Chapter 3

This woman, who made so many dupes, rode a good horse, and dressed both gaily and expensively. One of her saddles cost 30 pounds. It was literally studded with silver; for she carried on it the emblems of her profession wrought in that metal; namely, a half-moon, seven stars, and the rising sun. Poor woman! _her_ sun is now nearly set. Her sins have found her out. She has been in great distress on account of a son, who was transported for robbery; but has never thought of seeking, as a penitent, refuge in the God of mercy; for seeing one of her reformed companions reading the New Testament, she exclaimed, _That book will make you crazy_, at the same time calling her a fool for burning her fortune-telling book. Her condition is now truly wretched; for her ill-gotten gains are all fled, and she is dragging out a miserable existence, refusing still to seek the mercy of God, and despising those who have made him their refuge.

Another woman, whom the author would also call a _bad_ Gipsy, who likewise practised similar deceptions, having persuaded a person to put his notes and money in a wrapper and lock it up in a box, she obtained the liberty of seeing it in his presence, that she might pronounce certain words over it; and although narrowly watched, she contrived to steal it, and to convey into the box a parcel similar in appearance, but which on examination, contained only a bundle of rubbish. This money amounted to several hundred pounds. She was immediately pursued and taken with the whole amount about her person. She was also allowed to escape justice, because the covetous old man neither wished to expose himself, nor waste his money in a prosecution.

The daughter of this woman has followed the same evil and infamous practices; and the crime has descended to her through several generations. Many circumstances like the above are hid to prevent the shame that would assuredly follow their exposure. But the day of Christ will exhibit both these deceivers and their dupes, who are equally heinous in the sight of God. It were well if such characters had paid more attention to the words of the apostle Paul--_And having food and raiment_, _let us therewith be content_. _They that will be rich_, _fall into temptation_, _and a snare_, _and into many foolish and hurtful lusts_, _which drown men in destruction_. _The love of money is the root of all __evil_; _which_, _while some have coveted after_, _they have erred from the faith_, _and pierced themselves through with many sorrows_.

Not to mention many other facts with which the author is acquainted, and which he would relate, were he not likely thereby too much to enlarge his work, he will conclude this chapter with observing, that, thankfulness to Almighty God, for the blessings we enjoy, less anxiety about future events, and more confidence in what God has revealed in his word and providence, would leave no room for the encouragement of Gipsy fortune-tellers, and their craft would soon be discontinued.

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

Among this poor and destitute people, instances of great guilt, depravity and misery are too common; nor can it be otherwise expected, while they are destitute of the knowledge of salvation in a crucified and ascended Saviour. One poor Gipsy, who had wandered in a state of wretchedness, bordering on despair, for nearly forty years, had not in all that time, _heard of the Name which is above every name_; _for there is salvation in no other_; till in his last days some Christian directed him to the Bible, as a book that tells poor sinners the way to God. He gave a woman a guinea to read its pages to him; and he remunerated another woman, who read to him the book of Common Prayer. The last few years of his life were marked by strong conviction of sin. His children thought he must have been a murderer. They often saw him under the hedges at prayer. In his last moments he received comfort through a pious minister, who visited him in his tent, and made him acquainted with the promises of the gospel.

A similar instance has been related by a clergyman known to the author; nor should the interview of GEORGE THE THIRD with a poor Gipsy woman, be forgotten; for a brighter example of condescending kindness is not furnished in the history of kings. This gracious monarch became the minister of instruction and comfort to a dying Gipsy, to whom he was drawn by the cries of her children, and saw her expire cheered by the view of that redemption he had set before her.

But how few are there of the tens of thousands of Gipsies, who have died in Britain, that, whether living or dying, have been visited by the minister or his people! The father of three orphan children lately taken under the Care of the Southampton Committee for the improvement of the Gipsies, had lived an atheist, but such he could not die. He had often declared there was no God; but before his death, he called one of his sons to him and said--_I have always said there was no God_, _but now I know there is_; _I see him now_. He attempted to pray, but knew not how! And many other Gipsies have been so afraid of God, that they dreaded to be alone.

It is a fact not generally known, that the Gipsies of this country have not much knowledge of one another's tribes, or clans, and are very particular to keep to their own. Nor will those who style themselves respectable, allow their children to marry into the more depraved clans.

