A History of the Gipsies Part 33

The crest of the Falls, of Dunbar, was _three_ boars' heads, couped; that of Baillie, of Lamington, is _one_ boar's head, couped. In the Statistical Account of Scotland, (1835,) appears the following notice of this family: "A family, of the name of Fall, established themselves at Dunbar, and became, during the last century, the most extensive merchants in Scotland. They were long the chief magistrates of the burgh, and preferred the public good to their own profit. They have left no one to bear their name, _not even a stone to tell where they lie_; but they will long be remembered for their enterprise and public spirit." There is apparently a reason for "not even a stone being left to tell where they lie;" for in Hoyland's "Survey of the Gipsies"

appeared the account of Baillie Smith, in which it is said: "The descendants of Faa now take the name of Fall, from the Messrs. Fall, of Dunbar, who, they pride themselves in saying, _are of the same stock and lineage_;" which seems to have frightened their connexions at being known to be Gipsies.

Let all that has been said of the Falls be considered as their monument and epitaph; so that their memories may be preserved as long as this work exists.

It would be interesting to know who the Captain Fall was, who visited Dunbar, with an American s.h.i.+p-of-war, during the time of Paul Jones.

He might have been a descendant of a Gipsy, sent to the plantations, in the olden times. There are, as I have said before, a great many scions of Gipsy Faas, under one name or other, scattered over the world.

[277] _Whipping the cat_: Tailoring from house to house. The _cat_ is _whipped_ by females, as well as males, in America, in some parts of which the expression is current.

The truth of the matter is, these Falls must have considered themselves a world better than other people, merely on account of their being Gipsies, as all Gipsies do, arising, in part, from that antagonistic spirit of opposition which the prejudice of their fellow-creatures is so much calculated to stir up in their minds. Saying, over their cups, that they were descended from the Faws, the historical Gipsy name in Scotland, did not divulge very much to the public. For what idea had the public of the _working of Gipsydom_--what idea of the Gipsy language?

Did the public know of the existence of a Gipsy language in Scotland? In all probability, it generally did not. If the public heard a Tinkler use a strange word, all that it would think of it would be, that it was _cant_, confined to vagabonds strolling the country. Would it ever dream that what the vagabonds used was carefully preserved and spoken among the great Falls, of Dunbar, within the sanct.i.ty of their own dwellings, as it a.s.suredly must have been? Would the public believe in such a thing, if even its own ears were made the witnesses to it? Was the love which the Falls had for their Yetholm connexion confined to a mere group of their ancestors worked in tapestry? Where was the Gipsy language, during all this time? a.s.suredly it was well preserved in their family.

If it showed the least symptoms of falling off, how easily could the mothers bring into the family, as servants, other Gipsies, who would teach it to the children! For, besides the dazzling hold which the Gipsy language takes of the mind of a Gipsy, as the language of those black, mysterious heroes from whom he is descended, the keeping of it up forms the foundation of that self-respect which a Gipsy has for himself, amidst the prejudice of the world; from which, at the bottom of his heart, whatever his position in life, or character, or a.s.sociations, may be, he considers himself separated. I am decidedly of opinion that all the domestics about this Fall family were Gipsies of one caste, colour, condition, or what not.

Then, we are told that Miss Fall, who married Sir John Anstruther, of Elie, baronet, was looked down upon by her husband's friends, and received no other name than Jenny Faa; and that she was indirectly twitted with being a Gipsy, by the rabble, while attending an election in which Sir John was a candidate. What real satisfaction could Jenny, or any other Gipsy, have for ordinary natives of the country, when she was conscious of being what she was, and how she was spoken of, by her husband's relatives and the public generally? She would take comfort in telling her "wonderful story" to her children, (for I presume she would have children,) who would sympathize with her; and in conversing with such of her own race as were near her, were it only her trusty domestics. It is the Gipsy woman who feels the prejudice that exists towards her race the most acutely; for she has the rearing of the children, and broods more over the history of her people. As the needle turns to the pole, so does the mind of the Gipsy woman to Gipsydom.

