Puckaster Fairy Gold

A reworking of Elder’s original tale also appeared in the Isle of Wight Observer of Saturday 28 December 1895, albeit without attribution.

FAIRY GOLD A LEGEND OF PUCKASTER

(Written specially for the Isle of Wight Observer).

The Isle of Wight was once a famous place for fairies, and though they have since been frightened away, there was a time when many a mishap was traced to their mischievous machinations. The roost impudent sprite of them all was known as Robin Goodfellow or, as he was more familiarly termed, Puck. Several localities in the Isle of Wight received their names because Mr Puck was known to frequent them. A place in the south of the Island is known to this day as Puckaster, because over its waste land the will-o’-the-wisp or, as he was called in the Island, “Puck’s star” was often seen dancing. On the north side of the Island we have even now a place called Puckpool, because the merry little goblin and his fairy lamp were often seen there. I may tell you more about that place some day, but I am going to tell you now about what occurred a great many years ago at Puckaster.

At a place near Whitwell there once lived a young man named John Cann. There were very few inhabitants then at the back of the Wight, and those residing there were partly husbandmen and partly fishermen, and John Cann could make himself useful on land or sea. Amongst John Cann’s acquaintances was a young fellow named Jolliffe, who, having courted for a long time a girl in the neighbourhood, thought he would settle down and get married. Jolliffe in the course of conversation with Cann, said that he had made up his mind to take a bride, and that he wanted someone to help him to build a house to take her to. Jack readily offered his services to his friend, but expressed some curiosity as to where he was going to erect his new residence.

“It is one of the prettiest spots about here,” said Jolliffe “and if you will come with me I will show you.”

Jack consented, and his friend took him to a rough place, covered with brambles and rushes and full of boggy holes. Right in the centre, however, of this rough ground there was a clear space, where the briars and brambles did not grow, and where there was as pretty a bit of turf as you would find on the best kept lawn.

“There!” said Jolliffe “Do you think I could find a better place than that for a house?”

Jack was perfectly horrified.

“Why, who do you suppose this land belongs to?” said he. “You must not build here!”

“Well,” said Jolliffe, “it belongs to the Lisle family, but it is only waste land, and they wouldn’t interfere with a poor man making a little holding for himself.”

“That’s where you make a mistake,” said Jack. “You may think it belongs to the Lisle family, but I can tell you it belongs to Mr Puck. Don’t you know that his little star has been continually seen dancing over here, and that it has been called Puck’s star on that very account? Besides, you can see the rings in the turf where the fairies have been dancing. If you were to settle here you would soon find it out. Your cow would be bewitched and never give any milk. You and your wife would be screwed up with rheumatiz, and, if you happen to have a child, the good people would steal it, and leave a miserable little hob-goblin in its place, who would eat enough for three, never get fat, and keep you awake all night with its squalling. Why, you would never have a moment’s peace if you interfered with Mr Puck. Of course it’s nothing to me but, speaking as your friend, I say build anywhere you like but don’t, for goodness sake come here!”

These and other expostulations, had a great effect upon the mind of young Jolliffe, who was eventually induced to forego his scheme, and Jack helped him to build a house in a position which he considered more suitable, a mile or so away.

The house was duly finished, the wedding day approached, and young Jolliffe arranged to have a rare “jollification” on the eve of his wedding day, when he and his bride took possession of their new abode.

Of course Jack was invited to the wedding, and formed one of the party who danced and sang the time away. The festivities were kept up until just before midnight. I am constrained to confess, with sorrow, that Jack was rather “partial to a drop,” and he could hardly tear himself away as long as the brandy (smuggled of course) held out. The consequence was that he was the last man to leave, but he said he didn’t mind as he could easily follow the lantern which the rest of the party, who had gone on ahead, had brought with them, and catch them up. So Jack finished his toddy, and when he got outside, was pleased to see the lantern carried by the rest of the party, bobbing up and down a few hundred yards away. He said good-bye to Jolliffe and his wife, wished them every happiness, and started off at a rapid pace to overtake the others of the party. They were all going in the same direction, and he thought he could easily catch them up. Run as fast as he might, however, he could not succeed in overtaking them.

After a time the ground seemed to grow rougher and rougher, and having scrambled through several bramble bushes, and fallen into a furze brake, Jack said to himself “Where the dickens are those fools leading me? If this is a short cut home I never knew it before. I am afraid I must be more fuddled than I thought I was.”

Then the lantern seemed to stand still, and Jack, swearing he would be revenged on the fellows who had played him this trick, made a final and strenuous effort to get near it.

