
it is no exaggeration to say that they will
mark an epoch in human thought. I put
them and all the evidence before the public
for examination and judgment. If I am my-
self asked whether I consider the case to be
absolutely and finally proved, I should an-
swer that in order to remove the last faint
shadow of doubt I should wish to see the
result repeated before a disinterested wit-
ness. At the same time, I recognize the dif-
ficulty-of such a request, since rare results
must be obtained when and how they can.
But short of final and absolute proof, I con-
sider, after carefully going into every pos-
sible source of error, that a strong prima-
39


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
facie case has been built up. The cry of
"fake" is sure to be raised, and will make
some impression upon those who have not
had the opportunity of knowing the peo-
ple concerned, or the place. On the photo-
graphic side every objection has been consid-
ered and adequately met. The pictures
stand or fall together. Both are false, or
both are true. All the circumstances point
to the latter alternative, and yet in a matter
involving so tremendous a new departure
one needs overpowering evidence before one
can say that there is no conceivable loophole
for error.
It was about the month of May in this
year that I received the information from
Miss Felicia Scatcherd, so well known in
several departments of human thought, to
the effect that two photographs of fairies
had been taken in the North of England un-
der circumstances which seemed to put fraud
out of the question. The statement would
have appealed to me at any time, but I hap-
pened at the moment to be collecting ma-
terial for an article on fairies, now com-
pleted, and I had accumulated a surprising
40


THE FIRST PUBLISHED ACCOUNT
number of cases of people who claimed to
be able to see these little creatures. The
evidence was so complete and detailed, with
such good names attached to it, that it was
difficult to believe that it was false; but,
being by nature of a somewhat sceptical
turn, I felt that something closer was needed
before I could feel personal conviction and
assure myself that these were not thought-
forms conjured up by the imagination or
expectation of the seers. The rumour of the
photographs interested me deeply, there-
fore, and following the matter up from one
lady informant to another, I came at last
upon Mr. Edward L. Gardner, who has been
ever since my most efficient collaborator, to
whom all credit is due. Mr. Gardner, it may
be remarked, is a member of the Executive
Committee of the Theosophical Society, and
a well-known lecturer upon occult subjects.
He had not himself at that time mastered
the whole case, but all he had he placed
freely at my disposal. I had already seen
prints of the photographs, but I was relieved
to find that he had the actual negatives, and
that it was from them, and not from the
41


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
prints, that two expert photographers, es-
pecially Mr. Snelling of 26 The Bridge,
Wealdstone, Harrow, had already formed
their conclusions in favour of the genuine-
ness of the pictures. Mr. Gardner tells his
own story presently, so I will simply say
that at that period he had got into direct
and friendly touch with the Carpenter fam-
ily. We are compelled to use a pseudonym
and to withhold the exact address, for it is
clear that their lives would be much inter-
rupted by correspondence and callers if their
identity were too clearly indicated. At the
same time there would be, no doubt, no ob-
jection to any small committee of inquiry
verifying the facts for themselves if this
anonymity were respected. For the present,
however, we shall simply call them the Car-
penter family in the village of Dalesby,
West Riding.
Some three years before, according to our
information, the daughter and the niece of
Mr. Carpenter, the former being sixteen and
the other ten years of age, had taken the
two photographs—the one in summer, the
other in early autumn. The father was quite
42


THE FIRST PUBLISHED ACCOUNT
agnostic in the matter, but as his daughter
claimed that she and her cousin when they
were together continually saw fairies in the
wood and had come to be on familiar and
friendly terms with them, he entrusted her
with one plate in his camera. The result
was the picture of the dancing elves, which
considerably amazed the father when he de-
veloped the film that evening. The little
girl looking across at her playmate, to inti-
mate that the time had come to press the
button, is Alice, the piece, while the older
girl, who was taken some months later with
the quaint gnome, is Iris, the daughter. The
story ran that the girls were so excited in
the evening that one pressed her way into
the small dark-room in which the father was
about to develop, and that as she saw the
forms of the fairies showing through the
solution she cried out to the other girl, who
was palpitating outside the door: "Oh, Alice,
Alice, the fairies are on the plate—they are
on the plate!" It was indeed a triumph for
the children, who had been smiled at, as so
many children are smiled at by an incredu-
43


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
lous world for stating what their own senses
have actually recorded.
The father holds a position of trust in con- .
nection with some local factory, and the fam-
ily are well known and respected. That they
are cultivated is shown by the fact that Mr.
Gardner's advances towards them were made
more easy because Mrs. Carpenter was a
reader of theosophical teachings and had
gained spiritual good from them. A corre-
spondence had arisen and all their letters
were frank and honest, professing some
amazement at the stir which the affair
seemed likely to produce.
Thus the matter stood after my meeting
with Mr. Gardner, but it was clear that this
was not enough. We must get closer to the
facts. The negatives were taken round to
Kodak, Ltd., where two experts were unable
to find any flaw, but refused to testify to the
genuineness of them, in view of some pos-
sible trap. An amateur photographer of ex-
perience refused to accept them on the
ground of the elaborate and Parisian coif-
fure of the little ladies. Another photo-
graphic company, which it would be cruel to
44


THE FIRST PUBLISHED ACCOUNT
name, declared that the background con-
sisted of theatrical properties, and that
therefore the picture was a worthless fake.
I leaned heavily upon Mr. Snelling's whole-
hearted endorsement, quoted later in this ar-
ticle, and also consoled myself by the broad
view that if the local conditions were as re-
ported, which we proposed to test, then it
was surely impossible that a little village
with an amateur photographer could have
the plant and the skill to turn out a fake
which could not be detected by the best ex-
perts in London.
The matter being in this state, Mr. Gard-
ner volunteered to go up at once and report
—an expedition which I should have wished
to share had it not been for the pressure of
work before my approaching departure for
Australia. Mr. Gardner's report is here ap-
pended:
5 Craven Road, Harlesden, N.W.10,
July 29, 1920.
It was early in this year, 1920, that I
heard from a friend of photographs of fair-
ies having been successfully taken in the
45


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
North of England. I made some inquiries,
and these led to prints being sent to me with
the names and address of the children who
were said to have taken them. The corre-
spondence that followed seemed so innocent
and promising that I begged the loan of the
actual negatives—and two quarter-plates
came by post a few days after. One was a
fairly clear one, the other much under-
exposed.
The negatives proved to be truly astonish-
ing photographs indeed, for there was no
sign of double exposure nor anything
other than ordinary straightforward work.
I cycled over to Harrow to consult an expert
photographer of thirty years' practical ex-
perience whom I knew I could trust for a
sound opinion. Without any explanation I
passed the plates over and asked what he
thought of them. After examining the
"fairies" negative carefully, exclamations
began: "This is the most extraordinary
thing I've ever seen I" '' Single exposure!''
"Figures have moved!" "Why, it's a gen-
uine photograph! Wherever did it come
from?"
46


THE FIRST PUBLISHED ACCOUNT
I need hardly add that enlargements were
made and subjected to searching examina-
tion—without any modification of opinion.
The immediate upshot was that a "positive"
was taken from each negative, that the orig-
inals might be preserved carefully un-
touched, and then new negatives were pre-
pared and intensified to serve as better print-
ing mediums. The originals are just as re-
ceived and in my keeping now. Some good
prints and lantern slides were soon pre-
pared.
In May I used the slides, with others, to
illustrate a lecture given in the Mortimer
Hall, London, and this aroused considerable
interest, largely because of these pictures
and their story. A week or so later I re-
ceived a letter from Sir A. Conan Doyle ask-
ing for information concerning them, some
report, I understood, having reached him
from a mutual friend. A meeting with Sir
Arthur followed, and the outcome was that
I agreed to hasten my proposed personal
investigation into the origin of the photo-
graphs, and carry this through at once in-
47






A. FRANCES AM) THE FAIRIES
Phntneraph taken by Etaie. Bright "unny t in July, 1917. The "Miag" aamera. Di.tanae
4 ft. Time, l/a0th .ea. The uriginai segative i. aaiertea hy expert phntnerapher. tn hear nnt the
otighte.t traae nf ramhinatinn wurk, retnuahing, ur anything whatever in mark it a. other than
a perfeatiy .traight .ingk-expreure phntneraph, taken in the npm air unaer naturai ranutinn..
The negative i. .uffiaientiy, indeed, .nmewhat nver-expreea. The waterfaii ana rnak. are about 20 ft. hehina Franae., whn i. .tanung again.t the bank of the heak. A fifth fairv mav he .em
hetwem ana hehina the twn nn the right. The rainuring nf the fairie. i. ae.arihea hy the girta
a. heing nf very .k pink, ii iavmaer, ana mauve, mret markea in the wing. ana faung tn
aimret pure white in the iimht ana arapery. Eaah fairy ha" it. nwn .peaiai rainur.


THE FIRST PUBLISHED ACCOUNT
a quaint, old-world village in Yorkshire,
found the house, and was cordially received.
Mrs. C. and her daughter I. (the girl as
shown playing with the gnome) were both
at home to meet me, and Mr. C, the father,
came in shortly afterwards.
Several of the objections raised by the
professionals were disposed of almost at
once, as, a half-hour after reaching the
house, I was exploring a charming little val-
ley, directly at the rear, with a stream of
water running through, where the children
had been accustomed to see and play with
the fairies. I found the bank behind which
the child, with her shoes and stockings off,
is shown as standing; toad-stools exactly as
in the photograph were about in plenty,
quite as big and hearty-looking. And the
girl's hand % Well, she laughingly made me
promise not to say much about it, it is so
very long! I stood on the spots shown and
easily identified every feature. Then, in
course of eliciting all that one could learn
about the affair, I gathered the following,
which, for the sake of conciseness, I set out
below:
49


THE FIRST PUBLISHED ACCOUNT
me to try to get some more. I. added she
would very much like to send me one of a
fairy flying.
Mr. C.'s testimony was clear and decisive.
His daughter had pleaded to be allowed to
use the camera. At first he demurred, but
ultimately, after dinner one Saturday, he
put just one plate in the Midg and gave it
to the girls. They returned in less than an
hour and begged him to develop the plate as
I. had "taken a photograph." He did so,
with, to him, the bewildering result shown
in the print of the fairies!
Mrs. C. says she remembers quite well
that the girls were only away from the house
a short time before they brought the camera
back.
Extraordinary and amazing as these
photographs may appear, I am now quite
convinced of their entire genuineness, as in-
deed would everyone else be who had the
same evidence of transparent honesty and
simplicity that I had. I am adding nothing
by way of explanations or theories of my
own, though the need for two people, prefer-
ably children, is fairly obvious for photog-
51


THE FIRST PUBLISHED ACCOUNT
the moth-like under-wing. She added that
if there was not too much rustling in the
wood it was possible to hear the very faint
and high sound of the pipes. To the ob-
jections of photographers that the fairy
figures show quite different shadows to those
of the human our answer is that ectoplasm,
as the etheric protoplasm has been named,
has a faint luminosity of its own, which
would largely modify shadows.
To the very clear and, as I think, entirely
convincing report of Mr. Gardner's, let me
add the exact words which Mr. Snelling, the
expert photographer, allows us to use. Mr.
Snelling has shown great strength of mind,
and rendered signal service to psychic study,
by taking a strong line, and putting his pro-
fessional reputation as an expert upon the
scales. He has had a varied connection of
over thirty years with the Autotype Com-
pany and Illingworth's large photographic
factory, and has himself turned out some
beautiful work of every kind of natural and
artificial studio studies. He laughs at the
idea that any expert in England could de-
ceive him with a faked photograph. 4' These
53


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
two negatives," he says, "are entirely genu-
ine, unfaked photographs of single expo-
sure, open-air work, show movement in the
fairy figures, and there is no trace whatever
of studio work involving card or paper mod-
els, dark backgrounds, painted figures, etc.
In my opinion, they are both straight un-
touched pictures."
A second independent opinion is equally
clear as to the genuine character of the
photographs, founded upon a large experi-
ence of practical photography.
There is our case, fortified by pictures of
the places which the unhappy critic has de-
clared to be theatrical properties. How well
we know that type of critic in all our psychic
work, though it is not always possible to at
once show his absurdity to other people.
I will now make a few comments upon the
two pictures, which I have studied long and
earnestly with a high-power lens.
One fact of interest is this presence of a
double pipe—the very sort which the an-
cients associated with fauns and naiads—in
each picture. But if pipes, why not every-
thing else? Does it not suggest a complete
54


