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 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 FREDERICK M. SMITH 
 ENDOWMENT 
 
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 PRINTED INU.S.A 
 
 Cornell University Library 
 DX 118.G87 
 
 In Gipsy tents, 
 
 3 1924 028 693 632 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tlie Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028693632 
 
■':,-■<?•;'!■ 
 
 
IN GIPSY TENTS 
 
 FRANCIS HINDES GROOME, 
 
 AUTHOV OF ARTICLE ' GIPSIES ' IN THE ' ENCYCLOIVEUIA IIRITANXICA 
 
 EDINBURGH: 
 WILLIAM P. NIMMO & CO. 
 
 IS 80. 
 

^ist of Illustrations. 
 
 Gipsy Cami- — FroiUisfucc. 
 Gii'SY Ouu.~Titk. 
 Sylvester Boswell, 
 John Roberts, 
 Gu'siEs' Grave, 
 
 85 
 149 
 
 235 
 
"PAZORRHUS." 
 
 [OR Introduction I was writing a cartel 
 of defiance, when my adversary kindly 
 cut his throat, and by an odd coinci- 
 dence I was summoned to sit upon his remains. 
 Requiescat in pace — henceforth he may lie in peace, 
 inasmuch as it boots not to measure weapons with 
 a suicide. Speaking though of boots, there was 
 once a Parisian shoeblack who trained his dog to 
 dirty the clean boots of passers-by. He wanted a 
 job, poor lad ; and, had he had no dog, would 
 doubtless have somehow filled its place himself ; ^ 
 
 ' Note to Printer. — These lines to be spaced out widely, as there is 
 much to be read between them. 
 
vi " PAZORRHUS. 
 
 but, be this as it may, I must get on to make my 
 acknowledgments to dead and living. 
 
 Dead— for, alas ! the " Nine Men's morris is filled 
 up with mud ;" the author of Gipsy Experiences died" 
 whilst its reprint was passing through the press. But 
 Silvanus Lovell is flourishing, so are John Roberts 
 and Sylvester Boswell, and them I most heartily 
 thank for their "exercitations" on behalf of their race. 
 John starts to-morrow for the Caernarvon Eisteddfod ; 
 and, when last I heard of them, Sylvester was at 
 Blackpool, Silvanus " creeping slowly up for the 
 Black Mountains." 
 
 Next on my list of creditors stand Dr Bath C. 
 Smart and Mr H. T. Crofton, authors of The Dialect 
 of tlie English Gipsies ; M. Paul Bataillard, author 
 of L' apparition des Boliciniens en Europe (1844), and 
 of many later works ; the Rev. S. B. James, author 
 of " English Gipsies " in The Church of England 
 Magazine (August-December, 1875); and many con- 
 tributors to Notes and Queries. Next, Lieut.-Colonel 
 Fergusson ; Sir Walter Elliot ; Messrs Hyde Clark, 
 Fitzedward Hall, H. Sydney Grazebrook, W. T. 
 Marchant, F. A. Blayde, J. H. Turner, C. E. Mathews, 
 H. S. Brickhill, H. Kilgour, and E. Cockburn ; and 
 the Revs. R. W. Munby, T. Walton, George EUer, G. 
 F. Blakiston, C. P. Greene, H. W. Plumtre, E. H. 
 Everett, J. Collier, W. D. Underwood, W. D. Parish, 
 
' " PAZORRHUS. vii 
 
 J. W. Murray, J. H. Morton, H. Mitchell, A. D. 
 Taylor, J. Smith, and J. R. Jefferson. 
 
 To these clergymen, last but not least, I am 
 mainly indebted for what seems to me the most 
 curious portion of my volume — viz., Chapter Fifth, 
 which deals with Gipsy burial. Some day I hope to 
 expand this chapter into a separate pamphlet, to be 
 distributed among my Romani friends in England 
 and the Colonies. Therefore I beg of any one who 
 . may light upon registers or other documents relating 
 to the subject, to forward them either to Notes and 
 Queries, or to m)'self direct. 
 
 And so my book " goes," in John Roberts' phrase, 
 " before the world." Save where my hobby breaks 
 away here and there, and carries me maybe into 
 unfamiliar country, I have tried in it simply to 
 represent the Gipsies as I have found them, taking 
 neither the best nor the worst of their tribe, but just 
 those Gipsies whom I have longest known. Three- 
 fourths of my readers will never have exchanged a 
 word with Gipsies, and may be disposed to pin their 
 faith on bad names given centuries ago. I will only 
 remind such readers that harmless blindworms are 
 looked on by the peasantry all over England as 
 venomous beasts, to be hewn in pieces whenever 
 occasion offers. Not that Gipsies are by any means 
 faultless. As William Petulengro said to me only 
 
viii " PAZORRHUS." 
 
 three days since, " We're just middlin' kind o' people, 
 not perfect like gorgios, but" — only multiplied dashes 
 could complete the sentence. His cousin's wife, Mrs 
 Alfred Reynolds, had been reading to the family a. 
 book called Gipsy Life (London, 1880), in which 
 Gipsies are represented as firing ricks, farming 
 gorgios' babies, and kicking their own to death ; in 
 which " gutter-scum Gipsies," " ditchbank sculks," 
 and " agents of hell," are among their more kindly 
 epithets. 
 
 PORTOBF.U.O, July 2^, tSSo. 
 
IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 RT^in Jfirsi 
 
 NDER the shadow of Cader Idris a byway 
 leads from Dolgelly to the Cross Foxes 
 Inn. Halfway along that road I sat on a 
 summer evening in front of a Gipsy tent, 
 which was pitched, with six others, in a long narrow 
 meadow, fenced by a low stone wall. I had noticed 
 the Gipsies three hours ago passing above me as I 
 stood fishing in the stream below, had marked them 
 down to the accustomed camping ground, and pre- 
 sently, with seven small trout for contribution to their 
 tea, had joined them at that favourite Gipsy meal. 
 
 Old acquaintances most of them, they numbered 
 some thirty souls, of various ages, from a baby scarce 
 two months old to the grandfather of threescore years. 
 The latter, Silvanus Lovell, is worth describing. A 
 hale old man, he stands over six feet two ; his merry 
 nutbrown face is lighted up by dazzling teeth and a 
 pair of glittering hazel eyes ; his grizzling hair curls 
 
 A 
 
3 IN GirSY TENTS. 
 
 •round the brim of a high-crowned ribbon-decked hat. 
 A yellow silk neckerchief, brown velveteen coat with 
 crown-piece buttons, red waistcoat with spade-guinea 
 dittos, cord breeches, and leathern leggings, make up, 
 his holiday attire ; his left hand wields a silver-headed 
 whalebone whip ; and from a deep skirt-pocket peeps 
 forth the unfailing violin. 
 
 Seven sons has Silvanus, sons worthy of their sire, 
 all strapping fellows, and black but comely all, with 
 one exception — the first-born, Pyramus. His ruddy, 
 " gorgiofied " aspect betrays some far-away strain of 
 Gentile blood ; but at heart he is truest Gipsy of the 
 lot, the deepest speaker of the old Roman! tongue, 
 the most widely conversant with men and manners. 
 London is Pyramus' headquarters ; but Jersey, the 
 Highlands, and Ireland — he knows them all ; he has 
 met Mr Julius and Lavengro, " leastwise a portly, 
 white-haired gentleman, as told me more than ever I 
 knowed myself;" and lovingly he speaks of Eversley's 
 knickerbockered parson, " who went to heaven upon 
 us Gipsies' prayers." In Eversley church he wedded 
 Lucretia Pinfold, a Gipsy beauty of the Eastern 
 Counties, by whom he has only two children, against 
 the six of his oldest brother Plato, whose wife 
 Richenda comes of the swarthy Hemes. Wisdom and 
 Nathan have married two sisters, Rodi and Alabina 
 Wood, members of the chief Gipsy tribe of Wales; but 
 Loverin, the fifth and best-loved of the boys, is both a 
 widower and an "innocent," his wits lying buried in^ 
 the grave of a girlish bride, away in Clavering church- 
 
DRAMATIS PERSON.E. 3 
 
 yard. Lancelot and Anselo — one twenty, one sixteen 
 years of age — are still unmarried, as also are their two 
 youngest sisters, Ruth and Starlina, though these have 
 broken the hearts of half the lads in Wales and in the 
 Border shires. Patience and Shuri, the eldest daugh- 
 ters, are absent both of them, the first with her husband 
 Goliath Stanley in America, the other in Blankshire, 
 where she is married to a substantial yeoman. But 
 Sinfi, the middle girl, has brought gudeman and bairns 
 from Scotland to join the old people in their summer 
 ramble ; and they have made her welcome as the 
 flowers in May, albeit her marriage with a low 
 Tinkler like Willy Faa was looked on as a terrible 
 come-down. 
 
 Grandchildren, horses, ponies, donkeys, and dogs 
 would almost outnumber Homer's catalogue of ships ; 
 but Mistress Lementina Lovell demands a formal 
 introduction, if only for her sometimes royal rank. 
 Not much like a grandmother, this Gipsy queen ; but 
 then she is only fifty-seven years old, straight, lithe, 
 and able to walk three miles an hour, handsome withal, 
 if somewhat weatherworn. In girlhood she is said to 
 have strongly resembled her beautiful kinswoman, 
 Charlotta Stanley, and still she retains her girlhood's 
 ornaments. A gorgeous handkerchief covers her coal- 
 black curiously-plaited hair ; her ears' are pierced by 
 old-fashioned hoops of heavy gold ; a necklace of 
 amber, coral, and coins runs thrice about her neck ; 
 and her hands are bedizened with massy rings, one of 
 them wrought by Plato from a guinea welded upon 
 
4 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 three wedding rings. A parti-coloured apron over a 
 short blue woollen dress, and naily boots, complete, 
 with a cutty pipe. Dame Lementina's " landscape," for 
 she has doffed the monging-guno, or alms-cloth, in 
 which, as in some mendicant friar's hood, are stowed 
 the bread-winnings of her daily rounds. 
 
 These Gipsies, I said, were old acquaintances, seen 
 first at Chester Races thirteen years ago, and last in a 
 Gloucestershire lane a twelvemonth back, and our 
 present meeting was as pleasant as unlooked for. 
 " How art thou, brother ? sit down and eat," was all 
 that Silvanus said ; but the children were noisier in 
 their greeting, so noisy, indeed, that grandmother 
 threatened that " hellhound's breed " should pack off 
 supperless to bed. The threat was emptier than its 
 recipients by the end of tea, where my poor trout 
 were lost in the creelful caught by Plato from a 
 brooklet skirting the Dinas Mowddy road. Not that 
 fish formed our only fare, for there were eggs and 
 bacon, oatcakes and mighty loaves of Welsh brown 
 bread, cheese and fresh butter, tea such as only Gipsies 
 brew, and milk bought warm and foaming at a penny 
 the pail from milkmaids in the meadow opposite. So 
 " frightfully satiated," in German phrase, we sat around 
 the fire, as Gipsies sit even on summer nights, and 
 spoke of the year gone by, of absent friends, of matters 
 of Egypt generally, but first of the weather, as was 
 but natural in rainy Wales. 
 
 Pyramus told how, having left his waggon at Chester, 
 he joined his father up in Anglesey. "It was well 
 
A SUMMER NIGHT. 5 
 
 enough in the Island, but soon as ever we got among 
 the poverty mountains it came to rain, — rained as if 
 it was never going to hold. First night we stopped 
 the other side of Bettws, on the slope of a tump 
 that was like a waterfall by morning, and everything 
 got drownded there. I wanted to stay next day at 
 Bettws ; but no, my daddy would have us keep racing 
 on like dogs ; so race we did, through mist and rain, 
 to just this side of Herod's Castle" — 
 
 " Herod's ? " 
 
 " Ay, him as killed the babies, brother ; and there 
 we got the tents up, though the ground was that 
 sopping wet that Nathan said the brook was the driest 
 place ; and hardly a bit of straw to lie on neither. 
 Well, bor, we had just got made, when, blest if the 
 wind didn't turn slap round right into the tents. It 
 was too late then to shift, so by-and-bye half the 
 places were blown clean inside out, and the rest all 
 scampered off to a great big barn close by, where they 
 got up a roaring fire, and managed pretty comfortable. 
 That wouldn't do for me, though, for I'd no mind to 
 see all my bits of things drownded again ; and, if 
 you'll believe me, I was up over half the night digging 
 trenches, and sticking in pinthorns, and piling stones 
 to keep the blankets down. You'd hear the wind 
 come roaring down the valley, then it would go dead 
 still a minute, and then rush it would come, and the 
 rods would be bending and blankets flapping just like 
 a great gig-umbrella. Ay, and I was the umbrella 
 stick, for I had to hang on to the ridge-pole to keep 
 
6 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 things standing. Dordi ! dordi ! I smoked a whole 
 rickful of tobacco, and said my prayers twice over ; 
 and how I kept looking at the time every live 
 minutes, against the light should come. Before then 
 the wind dropped a bit, and I dropped too, glad 
 enough, with all my wet rags on, into bed. By-and- 
 bye I fell a dreaming as I'd been up fiddling to Squire 
 Patersall's, and the butler had filled me out with cider 
 till I was three parts drunk, and Plato was pumping 
 on me to get me sober. I woke up, half like, and, sure 
 enough, there was drip, drip, drip coming right on the 
 tip of my big nose. And where do you think it came 
 from ? why, off old Tinker's tail ; for three of the 
 neddies, poor animals, had backed into the tent, and 
 there they stood, all three of a row, just like a valentine 
 what a young lady (not you, Lucretia) sent me from 
 Beckbury once. I couldn't for the life of me help 
 laughing, though I was angry too ; but there ! you 
 might shout to those blessed donkeys. They'd just 
 budge an inch, and then keep back, backing again, 
 and looking round at me as much as to say, ' I'm very 
 sorry to disannul you, sir ; but outside there is more 
 than a man can stand.' I was better off than Wisdom, 
 though, for one of the creatures got into his place, and 
 ate up three whole loaves of bread." 
 
 "As bad a nightmare, Pyramus, as Zacky Lee's 
 white donkey." 
 
 " Zacky Lee," said Silvanus, pausing in act to poke 
 the fire ; " I mind him well, rei'a, but nought particular 
 about his donkey. How was that ? " 
 
FAIRIES. 7 
 
 " Only that he was stopping one night in a meadow 
 at Pewsey, and thought he saw his donkey loose out- 
 side the tent, so went to hobble it. But the nearer he 
 tried to come at it the farther off it always was from 
 him, till at last he knew it was the Devil, and a pretty 
 dance it led him half the night." 
 
 " Comical that was ; but, bless you, I've often known 
 the same myself Lots of places we never could get 
 one wink of sleep at, and then in the morning folks 
 have told us as some one had been murdered there. 
 But the curiousest thing that ever happened to we 
 was at Friar's Ditton, off by the Clee Hills yonder. 
 It must have been nigh about twelve o'clock at night, 
 and we were stopping in a bit of a wood, with a little 
 brook running down below. It was Lemmy here, she 
 heard some very curious tunes right atween the tents, 
 but nigher the boys' than ours. Just like a lot of 
 fiddles it was, a long way off, but wonderful clear and 
 sweetsome; and Lemmy kicked me — but there! I never 
 took no hearkenings, only grunted ; leastwise so she 
 said next morning. And the boys, they hadn't heard 
 nought neither, but the bailiff of the fine doctor said, 
 'Oh! I've often heard that myself; that's the fairies.' " 
 
 " Fairies ! The last occasion, I take it, that fairies 
 were heard in England. How long ago may that 
 have been ? " 
 
 " Three years come Nathan's birthday. But these 
 Welsh farmers, some of 'em leastwise, set bowls of 
 milk out every evening, and they're sure to be empty 
 by morning." 
 
8 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 "A cat, or snake, maybe. I know of a dairy down 
 in Dorsetshire where they found the milk going, and 
 set a snare, and caught a snake a night for ten days 
 running." 
 
 " Ay, ay," said Lementina ; " Dorsetshire's terrible 
 overrun with reptiles. I mind me well, when I was a 
 girl nigh Lina's age, Perun (God rest his soul !) and 
 Emperor Buckland were cutting corn at GilHngham, 
 and we went on and left them at it. My daddy had 
 a lot of ponies then, and me and my cousin Savoury 
 stayed behind with a little bay and a brown one, 
 letting 'em eat along the road. And at the cross- 
 roads we stopped to put down patrins^ for the boys. 
 And as I pulled a bit of moss from the bank, I got 
 rolling it and rolling it about in my hand, speaking to 
 her the while, about our sweethearts belike, rubbish as 
 all young Romani girls gets chattering. Well, I felt 
 something tickle the middle of my hand, and when I 
 opened it to look, d6rdi ! there was a young snake 
 sticking its head up out of the moss in my hand. 
 Down I pitched it 'mediately, and it scrawled out at 
 its full ugly length, and Savoury and me picks up a 
 stone apiece, and killed it between us. Lord ! and 
 there was a lot of snakes thereabouts in the walls — 
 adders. I'd rather walk on a mile any day than sit 
 down aside the road. 
 
 " Then I remember Perun, when he was only four- 
 
 ' Pdtrins, heaps of grass or leaves laid at cross-roads to indicate to 
 loiterers the route that they must follow. Gipsies of England, Ger- 
 many, Norway, &c., are all familiar with the "patrin-chase," as also 
 were the Thugs of India. 
 
SNAKE-LORE. 9 
 
 teen, but that was in Devonshire. I had been washing 
 the day before down by a Httle stream, and close to 
 where I had made the fire there was a big flat stone, 
 and underneath that stone there was a great grey 
 snake. Perun had seen it, but I never did ; it was a 
 mercy it hadn't stung me. Ay, bor, so my poor 
 brother he got up early next morning in his shirt, no 
 shoes nor nothing on, went to the place where he had 
 seen this snake, and lifted up the stone. There it lay, 
 curled up and frightful to look at ; but it would take 
 something to fright him. He killed it, and brought it 
 on a stick to the place — a long one it was, and awfully 
 thick — and he hung it up on a fir-tree close by my 
 mammy's tent." 
 
 " Now, our old people had a curious way with 
 snakes," said Nathan's Welsh Gipsy wife. " When one 
 of us children killed an adder, my daddy would cut it 
 in half with a whip or a stick, and the head he would 
 put on the right side of the road, and the tail on the 
 left. Then my mother would walk between them 
 first, my daddy next to her, and all we children after 
 them in a row, from the eldest down to the littlest. 
 And my poor mother used to say some funny words 
 to herself, what none of us never knew or ever did ; 
 but for certain when we used to go through that per- 
 formance, my mother would not be long before she 
 had a pocketful of gold." 
 
 A pitying smile played on Silvanus' face, as he 
 gravely observed, " That was a superstition, Alabina, 
 and superstitions are things I never vindicates. If 
 
lO IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 you want superstitions, you must go to your Uncle 
 Gilderoy." 
 
 " Gilderoy ! I was near forgetting him. How has 
 the world been using him, Silvanus ? " 
 
 " Oh ! right enough, for anything I can tell. He's 
 balder a bit than when you saw him, and — but, I say, 
 rei'a, have you seen that nice gentleman by Chelten- 
 ham lately ? " 
 
 Silvanus spoke with reserve about his brother, who 
 I knew was suspected of dabbling in godless arts, and 
 his question was plainly meant to change the subject 
 of our conversation. But Anselo, free from his father's 
 scruples, burst forth impetuously : — 
 
 " Balder! no wonder, too, when it's his master fetch- 
 ing every scrap of hair off his wicked old head. He'll 
 tell you himself plump out that he has sold his blood, 
 and now he has found out some new wise man down 
 Aberystwith way. One day you'll see him without a 
 penny to bless himself, and the children '11 say, ' By 
 Job, my daddy han'na got much money now;' but wait 
 a week, and he'll be boasting about with thirty pound 
 in his pocket. He took Lucas with him — that's my 
 second cousin — last time he went, and Lucas was 
 telling us all about it. It is some great gentleman 
 seemingly, a kind of farmer, and he knowed they 
 were coming, knowed their names, brother, for says he, 
 ' I thought I should see you, Mr Lovell, before very 
 long.' There was ever so many other gentlemen 
 feasting and drinking in the parlour, and Lucas too 
 he feasted and drank, and then the wise man took 'em 
 
A WHITE CROW. 1 1 
 
 into a back room, and then he fell to beating the 
 sods " — 
 
 " Beating the sods ! And what may that be, An- 
 selo ? " 
 
 " Oh ! I don't quite know rightly, but that was what 
 my cousin said. He sat on the sods, and beat 'em ; 
 and then they comed away. But a few days after 
 Lucas and Dosia met him out in the road, and he 
 made them so as they could'nt stir." 
 
 " And what do you say to all this, Silvanus ? " 
 
 " I don't quite know, reia ; anyhow, I don't hold 
 with such doings noways. To go running in the face 
 of the blessed Lord like that is heresy ; and heresy is 
 a thing as /should be disdainful of. It does'nt do no 
 good neither. I'm better off than Gilderoy any day, 
 for all his cunning men ; still, I know some of they 
 gentry can do things as would make you open your 
 eyes a bit. Maybe you never heard of the waggoner's 
 boy at Chapel Bottom." 
 
 " No. What of him ? " 
 
 " That's near Knighton in Radnorshire, and this 
 boy's master set him to mind the crows, while he went 
 off to Knighton fair. He was'nt gone five minutes 
 when the boy was after him, and by-and-bye they 
 came against one another in the crowd. ' Be you 
 tenting the crows ? ' asks the master, main angry ; and 
 the boy he answered, bold as brass, ' Oh ! yes, sir; I've 
 got 'em all in the barn.' Sure enough, when his master 
 got back and came to look, there was the crows, all in 
 the barn together, and nought but a rake to stop 'em. 
 
12 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 He had put the rake like at the pitch-hole, and there 
 was one white crow among the lot. That boy growed 
 up to be an old, old man, and was a regular sort of a 
 conjuror. Why, the farmers have told us that scores 
 and scores of times, when we went up to the farms a 
 i^ddling." 
 
 The tale was told with that unquestioning faith in 
 the incredible, which, deeply rooted in the Gipsy 
 mind, scorns only unknown " heresies " and " super- 
 stitions." It set me pondering. In the rake I recog- 
 nised the " holy mawle," the hammer of Thor, or, in 
 Radnorshire, rather of some Celtic deity. Thor's 
 hammer was, of course, the thunderbolt, the Molnija 
 of Slavonic tribes, a word that as malt'cna has passed 
 into the Gipsy tongue. " When you see the mah'ma, 
 you will hear the guriben " (thunder, h'L, lowing of 
 oxen), said Wester Lee to me at Netting Hill ; but 
 most English Gipsies can express " thunder " and 
 " lightning " only by such periphrases as " the voice 
 of God," " God's light." Then, what strange beliefs 
 have Gipsies about the Cross, beliefs that carry one 
 back to old pre-Christian days. Trisjila, the Sanskrit 
 name of Siva's blood-stained trident, has been by them 
 transferred to the emblem of man's redemption, and 
 again has been debased by German Gipsies to signify 
 a club or kreuz at cards. And any little English 
 Gipsy child will tell you how, if you see a rainbow and 
 cross two sticks, its colours will fade away. As indeed 
 they will, if only you wait long enough. Some Gipsies 
 set their boots crosswise before they go to bed, fancy- 
 
CHARMS. 1 3 
 
 ing thereby to keep away the cramp ; but the Lovells 
 knew nothing of any such practice, and treated it as 
 an old wife's tale. Lementina, however, with grimly 
 conscious triumph, dived into the deep leathern pouch 
 that is worn between the skirt and petticoat, and 
 after much rummaging drew forth a " fairy foot," 
 asking me if I knew what that might be. It was 
 the skeleton foot of some small animal, but of what 
 I could not say ; so, after vainly guessing, I gave 
 it up. " A mole's," she answered ; " and it's good 
 for rheumatism." This led to a discourse on Romani 
 charms, and I learnt, what I knew before, that babies 
 in teething should wear a necklace made of myrtle 
 stems, which for a boy must be cut by a woman, by a 
 man for a girl. 
 
 Alablna declared that an adder's slough, or a bit of 
 mountain ash, was certain to bring good luck ; while 
 Sinfi's children, it appeared, wore round their necks 
 black bags containing fragments of a bat, which one 
 of the boys had killed. In turn, I told them how a 
 wise man near Aldershot, a Gipsy house-dweller, had 
 given me a charm for hurting an enemy, viz., to stick 
 pins in a red cloth rag and burn the same, and how I 
 had imparted this charm to an Essex labourer. He 
 heard me eagerly, and then exclaimed, " I'll try that ; 
 'strue's alive, I'll try that on my brother, I 'ool," moved 
 solely it would seem by the spirit of scientific research, 
 and lacking a viler subject for the experiment. Oddly 
 enough none of my Gipsy friends had heard of this 
 incantation, which, under varying forms, is as ancient 
 
14 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 as it is widely spread. Virgil knew of it, and it was 
 ennployed against the Nizam of the Deccan by the 
 ladies of his harem sixty years ago, much as against 
 King Henry VI. of England by Margery Jourdain,i 
 the cunning witch of Eye. But Wisdom capped me 
 with the story of his wife's cousin, Bob. 
 
 " When my Aunt Silvina ran off with another man. 
 Will Solomon, Bob was keeping an inn at Barmouth, 
 and soon as he heard the news, he left his father, put 
 his harp on his back, and went off to a cunning man. 
 He told Bob to buy a pennyworth of new pins, then 
 to find a toad, and stick all the pins in its back 
 and belly, till it looked like a hedgehog. Next he was 
 to go and dig a hole at the foot of a grave where one 
 of Will Solomon's kinsfolk was buried, and there at 
 midnight he was to bury the cup with the toad 
 covered up in it by a piece of slate. The wise man 
 told him, too, to go in five weeks' time, and dig up 
 toad and cup, and if he did'nt do that he was safe to 
 go mad himself; but if it was all done right. Will 
 Solomon would go off his head. So poor silly Bob 
 did everything the wise man bade him, except that 
 he made a mistake in not finding the right grave, 
 neither did he go there to raise the cup at twelve 
 o'clock, as the man had told him. Which was the 
 
 ' It may be noted that Jourdain was a Gipsy name in the reign of 
 Elizabeth. At least, in State Papers, Domestic Series, Vol. li. No. Ii, 
 is a list of " sturdey vacabownds " taken and whipped at Higham 
 Ferrers, in Northamptonshire, on 26th March 1569, where we find that 
 " YXizzkiii'On Jurdayne had a pasport delyveryd her to go to Lowek in ye 
 countie of North' within two dayse." 
 
ROMANI VALOUR. I 5 
 
 cause of my^cousin going off his head, and died so at 
 Caernarvon. He was an excellent harper." 
 
 " That's true, of course, Nathan ? " 
 
 " True ! brother ; it's as true as the coaches runs up 
 London streets. Why " — 
 
 " For goodness sake don't chatter, boys, no more 
 about such things, if you don't wish to have the devil 
 by you all night long. The wizards are always on." 
 
 The interruption came from Lementina, weary of 
 talk of ghosts and witches ; the more so in the eerie 
 darkness. For night had fallen and the stars shone 
 down on us through . driving clouds. The firelight 
 cast strange, uncertain shadows, and glittered in the 
 children's big dark eyes, while from the hillside 
 came the whirr of the " knifegrinder," a bird whose 
 Gentile name I do not know. So, wishing to shift 
 the current of our discourse, my hostess asked where 
 I had been since I said farewell to them by Chipping- 
 Sodbuiy. 
 
 " Rolling about, mother ; rolling about, rubbing off 
 what little moss I had gathered. Across the water, in 
 Germany, and farther still." 
 
 " Ay, that's the way ; but Garmany ! I would'nt go 
 there. That's where the war was, isn't it, as scared us 
 so ? Reconcile, my brother's lad, was with us then, 
 and he and the boys got and dressed themselves up 
 in their sisters' clothes, for fear of being took for 
 soldiers. And Reconcile did more, for he got lime 
 and put it on the tops of his fingers, and burnt 'em 
 down, so as he could'nt hold nothing." 
 
l6 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 " Rather silly in Reconcile ; the war had nothing 
 at all to do with us. But that's an old Romani trick. 
 It is curious, too, for Romane fight well enough when 
 angry, or when they see there is anything to be gained^ 
 by fighting. There were some famous Gipsy prize- 
 fighters, Cooper, Winter, Oliver, Jim Mace" — 
 " What," put in Pyramus, " is he a Romano ? " 
 " So I believe; but your wife should know best about 
 the Maces, for they, like her, belong to Norfolk. I never 
 set eyes on Jim, though I'm told he has returned from 
 America, and is keeping a iish-shop in London ; but 
 Foley, one of his cousins, and I are old acquaint- 
 ances. He is a thorough Gipsy, if you like ; has been 
 in America, too, but travels Scotland now. I expect 
 you must have met him," I added, addressing myself 
 to Willy Faa, who hitherto had modestly kept silence. 
 Will is a sandy-haired, grey-eyed, raw-boned man, 
 presenting inwardly, as outwardly, a striking contrast 
 to his brothers-in-law. Their tongues are seldom still, 
 and Romanes is their speech among themselves, while 
 from their English you would hardly tell what part of 
 England they are natives of Will, on the other hand, 
 is taciturn, the more so here, where his brethren laugh 
 at his broad Lowland Scotch ; and what little Romanes 
 he has, was learnt from Sinfi, his English Gipsy wife. 
 However, if once he can shake off a seeming deep 
 mistrust, common to Tinklers and ill-used mongrel 
 curs, he has a fund of Border tale and song ; and now 
 he answers, with an accent which Anselo mimics, 
 and which I do but faintly reproduce, that Foley and 
 
WILLY THE SILENT. 1 7 
 
 he are very good friends, and were last together at 
 Edinburgh Hallowe'en Fair. 
 
 " Eh ! mon, there was a perfect ceremony wi' thae 
 Maces and Reynolds when Queen Victoria cam' doun 
 to Dumbar a twalmonth syne. The papers was jeest 
 full o' the Gipsy queen (that's Foley's wife, ye ken), and 
 his gude-mither and her ither dochter. They were a' 
 of them dressed in purple and velvets, and the men 
 in their scarlet coats. Fuir bodies, they've had sair 
 trouble sin' then. First the auld gentleman. Master 
 Reynolds, died. He was always wearying to win 
 back hame ; and Tammy was clean broken-heartit, and 
 followed his faither before six months was ower. He 
 died at Dalkeith, but they carried him a' the way to 
 Dumbar, and laid him by the auld man's side. Troth ! 
 but it's a terrible break-up. They were the only real 
 Romanies travelled Scotland, barrin' me " (here Anselo 
 whistled) " and Sinfi ; and I mind weel when they first 
 came up frae England, eleven year syne, wi' thae ither 
 Romanies wha went aboot gie'in the Gipsy balls. 
 Eh ! but they're mighty fine folk the Reynolds, wi' 
 their braw camps, and caravans, and brakes. Free- 
 masons, too, the young men were, and awfu' golf- 
 players. And horses! why, I ken last Hallowe'en Fair, 
 Alfred himsel' had sixteen horses, and that wad be 
 ower twa hundred pound and main The o-arg'ies'W 
 jeest mak 'em pay, though, where'er they're campit ; 
 i a guinea a week I think it was at Musselburgh, and 
 ; hardly a bite o' grass for the puir beasties. And the 
 i scavengers wad come to the camps to clean awa the 
 
1 8 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 ashes and siclike, jeest the same as if it was some 
 grand gentleman's house ; and I've seen the high- 
 fliers and puir poverty Tinklers come beggin' up to 
 them ; ay ! and get mair than they'd get fra the haill ^ 
 o' Musselburgh. Hoot awa ! I'm tellin' a lee, sayin' 
 I had'na seen them sin' last November. We were 
 campit jeest oot o' Edinburgh, Sinfi and I, a fort- 
 night afore we cam doun here, at a place they ca' 
 Craiglockart, in a field belongs to a verra honest man, 
 wi' a lot o' kye ; and on Sabbath I said to Sinfi, I'd 
 jeest gang ower to Musselburgh to see an auld aunt 
 of mine. She lives in Fisherrow, and you can see the 
 camps fra there, gin ony one's stoppin' on the Links. 
 So I saw thae great big tents, and jeest steppit ower. 
 Alfred and Foley were sittin' outbye smokin' ; so, after 
 we'd had a bit crack, ' Where's Tam ? ' says I ; and 
 then I heard that he was gone a fortnight syne, and 
 I was sair vexed, for he was a pleasant canny body 
 was Tam ; nae sae muckle as Alfred, but keen as a 
 razor's edge." 
 
 Willy was coming out with a vengeance, and Wis- 
 dom, ascribing his eloquence to the Cross Foxes Inn, 
 murmured the Romani byeword, " A hedgehog will 
 I ! ?n when he is wet." But it was joy, not eloquence, 
 ..■iHt loosened this Earl of Little Egypt's tongue. A 
 Tinkler is as much more patriotic than an English 
 Gipsy as he is far more mixed with native blood ; and 
 Willy was overjoyed to meet with one who understood 
 " braid Scots," knew every hole and corner of Auld 
 Reekie, and had even conversed with Her Majesty | 
 
QUEEN ESTHER. I9 
 
 Esther Faa Blyth, in her cottage palace on the English 
 Border. She is his kinswoman, and he now inquired 
 after the venerable Tinkler queen. 
 
 I told him that, when I was at Kirk Yetholm last 
 New Year's Day, she was hale and merry enough — 
 " Blyth by name and blithe by nature," to quote her 
 royal pun. I had found her all by herself, for one of 
 her sons was at Berwick ; another, Prince Robert, had 
 " got into trouble through a dirty policeman ; " and 
 the daughter was out at service at some great gentle- 
 man's hard by. " 'Tis a sin and a shame," said Esther, 
 " that she, a princess born, should wait on others, be 
 they ever such highborn gentry. I have said, and I'll 
 stick to it, that they ought to rise up and let her sit 
 down ; but there's chance in life, and the Chancery 
 Court in London." She had chatted away, shown me 
 a sword that belonged to one of her " auncestors," but 
 really, I fancy, was taken in a smuggling fray ; had 
 related how, when she came to Edinburgh, the guards 
 before Holyrood presented arms ; and had told me 
 that Mary Queen of Scots was so passing fair that the 
 wine could be seen as it ran down her throat.' Every 
 place that she goes to she "studies its antiquities;" 
 but as to her powers of rokering Romanes, I had to 
 confess, in answer to a question from Silvanus, that 
 
 ' I have met with this singular standard of fairness in a recent three- 
 volume novel, and also in the story of Fair Rosamond, as told nie by 
 Cinderella Smith, a Gipsy house-dweller at Headington, near Oxford ; 
 one detail in which story is worth preserving, — that close to the Bower 
 still stands a holy briar, which, being enchanted, bleeds if a twig be 
 plucked. 
 
20 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 Her Majesty calls " sugar" sweetnavis, " fire" glimmer, 
 "tea" slap, and "a sixpence" tanner, while half of 
 her few genuine Romani words are basely clipped or 
 otherwise corrupted. She cannot follow the simplest 
 sentence addressed to her in Anglo- Romanes, as 
 neither can any of her Tinkler subjects, unless, like 
 Willy, they have dwelt with their deeper English 
 Gipsy brethren. The fact is strange, since the Faas 
 and Baillies, the Browns and Youngs of the sixteenth, 
 seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries would seem to 
 have fully equalled the Boswells, Lovells, Stanleys, 
 and Hemes in Egypt's wisdom and Egyptian wiles ; 
 but through frequent intermarriages with Gentiles, the 
 stream of Scoto-Romani blood has lost in depth what 
 it has gained in width, and many, besides, of the chief 
 Gipsy families have migrated to England, the Colonies, 
 or the States. 
 
 Silvanus grunted. He seemed to have scant sym- 
 pathy for Gipsies who had all but forgotten their 
 ancient mother-tongue, who called " tents " camps, and 
 who could not stomach hotchiwitchi (hedgehog), which 
 Willy knew only by the name of " urchin." 
 
 " Urchins, quotha ! and chittiesl " and the old man 
 jerked a contemptuous thumb at his son-in-law's tripod 
 pot-hook, dear to all would-be painters of Gipsy life, 
 but utterly " mumply " in a Lovell's eyes. " Chitties ! 
 more like a gallows than a kettle-prop ; the very 
 Gloucestershire trampers would scorn to be seen 
 with it." 
 
 A storm was imminent ; but Lementina artfully 
 
" GOOD NIGHT." 21 
 
 proclaimed that it was time for all good folks to be 
 abed, whither the children had long betaken them- 
 selves. So " Good-night, all," and " Same to you, 
 brother;" and, nightcap-pipe in mouth, I made for 
 the farm, a half mile distant, where I was lodging 
 all that wet July. 
 
raptor Sttoni). 
 
 T was a delicate clear morning, when at 
 seven o'clock I started for the river, to 
 bathe and fish. At the tents I found the 
 elders still abed, all but Piscator Plato, 
 who had taken his angle two hours and more ago ; 
 but the children were up, and the boys of course must 
 come and see me swim. Whooping and hooting, 
 the "Jacobmes" (their grandmother's pet scolding 
 epithet) set off, and I was nothing loth to have their 
 company. 
 
 No one is fond of Gipsies, but is fonder of Gipsy 
 children,- — odd compounds of pluck and shyness, of 
 cheek and courtesy, of thoughtlessness and meditation, 
 of quicksilver gaiety and quaint old-fashionedness. 
 
 " Who taught this pleading to unpractised eyes? 
 Who hid such import in an infant's gloom ? 
 Who lent thee, child, this meditative gaze? 
 
 Who massed, round that slight brow, the clouds of doom?" 
 
 So Matthew Arnold asked of the Gipsy child whom 
 he met by the seashore in the Isle of Man ; and 
 that child, I have fancied, was possibly Lavinia Lee, 
 
BALAAM REDIVIVUS. 23 
 
 my dear little Gipsy friend of bygone years, whose 
 brightness hid unfathomable gloom indeed. One hour 
 romping with Oliver and baby Omi, the next she would 
 be moved to passionate weeping by the sound of the 
 Painswick bells ; and, did you ask her why she wept, 
 would answer, " Because of the poor dead people lying 
 beneath, who cannot hear them." Lavi herself can 
 hear no more the bells ; but I, as I stood in the dewy 
 turf-edged lane, could hear the keck-keck of the red- 
 billed blackbird as he flew from a missile shot by 
 Christopher, could hear the shouts with which his miss 
 was hailed by Dimiti, Mantis, Adam, and all the rest. 
 
 One carried my towel, another my rod ; the rest 
 would have carried me, and, failing that, offered a 
 mount upon Richenda's Jenny. I declined the offer, 
 for who was I to ride upon white asses ? — asses, 
 moreover, that were ghost-seers, as was White Jenny, 
 according to Mantis' tale : — 
 
 " That was in Pooler's Lane, again the other side of 
 Newport, bor ; and it was about ten o'clock in the 
 morning, just when we were going to have our breaks- 
 fast. My daddy was out at the back of the tent 
 washing himself, and the neddy got galloping up the 
 lane, and looking through the hedge, and trembling 
 all of a dither. Nigher to the tent she came ; and 
 then, when my daddy called us out to look at the 
 neddy, we was going down the lane to catch her. 
 Short round she turned, and jumped right over the 
 hedge. A high bank it was, very high, and then 
 quickset on the top, and some wooden pales put 
 
24 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 abackside of that. I'll swear any horse couldn't do 
 it ; and such a short distance as she had of it. Then 
 Anselo runned arter her across the field, and catched 
 her, and then brought her down the lane and tied her 
 legs. She keeped looking across that same road, and 
 next thing we heard was that my old granny was 
 dead. She always used to ride on a white neddy too, 
 and you may be sure our old Jenny saw her coming. 
 And if we children hadn't made a row, you may depend 
 my daddy or some on us would have seen something 
 too. But I never saw another neddy jump so in my 
 life. Lord bless us ! it did jump some height. A real 
 hunting horse couldn't have done it." 
 
 " That was Richenda's mother. Mantis ? " 
 "Ay, bor; and it was miles away in Yorkshire that 
 she died. She was a very old woman indeed. ' Old 
 Abigail Hearne,' the Gentiles called her ; but Sanspray 
 was her properer name. The people came for miles 
 to see the funeral, and they buried her close by my 
 grandfather in Rossington churchyard. Last time we 
 seen her was at Peterborough Fair, in the fields where 
 the railways run, and she didn't hardly know us then, 
 but was going to tell us all our fortunes. And my 
 Aunt Starli'na made herself like some young lady 
 wanting to have her's told, and she gave the poor old 
 body a halfpenny for a shilling. My mother did just 
 welt it on to Lina for that ; and sarve her right." 
 
 "And she'd carry clothes-pegs round her neck," 
 said Dimiti, " right up to the very day she died. The 
 moment she got up she'd tie 'em up in a blue silk 
 
ROMANI MAGPIE. 25 
 
 handkerchief, and put the monging-guno on. Sun- 
 days and week-days was just the same to her. And 
 she carried in her pocket a Httle china dog dressed Hke 
 a doll. I mind she lost it once, and she was in an 
 awful state till it was found ; and she used to fancy it 
 would talk to her when she was all alone smoking her 
 pipe up in the waggon. You should have seen a pack 
 she had of very old fortune-telling cards, which was 
 painted different colours. She used to select the dif- 
 ferent ones for each day ; sometimes she would have 
 those with the devil and sarpents on 'em, then other 
 days she would carry those with birds and palaces." 
 
 Now, as we walked, there lighted on the road before 
 us a " Romani magpie," or water-wagtail, and Chris- 
 topher, son of Pyramus, chanted the Gipsy formula, — 
 
 " Is it any kin to me, it will fly, it will fly ; 
 Is it any kin to me, it will fly, it will fly." 
 
 No, it scarce hopped aside to let us pass, so Christo- 
 pher proclaimed that we should see strange Gipsies ;' 
 and lo ! a turn in the lane broug-ht us in sig-ht of what 
 
 ' To Gipsies all over England the water-wagtail is known as the 
 "■Romano ckiriklo," or "Gipsy magpie," and they believe that its 
 appearance foretells a meeting with other Gipsies, kinsfolk or strangers, 
 according as it flies or does not fly away ; also that the Gipsy lad who 
 kills one of these birds is sure to have a lady for his sweetheart (suvila 
 raihti). According to Dr Richard Liebich's Zigcwier in ihrevi Wesen 
 und in ihrer Sprache (Leipzig, 1S63), German Gipsies also designate the 
 water-wagtail as "Romano tschii-Aulo." Why, Dr Leibich omitted to 
 inquire. It is a noteworthy fact that the Greeks had a saying, as old at 
 least as the 5th century B.C., "Poorer than a kinklos" ((cl7/c\os = water- 
 wagtail), and that peasants in the 3rd century A.D. called homeless 
 vagabonds kinkloi. I do not seek to derive, with Erasmus and Pierius, 
 
26 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 seemed to verify his words — two tattered, low, smoked 
 tents, pitched in a hollow by the wayside. But " tink, 
 tink, tink," came the sound of a whitesmith's hammer, 
 announcing that these were no gentle Roman^ but, 
 Irish Crinks,— " Some of Lacky Fury's breed," said 
 scornful Dimiti. At least the wielder of the hammer 
 was black enough, though whether from innate swar- 
 thiness or ingrained grime it were hard to determine. 
 I could but hazard a remark in Romanes, " Sor shan, 
 pala? ri'nkeno saulo si" (How d'ye do, brother? a 
 beautiful morning). He paused a moment with up- 
 lifted hammer, shot a mistrusting glance at us, and 
 curtly answering, " I dunna jon your cant," went on 
 with the milkpail he was fashioning. We went on 
 with our walk, and, when we were out of earshot, 
 Christopher observed that the Crinks knew just as 
 much Romanes as Sinfi's man. 
 
 " Why, Willy knows a fairish bit, and the old fellow 
 yonder seems to know something too. His ^jon' 
 
 Cingarus (ZYngzxo, Tchinghiane, Zigeuner, &c.) from kinklos, "a water- 
 wagtail," believing these words to have been as distinct originally as 
 Gipsies (Egyptians) and vifseys ox gipseys (eruptions of water in the East 
 Riding of Yorkshire ; cf. William of Newburgh's I2th century Chronicle, 
 and Camden, sub East Riding). But may not Gipsies have been led, by 
 the resemblance of its name to theirs, to adopt the water-wagtail as the 
 Gipsy bird ? and why did Theognis and Menander apply to the water- 
 wagtail the epithets "much-wandering" and "poor," unless the bird 
 was associated in their minds with some poor wandering race ? Possibly 
 we have here a slight confirmation of the theories of MM. Bataillard, 
 Mortillet, Chantre, E. Burnouf, and others, according to which there 
 were Gipsies in Europe in pre-historic times. In passing, I would 
 suggest to a gifted poetess, that water-wagtails do not as a rule "sit 
 on oak-branches high." 
 
WELSH GIPSIES. 2^ 
 
 meant 'jin', and that is good Romanes for ' know ' the 
 whole world over. I have often heard tell of the 
 Crinks, but never set eyes on any of them before, and 
 I should like to have a good long talk with these. I 
 expect, like the Muggers and Nailers, they are ' half- 
 and-halfs,' or rather a thimble-full of Romani to a 
 bucket of Gorgio blood." 
 
 " Maybe, brother ; / wouldn't be seen with them. 
 But they makes a sight of money hereabouts with 
 their tins and cans, because they can all of them talk 
 Welsh, and their women tell fortunes for sixpence 
 or bread and cheese. There was one lot we saw at 
 Aberystwith as had been backwards and forwards 
 to America half-a-dozen times. But here's the 
 bridge." 
 
 Below the bridge the rocky brawling stream widens 
 and deepens into a yeasty pool, that Nature must have 
 meant for dainty bathing. A hundred yards long, and 
 from ten to twenty feet deep, it is fringed by a sheep- 
 cropped lawn, where one big boulder lies ready to 
 receive the bather's clothes. A minute's loitering on 
 the steep-backed bridge, and we were down in the 
 meadow ; another minute, and I was bare as Adam, 
 — not the old Adam, but his brown young namesake, 
 Nathan and Alablna's son and heir. Swimming is a 
 rare accomplishment with Gipsy boys, and Adam alone 
 of all the lot could swim. He had learnt the art from 
 his Uncle Valentine, and learnt it well. At least he 
 beat me easily in the race we had up and down the 
 pool ; and he could dive like any kingfisher. How 
 
28 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 the cool water bubbled like four-year-old cider, and 
 how the rest did shout at Adam's triumph, while Spot, 
 the terrier, barked incessantly ! So we came out, and 
 dried and dressed ourselves, while the others dispersed , 
 to dabble in the shallows, or grope under rocks for 
 trout and eels ; and Adam, as we dressed, discoursed 
 about Valentine Wood, with the new-grown import- 
 ance of a Romani Captain Webb. 
 
 "Just the same as a fish my uncle is, always in the 
 water, bathing or fishing ; and he'll catch trout out of i 
 dear little tiny brooks, where you might try a fortnight | 
 and never rise a pilk. They never hardly eat 'em . 
 themselves the Woodses doesn't, but he takes them 
 to the farms or into the towns, and gets a fairish penny 
 that way, besides playing the harp of evenings at farms : 
 they stop at. A funny way for Romane, always going 
 in barns." i 
 
 " What, haven't they any tents ? " 
 
 " No, bor. The Lees, and Drapers, and the Coopers 
 has tents (often more like dog-cubs), but very few of 
 the real Welsh Gipsies has. Winter-time they all take 
 houses over in the Island, and when they do get out 
 in the summer, they're all for stopping in barns. I 
 don't believe Valentine or the old woman ever slept 
 in a tent in their lives." 
 
 " Something like your Uncle Willy's people, eh?" 
 
 " Oh, bless you ! they aren't as bad as the Tinklers — 
 ' stinkers,' I call 'em — not by a long way, rei'a. They're 
 proper black ; for all the world like copper warming- 
 pans, and they are just deep. They've got the Romani 
 
SCOTCH FAAS. 
 
 craft and the Welsh craft too, and it takes a long-headed 
 man to get over the Crockans. That's what my daddy 
 says when he's on with my mammy. But horses or 
 donkeys ! why a child might cheat 'em when it comes 
 to dealing." 
 
 " You don't seem, Adam, to love the poor Tinklers 
 much ? " 
 
 " Nasty Scotch Faws ! ^ not I. I have'nt got no 
 
 ' This phrase was in the mouth of Adam's kinsfolk years before they 
 knew who the Scotch Faas really were. A mention of Scotland evokes 
 it from West Country Gipsies, who know nothing of Scotland, and less 
 of its Tinkler tribes ; but it is seemingly a survival of the closer inter- 
 course that once existed between English and Scottish Gipsies. The 
 few English Gipsies who visit Scotland now, visit it as they would some 
 foreign land ; and Sinfi's marriage with Willy Faa could not, I think, 
 be matched in the last half-century. But formerly there was a constant 
 jDassage from one to the other country ; and even now there are old 
 Gipsies in the London Potteries who as children were familiar with the 
 streets of Aberdeen. In 1549, Baptist, Amy, and George Fawe were 
 committed to Durham gaol for counterfeiting the king's great seal 
 {Lodge's Jlhtstratioiis of British History^ I79I) vol i. p. 135); and at 
 Dorchester, in 1559, eight Egyptians (James and George Kyncowe, 
 Andrew Christo, Thomas Gabriells, Robert Johanny, John Lallowe, 
 Christopher Lawrence, and Richarde Concow) escaped hanging, under 
 the Act of 1554, only because they had come "out of Skotland into 
 England by Carlysle, wch ys all by land," and were not transported or 
 conveyed by sea (State Papers, Domestic, Eliz. vol. vi. Nos. 39 and 50, 
 vol. vii. No. 20). The Hemes are now only known as a great Anglo- 
 Gipsy tribe; but in the register of Jarrow, Durham, we find — "Francis 
 Heron, king of ye Faws, buried 13 Jan. 1756;" and the Allans 
 belonged as much to England as to Scotland, Jamie, the famous piper, 
 dying at Durham 28th August 1806, just a twelvemonth after his reprieve 
 from the gallows for horse-stealing. He was buried in the parish church 
 of St Nicholas, whose register also contains the entry — " 1592, Aug. 8. 
 Simson, Arrington, Fetherstone, Fenwicke, and Lanckaster were hanged 
 for being Egyptians." It is noteworthy, too, that Gilderoy (Gael, "red 
 lad ") is a common name with English Gipsies, occurring even as far 
 south as Folkestone. 
 
30 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 patience with such mumply poverty people. Look 
 at my Uncle Will's white-headed children—" barns," 
 he calls 'em. Regular Dane's breed, and can't under- 
 stand plain English, let alone Romanes. Why, the 
 other evening Mantis told little Maggie their neddy 
 was down the lane ; and she had'nt no notions what 
 he meant, till Aunt Sinfi said, ' It's the cuddie he's 
 meaning.' Lord ! Sinfi was a fool." 
 
 "Gently, Adam. How did she come, though, to 
 take up with Willy ? " 
 
 " It was all my granny's fault. She was always on 
 with the poor wench, saying as she'd never be worth a 
 man, till long and by last she took and went off with 
 my Uncle Pyramus and Aunt Lucretia, when they was 
 going up to Scotland after ponies. They were going 
 along the road somewheres up in those parts, and left 
 Sinfi behind ; and my uncle was just sticking up the 
 place, when, on looking round, Anselo (he was gone 
 with 'em too, and he was littler than me then) he cries 
 out, ' Here's a highflier coming with a bit of a budget 
 under his arm.' He come walking right up to the 
 place, and said to Pyramus, ' Good day.' ' Good day,, 
 man,' says my uncle ; and they never took no more 
 notice of him. So presently he said, 'Mr Lovell' (he 
 had got the name very quick), ' Mr Lovell,' says he, 
 ' will you give me your sister ? ' ' Ay, man,' he said, 
 ' you can have my sister, and welcome,' never thinking 
 Sinfi was behind. And they all burst out laughing. 
 But he turns back, the highflier did, and brought her 
 up to the tent as bold as brass ; and when they saw 
 
A SCOTCH MARRIAGE. 3 1 
 
 that, they were so struck they didn't know what to do 
 or what to say. And my uncle laid it on to her like 
 anything, but she didn't mind it in the least. And 
 there and then this Credit (we always call him Credit, 
 because he said once he was a ' Creedit to the family ') 
 went over the hedge, and cut some little tiny bits of 
 nut-stick, more like twigs than tent-rods ; and green 
 briars they cut to lie upon. My uncle wouldn't give 
 them nothing to sleep in, and she made a tent of her 
 frock. And next morning they heard a kind of half- 
 smothered screaming ; and when they got up to look, 
 it was Credit beating her with his naily boot. My 
 Aunt Lucretia said it sarved her right, and they never 
 interfered with her. But they gave him some money 
 to go to the shop for things ; and seemingly he sat 
 upon the gate wondering whether he should go to the 
 shop or run away altogether. So that's the end of the 
 man and his ass." 
 
 " At any rate, she seems very fond of him." 
 " Oh, bless you ! yes ; and if any of US goes atween 
 them when he's beating her, she'll begin on we, say 
 it's her aiTair, not ours." 
 
 Christopher and Dimiti had come up in the middle 
 of Adam's tale ; and Dimiti told me that Plato, his 
 father, was fishing close to the Cross Foxes Inn, and 
 wanted to know if I would come and join him in a 
 morning glass of ale. Willingly ; but I continued to 
 fish as we went along, having already caught several 
 trout, including one beauty that nearly touched the 
 pound. And as we went we came upon a keeper. 
 
32 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 I 
 The waters are free to all but salmon-fishers ; and the 
 man, whom I had often met before, wished me a civil 
 " Boren da " (good morning), though he glanced at my 
 escort somewhat doubtfully. The boys in turn seemed ^ 
 equally suspicious ; and Dimiti, a hundred yards lower 
 down, broke forth, — 
 
 " If there's one thing I do mortally hate and despise, 
 brother, it's keepers. They're just the same as the 
 pretty hangmen (policemen), for they've taken the 
 sacrament ^ to speak the truth ; and precious truth 
 it is they do speak, nothing in the world but a lot of 
 lies. What craftiness they'll use, too, to get our poor 
 dear people into trouble. Tell him about that lot by 
 Aberystwith, Christopher." 
 
 " What, last summer ? Well, bor, it was about eight 
 mile off Aberystwith, and we had been up the road to 
 look after the neddies. My uncle Lancelot had a long 
 pair of trousers on, and an old long black frock-coat, 
 and an old box hat, and he had been making himself 
 like (i.e., pretending to be) a constable. And the fine 
 keepers was set in the hedge, squeaking like a rabbit, 
 just to 'tice us on. And Lancelot was going over the 
 
 ' Whence did English Gipsies get this use of sacrament for "oath," 
 unknown, I believe, to all our provincial dialects? Salmon^ according 
 to Guy Maiincriiig, was the inviolate oath of Scottish Gipsies, and, if 
 pronounced lilce the name of the fish, would closely resemble sernient, 
 the French descendant of Lat. sacramentum, "oath." If, on the other 
 hand, its / were sounded, salmon would be identical with the "Salomon, 
 an altar or masse," of Harman's Caveat (1567), and might Ije connected 
 with the Anglo-Romani j-f'/a/jrf/owww, "oath," and the Tinkler sallah, 
 "curse." '■'Solomon- David," the Cockney corruption of " j-i7/t7«« affi- 
 davit," is probably a mere coincidence. 
 
GAMEKEEPERS. 33 
 
 hedge, thinking it was a stoat had got a rabbit ; and 
 these fine keepers bolted out, and axed him what 
 brought him there. They wanted to take him ; and 
 then my daddy cut off to the tents, and Lancelot 
 came running after, racing right past, and we never 
 seed him till next morning. We all got into bed, with 
 all ours things on ; but when we did hear 'em coming, 
 up we jumped, and ran across some boggy ground on 
 to a railway. And up that railway we went two miles, 
 then turned out and came in the road. Then we waited 
 a goodish bit, sat under the bank, till we heard my 
 mammy coming ; then we went straight along the road 
 for half a mile, and then turned out along a way that 
 took us out upon some hills. We couldn't find no place 
 in the lane to lie down, so we went over backside 
 of the hedge into a field. There we laid till morning. 
 My daddy got up very early, and went into the road 
 to look for Lancelot. He couldn't see him nohow ; 
 so he just put pdtrins in the cross-road, and we went on. 
 It was an awful funny road, all up rocks ; and then 
 when we just got up top of one bank, Lancelot catched 
 us. He had slept in a barn that night, and had never 
 seen the sights of bread. And we went across fields, 
 over hedges and ditches, till it brought us out into the 
 turnpike-road." 
 
 " By Job, they make more bother over a poor little 
 rabbit or partridge than ever they would about a 
 Christian," was Dimiti's comment. 
 
 " You. don't uphold the preservation of game, then, 
 Dimiti ? " 
 
34 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 " Eh, brother ? " 
 
 " You think that Romane have as good a right as 
 Gentiles to hares and partridges ? " 
 
 " Sure ! Who do wild things fly and run for, if not 
 for them as is wild themselves ? " 
 
 " I cannot say, Dimiti ; go and ask that keeper. 
 Still I don't think Gipsies get often into trouble for 
 poaching." 
 
 " No, bor ; they takes good care of that, 'cause then 
 they wouldn't get leave to stop nowheres. My uncle 
 Lancelot, though, he bought a gun last Christmas, a 
 beauty it was, double barrelled ; and such a state he 
 made of himself He and Anselo went up to Squire 
 Morley's a-fiddling ; they'd been out shooting, and 
 Lance had the gun in his hand and the shotbelt over 
 his shoulder. The servant girl came out, thought they 
 were some great gentlemen come over shooting, and 
 asked them to walk in and take lunch. Then she saw 
 the violins, and wanted them to play a tune about 
 a man being shot. Talk of state (boast), that was a 
 state for you ! But Lancelot was like to have got 
 into trouble about that gun, and my grandfather took 
 it and pitched it right into Chetwynd Pool. Do you 
 know what tune it was the girl meant, rei'a ? " 
 "Not L" 
 
 "Well, I should say it was my grandfather's song;" 
 and Dimiti sang — 
 
 "Three of us went poaching out ; 
 To kill some game was our intench : 
 The laafty pheasant they did fall, 
 With powder, shot, and gun. 
 
grandfather's song. 35 
 
 Pie cried out for help, 
 And still he was denied. 
 
 No more locked up in a niaidnight cell, 
 To hear the turnkay push the bell. 
 
 In his breast a mortial vound. 
 While crames of blood did flow." 
 
 " A corrupt text," I thought, " with lacunae deeply 
 to be deplored ; " and the song having brought us out 
 against the inn, I bade the boys carry my trout as a 
 present to their grandmother, and departed in quest 
 of Plato. He was sitting in the porch, talking to the 
 landlord ; and, as I approached, he hailed me Gipsy- 
 wise : 
 
 " Sor shan, pala? av te besh ale. Lian tu variso?" 
 
 The landlord withdrew to fetch a quart of ale, with 
 a puzzled look upon his countenance. Me he knew, 
 and Plato he knew, just as he might know a sheep and 
 a goat ; but this lying down of sheep and goat together 
 was a thing that passed his powers of comprehension. 
 Plato had noticed his bewilderment ; so when the ale 
 was brought he continued to chatter in fluent Romanes; 
 then, with a wink to me, addressed himself to Boni- 
 face, — 
 
 " You didn't think, Mr Hughes, I knew this gentle- 
 man ? " 
 
 "I did not, indeed, Mr Lovell ; but seemingly you 
 do. He comes from ? " 
 
 " Egypt, sir. Yes, he come from Egypt three weeks 
 last Friday night, through Garmany and France and 
 Am ." 
 
36 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 "America," he would have said, but my ''Ma, 
 dinilto;' stayed him ; so with perfect composure he 
 explained that I had landed at the Gloucestershire 
 seaport of Bosbury,— " a wonderful place for shipping, 
 Bosbury." 
 
 " In-deed ! He'll be a countryman of yours, then, 
 Mr Lovell, and its Egyptian you'll be talking to- 
 gether. But I understood from Mr Price " (my land- 
 lady's husband) " that the gentleman was a London 
 scholar." 
 
 " Oh yes, sir ; you're perfectly correct. London is 
 his natival when he's over in England. But you 
 see, Mr Hughes, his father (and he married my wife's 
 own cousin's grandmother) he's king of we 'Gyptians, 
 and sometimes he stops in London, and sometimes in 
 Egypt yonder. A very favourable gentleman he is 
 with all the nobility, never drives out himself with less 
 than a carriage and six, and has got houses all over 
 the country, though he wouldn't live in a house, no, 
 not if you paid him pounds and pounds of gould. 
 But my friend here likes to get away for a bit of 
 pastime now and then ; and besides he's got to pay a 
 visit to Sir Watkin. Ma ti'iti pcssa, bor ; mandi's got 
 a posh-kur'nay 
 
 As we strolled away, " I'd scorn to tell the truth to 
 mumply kennicks," quoth honest Plato ; and then in 
 answer to my question, Was it likely the man would 
 swallow such hideous lies ? — 
 
 "Swallow them, bor! I should just about think 
 he would. Did you see how his eyes twinkled 
 
LIES. 
 
 37 
 
 when I mentioned Sir Watkin ? That's the Kino- 
 
 o 
 
 of Wales, they call him ; and if he was in it, it was 
 bound to be all right. And all these country gorgios 
 fancy we come from Egypt. There was Mr Powell 
 (we were stopping in his field by Bala), and he 
 come up to the place and got talking with my daddy 
 \-ery early one morning. I wasn't up, but I could hear 
 every word from where I was laid. ' You come from 
 Egypt, you wandering tribes,' says he ; and my daddy 
 answered him, ' Ay, sartain sure, sir ; Egypt is our 
 country. It was one of my uncles built the Pyramids.' 
 ' In-deed,' says the gentleman (you know these Welsh- 
 men's way) ; ' and was you born in Egypt yourself, 
 and did you used to go naked like the blackamoors ? ' 
 ' Stark mother-naked, every Jack of us,' says my 
 daddy, very solid like ; — but there ! I forget the rest. 
 Lies ! They'd swallow any mortal thing, and ask for 
 more." 
 
 " Like Oliver." 
 
 " Ay, he always was on the getting line, was Oliver 
 Lee. But now I want to ask you one question, brother. 
 Where do you really think we Gipsies origined ? " 
 
 " Where do you think yourself, Plato ? " 
 
 " Well, I can't rightly tell, bor ; I never took much 
 notions of it ; but for sartain we must be a very ancient 
 people. I reckon there were Gipsies in England gener- 
 ations before English and Welsh was ever thought on, 
 'cause, go wherever you will, you're bound to come 
 on Gipsies. Now no Englishman can't understand 
 a Welshman, but Romanes is the same all parts ; for 
 
38 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 look at they Langarians ^ that Pyramus and Belcher 
 Lee seed up by London. Belcher was going to buy a 
 pony off them ; little bits of animals they are, and 
 goes in pairs with their forelegs coupled. You'd 
 never say as they were good for nothing to look at ; 
 but just you try 'em, they'll fly. Well, Belcher was 
 a looking at this here pony, and all the while one of 
 their women was walking round and round. She had 
 got a baby in her arms, and she kept rocking it and 
 rocking it, and singing away. What do you think she 
 sung ? ' Bdngo grai^ bdngo grai', broken like ; but any 
 fool might know she meant the horse was lame. Least- 
 wise Belcher did, and all he said was, 'You can keep 
 your bongo grei, and I wish you a very good morning.' 
 That shows if it is'nt a very antiquated language." 
 
 ' I cannot tell why Plato gave this name to the Hungarian Gipsies 
 who visited England some few years ago ; I only know that once before 
 I heard it used by some of the Taylors, who were staying on Rush- 
 mere Heath : — " They came from the Langari country, and they were 
 called Langarians." It can hardly be identical with Lingnrari, 
 Roumanian-Gipsy makers of wooden spoons, and I cite as a mere 
 coincidence the following passage from Marsden's " Observations on the 
 Gypsies" {Annual Reg., 1784), p. 82 r— "His Grace the Archbishop 
 of York suggested to me the probability that the Zingari may have 
 derived their name, and perhaps their origin, from the people called 
 Langari, or Langarians, who are found in the north-west parts of the 
 peninsula of Hindostan, and infest the coasts of Guzerat and Sindy 
 with their piratical depredations. The maritime turn of this numerous 
 race of people, with their roving and enterprising disposition, may 
 warrant the idea of occasional emigrations in their boats, by course of 
 the Red Sea. " [Thus I had written when I learnt from Marsden's 
 Memoir (183S), p. 61, that Zjingarians is a misprint for .langarians. I 
 let my note stand as a warning against theories founded on resemblances 
 of sound, e.g. of Zotty and Djatt.'\ 
 
HUNGARIAN GIPSIES. 39 
 
 " Oh yes, the language is the same the whole world 
 over. Since last I saw you, Plato, I have been in Hun- 
 gary, the very land that those Langarians came from. 
 Whole Gipsy villages you find there, and Gipsy black- 
 smiths, and Gipsy innkeepers ; and there is hardly a 
 musician in the country who isn't a Romano. I stayed 
 at a little town called Siklos, close down by Turkey, 
 where they've just done ' fighting with the great big 
 Russian bear,' and a little to the right of the Danube 
 river (you know the Blue Danube Waltz?). I was 
 stopping in a big hotel, where there are hot springs, 
 just as at Bath and Cheltenham, and at this hotel 
 there was a Gipsy band. Eight of them there were, 
 one with a dulcimer, one a base viol, one a violoncello, 
 and violins the rest." 
 
 " That was proper, rei'a." 
 
 " Ay, and so black they were, and so well dressed. 
 The dulcimer player was really a beautiful young 
 fellow, with long, black, frizzly hair, parted in the 
 middle ; and he was as vain of his good looks as any 
 young girl. He carried a little comb and brush all in 
 one, with a velvet-framed looking-glass let into the 
 back ; and every two minutes he would pull it out, 
 spruce himself up, then gaze with delight upon the 
 charming effect. It was late on a Saturday night 
 when I arrived, and first thing next morning I was 
 wakened by their music, for in summer they begin at 
 six o'clock, and Sunday there is the great day for 
 playing and dancing." 
 
 "That'd be the country for me, brother. The 
 
40 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 gorgios hereabouts all think they're going to heaven 
 in a sack." ^ 
 
 " They were playing on a terrace where there were 
 seats and tables ; so I ordered my breakfast at a table 
 near them, and sat and listened, something like that 
 Trowbridge policeman who knows the Rom'nimus, 
 and hides behind hedges to hear what Gipsies say. 
 They were jabbering away in Romanes ; but their 
 Romanes is somewhat different to ours, hard to 
 understand till one gets used to it. By-and-bye, 
 however, an old lady came by, a very ugly old lady, 
 and ' Phuri clwhani', said Mr Coxcomb with the 
 dulcimer." 
 
 " Why, I know what that was ; ' Old witch,' he 
 meant." 
 
 " Right you are, Plato ; and I could understand 
 that too. I just looked hard at him, and repeated his 
 words, ' Tdtchnes pencsa, p{iri chovihoni si, bcngeski 
 pi'iri chovihoni! Down went the fiddles, up they 
 jumped, in an instant they were round me like a lot 
 bees. ^ Romano praV (Gipsy brother) — ' Katdr avc's' 
 (Where do you come from?) — ^ Besh tele ine'nsar' (Sit 
 down with us); their words poured out fast as the 
 Swallow Falls. And when I was seated between chief 
 violin and dulcimer, they fell to questioning, trying to 
 find out what I really knew. One pointed to his hair 
 i^Bdl?'), another to his eyes (^Yakd?'), a third to a 
 servant girl who stood close by (^Po)-ni 7ninj ?')" — 
 
 ' A reminiscence of tiie "Master Thief," of wliich hereafter. 
 
THE FIDDLERS OK SIKLOS. 41 
 
 " My father ! " 
 
 " Ay, that I could understand ; but there were many 
 things they said that seemed to me upside down. What 
 would you say they meant by 'Pi drab,prdla ?'" 
 
 " ' Drink poison,' to be sure. That was a funn)- 
 thing to ask a man." 
 
 " ' What'll yer pison yourself with ? ' — the Nevada 
 invitation to a friendly glass. No ; '/?' drai> ' means 
 'smoke tobacco' with these Gipsies, just as fogiis is 
 ' tobacco ' with highfliers, and ' poison ' with some 
 mumply Romane. And a bottle of wine they called 
 a h'lshni mol" 
 
 " A ' basket of wine ; ' but that would be one of 
 those wicker-covered bottles ; you'll hear some English 
 Gipsies use it for ' can.' But didn't the Gentiles stare 
 to see the gentleman sit down with the poor dear 
 Romani players ? " 
 
 " They opened their eyes a bit, but then they think 
 that every Englishman is mad ; and besides, poor 
 Romani players are often great people down in Hun- ; 
 gary. I spent three days at Siklos, and was never 
 better amused in all my life. There were a lot of 
 Gipsies living in the place; but these men came out of 
 Transylvania, as you come up from England into 
 Wales, only they had left their wives and families 
 behind. They could not speak much German, and I 
 didn't know ten words of Hungarian, but we managed 
 fairly well with Romanes. Very eager they were to 
 know what I was doing : did I want any horses, and 
 were there many Gipsies where I came from ? for they 
 
42 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 are terrible fellows for asking questions. These had 
 not travelled much ; but some Hungarian Gipsies, 
 coppersmiths, think nothing of starting on a five years' 
 round through Germany, France, Spain, England, 
 Norway, — I can't tell where." ^ 
 
 "That's not much like my daddy. We had the 
 awfullest work to get him to come up into Wales this 
 summer, for he never likes intruding nowheres where 
 everyone doesn't know him, and where people don't 
 call him ' Master Lovell.' But really now, you'd think 
 they would be daunted going in countries and never 
 knowing the talk." 
 
 " Yes, but many of these Gipsies speak German and 
 French as well almost as they speak Hungarian, and 
 
 ' Continental Gipsies are, as a rule, much greater travellers than their 
 English brethren. The lVescr:^eiiung of 25th April 1 85 1 announced that 
 one hundred Gipsie.s had passed through Frankfurt, on their way from Hun- 
 gary to Algeria ; and according to the Magdeburg Zeitnng {\'i\(>, No. 16), 
 a singular movement had been for some time afoot among the Spanish 
 Zincali, many of whom were preparing to cross to Morocco, while Abd-el- 
 Kader'sname was on every lip. Englandhas had several visits from foreign 
 Gipsies, Turkisli, Hungarian, and Italian ; and Mr H. H. Howorth, 
 author of The History of the Mongols, tells me that in 1879 he en- 
 countered in .Sweden a band of fez-wearing Gipsies, natives presumably 
 of the Balkan Peninsula. English Gipsies confine themselves, as a rule, 
 to English-speaking lands. Lately I read a letter from one of the 
 Smiths, who, having wandered through Canada and the States, was on 
 the eve of sailing for Australia. Perhaps the most travelled English 
 Gipsy was one Jones, a Cambridge knife-grinder. Having "left his 
 country for his country's good, " in the old transportation times, he had 
 made his escape from Australia by stowing aboard a ship, and, the ship 
 touching at a .Spanish port, had landed and fallen in with Zincali, with 
 whom he wandered for some time. "He was regarded," my informant 
 writes, "as a master of deep Romanes among the People round Cam- 
 bridge. " 
 
TRAVELLED GIPSIES. 43 
 
 have a smattering of other languages besides. Four 
 years ago I was in Halle, a German town where lives 
 Professor Pott, a very great man who has written a 
 very great book on Romanes. I had just been talk- 
 ing with him, and he had told me that once only in 
 his life had he spoken with living Gipsies, so I asked 
 him, 'Did they never come to Halle?' 'No,' he 
 replied ; and presently I came away. I was not two 
 hundred yards from his doorstep, when I saw a curious 
 sort of skeleton waggon, drawn by two little horses, 
 shackled together, just as you were describing. On 
 the top of this waggon sat a woman smoking a big 
 black pipe ; and round it three or four children were 
 playing, naked as ever they were born, or as your 
 father in his young Egyptian days. It's perfectly 
 true, Plato ; stark naked the Hungarian Gipsy chil- 
 dren run till they are twelve years old ; and the story 
 goes, that if one of them grumbles at the cold, his 
 mother will give him a strap : ' Here, sonny, put that 
 on to keep the winter out.' The waggon was standing 
 outside an inn ; and entering the inn, I found two 
 Gipsy men seated at the table, eating soup and drink- 
 ing beer. I greeted them with ' Ldtclw divvus ' (that's 
 how they say ' Good day '), and they were not one bit 
 surprised, for these were travelled gentlemen. Three 
 years they had been away from Hungary, in France 
 and Germany ; and I only wish that I could speak 
 French and German as well as they. I remember we 
 compared passports (a sort of travelling licence, Plato), 
 and mine they pronounced an exceeding sJiukar HI 
 
44 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 (fine paper), the lion and unicorn seeming to take 
 their fancy. Every place they come to, they must go, 
 first thing, to the head policeman and show their 
 passes, and then he tells them where they are to stop. 
 They are allowed three days in every place, and 
 no one can meddle with them all that time. What 
 do you say to that, Plato ? " 
 
 " Why, I say it's a very good way indeed. Just 
 fancy the pretty hangmen ever giving you leave to 
 stop anywheres here. It's always, ' Move on ; you 
 must'nt be staying here ; it's against the law.' And 
 what then, brother ? " 
 
 " The women came in, two of them, and some of 
 the children. There was one, a little fellow of nine 
 or ten, as brown and pretty a thing as ever I saw, but 
 wild as a fox-cub. His father gave him a plate of 
 soup to finish, and he lapped it up just as a fox-cub 
 would, looking out at me now and again from behind 
 his mother. Then they paid their reckoning, the 
 women climbed up on the waggon, the children 
 shouted, and the men cracked their whips. ' God go 
 with thee, brother ; ' and so we parted, they for Hun- 
 gary, and I for England." 
 
