§531

‘I was a boy at a boarding school. There was a school outing but because I experienced motion sickness I didn’t have to participate. We used to build dens or camps and I had visited the one our gang had made. Walking back through the trees I saw a small person. Blue jacket, reddish trousers with a sword to its side, about three inches tall. I recall a hat. It was beside a tree hovering in the air. We regarded each other then it darted behind the tree. I followed but it had disappeared. I often visited this place to see if it would return to no avail. I told no one. It bore no resemblance to the gangly fairies in the books I had seen. He was stocky and compact. I have never forgotten this sighting.’ ‘Blue jacket, reddish trees [trousers, see above], hat, sword in scabbard on the right side.’ ‘I saw a three-inch being. I may have been twelve years old, but I know what I saw. He was clothed and had a sword in a scabbard. He looked as surprised as I was. He had wings. I have never seen the like since and I have looked! The being I saw did not conform to fairy images I had previously seen in story books.’ ‘It’s just stayed with me for the last fifty years. I’m a professional middle-class person. A pilot. To a certain extent it’s coloured my entire life. I keep an open mind. But I’ve never seen the like again and I’ve looked.’