Midlands and Northern England, 1880

 The pitmen in the Midland Counties have or had a belief, unknown to the North, in aerial whistlings, warning them against the pit. Who or what the invisible musicians were nobody pretended to know, but for all that they must have been counted and found to consist of seven, as the seven whistlers is the name they bear to this day.

Two goblins were believed to haunt the Northern mines. One was a spiteful elf who indicated his presence only by the mischief he perpetrated; he rejoiced in the name of "Cutty Soams," and appears to have employed himself only in the stupid device of severing the rope traces, or seams [scams?], by which an assistant putter, honoured by the title of 'the fool', is yoked to the tub. -The strands of hemp which were left all sound in the board at 'kenner-time' were found next morning severed in twain. 'Cutty Soams has been at work,' would the fool and his driver say, dolefully knotting the cord. The other goblin was altogether a more sensible, and indeed an honest and hard-working bogie, much akin to the Scotch brownie, or the hairy fiend whom Milton rather scurvily apostrophises as a lubber. 

The supernatural person in question was no other than a ghostly putter, and his name was 'Bluecap'. Sometimes the miners would see a light blue flame flicker through the air and settle on a full coal tub, which immediately moved towards the rolley-way as though impelled by the sturdiest sinews in working. Industrious Bluecap was at his vocation, but he required, and rightly, to be paid for his services, which he modestly rated as those of an ordinary average putter; therefore once a fortnight Bluecap's wages were left for him in a solitary corner of the mine. If they were a farthing below his due, the indignant Bluecap would not pocket a stiver; if they were a farthing above his due, the indignant Bluecap left the surplus where he found it.

The writer asked his informant, a hewer, wehter, if Bluecap's wages were now-a-days left him, he thought they would be appropriated. The man shrewedly answered he thought they would be taken by Bluecap or somebody else.

Cornubian and Redruth Times, 19th November 1880.