‘When walking on early summer mornings in the summer of 1979/80 I, on more than one occasion, witnessed a small grey-clothed figure about eighteen inches in height and of ‘shambling’ gait in specific fields adjacent to the river *** in North Oxfordshire. Initially this figure was seen moving through long grass in open fields but subsequently on and around the river bank itself. The sightings were at first light in late summer. My recollection is of a sense of complete ‘naturalness’, like that attendant to observing a deer or fox. Oddly I do not remember any feeling of ‘surprise’, only of perhaps ‘intruding’ as one might feel watching an intimate moment between a vixen and her cubs. Make of this what you will but it remains a very real memory for me.’ ‘As above, about eighteen inches in height, dressed in grey, thickset (or well wrapped?) and of a ‘shambling’ gait.’ ‘I remember no sound other than an acute awareness of the natural sounds around me.’ ‘[I thought it was a fairy] because the little fella in question was so completely part of the environment/place, so completely ‘natural’.’ ‘[Fairies are] genii locii?’
§107
Oxfordshire, England
1980s
Male: Age 11-20
occasional supernatural experiences
on or near water, in open land (fields etc)
3 am-6 am
one to two minutes
on my own
no special state reported
no fairy mood reported
loss of sense of time, profound silence before the experience, a sense that the experience was a display put on specially for you, unusually vivid memories of the experience