The parson assures
me that many of the peasantry believe in household goblins, called
Dubbies, which live about particular farms and houses, in the same way
that Robin Goodfellow did of old. Sometimes they haunt the barns and
outhouses, and now and then will assist the farmer wonderfully, by
getting in all his hay or corn in a single night. In general, however,
they prefer to live within doors, and are fond of keeping about the
great hearths, and basking, at night, after the family have gone to
bed, by the glowing embers. When put in particular good-humour by the
warmth of their lodgings, and the tidiness of the house-maids, they
will overcome their natural laziness, and do a vast deal of household
work before morning; churning the cream, brewing the beer, or spinning
all the good dame's flax. All this is precisely the conduct of Robin
Goodfellow, described so charmingly by Milton:
"Tells how the drudging goblin sweat
To earn his cream-bowl duly get,
When in one night, ere glimpse of morn,
His shadowy flail had thresh'd the corn
That ten day-labourers could not end;
Then lays him down the lubber-fiend,
And, stretch'd out all the chimney's length,
Basks at the fire his hairy strength,
And crop-full, out of door he flings
Ere the first cock his matin rings.
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