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.
SEE ALSO:
SOURCE:
Mysterious Creatures – A Guide to Cryptozoology written by George M. Eberhart – Copyright © 2002 by George M. Eberhart