We are likewise told that this eminent Gipsy family were connected, by marriage, with the Footies, of Balgonie; the Coutts, afterwards bankers; Collector Whyte, of Kirkaldy, and Collector Melville, of Dunbar. We may a.s.sume, as a mathematical certainty, that Gipsydom, in a refined form, is in existence in the descendants of these families, particularly in such of them as were connected with this Gipsy family by the female side.[278]

[278] Of the Gipsies at Moscow, the following is the substance of what Mr. Borrow says: "Those who have been accustomed to consider the Gipsy as a wandering outcast ... ... will be surprised to learn that, amongst the Gipsies of Moscow, there are not a few who inhabit stately houses, go abroad in elegant equipages, and are behind the higher order of Russians neither in appearance nor mental acquirements.

... . The sums obtained by the Gipsy females, by the exercise of their art (singing in the choirs of Moscow,) enable them to support their relatives in affluence and luxury. Some are married to Russians; and no one who has visited Russia can but be aware that a lovely and accomplished countess, of the n.o.ble and numerous family of Tolstoy is, by birth, a Zigana, and was originally one of the princ.i.p.al attractions of a Romany choir at Moscow."

This short notice appears unsatisfactory, considering, as Mr. Borrow says, that one of his princ.i.p.al motives for visiting Moscow was to hold communication with the Gipsies. It might have occurred to him to enquire what relation the children of such marriages would bear to Gipsydom generally; that is, would they be initiated in the mysteries, and taught the language, and hold themselves to be Gipsies? It is evident, however, that the Gipsy-drilling process is going on among the Russian n.o.bility.

A person who has never considered this subject, or any other cognate to it, may imagine that a Gipsy reproaches himself with his own blood.

Pshaw! Where will you find a man, or a tribe of men, under the heavens, that will do that? It is not in human nature to do it. All men venerate their ancestors, whoever they have been. A Gipsy is, to an extraordinary degree, proud of his blood. "I have very little of the blood, myself,"

said one of them, "but just come and see my wife!" But people may say that the ancestors of the Falls were thieves. And were not all the Borderers, in their way, the worst kind of thieves? They might not have stolen from their nearest relatives; but, with that exception, did they not steal from each other? Now, Gipsies never, or hardly ever, steal from each other. Were not all the Elliots and Armstrongs thieves of the first water? Were not the Scotts and the Kers thieves, long after the Gipsies entered Scotland? When the servants of Scott of Harden drove out his last cow, and said, "There goes Harden's cow," did not the old cow-stealer say, "It will soon be Harden's _kye_"--meaning, that he would set out on a cow-stealing expedition? In fact, he lived upon spoil. Was it not his lady's custom, on the last bullock being killed, to place on the table a dish, which, on being uncovered, was found to contain a pair of clean spurs--a hint, to her husband and his followers, that they must s.h.i.+ft for their next meal? The descendants of these Scotts, and the Scottish public generally, look, with the utmost complacency and pride, upon the history of such families; yet would be very apt to make a great ado, if the ancestress of a Gipsy should, in such a predicament, have hung out a c.o.c.k's tail at the mouth of her tent, as a hint to her "laddies" to look after poultry. Common sense tells us, that, for one excuse to be offered for such conduct, on the part of the _landed-gentry_ of the country, a hundred can be found for the ancestor of a Gipsy--an unfortunate wanderer on the face of the earth, who was hunted about, like a wolf of the forest.[279]

[279] On his return with his gallant prey, he pa.s.sed a very large hay-stack. It occurred to the provident laird that this would be extremely convenient to fodder his new stock of cattle; but, as no means of transporting it were obvious, he was fain to take leave of it, with the apostrophe, now become proverbial, "_By my saul, had ye but four feet, ye should not stand lang there._" In short, as Froissart says of a similar cla.s.s of feudal robbers. "Nothing came amiss to them that was not _too heavy_ or _too hot_." Sir Walter Scott speaks, in the most jocular manner, of an ancestress who had a _curious hand at pickling the beef which her husband stole_; and that there was not a stain upon his escutcheon, barring Border theft and high treason.--_Lockhart's Life of Sir Walter Scott._

We should never forget that a "hawk's a hawk," whether it is a falcon or a mosquito hawk, which is the smallest of all hawks.