The light really did stand still this time, and on reaching it Jack was surprised to find that it was not much bigger than a glow-worm. He was just going to pick it up when he heard a number of shrill little voices. Just then the moon emerged from behind a dark cloud, and he found himself in the very place where his friend Jolliffe had proposed to build his new house. Looking also in the direction from which the voices appeared to come, he saw a number of tiny people dancing hand in hand round a fairy ring. Their dresses seemed to be made of cobwebs, so transparent and light were they, and they wore red caps, which, on closer inspection, he found to be simply bell-shaped flowers. While he was looking about him in astonishment and bewilderment, there strutted towards him a tiny fellow whom he judged to be a personage of some importance, for the other fairies broke up their dance and bowed and curtsied to him. From the respect that was paid to him, and from the fact that he was carrying the tiny light which he had been following, Jack came to the conclusion that this was none other than Mr Puck himself. Naturally he regarded this important personage, of whom he had heard so much, with a considerable amount of curiosity, and Mr Puck looked up at Jack with a pert, mischievous and devil-may-care sort of expression. Our friend Jack was a devil-may-care sort of fellow himself, and having had quite as much toddy as he could carry, he was not in the least bit frightened.

“This,” explained Mr Puck, turning round to the other fairies, “This is our friend, Jack Cann, to whom we are indebted for being able to continue to meet in this pleasant spot. Welcome, Jack!”

All the other fairies took off their caps and shouted in chorus “Welcome, Jack!”

“Seeing that you are such a good dancer,” pursued Mr Puck, “I thought the least we could do was to bring you to have a dance with us on the place you have saved for our revels. Come along Jack, you must prepare to have a dance with the fairies for once in your life.”

Poor Jack tried to apologise. He said he thought he had danced enough for one night; he was really too tired, and he hoped they would excuse him.

“Oh! no excuses, I beg,” said Mr Puck, “We will soon remove that tired feeling.”

“Lord bless you,” said Jack, “how on earth could I dance with you? Why, if my foot happened to slip, and I should tread upon one of you, I should crush you in no time. Why, I am ten times as large as the biggest of you.”

“Oh! if that is your only objection,” said Mr Puck, “we will soon overcome that. Here, Peascod! run and get some dust from the Lady Fern, and be quick about it, too.”

The fairy addressed, after bowing obsequiously to the King, unfolded a very pretty little pair of gossamer wings and flew off with such speed that his wings made a humming noise louder than a hundred blue-bottles could have made.

Jack was very much astonished, for he hadn’t at first noticed that each of the fairies was provided with such elegant and useful appendages.

While Jack was admiring these novel sights, the little fairy returned bearing with him an acorn cup full of yellow powder, like snuff.

“Sit down Jack,” said Puck, and climbing with great agility up Jack’s coat by dint of sticking his toes into the buttonholes, he finally reached his shoulder, and taking a pinch of the snuff, held it under Jack’s nose.

“Sniff, Jack,” he said, “sniff!”

Jack gave a sniff, and drew a large quantity of the dust up his nostrils. As he did so a terrific sneeze held him in its thrall. It exploded with such tremendous force as not only to send Puck flying to the ground, but jerk Jack’s hat to a considerable distance. He was rather dismayed to notice after each sneeze he really did get smaller, until finally he got so small that he found himself entangled in the arm-hole of his coat, and unable to extricate himself. Then several of the male fairies came under it, and pushing up a bit of stick in the middle made it into quite a nice tent. Then Mr Puck entered with one of his attendants and brought a very pretty robe in which they dressed Jack. They also clapped a bell-shaped flower on his head, and led him out to join in their revels. When he left the tent which his disused mortal clothes had formed, the little fairies set up a shrill cheer and, joining hands together, danced round and round John Cann. Puck then introduced Jack to a very pretty bright-eyed little fairy, with the observation that if she could not put him at his ease no one could. Jack looked at his partner with much admiration, and then his eye caught sight of his hat, and its huge size contrasted with himself and the fairies, and the comical nature of the whole affair, so tickled him that he laughed till he could hardly stand. The fairies all clapped their hands and laughed too. Then Puck gave a signal, and three of the fairies, who were perched on the top of a large stone, and had queer-looking little pipes made of straw, began to play some extremely lively airs, and then all the lot commenced dancing. Lord, what intricate and mazy figures they went through! Jack being familiar with all sorts of country dances, his little partner was able to pull him through tolerably well, and he thought, he had never enjoyed himself so much before. He was beginning to think to himself that really a fairy’s life must be a very happy one, when suddenly a fairy (who had been acting as a sentinel) gave a shrill whistle and ran towards them with a very scared face.