 " They were'nt from that country, then, Garmany, 
 how d'ye call it ? You'd think there'd be Gipsies there." 
 
 " So there are, plenty ; but they are not half as 
 deep as those of Hungar)'. Just two days after I saw 
 that lot, I came on a company of German Gipsies. 
 There were three men, five or six grown-up barefoot 
 women, and a host of children ; but they had neither 
 
HERMANN BRANDT. 45 
 
 horses nor donkeys, only two tiny carriages drawn by 
 dogs." 
 
 " What ! regular highfliers, like those poverty 
 Crinks ? " And Plato pointed to the tinsmith's tents, 
 just visible from the bridge where we had been sitting 
 for the last half hour. 
 
 " No, hardly as bad as that : but they mix up Ger- 
 man with their Romani talk, much as the London 
 Gipsies mix up English. You know how they always 
 szy 'Mdiidi jilts' {ox'Jindva me', and 'Kei's tuti jds- 
 sing ' for ' Kei jdssa tit.' Well, these are not unlike 
 the London Gipsies ; and all the show-people know a 
 little Romanes. There was one old woman I saw at 
 Leipzig Fair, blear-eyed, toothless, frightful to look at, 
 and she was singing ' I am so ticklish.' She could 
 roker a bit ; and so can the circus folk and keepers of 
 the merry-go-rounds. No, the only really deep Ger- 
 man Gipsy I ever knew, I met in Gottingen. ' Her- 
 mann Brandt, artist,' he calls himself ; for he is a rope- 
 dancer. I met him and his brother and little boy on 
 the market-place one bitter November day, and said 
 ' Good day ' to him in Romanes, to which he answered 
 .'Also ein Romano cliaV (A Gipsy, then), and made as if 
 he would press me to his heart. Hermann wore two 
 gold watches, though he could not tell the time ; and 
 his boy had on a magnificent bearskin coat. We 
 stood talking some time together, and, as we talked, 
 a little old gentleman came by, in a white wide- 
 brimmed hat (just like a mushroom), the kindest, 
 merriest of little gentlemen, and the deepest of 
 
46 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 Eastern scholars. He looked at us hard through his 
 spectacles, and then passed on. The three were going 
 off to Mijnden ; so we went to the station, and spent 
 two hours in the refreshment-room, drinking lager- 
 bier and waiting for the train. Of course, we were 
 talking all the time, and really both brothers knew as 
 deep Romanes as your father Silvanus, or even as 
 old Sylvester Boswell. But they, too, used a lot of 
 words that no English Romano would understand, — 
 burika for ' donkey,' simkar shambo^ia for ' pretty 
 pipe,' and stachelengro for ' hedgehog.' And Hermann 
 actually had a hedgehog in his pocket ; so you see 
 they were proper Gipsies. I met them several times 
 after that, and Hermann has sent me letters from time 
 to time. The finest thing was, that when I got back 
 home, I found a note from the Professor, saying that 
 he had just passed four Gipsies on the market-place, 
 and that he sent to tell me, knowing the interest I 
 took in Gipsies." 
 
 " He had'nt made you out, then. But there ! you 
 might pass for a Romano with Romane, and have, 
 maybe." 
 
 " Thanks, Plato, for that very pretty compliment ; 
 the greatest that heart of a Gipsy can devise. But no, 
 when I get among strange Gipsies, and they ask me, 
 ' Romano, eh ? ' I shake my head, and gravely assure 
 them that I am the rankest gorgio ever walked the 
 road." 
 
 "Ay, and then of course they thinks the more, 
 brother ; 'cause they knows if any one asks one of 
 
A ROMAN MATRON. 47 
 
 we plump out, 'Are you a Gipsy?' we're bound to 
 answer, ' No.' " 
 
 "Yes, something like old Mrs Lucretia Boswell. 
 First time I saw her was when she came up with 
 baskets to a house where I was staying. I saw her 
 coming, went to the door and greeted her with 'Sor 
 shan, dtfia ? Roinani hoi ?' and she replied ' No, my 
 gentleman, I am not a Roman woman.' " 
 
 " It looked like it. Now if you was to ask one of 
 these here gentry" (we were passing the Crink encamp- 
 ment on our homeward way) "whether they were 
 Gipsies, they'd be fast enough belike to tell you, 'Ay.' 
 Just like Credit. To hear him talk, you'd fancy there 
 was'nt a deeper traveller going. But tell us some 
 more about your real originals." 
 
 " Well, I was walking one day in London, not so 
 long ago, past the great church of Westminster, when 
 I saw two men, and a look was enough to tell me 
 what they were. One was tall, hook-nosed, and 
 elderly, the other a slim good-looking young fellow, 
 but both were as black as any tea-kettle ; so presently 
 I came up by them. ' How d'ye do ? ' said I, in 
 Romanes ; and the tall one answered, ' And how are 
 you, brother? I haven't set eyes on you I don't 
 know when.' Which was likely enough, Plato, be- 
 cause he had never seen me in his life. ' No,' I said, 
 'it is a goodish while;' and as we walked on talking, 
 I learnt that they were two of the Smiths, staying at 
 Battersea. By-and-bye hook-nose says, ' You'll take 
 a glass, brother ; ' so we went into a public-house, and 
 
48 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 ■first he paid for a quart, and then I paid for a quart ; 
 and then, ' You haven't been out long, brother ? ' 
 ' No, not very long, brother.' ' Seven years was it, 
 brother ? ' ' Seven years it was.' ' About a horse, 
 brother ? ' ' About a horse.' And then I came away." 
 
 " Oh, very good ! capital that was ; but they'd do it 
 better next time. You see, bor, they were trying to 
 draw you out, by making as how they thought they 
 knowed you, and that you had got seven years for 
 horse-stealing ! Any more ? " 
 
 " Let me see. You know a lot of the Gipsies up 
 by London keep cabs and horses. There is one, 
 Mark Davies, who, when first I knew him, had 
 hardly a penny he could call his own, and now he 
 has thirteen cabs, men under him, and money in the 
 bank besides. In the summer they take their cabs 
 and horses to fairs and races, and hire a meadow in 
 which to put their cabs and pitch their tents, so that 
 it costs them little for keep, whilst they'll be making 
 from two to five pounds a day. Ascot's a mighty 
 place for that, because of the Eton boys. This was 
 in London, though, that I'm going to tell you. I was 
 walking by Kensington Gardens, coming from Notting 
 Hill, when, passing a cab-stand, whom should I see 
 perched on a hansom but Albert Draper. I did not 
 know him then, but there was no mistaking the 
 breed of him ; so, thinking to play a merry jest, I got 
 into his hansom. Soon as I was in, he opened the little 
 trap-door at the top (you have seen the hansoms in 
 Birmingham, Plato?), ' Where to, sir ? ' he asked, and 
 
AD INFEROS. 49 
 
 ' Jal to Beng' (The deuce), was my reply. Bang! 
 down came the trap-door with a tremendous slam, 
 and then I heard him scrambling off his perch. Then 
 a scared face came peeping through the window, then 
 peering very timidly round at the front ; and for the 
 life of me, I could not keep the laughter in. He was 
 as pale as any ghost, and, so he told me afterwards, 
 made sure he had got the ' Old un' ' for a fare. Yes, 
 that was how I first came to know Albert Draper ; 
 and a very good fellow I have always found him. He 
 did me a kindly turn at Epsom once. Some rascally 
 pickpocket stole my purse, — a greater loss to me than 
 prize to him, for it held my return ticket to London, 
 as well as all the little money I was worth. ' I was 
 all by my own dear self,' as Mantis says, and what to 
 do I hardly knew, when luckily I came across Albert 
 by the station. He heard my tale, and with hardly a 
 word, reached me an ancient leather purse, holding, I 
 daresay, forty pounds or more, and left me free to 
 take as much or little as I chose. Not many gorgios 
 would have done the same." 
 
 " No, you may take your oath on that, bor, nor 
 Gipsies neither ; though it would be a poor thing, too, 
 if we would'nt assist a gentleman as had always been 
 kind to we, especially if one was sure of getting his 
 money back, with something maybe on the top of it." 
 
 " There you go spoiling a very pretty sentiment. 
 But have you ever been taken for a gorgio ? " 
 
 " Oh, ay ; for a foreigner leastwise. Heaps of times 
 people has asked me, when I and my brothers would be 
 
 D 
 
so IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 talking in a public, ' What language is that, young 
 man ? ' ' Spanish,' I always tells 'em ; and then they'll 
 say, ' Oh ! I was a-thinking you was a Spaniel by your 
 beautiful dark eyes. What part of Spain might you 
 belong to?' ' Minjo,' says I; 'that's the town as I 
 comes outof 'Minjo! dear me ! And is it a nice 
 place, Minjo?' 'Beautiful place,' I always answers 
 'em ; ' there's nothing in the world comes up to Minjo.' 
 Dabla ! what fools folks are. But the laughablest 
 thing as ever happened to me was in an inn at 
 Swansea. I had taken an old horse of my daddy's 
 to the knacker's, and went to get a glass of beer ; and 
 there were some of the Lees there, drinking and 
 quarrelling (just like Longsnout's breed) with a pretty 
 gorgio. And there were some more mumply, gor- 
 giofied-looking fellows, sitting the other side, and just 
 when the Lees got fighting, these sung out, — 
 
 ' Well done, my gorgio, 
 Del him adre the mui again ; 
 S' help mi dearie di'ivel, 
 You can mill kushto.' 
 
 Some of the Prices they was ; but to look at you'd 
 never have thought they had one word of Romanes. 
 That's the way, though, nowadays ; every highflier 
 has got a bit of the talk, and you never know where 
 you are. If you want Romanes, you go to Gorselar, 
 nine mile the other side of Gloucester. A little bit 
 of a country place it is, all surrounded with nasty 
 poverty woods, and snakes scrawling about everywhere. 
 It's on the top of a bank, and there are two inns there. 
 
ROMANI GORGIOS. 5 I 
 
 And if any Gipsies goes in to take a glass of beer, and 
 get talking where they shall stop, and saying there's 
 not a bite of chor (grass) for the greias (horses), some 
 ugly gorgio as happens to be in, with a smock-frock 
 on, will say, ' Oh, I can pooker you a kiishto poov to 
 chiv your grei'as adre ' (tell you a good field to put 
 your horses in). All the gorgios talk Rom'nimus 
 round there; they learnt it off Poggi-Bul's lot, for 
 they're always round about. And Charlie Huggins, 
 Lizzie's man, why he speaks Romanes as well as any- 
 body, though he has'nt a drop of Romani blood in the 
 whole of his scrape-pig body." 
 
 " I never knew a case like that exactly, not in the 
 country, but up by big towns, where Gipsies stop from 
 one year's end to the other (London, Bristol, Wolver- 
 hampton, Manchester, and so forth), there are scores 
 of Gentiles who understand the talk, though they may 
 not be able to speak it over well. The betting-men, 
 too, have got a touch of it, and horse-dealers still 
 more. I was coming by train once from Hungerford 
 to Bath, and it was fair-day at Devizes, and three 
 men from the fair got into the carriage I was in. 
 Well-to-do farmers I took them for, till one of them 
 said, ' It's a good job Mr Pani ^ was'nt there to-day ; ' 
 and another answered, ' Ay, Cri'shindo's safe to cooper 
 
 ' This speaking of the rain as "Mr Water," reminds one of Happy 
 Thoug/its, by F. Bumand ; but the usage is of some antiquity. From 
 Egan's edition of Grose's Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue 
 (1823), we learn that canters, speaking of a person who was gone, would 
 say, "Mr Nash is concerned," nash being Romanes for "run." 
 
52 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 a walgora ' (The rain is sure to spoil a fair). I never 
 said a word to them till just as they got out at Trow- 
 bridge ; then I remarked, ' Kairaw have kanas, and 
 prastermengre tei ' (Houses have ears, and so have 
 railway-carriages). Another time I was staying in a 
 Peterborough inn, where a carpenter was busy on some 
 job inside the bar. I never took any notice of the man 
 (he was an ordinary enough fellow to look at), so you 
 may guess how surprised I was to hear him come out 
 one day, as the clock struck one, ' Hobben chai'ros, 
 mandi must lei kerri to my romadi ' (Dinner-time, I 
 must get home to my wife). Of course I got talking 
 with him, and found that he had married one of the 
 Smiths." 
 
 " It does make me angry, brother, to hear of Romani 
 women learning such nasty kennicks anything. Often 
 I swear I'll never speak another word of Rom'nimus ; 
 and I'll tell you another thing as makes me wild, and 
 that is, to hear some of our own people ashamed of 
 their own tongue, making themselves. It was me and 
 my daddy went to Wolverhampton market with two 
 ponies and a donkey, and we saw two swellish-looking 
 women walking down among the horses, all covered 
 with falderals. They had red and green and yellow 
 coloured handkerchiefs round their necks, and red 
 velvet bonnets and green parasols, black dresses with 
 short black velvet jackets, and they had veils on too. 
 Lord bless us all, what a state they did make 
 theirselves ! They were coming talking about their 
 husbands one to the other ; it was all, ' My master 
 
MONKEY GIPSIES. 53 
 
 this,' and ' My master that.' Right by us they passed ; 
 but I never took much notice, for I was quite a Httle 
 chap, as it might be Dimiti, and hadn't no notions of 
 women. But my daddy asked, ' Do you see those 
 two ladies, Plato ? ' ' Devil's ladies,' says I ; and my 
 daddy said, ' They're two monkey Gipsies, married 
 to colliers.' And if you spoke to them in Romanes, 
 they'd turn their noses up, make as they didn't know 
 no such vulgar talk. Such women as them is never 
 no good. They ought to be burnt." 
 
 " Mind you don't get burned yourself, Plato, for 
 keeping Richenda waiting for her breakfast. It is 
 close upon ten." 
 
 " That'll be time enow, the day is quite young yet. 
 But you'll come in and take a bite with us ? " 
 
 " Not this morning. I had my breakfast before I 
 left the house, and Pve got two letters to write, and 
 then to catch the midday train to Barmouth. But, I 
 daresay, I shall look you up again this evening. What 
 racket are you up to, as highfliers say ? " 
 
 " I! oh, I'm going over to Dina's about a horse; and 
 Nathan is coming too, so we shall take our fiddles. 
 And some of the others was talking of taking theirn to 
 Pen-y-bonh, to play at the Tal-y-llyn inn ; and they'll 
 get some fishing maybe in the lake. Well, take care 
 of yourself" 
 
C^apt^r f ^irir. 
 
 TOOK good care of myself, as Plato bade 
 me; and, returning from Barmouth safely, 
 came again to the camp at five in the after- 
 noon, to find it almost utterly deserted. 
 True, Silvanus was there ; but he was discussing 
 glanders with the owner of the meadow. Two or 
 three of the women had not gone out, but they were 
 washing at the brook below ; and the younger children 
 were sure to be not far off, but where it might have 
 puzzled Puck to tell. So I strolled about, and took 
 a look at the tents. 
 
 The oddest tent I ever remember seeing was pitched 
 in the middle of many-towered Prague, on a patch of 
 waste ground not far from the Moldau's bank. It was 
 simply a market-woman's white umbrella, sheltering 
 the heads of some seven Bohemian vagrants, whose 
 legs stuck out like radii drawn to an unknown circum- 
 ference. In London I have looked on skewer-cutters' 
 huts cheek-by-jowl with a red-brick church ; and I have 
 seen the Epping donkey-drivers crouching beneath an 
 apron-covered bush. 
 
CASTRAMETATION. 55 
 
 The tents of the Lovells differed from all of these, 
 as Gipsies differ from the non-gipsy tramp. For a 
 description of their like I must go to Elias Boswell, 
 and quote from a treatise of the old man's making : — 
 
 "The tents are of rough blankets. They are nearly 
 always made of brown ones, because the white blankets are 
 not so good for the rain. First of all, when they make up 
 the tent, they measure the ground with a ridge-pole ; then 
 they take the kettle-prop, and make the holes exactly oppo- 
 site each other. Then they take up the ridge-pole, and 
 stick all the rods into the ridge-pole. Then there is a 
 blanket that goes behind, that is pinned on with pinthorns. 
 Next to that comes the large ones over the top of all, also 
 pinned with the same pins. Now there are some very large, 
 and others much smaller ; but for my part I like a middling- 
 size one quite as well, because the large ones are often 
 cold." 
 
 Thus far Elias ; and I, his commentator, remark that 
 the kettle-prop is an iron bar, crooked at one end and 
 sharpened at the other ; that pinthorns are natural 
 thorns employed for pins ; and that the largest tents 
 are 20 feet deep, 12 feet wide, and 10 feet high, the 
 cost of such varying, with the materials, between £10 
 and ;^20. Tilt-like in form, they are sheltered in 
 winter by " balks " or " barricades," a kind of fore-tent, 
 where stands the hearthstone or the charcoal brazier, 
 and which sometimes connects two tents pitched front 
 to front. In summer, however, the balks are either 
 dispensed with, or left as a rule uncovered ; and in 
 summer the fire is made, of course, outside. Some 
 writers have said that Gipsies always build to face the 
 
56 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 rising sun ; but herein they err, Gipsy castrametation 
 depending on the set of the ground and the quarter 
 whence the wind may chance to blow. These tents, 
 for instance, had a southern aspect, being pitched in 
 Indian file, — Lementina's first, Lucretia's next to hers, 
 and so on down to that which Loverin shared with 
 his two unmarried brothers. Complete the outward 
 survey by noticing a shallow trench, intended to carry 
 off the rain, and then glance into Lementina's "place." 
 
 Round its sides runs a kind of divan, of oat straw 
 spread with furs and brilliant rugs ; a dais is formed 
 at the farther end by feather-beds, blankets, and 
 other bedding ; in the midst is a carpet, sure token 
 of Romani prosperity. A nosegay of wild flowers, 
 a bunch of withered hops, some peacock feathers, a 
 looking-glass, and two resplendent carriage lamps, are 
 all the adornments, but the effect is neither unhomely 
 nor insesthetic ; there are thousands worse housed than 
 are the houseless Gipsies. Houses on wheels there 
 are n6ne ; for cumbrous caravans are as little suited 
 for the hills of Wales as for Cyprus roads, where Sir 
 Samuel Baker tried them to his cost ; but yon two- 
 wheeled tilted carts cost ;!f40 apiece, and Willy has 
 besides a light spring cart. What these will not 
 carry, in moving from place to place, is packed on 
 the horses' and the donkeys' backs. 
 
 Such are the tents, which I have here described with 
 some minuteness as a curious survival (in England), 
 in the nineteenth century. Older than cromlechs,- 
 older than buried towns, older than the pyramids. 
 
GIPSIES NOT ALWAYS TENT-DWELLERS. 57 
 
 they take one back to that far distant time when 
 Jabal became " the father of such as dwell in tents, 
 and of such as have cattle." But were our Gipsies 
 always tent-dwellers ? That is a question to which I 
 incline to answer, No. All the old chroniclers of the 
 fifteenth century are silent as to Gipsies' tents, though 
 they speak of their waggons, horses, hounds, and 
 outlandish garb. Korner's statement, " Extra urbes in 
 campis pernoctabant" and Rufus's, " Se legett in devie 
 velde, wente me wolde se in den steden nicht lyden," 
 imply no more than that the Gipsy immigrants of 1417 
 were not allowed to pass the night within the walls 
 of the Hanseatic towns. Arnold von Harff, patrician 
 of Cologne, who about 1497 visited the great Gipsy 
 colony outside Nauplia, has much to say of the Gipsy 
 bellows, nothing of Gipsy tents. Nor are they men- 
 tioned in any of the documents and scattered notices^ 
 relating to English Gipsies in the sixteenth century ; 
 nay, as negative evidence may be cited the letter of 
 Edward Hext, a Somersetshire justice of the peace, 
 addressed to the Lord Treasurer in 1596. We learn 
 from it that the Egyptians of a shire did " meet, either 
 at fairs or markets, or in some alehouse, once a week. 
 And ill a great hayhouse, in a remote place, there did 
 resort weekly forty, sometimes sixty ; where they did 
 roast all kind of good meat" (Strype, Annals of the 
 Reformation, vol. iv. p. 410, Oxf ed. 1824). The trial 
 
 ' See Mr H. T. Crofton's exhaustive and admirable monograph, 
 ''English Gipsies imder the Tudors, " in the Papers of the Manchester 
 Litermy Club for 1 880. 
 
58 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 of the Browns and of James M'Pherson at Banff in 
 1700 {Spalding Club Miscellany, vol. iii. pp. 175-91) 
 shows Scotch Egyptians lying in kilns or temporarily 
 taking houses ; and tents were till recently unknown 
 to Gipsies of the Principality. Mr John Roberts, in 
 a letter of 22d January 1880, writes: — "The Welsh 
 Gipsies was not known to camp out in those days, 
 but they always used to ask leave to lodge {mong 
 lodybens) in barns and other buildings, and they were 
 allowed to make fire in the buildings as well as outside 
 it. I often heard my father say that it was him that 
 made the first tent that was made for them in Wales, 
 by the instructions of my grandmother. She was 
 one of the Stanleys [English Gipsies], and she used 
 to praise my father for picking it up so soon." 
 
 It seems to have been about 1750 that the Woods 
 and Ingrams migrated from England to Wales ; and I 
 am disposed to believe that tents did not come into 
 general use among English Gipsies till after then, a 
 view supported by the celebrated case of Elizabeth 
 Canning in 1754. Of course, at different times and in 
 different lands, Gipsies have taken to tents, just as in 
 England and on the Continent they have taken to 
 caravans, or as at Altrincham, in Cheshire, they live 
 in railway carriages. As early as 1387 we read of 
 forty tents of Acigani in Wallachia ; and to-day, in 
 the Ottoman empire, the tented Tchinghianes far 
 outnumber their house-dwelling brethren. But the 
 foregoing observations, coupled with the fact that 
 the name for " tent " differs in almost every Romani 
 
GIPSY MUSIC. 59 
 
 dialect/ and is often a borrowed word, point to the 
 conclusion that tents are by no means so national a 
 Gipsy institution as is commonly believed ; and such 
 a conclusion has its importance in the problem of 
 the Gipsies' origin. For writers have argued thus : — 
 Gipsies are a tent-dwelling race, and a tent-dwelling 
 race must always have been noticeable ; ei-go, if in 
 Byzantine historians prior to looo A.D. no notices 
 occur of a tent-dwelling race, Gipsies cannot have 
 existed in south-eastern Europe before that date. 
 But, if the premiss be false, the argument also falls. 
 The vulgar opinion, that Gipsies cease to be Gipsies 
 by ceasing to live in tents, is not worth refuting ; it is 
 as sensible as the notion, that all who live in tents 
 are necessarily Gipsies. 
 
 My tour of inspection brought me to Sinfi's place, 
 an ambitious protest against the Tinklers' " dog-cubs ; " 
 and as I loitered, lost in admiration, a strain of music 
 fell upon my ear. I will not, after Liszt, attempt to 
 analyse the Gipsies' music — " its sounding cataracts 
 
 ' The Anglo- Romani ian, "a tent," seems to be identical with tan, 
 " a place " (Sansk. sthdna, Prakr. thdna). Formerly I regarded it as a 
 distinct word, akin to tent, and so too Sansk. tan, "to stretch," whence 
 possibly than, "cloth," of German Gipsies; and this view was some- 
 what confirmed by the likeness of the broken-Romani phrase, "tanning 
 all over the tem " ("pitching tents all over the coimtry "), to the Vir- 
 gilian " legio latis tendebat in arvis." But English Gipsies render tan, 
 "a tent," as often as not by "place" (e.g. "my mammy's //acf ") ; 
 and in the sense of "tent" the word is unknown to all Continental 
 Gipsies. True, Kogalnitschan gives " tanya, tent," in his would-be 
 Roumanian-Gipsy vocabulary; but the "learned Sclavonian " quietly 
 appropriated this word, with bouro, hotchawitcha, and two hundred 
 niore, from Samuel Roberts' Gypsies (Lond. 1836). 
 
6o IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 bursting in mighty din, its murmuring fountains glid- 
 ing o'er mossy bed." What chiefly struck me here 
 was an infinite sadness, weaving a threnody from 
 ballad and hornpipe and Offenbachian air. I guessed 
 the player to be Loverin, and Loverin sure enough it 
 proved to be. 
 
 You might sit and talk for hours with Loverin 
 Lovell, and, did you not know his story, could you 
 keep clear of all disturbing topics, might never take 
 him for the " innocent " he is. He is not altered much 
 from the handsome dandy lad of ten years back ; his 
 hair is as black, his face as brown, as ever. Only the 
 eyes are changed. Some Gipsies have an ugly trick of 
 sleeping open-eyed, and Loverin's eyes resemble theirs 
 — big, dark, but blank, like shuttered windows of a de- 
 serted house. Yet his look was glad as he sprang up to 
 meet me ; his voice had not lost the merry Gipsy ring. 
 
 "Why, Francis lad, come in and sit you down. 
 You're kindly welcome ; for, faith ! I was wondering 
 why you had never come anighst me. Plato was 
 bragging at breakfast how he'd been treating of the 
 rei to ale, and ' Winkles ' was bragging how he'd 
 been swimming with the rei. It was all ' rei here, rei 
 there,' till I fetched Mantis a clout aside the head. 
 ' Don't be so fast,' I said, ' talking 'bout what's got 
 nothing to do with you. He wouldn't be seen with 
 the likes of you black Gipsies.' You wouldn't, would 
 you, reia ? " 
 
 " Certainly not, Loverin ; unless they were very 
 particular friends." 
 
ONDIKELOyS. 6 1 
 
 "Now, isn't that just what I was teUin' em? 'He 
 always was my Romani Rei,' says I ; ' and I means to 
 get a notice-board and stick it on him, warning as how 
 all varmin '11 be persecuted that comes a trespassing 
 on Squire Loverin's land.' I was thinking on you the 
 very moment you come up, and found me 'musing 
 myself with my dear little violin." 
 
 " Yes, I've been standing listening round the corner, 
 admiring your brilliancy of execution. But how was 
 it that you did not go with the others to Tal-y-llyn ?" 
 
 " Oh ! I don't know ; I never cares much for going 
 with a crowd of rude young boys. And someone 
 must stop and mind the place ; and there were the 
 sticks to get 'gainst Nora comes back from the town. 
 She's down to the station after a lot of baskets, 
 from Mr Joseph Burluraux's, you know, 29 Tavistock 
 Street, Covent Garden London. Thank you, I don't 
 mind if I do try a pipeful of your 'bacca." 
 
 My pouch was like a little woolly black bear, and 
 Loverin eyed it with a child's delight, sagely observ- 
 ing, " It looks ondikelous pulling the 'bacca from 
 under the tail, don't it now ? Beautiful 'bacca, too. I 
 wish I could offer you a cigar, rei'a ; but they're all 
 locked up, and miles and miles away, a matter I dare- 
 say of two or three hundred mile." 
 
 " Don't mention it ; I never smoke cigars." 
 
 " You used to ; and I would really have liked to have 
 offered you one of these. Twopence apiece, and a black 
 man smoking on the lid ; I won 'em raffling at the 
 ' Bandon Arms.' But what's the use of talking, when 
 
62 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 they're all locked up along of the other valuables. A 
 silver teapot, and three silver spoons, and a silver fruit- 
 knife that my mammy got off Mrs Scudamore, and a 
 beautiful horseshoe breastpin, and three gould studs 
 like flies, and Nora's coral necklace, and the earrings, 
 and more besides, if I could only mind it. Oh ! we're 
 not so bad off, me and Nora ; but there! it would never 
 do go taking good things about where there's such 
 cattle as that Rich(^nda. They'd never be safe a 
 minute. So we locked them up in the big black box, 
 and buried it ; I've got the place put down on a bit of 
 paper. I'll not mind showing it you ; but don't you 
 go letting on to none of the others. I know their 
 crafty ways." 
 
 From the pocket of a fly-book, Loverin, first glanc- 
 ing furtively around, drew forth a damp-discoloured 
 "death-card," bearing the words — 
 
 " In Memory of Leonora Lovell, 
 
 Who died at Clavering, February 26th, 1869, 
 
 Aged 19 years. 
 
 Farewell, mother and husband dear, — 
 Don't weep for me, though I am not here ; 
 Don't weep for me, nor neither cry, — 
 I am gone to meet my Lord on high." 
 
 " Read it up," said Loverin cheerfully. 
 
 "Clavering, February 26th, 1869," I read. 
 
 " That isn't all of it. Read it right up from the 
 beginning : ' In memory of Leonora Lovell ; ' " and 
 Loverin repeated it straight off by heart. 
 
 " Can't you see, man, as that was just a screen to put 
 'em off their curiosity ? 'Twasn't likely I should go 
 
LOVERIN'S GUILE. 63 
 
 and tell them that I'd been hiding so and so; but now, 
 if one of them was to see that paper — ' What's that ? ' 
 they'd ask ; and I should answer, careless-like, ' Oh ! 
 nothing but a death-card ; you're welcome to read it, 
 if you has a mind.' And they might read it, but they'd 
 never make nothing on it, never think as that was 
 where I'd hid the treasure." 
 
 " I suppose not. And where the treasure is, there 
 shall the heart be also ? " 
 
 " No, no," Loverin ran on vauntingly, heedless of my 
 self-communing remark ; " I was a bit too old there 
 for the Yorkshire jockey. She was always hankering 
 after Nora's necklace, calling her ' Sister,' and wanting 
 her to change for an old brass thing that wasn't worth 
 picking up in the road. I can't abear such nasty fly- 
 catching ways. And the boys takes after her, prodigal 
 young ringtails ! I gave it Mantis, though, this morn- 
 ing. Pretty fellow, to brag about convarsin' with my 
 gentleman ? " 
 
 " Never mind your nephew, Loverin ; tell me about 
 yourself You were always a highly moral, well- 
 conducted youth." 
 
 " That's the truest word ever you said, bor. I was 
 the best out of all the ruck, never getting into no rows 
 or contravartins, nor nothing of the sort. Wherever I 
 goes I always manages to get a glass of beer, 'cause I'm 
 so innocent, gorgios say. But Wisdom now, he always 
 was a hard-faced one. You can see the badness in 
 his very looks. We were stopping at Flashbrook onest, 
 by a bit of a pond, along with Solomon's lot ; and it 
 
64 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 was fearful cold that winter, and of course this pond was 
 frozen over. Well, one fine frosty morning my mammy 
 was plucking a chicken in the tent, and Wisdom got 
 outside the place with nothing but his short shirt on, 
 and a small clay pipe a sticking in his mouth that my 
 daddy had brought from the ' Batchiker Arms.' I 
 daresay he'd be about seven years old. My mammy 
 kept shouting to him to come and be dressed, and he 
 wouldn't. Sliding on that place he was the whole day 
 long ; and next morning he was took very bad, his 
 head and his eyes swoll up fearful. And then we went 
 away from there, and went to that place called Aspley, 
 by Eccleshaw ; and my mammy took him to the 
 doctor there, oh ! three or four times she had him to 
 the doctor. And he was bad for a long time after. 
 
 " That was the same place where my daddy and 
 mammy took the donkey to fetch a great dead pig 
 from a farm about two miles off I can't say what it 
 was like, but it was bigger than the donkey. And he 
 hung it upon a great old oak tree, on one of the lower 
 branches ; and I know Sinfi and me were awfully 
 frighted of it. It looked like a ghost hung up. And 
 a fox came hovering round the place — smelt it, I sup- 
 pose ; and the second night it come again, and caught 
 hold of one of the legs and brought it down, branch 
 and all together. He left it lying on the ground next 
 morning, and went off immediately — got such a fright, 
 I suppose ; and then my daddy cut it up, gave some 
 to Solomon's and some to Gilderoy's. 
 
 " Ay, bor; and then my daddy brought home a pair 
 
MERIBEN. 65 
 
 of great old-fashioned flat scales, one night soon after 
 that ; and Sinfi and me put 'em up in the tent, and 
 got in swingle-wise. We used to sit there, and weigh 
 ourselves backwards and forwards, bobbing up and 
 down like two young porkypines. And then my 
 daddy sold them for old copper. I mind my mammy 
 was fine and angry, 'cause Sinfi put little Ambrose in 
 them onest." 
 
 " Little Ambrose? I don't know the name." 
 " Oh ! that was the dear little boy that died by 
 Norton, when he was only three months old. He came 
 atween Lance and Lina. Shuri was nursing him, and 
 she'd been angry just before ; didn't want to hold the 
 child. And she was shaking him about on his stomach; 
 he was crying, and he had a fit, — died in it. Dear 
 little fellow ! I remember that little child's face as well 
 as can be to this day. It was blue. And then my 
 mammy laid him out on the things, on the pocket, in 
 his short frock ; and we took it down, and played with 
 it, as though it was a doll. My mammy took it off us, 
 and put it back on the things. Then next day the 
 man brought the little coffin down ; and two little 
 girls come dressed all in white, and they brought two 
 great bunches of wallflowers, and put them all over the 
 child in the coffin. And to this day, whenever I see 
 those sort of flowers, it takes me back to that ; the 
 very smell of 'em do. And I remember, we looked 
 upon it, me and Sinfi, as though it was something to 
 please us like. We had no sense ; we were quite 
 little. And then, when they took the child away 
 
 E 
 
66 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 to be buried, we wanted to go with them ; and my 
 mammy would not let us. She had to turn us back 
 twice, to make us stay at the place ; and we yelled as 
 loud as ever we could yell. And whiles they were at 
 the funeral, I wanted to go by myself somewhere, and 
 Lance would follow me. And there was a long drain 
 crossing the road, wide enough for any child to walk 
 up. There was no water in it ; it was all dried up. 
 And I took him underneath that drain, and thrashed 
 him well. I thought it would sound fine, for we used 
 to go there to hoot. And he did open his mouth 
 above a bit ! " 
 
 Loverin had been very near crying when he came to 
 Ambrose's blueness, but this last reminiscence seemed 
 to cheer him up. And the depths of his brother's 
 wickedness, contrasting with his own integrity, had 
 still to be laid more bare. 
 
 " That drain was something like another bridge ; 
 only there was water there. We were all stopping in 
 a beautiful road, called the Worcester Road ; and 
 there was the river running right across, and over it a 
 little foot-bridge. Patience and Shiiri got washing 
 this bridge one day (little bits of wenches they was 
 then), and Nathan was walking round about with one 
 of those wooden hoop things round his neck. And he 
 would keep walking on the wet bridge ; and long and 
 by last he tumbled overboard, right into a deep mud- 
 hole. He swum down underneath the bridge, and 
 Uncle Perun's wife pulled him out, Lippi. Then 
 Pyramus made a fire in my Aunt Plenty's tub, and 
 
DITCH HEATHENS. 67 
 
 baked cakes. We all sat round, and made a feast, 
 until she come. Then we had to run all roads ; and 
 she did lay it on to him for burning the good wash- 
 tub. It was a new one. But Pyramus's greed was past 
 all bearings. There was him and Tilda onest. M)- 
 mammy and the rest were all gone out ; no one at the 
 place, only just us children. And there was a whole 
 field-full of Travellers, all sorts ; and Pyramus and 
 Gilderoy's Tilda got at my mammy's flour, and took 
 the frying-pan and filled it, and begun kneading it up. 
 And they'd neither matches nor sticks, nor nothing in 
 the world to make a fire. They sat in the ditch, where 
 they thought no one could see 'em ; and just as they 
 were about finished " — 
 
 " But how did they manage, if they had no fire ? " 
 " Just kneaded it up, and ate it so like pigs. They'd 
 got through the first panful, and begun on the second, 
 and they were gormed all over, when they saw my 
 mammy and all the others coming; and they scattered 
 it all over the bushes, and a good way along the ditch 
 where they'd been sitting. My daddy, when he seed 
 it, burst out laughing ; and Pyramus fell on his back 
 in the ditch, thinking he was going to be beat. But 
 Tilda ran off all down the field, and Gilderoy after her 
 with a poking-stick. 
 
 " Another time it was Plato and a gorgio lad ; and 
 we were stopping in a place called Shaybroom Lane, 
 the place where the pigs ate up Seth Boswell's fiddle. 
 He had a pistol, this monkey had ; and he filled it full 
 of powder, and he put a match to it, and it didn't go 
 
68 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 off. Then he laid it down on the grass, and put 
 another match in it, and told Plato to stoop down and 
 blow up it. And he blowed, and the moment he did 
 so, the thing went off, and let fly right in the middle 
 of Plato's face. Perfectly blind he was for some time; 
 and my mammy went down to the fine woman, the 
 lad's mother, and scold about it ; and the fine gorgio 
 beat the boy. And very next day Nathan hit my 
 cousin ' Hi'ngo-piri ' on the nose with a tent-rod, made 
 her nose bleed; and my Uncle Gilderoy came to hit 
 Nathan, said he'd throw him in the middle of a gorse- 
 bush. But Nathan runned off, got in the very furderest 
 corner of my mammy's tent, and hid hisself " 
 " But what about the pigs and violin, Loverin ? " 
 " The pigs ? Oh 1 that was onest when we were stop- 
 ping in Shaybroom Lane, along with Seth Boswell 
 and his wife. And my daddy and him went off to 
 Market Drayton, to the fair. We were all small 
 children at the time. Their tent was made close to 
 my mammy's ; and before Seth's wife went out in the 
 morning, she asked us to take notice of her place, that 
 the donkeys and things didn't get in. And we said 
 we would. But we never did ; we were too much 
 occupied in our own way, playing about. So, while 
 we were all away from the place, two great big pigs 
 come up the road from the little farm just by, walked 
 into my mammy's tent first, gnawed two great big 
 holes in the wallet, and rooked the straw all about. 
 Then they went into Seth's place, and ate up one or 
 two loaves of bread, and chewed a new violin all in 
 
A SINGLE VILLAINY. 69 
 
 pieces, left nothing but the head. A Hon-headed 
 fiddle it was. And when she came home she began to 
 cry, and we told her how it had happened. Then she 
 begged and prayed of us not to say nothing to him 
 about it ; and the very first thing she did when he 
 came back again was to go and tell him it was me and 
 Nathan had done it. There was a beast ! And then 
 we told him all about it ; and then he beat her like 
 anything for telling lies. And I don't think we ever 
 stopped with them after that. But fancy her saying 
 it we me." 
 
 " Yes, only fancy it ; but conscious innocence up- 
 held you, doubtless. The oddest thing to me is, 
 Loverin, that the others never took pattern by your 
 example. You never lit fires in wash-tubs, or blew 
 up pistols, went sliding naked, or even hit your 
 cousins with a tent-rod." 
 
 " No, if you'll believe me, rei'a, I never was 'dieted 
 to no such nasty villainies. Worst thing that ever I 
 did, was killing a gully [gosling] down by Dorstone 
 onest. My mammy sent me to the farm after some 
 milk, me and Lancelot. As we were coming back, 
 there was a drop of water to cross, and all the geese 
 and young gullies was on it. And there was a portly 
 old gander came craning at me (I hadn't got no shoes 
 on), and I picked up a dear little tiny bit of a pebble, 
 was aiming to throw it at him ; instead of that, it 
 caught one of the little ones. And I never noticed 
 the gorgio, standing just over the hedge, watching. 
 And the moment he seed me throw the stone, he got 
 
70 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 over the hedge, and come running after us. We had 
 to go up a terrible steep bank to get to the tents, and 
 I didn't wait to look behind me. I started off as hard 
 as I could go, I pitched the can down ; and we all left 
 that place at onest, went right away across the hills 
 for miles and miles. And I didn't do it for a pur- 
 pose neither, 'cause there's never no good of killing 
 poor dear animals. Look at that black tom-cat by 
 .Shayshall yonder." 
 
 " What of him, Loverin ? Was she a witch, or 
 rather was he a wizard ?" 
 
 " No, you don't understand me ; you go too fast. 
 There now ! I declare if you haven't been and put 
 it clean out of my head, just when I was going to 
 begin." 
 
 " About the black tom-cat at Shayshall," I suggest ; 
 and Loverin picks up the thread of his discourse. 
 
 " Ay, ay ; it was at Shayshall sure enough, and I 
 was quite a little tiny thing. And we were stopping 
 with my grandfather, and Gilderoy's breed was there. 
 And Sinfi was the baby at the time ; and my 
 mammy always kept a piece of bread by her head, 
 in case the child woke up in the night and wanted 
 some. And two nights running the bread was gone ; 
 she didn't know how it went. Ay, bor, so the third 
 night my daddy watched, and saw a great big black 
 tom-cat come in, an awful fierce-lookins: thinsf. It 
 stole the bread again, and bolted. Then my daddy 
 made a little bit of a snare out of a bit of wax-end, 
 and put it right in the middle of the balk, at a little 
 
TRAGEDY. , 7 1 
 
 hole in the blanket. It come through again, and got 
 into the snare. My daddy rose up in his shirt, and 
 beat it like anything ; and the cat jumped up, nearly 
 put his claws into my daddy's eyes. Then my Uncle 
 Gilderoy rose up, and they took the poor cat outside, 
 dashed its brains out with a piece of stake and a bill- 
 hook. Long after they'd killed it, as they thought 
 (they left it lying on the ground), and the poor thing 
 groaned most awful. And then they made a hole 
 close anunst the tent, and buried it. Then about ten 
 o'clock in the morning, when we were having our 
 breaksfast, the old man come by as owned the cat, and 
 asked my daddy if he'd seen aught of it. ' No,' my 
 daddy said ; ' I haven't seen it nowhere. The boat- 
 men must have took it,' — for there was a canal close 
 by. And the poor old man went round about, calling 
 ' Puss, puss, puss ;' and he shaked all over, and kept 
 crying, 'Oh my poor pussy!' He said he was awful 
 sorry he couldn't find it ; it often used to go in and 
 bring out the water-hens, and lay them down at the 
 door. And he said the cat knowed as well as any- 
 thing everything he said to it. No boatman, he said, 
 couldn't have taken it ; she'd never allow anybody to 
 touch her. Something dreadful must have happened 
 to it ; and then he went off. Bless us all, how that 
 poor animal did groan !" 
 
 While Loverin told his story of the cat, I was 
 rummaging vainly for a pipe-light. My box was 
 empty, but there might be some fuzees scattered 
 loose in my pockets, whose contents I accordingly 
 
72 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 turned out upon the grass. Among them was a 
 bunch of watercress, given me that morning by one 
 of the boys. Loverin espied it, and picked it up ; as 
 he did so, a curious change passed over him. His 
 dreamy indolence gave place to sharp suspicion ; his 
 face grew pale, or rather ashen-grey; his words came 
 quick and vehement : — 
 
 " That's watercress. Where did you get it from ?" 
 
 So sudden was the change, so commonplace the 
 question, that, vaguely reminded of Tweedle-dum, I 
 vaguely answered, " That ? why, Dimiti picked it out 
 of the brook when I went to bathe this morning. I 
 put it in my pocket, and had clean " 
 
 " You're a liar, man. That never come out of no 
 Welsh brook. Do you think Tm a fool ? do you 
 think I don't know nothing?" 
 
 " But, Loverin," 
 
 " Don't 'Loverin' me. Do you think I haven't got 
 no eyes in my head ? do you think as I don't mind 
 
 the Shawford cress ? Why I knowed it She 
 
 was lying in the tent, dear wench, deathly pale and 
 sick, for she was near her time (we hadn't been 
 together not a twelvemonth), and she was always 
 dalicate. We'd sent for the old woman to come and 
 nurse her, old Tryphi Gray, but she couldn't come ; 
 was in trouble about a fortune-telling. I can see it 
 now that place, Clavering, all down among the poverty 
 wet fens ; but it was a beautiful sharp bright morning 
 (Valentine's Day it was) ; you could see your breath 
 curling up like smoke, and the fog wasn't only half 
 
MELODRAMA. 
 
 73 
 
 lifted. And she says, said she, ' I'm sure I could 
 relish a bite of cress, my Loverin. And she knowed 
 that country ; I'd never been there much afore. Just 
 above the foot-bridge going to Mr Bowen's, she said, 
 I was sartain to find it ; across the meadow where 
 the bull was kept, — and he was a size of a bull. Off 
 I started, never put no hat nor jacket on, for I was 
 fine and pleased as she could fancy anything ; came 
 to the brook, and found the cress just where she said 
 it growed. And there was no one back at the place 
 but her and Genty, and Genty was nothing but a half- 
 growed maiden. And I come tearing back, was got as 
 far as that great big oak tree, when Genty meets me, 
 flying: ' Run, bor, run; there's a nasty gorgio a speak- 
 ing badness to my sister.' I didn't run, I fled, clean 
 over the hedge, right into the road, never looked for 
 no gaps nor nothing. There was his horse outside the 
 place (a beauty he was, rale thorough-bred), and the 
 gentleman. Squire Pomfret, a-standing right inside 
 the balk, in his fine red hunting-coat, top-boots, his 
 box-hat and all, puffing away with a cigar in his 
 mouth, and a Bank of England note a-fiddling in his 
 fingers. ' Damn you, you cursed rogue ! ' I shouted. 
 I was on to him in a twinkling. He couldn't stand 
 up against me not one moment, but I had him down 
 atop o' the burning coke, and I beat him (Lord ! how 
 I did beat him !), and I kicked him and wrastled him, 
 and I got at his throat and worried him, and I catched 
 up the kettle-prop, and I — I — " 
 
 Expressionless, said I not, were Loverin's eyes ? 
 
74 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 Ah ! better so, than burning as now with passionate 
 lust to kill ; better those merciful tears that will wash 
 away the memory — stirred so unwittingly by a bunch 
 of cress — the memory of long-forgotten sorrow. I 
 know, for I have often heard, the story, whose sequel 
 is hardly known by Loverin. Enough, that he only 
 did not kill the scoundrel ;i and, leaving him for 
 dead, fled forth a fugitive from g6rgio law. And Nora 
 died, and Loverin's people came and buried her; 
 and Loverin joined them after five weeks of wander- 
 ing by himself Where he had wandered, they 
 cannot tell ; but he was famished, and footsore, and 
 as " tattered as a mawkin. All his rags," said 
 Lementina, "jumped for joy." The news of Nora's 
 death only made him an idiot. He is harmless, 
 tractable, and not unhappy. 
 
 " Look, Loverin, here is the little woolly black 
 bear again. It really is ridiculous to see how one 
 pulls the tobacco from under the tail, is it not ? 
 That's right ; laugh away, only don't get blackguard- 
 ing me, for you are a fine big fellow, and I am but a 
 little one. You frighten me, you know. Be a good 
 lad, and you shall hear the story of the Great Huge 
 Bear, and the Middle-sized Bear, and the Little Small 
 Wee Bear." 
 
 I began the tale, but it proved an eminent failure, 
 my hearer being fidgetty and absent. Native polite- 
 
 ' To spare the feelings of that scoundrel's kinsfolk, I have altered 
 names; but the scoundrel himself, if he ever read these pages, will 
 know what "Pomfret," "Clavering," and "Shawford" stand for. 
 
NEVERMORE. 75 
 
 ness kept him for some time quiet ; but just as I got 
 to where the three bears come home, he started up, 
 saying apologetically, — 
 
 " Dear heart, what a time that foolish woman do 
 stop. Excuse me, rei'a, but I'll walk to the top of the 
 hill, to look if I can't see her coming." 
 
€^R^ttx JjDurt^. 
 
 O LOVERIN went to watch for Leonora; 
 and passing down the camp, I came upon 
 Silvanus, sitting with back against the 
 wall and outstretched legs, a picture of 
 placidity. I told him about " poor " Loverin, and the 
 old man chid me for my pitying epithet : — " It's a 
 sin to go /i3^r-ing innocents and such like, for you 
 know's it's my dear God's will, and you must leave 
 it where you find it, reia." Then I asked who the 
 farmer was, with whom I had left him talking. 
 
 "That was Mr Chamberlain, a very free nice 
 gentleman." 
 
 "A Welshman?" 
 
 " Oh, dear no ; doesn't know two words of Welsh ; 
 he hasn't been up these parts more nor thirteen years. 
 Deerhurst in Gloucestershire is his natival, so we're 
 kind of 'sociates like. He's got one sister married 
 back at Winchcombe ; keeps a fine big farm, Mrs 
 Cartwright, but we always calls her Madam One-Two- 
 Three, 'cause, whenever we goes up fiddling, she's safe 
 
 76 
 
LETTER-WRITING. yj 
 
 to ask for the polka of that name. Christmas-time 
 we are mostly stopping in her orchard, and she'll say 
 to Lementina, 'Well, Mrs Lovell, and have you seen' 
 my brother, Mr Chamberlain, lately ? ' 'Oh yes, 
 ma'am,' Lemmy tells her ; ' and he sent his very kind 
 love to you.' Then summer-time, you see, we come 
 and stop in this here meadow, and Mr Chamber- 
 lain '11 say to me, ' Well, Lovell, have you seen my 
 sister ? ' ' Oh yes, sir,' I answers ; ' and she sends her 
 duty and very fondest love.' So brother and sister 
 always lets us stop, 'cause then we tells 'em all that's 
 going on." 
 
 " But do you mean to say they never write to one 
 another ? " 
 
 " No, they never writes ; leastwise if they do, it's 
 unbeknown to we. But gorgios are different to 
 Gipsies. There was an Irishman at Malvern onest, I 
 mind ; he wrote to his daughter, and ' Send him his 
 shirt ' was all he put in it." 
 
 " Well, Gipsies, though frequent, are not very good 
 correspondents. I hardly ever read a Gipsy letter that 
 contained much more than loves and kisses, the next 
 address, and ' Write back by return of post.' But it's 
 chiefly, I take it, the fault of the people they get to 
 write for them ; for when Gipsies can write themselves, 
 their letters are better as a rule than those of gorgios. 
 How many of the boys can read and write ? " 
 
 " Oh ! all of 'em knows their letters, 'cause Lemen- 
 tina learnt them that much ; and Plato can read a 
 fairish bit. But Wisdom and Nathan are regular 
 
78 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 scholards. They got it off their wives, for all Welsh 
 Gipsies are terrible ones for larning." 
 
 "Yes; so I understand from old John Roberts. 
 You know him, I suppose, Silvanus ? " 
 
 "No; I never seen the old man himself, though lots 
 of times these country gorgios ask. Be I any kith to 
 him ? and I always tells 'em. Ay. He really is Rodi 
 and Alablna's kinsman. But I met the boys onest, 
 playing up at the Kerry Beacon. Beautiful harp- 
 players they are, though I stand up for the good old 
 English fiddle." 
 
 " There are some good violinists among them, too ; 
 but what I was going to say is that the father is a 
 better scholar, and a man of greater intelligence, than 
 half the farmers in the country-side. ^ Letters and 
 letters I have from him in this old pocket-book, all 
 written in the very deepest Romanes, letters that it 
 would puzzle even you to understand." 
 
 " Ay ? " incredulously. 
 
 " Ay, indeed. I can tell you they were worse than 
 Greek to me, when first I tried to make them out. 
 Come then, I'll put you to the test. Let's see, we'll 
 try this one: — ' Nevo Gav, yndra ow Welshanengo 
 Tem, i8tli Me Dublesco Monthos, i8yy. Meray derz. 
 parchana Semensa, Shom ma boinno te cerra caia 
 chinamangery te bitchera to mengey te pena to 
 
 1 How few farmers, in England at least, would dream of writing out 
 a vocabulary of their native dialect, with tables of inflections. John 
 Roberts compiled such, being ignorant at the time that any works on: 
 the Romani tongue existed. 
 
LAKE BAIKAL. 75) 
 
 mengey ta geyom cerray, ta llateyom saw merzy foky 
 mishto, ta comday te dicken man.'i No, that's too 
 easy, Silvanus ; I'll find you a stiffer bit than that. 
 Here's something that must have been written ex- 
 pressly for your benefit : — 
 
 " Now for a bit of rokraben'^ in the English Gipsies' 
 style, to a Welsh Gipsy man, meeting in a fair in 
 Brecon. The English man has a lot of horses to sell, 
 and the Welsh man has nothing but his harp or violin. 
 The Welsh man takes a walk from the hotel or public- 
 house where he is playing, to see the fair, when he 
 meets two or three very tidy English men dressed 
 like gentlemen. When all at onest the English sees 
 something in the phizeog of the Welshman, and says 
 to him, ' Sharsan^ my Pall?'^ when the Welsh one 
 says, ' I am very well, thank you. I don't know who 
 you are.' English : — 'Maw didakai!= he don't jon ^ 
 who I am ; he kers"^ himself like a goruglio? Don't 
 you jon'^ when totes'^ come to us where we were a 
 atching^^ in de lane about three miles from here, on 
 de Tal-y-bont road? don't totas^ jon^ the time when 
 mandays^'^ give you a butt of a fishing-rod, and iotas'^ 
 deld'^^ mandays'^^ a fiddle-stick? Where do you atcli^'^ 
 in the gav^^ here? do you yzV^* akai?"^^ WELSH: — 
 
 ' "New Town, in the Welsh country, i8th my God's month (i.e. 
 Christmas month — December), 1877. My dear respected Kinsfolk, 
 Am I (I am) proud to make this letter and send to you to tell you that 
 I got home, and found all my people well ; and they liked (were glad) 
 to see me." ^ Talk. ^ How art thou?, ■* Brother. '•' Nay, look 
 here! (a mere exclamation.) ^ Know. ''Makes. 'Gentile. ^ You. 
 " Staying. " I, me. ^- Gave. " Town. " Live. 1= Here. 
 
8o IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 'Yes, I have my boshamangary^ at the "Bell"; will 
 you come as far ?' ' Yes, my brother, I will ; look after 
 those hosses a bit, Josiah.' ' Don't be long, my 
 brother.' ' No, I shan't, my fellow ; I am only going 
 to hear my Uncle John ke/l^ a bit upon his boska- 
 jnangary} I haven't heard him, the Lord knows 
 when. I think the last time I heard him was some- 
 where in Herefordshire, on the borders of Shrop- 
 shire, the time when we got very mateay,^ and you 
 had to go to some Ji las hill! ^ The two are now in 
 the 'Bell,' in a good big taproom. ' Now, my Uncle 
 John, what will you lel^ to pee?'' Play us up a 
 good hornpipe.' When presently in comes one of the 
 brothers, and just sold a horse for ;^20, and begins to 
 dance like a good 'un. When the harper praises the 
 dancer up by saying, ' Mishtoe,^ faith ! bau ; kosko 
 kelamangero shan too. To shan ow fedader kela- 
 mangero ta dicttom may undray temorry famalya.. 
 Mero stiffo pal ses very kosko yeck, but to shan 
 fedadare nor yov. Repera may les te kellel saw e 
 parlochey from lesky chichaw yek rat, undray some 
 curchima in e Abergainaia ; ta kordas ow fedadare 
 kelamangero en dova gav ; ta, te pena ow tatchyben 
 
 ^ Harp. - Play. ^ Drunk. ■* Mansion, gentleman's house. 
 
 ' Take. ^ Drink. ^ "Capital, faith! lad; good dancer art thou. 
 Thou art the best dancer that saw I (I have seen) in your family. My 
 brother-in-law was (a) very good one, but thou art better nor (than) he. 
 Remember I him that (he) dances (I remember his dancing) all the 
 nails out of his boots one night in some inn in the Abergavenny ; and 
 (he) was called the best dancer in that town ; and, to tell the truth, was 
 called I (I was called) the best harper in the same town." 
 
CRITICISM. 8 1 
 
 toky, kordom maia o\v fedadare borrey boshymanero 
 unray ow same ow gav.' 'Oh dear! Uncle John, 
 please to speak a little plain. I can't understand all 
 you said to me ; it's a little too old for me.' When 
 all at onest a gentleman comes to the harper, and 
 asks him in Welsh to play a Welsh air called Morfa 
 Rhyddlan; and the harper speaks Welsh to him. 
 When one of the brothers says, ' Maw didakai,'^ he is 
 kerring^ himself like a gougho^ now.' Now drink, my 
 Uncle John ; we must be going, we have a long way 
 to go, and the chaves^ are by themselves. Good- 
 night." 
 
 " There, Silvanus, what do you say to that ? You 
 wouldn't find many farmers who could so well 
 describe a meeting with a friend at market." 
 
 " No, bor ; I daresay not. But I didn't much like 
 that part about the English Gipsies making as how 
 they don't know nothing. And I'm sure some of 
 the words were not good English Romanes at all. 
 Why, a boshoinmgri isn't a harp, it's a fiddle ; and if 
 you want to say ' drunk,' you'd say ' They got motto', 
 not maati. That's like old Damhras's talk. You 
 may depend upon it, they wasn't no real English 
 Romane at all, but just some dealers." 
 
 " I don't think that ; but of course John Roberts 
 
 1 Nay, look here ! ^ Making. '^ Gentile. * Children. Here, 
 as elsewhere, I have retained the exact spelling of the Romani words 
 in the original MS., merely altering the punctuation slightly, and 
 italicising the English words (very, but, &c.) that occur in the 
 middle of a Romani sentence, and vice versa. 
 
 F 
 
82 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 holds that Welsh Romanes is deeper than the English, 
 and there he is right enough, though there may not 
 be all the difference that this makes out. But tell me 
 honestly, was that bit in the middle too old for you 
 or not ? " 
 
 " Oh, dear no ! I could understand it fast enough ; 
 all of it leastwise that was written right." 
 
 " You are like Sylvester. I read it to him once, and 
 he got very wild over it. All that he could under- 
 stand, he said was right ; and all that he could not 
 understand, he said was wrong. That is always the 
 way, I find. The truth is, that Wester knows words 
 that old John Roberts does not, and John Roberts 
 knows words, and ways of placing words, that Wester 
 has never heard. Yet to take their opinions of one 
 another, one might fancy they were a couple of 
 know-nothings, though — saving yourself, of course, 
 Silvanus — they are the deepest Gipsies I have ever 
 met." 
 
 " Is that Westaarus Boswell you'll be meaning ? 
 Pyramus met him at Rhyl a fortnight gone, but I 
 have not set eyes on him for donkey's ears [i.e. long 
 years]. He's got a fine silver medal presented him, 
 so Pyramus was saying, for laming gentlemen to 
 speak the Rom'nimus ; fd lam 'em anything." 
 
 " Even so, Silvanus ; and those two gentlemen, Dr 
 Bath Smart and Mr Crofton, of Manchester, have 
 written a book on T/ie Dialect of the English Gipsies, 
 which tells all that is to be told about the old- 
 fashioned Roman tongue. Don't get blaspheming, 
 
ETYMOLOGY PLUS ENTOMOLOGY. 83 
 
 for blasphemy will do no good ; and, after all, there 
 were books written years ago, by Mr Borrow and 
 others, from which any one could pick up all he 
 wanted, better in some ways than from Wester's 
 book. Very few but real scholars will ever dive into 
 that. It is too deep, and Virginia Water is more to 
 the taste of ordinary pleasure-seekers than Thirlmere 
 or Bala Lake. Joking apart though, I was as eager 
 as you once to lock the stable door, till I found, on 
 looking, that the steed was stolen. Sometimes, how- 
 ever, the thieves have got hold of some very curious 
 animals. What does jilvas mean, Silvanus?" 
 
 " Why, ' varmint,' to be sure ; Scotch Greys, the 
 highfliers calls 'em." 
 
 " Exactly ; but many of the books on Romanes 
 make out that ji'ivas means ' women, ''^ and that a 
 
 ■^ The real Romani word for "woman" \% jiivel, \>\. jiivia. Sub- 
 stitute pulex for ptidla in a Latin poem, and some conception may be 
 formed of the curious effect of this confusion of two nearly homo- 
 phonous words. The following spurious or mistranslated Romani words 
 and phrases occur in the vocabularies of Jacob Bryant (1784) : — 
 Bauro beval acochenos, "a storm" ( — bmiro bdval, i.e. "great wind," a 
 catching us : Pott connects acochenos with xo\^) ; adra patii paddee, 
 "drowned" (lit. "in water they fell"); bonvardo, "giant" ( = bailro 
 vardo, "great cart" — the giant's caravan, probably); cavascorook, 
 ' ' laurel " ( = idva si ruk, " this is a tree ") ; Jasia vallacai, ' ' to com- 
 mand " (—jas or vel akal, " go or come here," cf. Luke vii. 8) ; p/as- 
 tomingree, "couch" (for " co3.c\C'); porcheric, " hxa.ii" (=posh-h6ri, 
 "a halfpenny, or copper"); redan, " yellow "( = Engl. r«/ 'tin, "red 
 one ") ; and sauvee, " an eagle " {=soov, " a «eedle "). Of D. Copsey 
 (181S) : — bildrrah, "kettle" ( = Engl. biler, "boiler"), and kannilla, 
 "bad food" (lit. "it stinks"). Of CoL. Harriot (1830) :— a,r/z;- 
 paleste, "bless" { = atck apri leste, "rest on him"); chariklo, "cage" 
 (for "bird"); dein avai lova , "charity" ( = lit. "giving away money ") ; 
 
84 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 ' young man ' should be called a jYivaio imish " (i.e. 
 /io7Ko pediadosiis). " What would the boys say if 
 any one were to address them so ? " 
 
 " They wouldn't say nought, they'd do ; something 
 like I did at Llanigan onest. You see, bor, I was 
 fiddling at the public there, and some of the Lees 
 knowed I was going to play, went to Mr Bruntlow, 
 and tried to get the place. He wouldn't let them 
 have it, no fears of that ; so what does these pretty 
 Ji'ivalo Gune do but stop all night just out of aggrawa- 
 tion. Next morning I come down into the kitchen, 
 and Abel Lee begun upon me there. What does I do? 
 I offed with my shirt, right in the middle of the 
 kitchen, 'fore all the people. ' Kek ne jt'ivalo shorn mi 
 h'lkero' says \, in gorgiones, ' and I'll fight the lot on 
 
 Efage, "Irish Gipsy" (? Engl, effigy, i.e. scarecrow, tatterdemalion); 
 preofodiis, "second story of a house '\=pre o boordas, "up the stairs") ; 
 and vail gofo, "fair in hue" ( = valg6ro, "fair, or market). Of S. 
 Roberts (1836) : — chivya, " tongs " (for "tongues"); delman, "ask" 
 ( = del man, "give me"); and Sellitaree, "take out" ( = Z^/it avri, 
 "take it out," cf. his Biggerit " caxry," = Rigger it, "carry if;" 
 chinglet, '• itzx," = chlnger it, " tear ;V," &c., and ihs kijravit, "to do," 
 dickavit, "to see,"&c., of Mr Leland). Of Dr B. Smart (1863) :— 
 sorto-poov, " garden "( = sort o' pooi', "sort of field;" omitted in 2d 
 ed.). Of Mr Borrow (iZj\) i—yarb-tan, "garden" ( = herb-;n», 
 "herb place"). Of Mr Leland (1873-79) :—/'w, "mustard" (?Engl. 
 cress, cf.) "mustard and ereess") ; gogemars, "swampy places" (? Engl. 
 quagmires) ; and pukkns-asa, "monkey" (Engl, pug, disgi.iised by two 
 common Romani suffixes, -us and -asai-]. These mistakes, which could 
 at least be quintupled, are due in some cases to mutual misunder- 
 standing, in others to Gipsies' disinclination to " larn gorgios anything." 
 To the latter class belong boro fide, "a steeple," and the statement 
 (found in Hoyland, Copsey, Hone, Crabb, &c.) that Con-ii is a 
 common Gipsy name. 
 
SYLVESTER B S W E L-L 
 
IPSE DIXIT. 85 
 
 you for half-a-crovvn.' A great big portly man that 
 Abel is, but he was downright cowed ; and, bless us ! 
 how the people burst out laughing." 
 
 The point of which story, if point indeed it has, 
 is that a feud exists between the Lees and Lovells, 
 and that Juvalo Guiii is a nickname of the former, 
 whose utterance by Silvanus was tantamount to chal- 
 lenge with unblunted lance. Its moral is, accost no 
 Gipsy lad as jYivalo intish, least of all if he chance to 
 bear the name of Lee. But Silvanus had not done 
 with Wester yet. 
 
 " Dddia ! " he presently broke out ; " I can't get 
 over that old air-beater going and larning them two 
 gentlemen." 
 
 " Now, don't go calling Wester names, for he is a 
 fine old fellow, whom I hold in singular esteem. 
 How should I not so hold ' the most populated man 
 in Portingal, Lancashire, Timbuctoo' — how runs the 
 testimonial ? I have a copy of the original, written 
 clear and big in Dr Bath Smart's own hand. Listen 
 to this, Silvanus, and own your master : — 
 
 "This is to certisfy that Sylvester Bos well, a well-known 
 and popakted Gipsy, now living in the parish of Seacombe, 
 Codling Gap, one of the best characters that ever was known 
 in the name of a Gipsy, which he is true bred and born, 
 and is a man which is most trustworthiest with any amount 
 of property in his care, also possessed of learning according 
 to what he has been taught, also knowing a little of every 
 profession in life according to honest industry, also thinks a 
 great deal of his time to come with care and not as people 
 thinks that Gipsies are or has been spoken of on their dis- 
 
86 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 honesty, for I will assure any gentleman or any lady he is 
 most worthy to be placed in any situation — respectable — 
 according to his abilities in life. 
 
 "Although now sleeping under a tent that is called a 
 Gipsy tent, but much to his profit as it is so — on the accont 
 of health, sweetness of the air, and for enjoying the pleasure 
 of Nature's life — this is to inform any of the Gentry in this 
 country or any other that he is the most particularest man 
 now on record of his fraternity or any other in the profes- 
 sion he is now placed in, and the more punctualer man in 
 gentlemanhood cannot be found in the world, for he is able 
 to converse in common learning with any Counsel, lawyer, 
 or magistrate, or to give answers with good understandings in 
 any Court of Justice in England, and now a free man (and 
 has been all his life), free from all cares or fears of law that 
 may come against him, and still an honest and industrious 
 man and well known to all nations as a first-class well-known 
 Gentleman Gipsy, and is now in Co. with some of the 
 highest respectable gentlemen and ladies for his grand and 
 good gentlemanlike conduct. 
 
 " Also his name is in force in popular printing, all parts 
 abroad, France, Spain, Portingale, Asia, Africa and America, 
 East and West Indies, German}', Turkey also, and all other 
 nations too tedious to mention, and is now at Seacombe in 
 the county of Cheshire, which is much credit to the whole 
 of the county to say that they are possessed of a man in 
 their parish as they are now possessed of The heads of 
 the parish of Seacombe can boast of having in their sight at 
 any hour and of seeing one that is a most noted character 
 to all the world, with purity, and only a common so-called 
 (by low-classed people) Gipsy man, and also now wears a 
 most beautiful medal for his great knowledge in grammar- 
 ing one of the ancientest langeges on record, one that has 
 been lost for numbers of years. No other man found in no 
 nation by proof of learned men can be found for his great 
 
KNOW THYSELF. 87 
 
 knowledge of understanding and grammaring of the original 
 Gipsy true langege. 
 
 "Composed by Sylvester Boswell, and taken down by 
 Bath C. Smart, September 1875."^ 
 
 " There, what say you to that ? You haven't, by the 
 way, got such a thing as a cough-lozenge about you ?" 
 
 " Ah-h-h ! and did this Dr What-d'ye-call-'um make 
 all that 'stificate for Wester?" 
 
 " Yes ; that is to say, he wrote it out, Sylvester 
 telling him what he was to write. A very excellent 
 way, for home-made testimonials should be as good 
 as home-baked bread. None but ourselves can know 
 how good we are ; and even the heads of the parish 
 of Seacombe may not, for all their gazing, have dis- 
 covered all their prophet's worth. But Wester has 
 besides a whole packet of testimonials from clergy- 
 men, lawyers, doctors, ay, and shopkeepers, whose 
 shops he has taken charge of." 
 
 " I'd charge 'em. But that's the way. A man '11 
 never hurt as long as he can praise himself a bit, 
 or find anyone fool enough to do it for him. Why 
 didn't you never write my testimonial ? " 
 
 " Meaning me for a fool. Thanks for the compli- 
 ment." 
 
 ^ Surely Sir Arthur Helps beheld, in mind's eye prophetic, this 
 composition, when in Reahnah he defined the "weighty sentence" : — 
 "Powerful in its substantives, choice and discreet in its adjectives, 
 nicely correct in 'its verbs; not a word that could be added, nor one 
 which the most fastidious could venture to suppress ; in order lucid, 
 in sequence logical, in method perspicuous, and yet with a pleasant 
 and inviting intricacy which disappears as you advance." 
 
88 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 " I pever said nothing of the kind ; and don't you 
 go thinking thoughts, like Fox's pig." 
 
 "And what thought Fox's pig?" 
 
 "Why, thought they were heating the water to 
 brew, and all the while it was to scald him in. No ; 
 but what I was going to tell you, when you come in 
 with your 'meanings' and your 'compliments,' there 
 aren't many Gipsy men like me, let 'em be who they 
 will (I don't care nothing for their silver medals), 
 but not more decenter or civil-spoken. It's not your 
 falderals, but manners '11 win the day ; and Fll say 
 that, bor, I'm fittin' to go before the world. / never 
 had much dealings with magistrates and lawyers, for 
 them is gentry as I couldn't tolerate ; and the only 
 trouble ever I was into, come all along of a dear 
 little pinch of salt. It was at Farrington, close by 
 Northleach, and me and Pyramus was going down 
 the road (Pyramus warn't nothing but a novice — 
 a perfect novice), and a butcher asked us if we'd 
 have some lettuces. I said, 'No thank ye, sir;' but 
 Pyramus was coming behind, and he'd take one, 
 Cobham-like.^ He axed the fine butcher for a pinch 
 of salt first ; and his wife came out, said she hadn't 
 ne'er a bit in the house. Then he went to the other 
 little cottage and axed for a pinch, and he stood at 
 the door, and the pretty constable came out with a 
 great knobbed stick and handcuffs ; and Pyramus 
 
 1 "Cobham " (or "Cob'em," perhaps) is the greedy dog of Rpmani 
 nursery lore, who "gobbles his food without waiting to chew it." 
 
CUM GRANO SALIS. 89 
 
 runned back where I was standing up the road. 
 And I asked the fine gorgio where he was going in 
 a hurry, and he said, ' Darn his young hide, I'll tell 
 him Where's Iiis going;' and he made to put the 
 handcuffs on to Pyramus. I pushed him off, and 
 axed him what he meaned. Then he heft up the 
 stick to hit me on the head, and he was going at 
 Pyramus again. I told him, ' Get away,' and he said 
 he wouldn't. Long and by last I hit him " — 
 
 "And gave him a fine black eye, cut his face, 
 I think," said Christopher. "And the butcher was 
 watching all the while." The boys had just got 
 back from Pen-y-bonh ; and Christopher, Dimiti, and 
 Mantis, with half-a-dozen more of lads and girls, 
 were squatting cross-legged in a ring about us. 
 Christopher knew this oft-told episode in his father's 
 boyhood, better perhaps than did his father's father ; 
 but Silvanus took no notice of his prompting. 
 
 " Long and by last I hit him, and he tumbled in a 
 fit — it was a fit — trembling all of a dither. There he 
 laid till I and the boy got a long way up the road ; 
 then he corned running after us again. Then he was 
 going to hit Pyramus again with the great knobbed 
 stick, and I told him to get away, else Pd give him a 
 wusser one than what he did. And he said, he would 
 take him. Then I hit him again, knocked him down. 
 Then he got up, and went straight off into the fine 
 Northleach ; and the warrant was brought to the 
 tents ; near a week after it was when we got it. I 
 went across in the boat, me and Pyramus did, tried 
 
90 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 to give him the slip, but he was in Northleach before 
 us. Then I meet the fine hangman, and the fine 
 hangman said to me, ' You've been pretty near kilhng 
 that fellow.' Sly old monkey that Tompkins was ; 
 Lord ! they all of them are. He said, ' You've gived 
 him a fine pair of black eyes ;' and I said, ' If I'd 
 knowed as much as I know now, I'd have gived him 
 ten times worse.' And, days after, I was going round 
 by the 'Bull's Head' fiddlin', and we went through 
 the fine Northleach ; and as we was coming back, two 
 pretty hangmen come and meet us, wanted to put the 
 handcuffs on me. I told 'em neither them nor no one 
 else should put 'em on, and they was going to lay 
 hold of me. I said, ' Stand backwards, else I'll knock 
 you over.' They never put 'em on, and I walked 
 with them so right up the street. Well, then the 
 fine hangmen said, ' Now you must have 'em on just 
 before we gets there ;' and I said, ' If I had a mind, 
 neither you nor no one else could put them on me.' 
 They put them on ; and then when they took me in, 
 I began fall kicking the door. The other fine head 
 superintendent come to me (blue-face that was, for all 
 the world like one of these blue monkeys!), and told 
 me if I didn't stop it, he'd put me in the cell. Lord ! 
 how they can use poor dear people when they've got 
 'em in there ! I waited till he went away, and told 
 'em to send me up some water. One of the pretty 
 children brought me some ; then I beginned fall kick- 
 ing the door again. Then I told them to loose me 
 out of that. No, he said, he wouldn't ; he said he'd 
 
FAMILY PRIDE. 9 1 
 
 loose me out next morning. There I was all night, 
 kicking the door, kicked all the nose of my good 
 boots out. They keeped me there till twelve o'clock 
 next morning, and then I had to pay five pounds." 
 
 Silvanus faltered, thoughts too deep for words 
 arresting further progress ; and Mantis, seeing his 
 chance, took up the running instantly. 
 