And what shall we say of our Highland thieves? Highlanders may be more touchy on this point, for their ancestors were the last of the British race to give up that kind of life. Talk of the laws pa.s.sed against the Gipsies! Various of our Scottish monarchs issued decrees against "the wicked thieves and limmers of the clans and surnames, inhabiting the Highlands and Isles," accusing "the chieftains princ.i.p.al of the branches worthy to be esteemed the very authors, fosterers, and maintainers, of the wicked deeds of the vagabonds of their clans and surnames." Indeed, the doweries of the chiefs' daughters were made up by a share of the booty collected on their expeditions. The Highlands were, at one time, little better than a nest of thieves; thieving from each other, and more particularly from their southern neighbours. It is notorious that robbery, in the Highlands, was "held to be a calling not merely innocent, but honourable;" and that a high-born Highland warrior was "much more becomingly employed, in plundering the lands of others, than in tilling his own." At stated times of the year, such as at Candlemas, regular bands of Highlanders, the sons of gentlemen and what not, proceeded south in quest of booty, as part of their winter's provisions.

The Highlanders might even have been compared, at one time, to as many tribes of Afghans. Mr. Skene, the historian of the Highlands, and himself a Highlander, says that the Highlanders believed that they _had a right_ to plunder the people of the low country, _whenever it was in their power_. We naturally ask, how did the Highlanders _acquire_ this right of plunder? Were they ever proscribed? Were any of them hung, merely for being Highlanders? No. What plea, then, did the Highlanders set up, in justification of this wholesale robbery?--"They believed, _from tradition_, that the Lowlands, _in old times_, were the possessions of their ancestors." (_Skene._) But that was no excuse for their plundering each other.[280]

[280] Sir Walter Scott makes Fitz-James, in the "Lady of the Lake,"

say to Roderick Dhu:

"But then, thy chieftain's robber life!-- Winning mean prey by causeless strife, Wrenching from ruined Lowland swain His herds and harvests reared in vain-- Methinks a soul like thine should scorn The spoils from such foul foray borne.

The Gael beheld him, grim the while, And answered with disdainful smile,--

'Where live the mountain chiefs, who hold That plundering Lowland field and fold Is aught but retribution true?

Seek other cause 'gainst Roderick Dhu!'"

The Gipsy's ordinary pilfering was confined to such petty things as "hens and peats at pleasure," "cutting a bit lamb's throat," and "a mouthfu' o' gra.s.s and a pickle corn, for the cuddy"--"things that a farmer body ne'er could miss." But your Highlanders did not content themselves with such "needles and pins;" they must have "horned cattle."

If the coast was clear, they would table their drawn dirks, and commence their _spulzie_, by making their victims furnish them with what was necessary to fill their bellies; upon the strength of which, they would "lift" whatever they could carry and drive, or take its equivalent in black-mail.

What an effort is made by our McGregors, at the present day, to sc.r.a.pe up kin with this or the other bandit McGregor; and yet how apt the McGregor is to turn up his nose--just as Punch, only, could make him turn it up--if a Gipsy were to step out, and say, that he was a descendant, and could speak the language, of Will Baillie, mentioned under the head of Tweed-dale and Clydesdale Gipsies: a Gipsy, described by my ancestor, (and he could judge,) to have been "the handsomest, the best dressed, the best looking, and the best bred, man he ever saw; and the best swordsman in Scotland, for, with his weapon in his hand, and his back at a wall, he could set almost everything, saving fire-arms, at defiance; a man who could act the gentleman, the robber, the sorner, and the tinker, whenever it answered his purpose."[281] And yet, some of this man's descendants will doubtless be found among our medical doctors, and even the clergy. I recollect our author pointing out a clergyman of the Scottish Church, who, he was pretty sure, was "one of them." What name could have stood lower, at one time, than McGregor?

