• ^
 
 JOHN BUNYAN 
 
 AND 
 
 THE GIPSIES. 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES SIM SON, 
 
 ■^ 
 Editor of 
 
 "SIM son's history of the gipsies," 
 
 and Author of 
 
 "contributions to natural history and papers on other subjects"; "CHARLES 
 
 WATERTON"; "THE ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES AND JOHN BUNYAN"; "THE SCOTTISH 
 
 CHURCHES AND THE GIPSIES"; AND "REMINISCENCES OF CHILDHOOD 
 
 AT INVERKEITHING, OR LIFE AT A LAZARETTO." 
 
 "According to the fair play of the world, 
 Let me have audience." — Shakspeare, 
 
 NEW YORK: JAMES MILLER. 
 
 EDINBURGH : MACLACHLAN & STEWART. 
 
 LONDON : BAILLIERE, TYNDALL !k CO. 
 
 1882. 
 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 
 
 L-
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1SS2, DY 
 
 JAMES SIMSON
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CAIJFORNIA 
 SANTA BARBARA 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Although what is contained in the following pages should ex- 
 plain itself, a few prefatory remarks may not be out of place. In 
 the Scottish Churches and the Gipsies I said that, " in regard to 
 the belief about the destiny of the Gipsies," " almost all have 
 joined in it, as something established" — that "the Gipsies 'cease 
 to be Gipsies ' by conforming, in a great measure, with the dress 
 /and habits of others, and keeping silence as to their being mem- 
 bers of the race ;" and that " in bringing forward this subject 
 for discussion and action I thus find the way barred in every 
 direction." Although I have said that the belief about the dis- 
 appearance, or rather the extinction, of the race has been tacitly 
 if not formally maintained by almost everyone, " no one seems 
 inclined to give a reason for this belief in regard to the destiny of 
 the Gipsies, nor an intelligible definition of the word Gipsy." 
 
 This is the position in which the Gipsy problem stands to-day. 
 The latest work on the subject which I have seen is that of The 
 Gipsies (New York, 1882), by Mr. Leland, so fully reviewed in 
 the following pages. He leaves the question, in its most im- 
 portant meaning, just where he found it ; and confesses that it 
 has " puzzled and muddled" him. In 1874 I wrote in Contribu- 
 tions to Natural History, etc., as follows : — 
 
 "What becomes of the Gipsies is a question that cannot be settled by- 
 reference to any of Mr. Borrow's writings, although these contain a few in- 
 cidental remarks that throw some light on it when information of a positive and 
 circumstantial nature is added " (p. 120). 
 
 In offering to a London journal the double-article on Mr. 
 Leland on the Gipsies I said, on the 30th May, 1882 : — 
 
 " I admit that it is a very difficult and delicate matter for a journal to ' go 
 back on ' a position once taken up on any question ; but I think that if you admit 
 the intended article the point will be gained, without any responsibility on the 
 part of the journal or editor ;" and that the insertion of it would put the journal " in 
 its proper position before the world, without recanting anything." I further 
 wrote that " Purely literary journals must necessarily labour under great dis- 
 advantages when called on to notice a book on a very special subject, unless 
 they can find a writer who can do it for them." 
 
 If all that has been written on the Gipsies " ceasing to be 
 Gipsies," under any circumstances, " be allowed to go uncon- 
 tradicted, it will become rooted in the public mind, and gather 
 credit as time goes by, making it daily more difficult to set it
 
 4 PREFACE. 
 
 aside, and allow truth to take its place " — as I wrote in reply to 
 two fulsome eulogies on Charles Waterton. 
 
 There are various phenomena connected with the subject of 
 the Gipsies; not the least striking one being the popular impres- 
 sion about the extinction of the race by its changing its habits, 
 which has been arrived at without investigation and evidence, 
 and against all analogy and the " nature of things." So fully 
 has this idea taken possession of the public mind that a hearing 
 on the true position of the question can scarcely be had. One 
 purpose this has served, that it has saved the public almost every 
 serious thought or care in regard to its duty towards the race, 
 and relieved it of every ultimate responsibility connected with it. 
 But that is not a becoming position for any people to occupy — 
 that of getting rid of its obligations by ignoring them. In 1871 
 I wrote thus: — 
 
 " The subject of the Gipsies, so far as it is understood .... presents little 
 interest to the world if it means only a certain style of life that may cease at 
 any moment ; in which case it would be deserving of little notice." 
 