 "Ay, bor, and my daddy was fined onest by 
 Albrighton, only for stopping in the road. He was 
 just going to shave himself, and my mammy had 
 been making cakes to the fire, and there was two 
 hedgehogs roasting, and a lot of potatoes baking in 
 the ashes ; when on turning round, my daddy saw 
 the fine policeman coming. Pretty hangman said, 
 ' Good morning, . LovelL' ' Good morning,' said my 
 daddy, with the razor in his hand. ' You've got to 
 go along with me,' he said. ' All right,' my daddy 
 answered, 'we'll go anywheres you has a mind to,' 
 thinking he was only joking. And then he pulled 
 out the handcuffs, and put them on my daddy's 
 hands, and took him off About five miles it was he 
 took him, to Shifnal, to have him tried, only for 
 stopping in the road. And the magistrate there 
 wouldn't say nothing against him ; so then he took 
 him to another magistrate's, where my mammy used 
 to call ; and after a deal of trouble my daddy got 
 off with paying three half-crowns. And the pretty 
 hangman was afeared to walk along the road with 
 my daddy aftenvards ; he wouldn't go with him. 
 And whiles they were away, Dimiti pulled the tent 
 
92 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 down, and took the two biggest tent-rods, and made 
 himself ploughing up and down the road with them. 
 And he drank a great big canful of milk, and ate up 
 all the cakes. That was his day's work, when my 
 daddy was took ; never paid the slightest notice. 
 And that was the first and last time as ever that 
 pretty hangman had anything to say to we. My 
 daddy sold him a pair of breeches after that, and 
 thrashed his brother." 
 
 " There! and I met him onest, and shouted 'Object!'" 
 said Dimiti, jealous for his filial piety; "and wasn't 
 I troubled all that blessed day, pulling the tent down, 
 minding you young children, and keeping an eye 
 upon the animals ? But the nicest policeman as ever 
 I knowed, rei'a, was him as married Mrs Elliot's 
 Susan. They were both quite young, and she always 
 used to go with him every night upon his rounds, 
 said she never liked to trust him by himself And 
 when they'd come by our tents, they'd stand and talk 
 for ever so long ; and very often she'd come in and 
 sit down, and he'd stand outside talking. He didn't 
 bide there long ; gorgios said he was too good for 
 a policeman. He never took up nobody, and the 
 pretty fine magistrates didn't like it." 
 
 " Wanting in zeal he doubtless seemed to them ; 
 but what, Silvanus, really is the law about Gipsies 
 stopping by the side of roads? In some few parts 
 of England one sees every stretch of turf blackened 
 with tent-places, in others Romand must hire fields, 
 at least if they can't get them for the asking." 
 
ALTERED TIMES. 93 
 
 " The law ? why that you mustn't make up your 
 place within fifteen feet of the crown of the highway ; 
 but mostwise it goes by squire's or parson's liking, 
 whether they're partial to our kind of people. Some 
 places you are free to stop, and welcome ; and some 
 you durstn't stop at for the life of you, no, not if you 
 was to make right off the road, a hundred yards and 
 more. I never stops much in roads myself, fear of the 
 horses and neddies getting pounded ; nor it isn't often 
 I pays for a field, 'cause all the highest gentry knows 
 me where I travel. Now Pyramus was paying ten 
 shillings a week, where he was staying up by London 
 last December ; and Plato was in a field by Brum- 
 magem, oh ! two years gone, with some of the Hemes 
 and Bucklands, and the lot of them were paying 
 thirty shillings. Lord bless us all, how times is 
 altered ! If you'd told my grandfather, old Henry 
 Lovell, of paying for a bit of ground to stop, he'd 
 have thought the world was coming to an end." 
 
 " I daresay. But here, in Wales, at least, I suppose 
 you never have much trouble ? " 
 
 " No, not for the stopping ; but it's a terrible bad 
 part for straw; leastwise when none of the boys' 
 girls aren't with us, to talk to the Crockans in their 
 country gibberish. I mind, at Caen Office, when we 
 were coming up, I went to a little bit of a farmhouse. 
 There was the farmer, just like a common Gloucester 
 ploughman ; and, when I axed him for a truss of 
 straw, he made as he didn't understand, my meanings. 
 ' Straw,' I bawls at him, ' straw, man,' and picked 
 
94 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 up a little wisp of it in one hand, and shows him a 
 shilling in the other, and then he understood it fast 
 ■enough. Oh ! very uncultivated folks is hereabouts ; 
 but still it's nice." 
 
 "Nice! ay, and something more. For here, as 
 Wester has it, you enjoy the pleasures of Nature, and 
 yet are free from the annoys of inns. Often I have 
 fancied how pleasant it would be to exchange my 
 dingy chambers for a tent at the foot of Snowdon or 
 Helvellyn, provided always 'it rained not hard and 
 small' And then I have turned to John Roberts' 
 masterpiece, his picture of the days when he was 
 young. By the bye, I must read you that, Silvanus, 
 and you shall give me your opinion of it. You won't 
 mind ?" 
 
 " Dear heart, no ! It does one good to hear a clever 
 man. Head-piece is everything the whole world over. 
 Now don't make no noise, children, but sit ye still, 
 for the gentleman's going to read something will 
 make you open your eyes." 
 
 And I read what has always seemed to me a 
 perfect Romani idyll : — 
 
 "The Whole Family Camping out with 
 Horses, Donkeys, and Dogs. 
 
 "C« the first wakening in the morning. 
 
 ''Mother {speaking to my Father in the tent). — ' Now, 
 man, wake dem boys up, to go and gether some sticks 
 to light de fire, and to see where dem bosses and 
 
FECIT ROBERTI. 
 
 95 
 
 donkeys are. I think I beared some men coming up 
 de road, and driving de things out of de field. Now, 
 boy, go and get some water to put in de kettle for 
 breakfast.' 
 
 " Tlie Boy. — '/ dazvda ! I must go and do every bit 
 o' thing. Why don't you send dat gal to do some- 
 thing? Her does nothing at all, only sitting down 
 all de blessed time.' 
 
 "Mother. — ' I am going to send her to de farmhouse 
 for milk. Dog's Face,' when a brand of fire is flung 
 after him, and he (the boy) falls over a big piece 
 of wood, and hurts his knee. The girl goes for 
 the milk, and she has a river to go through, when 
 presently a bull is heard roaring. 
 
 "Mother. — ' Dere now, boy, go and meet your sister. 
 Dere's de bull a roaring after her. She will fall down 
 in a faint in de middle ob de ribber.' 
 
 "Boy. — ' How can I go to her, when I've hurt my 
 leg, and am quite lame?' 
 
 " The Old Woman. — ' Go, man ; go, man, and see 
 how dat poor gal is a coming. Dey do say dat dat 
 is a very bad bull after women.' 
 
 " Strange men brings the horses and donkeys up to 
 the tents, and begins to scold very much. The little 
 girl comes with the milk, and begins to scold her 
 brother for not going to meet her, when they both 
 have a scuffle over the fire, and very near knocks 
 the tea-kettle down, when the boy hops away upon 
 one leg, and hops upon one of the dog's paws unseen, 
 and the dog run away barking, and runs himself near 
 
g6 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 one of the donkeys, and the donkey gives him a kick 
 until lie is whining in the hedge. 
 
 " The Old Woman. — ' Dere now, dere now ! here's 
 my poor dog killed.' 
 
 " Breakfast is over, with a deal of bother and a little 
 laughing and cursing and swearing. They strike the 
 tents. 
 
 " The Old Woman. — ' Now, comrades, I'm off. I'm 
 a going another road to-day, and you will meet me 
 near de town. Be sure and leave a patrin by de side 
 ob de cross-road, if you should be dere before me.' 
 
 " The old man and the boys pitches the tents, and 
 gets himself ready to go to the town. The old woman 
 comes up, and one of the girls with her, both very 
 tired, and heavy loaded with victuals behind her back, 
 enough to frighten waggons and carts off the road 
 with her humpy back. They intend to stay in this 
 delightful camping-place for a good many days. 
 
 " To-day is supposed to be a very hot day, and a 
 fair-day in a town about three miles and a half from 
 there. The old woman and one of the daughters goes 
 out as usual. The old man takes a couple of horses 
 to the fair to try and sell. The boys go a fishing. 
 The day is very bright and hot. The old rnan soon 
 comes home. 
 
 " One of the prettiest girls takes a stroll by herself 
 down to a beautiful stream of water, to have herself 
 a wash, and she begins singing to the sound of a 
 
TULIT ALTER HONORES. 97 
 
 waterfall close by her. When all of a sudden a ver)' 
 nice-looking young gentleman, who got tired fishing 
 in the morning, and, the day being very hot, took a 
 bit of a loll on his face, his basket on his back, and 
 fishing-rod by his side, — the girl did not see him, 
 nor him her, until he was attracted by some strange 
 sound. When all of an instant he sprang upon his 
 heels, and to his surprise seen a most beautiful 
 creature, with her bare bosom, and her long black 
 hair, and beautiful black eyes, white teeth, and a 
 beautiful figure. He stared with all the eyes he had, 
 and made an advance towards her ; and when she 
 seen him, she stared also at him. And approach- 
 ing slowly towards her, and saying, 'From whence 
 comest thou here, my beautiful maid?' and staring 
 at her beautiful figure, thinking that she was some 
 angel as dropped down ; when she with a pleasant 
 smile, by showing her ivory teeth and her sparkling 
 eyes : ' Oh ! my father's tents are not very far off" ; 
 and seeing the day very warm, I thought to have a 
 little wash.' 
 
 " Gentleman. — ' Well, indeed ! I have been fishing 
 to-day, and caught a few this morning ; but the day 
 turned out so excessively hot, I was obliged to go 
 into a shade and have a sleep, but was alarmed 
 at your sweet voice mingling with the murmuring 
 waters.' 
 
 " They both steer up to the camp, when now and 
 then as he is speaking to her on the road going up, 
 a loud and shrill laugh is heard many times. The 
 
 G 
 
98 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 same time he does not show the least sign of 
 vulgarity, by taking any sort of liberty with her 
 whatever. They arrive at the tents, when one of 
 the little boys says to his daddy, ' Daddy, daddy, 
 there is a gentleman a coming up.' 
 
 "The gentleman sets himself down, and pulls out 
 a big flask very nigh full of brandy, and tobacco, 
 and offers to the old man. By this time that young 
 girl goes in her tent and pulls down the front, and 
 presently out she comes beautifully dressed, which 
 bewitched the young gentleman ; and he said that 
 they were welcome to come there to stop as long 
 as they had a mind, so as they would not tear the 
 hedges. He goes and leaves them highly delighted 
 towards home, and he should pay them another 
 visit. 
 
 " The camping-ground belonged to the young gen- 
 tleman's father, and is situated in a beautiful part of 
 Denbighshire. 
 
 " One of the little girls sees two young ladies 
 coming a little sideways across the common from 
 a gentleman's house which is very near, which turns 
 out to be the gentleman's two sisters. 
 
 " The Little Girl. — ' Mammy, mammy, dere is two 
 ladies a coming here. Get up.' 
 
 " The young ladies comes to the tents and smiles ; 
 when the old woman says to one of them, ' Good 
 day, me-am [ma'am] ; it's a very fine day, me-am ; 
 shall I tell you a few words, me-am?' The old 
 woman takes them on one side, and tells them 
 
COMMENDATION. 99 
 
 something just to please them, now and then a word 
 of truth, the rest a good lot of lies. 
 
 "The old man goes off for a stroll with a couple 
 of dogs. One of the young boys asks his mother for 
 some money, and she refuses him, as says she has got 
 none. The boy says, ' Where is the money you got 
 from those two ladies?' 'Maw didacai ! I got none 
 from them. They said they'd come again.' 
 
 " One of the other brothers says to him, ' Here, 
 Abraham, I'll lend you five shillings.' ' Will you, 
 my blessed brother?' 'Yes, I will; here it is. Now 
 we will both of us go to the town together.' One 
 gets his fiddle ready, and the other his tambourine ; 
 the harp is too heavy to carry. They got to call at 
 the post-office for a letter. They both come home 
 rather merry. 
 
 " The next day the boys go a fishing again, and 
 bring home a good lot, as the day was not near so 
 hot as the day before ; and comes home in good 
 time to play the harp and violin, and sometimes the 
 tambourine, for the country gorgios, as a good many 
 comes to have a dance on the green. The collection 
 would be the boys' pocket-money." 
 
 " There, Silvanus, is not that a pretty picture ?" 
 " By Job, it's proper ; better nor that other bit you 
 read about the fair, for I didn't much care to hear 
 the English Romans run down. But that's what I 
 call something like ; you can fancy you see 'em all 
 a getting up in the morning, and the animals had 
 
100 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 been over in the gorgio's field; and then the old 
 woman with her de's and dere's} It took me back, 
 bor, to my young days, 'xactly how I remember our 
 old people. They'd sit, the old man and woman, 
 one each side the fire, and each of 'em would have 
 a poking-stick, and they'd be poke poking the whole 
 day long. And then some gentleman would come 
 riding by a horseback, and my granny would say to 
 one of us young children, 'Ask de gentleman what 
 time it is, my blessed child.' And then it would 
 be, 'What time did he say, sonny?' and we'd always 
 answer, ' Thirteen o'clock, granny.' ' Thirteen o'clock ! 
 dear, dear, how de time do fly !' Ay, ay, there was 
 some rale old 'riginals sure-ly, and merry times them 
 was." 
 
 " Better than now, eh?" 
 
 " Better ! ay, sure enough. You might go where 
 you liked, and stop where you liked : none of these 
 blue-coat gentlemen about. First time, I mind, as 
 ever we seen a policeman, was at Brompton Bryan 
 June fair. There was a lot of us going, twenty 
 belike or more, my grandfather and all the rest on 
 'em. And that was a curious thing, too, his own sons 
 would never call him ' daddy,' but always nothing but 
 plain ' Henry.' Forty pounds he'd brought with him 
 to spend on horses, and we had come up all the way 
 from Limer's Lane ; but soon as ever he sees this 
 
 ' Silvanus and his family, I may here observe, have hardly a //( 
 among them. Throughout I have supplied their deficiency, of which 
 they are themselves unconscious. 
 
THE GOLDEN AGE. lOI 
 
 mounted policeman (they all were mounted at first 
 starting), he turned back, wouldn't go anighst the 
 fair. We'd heard some talk of 'em before, but never 
 put much hearkenings in it. Why, you'd see the lanes 
 then crowded with Roman^ — Lovells and Boswells 
 and Stanleys and Hemes and Chilcotts. Something 
 like Gipsies they were, with their riding horses, real 
 hunters, to ride to the fairs and wakes on ; and the 
 women with their red cloaks and high old-fashioned 
 beaver hats ; and the men in beautiful silk velvet 
 coats and white and yallow satin waistcoats, and all 
 on 'em booted and spurred. Why, I mind hearing tell 
 of my grandfather's oldest sister. Aunt Marbelenni, 
 and that must have been a hundred years and more. 
 She was married to a very rich farmer in Gloucester- 
 shire, so she was very well off; and one day some 
 of her brothers, Henry including, went to call on her, 
 and when she seen 'em, she wouldn't allow them into 
 her house, for she said, ' Now that I am married, 
 I shall expect you all to come booted and silver- 
 spurred.' Gipsies ! there aren't no Gipsies now." 
 
 "What do you call yourself, then ?" 
 
 " What do I call myself? why a crab in a coal pit. 
 But what I mean, it's different from how it used to be. 
 All the old families are broken up, over in 'Mericay, or 
 gone in houses, or stopping round the nasty poverty 
 towns. My father wouldn't ha' stopped by Wolver- 
 hampton, not if you'd gone on your bended knees to 
 him, and offered him a pound a day to do it. He'd 
 have runned miles if you'd just shown him the places 
 
102 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 where some of these new-fashioned travellers has 
 their tents." 
 
 " Yes, I have often thought what a poor exchange 
 brickyard or building-plot must be for lane or common. 
 I remember one patch of ground near the Addison 
 Road Station, close to London, that only five years 
 back was covered with tents and waggons, but now is 
 all built over. There were some of the Norths stayed 
 there ; and one of them, a very old old woman, told 
 me a story about those Boswells you were speaking 
 of How, when she was a little child, she fell over a 
 stile in Wales one day, and made her nose bleed ; 
 and how two beautiful ladies, dressed all in silks and 
 satins, picked her up. Their grandeur awed her, 
 though they spoke to her in Romanes, for these were 
 two of the great Boswell tribe ; and still she spoke of 
 them with deep respect, as I might speak of some 
 high-born stately countess. Yet gorgios fancy all 
 Gipsies are the same — Lovells and Taylors, Stanleys 
 and Turners, Boswells and Norths. Nay, worse than 
 that, they take for Gipsies the Nailers, Potters, Besom- 
 makers, all the tag, rag, and bobtail travelling on the 
 roads. How do they make that out ?" 
 
 " Easy enough, for what should low-bred people 
 know but lowness ? Show a mongrel a mongrel, and 
 he's bound to call it a greyhound. I'll say and stick 
 to it, there's nothing worse than mumply gorgios." 
 
 " What, nothing worse than all who have not had 
 the privilege of Gipsy birth ? But, Silvanus, less than 
 one hundred years ago, in those good old times that 
 
"I'LL LARN YOU TO BE A FROG." IO3 
 
 you just now were praising, you and the boys might 
 have been hanged by gorgio law, solely because of 
 your Egyptian birth. And I myself might have been 
 hanged for keeping fellowship with you." 
 
 " Now, don't that show the wicked gorgios' badness. 
 You mark my words, the breed of 'em is bad." 
 
 " And gorgios said the breed of you was bad. It 
 was something like the cruel old Norfolk gardener. 
 He was hoeing one day, and a frog hopped out before 
 him. ' I'll larn you to be a frog,' said crabbed Roger ; 
 and hoed it forthwith in pieces. So ' I'll larn you to 
 be Gipsies,' said English lawgivers ; and the gallows 
 were their means of education." 
 
ai^n^tn liftlj. 
 
 ND I told Silvanus, to the best of my 
 recollection, how at Aylesbury in 1577, 
 Rowland Gabriel and Katherine Deago 
 were, with six others, hanged " for felo- 
 niously keeping company with other vagabonds, 
 vulgarly called and calling themselves Egyptians, and 
 counterfeiting, transforming, and altering themselves 
 in dress, language, and behaviour." How at Durham, 
 in 1592, five more were hanged " for being Egyptians," 
 How " it has been delivered down to us that in some 
 distant time a gang of Gipsies used to haunt a dingle 
 at Whiteford, Flintshire, and that eighteen of them 
 were executed, after which the Gipsy race never 
 more frequented that neighbourhood. I cannot learn 
 their crime," adds Pennant ; " possibly there was none, 
 for they might have been legally murdered by the 
 cruel statute of the 1st and 2d of Philip and Mary." 
 How, at Bury-St-Edmunds, thirteen Gipsies were 
 executed shortly before the Restoration, and others at 
 Stafford shortly after it. So late even as 18 19, it was 
 carried unanimously at the Norfolk Quarter Sessions, 
 " that all persons wandering in the habit or form of 
 
 104 
 
GOOD OLD TIMES. 105 
 
 Egyptians are punishable by imprisonment and whip- 
 ping ;" and in 1827, a judge at Winchester announced 
 the determination of himself and his brother-judges 
 " to execute horse-stealers, especially Gipsies!' Yet a 
 pardon was granted in 1 591 to Robert Hilton, and in 
 1594 to William Stanley, Francis Brewerton, and 
 John Weekes, for the felony of calling themselves 
 Egyptians ; and England throughout was almost 
 merciful compared with Scotland. Witness the fol- 
 lowing jottings from Scotch records. Four Faas were 
 hanged in 161 1, two Faas and a Baillie in 1616, six 
 Faas and two others in 1624. In 1636 the sheriff of 
 Haddington passed doom on an entire company — " the 
 men to be hangit and the weomen to be drowned ; 
 and suche of the weomen as hes children to be scourgit 
 throw the burgh of Hadinton, and brunt in the 
 cheeke." Then in 1698 seven Baillies were executed, 
 as were two more in 1714; and in 1700-1 James 
 M'Pherson, James Gordon, and Peter and Donald 
 Brown, were hanged at Banff, the sheriff of Murray 
 further ordaining " that the three young rogues now 
 in prison this day have their ears cropt, be publictlie 
 scourged through the toune of Banff, be burnt upon 
 the cheek by the executioner, and be banished the 
 shyre for ever under paine of death." In all which 
 cases the crime was not murder or pillage, but the 
 being " callit, knawin, repute, and holdin Egiptians ; "^ 
 
 ' Even in 1770 these words formed part of the indictment brought 
 against Jamieson and M 'Donald, whose execution on Linlithgow 
 bridge Simson describes in chap. iv. of his History of the Gipsies 
 (London, 1865). 
 
I06 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 and proofs in the last-named trial were, that the 
 panels spoke a language which the witnesses under- 
 stood not, but which was not the Irish tongue, 
 and that they were suspected of inability to "re- 
 hearse the Lord's Prayer, the Belieff, and the Ten 
 Commands." 
 
 From sorry discourse like this, whereat the boys 
 twitched nervous ears, I passed to merrier themes — 
 to the entertainment that Thomas Earl of Surrey 
 gave to " Gypsions " at Tendring Hall, in Stoke-by- 
 Nayland, Suffolk, some time between 15 13 and 1524; 
 to the dance of " Egyptianis " at Holyrood House 
 before King James the Fifth in 1530; and to the 
 Romani city of refuge, Roslin Castle. A pleasant 
 story that of Father Hay's, how about 1623 Sir 
 William Sinclair " delivered ane Egyptian from the 
 gibbet in the Burrow Moore, ready to be strangled, 
 returning from Edinburgh to Roslin, upon which 
 accoumpt the whole body of gypsies were, of old, 
 accustomed to gather in the stanks of Roslin every 
 year, where they acted severall plays, dureing the 
 moneths of May and June. There are two towers 
 which were allowed them for their residence, the one 
 called Robin Hood, the other Little John" (p. 136 
 of Father Richard Augustine Hay's Genealogie of tJie 
 Sainteclaires of Rosslyti, edited by J. Maidment, 
 Edinb. 1835). Drummond of Hawthornden may 
 well have beheld those plays ; but Royal Ben, his 
 guest, came some five years too soon. 
 
 In the very trials there is much that is comforting 
 
M'PHERSON'S RANT. I07 
 
 to Gipsy pride. After the bloody fray of Romanno ^ 
 in Peeblesshire (1677), did not the Edinburgh Council 
 claim for itself "the money, gold, gold rings, and 
 other things which were upon the persons of the Faas 
 and Shaws, likewise the weapons with which they 
 fought?" and had not M'Pherson, who suffered at 
 Banff, been leader of twenty-seven men in arms, with 
 a piper playing at their head, as befitted the son of a 
 Highland gentleman by a beautiful Gipsy mother? 
 His great two-handed sword (the relic of an earlier 
 day) is shown at Duff House, the residence of the 
 Earls of Fife ; his fiddle-neck is an heirloom in the 
 family of Cluny, chieftain of the M'Pherson clan. 
 Burns tells us how — 
 
 " Sae rantin'ly, sae wantonly, 
 Sae dauntin'ly gaed he : 
 He play'd a spring and danced it round 
 Below the gallows tree ; " 
 
 and relics more precious than either sword or fiddle 
 are his rude reckless Rmit, and the beautiful air to 
 which he set the same. He played it as he walked to 
 execution, and at the foot of the gallows proffered his 
 instrument to who would take it, but no man ventur- 
 ing, snapt it across his knee. Strange tales, indeed ; 
 but could Silvanus tell me who one Stanley was, 
 
 ^ It has been thought that Romanno, or Romano (both forms are 
 used), was called so from this famous Romano battle ; but the name is 
 as old at least as 1 591. The spot had probably become a favourite 
 camping-ground with Romane, from the chance likeness of its name to 
 theirs ; much as, if a suggestion on p. 25 be true, the KiynXos, or water- 
 wagtail, became ^/i^ bird of Cingari or Gipsies. 
 
I08 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 executed at Ilchester, for crime unknown to me, in 
 1 794 ? He might have been Lementina's grandfather ; 
 but I only knew " that about three years before he 
 had been elected King of the Gipsies/ and that his 
 wife and daughter, who attended at the place of 
 execution, were not more remarkable for the beauty 
 of their persons than for the very costly appearance 
 of their dress." 
 
 No ; Silvanus knew nothing of this Gipsy king, 
 who led us to speak of Gipsy potentates generally, a 
 dynasty dimmer than that of Pharaohs or Ptolemies. 
 And first of one, concerning whom the Malmesbury 
 Abbey register contains this curious memorandum : — 
 " John Buclle, reputed to be a gypsie, deceased 
 September 21, 1657, at John Peryn's house upon 
 the Ffosse, in Shipton parish, in Glocestershire ; and 
 was buried in King Athelstone's chapell by King 
 
 ^ " Elected King of the Gipsies." — The words agree with John 
 Lee's statement made to Lieut. Irvine, aboard the Preston East India- 
 man in 1805, that " the Gipsies' king is, strictly speaking, elective, 
 though usually chosen out of one opulent family. He receives presents 
 at stated times from his subjects, and has been known to impose and 
 exact a tax upon watches. His royal style is, the Ry, Bara Ry, or Ry 
 of the Roomdichil" So, too, iht Adventures of Bamfylde-Moore Carew : 
 " Their king is elective by the whole people, but none but such who 
 have been long in their society, and perfectly studied the nature and 
 institution of it ; they must likewise have given repeated proofs of their 
 personal wisdom, courage, and capacity : this is the better known, as 
 they always keep a public record or register of all remarkable (either 
 good or bad) actions performed by any of the society ; and they can 
 have no temptation to make choice of any but the most worthy, as their 
 king has no titles or lucrative employments to bestow, which might 
 influence or corrupt their judgment." Observe the mode — by ballot — 
 of election, set forth in that veracious historv. 
 
RESURRECTION. IO9 
 
 Athelstone, and the Lady Marshall, within the abbie 
 church, at Malmesbury. This buriall was September 
 23, 1657. Howbeit, he was taken up again by the 
 meanes of Thomas Ivye, esq. ; who then lived in the 
 abbie, and by the desires and endeavoures of others, 
 out of the said chappell was removed into the church 
 yarde, and there was re-buried neere the east side of 
 the church poorch, October 7, 1657, in the presence 
 of Thomas Ivye, of the abbie, esq. ; Pleadwell of 
 Mudgell, esq. ; Rich Whitmore, of Slaughter, in the 
 countie of Glocester, and Dr Qui, of Malmesbury, 
 with very many others." — Moffatt's History of Malmes- 
 bury (Tetbury, 1805), pp. 71-72. 
 
 Next on the roll stands " Henry Boswell, a Gipsy 
 king, who died in affluent circumstances, and was 
 buried at Wittering^ in 1687," early enough perhaps 
 for us to recognise his widow in Lyson's extract from 
 the Camberwell register: — "June 2, 1687, Robert 
 Hern and Elizabeth Bozwell, king and queen of the 
 gipsies, married." Perhaps this last couple reappears 
 
 ' Whittering, near Stamford, is meant more probably than East or 
 West Wittering, Sussex. For, though the registers for 1687 of Whit- 
 tering and West Wittering are equally defective, the Northamptonshire 
 churchyard is known to contain the graves of three members " of the 
 tribe called Gypsies," viz., Varto Lee, who died in the Lane near to 
 White Water, and was buried 12th Nov. 1804; a Henry Boswell, 
 who died, at. 90, in the Lane near the Barnack Ford, and was buried 
 8th Oct. 1824 ; and Traynet Smith, who died, cct. 20, in a camp 
 erected on the Old Oundle Road, and was buried 22d Nov. 1851. 
 "There is a very good stone," adds the Rector, "to Varto Lee's 
 grave, which must have been rather an expensive affair, evidently 
 proving that he occupied some conspicuous jjlace amongst the 
 Gipsies." 
 
no IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 in two entries in the register of Stanbridge, Bedford- 
 shire, viz., " M" Hearn a Gypsey Queene was buryed 
 ye 20th of August 1691 by me Ed. Hargrave f Fz'mr 
 of Leigliton-Bussard) and no affidavit made;" and, 
 on the following page, " A warrant was granted by 
 S' ffr. Wingate, to distrain on ye king of the Gipsys 
 but no distress to be found." What might not a 
 Serjeant Buzfuz make of these last six words? But 
 I pass on to a third perhaps, that it may have been 
 a daughter of Elizabeth, who figures in the register 
 of St Mary the Great, Cambridge :—" 1720. Edw. 
 Bosvile, of Yowarave [Youlgreave], Derbyshire, & 
 Lucy Hern, of Witchford, mar? Sept. 23." 
 
 Which brings us back to Boswells, or Bosviles 
 (according to the North Country spelling of their 
 name), one of whom was buried at Rossington, near 
 Doncaster, on 30th January 1709. An iron-railed 
 stone, to the right of the choir door, long marked 
 his grave ; but the stone was gone when the villagers 
 told the Reverend Joseph Hunter, Historian of South 
 Yorkshire (1828), how Charles Bosvile^ "established a 
 species of sovereignty among that singular people, the 
 gypsies, who before the inclosures frequented the moors 
 round Rossington. His word with them was law, and 
 his authority so great that he perfectly restrained the 
 
 ' E. Miller, in his Antiquities of Doncaster {\?,o^) calls hXm. James 
 Bosvill, which reminds me that my friend Sylvester claims Johnson's 
 biographer as "one of our fraternity;" while the Stanleys, he thinks, 
 "origined in Lord Derby over there [there being Knowsley] about two 
 hundred years ago." 
 
A PROTESTANT. Ill 
 
 pilfering propensities for vvliich tlie tribe is censured, 
 and gained tlie entire good will for himself and his 
 subjects of the farmers and the people around. He 
 was a gentleman with an estate of about iJ'zoo a 
 year ; and his contemporary, Abraham De la Pryme 
 of Hatfield, describes him as ' a mad spark, mighty 
 fine and brisk, keeping company with a great many 
 gentlemen, knights, and esquires, yet running about 
 the country.'" Thus Hunter; and Miller tells besides, 
 that " for a number of years it \vas a custom of gipsies 
 from the South to visit his tomb annually, and there 
 perform some of their accustomed rites, one of which 
 was to pour a flagon of ale upon the grave." 
 
 Turn we from ale to prayer. For on the north 
 side of Little Budworth churchyard, near Delamere 
 Forest, Cheshire, there is, or was, a large stone on the 
 ground, bearing inscription : " Here lies in Hopes of a 
 joyfuU Resurrection the Body of Henry Lovett. He 
 departed this Life the 27 Day of January 1744 aged 
 85 Years. He died a Protestant." Cole, no great 
 lover of Protestants, records this epitaph in vol. xxix. 
 of his MS. collections, now in the British Museum, 
 and adds two notes. Tlie first : — " The Oddity of the 
 last Line excited my Curiosity to enquii'e who this 
 good Protestant might be, who thus professed his 
 Belief on his Tomb Stone; and Mr Tonman told 
 me that he was the King of the Gypsies ; that he died 
 at a Place called Beggars Bank, in this Neighbour- 
 hood, a famous Rendezvous for this Sort of People ; 
 that his Companions gave him, the Curate, at his 
 
112 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 Funeral, one of the most ample offerings he had met 
 with ; and that they still came to his Grave to pray 
 once a year: this looks as if the Subjects were 
 Papists, the' the King died a Protestant : we want 
 some of their own Historians to clear up this import- 
 ant Part of their Egiptian History." The second:— 
 " This day I had at my Door, being Blecheley Feast, 
 Monday, Sept. 15, 1766, a grandson of this Henry 
 Lovett ; as he called, with a wife and 7 Children, all 
 as black as Egyptians, but clean-limbed well-made 
 people, who lived, as they said, at Risborough in 
 Bucks, and were Fidlers." — (Nezv MontJdy Mag., 
 1 8 19, p. 334 ; Notes and Queries, May 29, 1 880.) 
 
 What, then, would Cole have said to a Gipsy 
 re-edifier of ruined churches? Yet at West Winch, 
 Norfolk, is a tomb, once raised, now level with the 
 sod and broken into three pieces, which the present 
 Rector has had cemented together, " out of respect 
 to the memory of a Gipsy king who is said to have 
 aided in repair of East Winch Church." The stone is 
 inscribed, " Here lieth the Body of Abraham Smith, 
 who died Feb. the 16. 1748, Aged 60 Years;" and 
 the register contains a corresponding entry, " Bury'd 
 Abraham Smith a Stranger, Feby. ye 20th. Affidt. 
 made by Elizth. Bailey." Now Baillie is a Scottish 
 Gipsy name ; and another noteworthy circumstance 
 about this grave is, that so late as 1841 it was visited 
 by two fine young Gipsy men, whom the Rector saw 
 but did not accost, not knowing then the story of 
 its inmate. Hardly so strange, though ; for less than 
 
PATRIARCHS. 
 
 "3 
 
 twenty years before that date a Smith was living, 
 who might have often talked with Abraham. This 
 was the subject of the following epitaph, in Turvey 
 churchyard, Bedfordshire : — 
 
 " In Memory of 
 JAMES SMITH 
 
 WHO DIED MAY lOTH l822 
 AGED 105 YEARS. 
 
 I lived beyond a hundred years, 
 A wanderer through this vale of tears : 
 The time seemed long, but short 'twill be 
 Contrasted with Eternity. 
 
 O mortal man, arise, beware, 
 Sin spreads around the dangerous snare ; 
 Then pray, or perish, seek thy God, 
 And trust thine all in Jesus' blood. 
 
 Widow 
 ELIZABETH ROBINSON 
 
 DIED JANUARY 20TH 1825 
 AGED 105 Y'EARS." 
 
 Elizabeth was James's mother-in-law, herself a Gipsy, 
 though Robinson is not a common Gipsy name ; ^ 
 and the lines upon James were written by Legh 
 
 ^ It was borne by several of Bunyan's descendants; and those who 
 hold that Bunyan was a Bedfordshire Gipsy may here, perhaps, find 
 confirmation of their theory. To me that theory seems neither estab- 
 lished nor disproved ; but everything connecting Bedford with the 
 race has certainly a special interest, e.g. two entries in the register of 
 St Paul's Church, Bedford : — " 1567 Robartt Ane Egiptic bapt. same 
 dale" (viz., " Marche xxxth daie"), and "1567 Aprill — John, Ane 
 Egiptn bapt. xxvith daie." Only three Romani baptisms during the 
 sixteenth century have heretofore been placed on record — of Joan, at 
 Lyme Regis, Dorsetshire, 14th February 1558; of William, at Lan- 
 chester, Durham, 19th February 1564; and of Margaret Bannister, at 
 Loughborough, Leicestershire, 2d April 1581. — (Crofton, English Gipsies 
 under the Turfors, p. 16.) 
 
 H 
 
114 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 Richmond, rector of Turvey, and author of Annals 
 of the Poor, as also of this vigorous quadrain, well 
 known to every Turvey villager : — 
 
 " Here lies Jim, the wandering Gipsy, 
 Who was sometimes sober, yet oftener tipsy ; 
 But with the world he seemed to thrive. 
 For he lived to the age of a hundred and five." 
 
 "Stuff!" says some follower of Sir Cornewall 
 Lewis, "they never would both have reached the same 
 abnormal age, nor would the son-in-law have been 
 the older." Perhaps not, perhaps yes ; but Gipsies 
 are a singularly long-lived race. I know myself two 
 Gipsy great-great-grandmothers, and have spoken 
 with Betsy Letherlund, the " Elizabeth, daughter of 
 Thomas Horam (Heron), Travailer," who was christ- 
 ened at Chinnor, Oxfordshire, 24th April 1763. 
 Samuel, her eldest son, was fifty-nine when he was 
 drowned at Hadlow, Kent, 20th October 1853 ; and 
 Betsy survived him by one-and-twenty years, dying 
 at Tring towards the close of 1874. Read, O incre- 
 dulous one, the paper that Sir Duncan Gibb, of the 
 Westminster Hospital, addressed to The Lancet, 
 January 30, 1875 ; then ponder the case of that 
 " noted old tinker," Robert Oglebie, who began life 
 at Ripon, November 16, 1654, to end it at Leeds, 
 November 15, 1768. Or of Tinkler Billy Marshall, 
 who was born at Kirkmichael, Ayrshire, in 1672, and 
 died at Kirkcudbright, 28th November 1792. This 
 " miracle of longevity," Easton ^ tells us, " retained his 
 
 ^ In Human Longevity (Salisbury, 1799). 
 
donkey's ears. 115 
 
 senses almost to the last hour of his life, and remem- 
 bered distinctly to have seen King William's Heet 
 riding at anchor in the Solvvay Firth, and the trans- 
 ports lying in the harbour. He was present at the 
 siege of Derry, where " — and here I allow a grain of 
 salt — "Iiaving lost his uncle, who commanded a king^s 
 frigate, he returned home, enlisted into the Dutch 
 service, went to Holland, and soon after came back to 
 his native country." Anne Day, who was buried at 
 Arlsey, Bedfordshire, in March 1799, was young com- 
 paratively, only 108 years old. " Bent almost double, 
 and nearly blind, she travelled the country on an ass, 
 attended by three females of her fraternity, and was 
 well known in most parts. She had not slept in a 
 bed for seventy years, and for the last forty years had 
 not a tooth in her head, and only a faint sight but by 
 one eye, having lost the other when young. She lost 
 three of her toes but twelve years before by the frost, 
 being obliged to have them amputated, and at the 
 same time lost the use of one of her arms. She died 
 under a hedge near Henlow, and her funeral was 
 attended by a vast concourse of people from the 
 neighbouring villages, but by only two of the people 
 to which she belonged, who called themselves her son 
 and daughter, the former eighty-two, and the latter 
 eighty-five years of age, each having great-grand- 
 children." 
 
 And Gipsy longevity leads back to Gipsy royalty, 
 — to Margaret Finch, queen of the Norwood tribe, 
 who was born at Sutton in 1631, travelled through 
 
Il6 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 England nearly a hundred years, then settled at 
 Norwood. Forest, whither crowds of visitors were 
 drawn by her great age and skill in palmistry. Long 
 sitting with chin bowed upon her knees so contracted 
 her sinews, that, when at last she died, they had to 
 coffin her in a deep square box. She was buried at 
 Beckenham, 24th October 1740, her funeral being 
 attended by two mourning coaches, and a sermon 
 being preached on the occasion. And Bridget, 
 Margaret's niece, reigned in her stead, during whose 
 reign " the Prince and Princess of Wales, with Lady 
 Torrington in Waiting, Lady Middlesex, Lord 
 Bathurst, Mr Breton, and I [Mr George Bubb 
 Doddington], went in private coaches to visit the 
 Norwood settlement," 28th June 1750. Bridget her- 
 self "died in her hut, worth above i^iooo;" was 
 buried at Dulwich, 6th August 1768; and was in 
 turn succeeded by a niece, whose name is lost, — 
 deservedly, as that of a degenerate house-dweller. As 
 such, though, she perhaps escaped her subjects' doom, 
 when in 1797 "about five o'clock in the morning, 
 twenty police officers came to Norwood in three 
 hackney-coaches, threw down all the gipsy tents, and 
 exposed about thirty men, women, and children in the 
 primitive state of man, whom they carried to prison to 
 be dealt with according to the Vagrant Act." 
 
 Exeunt Norwood Gipsies, naked and chattering 
 like a flight of daws ; but there were other Gipsies, 
 dead, or to die, as she thus mentioned in the Annual 
 Register for 1773: — "The clothes of the late Diana 
 
BOSWELLIANA. II7 
 
 Boswell, Queen of the Gipsies, value ;£'5o, were burnt 
 in the middle of the Mint, Southwark, by her prin- 
 cipal courtiers, according to ancient custom ; it being 
 too great an honour for subjects to be clothed in 
 robes of state, and too great a disgrace for her 
 successor to appear in second-hand royalty. Her 
 remains were interred the day before in Newington 
 churchyard, at which ceremony more than two 
 hundred of her loyal subjects were present." Again 
 a Boswell ! and at Calne, in Wiltshire, a handsome 
 monument to Inverto Boswell, son of a Gipsy king, 
 bears date of erection, 1774. Ashena, daughter of 
 Edward and Greenleaf Boswell, was buried in the 
 north aisle of Stretham church, near Ely, 2d April 
 1783. And likewise in Ickleford church, near Hitchin, 
 were buried Henry Boswell, King of the Gipsies, 
 aged 90 years, nth February 1780; his wife, Eliza- 
 beth, aged 70, 1 8th March 1782 ; and their three year 
 old grand-daughter, Elizabeth, daughter of William 
 and Hannah Boswell, 15th October 1796. Close to 
 the south side of the chancel of the old church at 
 Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, deep under the foun- 
 dations of the present building, three more of the 
 Boswell family were buried — King Louis, aged 42, 
 26th January 1835 ; Frampton, his son, aged 20, 28th 
 December of the same year ; and Queen Vashti 
 Carlin, his daughter, aged 25, 20th April 1839. The 
 latter was married to a gorgio from the neighbouring 
 parish of Greasley, " but could not brook the confine- 
 ment between four walls of a house after the freedom 
 
Il8 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 of a tent. The funerals were attended by an enor- 
 mous concourse of Gipsies on each occasion ; the 
 graves were watched for many nights ; and periodical 
 visits were made to them. Even now," the Rector 
 writes in 1880, " I hear they come to look at them." 
 Then in one grave at Beighton, Derbyshire, are 
 buried " two Gipsy ladies," mother and daughter pro- 
 bably^ — "Matilda Boswell, died 15th January 1844, 
 aged 40," and "Lucretia Smith, Queen of the Gypsies, 
 died 20th November 1844, aged 72." These lines are 
 cut upon their tombstone — 
 
 " Happy soul, thy days are ended, 
 All thy mourning days below ; 
 Go, by angel guards attended, 
 To the sight of Jesus, go." — 
 
 a better epitaph than that upon King Dan Boswell's 
 headstone at Selston, Nottinghamshire, which head- 
 stone was broken by an irreverent cow — 
 
 " I've lodged in many a town, 
 I've travelled many a year. 
 But death at length hath brought me down 
 To my last lodgings here." 
 
 In many a quiet country churchyard one comes on 
 
 1 In nothing is Gipsy family love more visible than in the closeness 
 with which one death in a tent is followed by another. During 
 1870-75 one grave received King Studaveres Lovell, Youregh his wife, 
 and his sister Emily, in Guide Bridge churchyard, near Ashton-under- 
 Lyne ; where also are the graves of Moses Herring and of Josiah 
 Boswell (died 7th July 1873, aged 48). "Each grave is neatly kept," 
 and, when Mr Crofton visited the spot in 1876, "some fresh flowers 
 beneath a glass shade told a plain tale of unforgotten grief." — (Papers 
 of Manchester Literary Club for iSyj : " Gipsy Life in Lancashire and 
 Cheshire.") 
 
CHILD PARADISE. II9 
 
 these sepulchres of Little Egypt : at Loders, Dorset- 
 shire, an altar tomb, simply inscribed, " The King and 
 Queen of the Gipsies ; " at Sandford, a headstone " to 
 Mistress Paul Stanley, who died November 1797;" 
 at Belbroughton, Worcestershire, an oblong stone 
 structure, " erected to the memory of Paradise Buckler, 
 who died 8th January 18 15, aged 13 years." Con- 
 cerning which last burial a long account appeared in 
 Truth (28th August 1879), how, " being an unmarried 
 girl, this heir-apparent was to be carried by nothing 
 but white pocket-handkerchiefs, and the coffin was 
 to be covered with the same. Every Gipsy of the 
 tribe also wanted a white pocket-handkerchief for 
 his own use on the occasion. They went round and 
 ' borrowed ' these commodities ; and the villagers and 
 gentry gave them up in much the same spirit as the 
 Egyptians did when the Israelites borrowed of them, 
 not liking to incur the enmity of the tribe by refusal. 
 But when the ceremony was over, each handkerchief 
 was duly restored to its owner, beautifully washed 
 and bleached. In one or two cases where the bor- 
 rowed articles had been slightly injured, they were 
 replaced by others of the finest cambric. To this day 
 some of the ' oldest inhabitants ' tell of the spectacle 
 of that funeral of the Gipsy child-queen, and how 
 the Gipsies gathered by hundreds from the country 
 round to attend the ceremony; and most of all, how 
 astonished the parishioners were at the honesty of 
 the Gipsies on the occasion. Besides the scrupulous 
 return of the borrowed handkerchiefs, there were 
 
120 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 no complaints of thefts during the inroad of the 
 tribe for the ceremony. They seem to have felt 
 themselves in the light of guests, and under obliga- 
 tions for the loans made to them, and returned the 
 compliment by a temporary regard for meum and 
 tuum." The passage less illustrates Gipsy honesty 
 than a g6rgio's ignorant estimate thereof; but, for- 
 bearing comment, I only ask its author, if he is in 
 the habit of attending funerals to pick the pockets 
 of his fellow-mourners. Those who will, may re- 
 cognise in the white handkerchiefs the " mysterious 
 handkerchief of cambric," emblem, as Mr Borrow 
 explains, of chastity amongst the Spanish Gipsies. 
 Unfortunately white handkerchiefs are not peculiar 
 to Gipsy funerals, but are used in Worcestershire at 
 all the funerals of children and young persons of 
 both sexes. 
 
 Again, Crabb tells us that, " in his tent at Launton, 
 Oxfordshire, died in the year 1830, more than a 
 hundred years of age, James Smith, called by the 
 public the King of the Gipsies. By his tribe he was 
 looked up to with the greatest respect and venera- 
 tion. His remains were followed to the grave by his 
 widow, who is herself more than a hundred years old, 
 and by many of his children, grandchildren, great- 
 grandchildren, and other relatives ; and by several 
 individuals of other tribes. At the funeral his widow 
 tore her hair, uttered the most frantic exclamations, 
 and begged to be allowed to throw herself on the 
 coffin, that she might be buried with her husband." 
 
SUTTEE. 121 
 
 And in the neighbouring county of Wiltshire, and 
 the same year, a Gipsy woman, " wife and mother 
 for nearly threescore years and ten," died in a lane 
 at Highworth, on 5 th August, and was followed to 
 the grave by her venerable husband and numerous 
 offspring, amid a pitiless storm. Hone's Year Book 
 gives a full and interesting description of her burial, 
 how " in the coffin with her remains were enclosed 
 a knife and fork, and plate ; and five tapers were 
 placed on the lid, and kept constantly burning till 
 her removal for interment ; after which ceremony the 
 whole of her wardrobe was burnt, and her donkey 
 and dog were slaughtered by her nearest relatives, 
 in conformity to a superstitious custom remaining 
 among her tribe." 
 
 This custom has often been described, most vividly 
 by " Cuthbert Bede," in Notes and Queries, June 6, 
 1857 • — " The following particulars relative to the 
 death and burial of a Gipsy were communicated to 
 me by a trustworthy informant, who had been an 
 eye-witness of some of the incidents. The man, who 
 was an ordinary member of the tribe, was ill of 
 pleurisy. A surgeon was called in from the nearest 
 town, who bled him, after much persuasion, the 
 Gipsies being much averse to blood-letting (so said 
 my informant). The man became worse, and the 
 surgeon's assistant came to see him, and proposed 
 to bleed him again ; upon which the assistant was 
 forthwith sent about his business, and the surgeon's 
 bill was paid, his further attendance being dispensed 
 
122 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 with. The man then died. He had expressed a wish 
 to be buried in his best clothes, viz., a velveteen coat 
 with half-crowns shanked for buttons, together with a 
 waistcoat with shillings similarly prepared for buttons; 
 but a woman ^ who had lived with him ran off with 
 these garments, so he was buried in ' his second best, 
 without a shroud, and in the very best of coffins.' 
 He was buried in the churchyard of the nearest 
 town. ' They had a hearse and ostrich plumes ; and 
 about fifty Gipsies, men and women, followed him ; 
 and when the church service was over, and the clergy- 
 man had gone, the Gipsies stayed in the churchyard 
 and had a service of their own.' What follows is (to 
 me at least) very curious. According to my informant, 
 when a Gipsy dies, everything belonging to him (with 
 the exception of coin or jewels) is destroyed. At any 
 rate, thus it was in the case now mentioned, as my 
 informant was a witness of the destruction. ' First, 
 they burnt his fiddle — a right down good fiddler 
 he was, many's the time I've danced to him at our 
 wake ; and then they burnt a lot of beautiful Witney 
 blankets, as were as good as new ; and then they 
 burnt a sight of books — for he was quite a scholar — 
 very big books they was, too — I specially minds one of 
 'em, the biggest of the hull lot — a book o' jawgraphy, 
 as 'd tell you the history o' all the world, you under- 
 
 ' If the clothes' owner were really old Henry Clisson, according to 
 Silvanus's conjecture, this woman was a Brummagem Delilah, of gorgio, 
 not of Gipsy origin. In that case she had 7-im through five silver tea- 
 pots, before she ran p^with coat and waistcoat. 
 
A LYKE-WAKE. 1 23 
 
 stand, sir — and was chock full o' queer outlandish 
 pictures ; and then there was his grindstun, that he 
 used to go about the country with, a grindin' scissors 
 and razors and sich like — they couldn't burn Idm! so 
 they carried him two miles, and then hove him right 
 into Siv'un \i.e., the river Severn] ; that's true, you 
 may take my word for it, sir ; for I was one as help'd 
 'em to carry it.' " 
 
 Another note on Romani funeral rites was commu- 
 nicated to Notes and Queries by Mr John E. Cussans, 
 15th May 1869: — "For many years they [Shaws, 
 Grays, and Dymocks] interred in a field belonging to 
 Mr Nehemiah Parry, a farmer residing at Strett Hall 
 [Streethall], four miles from Saffron Walden, though 
 it was no uncommon thing for bodies to be buried at 
 the road side. A labourer told me that, about forty 
 years ago, an old Gipsy woman died near Littlebury, 
 Essex. The body was swathed in cloths, and laid 
 upon trestles by the encampment. Over the head 
 and feet two long hazel twigs were bent, the ends 
 thrust in the ground. From these hung two oil 
 lamps, which were kept burning all night, while two 
 women, one on either side of the corpse, watched, 
 sitting on the ground. The following day the un- 
 coffined body was buried in Littlebury churchyard 
 by order of the local authorities ; not, however, with- 
 out great opposition on the part of the deceased's 
 friends, who wished to bury her elsewhere." 
 
 This almost solitary notice of Gipsy burial in uncon- 
 secrated ground is curious, but needs corroboration. 
 
124 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 which is not forthcoming from the present rector of 
 Streethall. " No one," he writes (March 1880), "has 
 the slightest recollection of Gipsies being buried 
 within the parish. Skeletons have been dug up at 
 various times, the last about thirty years ago ; but 
 whether they were Gipsies or not it is impossible to 
 say, as no one seems to know anything at all about 
 them, and there is no record of Gipsies coming to 
 visit the graves." But he adds, what is rather signi- 
 ficant, that "the last Nehemiah Parry, who died in 
 1 86 1, married a Gipsy young woman, one of the 
 Shaws." 
 
 According to English Gipsy Songs (1875), p. 31, " In 
 the old times, or till within fifty years, the Gipsies 
 buried their dead in lonely and remote places ; but 
 now they manifest great anxiety to secure Christian 
 burial, and incur considerable expense in funerals." 
 The statement is partly at least disproved by the fore- 
 going pages ; of its possible part truth, I can only say 
 that I have never met a Gipsy whose forefathers 
 to his knowledge had ever had other than decent 
 Christian burial.^ Silvanus scouted the notion with 
 
 ' I speak of English Gipsies; but Crusius's Annales Sucvici [\y)i^ 
 also records three emblazoned monuments of Gipsy chieftains buried in 
 Christian churches, within the century following the Gipsies' westward 
 immigration. The iirst was reared at Steinbach in 1445, "to the high- 
 born lord, Lord Panuel, Duke in Little Egypt, and Lord of Hirschhorn 
 in the same land ;" the second at Bautma in 1453, "to the noble Earl 
 Peter of Kleinschild ; " and the third at Pforzheim in 1498, "to the 
 high-born Lord Johann, Earl of Little Egypt, to whose soul God be 
 gracious and merciful." In Weissenborn churchyard, Saxony, is another 
 
A ROYAL FUNERAL. 12$ 
 
 infinite contempt. " The time appointed for his 
 burying being come, he is carried to the burying 
 place, and thrown into the grave as dog Lion was, 
 and there is an end of Wully," — these words, from 
 A Modern Account of Scotland (1670), convey no 
 measure of his indignation. To soothe him, I re- 
 counted how, in the summer of 1878, "the Gipsy 
 Queen of the United States was buried at Dayton, 
 Ohio, the headquarters of the American Gipsies, 
 representatives of every clan and tribe scattered over 
 American territory being present at the funeral. Red 
 was the predominant hue in the funereal trappings ; 
 each mourner wore a scrap of crimson, and the hearse 
 was decked with red plumes. Queen Matilda and 
 King Levi Stanley emigrated to the States in i860." 
 Of course they did ; why, Levi is son to Lementina's 
 cousin, and Goliath and Patience were probably 
 among the red -trapped mourners. Yes, that was 
 something like ; and here I had ceased, had not 
 
 interesting inscription: — "Here rests in God Dame Maria Sybilla 
 Rosenberg, Gipsy, and wife of the honourable and valiant Wolfgang 
 Rosenberg, Cornet in the Electoral and Brandenburg army, who died 
 at Weissenborn, 9th October 1632, aged 42, to whom God be merciful." 
 To Weissenborn church this Gipsy cornet presented a silver flagon. His 
 descendant, Friedrich Rosenberg, was serving in the Bliicher Hussars 
 in 1837. — (Liebich, Zigeuner, p. 26.) 
 
 Burial in Christian churchyards was first conceded to the Montene- 
 grine Gipsies under Prince Danilo (1851-60), and it had probably been 
 likewise denied to the forefathers of those Gipsies who made their 
 appearance in Western Europe in 1417. If so, one can understand 
 why Gipsies should to this day set such high store on Christian sepul- 
 ture, token of their escape from the degradation — it may be from the 
 bondage — of untold centuries. 
 
126 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 America suggested one more epitaph, from the 
 
 churchyard of St Kea, by Truro : — 
 
 "In 
 
 Memory of MEZELLEY 
 
 the daughter of 
 
 PLATO AND BETSY BUCKLAN, 
 
 born in America 
 
 and died 2ist Novr. 1862 
 
 AGED ,2 YEARS. 
 
 Farewell, thou little blooming bud. 
 Just bursting into flower ; 
 We give thee up ; but oh, the pain 
 Of this last parting hour." 
 
 There I did really stop, though half the Romani 
 graves upon my list remained unnoticed. At Cogges- 
 hall, Essex, of Casello, or Celia Chilcott.i " one of a 
 company of Gipsies, who died at the White Hart 
 Inn," 29th September 1842, aged 28. At Beaulieu, 
 Hampshire, of King Joseph Lee, who died 6th Sep- 
 tember 1844, aged 86, and who some years before 
 had given his grandchild Charity one hundred 
 spade-guineas and much silver plate for dower. At 
 Balsham, Cambridgeshire, of "Old Charley Gray, who 
 chose a grave close to the church door, because he 
 thought it would be lively on Sundays when the 
 folks gossipped there." At Linlithgow, of Captain 
 M'Donald, who, towards the middle of last century, 
 was shot dead in his attempt at highway robbery, 
 and whose " funeral was very respectable, being 
 
 ^ Query, was Mary Chilcott, who died at Ponghil], Devon, in 1797, 
 aged loi, a member of this Gipsy family? ; 
 
GENTILITY. 12/ 
 
 attended by the magistrates of Linlithgow, and a 
 number of the most genteel persons in the neigh- 
 bourhood." Et cetera, et cetera; but the longest lane 
 must have a turning, and the turning here was 
 Lementina's summons to our tea. 
 
OT^agttr ^i^tlj. 
 
 T TEA I asked how things had gone with 
 every one that day. The boys, I learnt, 
 had prospered mightily at Pen-y-bonh, 
 there having found a picnic company 
 from Aberystwith, who had danced to their fiddling, 
 and paid the fiddlers well. The only pity was that 
 none of the women had been there, for the ladies 
 perchance had crossed their hands with silver. Not 
 that the women had done so badly, for a country 
 where money is scarce though victuals are plentiful ; 
 Sinfi, at least, had certainly struck He. She had 
 called at a Scotchwoman's, a gauger's wife, and had 
 sold her two " fanciful baskets" and a destiny for 
 ten shillings in money, a dress, two cheeses, and 
 three stone of flour ; which last she had not lost, like 
 Aunt Kiomi. 
 
 " That was by Ledbury," said Lementina. " We 
 were stopping, about six miles from Ledbury, in a 
 beautiful little lane (an awful place for hangmen 
 walking about the roads). It was just when we had 
 finished hop-picking ; we were coming from close by 
 
 12S 
 
A NUISANCE TO THE ROADS. 1 29 
 
 Bosbury. And old Kiomi stayed behind at a great 
 big gentleman's house, and got telling the girls' 
 fortunes ; and they gave her a lot of cider, made 
 her drunk. And a bagful of flour they gave her, 
 and she had forgotten to tie the mouth of the bag 
 up, just put it into the in6nging-guno, the mouth of 
 the bag hanging out. And for nearly six miles she 
 let the flour drop all along the road, right to the 
 very place. She wouldn't have noticed it then, only 
 one of the boys went to her, and asked her if she'd 
 been making a track for the policeman. Then she 
 turned round, and saw it ; and when she looked in 
 the bag, there wasn't a morsel of flour into it." 
 
 " Yes," added Ruth ; " and then she tumbled in the 
 hedge and burst out laughing. But you should tell 
 the rei about Catseye Trainette, as has got my 
 Aunt Kiomi's eldest son. It was off by the Black 
 Mountains, rei'a, and she went out one Wednesday, 
 got drunk (for, bless us all ! they are a nasty, vulgar, 
 drunken lot), and come home late at night. All the 
 children had been crying for bread. And she never 
 took the slightest notice of them, pulled off the 
 inonging-gihio, and spread it open right in the middle 
 of the place ; and she sat a bit like Longsnout, and 
 she forgot clean all about it. The children went and 
 helped themselves; and then she turns round sud- 
 denly, and began to make the bed right atop of the 
 monging-giino ; and she never remembered till morning 
 that they had been sleeping on the bread and the meat 
 and everything else that was underneath the bed." 
 
 I 
 
I30 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 Silvanus struck in choruswise : " If there is one 
 thing scandal ashamed, it is to see a beastly drunken 
 female. Such cattle as they ought to be shot. They 
 be a nuisance to the road." 
 
 And Lementina, with (I fancied) a side-thrust at 
 some one, averred that she had sworn against strong 
 drink this ten years past, had vowed that sooner than 
 touch one spot of beer, she would go to Winchcombe 
 churchyard, and drink the blood of her dead brother 
 Perun. Was this weird pledge a remnant of vampire 
 superstition ?^ It might be so ; but before I could 
 follow up the question, she was telling of Tryphi and 
 her pound of butter. 
 
 "That was off by the Black Mountains, too, just in 
 Llanthony Bottom, and she bought a pound of butter, 
 and put it into the tea-kettle full of cold water to 
 keep it cool ; and old 'Lijah made a fire, and put 
 the kettle on to boil. And when it was boilt, Tryphi 
 poured the water out on to the tea, and found it 
 just for all the world like broth. And that was the 
 'dentical place where we were stopping onest along 
 with old Israel Draper and Chicken Lee ; and we 
 were just going to have our tea, and old Israel had 
 put the kettle on, but his two daughters were not 
 come back yet. Presently they come, and as soon 
 as ever they got to the tent, he asked them if they'd 
 
 1 The chovelumo, "wizard," of English Gipsies is the lchm<i:kknn6, 
 " revinant, or spectre," of their Turkish brethren; and The Fzend, a 
 vampire story in Ralston's /i'/««'(7« Folk-Tales, pp. 10-17, 's CiohanS 
 of Constantinescu's Roumanian Gipsy .Stories, pp. 52-5S. 
 
DAUGHTERS OF ISRAEL. 131 
 
 brought anything. They said, ' No, daddy, not even 
 a bit of 'bacca.' Never said a word, he only gave a 
 grunt ; he got up there and then, took the kettle off 
 the fire as it was, pitched it right in the middle of 
 the road. And then sat down again quite quietly, 
 and said, ' There's your kettle in the road, gal' 
 Although the rest of the people were so astonished, 
 they couldn't help laughing at him ; and his daughters 
 had to go up to the shop at once, and get some 
 victuals for him. He was quite an old old man, a 
 very oldfashioned man ; and you might not think 
 that they would allow him to have such authority 
 over them, for they were quite old women themselves, 
 Rodi and Lani. They never married, and they used 
 to make baskets and clothes-pegs. I don't know 
 where they'll be now, but the old man died about a 
 twelvemonth back ; they say there was a sight of 
 people to the burying. More than a hundred he 
 was ; and when he was quite an old old man, he'd 
 play most beautiful on the violin." 
 
 " So poor old Israel's gone. Yes, he must have 
 been close upon his hundredth year. I met another 
 of his daughters, the youngest one, in Lancashire 
 last autumn. She is wife to a Boswell, Sylvester's 
 brother, and mother of a largish grown-up family : her 
 eldest son has married the landlady of a Workington 
 public-house. I forget this daughter's name, but she 
 was asking after the old man and her two maiden 
 sisters, whom she had not set eyes on for twenty 
 years and more, these Boswells always stopping up 
 
132 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 round Liverpool. I told her all I knew of them, but 
 it was not much ; indeed, I thought that Israel was 
 still alive. Hers seemed a very well-to-do family, and 
 her sons and daughters have all had capital schooling ; 
 but I shouldn't say that Lancashire was altogether 
 a pleasant country for Gipsies, — the Piro-dclin-tem, 
 ' kicking country,' as Gipsies themselves have named 
 it." 
 
 " No," said Silvanus, " Lancashire's too much eaten 
 up with low-bred Irish. Why, two of 'em nearly 
 killed my cousin's boy by Manchester, five year ago 
 come next November; knocked him down and kicked 
 him shameful. I seen Louis at Congleton two weeks 
 after, and he walked quite lame then, and he had to 
 go back to appear against them at the 'sizes. I never 
 heard how it come off, but he said the country was 
 in a perfect uproar ; and some more of these nasty 
 outscouts had pretty nigh murdered four of the 
 Boswells, chucked whole cartloads of bricks at 'em, 
 and broken the women's skulls most awful. Lord 
 bless us ! they was cut all to atoms, you couldn't see 
 their faces for the vounds." ^ 
 
 ^ This must have been the " Murderous Assault on Gipsies," reported 
 in the Preston Herald, 31st October 1874. It was bad enough, if 
 scarcely so bad as by Silvanus's telling. Some Manchester men paid 
 a Sunday visit to a Gipsy encampment in a brickyard at Sale, and 
 proceeded to pull the tents down. "On being remonstrated with, 
 Sumuel Roe picked up two bricks, and threw them at Gilderoy and 
 Mrs Homer Boswell, inflicting a frightful wound on Gilderoy's eye, and 
 almost smashing in the woman's forehead." Mr Roe got four months' 
 hard labour, and "seemed surprised at the verdict." 
 
CYNICAL. 133 
 
 Plato just then came back from Dinas Mowddy. 
 He had looked at the horse, but bought instead a 
 retriever, whereat Richenda scolded : " A good lover 
 of dogs, faith ! A perfect ratcatcher. I'll go and steal 
 you a dead sheep to keep 'em with. As if I hadn't 
 got trouble enough already without your bringing 
 more rubbish to the place. Catch me going along 
 the road with such a lot of poverty curs. Well 
 gorgios might say, ' You can't want nothing, if you 
 can keep a pack of hounds like that.' " 
 
 " By Gum," Silvanus made haste to interpose, " I 
 think you're all a pack of hounds together, for 
 everlasting gnawing and tugging at one another ; 
 especially when a gentleman like my friend here has 
 done us the honour to come and drink a sociable cup 
 of tea. Sure it's a poor thing if the lad mayn't buy 
 himself a bit of a puppy ; and dogs are valuabler 
 hereabouts than horses. Molleko, boy ! go and get 
 yourself a ten or twelve shillings by your 'trievier, and 
 then she'll be crying to have it back again, for I'm 
 sure he's a pretty creature, prettier by a precious sight 
 nor our old Kill-a-chick. That was a shepherd, rei'a, 
 come up to my daddy's tent, and we were stopping at 
 Alice's Green, near to Dymmock in Gloucestershire ; 
 and he saw the dog. It was one of those long-haired 
 dogs, as old as could be, and hard of hearing too. 
 You might bark at it for everlasting, and it would 
 never mind you. There was only me and Gilderoy 
 to the place, mere lads as if it might be Wanselo, and 
 we told him it was a ship-dog [sheep-dog] ; and then 
 
134 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 the man axed, ' How owld is it ? ' ' Two month old,' 
 we told him ; so we sold it to the man for a ship-dog 
 two month old for half-a-crown. That was while my 
 daddy and mammy was out ; and with the half-a- 
 crown we'd got for it we went and bought a loaf of 
 bread, a quarter of butter, and I can't tell you how 
 much tea. Well, bor, and when we took the dog 
 to the house and tied him up, we made the rope 
 big enough as he could jump out of it, but he was 
 that old he wouldn't stir. So when my daddy and 
 mammy got home, they made a row about it (for it 
 had been poor Sago's dog, my sister that is dead and 
 gone), would make us go and fetch it back again. 
 But when we come to the farm, the man had just 
 done hanging his young ship-dog in the barn ; he'd 
 found it was no mannerable good, soon as we'd left it, 
 for he'd holla'd to it and it never took no hearken- 
 ings. And then the man's fowls went into the barn 
 to it, and it killed a bantam, for we had always called 
 it Kill-a-chick. So there was Kill-a-chick hanged, 
 and my daddy was perfect furious, was going to beat 
 us, but we runned away." 
 
 " Ddbla!" quoth Lementina ; " there was a way to 
 do, to use the poor dear dog as they'd had for long 
 and long. I'd sooner hang my Tiny, than mumply 
 gorgios should have it ; and I'm sartain the dog would 
 just as lieve be hanged as go and live with kemiicks. 
 No gorgios can never get Gipsies' animals to bide 
 with them ; and if Romane and gorgios come up to 
 the tents at the same time, they'll smell out gorgios 
 
A CHRISTIAN. I 35 
 
 before they will Romane. They can't abear g6rgios, 
 but '11 go snifting round. And they understand the 
 Rom'nimus as well as the children. That poor old 
 Tiny of mine, she knows a constable the moment she 
 sees him. And if ever we want to hide her, she'll 
 know as well as can be what we want to do. She'll 
 lie down like a Christian, and be as quiet as anything, 
 if we just say ' Here's g6rgios.' And once when we 
 were coming by Leominster, and we stopped along 
 the road to get something to eat, and just when we 
 were packing up again to be off, she went with one of 
 the boys along the fields, and then she ran away from 
 him. And we were gone far enough from the place 
 then, and I had to go back and look after her, and 
 found her sitting on the tent-place yelping. And 
 before then, before I went to look after her, I had put 
 pdtrins in the road for some of the children, and when 
 I found her, she started off, and went straight on 
 along the road, and smelt her way right to the tents 
 by the pdtrins ; about six or seven miles it was, and 
 she went through a great big wood, and was at the 
 place long before ever I got there. And often when 
 we're going along the roads, and she hears the boys 
 playing up to some gentleman's house, she'll sit up in 
 the middle of the road, with her head cocked up, 
 listening." 
 
 Pyramus stopped feeding his brother's new acqui- 
 sition to remark : " Ay, Romani's animals are never 
 like gorgios'. Look at the very neddies. There was 
 old Tinker, as I called my neddy after. We'd had him 
 
I 36 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 about eight years, and at last my daddy sold him to a 
 man to work down a coal pit ; and the boy took him 
 away, and we went off from there. And about three 
 weeks we were back again ; and old Tinker got loose 
 from the house, and come straight down to the place. 
 Poor old neddy. Lord ! that was a shame, really. 
 And he lay down close to the place among the other 
 neddies, and the fine gorgio had hard work to get him 
 away. He'd kick like anything, and back into the 
 hedge ; and if you went to get on him, he'd carry you 
 to the tent, and there lie down. But I never in all 
 my life saw a neddy like him, to be so shy of the 
 slightest bit of thing. If there was only a dear little 
 drop of water shining in the road, he'd never pass it, 
 without you was to blindfold him.' 
 
 "And there was that colt. Quite a little foal he 
 was when my daddy bought him. By Job, he was 
 stiff too ; what legs he had. Five shillings my daddy 
 gave for it at Talgarth. And he'd never stand any 
 other place, only just behind my mammy's tent ; and 
 going along the road, he'd always be right between 
 the tent-rods, same as if he was ploughing. And 
 my daddy made a hole in the blanket behind, where 
 he used to push his nose through " — 
 
 " Like our little brown Peggy," put in Mantis, " a 
 chicken Dimiti had out of Wales ; and she'd never 
 sit anywhere else, only right atop of the balk, over 
 the fire, and you couldn't see the colour of her for 
 smoke. And she went off among some bushes one 
 day, and we looked for her, and couldn't find her ; 
 
MOSES I. AND II. 137 
 
 and found out afterwards it was the pretty gorgio 
 stole her." 
 
 "I do wish you'd learn your children better 
 manners, Richenda," said Pyramus testily, " not to go 
 poking in afore their betters. What's a chicken to 
 make so much talk on ? let alone the gentleman not 
 wanting to hear a lot of little rude young boys. But 
 what I was a saying, bor, my daddy kept this colt like 
 that till he growed a great big thing, then he sold 
 him to the blacksmith at Rindleford Mill for twenty 
 pounds. And whenever we'd go that way (the man 
 kept him in a little orchard, close to the road), he'd 
 know the neddies as well as could be ; he always 
 come to the gate and begun to whinny. D6rdi! my 
 daddy has had some nice horses." 
 
 With curly head nestled against his shoulder, sat 
 Pyramus's only daughter, Leah, a bonny little piece 
 of bright-eyed mischief, who, knowing she was free to 
 speak unchecked, began — "And I had an old neddy 
 once, Black Moses, rei'a ; my daddy gave it me, and 
 there ! it wasn't worth picking up in the road. You 
 couldn't get it to stir nohow ; and we were going all 
 along the road with Silverthorn's breed, and young 
 Silverthorn offered me threepence for it, and Chris- 
 topher said he'd give me fourpence, and I let it go. 
 And the Saturday aS|jer, my daddy took that one and 
 one of Silverthorn's to Guildford market, and sold 
 them both for half-a-sovereign ; and you may depend 
 I was pretty angry after. Then I had another after 
 that, another Moses ; and my daddy swapped it 
 
138 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 away for little Jessie, and got seventeen shilling 
 besides, from a gardener at a great gentleman's 
 house, so I didn't do so bad after all. Then I 
 thought to myself, 'Now, won't I dress myself up?' 
 and I went and gave five shillings for a beautiful 
 straw bonnet. It was a thing about the size of a nut- 
 shell, trimmed with a bright green ribbon, and a big 
 red rose stuck right on the top. And when my 
 mammy saw it, she snatched it off my head, and 
 ripped it all to pieces. And I bought a pair of red 
 shoes at the time, with thin elastic sides ; five shillings 
 I gave for them, and they only lasted me about a 
 fortnight. DSrdi ! and I thought I was so grand." 
 
 " But you should tell the gentleman," said Pyramus, 
 " about the lovely Leghorn hat your mammy bought 
 you against the Ascot races. You know, rei'a, Lucretia 
 couldn't abear to see the child with nothing vulgar, 
 like a little wench belonging to the shooting-galleries. 
 And tell him. Daughter, about your brother's foal, and 
 how they both was put in the pound together." 
 
 " What, that little donkey foal you gave a shilling 
 for, daddy, and Christopher used to ride it? Oh, 
 such a pretty little thing ! And my daddy sold it to 
 a parson, for his children to play with. It was when 
 we were going along, and the parson had no place to 
 put it in just then, and he told the man to lock it up in 
 the pound. And Christopher said he wouldn't let it 
 go, and he clung round its neck, and got locked into 
 the pound with it ; and he was roaring like anything, 
 both for the fear of being left locked up, and having to 
 
COLT-BREAKING. 1 39 
 
 leave his little foal behind. Long and by last he got 
 out over the wall, and followed us." 
 
 " Donkeys should be cheap," I said, " if you can buy 
 them for a shilling or fourpence. And horses, too — 
 what was it, Pyramus, you said your father gave for 
 the colt that always stood behind the tent ? " 
 
 " Five shillings, bor ; but that was years ago. 
 Horses was cheap then, and no mistake, specially up 
 in Wales, at Huntingdon, Talgarth, Knighton, and all 
 them fairs. My daddy didn't need then go far up 
 into Wales for his horses, only just round the Black 
 Mountains. Onest we were by Albrighton, when he 
 started off and went to a farm called Pen-y-Mawr 
 (Powell, the people's name were), and he bought two 
 nice young colts. And the man said he'd break 'em 
 in a little for him before starting away ; and my 
 daddy stayed there three days a purpose. They'd 
 never been handled till he got them. And the groom 
 pulled its neck out of place ; and the fine gentleman 
 and all of them, they knew of it, and wanted to hurry 
 my daddy away from the place, and made him pretty 
 near drunk, so as he shouldn't take no notice. He 
 started off, and the son went a goodish way with him ; 
 and just when the son left him, my daddy saw that 
 the horse began to reel about. He never took much 
 heed, but went on with them, and they got to a place 
 where the people were making hay ; and one of the 
 farmers on the top of the hayrick shouted to my 
 daddy, asked him what was the matter with the 
 horse. My daddy said, ' Nothing.' He said, ' There 
 
140 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 is, though ; ' he said, ' its neck is out of place.' My 
 daddy was perfectly struck, didn't know what to 
 think of it. And there was the poor young thing 
 with its neck all on one side, hanging down you 
 know. And my daddy asked him if he'd let him 
 turn 'em both in the field, till he went back to see 
 about it. And he did go back, told the fine farmer all 
 about it (a long long way he had to go), and he swore 
 that the colt's neck was never broke when it was there. 
 And while my daddy was away, there come a pretty 
 keeper up the road, and he saw it lying there ; and he 
 stuck it, and had it taken home and skinned, and 
 hanging up in the apple-trees. Then my daddy 
 come home with the other pony, and told my mammy 
 all about it ; and the next day we come right back 
 again to near Leominster, and my daddy and mammy 
 went off" again. They went and told the magistrate 
 about it, and he said he couldn't do anything ; it had 
 been left too long, he said. And thirty pounds my 
 daddy had paid for the two ; so there was half of 
 his good money gone." 
 