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
pearance, and locality—the wood fairy, the
water fairy, the fairy of the plains, etc.
Can these be thought-forms? The fact
that they are so like our conventional idea
of fairies is in favour of the idea. But if
they move rapidly, have musical instru-
ments, and so forth, then it is impossible to
talk of "thought-forms," a term which sug-
gests something vague and intangible. In
a sense we are all thought-forms, since we
can only be perceived through the senses,
but these little figures would seem to have
an objective reality, as we have ourselves,
even if their vibrations should prove to be
such that it takes either psychic power or a
sensitive plate to record them. If they are
conventional it may be that fairies have
really been seen in every generation, and
so some correct description of them has been
retained.
There is one point of Mr. Gardner's in-
vestigation which should be mentioned. It
had come to our knowledge that Iris could
draw, and had actually at one time done
some designs for a jeweller. This naturally
demanded caution, though the girl's own
56


THE FIRST PUBLISHED ACCOUNT
frank nature is, I understand, a sufficient
guarantee for those who know her. Mr.
Gardner, however, tested her powers of
drawing, and found that, while she could
do landscapes cleverly, the fairy figures
which she had attempted in imitation of
those she had seen were entirely uninspired,
and bore no possible resemblance to those in
the photograph. Another point which may
be commended to the careful critic with
a strong lens is that the apparent pencilled
face at the side of the figure on the right
is really only the edge of her hair, and not,
as might appear, a drawn profile.
I must confess that after months of
thought I am unable to get the true bear-
ings of this event. One or two consequences
are obvious. The experiences of children
will be taken more seriously. Cameras will
be forthcoming. Other well-authenticated
cases will come along. These little folk who
appear to be our neighbours, with only some
small difference of vibration to separate us,
will become familiar. The thought of them,
even when unseen, will add a charm to every
brook and valley and give romantic interest
57


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
to every country walk. The recognition of
their existence will jolt the material twen-
tieth-century mind out of its heavy ruts
in the mud, and will make it admit that
there is a glamour and a mystery to life.
Having discovered this, the world will not
find it so difficult to accept that spiritual
message supported by physical facts which
has already been so convincingly put before
it. All this I see, but there may be much
more. When Columbus knelt in prayer upon
the edge of America, what prophetic eye
saw all that a new continent might do to
affect the destinies of the world? We also
seem to be on the edge of a new continent,
separated not by oceans but by subtle and
surmountable psychic conditions. I look at
the prospect with awe. May those little crea-
tures suffer from the contact and some Las
Casas bewail their ruin! If so, it would be
an evil day when the world defined their
existence. But there is a guiding hand in
the affairs of man, and we can but trust and
follow.
x
58


CHAPTER III
RECEPTION OF THE FIRST PHOTOGRAPHS
Though I was out of England at the time,
I was able, even in Australia, to realize that
the appearance of the first photographs in
the Strand Magazine had caused very great
interest. The press comments were as a rule
cautious but not unsympathetic. The old
cry of "Fake!" was less conspicuous than
I had expected, but for some years the press
has been slowly widening its views upon
psychic matters, and is not so inclined as
of old to attribute every new manifestation
to fraud. Some of the Yorkshire papers
had made elaborate inquiries, and I am told
that photographers for a considerable radius
from the house were cross-questioned to find
if they were accomplices. Truth, which is
obsessed by the idea that the whole spiritual-
istic movement and everything connected
59


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
with it is one huge, senseless conspiracy to
deceive, concocted by knaves and accepted
by fools, had the usual contemptuous and
contemptible articles, which ended by a
prayer to Elsie that she should finish her
fun and let the public know how it really
was done. The best of the critical attacks
was in the Westminster Gazette, who sent a
special commissioner to unravel the mystery,
and published the result on January 12,
1921. By kind permission I reproduce the
article:
DO FAIRIES EXIST?
INVESTIGATION IN A YORKSHIRE VALLEY
cottingley's MYSTERY
STORY OF THE GIRL WHO TOOK THE SNAPSHOT
The publication of photographs of fairies
—or, to be more explicit, one photograph of
fairies and another of a gnome—playing
round children has aroused considerable in-
terest, not only in Yorkshire, where the
beings are said to exist, but throughout the
country.
60


RECEPTION OF THE FIRST PHOTOGRAPHS
The story, mysterious as it was when first
told, became even more enigmatical by rea-
son of the fact that Sir A. Conan Doyle
made use of fictitious names in his narra-
tive in the Strand Magazine in order, as he
says, to prevent the lives of the people con-
cerned being interrupted by callers and cor-
respondence. That he has failed to do. I
am afraid Sir Conan does not know York-
shire people, particularly those of the dales,
because any attempt to hide identity imme-
diately arouses their suspicions, if it does
not go so far as to condemn the writer for
his lack of frankness.
It is not surprising, therefore, that his
story is accepted with reserve. Each per-
son to whom I spoke of the subject during
my brief sojourn in Yorkshire dismissed the
matter curtly as being untrue. It has been
the principal topic of conversation for
weeks, mainly because identity had been dis-
covered.
My mission to Yorkshire was to secure
evidence, if possible, which would prove or
disprove the claim that fairies existed. I
frankly confess that I failed.
61


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
The particular fairyland is a picturesque
little spot off the beaten track, two or three
miles from Bingley. Here is a small village
called Cottingley, almost hidden in a break
in the upland, through which tumbles a tiny
stream, known as Cottingley Beck, on its
way to the Aire, less than a mile away. The
"heroine" of Sir Conan Doyle's story is
Miss Elsie Wright,1 who resides with her
parents at 31 Lynwood Terrace. The little
stream runs past the back of the house, and
the photographs were taken not more than
a hundred yards away. When Miss Wright
made the acquaintance of the fairies she was
accompanied by her cousin, Frances Grif-
fiths, who resides at Dean Road, Scarbor-
ough.
One photograph, taken by Miss Wright in
the summer of 1917, when she was sixteen,
shows her cousin, then a child of ten, with a
group of four fairies dancing in the air be-
fore her, and in the other, taken some
months afterwards, Elsie, seated on the
'From this time onwards the real name Wright is used in-
stead of Carpenter as in the original article—the family hav-
ing withdrawn their objection.
62


RECEPTION OF THE FIRST PHOTOGRAPHS
grass, has a quaint gnome dancing beside
her.
There are certain facts which stand out
clearly and which none of the evidence I
was able to obtain could shake. No other
people have seen the fairies, though every-
body in the little village knew of their
alleged existence; when Elsie took the photo-
graph she was unacquainted with the use
of a camera, and succeeded at the first at-
tempt; the girls did not invite a third per-
son to see the wonderful visitors, and no
attempt was made to make the discovery
public.
First I interviewed Mrs. Wright, who,
without hesitation, narrated the whole of the
circumstances without adding any comment.
The girls, she said, would spend the whole
of the day in the narrow valley, even taking
their lunch with them, though they were
within a stone's throw of the house. Elsie
was not robust, and did not work during the
summer months, so that she could derive as
much benefit as possible from playing in the
open. She had often talked about seeing
the fairies, but her parents considered it was
63


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
nothing more than childish fancy, and let it
pass. Mr. Wright came into possession of a
small camera in 1917, and one Saturday
afternoon yielded to the persistent entreat-
ies of his daughter and allowed her to take
it out. He placed one plate in position, and
explained to her how to take a'' snap.'' The
children went away in high glee and re-
turned in less than an hour, requesting Mr.
Wright to develop the plate. While this
was being done Elsie noticed that the fairies
were beginning to show, and exclaimed in
an excited tone to her cousin, "Oh, Frances,
the fairies are on the plate!" The second
photograph was equally successful, and a
few prints from each plate were given to
friends as curiosities about a year ago. They
evidently attracted little notice until one was
shown to some of the delegates at a Theo sophical Congress in Harrogate last sum-
mer.
Mrs. Wright certainly gave me the im-
pression that she had no desire to keep any-
thing back, and answered my questions
quite frankly. She told me that Elsie had
always been a truthful girl, and there were
64


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
heard from his wife, agreeing in every par-
ticular, and Elsie's account, given to me in
Bradford, added nothing. Thus I had the
information from the three members of the
family at different times, and without varia-
tion. The parents confessed they had some
difficulty in accepting the photographs as
genuine and even questioned the girls as to
how they faked them. The children per-
sisted in their story, and denied any act of
dishonesty. Then they "let it go at that."
Even now their belief in the existence of the
fairies is merely an acceptance of the state-
ments of their daughter and her cousin.
I ascertained that Elsie was described by
her late schoolmaster as being "dreamy,"
and her mother said that anything imagina-
tive appealed to her. As to whether she
could have drawn the fairies when she was
sixteen I am doubtful. Lately she has taken
up water-colour drawing, and her work,
which I carefully examined, does not reveal
that ability in a marked degree, though she
possesses a remarkable knowledge of colour
for an untrained artist.
Sir A. Conan Doyle says that at first he
66


RECEPTION OF THE FIRST PHOTOGRAPHS
was not convinced that the fairies were not
thought-forms conjured up by the imagina-
tion or expectation of the seers. Mr. E. L.
Gardner, a member of the Executive Com-
mittee of the Theosophical Society, who
made an investigation on the spot and also
interviewed all the members of the family,
records his opinion that the photographs
are genuine.
Later in the day I went to Bradford, and
at Sharpe's Christmas Card Manufactory
saw Miss Wright. She was working in an
upper room, and at first refused to see me,
sending a message to the effect that she did
not desire to be interviewed. A second re-
quest was successful, and she appeared at a
small counter at the entrance to the works.
She is a tall, slim girl, with a wealth of
auburn hair, through which a narrow gold
band, circling her head, was entwined.
Like her parents, she just said she had
nothing to say about the photographs, and,
singularly enough, used the same expres-
sion as her father and mother—"I am 'fed
up' with the thing."
She gradually became communicative, and
67


RECEPTION OF THE FIRST PHOTOGRAPHS
repeat that she did not tell anybody. The
first occasion on which fairies were seen, it
transpired, was in 1915.
In reply to further questions, Miss
Wright said she had seen them since, and
had photographed them, and the plates were
in the possession of Mr. Gardner. Even ■
after several prints of the first lot of fairies
had been given to friends, she did not inform
anybody that she had seen them again. The
fact that nobody else in the village had seen
them gave her no surprise. She firmly be-
lieved that she and her cousin were the only
persons who had been so fortunate, and was
equally convinced that nobody else would
be. "If anybody else were there," she said,
"the fairies would not come out."
Further questions put with the object of
eliciting a reason for that statement were
only answered with smiles and a final sig-
nificant remark, "You don't understand."
Miss Wright still believes in the existence
of the fairies, and is looking forward to see-
ing them again in the coming summer.
The fairies of Cottingley, as they ap-
peared to the two girls, are fine-weather
69


RECEPTION OF THE FIRST PHOTOGRAPHS
brought out no new fact which had not al-
ready appeared in my article, save the inter-
esting point that this was absolutely the
first photograph which the children had
ever taken in their lives. Is it conceivable
that under such circumstances they could
have produced a picture which was fraudu-
lent and yet defied the examination of so
many experts % Granting the honesty of the
father, which no one has ever impugned,
Elsie could only have done it by cut-out
images, which must have been of exquisite
beauty, of many different models, fashioned
and kept without the knowledge of her
parents, and capable of giving the impres-
sion of motion when carefully examined by
an expert. Surely this is a large order!
In the Westminster article it is clear that
the writer has not had much acquaintance
with psychic research. His surprise that a
young girl should not know whence appear-
ances come or whither they go, when they
are psychic forms materializing in her own
peculiar aura, does not seem reasonable. It
is a familiar fact also that psychic phe-
nomena are always more active in warm
71


RECEPTION OF THE FIRST PHOTOGRAPHS
so long, that because a conjurer under his own conditions can imitate certain effects,
therefore the effects themselves never ex-
isted.
It must be admitted that some of these at-
tempts were very well done, though none of
them passed the scrutiny of Mr. Gardner
or myself. The best of them was by a lady
photographer connected with the Bradford
Institute, Miss Ina Inman, whose produc-
tion was so good that it caused us for some
weeks to regard it with an open mind.
There was also a weird but effective ar-
rangement by Judge Docker, of Australia.
In the case of Miss Inman's elves, clever as
they were, there was nothing of the natural
grace and freedom of movement which char-
acterize the wonderful Cottingley fairy
group.
Among the more remarkable comments in
the press was one from Mr. George A. Wade
in the London Evening News of December
8, 1920. It told of a curious sequence of
events in Yorkshire, and ran as follows:
"Are there real fairies in the land to-day?
73


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
The question has been raised by Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle, and there have been sub-
mitted photographs which purport to be
those of actual 'little people.'
"Experiences which have come within my
own knowledge may help to throw a little
light on this question as to whether there are
real fairies, actual elves and gnomes, yet to
be met with in the dales of Yorkshire, where
the photographs are asserted to have been
taken.
"Whilst spending a day last year with my
friend, Mr. Halliwell Sutcliffe, the well-
known novelist, who lives in that district, he
told me, to my intense surprise, that he per-
sonally knew a schoolmaster not far from
his home who had again and again insisted
that he had seen, talked with, and had played
with real fairies in some meadows not far
away! The novelist mentioned this to me as
an actual curious fact, for which he, him-
self, had no explanation. But he said that
the man was one whose education, person-
ality, and character made him worthy of
credence—a man not likely to harbour a de-
lusion or to wish to deceive others.
74