The following are a few of the family names of the Gipsies of this country:--Williams, Jones, Plunkett, Cooper, Glover, Carew (descendants of the famous Bamfield Moore Carew), Loversedge, Mansfield, Martin, Light, Lee, Barnett, Boswell, Carter, Buckland, Lovell, Corrie, Bosvill, Eyres, Smalls, Draper, Fletcher, Taylor, Broadway, Baker, Smith, Buckly, Blewett, Scamp, and Stanley. Of the last-named family there are more than two hundred, most of whom are known to the author, and are the most ancient clans in this part of England.

It is a well-authenticated fact, that many persons pass for Gipsies who are not. Such persons having done something to exclude them from society, join themselves to this people, and marrying into their clans, become the means of leading them to crimes they would not have thought of, but for their connection with such wicked people. Coining money and forging notes are, however, crimes which cannot be justly attributed to them. Indeed it has been too much the custom to impute to them a great number of crimes of which they either never were guilty, or which could only be committed by an inconsiderable portion of their race; and they have often suffered the penalty of the law, when they have not in the least deserved it. They have been talked of by the public, and prosecuted by the authorities, as the perpetrators of every vice and wickedness alike shocking to civil and savage life. Nor is this to be wondered at, living as they do, so remote from observation and the walks of common life.

Whoever has read Grellman's Dissertation on the Continental Gipsies, and supposes that those of England are equally immoral and vicious, will be found greatly mistaken. The former are a banditti of robbers, without natural affection, living with each other almost like brutes, and scarcely knowing, and assuredly never caring about the existence of God; some of them are even counted cannibals. The Gipsies of this country are altogether different; for monstrous crimes are seldom heard of among them.

The author is not aware of any of them being convicted of house-breaking, or high-way robbery. Seldom are they guilty of sheep-stealing, or robbing henroosts. {45} Nor can they be justly charged with stealing children; this is the work of worthless beggars who often commit far greater crimes than the Gipsies.

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. They sometimes take osiers from the banks and coppices of the farmer, of which they make their baskets; and occasionally have been known to steal a sheep, but never when they have had any thing to eat, or money to buy it with; for according to a proverb they have among themselves, _they despise those who risk their necks for their bellies_.

The author however recollects a transgression of the sort in the county of Hants. Eight Gipsy men united in stealing four sheep: four were chosen by lot for the purpose. They sharpened their knives, rode to the field, perpetrated the act, and before day-break brought to their camp the sheep they had engaged to steal; and, before the evening of the same day, they were thirty miles distant. But when pressed by hunger, they have been known to take a worse method than this. For as the farmers seldom deny them a sheep that has died in the field, if they apply for it, _so many_ were found dead in this way, that a certain farmer suspected the Gipsies of occasioning their deaths. He therefore caused one of these animals to be opened, and discovered a piece of wool in its throat, with which it had been suffocated. The Gipsies, who had no objection to creatures that die in their blood, had killed all these sheep in the above manner.

Horse-stealing is one of their principal crimes, and at this they are very dextrous. When disposed to steal a horse, they select one a few miles from their tent, and make arrangements for disposing of it at a considerable distance, to which place they will convey it in a night. An old and infirm man has been known to ride a stolen horse nearly fifty miles in that time. They pass through bye-lanes, well known to them, and thus avoid turnpikes and escape detection.

Unless they are taught better principles than at present they possess, and unless those on whom they impose, use their understandings, it is to be feared that swindling also will long continue among them; for they are so ingenious in avoiding detection. When likely to be discovered, a change of dress enables them to remove with safety to any distance. Instances of this kind have been innumerable. But as it is the aim of this book to solicit a better feeling towards them, rather than expose them to the continuation of censure, the writer will not enter into further detail in reference to their crimes, than barely to shew the great evils into which they have been led by many of those in high life, who have long encouraged them in the savage practice of prize-fighting. Pugilism has been the disgrace of our land, and our nobility and gentry have not been ashamed to patronize it.

Not long ago a fight took place in this county which will be a lasting disgrace to the neighbourhood. One of the pugilists, a Gipsy, in the pride of his heart, said during the fight, that he _never would be beaten so long as he had life_. The poor wretch fought till not a feature of his countenance could be seen, his head and face being swollen to a frightful size, and his eyes quite closed. He attempted to tear them open that he might see his antagonist; and was at last taken off the stage. Not satisfied with this brutal scene, the spectators offered a purse of ten guineas for another battle. This golden bait caught the eye of another Gipsy, who, but a few months before, had ruptured a blood-vessel in fighting. Throwing up his hat on the stage, the sign of challenge, he was soon met with a fellow as degraded as himself, but with much more strength and activity. He was three times laid prostrate at the feet of his antagonist, and was taken away almost lifeless. His conqueror put a half-crown into his hand as he was carried off, saying, it was a little something for him to drink. About three months after this, the author saw this poor Gipsy in his tent, in the last stage of a consumption; but he was without any marks of true penitence. Surely the way of wickedness is full of misery!