Both by legal and social proscription, it was looked upon as vagabond; and doubtless the clan brought it, primarily and princ.i.p.ally, upon themselves; but as for the rapine they practised upon their neighbours, and the helpless southerners, they were, at first, no worse, in that respect, than others of their nation. Are the McGregors sure that there are no Gipsies among them? There are plenty of Gipsies of, at least, the name of McGregor, known to both the Scottish and English Gipsies. What more likely than some of the McGregors, when "out," and leading their vagabond lives, getting mixed up with the better kind of mixed Gipsies?

They were both leading a wild life, and it is not unlikely that some of the McGregors, of even no small consequence, might have been led captive by such Gipsy girls as the lady Baillies, of Tweed-dale. Let a Gipsy once be grafted upon a native family, and she rises with it; leavens the little circle of which she is the centre, and leaves it, and its descendants, for all time coming, Gipsies.

[281] See page 202.

I now come to ask, what const.i.tutes a Gipsy at the present day? And common sense replies: the simple fact of knowing from whom he is descended, that is, who he is, in connection with having the Gipsy words and signs, although these are not absolutely necessary. It requires no argument to show that there is no tribe or nation but finds something that leads it to cling to its origin and descent, and not despise the blood that runs in its own veins, although it may despise the condition or conduct of some of its members. Where shall we find an exception to this rule? The Gipsy race is no exception to it. Civilize a Gipsy, and you make him a civilized Gipsy; educate him, and you make him an educated Gipsy; bring him up to any profession you like, Christianize him as much as you may, and he still remains a Gipsy; because he is of the Gipsy race, and all the influences of nature and revelation do not affect the questions of blood, tribe, and nationality. Take all the Gipsies that ever came out of the tent, or their descendants, including those brought into the body through the male and female line; and what are they now? Still Gipsies. They even pa.s.s into the other world Gipsies. "But they will forget that they are Gipsies," say, perhaps, some of my readers. Forget that they are Gipsies! Will we hear, some of these days, that Scotch people, themselves, will get up of a morning, toss about their night-caps, and forget that they are Scotch? We may then see the same happen with the Gipsies. What I have said, of the Gipsy always being a Gipsy, is self-evident; but it has a wide difference of meaning from that contained in the quotation given by Mr.

Borrow, in which it is said: "For that which is unclean by nature thou canst entertain no hope; no was.h.i.+ng will turn the Gipsy white."[282]

But, taking the world all over, there will doubtless be Gipsies, in larger or smaller numbers, who will always be found following the original ways of their race.

[282] In expatiating on the subject of the Gipsy race always being the Gipsy race, I have had it remarked to me: "Suppose Gipsies should not mention to their children the fact of their being Gipsies." In that case, I replied, the children, especially if, for the most part, of white blood, would simply not be Gipsies; they would, of course, have some of "the blood," but they would not be Gipsies if they had no knowledge of the fact. But to suppose that Gipsies should not learn that they are Gipsies, on account of their parents not telling them of it, is to presume that they had no other relatives. Their being Gipsies is constantly talked of among themselves; so that, if Gipsy children should not hear their "wonderful story" from their parents, they would readily enough hear it from their other relatives. This is a.s.suming, however, that the Gipsy mind can act otherwise than the Gipsy mind; which it cannot.