RECEPTION OF THE FIRST PHOTOGRAPHS
"Whilst in the same district I was in-
formed by a man whom I knew to be thor-
oughly reliable that a young lady living in
Skipton had mentioned to him more than
once that she often went up to (a spot
in the dales the name of which he gave) to
'play and dance with the fairies!' When he
expressed astonishment at the statement she
repeated it, and averred that it was really
true!
"In chatting about the matter with my
friend, Mr. William Riley, the author of
Windy ridge, Netherleigh, and Jerry and
Ben, a writer who knows the Yorkshire
moors and dales intimately, Mr. Riley as-
serted that though he had never seen actual
fairies there, yet he knew several trust-
worthy moorland people whose belief in
them was unshakable and who persisted
against all contradiction that they them-
selves had many times seen pixies at cer-
tain favoured spots in Upper Airedale and
Wharf edale.
"When some time later an article of mine
anent these things was published in a York-
shire newspaper, there came a letter from a
75


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
lady at a distance who stated that the ac-
count confirmed a strange experience which
she had when on holiday in the same dale up
above Skipton. t
"She stated that one evening, when walk-
ing alone on the higher portion of a slope of
the hills, to her intense astonishment she
saw in a meadow close below her fairies and
sprites playing and dancing in large num-
bers. She imagined that she must be dream-
ing, or under some hallucination, so she
pinched herself and rubbed her eyes to make
sure that she was really awake. Convinced
of this, she looked again, and still unmis-
takably saw the 'little people.' She gave a
full account of how they played, of the long
time she watched them, and how at length
they vanished. Without a doubt she was
convinced of the truth of her statement.
"What can we make of it all? My own
mind is open, but it is difficult to believe that
so many persons, unknown to one another,
should have conspired to state what is false.
It is a remarkable coincidence, if nothing
more, that the girls in Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle's account, the schoolmaster mentioned
76


RECEPTION OF THE FIRST PHOTOGRAPHS
by Mr. Sutcliffe, the young woman who
came from Skipton, and the lady who wrote
to the Yorkshire newspaper should all put
the spot where the fairies are to be seen
almost within a mile or two of one another.
"Are there real fairies to be met with
there?"
The most severe attack upon the fairy
pictures seems to have been that of Major
Hall-Edwards, the famous authority upon
radium, in the Birmingham Weekly Post.
He said:
"Sir Arthur Conan Doyle takes it for
granted that these photographs are real pho-
tographs of fairies, notwithstanding the fact
that no evidence has so far been put forward
to show exactly how they were produced.
Anyone who has studied the extraordinary
effects which have from time to time been
obtained by cinema operators must be aware
that it is possible, given time and opportu-
nity, to produce by means of faked photo-
graphs almost anything that can be imag-
ined.
77


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
"It is well to point out that the elder of
the two girls has been described by her
mother as a most imaginative child, who has
been in the habit of drawing fairies for
years, and who for a time was apprenticed
to a firm of photographers. In addition to
this she has access to some of the most beau-
tiful dales and valleys, where the imagina-
tion of a young person is easily quickened.
"One of the pictures represents the
younger child leaning on her elbow upon a
bank, while a number of fairies are shown
dancing around her. The child does not
look at the fairies, but is posing for the pho-
tograph in the ordinary way. The reason
given for her apparent disinterestedness in
the frolicsome elves is that she is used to the
fairies, and was merely interested in the
camera.
"The picture in question could be 'faked'
in two ways. Either the little figures of the
fairies were stuck upon a cardboard, cut out
and placed close to the sitter, when, of
course, she would not be able to see them,
and the whole photograph produced on a
marked plate; or the original photograph,
78


RECEPTION OF THE FIRST PHOTOGRAPHS
without 'fairies,' may have had stuck on it
the figures of fairies cut from some publica-
tion. This would then be rephotographed,
and, if well done, no photographer could
swear that the second negative was not the
original one.
"Major Hall-Edwards went on to remark
that great weight had been placed upon the
fact that the fairies in the photograph had
transparent wings, but that a tricky pho-
tographer could very easily reproduce such
an effect.
"'It is quite possible,' he observed, 'to
cut off the transparent wings of insects and
paste them on a picture of fairies. It is easy
to add the transparent wings of large flies
and so arrange them that portions of the
photograph can be viewed through the
wings and thus obtain a very realistic
effect.'
"It has been pointed out that although
the 'fairies' are represented as if they were
dancing—in fact, they are definitely stated
to be dancing—there is no evidence of move-
ment in the photographs. An explanation
of this has been given by the photographer
79


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
herself, who has told us that the movements
of the fairies are exceedingly slow and
might be compared to the retarded-move-
ment films shown in the cinemas. This
proves that the young lady possesses a very
considerable knowledge of photography.
"Millions of photographs have been
taken by operators of different ages—chil-
dren and grown-ups—of country scenes and
places which, we have been taught, are the
habitats of nymphs and elves; yet until the
arrival upon the scene of these two won-
derful children the image of a fairy has
never been produced on a photographic
plate. On the evidence I have no hesitation
in saying that these photographs could have
been 'faked.' I criticize the attitude of
those who declared there is something super-
natural in the circumstances attending the
taking of these pictures because, as a medi-
cal man, I believe that the inculcation of
such absurd ideas into the minds of children
will result in later life in manifestations of
nervous disorder and mental disturbances.
Surely young children can be brought up to
appreciate the beauties of Nature without
80



E. FAIRIES AM) THEIB SUN-BATH
This contains a feature that was quite unknown to the girls. The sheath
or cocoon appearing in the midst of the grasses had never been seen by
them before, and they had no idea what it was. Fairy lovers and observers
describe it as a magnetic bath, woven very quickly by the fairies, and
used after dull weather and in the autumn especially.


RECEPTION OF THE FIRST PHOTOGRAPHS
their imagination being filled with exagger-
ated, if picturesque, nonsense and misplaced
sentiment."
To this Mr. Gardner answered:
"Major Hall-Edwards says 'no evidence
has been put forward to show how they were
produced.' The least a would-be critic
should do is surely to read the report of the
case, Sir A. Conan Doyle is asserted to have
taken it 'for granted that these photographs
are real and genuine.' It would be difficult
to misrepresent the case more completely.
The negatives and contact prints were sub-
mitted to the most searching tests known to
photographic science by experts, many of
whom were frankly sceptical. They emerged
as being unquestionably single-exposure
plates and, further, as bearing no evidence
whatever in themselves of any trace of the
innumerable faking devices known. This
did not clear them entirely, for, as I have
always remarked in my description of the
investigation, it is held possible by employ-
ing highly artistic and skilled processes to
produce similar negatives. Personally, I
81


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
should very much like to see this attempted
seriously. The few that have been done,
though very much better than the crude ex-
amples Major Hall-Edwards submits, break
down hopelessly on simple analysis.
"The case resolved itself at an early stage
into the examination of the personal element
and the motive for faked work. It was this
that occupied us so strenuously, for we fully
realized the imperative need of overwhelm-
ingly satisfying proof of personal integrity
before accepting the photographs as genu-
ine. This was carried through, and its thor-
oughness may be estimated by the fact that,
notwithstanding the searching nature of the
investigation that has followed the publica-
tion of the village, names, etc., nothing even
modifies my first report. I need hardly point
out that the strength of the case lies in its
amazing simplicity and the integrity of the
family concerned. It is on the photographic
plus the personal evidence that the case
stands.
''Into part of the criticism advanced by
Major Hall-Edwards it will be kinder, per-
haps, not to enter. Seriously to suggest that
82


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
tercourse with winged beings, as near as I
can judge, about eighteen inches high. If he
believes in the photographs two inferences
can be made, so to speak, to stand up: one,
that he must believe also in the existence of
the beings; two, that a mechanical opera-
tion, where human agency has done nothing
but prepare a plate, focus an object, press a
button, and print a picture, has rendered
visible something which is not otherwise
visible to the common naked eye. That is
really all Sir Arthur has to tell us. He be-
lieves the photographs to be genuine. The
rest follows. But why does he believe it?
Because the young ladies tell him that they
are genuine. Alas!
"Sir Arthur cannot, he tells us, go into
Yorkshire himself to cross-examine the
young ladies, even if he wishes to cross-
examine them, which does not appear. How-
ever, he sends in his place a friend, Mr. E. L.
Gardner, also of hospitable mind, with set-
tled opinions upon theosophy and kindred
subjects, but deficient, it would seem, in
logical faculty. Mr. Gardner has himself
photographed in the place where the young
84


RECEPTION OF THE FIRST PHOTOGRAPHS
ladies photographed each other, or there-
abouts. No winged beings circled about him,
and one wonders why Mr. Gardner (a) was
photographed, (b) reproduced the photo-
graph in the Strand Magazine.
"The only answer I can find is suggested
to me by the appearance of the Virgin and
Child to certain shepherds in a peach-or-
chard at Verona. The shepherds told their
parish priest that the Virgin Mary had in-
deed appeared to them on a moonlit night,
had accepted a bowl of milk from them, had
then picked a peach from one of the trees
and eaten it. The priest visited the spot in
their company, and in due course picked up
a peach-stone. That settled it. Obviously
the Madonna had been really there, for here
was the peach-stone to prove it.
"I am driven to the conclusion that Mr.
Gardner had himself photographed on a
particular spot in order to prove the genu-
ineness of former photographs taken there.
The argument would run: The photographs
were taken on a certain spot; but I have
been myself photographed on that spot;
therefore the photographs were genuine.
85


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
There is a fallacy lurking, but it is a hos-
pitable fallacy; and luckily it doesn't very
much matter.
"The line to take about a question of the
sort is undoubtedly that of least resistance.
Which is the harder of belief, the faking of
a photograph or the objective existence of
winged beings eighteen inches high? Un-
doubtedly, to a plain man, the latter; but
assume the former. If such beings exist, if
they are occasionally visible, and if a camera
is capable of revealing to all the world what
is hidden from most people in it, we are not
yet able to say that the Carpenter photo-
graphs are photographs of such beings.
For we, observe, have not seen such beings.
True: but we have all seen photographs of
beings in rapid motion—horses racing,
greyhounds coursing a hare, men running
over a field, and so on. We have seen pic-
tures of these things, and we have seen pho-
tographs of them; and the odd thing is that
never, never by any chance does the photo-
graph of a running object in the least re-
semble a picture of it.
"The horse, dog, or man, in fact, in the
86


RECEPTION OF THE FIRST PHOTOGRAPHS
photograph does not look to be in motion at
all. And rightly so, because in the instant
of being photographed it was not in motion.
So infinitely rapid is the action of light on
the plate that it is possible to isolate a frac-
tion of time in a rapid flight and to record it.
Directly you combine a series of photo-
graphs in sequence, and set them moving,
you have a semblance of motion exactly like
that which you have in a picture.
"Now, the beings circling round a girl's
head and shoulders in the Carpenter photo-
graph are in picture flight, and not in pho-
tographic flight. That is certain. They are
in the approved pictorial, or plastic, con-
vention of dancing. They are not well ren-
dered by any means. They are stiff com-
pared with, let us say, the whirling gnomes
on the outside wrapper of Punch. They
have very little of the wild, irresponsible
vagary of a butterfly. But they are an at-
tempt to render an aerial dance—pretty
enough in a small way. The photographs
are too small to enable me to decide whether
they are painted on cardboard or modelled
in the round; but the figures are not moving.
87


RECEPTION OF THE FIRST PHOTOGRAPHS
"With regard to the separate photographs
of the sites, surely the reason for their in-
clusion is obvious. Photographic experts
had stated that though the two negatives re-
vealed no trace of any faking process (such
as double exposure, painted figures on en-
largements rephotographed, set-up models
in card or other material), still it could not
be held to be impossible to obtain the same
class of result by very clever studio work.
Also, certain points that needed elucidation
were the haze above and at the side of the
child's head, and the blurred appearance of
the waterfall as compared with the clarity of
the figures, etc. An inspection of the spots
and photographs of their surroundings was
surely the only way to clear up some of
these. As a matter of fact, the waterfall
proved to be about twenty feet behind the
child, and hence out of focus, and some large
rocks at the same distance in the rear, at
the side of the fall, were found to be the
cause of the haziness. The separate photo-
graphs, of which only one is published of
each place, confirm entirely the genuineness
89


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
completely into the evidence, coming to the
final conclusion that when tried by all these
tests the chances are not less than 80 per
cent, in favour of authenticity.
It may be added that in the course of ex-
hibiting these photographs (in the interests
of the Theosophical bodies with which Mr.
Gardner is connected), it has sometimes oc-
curred that the plates have been enormously
magnified upon the screen. In one instance,
at Wakefield, the powerful lantern used
threw an exceptionally large picture on a
huge sheet. The operator, a very intelligent
man who had taken a sceptical attitude, was
entirely converted to the truth of the photo-
graphs, for, as he pointed out, such an en-
largement would show the least trace of a
scissors irregularity or of any artificial de-
tail, and would make it absurd to suppose
that a dummy figure could remain unde-
tected. The lines were always beautifully
fine and unbroken.
92