 But all of the aspects connected with the popular idea of a 
 Gipsy are of interest and importance when they represent the 
 primitive condition of a people who sooner or later pass into 
 a more or less settled condition, and look back to the style of life 
 of their ancestors. In this respect the Gipsies differ from most 
 of the wild races, inasmuch as they become perpetuated, especi- 
 ally in English-speaking countries, by those of more or less mixed 
 blood. In regard to that I wrote thus in the Disquisition on the 
 Gipsies : — 
 
 "The fact of these Indians, and the aboriginal races found in the countries 
 colonized by Europeans, disappearing so rapidly, prevents our regarding them 
 with any great degree of interest. This circumstance detracts from that idea 
 of dignity which the perpetuity and civilization ot their race would inspire in 
 the minds of otliers " (p. 446). 
 
 If the " ordinary inhabitant " considers for a moment what his 
 feelings are for everything Gipsy, so far as he understands it, he 
 will realize in some degree the responding feelings of the Gipsies, 
 whatever their positions in life. These create two currents in 
 society — the native and the Gipsy; so that the Gipsy element by 
 marrying with the Gipsy element, or in the same way drawing in 
 and assimilating the native blood with it, keeps the Gipsy cur- 
 rent in full flow, and distinct from the other. The Gipsy element, 
 mixed as it is in regard to blood, never having been acknowledged, 
 necessarily exists incognito, and in an outcast condition, however 
 painful it is to use such an expression towards people that have 
 lived so long in the British Isles, and are frequently of un- 
 questionable standing in society; with nothing, in many instances, 
 to distinguish them outwardly from the rest of the population, 
 but possessing signs and woids, and a cast of mind peculiar to 
 themselves, that is, a sense of tribe and a soul of nationality, 
 which remain with their descendants.
 
 PREFACE. 5 
 
 This subject is not conventional, but will doubtless sooner or 
 later become such, as there are things conventional to-day that 
 were not such lately. In that respect the discussion or even the 
 sentiments of a prominent person or journal can make a thing 
 conventional ; such is the nature of a highly complex society 
 anywhere. With reference to this matter I wrote to the journal 
 alluded to in the following terms : — 
 
 " Surely the strange and unfortunate Gipsy race and its various off-shoots 
 have not sinned beyond the forgiveness of the rest of their fellow-creatures, so 
 that what represents a relatively-large body of British subjects cannot be 
 acknowledged even by name ; leaving to others to look upon or associate with 
 them as each member of the native race may see fit." 
 
 One would naturally think that the inhabitants of Great Britain 
 would at least take some little interest in what might be called 
 their " coloured population ;" and hold in respect sovie of its 
 members who could doubtless tell us much that is interesting on 
 the subject of the Gipsies, so that that should not be a reproach 
 to them which would be a credit to others. To do so, and have 
 the people, in some form or other, acknowledged, is due to the 
 spirits of research and philanthropy that characterize this age. I 
 admit that there are many difficulties attending a movement of 
 this kind. These I have explained fully on previous occasions, 
 and I need not repeat them here. 
 
 In regard to John Bunyan having been of the Gipsy race, I 
 find that I stated the question in Notes and Queries on the 12th 
 December, 1857; so that it has stood over, like a "case in 
 Chancery " under the old system, for a quarter of a century, un- 
 attended to ! 
 
 This little publication is intended in the first place for the 
 British Press, although I cannot be expected to send every 
 journal a copy of it. Each publication in its sphere has an in- 
 fluence, which should be exercised in the way indicated ; for here 
 there is no opening for the display of those passions that too 
 frequently enter into discussions generally. For myself person- 
 ally (the last to be considered), although it is thirty-one years 
 since I left Great Britain, I should still have some rights there; 
 and especially among high-toned people, who should remember 
 that one of the ends for which they were created was to see 
 justice done to an absent person. 
 
