nonpareil: from the French, ‘without equal’, a term of praise used in elite western societies in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Its use in this peasant context indicates the social class of the narrative voice.

40 Icarus: the son of the classical Greek inventor Daedalus, who made him a pair of mechanical feathered wings. Icarus flew too high to the sun, the wax holding his feathers melted, and he fell to his death in the sea. The story is a common metaphor for pride coming before a fall, which in Tiffany’s case may also be considered as a warning from the court to be properly and cautiously humble.

41 bower: the private rooms of a lady where men are not admitted except by invitation.

42 lozenge panes: the panes of glass in the church windows set diagonally rather than square.

43 First Corinthians: verse 15, in which St Paul discusses man’s relation to death.

44 fleam: instrument used for drawing blood.

45 phlebotomy: the practice of making an incision in a vein.

46 Brownie: spirit of the home, who can choose to be useful in helping with the housework.

47 Lars: lares, lesser gods, as in lares penates, the gods of the Roman home and hearth.

48 Kelpie: Scottish water spirit, said to assume the appearance of a horse.

49 bolster: a long pillow lying along the width of a bed, used for back support.

50 anatomists: surgeons of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries who bought fresh human bodies to dissect when giving instruction in surgery and medicine.

51 croup: viral respiratory infection that frequently killed children until vaccination against diphtheria came in. Dipping a child with croup in freezing water was as likely to cure by shock and the subsequent expulsion of phlegm from the body, as to kill through pneumonia.

52 wainscotted: panelling around the walls to keep out draughts and improve insulation, usually in finely carved wood.

53 bouts-rimés: French name for a poetical game devised in the seventeenth century, in which a sequence of end-rhymes for each line is given to a player from which to compose an acceptable, even a skilful poem.

54 hum of bees: the sound of bees is a traditional indicator that fairies live in the vicinity.

55 lèse-majesté: French, causing offence to the monarch.

56 Salic law: the French legal tradition that held that a woman could never inherit the throne.

57 ordeal: an ironic reference to the inherent and un-human cruelty of Elfindom.

58 Morel and Amanita: both are names of poisonous mushrooms, which appear out of nowhere overnight.

59 Thomas of Ercildoune: True Thomas, Thomas the Rhymer, thirteenth-century Scottish laird from Berwickshire, reputed to have the gift of prophecy as well as poetry. He was famous for having been the lover of the Queen of Elfhame.

60 hawthorn brake: a stand of hawthorn trees, which produce white blossom after their green leaves have emerged.

61 composing draught: a drink to compose or soothe her disordered emotions, that is, a sedative.