CHAPTER IV
THE SECOND SERIES
When Mr. Gardner was in Yorkshire in
July, he left a good camera with Elsie, for
he learned that her cousin Frances was
about to visit her again and that there would
be a chance of more photographs. One of
our difficulties has been that the associated
aura of the two girls is needful. This join-
ing of auras to produce a stronger effect
than either can get singly is common enough
in psychic matters. We wished to make full
use of the combined power of the girls in
August. My last words to Mr. Gardner,
therefore, before starting for Australia
were that I should open no letter more
eagerly than that which would tell me the
result of our new venture. In my heart I
hardly expected success, for three years had
passed, and I was well aware that the proc-
esses of puberty are often fatal to psychic
power.
93


THE SECOND SERIES
September 6,1920.
My dear Doyle,
Greetings and best wishes! Your last
words to me before we parted were that you
would open my letter with the greatest in-
terest. You will not be disappointed—for
the wonderful thing has happened!
I have received from Elsie three more
negatives taken a few days back. I need not
describe them, for enclosed are the three
prints in a separate envelope. The "Flying
Fairy" and the "Fairies' Bower" are the
most amazing that any modern eye has ever
seen surely! I received these plates on Fri-
day morning last and have since been think-
ing furiously.
A nice little letter came with them saying
how sorry they were (!) that they couldn't
send more, but the weather had been bad
(it has been abominably cold), and on only
two afternoons had Elsie and Frances been
able to visit the glen. (Frances has now re-
turned to Scarborough at the call of school.)
All quite simple and straightforward and
concluding with the hope that I might be
95


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
able to spend another day with them at the
end of this month.
I went over to Harrow at once, and Snell-
ing without hesitation pronounced the three
as bearing the same proofs of genuineness
as the first two, declaring further that at any
rate the "bower" one was utterly beyond
any possibility of faking! While on this
point I might add that to-day I have inter-
viewed Illingworth's people and somewhat
to my surprise they endorsed this view.
(Now if you have not yet opened the en-
velope please do so and I will continue . . o I am going to Yorkshire on the 23rd inst.
to fill some lecture engagements and shall
spend a day at C, and of course take photos
of these spots and examine and take away
any "spoilt" negatives that will serve as
useful accompaniments. The bower nega-
tive, by the way, the girls simply could not
understand at all. They saw the sedate-
looking fairy to the right, and without wait-
ing to get in the picture Elsie pushed the
camera close up to the tall grasses and took
the snap. . . .
-
96


THE SECOND SERIES
To this letter I made answer as follows:
Melbourne,
October 21,1920.
Dear Gardner,
My heart was gladdened when out
here in far Australia I had your note and
the three wonderful prints which are con-
firmatory of our published results. You and
I needed no confirmation, but the whole line
of thought will be so novel to the ordinary
busy man who has not followed psychic in-
quiry, that he will need that it be repeated
again and yet again before he realizes that
this new order of life is really established
and has to be taken into serious account, just
as the pigmies of Central Africa.
I felt guilty when I laid a delay-action
mine and left the country, leaving you to
face the consequences of the explosion.
You knew, however, that it was unavoidable.
I rejoice now that you should have this com-
plete shield against those attacks which will
very likely take the form of a clamour for
further pictures, unaware that such pictures
actually exist.
97


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
The matter does not bear directly upon
the more vital question of our own fate and
that of those we have lost, which has brought
me out here. But anything which extends
man's mental horizon, and proves to him
that matter as we have known it is not really
the limit of our universe, must have a good
effect in breaking down materialism and
leading human thought to a broader and
more spiritual level.
It almost seems to me that those wise en-
tities who are conducting this campaign
from the other side, and using some of us as
humble instruments, have recoiled before
that sullen stupidity against which Goethe
said the gods themselves fight in vain, and
have opened up an entirely new line of ad-
vance, which will turn that so-called "reli-
gious," and essentially irreligious, position,
which has helped to bar our way. They
can't destroy fairies by antediluvian texts,
and when once fairies are admitted other
psychic phenomena will find a more ready
acceptance.
Good-bye, my dear Gardner, I am proud
to have been associated with you in this
98


THE SECOND SERIES
epoch-making incident. We have had con-
tinued messages at seances for some time
that a visible sign was coming through—and
perhaps this was what is meant. The human
race does not deserve fresh evidence, since
it has not troubled, as a rule, to examine that
which already exists. However, our friends
beyond are very long-suffering and more
charitable than I, for I will confess that my
soul is filled with a cold contempt for the
muddle-headed indifference and the moral
cowardice which I see around me.
Yours sincerely,
Arthur Conan Doyle.
The next letters from Mr. Gardner told
me that in September, immediately after
this second series was taken, he had gone
north again, and came away more convinced
than ever of the honesty of the whole Wright
family and of the genuine nature of the pho-
tographs. From this letter I take the fol-
lowing extracts:
"My visit to Yorkshire was very profit-
able. I spent the whole day with the family
75970A
99


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
and took photographs of the new sites,
which proved to be in close proximity to the
others. I enclose a few prints of these. It
was beside the pond shown that the 'cradle'
or bower photograph was taken. The fairy
that is in the air was leaping rather than
flying. It had leapt up from the bush below
five or six times, Elsie said, and seemed to
hover at the top of its spring. It was
about the fifth time that it did so that she
snapped the shutter. Unfortunately, Fran-
ces thought the fairy was leaping on to her
face, the action was so vigorous, and tossed
her head back. The motion can be detected
in the print. The fairy who is looking at
Elsie in the other photograph is holding a
bunch of fairy hare-bells. I thought this
one had 'bobbed' hair and was altogether
quite in the fashion, her dress is so up-to-
date! But Elsie says her hair was close-
curled, not bobbed. With regard to the
'cradle' Elsie tells me they both saw the
fairy on the right and the demure-looking
sprite on the left, but not the bower. Or
rather, she says there was only a wreath of
faint mist in between and she could make
100


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
took two and on the Saturday one. If it had
been normal weather we might have ob-
tained a score or more. Possibly, however,
it is better to go slowly—though I propose
we take the matter further again in May or
June. The camera I had sent was the one
used, and also the plates (which had all been
marked privately by the Illingworth Co.,
independently of me). The three new fairy
negatives proved to be of these and can be
certified so to be by the manager. The
Cradle or Bower negative is, as I think I
told you, declared to be utterly unfakeable,
and I can get statements to this effect. . . ."
In a subsequent fuller account Mr. Gard-
ner says:
"On Thursday afternoon, August 26, a
fairly bright and sunny day, fortunately
(for the unseasonably cold weather experi-
enced generally could hardly have been
worse for the task), a number of photo-
graphs were taken, and again on Saturday,
August 28. The three reproduced here are
the most striking and amazing of the num-
ber. I only wish every reader could see the
102


THE SECOND SERIES
superlatively beautiful enlargements made
directly from the actual negatives. The ex-
quisite grace of the flying fairy baffles de-
scription—all fairies, indeed, seem to be
super-Pavlovas in miniature. The next, of
the fairy offering a flower—an etheric hare-
bell—to Iris, is a model of gentle and digni-
fied pose, but it is to the third that I would
draw special and detailed attention. Never
before, or otherwhere, surely, has a fairy's
bower been photographed!
"The central ethereal cocoon shape, some-
thing between a cocoon and an open chrysa-
lis in appearance, lightly suspended amid
the grasses, is the bower or cradle. Seated
on the upper left-hand edge with wing well
displayed is an undraped fairy apparently
considering whether it is time to get up. An
earlier riser of more mature age is seen on
the right possessing abundant hair and won-
derful wings. Her slightly denser body
can be glimpsed within her fairy dress.
Just beyond, still on the right, is the clear-
cut head of a mischievous but smiling elf
wearing a close-fitting cap. On the extreme
left is a demure-looking sprite, with a pair
103


THE SECOND SERIES
the whole, though clearing occasionally.
Seated with the girls, he saw all that they
saw, and more, for his powers proved to be
considerably greater. Having distinguished
a psychic object, he would point in the direc-
tion and ask them for a description, which
he always obtained correctly within the limit
of their powers. The whole glen, according
to his account, was swarming with many
forms of elemental life, and he saw not only
wood-elves, gnomes, and goblins, but the
rarer undines, floating over the stream. I
take a long extract from his rather disjointed
notes, which may form a separate chapter.
107


CHAPTER V OBSERVATIONS OF A CLAIRVOYANT IN THE COT-
TINGLEY GLEN, AUGUST 1921
Gnomes and Fairies. In the field we saw
figures about the size of the gnome. They
were making weird faces and grotesque con-
tortions at the group. One in particular
took great delight in knocking his knees to-
gether. These forms appeared to Elsie
singly—one dissolving and another appear-
ing in its place. I, however, saw them in a
group with one figure more prominently vis-
ible than the rest. Elsie saw also a gnome
like the one in the photograph, but not so
bright and not coloured. I saw a group of
female figures playing a game, somewhat
'resembling the children's game of oranges
and lemons. They played in a ring; the
game resembled the grand chain in the Lan-
cers. One fairy stood in the centre of the
ring more or less motionless, while the re-
108


OBSERVATIONS OF A CLAIRVOYANT
mainder, who appeared to be decked with
flowers and to show colours, not normally
their own, danced round her. Some joined
hands and made an archway for the others,
who moved in and out as in a maze. I no-
ticed that the result of the game appeared to
be the forming of a vortex of force which
streamed upwards to an apparent distance of
four or five feet above the ground. I also
noticed that in those parts of the field where
the grass was thicker and darker, there ap-
peared to be a correspondingly extra activ-
ity among the fairy creatures.
Water Nymph. In the beck itself, near
the large rock, at a slight fall in the water,
I saw a water sprite. It was an entirely nude
female figure with long fair hair, which it
appeared to be combing or passing through
its fingers. I was not sure whether it had
any feet or not. Its form was of a dazzling
rosy whiteness, and its face very beautiful.
The arms, which were long and graceful,
were moved with a wave-like motion. It
sometimes appeared to be singing, though
no sound was heard. It was in a kind of
cave, formed by a projecting piece of rock
109


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
and some moss. Apparently it had no wings,
and it moved with a sinuous, almost snake-
like motion, in a semi-horizontal position. Its
atmosphere and feeling was quite different
from that of the fairies. It showed no con-
sciousness of my presence, and, though I
waited with the camera in the hope of taking
it, it did not detach itself from the surround-
ings in which it was in some way merged.
Wood Elves. (Under the old beeches in
the wood, Cottingley, August 12, 1921.)
Two tiny wood elves came racing over the
ground past us as we sat on a fallen tree
trunk. Seeing us, they pulled up short about
five feet away, and stood regarding us with
considerable amusement but no fear. They
appeared as if completely covered in a tight-
fitting one-piece skin, which shone slightly
as if wet. They had hands and feet large
and out of proportion to their bodies. Their
legs were somewhat thin, ears large and
pointed upwards, being almost pear-shaped.
There were a large number of these figures
racing about the ground. Their noses ap-
peared almost pointed and their mouths
wide. No teeth and no structure inside the
110


OBSERVATIONS OF A CLAIRVOYANT
looks behind him at a group of fairies who
are approaching us and moves to one side as
if to make way. His mental attitude is semi-
dreamlike, as of a child who would say "I
can stand and watch this all day without be-
ing tired." He clearly sees much of our
auras and is strongly affected by our emana-
tions.
Fairies. Frances sees tiny fairies dancing
in a circle, the figures gradually expanding
in size till they reached eighteen inches, the
ring widening in proportion. Elsie sees a
vertical circle of dancing fairies flying
slowly round; as each one touched the grass
he appeared to perform a few quick steps
and then continued his slow motion round
the circle. The fairies who are dancing have
long skirts, through which their limbs can
be seen; viewed astrally the circle is bathed
in golden yellow light, with the outer edges
of many hues, violet predominating. The
movement of the fairies is reminiscent of
that of the great wheel at Earl's Court. The
fairies float very slowly, remaining motion-
less as far as bodies and limbs are concerned,
until they come round to the ground again.
s
113


