Note 264 — Chapter XV
Reading edition
Marshall's "Historic Scenes in Perthshire," pp. 383-84. Mr. Grant Stewart, in his "Popular Superstitions" (as quoted in the Scots Magazine, 1823, vol. 13, p. 40), states that "the workmen of the great Michael Scott were all Fairies; and it is only in that way that it could be accounted for, that some stupendous bridges in the north country were built by him in the course of a single night." With this compare the above statement as to the Earl of Menteith's workmen, and all the foregoing references to "Pechts" and "Fairies" in similar circumstances; as also the "fierce tribe of Firbolgic origin, the Gowanree," who are said to have built the earthworks of the Rath of Cruachan in a single day, working as the unwilling serfs of an apparently Gaelic lord.