The Fairies - a child's song by Emily Gertrude Thomson

The Fairies - a child's song is a book published by Thomas de la Rue & Company in London in 1883. It presents a song written by William Allingham (1824-1889) and 24 illustrations by Emily Gertrude Thomson (1850-1929), including 6 in color. Here are all of the pages presenting the fairies as Emily Gertrude Thomson imagined them. The text of the song is incorporated in pictures and each verse is written again in text under the page image for better readability. Enjoy!

Up the airy mountain,

Down the rushy glen,

We daren't go a-hunting,

For fear of little men;

Wee folk, good folk,

Trooping all together;

Green jacket, red cap,

And white owl's feather!

Down along the rocky shore

Some make their home,

They live on crispy pancakes

Of yellow-tide foam;

Some in the reeds

Of the black mountain-lake,

With frogs for their watch-dogs

All night awake.

High on the hill-top

The old King sits;

He is now so old and gray,

He's nigh lost his wits.

With a bridge of white mist

Columbkill he crosses,

On his stately journeys

From Slieveleague to Rosses;

Or going up with music,

On cold starry nights,

To sup with the Queen

Of the gay Northern Lights.

They stole little Bridget

For seven years long;

When she came down again

Her friends were all gone.

They took her lightly back,

Between the night and morrow;

They thought that she was fast asleep,

But she was dead with sorrow.

They have kept her ever since

Deep within the lake,

On a bed of flag-leaves,

Watching till she wake.

By the craggy hill-side,

Through the mosses bare,

They have planted thorn-trees,

For pleasure, here and there.

Is any man so daring

As dig

them up in spite,

He shall find their sharpest thorns

In his bed at night.

Up the airy mountain

Down the rushy glen,

We daren't go a-hunting,

For fear of little men;

Wee folk, good folk,

Trooping all together;

Green jacket, red cap,

And white owl's feather!

This is the end of the book, if we don't count some commercial info about other editions of the same publisher / printer.

But here are some additional interesting facts for the more curious readers:

• After this book was published Emily Gertrude Thomson was approached by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, more known as Lewis Carrol, who was impressed by her work and asked her to illustrate his Alice in Wonderland, adapted for kids. After some delay the project was realized and both artist became lifelong friends.

• William Allingham, an author of the poem (it's his most famous poem) was married to another artist - successful painter and illustrator Helen Paterson Allingham. His verses were often quoted in other works, for instance in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

• The printer and publisher of The Fairies Thos. de La Rue eventually became one of the major printers currently making banknotes and passports for Great Britain with oversea offices in Malta, Kenya and Sri Lanka. The family sold their share in 1927, but the name is still the same. We can find it in London Stock Exchange.