"
I do not pretend to give the precise words, but, as nearly as I can
from scanty memorandums and vague recollections, the leading ideas of
Scott. I am constantly sensible, however, how far I fall short of his
copiousness and richness.
He went on to speak of the elves and sprites, so frequent in Scottish
legend. "Our fairies, however," said he, "though they dress in green,
and gambol by moonlight about the banks, and shaws, and burnsides, are
not such pleasant little folks as the English fairies, but are apt to
bear more of the warlock in their natures, and to play spiteful tricks.
When I was a boy, I used to look wistfully at the green hillocks that
were said to be haunted by fairies, and felt sometimes as if I should
like to lie down by them and sleep, and be carried off to Fairy Land,
only that I did not like some of the cantrips which used now and then
to be played off upon visitors."
Here Scott recounted, in graphic style, and with much humor, a little
story which used to be current in the neighborhood, of an honest
burgess of Selkirk, who, being at work upon the hill of Peatlaw, fell
asleep upon one of these "fairy knowes," or hillocks. When he awoke, he
rubbed his eyes and gazed about him with astonishment, for he was in
the market-place of a great city, with a crowd of people bustling about
him, not one of whom he knew.
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