 New York, July i, 1882.
 
 JOHN BUNYAN. 
 
 1 wo LETTERS TO AN ENGLISH CLERGYMAN.* 
 
 YOUR letter of the 14th April 
 reached me after some delay. 
 When yon wrote it I presume you 
 had not given your fullest considera- 
 tion to the question raised by you. 
 For when John Bunyan said that his 
 " father's house was of that rank 
 that is meanest and most despised 
 of all the families in the land," and 
 that they were " not of the Israel- 
 ites," that is, " not Jews," he could 
 not possibly have meant that they 
 were what are generally called " na- 
 tives of England." Who in Bun- 
 yan's time were the " meanest and 
 most despised of all the families in 
 the land"? No one can doubt that 
 they were the Gipsies, who were 
 numerous and well known to Bun- 
 yan. Does it not then follow that 
 this particular Bunyan family were 
 Gipsies, in whatever ways and at 
 whatever times its blood may have 
 got nu'xed with native, and whatever 
 its social development ? And who 
 then living in England — when Jews 
 were excluded from it — would have 
 taken so much trouble as Bunyan 
 did — that is, exhausted every means 
 at his command — to ascertain 
 whether their family were Jews but 
 Gipsies? This Bunyan did, and re- 
 corded the fact of his having done it 
 after he had become an old man. Here 
 
 * These two letters, dated the 5th and 
 19th of May, 1S82, were in answer to a 
 short one from a clergyman of the 
 Church of England, acknowledging the 
 receipt of a copy of my Reininiscences of 
 Childhood, etc., which contained an Ap- 
 pendix on John Bunyan and the Gipsies. 
 
 we have no alternative but to con- 
 clude \}ci'3X John Bunyan's family were 
 of the Gipsy race ; whatever natives 
 of a similar surname there might 
 have been in the county or neigh- 
 bourhood before the Gipsies arrived 
 there. It is even possible in this 
 case, as it has taken place in others, 
 that a native family had been 
 changed into a Gipsy dhe by the 
 male representative of it marrying a 
 Gipsy, but not necessarily one fol- 
 lowing an outdoor life, and having 
 the issue passed into the Gipsy tribe 
 in the ordinary way of society. 
 There is neither proof to show nor 
 reason for holding that John Bun- 
 yan's family, in the face of what he 
 told us, were not Gipsies, but of the 
 ordinary race of Englishmen ; for 
 which reason I think that an honour- 
 able minded man should not main- 
 tain it, nor allow it to be asserted in 
 his presence. 
 
 You say that the "rank" Bunyan 
 spoke of was " the rank of tinkers, 
 not the race of Gipsies." But 
 tinkering was his calling, while the 
 word rank was only aj^plicable to 
 "his father's house," who' probably 
 did not all follow tinkerinsr for a liv- 
 ing. I do not think that Bunyan used 
 the word tinker anywhere in his 
 writings ; the only allusion to it ap- 
 parently being at the scene before 
 Justice Hale, when his wife said, 
 " Yes, and because he is a tinker, 
 and a poor man, therefore he is de- 
 spised and cannot have justice." In 
 my Disquisition on the Gipsies and 
 elsewhere I attached weight to the
 
 8 
 
 JOHN BUN VAN. 
 
 fact of Bunyan having been a tinker, 
 as illustrative and confirmatory proof 
 of his having been a Ciipsy, wlien the 
 name of Gipsy was so severely i)io- 
 scribed by law ; in consequence of 
 which the Gipsies would call them- 
 selves tinkers, to evade the legal and 
 social responsibility. At the present 
 day it is exceedingly difficult to ascer- 
 tain who English tinkers are or were 
 originally. Tiiey will all deny that 
 they are or were ever related to the 
 Gipsies; and the Gipsies proper 
 will do the same. I attach no 
 weight to the loose assertions either 
 way made by people promiscuously, 
 who know little or nothir^g of the 
 subject, or merely have a theory to 
 maintain. All this I have already 
 very fully put in print. 
 