 " Ay," said Silvanus, " and I told the fine Powell, 
 ' None of your family will ever prosper, for serving me 
 this dirty trick.' They were supposed to be one of 
 the greatest farmers anywhere about there ; and in 
 the same year his wife died and two children, and all 
 his cattle and stock was taken from him. And he was 
 turned out of the farm, and no one knew what become 
 of them. The Lord would never let such rascals 
 prosper, for cheating of a poor dear person so." 
 
LEMENTINA SINGS. 14I 
 
 To US discoursing of the brute creation, Wisdom 
 and Lancelot discoursed sweet music ; Wisdom as 
 first, and Lance as second fiddle. The tender ShepJierd 
 of Snowdon formed their theme ; and Rodi presently 
 taking up the words, the rest chimed in, in Welsh, or 
 Welsh-besprinkled gibberish. So song became the 
 order of the evening, and Grandmother was called 
 upon to sing ; who, in a voice thinned like her face 
 by years, gave us this fragment of an old-world 
 ballad :— 
 
 " ' Cold blows the wind over my true love, 
 Cold blows the drops of rain ; 
 T never, never had but one sweet heart, 
 In the green wood he was slain. 
 
 " ' But I'll do as much for my true love 
 As any young girl can do ; 
 I'll sit and I'll weep by his grave side 
 For a twelvemonth and one day.' 
 
 "When the twelvemonth's end and one day was past. 
 
 This young man he arose : 
 " ' What makes you weep by my grave side 
 
 For twelve months and one day?' 
 
 " ' Only one kiss from your lily cold lips, 
 One kiss is all I crave ; 
 Only one kiss from your lily cold lips. 
 And return back to your grave.' 
 
 " ' My lip is cold as the clay, sweet heart. 
 My breath is earthly strong ; 
 If you should have a kiss from my cold lip. 
 Your days will not be long.' 
 
 " ' Go fetch me a note from the dungeon dark [ ? ] 
 Cold water from a stone ; 
 There I'll sit and weep for my true love, 
 For a twelvemonth and one day. 
 
142 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 " ' Go dig me a grave both long, wide, and deep, 
 I will lie down in it and take one sleep, 
 
 For a twelvemonth and one day : 
 I will lie down in it and take a long sleep, 
 
 For a twelvemonth and a day.' " 
 
 What a lovely old air she sang it to, as old most 
 likely as the words themselves, but printed in no 
 known collection. Yes, gatherers of old songs and 
 melodies may go further afield than Little Egypt, to 
 come back emptier-handed than if they had loitered 
 an hour beside the tents. Myself, I know the tunes 
 but not the notes, so am just as serviceable as an 
 inkless pen ; but let the first musician that lights on 
 Boswell, Stanley, Lovell, or Heme, secure this air 
 and those that followed it. For knowing the Lovells' 
 repertory, I could pick and choose at will, so next 
 demanded of Ruth that plaint of a forsaken one, each 
 verse of which concludes, "As an orange grows on 
 an apple-tree;" and then of Starli'na the following 
 homely ditt)- : — 
 
 " ' A brisk young sailor come courting me. 
 He stole away my sweet liberty ; 
 My heart he stole with a free good will, 
 He's got it now, and he'll keep it still. 
 
 " 'There is an alehouse in yonders town. 
 Where my first lovier is sitting down. 
 And he takes another lass on his knee ; 
 Oh ! don't you think it's a grief to me ? 
 
 " ' A grief to me, and I'll tell you why. 
 Because she has more gold than I ; 
 But her gold will flash, and her beauty pass, 
 And she'll become like me at last.' 
 
"A PERFECT GEM." I43 
 
 '■ Her father came home, it was late one night, 
 Inquiring for his heart's delight ; 
 Upstairs he went, and the door he broke. 
 And found her hanging by a rope. 
 
 " He took his knife, and he cut her down, 
 And in her bosom this note he found, 
 And on the note these few lines was wrote, — 
 ' O Johnny, O Johnny, my heart you have broke. 
 
 " ' Come dig me a grave both wide and deep, 
 And marble stone from head to feet. 
 And on the top then a turtle-dove. 
 To show the world that I died for love.' " 
 
 Silly words enough, but the buzzing, quavering 
 tune calls up a vision of alehouse and smock-frocked 
 drinkers, oak settle and mugs of cider, better at least 
 than the glare and din of music halls. "A regular 
 ploughboy's song," said Anselo ; and chanted forth- 
 with, concerning that same ploughboy, how — 
 
 " — he ploughs and sows the land, 
 And his skin's as white as snow ; 
 Here's a health to every labouring lad 
 That ploughs and sows the land." 
 
 Then came The Leather Battel, roared out by 
 Pyramus with a voice that almost shook the Chair 
 of Idris ; and then from Sinfi this Scottish ballad, 
 which she had learnt of Jocky Neilson's wife : — 
 
 ** There were three sisters going from home, 
 All in a lea and alony, oil I 
 They met a man, and he made them stand, 
 Down by the bonny banks of Airdrie, oh I 
 
 " He took the first one by the hand. 
 All in a lea and alony^ oh I 
 He turned her round, and he made her stand, 
 Down by the bonny banks of Airdrie, oh ! 
 
144 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 " Saying, 'Will you be a robber's wife? 
 All ill a lea and aloiiy, oh ! 
 Or will you die by my penknife ? 
 
 Drnon by the bonny banks of At rd He, ok I' 
 
 " ' Oh ! I won't be a robber's wife, 
 
 All in a lea and alony, oh ! 
 
 But I will die by your penknife, 
 
 Down by the bonny banks of Airdrie, ohT 
 
 " Then he took the second by her hand, 
 All in a lea and alony, oh I 
 He turned her round, and he made her stand, 
 Do7un by the bonny banks of Airdrie, oh ! 
 
 "Saying, 'Will you be a robber's wife? 
 All in a lea and alony, oh / 
 Or will you die by my penknife ? 
 
 Down by the bonny banks of Airdrie, oh! ' 
 
 " ' Oh ! I won't be a robber's wife, 
 
 All in a lea and alonv, oh I 
 
 But I will die by your penknife, 
 
 Down by the bonny banks of Airdrie, oh ! ' 
 
 " He took the third one by the hand, 
 All in a lea and alony, oh ! 
 He turned her round, and he made her stand, 
 Doaun by the bonny banks of Airdrie, oh I 
 
 " Saying, 'W'ill you be a robber's wife? 
 All in a lea ami alony, oh I 
 Or will you die by my penknife ? 
 
 Deni'n by the bonny banks of Airdrie, ohP 
 
 " 'Oh ! I won't be a robber's wife, 
 All in a lea and aloiiy, oh I 
 And I won't die by your penknife, 
 
 Do7an by the bonny banks of Airdrie, oh ! 
 
 " ' If my two brothers had been here, 
 ,•/// in a lea and alony, oh! 
 You would not have killed my sisters two, 
 Do^on by the bonny banks of Airdrie, oh! ' 
 
HUGH OF LINCOLN. I45 
 
 " 'What was your two brothers' names? 
 All in a lea and alony, oh ! 
 One was John, and the other was James, 
 Down by the bonny banks of Ainiyu, oil ! ' 
 
 Oh, what did your two brothers do ? 
 All In a It'a and alony^ oh ! 
 One was a minister, the other such as you, 
 Do-ion by the bonny banks of Airdrie, oh ! ' 
 
 " ' Oh, what is this that I have done ? 
 All in a lea and alony, oh ! 
 I have killed my sisters all but one, 
 
 Down by the bonny banks of Airdric, oh ! 
 
 " ' And now I'll take out my penknife. 
 All in a lea and alony^ oh ! 
 And here I'll end my own sweet life, 
 
 Doxon by the bonny banks of Aii-di-ie, oh ! ' " 
 
 This, surely, was the " werry lonesome death-song, 
 about a yard and a half long," of which the old Gipsy 
 spoke to Mr Leland. Only that "had no tune in 
 pertick'ler," while this was sung to a kind of mono- 
 tonous chant, sad and suggestive as a river's flow. 
 And Lancelot played a masterly accompaniment, 
 that pled for the murdered, raved at the murderer, 
 and moaned for his remorseful suicide. Next Sinfi's 
 Scottish ballad started Lucretia off on a song of 
 Scotland, the version of Hugh of Lincoln, namely, 
 familiar to most London Gipsies, with its own quaint 
 air, all runs, and trills, and "grace-notes." I heard it 
 first at Shepherd's Bush, in 1872, from little Amy 
 North, who, having " heav'd deep sighs," began — 
 
 " Down in merry merry Scotland, 
 It rained both hard and small ; 
 Two little boys went out one day. 
 All for to play with a ball. 
 
 K 
 
146 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 " Tliey tossed it up so very very high, 
 They tossed it down so low, 
 They tossed it into the Jew's garden. 
 Where the flowers all do blow. 
 
 "Out came one of the Jew's daughters. 
 Dressed in green all, — 
 ' If you come here, my fair pretty lad, 
 You shall have your ball.' 
 
 " She showed him an apple as green as grass. 
 The next thing was a fig. 
 The next thing a cherry as red as blood, 
 And that would 'tice him in. 
 
 "She set him on a golden chair, 
 And gave him sugar sweet ; 
 Laid him on some golden chest of draw;ers, 
 Stabbed him like a sheep. 
 
 " ' Seven foot Bible 
 
 At my head and my feet : 
 If my mother pass by me. 
 Pray tell her I'm asleep.' " 
 
 Here it abruptly ended. Nor did Lucretia get 
 thus far ; but, breaking down, called upon me to sing 
 " that Romani gilli, rei'a," of all things in the world. 
 So I, a gorgio, gave to a Gipsy audience one of two 
 Macaronic effects, made years ago to meet the literary 
 want^ that Miss Janet Tuckey, "Hans Breitmann," 
 
 1 The Anglo-Roniani muse is dead, if indeed she ever lived ; but 
 on the Continent collections have been formed of genuine Gipsy poetry, 
 t'.^., in Hungary by Reuss (edited by Pott in ZeitscJirift der Deutschen 
 Morgenl. Ges., 1849), Friedrich Midler (Vien., 1869), Miklosich (Vien., 
 1874-78), and Meltzl (Klausenb., 1878); in Gallicia by Isidor Kopernicki 
 (ninety unpublished songs) ; and in AVallachia by Barbu Constantinescu 
 (Bucharest, 1878). The seventy-five specimens of this last collection 
 are strikingly regular in rhyme and metre ; but all, however rude, are 
 as much more valuable than any Songs of the Aficion, as Sophocles' Ajax 
 than Lord Lyttleton's Cotiitis. Pity that the "great Pharaoh Lay, of 
 epic character," is known to us only by one unintelligible stanza. 
 
"AND CALLED IT MACARONL" I47 
 
 and Professor E. H. Palmer have since arisen to 
 supply. Meant for a rendering of " See the smoking 
 bowl before us," in Burns' Jolly Beggars, it goes to the 
 tune of Billy Taylor: — 
 
 "Dordi the toovin' tatto-pani, 
 
 Dordi the tatcheno Romani chals ! 
 With the boshomengro kelliii' 
 Milk us giv our gilli, Pals. 
 
 Jilkel's ful for prastamengros, 
 
 Mas for Xai'ilos on the drom ; 
 Kongeris was but kair'd for rashis, 
 Staribens 'cos dinlos kom. 
 
 "What's a piiknius, so si wongar, 
 What's to be a boro rei ? 
 So as we lels a kiishto jivoben. 
 Why should we kesser sar or kei? 
 
 Jukel's ful for prastamengros, &c. 
 
 "Adre the div\'us pennin' hukabens 
 All about t'ae tem we jas, 
 And adre the raati in a granzi 
 Choomer our raklis opre the kas. 
 
 Jukel's ful for prastamengros, &c. 
 
 "That the rei's vardo with its ki'stamengros 
 Prasters fereder, who might pen ? 
 Or that the wi'idrus of the romer'd rai'mi 
 Diks any fereder komoben ? 
 
 Jukel's ful for prastamengros, &c. 
 
 "Jivoben's kair'd o' dosta kovas, 
 
 Mendi '11 kek kesser how they av ; 
 Muk them roker about decorum 
 
 Who are atrash for their kiishto nav. 
 Jukel's ful for prastamengros, &c. 
 
 " Then kushto bokh to tan and sasta, 
 Kiishto bokh to Kaiilos sor. 
 And kiishto bokh to the nongo chavis : 
 Muk's pen sor on us Amushdw. 
 
 Jiikel's ful for prastamengros," &c. 
 
148 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 Holes held by rags together, but chorus and third 
 verse are not so bad. Anyhow, having had one, my 
 hearers were bound to have the other, a perversion 
 of Goethe's King of Thnle, at least the tune whereof 
 was Romanes, picked up from my eight fiddler 
 friends of Siklos : — 
 
 "There jiv'd a Romano krallis, 
 And a tatcheno rei was he, 
 'Fore yoi mulli'd a kurruv o' sonakei 
 Del'd lesti his piiini. 
 
 "There was chichi yuv kom'd so mishto, 
 Sorkon chairos he haw'd he would pi 
 'Vri adiivel, and out o' yuv's yokas, 
 The pani nash'd avri. 
 
 "And when lesti vel'd to miillain', 
 Yuv pen'd as how sorlion gav 
 Yuv del'd to the krallis arter him, 
 But kek o' the kurruv a lav. 
 
 "Yuv besh'd by the krallisko hobben, 
 With his kistamengros sor, 
 'Dre his dadus's boro kamora, 
 Odoi by the doriove shore. 
 
 " Kek-komi the piiro piamongro 
 The jivoben's yog should pi, 
 For he wusser'd the komelo kurruv 
 Right ale dre the doriov's zi. 
 
 "Yuv dik'd lis pelin', porderin', 
 Jal ale dre the pani loon, 
 And his yokas pander'd their kokore. 
 And yuv was a gillo coon." 
 
 What the Pott of the future will make of the closing 
 
 fa 
 
 line it were hard to say ; but my hearers took it all 
 in excellent good part, applauding to the very echo. 
 Rather an Irish echo, though, their " Mishto, mis/ito," 
 
JOHN ROBERT'S 
 
AN ANGEL UNAWARES. I49 
 
 returning from the darkening lane as " Bravo, capital, 
 very good indeed ! " and also rather an ironical echo, 
 to judge from its intonation. 
 
 " Gorgios ! " said Lementina, standing up ; and 
 out of the twilight came a white-bearded figure, clad 
 all in black, topped by a broad-brimmed, tasselled, 
 clerical hat, and bearing on its back something that 
 looked like a one great folded wing, but was really 
 a harp cased in its oilskin cover. Talk of an angel 
 and you'll see the tip of his pinions ; this was no 
 other than the old John Roberts, discussed by us 
 barely two hours ago. None but myself appeared to 
 recognise him, and, leaning back in Lementina's tent, 
 I purposely escaped a quick shy glance that he cast 
 on the firelit group, as, setting down his instrument, 
 he proceeded leisurely to fill his pipe. Silvanus, there- 
 on, curious to throw some light upon the stranger, 
 bade 'Lina "give the gentleman an ember;" and, 
 " Burn his beards, girl," whispered irreverent Dimiti, 
 and got a cuff from Pyramus for the suggestion. 
 No, the light revealed only a hale old man of middle 
 stature, with keen grey eyes, sharp-cut intelligent 
 features, and snowy hair, who, to look at, might 
 be a divine, a poet, or a legislator — anything rather 
 than a "stancient Romani chal." His voice, too, 
 high-pitched and voluble as any Welshman's, helped 
 him, though not for long, to keep up his incognito in 
 the ensuing discourse : — 
 
 John Roberts {condescendingly). — "You seem to be 
 enjoying yourselves, good people. I was on my way 
 
150 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 to the hotel yonder, when I heard you singing and 
 vlolln-pIaying, and I couldn't resist halting, being a 
 bit of a musicianer myself." 
 
 Lementina. — "Yes, sir; it's a poor heart never 
 rejoices, sir ; but often I say there's too much singing 
 and playing. Scrape, scrape, scraping from morning 
 till blessed night, till I can't hear my own ears some- 
 times ; and after playing weeping comes next, you 
 know." 
 
 Jo/pi Roberts. — " What would you say then if you 
 had nine great cubs like mine, all playing away at 
 once in one little tiny house, a practising some new 
 operatic pieces ? Do-da, do-da they go for hours and 
 hours on end, and making all the horriblest noise you 
 can imagine, and do keep at it, till they are stopped 
 by me, by reason of the great annoyance they cause 
 to me, when I am writing to some high nobleman or 
 other patron. There's Lloyd and Madoc with English 
 pedal harps ; Johnny, Albert, and Ernest with the 
 Welsh triple-stringed instrument ; James flageolet ; 
 Reuben the double-bass ; Charley violoncello ; and 
 little Willy solo violin. The Original Cambrian 
 Minstrels, there you have 'em." 
 
 Lementina [aside). — " Shoonta ! sor g6rgiokono 
 naviaw, hoi ? " 
 
 Jolin Roberts. — " But what was that beautiful song 
 you were singing, one of you, when I came up ; as 
 I did not understand the words very clearly, but it 
 seemed to be in some sort of a foreign language — 
 Italian ? " 
 
DRAWING A BADGER. 151 
 
 Leinentina. — "No, sir; that was Spanish, I think 
 they call it, sir ; as a friend of ours was just obliging 
 with. (Molleko, bor ! Romano si, pcnava mansar.) 
 But sit you down, my gentleman, and rest yourself, 
 for sure that thing must be an awful load to drag 
 about. Ruth, fetch a chair down out of your sister's 
 cart ; for you won't be used, sir, to sitting on the 
 cold hard ground, like us poor people." 
 
 JoJiii Roberts (sitting down cross-legged on tJte 
 grass). — " Oh, never mind chairs, my dear good lady ; 
 pray don't put yourself out the least for me. I have 
 been an old soldier in my time, and the sight of the 
 tents and all your smiling faces puts me in mind of 
 my young days when I served as a drummer in the 
 23d Royal Welsh Fusileers." 
 
 Leinentina (scrutinising his easy attitude). — " So 
 you've been a soldier, have you, sir ? Well, of 
 course the tents would seem natival-like to you ; 
 still I should just like to inquire (if you'll excuse 
 my freedom), did you never chance to dik any of 
 our sort of people on your travels?" 
 
 John Roberts (falling headlong into Lementina's 
 trap, "dik" being Romanes for "see"). — " Yes indeed ; I 
 always had a funny partiality for them ; and many's 
 the time when I was quartered down at Portsmouth, 
 I liked to go and have a chat with some of the Lees " 
 {this in a tone of interrogation). 
 
 Silvanus. — " Oh, very good ; you did know some of 
 the Lees then, did you ? Rather a rubbishy lot, they 
 
152 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 Lees ! i Why, you might have seen the rale old 
 'riginals, Lovells and Ayres and Stanleys, by crossing 
 just over t'other side Southampton Water." 
 
 John Roberts (relieved).—'' Well now, do you know, 
 but I was saying to myself that you were some of 
 the Lees yourselves." 
 
 Lejnentina. — "Oh, bless your heart, man, no. We're 
 nothing whatever to do with t\\e Jih'lo-Gwie." 
 
 John Roberts. — " Ha ! ha ! ha ! that'll be some 
 comical nickname that you've given them ; but, to 
 tell the truth, I never had much liking for those 
 Lees myself There are a good many of them about 
 this country (very fair violin players), and one time 
 in May 1847 they came to a fair held in Llanfyllin, 
 Montgomeryshire, where I was keeping company with 
 an old Welsh harper called Evan Jones, in a parlour 
 at the Eagle Inn. I had a kinsman with me at the 
 time of the name of John, a skewer of a little fellow, 
 a playing the fiddle in the kitchen, when in comes 
 these Lees, and takes hold of the fiddle out of his 
 hands without asking leave. When all at once I 
 could hear my fiddle have a fall on the screen, and 
 made a great noise, that it attracted my ear to go 
 out of the parlour to see what was the matter, when I 
 could see John Wood holding one of the Lees with 
 his back on the fire. I went to separate them (but. 
 
 ' Be it understood that I by no means endorse Silvanus's estimate 
 of the Purums, being acquainted with many worthy members of that 
 black-faced, curly-locked family. lie, too, referred not to the main 
 English, but to a minor Welsh branch of the tribe. 
 
DRAWN. 153 
 
 oh dear ! e'er a one of them was fit to kill us both, if 
 it was to come to that), and I tried to make friends 
 between them as well as I could ; and through that 
 it always used to make me to be afraid to go by a 
 English Gipsy camp, as I used to think it might be 
 some of them." 
 
 Alablna. — "Sure that was my uncle, Eleazar's 
 father ; and dearie Devel ! thinkesava mi te kai'a si 
 vaver koko tei, d6va yek as romer'd mi puroder bi'bi. 
 {To John^ And how did you leave your good lady, 
 sir ? " 
 
 JoJin Roberts. — " There, now you're making game 
 in that funny gibberish of the poor old man, the 
 oldest Welsh harper in the world at the present time ; 
 and Mr Thomas Griffiths, the Prince of Wales's 
 harper, is the next. But, ' my good lady ! ' Why, 
 don't I set here, poor Pill Garlick, all by own 
 dear self? and isn't it a beautiful young lady I'm 
 wishing, and never able to find her, unless it's your- 
 self will accept of the situation ? " 
 
 Levientina. — " Ay, sir ; that's the thing to do, sir. 
 She'd better make up her mind to it at once, for very 
 like she'll never have the chance again of taking such 
 a nice young fashionable husband." 
 
 Thereat all laughed, Nathan and Alablna leading 
 off; and through the laughter I threatened to "tell 
 Perpi'nia," Perpi'nia being Mrs Roberts, mother of 
 two daughters and twelve sons. And John, now 
 making me out for the first time, remarked, that 
 if they'd got that Wise Man with them, he gave 
 
154 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 it up ; so joined in the laughter, and entered upon 
 explanations. 
 
 " Really and truly," he assured them, " I made 
 certain you were some of the Lees ; and they are 
 gentry I am always rather nervous of, because of 
 what I was telling you just now. But dordi, d6rdi ! 
 who ever would have thought of falling in with kins- 
 folk so promiscuous like. Why, it isn't six weeks 
 that I met my cousin Feophilus in Brecon, when he 
 was telling me how two of his girls, Alabma and, 
 I forget the other one's name (for I hadn't seen him 
 before since blessed goodness knows), were married 
 to two tiptop English Gipsy men, some of the Lovell 
 family ; and my own mother's mother was a Stanley, 
 and everyone knows that Stanleys are kith to Lovells. 
 Oh dear ! oh dear ! what a story I shall have to carry 
 back to Newtown. But you were crafty, trying to 
 catch the poor old innocent man, noting his funny 
 bits of Romani way, but making as if he wouldn't 
 understand your rSk'raben. And then Mr Groome 
 must needs come striking in, and spoils it all, just 
 when I meant to surprise you by bursting out : ' Shorn 
 ma te penna to mengey ta Romano shorn may, ta 
 mankey Java mangey aivay, dava ma temen borro 
 parchyben /<?;' te morro camlo drom ta sigaday 
 mangey cuddeyvess,' " &c., &c., &c. 
 
 The speech rolled forth with all the greater vigour 
 for having been long kept in, and its effect was really 
 considerable, especially on Silvanus, who followed it 
 better than the younger people. Its peroration 
 
"THE TENTS WHERE I WAS BORN." 1 55 
 
 ended, Rodi said, " Now, my dear uncle, here have 
 you been sitting all this while, and we never as much 
 as offered you a bite of victuals, thinking of course you 
 were some fine gorgeous g6rgio, and would be above 
 eating with the likes of we. But what shall I make 
 you now a bit of something before you go to your 
 inn ? There's steak or bacon, and a nice few trout." 
 
 John's heart seemed set on a good plump Romani 
 hedgehog ; but, hedgehogs unluckily being out of 
 season, his demand called forth a little good-humoured 
 banter from the Lovells, and a lament from himself 
 over his fallen house-dwelling estate : " Whatever 
 would you have the old man know then, living stuck 
 up in four stone walls ? Often and often when I go 
 down the fields to take a stroll (which is near our 
 little house at Newtown), I am very near crying, 
 thinking how I am deprived of all my dear Romani 
 way, what I used to delight in when my poor old 
 mother was alive. Why, if you'll believe me, I would 
 sooner have tasted hedgehog again, than e'er a bit 
 of the very finest beef However, just do me some- 
 thing the nearest way, though I'm downright shamed 
 to put you to so much inconvenience." 
 
 While this something was doing, the children 
 petitioned for a tune upon the harp ; Lancelot 
 brought it up from the gate, against which it was 
 leaning ; and John, as he stripped and tuned it, 
 recounted somewhat of his harping exploits. How 
 this particular harp was a very ancient one, " pre- 
 sented to him with a richly-engraved silver plate 
 
IS6 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 affixed to it, bearing the names of Lady Florencia 
 Hughes of Kinmel, Lady Buckley of Plas-yn-dinas, 
 and other patrons, as a token of their esteem for his 
 exertions in adhering to the national instrument of 
 his country." How he had also carried off the 
 Tredegar and other prize harps at the Abergavenny 
 and Cardiff Eisteddfods ; and how he had " had the 
 distinguished honour of playing by special request 
 before His Majesty the King of the Belgians, His 
 Grace the Grand-Duke Constantine, the Dukes and 
 Duchesses of Bedford and Marlborough, and numer- 
 ous other members of the Royalty, Nobility, and 
 Aristocracy of Europe, England, and Wales." Then 
 there were the triumphs of sons at ten different 
 Eisteddfods, and the story how Johnny won only 
 the second prize at Birkenhead last year, when 
 " he ought to have had the first if he had fair 
 play, for the one who played against him was a 
 good player but made many mistakes, when my 
 son did not make one, but played with better execu- 
 tion, better time, and with very marked expression. 
 Which was plain to be seen that he was wrong dealt 
 with by Mr J. Thomas ap Thomas, harpist to the 
 Queen. And by Mr Thomas serving him so, I went 
 there and then over to Liverpool, and challenged in 
 the papers, that I would play him upon the real 
 Welsh harp for any sum he would wish to mention ; 
 but he was afraid to accept of my challenge, nor has 
 he done it yet. For one thing, you will allow me to 
 tell you quietly, that he is not able to do so. I could 
 
STRINGS SYMPHONIOUS. I 57 
 
 say a great deal more upon that subject, but, to tell 
 you the truth of the matter, it's because we are 
 Romani Chals, and he wants to keep us under if he 
 can ; and as long as I know that he can't play the 
 Welsh harp, I shall try to stop him from judicating 
 upon it as long as I live." 
 
 This was lofty talk for lowly Romani tents, but the 
 strains that it preluded were loftier still. We had 
 them all — The Bells of Aberdovey, Llwyn Onn, The 
 Rising of the Lark, I know not what besides ; and 
 when he came to The March of the Men of Harlech, 
 our bard uplifted a lusty voice and sang : — 
 
 ' ' Around the hearth with noble cheer, the bowl of meth begun 
 
 the part, 
 When deeds of warriors charnied the ear, and warmed the 
 
 Welshman's heart. 
 O'er his native mountains, with some noble chieftain, 
 For his Prince, his mighty Prince, his noble race for to 
 
 maintain. 
 He marches on with patriot's strides, relating tales of 
 
 Welshmen's tribes, 
 The deeds of old that charmed the ear, and warmed the 
 
 Welshman's heart. 
 
 " England when to battle went the sons of liberty to save. 
 She fought, she conquered, where she sent the sons of Britons 
 brave. 
 When the trumpet sounded, every heart rebounded, 
 Full of fire, that warlike fire, that every foe confounded ; 
 The deeds of honour valiant stood, reminding them of 
 
 their noble blood ; 
 They fought, they conquered, where she sent the sons of 
 Cymri brave." 
 
 " By Job," said Silvanus, " that's grammar ; and if I 
 could do as much as that, I'd wear a black coat too, 
 and a cocked hat atop of it. Scores on scores of 
 
158 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 harp-players I've heard at fairs and races, but never 
 a one could compromise to that. It would be thrum- 
 thrum, thntm-thritm, neither sense nor reason into it ; 
 and the very next one I sees, I'll tell him put his 
 instrument on his back and be off to Newtown, to 
 take a few lessons off my uncle here. You see, rei'a, 
 I was bound to be right in what I was a telling you, it 
 takes us Romane to larn the gorgios anything." 
 
 This from Silvanus, after his late disparagement of 
 harping, was praise indeed ; and the rest were yet 
 louder in their approbation. Of course they wanted 
 more, and Nathan the Wise suggested penuillions. 
 But it is not so easy both to sing and accompany 
 pemiillions ; and the steak besides was in danger 
 of growing cold, and Anselo had fetched up whisky 
 from the inn. So music gave place to supper, 
 Lementina remarking that " one should not work 
 the willing horse to death." 
 
(S^ljajjt^r Sitriiti^^. 
 
 |HEN John went off to his supper, the 
 children fell to asking riddles, not modern 
 conundrums, but good old-fashioned 
 "sense-riddles," like the zagddki of the 
 Russian peasantry. Ancient they must be ; for who, 
 without the leisure of Methuselah, could ever discover 
 that " a nettle " is meant by " In the hedge, and out 
 of the hedge, and if you touch it, it will bite you ? " or 
 that " Under water, and over water, and never touches 
 water" signifies " a woman crossing a bridge with a 
 pail of water on her head " ? But the answers now-a- 
 days are always known beforehand, and the children 
 were charmed to find the Rei more ignorant than 
 tiny Dona, who shouted " Blowbellows " to " The bull 
 bulled it, the cow calved it, it growed in the wood, 
 and the blacksmith made it ; " and " Fiddle " to " It 
 plays in the wood, and sings in the wood, and gets its 
 master many a penny." " As I was a-going along the 
 road one day, I met a man coming through the hedge 
 with a lot of pins and needles on his back" was clearly 
 
 159 
 
l60 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 our Romani friend "the hedgehog;" but "a cherry" 
 was less obviously suggested by— 
 
 " Riddle me, riddle me, red coat, 
 A stick in his hand, a stone in his throat ; 
 Riddle me, riddle me, roti tot." 
 
 Stories succeeded riddles ; and Leah led off with 
 " Happy Boz'll," well known to all Gipsies of the 
 Eastern Counties : — " Onest upon a time there was a 
 Ronnano, and his name was Happy Boz'll, and he had 
 a German-silver grinding-barrow, and he used to put 
 his wife and child on the top, and he used to go that 
 quick along the road he'd beat all the coaches. Then 
 he thought this grinding-barrow was too heavy and 
 clumsy to take about, and he cut it up and made 
 tent-rods of it. And then his dickey got away, and 
 he didn't know where it was gone to ; and one day he 
 was going by the tent, and he said to himself, ' Bless 
 my soul, wherever's that dickey got to ? ' And there 
 was a tree close by, and the dickey shouted out and 
 said, ' I'm here, my Happy, getting you a bit of stick 
 to make a fire.' Well, the donkey come down with a 
 lot of sticks, and he had been up the tree a week, 
 getting firewood. Well then, Happy had a dog, and 
 he went out one day ; the dog one side the hedge, 
 and him the other. And then he saw two hares. 
 The dog ran after the two ; and as he was going 
 across the field, he cut himself right through with a 
 scythe ; and then one half ran after one hare, and 
 the other after the other. Then the two halves of 
 the dog catched the two hares ; and then the dog 
 
HAPPY BOZ'LL. i6i 
 
 smacked together again ; and he said, ' Well, I've got 
 'em, my Happy ; " and then the dog died. And 
 Happy had a hole in the knee of his breeches, and 
 he cut a piece of the dog's skin, after it was dead, 
 and sewed it in the knee of his breeches. And that 
 day twelve months his breeches-knee burst open, and 
 barked at him. And so that's the end of Happy 
 Boz'll." 
 
 "That's a regular Lucas's tale," said Dimiti; mean- 
 ing by Lucas a Romani Munchausen who flourished 
 half a century ago, but is still remembered for his 
 marvellous powers of romancing. And I capped 
 " Happy Boz'll " with the Gipsy lying-tale from the 
 Bukovina,^ of the man who clambered up a willow- 
 tree to heaven, and descended by means of a rope of 
 barley-straw, which proving too short, he kept cutting 
 off above and tying on below. Then Dimiti himself 
 recounted the story of " Dootherum Jimmy," which 
 deserves preservation only as being singularly widely- 
 spread among our English Gipsies. Ask a Buckland 
 of the south or a Heme of the north if he can tell 
 the story; he will answer, "Ay," and give it you in 
 nearly these very words, pronouncing the tli as d, 
 whether he does so naturally himself or not : — 
 
 " Dere was an old Gipsy woman, and her name was 
 old 'Licia Boswell. ' Old Galled-eye,' 'Licia used to 
 be called ; and her had a fine son called Jim Boswell, 
 
 ' Published in the original by Miklosich in part iv. of his Beitriige 
 zttr Ketmtniss dcr Zigeuiierniundarten (Vien. 1878). 
 
 L 
 
102 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 ' Old Dootherum Jimmy;' and he had many fine sons 
 and daughters. So one day dere was a bit o{ para- 
 inisin" — canting or quarrelling ; Plato's ■Kapafivdla, 
 argumentation — " between dem, as Spencer Lovell 
 and Cornelius Smith was going to fight. Jim's 
 daughter, named Genty, said to her father, 'Daddy, 
 ain't you going to see de men fight?' 'Ah, my 
 child, we'll go;' and dey went to see de men fight. 
 So when dey seed de one man knock de oder down, 
 Genty said, 'Dere, my daddy, dat is not fair; dey 
 will kill de poor child.' So den old Dootherum said 
 to Genty, 'Dere, my child, do you think I am going 
 to pick a thorn out of another man's hand, to put in 
 my own ? I could eat and drink wid de man, and 
 toss him over the hedge de same time.' As de fight 
 was ended, so Jim and his daughter Genty went 
 home and had a good supper of dead pig. Dat is 
 what all Gipsies like, hedgehog and roasted potatoes." 
 "Yes, indeed," said Leah, " I wish I had some here; 
 but how would you go to cook a hedgehog, rei'a?" 
 "I can't say. Daughter; how would you?" 
 "Why, first take a stick and crawl him out; then 
 hit straight on the nose ; then pitch him on the fire, 
 and let all the bristles be first burnt off. Then take a 
 knife, and scrape it nice and brown ; then cut open 
 the back, and wash it well ; then put plenty of pepper 
 and salt inside. When all this is done, the hedgehog 
 is ready for cooking, which you can either boil or 
 roast it. It is very beautiful either way. And I'll 
 tell you another thing, rei'a ; it is very strange to see 
 
EGYPTIAN FAUNA. 1 63 
 
 how the hedgehog builds his nest. You would think 
 now that the two companions would live together in 
 one nest, but it is not so : the father has one nest all 
 to himself, and the mother with all her young hedge- 
 hogs in another nest to herself. There is a regular 
 path from one nest to the other, which any gorgio 
 might see thousands of times, and never know what 
 it meant. The nest is made of grass and leaves very 
 thickly put together ; and the strangest part of it is 
 that they do not leave their nests during the winter- 
 time. They have been found with all sort of birds, 
 crab apples, and mice in their nests ; for they always 
 pervide for the coming winter." ' 
 
 "What's 'hedgehogs' in Romanes, brother ?" Mantis 
 asked. 
 
 " Why, Iiotcldwitclu, I should rather think." 
 
 "Ay; but there's another way you might put it — 
 Romane's baulc, 'cause they are pigs the gorgios can't 
 deny us Gipsies. And bm'iris, snails — Roinani-gorgios 
 they are, handsome-looking people ; for don't they 
 live in walls like gorgios, but always keep moving 
 about like we ? " " 
 
 "And a wren," added Christopher, "is a ckuvion, 
 witching bird, 'cause if ever you hear one chattering 
 in the hedge close by the tents, you're bound to be 
 drove from the place where you are stopping at. 
 And a taltordiro is a crow ; and I can give you 
 
 ' Leah knows more about hedgehogs than did White of Selborne, 
 who "could never find that they stored in any winter provision." 
 
164 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 something deeper than that, rei'a, and I'd lay a penny 
 not one out of all you children can tell what a fnlaiio 
 clnhnba is. That's, a blackbird, that is ; mucklieap, 
 don't gorgios call it? " 
 
 "Ah-h-h ! " galdered Dimiti ; " that's never no true 
 word. You might say kdulo cliiriklo, if you like now ; 
 but what I'd like best would be another good long 
 story." So I told them the Master Thief, as given 
 by Constantinescu, with fourteen more Roumanian- 
 Gipsy folk-tales. The original Romanes occupies 
 eight pages, of which the following is merely an 
 epitome. 
 
 A town thief once fell in with a country thief, and 
 was challenged by him to steal the eggs from under a 
 magpie without her noticing it. He achieved the feat, 
 but during it was himself robbed unawares of his 
 breeches by the other, with whom he then entered 
 into partnership. They went to the King's treasure- 
 house, and, making a hole in the roof, descended and 
 stole two hundred purses of money. The King on 
 the morrow, discovering his loss, took counsel with 
 an old thief in prison, and by his advice found out 
 the hole at which they had entered, by lighting a fire 
 in the treasure-house and noting where the smoke 
 escaped. Under this hole he set a great jar of treacle, 
 in which next night the country thief was caught. 
 To spite the King, he cried to his comrade, " Come 
 and cut off my head, for I a dead man ; " so the King 
 in the morning found only a headless corpse. " Hang 
 it up on a gallows outside the gate," was the old thief's 
 
THE MASTER THIEF. 165 
 
 advice, " and set soldiers to watch it, for he that stole 
 the head will come to steal the body also." Sure 
 enough, the town thief, disguised as an old man, came 
 driving by ; and just as he reached the gallows, his 
 waggon broke down, and a jar of drugged wine rolled 
 out. The soldiers helped him, and for their trouble he 
 let them have a drink, asking meanwhile what they 
 had got up there. "A thief" " Hullo! I'm off then, 
 else he'll steal my mare." " What a fool you must be, 
 old fellow; how will he manage that?" "He will, 
 though; isn't he a thief?" "Bah! he'll never steal 
 her, he's dead ; and if he does, we'll pay you for the 
 loss." "All right, if that's the case." So the old man 
 sat down by the watch-fire, and pretended \_lit. made 
 himself, just as with English Gipsies] to doze, while 
 the soldiers finished the wine. It made them drunk ; 
 where they fell, they lay, without thought or heed of 
 anything. Then the thief arose, put the corpse in his 
 waggon, drove away to the forest, and buried it ; then 
 came back to the fire, leaving his waggon behind, and 
 again pretended to sleep. In the morning the soldiers 
 awoke, and seeing neither corpse nor waggon, won- 
 dered and said, " The old fellow was right, comrades, 
 that the thief would steal his mare ; " and they paid 
 him four hundred piastres not to say anything about 
 it. Other feats the thief performed ; among them he 
 stole away one of a yoke of oxen, and, cutting its tail 
 off, put it hanging half out of the other ox's mouth. 
 The owner came back and began to weep, when the 
 King called him and asked what he was weeping for, 
 
1 66 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 " Because, O King, while I was away at the play, one 
 of my oxen has eaten up the other." Then the King 
 laughed fit to kill himself, and promised the thief his 
 kingdom and his daughter if only he would steal the 
 priest out of the church. Then the thief went into 
 the town, bought three hundred crabs and three 
 hundred tapers, and going to the church where the 
 priest was chanting, let out the crabs one by one, 
 each with a taper fastened to its claw. " So righteous 
 am I in the sight of God," sang the priest, " that he 
 sends his saints to summon me. But how am I to 
 go ? " " Get into this sack," the thief answered ; and 
 the priest got in ; and the thief drew the sack tight, 
 and dragged it down the steps. Tronk, tronk went 
 the priest's head against the steps ; and the thief 
 carried the sack to the King, and tumbled it down 
 before him. The King burst out laughing, and there 
 and then he gave the thief his daughter, and made 
 him king in his stead. 
 
 Versions of this tale occur in Strapparola (Venice,^ 
 1550), Dasent's Tales from tlie Norse, Campbell's 
 Tales of the Western Highlands, and other collections. 
 One, not the least curious, is given in vol. iii. p. 399, 
 of Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor 
 (185 1), as having been told by the boy inmate of a 
 London Workhouse. Herodotus' story of Rhamp- 
 
 ' Venice, one is reminded, as mistress of Corfu from 1386 to 1797, 
 must have been the first Western State that was brought in close 
 contact with Gipsies, one hundred of whom (children not reckoned in) 
 have constituted ihafeuiliini Acinganonini in that island since 1370. 
 
ROMAN! FOLK-TALES. 1 67 
 
 sinitus has often befen called their prototype, and it is 
 curious that the Gipsy and Gaelic versions resemble 
 it far more closely than do the Italian, German, 
 and Scandinavian. Nor can this resemblance be 
 accounted for in the Gipsy as Campbell accounts for 
 it in the Gaelic version, by supposing the Herodo- 
 tean details to have been grafted on the folktale by 
 some university scholar, since wherever the Gipsies 
 got their stories from, it was not out of books. 
 
 Now, a noteworthy feature in Campbell's collection 
 is the number of tales that he either obtained from, or 
 found known to. Highland Tinklers ; from a London 
 Gipsy he heard a version of OIi, if I cotild but Shiver ! 
 By itself the circumstance has no great value, since 
 the stories belong to the " common stock of European 
 folklore," and Gipsies in their wandering from the 
 South-East to the uttermost West of Europe might 
 well have picked them up, just as they picked up 
 Greek and Slavonic, Magyar and German words. 
 Stifo-, in stifo-dad, "father-in-law," of Anglo-Romanes, 
 one readily refers to German stief-, because one 
 knows that the forefathers of our Gipsies reached 
 England by way of Germany ; but none would 
 identify «;-(/, "earth," of Syrian and Egyptian Romanes, 
 with German erde. And so of Romani tales. If one 
 heard Grimm's Faithfid John from the mouth of an 
 English Gipsy, one might reasonably class it with 
 stifo- as a loan ; but how, when it is told by a Gipsy 
 professional story-teller of Constantinople (Paspati, 
 pp. 604-16), how when a Gipsy crone at Adrianople 
 
l68 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 recounts the Follower of Ashbjornsen, on which 
 Andersen founded his Travelling Companion {ib., pp. 
 600-4) ? Similarly, one meets in the Roumanian- 
 Gipsy dialect with the Valiant Little Tailor, the 
 Tzvin Brothers, the Crotvs, and other stories familiar 
 to every folklore student. Observe that these Gipsy 
 stories can often be proved to be of some antiquity 
 by their retention of old Romani words, and that 
 variants of the same story have been obtained by 
 different collectors, Miklosich's i. and xi. from the 
 Bukovina corresponding to Constantinescu's xii. and 
 iv. from Roumania. Then ponder these statements 
 relating to gorgio folktales : — " They [i.e., stories like 
 Ashbjornsen's No. 63] are as undoubtedly of Asiatic 
 extraction, and they are as little affected by accidents 
 of locality, as are the Gipsies, whose faces and figures 
 at once betray the secret of their origin, however long 
 they may have been naturalised in Western climes. 
 ... In every European land, however copious may 
 be the references to its early religion preserved in the 
 songs, the traditions, and the brief anecdotes cur- 
 rent among its peasantry, the 'fairy-stories ' which 
 flourish along with them seem to afford but little 
 information on the subject pointing, as they appear to 
 do, to a different form of life, with strange doctrines 
 and with alien gods " (Ralston, on " New Tales from 
 the Norse," in Frazei's Magazine, Nov. 1872) ; and, 
 " When the Empire had passed away, and with it 
 the stock of literature which had satisfied the general 
 craving, and the taste even for reading had degener- 
 
ROMANI FOLK- TALES. 169 
 
 ated, the want was supplied by professional story- 
 tellers, who, travellers by necessity, carried their 
 talents and repertories to all countries " (H. C. C. in 
 Notes and Queries, Feb. i, 1880). Is it not possible 
 that these itinerant story-tellers were often Gipsies, 
 to whose late Asiatic origin our fairy-tales owe their 
 Asiatic type ? 
 
 I ask the question, not to answer it myself, but to 
 submit it to folklorists' consideration. For one thing, 
 the Romani stories hitherto published are far too few 
 in number, and taken from too narrow an area, for 
 anyone to come to satisfactory conclusions. Friedrich 
 Miiller's Beitrdge zur Kenntniss der Rom-Sprache 
 (Vien. 1869) gives five from Hungary ; Paspati's 
 Etudes sur les Tchiiigliiaiu's (Constant. 1870) six from 
 Turkey; Miklosich's Z igeicner (Yien. 1874-78) sixteen 
 from the Bukovina, one from Roumania, and one from 
 the Hungarian Carpathians ; and Constantinescu's 
 Probe de Lhnba si Literatura Tsiganilor (Bucharest, 
 1878) fifteen from Roumania. Dr Isidor Kopernicki 
 of Cracow has not yet published the thirty Romani 
 stories collected by him in Galicia (1875-77), so that 
 the above are almost the sum total of our available 
 materials ; we are absolutely ignorant whether the 
 Gipsies of Scandinavia, Russia, Siberia, Armenia, 
 Syria, Egypt, and Persia, have similar tales or not. 
 
 From Catalonian Gitanos encamped near Paris in 
 1869, M. Bataillard obtained two legends, which he 
 communicated to me by letter. In one of them 
 Christ sends St Peter to find a sheep, and, bidding 
 
170 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 him cook it, goes to heal a sick person, who rewards 
 him richly. Peter begins by eating the sheep's 
 liver and kidneys ; and Christ, when he comes back, 
 asks where the liver and kidneys are, " for Jesus, who 
 is God, knows everything." Peter replying that the 
 sheep had none, at the end of their meal Christ 
 divides into three heaps the large sum received from 
 the farmer whom he has healed. " For whom are 
 these three heaps ? " asks Peter. " Firstly, for each of 
 us," Christ answers ; " and then for him who ate the 
 kidneys." " That was I," says Peter. " Very well," 
 Christ answers, " take my share too ; I return to my 
 own ; " and then it is that Christ takes the cross, &c. 
 " You see," the narrator ended, " that it was God 
 Jesus who at the beginning of the world (sic) founded 
 all the estates of men, first doctors, for he healed for 
 money ; and he it was who taught the Romani Chals 
 to beg and to go barefoot, while St Peter instructed 
 them how to deceive their like." A curious story 
 this, thoroughly Romani in its application, yet clearly 
 identical with Grimm's Brother Lustig, and with Tlie 
 Pope ivitJi the Greedy Eyes in Ralston's Russian Folk- 
 tales. Compare, too, a legend in the latter collection, 
 of the Gipsy who learns of the Lord, through St 
 George's asking, that his " business is to cheat and 
 to swear falsely," so opens business by stealing the 
 Saint's golden stirrup. The fellow to the Gitano 
 legend closely resembled it, as did others, told M. 
 Bataillard by Gipsies of Alsace, but never, unfortu- 
 nately, taken down. 
 
ROMAN I FOLK-TALES. I /I 
 
 English Gipsies have no great store of folk-tales. 
 Mr Leland, in his English Gipsies and their Language 
 (1873). gives two Christ legends, the story of the 
 Seven Whistlers, and five beast fables, one of which, 
 accounting for the flounder's crooked mouth, I have 
 myself heard told about the plaice. And one catches 
 an echo of forgotten stories in sayings such as " going 
 to heaven in a sack," "selling one's blood to the devil," 
 " Get up. Seven Sleepers " (Silvanus' rousing cry ; 
 dormice being also so named), " The seven stars are 
 the Seven Gods," and, " What a face I've got, it 
 shines like Seven-Cheeks ! " Welsh Gipsies, on the 
 other hand, are fairly rich in folklore, as I hope to 
 show briefly here, more fully hereafter ; though 
 whether their stories have anything distinctively 
 Gipsy about them is a difficult question that I leave 
 for critics to decide. " Come into my tan',' words 
 spoken by a king, has certainly a Romani sound, 
 but tan may mean merely " place " as well as " tent ; " 
 and I would sooner lay stress on the episode where 
 the hero, lying down to sleep by the roadside, ties his 
 horse to his leg, that so it may not stray. Still 
 harder were it to attempt to discover Romani features 
 in gorgio tales ; I will only remark, that the common 
 request of a criminal to play one last tune on his 
 fiddle {cf. Grimm's notes on Tlie Jew among Thorns) 
 is strongly suggestive of Macpherson's Rant, and that 
 the Hedgehog's Race, current both in Germany and 
 Northamptonshire, and alluded to in an old Greek 
 proverb, sounds very Gipsyfied. I told it to Dimiti 
 
172 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 once, and he instantly localised the field where it 
 was run. 
 
 Such thoughts as these vexed not the Gipsy children, 
 who, however, applauded my Master Tliief; and the 
 priest in it started Dimiti off on a legend, that certainly 
 has no claim to Gipsy origin, though it reminds one 
 of the Fisherman in the Arabian Nights : — 
 
 " It was at Chetwynd End, near Newport, just by 
 the parson's house ; and there was a young lady, 
 Miss Pigott, out hunting ; and the horse run up a 
 great big sandy bank, and threw her off his back, 
 and killed her. And they said she used to come 
 night and day, and squeak awful. It got so terrible, 
 that people couldn't go along the road for fear of 
 her, but then they laid her, threw her into Chetwynd 
 Pool. And somehow the bottle they'd put her in got 
 broken (somebody skating, I think it was); and she 
 come as bad again after that, and got jumping on 
 the men's horses. It seems she would run after 
 everything, carriages and all ; so long and by last 
 they got twelve priestes, and they were all round a 
 table with the bottle on it, and candles lighted all 
 round. And they all begun to pray as hard as ever 
 they were able, and they kept on till it seemed no 
 mannerable good, and they were very near giving it 
 up. But the oldest of them told them to stick to 
 it, and their candles went out all but his ; and he 
 prayed till the sweat dropped off his hair. All the 
 rest, you know, were so afeard ; and if his candle 
 went out, the devil would have fetched them, and 
 
GHOSTS. 173 
 
 she would have scratted them all to pieces. Ay, 
 bor, and as fast as they lighted the candles, they 
 were blown out, all but this one ; and the priest as 
 belonged to that, he prayed and prayed ; and at last 
 they saw her come in between the candles, drawing 
 to the mouth of the bottle ; and they kept on praying 
 hard as ever they could. Long and by last they got 
 her in. And then she begged of them not to be 
 thrown into the Red Seas ; but the priest he wouldn't 
 hear of it. And so they threw her in, and the place 
 has been in quietness ever since. Why ! you can 
 see the palings in the road, put in the wall right 
 again the pool where they laid her first." 
 
 " Ghosts and sarpents is things I can't abear," 
 said Leah reflectively ; " and Wanselo dreamed last 
 Monday night he swallowed a frightful sarpent, and 
 Granny said it was the devil, showing himself because 
 of my uncle's badness." 
 
 " Oh, because of his badness, was it ? And have 
 you. Daughter, been troubled much by ghosts?" 
 
 "Not I, rei'a ; for the only thing that ever I mind 
 of seeing I can't remember now. It was by Waltham, 
 and my mammy had been out (in the winter it was) 
 a long way round that day, and Christopher went 
 with her. I was a little one in her arms, a dear 
 little tiny baby. And coming back to the tents, 
 she had to go through the great big wood, and it 
 was that dark she couldn't see which way she was 
 going, and she'd been wandering about in the Forest 
 ever so long, got off the road you know. And at 
 
174 • IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 last she come to one part of the wood where she had 
 never been before, and they had to get over the 
 hedge ; and just before she come to the hedge, in a 
 open place underneath the trees, she saw standing 
 what she thought was a man with a sheet thrown 
 right over it, and no head on. She stood and looked 
 at it for two or three minutes, and Chris saw it at the 
 same time, but was too much scared to say a word ; 
 and when they got over the hedge, my mammy 
 asked him. Did he see it? and he said 'Ay.' And 
 then my mammy asked him if he thought he knowed 
 what it was, and he said ' No ;' and she hurried back 
 to the place as hard as ever they could get. And 
 my daddy went down that way next morning, and 
 couldn't see nothing." 
 
 " You never have seen nothing," said Dimiti, with 
 some disdain ; " but if you want ghosts, reia, you 
 go to Dosia ; she's the boy for ghosts. They were 
 stopping onest in a lane by the Black Mountains, 
 Gilderoy's breed was ; and there wasn't no houses 
 there not for a long long way except one cottage. 
 And Gilderoy was just pulling down the things, and 
 a woman come by from working in the fields. It 
 was towards evening, you know ; I daresay it would 
 be about four o'clock. And she stood looking for 
 some time before she spoke ; then she said, ' I 
 wonder how you can stop in this lonesome place;' 
 and they asked her. Why? 'Oh,' she said, 'there's 
 supposed to be ghosts walk about this lane at night.' 
 And they said, 'Oh, indeed!' And Gilderoy said. 
 
"I'll take the two." 175 
 
 ' I daresay, woman, there's a good many live ghosts 
 walk about here ; but we don't mind 'em, we're used 
 to 'em.' Then she went on, never said no more. It 
 had been beautiful and fine all day, and then a wind 
 begun to get up, and it begun to rain. They made 
 their tents up, and had their supper, and then they 
 went to bed. I daresay it would be about seven or 
 eight o'clock when they went to bed. And about 
 midnight Dosia saw something get over the gate, 
 like an old woman ; and it come and stood close 
 by her tent, looking down upon her as she was lying 
 abed. And she stared at it for a long long time, and 
 at last she said, ' You wafedi piiri grasni [wretched 
 old jade], what are standing there for? Go away.' 
 There it stood, never took no notice, kept staring at 
 Dosia all the blessed while. Long and by last it 
 moved away towards her mother's tent, and they 
 heard a sort of groaning noise, come with the wind, 
 you know ; and all at onest a tremenjous gale of 
 wind tore right upon the place. Kiomi saw this old 
 woman (as they thought she was) standing just at 
 the front of their tent ; and then she waked up Old 
 Gilderoy, told him look what was that. And at the 
 same time they heard the ghost go away and say, 
 'I'll take the two, I'll take the two;' and that very 
 instance Old Gilderoy and his son was dragged right 
 out of the place behind. They couldn't help them- 
 selves, they said ; and the tent was blown clean up. 
 And he said they couldn't stop themselves ; and she 
 got up to look, and found them lying breathless on 
 
iy6 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 the ground some distance from the tent. And I 
 suppose they packed up 'mediately soon as it come 
 morning, and went off. They told some gorgios 
 about it. Gorgios said there had been a young 
 gentleman killed there not very long before ; he was 
 supposed to be very drunken, and the devil had 
 fetched him from leading a prodigal life. So they 
 never went back to that place, nor we never stopped 
 there neither." 
 
 Ruth and Starli'na, weary of the elders' gossip, 
 had joined the younger story-telling circle, and were 
 watching my interest in Dimiti's ghost tale with a 
 look like that of the boy-librarian whom I asked one 
 day for Kingsley's Watei- Babies. " Perhaps you are 
 not aware that it is a mere child's book ? " the youth 
 inquired ; and Ruth seemed wondering what on earth 
 I could find in this children's rubbish, which yet, being 
 kindly, she was pleased to supplement : — 
 
 " It's perfectly true, my brother, every word of it ; 
 for we met the whole ruck of them only two days 
 after, and such a talk of it there was, you never saw 
 the like. We were stopping by the Black Mountains, 
 too, oh! a good way that time, but Gilderoy's were 
 right the other side, near to Dorstone ; and all of us 
 went to the Welsh Hay fair. What a beautiful day 
 it was, I remember ; and I was all in white muslin, 
 with a scarlet shawl ; and Trainette was there, dressed 
 up in green silks. And she got drunk — oh ! what a 
 spec she looked. That was the time when she was 
 going to fight the what's-his-name's wife, Abraham 
 
THE FAIR AT HAY. 1 77 
 
 Buckland's. He was playing in the same public 
 where we were, and she with a tambourine. And 
 my daddy and Old Gilderoy had been up the fair ; 
 and Gilderoy had bought two little ponies, and my 
 daddy had sold an old mare. And we left the two, 
 and all we young people went down into the town 
 among the shows. We wasn't away very long ; then 
 we turned back and went to the same public again. 
 My daddy and my Uncle Gilderoy was dancing, and 
 this Abraham Buckland was fiddling, and Old Gilderoy 
 with one shoulder higher than the other. This pretty 
 Buckland's wife used to be one of my daddy's sweet- 
 hearts, you know ; and then we all went in and sat 
 down, some dancing and some singing. And my 
 daddy and my Uncle Gilderoy sat up in a corner, 
 and my daddy begun to sneeze" 
 
 "Ay," said Starhna, "we knew perfectly well what 
 was going to happen when he begun sneezing so, and 
 his eyes would twinkle ; that's always old Chicken's 
 way when he gets a drop of cider into him." 
 
 " Sneeze most awful ; and then they caught hold of 
 one another's hands, and begun talking how they used 
 to be when they were little boys, and about their father 
 and mother that was dead, and then they begun to 
 blubber as loud as ever they could. And all the fine 
 gorgios staring, you know. And I told Plato and 
 Wisdom to take them out into the road, away from 
 the houses, you know. They were that drunk they 
 were obliged to be led all down the road ; and my 
 daddy wouldn't walk with anybody, only catching 
 
 M 
 
178 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 hold of Old Gilderoy's hand. It was like the Twins. 
 They opened their mouths more when they got out ; 
 bless us all, how those two did hoot ! And the pretty 
 hangman followed us some distance to hear what we'd 
 say ; and you might as well talk to the stones in the 
 road as talk to my daddy at that time. And then 
 they sat down side o' the bank ; and Trainette some- 
 how was left behind in the public ; and when we went 
 back to look for her, she was standing up in the middle 
 of the kitchen, with a jug in her hand and her nose 
 bleeding, looking nine ways for Sunday. And Buck- 
 land's wife begun upon her, because Trainette told him 
 that she [Mrs Buckland] used to be my daddy's sweet- 
 heart. He went out crafty, and called a lot of gorgios 
 in, and told the fine gorgios to begin upon our young 
 men. They went out into the road, and stripped off 
 their coats ; and the same pretty hangman that fol- 
 lowed us along the road come back again to the 
 public, and said if they didn't put their coats on 
 immediately, he'd take 'em all to prison. And then 
 we were obliged to go, out of the town altogether. 
 And then my daddy and my Uncle Gilderoy they 
 got much better while they were sitting out, and then 
 my daddy wished Old Gilderoy good-bye, blubbering 
 above a bit. Then we couldn't get a word out of my 
 daddy all the while after that ; never spoke, but just 
 kept boring on like some old hedgehog. That was 
 pretty well the last time I ever saw Old Gilderoy, and 
 I don't know how long ago that was, a goodish time. 
 Just as we were getting up by the mountains it come 
 
THE MULO GREI. 1 79 
 
 on awfully misty, and Plato and Wisdom said they 
 weren't going on all in that rain, and they turned into 
 a barn. My daddy went on and left us behind ; and 
 just on the top of the bank there was a big farm and 
 another old barn close to the road. And me and 
 Nathan and Loverin and Lancelot and Shuri and 
 'Lina, we all went in there ; and it was so dark we 
 couldn't see what was inside. And I felt so dread- 
 fully tired and sleepy, and Loverin dropped down 
 just inside, where there was not a bit of straw nor 
 nothing ; and I lay down just by him, just at his 
 feet like. And the others were ' gosvero [artful], they 
 got where there was plenty of straw. Lord bless us ! 
 what a fright I did get. I smelled some horrible 
 odour (and Loverin was as drunk as ever a pig), 
 and I felt something, I couldn't think what it was, 
 and I got up and strained my eyes to look. And 
 there ! you can just fancy what a surprise I got, to 
 find that we were both lying on an old dead horse. 
 I started up and said, ' Oh dordi ! oh get up ! we've 
 been lying on a inulo grei.' And when we went 
 into that barn first, we could scarcely scrawl ; as 
 soon as ever they beared that, we were all out in a 
 moment, didn't even turn round to shut the door 
 behind us. Then we went on a little bit further, 
 and found my daddy sitting on the top of a gate 
 fast asleep. And we went into a shed close by, 
 where there were a lot of carriages, and got into 
 
 one of the carriages" 
 
 "A little basket carriage," Starli'na explained ; "and 
 
l80 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 Lancelot and Nathan pulled it right out of the shed, 
 and wheeled it up and down with all of us in it, and 
 then the dog began to bark." 
 
 "And we made such a frightful row the fine gentle- 
 man came out, and asked us what we were doing there. 
 ' Only resting a bit. Sir;' and he said he thought we'd 
 better be off. Then we went on again, and got my 
 daddy off the gate with a deal of grunting ; but the 
 best of it was my daddy had lost his coat, he had no 
 coat on. Then we went on up the road, as ill-tem- 
 pered as anything, never spoke to each other all the 
 way, but kept walking in the hedge. And then we 
 turned out of the road to cross the hills ; and again' 
 we got up them, we couldn't find the way, we lost 
 ourselves. And we were going round and round the 
 same corner all night long, not a bush nor nothing 
 to shelter one from the rain ; and soon as ever it begun 
 to get morning, we saw that all the while we hadn't 
 really been very far from the tents. And we were 
 just like drownded rats for all the world ; and when 
 Plato and Wisdom come back to the tents, how they 
 did laugh at us, said, What fools we were to go racing 
 on, that we might have turned back with them. And 
 next day, you know, it turned out most beautiful and 
 warm." 
 
 " You forgot," said Starlfna, " how, to encourage us 
 my daddy would keep on saying to me and Shuri, 
 ' Come on, old mares ; ' but it wasn't very encouraging, 
 and dordi ! I was angry, frightful. It's a mercy we 
 didn't all catch our death o' colds by that, but we 
 
WHEN LANCE WAS BORN. l8l 
 
 felt quite well, only dreadfully sleepy. And that was 
 the last time ever I was at the Hay fair." 
 
 " Well, yes ; that would almost be enough. But 
 what had your daddy done with his coat, then ? " 
 
 " Oh, chucked it down anywheres. He's such a 
 funny old Chicken, whenever he get the leasest spot 
 to drink. But tell the rei, Ruth, about how when 
 Lance was born." 
 
 " When Lance was born ? why, we were stopping 
 at a place called the Links by Hinstock, and my 
 daddy was playing at the Cock. My mammy had 
 been out calling that very day ; then she came home 
 and was feeling very bad, got worse and worse. My 
 daddy had never been at home all day ; I think it 
 was the Gawby Market. And then about one o'clock 
 Patience woke up me and Wisdom (I don't know 
 where Nathan was, I think he was with Gilderoy's 
 breed), to go up the road and meet my daddy. And, 
 you know, my daddy might have come the other road 
 for all we could tell ; and we neither of us had any 
 shoes or stockings on, and no hats. Up the road we 
 went whistling, because we were afraid of the ghosts. 
 It was a very bright starlight night, quite frosty ; and 
 we went on up till we got to the bend of the road, all 
 shivering and shaking, and sat down under the hedge 
 on a big round stone. We never ceased whistling, 
 and waited there a short time till my daddy came 
 puffing and blowing up the road. We told him to go 
 after the divi galri [lit. mad wife]. He said we were 
 to go back, and gather some sticks to make a fire, and 
 
1 82 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 I mind how we tore down the hedges, Wisdom and 
 me, as we went down the road. And again' we got 
 to the place Lancelot was born. The little dog we 
 had then was out at the back of the tents, catching 
 rats. Poor old Spot, from morning to night she 
 was at those ponds. But when my daddy left us, 
 he went off as hard as he could go ; and the new 
 velvet coat he had got on, with silver buttons, 
 pulled it off and pitched it in the road, and left 
 it there till he came back. He had very hard work 
 to drag the old woman along the road, she was 
 that fat ; and he was back to the tents before she 
 was. And when she come, all she did was to 
 drink a bottle of brandy, and then lie down and 
 go to sleep." 
 
 " And another time," Ruth went on, " we were 
 stopping by Tenbury, at the Owd Measter's ; and it 
 was on a Saturday, and my daddy said he'd walk up 
 as far as the Lion. That was a public, on the top of 
 the hill, about three miles from the place. He took 
 his fiddle, and my mammy went out calling quite a 
 different road (Gilderoy's breed and Perun's breed 
 was with us). And when my mammy come home, 
 we were waiting a good while, thinking my daddy 
 would be back before we had our supper. Then 
 when we saw he didn't come, we had it ; and my 
 mammy kept on saying (she sat up a good long 
 time), ' Mistiigga ! where can the man be to ? ' and 
 about twelve o'clock she heard him come singing 
 along the road, in a way, you know, about My Nan. 
 
ROMANI HORTICULTURE. 183 
 
 Never any more, only just that. And just before he 
 got to the tents, there was a little farm close to the 
 side of the road, and the garden was just to the side 
 of the road too, a little low hedge. It was just when 
 the new onions and the new potatoes was just coming 
 about like ; and he had on a big brown velveteen 
 jacket, with two great deep coat-pockets inside. 
 And he stumbled over this little hedge into the 
 garden, and stuffed both his pockets full of young 
 onions, cabbages, lettuces, and potatoes. Then he 
 took out his fiddle out of the bag, and filled that too. 
 He cleared the whole of one little square bit of plot 
 like ; and my mammy couldn't see when he come, 
 whatever he had got, and he emptied them every one 
 out close down to the tent. Then he forgot all about 
 them, till my mammy minded him next morning. 
 And there was an old thick ash tree close to the 
 place, with the inside burnt out ; and when he saw 
 what a lot there was, he clambered up and put them 
 all inside, so that he could take them out just as we 
 wanted any. And the pretty gorgios made a row 
 about it, and said to my mammy, ' I'm sure it's some 
 of you Gipsies been into my garden' (he had knocked 
 all the bank down) ; and my mammy said, ' No, 
 ma'am, we weren't this way that night.' ' Oh,' she 
 said, ' but I heard the dog barking ; ' and that same 
 day that she was telling my mammy about it, my 
 daddy and one of the boys went up to the house 
 playing, and bought a donkey." 
 
 " Why, Ruth, you turn your stories out as glibly 
 
1 84 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 almost as Dimiti, though you were laughing at my 
 listening to his just now." 
 
 " I wasn't laughing, my brother ; only you did look 
 rather comical, perched up among the little children, 
 as though you were playing cat's-gallows or sugar- 
 candy." 
 
 " Sugar-candy ! what's that ? " 
 
 " Now, didn't I say so ? You to have gone roam- 
 ing about these years and years like a Wandering 
 Jew, and never know what sugar-candy was ! " 
 
 " Not I ; except as a sweetmeat." 
 
 " You show him. Daughter ; " and Leah began with 
 all due gravity, suiting her action to her exposi- 
 tion : — 
 
 " Put your two hands on the top of one another, 
 like that, rei'a, and then somebody else puts theirs on 
 the top of yours. And then you ask them what's in 
 their hands, and they say Sugar, or anything, or dirt. 
 Then you say, 'Take it off, or I'll knock it off;' then 
 if they don't, you knocks it off — so. Then they ask 
 )'0u what's in your hands ; and you say anything, 
 you know, it doesn't matter what, pudding perhaps. 
 Then they say, ' Where's my part ? ' ' The cat's 
 got it.' ' Where's the cat ? ' ' The dog's killed it.' 
 ' Where's the dog ?' ' Run into the wood.' ' Where's 
 the wood ?' ' The fire burnt it.' ' Where's the fire?' 
 ' The water squenched it.' ' Where's the water ? ' 
 ' The oxen drunk it.' ' Where's the oxen ? ' ' The 
 butcher's killed 'em.' ' Where's the butcher ? ' 'Be- 
 hind the church door, cracking nuts. You shall 
 
DOWNLYING AND UPRISING. 1 85 
 
 have the shells, and I'll have the kernels.' That's 
 sugar-candy, rei'a." 
 
 " Oh, that's sugar-candy, is it ? It bears a strong 
 family likeness to the pig-driving old woman who 
 couldn't get home to-night ; and it strikes me forcibly 
 that neither shall I get home to-night, unless I look 
 sharp about it. Why it's half-past ten now." 
 
 "I don't care if its twenty," Anselo answered; "and 
 there you speak like a gorgio, brother, having to get 
 back home. The night's young yet, and the time 
 that Pyramus joined us at Llangefni we never went 
 to bed at all till morning, and then were up again by 
 eight, or sooner. But sometimes we'll go to bed, even 
 in summer-time, about half-past six, when its broad 
 daylight, so you can fancy what a long time it is to 
 lie. And yet we sleep, and the gorgios '11 come by in 
 the morning about eight or nine o'clock. There they 
 find some of us with our black heads sticking out 
 underneath the tent-blankets fast asleep, and they'll 
 say, ' Why, you lie abed till deay, till the sun burns 
 your eyes out.' Or they'll say, ' Hanna ye gotten 
 oop yet ? ' And then sometimes my daddy will rise 
 up quite early in the mornings, and go off and look 
 for the things (neddies and that), and bring sticks to 
 the place, and often he'll have two or three hedge- 
 hogs. When he comes back and finds us still 
 sleeping, he'll be awfully angry, and he'll rip the 
 tents down, pull 'em right down." 
 
 "Yes, but often," said Starli'na, "when I've been 
 walking all day, and am tired, then we come late at 
 
1 86 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 night to a place ; and when we've had our supper 
 and gone to bed, I often get up again in my sleep, 
 not the sh'ghtest notion what I'm doing. There I'll 
 be sitting, gaping at nothing in the darkness ; then 
 when I wake up, I find that I'm pulling my bed 
 all about, trying to make it again. Often it will be 
 at places where gorgios say there's ghosts to be 
 seen ; and when I remember where I am, I'll be 
 awfully frightened. Then I get back into the things 
 anyhow, never trouble ; cover my head over, then I 
 am all right." 
 
 Now was Ruth's time, from her vantage-ground of 
 eight years' seniority, to take a sorrowful retrospect 
 of bygone days. " Ah," she observed, " you're young, 
 girl, very young, and can hardly mind when there'd 
 be a whole lot of us stopping together, and the beds 
 would be made quite early like in the evenings, and 
 some of the boys used to put nettles and stones into 
 the others' beds. Then when we found it out, we'd 
 go and pull their beds all about, throw the things all 
 about the road, amidst a good deal of laughing and 
 jumping about. Then we used to have battles with 
 the blankets ; and often when we'd got into bed, 
 we'd go to sleep for a short time, then get up, and go 
 and play about till we tired again. And my daddy 
 would always call us Hellhound's Breed, say we'd 
 walk about all night. Then very likely we'd be 
 going a long way the next day, and then my daddy 
 would say, ' I'll take pity on you to-morrow, I will. 
 You'll grunt all along the road, you'll never be able 
 
"REST FOR THE WEARY SPIRITS." 1 87 
 
 to walk.' Then we wouldn't mind him one bit, we'd 
 make as much row as ever we could ; then we'd get 
 on the neddies, and ride them up and down the road. 
 And you know Dilli at that time was more than 
 thirty years of age, and she was quite as bad as any 
 of the rest. And then my daddy would get fright- 
 fully angry, when we'd ride the neddies about. He'd 
 get up with a bit of stick, and say, ' Stop a bit, I'll 
 make you knock my poor dumb animals about.' 
 Then the moment we'd see him coming, we'd be off. 
 Then he'd shake his fist at us down the road, and 
 say he'd give it us as soon as ever we'd come back. 
 And so we'd keep on all night long ; even when we 
 were in bed, we'd be never asleep scarcely, giggling 
 and laughing. We'd ask one another riddles, then 
 there'd be an explosion of laughing from all the 
 places ; then my daddy would burst out laughing 
 too at something that had been said to amuse him. 
 Then Old Marchy she'd begin and laugh, and then 
 Old 'Lijah would say very likely (he'd be wanting 
 to sleep), ' De good talkers, dey will talk all night' 
 Then Old Marchy would be heard saying to him, 
 ' Old Sal Shaw shall get his sleep, if nobody else 
 does.' We'd try, you know, and stop ourselves from 
 laughing, and silly things wonld come into your 
 mind, make you laugh. Ah, well ! poor Old 'Lijah 
 sleeps sound enough now ; but they were something 
 like merry times ; there's nothing like that now." 
 
 " No, dere's nothing like dat now," mocked Dimiti ; 
 " why, my Aunt Ruth, you puts me in mind of Old 
 
1 88 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 Munch-it yourself, you do. Ha! ha! ha!" and his 
 laughter proved that, changed as the times might 
 be, laughter at least was no lost Romani art. 
 
