Editing Cottingley Fairies (section)

==1920 photographs==
Doyle was preoccupied with organising an imminent lecture tour of Australia, and in July 1920, sent Gardner to meet the Wright family. By this point, Frances was living with her parents in [[Scarborough, North Yorkshire|Scarborough]],{{sfnp|Smith|1997|p=385|ps=none}} but Elsie's father told Gardner that he had been so certain the photographs were fakes that while the girls were away he searched their bedroom and the area around the beck (stream), looking for scraps of pictures or cutouts, but found nothing "incriminating".{{sfnp|Magnusson|2006|p=102|ps=none}}

[[File:CottingleyFairies3.jpg|thumb|left|upright|alt=Photo|''Frances and the Leaping Fairy'', the third photograph]]

Gardner believed the Wright family to be honest and respectable. To place the matter of the photographs' authenticity beyond doubt, he returned to Cottingley at the end of July with two W. Butcher & Sons Cameo folding plate cameras and 24&nbsp;secretly marked photographic plates. Frances was invited to stay with the Wright family during the school summer holiday so that she and Elsie could take more pictures of the fairies.{{sfnp|Magnusson|2006|p=102|ps=none}} Gardner described his briefing in his 1945 ''Fairies: A Book of Real Fairies'':
{{blockquote|I went off, to Cottingley again, taking the two cameras and plates from London, and met the family and explained to the two girls the simple working of the cameras, giving one each to keep. The cameras were loaded, and my final advice was that they need go up to the glen only on fine days as they had been accustomed to do before and ''tice'' the fairies, as they called their way of attracting them, and see what they could get. I suggested only the most obvious and easy precautions about lighting and distance, for I knew it was essential they should feel free and unhampered and have no burden of responsibility. If nothing came of it all, I told them, they were not to mind a bit.<ref name=Cooper/>}}
Until 19 August the weather was unsuitable for photography. Because Frances and Elsie insisted that the fairies would not show themselves if others were watching, Elsie's mother was persuaded to visit her sister's for tea, leaving the girls alone. In her absence the girls took several photographs, two of which appeared to show fairies. In the first, ''Frances and the Leaping Fairy'', Frances is shown in profile with a winged fairy close by her nose. The second, ''Fairy offering Posy of [[Campanula rotundifolia|Harebells]] to Elsie'', shows a fairy either hovering or tiptoeing on a branch, and offering Elsie a flower. Two days later the girls took the last picture, ''Fairies and Their Sun-Bath''.{{sfnp|Magnusson|2006|pp=102–103|ps=none}}

The plates were packed in cotton wool and returned to Gardner in London, who sent an "ecstatic" telegram to Doyle, by then in [[Melbourne]].{{sfnp|Magnusson|2006|p=103|ps=none}} Doyle wrote back:
{{blockquote|My heart was gladdened when out here in far Australia I had your note and the three wonderful pictures which are confirmatory of our published results. When our fairies are admitted other psychic phenomena will find a more ready acceptance&nbsp;... We have had continued messages at seances for some time that a visible sign was coming through.{{sfnp|Magnusson|2006|p=103|ps=none}}}}{{clear}}