✨The Tizzy of Easdale by Honeysuckle Harebell✨🧙♀️
- Honeysuckle Harebell
- Nov 1
- 3 min read
My particular neck of the woods (Easedale Woods, in the county of Easdale, second on the left past Chestershire) unbelievably, laid claim to have the largest habitation of Fairies to be found in the Northwesterly of English during Queen Victoria’s reign. In this ‘Pamphlet Imaginaire’ I will impart a small soupçon of my findings regarding the ‘Tizzy of Easdale’ as they are known in certain squircles ( circles and occasionally squares.)
✨Those Victorians
Back in the Victorian era, there were said to be Fairy villages and hamlets dotted around all over the place. If you were a young Victorian out for a morning stroll, playing with your hoop perhaps, or if you happened to be milking cows at 4 am, you may well have come across little enclaves of Fairy folk underfoot and the air was full of them.
The Victorians loved Fairies, Fairies were all the rage, as was collecting wild animals and putting them in cages for people to look at. Those Victorians would have loved to exhibit a Fairy in such circumstances, but thankfully, for some reason, that never happened.
✨Fairies and why their numbers have declined
The Industrial Revolution was a significant turning point for Fairies everywhere. Young Fairylets left their tiny hamlets and went to try their luck in the big cities. Sadly, getting their wings caught on train tracks was the highest cause of fatalities in 1862.
In the metropolis of Victorian cities, they struggled to survive, they found their wings clipped so they retreated back to the woodlands, heaths and meadows, mostly on foot, only to find their homes had been destroyed by the building of new roads and railways. Bleak Times indeed.
Here in Easdale Woods, Fairy numbers also fell drastically when in 1846 the area became a very popular tourist attraction with fairground rides, high wire acts, and all kinds of wild animals on display. Anyone who was anyone went there to eat ice cream and take a ride on the funfair, including Queen Victoria herself.
One particular sensation at that time was Bears. They were kept in a ‘Bear Pit’. This was very cruel, those Victorians didn’t understand how special Bears are. As we all know now in the enlightened 20th Century, Bears need protecting. We must look after all wild animals and not go keeping them in pits. The same goes for Fairies in my opinion. You must never keep them in a matchbox.
Through my extensive research ( I always read the Bindweed Clarion, twice on Sundays) I discovered experts, of that time, blamed the Bears for the drop in Fairy numbers. A theory by Professor Puffball M.E.H. claims it was the Bears impact on the area which had the most detrimental effect on Fairy numbers. His evidence for this is very flimsy, in my opinion, garnered mainly from unreliable sources and gossip from ‘The Sunflower News’ reporting a few, relatively small, incidents of Fairies accidentally flying into the Bear Pit and never coming out again.
Bunkem! I know of one particular instance when in fact Fairies helped Bears escape the Bear Pit, which I have incorporated in my work entitled ‘Fleabane- a Fairy Tale’ .
✨How things stand (or sit if you prefer) now
In Easdale Woods today, the Bear Pit can still be seen but there aren’t any Bears in it and not a funfair to be had either. You will, however, see a lot of over-excitable parents dragging their under-excitable children around the old Bear Pit, pretending to go on an imaginary Bear hunt.
Let me make it quite clear, I don’t agree with hunts of any kind, unless it’s thimbles, but I can’t help thinking to myself, as I watch them race up and down, growling at each other, that they are looking for the wrong thing in the wrong place- something a lot of grown ups do. What they really should really be looking for is…Fairies!
✨Moving Forwards
I have decided to share these findings to generate interest in these much maligned creatures. In the current climate and rather desperate times we find ourselves in, we need all the Magic we can get. I will now have to go and have a cup of tea as I have become quite overcome at the thought of Fairies being brushed under the carpet.
written by Honeysuckle Harebell
(Fairy Historian and aficianado)
N.B. The escaped Bears lived a very happy life on the Algebraic Isle of Angle C.
©Honeysuckle Harebell 2025 all rights reserved
If you have noticed any Fairy numbers dropping lately contact the author Miss. Harebell immediately.
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