Chapter 2

It is not often that a Gipsy is seen well-dressed, even when they possess costly apparel; but their women are fond of finery. They are much delighted with broad lace, large ear-drops, a variety of rings, and glaring colours; and, when they possess the means, shew how great a share they have of that foolish vanity, which is said to be inherent in females, and which leads many, destitute of the faith, and hope, and love, and humility of the gospel, into utter ruin.

A remarkable instance of the love of costly attire in a female Gipsy, is well known to the writer. The woman alluded to, obtained _a very large sum of money_ from three maiden ladies, pledging that it should be doubled by her art in conjuration. She then decamped to another district, where she bought a blood-horse, a black beaver hat, a new side-saddle and bridle, a silver-mounted whip, and figured away in her ill-obtained finery at the fairs. It is not easy to imagine the disappointment and resentment of the covetous and credulous ladies, whom she had so easily duped.

Nor indeed are the males of this people less addicted to the love of gay clothing, if it suited their interests to exhibit it. An orphan, only ten years of age, taken from actual starvation last winter, and who was fed and clothed, and had every care taken of him, would not remain with those who wished him well, and who had been his friends; but returned to the camp from which he had been taken, saying, that he _would be a Gipsy_, _and would wear silver buttons on his coat_, _and have topped boots_; and when asked how he would get them, he replied--_by catching rats_.

Some Gipsies try to excel others in the possession of silver buttons. They will sometimes give as much as fifteen pounds for a set. The females too spend many pounds on weighty gold rings for their fingers. The Author has by him, belonging to a Gipsy, three massy rings soldered together, and with a half sovereign on the top, which serves instead of a brilliant stone. We pity a vain Gipsy whose eyes are taken, and whose heart delights in such vulgar pomp. Are not those equally pitiable, who estimate themselves only by the gaiety, singularity, or costliness of their apparel? The Saviour has given us a rule by which we may judge persons in reference to their dress, as well as in other ostensibilities of character--_by their fruits ye shall know them_.

The Gipsies are not strangers to pawn-brokers shops; but they do not visit these places for the same purposes as the vitiated poor of our trading towns. A pawnshop is their bank. When they acquire property illegally, as by stealing, swindling, or fortune-telling, they purchase valuable plate, and sometimes in the same hour pledge it for safety. Such property they have in store against days of adversity and trouble, which on account of their dishonest habits, often overtake them. Should one of their families stand before a Judge of his country, charged with a crime which is likely to cost him his life, or to transport him, every article of value is sacrificed to save him from death, or apprehended banishment. In such cases they generally retain a Counsellor to plead for the brother in adversity.

At other times they carry their plate about with them, and when visited by friends, they bring out from dirty bags, a silver tea-pot, and a cream-jug and spoons of the same metal. Their plate is by no means paltry. Of course considerable property in plate is not very generally possessed by them.

The Gipsies of this country are very punctual in paying their debts. All the Shop-keepers, with whom they deal in these parts, have declared, that they are some of their best and most honest customers. For the payment of a debt which is owing to one of their own people, the time and place are appointed by them, and should the debtor disappoint the creditor, he is liable by their law of honour to pay double the amount he owes; and he must pay it by personal servitude, if he cannot with money, if he wish to be considered by his friends honest and respectable. They call this law _pizharris_.

There are few of these unhappy people that can either read or write. Yet a regular and frequent correspondence is kept up between the members of families who have had the least advantage of the sort; and those who have had no advantages whatever, correspond through the kindness of friends who write for them. Numerous are the letters which they receive from their relatives in New South Wales, to which Colony so many hundreds of this unsettled race have been transported. Their letters are usually left at one particular post-office, in the districts where they travel; and should such letters not be called for during a long period, they are usually kept by the post-master, who is sure they will be claimed, sooner or later. A long journey will be no impediment, when a letter is expected; for a Gipsy will travel any distance to obtain an expected favour of the kind. They are never heard to complain of the heavy expense of postage.

We have already observed that there are many genuine features of humanity in the character of this degraded and despised people. Their constantly retaining an affectionate remembrance of their deceased relatives, affords a striking proof of this statement. And their attachment to the horse, donkey, rings, snuffbox, silver-spoons, and all things, except the clothes, of the deceased relatives, is very strong. With such articles they will never part, except in the greatest distress; and then they only pledge some of them, which are redeemed as soon as they possess the means.

