The Fairy Ring (13 page)

Chapter Eight

“below the stairs” and “artistic ability”: undated letter from Elsie Wright Hill to Virginia Chase, collection of Glenn Hill.

“we all thought . . . nonsense!”: author interview with Glenn Hill.

February 23, 1920, letter from Edward Gardner to Polly Wright, Brotherton Collection.

Chapter Nine

March 2, 1920, letter from Edward Gardner to Polly Wright, Brotherton Collection.

Chapter Ten

“bathed in error and almost past praying for”: Doyle, p. 16.

April 8, 1920, letter from Edward Gardner to Polly Wright, Brotherton Collection.

Chapter Eleven

“I am myself convinced . . . let me know?”: April 12, 1920, letter from Edward Gardner to Elsie Wright, Brotherton Collection.

“She says I must thank you . . . lets her have the use of them now”: April 15, 1920, letter from Polly Wright to Edward Gardner, Brotherton Collection.

“We sat in a hut which had . . . the disappearance of our little visitors”: Doyle, pp. 134–135.

“What does it matter what anyone says of me. I have a good hide by this time”: Lellenberg et al., p. 668.

“psychic matters” and “I argued that we had . . . entirely beyond them”: Doyle, p. 26.

“They examined the plates . . . or other trick”: Ibid., p. 33.

Chapter Thirteen

“very shy and reserved indeed” and “They are of a mechanic’s family . . . since babyhood”: Ibid., p. 23.

“Two children such as these . . . hey presto!!”: Ibid., p. 24.

“Everyone who saw them . . . understating the case”: June 4, 1920, letter from Edward Gardner to Polly Wright, Brotherton Collection.

June 14, 1920, letter from Elsie Wright to Edward Gardner, Brotherton Collection.

June 30, 1920, letter from Arthur Conan Doyle to Elsie Wright, Brotherton Collection.

Chapter Fourteen

July 1, 1920, letter from Elsie Wright to Edward Gardner, Brotherton Collection.

“Yours sincerely, Arthur Conan Doyle, July 1920,”
“The Lost World . . . Daily Gazette,”
“The Members of the Exploring Party,” “The Swamp of the Pterodactyls,” “Glade of the Iguanodons,” and “The Central Lake”: Brotherton Collection.

“I have seen the very interesting photos . . . along with other material”: June 30, 1920, letter from Arthur Conan Doyle to Arthur Wright, Brotherton Collection.

“I heard him moan to my Mother, ‘How could a brilliant man . . . such a thing?’”: undated letter from Elsie Wright Hill to Virginia Chase, collection of Glenn Hill.

“our Elsie, and she at the bottom of her class”: author interview with Glenn Hill.

July 12, 1920, letter from Arthur Wright to Arthur Conan Doyle: Doyle, p. 34.

“a shy, pretty girl of about sixteen”: Gardner, p. 20.

“She laughingly made me promise . . . so very long!” Doyle, p. 49.

“I was glad of the opportunity . . . talking things over”: Gardner, p. 21.

“palest of green, pink, mauve” and “Much more in the wings . . . very pale to white”: Doyle, p. 50.

Chapter Fifteen

“If Elsie takes one flying . . . whole thing is so strange.”: August 5, 1920, letter from Polly Wright to Edward Gardner, Brotherton Collection.

“horribly uncomfortable” and “It wasn’t a joke . . . got out of hand”: Griffiths, p. 53.

“I . . . left them to it”: late August 1920 letter from Polly Wright to Edward Gardner, Brotherton Collection.

“the deed was done”: Griffiths, p. 54.

“We wandered home . . . little men would be in my past”: Ibid., pp. 55–56.

“The weather was gloomy and we were gloomy” and “It was a hopeless task”: Ibid., p. 56.

“It’s a queer one, we can’t make it out”: late August 1920 letter from Polly Wright to Edward Gardner, Brotherton Collection.

“faded-out bits . . . might have been faces)”: March 4, 1973, letter from Elsie Wright Hill to Leslie Gardner (Edward Gardner’s son), West Yorkshire Archive Service, Bradford Central Library.

“She didn’t take one flying after all”: late August 1920 letter from Polly Wright to Edward Gardner, Brotherton Collection.

Chapter Sixteen

“I send just this line at once . . . about the fairies”: November 25, 1920, letter from Edward Gardner to Elsie Wright, Brotherton Collection.

