HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1960-01-21, Page 6The Fairy Well
in the Highlands
The Fairy Well belongs to the
Fairy Glen jn the highlands of
Scotland a few miles front the
small town of Cromarty,, birth.
place of Hugh Millar, the famous
Scottish author and, geologist. To
reach the well, you turn off the
busy main road that goes to Cro-
marty and enter a thick wood
of hazels,, beeches, and birches.
Ivy and honeysuckle festoon
thetrees and the labyrinth of
green is pleasantly cool on a hot
summer day. The rutty, moss -
grown track feels easy to tread
even while it winds uphill for
almost a mile• And every sound
in the Glen is sweetly muted.
The "whirr" of a pigeon in flight
and the soft "cooing" as the bird
settles into the nest. The gentle
gurgle of a burn almost hidden
by ferns. Even the chatter of
magpies building in sand cliffs
on the edge of the wood is softly
subdued.
The last twist of the path re-
veals a woodland garden of
white and pink lox -gloves, tall
and erect, looking like fairy
candles among the ferns and
green bracken. And there a
waterfall issues from a rock high
above the flowers, sending tiny
cascades of foam onto the fox-
gloves. This is the water that
feeds the Fairy Well nearby.
It is made to look as lovely
as its surroundings, composed of
shining white pebbles over which
the spring water glistens like
crystal; ice-cold water that has
the quality of an elixir. You can
go down on your knees to drink,
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staring into the crystal depths,,
listening for one moment to the
"drjp,drip" of water falling into
the well, It is a high, fluting
sound, and never 'quite on the
same note, fascinating and sooth-
ing. And every "drip" makes its
Own peculiar pattern over the
surface of well water, .
How good that water tastes,
scooped in the hollow of a sun-
burned hand! And how refresh-
ing it feels, spilled over neck
and arms before the long jour-
ney, home with a brimming pail.
As one well after another dried
up during the amazing British
summer of 1959, many people in
the Highlands had to carry wa-
ter from far-off places in the
hills. For much of the tap water
introduced to isolated parts with-
in the past decade still depends
for its source en the wells that
are fed from springs issuing from
the mountains.
Aunt Jessy never allowed more
than one pail of water to be
taken from the Fairy Well each
day; she considered it her just
portion. Often during my stay
with her she entertained me with
tales of famous wells familiar
to her youth, when wells sup-
plied all the available drinking
water
The Fairy Well was always
different, since it was long con-
sidered a private well. The man
who made it was jealous of any-
one who trespassed on his prop-
erty and polluted the water. But
those who' succeeded him 'were
different; they decided to make
their Fairy Well part of the
Glen and free to everyone in
need of water.
Like all reputable evells..-InT the
north of Scotland it is steeped
in legend and folklore. Aunt
Jessy vows that if anyone is Glar-
ing enough to fetch water from
the Fairy Well at midnight, the
wee folk will pursue him be-
cause they have been disturbed
in their ploys among the fox-
gloves, From the flowers they
fashion their elfin gloves; hence
the name of the plant, And the
particular foxgloves that make a
garden round the Fairy Well are
reputedly finer and larger blooms
than anywhere else.
When I asked who was res-
ponsible for the perfect condi-
tion of the well in the Glen,
Aunt Jessy informed me that
people in the neighborhood took
turns emptying and scrubbing it
clean once a year. The tin mug
fastened to a tree close to the
well is in constant use, for one
legend insists that the water is
a magical potion, invigorating
and beautifying those who drink
it. By Marion Henderson in
the Christian Science Monitor.
Mi91➢a�n Wives
Support Husbands
"Trend of the Times" is
"viewed with alarm" by some
folks who stop to think — our
economic loss in the steel strike,
the copper strike and accom-
panying layoffs. But here's a
fellow who has another angle on
modern-day living, This was for-
warded to us by one of our
readers.
"When Columbus discovered
America, it was inhabited by
men who hunted and fished all
day while the women did the
work. They paid no taxes. They
had no national debt. They were
savages.
