Blind Fairies (Bristol)

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blind fairy

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 interview: 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. i Argent’ de- scribes them, for they make you think of silver, and they have dulcet silvery voices. They speak and sing, but more in sound than in distinct words — a language of their own 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 charming. ‘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 Midsummer 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 and dance and sing in the tone of their colours. I have not seen any brownies, as I do not take so much interest in the domestic side of the fairies’ life. When I was young I had it so much impressed on me that fairies were imaginary beings that I would not believe in them, but when I was about fourteen I began to realize them, and now I love them. Perhaps it was the deeper study of the arts that brought them to me. I have felt a sympathetic vi- bration for them and they have made me feel that we were friends. I have had a great deal of happiness and good fortune in my life, and perhaps I can attribute some of that to the fairies.’ Doyle, Coming of the Fairies 168-170

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