What a disgrace is this demoralizing mode of amusement to our country! Degrading to the greatest degree, it is nevertheless pursued with avidity by all classes of people; and large bets are often depending on these brutal exercises. Gentlemen, noblemen, and even ladies, are, on such occasions, mixed with the most degraded part of the community. In the instance referred to it is said, that fifty pounds were taken by admitting carriages into the field in which the fight took place. Where were the peace-officers at this time? Perhaps some of them spectators of the horrid scene!

Verily our men of rank and fortune are guilty in encouraging these shocking practices; and they are little better than murderers, who goad their fellow-men on to fight by the offer of money. Such persons are frequently instruments of sending sinners, the most unprepared, into the presence of a righteous God. What an account will they have to give when they meet the victims of their amusement at the bar of Christ!

The Gipsies often fight with each other at fairs, and other places where they meet in great numbers. This is their way of settling old grudges; but so soon as one yields, the quarrel is made up, and they repair to a public house to renew their friendship. This forgiving spirit is a pleasing trait in their character.

CHAP. V. Further Account of the English Gipsies.

It has been the lot of Gipsies in all countries to be despised, persecuted, hated, and have the vilest things said about them. In many cases they have too much merited the odium which they have experienced in continental Europe; but certainly they are not deserving of universal and unqualified contempt and hatred in this nation. The dislike they have to rule and order has led many of them to maim themselves by cutting off a finger, that they might not serve in either the army or the navy: and I believe there is one instance known, of some Gipsies murdering a witness who was to appear against some of their people for horse-stealing: the persons who were guilty of the deed have been summoned to the bar of Christ, and in their last moments exclaimed with horror and despair, "Murder, murder." But these circumstances do not stamp their race without exception as infamous monsters in wickedness. Not many years since several of their men were hung in different places for stealing fourteen horses near Bristol, who experienced the truth of that scripture, _be sure your sins will find you out_. Indeed there is not a family among them that has not to mourn over the loss of some relative for the commission of this crime. But even in this respect their guilt has been much over-rated; for in many cases it is to be feared they have suffered innocently. There was formerly a reward of 40_l_ to those who gave information of offenders, on their being capitally convicted. Those of the lower orders, therefore, who were destitute of principle, had a great temptation before them to swear falsely in reference to Gipsies; and of which it is known they sometimes availed themselves, knowing that few would befriend them. For the sake of the above sum, vulgarly, but too justly called _blood-money_, they perjured themselves, and were much more wicked than the people they accused. But the Gipsies were thought to be universally depraved, and no one thought it worth his while to investigate their innocence. Let us be thankful that many at the present day look upon them with better feelings.

Very lately one of these vile informers swore to having seen a Gipsy man on a horse that had been stolen; and although it came out on the trial, that it was night when he observed him, and that he had never seen him before, which ought to have rendered his evidence invalid, the prisoner was convicted and condemned to die. His life was afterwards spared by other facts having been discovered and made known to the judge, after he had left the city.

The Gipsies in this country have for centuries been accused of child-stealing; and therefore it is not to be wondered at, that, when children have been missing, the Gipsies should be taxed with having stolen them. About thirty years since, some parents who had lost a child, applied to a man at Portsmouth, well known in those days, by the name of Payne, or Pine, as an astrologer, wishing to know from him what was become of it. He told them _to search the Gipsy tents for twenty miles round_. The distressed parents employed constables, who made diligent search in every direction to that distance, but to no purpose; the child was not to be found in their camps. It was however soon afterwards discovered, drowned in one of its father's pits, who was a tanner. Thus was this pretended astrologer exposed to the ridicule of those who but a short time before foolishly looked on him as an oracle.

On another occasion the same accusation was brought against the Gipsies, and proved to be false. The child of a widow at Portsmouth was lost, and after every search was made on board the ships in the harbour, and at Spithead, and the ponds dragged in the neighbourhood, to no effect, it was concluded that the Gipsies had stolen him. The boy was found a few years afterwards, at Kingston-upon-Thames, apprenticed to a chimney sweeper. He had been enticed away by a person who had given him sweet-meats; but not by a Gipsy.