It sometimes happens, as the Gipsies separate into cla.s.ses, like all other races or communities of men, that a great deal of jealousy is stirred up in the minds of the poorer members of the tribe, on account of their being shunned by the wealthier kind. They are then apt to say that the exclusive members have _left_ the tribe; which, with them, is an undefined and confused idea, at the best, princ.i.p.ally on account of their limited powers of reflection, and the subject never being alluded to by the others. This jealousy sometimes leads them to dog these straggling sheep, so that, as far as lies in their power, they will not allow them to leave, as they imagine, the Gipsy fold. [See second note at page 532.]

What were the Hungarians, at one time, and what are they now? Pritchard says of them: "The Hungarians laid aside the habits of rude and savage hunters, far below the condition of the nomadic hordes, for the manners of civilized life. In the course of a thousand years, they have become a handsome people, of fine stature, regular European features, and have the complexion prevalent in that tract of Europe where they dwell." Now the Gipsies have been in Scotland at least three hundred and fifty years; and what with the mixture of native blood, (which, at least, helped to remove the prejudice against the man's appearance, and, consequently, gave him a larger and freer scope of action;) the hard laws of necessity, and the being tossed about by society, like pebbles on the seash.o.r.e; the influences of civilization, education, and the grace of G.o.d itself; by such means as these, some of the Scottish Gipsies have risen to a respectable, even eminent, position in life. But some people may say: "These are not Gipsies; they have little of the blood in them." That is nothing. Ask themselves what they are, and, if they are at all candid, they will reply that they are Gipsies. "No doubt," they say, "we have fair, or red, or black, hair, (as the case may be;) we know nothing about that; but we know that we _are_ Gipsies; that is all." There is as much difference between such a high-cla.s.s Gipsy and a poor Gipsian, as there is between a Scottish judge and the judge's fourth cousin, who makes his living by clipping dogs' ears. The principle of progression, the pa.s.sing through one phase of history into another, while the race maintains its ident.i.ty, holds good with the Gipsies, as well as with any other people.

Take a Gipsy in his original state, and we can find nothing really _vulgar_ about him. What is popularly understood to be Gipsy life may be considered low life, by people who do not overmuch discriminate in such matters; but view it after its kind, and it is not really low; for a Gipsy is naturally polite and well mannered. He does not consider himself as belonging to the same race as the native, and would rather be judged by a different standard. The life which he leads is not that of the lowest cla.s.s of the country in which he dwells, but the primitive, original state of a people of great antiquity, proscribed by law and society; himself an enemy of, and an enemy to, all around him; with the population so prejudiced against him, that attempts to change his condition, consistently with his feelings as a man, are frequently rendered in vain: so that, on the ground of strict morals, or even administrative justice, the man can be said to be only half responsible.

The subject, however, a.s.sumes quite a different aspect, when we consider a Gipsy of education and refinement, like the worthy clergyman mentioned, between whose condition and that of his tented ancestor an interval of, perhaps, two or three centuries has elapsed. We should then put him on the footing of any other race having a barbarous origin, and entertain no prejudice against him on account of the race to which he belongs. He is then to be judged as we judge Highland and Border Scots, for the whole three were at one time robbers; and all the three having welled up to respectable life together, they ought to be judged on their merits, individually, as men, and treated accordingly. And the Gipsy ought to be the most leniently dealt with, on the principle that the actions of his ancestors were far more excusable, and even less heinous, than those of the others. And as regards antiquity of descent, the Gipsy's infinitely surpa.s.ses the others, being probably no less than the shepherd kings, part of whose blood left Egypt, in the train of the Jews. I would place such a Gipsy on the footing of the Hungarian race; with this difference, that the Hungarians entered Europe in the ninth century, and became a people, occupying a territory; while the Gipsies appeared in the fifteenth century, and are now to be found, civilized and uncivilized, in almost every corner of the known world.