“Danger! Close up your ranks,” said the warning voice, “Here comes a weazel.”

It was evidently a serious matter. Every fairy rushed for his spear. Those spears appeared to be only tough reeds tipped with sharp-pointed prickles. When the weazel, looking terribly large and ferocious, came slipping towards them through the long grass, all the fairies charged their spears into him. The effect was such that the weazel turned tail and ran, whereupon there was great jubilation. I regret to say that Jack did not share in the fight. The weasel looked so big and so ferocious that Jack fairly quaked with fear. While admiring the pluck of the little fairies, he began to realise that being so tiny had its disadvantages. The thought that he might be attacked by a rat even, and nibbled up like a bit of cheese, was horrible. However, he was pleased to find that the fairies had not noticed how frightened he was, and when the danger was over they all resumed their dancing. As they were whirling round together, his little fairy friend, glancing at him in the most fascinating way, asked if he would “not like to stay with them always.” She looked so pretty that he was sorely tempted to say “Yes,” but just then Puck, who seemed to have been noticing her, came up and said they must finish, as it would soon be dawn, and they could not allow Jack to go back without something to eat. Again the bright-eyed fairy asked Jack not to leave her and, under the influence of her fascinations, Jack very nearly said that he would stay always, but his thoughts reverted to his many human friends and relations, and, moreover, he remembered the incident of the weazel. “There was no danger,” explained the fairy, appearing to divine his thoughts, “Only for you.”

While this was going on, Jack was surprised to see a number of white things peeping up through the grass. They turned out to be mushrooms, and grew so rapidly that in a marvellously short space of time he saw that each little fairy was perched upon his stool, while a particularly large mushroom in the centre served as a table. Then three or four fairies brought in the feast, honey and dew mixed in acorn cups for drink, and bread made of the pollen of flowers, &c. Suddenly Puck became quite furious. He upbraided the servants for not having provided half enough food, and kicked and cuffed them tremendously. “After all,” said he, when he recovered his serenity, “there is an easy way out of the difficulty. As those rascals have only brought half enough food, we can easily make it enough by making ourselves smaller.”

Again the dust from the Lady Fern was brought into requisition, and all took a sniff. After the chorus of sneezing was over, Jack was quite alarmed to see how small he and the rest of them had become. He felt that now he would even turn tail from a mouse, while as for his hat, it loomed up quite like a large house at the edge of the fairy circle. Mr Puck conducted Jack to a seat of honour on his right. Jack was surprised to see that it was not a mushroom, like the rest had, but a puff-ball.

“Why can’t I have a mushroom like the rest of ‘em,” enquired Jack.

“Don’t sit on it,” said the pretty little fairy who had crept up to him. “Don’t sit on it, and you can stay with me always,” and she darted away.

Jack was almost inclined to follow her advice, but he prudently thought to himself that he did know all the dangers and drawbacks of his ordinary mortal condition, whereas he had only seen one side of the fairy life, so he sat on the puff-ball. He partook of the feast with the rest, and was particularly struck with the exhilarating properties of some sort of liquor, which he was told was made from the juice of the honeysuckle buds. The little revellers all sat laughing and talking and making a great din, when suddenly a shrill little trumpet sounded, and in an instant a hush fell upon the assembly.

“Well, Mr Cann,” said Puck, addressing their visitor, “You have placed us under an obligation, and I feel that we ought to show our gratitude before you return home. Fairies love honey, but humans love money. Fairies don’t sympathise with such sordid ideas, do we? We can get as much fun as we want out of our little life without gold. If we wanted gold we could have plenty. We could have gold cups and gold tables, but we think those nature has provided more useful and more serviceable. Still, as you are in a stage where you can appreciate the vile dross, I will put you in the way of getting it. If you will go down to the shore off here at the very lowest of tides, you will find a circular rock with a pool of water in its centre, it is only uncovered once a year. Dig under that rock, and you will discover what you mortals love. But if you tell a soul what you have seen to night not another ounce will you discover.”

Jack got off his puff-ball and stood up with the intention of thanking Mr Puck, and making further enquiries, when a mischievous fairy gave him an unexpected dig in the calf of the leg, which caused him to stumble backwards upon the puff-ball. The ball instantly burst, and Jack found himself enveloped in a cloud of fine dust, which blinded him and made him splutter and cough. It was a long time before he could recover his breath or his eye-sight, but when he did he found that all the fairies had gone. The sun had risen, and he saw that he was lying under a bush at the side of the very place where his friend wanted to build his house.