 In your letter is a i>hrase that 
 sounds a little unpleasantly to my 
 ear. You say, " However, whatever 
 may have been IJunyan's pedigree, 
 he merits honour as a man ;" which 
 seems to imjjly that his memory 
 would have been disgraced if he had 
 been of the Gipsy race. 'Why 
 should that have been a disjiarage- 
 ment ? This is the entire question 
 at issue. How could we have ex- 
 pected 15unyan to have said jilamly 
 that he was a member of the Gipsy 
 race in the face of the legal and 
 social res])onsibility attaching to the 
 name, as 1 have illustrated at great 
 length on various occasions ? 
 
 1 may exaggerate the feeling in 
 question when I say that no publi- 
 cation will admit the subject into its 
 columns, nor any one allude to it 
 publicly, or even privately, without 
 something like losing social caste. 
 As a consecpience, no member of 
 the race that can help it will own the 
 blood unless he wants it to be known 
 for his benefit. The rest of it, in its 
 various Mixtures of blood, charac- 
 ters, and i^ositions in life, are born 
 and live and die incognito so far as 
 the rest of the world are concerned. 
 This is a state of things that should 
 not exist in P^igland ; but there 
 seems no remedy fur it unless the 
 
 question can meet with discussion, 
 and be taken up by persons of in- 
 fluence in whom the i)ubhc has con- 
 fidence. As I have said on another 
 occasion, ''The question at issue is 
 really not one of evidence, but of 
 an unfortunate feeling of caste," 
 that bars the way against all investi- 
 gation and proof. John Ikmyan's 
 nationality forms only a pnrt of the 
 subject of the "■ Social Emancipation 
 of the Gipsies," but a very imi)ort- 
 ant part of it ; but all that might be 
 said of it has no meaning to such as, 
 looking neither to the right nor the 
 left, will listen to no representation 
 of any kind of Gipsy but such as 
 they have been accustomed to see 
 in the open air in England. 
 
 It would be uncandid on my part 
 if I refrained from sa)ing that l5ed- 
 ford and its peojjle have been cited 
 before the bar of the world to show 
 reason why John Bunyan should not 
 be admitted to have been " the first 
 (that is known to the wot Id) of emi- 
 nent Gipsies, the jjrince of alltgor- 
 ists, and one of the most remarkable 
 of men and Christians." They have 
 an opportunity of receiving, first or 
 last, the illustrious pilgiim, not as 
 the jirogeny of (as some have 
 thought) native English vagabonds, 
 but as a Great Original in whatever 
 light he might be looked at. 
 
 In opposition to this view of the 
 great dreamer, we have the ferocious 
 prejudice of caste against the name 
 of Gipsy, that leads a person to feel, 
 if not to say, " May I lose my light 
 hand and may 1 be struck dumb if I 
 admit that he was one of the race." 
 To him the subject of the Gipsies, in 
 the development of the race from 
 the tent upwards, and in its com- 
 plex ramifications through society, 
 lias no interest. To comprehend it 
 might even be beyond his capacity. 
 To have it investigated and under- 
 stood, and the peo|)le acknowledged, 
 if it implied that John Hunyan was 
 to be included as one of them, is 
 what he will never countenance ; on 
 which account his wish is that the
 
 JOHN BUNYAN. 
 
 subject may remain in perpetual | 
 darkness. Proof is not what he ; 
 wants, nor will he say what it should 
 consist of. As regards John Bunyan 
 personally, we have never had an 
 explanation of what he told us he 
 and his father's family were and 
 were not ; but we may yet see it 
 treated with fanciful interpretations 
 and comments. Then it has been 
 said at random that he was " not a 
 Gipsy, but a tinker," without con- 
 sidering who the tinkers really were, 
 and forgetting that a i^erson could 
 have been both a tinker and a 
 Gipsy ; tinkering having been the 
 Gipsy's representative calling. Then 
 we have the assertion that he could 
 not have been a Gipsy because of 
 his fairish appearance, and because 
 his surname existed in England be- 
 fore the race arrived in it ; and 
 consequently that no one having a 
 fairish appearance and bearing a 
 British name can or could have been 
 a Gipsy ! Then we are told that 
 people following, more or less, the 
 established ways of English life dur- 
 ing I20 years before the birth of 
 Bunyan could not possibly have 
 been related in any way to the 
 Gipsies I And finally, certificates of 
 marriages, births and deaths of peo- 
 ple bearing British names, taken 
 
 from a parish register, settle the 
 question that i)eoi)le bearing them 
 were not and could not have been 
 others than ordinary natives of the 
 British Isles, in no way related to 
 the Gipsies ! In that respect I wrote 
 in the Appendix to the ReminisceJices 
 as follows : — 
 