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
There is a tinkling music accompanying all
this. It appears to have more of the aspect
of a ceremony than a game. Frances sees
two fairy figures performing as if on the
stage, one with wings, one without. Their
bodies shine with the effect of rippling water
in the sun. The fairy without wings has bent
over backwards like a contortionist till its
head touches the ground, while the winged
figure bends over it. Frances sees a small
Punch-like figure, with a kind of Welsh hat,
doing a kind of dancing by striking its heel
on the ground and at the same time raising
his hat and bowing. Elsie sees a flower
fairy, like a carnation in shape, the head ap-
pearing where the stalk touches the flower
and the green sepals forming a tunic from
which the arms protrude, while the petals
form a skirt, below which are rather thin
legs. It is tripping across the grass. Its
colouring is pink like a carnation in a pale,
suffused sort of way. (Written by the light
of the moon.) I see couples a foot high, fe-
male and male, dancing in a slow waltz-like
motion in the middle of the field. They ap-
pear even to reverse. They are clothed in
114


OBSERVATIONS OF A CLAIRVOYANT
etheric matter and rather ghost-like in ap-
pearance. Their bodies are outlined with
grey light and show little detail.
Elsie sees a small imp reminiscent of a
monkey, revolving slowly round a stalk to
the top of which he was clinging. He has an
impish face and is looking our way as if per-
forming for our benefit.
The brownie appears during all this to
have taken upon himself the duties of show-
man. I see what may be described as a fairy
fountain about twenty feet ahead. It is
caused by an uprush of fairy force from the
ground—and spreading fish-tail fashion
higher into the air—it is many-hued. This
was also seen by Frances.
(Monday, August 15. In the field.) I saw
three figures racing from the field into the
wood—the same figures previously seen in
the wood. When about a distance of ten
yards from the wall they leapt over it into
the wood and disappeared. Elsie sees in
centre of field a very beautiful fairy figure,
somewhat resembling a figure of Mercury,
without winged sandals, but has fairy wings.
Nude, light curly hair, kneeling down in a
115


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
dark clump of grass, with its attention fixed
on something in the ground. It changes its
position; first it is sitting back on its heels,
and then it is rising to its full kneeling
height. Much larger than usual, probably
eighteen inches high. It waves its arms over
some object on the ground. It has picked up
something from the ground (as I think a
baby) and holds it to its breast and seems to
be praying. Has Greek features and re-
sembles a Greek statue—like a figure out of
a Greek tragedy.
(Tuesday, August 16, 10 p.m. In the
field.) By the light of a small photographic
lamp.
Fairies. Elsie sees a circle of fairies trip-
ping round, hands joined, facing outwards.
A figure appears in the centre of the ring,
at the same time the fairies faced inwards.
Goblins. A group of goblins came run-
ning towards us from the wood to within fif-
teen feet of us. They differ somewhat from
the wood elves, having more the look of
gnomes, though they are smaller, being about
the size of small brownies.
Fairy. Elsie sees a beautiful fairy quite
116


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
the fairy creatures. Franees sees three and
calls them goblins.
Fairy. A blue fairy. A fairy with wings
and general colouring of sea-blue and pale
pink. The wings are webbed and marked in
varying colours like those of, a butterfly.
The form is perfectly modelled and practi-
cally nude. A golden star shines in the hair.
The fairy is a director, though not appar-
ently with any band for the present.
Fairy Band. There has suddenly arrived
in the field a fairy director with a band of
fairy people. Their arrival causes a bright
radiance to shine in the field, visible to us
sixty yards away. She is very autocratic
and definite in her orders, holding unques-
tioned command. They spread themselves
out into a gradually widening circle around
her, and as they do so, a soft glow spreads
out over the grass. They are actually vivi-
fying and stimulating the growth in the field.
This is a moving band which arrives in this
field swinging high over the tree tops as if
from a considerable distance. Inside a space
of two minutes the circle has spread to ap-
proximately twelve feet wide and is wonder-
118


OBSERVATIONS OF A CLAIRVOYANT
fully radiant with light. Each member of
the band is connected to the leader by a thin
stream of light. These streams are of differ-
ent colour, though chiefly yellow, deepening
to orange. They meet in the centre, merging
in her aura, and there is a constant flow back-
wards and forwards among them. The form
produced by this is something like an in-
verted fruit dish, with the central fairy as
the stem, and the lines of light which flow in
a graceful even curve forming the sides of
the bowl. This party is in intense activity,
as if it had much to do and little time in
which to do it. The director is vivified and
instructed from within herself, and appears
to have her consciousness seated upon a
more subtle plane than that upon which she
is working.
Fairy. Elsie sees a tall and stately
fairy come across the field to a clump of
harebells. It is carrying in its arms some-
thing which may be a baby fairy, wrapped
in gauzy substance. It lays this in the clump
of harebells and kneels down as though
stroking something, and after a time fades
away. We catch impressions of four-footed
119


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
creatures being ridden by winged figures
who are thin and bend over their mounts
like jockeys. It is no known animal which
they bestride, having a face something like
that of a caterpillar.
Amongst this fairy activity which appears
all over the field, one glimpses an occasional
gnome-like form walking with serious mien
across the field, whilst the wood elves and
other imp-like forms run about amongst
their more seriously employed fairy kind.
All three of us keep seeing weird creatures
as of elemental essence.
Elsie sees about a dozen fairies moving
towards us in a crescent-shaped flight. As
they drew near she remarked with ecstasy
upon their perfect beauty of form—even
while she did so they became as ugly as sin,
as if to give the lie to her words. They all
leered at her and disappeared. In this epi-
sode it may be that one contacts a phase of
the antagonism and dislike which so many
of the fairy creatures feel for humans at
this stage of evolution.
Frances saw seven wee fairies quite near
120


OBSERVATIONS OF A CLAIRVOYANT
—weird little figures—lying face down-
wards.
(In the Glen, 18th, 2 p.m.) Frances sees
a fairy as big as herself, clothed in tights and
a garment scalloped round the hips; the
whole is tight-fitting and flesh-coloured; she
has very large wings which she opens above
her head; then she raises her arms from her
side up above her head and waves them
gracefully in the air. She has a very beau-
tiful face with an expression as if inviting
Frances into Fairyland. Her hair is ap-
parently bobbed and her wings are trans-
parent.
Golden Fairy. One specially beautiful one
has a body clothed in iridescent shimmering
golden light. She has tall wings, each of
which is almost divided into upper and lower
portions. The lower portion, which is small-
er than the upper, appears to be elongated to
a point like the wings of certain butterflies.
She, too, is moving her arms and fluttering
her wings. I can only describe her as a
golden wonder. She smiles and clearly sees
us. She places her finger on her lips. She
remains watching us with smiling counte-
121


CHAPTER VI
INDEPENDENT EVIDENCE FOR FAIRIES
By a curious coincidence, if it be indeed
a coincidence, at the moment when the evi-
dence for the actual existence of fairies was
brought to my notice, I had just finished an
article dealing with the subject, in which I
gave particulars of a number of cases where
such creatures were said to have been seen,
and showed how very strong were the rea-
sons for supposing that some such forms of
life exist. I now reproduce this article, and
I add to it another chapter containing fresh
evidence which reached me after the publi-
cation of the photographs in the Strand
Magazine.
We are accustomed to the idea of amphib-
ious creatures who may dwell unseen and
unknown in the depths of the waters, and
then some day be spied sunning themselves
123


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
upon a sandbank, whence they slip into the
unseen once more. If such appearances
were rare, and if it should so happen that
some saw them more clearly than others, then
a very pretty controversy would arise, for
the sceptics would say, with every show of
reason, "Our experience is that only land
creatures live on the land, and we utterly
refuse to believe in things which slip in and
out of the water; if you will demonstrate
them to us we will begin to consider the
question." Faced by so reasonable an op-
position, the others could only mutter that
they had seen them with their own eyes, but
that they could not command their move-
ments. The sceptics would hold the field.
Something of the sort may exist in our
psychic arrangements. One can well imag-
ine that there is a dividing line, like the
water edge, this line depending upon what
we vaguely call a higher rate of vibrations.
Taking the vibration theory as a working
hypothesis, one could conceive that by rais-
ing or lowering the rate the creatures could
move from one side to the other of this line
of material visibility, as the tortoise moves
124


INDEPENDENT EVIDENCE FOR FAIRIES
from the water to the land, returning for
refuge to invisibility as the reptile scuttles
back to the surf. This, of course, is supposi-
tion, but intelligent supposition based on
the available evidence is the pioneer of
science, and it may be that the actual solution
will be found in this direction. I am allud-
ing now, not to spirit return, where seventy
years of close observation has given us some
sort of certain and definite laws, but rather
to those fairy and phantom phenomena
which have been endorsed by so many ages,
and still even in these material days seem to
break into some lives in the most unexpected
fashion.
Victorian science would have left the
world hard and clean and bare, like a land-
scape in the moon; but this science is in
truth but a little light in the darkness, and
outside that limited circle of definite knowl-
edge we see the loom and shadow of gigan-
tic and fantastic possibilities around us,
throwing themselves continually across our
consciousness in such ways that it is difficult
to ignore them.
There is much curious evidence of vary-
125


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
and one small girl, very truthful children,
each of whom tells with detail the exact
circumstances and appearance of the crea-
ture. To each it happened only once, and
in each case it was a single little figure, twice
in the garden, once in the nursery. Inquiry
among friends shows that many children
have had the same experience, but they close
up at once when met by ridicule and in-
credulity. Sometimes the shapes are unlike
those which they would have gathered from
picture-books. "Fairies are like nuts and
moss," says one child in Lady Glenconner's
charming study of family life. My own
children differ in the height of the creatures,
which may well vary, but in their dress they
are certainly not unlike the conventional
idea, which, after all, may also be the true
one.
There are many people who have a recol-
lection of these experiences of their youth,
and try afterwards to explain them away on
material grounds which do not seem ade-
quate or reasonable. Thus in his excellent
book on folk-lore, the Rev. S. Baring-Gould
gives us a personal experience which illus-
128



THE TWO GIRLS NEAR THE SPOT WHERE THE LEAPING
FAIRY WAS TAKEN IN 1020


INDEPENDENT EVIDENCE FOR FAIRIES
trates several of the points already men-
tioned. '' In the year 1838,'' he says,'' when
I was a small boy of four years old, we were
driving to Montpelier on a hot summer day
over the long straight road that traverses a
pebble-and-rubble-strewn plain, on which
grows nothing save a few aromatic herbs.
I was sitting on the box with my father when,
to my great surprise, I saw legions of dwarfs
of about two feet high running along beside
the horses; some sat laughing on the pole,
some were scrambling up the harness to get
on the backs of the horses. I remarked to
my father what I saw, when he abruptly
stopped the carriage and put me inside be-
side my mother, where, the conveyance being
closed, I was out of the sun. The effect was
that, little by little, the host of imps dimin-
ished in number till they disappeared al-
together."
Here, certainly, the advocates of sunstroke
have a strong, though by no means a final,
case. Mr. Baring-Gould's next illustration
is a sounder one.
"When my wife was a girl of fifteen," he
says, "she was walking down a lane in York-
129


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
shire, between green hedges, when she saw
seated in one of the privet hedges a little
green man, perfectly well made, who looked
at her with his beady black eyes. He was
about a foot or fifteen inches high. She was
so frightened that she ran home. She
remembers that it was a summer day."
A girl of fifteen is old enough to be a good
witness, and her flight and the clear detail of
her memory point to a real experience.
Again we have the suggestion of a hot day.
Baring-Gould has yet a third case. "One
day a son of mine," he says, "was sent into
the garden to pick pea-pods for the cook to
shell for dinner. Presently he rushed into
the house as white as chalk to say that while
he was thus engaged, and standing between
the rows of peas, he saw a little man wearing
a red cap, a green jacket, and brown knee-
breeches, whose face was old and wan, and
who had a grey beard and eyes as black and
hard as sloes. He stared so intently at the
boy that the latter took to his heels."
Here, again, the pea-pods show that it was
summer, and probably in the heat of the
day. Once again the detail is very exact
130


INDEPENDENT EVIDENCE FOR FAIRIES
and corresponds closely, as I shall presently
show, to some independent accounts. Mr.
Baring-Gould is inclined to put all these
down to the heat conjuring up the familiar
pictures of fairy books, but some further evi-
dence may cause the reader to doubt this
explanation.
Let us compare with these stories the very
direct evidence of Mrs. Violet Tweedale,
whose courage in making public the result
of her own remarkable psychic faculties
should meet with recognition from every
student of the subject. Our descendants
will hardly realize the difficulty which now
exists of getting first-hand evidence with
names attached, for they will have outgrown
the state when the cry of "fake" and
"fraud" and "dupe" is raised at once
against any observer, however honourable
and moderate, by people who know little or
nothing of the subject. Mrs. Tweedale
says:
"I had a wonderful little experience some
five years ago which proved to me the exist-
ence of fairies. One summer afternoon I
was walking alone along the avenue of Imp- 131