“Fairies Photographed: An Epoch-Making Event Described by A. Conan Doyle” and “the two most astounding photographs ever published!”:
Strand Magazine
60, no. 360 (December 1920), pp. 463 and 462, Brotherton Collection.

“Should the incidents here narrated . . . examination and judgment” and “final and absolute proof”: Doyle, p. 39.

“Mr. Gardner, however, tested her . . . those in the photograph”: Ibid., p. 57.

“They threw cold water . . . paintings that hung in our house”: undated letter from Elsie Wright Hill to the London
Daily Mail
in response to an article dated February 17, 1977, Brotherton Collection.

“There is an ornamental rim . . . let themselves go in the dance!”: Doyle, p. 55.

“fed up,” “Yes,” “simply vanished into the air,” “Yes,” “If anybody else were there, the fairies would not come out,” and “You don’t understand”: Ibid., pp. 67–69.

“transparent,” “rather hard,” and “You see, we were young then”: Ibid., p. 70.

“Do Fairies Exist? . . . Took the Snapshot” and “My mission to Yorkshire . . . that I failed”: Ibid., pp. 60–61.

Chapter Seventeen

“I would suggest to Miss Elsie . . . what the ‘fairies’ really are”: London
Times,
January 5, 1921, Brotherton Collection.

“I know children . . . have pulled one of them”: Doyle, p. 88.

“with your help in Cottingley . . . shall be justified everywhere”: January 8, 1921, letter from Edward Gardner to Polly Wright, Brotherton Collection.

“I am keeping them back . . . at the proper moment!”: November 29, 1920, letter from Edward Gardner to Arthur Wright, Brother Collection.

“The Evidence for Fairies . . . Photographs”:
Strand Magazine
61, no. 363 (March 1921), Brotherton Collection.

“fairy’s bower” and “apparently considering . . . wonderful wings”: Doyle, p. 103.

“We have now succeeded . . . splendidly”: Ibid., p. 101.

“Never before, or otherwhere . . . been photographed!”: Ibid., p. 103.

“Well, it would be interesting to have a few here in the classrooms” and “perfect fool”: Griffiths, p. 60.

“Thinking about fairies, then?”: “There
Were
Fairies at the Bottom of the Garden,”
Woman
magazine, October 1975, p. 43, Brotherton Collection.

“This is what I hated for years . . . I didn’t want to answer”: Griffiths, pp. 60–61.

“mediumistic” and “subtle ectoplasmic or etheric material”: Gardner, p. 25.

Chapter Eighteen

“Our normal selves came to the surface”: Griffiths, p. 65.

“Gnomes and Fairies . . . Elsie sees a small imp.”: Doyle, pp. 108–115.

“iridescent shimmering golden light”: Ibid., p. 121.

“When we two one step”: Elsie Wright sketchbook, collection of Glenn Hill; also reproduced in Cooper, photo insert following p. 112.

“change in the girls”: Doyle, p. 105.

Chapter Nineteen

“When the last fairy pictures were taken . . . that was the end of it all”: March 4, 1973, letter from Elsie Wright Hill to Leslie Gardner, West Yorkshire Archive Service, Bradford Central Library.

“Briton in U.S. to Prove Fairies Exist”: undated unidentified clipping, Brotherton Collection. “Champion of Elfs Struts His Stuff” and “A Bit of Britain’s Gnome-land”: undated
New York Evening Post
clipping, Brotherton Collection. “Really, Truly They’re Fairies”: undated
Los Angeles Examiner
clipping, Brotherton Collection.

“like a landscape in the moon”: Doyle, p. 125.

“My husband always says . . . when he is laughing”: April 24, 1971, letter from Elsie Wright Hill to Leslie Gardner, West Yorkshire Archive Service, Bradford Central Library.

“Love, Frances”: undated postcard, collection of Glenn Hill.

“It was one of those things . . . always believed me”: “There
Were
Fairies at the Bottom of the Garden,”
Woman
magazine, October 1975, p. 43, Brotherton Collection.

Chapter Twenty

“Now I’ve told you, and I never want to hear about it again.”: Griffiths, p. 74.

And one day, when Glenn was ten . . . And fairies were absolute nonsense: author interview with Glenn Hill.