Most families visit the graves of their near relatives, once in the year; generally about the time of Christmas. Then the depository of the dead becomes a rallying spot for the living; for there they renew their attachments and sympathies, and give and receive assurances of continued good will. At such periods however they are too often addicted to feasting and intemperance.

The graves of the deceased of this people, are usually kept in very good order in the various Church yards where they lie interred. This is done by the Sextons, for which they are annually remunerated. Sometimes large sums of money are expended on the erection of head-stones; and in one instance a monument was erected in the County of Wilts at considerable cost. It is not very long since, that the parents of a deceased Gipsy child, whom they loved very much, paid a great sum to have it buried in the Church.

The Gipsies have a singular custom of burning all the clothes belonging to any one among them deceased, with the straw, litter, &c, of his tent. Whether this be from fear of infection, or from superstition, the Author has not been able to learn. Perhaps both unite in the continuation of a custom which must be attended with some loss to them. {28}

Seldom do these mysterious sons and daughters of Adam unite themselves in the holy obligations of marriage, after the form of the Established Church of our land. Nor, indeed, for so sacred a union, have they _any ceremony at all_. The parents on each side are consulted on such occasions, and if their consent be obtained, the parties become, after their custom, _husband and wife_. Should the parents object, like the thoughtless and imprudent persons in higher life, who flee to Gretna Green, the Gipsy lovers also escape from their parents to another district. When the couple are again met by the friends of the female, they take her from her protector; but if it appear that he has treated her kindly, and is likely to continue to do so, they restore her to him, and all objections and animosities are forgotten.

As it seldom happens that they now stay more than a few days in one place, the Gipsy, his wife, and each of their children, may severally belong to different parishes. This is an objection to their ultimate settlement in any one place. It will be some time before this objection can be removed: not till the present generation of Gipsies has passed away, and their posterity cease to make the wilderness their homes, choosing a parish for a permanent place of settlement.

It may naturally be expected that these inhabitants of the field and forest, the lane and the moor, are not without a knowledge of the medicinal qualities of certain herbs. In all slight disorders they have recourse to these remedies, and frequently use the inner bark of the elm, star-in-the-earth, parsley, pellitory-in-the-wall, and wormwood. They are not subject to the numerous disorders and fevers common in large towns; but in some instances they are visited with that dreadful scourge of the British nation, the Typhus fever, which spreads through their little camp, and becomes fatal to some of its families. The small-pox and measles are disorders 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 1831, were nearly all attacked with fever that threatened their lives. This may be occasioned by their taking all at once to regular habits, and the renunciation of that exercise to which they have been so long accustomed, with some disposing qualities in their change of diet and the atmosphere of a thickly populated town.

This people often live to a considerable age, many instances of which are well known. In his tent at Launton, Oxfordshire, died in the year 1830, more than a hundred years of age, James Smith, called by some, the King of the Gipsies. By his tribe he was looked up to with the greatest respect and veneration. 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, grand-children, great grand-children, 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. The religion of the Redeemer would have taught her to say, _The Lord gave_, _and the Lord hath taken away_; _blessed be the name of the Lord_.

A woman of the name of B--- lived to the reputed age of a hundred and twenty years, and up to that age was accustomed to sing her song very gaily. Many events in the life of this woman were very remarkable. In her youth she was a noted swindler. At one time she got a large sum of money, and other valuable effects, from a lady; for which and other offences, she was condemned to die. A petition was presented to George the Third, to use the Gipsy's own expression, who told the author, _just after he had set __up business_, that is, begun to reign, and he attended to its prayer. The sentence was reversed, and her life was consequently spared. But, poor woman, she repented not of her sins; for she taught her daughter to commit the same crimes for which she had been condemned; so that her delivery from condemnation led to no salutary reformation.

The mutual attachment which subsists between the nominal husband and wife, is so truly sincere, that instances of infidelity, on either side, occur but seldom. 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 themselves 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 a town, far from a mother's eye. It would be well if all others felt for their children as did this unlettered Gipsy. After having promised that the morals of the child should be watched over, she was confided to his care. And the author has known a Gipsy parent correct with stripes a grown daughter, for mentioning what a profligate person had talked about.