 " The whole trouble or mystery in 
 regard to Bunyan is solved by the sim- 
 ple idea of a Gipsy family settling in 
 the neighbourhood of native families of 
 influence, whose surname they assumed, 
 and making Elstow their headquarters 
 or residence, as was the uniiorm cus- 
 tom of the tribe all over Great Britain. 
 This circumstance makes it a difficult 
 matter, in some instances, to distin- 
 gTjish, by the Christian and surnames 
 in county parish registers, ' which was 
 which,' so far back as the early part 
 of the seventeenth century " (p. 82). 
 
 The pamphlet addressed to the 
 " University Men of England " ex- 
 plains itself. I think that ministers 
 of the Church of England should 
 do more for the subject of the 
 Gipsies, in the light in which 1 have 
 presented it, than could be exj^ected 
 from those of other denominations. 
 
 With the hope that I have written 
 nothing that can be considered in 
 any way personally offensive, I re- 
 main, etc. 
 
 II. 
 
 In regard to what might be called ' 
 the "nationality" of John Banyan 
 I said, in my letter of the 5th May, 
 that " the question at issue is really 
 not one of evidence, but of an un- 
 fortunate feeling of caste that bars 
 the way against all mvestigation and 
 proof." 1 do not know what the 
 congregation of Bunyan's Church at 
 Bedford consists of, but I presume it 
 is composed of humble people, en- 
 gaged in making a living and bring- 
 ing up their children becomingly, 
 and indulging in the simple conven- 
 tionalities suitable to their positions 
 
 in life. To ask them even to enter- 
 tain the question whether the great 
 dreamer was of the Gipsy race would 
 apparently horrify them in their sim- 
 plicity ; and it might be useless to 
 attempt to explain matters so as to 
 "convert" them to a belief in it. 
 Proof is perhaps not what such j^eo- 
 ple want, nor wouhl they all be likely 
 to be able to say what it should con- 
 sist of, or to appreciate it if it was 
 laid before them. It is from no lack 
 of charity or politeness on my part 
 that I say this, and that I would 
 attach little weight to what they might
 
 lO 
 
 JOHN BUNYAN. 
 
 say were they to assert that it is only 
 proof they require to satisfy them 
 that John Bunyan was of the Gij^sy 
 race ; or that the fact of it has not 
 been proved. He was either of the 
 Gi|)sy race, of mixed blood, or of the 
 ordinary English one. What proof 
 is tliere that he was of the latter one ? 
 If there is no proof of his having been 
 of the ordinary English race, why 
 assert it, and deny that he was of the 
 Gipsy one, and refuse to investigate 
 the meaning of what he said himself 
 and people were and were not, which, 
 if language has any meaning, clearly 
 showed that he was of the Gii)sy 
 race ? \Vhy assume, without inves- 
 tigation, that he was not that, but of 
 the ordinary English race, even in 
 the face of his calling having been 
 that of a tinker? 
 
 If the congregation of Bunyan's 
 church and the i)eople living in the 
 neighbourhood of it have a difficulty 
 in judging of evidence in a matter 
 like this, they can have none in ex- 
 plaining, in a general or more or less 
 crude way at least, their feelings of 
 antipathy to the idea of the illustrious 
 pilgrim having been of the Gipsy 
 race ; and drawing the logical con- 
 clusion that he was not likely to have 
 said i)lainly that he was one of it, in 
 the face of the storm of indignation 
 that seems to be entertained to-day ; 
 an indignation which is so great that 
 it has not yet found expression. 
 