I may be allowed here to say a word about this boy's mother. She was a good and pious woman, and had known great trials. Her husband was drowned in her presence but a short time before she lost her son in the mysterious way mentioned; and before he was heard of, she was removed to the enjoyment of a better world. Her death was a very happy one, for it took place while she was engaged in public worship. _Many are the afflictions of the righteous_, _but the Lord delivereth them out of them all_.

Instances have been known of house-breakers leaving some of their stolen goods near the tents of the Gipsies; and these being picked up by the children, and found upon them, have been the cause of much unjust suffering among them. The grandfather of three little orphans now under the care of the Southampton Committee, was charged with stealing a horse, and was condemned and executed; although the farmer of whom he bought it, came forward and swore to the horse being the same which he had sold him. His evidence was rejected on account of some slight mistake in the description he gave of it. When under the gallows, the frantic Gipsy exclaimed--_Oh God_, _if thou dost not deliver me_, _I will not believe there is a God_!

The following anecdote will prove the frequent oppression of this people. Not many years since, a collector of taxes in a country town, said he had been robbed of fifty pounds by a Gipsy; and being soon after at Blandford in Dorsetshire, he fixed on a female Gipsy, as the person who robbed him in company with two others, and said she was in man's clothes at the time. They were taken up and kept in custody for some days; and had not a farmer voluntarily come forward, and proved that they were many miles distant when the robbery was said to be perpetrated, they would have been tried for their lives, and probably hanged. The woman was the wife of Wm. Stanley, (who was in custody with her,) who now reads the Scriptures in the Gipsy tents near Southampton. Their wicked accuser was afterwards convicted of a crime for which he was condemned to die, when he confessed that he had not been robbed at the time referred to, but had himself spent the whole of the sum in question.

Another Gipsy of the name of Stanley was lately indicted at Winchester, for house-breaking, and had not his friends at great expense proved an _alibi_, it is likely he might have been executed. And in this way have they been suspected and persecuted ever since the days of Henry the Eighth. They have been hunted like wild beasts; their property has been taken from them; themselves have been frequently imprisoned, and in many cases their lives taken, or what to many of them would be much worse, they have been transported to another part of the world, for ever divided from their families and friends.

In the days of Judge Hale, thirteen of these unhappy beings were hanged at Bury St Edmonds, for no other cause than that they were Gipsies; and at that time it was death without benefit of clergy, for any one to live among them for a month. Even in later days two of the most industrious of this people have had a small pony and two donkeys taken away merely on suspicion that they were stolen. They were apprehended and carried before a magistrate, to whom they proved that the animals were their own, and that they had legally obtained them. The cattle were then pounded for trespassing on the common, and if their oppressed owners had not had money to defray the expenses, one of the animals must have been sold for that purpose.

Not long ago, one of the Gipsies was suspected of having stolen lead from a gentleman's house. His cart was searched, but no lead being found in his possession, he was imprisoned for three months, for living under the hedges as a vagrant; and his horse, which was worth thirteen pounds, was sold to meet the demands of the constables. And another Gipsy, who had two horses in his possession, was suspected of having stolen them, but he proved that they were legally his property. He was committed for three months as a vagrant, and one of his horses was sold to defray the expenses of his apprehension, examination, &c.

While writing this part of the GIPSIES' ADVOCATE, the author knows that a poor, aged, industrious woman, with whom he has been long acquainted, had her donkey taken from her, and that a man with four witnesses swore that it was his property. The poor woman told a simple, artless tale to the magistrates, and was not fully committed. She was allowed two days to bring forward the person of whom she bought it. Conscious of her innocence, she was willing to risk a prison if she could recover her donkey, and establish her character. After a great deal of trouble and expense in dispatching messengers to bring forward her witnesses, she succeeded in obtaining them. They had no sooner made their appearance than the accuser and his witnesses fled, and left the donkey to the right owner, the poor, accused and injured woman.

It cannot be expected that oppression will ever reform this people, or cure them of their wandering habits. Far more likely is it to confirm them in their vagrant propensities. And as their numbers do not decrease, oppression will only render them the dread of one part of their fellow-creatures, while it will make them the objects of scorn and obloquy to others.

It is the earnest wish of the author that milder measures may be pursued in reference to the Gipsies. To endeavour to improve their morals, and instruct them in the principles of religion, will, under the divine blessing, turn to better account than the hateful and oppressive policy so long adopted.

CHAP. VI. Further Account of the English Gipsies.