The following is an instance of conjugal attachment. A poor woman, whose eldest child is now under the care of the Society for the improvement of the Gipsies, being near her confinement, came into the neighbourhood of Southampton, to be with her friends, who are reformed, during the time. This not taking place so soon as she expected, and having promised to meet her husband at a distance on a certain day, he not daring to shew himself in Hampshire, she determined on going to him; and having mounted her donkey, set off with her little family. She had a distance of nearly fifty miles to travel, and happily reached the desired spot, where she met her husband before her confinement took place. The good people at Warminster, near which place she was, afforded her kind and needful assistance; and one well-disposed lady became God-mother to the babe, who was a fine little girl; the grateful mother pledging that, at a proper age, she should be given up to Christians to be educated.

Before this woman left Southampton, referring to many kind attentions shewn her by the charitable of that place, she was heard to say, _Well_--_I did not think any one would take such trouble for me_!

Professing to be church people whenever they speak of religion, the Gipsies generally have their children baptized at the church near which they are born, partly because they think it right, and partly, perhaps chiefly, to secure the knowledge of the parish to which the child belongs; for every illegitimate child is parishioner in the parish in which it happens to be born. They will sometimes apply to the parish officers for something toward the support of a child, which they call _settling the baby_.

The sponsors at baptism are generally branches of the same family, and they speak of their God-children with pleasure, who in return manifest a high feeling of respect for them, and superstitiously ask their blessing on old Christmas-days, when in company with them. It is worthy of remark that all the better sort of Gipsies teach their children the LORD'S PRAYER.

The anxiety evidenced by some parish officers to prevent these families from settling in their districts, has occasionally led the Gipsies to act unjustifiably by menacing them with the settlement of a number of their families; but this, from their perpetual wandering, need never be feared. Happy would it be for the Gipsies as a people, if these civil officers did encourage them to stay longer in their neighbourhood; for they then might be induced to commence and persevere in honest, industrious and regular habits. Not long ago thirty-five Gipsies came to a parish in Hampshire, to which they belonged, and demanded of the overseers ten pounds, declaring that, if that sum were not given them, they would remain there. Seven pounds were advanced, and they soon left the place.

CHAP. III. The Character, Manners and Habits of the English Gipsies, continued.

From the mode of living among the Gipsies, the parents are often necessitated to leave their tents in the morning, and seldom return to them before night. Their children are then left in or about their solitary camps, having many times no adult with them; the elder children then have the care of the younger. Those who are old enough gather wood for fuel; nor is stealing it thought a crime. By the culpable neglect of the parents in this respect, the children are often exposed to accidents by fire; and melancholy instances of children being burnt and scalded to death, are not unfrequent. The author knows one poor woman, two of whose children have thus lost their lives, during her absence from her tent, at different periods: and very lately a child was scalded to death in the parish where the author writes.

The Gipsies are not very regular in attending to the calls of appetite and hunger. Their principal meal is supper, and their food is supplied in proportion to the success they have had through the day; or, to use their own words, _the luck they have met with_.

Like the poor of the land through which they wander, they are fond of tea, drinking it at every meal. When times are hard with them, they use English herbs, of which they generally carry a stock, such as agrimony, ground-ivy, wild mint, and the root of a herb called spice-herb.

The trades they follow are generally chair-mending, knife-grinding, tinkering, and basket-making, the wood for which they mostly steal. Some of them sell hardware, brushes, corks, &c.; but in general, neither old nor young among them, do much that can be called labour. And it is lamentable that the greatest part of the little they do earn, is laid by to spend at their festivals; for like many tribes of uncivilized Indians, they mostly make their women support their families, who generally do it by swindling and fortune-telling. Their baskets introduce them to the servants of families, of whom they beg victuals, to whom they sell trifling wares, and tell their fortunes, which indeed is their principal aim, as it is their greatest source of gain. They have been awkwardly fixed, both servants and the Gipsy fortune-teller, when the lady of the house has unexpectedly gone into the kitchen and surprised them while thus employed; and sometimes, to avoid detection, the obnoxious party has been hurried into a closet, or butler's pantry, where there has been much plate. Few are aware of the losses that have attended the conduct of unprincipled servants in this, as in other respects. It may be hoped that few families would knowingly look over conduct so improper, so dangerous.