“This is a rum start,” said Jack, as he tried to rise, “I’m blest if it doesn’t beat cockfghting.”

He got up, but found himself extremely tired and stiff, and he slowly and wearily made his way home. He tumbled into bed, from which he did not rise till the sun had reached its meridian. When he awoke, his head ached very badly, and he had an extremely confused sensation of what had occurred the previous night. Was it a dream, or did it really happen? He thought it over, and the more he thought the less did he seem able to determine. Eventually he made up his mind to tell no living soul, but to go down to the shore on the night when the tide was lowest. That would test the reality of what he had seen.

He had not long to wait. The low tides were on, and night after night found Jack on the shore searching for the circular rock. At last, when the tide went out the lowest, he saw the rock uncovered. He recognised it at once. Its resemblance to a fairy circle struck him forcibly. There seemed to be a track round the rock where the sea weed was rubbed off. He could not help thinking it must be by fairy feet. In the centre of the rock was a little pool with a dry spot in the middle. That was evidently where the fairy orchestra sat. He had a spade and a bucket with him, and he began digging the rock with trembling eagerness. He carefully scanned the first shovel-full. No trace of gold. It was then all a dream! Another try — nearer the rock this time. No! Yes! He knocked the clod apart, and lo! there lay before him forty bright pieces ot gold. Into the bucket they went. Again and yet again he repeated the performance, But though the rock itself remained uncovered for about half-an-hour, it was not so with the sand at the base. The tide was rapidly gaining, and with trembling eagerness he dug and dug as if for dear life. Eventually the rising tide obliged him to desist, but he found that he had his bucket more than half full of gold.

Months went by, and the changed condition of Jack’s fortune became obvious to all. Meantime, Jack had become ambitious of following the example of his friend. He had bought a piece of land, and erected on it a handsome house, and now all he wanted was a wife to take care of it and keep it in order. The daughter of a substantial yeoman was induced to share his home, and at their house warming they had a large and happy party, and plenty of dancing and music. Jack had gone into the Cellar to draw some brown October for his numerous guests, when he thought he heard a shrill little laugh, and fancied he saw Mr Puck and one or two of his crew peeping at him from behind a barrel, but when he put down the jug and went to look there was no one there! Jack had been married about a week when he told his wife that business would call him away for a day or so. The low tides had come again and, in spite of his wife’s remonstrances, he went to the shore bent upon finding some more gold. Again he set to work and, in the brief interval during which the tide had left the rock, succeeded in once more nearly half filling his bucket with gold. He had got back to the house with his treasure, and was busy putting it away into a large chest, when his wife came and caught him. Her curiosity was intensely stimulated, and she begged him to tell her where he had got such a lot of gold. “My dear,” said Jack, “I really mustn’t tell you. If I did we should never have any more.”

That did not satisfy Mrs Cann. Her curiosity was insatiable. She tried coaxing without effect. Then she took a different course. She said she believed he was a robber, and had not come by the money honestly, and threatened to go home to her mother. Not to weary the reader too much, suffice it to say that, wearied by her importunity, in a weak moment Jack told her the secret, under her solemn promise not to tell. But alas! for woman’s promises. Mrs Cann told her mother, who was a dear good old soul, who knew everybody’s business better than her own. Poor Jack went once more to the shore but, though he dug most perseveringly while the tide allowed, he found nothing to reward him. He could almost swear that be heard a satirical chuckle come from the rock, but of course it might have been pure fancy. Jack’s family increased and multiplied as the years went on, and the money did not last for ever. When they got into more straightened circumstances, and Mrs Cann began to bewail her lot, Jack used eloquently to dwell upon the evil effects of female curiosity, while he inwardly wished that he had accepted the invitation of the little fairy and remained in the fairy world he had once unwittingly entered. Of course, through the agency of Mrs Cann’s maternal relative, the story became well noised about. But it was not universally believed. Some said that Jack Cann got extremely drunk on the night of his friend’s wedding, and dreamt it all. As for tha money it was washed out of a ship which, returning from the Spanish main, had been wrecked on the treacherous shore. Be that as it may, Jack always swore that it was the gift of fairies, but it was noted by those who heard him tell the tale that it grew more and more in embellishments as time went on, and the sceptics found in this a further argument for disbelieving in the existence of Jack’s “Fairy-Gold.”