Research source

Alexander Monro asked him how he knew they were Englishmen?

Date of account: Written 1691; later edited edition
Source: The secret commonwealth of elves, fauns & fairies
Reference: The secret commonwealth of elves, fauns & fairies · selected passage 52
Rights: public_domain
Language: English/Scots historical text
Record updated: 2026-08-24

Record summary

Published source text

Read the available text below. Archive transcriptions may contain OCR errors; later context is labelled separately. A recorded claim is not a finding that it happened.

Source passage

Source text · mention only

Alexander Monro asked him how he knew they were Englishmen? He said, because they were leeding of Horses, and had on Hats and Bootts, which he knew no Scot Man would have there. We took little Notice of the whole Storie, as other than a foolish Vision; but wished that ane English Partie were there, we being then at Warr with them, and the Place almost unaccessable for Horsemen. But in the Beginning of August therafter, the Earle of Midleton (then Lieut. for the King in the Highlands) having occasion to march a Party of his toward the South Highlands, he sent his Foot thorow a Place called Inverlawell; and the Fore-partie which was first down the Hill, did fall off eating the Barley which was on the litle Plain under it.

Historical context

Contextual commentary · mention only

This material belongs to a folklore tradition. Story type, collector, community, transmission and literary editing matter when comparing it with other sources.

Modern context

Contextual commentary · mention only

Lattice compares motifs and reported features without assuming that a traditional being is a biological species or that similar stories document one external cause.

Investigate related details with Anomaly Graph’s account-based search, or read how matching and provenance work.