Many of these idle soothsayers endeavour to persuade the people whom they delude, that the power to foretell future events, is granted to them from heaven, to enable them to get bread for their families. It would be well were the prognostications of these women encouraged only among servants; but this is not the case. They are often invited into gay and fashionable circles, whom they amuse, if, by the information possessed by the parties, they are not cunning enough to deceive. They are well paid, and are thus encouraged in their iniquity by those who ought to know, and _teach them_ better. But it is astonishing how many _respectable_ people are led away with the artful flattery of such visitors. They forget that the Gipsy fortune-teller has often made herself acquainted with their connexions, business, and future prospects, and consider not that God commits not his secrets to the wicked and profane. They use not the reason heaven has given them, and are therefore more easily led astray by these crafty deceivers.

They generally prophesy good. Knowing the readiest way to deceive, to a young lady they describe a handsome gentleman, as one she may be assured will be her "husband." To a youth they promise a pretty lady, with a large fortune. And thus suiting their deluding speeches to the age, circumstances, anticipations and prospects of those who employ them, they seldom fail to please their vanity, and often gain a rich reward for their fraud.

They suit their incantations, or their pretended means of gaining knowledge, to their employers. Two female servants went into the camp of some Gipsies near Southampton, to have their fortunes told by one well known to the author, and a great professor of the art. On observing them to appear like persons in service, she said to a companion, _I shall not get my books or cards for them_; _they are but tenants_. And calling for a frying-pan, she ordered them to fill it with water, and hold their faces over it. This being done, she proceeded to flatter and to promise them great things, for which she was paid 1_s_ 6_d_ each. This is called the frying-pan fortune. But it ought to be remembered that all fortune-telling is quite as contemptible.

These artful pretenders to a knowledge of future events, generally discover who are in possession of property; and if they be superstitious and covetous, they contrive to persuade them there is a lucky stone in their house, and that, if they will entrust to them, _all_, or a _part of their money_, they will double and treble it. Sorry is the author to say that they often gain their point. Tradesmen have been known to sell their goods at a considerable loss, hoping to have the money doubled to them by the supposed power of these wicked females, who daringly promise to multiply the blessings of Providence.

If the fortune-teller cannot succeed in obtaining a large sum at first, from such credulous dupes, she commences with a small one; and then pretending it to be too insignificant for the planets to work upon, she soon gets it doubled, and when she has succeeded in getting all she can, she decamps with her booty, leaving her mortified victims to the just punishment of disappointment and shame, who are afraid of making their losses known, lest they should be exposed to the ridicule they deserve. Parties in Gloucestershire, Dorsetshire, and Hampshire, have been robbed in this manner of considerable sums, even as much as three and four hundred pounds, the greatest part of which has been spent in Hampshire.

A young lady in Gloucestershire allowed herself to be deluded by a Gipsy woman of artful and insinuating address, to a very great extent. This lady admired a young gentleman, and the Gipsy promised that he would return her love. The lady gave her all the plate in the house, and a gold chain and locket, with no other security than a vain promise that they should be restored at a given period. As might be expected, the wicked woman was soon off with her booty, and the lady was obliged to expose her folly. The property being too much to lose, the woman was pursued, and overtaken. She was found washing her clothes in a Gipsy camp, with the gold chain about her neck. She was taken up; but on restoring the articles, was allowed to escape.

The same woman afterwards persuaded a gentleman's groom, that she could put him in possession of a great sum of money, if he would first deposit with her, all he then had. He gave her five pounds and his watch, and borrowed for her ten more of two of his friends. She engaged to meet him at midnight in a certain place a mile from the town where he lived, and that he there should dig up out of the ground a silver pot full of gold, covered with a clean napkin. He went with his pick-axe and shovel at the appointed time to the supposed lucky spot, having his confidence strengthened by a dream he happened to have about money, which he considered a favourable omen of the wealth he was soon to receive. Of course he met no Gipsy; she had fled another way with the property she had so wickedly obtained. While waiting her arrival, a hare started suddenly from its resting place, and so alarmed him, that he as suddenly took to his heels and made no stop till he reached his master's house, where he awoke his fellow servants and told to them his disaster.