Like the Witches, Fairies dearly love to ride to the trysting-place on an aerial steed. A straw, a blade of Grass, a Fern, a Rush, or a Cabbage-stalk, alike serve the purpose of the little people. Mounted on such simple steeds, each joyous Elf sings-- “Now I go, now I fly, Malkin, my sweet spirit, and I. O what a dainty pleasure ’tis To ride in the air, When the morn shines fair, And sing and dance, and toy and kiss!” Arrived at the spot selected for the Fairy revels--mayhap, “a bank whereon the wild Thyme blows, where Oxlips and the nodding Violet grows”--the gay throng wend their way to a grassy link or neighbouring pasture, and there the merry Elves trip and pace the dewy green sward with their printless feet, causing those dark green circles that are known to mortals as “Fairy Rings.” The Fays that haunt the moonlight dell, The Elves that sleep in the Cowslip’s bell, The tricksy Sprites that come and go, Swifter than a gleam of light; Where the murmuring waters flow, And the zephyrs of the night, Bending to the flowers that grow, Basking in the silver sheen, With their voices soft and low, Sing about the rings of green Which the Fairies’ twinkling feet, In their nightly revels, beat. Old William Browne depicts a Fairy trysting-place as being in proximity to one of their sylvan haunts, and moreover gives us an insight into the proceedings of the Fays and their queen at one of their meetings. He says:-- “Near to this wood there lay a pleasant meade Where Fairies often did their measures treade, Which in the meadows made such circles greene, As if with garlands it had crowned beene, Or like the circle where the signes we tracke, And learned shepheards call’t the zodiacke; Within one of these rounds was to be seene A hillock rise, where oft the Fairie queene At twilight sat, and did command her Elves To pinch those maids that had not swept their shelves; And further, if by maiden’s oversight, Within doors water were not brought at night, Or if they spread no table, set no bread, They should have nips from toe unto the head, And for the maid that had performed each thing, She in the water-pail bade leave a ring.” St. John’s Eve was undoubtedly chosen for important communication between the distant Elfin groves and the settlements of men, on account of its mildness, brightness, and unequalled beauty. Has not Shakspeare told us, in his ‘Midsummer’s Night’s Dream,’ of the doings, on this night, of Oberon, Ariel, Puck, Titania, and her Fairy followers?-- “The darling puppets of romance’s view; Fairies, and Sprites, and Goblin Elves we call them, Famous for patronage of lovers true; No harm they act, neither shall harm befall them, So do not thou with crabbed frowns appal them.”