"It took us 467 years to get
so civilized that some men now
chart their course of life on lines
of lounge-ltude and lass-itude.
A government guarantee on pur-
suit of happiness isn't enough.
They want it to run interference.
too.
"Maybe we're going back to
the Indian system. Reports show
that a million wives now sup-
port their husbands. And one
man's excuse for not paying a
bill was, 'My wife lost her job
and this left me as my sole means
of support.'" —Golden (Colo.)
Transcript.
kAVING A BALL — Charlotte Ford, 18, daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
;Henry Ford 11, is the centre of attraction for some unidentified
ushers at her lavish debut ball 'in Detroit. More than 1,200
:guests attended the ball at The Country Club of Detroit.
GETTING A BOOT OUT OF IT? >- Two kittens show off at the
home of Luella Lone in Jamaica, N.Y.
Gva¢.r.d clime P. Clarke
Our television had been acting
a little queerly for some weeks;
sometimes it was all right, some-
times it wasn't. Finally we sent
for a repair man. He came the
next morning; put in one new
tube, adjusted the picture — it
had been a little off centre —
screwed the back on again.
closed his kit and said — "I think
it will be all right now. That
will be $7.75—$4.25 for the tube,
$3.50 for the call." And do you
know we didin't grumble — even
though the job had taken only
fifteen minutes. We knew the
man to be honest, reliable and
good at his job. His time, plus
gas, was worth something and
the tube was standard price.
After all a television set is an
expensive piece of equipment. At
least it seems so when- repairs
are necessary — but, just like a
car, if you can't afford necessary
repairs then you can't afford to
keep one at all. Certainly the
best guarantee against trouble is
to have a good repair man and
stay with him, for both car and
television.
But, oh dear, how easily one
can lose faith when things go
wrong. A few night after our
TV was fixed the picture was so
snowy we couldn't watch it. That
didn't suit Partner .. , not with
wrestling in full swing! "Now,
what's the matter with' the .
thing now? What's the good of
a television set if it goes out of
commission just when you want
it most?" I didn't bother to an=
swer — just went on getting
supper. But suddenly I noticed
the lights were sort of dim and
the stove elements not as hot as
they should be. Then we knew
the answer — power lines over-
loaded. During supper there was.
a click, lights went up and the
picture came in on the TV screen
as clear as a bell. We just won-
dered how many calls went into
the hydro office and the repair
shop.
Can a dog think or reason?
That question has been asked
scores of times and I don't think
anyone has ever come up with a
conclusive answer. Taffy has us
wondering all over again. Sev-
eral children cross our lot as a
short-cut on their way to and
from school. They all make a
fuss of Taffy and he makes a
fuss of them. He is often outside
in his kennel when t:..y go by
in the morning but generally in
the house when they go home in
the afternoon. Round about three
o'clock he starts getting restless
SALLY'S SALLIES'
'Now, dear, we can take up
what you promised fine Now
Year's Eve,"
— runs back and forth, from the
glassed -in front porch to a chair
in theliving-room from whence
he can see out of the window.
Back and forth, back and forth
he goes, sort of whimpering, his
ears straight up and his sturdy
little body quivering with ex-
citement. Eventually the chil-
dren come by, talk to him
through the window and he is
satisfied. After that he settles
down quietly. But if they forget
and pass without speaking he is
a very worrisd little dog. Then
comes Saturday and Sunday and
he never looks for them at all.
How does he know? Holidays, of
course, get him something con-
fused. Weekdays he still looks
for them but after a few days
gives up hope.
Another little incident has me
puzzled. One evening a little
neighbour girl came in while her
parents were out to a meeting.
She is rather an unpredictable
child, not particularly friendly t0
animals, except her own kitten.