The admission of the good man alluded to casts a flood of light upon the history of the Scottish Gipsy race, shrouded as it is from the eye of the general population; but the information given by him was apt to fall flat upon the ear of the ordinary native, unless it was accompanied by some such exposition of the subject as is given in this work. Still, we can gather from it, where Gipsies are to be found, what _a_ Scottish Gipsy is, and what the race is capable of; and what might be expected of it, if the prejudice of their fellow-creatures was withdrawn from the race, as distinguished from the various cla.s.ses into which it may be divided, or, I should rather say, the personal conduct of each Gipsy individually. View the subject any way I may, I cannot resist coming to the conclusion that, under more favourable circ.u.mstances, it is difficult to say what the Gipsies might not attain to. But that would depend greatly upon the country in which they are to be found. Scotland has been peculiarly favourable for them, in some respects.

As regards the Scottish Gipsy population, at the present day, I can only adopt the language of the immortal Dominie Sampson, and say, that it must be "prodigious." If we consider the number that appear to have settled in Scotland, the length of time they have been in Scotland, the great amount of white blood that has, by one means or other, been brought into, and mixed up with, the body, and its great natural encrease; the feelings that attach them to their descent--feelings that originate, more properly, within themselves, and feelings that press upon them from without--the various occupations and positions in life in which they are to be found; we cannot set any limit to their number.

Gipsies are just like other people; they have their own sets or circles of a.s.sociates, out of which, as a thing that is almost invariable, they will hide, if not deny, themselves to others of their race, for reasons which have already been given. So almost invariable is this, at the present day, amongst Gipsies that are not tented Gipsies, that, should an English Gipsy come across a settlement of them in America--German Gipsies, for example--and cast his sign, and address them in their own speech, they will pretend not to know what he means, although he sees the Gipsy in their faces and about their dwellings. But should he meet with them away from their homes, and where they are not known, they would answer, and be cheek-by-jowl with him, in a moment. I have found, by personal experience, that the same holds with the French and other continental Gipsies in America.[283] It is particularly so with the Scottish Gipsies. For these reasons, it seems to be beyond question that the number at which our author estimates them in Scotland, viz., 5,000, must be vastly below the real number. If I were to say 100,000, I do not think I would over-estimate them. The opinion of the Gipsies whom our author questioned was a guess, so far as it referred to the cla.s.s to which they belonged, or with which they were acquainted; so that, if we take all kinds of Gipsies into account, it would be a very moderate estimate to set the Scottish Gipsies down at 100,000; and those in all the British Isles at 300,000. The number might be double what I have stated. The intelligent English Gipsies say that, in England, they are not only "dreadfully mixed," but extremely numerous. There is not a race of men on the face of the earth more prolific than tented Gipsies; in a word, tented Gipsydom, if I may hazard such an expression, is, comparatively speaking, like a rabbit warren. The rough and uncouth kind of settled Gipsies are likewise very prolific; but the higher cla.s.ses, as a rule, are by no means so much so. To set down any specific number of Gipsies to be found in the British Isles, would be a thing too arbitrary to serve any purpose; I think sufficient data have been given to enable the intelligent reader to form an opinion for himself.[284]

[283] I very abruptly addressed a French Gipsy, in the streets of New York, thus: "Vous etes un _Romany chiel_." "Oui, monsieur," was the reply which he, as abruptly, gave me. But, ever afterwards, he got cross, when I alluded to the subject. On one occasion, I gave him the sign, which he repeated, while he asked, with much tartness of manner, "What is that--what does it mean?" This was a roguish Gipsy, and was afterwards lodged in jail.

On one occasion, I met with a German cutler, in a place of business, in New York. I felt sure he was a Gipsy, although the world would not have taken him for one. Catching his eye, I commenced to look around the room, from those present to himself, as if there was to be something confidential between us, and then whispered to him, "_Callo chabo_," (Gipsy, or black fellow;) and the effect was instantaneous. I afterwards visited his family, on a Sabbath evening, and took tea with them. They were from Wurtemberg, and appeared very decent people. The mother, a tall, swarthy, fine looking intelligent young woman, said grace, which was repeated by the children, whom I found learning their Sabbath-school lessons. The family regularly attend church. A fair-haired German called, and went to church with the Gipsy himself.