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
ton House, Devonshire. It was an absolutely
still day—not a leaf moving, and all Nature
seemed to sleep in the hot sunshine. A few
yards in front of me my eye was attracted
by the violent movements of a single long
blade-like leaf of a wild iris. This leaf was
swinging and bending energetically, while
the rest of the plant was motionless. Expect-
ing to see a field-mouse astride it, I stepped
very softly up to it. What was my delight
to see a tiny green man. He was about five
inches long, and was swinging back-down-
wards. His tiny green feet, which appeared
to be green-booted, were crossed over the
leaf, and his hands, raised behind his head,
also held the blade. I had a vision of a
merry little face and something red in the
form of a cap on the head. For a full
minute he remained in view, swinging on the
leaf. Then he vanished. Since then I have
several times seen a single leaf moving vio-
lently while the rest of the plant remained
motionless, but I have never again been
able to see the cause of the movement.''
Here the dress of the fairy, green jacket
and red cap, is exactly the same as was
132


INDEPENDENT EVIDENCE FOR FAIRIES
described independently by Baring-Gould's
son, and again we have the elements of heat
and stillness. It may be fairly answered
that many artists have drawn the fairies in
such a dress, and that the colours may in
this way have been impressed upon the
minds of both observers. In the bending
iris we have something objective, however,
which cannot easily be explained away as a
cerebral hallucination, and the whole inci-
dent seems to me an impressive piece of evi-
dence.
A lady with whom I have corresponded,
Mrs. H., who is engaged in organizing work
of the most responsible kind, has had an
experience which resembles that of Mrs.
Tweedale. "My only sight of a fairy," she
says, "was in a large wood in West Sussex,
about nine years ago. He was a little crea-
ture about half a foot high, dressed in leaves.
The remarkable thing about his face was
that no soul looked through his eyes. He
was playing about in long grass and flowers
in an open space." Once again summer is
indicated. The length and colour of the
creature correspond with Mrs. Tweedale's
133


INDEPENDENT EVIDENCE FOR FAIRIES
the subject, that he has carried this power
of perception on from childhood, and his sur-
prise is not so much at what he sees as at the
failure of others to see the same thing. To
show that it is not subjective, he tells the
story that on one occasion, while traversing
a field, he saw a little creature which beck-
oned eagerly that he should follow. He did
so, and presently saw his guide pointing with
an air of importance to the ground. There,
between the furrows, lay a flint arrow-head
which he carried home with him as a souvenir
of the adventure.
Another friend of mine who claims to have
the power of seeing fairies is Mr. Tom
Tyrrell, the famous medium, whose clair-
voyance and general psychic gifts are of the
strongest character. I cannot easily forget
how one evening in a Yorkshire hotel a storm
of raps, sounding very much as if someone
were cracking their fingers and thumb, broke
out around his head, and how with his coffee-
cup in one hand he flapped vigorously with
the other to warn off his inopportune visi-
tors. In answer to my question about fairies
he says, "Yes, I do see these little pixies or
137


INDEPENDENT EVIDENCE FOR FAIRIES
Dr. Vanstone, who combines great knowl-
edge of theory with some considerable ex-
perience, though a high development of in-
tellect is, in spite of Swedenborg's example,
a bar to psychic perception. This would
show, if it is correct, that we may have to
return to the classical conception of some-
thing in the nature of naiads and fauns and
spirits of the trees and groves. Dr. Van-
stone, whose experiences are on the border-
land between what is objective and what is
sensed without being actually seen, writes
to me: "I have been distinctly aware of
minute intelligent beings in connection with
the evolution of plant forces, particularly in
certain localities; for instance, in Eccles-
bourne Glen. Pond life yields to me the
largest and best sense of fairy life, and not
the floral world. I may be only clothing my
subjective consciousness with unreal objec-
tive imaginations, but they are real to me as
sentient, intelligent beings, able to communi-
cate with us in varying distinctness. I am
inclined to think that elemental beings are
engaged, like factory hands, in facilitating
the operation of Nature's laws."
139 v


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
I
Another gentleman who claims to have
this most remarkable gift is Mr. Tom Char-
man, who builds for himself a shelter in the
New Forest and hunts for fairies as an ento-
mologist would for butterflies. In answer
to my inquiries, he tells me that the power
of vision came to him in childhood, but left
him for many years, varying in proportion
with his own nearness to Nature. According
to this seer, the creatures are of many sizes,
varying from a few inches to several feet.
They are male, female, and children. He
has not heard them utter sounds, but believes
that they do so, of finer quality than we can
hear. They are visible by night as well as
by day, and show small lights about the same
size as glow-worms. They dress in all sorts
of ways. Such is Mr. Charman's account.
It is, of course, easy for us who respond
only to the more material vibrations to de-
clare that all these seers are self-deluded, or
are the victims of some mental twist. It is
difficult for them to defend themselves from
such a charge. It is, however, to be urged
upon the other side that these numerous
testimonies come from people who are very
140


INDEPENDENT EVIDENCE FOR FAIRIES
solid and practical and successful in the af-
fairs of life. One is a' distinguished writer,
another an ophthalmic authority, a third a
successful professional man, a fourth a lady
engaged on public service, and so on. To
waive aside the evidence of such people on
the ground that it does not correspond with
our own experience is an act of mental arro-
gance which no wise man will commit.
It is interesting to compare these various
contemporary and first-hand accounts of
the impressions which all these witnesses
have received. I have already pointed out
that the higher vibrations which we associate
with hot sunshine, and which we actually
seem to see in the shimmer of noontide, is as-
sociated with many of the episodes. Apart
from this it must be admitted that the evi-
dence is on the whole irregular. We have
creatures described which range from five
inches to two and a half feet. An advocate
of the fairies might say that, since the tradi-
tion has always been that they procreate as
human beings do, we are dealing with them
in every stage of growth, which accounts for
the varying size.
141


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
It seems to me, however, that a better case
could be made out if it were pleaded that
there have always been many different races
of fairyland, and that samples of these races
may greatly differ from each other, and may
inhabit varying spots; so that an observer
like Mr. Tyrrell, for example, may always
have seen woodland elves, which bear no
resemblance to gnomes or goblins. The
monkey-like, brown-clad creatures of my
professional friend, which were over two feet
high, compare very closely with the creatures
which little Baring-Gould saw climbing on
to the horses. In both cases these taller
fairies were reported from flat, plain-like
locations; while the little old-man type
varies completely from the dancing little
feminine elf so beloved by Shakespeare. In
the experience of Mr. Turvey and Mr. Lons-
dale, two different types engaged in different
tasks were actually seen at the same moment,
the one being bright-coloured dancing elves,
while the other were the brown-coloured
attendants who guarded them.
The claim that the fairy rings so often
seen in meadow or marshland are caused by
142


INDEPENDENT EVIDENCE FOR FAIRIES
the beat of fairy feet is certainly untenable,
as they unquestionably come from fungi such
as Agaricus gambosus or Marasmius
oreades, which grow from a centre, con-
tinually deserting the exhausted ground, and
spreading to that which is fresh. In this
way a complete circle is formed, which may
be quite small or may be of twelve-foot
diameter. These circles appear just as
often in woods from the same cause, but are
smothered over by the decayed leaves among
which the fungi grow. But though the
fairies most certainly do not produce the
rings, it might be asserted, and could not be
denied, that the rings once formed, what-
ever their cause, would offer a very charm-
ing course for a circular ring-a-ring dance.
Certainly from all time these circles have
been associated with the gambols of the little
people.
After these modern instances one is in-
clined to read with a little more gravity the
account which our ancestors gave of these
creatures; for, however fanciful in parts, it
still may have had some core of truth. I
say "our ancestors," but as a matter of fact
143


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
there are shepherds on the South Downs to
this day who will throw a bit of their bread
and cheese over their shoulders at dinner-
time for the little folks to consume. All
over the United Kingdom, and especially in
Wales and Ireland, the belief is largely
held among those folks who are nearest to
Nature. First of all it was always supposed
that they lived within the earth. This was
natural enough, since a sudden disappear-
ance of a solid body could only be under-
stood in that way. On the whole, their de-
scription was not grotesque, and fits easily
into its place amid the examples already
given. "They were of small stature," says
one Welsh authority, quoted in Mrs. Lewes's
Stranger than Fiction, "towards two feet
in height, and their horses of the size of
hares. Their clothes were generally white,
but on certain occasions they have been seen
dressed in green. Their gait was lively, and
ardent and loving was their glance. . . .
They were peaceful and kindly among them-
selves, diverting in their tricks, and charm-
ing in their walk and dancing." This men-
tion of horses is somewhat out of the picture,
144





PUBLIC
new


INDEPENDENT EVIDENCE FOR FAIRIES
but all the rest seems corroborative of what
has already been stated.
One of the best of the ancient accounts is
that of the Rev. R. Kirk, who occupied a
parish at Monteith, on the edge of the High-
lands, and wrote a pamphlet called The
Secret Commonwealth, about the year 1680.
He had very clear and definite ideas about
these little creatures, and he was by no means
a visionary, but a man of considerable parts,
who was chosen afterwards to translate the
Bible into Erse. His information about
fairies tallies very well with that of the
Welshman quoted above. He slips up in
imagining that flint arrow-heads are indeed
"fairy-bolts," but otherwise his contentions
agree very well with our modern instances.
They have tribes and orders, according to
this Scottish clergyman. They eat. They
converse in a thin, whistling sort of lan-
guage. They have children, deaths, and
burials. They are fond of frolic dancing.
They have a regular state and polity, with
rulers, laws, quarrels, and even battles.
They are irresponsible creatures, not hostile
to the human race unless they have reason
145


INDEPENDENT EVIDENCE FOR FAIRIES
force which caused the bombardment. The
volume already quoted gives another re-
markable case, where a farmer, having built
a house upon what was really a fairy right-
of-way between two "raths" or fairy
mounds, was exposed to such persecution by
noises and other disturbances that his family
was at last driven out, and had to take ref-
uge in the smaller house which they had
previously occupied. This story is narrated
by a correspondent from Wexford, who says
that he examined the facts himself, examined
the deserted house, cross-examined the
owner, and satisfied himself that there were
two raths in the vicinity, and that the house
was in a dead-line between them.
I have particulars of a case in West Sussex
which is analogous, and which I have been
able to trace to the very lady to whom it
happened. This lady desired to make a
rock-garden, and for this purpose got some
large boulders from a field hard by, which
had always been known as the pixie stones,
and built them into her new rockery. One
summer evening this lady saw a tiny grey
woman sitting on one of the boulders. The
147


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
little creature slipped away when she knew
that she had been observed. Several times
she appeared upon the stones. Later the
people in the village asked if the stones might
be moved back to the field, "as," they said,
"they are the pixie stones, and if they are
removed from their place, misfortunes will
happen to the village." The stones were
restored.
But supposing that they actually do exist,
what are these creatures? That is a subject
upon which we can speculate only with more
or less plausibility. Mr. David Gow, editor
of Light, and a considerable authority upon
psychic matters, had first formed the opinion
that they were simply ordinary human
spirits, seen, as it were, at the wrong end of a
clairvoyant telescope, and therefore very
minute. A study of the detailed accounts of
their varied experience caused him to alter
his view, and to conclude that they are really
life forms which have developed along some
separate line of evolution, and which for
some morphological reason have assumed
human shape in the strange way in which
Nature reproduces her types like the figures
148


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
creatures which are alluded to with such
familiarity in the classics of Greece and
Rome.
One may well ask what connection has this
fairy-lore with the general scheme of psychic
philosophy? The connection is slight and in-
direct, consisting only in the fact that any-
thing which widens our conceptions of the
possible, and shakes us out of our time-
rutted lines of thought, helps us to regain
our elasticity of mind, and thus to be more
open to new philosophies. The fairy ques-
tion is infinitely small and unimportant com-
pared to the question of our own fate and
that of the whole human race. The evidence
also is very much less impressive, though, as
I trust I have shown, it is not entirely negli-
gible. These creatures are in any case remote
from us, and their existence is of little more
real importance than that of strange animals
or plants. At the same time, the perennial
mystery why so many "flowers are born to
blush unseen," and why Nature should be
so lavish with gifts which human beings
cannot use, would be solved if we under-
stood that there were other orders of being
150


CHAPTER VII
SOME SUBSEQUENT CASES
From the foregoing chapter it will be
clear that there was a good deal of evidence
which cannot easily be brushed aside as to
the existence of these little creatures before
the discovery of the photographs. These va-
rious witnesses have nothing to gain by their
testimony, and it is not tainted by any mer-
cenary consideration. The same remark ap-
plies to a number of cases which were com-
municated to me after the appearance of the
articles in the Strand. One or two were
more or less ingenious practical jokes, but
from the others I have selected some which
appear to be altogether reliable.
The gentleman whom I have already
quoted under the name of Lancaster—he
who was so doubtful as to the validity of the
photographs—is himself a seer. He says:
152