“She’s never been skeptical . . . my grandchildren all the time”: “There
Were
Fairies at the Bottom of the Garden,”
Woman
magazine, October 1975, p. 43, Brotherton Collection.

“a touch of 1920s dash about her” and “She has a dazzling smile . . . half of the county”: “There
Were
Fairies at the Bottom of the Garden,”
Woman
magazine, October 1975, p. 43, Brotherton Collection.

“Mind if I turn this on? I’m very interested in collecting data,” “They say, jointly, calmly and lightly . . . pair of them get together,” and “Once I was talking . . . fairies, do you, Elsie?”: Cooper, pp. 123–124.

“an air of mystery and gentleness and holding back something”: Ibid., p. 125.

“How big were the fairies? . . . No, I don’t think so.”: September 1976 Yorkshire Television (YTV) program, archives of the National Media Museum, Bradford, Yorkshire.

“I’m sorry if I upset you . . . in the past” and “I’m known as a woman . . . what a stranger thinks?”: Griffiths, pp. 98–99.

“(If people wish to believe in Fairies . . . true or untrue Fairy Story”: undated letter from Elsie Wright Hill to the London
Daily Mail
in response to an article dated February 17, 1977, Brotherton Collection.

Chapter Twenty-One

“weirdy grandmother”: February 17, 1989, letter from Elsie Wright Hill to Geoffrey Crawley, editor of the
British Journal of Photography,
archives of the National Media Museum, Bradford, Yorkshire. Elsie also told her son, Glenn Hill, that she wanted to reveal the secret out of concern for her grandchildren; author interview with Glenn Hill.

The sequence of how the secret was revealed is based on the accounts given in Griffiths and Cooper, on the dates of various newspaper and magazine articles of the time, and on author interviews with Glenn Hill.

“Men from Mars” and “Whatever Happened to Dragons?”:
The Unexplained: Mysteries of Mind Space & Time,
issues 20 and 21, Brotherton Collection.

“You’re a traitor” and “Tha’s properly muckied tha’ ticket wi’ me!”: Cooper, pp. 24 and 174.

“Cottingley Fairies a Fake”: London
Times,
March 18, 1983, p. 3. “Secrets of Two Famous Hoaxers”: London
Times,
April 4, 1983, p. 3.

“I am sorry someone has stabbed all our fairies to death with a hatpin”: London
Times,
March 18, 1983, p. 3.

“No one has ever taken any notice of what I say”: Griffiths, p. 55.

In time, they made up and were friends again: author interview with Glenn Hill.

“Fairy Lady Dies with Her Secret”: Norman Lebrecht, London
Sunday Times,
July 13, 1986.

The descriptions of Elsie Wright’s later life are taken from her letters to Leslie Gardner, West Yorkshire Archive Service, Bradford Central Library. I learned about her autobiography and its fate from her son, Glenn Hill.

“photographs of figments of our imagination”: author interview with Glenn Hill.

“(Either a pearl busting joke) . . . precious fairy land places” and “One man is standing aside . . . each side of the shell and away he floats”: Cooper, pp. 146–147.

Chapters 2, 8, 12, 13, 14, 18 (second image), and 19 (first image): illustrations and images courtesy of Glenn Hill, Glenn Hill personal collection; photographs © 2011 by Don Losure.

Chapter 4: Illustration from
Princess Mary’s Gift Book
, p. 104

Chapter 5: “Alice and the Fairies,” July 1917. Courtesy of Science and Society Library. Photographer Glenn Hill.

Chapter 6: “Iris and the Gnome,” September 1917. Courtesy of Science and Society Library. Photographer Glenn Hill.

Chapter 9:“Come, Now a Roundel,” 1908, by Arthur Rackham (1867–1939). Private Collection/© Chris Beetles, London, U.K./The Bridgeman Art Library.

Chapter 15 (first image): “Fairy Offering Flowers to Iris,” August 1920. Courtesy of Science and Society Library. Photographer Glenn Hill.

Chapter 15 (second image): “Alice and Leaping Fairy,” August 1920. Courtesy of Science and Society Library. Photographer Glenn Hill.

Chapters 16 and 18 (first image): Photographs courtesy of the Brotherton Collection, Leeds University.

Chapter 19 (second image): “Fairy Sunbath Elves Etc.,” August 1920. Courtesy of Science and Society Library. Photographer Glenn Hill.