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Page:Fairy tales, now first collected by Joseph Ritson.djvu/135

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TALE XII.

THE CORNISH FAIRIES.

Ann Jefferies (for that was her maiden name) of whom the following strange things are related, was born in the parish of St. Teath, in the county of Cornwall, in December 1626, and she is still living, 1696, being now in the 70th year of her age. She is married to one William Warren, formerly hind to the late eminent physician dr. Richard Lower deceased, and now lives as hind to Sir Andrew Slanning of Devon, bart.

It is the custom in the county of Cornwall for the most substantial people of each parish, to take apprentices the poors children, and to breed them up till they attain to twenty-one years of age, and, for their service, to give them meat, drink, and clothes. This Ann Jefferies, being a poor mans child of the parish, by providence fell into our family,[1] where

  1. The authors name is Moses Pitt, who communicates