But Elphi and his mother were also credited with all the power of
those gifted with a full knowledge of white magic, and their lives seem to
have been spent in succouring the weak. Mr Blakeborough tells me that the
remembrance of these two is now practically forgotten, for after most
careful enquiry during the last two years throughout the greater part of
Farndale, only one individual has been met with who remembered hearing of
this once widely known dwarf.
The hob-men who were to be found in various spots in Yorkshire were fairly
numerous around Pickering. There seem to have been two types, the kindly
ones, such as the hob of Hob Hole in Runswick Bay who used to cure
children of whooping-cough, and also the malicious ones. Calvert gives a
long list of hobs but does not give any idea of their disposition.
Lealholm Hob.
Hob o' Trush.
T'Hob o' Hobgarth,
Cross Hob o' Lastingham.
Farndale Hob o' High Farndale.
Some hold Elphi to have been a hob of Low Farndale.
T'Hob of Stockdale.
Scugdale Hob.
Hodge Hob o' Bransdale.
Woot Howe Hob.
T'Hob o' Brackken Howe.
T'Hob o' Stummer Howe.
T'Hob o' Tarn Hole.
Hob o' Ankness.
Dale Town Hob o' Hawnby.
T'Hob o' Orterley.
Crookelby Hob.
Hob o' Hasty Bank.
T'Hob o' Chop Gate.
Blea Hob.
T'Hob o' Broca.
T'Hob o' Rye Rigg.
Goathland Hob o' Howl Moor.
T'Hob o' Egton High Moor.
The Hob of Lastingham was presumably named after the cross above the
village, and not on account of his disposition.
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