What with the appearance of everything about the house, and the fine, clean, and neatly-dressed family of children, I felt very much pleased with my visit.

French and German Gipsies are very shy, owing to the severity of the laws against their race.

[284] Fletcher, of Saltoun, speaks of there being constantly a hundred thousand people in Scotland, leading the life (as Sir Walter Scott describes it,) of "Gipsies, Jockies, or Cairds." Between the time alluded to and the date of John Faw's league with James V., a period of 140 years had elapsed; and 174 years from the date of arrival of the race in the country: so that, from the natural encrease of the body, and the large amount of white blood introduced into it, the greater part, if not the whole, of the people mentioned, were doubtless Gipsies. But these Gipsies, according to Sir Walter's opinion, "died out by a change of habits." How strange it is that the very first cla.s.s Scottish minds should have so little understood the philosophy of origin, blood, and descent, and especially as they applied to the Gipsies! For Sir Walter says: "The progress of time, and encrease both of the means of life and the power of the laws, gradually reduced this dreadful evil within more narrow bounds.

... . Their numbers are so greatly diminished, that, instead of one hundred thousand, as calculated by Fletcher, it would now, perhaps, be impossible to collect above five hundred throughout all Scotland(!)"

It is perfectly evident that Sir Walter Scott, in common with many others, never realized the idea, in all its bearings, of what a Gipsy was; or he never could have imagined that those, only, were of the Gipsy race, who followed the tent.

It is very doubtful if Anthonius Gawino, and his tribe, departed with their letter of introduction from James IV. to his uncle, the king of Denmark, in 1506. Having secured the favour of the king of Scots, by this recommendatory notice, he was more apt, by delaying his departure, to secure his position in the country. The circ.u.mstances attending the league with his successor, John Faw, show that the tribe had been long in the country; doubtless from as far back as 1506. From 1506 till 1579, with the exception of about one year, during the reign of James V., the tribe, as I have already said, (page 109,) must have encreased prodigiously. The persecutions against the body extended over the reign of James VI., and part of that of Charles I.; for, according to Baron Hume, such was the terror which the executions inspired in the tribe, that, "for the s.p.a.ce of more than 50 years from that time, (1624,) there is no trial of an Egyptian;" although our author shows that an execution of a band of them took place in 1636.

But "towards the end of that century," continues Baron Hume, "the nuisance seems to have again become troublesome;" in other words, that from the reign of Charles I. to the accession of William and Mary, the time to which Fletcher's remark applies, the attention of all being taken up with the troubles of the times, the Gipsies had things pretty much their own way; but when peace was restored, they would be called to strict account.

For all these reasons, it may be said that the 100,000 people spoken of were doubtless Gipsies of various mixtures of blood; so that, at the present day, there ought to be a very large number of the tribe in Scotland. I admit that many of the Scottish Gipsies have been hanged, and many banished to the Plantations; but these would be in a small ratio to their number, and a still smaller to the natural encrease of the body. Suppose that such and such Gipsies were either hanged or banished; so young did they all marry, that, when they were hanged or banished, they might leave behind them families ranging from five to ten children. We may say, of the Scottish Gipsies generally, in days that are past, what a writer in Blackwood's Magazine, already alluded to, said of Billy Marshall: "Their descendants were prodigiously numerous; I dare say, numberless." Many of the Scottish Gipsies have migrated to England, as well as elsewhere. In Liverpool, there are many of them, following various mechanical occupations.

That many Gipsies were banished to America, in colonial times, from England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, sometimes for merely being "by habit and repute Gipsies," is beyond dispute. "Your Welsh and Irish,"

said an English Gipsy, in the United States, "were so mean, when they banished a Gipsy to the Plantations, as to make him find his own pa.s.sage; but the English always paid the Gipsy's pa.s.sage for him." The Scotch seem also to have made the Gipsy find his own pa.s.sage, and failing that, to have hanged him. It greatly interests the English Gipsies arriving in America, to know about the native American Gipsies.