 " Was Old Marchy," I asked, frowning the scoffer 
 down, "that little old woman who was with you 
 when you were stopping on Chester race-ground, 
 the first time we met, you know? She asked me 
 for some tobacco, and I gave her a couple of cigars, 
 and I remember she told me the Romanes for a 
 pair." 
 
 "Yes, that was my granny, Margery Petulengro. 
 Really, you know, she was my mammy's grand- 
 mother, but we children always called her so ; and I 
 was her favourite out of all our lot, used to travel 
 with them for months and months together. Once I 
 mind I went to stay with her by Newnham, when my 
 great-grandfather had been dead about two months ; 
 and she knew an awful lot of people about there, 
 gentlemen and ladies. There was one rei, a Mr 
 , George Badcock, who had got all her money, and 
 kept it for her, oh ! for a long time. And while I was 
 there, they asked us to come and spend Christmas 
 Day with them. DSrdi ! I thought it a great thing ; 
 I had never been in such a grand big house before. 
 The lady sent me a hat, a nice hat ; and my old 
 granny cut up a black silk dress, and made one for 
 me out of it, all frilled and flounced, and a little black 
 silk Indian shawl. DSrdi! and I thought I looked so 
 smart. And she had a black silk dress on too, and 
 one of those old-fashioned red silk Indian shawls. 
 
CHRISTMAS AT THE SQUIRE'S. 1 89 
 
 and a yellow silk handkerchief round her neck. And 
 then when we went along the road, I was walking on 
 before her, and she said all at once, ' Walk straight, 
 child, don't stoop so;' and she'd say, 'Watch me.' 
 And there she'd walk along the road like a ramrod 
 for all the blessed world. Then we got to where 
 there was a little bridge acrost the road, and a little 
 brook running down ; and she told me a story about 
 a man hanging himself there ; and I remember how 
 dreadfully 'fraid I was ; and whenever after I'd go 
 that way by myself, I'd walk with my eyes shut. 
 Then we went up to the house, to the front door, 
 and the lady and the gentleman come out ; there 
 was a deal of shaking hands and wishing Merry 
 Christmas. Then my old granny said to the rei, 
 ' I wish ye a Merry Christmas, George.' ' Same to 
 you, Margery ;' then we were taken into the drawing- 
 room. Then the lady begun talking to me, and I 
 forget all what she said, it being such a long time 
 ag-o ; but I stared about above a bit. Then the 
 little young lady come in, and the lady told her to 
 take me into the garden ; and there was a little 
 wooden horse with a lot more broken dolls and 
 things, thrown underneath the bushes ; and I know 
 I was awfully pleased to look at them and play 
 with them. Then we soon got great friends, played 
 about, and was quite happy, till we were called in 
 to the dinner. And, dordi ! what roast beef and 
 plum puddings ; I never saw such a lot of victuals 
 in all my hfe. Then after dinner the gentleman 
 
I go IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 asked my granny to go and have a smoke with him ; 
 ay, I remember the long black pipe that she took 
 with her in her pocket. There they sat and smoked 
 for a long while, and talked about my grandfather. 
 And sometimes she'd cry, and then sometimes she'd 
 laugh." 
 
 " I suppose you can remember quite well what 
 your great-grandfather was like ? " 
 
 " Dear me, yes ; he was very black, and he always 
 wore spectacles. And when he went out to see 
 gentlemen, he'd alwa}'s dress up, and he'd always wear 
 a high hat. He used to say he never wore it, only 
 when he went to see the company. And he'd always 
 wear gloves too, brown ones ; I should say it was to 
 match the colour of his flesh. I remember once when 
 my daddy and my mammy was angry with me (I 
 think it was for breaking a plate, I'm not sure, a 
 china plate), and I started off ; it was about two 
 miles and a half where I went, and I was quite a little 
 tiny thing. I knew where my granny was stopping ; 
 it was on a Sunday. And before I got to the place, 
 I saw my grandfather in the road with the horses ; 
 sitting under the hedge he was. And when he saw 
 me, he got up and stood in the middle of the road, 
 and held his arms open, for me to run in as though I 
 was a rabbit. So I did, and clung round his neck. 
 And then he carried me right down to the place ; he 
 kept talking to me all the while, and asking what 
 they'd been doing. And how I used to be so pleased 
 to get my mammy's doll to play with for two or 
 
"THE PRETTIEST DOLL IN THE WORLD." 191 
 
 three minutes. I was never allowed to have it for 
 very long, for it was one that my mammy had when 
 she was a little wench — a beautiful old-fashioned 
 doll, one of these made of morocco, and it wore 
 blue earrings, and a cap with artificial flowers in it 
 and oh ! such beautiful gowns, made of old-fashioned 
 silks, pieces of my granny's frock. My mammy's 
 great-aunt bought it to her, for my grandmother 
 died when my mammy was quite a baby, and so 
 Old Marchy had always had the bringing up of her. 
 And when Old Marchy died, my mammy got her 
 doll again, and she admired it then just as much as 
 ever, I suppose. She seemed as if she did, and I 
 asked her for it, and she wouldn't give it to me. 
 And she dug a hole in the ground, and put the 
 doll in it, and set it on fire, and burnt it all to bits. 
 Then covered the hole over." 
 
 " But you never told me how your visit to this 
 great gentleman's came to an end." 
 
 " Oh, Squire Badcock's ! The lady put a lot of 
 things, victuals and that, into a great basket ; and it 
 was late at night when we got back home, and the 
 lady said I was to call every time I went by there. 
 And so I did, but very seldom that I saw the lady. 
 The pretty servant girls would come out, and say 
 that she wasn't in." 
 
 "So that was your great-grandmother. A very 
 deep old woman she seemed to have been ; though, 
 when I saw her, she was half childish. I suppose 
 that her husband's death was a terrible shock to her." 
 
192 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 "Ay, she'd sit down on a little low stool at the 
 bottom of the waggon, and always the pipe was for 
 ever in her mouth ; and she'd rock herself to and 
 fro, and always call him by his name. 'Ay,' she'd 
 say, ' my poor old man ;' and then the moment she'd 
 hear any one playing (the boys or any one), she'd say, 
 ' Ah, you'll never play like your grand-dad.' And, 
 I suppose, when she was young, she was a most 
 splendid player on the tambourine, and a capital 
 dancer ; and every morning, soon as ever she'd get 
 up, she'd call me to kneel down by her and say my 
 prayers, after her reading out of a great big Bible ; 
 and she'd never touch a morsel of anything till she'd 
 said her grace, and she'd never cook anything on 
 Sunday. And all the great gentlemen at the big 
 houses all about knew them so well, they'd always 
 allow him to go and shoot anywhere about their fields, 
 and once he was a.sked out (pigeon-shooting it was, 
 you know) to Squire Cootes's of Cooton Hall, and a 
 good many of the fine gentlemen said he was the best 
 shot that was there. Great people they were there 
 about that time for pigeon-shooting. And then he 
 used to go to these houses at Christmas ; he used to 
 play the harp, you know, but different to that one [ie. 
 John Roberts'], and dulcimer ; and he was liked 
 everywhere, and now the gorgios would talk about 
 him just the same. 
 
 " And the night before he died, he dreamt that 
 he was making baskets, and that he'd finished them 
 all but one. And that's quite true. He had been 
 
" MY POOR OLD MAN." 1 93 
 
 making a basket the day before, and it wasn't finished. 
 Then he thought he was out picking mushrooms 
 with a lot more gorgios, and the mushrooms turned 
 to frogs, and jumped out of the basket ; and then 
 he thought he was prdster'd [pursued] by the fine rei 
 that owned the field. And every word and thought 
 that he dreamt came true. Next morning about six 
 o'clock two fine gorgios come up to the waggon, and 
 asked him if he wouldn't go along with them to get a 
 few mushrooms, about three miles out from the place 
 where they were stopping. He said, ' No, he wasn't 
 going to be bothered going ; ' and they said, ' Oh, 
 you'd better come ; it'll be a nice walk.' It was on a 
 Sunday morning. He said, ' I've got nothing to put 
 'em in, if we got any ; ' so then he thought him of the 
 basket that wasn't finished. And he got up, and 
 dressed himself, and left my granny still abed. They 
 went off to this field where the mushrooms grew, and 
 the fine rei that owned the field was, oh ! such a 
 rogue ; nasty, cruel man he was. Well, they'd only 
 just got three or four, when they saw the fine rei 
 coming across the field. He'd been up, watching the 
 mushrooms all night long, because it's a great country 
 off there for poachers. Atkins his name was, and 
 he was an Atkins. And my grandfather knew him 
 perfectly well, always been good friends, you know. 
 But he saw him with these other fine men, and he 
 shouted them to stop (of course they begun to run, 
 you know), said if they didn't stop he'd shoot at 
 them ; he had his gun. These two fine gorgios were 
 
 N 
 
194 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 much younger men than my grandfather, they could 
 get on much quicker, and they got over the gate ; it 
 was a good way on. And just as my grandfather 
 was getting over the gate, the fine rei come up, caught 
 him by the skirt of his coat. And he made himself 
 he didn't know my grandfather, said, if he didn't stop 
 and go with him, he'd shoot him there and then. 
 And he would have done it, such an unbominable 
 rascal. And my grandfather told him, said he 
 thought he never would have done such a trick as 
 that, and him knowing him so well, all for the greed 
 of a few mushrooms. My grandfather then said he'd 
 give him his name and where he was living and all, if 
 he wanted to summons him, you know. No, he said, 
 it wouldn't do ; he would take him. My grandfather 
 said, Well, he'd see whether he could take him or no ; 
 and he got himself free, and started off, just two or 
 three yards from the gate, and dropped down dead. 
 And soon as ever the fine rei saw that, he shouted to 
 the two gorgios to come back and help him to get 
 him round. They thought he was in a fit, you know ; 
 but he was quite stiff when they turned him over on 
 his back. Then they carried him on a hurdle to a 
 public, called the Blacky Boy, in the road ; and the 
 doctor was sent for, of course ; but it was no good, you 
 know. And the doctor said he'd died in a 'plectic 
 fit and heart-disease together. Dordi ! it seems so 
 funny. Ay, and then the gorgios took the news to 
 my granny, about nine o'clock in the morning. She'd 
 been waiting for him, with the breakfast ready ; and 
 
THE LAST OF GREAT-GRANDFATHER. 195 
 
 when she heard that, I suppose she was in a most 
 dreadful state, must have been. She never Hved very 
 long after ; and that same pretty rei drove us out of 
 the road once, wouldn't let us stop, and my mammy 
 shouted to him, told him that he'd killed my grand- 
 father. He said, ' If he had done it, he didn't mean 
 to do it ; ' and then my mammy said, ' Die whenever 
 you will, the devil is safe of you.' And by all 
 accounts he used to be in a frightful state ever after, 
 got a sort of mad like, and always fancied he saw 
 somebody coming to try and kill him. Long and 
 by last he shot himself" 
 
 Said Anselo, "He wanted shooting;" but the others 
 sat hushed and awestruck by this tragedy of their 
 great-great-grandfather, which will seem to my 
 readers but an ancient vagabond's untragic exit. 
 Presently, half crying, Ruth went on : — 
 
 " Last time we saw him, we'd been in the village, 
 and that was our way back past their waggon ; and 
 my mammy wanted to ask him for some money, and 
 he gave her ^15. Then we stopped and had some 
 tea with them ; and my grandfather had a pair of 
 glasses on then, I mind, and breeches and leggings 
 (he always wore breeches and leggings). And he 
 was looking very queer like ; and when we went 
 away, he walked up a little bit with us, and talked 
 about how he hadn't been feeling very well and that, 
 and then he said to my mammy, ' Good-bye, my 
 wench, you may never see me again,' just like that. 
 
196 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 And he sat down with his back against the wall, and 
 watched us as we went." 
 
 " Feyther, the Gipsies ha' got no souls," said a 
 Staffordshire wench one day, at sight of a passing 
 company of Gipsies. As a woman she married 
 Polias Taylor ; but that is neither here nor there, 
 her remark serving merely to account for the quick- 
 returning laughter of these children, who within two 
 minutes were clamouring for " another story, rei'a." 
 
 " No, Leah, my stories are all done for to-night ; 
 but, if you will not follow Maggie's example, and go 
 to your beds, ' like gude douce bairns,' you should ask 
 old Roberts yonder for a tale." 
 
 ' I'd Iiing [scorn] to be like your white-faced barns ; 
 but that old man, rei'a, him that was playing on 
 that big thing, I shouldn't say as he knows many 
 stories." 
 
 " Try him ; he's fuller of them than an egg of meat, 
 can spin them out for you by the yard together. Just 
 go and ask him, 'Kom6s me tuki te pena bi'ta stori'os?' 
 and see what he will say." 
 
 " Hullo ! that's funny Rom'nimus," said Christopher, 
 "something like my daddy's in a shop at the Red 
 Town [Reading] onest. He asked the fine shopman 
 what some shirts were, and he told him two and 
 threepence ; and my daddy says to my mammy, 
 ' Two-and-threepence'?<j cheap-«j«r .' ' thinking the 
 g6rgio wouldn't understand him." 
 
 "All right, Christopher; only wait till you hear 
 
ENDLESS GENEALOGIES. 197 
 
 this dear little storios, and then you shall tell me 
 what it's all about." 
 
 So Leah went off to proffer her request, and I 
 followed her to see how it was taken. My motive 
 in having thus left John to himself, was simply some 
 knowledge of Gipsies' besetting weakness, a foolish 
 jealousy, namely, which, had I seemed over-glad at 
 his coming, or talked with him to the apparent neglect 
 of my hosts, would have stopped their ears to his 
 cunningest harping and most mellifluous discourse. 
 To his face they would have treated him with decent 
 courtesy, but, as soon as his back was turned, one 
 would have carped at his looks, another at his 
 manners, a third at his conversation ; nay, they 
 might even have called him gorgio and no true 
 Romani Chal, to such lengths can jealousy transport 
 its subjects. 
 
 But, as it was, here sat John in his glory, lovingly 
 hobnobbing with Silvanus, whose eyes were certainly 
 twinkling, although he had not yet sneezed. They 
 had plunged into endless genealogies, dear to your 
 Gipsy as to any dowager, and had proved their cousin- 
 ship in at least six different ways. Already John 
 must have run over the four children, twenty grand- 
 children, fifty-four great-grandchildren, and two hun- 
 dred and odd great -great-grandchildren of Abraham 
 Wood, the founder of the chief Welsh Romani clan, 
 who " came up into Wales about one hundred and 
 fifty years ago or thereabouts," and was " buried at a 
 lonesome quiet little place by the seaside, on the 
 
1 98 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 road from Towyn to Dolgelly, in a church that's not 
 been used for a church as long as I can remember." 
 For when I strolled up, he was speaking of the 
 Ingrams, who "with the Woods were the first as 
 came to Wales. And the first place they took a 
 liking to, on account of rivers and other things, was 
 near Llanidloes, Llanbrynmair, and in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Machynlleth ; and near Aberystwith 
 some of them bought little estates, and others took 
 to travelling. The Ingrams lived near Llanidloes, 
 and the Woods near Llanbrynmair. They were sup- 
 posed to be in possession of abundance of gold, when 
 taking these places ; they were thought gentlefolks of 
 in those days. But my great-grandfather Abraham, 
 and Sarah his wife, still went about from one granza 
 or building to another, for he liked the country so 
 well that he would rather travel it than to stop in 
 one place, after he came to find it out that the people 
 were so kind, and that he liked the country food, 
 rough as it was. They were getting plenty of fishing 
 in those days, and the women would have no occasion 
 to go only to a house or two, until they would be 
 loaded with plenty of beef and bacon and flour and 
 
 potatoes and From whence comest thou here, 
 
 sweet child, like some dark angel as dropped down 
 suddenly out of the blue skies ? " 
 
 Leah was the object of this most bardic apostrophe, 
 which so dumbfoundered her, that after all I had 
 to act as spokesman, explaining that the children 
 wanted a story, but hinting withal that the Cross 
 
A RELAPSE. 199 
 
 Foxes was, or would soon be, closed against him for 
 the night. 
 
 " Bed, quotha, and inn ! " said John, with huge dis- 
 dain ; " No, rei'a ; which I am proud to reflect that I 
 am addressing a gentleman of your superior talent, who 
 has penetrated that deep into our mysteries as you 
 have, but it is no Cross Foxes will ever see me to- 
 night, nor yet the best-natured foxes going. Romano 
 Chall sham ma popalay, that is to say, I am a Gipsy 
 man once more ; for by the leave of my respected 
 kinswoman here (if I may take the pleasure of calling 
 her so), it is my aim and intentions to sleep abroad 
 this night in the luxuriant bed which her goodness 
 allows me in her most elegant two-wheeled carriage." 
 
 " Bravo, John ! Your name, in fact, is Macgregor, 
 and your foot is again upon your native heath. I 
 applaud your sentiments ; only mind that your night- 
 cap there keeps out the cold, and don't get choked by 
 its strings like somebody (I forget his name) in the 
 Commonwealth. But, such being your arrangement, 
 you will probably have no objection to favour us with 
 one of your dear little storioses, to pass, away the time 
 and keep these clamourers quiet." 
 
 None in the world, provided it was agreeable to 
 present company ; and, the company unanimously 
 assenting, a candle in a cleft stick (a veritable candle- 
 stick) was stuck in the ground where it would cast 
 its light on the face of the story-teller, who without 
 further prelude suddenly dashed off: — 
 
 " Wei, a conaw Java te pena bita tatchanno storeeos 
 
200 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 temengay. Adoi ses trin meeray chavay yeck dives, 
 ta chingarenes kitaness ta potchenes boot colla vaver- 
 kengey. Yek kovva ses ta potchday any ses 
 mizzaben te morel chorey bitey chereklay. Ovv 
 poradare pall pendas, Awa, ta basavo kova ses. Ta 
 o\v vaver pal potchdas any ses mizzaben te maren 
 kanney. Ow tarnadare pall pendas, Nau, na ses kek, 
 te kindas la ta pesardas lakey. Chotchey yeck pall, 
 ' So te veses apray ow borro doreyav undray bear- 
 estey, ta borro bavval te pordel tot na Joneses kek 
 kai, so keses talla? ' " &c., &c. 
 
 Pindar read by a modern Greek to an English 
 scholar, or Browning to a Yorkshireman by a 
 Devonshire ploughboy, may give some notion how 
 unintelligible was this story to the Lovells, though 
 hardly one word or form in it was strange to them. 
 Silvanus nodded and looked wise, but prudently said 
 nothing ; and Anselo, who had listened open-eyed 
 and open-mouthed, answered my question what it was 
 all about with " How should I know, being I ain't no 
 scholard, but I'd swear there was something about a 
 fish and scolding. And talk of scolding, it was worser 
 than Rodi when she's on with Wisdom." Even Rodi 
 asked John to " Give us another, do, my uncle, some- 
 thing lively, not in that old-fashioned talk as none of 
 us young folks knows two words you're saying." 
 
 " Well, well ! " he said ; " I'll do my best not to ; but 
 I'm bound to put some of our talk in somewhere, 
 before it will come quite good. What do you say, rei'a, 
 to that story I sent you in the letter last October?" 
 
JACK AND HIS GOLDEN SNUFFBOX. 201 
 
 Yes, that would do famously ; and here I give it 
 from John's own MS., translating word for word the 
 Romanes, in which all the dialogues and some part of 
 the plot were written. 
 
 "Jack and His Golden Snuffbox. 
 
 " Once upon a time there was an old man and an 
 old woman, and they had one son, and they lived in 
 a great forest. And their son never saw any other 
 people in his life, but he knew that there was some 
 more in the world besides his own father and mother, 
 because he had lots of books, and he used to read 
 every day about them. And when he read about some 
 pretty young women, he used to go mad to see some 
 of them ; till one day, when his father was out cutting 
 wood, he told his mother that he wished to go away 
 to look for his living in some other country, and to see 
 some other people besides them two. And he said, 
 ' I see nothing at all here but great trees around me ; 
 and if I stay here, maybe I shall go mad before I see 
 anything.' The young man's father was out all this 
 time, when the conversation was going on between 
 him and his poor old mother. 
 
 " The old woman begins by saying to her son 
 before leaving, ' Well, well, my poor boy, if you want 
 to go, it's better for you to go, and God be with you.' 
 — (The old woman thought for the best when she said 
 that.) — ' But stop a bit before you go. Which would 
 you like best for me to make you, a little cake and to 
 bless you, or a big cake and to curse you ? ' ' Dear, 
 
202 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 dear ! ' said he, ' make me a big cake. Maybe I shall 
 be hungry on the road.' The old woman made the 
 big cake, and she went on top of the house, and she 
 cursed him as far as she could see him. 
 
 " He presently meets with his father, and the old 
 man says to him, ' Where are you going, my poor 
 boy ? ' when the son told the father the same tale as 
 he told his mother. ' Well,' says his father, ' I'm sorry 
 to see you going away, but if you've made your mind 
 to go, its better for you to go.' 
 
 " The poor lad had not gone far, till his father 
 called him back ; when the old man drawed out of 
 his pocket a golden snuff-box, and said to him, ' Here 
 take this little box, and put it in your pocket, and be 
 sure not to open it till you are near your death.' And 
 away went poor Jack upon his road, and walked till 
 he was tired and hungry, for he had eaten all his cake 
 upon the road ; and by this time night was upon him, 
 as he could hardly see his way before him. He could 
 see some light a long way before him, and he made 
 up to it, and found the back door and knocked at it, 
 till one of the maidservants came and asked him what 
 he wanted. He said that night was on him, and he 
 wanted to get some place to sleep. The maidservant 
 called him in to the fire, and gave him plenty to eat, 
 good meat and bread and beer ; and as he was eating 
 his refreshments by the fire, there came the young 
 lady to look at him, and she loved him well and he 
 loved her. And the young lady ran to tell her father, 
 and said there was a pretty young man in the back 
 
JACK AND HIS GOLDEN SNUFFBOX. 203 
 
 kitchen ; and immediately the gentleman came to him, 
 and questioned him, and asked what work he could 
 do. He said, the silly fellow, that he could do any- 
 thing. (Jack meant that he could do any foolish bit 
 of work, what would be wanted about the house.) 
 
 " ' Well,' says the gentleman to him, ' at eight 
 o'clock in the morning I must have a great lake and 
 some of the largest man-of-war vessels sailing before 
 my mansion, and one of the largest vessels must fire 
 a royal salute, and the last round break the leg of the 
 bed where my young daughter is sleeping on. And 
 if you don't do that, you will have to forfeit your life.' 
 
 " ' All right,' said Jack ; and away he went to his 
 bed, and said his prayers quietly, and slept till it was 
 near eight o'clock, and he had hardly any time to 
 think what he was to do, till all of a sudden he 
 remembered about the little golden box that his 
 father gave him. And he said to himself, ' Well, well, 
 I never was so near my death as I am now ; ' and 
 then he felt in his pocket, and drew the little box 
 out. And when he opened it, there hopped out three 
 little red men, and asked Jack, ' What is your will 
 with us ? ' ' Well,' said Jack, ' I want a great lake 
 and some of the largest man-of-war vessels in the 
 world before this mansion, and one of the largest 
 vessels to fire a royal salute, and the last round to 
 break one of the legs of the bed where this young 
 lady is sleeping on.' ' All right,' said the little men ; 
 ' go to sleep.' 
 
 " Jack had hardly time to bring the words out of 
 
204 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 his mouth, to tell the little men what to do, but what 
 it struck eight o'clock, when Bang, bang went one 
 of the largest man-of-war vessels ; and it made Jack 
 jump out of bed to look through the window ; and I 
 can assure you it was a wonderful sight for him to 
 see, after being so long with his father and mother 
 living in a wood. 
 
 " By this time Jack dressed himself, and said his, 
 prayers, and came down laughing ; because he was 
 proud, he was, because the thing was done so well. 
 The gentleman comes to him, and says to him, ' Well, 
 my young man, I must say that you are very clever 
 indeed. Come and have some breakfast.' And the 
 gentleman tells him, ' Now there are two more things 
 you have to do, and then you shall have my daughter 
 in marriage.' Jack gets his breakfast, and has a good 
 squint at the young lady, and also she at him. 
 
 (However, I must get on again with my dear little 
 story.) 
 
 " The other thing that the gentleman told him to 
 do was to fell all the great trees for miles around 
 by eight o'clock in the morning ; and, to make my 
 long story short, it was done, and it pleased the 
 gentleman well. The gentleman said to him, 'The 
 other thing you have to do' — (and it was the last 
 thing), — 'you must get me a great castle standing 
 on twelve golden pillars ; and there must come regi- 
 ments of soldiers and go through their drill. At eight 
 o'clock the commanding officer must say, ' Shoulder 
 up.' 'AH right,' said Jack ; when the third and last 
 
JACK AND HIS GOLDEN SNUFFBOX. 205 
 
 morning came and the three great feats were finished, 
 when he had the young daughter in marriage. But, 
 oh dear ! there is worse to come yet. 
 
 " The gentleman now makes a large hunting party, 
 and invites all the gentlemen around the country to 
 it, and to see the castle as well. And by this time 
 Jack has a beautiful horse and a scarlet dress to go 
 with them. On that morning his valet, when putting 
 Jack's clothes by, after changing them to go a hunt- 
 ing, put his hand in one of Jack's waistcoat pockets, 
 and pulled out the little golden snuffbox, as poor 
 Jack left behind in a mistake. And that man opened 
 the little box, and there hopped the three little red 
 men out, and asked him what he wanted with them. 
 ' Well,' said the valet to them, ' I want this castle to 
 be moved from this place far and far across the sea.' 
 ' All right,' said the little red men to him ; ' do you 
 wish to go with it?' 'Yes,' said he. ' Well, get up,' 
 said they to him ; and away they went far and far 
 over the great sea. 
 
 "Now the grand hunting party comes back, and 
 the castle upon the twelve golden pillars disappeared, 
 to the great disappointment of those gentlemen as 
 did not see it before. That poor silly Jack is 
 threatened by taking his beautiful young wife from 
 him, for taking them in the way he did. But the 
 gentleman is going to make a 'greement with him, 
 and he is to have a twelvemonths and a day to look 
 for it ; and off he goes with a good horse and money 
 in his pocket. 
 
206 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 "Now poor Jack goes in search of his missing 
 castle, over hills, dales, valleys, and mountains, 
 through woolly woods and sheepwalks, further than 
 I can tell you to-night or ever intend to tell you. 
 Until at last he comes up to the place where lives 
 the King of all the little mice in the world. There 
 was one of the little mice on sentry at the front 
 gate going up to the palace, and did try to stop 
 Jack from going in. He asked the little mouse, 
 ' Where does the King live ? I should like to see 
 him.' This one sent another with him to show him 
 the place ; and when the King saw him, he called 
 him in. And the King questioned him, and asked 
 him where he was going that way. Well, Jack told 
 him all the truth, that he had lost the great castle, 
 and was going to look for it, and he had a whole 
 twelvemonths and a day to find it out. And Jack 
 asked him whether he knew anything about it ; and 
 the King said, ' No, but I am the King of all the 
 little mice in the world, and I will call them all up 
 in the morning, and maybe they have seen something 
 of it.' 
 
 "Then Jack got a good meal and bed, and in the 
 morning he and the King went on to the fields ; 
 and the King called all the mice together, and asked 
 them whether they had seen the great beautiful castle 
 standing on golden pillars. And all the little mice 
 said. No, there was none of them had seen it. The 
 old King said to him that he had two other brothers : 
 ' One is the King of all the frogs ; and my other 
 
JACK AND HIS GOLDEN SNUFFBOX. 20/ 
 
 brother, who is the oldest, he is the King of all the 
 birds in the world. And if you go there, maybe 
 they know something about it' (the missing castle). 
 The King said to him, ' Leave your horse here with 
 me till you come back, and take one of my best 
 horses under you, and give this cake to my brother ; 
 he will know then who you got it from. Mind and 
 tell him I am well, and should like dearly to see 
 him.' And then the King and Jack shook hands 
 together. 
 
 " And when Jack was going through the gates, the 
 little mouse asked him, should he go with him ; and 
 Jack said to him, ' No, I shall get myself into trouble 
 with the King.' And the little thing told him, 'It 
 will be better for you to leave me go with you ; 
 maybe I shall , do some good to you some time 
 without you knowing it.' 'Jump up, then.' And 
 the little mouse run up the horse's leg, and made it 
 dance ; and Jack put the mouse in his pocket. 
 
 " Now Jack, after wishing good morning to the 
 King, and pocketing the little mouse which was on 
 sentry, trudged on his way ; and such a long way 
 he had to go, and this was his first day. At last 
 he found the place ; and there was one of the frogs 
 on sentry, and gun upon his shoulder, and did try 
 to hinder Jack not to go in ; and when Jack said to 
 him that he wanted to see the King, he allowed him 
 to pass ; and Jack made up to the door. The King 
 came out, and asked him his business ; and Jack told 
 him all from beginning to ending. 'Well, well, come 
 
2o8 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 in.' He gets good entertainment that night ; and in 
 the morning the King made a curious sound, and 
 collected all the frogs in the world. And he asked 
 them, did they know or see anything of a castle 
 that stood upon twelve golden pillars ; and they all 
 made a curious sound, Kro-kro, kro-kro, and said. 
 No. 
 
 "Jack had to take another horse, and a cake to 
 his brother, which is the King of all the fowls of the 
 air ; and as Jack was going through the gates, the 
 little frog which was on sentry asked John should 
 he go with him. Jack refused him for a bit ; but 
 at last he told him to jump up, and Jack put him. 
 in his other waistcoat pocket. And away he went 
 again on his great long journey ; it was three times 
 as long this time as it was the first day; however, he 
 found the place, and there was a fine bird on sentry. 
 And Jack passed him, and he never said a word to 
 him ; and he talked with the King, and told him 
 everything, all about the castle. ' Well,' said the 
 King to him, ' you shall know in the morning from 
 my birds, whether they know anything or not.' 
 Jack put up his horse in the stable, and then went 
 to bed, after having something to eat. And when 
 he got up in the morning, the King and he went 
 on to some fields, and there the King made some 
 funny noise, and there came all the fowls that were 
 in all the world. And the King asked them, Did 
 they see the fine castle ? and all the birds answered. 
 No. ' Well,' said the King, 'where is the great bird ?' 
 
JACK AND HIS GOLDEN SNUFFBOX. 209 
 
 They had to wait then for a long time for eagle to 
 make his appearance, when at last he came all in a 
 perspiration, after sending two little birds high up 
 in the sky to whistle on him to make all the haste 
 he possibly could. The King asked the great bird, 
 Did he see the great castle ? and the bird said, 
 ' Yes, I came from there where it now is.' ' Well,' 
 says the King to him, ' this young gentleman has 
 lost it, and you must go with him back to it ; but 
 stop till you get a bit of something to eat first.' 
 
 " They killed a thief, and sent the best part of it 
 to feed the eagle on his journey over the seas, and 
 had to carry Jack on his back. Now when they 
 came in sight of the castle, they did not know what 
 to do to get the little golden box. Well, the little 
 mouse said to them, ' Leave me down, and I will get 
 the little box for you.' So the mouse stole himself 
 in the castle, and had a hold of the box ; and when 
 he was coming down the stairs, fell it down, and 
 very near being caught. He came running out with 
 it, laughing his best. 'Have you got it?' Jack said 
 to him; he said, 'Yes;' and off they went back 
 again, and left the castle behind. 
 
 "As they were all of them (Jack, mouse, frog, 
 and eagle) passing over the great sea, they fell to 
 quarrelling about which it was that got the little 
 box, till down it slipped into the water. (It was 
 by them looking at it and handing it from one 
 hand to the other, that they dropped the little box 
 in the bottom of the sea.) 'Well, well,' said the 
 
 O 
 
2IO IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 frog, 'I knew as I would have to do something, so 
 you had better let me go down in the water.' And 
 they let him go, and he was down for three days and 
 three nights ; and up he comes, and shows his nose 
 and little mouth out of the water ; and all of them 
 asked him. Did he get it? and he told them. No. 
 ' Well, what are you doing there then ?' ' Nothing at 
 all,' he said, 'only I want my full breath;' and the 
 poor little frog went down the second time, and he 
 was down for a day and a night, and up he brings it. 
 
 "And away they did go, after being there four 
 days and nights ; and after a long tug over seas and 
 mountains, arrives at the old King's palace, who is 
 the master of all the birds in the world. And the 
 King is very proud to see them, and has a hearty 
 welcome and a long conversation. Jack opens the 
 little box, and told the little men to go back and to 
 bring the castle here to them ; ' and all of you make 
 as much haste back again as you possibly can.' 
 
 "The three little men went off; and when they 
 came near the castle, they were afraid to go to it, till 
 the gentleman and lady and all the servants were 
 gone out to some dance. And there was no one left 
 behind there, only the cook and another maid with 
 her. And it happened to be that a poor Gipsy 
 woman, knowing that the family was going from 
 home, made her way to the castle to try to tell the 
 cook's fortune for a bit of victuals, was there at the 
 time ; and the little red men asked her, Which would 
 she rather, go, or stop behind ? and she said, ' I will 
 
JACK AND HIS GOLDEN SNUFFBOX. 211 
 
 go with you ; ' and they told her to run upstairs quick. 
 She was no sooner up and in one of the drawing- 
 rooms, than here comes just in sight the gentleman 
 and lady and all the servants ; but it was too late. 
 Off they went at full speed, and the Gipsy woman 
 laughing at them through the window, making motion 
 for them to stop, but all to no purpose. 
 
 "They were nine days on their journey, in which 
 they did try to keep the Sunday holy, by one of the 
 little men turned to be the priest, the other the clerk, 
 and third presided at the organ, and the three women 
 were the singers (cook, housemaid, and Gipsy woman), 
 as they had a grand chapel in the castle already. 
 Very remarkable, there was a discord made in the 
 music, and one of the little men run up one of the 
 organ pipes to see where the bad sound came from, 
 when he found out it only happened to be that the 
 three women were laughing at the little red man 
 stretching his little legs full length on the bass 
 pipes, also his two arms the same time, with his 
 little red night-cap, what he never forgot to wear, 
 and what they never witnessed before, could not 
 help calling forth some good merriment while on 
 the face of the deep. And, poor things ! through 
 them not going on with what they begun with, they 
 very near came to danger, as the castle was once 
 very near sinking in the middle of the sea. 
 
 " At length, after merry journey, they come again to 
 Jack and the King. The King was quite struck with 
 the sight of the castle; and going up the golden stairs, 
 
212 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 wishing to see the inside, when the first one that 
 attracted his attention was the poor Gipsy woman. 
 And he said to her, ' How are you, sister ? ' She 
 said to him, ' I am very well ; how are you ? ' ' Quite 
 well,' said he to her ; ' come into my place, to have a 
 talk with you, and see who you are and who your 
 people are.' The old Gipsy woman told him that 
 some of her people were some of them from the 
 Lovells, Stanleys, Lees, and I don't know all their 
 names. 
 
 "The King and Jack was very much pleased with 
 the Gipsy woman's conversation, but poor Jack's time 
 was drawing to a close of a twelvemonths and a day ; 
 and he, wishing to go home to his young wife, give 
 orders to the three little men to get ready by the 
 next morning at eight o'clock to be off to the next 
 brother, and to stop there for one night ; also to pro- 
 ceed from there to the last or the youngest brother, 
 the master of all the mice in the world, in such place 
 where the castle shall be left under his care until it's 
 sent for. Jack takes a farewell of the King, and 
 thanks him very much for his hospitality, and tells 
 him not to be surprised when he shall meet again 
 in some other country. 
 
 "Away went Jack and his castle again, and stopped 
 one night in that place ; and away they went again 
 to the third place, and there left the castle under his 
 care. As Jack had to leave the castle behind, he had 
 to take to his own horse, which he left there when he 
 first started. This King liked the Gipsy woman well. 
 
JACK AND HIS GOLDEN SNUFFBOX. 213 
 
 and told her that he would like if she could stay there 
 with him ; and the Gipsy woman did stay with him 
 until she was sent for by Jack. 
 
 " Now poor Jack leaves his castle behind and faces 
 towards home ; and after having so much merriment 
 with the three brothers every night, Jack became 
 sleepy on horseback, and would have lost the road 
 if it was not for the little men a-guiding him. At last 
 he arrived, weary and tired, and they did not seem 
 to receive him with any kindness whatever, because 
 he did not find the stolen castle ; and to make it 
 worse, he was disappointed in not seeing his young 
 and beautiful wife to come and meet him, through 
 being hindered by her parents. But that did not 
 stop long. Jack put full power on. Jack despatched 
 the little men off to bring the castle from there, and 
 they soon got there ; and the first one they seen 
 outside gather sticks to put on the fire was the poor 
 Gipsy woman. And they did whistle to her, when 
 she turned around smartly and said to them, ' Dordi ! 
 dordi ! how are you, comrades? where did you come 
 from, and where are you going ? ' ' Well, to tell you 
 the truth, we are sent to take this castle from here. 
 Do you wish to stop here, or to come with us ? ' 'I 
 would like better to go with you than to stay here.' 
 ' Well, come on, my poor sister.' 
 
 "Jack shook hands with the King, and returned 
 many thanks for his kingly kindness ; when all of a 
 sudden the King, seeing the Gipsy woman, which he 
 fell in so much fancy with, and whom he so much 
 
214 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 liked, was going to detain the castle until such time 
 he could get her out ; but Jack, perceiving his inten- 
 tions, and wanting the Gipsy woman himself for a 
 nurse, instructed the little men to spur up and put 
 speed on. And off they went, and were not long 
 before they reached their journey's end, when out 
 comes the young wife to meet him with a fine lump 
 of a young SON. 
 
 "Now, to make my long story short. Jack, after com- 
 pleting what he did, and to make a finish for the poor 
 broken-hearted Gipsy woman, he has the loan of one 
 of his father-in-law's largest man-of-wars, which is 
 laying by anchor, and sends the three little men in 
 search of her kinsfolk, so as they may be found, and 
 to bring them to her. After long searching they are 
 found, and brought back, to the great joy of the 
 woman and delight of his wife's people-in-law, for after 
 a bit they became very fond of each other. When 
 they came on land. Jack's people allowed them to 
 camp on their ground, near a beautiful river; and the 
 gentleman and ladies used to go and see for them 
 every day. Jack and his wife had many children, 
 and had some of the Gipsy girls for nurses ; and the 
 little children were almost half Gipsies, for the girls 
 continually learning them our language ; and the 
 gentleman and the lady were delighted with them. 
 And the last time I was there, I played my harp for 
 them, and got to go again." 
 
 Story-telling is a rare and evanishing art, possessed 
 
JOHN'S YOUNG DAYS. 21 5 
 
 by John Roberts in a high degree. He suits both 
 voice and gesture to his words, which, however they 
 may read, proved, on this telHng, a brilliant hit, 
 the children clearly "only half believing" them, and 
 Lementina observing admiringly, that sure he must 
 have a bag somewhere in which to carry all those 
 hideous lies. 
 
 " That's like my poor old mother," John made 
 answer ; " and she was a real type of Romani women. 
 Often when my father would be telling us children 
 some funny bit of a story, she did say to him, ' Dere ! 
 dere ! what an old man it is to make people to 
 believe dem Jii'cckabens !' Oh dear! oh dear! how it 
 carries me back to my young days to find myself 
 sitting by a good Romani fire, with those beautiful 
 large tents, and everything else that is suitable. Just 
 how it was when I was a lump of a boy ; and I did 
 use to like to go and see if the horses and donkeys 
 would be all right in the morning, and gather myself 
 a good armful of sticks before breakfast, and to hear 
 the birds whistling, and the smoke from the fire 
 curling up to the sky, and one of the girls singing 
 going for water, and the young men getting their 
 fishing-tackle ready, and the beautiful stream below 
 'bounding with some nice trout. And at night-time 
 we would have a good fire, singing and dancing 
 from the gorgios ; and, after they would go away, 
 we would burn down the stumps until it would 
 come to a red fire, and then the smokers would pull 
 out the pipes and tobacco, and begin to tell for the 
 
2l6 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 best story. And then, when the old people would 
 get tired and go to bed, we would stop a little after 
 them, and begin to look at the moon and the stars 
 how beautiful they shone ; and we would ask one 
 another, ' Who made the stars ? ' One said, ' The 
 same as made the moon, you silly.' ' Well, who 
 made the sun, then ?' They all give it up. One said, 
 'It made itself One said, ' How can that be?' and 
 then that one would say it was too hot for any one 
 to go near it to make it. We would keep on that 
 way all night if we were left alone. And where are 
 they gone to now ? Some to the churchyard, and 
 some of them beyond seas, and I, poor old Romani 
 man, am left alone, stoved up in four stone walls." 
 
 Again Silvanus nodded, more drowsily than wisely 
 now ; the children had dropped off one by one to 
 bed ; and John himself was to be up betimes, to play 
 for a wedding at Clywedog Mill. He would see us 
 again on Sunday, as he would be staying in Dolgelly, 
 where I promised to meet him after morning service. 
 Meanwhile I advised him to get to his " elegant 
 carriage," not sit up star-gazing, for moon and stars 
 were hidden by coming storm. Big drops were 
 falling as I crossed the meadows ; and, passing the 
 dairy with its water-driven churn, I came to the farm, 
 there went to bed, and dreamed that I wandered with 
 the Scholar Gipsy, who asked me the Romanes for 
 frying-pan. 
 
^^aplcr ^ig^t^. 
 
 ATURDAY came, hueless with vapour of 
 driving rain, that blotted out the hills. 
 No chance of a bathe this morning, and 
 I lay abed till after the postman's call, 
 then, descending to breakfast, found a small pile of 
 letters on the table. Among them was one from X., 
 who, knowing my " craze for Gipsies," enclosed some 
 newspaper cuttings, and hoped they might strike 
 deep roots. X. is himself rather more than crazy 
 about Rosicrucianism, so I let his taunt pass, and 
 digested his cuttings slowly with my oatcake. Then 
 I smoked a pipe over them, scribbled a few notes 
 on them, and finally, with them in my pocket, started 
 again for the tents. The Lovells had breakfasted two 
 hours and more, for John's convenience, and Wisdom 
 and Lancelot had joined him company; but the others 
 were most of them in, and, whether it was their late 
 downlying or early uprising, the weather, or all com- 
 bined, seemed low and out of sorts, Silvanus only 
 excepted. Lucretia was " on " again about the dog, 
 "yowling and tootering all the blessed night;" even 
 
2l8 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 Lementina grumbled at the " poverty, witching rain, 
 come for a purpose," just when she meant to have 
 called at Madam Morgan's. 
 
 " Stop, ma'am, I'll get a palace for you to live in, 
 and a weather-glass in the best parlour ; the lady 
 shall always have it fine and delightful, not one 
 spot of wet to spoil your 'plexion. For all the 
 world, rei'a, like a drove of unsatisfied pigs ;" and 
 Silvanus winked at me with gay philosophy. 
 
 " Ah ! you're too much like toad's breed, you are ; 
 thinks every one should be the same. You're" — 
 but I dammed the waters of contention by offering 
 to read them something from the papers, the 
 promise of brighter days in store. And I read, 
 mouthing the words that I have here italicised : — 
 
 "GIPSY CHILDREN. 
 "To THE Editor of the 'Standard.' 
 " Sir, — Some years since my attention was drawn to the 
 condition of these poor neglected children, of whom there 
 are many families eking out an existence in the Leicester- 
 shire, Derbyshire, and Staffordshire lanes. Two years since 
 a pitiful appeal was made in one of our local papers asking 
 me to take up the cause of the poor gipsy children ; but I 
 have deferred doing so till now, hoping that some one with 
 time and money at his disposal would come to the rescue. 
 Sir, a few weeks since our legislators took proper steps to 
 prevent the maiming of the little show children who are put 
 through excruciating practices to please a British public; 
 and they would have done well at the same time, if they 
 had taken steps to prevent the warping influence of a 
 vagrant's life having its full force upon the tribes of little 
 gipsy children, dwelling in calico tents, within the sound of 
 
PHILANTHROPY. 219 
 
 church bells — if living under the body of an old cart, pro- 
 tected by patched coverlets, can be called living in tents, — on 
 the roadside, in the midst of grass, sticks, stones, and mud ; 
 and they would have done well if they also had put out 
 their hand to rescue from idleness, ignorance, and heathen- 
 ism, our roadside arabs, i.e., the children living in vans, and 
 who attend fairs, wakes, &c. Recently I came across some 
 of these wandering tribes, and the following facts, gleaned 
 from them, will show that missionaries and schoolmasters 
 have not done much for them. Moses Holland, who has 
 been a gipsy nearly all his life, says he knows about two 
 hundred and fifty families of gipsies in ten of the Midland 
 counties, and thinks that a similar proportion will be found 
 in the rest of the United Kingdom. He has seen as many 
 as ten tents of gipsies within a distance of five miles. He 
 thinks there will be an average of five children in each tent. 
 He has seen as many as ten or twelve children in some 
 tents, and not many of them able to read or write. His 
 child of six months old — with his wife ill at the same time 
 in the tent — sickened, died, and was 'laid out' by him, 
 and it was also buried out of one of those wretched abodes 
 on the roadside, at Barrow-upon-Soar, last January. When 
 the poor thing died he had not sixpence in his pocket. In 
 shaking hands with him as we parted, his face beamed with 
 gladness, and he said that I was the first who had held out 
 the hand to him during the last twenty years. At another 
 time, later on, I came across Bazena Clifton, who said that 
 she had sixteen children, fifteen of whom are alive, several of 
 them being born in a roadside tent. She says that she was 
 married out of one of these tents ; and her brother died and 
 was buried out of a tent at Packington, near Ashby-de- 
 la-Zouch. This poor woman knows about three hundred 
 families of gipsies in eleven of the Midland and Eastern 
 counties, and has herself, so she says, four lots of gipsies 
 travelling in Lincolnshire at the present time. She said she 
 could not read herself, and thinks that not one gipsy in 
 
220 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 twenty can. She has travelled all her life. Her mother, 
 named Smith, of which there are not a few, is the mother of 
 fifteen children, all of whom were born in a tent. A gipsy 
 lives, but one can scarcely tell how ; they generally locate 
 for a time near hen-roosts, potato camps, turnip fields, and 
 game preserves. They sell a few clothes lines and clothes 
 pegs, but they seldom use such things the?nselves. Washing 
 would destroy their beauty. Telling fortunes to servant girls 
 and old maids is a source of income to some of them. 
 They sleep, but in many instances lie crouched together, like 
 so many dogs, regardless of either sex or age. They have 
 blood, bone, muscle, and brains, which are applied in many 
 instances to wrong purposes. To have between three and 
 four thousand men and women, and eight or ten thousand 
 children, classed in the Census as vagrants and vagabonds, 
 roaming all over the country, in ignorance and evil training, 
 that carries peril with it, is not a pleasant look-out for the 
 future ; and I claim, on the grounds of justice and equity, 
 that if these poor children, living in vans and tents and 
 under old carts, are to be allowed to live in these places, 
 they shall be registered in a manner analogous to the Canal 
 Boats Act of 1877, so that the children may be brought 
 under the compulsory clauses of the Education Acts, and 
 become Christianised and civilised as other children. 
 
 " I am. Sir, your obedient servant, 
 
 "GEORGE SMITH. 
 
 "CoALVii.LK, Leicf-stkr, August 12, iS^Q." 
 
 " Hold hard, Silvanus ; that's only No. i. Wait 
 till you hear the next, which is as much more inte- 
 resting as it is longer and more learned : — 
 
 "Sir, — The numerous correspondents who have taken 
 upon themselves to reply to my letter that appeared in 
 your issue of the 14th inst., and to show up gipsy life in 
 some of its brightest aspects, have, unwittingly no doubt. 
 
PHILANTHROPY. 221 
 
 thoroughly substantiated and backed up the cause of my 
 young clients, i.e., the poor gipsy children and our roadside 
 arabs, so far as they have gone, as a reperusal of the letters 
 will show the most casual observer of our hedge-bottom 
 heathens of Christendom. At the same time, I would say 
 the tendency of some of the remarks of your correspondents 
 has special reference to the adult gipsies, roamers and 
 ramblers ; and, consequently, there is a fear that the atten- 
 tion of some of your readers may be drawn from the cause 
 of the poor uneducated children, livifig in the midst of sticks, 
 stones, ditches, mud, and game, and concentrated upon the 
 'guinea buttons,' ' black-hair'd Susans,' 'red cloaks,' 'scarlet 
 hoods,' the cunning craft of the old men, the fortune-telling 
 of the old women, the ' sparkling eyes ' and ' clapping of 
 hands ' and ' twopenny hops ' of the young women, who 
 certainly can take care of themselves, just as other un- 
 Christianised and uncivilised human beings can. I do not 
 profess — at any rate, not for the present — to take up the 
 cause of the men and women ditch-dwelling gipsies in this 
 matter, I must leave that part of the work to fiction-writers, 
 clergymen, and policemen, abler hands than mine. I may 
 not be able, nor do I profess, to understand, the singular 
 number of the masculine gender of dad, chavo, tieno, morsh, 
 gongeo, racloo, raclay, pal palla ; the feminine gender dai, 
 chai, tieny, jovel, gongell, raclee, racya, pen penya ; or the 
 plural of the masculine gender dada, chava, and the femi- 
 nine gender daia, chaia ; but, being a matter-of-fact kind of 
 man — out of the region of romance, fantastical notions, 
 enrapturing imagery, nicely-coloured imagination, clever 
 lying and cleverer deception, beautiful green fields, clear 
 running rivulets, the singing of the wood songster, bullfinch, 
 and wren, in the midst of woodbine, sweetbriar, and roses — 
 with an eye to observe, a heart to feel, and a hand ready to 
 help, I am led to contemplate, aye, and to find out if possible, 
 the remedy, though some of my friends say it is impossible 
 — ^just because it is impossible it becomes possible, as in the 
 
222 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 canal movement — for the wretched condition of some eight 
 to ten thousand little gipsy children, whose home in the 
 winter is camping half-naked in a hut, so called, in the midst 
 of ' slush ' and snow, on the borders of a picturesque ditch and 
 roadside, winterly delights, Sunday and weekday alike. The 
 tendency of human nature is to look on the bright side of 
 things ; and it is much more pleasant to go to the edge of a 
 large swamp, lie down and bask in the summer's sun, mak- 
 ing ' button-holes ' of daisies, buttercups, and the like, and 
 return home and extol the fine scenery and praise the rich- 
 ness of the land, than to take the spade, in shirt-sleeves and 
 heavy boots, and drain the poisonous water from the roots 
 of vegetation. Nevertheless, it has to be done, if the 'strong 
 active limbs ' and ' bright sparkling eyes ' are to be turned 
 to better account than they have been in the past. It is 
 not creditable to us as a Christian nation, in size compared 
 with other nations not much larger than a garden, to have 
 had for centuries these heathetiish tribes in our midst. It 
 does not speak very much for the power of the Gospel, the 
 zeal of the ministers of Christ's Church, and the activity of 
 the schoolmaster, to have had these plague spots continually 
 flitting before our eyes, without anything being done to eifect 
 a cure. It is true something has been done. One clergy- 
 man, who has ' had opportunities of observing them,' if not 
 brought in daily contact with them, tells us that some eight 
 or nine years since he publicly baptised two gipsy children. 
 Another tells us that some time since he baptised many 
 gipsy children ; as if baptism was the only thing required of 
 the poor children for the duties and responsibilities of life 
 and a future state. Better a thousand times have told us 
 how many poor roadside arabs and gipsy children they have 
 taken by the hand to educate and train them, so as to be 
 able to earn an honest livelihood, instead of 'cadging' from 
 door to door, and telling all sorts of silly stories and lies. 
 How many poor childreris lives have been sacrificed at the 
 hands of cruelty, starvation, and neglect, and buried under a 
 
PHILANTHROPY. 223 
 
 clod without the shedding of a tear, it is fearful to contemplate. 
 The idlers, loafers, rodneys, mongrels, georgies, and gipsies 
 are increasing, and will increase, in our midst, unless we put 
 our hand upon the system, from the simple fact that by 
 packing up with wife and children and ' taking to the road,' 
 he thus escapes taxes, rent, and the School-board officer. 
 This they see, and a ' few kind words ' and ' gentle touches ' 
 will never cause them to see it in any other light. The 
 sooner we get the ideal, fanciful, and romantic side of a 
 vagrant's and vagabond's life removed from our vision, and 
 see things as they really are, the better it will be for us. 
 For the life of me, I cannot see anything romantic in dirt, 
 squalor, ignorance, and misery. Ministers and missionaries 
 have completely failed in the work, for the simple reason 
 they have never begun it in earnest ; consequently, the 
 schoolmaster and School-board officer must begin to do 
 their part in reclaiming these wandering tribes ; and this can 
 only be done in the manner stated by me in my previous 
 letter. 
 
 " I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 
 
 "GEORGE SMITH. 
 
 "Coalville, Leicester, August 20, rSyg." 
 
 I ceased, and looked around upon the dirt, squalor, 
 ignorance, and misery before me. Sticks — a small 
 stack of them stood outside the tent ; stones — there 
 were walls, loose boulders, mountains, indeed, of 
 stone ; grass — ay, a meadow-full of grass ; and mud 
 
 yon road assuredly was muddy. There was game 
 
 on the hills and fish in the river, so that only a 
 ditch was lacking in the picture; but ditches are 
 rare in Wales, and laziness sometimes hinders swine 
 from finding a wallowing-place exactly to their liking. 
 The squalor of the tents (odd that they were formed 
 
224 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 of calico, and why not under the bodies of old carts ?) 
 you know, dear reader ; of the tent-dwellers' ignorance 
 you may have gained some notion. But how did 
 the hedge-bottom heathens, the plague-spots, look? 
 Conscience-stricken ? Why, they looked much as you 
 or I might look on reading a libel upon ourselves 
 and families, written by no mere enemy, but by an 
 enemy we deeply scorned. This in itself was proof 
 of heathendom ; yet after all it might be conscience 
 that kept them thus silent, fixed, and quivering. To 
 break which silence I asked Silvanus what he had 
 got to say. 
 
 Nothing apparently. He simply stooped and picked 
 up Lementina's teapot, an old-fashioned oddity, which 
 chinamaniacs might have fondled, but which here 
 stood poked among the glowing embers. He picked 
 it up and hurled it against the opposite stone wall, 
 remarking quietly, " There's your teapot all to atoms, 
 Lementina, and " — (with an outburst) — " I wish to 
 ini-Di'ivel George Smith's head were into it." Then 
 the old man fell to a passion of sobbing ; Lementina, 
 with a grim consenting smile, said, " Mishto, Israel ! " 
 and the rest broke forth into tumultuous din. One 
 dominant wish seemed to possess them all, " to see 
 the man as had gone and made that letter," and pray 
 him doubtless not to neglect their cause. Their 
 words were earnest, heathenishly forcible ; and I 
 think had I preached a crusade — pilgrimage, I should 
 say — to Coalville, the hills would have rung with their 
 Roman i Dais vult. 
 
"THINGS ARE NOT AS THEY SEEM." 225 
 
 But I, alas ! was in no preaching humour. The 
 gem-collector who learns that his big diamond is 
 paste, the connoisseur who is shown " Smudge pinxit " 
 on his priceless Turner, such were faint types of my 
 discomfiture. I was like the changeling whose vision, 
 opened by baptismal waters, sees Elfland stripped of 
 all its faery glamour, dead leaves for garlands, cob- 
 webs for cloth of gold. My Elfland from boyhood had 
 been this Little Egypt, a region of lotos, mirage, and 
 enchantments, whose crocodiles had seemed to me to 
 weep, whose jtlvas for me had been no worse Third 
 Plague than plaguey Cleopatras. Suddenly there had 
 met me a Cook's excursionist, with telescope and 
 Highflying Dutchman' s Guide ; and I looked through 
 his glass, and read in his book, and lo ! my Nile 
 became a ditch, the Pyramids mudheaps, dog Anubis 
 a mongrel, the hieroglyphics cadgers' marks, the 
 fleshpots — Faugh ! 
 
 Others at least had been as blind as I ; and if one 
 is to fall into a ditch, it is as well to have a leader 
 on whom to fall. And kicking in this ditch lay Dr 
 Bright (of " Bright's Disease " celebrity), the Rev. J. 
 Crabb, " Lavengro,"i Samuel Roberts, " Hans Breit- 
 mann," and many another worthy man, but blind. 
 
 ^ I always supposed this word to be of Mr Borrow's coining, till I 
 came in Grellmann on " Latshila Wingro [i.e. latcho lavengro\ falsch." 
 Nomen omen, Mr George Smith might say. So I cite not Borrow; but 
 whoso will may refer to the strong distinction drawn between tent- 
 dwelling Chorodies (tramps) and Gipsies, in his Romano Lavo-IJl, 
 pp. 266-75. 
 
 P 
 
226 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 Take a few specimens of their blindness, they may 
 not be utterly uninstructive. 
 
 " For my own part," Bright sums up, " I have not 
 been able to discover all those marks of natural and 
 inherent depravity in the Gipsy character which have 
 been so obvious to others ; and I am confident that 
 we are apt to appreciate much too lightly the actual 
 happiness enjoyed by this class of people, who, 
 beneath their ragged tents, in the pure air of the 
 heath, may well excite the envy of the majority of the 
 poor, though better provided with accommodation, in 
 the unwholesome haunts of the town. . . . What 
 renders this history [the Trial of Elizabeth Canning] 
 more valuable, is the great difficulty which, in general, 
 opposes itself to the gaining a correct insight into 
 their manners. No sooner does a stranger approach 
 their fire on the heath, than a certain reserve spreads 
 itself through the little family. The women talk to 
 him in mystic language, — they endeavour to amuse 
 him with secrets of futurity, — they suspect him to be 
 a spy upon their actions, — and he generally departs 
 as little acquainted with their true character as he 
 came. Let this, however, wear away ; let him gain 
 their confidence, and he will then find them con- 
 versable, amusing, sensible, and shrewd ; civil, but 
 without servility ; proud of their independence ; and 
 able to assign reasons for preferring their present 
 condition to any other in civilized society. He will 
 see them strongly attached to each other, and free 
 from many cares which too frequently render the 
 
DIABOLI ADVOCATI. 22/ 
 
 married state a source of discontent. At the ap- 
 proach of night, they draw around their humble but 
 often abundant board, and then, retiring to their tent, 
 leave a faithful dog to guard its entrance. With the 
 first rays of morning they again meet the day, pursue 
 their various occupations ; or, rolling up their tent, 
 and packing all their property on an ass, set forward 
 to seek the delights of some fresh heath, or the pro- 
 tection of some shaded copse. I leave it to those 
 who have been accustomed to visit the habitations of 
 the poor in the metropolis, in great cities, in country 
 towns, or in any but those Arcadian cottages which 
 exist only in the fancy of the poet, to draw a com- 
 parison between the activity, the free condition, and 
 the pure air enjoyed by the Gipsy, and the idleness, 
 the debauchery, and the filth in which a large part of 
 the poorer classes are enveloped." — Travels in Lower 
 Htitigary (Edinb., 1818), pp. 528-30. 
 
 Crabb's Gipsies' Advocate (3d ed., Lond., 1832) is 
 less extravagant, the following being among its wilder 
 statements : — " Fifty years ago, from the paucity of 
 carriers, the Gipsies were considered by the peasantry 
 and by small farmers as very useful branches of the 
 human family (p. 23). . . . Most of the Gipsies in this 
 country are very punctual in paying their debts. All 
 the shopkeepers with whom they deal in these parts, 
 have declared that they are some of their best and 
 most honest customers (p. 27). . . . They are not 
 generally subject to the numerous disorders and 
 fevers common in large towns ; but in some instances 
 
228 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 they are visited with that dreadful scourge of the 
 British nation, the typhus fever, which spreads 
 through their httle camp, and becomes fatal to some 
 of its families. The smallpox and measles are dis- 
 orders they very much dread ; but they are not more 
 disposed to rheumatic affections than those who 
 live in houses. It is a fact, however, that ought not 
 to be passed over here, that when they leave their 
 tents to settle in towns, they are generally ill for a 
 time. The children of one family that wintered with 
 us in 1 83 1 were nearly all attacked with fever that 
 threatened their lives (p. 31). . . . The mutual attach- 
 ment which subsists between the nominal husband 
 and wife is so truly sincere, that instances of infidelity 
 on either side occur but seldom ; and when otherwise, 
 the parties are deemed very wicked by the Gipsies. 
 They are known strictly to avoid all conversation of 
 an unchaste kind in their camps, except among the 
 most degraded of them ; and instances of young 
 females having children, before they pledge them- 
 selves to those they love, are rare. This purity of 
 morals, among a people living as they do, speaks 
 much in their favour. The anxiety of a Gipsy parent 
 to preserve the purity of the morals of a daughter is 
 strongly portrayed in the following fact. The author 
 wished to engage as a servant the daughter of a 
 Gipsy who was desirous of quitting her vagrant life ; 
 but her mother strongly objected for some time ; and 
 when pressed for the reason of such objection, she 
 named the danger she would be in in a town, far 
 
DIABOLI ADVOCATI. 229 
 
 from a mother's eye. It would be well if all others 
 felt for their children as did this unlettered Gipsy 
 (p. 33). ... It is worthy of remark, that all the 
 better sort of Gipsies teach their children the Lord's 
 Prayer (p. 35). . . . Whoever has read Grellmann's 
 Dissertation on the Continental Gipsies, and sup- 
 poses that those of England are equally immoral and 
 vicious, is greatly mistaken. The Gipsies of this 
 country are altogether different, as monstrous crimes 
 are seldom heard of among them. The author is not 
 aware of any of them being convicted of house- 
 breaking or highway robbery. Seldom are they 
 guilty of sheep-stealing or robbing hen-roosts. In 
 England they avoid poaching, knowing that the 
 sporting gentlemen would be severe against them, 
 and that they would not be permitted to remain in 
 the lanes and commons near villages (p. 49). . . . 
 There is not the least prospect of doing them good by 
 forcing instruction on them. About the year 1748, 
 the Empress Theresa attempted the improvement of 
 the Gipsies in Germany, by taking away, by force, all 
 their children of a certain age, in order to educate and 
 protect them ; but such an unnatural and arbitrary 
 mode of benevolence defeated its own object (p. 95). 
 ... A lady once said to one of my friends, ' My 
 neighbours are always complaining that the Gipsies 
 do them mischief, and rob them ; as for me, I cannot 
 complain. I treat them kindly, and in return, when 
 they are near my house, they guard it, and frighten 
 away thieves. I never lost anything by having them 
 
230 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 near my house.' The author has had similar testi- 
 monials from farmers, gentlemen, and ladies of 
 Sussex, Surrey, Hants, and Dorset, which prove that 
 Gipsies can be honest and grateful " (p. 106). 
 
 What then shall one say of Samuel Roberts' 
 Gypsies (4th ed., Lond., 1836), according to whose 
 sketch of Romani character (pp. 75-82) the Gipsies 
 are " a people more sinned against than sinning. 
 Their better peculiarities have always been over- 
 looked ; while those more objectionable ones, 
 through the results of the peculiar circumstances in 
 which they are placed, have ever been exaggerated, 
 misrepresented, and multiplied, by prejudice and in- 
 humanity. The crimes of which they have generally 
 been accused, and for which they have been punished, 
 have, for the most part, been such as could not be 
 considered as crimes by them. They have been 
 vilified, hunted from place to place, driven to banish- 
 ment, prison, and death, for leading a life to which 
 they were born — from which they had no inclination, 
 no divine command, to depart. . . . What they have 
 seen and experienced, of the effects of Christianity, 
 unfortunately for the credit of that religion, has not 
 been such as to cause them to think well either of 
 it or of its professors : ^ that they have not been 
 driven to hate and to shun them, seems the more 
 
 ^ Of the falsity of this reniarl< one out of scores of proofs that might 
 l)e brovight is furnished by \\'oodcocli's Gipiies, (Lond., 1865), p. 14, 
 note: — " 'On Tuesday morning seven Gipsies were charged before the 
 Rev. Uriah Tonkin, at Hayle (Cornwall), with sleeping under tents, 
 
DIABOLI ADVOCATI. 231 
 
 surprising. This, however, has not been the case ; 
 to some of the rites of Christianity the Gipsies in 
 this country conform, and with its professors they 
 would, I beheve, gladly live in peace. Generall)- 
 speaking, there seems a peculiar steadiness and 
 sedateness in the manners and the conduct of the 
 Gipsies, which keeps them alike from cringing and 
 presuming. . . . They are not drunkards, or even 
 habitual drinkers ; occasionally some of them are 
 known to drink to excess, but not frequently; their 
 character in that respect is that of sobriety. They 
 are peculiarly abstemious in eating, and, indeed, in 
 all their habits. . . . Let it be understood, that there 
 are rogues and vagabonds of the worst description 
 personatitig Gipsies, and often passing for them, and 
 it is not improbable but the most of those who 
 have been convicted of the greater crimes, have 
 been of that description of vagrants. I have had, 
 and heard of, the testimony of many respectable 
 gentlemen, farmers, and others, near whose premises 
 the Gipsies have long been in the habit of encamping, 
 borne to their honesty, having never had reason to 
 suppose that they robbed them of anything ; while 
 those who have treated them with kindness, by 
 letting them encamp unmolested on their waste 
 grounds, and giving them straw or any small matters, 
 
 and were each committed to twenty-one days' imprisonment in the 
 county gaol, with hard labour. The party consisted of mother and 
 six children, aged 20, 16, 15, 13, 10, and 8 years.' — Manchester 
 Examiner, May 1864." 
 
232 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 have found them rather protectors than destroyers of 
 their property. The Gipsies, I believe, rarely under 
 any circumstances apply for parochial relief; their 
 independence of spirit and abstemious habits incline 
 and enable them to do without it. This is an ex- 
 ample worthy of being imitated by many of their 
 traducers. Another favourable peculiarity of theirs 
 is, that they are rarely, if ever, seen as common 
 beggars. On the late investigation throughout Lon- 
 don and Westminster, one only instance occurred, 
 and even that a doubtful one. The females, I believe, 
 are rarely, if ever, found among those dreadful pests 
 to society in large towns, common prostitutes. Their 
 parental and filial affection is said to be exemplary : 
 their aged parents they tend to the last with a care 
 and attention not often witnessed in polished society ; 
 and they are accused of being indulgent to their 
 children even to an injurious extent. ... As to their 
 being fortune-tellers, it is much less disgraceful to 
 them, than to those whose ignorance (or wickedness) 
 encourages them to such practices. The Gipsies are 
 by far more intelligent and civilised than the depraved 
 part of the lower ranks in large towns. Let any one 
 who has opportunity look at such, and compare them 
 with the Gipsies ; the comparison will little redound 
 to the credit of the former. See the mechanics at 
 their work, surly and dissatisfied with themselves, 
 their condition, their employers, their relievers, their 
 rulers, and with everything around them ; dirty, 
 offensive, unhealthy, and miserable ; unwillingly, and 
 
DIABOLI ADVOCATI. 233 
 
 with murmuring, performing that, labour which God 
 hath appointed as the needful task of all men on 
 earth. Hear them, in almost every sentence that 
 they utter, cursing and blaspheming, calling upon 
 God to bear witness to the grossest falsehoods ; while, 
 in language the most profane and indecent, they ridi- 
 cule everything that is sacred and chaste. Follow 
 them to the alehouse, and hear all this repeated 
 amidst the roar of drunkenness ; follow them from 
 thence, if you have sufficient courage and resolution, 
 home to their wives and children, — but if you have, 
 I must leave you to go without me ; I have seen 
 them there too often ; my heart sickens at the recol- 
 lection, and I cannot, without a stronger motive than 
 curiosity, again pass their threshold. To turn from 
 the view of such a scene as this which has been 
 described to the contemplation of the family in the 
 simple tent of the wandering Gipsy, is like exchanging 
 the close and offensive lazar-house for the fresh and 
 smiling fields and the glorious firmament of heaven." 
 Quid plura? Enough that Mr Roberts comes on a 
 family of Boswells washing, and is surprised to see 
 the clothes, hung out on the hedges, " all equal in 
 quality and colour to what one would expect to be 
 worn by decent tradespeople." The tea-apparatus, 
 too, is " quite of the better kind ; two feather-beds 
 (with bedclothes good, and exceedingly clean), laid 
 on dry straw, occupy the two ends of the tent," &c. 
 
 Take yet a few more specimens of blindness, 
 gathered from scattered sources. From "My Friend's 
 
234 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 Gipsy Journal" {Good Words, Nov.-Dec. 1868):— "I 
 wish I could give a vivid picture of the Gipsy tents 
 as they presented themselves to me — two or three in 
 succession. There was an agreeable contrast between 
 the nomadic restlessness and comfortlessness without, 
 and the warmth, picturesqueness, almost luxury of 
 what has more the air of a Turkish divan than of 
 an Arab tent, within. . . . The cups and plates were 
 of china ; the silver was ' solid silver,' not electro- 
 plated, like that of most householders. For that 
 matter, my friend told me that the most expensive 
 tea-service in the shop of one of the first Edinburgh 
 silversmiths was bought and paid for by a Gipsy 
 matron. . . . Dr Guthrie seemed pleased with his 
 visit, telling me that he did not think he had ever 
 addressed a more interested-looking audience. So 
 he concluded by saying, ' I will never vex you by 
 calling your friends bad again ; indeed, I saw no 
 signs of wickedness amongst them, quite the reverse. 
 Such simple, guileless-looking people may be ignorant, 
 but they cannot be reprobate, for sin always leaves 
 its mark behind.' . . . The children were also very 
 diligent at school, and liked by their teachers, which 
 is a great comfort. The fear about them contaminat- 
 ing the others seems likewise to have vanished. . . . 
 Old Mr R[eynolds] is dreadfully shocked with the 
 drunkenness amongst the Scottish lower orders ; says 
 that if any of their women were seen in the state 
 that he sees some of the women in here in the 
 streets, they would be perfectly ashamed of their 
 

 ^ 
 
 -!f*«SE^^«C^ 
 
 
DIABOLI ADVOCATI. 235 
 
 race. . . . The old and the young alike receive the 
 tenderest care and treatment. . . . The Gipsies, more 
 than any people I ever saw, have a reverence for the 
 Bible, and when one of them takes an oath, and 
 'kisses the book,' as they term it, and afterwards 
 breaks it, he is considered a great reprobate. Very 
 much struck, too, by the frequent use of God's name, 
 and yet it is not done in the same irreverent manner 
 of our habitual swearers, though it often shocks me 
 to hear them. ... I was struck by little Logan's 
 politeness,^ which seems to be innate in the very 
 children. . . . Those letters give me much insight 
 into Gipsy character. This one was enclosing an 
 order for a sovereign, which my friends were sending 
 
 ' Poor little Logan, "beloved son of John and Lavithen Lee and 
 brother of Nathan Lee and grandson oSKlijah Smith," he was not long 
 to practise his politeness, for he "departed out of this world on the 
 25th day of September 1873, aged 12 years. 'Sutler the little children 
 to come unto iVIe, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of 
 God.'" He lies in Cathcart kirkyard, by the side of John Cooper, 
 "beloved husband and son of Sarah and Phoebe Cooper, who departed 
 this life 31st January 1872, aged 40 years." Lieut. -Colonel Fergusson 
 describes, m Notes and Queries, December 19, 1874, the burial ground 
 of this family as "very neatly laid out, ornamented with the traditional 
 cypress and yew. The tombstones are executed in an excellent style, 
 and the ground is enclosed with an exceedingly handsome cast-iron 
 railing — the design vine-leaves and gilt clusters of grapes ; the whole 
 giving one the idea of a burial place of some very substantial and 
 well-to-do citizen of the neighbouring town of Glasgow. To Colonel 
 Fergusson I am indebted for the accompanying sketch of Logan's grave, 
 and to Dr Smith, the minister of Cathcart, for this account of Logan's 
 burial: — "A person ofvery gentlemanly manners and appearance called 
 on me on the day of his cousin's death, to request that I would attend 
 the funeral, and conduct it in the usual manner, with the addition of 
 a prayer at the grave. ... I met the party there, and took part in the 
 
236 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 to a poor relation. As I knew it was the second to 
 the same person within a short time, I said, ' This 
 is hard upon you; has she no nearer relatives?' 
 'Why, bless you, yes, miss, she has a father and 
 brothers.' ' The burden seems to fall upon you. 
 Should they not help her?' I next asked. 'Well, 
 I don't know, miss, aught about that ; we never 
 thinks of them ere things. She is our own flesh 
 and blood, poor thing, and has asked us to send her 
 a little, for her children are sick ; then why shouldn't 
 we do it? Lack, miss, if you'll believe me, I could 
 scarce swallow no breakfast this morning for thinking 
 of them poor things ; and as to father and brothers, 
 why they may help her if they like ; I dare say they 
 
 service, for which they expressed much gratitude. Anrong the principal 
 mourners were four females completely enveloped in mantles of deep 
 crape, who seemed much affected. On the following Sunday they all 
 attended church in the same attire." Such, see you, is Gipsy "burial 
 under a clod, without the shedding of a tear." 
 
