Ok to the heart of it ... I feel mildly vindicated on re reading this.peter wrote: Now as to magic......
... I pine only for a thing that never existed in the first place (if such a thing an be done) - there never were sylvian glades surrounded by giant trees, emerald grass bespeckled with diminutive flowers of yellow, blue and the palest of green. But in my old foolishness I briefly wished that it had been so......
Pete those things you describe not only DID exist, they still exist. When I was a child I played in amongst Sylvian glades, adventured along wee becks and streams that meandered there way through rich meadows. Picked flowers of yellow and blue hues. Made daisy chains .. and looked for magical creatures as a child does.
I didnt enjoy these in built up urban centres .. I found them on the outskirts of villages and hamlets and in great open spaces. Raised in small villages along the English Scottish Borders. And I have it on good authority that not much has changed in those parts.
The magic is still.