 If some highly educated men have 
 missed the hinge on wliich the Gipsy 
 question turns — that the race perpet- 
 uates itself in a settled condition, ir- 
 respective of character and other cir- 
 cumstances — and have had a difficulty 
 in realizing it in all its bearings, we 
 can easily excuse the congregation of 
 liunyan's church for holding views 
 similar to those of the community at 
 large, on a subject that is more or 
 less complex in its nature. But they 
 can never expect to do justice to it 
 unless they approach it witii every 
 desire to do what is i)roper, and not 
 with the rooted aversion with which 
 
 it has hitherto been regarded. What 
 Bunyan told us of himself and family 
 he said was " well known to many" ; 
 and he seems to have assumed that 
 it was, or would have been, under- 
 stood by the world. I have even sug- 
 gested that he had been more precise 
 with some of his friends, who might 
 (as they very probably would) have 
 suppressed what he told them in re- 
 gard to the nationality of himself and 
 his " fixther's house." If he had pub- 
 licly said plainly that he was of the 
 Gipsy race, that would have been a 
 fact, which required no proof. But 
 there was no necessity or occasion 
 for him to have said what he did. 
 
 It appeals to every princii)le of fair 
 play and abstract reason that a race 
 that has been in Great Britain for 375 
 years must be considered in many re- 
 spects British, whatever its origin, or 
 whatever the habits of some of it may 
 be. It would be very wrong to show 
 and perpetuate a prejudice against 
 the name, or blood as such, however 
 little or however much there may be 
 of it in the person possessing and 
 claiming it. Everything else being 
 equal, such a man, instead of having 
 a i")rejudice entertained for him, is 
 entitled to a greater respect than 
 should be shown to another who 
 labours under no such prejudice in 
 regard to his blood. Apply this prin- 
 ciple to Bunyan and he will stand 
 higher than he has done. He was 
 evidently a man that was " chosen of 
 God " to shine brilliantly among the 
 children of a common parent ; and it 
 becomes all of us to acknowledge 
 him. It is to be hoped that the con- 
 gregation of the church of which he 
 was the honoured j)astorwill approach 
 this subject at least with wariness, 
 and not, against all evidence, reject 
 him who was a divine instrument for 
 the benefit of humanity, in its highest 
 concernment; merely because he was 
 a member of a particular " family in 
 the land," which has never yet been 
 acknowledged in any shape or form, 
 however numerous it is.
 
 MR. LELAND ON THE GIPSIES.* 
 
 THE History of the Gipsies, by 
 Walter Siiuson, which 1 edited 
 and published in 1865, was ready for 
 the press in 1858. In a prefatory 
 note to it I said : — 
 
 " In the present work the race has 
 been treated of so fully and elaborately, 
 in all its aspects, as in a great measure 
 to fill and satisfy the mind, instead of 
 being, as heretofore, little better than 
 a myth to the understanding of the 
 most intelligent person." 
 
 In 1872 Mr. Leland published his 
 work on The English Gipsies and 
 their Language, in which no refer- 
 ence was made to mine, [that is, my 
 part of it].t 
 
 In 1874 he wrote, for Johnson's 
 Cyclopcedia, an article on the Gipsies, 
 in which he made use of the History 
 . ■ — - — ft- 
 
 * The text represents the article as 
 originally written. 
 
 f I endeavoured, unsuccessfully, to 
 get another reading of this book before 
 saying that "no reference was made in 
 it to mine." I alluded, from memory, 
 to my part of it. On examination I find 
 that the only indirect reference to it is 
 the following : — " Mr. Simson, in his 
 History of the Gipsies [that is, in the 
 Disquisition on the Gipsies\ asserts that 
 there is not a tinker or scissors-grinder 
 in Great Britain that cannot talk this 
 language ; and my own experience 
 agrees with his declaration, to this ex- 
 tent — that they all have some knowledge 
 of it, or claim to have it, however slight 
 it may be," (p. 4). I did not express 
 myself so absolutely as represented by 
 Mr. Leland, who did not see fit to men- 
 tion the double authorship of the book ; 
 the subject of which I took up from 
 where it was left by Walter Simson. 
 This double authorship may prove a 
 little confusing to the reader when the 
 book is alluded to. 
 
