A local poem of Trentham by Annie Keary, “Fairy Men”, written when living in Trent Vale, Stoke-upon-Trent in the mid nineteenth century. In the second half she has “Cobbolds” = Kobold work-fairies, which I have looked into here in relation to Tolkien.
FAIRY MEN
In Trentham woods […] I spied the fairy men.
[Various very conventional fairy troops are seen passing by, for five verses]
Last the sad stooping cobbolds came,
Through earth-holes small they creep;
With patient steps they struggle up
The under ways so steep:
For sins they are condemned to work
While other fairies sleep.
They carry tiny water-pails
Upon their shoulders small,
Toilsomely in the under world
Work they to fill them all:
Catching each raindrop as it drips
Through their dark cavern wall.
All night through fields and lanes they go,
And deftly as they run
They slip a dewdrop in each flower,
On each grass-blade hang one,
Yet dare not wait to see them turned
To diamonds by the sun.