She sat on the chesterfield read-
ing aloud. Taffy sat close beside
me — watching. Presentlyhe
started sidling over towards her,
obviously uncertain, stopping
every few inches, waiting for en-
couragement. He didn't get it --
the
the child just watched him and
finally ,Taffy came back and sat
by me again. Was there some
antipathy between them — the
girl and the dog? Had the child
at some time teased him when
he was tied up and did he re-
member? Otherwise what made
Taffy so distrustful = so differ-
ent from Ditto who jumped right
on to the child's lap and was
purring quite happily. Who can
fathom the instincts of animals?
Speaking now of children I
saw the cutest thing when I was
Christmas shopping in Toronto
— forgot to tell you before.
Along the sidewalk by Simpson's
came about twenty children, two
by two and holding hands, none
of them more than three or four
years old, shepherded by two
youngish girls, in their twenties,
I would say. And did they look
worried! Evidently it was a kin-
dergarten group, out to see Santa
Claus. I'll bet those girls were
glad when the expedition was
over. For the children it wuuld
mean a lot, probably giving them
their first conscious recollection
of Christmas festivities.
Incidentally that same day 1
was soon tired of shopping and
went to a "Porgy and Bess" mat-
inee. Good, music, wonderful act-
ing but some of the characters
portrayed were rotten to the
point of spoiling one's enjoyment
of the picture,
Q. What is the proper way for
a man to . bow when greeting
someone?
A, His bow should be a slight
bending forward from the waist
with feet together, but not too
pronounced, not stiff, and with-
out any heel -clicking, Many well-
mannered men automatically
bow slightly as they shake
hands. Men always rise (or half -
rise at a restaurant table) be-
fore bowing.
ISSUE 3 — 1960
Nouse Values
Climb Way Up
If you own a house in the
United States, you can take
some satisfaction in these days
of inflation that your house is
woriia.r at least one-half again
what -ft cost in 1950, the land is
valued' at more than twice that
of 10 years ago, and mortgage
—rates ;today .aro about 2 per cent
higher,
Those estimates come from a
housing specialist who has log-
ged more than a half -million
miles through the airways of the
1950's to find that builders are '
putting up better houses and
buyers are getting more for the
money they spend.
Prices have gone up largely
because homes are much better
equipped, families are demand-
ing more special equipment, and
prices are up on virtually every-
thing that goes into the building
of a home.
Clarence Hausmann of Allied
Chemical Corporation • says that
buyers are dble to obtain better
houses because they can spread
the mortgage payments over
longer periods and hence under-
take higher mortgages with con-
fidence, The average mortgage
of today appears to be running
in the vicinity of $12,000 com-
pared with $7,000 in 1950.
Many one -family homes are
being built without basements,
but Mr. Hausmann found that in
the Northeast and in the north
central states, three out of four
new units have basements, writes
W. Clifford Harvey in The Chris-
tian Science Monitor.
Unlike old-style basements,
many of.yyiie new ones are par-
tially finished with noise -reduc-
ing perforated ceiling tiles, in-
sulated wall planks, and other
materials to provide needed
recreation area, he said.
The old belief that it isn't
neighborly to build high fences
around your house is going by
the board in many new home
designs. Families are showing a
growing interest in enclosed
gardens and private patios with
colorful translucent plastic pan-
els playing a key role in elim-
inating glaring sun and provid-
ing a welcome retreat.
• If you are considering build-
ing an addition to your home,
Mr. Hausmann recommends
planning your floor area in even
multiples of four, and making
your ceiling eight feet high as
economy measurements.
UIIAVY READING
Denise Robins,' England's presi-
dent of the Romantic Writers
Assn., says her latest book is
about "the tragedy of being a fat
girl."
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Send FIFTY CENTS (stamps
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NUMBER.
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Toronto, Ont.
A PAIR OF QUEENS — A new bride and a new queen, Farah
Dibah (top photo) makes friends with a caged bird on that
grounds of her husband's private palace in Tehran, Iran. -The
21 -year-old queen is the Shah's third wife. Princess Soraya
(bottom), divorced by the Shah for failing to bear a male heir,
wears an enigmatic smile as she leaves the select "84 Club" in
Rome. It Is believedshe may marry Prince Orsini, a blue-blood-
ed Roman.