Gally-Trot

Gally-Trot : Black Dog of southern England.

Etymology:

Possibly from the French gardez le tresor (“guard the treasure”); from gally (“frighten”) + the German Trötsch (“spirit”); or from the Frisian glay or gley (“shining”) + Trötsch.

Variant names:

Galley trot, Hound of the hill, White hound of Cator.

Physical description:

Size of a bullock. White, shaggy coat. Red ears.

Behaviour:

Chases people who try to run away from it.

Habitat:

Lives in hollow hills.

Distribution:

Norfolk and Suffolk; Leek Brook, Staffordshire; Pluckley, Kent; Wellington, Somerset; Bunbury, Cheshire; Dartmoor, Devon.

Sources:

Alasdair Alpin MacGregor, The Ghost Book (London: Robert Hale, 1955), pp. 55–81;
Ruth L. Tongue, “Traces of Fairy Hounds in Somerset,” Folklore 67 (1956): 233–234;
Ruth E. Saint Leger-Gordon, The Witchcraft and Folklore of Dartmoor (London: Robert Hale, 1965), p. 188;
Katharine M. Briggs, A Dictionary of Fairies (London: Allen Lane, 1976), pp. 183, 225–226;
Karl Shuker, “White Dogs and Fairy Hounds,” Strange Magazine, no. 19 (Spring 1998): 12–13.