SOME SUBSEQUENT CASES
"Personally I should describe fairies as
being about 2 feet 6 inches to 3 feet in height,
and dressed in duffle brown clothes. The
nearest approach I can get to them is to say
that they are spiritual monkeys. They have
the active brains of monkeys, and their gen-
eral instinct is to avoid mankind, but they
are capable individually of becoming ex-
tremely attached to humans—or a human—
but at any time they may bite you, like a
monkey, and repent immediately afterwards.
They have thousands of years of collective
experience, call it 'inherited memory' if you
like, but no reasoning faculties. They are
just Peter Pans—children who never grow
up.
"I remember asking one of our spirit
group how one could get into touch with the
brownies. He replied that when you could
go into the woods and call the brown rab-
bits to you the other brownies will also come
to you. Speaking generally, I should imag-
ine that anyone who has had any truck with
fairies must have obeyed the scriptural in-
v junction to 'become as a little child,' i.e. he
or she must be either simple or a Buddha."
153


SOME SUBSEQUENT CASES
in this way to dance, so that at local enter-
tainments audiences were delighted, though
they never knew from what source they
learned."
My correspondent does not say whether
there is a marked difference between the
European and the American type of fairy.
No doubt, if these results are confirmed and
followed up, there will be an exact classi-
fication in the future. If Bishop Leadbeat-
er's clairvoyance can be trusted, there is, as
will afterwards be shown, a very clear dis-
tinction between the elemental life of va-
rious countries, as well as many varieties in
each particular country.
One remarkable first-hand case of seeing
fairies came from the Rev. Arnold J.
Holmes. He wrote:
"Being brought up in the Isle of Man
one breathed the atmosphere of supersti-
tion (if you like to call it), the simple, beau-
tiful faith of the Manx fisher folk, the child-
like trust of the Manx girls, who to this day
will not forget the bit of wood and coal put
ready at the side of the fireplace in case
155


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
the 'little people' call and need a fire. A
good husband is the ultimate reward, and
neglect in this respect a bad husband or no
husband at all. The startling phenomena oc-
curred on my journey home from Peel Town
at night to St. Mark's (where I was Incum-
bent).
"After passing Sir Hall Caine's beautiful
residence, Greeba Castle, my horse—a spir-
ited one—suddenly stopped dead, and look-
ing ahead I saw amid the obscure light and
misty moonbeams what appeared to be a
small army of indistinct figures—very small,
clad in gossamer garments. They appeared
to be perfectly happy, scampering and trip-
ping along the road, having come from the
direction of the beautiful sylvan glen of
Greeba and St. Trinian's Roofless Church.
The legend is that it has ever been the fair-
ies' haunt, and when an attempt has been
made on two occasions to put a roof on, the
fairies have removed all the work during
the night, and for a century no further at-
tempts have been made. It has therefore
been left to the 'little people' who claimed
it as their own.
156


SOME SUBSEQUENT CASES
"I watched spellbound, my horse half mad
with fear. The little happy army then
turned in the direction of Witch's Hill, and
mounted a mossy bank; one 'little man' of
larger stature than the rest, about 14 inches
high, stood at attention until all had passed
him dancing, singing, with happy abandon,
across the Valley fields towards St. John's
Mount."
The wide distribution of the fairies may
be judged by the following extremely inter-
esting narrative from Mrs. Hardy, the wife
of a settler in the Maori districts of New
Zealand:
"After reading about what others have
seen I am encouraged to give you an experi-
ence of my own, which happened about five
years ago. Will you please excuse my men. tioning a few domestic details connected
with the story? Our home is built on the
top of a ridge. The ground was levelled for
some distance to allow for sites for the house,
buildings, lawns, etc. The ground on either
side slopes steeply down to an orchard on
the left, and shrubbery and paddock on the
157


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
right, bounded by the main road. One eve-
ning when it was getting dusk I went into
the yard to hang the tea-towels on the
clothes-line. As I stepped off the verandah,
I heard a sound of soft galloping coming
from the direction of the orchard. I thought
I must be mistaken, and that the sound came
from the road, where the Maoris often gal-
lop their horses. I crossed the yard to get
the pegs, and heard the galloping coming
nearer. I walked to the clothes-line, and
stood under it with my arms uplifted to peg
the towel on the line, when I was aware of
the galloping close behind me, and suddenly
a little figure, riding a tiny pony, rode right
under my uplifted arms. I looked round,
to see that I was surrounded by eight or ten
tiny figures on tiny ponies like dwarf Shet-
lands. The little figure who came so close
to me stood out quite clearly in the light that
came from the window, but he had his back
to it, and I could not see his face. The faces
of the others were quite brown, also the
ponies were brown. If they wore clothes
they were close-fitting like a child's jersey
suit. They were like tiny dwarfs, or chil-
158


SOME SUBSEQUENT CASES
dren of about two years of age. I was very
startled, and called out, 'Goodness! what is
this?' I think I must have frightened them,
for at the sound of my voice they all rode
through the rose trellis across the drive, and
down the shrubbery. I heard the soft gal-
loping dying away into the distance, and lis-
tened until the sound was gone, then went
into the house. My daughter, who has had
several psychic experiences, said to me:
'Mother, how white and startled you look!
What have you seen? And who were you
speaking to just now in the yard?' I said,
'I have seen the fairies ride!'"
The little fairy horses are mentioned by
several writers, and yet it must be admitted
that their presence makes the whole situa-
tion far more complicated and difficult to
understand. If horses, why not dogs? And
we find ourselves in a whole new world upon
the fairy scale. I have convinced myself
that there is overwhelming evidence for the
fairies, but I have by no'means been able to
assure myself of these adjuncts.
The following letter from a young lady in
159


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
Canada, daughter of one of the leading citi-
zens of Montreal, and personally known to
me, is interesting on account of the enclosed
photograph here reproduced. She says:
"The enclosed photograph was taken this
summer at Waterville, New Hampshire,
with a 2a Brownie camera (portrait lens at-
tached) by Alverda, eleven years old. The
father is able, clear-headed, enthusiastic on
golf and billiards; the mother on Japanese
art; neither interested in psychic matters
much. The child has been frail and imagi-
native, but sweet and incapable of deceit.
"The mother tells me she was with the
child when the picture was taken. The mush-
rooms pleased the little girl, and she knelt
down and photographed them. As an in-
dication of their ordinary size, they are
Amainta muscaria.
"There was no such figure to be seen as
appears in the picture.
"There was no double exposure. The pic-
ture astonished them when developed. The
parents guarantee its honesty, but are mys-
tified.
x
160


SOME SUBSEQUENT CASES
"Do you think shadows, etc., can explain
it? I think the line of the right shoulder
and arm especially are too decisive to be thus
brushed away."
I rather agree with the writer, but it is a
point which each reader can decide for him-
self upon examination of the photograph.
It is certainly very vague after the York-
shire examples.
New Zealand would appear to be quite a
fairy centre, for I have another letter from
a lady in those beautiful islands, which is
hardly less interesting and definite than the
one already quoted. She says:
"I have seen fairies in all parts of New
Zealand, but especially in the fern-clad gul-
lies of the North Island. Most of my un-
foldment for mediumship was carried out
in Auckland, and during that time I spent
hours in my garden, and saw the fairies
most often in the evening just after sun-
set. From observation I notice they usu-
ally lived or else appeared about the peren-
nial plants. I saw brown fairies and green
fairies, and they all had wings of a filmy
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SOME SUBSEQUENT CASES
watches them intently, but never attempts
to spring at them as he does at other moving
objects. If you care to make use of the in-
formation contained in this letter, you are
welcome to do so."
I had another interesting letter from Mrs.
Roberts, of Dunedin, one of the most gifted
women in psychic matters whom I met dur-
ing my Australian wanderings, in which she
describes, as the last writer has done, the
intimate connection between these elemental
forms of life and the flowers, asserting that
she has continually seen them tending the
plants in her own garden.
From Ireland I received several fairy
stories which seemed to be honestly told, even
if some margin must be left for errors of ob-
servation. One of these seems to link up
the fairy kingdom with spiritual communi-
cation, for the writer, Miss Winter, of Blar-
ney, in Cork, says:
"We received communications from a
fairy named Bebel several times, one of them
lasting nearly an hour. The communication
163


SOME SUBSEQUENT CASES
our avenue is built on the site of an old
fort, information absolutely new to us."
A few more may be added to my list of
witnesses, which might be greatly extended.
Miss Hall, of Bristol, writes:
i
"I, too, have seen fairies, but never until
now have I dared to mention it for fear of
ridicule. It was many years ago. I was
quite a child of six or seven years, and then,
as now, passionately fond of all flowers,
which always seem to me living creatures.
I was seated in the middle of a road in some
cornfields, playing with a group of poppies,
and never shall I forget my utter astonish-
ment at seeing a funny little man playing
hide-and-seek among these flowers to amuse
me, as I thought. He was quick as a dart.
I watched him for quite a long time, then he
disappeared. He seemed a merry little fel-
low, but I cannot ever remember his face.
In colour he was a sage-green, his limbs were
round and had the appearance of geranium
stalks. He did not seem to be clothed, and
was about three inches high and slender. I
i
165


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
often looked for him again, but without suc-
cess."
Mr. J. Foot Young, the well-known water
diviner, writes:
"Some years ago I was one of a party in-
vited to spend the afternoon on the lovely
slopes of Oxef ord Hill, in the county of Dor-
set. The absence of both trees and hedges
in this locality enables one to see without
obstruction for long distances. I was walk-
ing with my companion, who lives in the lo-
cality, some little distance from the main
party, when to my astonishment I saw a
number of what I thought to be very small
children, about a score in number, and all
dressed in little gaily-coloured short skirts,
their legs being bare. Their hands were
joined, and all held up, as they merrily
danced round in a perfect circle. We stood
watching them, when in an instant they all
vanished from our sight. My companion
told me they were fairies, and that they often
came to that particular part to hold their
revels. It may be our presence disturbed
them."
166


SOME SUBSEQUENT CASES
Mrs. Ethel Enid Wilson, of Worthing,
writes:
"I quite believe in fairies. Of course,
they are really nature spirits. I have often
seen them on fine sunny days playing in the
sea, and riding on the waves, but no one I
have ever been with at the time has been
able to see them, excepting once my little
nephews and nieces saw them too. They
were like little dolls, quite small, with beauti-
ful bright hair, and they were constantly
moving and dancing about."
Mrs. Rose, of Southend-on-Sea, told us in
a chat on the subject:
"I think I have always seen fairies. I see
them constantly here in the shrubbery by
the sea. They congregate under the trees
and float around about the trees, and gnomes
come around to protect them. The gnomes
are like little old men, with little green caps,
and their clothes are generally neutral
green. The fairies themselves are in light
draperies. I have also seen them in the con-
servatory of my house, floating about among
167


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
the flowers and plants. The fairies appear
to be perpetually playing, excepting when
they go to rest on the turf or in a tree, and I
once saw a group of gnomes standing on
each others' shoulders, like gymnasts on the
stage. They seemed to be living as much as
I am. It is not imagination. I have seen
the gnomes arranging a sort of moss bed for
the fairies, just like a mother-bird putting
her chicks to bed. I don't hear any sounds
from the gnomes or fairies, but they always
look happy, as if they were having a real
good time."
Miss Eva Longbottom, L.R.A.M., A.R.C.
M., of Bristol, a charming vocalist, who has
been blind from birth, told us in an inter-
view:
"I have seen many fairies with my mind's
eyes (that is, clairvoyantly). They are of
various kinds, the ones I see. The music
fairies are very beautiful. 'Argent' de-
scribes them, for they make you think of sil-
ver, and they have dulcet silvery voices.
They speak and sing, but more in sound than
in distinct words—a language of their own.
168


SOME SUBSEQUENT CASES
a fairy tongue. Their music is a thing we
cannot translate. It exists in itself. I don't
think Mendelssohn has truly caught it, but
Mr. Coleridge-Taylor's music reminds me of
the music I have heard from the fairies
themselves; his fairy ballads are very charm-
ing.
"Then there are dancing fairies. Their
dancing is dainty and full of grace, a sweet
old style of dance, without any tangles in it.
I am generally alone when I see them, not
necessarily in a woodland, but wherever the
atmosphere is poetical. They are quite real.
"Another kind is the poem fairies. They
are more ethereal, and of a violet shade.
If you could imagine Perdita in the Mid-
summer Night's Dream, translated from the
stage into a real fairy, you would have a
good idea of the poem fairy. She has a
very beautiful girlish character. The same
might be said of Miranda, but she is more
sentimental.
"The colour fairies are also most interest-
ing. If you can imagine each colour trans-
formed into a fairy you may get an idea of
what they are like. They are in airy forms
169