 One frightful instance of how Romani children's lives are "sacrificed 
 at the hands of cruelty, starvation, and neglect," is furnished by The 
 Times, 2d March 1862 : — " 'About six weeks since a party of Gipsies, 
 bearing with them a very beautiful girl, named Lepronia Lee, 
 evidently in the last stage of consumption, encamped on the grounds 
 adjacent to the Greyhound public -house, about eight miles from 
 Ipswich. No sooner had they taken up their quarters than the 
 intelligence of the illness of one who appeared to be a great favourite 
 with the tribe was sent to all parts, and in a few days Kirton was the 
 centre of an encampment numbering some fifty or sixty men, women, 
 and children, some arriving from Norwich and other distant places. 
 Medical aid was immediately called in, and Mr Taylor, surgeon, of 
 Bucklesham, was daily in attendance upon the poor girl. Dr Bartlett 
 was also consulted, but from the first all hope was gone. During the 
 illness of the girl at Kirton, which extended over six weeks, she was 
 frequently visited by the Rev. Mr Bartlett, his wife, and several other 
 ladies residing in that neighbourhood, who spent some hours with her 
 
DIABOLI ADVOCATI. 237 
 
 does.' . . . One day when telling a number of them 
 about a Socinian, that he was one who did not believe 
 that Christ was God, a sort of shudder passed through 
 them, and one of them said, ' How can any one think 
 that? for, ignorant as we be, we have always heard 
 that our Saviour was the Son of God.' " 
 
 From an account in the Birmi?igham Daily Post, 
 June 7, 1869, of how fifty Gipsies were "packed 
 together " at Kidderminster in seven tents and seven 
 sleeping-waggons : — " The tents are tolerably roomy 
 affairs, the framework being constructed with long 
 supple sticks, which are bowed towards each other, 
 and covered with a warm flannelly material. The 
 interiors are warm and snug ; and, more than this, 
 
 daily, reading portions of the Scripture. Indeed, so great was her 
 desire for the consolations of religion, and her affection for those of 
 her sex who so kindly visited her, that she never appeared satisfied 
 but when they were present. On Sunday afternoon, the 2d inst., the 
 poor girl breathed her last, having retained her consciousness until the 
 last moment, and with her last breath expressed her hope in a glorious 
 immortality. The greater portion of the tribe were at Kirton Church 
 at the time her death took place, and when it became known, the 
 moaning and lamentations of her people are described as dreadful in 
 the extreme. The deceased was interred in Kirton churchyard on 
 Friday, the 7th inst., the procession being headed by a hearse, after 
 which followed the two sisters and cousins of the deceased, dressed in 
 white muslin, corded with white silk, their heads covered with white 
 veils, reaching almost to the ground. The men were dressed with black 
 silk hatbands, tied with white riband, and also wore white gloves and 
 neckties. The women of the tribe were in deep mourning. Many 
 hundred persons came from all parts of the district to witness the 
 procession. The greatest decorum was present throughout, and shortly 
 after their return from Kesgrave, the members of the tribe started for 
 their various destinations. The tribe appeared to be in affluent circum- 
 stances, and consisted of the families of the Lees, Youngs, Smiths, and 
 Chilcotts.' — Biiiy and Noi~wich Post" 
 
238 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 there is an air of comfort about them which house- 
 dwellers would hardly believe could be had under 
 Gipsy conditions of life. Chairs and tables are not 
 a pre-requisite here as in ordinary dwellings, but the 
 Gipsies appear to be abundantly supplied with such 
 fabrics and appointments as give a somewhat Eastern 
 air to their habitations. They are well dressed, not 
 uncommunicative, and very easy and self-possessed 
 in their manners." 
 
 From Mr C. G. Leland's Englisli Gipsies (Lond., 
 1873): — "Everything in the Gipsy cottage was 
 scrupulously neat, — there was even an approach to 
 style. The furniture and ornaments were superior 
 to those found in common peasant houses. There 
 was a large and beautifully-bound photograph album. 
 I found that the family could read and write, — the 
 daughter received and read a note, and one of the 
 sons knew who and what Mr Robert Browning was 
 (p. 156). ... In conclusion, I would remark, that if 
 I have not, like many writers on the poor Gipsies, 
 abused them for certain proverbial faults, it has been 
 because they never troubled me with anything very 
 serious of the kind, or brought it to my notice ; and 
 I certainly never took the pains to hunt it up to the 
 discredit of people who always behaved decently to 
 me. I have found them more cheerful, polite, and 
 grateful, than the lower orders of other races in 
 Europe or America ; and I believe that where their 
 respect and sympathy are secured, they are quite as 
 upright. Like all people who are regarded as out- 
 
" FACTS." 239 
 
 casts, they are very proud of being trusted, and 
 under this influence will commit the most daring 
 acts of honesty" (p. xi.). 
 
 From " Gipsy Life in Lancashire and Cheshire" 
 {Papers of the Manchester Literary Club, 1877), by 
 Mr H. T. Crofton : — " The older Gipsies can seldom 
 read or write ; but most of them are anxious that 
 their children should learn the three R's, and usually 
 send them to school during the winter months. . . . 
 It may be added that, with the police at least, Gipsies 
 have earned a good character. ... It seems to be a 
 common superstition that Gipsies are great thieves, 
 but this is wrong." 
 
 Romance, deception, imagery, lies, founded it may 
 be, on twenty years of painful study ; but what is 
 study without the "eye to observe," that piercing organ, 
 which contemplates an unfound remedy? Without it, 
 one reads in the last English Census, of" 8025 persons 
 in caravans and tents and in the open air," and can as 
 little guess how many of these may be Gipsies, as 
 from the total of Irish M.P.'s infer the strength of the 
 Home Rule party. But with it, one discerns " be- 
 tween three and four thousand men and women, and 
 eight or ten thousand children, classed in the Census 
 as vagrants and vagabonds ; " and straightway cal- 
 culates that " there must be fully between fifteen and 
 sixteen thousand Gipsies in England at the present 
 time, four-fifths of whom are living in tents or vans." 
 The calculation occurs in Mr Smith's latest publica- 
 tion, a letter to the Graphic (March 13, 1880), where 
 
240 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 he announces some valuable discoveries, — that Firdusi 
 was an Arab writer of the year 1 126 ; that Gipsies are 
 also called Lyuths ; that they arrived before Constan- 
 tinople at the end of the fourteenth and early in the 
 fifteenth century ; and that they entered Scotland 
 about the year 1 5 14. 
 
 Facts like these prepare us for the reception of Mr 
 Smith's solution of his paradox, propounded to the 
 Social Science Congress at Manchester in October 
 1879.^ "Some few Gipsies" he said, ''who have 
 arrived at zvhat they consider the highest state of 
 a respectable and civilised life, reside in houses which 
 in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, are in the 
 lowest and most degraded part of the towns, among 
 the scum and off-scouring of all nations, and, like 
 locusts, they leave a blight behind them wherever 
 they have been. . . . Lying, begging, thieving, 
 cheating, and every other abomination that low- 
 cunning craft, backed by ignorance and idleness, 
 can devise, they practise. In some instances these 
 things are carried out to such a pitch as to render 
 them more like imbeciles than human beings en- 
 dowed with reason. Chair-mending, tinkering, and 
 hawking, are in many instances used only as a 'blind ;' 
 while the women and children go about the country 
 
 ' rity that this Address was not illustrated by the fifty or so "ditch 
 heathens," then encamping at Cheetham Hill, in two meado%vs, for 
 which they paid £■;, a week. One of their number, Mr Sylvester 
 Boswell, himself delivered an Address to the Manchester Literary 
 Club, I2th January 1880. 
 
" FACTS.'' 
 
 241 
 
 begging and fortune-telling, bringing to the heathenish 
 tents sufficient to keep the family. . . . Considerable 
 difficulty is experienced sometimes in finding them 
 out, as many of the women go by two names ; but 
 in vain do I look for any improvement among the 
 children. Owing to the Act relating to pedlars and 
 hawkers prohibiting the granting of licences for 
 hawking to the youths of both sexes under seventeen, 
 and the Education Acts not being sufficiently strong 
 to lay hold of their dirty, idle, travelling ti'ibes to 
 educate them, except in rare cases, they are allowed 
 to skulk about in ignorance and evil training, without 
 being taught how to get an honest living. No ray 
 of hope enters their breast ; their highest ambition is 
 to live and to loll about so long as the food comes ; no 
 matter by whom or how it comes, so that they get it. 
 In many instances they live like pigs and die like dogs. 
 The real old-fashioned Gipsy has become lewd and 
 demoralised — if such a thing could be — by allowing 
 his sons and daughters to mix up with the scamps, 
 vagabonds, ' rodneys,' and jail-birds who now and 
 then settle among them as they are camping on 
 the ditch banks. The consequence is, our lanes are 
 being infested with a lot of dirty ignorant Gipsies, 
 who, with their tribes of squalid children, have been 
 encouraged by servant girls and farmers, by supplying 
 their wants with eggs, bacon, milk, and potatoes, the 
 men helping themselves to game, to locate in the 
 neighbourhood until they have received the tip from 
 the farmer to pass on to his neighbours. Children 
 
 Q 
 
242 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 born under such circumstances, unless taken hold of 
 by the State, will turn out to be a class of most 
 dangerous characters. Very much, up to the present, 
 the wants of the women and children have been 
 supplied through gulling the large-hearted and liberal- 
 minded they have been brought in contact with, and 
 the result has been that but fezu of the real Gipsies 
 have found their way into gaols. Probably their 
 offences may have been winked at by the farmers and 
 others, who do not like the idea of having their stacks 
 fired and property destroyed, and have given the 
 Gipsies a wide berth!' 
 
 Why, having " no heart to feel," I hitherto had 
 foolishly contrasted the scores of English Gipsies 
 murderously hanged, with the one English Gipsy 
 ever hanged for murder ; I had deemed it rather 
 creditable to the sc2im-blighting locusts, that so few 
 of them had ever been imprisoned for heavier crimes 
 than fortune-telling or stopping in the midst of sticks 
 and grass. Bah ! it takes philanthropy to know that 
 this keeping out of gaol implies incendiarism,^ and I 
 can only hope that Silvanus's one imprisonment means 
 that he has not often made the red cock crow. 
 
 But, as I write, a horrible suspicion rises unbidden 
 
 ' Where are the records of this Gipsy villany to be found ? Not in 
 the Gentleman' s Magazine, Annual Register, or in any other periodicals, 
 newspapers, and such-like repositories of crime, that have fallen under 
 my unobservant eye. Mr Smilh's benevolence should really not allow 
 him to slur over for one moment the wrongdoings of his miserable 
 proteges. 
 
GIPSY CANNIBALISM. 243 
 
 in my mind. IV/iy are so feiv old Gipsies found in 
 workhouses ? The fact is patent ; and in all my 
 dealings with the race I never knew of more than 
 one, a venerable dame, who, having outlived all her 
 near relations, found an asylum in the Bristol poor- 
 house. Some distant kinsfolk, hearing of the cir- 
 cumstance, at once removed her, " had her out of 
 that " (to use their uncouth phrase) ; and three 
 months later, by their account, she died. Now, 
 what was their motive for thus removing her ? 
 Family affection, respect for age, honest indepen- 
 dence ? The notion were absurd. No, I turn for 
 an answer to the article " Gipsies " in Chambers' s 
 Encyclopedia (ed. 1874), and read on p. 172 that 
 " they were or are wont to eat their parents ; " then 
 call to mind how in 1782 forty-five Gipsies, men and 
 women, were beheaded, broken on the wheel, quar- 
 tered alive, or hanged, for cannibalism. Among 
 them were their Bishop, a man of large appetite, 
 and their " Harum-Pasha," the ornaments in whose 
 cap were valued at ;^6oo. The mode of their detec- 
 tion, a lesson to our slothful police (with whom these 
 monsters bear a good character !), was briefly thus. 
 Arrested first by way of wise precaution, they were 
 racked till they owned to theft and murder ; then 
 were brought to the spot where their victims should 
 be buried, and, no victims forthcoming, were promptly 
 racked again. It is tiresome work extracting truth 
 from Gipsies, but the truth did at last come out, that 
 in twenty-one years they had eaten eighty-three 
 
244 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 persons, — Gipsies presumably, since natives missing 
 there were none ; nay, sons confessed that they had 
 "dined off Father" (Von Heister, Etlinogi-apliisclie 
 iind gescliichtlidie Notizen iiber die Zigeuner, Konigsb. 
 1842, p. 47 ; and cf. Dyrlund, Tatere og Natuiands- 
 folk i Damnark, Copenh. 1872, pp. 527-31). 
 
 But this, some devil's advocate may urge, took 
 place in Hungary, nearly a hundred years ago. An 
 idle plea ; for I refer him to this extract from the 
 Times' report (loth March 1859) of the trial at 
 York of Guilliers Heron, who by-the-bye was un- 
 accountably acquitted: — "One of the prisoner's 
 brothers said they were all at tea with the prisoner 
 at five o'clock in their tent ; and when asked what 
 they had to eat, he said they had a hodgiui cooked. 
 His Lordship (Mr Justice Bjdes) — 'What do you say 
 you had — cooked urchin ? ' Gipsy — ' Yes, cooked 
 Iwdgun. I'm very fond of cooked Jiodgtui ' (with a 
 grin). His Lord.ship's mind seemed to be filled with 
 horrible misgivings," &c. As well it might, to hear 
 the grinning young miscreant acknowledge his par- 
 tiality for baby, for heathen baby let us only trust, 
 though our trust is not unmingled with darker 
 dread. 
 
 For Gipsies are notorious kidnappers. Did they 
 not steal the future Chief Justice Popham, and 
 brand him with a cabalistic mark, as graziers brand 
 the lamb that they fatten for slaughter ? did they 
 not carry off young Adam Smith, who but for his 
 timely rescue might have been converted into pottage 
 
GIPSY PLAGIARISM. 245 
 
 d la Meg Alerrllies de Dernclengli ? ^ There was 
 Elizabeth Kellen, too, who was " forcibly abducted 
 by a gang of Gipsies, stripped of her clothes and 
 dressed in some of their rags, treated as the most 
 abject in every respect, and threatened with death 
 if she attempted flight. Of the depredations of 
 these banditti, in milking cows in the night, stealing 
 poultry, &c., she gave a most probable account, and 
 said it was their intention to have coloured her when 
 the walnut season approached, to make her appear as 
 a real Gipsy" {Animal Reg., 7th June 1802). That, 
 like her more famous namesake, Elizabeth Canning, 
 she was pronounced by the magistrates a gross im- 
 postor, and that the sixteen Gipsies were released 
 from prison with a handsome compensation, proves 
 chiefly the fallibility of magistrates, her probable 
 account being wholly substantiated by that other 
 Story of Elizabeth, the servant girl, namely, Eliza- 
 beth Collier, for robbing whom of pockets, money, 
 and clothes, Adam Lee, Thomas Lee, and Eleanor 
 his wife were condemned at Kingston and, most 
 likely, hanged {ib., ist April 18 12). Here, again, 
 that the case for the prosecution rested solely upon 
 her evidence, that Adam twice had voluntarily sur- 
 rendered after having been let go free, and that the 
 
 1 Was Mr Smith alluding to this incident when he wrote in the 
 Graphic: — "Other things, that an ordinary Englishman would throw 
 upon the dunghill, some of the Gipsies will carry home to make soup 
 of." As to the dunghill I hardly know, but a sucking political econo- 
 mist would probably be rather tough and dry. 
 
246 .IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 prisoners' alibi was supported by a great number of 
 witnesses, proves chiefly the badness of Gipsies, since 
 who but bad persons could be thus condemned ? 
 Lastly, in 1872, to make my long story short, forty- 
 seven Gipsies were imprisoned in Germany on sus- 
 picion of having kidnapped Anna Bockler, the only 
 child of a great Pomeranian farmer. A twelvemonth 
 later, as luck would have it, Anna's corpse was dis- 
 covered in one of her father's barns, where the farm 
 boy, her murderer, had buried it ; but the imprison- 
 ment of the Gipsies is at any rate satisfactory ; 
 and a perusal, I doubt not, of Der Neiie Pitaval 
 (new ser., vol. ix. pp. 113-224) will show the most 
 casual observer how plausible my theory is, — that 
 kids are the savoury meat which Gipsies love, and 
 that, failing kids, old mongrels are the next best 
 substitute.^ 
 
 With diffidence I submit this theory to one who 
 has made the alarming and unlooked-for discovery, 
 that " georgies are increasing, and will increase, in 
 our midst, unless we put our hand upon the system." 
 Till now I always believed that gSrgios meant all 
 who were NOT of Gipsy birth, standing to Romane 
 as Gentile to Jeiv, Barbarian to Gixek ; I fancied 
 that philanthropists and school-board officers were 
 gSrgios, and of such there surely could hardly be too 
 
 1 Gipsies have a well-known horror of wasting good victuals, even a 
 morsel of bread. Hence their seemingly fantastical averseness to selling 
 their dead to surgeons for dissection (cf. Crabb, p. 29). 
 
MORE " FACTS." 247 
 
 many.^ Even now this discovery dawns slowly on m}- 
 mind ; nor can I fully comprehend what sort of man 
 this Moses Holland must be, to have been " a Gipsy 
 nearly all his life." When is a Gipsy not a Gipsy ? 
 I never was good at riddles, and "When he's a gorgio" 
 seems the only answer ; Moses Holland (I own it) 
 having to my ears a thoroughly un-Gipsy ring. Yet 
 who am I to judge of what is Gipsy, who have visited 
 some few hundred caravans, and never in one single 
 instance known that " besides a man and his wife 
 and their own children there are several adult persons 
 taken in as lodgers." As little was I aware that 
 " Gipsies generally pitch their tents and form their 
 encampments in swamps and low marshy places ; " 
 that "their tent furniture, cooking utensils, &c., con- 
 sist of an old chair, a few old boxes, a large saucepan " 
 — (query, fish-kettle, with folding handle), — " and one 
 or two dishes ; " or that " washing either themselves 
 or their clothes is a luxury they seldom indulge in." 
 True, their skins are not as white as snow, like the 
 ploughboy's of Anselo's ditty; but then ploughboys 
 and our lower orders generally have a standard of 
 cleanliness that it were hard for ditch-heathens to 
 attain to ; and I have read besides, how in 1769 two 
 gentlemen, riding over Hounslow Heath, came on " a 
 
 1 Rodney is a title I gladly .-iccept for Romani children, accepting 
 also the definition thereof propounded by the Wolverhampton Factories 
 Inspector — "To keep a boy from work till he is thirteen is to encourage 
 idleness. In the expressive language of the district, it makes Rodneys 
 of them." 
 
248 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 gang of Gipsies, about twelve in number, who were 
 boiling and roasting in the modern taste, Al Fresco, 
 on account of a conversion as they called it, such 
 conversion consisting of rubbing or dyeing a fine 
 young girl with walnut-shell, it being the first day 
 of her entering into the society" {Ann. Reg., xii. 128). 
 I pass over the corroboration that this affords, if 
 corroboration were needed, of Elizabeth Kellen's 
 probable account, and remark that those who have 
 antidotes need fear no poison, and that the frequent 
 ablutions of Silvanus and his family, indeed of all 
 Gipsies I have ever met, are certainly due to the 
 cheapness of walnuts in the parts they travel. Their 
 washing of clothes and bedding is still more easily 
 explained. I have it from a superintendent of police 
 that Gipsies should never be suffered to camp on 
 roadsides, because they are everlastingly hanging out 
 washing on the hedges, where the white is certain to 
 frighten passing horses ; but he knew not that the 
 deep-dyed scoundrels contemplate this result, and 
 hope that the frightened horses may fling their riders, 
 whom they then rush forward to rifle, and probably 
 kill. That dirty Gipsies should themselves charge 
 gorgios (as heretofore, I misapply this term) with 
 being filthy, is but fresh proof of Gipsy ignorance. 
 What filthiness can there be in washing a table-cloth 
 and smock together (" what you eat off with what 
 you wear" — Mrs Draper, Loughton, 4th July 1875)? 
 and why should Sinfi have scorned the good pudding 
 
FANCIES. 
 
 249 
 
 that the Scotchwoman boiled in a piece of her hus- 
 band's shirt ? 
 
 " If I go on writing with this red ink much longer, 
 I shall begin to lose my subject," as John Roberts 
 remarks on page 12 of his Tenth Epistle; so con- 
 tenting myself with remarking that nine-tenths of 
 our philanthropist's statements have come to me as 
 revelations, I will sketch my own pre-apocalyptic 
 suggestions for bettering the Gipsies' lot. 
 
 First, then, a nominal census should be taken of 
 Romani dwellers in tents and caravans. One to 
 embrace our entire Gipsy population would doubtless 
 be more interesting ethnologically, but it would be a 
 work of infinite difficulty, and any external scheme 
 for raising the condition of the race could hardly 
 apply to Gipsy house-dwellers. Whereas by visiting 
 the great race-meetings (Epsom, Doncaster, Chester, 
 &c.), the chief fairs (Weyhill, Cirencester, Peter- 
 borough, &c.), and the metropolitan and country 
 ■" Gipsyries," two men with a knowledge of the 
 Romani tongue might easily in a twelvemonth draw 
 up accurate tables, showing the name, age, calling, 
 and acquirements of every nomade Gipsy, and dis- 
 tinguishing between full -bloods and half-bloods, 
 between the few Gipsies who are constantly on 
 the move and Gipsies who encamp in one spot for 
 months at a time. The police force, I know, could 
 furnish two such men ; or better, there are Gipsies 
 qualified for the task, — John Roberts, for instance, 
 and any of his sons. 
 
250 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 They must possess a knowledge of the language, 
 the primary test of Gipsydom, Gipsy physique being 
 a secondary guide ; else they might class as " Gipsies" 
 the members of the London Lamb Lane encampment, , 
 of whom the author of a long article in the Weekly 
 Times (8th Feb. 1880) writes : — " After spending 
 several hours with these people in their tents and 
 caravans, and passing from yard to yard, asking the 
 talkative ones questions, we came to the conclusion 
 that, in the whole bounds of this great metropolis, it 
 would have been impossible to have found any mis- 
 calling themselves Gipsies, whose mode of living more 
 urgently called for the remedial action of the law than 
 the tenants of Lamb Lane. In the first place, there 
 was not a true Gipsy amongst them ; nor one man, 
 woman, or child who could in any degree claim 
 relationship with a Gipsy." That tent-dwellers of 
 this stamp should ever be confounded with Gipsies 
 seems to anyone knowing anything of the latter as 
 absurd as would the confounding of quack-doctors 
 with regular practitioners, of Irvingites with Catholics. 
 There is a likeness, but likeness is sometimes the 
 deepest ground for difference. 
 
 Gipsies are a race as distinct as Jews from the 
 nations among whom they dwell, though like Jews 
 they have wedded with the sons and daughters of the 
 land, — with peasants, miners, shopkeepers, farmers 
 often, with native tramps and jail-birds hardly ever. 
 As I write, three Romani pedigrees lie before me, 
 extending respectively over four, four, and six genera- 
 
BREEDING OF JAIL-BIRDS. 25 I 
 
 tions.^ The first, Sylvester Boswell's, printed in Smart 
 and Crofton's Dialect of the English Gipsies, pp. 
 252-54, includes 68 members, all of them seemingly 
 full-blood Gipsies. In the second, Silvanus Lovell's 
 (114 members), three marriages occur, in the third 
 and fourth generations, with a horse-dealer, a pub- 
 lican's daughter, and a farmer. The third compre- 
 hends 235 descendants of Abraham Wood; and in 
 this the marriages with gorgios outnumber those with 
 Romane, such gorgios being of all degrees, from a 
 methodist preacher to an astronomer, but only one of 
 
 ' These pedigrees afford some evidence of the rarity of Gipsies 
 mating with jail-birds ; but a more satisfactory, because much wider, 
 proof exists in the entire absence of Cant words from Romanes, and 
 the almost entire absence of Romani words from Cant. In Hotten's 
 Slang Dictionary many of the words marked "Gipsy" are as little 
 Romanes as they are Iroquois, e.g. , bamboozle, bloke, cheese, gad, lunan, 
 moke, mart, rig, slang, and snack. Of terms of indubitable Romani 
 origin, the following is the sum total : — bosli, fiddle {bSshomcngri] ; 
 cosh, life-preserver (kosht, stick) ; couter, sovereign [kotor, piece, guinea); 
 clicking, watching (dikava, I see) ; dookin, fortune-telling (diikeniva, I 
 tell fortunes) ; drum, road [drom] ; gorger, swell (gorgio, Gentile) ; Jibb, 
 tongue (ehib) ; lob, word (lazi) ; HI, pocketbook {HI, book) ; loaver, 
 money (Ioto) ; munging, whining, begging [niongiiva, I beg or pray) ; 
 nark, to "nose" or suspect («o/!', a nose) ; /a/, friend [pal, brother); 
 parney, rain {pani, water) ; posh, halfpenny {posh-hSrri); puckering, 
 talking privately (pilkerdva, I tell ; raclan, married woman (rakli, girl) ; 
 stir, prison {stdriben) ; vardo, waggon {vdrdo') ; and voker, talk [rokerava, 
 I speak). A few more words of doubtful etymology might perhaps be 
 added, e.g., dust, money (? dosta, plenty); and conk, nose (possibly 
 "Back Slang" from knoc, i.e., nok) ; but, even with these, the 
 Romani elements of Cant are greatly outnumbered by the Hebrew 
 and the Italian. Several, too, of the above words are now disused 
 by Gipsies, as having become intelligible to those by whom they would 
 not wish to be understood. Thus wongar {lit. coals) is now universally 
 substituted by metropolitan Gipsies for lovo, which had crept into Cant 
 as early as 1567. This surely is a significant fact. 
 
252 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 them (in the fourth generation) a clwrcdo, an Irish 
 tinker, like him above the pool. 
 
 The offspring of such mixed marriages are some- 
 times gorgios, as in the case of the Ingram family, ^ 
 and sometimes Gipsies, like the Robertses, John and 
 his wife being both great-grandchildren of Abraham 
 Wood, but both of pure descent only upon one 
 parent's side. By g6rgios, I mean that they have not 
 the Romani look, language, habits, and modes of 
 thought ; by Gipsies, that they retain these distin- 
 guishing marks in a greater or less degree. These 
 marks may co-exist in one and the same person, e.g. 
 in Silvanus, a full-blood Gipsy, whose face is of a 
 thoroughly un-English type, whole sentences of 
 whose Romanes would be quite intelligible to Turkish 
 Tchinghianes, who was born in a tent and hopes to 
 die in one, whose heart is as Romani as his face is 
 brown. John, on the other hand, has for years been 
 a house-dweller, and bears few traces of the Romani 
 blood, yet speaks the language with far greater purity 
 than Silvanus, and is a storehouse of old Gipsy beliefs 
 that are lost to his English brethren. Are we to pro- 
 nounce him a gorgio, because he lives between four 
 walls, and is not so dark as several of his own sons ? 
 or the Crink down the lane a Gipsy on the score of 
 his tattered tent ? Assuredly not ; one might as 
 fairly make an old-clo' bag and hooked nose the sine 
 qiid non of Jewish nationality. Still, these three cases 
 illustrate the difficulty of drawing a hard and, fast 
 line between Gipsies and non-Gipsies, and show the 
 
"ROMANO SHAN TU ? " 253 
 
 one satisfactory test to be that of Language. Of 
 course every speaker of Romanes is not a Gipsy, any 
 more than a Hebrew scholar is necessarily a Jew; but 
 I would not admit the converse, that there are Gipsies 
 ignorant of Romanes. "Sar shan, bor?" — "So si tiro 
 nav?" — "Romano shan tu?" these are easy shibboleths 
 by which the takers of our imaginary census would 
 determine the title of claimants to Romani birth. 
 
 Only by such a census could the question of Gipsy 
 criminality be satisfactorily decided for or against the 
 race, since who can at present say whether " Gipsy " 
 lawbreakers of newspaper reports really belong to it 
 or not ? — J. Hodgkiss and S. Udall, for instance, who 
 were fined at Rugeley for " pitching their tents on the 
 highway at King's Bromley, ist November 1879." 
 With only their names to go by, I incline to pro- 
 nounce them gorgio besom-makers; but herein I may 
 be wrong, as one now and then comes on real Gipsies 
 with very un-Gipsy names. Still, the case is a typical 
 one, showing that Samuel Roberts had possibly some 
 grounds for writing, that " there are vagabonds per- 
 sonating Gipsies and often passing for them, and it is 
 not improbable but the most of those who have been 
 convicted of the greater crimes have been of that 
 description of vagrants." I find among my notes 
 upon "Gipsy" offenders, a Luke Castle, Samuel 
 Wheeler, Mary Jones,^ Elizabeth Hamilton, Sam 
 
 1 This lady, who got a month's hard labour in Carmarthen gaol for 
 vaf^rancy, seems to have been rather a remarkable character. "On 
 her person was found £(>, is. lod. in cash, and promissory notes to 
 
254 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 Herbert, Mary Holt, John Davies, &c, names that 
 are not suggestive of Romani origin. 
 
 As regards the wellbeing or poverty of Gipsies, 
 my present knowledge leads me fully to endorse Mr 
 Leland's assertion, in a long letter to the Standard 
 (19th August 1879), that "a real Gipsy who cannot 
 in an emergency find his ten, or even twenty pounds, 
 is a very exceptional character." How many of our 
 labouring or middle classes could expend from i^20 
 to ^^130 upon a house? Yet the price of a Gipsy 
 sleeping-waggon ranges between these sums, ^^40 
 being probably about the average. There are of 
 course gradations of prosperity ; but I suppose that 
 the percentage of " Poor " is infinitely higher among 
 our native population than in the Gipsy families of 
 Lovell, Stanley, Boswell, Heme, Chilcott, Young, 
 Lee, Reynolds, Buckland, Smith, Gray, Shaw, Cooper, 
 Worton, Pinfold, Draper, Taylor, and Bunce. A 
 census should prove or disprove my supposition. 
 
 Gipsy illiterates would assuredly outnumber Gipsy 
 literates, though the proportion would vary greatly 
 with the locality, most perhaps of the Welsh Gipsies, 
 a fair number of the Lancashire Gipsies, very few of 
 the East Anglian Gipsies, being able to read and 
 write. It is also questionable whether this illiteracy 
 does not arise as much from schoolmasters' aversion 
 to Gipsies, as from Gipsies' aversion to schoolmasters. 
 
 the amount of upwards of i^200 ; and she had besides, in six or seven 
 bags, II shirts, 10 caps, 3 cotton gowns, 15 handkerchiefs, 3 pairs of 
 stockings, and 20 other articles of clothing." 
 
CONTAMINATION. 255 
 
 In how many of the places where Romane most do 
 congregate, where they stop for whole months at 
 a time, have any attempts been made to get the 
 children to school ? and where such have been made, 
 what has been the attitude of Gipsy and of Gentile 
 thereunto ? My own observation in this respect, at 
 Notting Hill and elsewhere, is too narrow for me to 
 come to a definite opinion, but possibly the remarks 
 in Boner's Transylvania (Lond. 1865) are partly 
 applicable to England. " Everywhere," he writes on 
 p. 348, "there is a degree of prejudice against Gipsies, 
 they being, as it were, the Pariahs of Europe. But 
 this is much stronger in the country than the town, 
 the peasant being far more conservative and aristo- 
 cratic in his notions than the citizen. And thus it 
 happens, that in the villages no Gipsies attend the 
 schools, as the peasants do not like to see their chil- 
 dren sitting beside them. It is the same sort of feeling 
 that exists in America towards the black population. 
 Yet in the Saxon town of Bistritz several Gipsy chil- 
 dren frequented the public school ; their parents lived 
 in a good house at the end of the town ; and I found 
 the boys could read and write and cipher well. At 
 first the townspeople wished to have their children 
 separated from those of Gipsy parents ; but the 
 rector refused, saying, if they came to school cleanly 
 and neat, there was no reason why all should not 
 sit together ; and they came in as orderly a condition 
 as the others." Just so the Edinburgh townsfolk 
 feared that their children would be " contaminated " 
 
256 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 by the little Smiths ; and verily, if those Smiths 
 were squalid, half-naked, hedge-bottom heathens, the 
 fear does not seem so altogether groundless. If 
 they were not, but were so miscalled, the fear would 
 be groundless, but might still remain ; the Smiths 
 might thereby be excluded from school ; and the 
 fault of their exclusion would lie with the epithet- 
 coiners. 
 
 Let me mention a fact that fell within my own 
 experience. A Gipsy widow, a Catholic, was killed 
 in a railway accident. Her brother-in-law heard 
 from the people where he was stopping that two of 
 her boys might perhaps be got into a Catholic 
 orphanage, and I called by his request on a neigh- 
 bouring priest to inquire about the matter. He 
 was a pleasant, courteous man, this priest, and 
 seemed interested in the case, till I mentioned that 
 the mother was a Gipsy. Then his whole manner 
 " we changed, and " You must be mistaken," he said ; 
 have nothing whatever to do with that kind of 
 people. Good morning." He knew, be it observed, 
 absolutely nothing of Gipsies, except by hearsay ; 
 by hearsay half our clergy and schoolmasters would 
 probably be led to make like answer. 
 
 In England, for my own part, I look for prejudice 
 against the Gipsies in cities rather than in rural 
 districts, less for the reason that town-bred Gipsies 
 are worse than their country cousins, than because 
 country folk know better than townspeople what 
 Gipsies really are. A singular reason this, if Gipsies 
 
PAGANS. 257 
 
 were all that they are said to be ! But take the 
 "Old Woman's" letter to the Standard (i6th August 
 1879), one of those letters that "unwittingly sub- 
 stantiated and backed up the cause of our roadside 
 Arabs." The grand-daughter of a miller-farmer, she 
 speaks of the Bosvvells as " friends," between whom 
 and her family a "kindly feeling" subsisted, and 
 who on one occasion offered to discharge a con- 
 siderable debt for her grandfather, a " kindness " 
 that was gratefully acknowledged. These were real, 
 old-fashioned Gipsies, who now, we are told, have 
 " become lewd and demoralised, if such a iking 
 could be." Perhaps it could not, for on 30th August 
 the Rev. J. Finch Smith, of Aldridge Rectory, near 
 Walsall, writes : — " During the thirty years that I 
 have been rector of this parish, members of the 
 Boswell family have been almost constantly resident 
 here. I buried the head of the family in 1874, who 
 died at the age of 87. He was a regular attendant 
 at the parish church, and failed not to bow his head 
 reverently when he entered within the house of God. 
 I never saw or heard any harm of the man. He was 
 a quiet and inoffensive man, and worked industriously 
 as a tinman within a short time of his death. If he 
 had rather a sharp eye for a little gift, that is a trait 
 of character by no means confined to Gipsies. One 
 of his daughters was married here to a member of the 
 Boswell tribe, and another, who rejoiced in the name 
 of Britannia, I buried in her father's grave two years 
 ago. After his death, she and her mother removed 
 
 R 
 
258 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 to an adjoining parish, where she was confirmed by 
 Bishop Selwyn in 1876. Regular as was the old man 
 at church, I never could persuade his wife to come. 
 In 1859 I baptised, privately, an infant of the same 
 tribe, whose parents were travelling through the 
 parish, and whose mother was named Elvira. Great 
 was the admiration of my domestics at the sight of 
 the beautiful lace which ornamented the robe in 
 which the child was brought to my house. Clearly 
 there are Gipsies, and those of a well-known tribe, 
 glad to receive the ministrations of the church." 
 
 Clearly, too, at Aldridge, and in that miller's vil- 
 lage (whose name unfortunately is not given), Gipsies 
 would hardly be looked upon as Pariahs ; but it is 
 not in villages that Gipsies generally make long halts. 
 A night at B, two days at C, a week perhaps at D, 
 three days at E, — thus they perform their summer 
 circuits ; whereas in the winter three-fourths at least 
 of the nomades cease to be migratory, assembling 
 on the outskirts of large towns. At Gorton, Clayton, 
 Bradford, Harpurhey, and Cheetham, near Manches- 
 ter, over 200 Gipsies may be found encamped from 
 the end of October to the beginning of April 
 (Crofton's Gipsy Life in Layicashire and Cheshire, 
 PP- 38, 39) ; and equally large encampments are 
 regularly formed at several points round London, as 
 well as near Bristol, Wolverhampton, Birmingham, 
 &c., — places where there are also Gipsies who have 
 not shifted their quarters for two, five, even sixteen 
 years. It is clear, then, that towns are the main 
 
THE SCHOOLMASTER .ABROAD. 259 
 
 battle-field of Romani education ; and this is the 
 more important, because in the conditions of a per- 
 manent encampment (for seven months or for seven 
 years) there is absolutely nothing to keep Gipsy 
 children from school. Let only their parents be 
 willing to send them, and schoolmasters be ready 
 to receive them, the battle at this point is won 
 without the striking of a single blow. 
 
 Now as regards the parents' willingness, we are 
 told by the Christian Herald (31st March 1880) 
 that "Mr Smith finds heartfelt syav^z.'dxY everywhere 
 among the Gipsies themselves ;" that they are sub- 
 scribing their halfpence and shillings to help him 
 in his work ; that one of them, " with hands uplifted 
 and tears in her eyes, which left no doubt of her 
 meaning, said, ' I do hope from the bottom of my 
 heart that God will bless and prosper you in the 
 work, till a law is passed, and the poor Gipsy chil- 
 dren are brought under the School Board, and their 
 parents compelled to send them to school as other 
 people are.' " Here, surely, must be some mistake, for 
 a law compelling willing parents to send their children 
 to school were like one forcing hungry folk to eat ; 
 and I own I partly agree with the School Guardian 
 (13th August 1879), that "it is not easy to see what 
 special legislation is to do for the 30,000 (!) little 
 Bohemians of one kind and another who are 
 constantly on the move in England and Wales. 
 Authority to send them to an Industrial School 
 seems to be one obvious want, and this there ought 
 
26o IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 to be no difficulty in obtaining; but it would not 
 meet the whole case." Decidedly it would not ; not 
 more, perhaps, than one-tenth of our Gipsy race, — the 
 remaining nine-tenths having shipped for America on 
 the very first hint that their children would be taken 
 from them. 
 
 That were one way, the shortest maybe, out of 
 the difficulty; but might not an ambulatory solution 
 first be tried, viz., by clergymen and pedagogues 
 trudging off to the Gipsy tents, and learning for 
 themselves whether the children come to school or 
 not, and if not why not, and whether there is no 
 mode of bringing them thither other than by an 
 Act of Parliament? Put your horse boldly at the 
 fence, and see if he will not clear it, before you go 
 to the trouble of having a crane erected to hoist him 
 over ; and for the life of me, I cannot see that at 
 present there is anything (barring possible prejudice) 
 to hinder the great majority of Gipsy children from 
 getting as good schooling as Ned Boswell's got at 
 their accustomed camping-place, Blackpool. 
 
 For the minority, the children of Gipsies who 
 wander the whole year through, Gipsies themselves 
 have furnished a suggestion. I lately received a 
 letter from one of some Lees, nomade Enelish 
 Gipsies who travel in North Wales. Illiterate like 
 most of their brethren, they are keeping with them 
 Elijah Wood, a Welsh Gipsy lad, who can read and 
 write well, so acts as their private secretary ; and, 
 more than that, is tutor to the entire family. My 
 
THE SCHOOLMASTER ABROAD. 26 1 
 
 letter was written by him, but at its foot stood a 
 huge and laborious " Manuel Lee," — a hint, it struck 
 me, to Gipsy educationists. My own experience is 
 that Romani children are delighted to spell, not 
 nose and ear and eye, but nok and kan and yok ; 
 and I propose that Gipsy schoolmasters should be 
 appointed for the children of our chief English 
 " Gipsyries." But where could they be found ? If 
 they were wanted, I would engage to find at least 
 a score. 
 
 Then there is the method of tent-instruction indi- 
 cated by " My Friend's Gipsy Journal," in Good 
 Words. If during the next four winters fifty ladies 
 would imitate the work that is there described, a 
 work which I know has had abiding effects, there 
 might be hundreds of Romani children able to read 
 Mr George Smith's Bill for Gipsy Education by the 
 time that it passes into law. 
 
 Its scope is this : — " The plan I would adopt is 
 to apply the principles of the Canal Boats Act of 
 1877 to all movable habitations — i.e., I would have 
 all tents, shows, caravans, auctioneers' vans, and like 
 places used as dwellings, registered and numbered, 
 and under proper sanitary arrangements and super- 
 vision of the sanitary inspectors and School Board 
 officers in every town and village. With regard to 
 the education of the children, when once the tent 
 or van is registered and numbered, whether travelling 
 as gipsies, auctioneers, &c., their children are mostly 
 idle during the day ; consequently, with a book 
 
262 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 similar to the half-time book, in which their names 
 and attendance at school could be entered, it could be 
 taken from place to place as they travel about, and 
 be endorsed by the schoolmaster, showing that the ,, 
 child was attending school. The education obtained 
 in this way would not be of the highest order ; but 
 through the kindness of the schoolmaster — for which 
 extra trouble he should be compensated, as he ought 
 to be under the Canal-Boats Act — and the vigilance 
 of the School Board visitor, a plain, practical, and 
 sound education could be imparted to and obtained 
 by these poor little gipsy children and roadside arabs, 
 who, if we do our duty, will be qualified to fill the 
 places of those of our best artisans who are leaving 
 the country to seek their fortunes abroad." 
 
 It is doubtless humiliating to begin by quarrelling 
 with a counsellor and end by accepting his counsel ; 
 but to the scheme of education here proposed I have 
 no objection to make. So far as I comprehend it, it 
 seems to me per se a wise and good one, though to 
 sedentary Gipsies it would apply not at all — to nomade 
 Gipsies, as a rule, for barely half the year. To the 
 terms of the proposal I have as strong an objection 
 as I might have were I a regular auctioneer. Arabs 
 and modern Egyptians make use of the very same 
 alphabet, but the Red Sea severs Egypt from Arabia ; 
 Gipsies and roadside arabs may have the same lessons 
 to learn, but their Isthmus of Suez is but a narrow link. 
 
 Nor, to have done with the unfamiliar subject of 
 education, do I object to this proposed registration of 
 
TENTS V. HOUSES. 263 
 
 Gipsy tents and caravans, though I may doubt whether 
 such registration is imperatively called for by sani- 
 tary considerations. This point could best be settled 
 by statistics, showing the death-rate of Gipsy families. 
 As a beginning, I offer the following : — Bazena Clifton 
 (16 children, 15 living), Silvanus Lovell (13 children, 
 12 living), Sylvester Boswell (8 children, 7 living), 
 Noah Boswell (14 children, 13 living), Edward Taylor 
 (13 children, 10 living), Elijah Smith (9 children, 8 
 living), Ezekiel Boswell (5 children, 4 living), John 
 Wood (7 children, all living), and Harry Organ, half- 
 breed (6 children, all living). Dr Bath Smart should 
 be able to furnish valuable information on this sub- 
 ject ; but complete statistics could only be obtained 
 by a Gipsy census. Meanwhile, I ask whether, for 
 every unwholesome Gipsy tent and caravan ^ there are 
 not a dozen such houses as that described in Weyl- 
 land's Round the Tower (Lond. 1875), p. 36 : — "There 
 are eight rooms, one of which measures 18 feet by 10. 
 Beds are arranged on each side of it, and are com- 
 posed of bundles of straw, shavings, and rags. In 
 this one room there slept last night twenty-seven 
 male and female adults, thirty-one children, and 
 
 ■ Mr Smith must have felt inclined to say to the sketchers of "Gipsy 
 Life" for the Graphic and Illustrated : — "I took thee to curse them, 
 and, behold, thou hast blessed them altogether." In the one instance 
 where the curse does fall, the "Tent upon Mitchara Common," it 
 seems to have fallen on goigios, to judge at least from attitude and 
 physiognomy. It was unlucky, too, that tent-dwelling Gipsy misery 
 should have so often been confronted in those papers with house- 
 dwelling Irish comfort — the "Interior of a Van near Latimer Road," 
 with "A Bog-trotter's Cabin, Ballintober Bog." 
 
264 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 three dogs ; fifty-eight human beings were breathing 
 the contaminated air of a close room, the window of 
 which I never see open." A dozen to one ! why, all 
 the Gipsy tents in England, good, bad, and indif- 
 ferent, must be far outnumbered by the dens of 
 Spitalfields alone, if the Rector of Spitalfields tells 
 aught of truth in his letter to the Times of 24th 
 April 1880. "Working-Men's Lodgings" is its title; 
 and it describes how, " in the lodging-houses, respect- 
 able artizans and working-men find their wives and 
 children exposed to the vitiating influences of the 
 society and companionship of the very dregs of the 
 population, and for many there is no means of escape. 
 The statistics afforded by a house-to-house visitation 
 of any street in this parish, where large tenements are 
 let out in lodgings, are appalling. The overcrowd- 
 ing is awful, and destructive of all sense of decency 
 and propriety. Among a population of over 20,000, 
 mostly poor, and many very poor, there are hundreds 
 of large families occupying one room, and paying for 
 this a very considerable weekly rent." I can well 
 believe that work among slums like these is less 
 interesting and less conspicuous than work among 
 Gipsy tents ; but query, is it not more required ? 
 
 And yet I do advocate Gipsies' registration thus. 
 The details of the system are unknown to me, but 
 in Germany, Gipsies, on reaching a strange town or 
 village, go straight to the police-station, exhibit their 
 passes, and inquire where they have leave to stop. 
 " Nowhere," an English policeman would answer ; 
 
MORE FANCIES. 265 
 
 but Gipsies, while Gipsies are, must needs stop some- 
 where ; so ours, in flat defiance of law, camp in green 
 lane, on common, or by roadside, and are fined on the 
 morrow for breaking a Highway Act. Or else they 
 get leave to "draw into" private ground, and heavily 
 they often have to pay for it. Those Reynoldses, 
 whom Willy Faa was speaking of, number six 
 adults and three children ; for permission to camp 
 upon Fisherrow Links, they paid the Musselburgh 
 Corporation a guinea a week {i.e., at the rate of ^^54 
 a year), and had besides to hire a meadow in which 
 to "field" their horses. I propose, then, that some 
 such system as the German be adopted. All Gipsies, 
 entered in our imaginary census, should be at liberty 
 to take out travelling licences, tenable during good 
 conduct, and stipulating, it might be, for the educa- 
 tion of their holders' children. The cost of such 
 licences might be fairly high (say £s), so long as 
 their privileges answered to their cost. Scattered 
 through England, there still are scores of places 
 where Gipsies formerly camped with no offence to 
 any one, and where they would camp to-day, if only 
 they durst. The re-opening of these to licence-hold- 
 ing Gipsies would be one obvious privilege. Among 
 minor boons, such as Gipsies themselves could best 
 suggest, might be renewed permission to "put up 
 cocoanuts" at the Epsom, Ascot, and other great 
 race-meetings. Why, unless in low betting men's 
 interest, the game was ever prohibited, is more than 
 I can say ; but I know that a few years back it 
 
266 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 brought in many an honest shilHng to the younger 
 members of the Gipsy families, often from £i to ;^3 
 a day. 
 
 Heighho ! while I thus sat and pondered these 
 Utopian daydreams, with a Httle more perhaps and a 
 great deal less, the day had cleared ; and in the 
 brightening sky I read an augury of brighter things, 
 — cocoanuts and industrial schools, licences and lanes, 
 paced not by " hangmen," but by sanitary inspectors. 
 By the end of my musings and sixth pipe I was 
 almost alone, Lementina having started after all for 
 Madam Morgan's, Silvanus gone down into the town 
 for the condiments of some horrible cow-draught, and 
 the rest dispersed on various missions of business and 
 amusement. Only Dimiti sat by me, with puckered 
 forehead and solemn gaze ; and him I despatched to 
 the farm to fetch me my fishing-rod. 
 
 " You won't catch much on the fly with this fresh 
 on," he remarked ; and " No," I answered ; " but you 
 shall find me some worms, and I'll try my luck with 
 them." So he brought me my tackle, and, walking 
 with me to the bridge, got me some delicate grubs, 
 with which I did catch two or three small trout, not 
 much to boast of, still something towards a dish. 
 
 And as I angled, Dimiti told me how in the Snaky 
 Lane he " lay awake onest, just when it was coming 
 peep o' day ; and when I'd be looking up the trees, 
 I could see little men and carriages sitting in the 
 branches, as plain as could be. Beautifully dressed 
 they were, bor, all in green clothes like, and some in 
 
CHILD DIMITI. 267 
 
 white, and some in all sorts of colours. Oaktrees is 
 really the only trees I ever seen 'em on ; and they'd 
 sway themselves up and down every time as the 
 boughs would shake." 
 
 Anon he chattered of " canbottles," " peggies," 
 " charts," and other birds with quaint provincial 
 names, unknown to scientific ornithology ; and while 
 he chattered, I thought of Kingsley's Westiuard Ho ! 
 of Amyas Leigh, who " though he had never had a 
 single 'object lesson,' or been taught to 'use his 
 intellectual powers,' knew the names and ways of 
 every bird and fish and fly." I am not sure, Dimiti, 
 that I should take such pleasure in your company, 
 were you a reader of " Penny Dreadfuls," the current 
 literature of England's poor, or even were you 
 crammed with all the ologies that go to make up 
 liberal education. Like Amyas, you certainly' are 
 grossly ignorant in science and religion, but also, it 
 may be, in some of the evil one learns at a public 
 school. You have picked up " fallen stars," have 
 you, " very cold, and like jelly, and just as big as 
 saucers ; " and you really believe that toothache may 
 be removed by a ceaseless cry of " O my dear blessed 
 Lord, do send me well ! " You think it good fun to 
 play malade imaginaire, when, camped on forbidden 
 ground, your daddy snifts a policeman in the air ; 
 policemen to you, as to all your backsliding race, are 
 natural enemies, emblems of progress, i.e. of " moving 
 on." You will always be thankful that you were not 
 born a gorgio, and will strive to improve your talents, 
 
268 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 especially in horse-dealing ; and two or three times a 
 year you will probably get drunk, at the cost of the 
 dancers to your fiddling. For you with violin, and 
 the future Mrs Dimiti with tambourine, will " excite 
 the unholy dance, technically called the two-penny 
 hop ; " and that, say theologians, is an offence 
 unpardonable even to the most loving, generous, 
 trusting, pleasant nature in the world. I don't mean, 
 Dimiti, that these are your good points ; for let whoso 
 will dissect the Romani heart, and fail, as everyone 
 has failed before him. But somewhat like this you 
 will live, and will rear innumerable dusky children, 
 and spoil them shamefully ; and you will be known 
 to a good many friends, unknown to many more 
 detractors. At last you will die and be buried, and 
 crowds of g6rgios will attend your funeral. One of 
 them will suggest, perhaps, that Gipsies have got no 
 souls ; but more likely nobody will trouble himself 
 at all about the matter. Well, I must be off now, 
 for I have a lot of writing to do this evening, — a 
 letter, namely, to the waste-paper basket of the 
 Standard editor. 
 
C^aptir Piiitj^. 
 
 |N SUNDAY at noon, John Roberts joined 
 me on Dolgelly bridge. He looked more 
 than ever hke a disguised divine, and the 
 wonder was that they had not asked him 
 to preach at the Welsh service, which he had just 
 attended. Seeing him coming, I hailed him from 
 afar, " Sor shan, mi'ro parchano simensa ? " and 
 thought that at last I had caught the right intonation. 
 But no ; he was hardly beside me before he began 
 that it was easy to see whom I had been studying 
 under; " which Mr Silvanus Lovell is a very agreeable 
 gentleman, as I am proud to own him for a cousin ; 
 but, to tell the truth, I can assure you that when I did 
 speak with him the other evening, all he could answer 
 was, ' Yes, I jon, my brother ; ' instead of saying ' Na 
 jona ma kek so penesa.' Now, I should be shamed to 
 call myself Romano, and not know our mother's old 
 language no better nor that ; and that, when I was 
 talking, gorgios should understand the half of my 
 words, and so should make fun upon my head. Now, 
 Mr Groome, I want you to take particular notice to 
 
 269 
 
270 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 this ch and the oiv and mw, such as chobben, not 
 hobben, ' victuals.' Ow is an article, such as ' the or a 
 sheep ; ' and mw can often be introduced instead of 
 viero. We often exempt the r in the word, as it 
 comes better after some other words, when placed 
 proper. Instead of saying, ' Mero pall is jailed to the 
 gav,' say ' Mw pall geyas kai ow gav ; ' and the g in 
 geyas sounds like the beginning oi gatlier. Now with 
 regard to the word parcliannay, the word means 
 ' respected ' (plural), parcliarmo (singular) for a gentle- 
 man, parchaiinee for a lady, parcJiannay for both ; 
 tatchano for a gentleman, tatcliannee for a lady, 
 tatchanay for both. Now, the ch when sounded in 
 the word parcliannay, you got to make a curious 
 sound by letting the sides of your tongue touching 
 the grinders in the upper range of your teeth." 
 
 " Mercy on us, John, your phonetics are as formid- 
 able as a German professor's ; and certainly, when a 
 Chair of Romanes is founded at either of our uni- 
 versities, you shall be its first occupant. But I should 
 like that better in a letter, for when you pour it forth 
 so fast, half of it gets spilt ; with Silvanus I can only 
 say, ' I jon.' But how was it that you were away 
 from home when I ran over to Newtown ten days 
 since ? You wrote me word that you probably would 
 not be going out at all this summer." 
 
 " And so I did ; for, through one of my sons being 
 down at Welshpool, playing for the officers' mess, we 
 were very unsettled in our minds which way to take 
 for the best, for a summer's tour ; and also through 
 
MY MASTER. 27 1 
 
 all our singing, as we use to do in our concerts, being 
 turned into a lot of barking dogs, which we all more 
 or less were touched with a wilful cold. But now we 
 have come to a conclusion to keep around the coast, 
 through the following towns, that is, Machynlleth, 
 Towyn, Dolgelly, Barmouth, Harlech, Portmadoc, 
 and on to Carnarvon, and in the Isle of Anglesea, 
 and out again. And from Bangor I did come over 
 to Dolgelly, to play for this wedding, being as the 
 miller Mr Thomas's mother was second cousin to my 
 own father, John Robert Lewis of Pentre Foelas." 
 
 " Well I was quite disappointed at finding your 
 house shut up, for I had been reckoning on our 
 meeting, especially after my failure to visit you last 
 Christmas." 
 
 " And was not I grieved and sorry then ; for I do 
 assure you I was so glad that you was coming to 
 Newtown, so as you might have the chance to aug- 
 ment your knowledge, by hearing the true language 
 spoken by my wife and myself and a cousin of mine 
 which lives in the town. Had you have heard us 
 three, you would hear it so purely spoken, which you 
 would feel that proud that you would actually say, ' I 
 will take you three up to London, and challenge all 
 the Romany folk about there, around the town.' 
 You must bear in mind, Mr Groome, that there are 
 several instruction music-books for different instru- 
 ments, but there is nothing like a master after all to 
 get into the right way. I hope you will pardon me 
 for being so plain." 
 
272 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 "Surely, O Master. But what do you say, then, 
 to all the plain truths contained in these letters to 
 the Standard ? You have seen or heard of them ? " 
 
 " No ; what letters ? " 
 
 " Why, about the Romane, that they are mongrels 
 and heathens, and wickedness knows what else. 
 Gooseberries and Gipsies are filling up half the paper, 
 and the ones are more monstrous than the others." 
 
 " No, I never seen no letters, lately leastwise. I 
 remember I did read something in some paper two or 
 three years ago, that a Mr Somebody wrote,i which 
 I thought to answer it in real good style ; and he 
 well deserved it, for I never read such rubbish in my 
 life. Such gentry like them ought to be downright 
 shamed to attempt to do such things, and not knowing 
 anything of the language. It would serve them right 
 if I were to write a whole Romany letter in one of 
 those papers, and to challenge e'er a one of them to 
 answer it. Now, what do you think is best for me to 
 do ? When I see such things in the papers, I get 
 very much vexed." 
 
 " I shouldn't wonder, but I have posted an answer 
 myself to these letters, proving that Gipsies out-Angle 
 the Angles in angelic qualities. When it appears, 
 you shall write and back it up, — in English, though, 
 not Romanes. Will you ? " 
 
 " To the utmost of my ability I will, and glad of 
 
 • I rather think this letter was by myself. At least I know of none 
 by any other to which John's words could refer. 
 
MY COLLABORATEUR. 273 
 
 it, being as it has often occurred to me how I should 
 like for you and me to bring a good book out, and 
 show before the world that there must be something 
 very far and unaccountable belonging to our race of 
 people, also to put some of those gentry in the shades, 
 if possible, whom has wrote such a lot of trash, 
 especially when it comes to the Romany language. 
 There they do make a awful havock of it. It grieves 
 me to think that my poor mother's language should 
 be so much messed about by such gentlemen as 
 knows but little about it, and wrongly informed in 
 many other things as well. They pretends to be 
 something what they cannot come to." 
 
 " Good, John. You and I will bring out a book ; 
 and its title shall be Roniani Bai'ds and Gorgio 
 Revilers ; and there shall be a picture of you, robed 
 in your sable garb of woe, for frontispiece." 
 
 " Yes, a bookplate of me, playing my ancient prize 
 Welsh instrument, with all my exercitations for our 
 race." 
 
 " I don't quite follow you — exertions, how ? " 
 
 " Why, how I have often had a great desire that I 
 should be permitted to go with my harp to visit some 
 English camps, and to play for them first of all, so as 
 they might not jeer me, and to try to say some little 
 to them about our Blessed Saviour. I feel a great 
 deal in that way ; and if I could do them any good, 
 I would with all my heart, that is, if they would take 
 it in that light." 
 
 " So, I see ; exertions you mean that you would 
 
 S 
 
274 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 undertake, if only you saw your way. But up by 
 London the Gipsies themselves are preachers to the 
 Gentiles. There is Wester Lee's sister preaches ; and 
 by Shoreditch station I have read posters announcing 
 Sermons by Converted Gipsies ; and from Essex a 
 friend once sent me a bill to the effect that Gipsies 
 had hired a field (admission 3d.), and would hold a 
 prayer-meeting (D. V.) on such and such a date. 
 And yet the Gipsies are accounted heathens." 
 
 " Heathens ! " — (with a small shriek) — " why, all our 
 people were born, christened, and buried properly. I 
 can almost tell the names of all the places, with the 
 exception of my Uncle Valentine and my grand- 
 father, William Wood. Of course I am also unable 
 to say where my great-grandfather was born and 
 christened. But there are hardly any now among our 
 people, but what are turned either to the church or 
 the chapel, and a good many to the ^tholic chapel." 
 
 " Catholics, eh ? That's curious in this land of 
 Methodism ; though I know that English Gipsies have 
 retained a few rags of Papistry, such as crossing 
 themselves to drive away the cramp, and keeping ' a 
 kind of inverted Lent,' as Mr Crofton calls it, by 
 abstaining from flesh for five Fridays following Good 
 Friday. But there are very few real Catholics among 
 them ; and I remember with some of the Bucklands 
 at Oxford there was a regular No Popery row, be- 
 cause one of the women had taken her baby to be 
 christened at St Aloysius." 
 
 " Well, my old grandmother, you know, was one of 
 
THE SIN OF GIPSY MARY. 275 
 
 the Stanleys, and she used always to count her beads 
 that were around her neck every morning when she 
 rose up from her bed, and when she used to go upon 
 her knees to say her prayers. But didn't I never tell 
 you how Gipsy Mary got turned to be a Catholic ? " 
 " Never, that I remember. How was that ? " 
 " One of the Prices she was, kinsfolk of the 
 Ingrams, and she married my Aunt Silvi'na's second 
 son. Black Billy. And she was a very poor fortune- 
 teller, and none of our people would show her the 
 genuine way, because she had such an evil tongue. 
 So she had to do the best she could to come over the 
 gorgios in her own way, and 'ticing them to do many 
 a foolish little thing, to get their money. And there 
 was one time that she found out a house to tell 
 fortunes at, and she got a five-pound note off the 
 woman, and told her to go to the shop and buy a 
 pound of soap, and to go to some running water and 
 wash, and was to say, ' I wash myself away from God 
 Almighty, I wash myself away from God Almighty.' 
 And after she did that, the gorgie went mad, and she 
 was taken to the Denbigh Asylum, and died there. 
 But poor Gipsy Mary had three years illness for per- 
 suading the foolish woman to do such wickedness, 
 and she was quite unable to walk during the whole of 
 that time. When they used to be travelling, she used 
 to be carried upon a donkey ; and her husband used 
 to lift her up and down, and had a great deal of 
 trouble with her. Still and all she used to chatter 
 away like a magpie ; and neither her husband or her 
 
276 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 never attended a place of worship at any time, but 
 still they were both of them very fond of hearing the 
 Scriptures read to them, on a Sunday particularly, 
 for I have read for them a many time. But it 
 appears one time that they were in some part of 
 Flintshire, and near a Catholic chapel ; that she had 
 a great desire of going to one for the first time, that 
 she should say, ' Billy, don't you think that you could 
 carry me to the chapel door, as I may have a chance 
 to hear some little bit?' When my cousin William 
 said, ' I will, my dear, and glad of it.' Her wishes 
 were complied with ; when she only attended a few 
 Sundays until she got quite well, and she is well and 
 hearty ever since. And she sticks faithful and true 
 to her chapel. I have seen her many times after she 
 came through that illness, and she told me many times 
 she thought that if she only once could have the 
 chance to go to a place of worship, that she would 
 get better. And so she did ; and I am proud to say 
 that she has been the cause of many of our family to 
 do the same. All of my wife's family are Catholics, 
 and I had some of my uncles and aunts, that are 
 dead, the same." 
 
 "But you yourself, John, belong to the Church of 
 England, do you not?" 
 
 "Ay, sure. Before I had my discharge from the 
 23d Fusileers, I used to keep myself in some curious 
 ways ; but after, and when I went to a place of wor- 
 ship on Sundays, I found myself beginning to be 
 more contented. I did also turn my mother to her 
 
"A VERY GREAT TURNING." 277 
 
 church, and she had a very great turning, and I think 
 she died happy, poor old woman ; and I must say the 
 same for my poor old father. Now my wife, James, 
 Albert, and Charley, belong to the Baptist chapel ; 
 Lloyd Wynne, Madoc, Johnny, Sarah, Anne, Reuben, 
 Ernest, Wilhe, and myself, belongs to the Church. So 
 you see in one family there is a little difference between 
 us ; still it does not matter where we go so long as wc 
 keep our mind with God." 
 
 " Well, that was a strange conversion, Gipsy Mary's. 
 Are she and her husband living now ? " 
 
 " She is ; but with regard to my poor cousin, William 
 Wood, he died one of these last days, and was buried 
 quite respectable in a town called Amlwch, in the 
 county of Anglesea. They were both of them older 
 than me of some ten or twelve years, and for some 
 time they did keep a small shop back in this town 
 here, and he attended public and private parties 
 with his Welsh harp and violin when wanted. She 
 is a very good little woman, Mary his wife ; and 
 him, poor fellow, he could not read nor write, but 
 between service times on Sundays he used to open 
 his Bible, and look at it for the space of a half an 
 hour without taking his eyes off it, thinking that 
 would be some good for him." 
 
 " And had they any children ? " 
 
 " Only two ; Caroline, which married Bena Wood, 
 William and Black Nell's son ; and the other was 
 a boy, and was drowned, poor thing, bathing at 
 Aberdovey. And I could tell you something very 
 
278 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 unaccountable about that, but I can only give you 
 a little account. There used to be in the dining-room 
 at Kinmel Park— a very large gentleman's house 
 where I in generally play at — a very large picture 
 with two or three different plates upon it of our 
 Blessed Saviour, how he was served by the cruel 
 Jews, just like some poor dear Romano Chal with 
 a lot of nasty spiteful gorgios round him. One of 
 the forms was with his hand on his face, and his 
 fingers extended, and his hair all over his forehead, 
 looking very pitiful, and as much as to say, ' Look 
 what I've come to.' And my poor Cousin Billy 
 looked the very same, when sitting down on the 
 grass, and his wife opposite him, and his poor 
 drownded boy in some kind of an old building 
 behind him, and did not know what to do. It 
 struck me there and then how very much he looked 
 like that picture. I am sorry that I can't explain 
 it to you so well as I felt it." 
 
 " I think I know what you mean, for I have often 
 been struck myself by the likeness that Romane 
 find between themselves and Mi-Din>el} who was no 
 house-dweller, and rode upon a donkey. But do 
 you know, John, that down in Montenegro, close to 
 
 1 "In the language of the Gipsies," writes Max MiiUer, " devel, 
 meaning God, is connected with Sanskrit deva;" but the word's 
 chance resemblance to our dez'il has led to one strange misunderstanding 
 in "My Friend's Gipsy Journal" : — "When my friend once read the 
 psalm in which the expression ' King of Glory ' occurs, and asked a 
 Gipsy if he could say to whom it applied, she was horrified by his glib 
 answer, ' Oh yes, Miss, to the devil ! ' " 
 
A MONTENEGRIN LEGEND. 279 
 
 Turkey, it is said that a Gipsy forged tlie nails for 
 the Crucifixion, and that on that account his race 
 has henceforth been accursed of Heaven ? " 
 
 " Oh ! that is a most wicked falsehood. Why, you 
 know yourself (now don't you ?), no Roman^ can't 
 ever abear a Jew, because they were the people that 
 murdered our Blessed Lord ? " 
 
 " H'm. One of the Coopers has a Jewess for ser- 
 vant. Still, I fully agree with you that the legend 
 was fabricated by gorgios ; and it seems to have been 
 quite as unpalatable to foreign Gipsies as to you. 
 For those of Alsace have a legend of their own, 
 opposed to, and probably devised expressly to refute 
 it. How there were two Jew brothers, Schmul and 
 Rom-Schmul. The first of them exulted at the 
 Crucifixion ; the other would gladly have saved our 
 Lord from death, and, finding that impossible, did 
 what he could, pilfered one of the nails. So it came 
 about that Christ's feet must be placed one over the 
 other and fastened with a single nail. And Schmul 
 remained a Jew, but Rom-Schmul turned Christian, 
 and was the founder of the Romani race." 
 
 Those two legends are given, the one in Dr B. 
 Bogisic's article on " Die slavisirten Zigeuner in 
 Montenegro" {Das Ansland, 25th May 1874), the 
 second in Dr G. Miihl's " Die Zigeuner in Elsass 
 und in Deutschlothringen " {Der Salon, 1874). The 
 first at least is of high antiquity, if as I conceive, it 
 is alluded to in " S. Joannis Theologi Commentarius 
 Apocryphus MS. de J. C." (? No. 929 or 102 1, Colbert 
 
28o IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 Coll. Paris Cat. MSS.). Whatever the date of that 
 Greek manuscript may be, it is certainly early ; and 
 there, according to a citation in Meursius's Glossarium 
 GrcBcobarbaruin, a komodroinos is represented as help- 
 ing to crucify Christ {koL ore (pddcrcocnv el<; tov tottov, 
 iXdoiV 6 Kco/u.oSp6/j.o<; a? aravpwaeL avTov). Here to 
 endeavour fully to identify our modern Gipsies with 
 the kouwdroinoi of Byzantine writers would take too 
 long, but the following are the main grounds of the 
 proposed identification. Firstly, Du Cange defines 
 koinodromoi as " roamers {circiilatores) and copper- 
 smiths, who rove about the country, like those in 
 our midst to-day whom we call Chaudroniiiers ;" 
 the modern Roumanian Gipsies are divided into 
 certain classes — Calderari (kettle- smiths), Aurari 
 (gold -workers), &c. Secondly, the five passages 
 quoted by Du Cange show that the kovwdromos 
 was variously a coppersmith {cJialkeus) and a gold- 
 worker {chrysochSos), and that the coppersmith used 
 bellows made of skins, which at once recalls Harff's 
 admiration at the bellows of Naupliote Gipsies in 
 1497. Small points enough these, but they must 
 be viewed in relation to the metallurgical monopoly 
 enjoyed by Gipsies at the present day in South-East 
 Europe and in Asia Minor. So exclusively is the 
 smith's a Gipsy (and therefore a degrading) craft 
 in Montenegro, that when in 1872 the Government 
 established an arsenal at Rieka, no natives could be 
 found to fill its well-paid posts. And Mr Hyde 
 Clarke informs me, that " over more than one sanjak 
 
THE NUMBER OF THE NAILS. 28 1 
 
 of the Aidin viceroyalty the Gipsies have still a like 
 monopoly of iron-working, the naalband, or shoeing- 
 smith, being no smith in our sense at all. He is 
 supplied with shoes of various sizes by the Gipsies, 
 and only hammers them on." 
 
 The Rom-Schmul legend is also curious, as offering 
 a possible explanation of the hitherto unexplained 
 transition from four nails to three in crucifixes during 
 the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The fact of that 
 transition is treated in Dr R. Morris's Introduction to 
 the Legetids of the Holy Rood (Early Eng. Text Soc. 
 1 871). There it appears, that while St Gregory 
 Nazianzen, Nonnus, and the author of the Ancre7i 
 Riwle speak of three nails, SS. Cyprian, Augustine, 
 and Gregory of Tours, Pope Innocent III., Rufinus 
 and Theoderet, and ^Ifric speak of four ; and that 
 the earliest known crucifix with three nails only is 
 a copper one of (?) Byzantine workmanship, dating 
 from the end of the twelfth century. Now, supposing 
 Gipsies to have then possessed their present mono- 
 poly, this crucifix must have been fashioned by Gipsy 
 hands, when the three nails would be an easily intel- 
 ligible protest against the belief that those nails were 
 forged by the founder of the Gipsy race. 
 
 I give the suggestion just for what it is worth, and 
 I take occasion to commend to the notice of English 
 archjeologists M. Bataillard's theory ,1 that pre-historic 
 
 ' Set forth in Origines des Boheiniens (1S75), Elat de la Question de 
 TAncicnnetedes Tsiganes en Europe {I'&l']), Les Zhtars {\?i']8'), and Za 
 Question du Bronze et du Fer Aryens (1880); and supported in E. 
 Chantre's Age du Bronze (4 vols, 1877). 
 
282 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 Europe gained from the Gipsies its knowledge of 
 metallurgy. A startling theory, yet one that has 
 won acceptance with several leading Continental 
 savans. Against it history has nothing to object, 
 our earliest certain knowledge of Gipsies in Europe 
 showing them as slaves in Wallachia in 1372, and as 
 obtaining a renewal of privileges at Nauplia in 1398. 
 On the question whether the Romani language points 
 to an early or to a late migration from India, philo- 
 logists differ. Professor Ascoli, in his Saggi indiani 
 (1876), vol. ii. pp. 312-17, is led by the "pecuHar 
 Sanskritic integrity" of Romanes to conclusions 
 according with the pre-historic theory. Its ablest 
 opponent, Dr F. Miklosich, fixes the first appearance 
 of Gipsies in Europe at 810 A.D. (art. " Zigeuner," in 
 Meyer's Conv.-Lexiko7i, 1878). And in Brockhaus's 
 Conv.- Lexikon (1879) Professor Pott judiciously 
 opines that the date of such appearance is unknown. 
 In favour of the theory, we have the negative testi- 
 mony of the Byzantine annalists, who are silent as 
 to any Gipsy immigration ; and there is the positive 
 fact that our modern Gipsies are the chief, often only, 
 farriers, coppersmiths, bellfounders, and armourers in 
 Hungary, and throughout the Balkan peninsula. 
 
 The paradox is certainly attractive, that cultured 
 Europe should owe the best part of its civilisation 
 to the uncultured Gipsies ;i to whom, too, our 
 
 ' Certain it is that Montenegrin independence was saved by weapons 
 of Gipsy workmanship ; and Dr Freeman's eulogies of the Black 
 Mountaineers read strangely by the side of the Russian Bogisic's 
 
HUGUENOTS OR GIPSIES ? 283 
 
 weightiest authority on the subject ascribes the in- 
 troduction of playing-cards. I do not vouch for 
 the ascription, as neither do I exactly hold with 
 that writer in the Atlantic Monthly (February 1866), 
 who makes the Gipsies descendants of the Hussites, 
 their name Gipsy being a " clumsy corruption " of 
 Tschischkta. He should have gone a little further, 
 and proved them propagators of primitive Protes- 
 tantism, thus: Gipsies have been identified by learned 
 scholars (Peucer, Goar, &c.) with the Athingani ; 
 the Athingani were a branch of the Paulicians ; 
 and the Paulicians, as every schoolboy knows, were 
 the spiritual ancestors of the Albigenses, Wyclifites, 
 Hussites, Lutherans, and Calvinists (Gibbon, ch. liv.). 
 Q.E.D. 
 
 But I must submit for investigation my own pet 
 guess, that the discoverers of the Stourbridge fire- 
 clay were Romani Chals, the tradition of that dis- 
 covery being thus given in Kelly's Worcestershire 
 (ed. 1872): — "There are still in the vicinity of the 
 town of Stourbridge descendants of a company 
 (refugees from the kingdom of Hungary and pro- 
 account of how the forgers of those weapons fared. As strange is it 
 to compare Dr Freeman's denunciation of him who "durst ask about 
 the collar of Gurth at a time when," S:c., with "Notes on the Gipsy 
 Population of Moldavia," by S. Gardner [Proc. Roy. Geog. Soc, 1857). 
 For there one learns that the Gipsy slaves "have the lash continually 
 applied to them, and are still subjected to the iron collar and a kind 
 of spiked iron mask or helmet, which they are obliged to wear as a 
 mark of punishment and degradation for every petty offence." But 
 Mr Gardner was a Consul ; and after all the Moldavians are Christians, 
 the Gipsies heathens. 
 
284 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 vince of Lorraine in the year 1555 or 1556), headed 
 by a person of the name of Henzoil Henzey, who 
 trusting to their knowledge of, and practical skill 
 in, music as a means of existence, and not meeting 
 with that support in London which they anticipated, 
 left it and found their way into the Midland Counties, 
 and at length formed their encampment at the ' Lye 
 Waste.' Here the wanderers observed, with no small 
 degree of pleasure, the existence of the valuable 
 fireclay, out of which in their own country they had 
 formed the glass and melting pots. The precise spot 
 upon which the strangers took up their abode, and 
 where the first glass-house was erected, is still known 
 by the name of Hungary Hill." In Mr H. Sydney 
 Grazebrook's valuable Collections for a Genealogy of 
 the Noble Families of Henzey, Tyttery, and Tysack, 
 " Gentilshomnies Verriers" from Lorraine (Stourb. 
 1877) the tradition is briefly dismissed as "not 
 corroborated by any trustworthy evidence," but the 
 additional detail is furnished, that the discovery of the 
 fire-clay was made " in digging holes for their tent- 
 poles;" and further on we learn that the Hennezels 
 of Lorraine were a " noblesse originaire du Royaume 
 de Boheme" {cf. Fr. Boheniiens, "Gipsies,"), that the 
 English Henzeys were dark-haired, and that a 
 favourite Christian name with them was Peregrine. 
 