I have been frequently in the company of an English Gipsy, in America, whose great-grandfather was so banished; but he did not relish the subject being spoken of. Gipsies may be said to have been in America almost from the time of its settlement. We have already seen how many of them found their way there, during the Revolution, by being impressed as soldiers, and taken as volunteers, for the benefit of the bounty and pa.s.sage; and how they deserted on landing. Tented Gipsies have been seen about Baltimore for the last seventy years. In New England, a colony is known which has existed for about a hundred years, and has always been looked upon with a singular feeling of distrust and mystery by the inhabitants, who are the descendants of the early emigrants, and who did not suspect their origin till lately. These Gipsies have never a.s.sociated, in the common sense of the word, with the other settlers, and, judging from their exterior, seem poor and miserable, whatever their circ.u.mstances may be. They follow pretty much the employment and modes of life of the same cla.s.s in Europe; the most striking feature being, that the bulk of them leave the homestead for a length of time, scatter in different directions, and reunite, periodically, at their quarters, which are left in charge of some of the feeble members of the band.

It is not likely that many of the colonial Gipsies would take to the tent; for, arriving, for the most part, as individuals, separated from family relations, they were more apt to follow settled, semi-settled, or general itinerant occupations; and the more so, as the face of the country, and the thin and scattered settlements, would hardly admit of it. They were apt to squat on wild or unoccupied lands, in the neighbourhood of towns and settlements, like their brethren in Europe, when they took up their quarters on the borders of well-settled districts, with a wild country to fall back on, in times of danger or prosecution by the lawful authorities. Besides disposing of themselves, to some little extent, in this way, many of the Gipsies, banished, or going to the colonies of their own accord, would betake themselves to the various occupations common to the ordinary emigrants; the more especially as, when they arrived, they would find a field in which they were not known to be Gipsies; which would give them greater scope and confidence, and enable them to go anywhere, or enter upon any employment, where, not being known to be Gipsies, they would meet with no prejudice to contend with. Indeed, a new country, in which the people had, more or less, to be, in a sense, tinkers, that is, jacks-of-all-trades, and masters of none, was just the sphere of a handy Gipsy, who could "do a' most of things." They would turn to the tinkering, peddling, horse-dealing, tavern-keeping, and almost all the ordinary mechanical trades, and, among others, broom-making. Perhaps the foundation of the American broom manufacture was laid by the British Gipsies, by whom it may be partly carried on at the present day; a business they pretty much monopolize, in a rough way, in Great Britain.

We will doubtless find, among the fraternity, some of those whittling, meddling Sam Slick peddlers, so often described: I have seen some of those itinerant venders of knife-sharpeners, and such "Yankee notions,"

with dark, glistening eyes, that would "pa.s.s for the article." Some of them would live by less legitimate business. I entertain no doubt, what from the general fitness of things, and the appearance of some of the men, that we will find some of the descendants of the old British mixed Gipsies members of the various establishments of Messrs. Peter Funks and Company,[285] of the city of New York, as well as elsewhere. And I entertain as little doubt that many of those American women who tell fortunes, and engage in those many curious bits of business that so often come up at trials, are descendants of the British plantation stock of Gipsies. But there are doubtless many of these Gipsies in respectable spheres of life. It would be extremely unreasonable to say that the descendants of the colonial Gipsies do not still exist as Gipsies, like their brethren in Great Britain, and other parts of the Old World. The English Gipsies in America entertain no doubt of it; the more especially as they have encountered such Gipsies, of at least two descents. I have myself met with such a Gipsy, following a decidedly respectable calling, whom I found as much one of the tribe, barring the original habits, as perhaps any one in Europe.

[285] _Peter Funks & Co._: Mock auctioneers of mock jewelry, &c., &c.