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
the fact of their existence has faded to a
shadow, and a most delightful and charm-
ing field of nature study has too long been
veiled. In this twentieth century there is
promise of the world stepping out of some
of its darker shadows. Maybe it is an indi-
cation that we are reaching the silver lining
of the clouds when we find ourselves sud-
denly presented with actual photographs of
these enchanting little creatures—relegated
long since to the realm of the imaginary and
fanciful.
"Now, what are the fairies?
"First, it must be clearly understood that
all that can be photographed must of neces-
sity be physical. Nothing of a subtler order
could in the nature of things affect the sen-
sitive plate. So-called spirit photographs,
for instance, imply necessarily a certain de-
gree of materialization before the 'form'
could come within the range even of the most
sensitive of films. But well within our phys-
ical octave there are degrees of density that
elude ordinary vision. Just as there are
many stars in the heavens recorded by the
camera that no human eye has ever seen di-
172


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
Their response to love; and tenderness is
quickly evidenced in their charges.
"Fairies are not born and do not die as
we do, though they have their periods of
outer activity and retirement. Allied to the
lepidoptera, or butterfly genus, of our fa-
miliar acquaintance rather than to the mam-
malian line, they partake of certain charac-
teristics that are obvious. There is little or
no mentality awake—simply a gladsome, ir-
responsible joyousness of life that is abun-
dantly in evidence in their enchanting aban-
don. The diminutive human form, so widely
assumed, is doubtless due, at least in a great
measure, to the powerful influence of human
thought, the strongest creative power in our
cycle.
"In the investigations I have pursued in
Yorkshire, the New Forest, and Scotland,
many fairy lovers and observers have been
interviewed and their accounts compared.
In most cases I was interested to note that
my share in making public the photographs
of Cottingley was the worst sort of intro-
duction imaginable. Few fairy lovers have
looked with favour on that. Reproaches
174


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
nor of any other definite form, and herein
lies the explanation of much that has been
puzzling concerning the nature-spirit king-
dom generally. They have no clean-cut shape
normally, and one can only describe them
as small, hazy, and somewhat luminous
clouds of colour with a brighter spark-like
nucleus. As such they cannot be defined in
terms of form any more than one can so de-
scribe a tongue of flame. In such a body
they fill their office, working inside the plant
structure. 'Magnetic' is the only word that
can describe their method. Instantly re-
sponsive to stimulus, they appear to be in-
fluenced from two directions—the physical
outer conditions prevailing and an inner in-
telligent urge. These two influences deter-
mine their working activity. Some, and
these are by far the most numerous, work on
cell construction and organization, and are
comparatively small when assuming the hu-
man form, being two to three inches high.
Others are concerned exclusively with root
development below ground, while others are
apparently specialists in colour and 'paint'
the flowers by means of the streaming mo-
-
176


THE THEOSOPHIC VIEW OF FAIRIES
tion of their cloud-like bodies. There ap-
pears to be little trace of any selective or
discriminating work done individually. They
all seem actuated by a common influence
that affects them continuously, and which
strongly suggests the same type of instinc-
tive prompting that marks the bee and ant.
"The Human Form.—Though the nature
spirit must be regarded as practically irre-
sponsible, living a gladsome, joyous, and de-
lightfully untrammelled life, each member
appears to possess at least a temporary defi-
nite individuality at times, and to rejoice in
it. The diminutive human form—sometimes
grotesque, as in the case of brownie and
gnome, sometimes beautifully graceful, as
in the surface-fairy variety—if conditions
allow, is assumed in a flash. For a while
it is retained, and it seems clear that the
definite and comparatively concrete shape
affords pleasure above the ordinary. There
is no organization perceptible, as one might
perhaps hastily infer. The content of the
body still appears homogeneous, though
somewhat denser, and the shape of 'human'
is usually only seen when not at work. The
■
177


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
nature spirit so clothed indulges in active
movement in skipping and dancing gestures
and exhibits a gay abandon suggestive of the
keenest delight in the experience. It is evi-
dently 'time off' and play for it, though its
work seems charming enough. If disturbed
or alarmed the change back to the slightly
subtler vehicle, the magnetic cloud, is as sud-
den as the birth. What determines the shape
assumed and how the transformation is ef-
fected is not clear. One may speculate as
to the influence of human thought, individ-
ual or in the mass, and quite probably the
explanation when found will include this
influence as a factor—but I am intent here
not on theorizing, but on a narrative of ob-
served happenings. One thing is clear—
the nature-spirit form is objective—objec-
tive, that is, in the sense in which we apply
that term to a stone, a tree, and a human
body.
"Fairy Wings.—The wings are a feature
that one would hardly expect to find in con-
junction with arms. In this respect the in-
sect type, with its several limbs and two or
more wings, is a nearer model. But there is
178


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
parison with ourselves cannot be made.
There is no real birth nor death, as we un-
derstand the terms—simply a gradual emer-
gence from, and a return to, a subtler state
of being. This process takes some time,
probably years in certain varieties, and their
life on the denser level, corresponding to our
adult period, may be as long as the average
human. There is nothing definite in all this,
however, except the fact of the gradual emer-
gence and return. There is no sex, as we
should regard it, though, so far as I can
gather, there is division and sub-division of
'body' at a much subtler and earlier level
than that usually sensed. This process
seems to correspond to the fission and bud-
ding of our familiar simple animalcules,
with the addition, towards the end of the
cycle, of fusion or reassembly into the larger
unit.
"Speech and Gesture.—Below the sylph
there appears to be nothing, or very little,
in the way of a language of words. Com-
munication is possible by inflexion and ges-
ture, much as the same can be exercised with
domestic animals. Indeed, the relation of
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THE THEOSOPHIC VIEW OF FAIRIES
human with the lower nature spirits seems
to be about on a par with that of kittens, pup-
pies, and birds. Yet there is abundant evi-
dence of a tone language among them. Music
by pipe and flute is common, though to the
human ear of the quaintest character—but
whether the instrument or the voice is the
real source I cannot yet determine. The
higher orders of nature spirits are adding
mentality to the emotional development, and
speech with them is possible. Their attitude
to ordinary humanity is unfriendly rather
than well disposed, and often hostile, aris-
ing probably from our utter disregard of
the amenities. I am beginning to see sense
and reason in the 'burnt-offerings' of yore.
Pollution of the atmosphere is a horror to
the sylphs and deeply resented. An ancient
saying I had seen somewhere came to mind
when discussing the beautiful air-spirits and
their work:'Agni (Fire) is the mouth of the
gods!' Our sanitary and burial customs are
doubtless still capable of improvement! One
fairy lover said to me gleefully, 'Ah, well!
you will never be able to get photographs of
the sylphs—they know too much for you!'
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THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
If we can establish friendly relations with
them, though, the weather may be ours, if
that be desirable!
"Cause and Effect.—The dissection and
examination of vegetable forms, however
exhaustive, is but an analysis of effects. No
adequate cause is therein to be found any
more than a dissection of a sculpture will
disclose the craftsman. The amazing skill
in evidence in the plant kingdom in construc-
tion, adaptation, and adornment demand
the labour of workman, mechanic, and artist.
Their recognition in the nature spirits fills
the vague hiatus between the sun's energy
and the material wrought. On our own hu-
man side of the line the finding of two pieces
of wood nailed together would unmistakably
point to a workman of sorts, yet we are ac-
customed to gaze with wonder and admira-
tion on the exquisitely built forms of a whole
kingdom, and murmur 'evolutionary proc-
esses,' or 'the hand of God,' according to
our temperament. An agent is necessary on
the one side and no less on the other.
"Mode of Working.—The feature that
will appeal to every nature lover interested
182


THE THEOSOPHIC VIEW OF FAIRIES
in the vital processes of plant life is the
craftsmanship of the nature-spirit agent.
An inference, if it be simple enough, often
escapes us, though in this case the experi-
ences gathered of our own human labour
suggest the analogy vividly. An analogy
with a difference, however, for the hidden
manner of work of the nature spirit is in
most respects the exact opposite in charac-
ter to our own. In this physical world we
labour with hands and tools, and work con-
sistently on exteriors, always indeed han-
dling and applying our material from the
outside. Addition, accretion, is our construc-
tive method. We find ourselves made that
way, and it is our characteristic mode of
approach. The nature spirits operate from
the interior, working from a centre out-
wards. Their aim appears to be to achieve
an ever-closer touch with the environment,
and to that end the driving urge of their ac-
tivity is how best to adapt the means to their
hand. It is easy to perceive the cause of va-
riety in nature in view of this striving en-
deavour to organize the vehicle that the na-
ture spirits use, and so gain in endless ways
183


THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
a closer touch. Flower colouring, mimicry,
seed protection and distribution, defensive
and aggressive measures, all the thousand-
and-one devices employed to attain an end,
point to an intelligence working through
agents who, at their own level, are often in
more or less antagonistic relation with each
other. Variety and difference is as much in
evidence as among humanity, and makes for
that diversity of form and custom that we
find on our side so fruitful of experience.
In the tilling of the soil and the culture of
plant life for our own purposes we have
worked intimately together—though uncon-
sciously. The efforts of nature spirits work-
ing by themselves without our assistance
produce the wild flowers and berries of our
woodlands and meadows, while partnership
with the human yields a record of cultivated
cereal, flower, and fruit, immensely richer.
"Plant Consciousness.—The relation of
the nature spirit to the consciousness func-
tioning through the vegetable kingdom gen-
erally is an interesting study too, for the
twain appear quite separate. This might
perhaps be likened to the role respectively of
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THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
"The awakened self-consciousness of the
human kingdom, with a vigorous mentality
linked to kindly emotion and physical ac-
tion, may enable an ages-old debt to be ad-
justed. We have served the nature-spirit
line of evolution consciously not at all, but
by understanding the situation we can co-
operate together intelligently and helpfully,
and the service of both to mutual advantage
can take the place of blind experiment and
groping self-interest."—E. L. G. In the literature of Theosophy, I know
no one who treats the elemental forces of
nature more fully than Bishop Leadbeater,
whom I met in my Australian travels, and
who impressed me by his venerable appear-
ance, his ascetic habits, and his claims to a
remarkable clairvoyancy which has, as he
alleges, opened up many of the Arcana. In
his book The Hidden Side of Things he talks
very fully of the fairies of many lands.
Dealing with the little creatures whom so
.. many of my informants have seen tending
flowers, the seer says:
"The little creatures that look after
\
186


THE THEOSOPHIC VIEW OF FAIRIES
flowers may be divided into two great classes,
though of course there are many varieties
of each kind. The first class may properly
be called elementals, for, beautiful though
they are, they are in reality only thought-
forms, and therefore they are not really liv-
ing creatures at all. Perhaps I should
rather say that they are only temporary liv-
ing creatures, for, though they are very
active and busy during their little lives, they
have no real evolving, reincarnating life in
them, and when they have done their work
they just go to pieces and dissolve into the
surrounding atmosphere, precisely as our
own thought-forms do. They are the
thought-forms of the Great Beings, or an-
gels, who are in charge of the evolution of
the vegetable kingdom.
"When one of these Great Ones has a new
idea connected with one of the kinds of
plants or flowers which are under his charge,
he often creates a thought-form for the spe-
cial purpose of carrying out that idea. It
usually takes the form either of an etheric
model of the flower itself or of a little crea-
ture which hangs round the plant or the
187


THE THEOSOPHIC VIEW OF FAIRIES
has reached the level of these tiny nature
spirits, and its next stage will be to ensoul
some of the beautiful fairies with etherie
bodies who live upon the surface of the earth.
Later on they will become salamanders, or
fire spirits, and later still they will become
sylphs, or air spirits, having only astral
bodies instead of etheric. Later still they
will pass through the different stages of the
great kingdom of the angels."
Speaking of the national characteristics
of fairies, he says with all the assurance of
an actual observer (page 97):
"No contrast could well be more marked
than that between the vivacious, rollicking,
orange-and-purple or scarlet-and-gold man-
nikins who dance among the vineyards of
Sicily and the almost wistful grey-and-green
creatures who move so much more sedately
amidst the oaks and furze-covered heaths in
Brittany, or the golden-brown 'good people'
who haunt the hillsides of Scotland.
"In England the emerald-green kind is
probably the commonest, and I have seen it
also in the woods in France and Belgium, in

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THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
far-away Massachusetts, and on the banks
of the Niagara River. The vast plains of
the Dakotas are inhabited by a black-and-
white kind which I have not seen elsewhere,
and California rejoices in a lovely white-
and-gold species which also appears to be
unique.
"In Australia the most frequent type is a
very distinctive creature of a wonderful
luminous sky-blue colour; but there is a wide
diversity between the etheric inhabitants of
New South Wales or Victoria and those of
tropical Northern Queensland. These lat-
ter approximate closely to those of the
Dutch Indies. Java seems especially prolific
in these graceful creatures, and the kinds
most common there are two distinct types,
both monochromatic—one indigo blue with
faint metallic gleamings, and the other a
study in all known shades of yellow—quaint,
but wonderfully effective and attractive.
"A striking local variety is gaudily ringed
with alternate bars of green and yellow, like
a football jersey. This ringed type is pos-
sibly a race peculiar to that part of the
world, for I saw red and yellow similarly
190