 That is all the support which Mr Grazebrook's 
 work affords my guess ; but neither does it disprove 
 it, since he merely states that his three families 
 settled in England "sometime in the sixteenth cen- 
 
HUGUENOTS OR GIPSIES? 285 
 
 tury," without attempting to decide the exact when 
 or how or why. His genealogical collections begin 
 with the baptism of one Henzey near Stourbridge 
 in 161 5, and the burial of another at Newcastle-on- 
 Tyne in 1617; and a passage in Camden's contem- 
 poraneous Britannia has seemingly escaped him, 
 where it is said that the Tyne glassmakers "are 
 foreigners, but know not well from whence they 
 came, only they have a tradition of their being 
 Normans, and that they came from Stourbridge, 
 and removed from thence hither in the reign of 
 Edward VI. or Queen Elizabeth." 
 
 With only the tradition, then, to go by, I assume 
 for the present its general credibility, and start by 
 remarking, that itinerant tent-dwelling musicians are 
 far more likely to have been Gipsies than Huguenot 
 refugees. And that Gipsies might have glassmakers 
 seems not impossible from these considerations : — 
 (i) Already in 1876 Mr Bataillard wrote, that "glass- 
 making, especially in its application to small objects, 
 such as cups, phials, &c., may well at certain epochs 
 have occupied a certain number of Gipsies ; and 
 one ought not to neglect the traces that tradition 
 may have preserved of such a fact " [Origines des 
 Bohdniiens, p. 36). (2) Sir E. Hext's letter to the 
 Lord Treasurer in 1596 couples tinkers, pedlars, 
 glassmen, and proctors (Strype's Annals, vol. iv. p. 
 408); and in a Devonshire order regarding rogues, 
 we read of " petty chapmen, peddlers, glassmen, 
 tynckers, palmesters, fortune readers, Egiptians, and 
 
286 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 the like" (A. Hamilton's "Quarter Sessions under 
 Charles I." in Frasers Mag., Jan. 1877). Glarmestere, 
 "glaziers," is the unexplained title of certain Danish 
 vagabonds, whom Dyrlund considers of Gipsy origin 
 {Tatere og Natmandsfolk i Daminark, p. 219). (3) 
 The wandering "Muggers" and "Potters" of our 
 Northern Counties are likewise probably of Gipsy 
 origin ; some of them have certainly a smattering of 
 Romanes. I believe that, as a rule, they buy their 
 earthenware ; but from Good Words for the Yoitng, 
 September 1870, it would appear that there are 
 Derbyshire potters who mould a large quantity of 
 pots and pans, bake them in their ovens, load eight 
 or nine donkeys with the ware, and leave their homes 
 for months. Observe, too, that Gipsies nowadays 
 generally buy their baskets, which formerly they 
 always made themselves. (4) " At the Birmingham 
 Police Court, Daniel Moulton was summoned for 
 selling earthenware measures, beer mugs, which were 
 false. The mugs were made in The Potteries, and 
 were received by defendant as plain cups. They 
 were then distributed among his workmen to be 
 tested, and to have the pattern mark placed on 
 them. They were told not to drill any which differed 
 from the standard. Instead of testing, they bored 
 and affixed the pattern plugs to any, and put false 
 marks on the cups to get increased wages, as they 
 were paid according to the number that passed the 
 Inspectors. They were ' half-gipsies.' He could 
 not get others to do the work" {Local Govermnent 
 
HUGUENOTS OR GIPSIES ? 287 
 
 Clironicle, 30th August 1879). On which it is just 
 worth noting, that " the husband of Sarah Henzey 
 [born at Stourbridge in 1687] is stated to have been 
 one Moulton or Moulson, who hved at Putney." 
 
 Such are my arguments ; an obvious objection 
 whereto is, that these " noble " famihes of " gentils- 
 hommes " could hardly have belonged to the " rank 
 that is meanest and most despised of all the families 
 of the land." That is the question. On the one 
 hand, Chatrian, of Erckmann-Chatrian fame, himself 
 a gentilhomnie verrier, himself blew glass in his 
 youth, so that such gentilesse need not depend on 
 immemorial do-nothingness. On the other, the Falls 
 of Dunbar, who gave that burgh members, provosts, 
 and bailies, and who intermarried with the Scottish 
 baronetcy, were believed by others, and believed 
 themselves, to be descended from the Yetholm Faas 
 (Simson, Hist, of Gipsies, pp. 237-41). Noble and 
 gentilhoiiune, quotha ! what are these titles to those 
 of our epitaphs on p. 124? And in 1505 did not 
 James IV. of Scotland commend to the King of 
 Denmark " Anthony Gawin, Earl of Little Egypt ? " 
 in 1540 did not his successor grant letters under 
 the Great Seal to " oure louit Johnne Faw, Lord 
 and Erie of Litill Egipt, ... to assist to him in 
 executioun of justice vpoun his cumpany and folkis 
 conforme to the lawis of Egipt?" 
 
 No, this at least is no very formidable objection ; 
 Mr Grazebrook himself does not suggest it in his 
 courteous response to some queries addressed him a 
 
288 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 year and a half ago. " 1 do not tJiink" he writes, 
 " that the three families of whom my book treats were 
 of Gipsy origin, and certainly they did not come from 
 Hungary but from Lorraine, in which province the 
 manufacture of glass was carried on at an early 
 period. Here they were known as Henzey, Tyttery, 
 and Tyzack, but in their own country they were de 
 Hennezel, de Thietry, and du Thisac ; and the gene- 
 alogy of the first-named family, as set forth in M. de 
 la Chenaye-Desbois' Dictionnaii'e de la Noblesse de 
 France (2d ed. 1774), commences with Henri Hen- 
 nezel, who flourished towards the close of the four- 
 teenth century. It is curious that the place where 
 they established their glass-work should be known as 
 Himgary Hill ; but were not all wanderers called 
 Hungarians or Bohemians at that period ? I think 
 it is highly probable that the people among whom 
 these refugees settled supposed them to be Gipsies ; 
 and they kept themselves aloof from their neighbours, 
 and intermarried much with each other, especially 
 those who settled at Newcastle. ... I commenced 
 my letter by stating that I did not think these people 
 were of Gipsy origin, but I really know nothing 
 about that remarkable race. I observed that Desbois 
 states that the Hennezels came originally from 
 Boliemia. Does this support your theory? ... I 
 forgot to mention that the three families were 
 Huguenots. Some of the Tyzacks were subsequently 
 Quakers." 
 
 For the present, O Gipsies, take credit to your- 
 
QUOUSQUE TANDEM. 289 
 
 selves for having introduced metallurgy, playing- 
 cards, saddlery,! Protestantism, folktales, Magyar 
 music, glass-making, and fast-and-loose, for having 
 produced Solario, John Bunyan, and the " Tinclarian 
 Doctor," for having 
 
 " Eh, what, John ? what do you say to the Rom- 
 Schmul legend, that it's ' something more like now,' 
 more accordant with your sense of fitness ? Very 
 good ; but answer me one thing more. Why are 
 Gipsies' animals — Roman! hobbies, so to speak — 
 so often found where they have not the slightest 
 business in the world to be ? You give it up ? 
 Why Rom means ' man,' and man in Latin is 
 /lomo, and Humanum est ei'rare, is it not ? Cer- 
 tainly ; but let's push on, else we shall miss our 
 victuals : five minutes more will bring us to the 
 camp." 
 
 At the camp great preparations were making for 
 dinner, six gooseberry dumplings on the boil, each 
 mightier than the pudding of the Blameless King ; 
 and there was nettle-broth, with a ham and two 
 
 ' That is almost self-evident, the Ital., Span., and Port, basto 
 coming clearly from the Romani bhhto^ "saddle" (pass. part, of 
 beshdva, "I sit"), while zen, also Romanes for "saddle," is as clearly 
 the Persian zin ; and in Persia, according to Beckmann, saddles were 
 probably invented. More than that, the Pers. zingar, "saddler," is 
 not merely the title of saddle-making Persian Gipsies (Journ. R. As. 
 Soc, xvi. 310) and of most of their European brethren, but is the 
 etymon of the Mod. Gk. T^ayyAp-qs, "shoemaker." Hence it is likely 
 that leather-working generally was introduced to Europe by the Gipsies, 
 who are found at Nauplia cobbling and shoemaking in 1497. 
 
 T 
 
290 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 rabbits for substance, Romani cake, and I know not 
 what besides. All the women seemed cooking, and 
 none of the men even had been to church. Rather 
 the church had come to them, in the shape of three 
 Welshwomen, who had sung Welsh hymns, — "blessed 
 words," said Lementina piously, though she knows, 
 dear old body, never a word of Welsh. Still, they 
 were keeping Sunday in their way, by abstaining 
 from fishing and fiddling ; and, after all, the Lovells 
 are rather more regular church-goers than Berlin 
 Protestants, whose churches accommodate one-fifth 
 per cent., and whose churches are always empty. 
 For, five or six times a year, the Lovells do go to 
 church, where the parson is a particular friend, or 
 where there is good music, as at the College Chapel 
 on Tenbury Broad Heath, or for a christening ; and 
 when they go, they listen with such painful earnest- 
 ness as might disturb the balance of an unaccustomed 
 preacher. 
 
 Greetings over, John and Silvanus, in the interval 
 before dinner, fell to talking on military topics, for 
 Silvanus's grandfather was a soldier ; so was his 
 youngest sister Sinaminti's boy. 
 
 " Poor dear Gad Taylor," he said : " oh ! that was 
 in the Isle of Man, and he'd been very bad, down 
 with a sort of fever. And the monkey whom he 
 'listed with, they were always a kind of friends like, 
 so he said he'd lend him some money, ten shillings 
 I think it was, till such time as he got his pay, to buy 
 him some few little things, victuals and anything nice 
 
THE DEATH OF GAD. 29 1 
 
 that he could fancy. Then as soon as ever Gad was 
 getting a Httle better, that he was able to walk about 
 again, this fine fellow asked him for the money he'd 
 lent him. And he told him he shouldn't have it till 
 the next day, and he hadn't a farthing. And then 
 this monkey quarrelled with him about something or 
 other, said if he'd have knowed, he wouldn't have 
 lent him sixpence. And then Gad told him, as soon 
 as ever he'd got well enough, he'd fight him. And 
 that same afternoon, while they were sitting at their 
 dinners, this prodigal monkey was sitting opposite 
 Gad ; and, before anyone noticed what he was up to, 
 he drawed a pistol out of his pocket, and shot poor 
 Gad right through the heart, beseems. Then they 
 made this monkey carry his own coffin (that's what 
 was said leastwise), and walk over the grave that was 
 dug for him, and ten soldiers shot him, so there was 
 two dead men in one day. Lord ! " he concluded, " I 
 wouldn't have none of my boys in none of your 
 armies, not if you'd make me Pope o' Rome for it. 
 And however did you come for to go and do such 
 foolishness ? " 
 
 " Well," John explained, " I was only a lump of a 
 boy, fourteen years of age ; and it was a very poor 
 time with us, that wilful cold winter of 1829 ; and we 
 were down in Breconshire, and all of us went to the 
 town. I strolled to the barracks, and stood seeing 
 the soldiers go through their drill, and thinking how 
 fine it was, till I said to my father if I should go with 
 them. So there and then I enlisted for a drummer in 
 
292 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 the Royal Welsh Fusileers, on the 7th of February 
 1830, in Brecon Barracks. And from there I did go 
 to Plymouth, and from there to Ireland, where we 
 were quartered some few years, till we came back 
 again to England, to Portsmouth, and from there to 
 Winchester in 1835. The next place was Weedon, 
 and from there to Blackburn, when I left them the 
 first time on furlough. I stopped away from them 
 for a twelvemonths, for I married my cousin Perpi'nia, 
 but I had a many a chase to be taken as a deserter. 
 The worst time was when I was going to be taken 
 was in Swansea, when I was chased and had to run 
 through the river four times, and when- they missed 
 to catch me. And one of the policemen, name of 
 Tommy Low, was considered one of the best runners 
 in that part of the country. But after all I was taken 
 in two or three days' time, by being too free and 
 showing myself too bold, and taken to Dublin, and 
 was tried by a court-martial, but did not get one 
 day's punishment. After about three months' time 
 I asked for a pass, from two P.M. until eight in the 
 morning, where I was then in Holyhead and my 
 father too ; so we did all escape to South Wales, but 
 in Cardiff and the Welsh Hay I was very near taken 
 again. Last I resolved to make up my money, what 
 I was getting with my harp in all those gentlemen's, 
 to go and give myself up to my regiment and pur- 
 chase my discharge. 
 
 " When I went back to the Isle of Wight, I did 
 take my harp with me, and before giving myself up 
 
" NOW I'M BOUND FOR LLANRHYDD CAMP." 293 
 
 one of the 42d officers did ask me to play a tune, when 
 all the dep6t were on parade ; and him, not knowing 
 that I was a deserter, took me down in front of the 
 officers' quarters, and where the Colonel's lady was at 
 the time. And when I was playing, all the officers 
 and soldiers came around me, and not one did not 
 know me until I gave myself up to the captain that 
 belonged to my regiment ; after that a good many 
 came to shake hands with me. I was tried by 
 another court-martial, but had no punishment again. 
 The Colonel's lady did beg me off, through the harp ; 
 and I was not very long until I had my discharge 
 and got myself clear from them altogether ; and 
 returned home to my wife and father and mother 
 and sisters, in a place near Llanrhydd and Llansyllin, 
 and very pleasant it was. 
 
 " They were camping out near a beautiful river- 
 side, where some of my sisters were some of them 
 washing themselves, with their long black hair hang- 
 ing over their shoulders, and singing a song with the 
 v/ords in it, wishing for me to come home. When all 
 at onest some of them did spy me out, and out they 
 give the run for the best, and said, ' Oh ! my dear 
 brother is come home.' And then my wife comes, 
 as well as she could, for she had not long been up 
 from her confinedment, with Lloyd, my oldest son. 
 I comes to the tents, when my mother said, ' Veyan, 
 mw chavo? sar shonesa tot? Jona ta kino shan. Jaw, 
 chai, ta ceday kosey khosht, ta prastay to alley panes- 
 key, te keras some choben leskey. Jona ta bockaloo 
 
294 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 sillo.'i My father comes home from Oswestry, think- 
 ing he would meet me there, on horseback. 'Well, 
 boy, did you come ? ' ' Yes, father.' ' You soon had 
 your discharge, after I wrote to the Duke of Welling- 
 ton.' 'Yes I did.' Mother speaks: 'Did they do 
 anything to you, my daddy?' 'No, mammy; they 
 done nothing whatever to me.' One of my sisters 
 speaks now : ' Dere, dordi ! don't you remember my 
 brother sending home in the letter, that the lady did 
 beg him free?' 'Well, ay, ay, child, I am moider- 
 ing; now I 'member all about it' The people of the 
 neighbourhood soon came to know that I came 
 home, and a great many visited our camp, some of 
 the highest ; and I had to play my harp for them 
 to dance upon the green, and they made me a very 
 great welcome. And I had plenty of money from 
 them, and the people don't forget the time ever since. 
 After I had my discharge I was more bold and free 
 to go anywhere, and I played at almost all the 
 head gentlemen's houses in both North and South 
 Wales, and good many in England, also played in 
 a many a Eisteddfod." 
 
 This, with some breaks, was the story of John's 
 campaigns. Dinner succeeded, during which the 
 talk turned on the concerts of the Roberts family ; 
 and John told us how they had lately been playing 
 
 ^ John's own orthography : Anglicd — "Art come, my child? how art 
 thou? I know that thou are weary. Go, gir], and gather a little wood, 
 and run thou down for water, that we may do some food for him. I 
 know that he is hungry." 
 
A ROMANI PLAY. 295 
 
 at the Aberystwith skating-rink, but how they gener- 
 ally either hired a public hall, or got the loan of a 
 schoolroom from the clergyman. Also, how two 
 years back some of his boys had been orchestra to 
 a travelling circus. 
 
 " Not Holloway's ? " Starh'na asked. 
 
 " I can't rightly remember the name," said John ; 
 " but it wasn't that. For why ? " 
 
 " Because that was a canvas theatre that I went to 
 at Gloucester with a young gentlemen, and I was far 
 back up among the gorgios, right behind, you know. 
 And this young rei could understand a bit of Rom'ni- 
 mus, coming up to our place so often ; and then one 
 of the young women come on the stage dressed like a 
 Romani chei, with a lot of baskets. Then presently a 
 young man come in, like a young Gipsy chap (he was 
 rather a nice-looking fellow too) ; and they began 
 talking together. She wanted to tell his fortune, 
 then suddenly she found he was a Romano. Then 
 he asked her (all in Rom'nimus) if she would marry 
 him, and then they began talking about having a nice 
 tan and pretty cJiave, and all sorts of things like that. 
 And I was struck. I nudge the young rei beside me, 
 as though he could understand one half they said ; 
 and had the hardest task with myself to keep from 
 shouting to them. And then, two or three nights 
 after that, we were all in a public, and the men from 
 this theatre were sitting there drinking. My daddy 
 was talking to some of the boys, never taking no 
 notice of them. Suddenly we heard them chattering 
 
296 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 away like a lot of Romani magpies ; and my daddy 
 said, ' Come on, let's go ; they know too much here.' 
 And we walked off." 
 
 " What theatre did you say say it was, 'Lina ? " I . 
 inquired. 
 
 " Holloway's ; a sort of travelling thing, not much 
 account, rubbish. Tlie Flowers of the Forest, that was 
 the play." 
 
 " I asked because there was once a famous theatre, 
 Richardson's, the greatest ever travelled. Kean be- 
 longed to it for several years. And I know that 
 when old Richardson died (more than thirty years 
 ago that must have been), it was taken on by a 
 Nelson Lee. Of course there are Gipsy Lees, and 
 Nelson is a common Romani name (Matty Cooper 
 has a son called Nelson) ; so I have often wondered 
 whether this Nelson Lee was not a Romano." 
 
 " Can't say, brother, I'm sure ; but the man at 
 Brummagem as we often gets our baskets off, he 
 knows a good bit of the talk. A regular gorgio, 
 but he gets it from so many travellers coming to 
 his shop." 
 
 " So ! I must look him up some day. But, 'Lina, 
 your story put me in mind of something that hap- 
 pened once at Baldock fair. There were a lot of 
 the Shaws and Drapers and Bunces there ; and 
 they made up a party, of which I was one, to go to 
 a Pepper's Ghost entertainment. When they got in 
 they faced the darkness pretty stoutly ; but as soon 
 as ever it came to spectres and skeletons, they were 
 
HOW RILEY SOLD HIS BLOOD. 297 
 
 up in an instant, and out they scurried, hustling the 
 children before them, and crying, ' Devil's doings ! 
 witches ! run for mi-Duvel's sake ! ' Dordi ! how I 
 laughed." 
 
 " 'Twasn't no laughing for them," Silvanus observed, 
 " they thought, dear ignorant people, Old Nick was 
 coming to fetch 'em." 
 
 " Like Riley Smith, eh ? " 
 
 " Ay," Pyramus chimed in, " that stopped at Batter- 
 sea, you'll mean. I've often heard tell on that, brother, 
 but never knew the exact rights of it. What was it 
 all about ? " 
 
 " I hardly know myself ; but I first heard the story 
 from two of the Lees at Gorleston. Lucretia must 
 have met them — George and Horace, one with a 
 wife named Angelina, and the other married to a 
 little Welshwoman. We were speaking of one of 
 the Pinfolds, a cousin, I take it, of Lucretia's ; and 
 George declared that Annabel Pinfold had ' sold 
 her blood to the Beng, like Riley Smith.' Of course 
 I got asking who Riley Smith might be, and the 
 story ran thus, as well as I remember. Riley was 
 the unluckiest Gipsy going. He never bought a 
 horse for less, or sold one for more, than its proper 
 value ; his purchases, indeed, were always falling 
 lame, or drowning themselves, or doing something 
 foolish of the kind. He never made a bet that 
 he did not lose, and Riley was rather a sporting 
 character. And Mrs Riley could hardly ever tell a 
 gorgie her fortune, without the misfortune to herself 
 
298 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 of a month's hard labour in the county gaol. It 
 was at Ascot on a summer evening, and Riley sat 
 very melancholy in the mouth of his tent. He had 
 lost that day eight golden sovereigns at pitch-and- 
 toss ; and ' Oh !' he was thinking, ' if I could sell my 
 blood, wouldn't I snap at the chance?' 'So you 
 can,' said a voice ; and d6rdi ! just before him stood 
 a wizzened ill-looking mannikin, dressed very old- 
 fashioned like, with a villainous brickdust-coloured 
 face, not comely black like yours, and with two long 
 curls, hanging one each side of that face. ' So you 
 can,' he said ; and as he spoke he kept wriggling 
 like an eel ; ' and you shall have the finest luck in 
 the world, Riley, and nothing to do for it but to 
 come to the quarry' — (I forget its exact name, but it 
 was somewhere on the Berkshire Downs) — ' on the 
 last Monday of every month at midnight, and pay 
 me a silver shilling.' These were easy terms, thought 
 Riley, and closed with the bargain ; and for a year 
 and a half no Romano Chal was ever so lucky as 
 he. A splendid new waggon he had built at Leeds, 
 and in that waggon were five grand silver teapots, 
 and in each of the teapots one hundred glittering 
 sovereigns. But, wait a bit ; one evening Riley was 
 sitting in the best parlour of the head public-house 
 at Newbury, with his pockets so stuffed with money, 
 that he had to pin them up to keep it from 
 rolling on the floor ; and first he called for a glass 
 of beer, and then for a pint of ale, then for a bottle 
 of wine, and then for a pail of brandy. How much 
 
THE KING AND HIS THREE SONS. 299 
 
 of the last he swallowed, I cannot say ; at any rate, 
 he never left the house that night, and this was the 
 last Monday in November. Under the table he 
 tumbled, and there he lay till daybreak ; and, as he 
 lay, the crafty landlord emptied his pockets ; when 
 he came to himself, he had not one farthing left. 
 And few were the farthings that ever thereafter came 
 into Riley's hands, for that very night his waggon 
 was burnt to ashes, and his former unlock was luck 
 to what it was now. Wretchedly poor, he died at 
 last up by London. That was George Lee's account ; 
 and I was telling it once to Chris Taylor's wife at 
 Battersea, when she pointed out an old tottering 
 desolate building as the house in which Riley died. 
 And while he lay dying, the windows kept slamming 
 up and down, the doors banging to and fro ; and 
 this, Mrs Taylor declared, was a sign that the Beng 
 was come to fetch Riley home." 
 
 "That was most horrible," said Lementina ; and, 
 to dispel the horror, I proposed that John should 
 exercise his story-telling talent, which, nothing loth, 
 he agreed to do, premising that this tale was taken 
 from the Arabian Nights, and that its title was 
 
 "An Old King and his Three Sons 
 IN England. 
 
 " Once upon a time there was an old King, who had 
 three sons ; and the old King fell very sick one time, 
 and there was nothing at all could make him well but 
 some golden apples from a far country. So the three 
 
300 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 brothers went on horseback to look for some of those 
 apples to recover their father. The three brothers set 
 off together, and when they come to some cross roads, 
 they halted and refreshed themselves a bit ; and there 
 they agreed to meet on a certain time, and not one 
 was to go home before the other. So Valentine took 
 the right, and Oliver went on straight, and poor Jack 
 took the left. And, so as to make my long story 
 short, I shall follow poor Jack, and leave the other 
 two take their chance, for I don't think they was 
 much good in them. Well, now poor Jack rides off 
 over hills, dales, valleys, and mountains, through 
 woolly woods and sheepwalks," where the old chap 
 never sounded his hollow bugle-horn, further than I 
 can tell you to-night or ever I intend to tell you. 
 At last he came to some old house, near a great 
 forest, and there was some old man sitting out by 
 the door, and his look was enough to frighten the 
 Devil ; and the old man said to him, ' Good morning, 
 my king's son.' ' Good morning to you, old gentle- 
 man,' was the answer by the young prince, and 
 frightened out of his wits, but he did not like to 
 give in. 
 
 " The old gentleman told him to dismount, and to 
 go in to have some refreshments, and to put his 
 horse in the stable, such as it was. After going in, 
 and Jack feeling much better after having something 
 to eat, and after his long ride, begun to ask the old 
 gentleman how did he know that he was a king's 
 son. ' Oh dear ! ' said the old man, ' I knew that 
 
THE KING AND HIS THREE SONS. 30I 
 
 you was a king's son, and I know what is your 
 business better than what you do yourself. So you 
 will have to stay here to-night ; and when you are 
 in bed, you mustn't be frightened when you hear 
 something come to you. There will come all manner 
 of snakes and frogs, and some will try to get into 
 your eyes and into your mouth ; and mind,' the old 
 man said, ' if you stir the least bit, then you will turn 
 into one of those things yourself.' Poor Jack did not 
 know what to make of this, but however he ventured 
 to go to bed ; and just as he thought to have a bit o' 
 sleep, here they came around him, but he never stirred 
 one bit all night. 
 
 " ' Well, my young son, how are you this morning ? ' 
 ■ Oh, I am very well, thank you ; but I did not have 
 much rest.' ' Well, never mind that ; you have got 
 on very well so far, but you have a great deal to go 
 through before you can have the golden apples to go 
 to your father. So now you better come to have 
 some breakfast before you start on your way to my 
 other brother's house. Now you will have to leave 
 your own horse here with me, until you come back 
 here again to me, and to tell me everything about 
 how you got on.' 
 
 " After that out comes a fresh horse for the young 
 prince, and the old man give him a ball of yarn, and 
 he flung it between the horse's two ears ; and off he 
 goes as fast as the wind, which the wind behind could 
 not catch the wind before, until he came to his second 
 oldest brother's house. When he rode up to the door. 
 
302 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 he had the same salute as he had from the first old 
 man, but this one was much uglier than the first one. 
 He had long grey hair, and his teeth was curling out 
 of his mouth, and his finger and toe nails were not 
 cut for many thousands of years. So I shall leave 
 you to guess what sort of a looking being he was, but 
 still his Romani speech was soft and nice, much dif- 
 ferent to his younger brother. He puts his horse in a 
 much better stable, and calls him in, and gives him 
 plenty to eat and drink, and lots of tobacco and 
 brandy, and they have a bit of chat before they goes 
 to bed. When the old man asks him many questions. 
 ' Well, my young son, I suppose that you are one of 
 the King's children, and come to look for the golden 
 apples to recover him, because he is sick.' 
 
 ''Jack. — ' Yes, I am the youngest of the three 
 brothers, and I should like well to get them to go 
 back with.' 
 
 " Old Man. — ' Well, don't mind, my young son. I 
 will send before you to-night to my oldest brother, 
 when you go to bed, and I will say all to him what 
 you want, and then he will not have much trouble 
 to send you on to the place where you must go to 
 get them. But you must mind to-night not to stir 
 when you hear those things biting and stinging you, 
 or else you will work great mischief to yourself 
 
 " The young man went to bed, and beared all, as he 
 did the first night, and got up the next morning well 
 and hearty, and thought a good deal of the old man's 
 Romani way the night before. After a good break- 
 
THE KING AND HIS THREE SONS. 303 
 
 fast, and passing some few remarks, What a curious 
 place that was, when the old man should say ' Yes ' to 
 him, ' you will come to a more curious place soon, and 
 I hope I shall see you back here all right ; ' when out 
 comes another fresh horse, and a ball of yarn to throw 
 between his ears. The old man tells him to jump up, 
 and said to him that he has made it all right with his 
 oldest brother to give him a quick reception, and not 
 to delay any whatever, ' as you have a good deal to go 
 through in a very short and quick time.' 
 
 " He flung the ball, and off he goes as quick as 
 lightning, and comes to the oldest brother's house. 
 (I forgot to tell you that the last old man told him 
 not to be frightened at this one's looks.) Well, to 
 make my long story short, the old man received him 
 very kindly, and told him that he long wished to see 
 him, and that he would go through his work like a 
 man, and return back here safe and sound. ' Now 
 to-night I shall give you rest ; there shall nothing 
 come to disturb you, so as you may not feel sleepy 
 to-morrow. And you must mind to get up middling 
 early, for you got to go and come all in the same 
 day ; for there will be no place for you to rest within 
 thousands of miles of that place ; and if there was, 
 you would stand in great danger never to come from 
 there in your own form. Now, my young Prince, 
 mind what I tell you. To-morrow, when you go in 
 sight of a very large castle, which will be surrounded 
 with black water, the first thing you will do you 
 will tie your horse to a tree, and you will see three 
 
304 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 beautiful swans in sight, when you will say, ' Swan, 
 swan, carry me over for the name of the Griffin of 
 the Greenwood ; ' and the swans will swim you over 
 to the castle. There will be three great entrances, 
 before you go in. The first will be guarded by four 
 great giants, and drawn swords in their hands ; the 
 second entrance lions and other things ; and the other 
 with fiery serpents and other things too frightful to 
 mention. You will have to be there exactly at one 
 o'clock ; and mind and leave there precisely at two, 
 and not a moment later. When the swans carry you 
 over to the castle, you will pass all these things, 
 when they will be all fast asleep, but you must not 
 notice any of them. When you go in, you will turn 
 up to the right, you will see some grand rooms, then 
 you will go down stairs and through the cooking 
 kitchen, and through a door on your left you go 
 into a garden, where you will find the apples you 
 want for your father to get him well. After you 
 fill your wallet, you make all the speed you possibly 
 can, and call out for the swans to carry you over the 
 same as before. After you get on your horse, should 
 you hear anything shouting or making any noise after 
 you, be sure not to look back, as they will follow 
 you for thousands of miles ; but when the time will 
 be up and you near my place, it will be all over. 
 Well now, my young man, I have told you all you 
 have to do to-morrow ; and mind, whatever you do, 
 don't look about you when you see all those fright- 
 ful things asleep. Keep a good heart, and make 
 
THE KING AND HIS THREE SONS. 305 
 
 haste from there, and come back to me with all the 
 speed you can. I should like to know how my two 
 brothers were when you left them, and what they 
 said to you about me.' 
 
 '"Well, to tell the truth, before I left London, 
 my father was sick, and said I was to come here to 
 look for the golden apples, for they were the only 
 things would do him good ; and when I came to your 
 youngest brother, I could not understand him well : 
 his speech was like the English Gipsies' and not like 
 yours.i You speak the same as the Welsh Gipsies, 
 and so I understood your second brother well. He 
 told me many things what to do before I came here. 
 And I thought once that your youngest brother put 
 me in the wrong bed, when he put all those snakes to 
 bite me all night long, until he [z.e. the middle brother] 
 told me ' So it was to be,' and said, ' So it is the same 
 here,' but said you had none in your beds, but said 
 when I came to you, I should find you a fine dear 
 Romani old man. 
 
 " T/ie Old Man. — 'So 'tis, my daddy; my youngest 
 brother ran away, when he was young, with the 
 English Gipsies, and their speech is not the same as 
 our speech. Well, let's take a drop more brandy and 
 a little tobacco, and then let's go to bed. You need 
 not fear. There are no snakes here.' 
 
 • This point is lost, of course, in my translation. In the original 
 MS. the youngest brother uses the broken dialect, put by John Roberts 
 in the mouths of all English Gipsies, while the two others speak in the 
 very deepest Romanes. 
 
 U 
 
306 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 " The young man went to bed, and had a good 
 night's rest, and got up the next morning as fresh as 
 newly-caught trout. Breakfast being over, when out 
 come the other horse, and while saddling and fettling, 
 the old man begun to laugh, and told the young 
 gentleman that if he saw a pretty young lady, not to 
 stay with her too long, because she may waken, and 
 then he would have to stay with her or to be turned 
 into one of those unearthly monsters, like those which 
 he will have to pass by going into the castle. 
 
 " ' Ha ! ha ! ha ! you make me laugh that I can 
 scarcely buckle the saddle straps. I think I shall 
 make it all right, my uncle, if I sees a young lady 
 there, you may depend.' 
 
 " ' Well, my daddy, I shall see how you will get on.' 
 
 " So he mounts his Arab steed, and off he goes like 
 a shot out of a gun. At last he comes in sight of the 
 castle. He ties his horse safe to a tree, and pulls out 
 his watch. It was then a quarter to one, when he 
 called out, ' Swan, swan, carry me over, for the name 
 of the old Griffin of the Greenwood.' No sooner said 
 than done. A swan under each side, and one in front, 
 took him over in a crack. He got on his legs, and 
 walked quietly by all those giants, lions, fiery serpents, 
 and all manner of other frightful things too numerous 
 to mention, while they were all fast asleep, and that 
 only for the space of one hour, when into the castle 
 he goes neck or nothing. Turning to the right, up- 
 stairs he runs, and enters into a very grand bedroom, 
 and seen a beautiful Princess laying full stretch on a 
 
THE KING AND HIS THREE SONS. 307 
 
 beautiful gold bedstead, fast asleep. It will take me 
 too long to describe the other beautiful things which 
 was in the room at the time, so you will pardon me 
 for going on, for there was no time to lose. He 
 gazed on her beautiful form with admiration, and he 
 takes her garter off, and buckles it on his own leg, 
 and he buckles his on hers ; he also takes her gold 
 watch and pocket-handkerchief, and exchanges his 
 for hers ; after that ventures to give her a kiss, when 
 she very near opened her eyes. Seeing the time 
 short, off he runs downstairs, and passing through the 
 cooking kitchen, through which he had to pass to go 
 into the garden for the apples, he could see the cook 
 all-fours on her back on the middle of the floor, with 
 the knife in one hand and the fork in the other. He 
 found the apples out, and filled the wallet well ; and 
 by passing through the kitchen the cook did very 
 near waken, and she did wink on him with one eye ; 
 but he was obliged to make all the speed he possibly 
 could, as the time was nearly up. He called out for 
 the swans, and off they managed to take him over ; 
 but they found that he was a little heavier than when 
 he was going over before. No sooner than he had 
 mounted his horse, he could hear a tremendous noise, 
 and the enchantment was broke, and they tried to 
 follow him, but all to no purpose. He was not long 
 before he came to the oldest brother's house ; and 
 glad enough he was to see it, for the sight and the 
 noise of all those things that were after him very 
 near frightened him to death. 
 
308 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 '"Welcome, my daddy; I am proud to see you. 
 Dismount and put the horse in the stable, and come 
 in and have some refreshments ; I know you are 
 hungry after all you have gone through in that castle. 
 And tell me all what you did, and all what you saw 
 there. There was other kings' sons went by here to 
 go to that castle, but they never came back alive, 
 and you are the only one that ever broke the spell 
 (for me to go from here). And now you must come 
 with me, and a sword in your hand, and must cut my 
 head off, and must throw it in that well.' 
 
 " The young Prince dismounts, and puts his horse 
 in the stable, and they goes in to have some refresh- 
 ments, for I can assure you he wanted some ; and 
 after telling him everything that passed, which the 
 old gentleman was very pleased to hear, they both 
 went for a walk together, the young Prince looking 
 around and seeing the place all round him looking 
 dreadful, also the old man. He could scarcely walk 
 from his toe-nails curling up like ram's horns that 
 had not been cut for many hundred years, and big 
 long hair ; and although his teeth was curling out 
 of his mouth, he could speak the Romani language 
 better than any other. They come to a well, and 
 he gives the Prince a sword, and tells him to cut 
 the old man's head off, and to throw it in that well. 
 The young man, through him being so kind to him, 
 has to do it against his wish, but has to do it. 
 
 "No sooner he does it, and flings his head in the 
 well, than up springs one of the finest young gentle- 
 
THE KING AND HIS THREE SONS. 3O9 
 
 men you would wish to see ; and instead of the old 
 house and the frightful-looking place, it was changed 
 into a beautiful hall and grounds. And they went 
 back and enjoyed themselves well, and had a good 
 laugh about the castle, when he told him all about 
 what had passed, especially when he told him about 
 the cook winking on him and could not open the 
 other eye. 
 
 " The young Prince leaves this young gentleman 
 in all his glory, and he tells the young Prince before 
 leaving that he will see him again before long. They 
 have a jolly shake-hands, and off he goes to the next 
 oldest brother ; and, to make my long story short, he 
 has to serve the other two brothers the same as the 
 first, and he has to take to his own horse to go home. 
 
 " Now the youngest brother there was a good deal 
 of the English Gipsy in him, and begun to ask him 
 how things went on, and making inquiries and asking, 
 ' Did you see my two brothers ? ' 
 
 "'Yes.' 
 
 " ' How did they look ? ' 
 
 " ' Oh ! they looked very well. I liked them much. 
 They told me many things what to do.' 
 
 " ' Well, did you go to the castle ? ' 
 
 " ' Yes, my uncle.' 
 
 '"And will you tell me what you see in there? 
 Did you see the young lady?' 
 
 " ' Yes, I saw her, and plenty other frightful things.' 
 
 " ' Did you hear any snake biting you in my oldest 
 brother's bed ? ' 
 
3IO IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 " ' No, there were none there ; I slept well.' 
 
 '"You won't have to sleep in the same bed to- 
 night. You will have to cut my head off in the 
 morning.' 
 
 " The young Prince had a good night's rest, and 
 changed all the appearance of the place by cutting 
 his head off before he started in the morning, having 
 a good breakfast, and supplying himself with a little 
 brandy and a good lot of tobacco for the road before 
 starting, for he had a very long way to go, and his 
 horse had not the same speed as theirs had. A jolly 
 shake-hands, and tells him it's very probable that he 
 shall see him again very soon when he will not be 
 aware of it. This one's mansion was very pretty, 
 and the country around it beautiful, after having his 
 head cut off; and off he goes, over hills, dales, 
 valleys, and mountains, and very near losing his 
 apples again. (I forgot to tell you that he give 
 some to each of those brothers before leaving.) 
 
 " At last he arrives at the cross roads, where he 
 has to meet his brothers on the very day appointed. 
 Coming up to the place, he sees no tracks of horses, 
 and, being very tired, he lays himself down to sleep, 
 by tying the horse to his leg, and putting the apples 
 under his head. When presently up comes the other 
 brothers the same time to the minute, and found 
 him fast asleep ; and they would not waken him, 
 but said one to another, ' Let us see what sort of 
 apples he has got under his head.' So they took 
 and tasted them, and found they were different to 
 
THE KING AND HIS THREE SONS. 3 II 
 
 theirs. They took and changed his apples for theirs, 
 and hooked it off to London as fast as they could, 
 and left the poor fellow sleeping. 
 
 "After a while he awoke, and, seeing the tracks 
 of other horses, he mounted and off with him, not 
 thinking anything about the apples being changed. 
 He had still a long way to go by himself, and by 
 the time he got near London, he could hear all the 
 bells in the town ringing, but did not know what 
 was the matter until he rode up to the palace, when 
 he came to know that his father was recovered by 
 his brothers' apples. When he got there, his two 
 brothers went off to some sports for a while ; and 
 the King was very glad to see his youngest son, 
 and was very anxious to taste his apples. And 
 when he found out that they were not good, and 
 thought that they were more for poisoning him, he 
 sent immediately for the head butcher to behead his 
 youngest son ; and was taken' away there and then 
 in a carriage. But instead of the butcher taking 
 his head off, he took him to some forest not far 
 from the town, because he had pity on him, and 
 there left him to take his chance, when presently 
 up comes a big hairy bear, limping upon three legs ; 
 and the Prince, poor fellow, climbed up a tree, 
 frightened of him, and the bear telling him to come 
 down, that it's no use of him to stop there. With 
 hard persuasion poor Jack comes down, and the 
 bear speaks to him in Romanes, and bids him to 
 'Come here to me; I will not do you any harm. 
 
312 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 It's better for you to come with me and have some 
 refreshments ; I know that you are hungry all this 
 time.' 
 
 " The poor young Prince says, ' No, I am not 
 very hungry; but I was very frightened when I saw 
 you coming to me first, when I had no place to 
 run away from you.' 
 
 " The bear said, ' I was also afraid of you when 
 I saw that gentleman setting you down from that 
 carriage. I thought you would have some guns with 
 you, and that you would not mind killing me if you 
 would see me ; but when I saw the gentleman going 
 away with the carriage, and leaving you behind by 
 yourself, I made bold to come to you, to see who 
 you was ; and now I know who you are very well. 
 Isn't you the King's youngest son ? I seen you and 
 your brothers and lots of other gentlemen in this 
 wood many times. Now before we go from here, I 
 must tell you that I am a Romano Chal in disguise ; 
 and I shall take you where we are stopping at.' 
 
 " The young Prince up and tells him everything 
 from first to last, how he started in search of the 
 apples, and about the three old men, and about the 
 castle, and how he was served at last by his father 
 after he came home ; and instead of the butcher to 
 take his head off, he was kind enough to leave him 
 to have his life, and to take his chance in the 
 forest, live or die ; ' and here I am now, under your 
 protection.' 
 
 "The bear tells him, 'Come on, my Brother; there 
 
THE KING AND HIS THREE SONS. 313 
 
 shall be no harm come to you as long as you are 
 with me.' 
 
 " So he takes him up to the tents ; and when they 
 sees 'em coming, the girls begin to laugh, and says, 
 ' Here is our Jubal coming with a young gentleman.' 
 When he advanced nearer the tents, they all begun 
 to know that he was the young Prince that had 
 passed by that way many times before ; and when 
 Jubal went to change himself, he called most of 
 them together in one tent, and tells them everything 
 all about him, and tells them to be kind to him. 
 And so they were, for there was nothing that he 
 desired but what he had, the same as if he was in 
 the palace with his father and mother. He was 
 allowed to romp and play with the girls, but no 
 further, through his princely manners and the chastity 
 of the girls hindered all bad thoughts. Him having 
 lessons on the Welsh harp when a boy by some 
 Welsh harper belonging to the Woods or Roberts 
 family, who were Welsh Gipsies of North Wales, 
 made a little difference to his way of speaking to 
 that of the London magpies, when they used to say, 
 ' Dorda ! this young rye talks as if he was two 
 hundred years old ; we can't understand him.' They 
 used to have a deal of fun with him at night-time, 
 when telling his funny tales by the fire. Jubal, after 
 he pulled off his hairy coat, was one of the smartest 
 young men amongst them, and he stuck to be the 
 young Prince's closest companion. The young Prince 
 was always very sociable and merry, only when he 
 
314 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 would think of his gold watch, the one as he had 
 from the young Princess in that castle. The butcher 
 allowed him to keep that for company, and did not 
 like to take it from him, as it might come useful, 
 to him some time or another. And the poor fellow 
 did not know where he lost it, being so much excited 
 with everything. 
 
 " He passed off many happy days with the Stanleys 
 and Grays in Epping Forest ; but one day him and 
 poor Jubal was strolling through the trees, when they 
 came to the very same spot where they iirst met, 
 and, accidentally looking up, he could see his watch 
 hanging up in the tree which he had to climb when 
 he first seen poor Jubal coming to him in the form 
 of a bear; and cries out, 'Jubal, Jubal, I can see 
 my watch up in that tree.' ' Well, I am sure, how 
 lucky!' exclaimed poor Jubal; 'shall I go and get 
 it down?' 'No, I'd rather go myself,' said the young 
 Prince. 
 
 " Now when all this was going on, the young 
 Princess whom he changed those things with in 
 that castle, seeing that one of the King of England's 
 sons had been there by the changing of the watch 
 and other things, got herself ready with a large 
 army, and sailed off for England. She left her 
 army a little out of the town, and she went with 
 her guards straight up to the palace to see the King, 
 and also demanded to see his sons, and brought a 
 fine young boy with her about nine or ten months 
 old. They had a long conversation together about 
 
THE KING AND HIS THREE SONS. 315 
 
 different things. At last she demands one of the 
 sons to come before her; and the oldest comes, when 
 she asks him, ' Have you ever been at the Castle of 
 Melvales?' and he answers, 'Yes.' She throws down 
 a pocket-handkerchief, bids him to walk over that 
 without stumbling. He goes to walk over it, and 
 no sooner he put his foot on it, he fell down and 
 broke his leg. He was taken off immediately and 
 made a prisoner of by her own guards. The other 
 was called upon, and was asked the same questions, 
 and had to go through the same performance, and 
 he also was made a prisoner of Now she says, 
 ' Have you not another son ?' when the King began 
 to shiver and shake and knock his two knees 
 together that he could scarcely stand upon his legs, 
 and did not know what to say to her ; he was so 
 much frightened. At last a thought came to him 
 to send for his head butcher, and inquired of him 
 particularly. Did he behead his son, or is he alive? 
 
 " ' He is saved, O King.' 
 
 " ' Then bring him here immediately, or else I shall 
 be done for.' 
 
 " Two of the fastest horses they had were put in 
 the carriage, to go and look for the poor Welsh- 
 harping Prince ; and when they got to the very 
 same spot where they left him, that was the time 
 when the Prince was up the tree, getting his watch 
 down, and poor Jubal standing a distance off. They 
 cried out to him, Did he see another young man in 
 this wood. Jubal, seeing such a nice carriage, thought 
 
3l6 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 something, and did not like to say No, and said 
 Yes, and pointed up the tree ; and they told him to 
 come down immediately, as there is a young lady in 
 search of him with a young child. 
 
 " ' Ha ! ha ! ha ! Jubal, did you ever hear such a 
 thing in all your life, my brother?' 
 
 '"Do you call him your brother?' 
 
 " ' Well, he has been better to me than my 
 brothers.' 
 
 " 'Well, for his kindness he shall come to accompany 
 you to the palace, and see how things will turn out' 
 
 " After they go to the palace, he has a good wash, 
 and appears before the Princess, when she asks him, 
 or puts the question to him, Had he ever been at the 
 Castle of Melvales ? when he with a smile upon his 
 face, and gives a graceful bow. And says my Lady, 
 ' Walk over that handkerchief without stumbling.' 
 He walks over it many times, and dances upon it, 
 and nothing happened to him. She said, with a 
 proud and smiling air, ' That is the young man ; ' 
 and out comes the exchanged things by both of 
 them. Presently she orders a very large box to be 
 brought in and to be opened, and out come some 
 of the most costly uniform that was ever wore on 
 a emperor's back ; and when he dressed himself up, 
 the King could scarcely look upon him from the 
 dazzling of the gold and diamonds on his coat and 
 other things. He orders his two brothers to be 
 in confinement for a period of time ; and before the 
 Princess demands him to go with her to her own 
 
THE KING AND HIS THREE SONS. 317 
 
 country, she pays a visit to the Gipsies' camp, and 
 she makes them some very handsome presents for 
 being so kind to the young Prince. And she gives 
 Jubal an invitation to go with them, which he 
 accepts, also one of the girls for a nurse ; wishes 
 them a hearty farewell for a while, promising to 
 see them again in some little time to come, by 
 saying, 'Cheer up, comrades, I'm a Romani myself; 
 I should like to see you in my country.' 
 
 " They go back to the King and bids farewell, and 
 tells him not to be so hasty another time to order 
 people to beheaded [sic] before having a proper cause 
 for it. Off they go with all their army with them ; 
 but while the soldiers were striking their tents, he 
 bethought himself of his Welsh harp, and had it sent 
 for immediately to take with him in a beautiful 
 wooden case. After they went over, they called to 
 see each of those three brothers whom the Prince 
 had to stay with when he was on his way to the 
 Castle of Melvales ; and I can assure you, when 
 they all got together, they had a very merry time 
 of it. The last time I seen him, I play upon the 
 Prince's harp ; and he told me he should like to 
 see me again in North Wales in company with Mr 
 Groome. Ha ! ha ! ha ! I am glad that I have 
 come to the finish. I ought to have a drop of 
 Scotch ale for telling all those lies." 
 
 "So you ought, John," I remarked; "for that is 
 the finest of all your stories. I doubt, though, if it 
 
3l8 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 is to be found in the Arabian Nights ; certainly it 
 was wanting in my copy." 
 
 " But that was where I did get it," said John, a 
 trifle nettled at my incredulity ; " leastwise if it was 
 not from my poor old mother, or else from my 
 grandmother, and she was a wonderful woman for 
 telling stories." 
 
 " I fancy that that was a more likely source ; but 
 where, then, did you study the Arabian Nights?" 
 
 " It was at Pentre Foelas, Denbighshire, my father's 
 native place, and his cousin did keep a small farm 
 there ; and sometimes, when he used to be very poor, 
 my father used to send me to his cousin, to provoke 
 them when they would not send him some money, 
 when he wanted some ; and then I used to work 
 upon the farm. And there was onest, I remember, 
 when I was quite a little one, my cousin told me 
 to go to some lonesome house near some high 
 mountain, and get myself new boots or clogs. I 
 got the new clogs, and proud I was of them, the 
 very first time that I put them on my feet. The 
 servant-girl used to call me by the name of Shouin, 
 instead of John ; and I used to carry turf to put on 
 the fire and to wash potatoes for dinner and supper, 
 — that the first day I put on my new clogs, she sent 
 me to wash some potatoes. Which I used to pick 
 them up from the upper end of the building where 
 they used to keep the turf, and she used to be in the 
 bottom end of the building, churning and making 
 butter ; and I had to pass her place to go down in 
 
"A PAIR OF WOODEN SHOES." 319 
 
 the little field, where there was a clear little running 
 brook. So I went with the basket on my head as 
 usual, and flung it down in the water where I used 
 to ; and, looking for the besom what I used to scrub 
 the potatoes with, I could see the basket going down 
 the river, and ne'er a 'tatoe in it. I forgot to pick 
 the potatoes up, because I was so vainglorious of 
 my clogs ; and when I went back, the servant-girl 
 was splitting her sides laughing, because she knew 
 very well that I had no time to pick them up. That 
 and a great many more little simple things I could 
 mention, to show what a poor silly boy had to go 
 through ; but that was where I read this book, for 
 my cousin bought it from Wrexham fair ; and it was 
 full of very curious book-plates. Oh dear ! oh dear ! 
 that was a many a day ago. But come, Mr Groome, 
 you are a celebrated literary gentleman " — (a back- 
 thrust this, for my impugnment of his story's origin) 
 - — " you should give us some of the advantages of 
 your superior knowledge, something that you have 
 learnt from books." 
 
 " All right ; but what is it to be ? Another letter 
 from the newspapers, Silvanus ? " 
 
 "Dear blessed heart, man, no," Lementina inter- 
 posed ; " I can't afford a teapot every day." 
 
 "True, that would come too expensive. There is 
 one of the Grays I know, who lives up two flights of 
 stairs in a county town ; and whenever he and his 
 wife have a quarrel (twice a month on an average), 
 they pitch everything out of the window — crockery, 
 
330 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 pots, and furniture, with which last they fortunately 
 are not overstocked. Poor old 'Shach, ' the gentle- 
 man what does the knives and scissors,' as Horace 
 Lee described him to me once. But let's consider — ; 
 oh ! I think I have it. Dimiti, do you run to the 
 farm, and ask Mrs Price to give you the very biggest 
 of all my books. She can't mistake it." 
 
 Dimiti bounded off, and presently reappeared, 
 staggering under a volume of the Ilbistrated London 
 News. Half way he rested ; and resting, discovered 
 the nature of his burden, that there were pictures of 
 fighting and killing and what not else inside. This 
 must be seen into ; so, propping the book against a 
 rock, he stretched himself before it on his stomach, 
 and entered on a leisurely investigation. His notes 
 of amazement came to us on the breeze, till with a 
 final and crescendo " D6rdi ! " he sprang to his heels, 
 resumed his load, and speedily covered the remaining 
 course, vociferating — 
 
 " My blessed daddy, you never seen such things in 
 all the born days of your life — horses, and soldiers, 
 and tents, a tent with Aunt 'Lina and my granny's 
 Tiny, and another with pretty hangmen and hand- 
 cuffs, took most beautiful." 
 
 Yes, that was something everyone must see : the 
 next half-hour was spent in looking at the " po'traits," 
 and many were the quaint remarks thereon. " They 
 looks awful pale," said Ruth of the victims of • the 
 coup-d'i'tat, as well they might, seeing the picture was 
 uncoloured ; but when John announced that the girl 
 
A PO'TRAIT. 321 
 
 of the tent was actually a Sinfi, their wonderment 
 knew no bounds. " Ay," remarked Anselo, " I'd 
 swear to her big nose anywheres." " But she's got 
 no boots on," Leah objected. At length they would 
 have this mystery revealed : so, with Christopher for 
 lectern, I read ; and what I read deserves a fresh 
 chapter to itself 
 
GIPSY EXPERIENCES. 
 By a Romani Rei.i 
 
 -MY FIRST GIPSY LESSON. 
 
 [WO words of explanation before entering 
 upon these experiences. I am not Mr 
 Borrow. I have not the pleasure of 
 knowing that remarkable agent of the 
 Bible Society. It is perhaps unnecessary to say, 
 that I once had pointed out to me at a club table, 
 next to that at which I was dining, a gentleman in 
 black, like a colossal clergyman, with a very white 
 head, and two very black eyes (I do not mean 
 blackened eyes), who I was told was Mr Borrow. 
 This is all I ever saw of the redoubtable adversary 
 of Blazing Bosville. My own experiences of Gipsy 
 life are confined to this country. They profess to be, 
 and are, real experiences. My Gipsies are genuine. 
 My Gipsy women are not the Gipsy women of the 
 
 1 Reprinted, by permission, from the Illustrated London News, Nov. 
 29, Dec. 13, and Dec. 27, 1S51. N.B. — The following foot-notes are 
 my hearers' comments on the story. 
 322 
 
GIPSY EXPERIE^^CES. 323 
 
 theatre ; they do not wear short red petticoats, 
 worked at the bottom with black cabalistic signs, 
 still less silk stockings or antique sandals on their 
 feet, or turbans on their heads ; nor are they called 
 "Zarah," or "Zillah." My Gipsy men never, by any 
 accident, swathe their legs in linen bandages, cross- 
 gartered with red worsted lace ; the nearest approach 
 they ever make to a brigand's jacket is a velveteen 
 shooting-coat, much the worse for wear ; and alto- 
 gether their appearance suggests rather a cross 
 between a debauched gamekeeper and a Stafford- 
 shire pot-hawker, than anything like Mr O. Smith, 
 or Mr N. T. Hicks, as he appears in Lo Zingaro. 
 
 It is curious, indeed, considering how many Gipsies 
 there are still in England, and how much the race has 
 been worked by painters, dramatists, and novelists, 
 to find how untruthfully they have, as a rule, been 
 represented by all these artists. Among our painters 
 there is scarcely one, except Oakley, who has painted 
 these people as they are. In the pictures and draw- 
 ings of them there is an entire lack of truth, which 
 can be detected at a glance by the aficionado, the 
 true lover and student of Romani life. I cannot 
 remember a single genuine Gipsy in a novel, though 
 both Bulwer and Disraeli have tried their hands at 
 the class. And among stage plays, the only one in 
 which I have ever seen the Gipsy introduced, with 
 evidence of a real life-like knowledge of the race, 'is 
 in a version of Sir Roger de Coverly, played at the 
 Olympic Theatre during the present year. 
 
324 IN ,GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 Mr Borrow, no doubt, knows the Gipsies well, and 
 could describe them perfectly. But his love of effect 
 leads him away. In his wish to impress his reader 
 with a certain mysterious notion of himself, he 
 colours his Gipsy pictures (the form of which is 
 quite accurate) in a fantastic style, which robs them 
 altogether of the value they would have as studies 
 from life. His English Gipsy vocabulary, so far as 
 I have been able to compare it with the language 
 actually spoken by the Roman! race, is accurate and 
 trustworthy. 
 
 In my native county the real Romani is unknown. 
 We have " potters," or " muggers," who camp in 
 green lanes, and live by making and repairing small 
 iron and tin wares, much in the Gipsy fashion, com- 
 bining this industry with the manufacture and sale 
 of coarse earthenware and birch brooms, at question- 
 ably low prices. But I had never seen the thorough- 
 bred " Romani " till I had arrived at man's estate — • 
 at least till I called myself " a man," being really a 
 freshman at College, Cambridge. 
 
 I suppose I must have a vagabond drop in my 
 blood,^ otherwise I cannot account for the strong 
 attraction this people have always had for me from 
 the first time I came across them. If there be a 
 Romani camp within a mile, I wind it. In the 
 country I find " the spirit in my feet " that Shelley 
 sings of, always leading me across commons, and 
 
 ' Riclienda. — "Ah ! that's it. All mumply goigios will say that." 
 
GIPSY EXPERIENCES. 
 
 32s 
 
 along green lanes, and into wayside woods, and 
 bringing me up within sight of the thin blue smoke, 
 curling mysteriously among the green boughs, and 
 within scent of the pleasant pungency of the open- 
 air wood-fire. No wonder that I have a tolerably 
 wide acquaintanceship among the race. They see 
 my relish for their company and appreciate it. It 
 is to this that I owe the name by which they have 
 kindly adopted me, of the " Romani Rei," or 
 " Gipsy gentleman." I remember, as if it was 
 yesterday (though it is now some twelve years 
 ago), not exactly my first sight of a Romani, but 
 my first lesson in their tongue, — which I may tell 
 you, en passant, is a genuine language, in that state 
 of mutilation which a language must fall into when 
 transmitted orally only, in the hands of an entirely 
 illiterate people. It is closely connected with the 
 Sanscrit, and proves incontestably to every philolo- 
 gist who has ever seen a vocabulary of it, that the 
 Romani are a North Indian race,i whatever may 
 have been their migrations since leaving their original 
 seat, if ever they had one, and have not always been 
 Pariahs and vagabonds. But I have no intention of 
 going into the philology or ethnology of my Romani 
 friends just now. 
 
 I had been sketching all that day, or rather I had 
 
 ^ JoJtn Roberts. — "Now, didn't I tell you? Where on earth should 
 they come from, if it wasn't from India ? Anyone with any sense might 
 tell that." Yet I remember when John addressed an Egyptian mummy 
 in the British Museum as "Ancient Romano brother ; " 
 
326 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 been wandering about with a sketch-book in my 
 hand, and a water-colour box in my pocket, stopping 
 now and then to make believe to draw; but really 
 enjoying an aimless ramble, — away from lectures,, 
 and "cram," and private tutor, — over the unfenced 
 flats, and by the willow-fringed streams, and through 
 the hap-hazard copses and still green lanes and 
 primitive villages, which make even fenny Cam- 
 bridgeshire beautiful, if a man has legs for a good 
 day's walk, and eyes and heart to recognise beauty 
 wherever he finds it, even in its homeliest garb. My 
 ramble had been on the Huntingdon side of Cam- 
 bridge. It was a bright May-day, and the sun was 
 westering ; and though I had no watch, my appetite 
 told me it was hard upon Hall-time. I had set my 
 face Cambridge -wards, and was tumbling along over 
 the tufts of sedge grass, and ploughing through the 
 fallows, and over the young wheat, taking a line of 
 my own across the country, when I saw a thin spiral 
 of blue smoke creeping up the trunk and under the 
 lower branches of a noble beech, one of an irregular 
 avenue of the same trees, that seemed to begin 
 abruptly in the flat I was crossing, and to end as 
 abruptly some half-mile farther on. As much from 
 curiosity about the trees as the smoke, I turned out 
 of my direction, scrambled through a sort of natural 
 hedge of elder and bramble, and found myself in a 
 still green road, that begins in the fields and ends in 
 the fields, skirting one farmstead in its way ; and 
 therefore, I presume, claiming to be connected with 
 
GIPSY EXPERIENCES. 327 
 
 a country road that runs at right angles to it some 
 fields off one of its ends. 
 
 It is an old Roman road. You may still see the 
 vestiges of pavement under the grass that covers it. 
 The people about call it "The King's Hedges." If 
 I have among my readers a Cambridge man, fond 
 of cross-country " constitutionals," he will probably 
 recognise the place from my description. But to do 
 this, he must be a man of about my own standing, 
 I fancy; for the Enclosure Commissioners have been 
 busy since then, and in that neighbourhood, too. 
 Even at that day, I remember, I had come now and 
 then across raw -looking squares of newly -broken- 
 up common, with their lank, unpainted rail-fences, 
 looking more like American zig-zags than genuine 
 English work, and I had sighed to think of common- 
 rights put an end to, and " constitutionals " abridged, 
 on that side of Cambridge. 
 
 I came that day upon " The King's Hedges " for 
 the first time ; and its strange seclusion riveted me. 
 Under the two broken lines of feathery beech-trees, 
 on whose thin spring-green foliage the slant rays of 
 the afternoon May sun were dancing, ran a low and 
 broken hedge of bramble and elder, close up to which 
 grew the short greensward, the stones of the causeway 
 showing through it here and there, with no wear and 
 tear of traffic on their velvety and irregular faces. 
 
 Some twenty yards from the point where I struck 
 the lane, were grouped the three tents of a Gipsy 
 camp, the rounded end of one towards me, while 
 
328 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 from the space they encircled rose the thin blue 
 column of wood smoke that had first attracted my 
 attention. A rough but light cart was pitched near 
 the tents, and a rusty, saddle-galled, wall-eyed pony,, 
 with a couple of unkempt donkeys, a black-brown 
 and a dun, were hobbling about, as well as their 
 foot-ropes would allow them, after the short sweet 
 grass of the hedge-side. I stepped up towards the 
 camp noiselessly, for the foot falls without a sound 
 upon that old sward, and was close upon the tents 
 before a long-backed bandy-legged, yellow terrier, 
 sleeping with his nose in the wood-ashes, was suffi- 
 ciently aroused to a sense of his duty to fly at 
 me, with that extra activity of yelping zeal which 
 all functionaries are apt to assume when caught 
 napping.^ 
 
 "Besh-to-lai, chukel'"^ (lie down, dog), said a shrill 
 voice from the nearest tent, across the entrance of 
 which hung a patch-work quilt. 
 
 I lifted it without ceremony, and looked in. Its 
 only occupant was a girl, sitting with her legs doubled 
 under her, Indian fashion, and busied in weaving a 
 small net. 
 
 As my shadow darkened the entrance, she let her 
 small hands, every finger bedecked with rude silver 
 rings, fall, with their work, slowly on her knees, and 
 looked up steadily and composedly. 
 
 1 /■^uth. — " It's rather nice." 
 
 "- Anselo.—" Well ! ! ! Dadia, bor ! ' 
 
GIPSY EXPERIENCES. 329 
 
 She appeared to me then a woman, but her 
 age, as she afterwards told me, was fifteen. I have 
 seen many beautiful Gipsies since then, but I have 
 never seen one so beautiful as Sinfi Curraple 
 {Anglice " Smith"), my acquaintance of " The King's 
 Hedges." 1 
 
 Her features were small, and more Arab than 
 Indian, and with nothing of the Jewish cast that is 
 often seen in Gipsy women. Her eye had the veiled 
 fire peculiar to the race, a sort of filmy languor that 
 blazes up with passion, but which, even while unex- 
 cited, exerts still a strange, serpent-like power of latent 
 fascination.^ Her teeth were small, and white, and 
 sound, as Gipsy teeth always are. Her blue-black 
 hair,^ in two short shining plaits, came low across her 
 narrow forehead, and close along her cheeks, sharply 
 marking (if I may be allowed the bull) the triangular 
 oval of the face, by its dark line relieved against the 
 blood-red silk handkerchief, which she wore coiffed, 
 hood-fashion, on her head. On each side of her little 
 mouth, and in the centre of her soft round chin, was 
 a small blue tattoo mark, which heightened the mellow 
 and velvety smoothness of her skin — dusky, but not 
 sallow, and glowing under the sun like the side of 
 a brown Bergamot pear. 
 
 ^ Sinfi ^aa.— "Ah-h! and is all this true? But I never heard a 
 name like that. Why, ' Smith ' is Pdtulengro ? " 
 
 2 Anselo. — "There, bor ; sarpents, by gum 1 " 
 
 3 Stai-lina. — " Blue-black ! well I never heard talk of such a thing as 
 that." 
 
330 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 She sat so — the beautiful young vagabond !^ — and 
 looked steadily and calmly at me, without speaking, 
 as the dog, in obedience to her voice, ceased yelping, 
 and nuzzled at her side. 
 
 I stooped under the tent, asking, " May I come 
 in?" 
 
 " Come in, my rei, and welcome, if you're not 
 afraid to sit by the poor Gipsy ;" and, untwisting 
 her legs from under her, she rose without aid of 
 her hand ; and reaching a piece of carpet from a 
 bundle of bedding that lay rolled up at the back 
 of the tent, spread it for me on the straw, gravely 
 and courteously. " Let me tell your fortune, my 
 pretty gentleman," she began, after a short pause, in 
 the musical, cajoling, jaunty, sing-song of the race ; 
 but seeing, I suppose, from my impatient " No — 
 no — nonsense ! " that it was not for this purpose, at 
 least, I had introduced myself into the tents, she 
 stopped, and began to beg in the true Gipsy fashion. 
 " Give the poor Gipsy a sixpence, my rei." I felt the 
 romance oozing out of me at this cool, cut-and-dry, 
 business-like sponging, and said, " Don't beg, there's 
 a good girl ; if you don't ask for anything, you may 
 get something, but if you begin to beg again I shall 
 go."^ 
 
 She stopped short at this formidable threat, and 
 
 ' Sinfi Faa. — "Vagabond ! What nasty highgags ! Now, that is a 
 shame if you like. I've never been called that before. If any one had, 
 I'd have give it them. Better people than themselves, I declare." 
 
 - Starllna. — " ' Go, then, highgag,' I'd say in a minute." 
 
GIPSY EXPERIENCES. . 331 
 
 looking at my sketch-book, said, " I know what that 
 is — it's the book you draw things out in. There was 
 a rei came and drew us out, when we were camped 
 in the Gorsehole, near Newmarket, with the tents, 
 and the cart, and the fire, and the chukel yonder, 
 and me, and aunt, and uncle, and all of us — as 
 natural as life." 
 
 "Will you let me draw you, I asked?" 
 " Me ! " she said, and laughed, and looked archly 
 in my face for the compliment she saw growing 
 there. 
 
 " Yes ; you are very pretty, and you know it." 
 " Don't laugh at the poor Gipsy, my rei," she said, 
 nestling back into the shadow, and coquettishly 
 drawing forward her red hood, till the arch little 
 face glowed again under the warm light reflected 
 from it, while she let the fire gather slowly under 
 the film of her infernal eyes, till I felt uncomfort- 
 able. However, I looked into them as little as 
 possible, and drew on as I best might without it. 
 
 " Oh the cushgar poslinikes ! " she suddenly ex- 
 claimed, as I took, to wipe out a light, a flaming 
 yellow and crimson silk handkerchief ; how the deuce 
 I came ever to have bought such a blazing Bandana 
 I can't think, unless it was the Gipsy drop in me 
 that I have spoken of before. " Oh the cushgar 
 poshnikes!" and she fairly clapped her hands. 
 " What is the meaning of ' cushgar poshtikes ?' " 
 " It is Romani rokkerpen — it's Romani talk, my rei, 
 and it means 'pretty handkerchief" 
 
332 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 " I should like to learn the Romani talk. Will you 
 teach me ?" 
 
 She shook her pretty head doubtfully. " I don't 
 know what Aunt Athaliah would say." 
 
 " Never mind Aunt Athaliah. Come, ' cusJigar 
 posJinikes ' (I put the words down), and I suppose I 
 must call you ' cnshgar' too? What is 'pretty girl' 
 in your language?" 
 
 " Rinaie rakli. And now will you give me the 
 handkerchief, my rei ?" ^ 
 
 "Yes, rinaie rakli ; if you will ask for it in your 
 language." 
 
 " Pal, del mande the diklo." 
 
 " That means ? " 
 
 " Brother, give me the handkerchief" 
 
 " There ! What will you do with it ? Tell me in 
 your language." 
 
 " Chiv it ad]-i my chiirro " ^ (put it on my head) ; 
 and, with a rapid movement of her round arms and 
 little fingers, she translated the words by replacing 
 her red hood with my flaunting present. Somehow 
 the vivid orange and crimson made a harmony with 
 the glowing complexion, shining hair, and bright- 
 coloured gown, all mellowed in the warm half-light 
 that filtered through the brown tent. She was a 
 magnificent bit of colour, seen so ; and, as a painter, 
 
 ' Starlina. — "There, bor!" 
 
 ^ Silvanus. — "'Chiv it adre ! ' Well, I never did hear the likes 
 of that. I expect she said, ' Chiv it opre,' and he mistook the 
 word." 
 
GIPSY EXPERIENCES. • 333 
 
 I had a right to admire her, but hardly a right to 
 put my next question. 
 
 "What is 'kiss' in your language?" 
 
 She gave a quiet little chuckle as she answered, 
 " Tshuma." 
 
 "Will you del mande a tshuma for the cus/igar 
 diklo ?"^ You see I was profiting by my lesson. 
 
 She put out her cheek, without the least dis- 
 composure. 
 
 " Ourli, my pal." 
 
 I am bound to confess that, encouraged by the 
 action, I took for granted that " otwli" meant "yes." 
 
 " Kek vafardes na tslmma" she said very soberly, 
 as I resumed my sketch ; and, answering my look, 
 added the interpretation, " No harm in a kiss ; it's 
 a Romani saying, my rei." 
 
 "And a very good saying too. What is your 
 name?" 
 
 " Sinfi Smith ; there's Romani for the name of 
 Smith — Curraple." 
 
 " And have you always lived in a tent, Sinfi ? " ^ 
 
 " Yes ; I was born in one — in the great snow. We 
 were snowed up — I've heard from my dia (mother) — 
 for three weeks, under Haslingfield Wood." 
 
 " Would you like to live in a house ? " 
 
 " Kek ! kek ! " (No, no !) she replied with a peremp- 
 
 * 6'/a;-//«3.— " I'd say, 'No, highflier.' Was he supposed to have 
 been quite a young fellow then ? " 
 
 2 Ruth. "Ah ! that's what mumply kennicks have said to me often, 
 
 ' Live in a tint.'" 
 
334 I^' GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 tory shake of the head. " The keir's ciishgar for the 
 keiringro. (The house is good for the house-dweller.) 
 I've been in a keir often, at Cambridge ; the stairs 
 make my head swim, and you can't breathe." 
 
 " But it must be very choky here in your tent ; at 
 night, now, how many of you sleep here ? " 
 
 " There's me, and Cousin Florentia, and Morella." 
 
 Three of them in a space of six feet by four, and 
 about four feet high ! 
 
 "Why, you must be suffocated. How do you 
 breathe ? " 
 
 " It is hot, sometimes ; but then we lift up the 
 koppa (blanket) over the tent mouth, and let the 
 sweet air take us." 
 
 So we went on, she interspersing her conversation 
 with Romani words, and interpreting them for me 
 at my request, while I took them down. I had 
 already filled some four pages of my note-book 
 with the fruits of this pleasant lesson ; and I must 
 admit that my sketch did not advance quite as fast 
 as my glossary. I found on her part no reluctance 
 to give me the Romani words for the objects about ; 
 and I may remark, by the way, that I have never 
 found any difficulty of this kind among the younger 
 Gipsies. The older ones are occasionally more sus- 
 picious, and will often pretend that they have no 
 word in their language when they think the know- 
 ledge of it likely to be turned against them. Thus, 
 an old Gipsy man once gravely assured me that 
 they had no word in their tongue for "thief." The 
 
CIPSY EXPERIENXES. 335 
 
 old rogue, I may remark, was convicted of sheep- 
 stealing at the Bury assizes, after he had solemnly 
 assured me that the name and the practice were 
 alike unknown among the Romand 
 
 So our lesson went on for an hour or so. Sinfi 
 was the most patient of instructresses, pursing and 
 torturing her charming mouth in a thousand ways 
 to give me the accurate pronunciations, and racking 
 her pretty head in the vain effort to comprehend 
 my questions about nouns, and verbs, and preposi- 
 tions. She had not the least notion of grammatical 
 distinctions, and generally used her words (as the 
 Romane all do) as roots, without inflection, inter- 
 spersed with English. Occasionally I could detect 
 an inflection in the concrete of a sentence, and I 
 was careful to note these. 
 
 Though there was nothing either poetical or mys- 
 terious in Sinfi's way of talking, there were turns of 
 phrase, every now and then, which agreeably denoted 
 the influence of a free, roving, open-air life ; and, 
 above all, there was an utter absence of vulgarity, 
 both in the words and the manner of them. On 
 the contrary, the thing that most struck me was 
 the grace of her action in speaking and moving, 
 and the gentle and quiet courtesy with which she 
 brought me what I asked for — some water, a support 
 for my sketch-book, and so forth. This gracefulness 
 is to be found in all the Romane, and belongs to the 
 East, like their small hands and lithe limbs. I ob- 
 served now, too, in her, what since I find a universal 
 
336 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 habit with the race, that she sat Hke an Oriental 
 woman, her legs folded under her. Indeed, I might 
 have fancied myself in Syria, looking on the slender 
 little body, with its Eastern head-gear, its bright- . 
 coloured gown, loose upon the bosom, which was 
 covered by two or three layers of red and yellow 
 and green spotted handkerchiefs ; the lower limbs 
 gathered under, and crossed, and the upper part of 
 the figure lying lazily back against the pile of bed- 
 ding, which, under its covering of a gaudy carpet, 
 might have passed muster for a divan. There was 
 only the nargliileh wanting ; and I grieve, for the 
 effect of my picture, to say that, before our lesson 
 was interrupted, this was supplied in the form of a 
 short black cutty pipe, which Sinfi smoked with 
 great relish, declining the cigar I offered her. Cutty 
 pipe, however, and all included, I don't remember 
 that I ever spent a pleasanter hour in my life. 
 
