Professor George McGinn was born in London in 1839. He wrote extensively of a faraway place called 'The Forgotten Woodlands of Pondilly' which he claimed was a real place he was able to visit whilst daydreaming. The Woodlands, he said, were divided up into Fairydoms with each overseen by a nymph maiden who personified aspects of nature. The Professor said there were many nymphs and those that he had met included Belle Fleur of Forgotten Green (plants & flowers); Naiads of Forgotten Blue (freshwater); Oreads of Forgotten Umber (mountains) and Melissae of Forgotten Gold (honey bee).

According to the Professor, Pondilly (full name Pondillier and sometimes contracted further to Pondle) is a place you unknowingly drift into when daydreaming. It is neither here nor there but somewhere in between. It exists not before or after but alongside the present moment in time. Your visit is usually momentary before being quickly dissolved into a forgotten memory. Some awaken briefly within this wonderous place but are involuntarily winched back to the world from where they came. They are left with nothing but a residual imprint of what they perceive as a daydream. The Professor maintained that if you could learn to grasp the ephemeral moment in which you were caught when your head was in the clouds, you might be lucky enough to stay a little longer.

Many of the Professor's contemporaries at the time were skeptical of his claims of another world pointing out that he was a professor of cultural studies with a focus on folklaw and fairy tales. Some compared him to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who was infamously fooled into believing in the existence of the Cottingley fairies. Others compared him to those who fooled poor Sir Arthur.

The Professor mysteriously disppeared in 1894 never to be seen again raising speculation that he had fled the grey and mind-numbing monotony of the real world for his beloved Pondilly.

Whatever the truth of the matter, Professor George McGinn left behind a catalogue of hand drawn illustrations and accounts of his fairy tale experiences of Pondilly.