 The sketch and the lesson were going on rather 
 irregularly, when a low whine of recognition from 
 the dog, and the sound of voices, announced a new 
 arrival. Looking up from my work, I saw a broad, 
 swarthy, black-browed woman's face staring into the 
 tent. Catching a sight of my drawing, the new 
 comer — whom I rightly guessed to be the Aunt 
 Athaliah of whom Sinfi had expressed some appre- 
 hension — burst out into a wild and incoherent gabble, 
 half English, half Romani, from which I could just 
 make out that she was consigning me, and my work, 
 and my poor little sitter to the most disagreeable 
 
GIPSY EXPERIENCES. 
 
 337 
 
 places. Then stooping under the tent before I was 
 iware, she clutched my sketch-book with one hand, 
 ind sent it spinning along the road, while with the 
 Dther she seized poor Sinfi by the shoulder, and 
 lugged her up, and out, through the straw and wood- 
 ishes in front of the tent, shaking her violently and 
 :ursing her—" I'll viatir (kill) you, you cliikli Beng's 
 :havi (dirty devil's daughter). How dare you let a 
 '^07'ja chiv you adi'a his lill (how dare you let a man 
 put you in his book), to chore the raht of your miii 
 'X.0 steal the blood from your face) ? " All this was 
 said with inconceivable rapidity and vehemence ; and 
 lier assault had so astounded me, that, for an instant, 
 [ could neither avenge my outraged sketch-book, nor 
 JO to the rescue of Sinfi, who offered no resistance 
 :o the cuffs and shakings of the redoubtable Athaliah. 
 A.t last, however, gathering my scattered senses, and 
 seizing the old lady by the shoulders, I whirled her 
 ■ound. " Hands off, you old fagot ! By Jove ! if 
 fOM strike the girl again, I'll knock you down." She 
 :wisted in my hands, and foamed at the mouth, trans- 
 'erring her abuse from Sinfi to me. 
 
 " What's the matter, you old fool ? " 
 
 " I won't have her drawed out ; I told her I'd make 
 ler scrawl the earth before me, if ever she let herself 
 3e drawed out again." 
 
 " Why, what harm can there be ? " 
 
 "I know there's 2. fiz^ (a charm) in it. There was 
 
 ' Plato. — " Kfiz ! what's that ? " 
 Y 
 
338 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 my youngest, that the gorja d rawed out on New- 
 market Heath, she never held her head up after, 
 but wasted away, and died ; and she's buried in 
 March churchyard." ^ 
 
 " Nonsense, you old idiot ! Anyhow, I won't let 
 you touch the girl while I'm here ; so sit down 
 quietly, and I'll draw you if you like." 
 
 She ground her teeth at me, but sat down, sulkily 
 muttering, near the fireplace ; while Sinfi, who did 
 not appear much the worse for the bourrade, gathered 
 sticks, and prepared to make a blaze. 
 
 " Take a cigar, old lady," I said, after a minute or 
 two, handing her my case. 
 
 She took one ungraciously, lighted it with a lucifer 
 match, of which she produced a box from her pocket, 
 and began to puff, — Sinfi looking up from her work 
 now and then, with a sly smile at me, and a sort of 
 wink in the direction of her aunt. 
 
 Tobacco is a great sedative, and before the first 
 cigar was half smoked, Athaliah and I were as good 
 friends as if our introduction had been the pleasantest 
 one in the world. 
 
 Athaliah Shaw was about the ugliest Romani I 
 ever saw, standing close on six feet high, with a 
 face like a vicious horse, and hair as coarse as his 
 tail. She wore a long bright tartan shawl, draped 
 awry, an old black straw bonnet on her head, with 
 
 1 Lcinentina. — "Ay, nearly all the pretty Romane say that, that it's 
 bad luck." 
 
GIPSY EXPERIENCES. 339 
 
 a green and yellow handkerchief under it, a rusty 
 black dress, and boots like a navigator's. Uncle 
 Euri, who came lounging up a few hundred yards 
 behind her, with a couple of terriers at his heels, 
 was a thickset, sturdy fellow, of six-and-forty, brown 
 as a hazel-nut, with small black eyes, a coloured 
 handkerchief loosely twisted round his bronzed throat, 
 a fur cap on his head, a long calf-skin sleeved waist- 
 coat, loose drab breeches, and leggings half unbuttoned 
 over his strong ankle-boots. He had looked on with- 
 out interfering in the scuffle, and touched his hat 
 civilly to me, as he sat down opposite to me on the 
 other side of the fire-place. 
 
 " The women don't like it, sir," he said apolo- 
 getically. " I don't care about it ; you may draw 
 me out as much as you like for a pint of beer and 
 a pipe of tobacco ; " and with this philosophic remark 
 he applied himself to his cutty with perfect com- 
 posure, and great lazy enjoyment. 
 
 Meanwhile, stirring Sinfi had gathered sticks, and 
 turned the hooked fire-rod round, and slung upon it a 
 big black kettle, which stood, ready filled, under the 
 shade of the hedge. Aunt Athaliah, much appeased, 
 but still grumbling inwardly, like a volcano in the 
 intervals of eruption, was taking out, from a sort of 
 huge wallet (formed by doubling her stout apron and 
 securing the corners to her waistband), a most miscel- 
 laneous collection of town purchases, — lucifer matches, 
 a quarter of a pound of tea in a paper, two quartern 
 loaves, a lump of salt butter, a paper of moist sugar, 
 
340 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 some tobacco, a bunch of candles, and other things, 
 which all reposed comfortably side by side in that 
 capacious receptacle. Uncle Euri, meanwhile, had 
 leisurely, and without rising, gathered a few handfuls. 
 of straw and small sticks into a hollow wisp, into 
 which he thrust a lighted lucifer, and rapidly putting 
 it down, disposed larger sticks about it, so as, in a few 
 minutes, to have a good, well-piled fagot^ crackling 
 and blazing under the pot. 
 
 The old woman and he exchanged some words in 
 Gipsy with Sinfi. " Mtik us piikhar the rei to holl a 
 crume7- of hawben." (Let us ask the gentleman to 
 eat a bit of victuals.) 
 
 Sinfi interpreted the invitation : " Uncle says, my 
 rei, will you eat with the poor Romani ? " 
 
 " Won't I, Sinfi ? I'm desperately hungry. Aunt 
 Athaliah ; and I was going to ask myself, if you 
 hadn't invited me." 
 
 " Eh ! Why, you'll never com (like) the moiilo mass 
 (dead meat) that the Romani eat, my rei," said Uncle 
 Euri, in their whining sing-song, full of calinerie and 
 mock humility. 
 
 " I can eat anything," I answered. 
 
 " Can you eat hotchiwitcliy and hottrri-zimmins ? " 
 asked Sinfi, laughing to her uncle over the potatoes 
 shs was peeling into a red earthenware dish. 
 
 " Talk English to the rei, Sinfi," said Uncle Euri. 
 
 1 Ruth. — "A well-piled fagot! Dadia, what a mumper's wovd ! 
 Ah, indeed ! " 
 
GIPSY EXPERIENCES. 34 1 
 
 " He wants to learn Romani, uncle ; look, he puts 
 all the words you tell him down in his ticknee lill 
 (little book) there — oh, so fast ! and he learns them 
 off directly." 
 
 " Ah ! " said Euri, sententiously ; " I've knowed 
 
 reis as did that afore. There was young C k, 
 
 Athaliah ; him that jaed to the vellgouris (went to 
 the fairs) with us for three months, and kerred the 
 bosli and the hunbo^ (played the fiddle and tam- 
 bourine) like a tatcJio (true) Romani." 
 
 Athaliah shook her head. " He had doster colas in 
 his shurro besides jiivlas (he had many things in his 
 head besides lice). He jinned the miilo Beng's kok- 
 napans (he knew the devil's tricks) — he did. Yes, my 
 rei, he could make himself as big or as little as he 
 liked, and he could raise the Beiig, he told us ; and 
 often when he was kerring the bosli with my rom, 
 there, in the kellapen (when he was playing the fiddle 
 with my husband at the dance), he would laugh till 
 he almost fell off the table. It was awful to hear 
 him ! Eh, Euri ? " 
 
 Euri nodded a reverential assent. It was clear 
 
 that poor C k had left an enviable reputation 
 
 behind him, among his Romani friends. He was 
 mad — poor fellow — but full of humour. Who is 
 there of his standing at Cambridge that does not 
 remember "Athanasius Gasker," and his museum. 
 
 1 Lancelot.— "l.o\& bless us all, the litmbo! I should %&-/ tom-tom. 
 Why, they were half mumpers, half highgags. " 
 
342 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 and the library of useless knowledge ? And among 
 his other eccentricities, I now learned for the first 
 time that he was an aficionado, one of the Gipsy- 
 stricken. 
 
 "But what are we to have for dinner?" I asked ; 
 for Sinfi had put on the kettle, which was already 
 simmering, and which, as she removed the lid to 
 stir it carefully, I saw was full of a sort of white 
 soup, with something in it that looked like oysters. 
 "Deuced odd!" I thought to myself; "oyster-soup 
 here ! " 
 
 " It's bojtrri- zimmins" said Sinfi, importantly ; 
 " but I won't tell you what that is till you've eaten 
 it." 
 
 " And where's the Jiotchiwitcliy the chnkel (dog) 
 caught this morning ? " asked Euri, getting up lazily. 
 
 " Adri the vado (in the cart)," said Sinfi. 
 
 " What the deuce is a hotcliiwitchy ? " I thought 
 to myself, as Euri, arming himself with an old 
 clothes-brush, worn to the stump, lounged to the 
 cart. He came back, and in his hand I saw a 
 young fresh-killed hedgehog. 
 
 " So that's a Iwlchiwitchy ? " 
 
 " Ourli;' said Sinfi. 
 
 "And do you mean to say you eat hedgehog?" 
 
 " Eat it ! " said Euri, with a stare of surprise. 
 " There ain't any game as runs or flies can beat 
 it, that is, afore the winter ; they're thinnish now, 
 but a fat un's as rich as pig, and as delicate as 
 pheasant." 
 
GIPSY EXPERIENCES. 343 
 
 While he spoke, he commenced his culinary opera- 
 tions. As there is no receipt in Soyer, Ude, or 
 Careme, for cooking a hedgehog, I feel it my duty 
 to be minute in my description of the process. 
 
 Euri began by throwing his hedgehog on the 
 ground ; then, pressing his foot on the back, the 
 body yielded, and from a ball grew a straight little 
 cylinder of bristles. Throwing this on the fire, 
 which had now burnt down to a clear red braise, he 
 snatched it off again at a certain point of singeing 
 — this point it is a very delicate matter to hit, mind 
 — and applying his old clothes-brush to the smoking 
 stubble, speedily stripped poor piggy of the best part 
 of his bristles, and ran a knife up the skin of the 
 belly. Then taking a mass of stiff clay, which lay 
 ready kneaded under the cart, he proceeded to invest 
 the unseemly little body in a clay coffin, of about a 
 quarter to half an inch thick ; and depositing this in 
 the heat of the fire, gathered the red ashes about and 
 over it.'^ I watched with undisguised admiration, 
 till Sinfi laughed again, and let her soup boil over, in 
 her amusement at my interest in Euri's proceedings, 
 which brought upon her a sharp rebuke from Aunt 
 Athaliah, whose temper was not improved, as I now 
 found, by a touch of rheumatism. 
 
 Meanwhile, plates, dishes, and porringers had been 
 rummaged out, with an odd knife and fork or two, 
 
 ^.Lementina. — "Well, I never saw a hedgehog done in that way in 
 my life." 
 
344 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 sundry battered iron spoons, some salt and pepper 
 in a paper, and an elderly teapot (which Aunt 
 Athaliah seemed to have under her special charge), 
 flanked by a most miscellaneous array of cups and 
 saucers. Sinfi was busy seasoning her soup, which 
 really smelt uncommonly nice, though I was not at 
 all easy about the ingredients. 
 
 "There, my rei," she said triumphantly, as she 
 poured me out a basinful, and put it before me 
 with a hunch of bread. " Holl that, and you can 
 tell the gorjas you have eat bourri-zinnnins with 
 the poor Romani." 
 
 I was uncommonly hungry, and the soup smelt 
 so appetising, and Sinfi offered it me with so much 
 grace, and such a triumphant twinkle of her black 
 eyes, that I threw my misgivings overboard, and 
 fell to. 
 
 Bourri-ziminins, whatever it might be, was de- 
 cidedly a hit ; rather like soupe a la reine, with 
 little lumps of something I took to be a mild kind 
 of forcemeat — decidedly they were not oysters — 
 swimming in it. Sinfi looked at me inquiringly. 
 
 I nodded, " Capital, Sinfi." 
 
 She clapped her hands with glee. " Ho ! ho ! 
 Dik, bibbe (look, aunt) ; dik, cokko (look, uncle) — 
 Dik at the rei Jwllin the bouri'i-simtnius .' " 
 
 What the deuce could bourri-ziminins be ? 
 
 But Euri having also despatched his basinful, was 
 now extracting his dirt-pie from the ashes. Holding 
 it with a pair of smith's pincers, he broke the red-hot 
 
GIPSY EXPERIENCES. 345 
 
 clay with a hammer, and neatly took off the crust, 
 with bristles and skin embedded in it. In fact, the 
 hedgehog was beautifully skinned, and baked to a 
 turn, with all his gravy in. Then, with his knife, 
 Euri opened the body along the chine, and, with 
 one sweep of the hand, brought out the entrails, in 
 a lump, by the back slit, which mode is resorted 
 to, as he told me, because the gall-bladder is less 
 likely to be broken than when the " giblets " are 
 taken out by the belly.^ And now IiotchiwitcJiy was 
 ready for eating, and really looked so plump and 
 nice as he lay on the dish, bathed in his own oozing 
 juices, and sent up such a grateful odour, that I got 
 over any qualms I might have had, and played a 
 worthy knife and fork with my new friends. 
 
 I have often eaten hedgehog since, and have 
 served it at my own table, when it has been tasted 
 and praised in blessed ignorance — for it really is 
 capital eating when in season — but I never enjoyed 
 one so much as this my first. You want to know 
 what it is like? Imagine a blending of sucking- 
 pig and grouse, the bland unctuousness of the one 
 mingling with the piquant game-flavour of the other, 
 and you may form some notion of the taste of hotcld- 
 witc/ty? 
 
 1 Lemcntina. — " Oh, my blessed dear goodness ! roasted it as it was ! 
 Well, I never in all my born days heard tell of such a thing. That is 
 most horrible. Dordi ! " 
 
 2 Kichenda.—" Sure, it must have been good, done like that. There 
 was your Gipsy cooking. Dirty pigs enough." 
 
346 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 " And now, Sinfi," I said, after I had put down my 
 knife and fork, " what is bourri-zimmins ? " 
 
 " What do you think ? " she said, swelling with the 
 pleasant secret. 
 
 " I haven't a notion — but it's uncommonly good. 
 Tell me what it is, there's a good girl. I'll give 
 Hudson the receipt," I added to myself, "for the 
 Trinity kitchen. Come, what is it, Sinfi ? " 
 
 " Snail-soup ! " 
 
 " Snail-soup ! " and I jumped up. " Confound it ! 
 you don't mean to say I've been eating snails ! " 
 
 Ugh ! At that moment I could have boxed her 
 ears, pretty as they were. I leave you to imagine 
 my sensations. However, imagination apart, snails 
 are very good eating, stewed in milk as Sinfi stewed 
 them, with pepper, salt, and herbs. And though I 
 don't mean to say I ever repeated the experiment, 
 I have no doubt, if one could get over the fancy of the 
 thing, snails would be as popular among us as oysters. 
 
 Dinner over, we sat and smoked, and I went on 
 with my Romani lesson. I don't think I quite enjoyed 
 it as much with the old people as with Sinfi, and I 
 am certain I didn't get on half so fast. However, 
 they seemed pleased at the interest I took in their 
 language ; and Euri promised to pay me a visit at 
 my rooms in college, and to give me a course of 
 lessons, for the sum of half-a-crown per lesson. 
 
 Aunt Athaliah was an inveterate old monger 
 (beggar) ; and it was only my solemn assurance 
 that she would not get a penny by asking for it, 
 
GIPSY EXPERIENCES. 347 
 
 that I managed to stop her infernal whining sup- 
 plications for backsheesh. In fact, the old woman 
 was a bore, and but for Sinfi, I don't know that 
 the acquaintance would have lasted beyond that 
 day at the King's Hedges. However, it was not 
 destined to close so soon ; in fact, it still subsists. 
 I saw Sinfi only last summer near Margate, under 
 rather curious circumstances, as I may hereafter 
 have to tell. 
 
 I was not at all prepared for the interruption that 
 brought my lesson to an abrupt close on that day. 
 
 I have mentioned the names of Florentia and 
 Morella, Sinfi's cousins, who shared her tent. 
 
 After dinner, Euri and Athaliah fell into a talk, 
 carried on almost entirely in Romani ; which I con- 
 cluded, therefore, they did not wish me to under- 
 stand. 
 
 I had no objection whatever to a tete-a-tete with 
 Sinfi. I have not known many of the Romani chais 
 (Gipsy girls) who were agreeable companions in a two- 
 handed talk. Either they are intolerably rapacious, 
 asking for everything that pleases them, or grossly 
 and tiresomely soft-sawderisli, or pruriently coarse. 
 Sinfi had none of these faults, but was really frank, 
 innocent, and natural, in her questions and answers ; 
 as limber and graceful as a lizard in her movement, 
 piquant in the little touches of savagery that crossed 
 her Oriental and lazy courtesy of manner. She was 
 certainly not only the prettiest, but the most attrac- 
 tive young Gipsy I have ever known. 
 
348 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 I can quite conceive the mad passion that such a 
 creature may create in a man, and has created, in 
 our own times too. We need not go back to Spain, 
 and the days of Cervantes, to find a Preciosa. Not 
 a few Oxford men, of nine or ten years' standing, 
 could tell a tale of frantic passion for a Gipsy girl 
 entertained by two young men at one time, one of 
 them with ducal blood in his veins, who ultimately 
 wooed and wedded his Gipsy love. So that it is no 
 way impossible (the heirs to the dukedom being all 
 unmarried, and unlikely to marry) that the ducal 
 
 coronet of may come to be worn by the son of 
 
 a Gipsy mother. 
 
 Our tcte-d-tete might have lasted an hour, and the 
 sun was on the rim of the horizon, when Euri — who 
 had walked more than once to the end of the green 
 lane, and restlessly looked north and south, and east 
 and west, as if in expectation of an arrival — suddenly 
 jumped up, and touching Athaliah's arm, directed her 
 attention to two young women, whom I now saw 
 coming rapidly towards us across the common which 
 I had been traversing when the smoke of the camp 
 attracted my attention. 
 
 " It's Florentia and Morella," said Sinfi to me. 
 
 As they came nearer, I saw by their flushed faces 
 and rapid breathing that they had walked fast and 
 far. They were lusty lasses, of about Sinfi's age, but 
 coarser of feature and bigger-limbed than she was ; 
 dressed, an reste, much in the same fashion. 
 
 They waved their hands as they came near, and 
 
GIPSY EXPERIENCES. 349 
 
 called loudly some words in Romani. All I could 
 distinguish was, "Bori Hokmii." When I asked Sinfi 
 the meaning of these words, I observed Euri frown 
 at her. She avoided answering. There was clearly 
 some mystery that I was not to be initiated into. 
 
 The girls had now reached us. They did not 
 address any words to me ; but it was evident from 
 the looks they threw in my direction, as they talked 
 earnestly apart with Euri and Athaliah, that my 
 presence was unwelcome. I observed, too, that one 
 of them hurriedly transferred to Euri a small but 
 heavy packet, which that worthy consigned straight- 
 way to his pocket. 
 
 It needed all Sinfi's control of herself to keep her 
 from leaving her seat near me at the fire, and join- 
 ing her cousins. Seeing this, I was just about to 
 take my leave, when Euri anticipated me. 
 
 Holding out his hand, he gave me the Romani 
 farewell. " Cushgar bok" (good luck) my rei ; we 
 are going to strike the ranyeJi (tent-sticks). Clap the 
 sallivandras (saddle) on the grei (horse), Florentia." 
 
 " What ! going to-night ? " I said to Sinfi. Euri 
 answered for her. 
 
 "Yes, we shall be a good many stretch (miles) 
 away before this time to-morrow." 
 
 " And my Romani lessons ? " 
 
 " Next time we come this way, sir ; we take the 
 King's Hedges in our beat ; ^ it's one of the best 
 
 1 Rulli.—" ' In our beat ! ' Mercy on us, what highfliers ! " 
 
3SO IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 consas (camping corners) in the county. Now my 
 cJiais (girls), had, had (lift, lift);" and while he spoke, 
 he had already stripped the blankets off the tent- 
 sticks, while Aunt Athaliah was busy in stowing , 
 away pots, pans, and tea-things in the large covered 
 baskets, flat on the inside, and curved on the outside, 
 for slinging on the asses, whose foot-ropes Morella 
 was untying, while her sister saddled the horse, and 
 Sinfi packed the straw into a bundle with the 
 bedding. 
 
 "Lei the tshar ari" (take away the ashes), said 
 Euri to her. At this order she extinguished the 
 embers with water ; then, collecting the ashes in her 
 apron, she began strewing them thinly in the thickest 
 part of the bushes and on the flat beyond, so that 
 very soon, except the blackened circle on the sward, 
 no trace of fire was visible. In the few minutes that 
 I stood there, it was wonderful to see what a clean 
 sweep of all vestiges of the camp had been made by 
 the united efforts of the family.'^ 
 
 I lingered still, in the hope of a farewell from Sinfi. 
 I was not disappointed. After she had shaken the 
 last of the grey ashes from her apron, she came to 
 where I stood, and gave me her hand. 
 
 " Cusligar bok, my rei. Wherever you go, you 
 won't forget Sinfi?" 
 
 " And you won't forget me, Sinfi ? " 
 
 1 Diiniti [contemplating the illustration with the air of a discoverer). 
 
 "There they are, look at 'em. There's Euri. That must be my Uncle 
 Pyramus." 
 
GIPSY EXPERIENCES. 351 
 
 " No ! I shall always think of you when I wear 
 your diklo." 
 
 " But why are you off in such a hurry ?" 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 "Where shall I find you to-morrow?" 
 
 '' Ko jin?" (who knows?) she said, with a shade of 
 gravity upon her face ; " but we shall see each other 
 again, my rei ; and mind, the next time, you must 
 know how to rokker (speak) Romani like Uncle Euri 
 yonder." 
 
 A whistle from the camp recalled her. I saw the 
 horse was in the cart, the panniers and tent-sticks 
 packed upon the asses. 
 
 " Good-bye, Sinfi." I still held her hand. 
 
 "Cushgar diviis (good day), my rei." With these 
 words she drew her fingers sharply through mine, 
 and ran like a deer towards the camp. When I 
 looked again the little caravan was in motion. 
 
 PART II. MY FIRST AND LAST GIPSY HUNT. 
 
 I Stood where Sinfi had taken leave of me, and 
 watched the caravan till her bright shawl disappeared 
 round a turn of the green lane. I flattered myself 
 she looked round just before she vanished. And 
 then, when the lane was still and lonely again, I 
 turned my face towards Cambridge. "The King's 
 Hedges," I have said, end abruptly in the fields, from 
 which the road is divided by a low quickset fence. 
 
352 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 I was making a gap in it large enough to let me 
 through, when I was pulled up by a gruff voice, 
 which exclaimed in the true nasal hvang of Cam- 
 bridgeshire — "Neow then, where are yeou a geowing, 
 teow?" It was the farmer, who didn't relish my 
 unceremonious way of dealing with his young quick- 
 set. I explained, as satisfactorily as I could, that as 
 it was obvious I must get out of the lane, it was 
 perfectly clear I must trespass on his enclosures. 
 He tried to set me right on that point, by recom- 
 mending that I should go round by the Linton 
 road, an addition of some three miles to my walk, 
 which, as the sun had set, I had no inclination for. 
 However, by dint of discussion, we became better 
 friends, strange to say ; and at last our reconciliation 
 was so complete that he showed me round to a gate 
 which led to his homestead, and thence guided me, 
 without interfering with his fences, or trampling down 
 his young wheat, to the high road. I told him of my 
 Gipsy encounter, and learned from him that the lane 
 was a regular camping place for these people ; that 
 he had nothing to complain of from them, and that 
 if they stole fowls and ducks, and killed sheep,'^ it 
 certainly was not in the neighbourhood of the camps, 
 where suspicion was sure to fall upon them, and 
 where the discovery of a cosk's feather or a duck's 
 foot would certainly be proof enough, in the eyes 
 
 ' Silvanns. — "Kill sheep! Who ever knew n. Romano to kill a 
 sheep ? " 
 
GIPSY EXPERIENCES. 353 
 
 of a couple of county magistrates sitting in petty 
 sessions, to justify a summary committal of the gang 
 as rogues and vagabonds. We parted company at 
 the road. I proceeded quietly to college, supped, 
 slept, and dreamt I was making wonderful progress 
 in Romani under the tuition of Sinfi. 
 
 Two days after, however, I had ceased to think 
 much about Gipsies, being by that time deep in 
 preparation for our annual college examination, 
 which was close at hand, and with the importance 
 of which I was duly impressed, as a decent and 
 sober freshman ought to be. On the third day, I 
 was disturbed in a struggle with Miiller's Dorians, 
 by a rap at my oak, which was sported as befitted 
 the time and my great resolves. " I won't open," 
 thought I. The knock was repeated, peremptorily. 
 It was clearly some one determined to come in. I 
 had no duns then, and few "rowing" acquaintance, 
 so on the third summons I opened. The intruder 
 was a stranger, a mild though determined-looking 
 man, of middle age, quietly dressed, but with a 
 sporting " something " in his style and manner 
 which told me at once he was neither a town touter 
 for orders nor a Cambridge tradesman. He told 
 me in a few words that he was a superintendent 
 in the London detective police ; that he had been 
 ordered down from town in consequence of a robbery 
 of sovereigns, to a large amount, from a farmer's wife 
 in Huntingdonshire. 
 
 The robbery had been perpetrated by two young 
 
354 TN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 Gipsy women, and had not been discovered by the 
 victim of it till the morning before my visitor's call 
 upon me} 
 
 " I've not lost any time, sir," he told me, with a sort 
 of quiet pride. " We seldom do. I've been looking 
 up all the camps in these parts, and I think I'm on 
 the right lay at last. But you must allow me to ask 
 you a few questions." 
 
 " Certainly," I said. 
 
 " I've been told by Mr (my farmer of ' The 
 
 King's Hedges '), that you were in company with 
 some Gipsies near his place on Wednesday, who 
 decamped the same day." 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Do you know their names ? " 
 
 "Smith, — Euri Smith, Athaliah Smith his wife, 
 and Sinfi Smith, their niece." ^ 
 
 He nodded. " Exactly ; and two girls, called 
 Florentia and Morella — strappers. One with a red 
 and green tartan shawl, and a yellow handkerchief 
 on her head ; the other with a cloak, striped brown 
 and green, and a blue and crimson handkerchief 
 under a black beaver bonnet ? " 
 
 The description was exact. 
 
 Two such girls, I told him, had come up, just 
 before I parted company with the family. 
 
 "And now, sir," he said, "try and tell me what 
 
 ^ Staiilna. — "There, bor ! that's why they had to go away." 
 "Ruth. — " Pretty fellow ! there, that's what comes o' being kind to 
 monkeys." 
 
GIPSY EXPERIENCES. 355 
 
 time it was, as near as you can, what direction 
 they came from, and what passed." 
 
 I told him, as exactly as I could, not forgetting 
 the mysterious Boi-i Hokani, which had stuck in 
 my memory. 
 
 He struck his hand on his knee as I repeated 
 the words. " I thought so," he said, after a moment ; 
 "that's my lot, as sure as skittles. And there were 
 no other men there but this Euri ? " he continued, 
 after another short pause. 
 
 " None ; nor did I hear them talk of any." 
 
 " In course not, sir," he said, with a half smile ; 
 "in course not. And now, sir," he added, with an 
 apologetic look at my open books, " if you could 
 give me an hour, sir, I should like you to go with 
 me as far as that camping place." 
 
 I hesitated at this proposal, I confess ; for it 
 seemed a sort of treason to my Gipsy acquaint- 
 ances. 
 
 As if he had read the motives of my hesitation, 
 he went on, " The fact is, sir, I only want to be 
 taken to the exact spot ; or we shall have some 
 work to find the pattra?i." ^ 
 
 " The pattran ? " I said, interrogatively. 
 
 " Ah, I forget you ain't up to their games, sir. 
 The pattran, sir, is the Gipsies' way of letting their 
 friends know which road they've taken. There were 
 
 ^ Anselo. — "There, bor ! He was a man as could speak Romanes 
 sceming-ly." 
 
356 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 two men belonging to that camp, sir, who hadn't 
 come in when they started, and they are safe to 
 have left 'em the pattran. So if you cojild take a 
 lift with us, sir " 
 
 I confess I felt some curiosity to see how it would 
 all end ; and the prospect of a Gipsy-hunt was ex- 
 citing. Besides, I had no intention of being in any 
 way accessory to its denouement, beyond honestly 
 telling all I had seen ; and I fancied it might be 
 better for Sinfi that I should be on the spot, if the 
 chase should end in a capture.^ 
 
 Accordingly I intimated to Mr Keane my readi- 
 ness to accompany him not only to " The King's 
 Hedges," but as far as he liked to take me, filled 
 my cigar case and a pocket flask of cognac, and 
 proceeded in his company to the Bishop's Hostel 
 gate, where his " trap," as he called it, was in waiting. 
 This was a light but strong spring-cart, with a wiry 
 little mare between the shafts ; and which, I found, 
 was to carry, besides ourselves, two sergeants of the 
 Cambridge police, who had been placed by the 
 magistrates at Mr Keane's orders, and who evidently 
 looked up to their London brother with the greatest 
 respect. We rattled off briskly for " The King's 
 Hedges," and on the way Mr Keane explained to 
 me the mysteries of the " Bori Hokani" and the 
 ''pattran" as follows : — 
 
 "You see, sir, these here Gipsies are a rum set, 
 
 1 StarUna.—" Ah-h-h ! he'd do it for her." 
 
GIPSY EXPERIENCES. 357 
 
 and have their own dodges and lurks, quite different 
 from our London cracksmen, or the yokels either. 
 The men don't do much harm beyond making bad 
 money, and a little sheep-slaughtering, and a deal of 
 horse-jockeying, and such like — nothing to speak of. 
 It's the women that does the great stroke of busi- 
 ness. They're uncommon knowin' at it, to be sure, 
 and gets in with ignorant servant girls, and such like, 
 and works the area-sneak, under the stall (cover) of 
 fortune-telling, and love-charms, and such like. But 
 of all their dodges, there's none they swag as much 
 by as the Bori Hokani, as they call it in their patter 
 — ' the great trick,' that means, as I'm told, sir ; 
 leastways it is a great trick, and this is the way 
 they works it. They'll get round some old farmer's 
 wife, sir, in an out-of-the-way place, when they knows 
 there's money kept in the house, — for there's many of 
 them farmers as wouldn't trust the Bank of England 
 with a sovereign, — and when the husband's out of the 
 way, they sticks it into the poor ignorant woman, as 
 how they can make money breed money, all along of 
 a charm they've got. So they indooces the ignorant 
 woman to let 'em put up her husband's sovereigns 
 for her, which they does safe enough in a parcel, 
 and gives it her, and makes her lock it up in a 
 drawer, or a chest, or such like, and says some 
 gibberish, and acts some games over it, and tells her 
 that in such and such a time if she opens the parcel 
 she'll find two sovereigns for one. But don't you 
 see, sir, they had another parcel with 'em, made up 
 
358 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 just like the one they've packed the sovereigns ir 
 (and that's why they always puts it up themselves) 
 filled with lead dumps, or such like, and by a fake- 
 ment — I beg your pardon, sir ; a sleight-of-hand like 
 you know — they change the packet of sovereigns 
 for the packet of lead fardens, in giving on 'em Uf 
 to put into the box, and they walks their chalks with 
 the tin ; and when the old lady opens her box, and 
 unfastens her parcel to look for her young canaries 
 you know, sir, she finds the blessed dumps; and pre- 
 cious aggrawated she is, in course, and her husband 
 too — for he's safe to find it out. And that's the Bon 
 Hokani, sir ; and those two limbs of girls as came 
 up when you was at the camp, sir, they'd been aX. 
 that identical day down near Alconbury Hill, and 
 they'd nailed "nigh upon eighty pound at that game 
 I've told you ; and that's what I'm arter, as I said 
 in your room, sir." 
 
 I anxiously inquired how far he supposed the 
 rest of the tribe were implicated. 
 
 " The old 'uns is safe to be afore the facts in it,' 
 he said ; " as for the others, we'll see when we nail; 
 'em. Leastways, I shall grab the lot, I know," he 
 concluded, with a pleasant look to his provincia 
 associates, who agreed with him in this, as in every- 
 thing. 
 
 By this time we had reached the scene of my firsi 
 Gipsy lesson, which had not promised s5 exciting c 
 catastrophe. I pointed out every locality as exactlj 
 as I could. The detective listened as if he wa; 
 
GIPSY EXPERIENCES. 359 
 
 riveting every word in his memory with a thump 
 of his determined will, and when I had concluded, 
 thanked me, and said quietly, "Now for the pattran;" 
 and he looked at his provincial assistants with a 
 calm consciousness of superiority. It was evident 
 they hadn't the remotest notion what the pattran 
 might be. 
 
 " Ah, I forgot ; you ain't up to that. Look here, 
 — and you, too, sir, if you like, for every pair of eyes 
 is useful sometimes, — the pattran is the Gipsies' road- 
 mark. They can track each other over all England 
 by it. This is it : when they takes a turn right or 
 left (and they goes uncommon queer roads, to be 
 sure), either they make a cross in the road-way, if 
 it's a place where there ain't much traffic, and the 
 ground suits, with their nailed shoes ; not planting 
 the marks, mind, close together, so that you'd see 
 'em with half an eye, but careless like, here and 
 there : if it's a cross, with the long end pointing the 
 way they've took. But it ain't always that, by no 
 means. Sometimes it's a branch broken down to an 
 angle, and pointing to their road ; sometimes it's a 
 rag stuck on a bush at the corner they turn ; some- 
 times a wisp of straw as you'd think had been caught 
 up out of a farmer's cart passing with a load ; but 
 there's a knot in it that tliey know, and that / 
 know {lie said this tvitli a chuckle), for I was put up 
 to the game by an old chap as had been a Gipsy 
 himself, leastways he is one still, but don't travel ; 
 for he's turned respectable, and does a putting-up 
 
36o IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 job for us now and then. And now that you know 
 what the pattran is," — he said to the provincials, with 
 the same careless consciousness of mastery which 
 marked all his communications with them, — " perhaps 
 you'll just open both your eyes uncommonly wide, 
 and help me to pick it out hereabouts." 
 
 " But," I suggested, " how do you know they have 
 left one ? " 
 
 " Ah ! there was them girls' two brothers as hadn't 
 come up when they started : they were safe to leave 
 them 'the Romani card ;' that's what we calls it, you 
 see, sir." 
 
 While he spoke he had guided us to the lane end; 
 and now began a very exciting bit of backwoodsman- 
 ship. Keane quested and cast about like a hound, 
 now with his nose close to the ground, anon peering 
 with all his eyes into the hedge, carefully avoiding 
 any touch that could displace a twig or scatter a 
 pendent straw. His companions, at a long distance, 
 of course, followed his example as they best might. 
 I was absorbed by the London detective, who worked 
 like a bloodhound, while the provincials might have 
 been turnspits. At last Keane " pointed." I can 
 give no other name to the dead set with which he 
 suddenly stood transfixed. I hastened up, and found 
 him gazing intently at an insignificant bunch of grass 
 that hung on a low bush of elder, some ten yards 
 from the end of the lane, and which I should have 
 certainly passed twenty times without noticing it, 
 even after his description of the marks to be looked 
 
GIPSY EXPERIENCES. 361 
 
 for. " That's it," sir, he said, pointing to the bit of 
 weed, with the same noiseless chuckle which I had 
 before observed was his expression of self-content. 
 " Look here, my lads," he added, to the admiring 
 " yokels," who had now come up. " Now you'd say 
 that was a bit of nat'ral grass, that had been flung 
 up there in hedging-work ; but look here," and care- 
 fully removing the bunch from its twig, he showed us 
 three knots in it, the largest in the middle. " That's 
 a Romani mark, that is ; and they have taken this 
 road ; so on we goes again," he said merrily, as we 
 remounted the spring-cart, and rattled along the road, 
 which, luckily for us, was straight for nearly a mile, 
 with no turn that did not end in a farm-steading or 
 a dung-heap. 
 
 " But how the deuce are you ever to come up 
 with them," I asked, after we had trotted along for 
 some minutes, " if it is to take you as long at every 
 turn as at that?" 
 
 " Ah ! if they was continually a-running away from 
 us that would be all werry true ; but don't you see, 
 sir, when they've put forty mile or so between them 
 and these parts, they'll take it easy; for they're a 
 lazy sort, and don't like fast travelling, when they 
 can help it anyhow. It ain't often as they have 
 one of us arter 'em, or they'd maybe not be so easy 
 about distances." 
 
 "Will they travel at night?" 
 
 " Not arter the first night, sir. It don't suit 'em ; 
 and the mokes (donkies) ain't equal to more than 
 
362 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 thirty mile a-day, good going. I don't fancy, some- 
 how, they're more nor sixty mile ahead of us, sir ; 
 and the mare has covered more nor that between 
 light and dark many a time. To be sure, t\idit pattran 
 is 'ockerd." 
 
 And so we jogged along, at a swinging trot of 
 some eight miles an hour, Mr Keane enlightening 
 us as to the detective dodges, of which he had an 
 apparently inexhaustible repository, which the pro- 
 vincial policemen drank in with a strong professional 
 as well as personal relish. 
 
 We had by this time left the highway, and were 
 on abominable cross-country roads. Every now and 
 then we pulled up at a divergence of tracks, some- 
 times coming to a puzzling place where three roads 
 met. At every such point we made a cast for the 
 pattran, with more or less success as to time, but 
 always recovering our clue before we left the spot. 
 I had by this time got so interested in this novel 
 kind of hunting, that I had quite forgotten my 
 qualms of conscience, and picked out the pditran 
 more than once, eliciting a tempered commendation 
 from Mr Keane, which was enough to give me great 
 value in the eyes of the provincial functionaries. 
 
 We had now been about six hours on the road ; 
 and as we had started at twelve, we could not look 
 for more than two hours and a half, at most, of such 
 light as we wanted. 
 
 The provincials had already turned the conversa- 
 tion, more than once, on the subject of supper and 
 
GIPSY EXPERIENCES. 363 
 
 quarters for the night. But Mr Keane did not con- 
 descend to notice these low material wants while 
 there was business to be done and daylight to do 
 it by. 
 
 It might have been between seven and eight 
 o'clock, and we had made, stoppages included, some 
 four-and-twenty miles — for our little mare's frequent 
 rests enabled us to put the steam on, when we did 
 get a bit of unbroken road that permitted it — when 
 we pulled up at a place where not three, but five 
 roads converged. Keane looked annoyed. 
 
 "Not an hour's light afore us," I heard him mutter; 
 "and five of these blessed droms (roads) to choose 
 from — 'owsomever ; " and he swung out of the cart, 
 and made his cast without more grumbling, assigning 
 to each of us a road, and taking two to his own share. 
 
 We had worked for a quarter of an hour without 
 success, when a shout from one of the " locals," as 
 Mr Keane called them, drew us in his direction. We 
 found him on all fours, with his nose almost flattened 
 among the ruts. 
 
 "There, Mr Keane, sir," he said in an excited 
 manner. " 'Ere's the cross, sir." 
 
 There was \hQ cross, sure enough, marked in the 
 dust ; and now the only point to determine was 
 along which road pointed the long arm. 
 
 " D n the fellow ! " Keane blurted out, after 
 
 a few minutes' careful observation. " If he hasn't 
 been down among the tracks, and a rubbin' on 'em 
 out all round, with his confounded 'ands and knees ; 
 
364 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 and now, for all I can see, both arms is the same 
 length ! " 
 
 The unhappy local looked as if he would have 
 fainted on the spot. Here was a dilemma; two 
 tracks to choose from, and night coming on. 
 
 Keane was down in the dust again, at a wary 
 distance from the foot-prints, however, evidently 
 working out the most complicated sums in mental 
 arithmetic and mensuration. We watched him 
 intently. 
 
 " By George, it is ! " he cried out at last, after an 
 anxious ten minutes, springing to his feet and slap- 
 ping his thigh. Then, seizing me by the arm, he 
 forced me down, almost on to my nose, exclaiming 
 — " Look 'ere, sir ; there's nails, eh ? " He clearly 
 disdained any appeal to the locals after this per- 
 formance of one of them. 
 
 I ventured the opinion that they certainly were 
 nails, but that I could not say they belonged to 
 Gipsy shoes. 
 
 He chuckled, after his fashion. " You'll excuse 
 me, sir ; but don't you see they've square 'eads, and 
 are only four of a row." 
 
 I looked closely, and verified the fact. 
 
 " That's a Gipsy shoe, sir. They have their own 
 makers, and their own ways of planting their nails. 
 Bless you, it's another of their dodges. There's never 
 a clod would think he was 'alf sprigged with four nails 
 in a row. But the Gipsies wants a light shoe, as well 
 as a strong shoe, and never carries more, and always 
 
GIPSY EXPERIENCES. 36? 
 
 square 'eads. That there's a Gipsy shoe-sole, sir, and 
 this here's our road." 
 
 Although I felt his argument might be contested, 
 there was that quiet conviction in his tone which 
 always carries the day ; and there was not a doubt 
 or dissenting murmur among us — none audible at 
 least — as we remounted the cart, and " sprung " the 
 lively little mare down the rough road in a style 
 that did equal credit to her and the cart-springs. 
 
 By this time the night was gathering in, and it 
 was evident to me that our tracking could not be 
 carried on perfectly any longer. We clearly ought 
 to be drawing near our quarters for the night. Yet 
 I saw no public, nor indeed any signs of habitations. 
 I was quite out of my latitude, and hadn't the least 
 idea where we were. I ventured to ask Mr Keane 
 his opinion on this point, as we pitched along. 
 
 "Well, sir, we are in Huntingdonshire, that's cer- 
 tain ; and, so far as I knows, somewheres between 
 Old Hurst and Warboys." 
 
 " You know this country, then ? " 
 
 "Well, sir, not to say know it, as I does Essex, 
 and Middlesex, and that way ; but I was down 
 hereabout after them Mepal burglars, you know, 
 sir" — (I hadn't any notion of what he alluded to, 
 of course) — "and I've a good eye for a country; 
 and if we are where I fancies we are, you may make 
 up your mind to camp out to-night, sir." 
 
 "Oh, I'm quite game for that," I said, rather re- 
 joicing in the prospect, for the fun of the thing. 
 
366 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 " But holloa ! what's this ? " said my companion, 
 as the mare, turning a sharp corner, came to a dead 
 stop before a stout gate. 
 
 Keane jumped down, flinging me the reins, and ran 
 to the gate. 
 
 "Well, I am blessed!" he ejaculated, in a tone of 
 deep disgust, after taking his observation. ' "Here's 
 the road pulls up short — nowhere, like ; it don't carry 
 into that field." 
 
 "Then this wasn't the right line after all," ex- 
 claimed, with considerable satisfaction, the unhappy 
 " local," who had made, and marred, our last pattran 
 discovery. 
 
 Keane turned sharp round and looked about him, 
 as if about to speak, but checked himself, and pro- 
 ceeded again to the gate. 
 
 An old and ragged black-thorn grew out of the 
 hedge close to it. 
 
 Suddenly, and before I was aware of his intention, 
 I saw Keane on the gate, plucking something from 
 one of the lower branches of the thorn — it was now 
 too dark to discern what. In a moment he was at 
 my side. 
 
 " Look here, sir," he said, holding up a little frag-i 
 ment of stuff; "what d'ye make of that?" Looking 
 more closely, I saw it was a bit of silk of a yellow 
 and crimson pattern. A light flashed upon me ! it 
 was a tatter of my own cushgar poslinikes — of the 
 blazing bandanna I had presented three days before 
 toSinfi! 
 
GIPSY EXPERIENCES. 367 
 
 And now arose a struggle of conscience : ought I 
 to tell Keane what I knew of it, or not ? 
 
 The doubt was momentary ; I told him. 
 
 He gave his quiet chuckle, and said, "Well, now, 
 I was a thinking something of the sort, sir." 
 
 Then turning to the luckless " local," he added, 
 " So you see, mister, I was right after all." He then 
 opened the gate, and led the way through. 
 
 Beyond the gate lay, not a field, as we thought, 
 but a common. 
 
 Keane did not remount, but stood with his elbow 
 on the mare's reeking flanks, "ciphering," as a Yankee 
 would say. 
 
 After a few minutes he came up to me and said, 
 " It ain't no use going on in the dark, sir, with our 
 work ; so we may as well look out for a sheltered 
 spot. Tilt the cart, let the mare graze, and make 
 ourselves comfortable." 
 
 There was nothing very formidable in a night out 
 in the merry month of May, though the common was 
 rather a bleak bed-room. 
 
 "We'll find shelter from the wind to the lee of 
 some of them there bushes," said Keane, as he walked 
 forward a few steps to reconnoitre the ground. He 
 ascended, for this purpose, a small eminence a few 
 yards in front of the cart. All of a sudden I saw him 
 stop short, and gaze long and steadily into the waste. 
 He then came back to the cart, and said in a voice 
 that, for the first time that day, betrayed excitement, 
 " By God, sir, I believe we're close upon 'em ! " 
 
368 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 I jumped up in the cart, and so did the "locals." 
 
 " Be quiet," he said, peremptorily. " I don't know 
 but there's a fire down yonder," pointing towards a 
 straggling thicket of thorn that fringed a broken 
 hedge, about two hundred yards in front of us. " I 
 smell wood-smoke." 
 
 The wind set from that quarter, and I thought I 
 smelt it too. 
 
 " What do you propose ? " I asked. 
 
 " Why, first we'll stalk 'em, sir," he said, renewing 
 his old tone ; " and if they're our lot, we've got 'em as 
 safe as darbies can make it." 
 
 " Shall I go with you ? " 
 
 " No. Here, back the cart into the lane again, and 
 keep close, all of you, till I come back." 
 
 We obeyed his orders ; and then I saw him, 
 bent double, creep forward till the gathering dark 
 swallowed him up. 
 
 The ten minutes he was absent seemed an hour. 
 
 " It's them. By George, it's them ! " he whispered, 
 almost hoarsely, as he came back to us, in the same 
 cautious fashion in which he had left us. "And the 
 two lads are with them, and they're playing cards 
 over their fire." 
 
 "Let's go in on 'em at once," said one of the "locals." 
 
 Keane winked quietly. 
 
 " Not if I knows it, mister ; weazels and Gipsies 
 always are best catched asleep. Let them get under 
 the blankets first. And now, as we know where we 
 are, let's make ourselves snug, sir." 
 
GIPSY EXPERIENCES. 369 
 
 As he spoke, he lugged some horse-cloths and 
 rugs from under the cart-seats, and distributed them 
 to us, while he set about carefully rubbing down the 
 gallant little mare, and gave her her supper out of 
 a nose-bag. 
 
 This operation over, he addressed himself to our 
 comforts. Bread and cheese were not wanting, nor 
 a gallon stone bottle of beer. One luxury he posi- 
 tively prohibited — a cigar ; for, as he jocosely ob- 
 served, "The wind may change in a jiffey, and blow 
 the smoke and us both to them gents," and he jerked 
 his chin in the direction of the Gipsy camp. 
 
 It was useless trying to sleep. I had no intention 
 of taking part in the actual capture, but I listened 
 with interest as Keane detailed his plan of attack 
 to his local coadjutors. They were all three armed 
 with pistols, besides their staves ; but Keane was 
 most positive in his injunctions to the provincials 
 not to use anything more deadly than oak, unless 
 they found it absolutely necessary in self-defence. 
 
 The night wore on slowly. Keane crept away 
 from time to time to reconnoitre, but my Roman! 
 friends kept it up unusually late that night, secure 
 in their escape, and exulting in their booty. 
 
 At last, just as grey dawn began to glimmer in the 
 east, and I was beginning to dose (the locals had 
 been snoring for two hours), Keane came up. I sat 
 up as he approached. 
 
 " All quiet now, sir," he said. " Their fire's black 
 out, and in half an hour I mean to go in on 'em. 
 
 2 A 
 
370 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 I wish, though, they hadn't them d d dogs ; not 
 
 that I cares for a tussle, sir, but it may set those 
 Gipsy chaps a resisting of us, and then mischief may 
 come, yur know, sir." 
 
 At the end of the time he had mentioned, he woke 
 the heavy-headed " locals," and I watched them with 
 intense interest as they looked to the thongs of their 
 staves, and put fresh caps on their pistols. 
 
 As they started, I felt a sort of shame at sitting 
 out, reluctant as I was to appear to my late enter- 
 tainers in a light which must give them suspicions of 
 my fair faith. 
 
 Keane interpreted the expression of my face, and 
 said firmly and quietly, " You'll be good enough to 
 leave this business to us, sir. We understand it, and 
 we're more than a match for them, women and all." 
 
 So I accepted the ignominious part of a watcher, 
 instead of the more exciting one of an actor ; and 
 with intense excitement watched them steal quietly 
 forward, under cover of the bushes and broken ground, 
 till the hedge of which I have spoken hid them from 
 my view; and when I could not see, I listened. For 
 a few minutes all was silence, made tenfold deeper 
 by the hush of the early May morning. 
 
 And then came a quick sharp yelp of a terrier, 
 and then a furious barking ; and then a wild hubbub 
 — a confused shrieking of women, and cursing and 
 trampling of men in fierce struggle, and then — one 
 shot ! — and then again silence ! 
 
 I could stand it no longer — I ran to the scene 
 
GIPSY EXPERIENCES. 37 1 
 
 of conflict. All was over : Keane and his brave 
 army had achieved a complete victory, if not quite 
 a bloodless one. 
 
 Panting, gory, dishevelled, half-dressed, as disturbed 
 suddenly from sleep, Euri and the two Gipsy lads were 
 sitting on the ground, handcuffed ; and in the same 
 ignominious plight, minus the blood, Athaliah, her 
 two daughters, and — alas the day ! — my pretty Sinfi. 
 
 Keane was wiping his forehead with a cotton 
 handkerchief, while one of the locals was binding 
 up a broken head, which his comrade had received 
 in the meUe. The faithful bandy-legged yellow 
 terrier had perished. 
 
 "There, Starli'na," I said, when I had ended, "what 
 have you got to say to that? I could hear you 
 galdering from time to time." 
 
 " Oh ! there's some things in it rather pretty ; but 
 he was a hi'ndo (caitiff) to go and tell. Well, I never 
 did hear such things in all my life. There, bor ! " 
 
 "There, bor!" indeed expressed the feelings of my 
 entire audience, which certainly were not of unmixed 
 admiration. They, one and all, had been most deeply 
 interested, their interest growing as the tale went on, 
 and showing itself in a hundred odd gestures, grimaces, 
 and ejaculations. Still there was hardly a line that 
 they were not prepared to criticise, for none are so 
 hard to please upon Romani topics as Romani Chals 
 themselves. The rarest instance of this fastidiousness 
 is the copy of Smart and Crofton's Englisli Gipsies 
 
Z72 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 owned by Sylvester Boswell, who has carefully erased 
 every word and sentence therein that did not emanate 
 from his own "great knowledge of grammaring," no 
 matter how genuine those words and sentences may 
 be. So, too, any Gipsy who pronounces the Romani 
 word for "blanket" kappa, will brand as a mumper 
 him who pronounces it koppa, and vice versa ; still, 
 in this case, John started what seemed a tolerably 
 valid criticism. 
 
 "You'll pardon what I'm going to say," he began; 
 " but I don't think, Mr Groome, you were quite 
 correct in one thing in that story of yours " — 
 
 "Mine, John! / never wrote that story; I wish 
 I had." 
 
 " Oh, very good ; then I can speak out plainer 
 what I was purposing to say ; but who ever heard 
 of two young girls like that (fifteen it said they 
 were, didn't it?) going and getting eighty pounds by 
 drokraben (fortune-telling) ? Gorgios are fools, as 
 no one is more aware nor you " — a doubtful com- 
 pliment — "but I never will credit that any farmer's 
 wife would be so foolish as put belief in two poor 
 silly girls. And Romani Chals are sometimes foolish 
 too, but they'd never go leaving marks like that what 
 way they took, and not giving satisfaction, or else 
 getting clearer from where they done the drokraben." 
 
 "That's rather a dangerous line of argument, it 
 strikes me. What does it lead to?" 
 
 "Well, I don't quite know myself, rightly; but I 
 wouldn't like for it to face the world, not just as 
 
SIGNS. 373 
 
 you did read it. Of course, I am not for saying 
 that drokraben has never been committed, else why 
 were g6rgios made so foolish, and for what were our 
 poor Romani signs given to us ? " 
 
 " Signs, as how ?" 
 
 " Why, when my poor mother used to hear a very 
 small sound of a small bee, making a noise in the 
 middle of the night, when she used to be sleeping in 
 some building, when all of us used to be fast asleep, 
 that would be one great sign that hundreds of pounds 
 would be coming to her soon." 
 
 " Hundreds ! I say, John, you are kiirin' (beating) 
 the very Curraples." 
 
 " Ay, or when she used to see a pig or a cow rub 
 themselves against a cartwheel, a post, or a gate, or 
 something else of the kind, she would be sure to 
 have gold that day. But the greatest of all her signs 
 would be some of us finding Broad ^ Gorse, Broad 
 Thistle, Broad Ash, and especially Holly, and different 
 other things. And onest, when I was a little young 
 boy along with my father and my mother, I remember 
 that we were very poorly off in Anglesea, in the town 
 by name of Beaumaris. We had no horse nor donkey, 
 but just a great wallet on my back ; and away we 
 started from that town, quite early in the morning ; 
 and there was nothing at all for us to take a little 
 
 ^ Broad, thus employed, denotes the fasciated growth, somewhat 
 resembling a bishop's pastoral staff. Broado-kiro (broad-thorn), the 
 generic term for this growth, sufficiently indicates the phallic origin 
 of the beliefs connected with it. 
 
374 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 refreshment, before we went upon our road. But 
 never fear, my daddy; we were not long before I 
 cut a fine Broad Holly, with a most beautiful plume, 
 and gave it to my mother; and soon as she saw it, 
 she did break it up in three, and did say some words 
 to herself when she broke it up, and putting it into 
 her pocket. I do not know what she used to say, 
 but I think she used to say something about ' mw 
 deary Devel,' and something else very curious ; and 
 she used to look up to the sky, and make funny 
 eyes, and they were turning more black. But, how- 
 ever, we were not long after finding it, the very next 
 house that my mother went to call, she made a 
 great drokraben, and drew from four to five hundred 
 pound-notes. And I can assure you that we were up 
 and were not long before we got plenty victuals ; 
 and there we stopped a whole week near that house. 
 After that we went up to Holyhead, and from there 
 we did take the ship, and went all of us over to the 
 Potato Country, Ireland, and came in the great town 
 Dublin. We liked that town well, and there we 
 stopped a long while, and then crossed from there 
 to Liverpool. And there my father and my mother 
 bought fine clothes for my sisters and for me and for 
 themselves, and a good horse and cart; and then away 
 we came from there up to the country of Wales." 
 
 " But, mercy on us !" Silvanus asked, a trifle incre- 
 dulously, " weren't you feared, then, stopping so long 
 by that house before you made your start ? " 
 
 "That was according as my poor mother would 
 
FORTUNE-TELLING. 375 
 
 give the gorgios sufficient satisfaction before she did 
 take the money, before we would go upon the road. 
 But sometimes we used to run by night ; and there 
 is more fun in that than what you might imagine, 
 Mr Groome. How we used to go by night, and 
 rest in the daytimes, and have plenty tobacco and 
 brandy. Ha! ha! ha! we used to be as merry as the 
 impses themselves, when we did keep their company 
 by travelling by night, and never no fear upon us." 
 
 " She must have been a wonderful fortune-teller, 
 your mother," said Lementina. "Why, dear me, 
 then, if she got so much in a short time, she'd be 
 able to buy a grand estate ; never want to be going 
 about, if she could get such mainzins as them. Why, 
 the most as ever I got was twenty pounds in two 
 five-pound notes, off a pretty schoolmistress, and a 
 little gold watch besides ; and then I was that afraid, 
 I never went back for a long while after, though I 
 was to have gone for more, and we were stopping 
 at the time close to the woman's house. I was to 
 have given her the watch back again, for I said I 
 wanted it just to make out the time to work the spell. 
 And I got it in a beautiful little box, all covered 
 with shells ; and next day I gave the box away to 
 a woman about a mile from there for a great big 
 piece of bacon. And Old Chicken [Silvanus] had 
 the watch, and he couldn't tell the time by it, didn't 
 know how to wind it up. Ah ! I don't see gorgios so 
 free in giving money away these days. What fools 
 they must be, when it's all for their own happiness." 
 
376 
 
 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 "You really think so, Lementina?" but Lementina 
 merely blinked at me, while John inquired if I had 
 got such a thing as a lead pencil and a scrap of 
 paper. 
 
 " I want," he said, " to show you, Mr Groome, how 
 my poor mother used to work her manezins ; for she 
 always would rather have me for company for her, 
 when she would have to turn out to call the houses, 
 than any of my sisters. She used to say that I was 
 more lucky to her than any of them, and that is 
 how I came to know how she used to do." 
 
 John scribbled away, the Lovells all looking on ; 
 presently he gave me my paper back, and on it was 
 the following charm : — 
 
 rr 
 
 
 <-'a. -• 
 
 
 
 " I see," said I ; " ' Borra dinala se gaugea te patsen ta 
 kerla kava koskaben langay,' — 'Great fools are women 
 to believe that this does them good.' Exactly." 
 
" CONVEY THE WISE IT CALL." 377 
 
 " Ay, she never used to put no harm in it ; only 
 something to frighten the silly women, to draw their 
 money." 
 
 " Oh, never no harm in it ! But, John, you are a 
 moral man ; you were at church this morning, and 
 there, I suppose, you heard the Commandments read. 
 The Eighth, if I remember rightly, runs " — 
 
 " Thou shalt not steal," John answered patly 
 enough. 
 
 " Steal ! " exclaimed Lementina ; " why, I never 
 heard talk of such a mumper's word. What d'ye 
 mean by steal? Why, that's a regular low-bred, 
 padding-ken's word. As though anything could be 
 wrong that you could sarve nasty gorgios. Isn't 
 dukeriben just what has been for generations, and 
 always will be ? It's Romanis' livelihood, their trade ; 
 though goodness knows it's a poor trade nowadays. 
 Without at Epsom or Ascot, and a few great gentle- 
 men's houses, where a pusson's known and respected, 
 I wouldn't tell a fortune, not if it was ever so. Every- 
 one can tell fortunes these times. It isn't at all what 
 it used to be. Even the lowest Irish tell fortunes 
 now — for sixpence ! and that's a thing ought to be 
 put a stop to ; it shouldn't ought to never be allowed." 
 
 " Then you see no great harm in Romani dukeri- 
 ben, for a pound, let us say, or even perhaps five 
 shillings ? " 
 
 " Harm, no ; all the good in the world. They like 
 to hear the notion of getting married. It is but 
 natural, poor things ; for goodness knows they some 
 
3/8 ■ IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 on 'em has work enough. Now, if you will believe 
 me, almost the last young lady as ever I got much 
 off was a parson's sister ; and she was a young lady, 
 something like — going for forty, and hardly a tooth 
 in her head. 'Toothless Betty,' I calls her. 'Oh, 
 Mrs Lovell.'she said, 'I wish you'd tell me about'— 
 such-and-such a young gentleman, you know (per- 
 haps he'd be about nineteen)— ' but do you think 
 there'll ever be any chance for me?' Of course I 
 tells her, ' Why, my dear young lady, there's all the 
 chance in the world, if you'll only be venturesome, 
 and let me try.' Then I asks her for one of her 
 rings, and a bit of her hair (bright red it was) ; and 
 she was as pleased as ever anything. And five 
 months after she did get married to quite another 
 gentleman ; so, you see, I wasn't so far out after all. 
 And she was a parson's sister." 
 
 Clearly Lementina thought that this parsonic ele- 
 ment had a kind of sanctifying influence ; but John 
 had been pondering the Eighth Commandment. 
 
 "You mustn't imagine," he observed, "that I'm 
 for upholding any such curious ways, for it was all 
 through me my people got turned from them, by 
 reason of things being very much stricter now, and 
 also because when my father and mother had all 
 that money by drokraben it never used to do them 
 any good, but always in some old bother to spend 
 it .until it would all be gone. Then we should 
 have quietness ; and Heaven was more pleased with 
 us when we did drop it. We tried both public and 
 
A CASE THAT MERITED BURNING. 379 
 
 private life, but the public was all to no much benefit; 
 and I suppose there has not been a drokraben done 
 in Wales, not to call it one, these thirty or forty 
 years. 
 
 " I think I have read of one later than that in 
 England, some twenty-five years ago ; and a very 
 abominable case it was, the only one where I have 
 any pity for the loser. Down by Exeter somewhere 
 a labourer's wife had a daughter ill of consumption ; 
 and a Romani woman, who called at the cottage, got 
 twenty-two gold sovereigns off the mother, promising 
 that the girl should be cured by Friday, when an 
 angel would appear and return the money." 
 
 " A comical angel, sure," said Lementina ; " but 
 that Romani woman ought to be scandal ashamed ; 
 burning alive would be too good for she. Now, I 
 never told nothing but just by way of pastime, and 
 everyone must look to pay for that. Stealing, 
 quotha ! " (with an indignant sniff). 
 
 " Well, ye-e-s ; I do not myself believe that 
 diikeriben, nine times out of ten, is anything graver 
 than folly — folly enough to be sure. There was 
 one of the Toogoods, I remember, g6rgio brush and 
 basket dealers, and he was going through Newington, 
 one of the best parts of Edinburgh, with his caravan. 
 A lady saw him, and sent her servant out to call 
 him in, wanted him to tell her fortune, and offered 
 (I think) ten shillings." 
 
 " There ! a man ! and a gorgio too ! ! Whatever 
 did he say ? I'd have worked her." 
 
380 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 " He never said one word, but bolted out of the 
 house, for he was perfectly dumbfoundered, frightened 
 by the bare notion of the thing." 
 
 " Too-good enough ; I only wish I'd had his chance. 
 Shouldn't I been a gaby to lose the good money, 
 when I could earn it by two or three nonsense words. 
 But there's some people pretends they wouldn't take 
 it, not if it was put before their nose." 
 
 " At any rate, you can't say, Lcmentina, I ever put 
 the temptation in your way, for I never was duker'd 
 in my life." 
 
 •' I wanted to, though, first time I met you at 
 Chester." 
 
 "Yes, and I proposed that I should duker you. 
 No, if I were a magistrate, I certainly would either 
 dismiss all fortune-telling cases, like Mr Harrison, 
 at Ashton-under-Lyne, with the remark, that ' it 
 served silly people right if they lost their money ; ' 
 or else I would punish the fortune-tellers and their 
 consultors alike ; and of the latter, I take it, there 
 would be some three hundred to every one of the 
 former. But did I ever tell you about Georgina 
 Lee ? I thought not. Well, she was a Romani 
 woman, twenty years old, with a baby in arms ; 
 and she and her husband stopped on Hounslow 
 Heath. One day she called at a gentleman's house 
 near by, and got telling the servant-girls' fortunes, 
 told the cook what she knew to be true, that she 
 was to marry a gentleman. Then the drawing-room 
 bell rang ; the lady, it seemed, wanted to hear her 
 
A LADY OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 38 1 
 
 fortune too, wished to know if she should be married 
 again within the twelvemonth, and ended by offering 
 Georgina a pound for something that would kill her 
 present husband. So on Friday Georgina returned 
 with a powder in a paper, and the lady then told her 
 that if it did good, she would give her ten shillings ; 
 but Georgina wanted cash down, and, the lady refus- 
 ing, got hustled out of the house. In the middle of 
 the hustling the happy husband came upon the scene, 
 and gave Mrs Lee in charge for attempting to get 
 money under false pretences. False they undoubtedly 
 were, for the powder turned out to be nothing but 
 chalk ; so Georgina, after a fortnight of remands, was 
 sentenced to three months' hard labour." 
 
 "And the lady," Ruth asked, "what did the lady 
 get?" 
 
 " Oh, she got — nothing." ^ 
 
 While this chapter was writing, Mr Crofton sent 
 
 ' On Fortune-telling generally, see Crabb's Gipsies' Advocate (3d ed., 
 1832), pp. 38-45 ; Liebich's Zigetmer, pp. 63-68 ; Borrow's Ziiuali, 
 ch. vi., and his Lavo-Lil, pp. 240-44. The special case, above referred 
 to, at Northlew, Devonshire, is given in Notes and Queries, 21st Oct. 
 1854 ; that of Zuba Boswell, at Ashton-under-Lyne, in Smart and 
 Crofton's Dialect of the English Gipsies, pp. 206-8. Of a case that 
 resembles Georgina Lee's, a full account may be found in the Times, 
 Feb. 17, 21, 24, and March I, 1862, with which compare the "Trial 
 of Katherene Roiss Lady Fowlis for Witchcraft, Incantation, Sorcery, 
 and Poisoning," 22d July 1590. She was "accusit for sending Williame 
 M'Gillievow-dame to the Egyptianis, to half knawledge of thanie, how to 
 poysoun the young Laird of Fowles and the young Lady Balnagoune ;" 
 his errand had failed, since the poison was bought of a merchant in 
 Aberdeen (Pitcairn's Criminal Trials in Scotland, Edinb., 1833, vol. i. 
 pt. 2, p. 96). 
 
382 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 me two cuttings from American papers, that curiously 
 illustrate its subject matter. The first, from a New 
 Orleans journal of 15th April 1880, shows diikeriben 
 in its most venial form, as practised to-day on every 
 English race-course, and " patronised by the royalty, 
 aristocracy, and gentry of the Kingdom" : — 
 
 " The Princess Koket, with twenty Gipsy followers, 
 passed through Memphis the other day, going to the 
 usual Spring convocation near Dayton, Ohio, where, 
 in May, a large number of these peculiar people hold 
 a festival. The party, over which Princess Koket 
 holds absolute sway, have been wintering in south- 
 western Texas and Alabama, but for several weeks 
 past were on the road to Memphis. They were well 
 dressed, some in rather gay colours, the Princess 
 especially so ; and their outfit, consisting of six 
 wagons, eleven horses, and a round lot of camp 
 equipments, were all in capital order ; while the 
 people looked fat, sleek, and happy. The Princess 
 Koket was questioned by a number of people during 
 their stay in Memphis. She proved to be very intel- 
 ligent, and understood the way of mankind and the 
 world generally ; could tell a fortune in entertaining 
 style, on short order, and for a single trade-dollar ; 
 and she said she always managed to captivate the 
 men." 
 
 Well, let Her Highness charm the hearts of Mem- 
 phite wheelbarrows, in Lementinian phraseology (by 
 the way, how much an Egyptian princess must feel 
 at home in Memphis !) ; she may win whole sackfuls 
 
THE HOOSIER MERCHANT. 383 
 
 trade-dollars for anything I care, so long as my 
 ghbour does not encourage organ-grinders. But 
 ; second cutting, from the Daily Picayune (8th 
 )ril 1880), what shall I say of it? De mortuis nil 
 ■i bonuin, and so I say nothing at all, this species 
 dukeriben being a lost art in England, where it 
 ;d lamented twenty-five years ago. Beyond the 
 ilantic it would still seem to flourish, for on 31st 
 arch, " Two aged Gipsies were brought as prisoners 
 :o Justice Walsh's court, in Brooklyn, on a charge 
 
 grand larceny, preferred by Deputy-Sheriff R. T. 
 ngle, of Gibson county, Indiana, who accused them 
 
 having robbed William Jessop, a wealthy resident 
 
 Princeton in that county, of $2150. The prisoners 
 .ve the names of Timothy Warton, aged 62, and 
 ary Warton, aged 61. The deputy said that a 
 .nd of Gipsies encamped at Princeton in January 
 3t, and the old woman began to tell Jessop's for- 
 ne. She pretended to see great things, but said 
 at she could not decipher them unless a large 
 m of money was put in her hands. To humour 
 :r, he took a package of $2150 done up in bundles 
 id bound with paper slips. He placed the money 
 
 her hand, and she counted it carefully. Then 
 e spread out the packages, drew a circle, and 
 opped into a trance. When she recovered, she 
 id that Jessop was to become fabulously rich, 
 le would have to give him two more sittings 
 fore she could tell him all, but that the third 
 ne it would be all revealed. She tied the money 
 
384 IN GIPSY TENTS. 
 
 up in a red handkerchief in his presence, and told 
 him that it must be put carefully away in his safe, 
 and that between her visits it must not be touched 
 or spoken of. The next time she called at his 
 office, she locked the door and took the package of 
 money, and again began her incantations. She was 
 about to repeat some words which, she said, would 
 bring her nearer to the secret, when she suddenly 
 started, exclaiming, 'What is that?' as though she 
 heard a noise. Mr Jessop arose and looked around, 
 but saw nothing. The Gipsy continued to work with 
 the package in her hand, and at length said that she 
 was almost ready to reveal to Mr Jessop a startling 
 and fortunate event in his near future, but that it 
 would require one more meeting. He told her he 
 must have the money by February loth, as he needed 
 it in his business. She assured him the spell would 
 be over by that time ; he must not touch the package. 
 He promised. A fire of doubtful origin, in which 
 some of Mr Jessop's property was destroyed, put the 
 Gipsy out of his mind. The Gipsy band disappeared. 
 Then he went to his safe, untied the red handkerchief 
 about the package, and, instead of his money, laid bare 
 a pile of paper cut in the lips the size of bank-notes, 
 and bound with strips of paper. He put the Deputy- 
 Sheriff on their track, and he followed them here. 
 Twelve hundred dollars was found on them." ^ 
 
 1 The Nm York Herald {2d April 1880) gave .inother sketch of 
 this plot, the one weak point in which is the miscalculation that the 
 " Hoosier Merchant" would not be fool enough to own his folly. 
 
ELDORADO. 385 
 
 The final act of the drama I have not seen myself; 
 but I enclosed the above in my last letter to Silvanus, 
 who mentions in his answer that they are thinking 
 of joining his daughter Patience in the States. I 
 question much if they will really go, for the old 
 man vacillates in his purposes, a twelvemonth earlier 
 talking of Glasgow and a bank-directorship, and 
 when we parted of philanthropy. 
 
 There it is said that tlie sum was $2500, and that the Wartons' 
 residence is 99 Hicks Street, Brooklyn. Mary must be Timothy's 
 second wife, since in the Grove Church cemetery, opposite New York, 
 is a marble tombstone, bearing inscription, "Vashti, wife of T. Warton, 
 died Nov. 26, 1851, .V.. 26 yr." Close by it stands another, to the 
 memory of Vashti's sister, "Naomi Davis, who died March 4, 1855, 
 aged 22 years. 'The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away; blessed 
 be the name of the Lord,'" — words that are coupled in the Burial 
 Service with First Timothy vi. 7. 
 
 2 B 
 

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 H^'^^^S 
 
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 mpt^r CSlclJCittlj anir l^ast. 
 
 IN MONDAY the Lovells were to start 
 for Chester, thence to disperse North, 
 East, and South ; and I had promised 
 to come and see them start. Approach- 
 ing the meadow, then, about half-past nine, I was 
 met by a blinding smoke, suggestive of Silvanus's 
 death in the night and a Hindu stdtee of his widowed 
 queen. But it was only a bonfire of the straw out of 
 all the tents ; and yonder was Lementina scraping 
 stray wisps into the flames with a broken tent-rod, 
 and muttering the while, " Nasty Irish breed — never 
 did see such folks for leaving a sleer at every place 
 they goes to — ^just like a lot of pigs — never thinks 
 of clearing up their rubbish — suppose they'll never 
 want to come again." This, though the state of 
 the meadow might have taught picnickers a useful 
 lesson. 
 
 The tents were struck and packed upon the 
 donkeys ; the horses stood ready harnessed in the 
 carts ; and by the gate Silvanus was talking with 
 
 386 
 
EXODUS. 387 
 
 the farmer, who was sending a greeting to Sister 
 Cartwright. 
 
 Farewells took long, but they were over at last : 
 with Wully the Silent, who all these days had been 
 forgathering with his compatriot gauger ; with Plato, 
 who gave me some flies that couldn't help killing ; 
 with Loverin, proud owner of the "ondikelous" bear; 
 with one and all of my kindly Romani friends. The 
 last farewell, "Good-bye, old tent-place," was spoken 
 by Lementina ; then the procession moved upon its 
 way. Silvanus brought up the rear, and to him Mr 
 Chamberlain : — 
 
 "Why, Lovell, you're like the Children of Israel." 
 
 EDINBUKGH ; J. liAKTHULUfttEW, CHAMBEKS STKEKT,