 proper to illustrate the race in Scot 
 land, and my addition (which made 
 about half of the book) exclusively 
 to illustrate it in America, and giv- 
 ing my words. It did not appear 
 from this article that he had any 
 personal knowledge of the subject,^ 
 excepting that he said that he knew 
 of one Gipsy who had travelled from 
 Canada to Texas, as confirmatory of 
 what I had written ; and asserted that 
 " there is probably not one theatre or 
 circus in England or America in 
 which there are not one or more 
 performers of more or less mixed 
 Gipsy blood." The only other re- 
 mark he made of that nature was 
 the following : — " The reader who 
 will devote a very few weeks to 
 either Dr. B. Smart's Vocabulary, to 
 G. Borrow' s Romano Lava Lil, or G. 
 C. Leland's English Gipsies (Lon- 
 don, 1872), can speak the language 
 better than most English or Ameri- 
 can Gipsies." In other words, that 
 any person with tact and a turn to 
 pick up, remember and use Gipsy 
 words could do just what he had 
 done ; and by going over the same 
 ground produce, in a varied form as 
 regards circumstances, scenes de- 
 scribed by others. It is exceedingly 
 probable that the work edited and 
 published by me specially stimulated 
 •Mr. Leland to take up the subject 
 so fully treated in it. 
 
 In his book entitled The Gipsies 
 (New York, 18S2), Mr. Leland com- 
 plains of "a reviewer" saying of 
 his English Gipsies and their Lati- 
 guage that it " had added nothing to 
 our knowledge on the subject;" 
 
 % See second note at page 19.
 
 12 
 
 MR. LELAND ON THE GIPSIES. 
 
 which was morally if not literally 
 true, that on the language excepted, 
 which was mainly an illustration and 
 continuation of the collections of 
 others, acquired with great labour. 
 He has made several allusions to my 
 work, without indicalmg it, such as 
 frequently using the word " Gipsy- 
 dom," although that might have been 
 done by any one ; which could not 
 have been said of "the old thing" 
 (p. 274), which I used on several 
 occasions to describe a settled Gipsy 
 visiting a Gipsy teot, to view the 
 style of life of his primitive ancestor. 
 He has also made unfair allusion to 
 the " mixed multitude " of the Exo- 
 dus as being the origin of the 
 Gipsies, (p. 89) ; and to the subject 
 of the Scottish Tinklers or Gipsies, 
 (P- 37 ^)' ^'^'^ ^'^^^ Gipsies he says, 
 " No one will accuse me of wide 
 discussion or padding," (p. 84). 
 That is obvious to any one, for al- 
 most every chapter contains an in- 
 tolerable amount of extraneous mat- 
 ter or padding, that has no reference 
 to the title j'age or headings of the 
 chapters. In some parts of the 
 book there are several pages at a 
 stretch — once as much as seven 
 pages — of such extraneous matter ; 
 and it would be interesting to make 
 an analysis of it, line by line, to as- 
 certain the i)roportion of the two 
 kinds of matter. 
 
 But what I wish more jiarticularly 
 to allude to is iMr. Leland's dis- 
 covery that the Gipsies are a tribe 
 from India that are known there un- 
 der the name of " Syrians," and 
 therefore not originally na'tives of 
 India ; which latter conclusion, how- 
 ever, he does not admit, but ac- 
 counts for the phenomenon in this 
 way : — " I offer as an hypothesis 
 that bands of Gipsies who roamed 
 from India to Syria have, after re- 
 turning, been called Trablus or 
 Syrians, just as 1 have known Ger- 
 mans after returning from the father- 
 land to Ameiica to be called Ameri- 
 cans" (p. 338). That is, a family 
 or company of Indian nomads re- 
 
 turning from a visit to Syria would 
 afterwards be called, and cause the 
 whole of the race who never left 
 India to be called, Syrians for ever 1 
 Again he says; — "It will probably 
 be found that they are Hindoos 
 who have roamed from India to 
 Syria and back again, here and 
 there, until they are regarded as 
 foreigners in both countries" ( ! ). 
 The allusion to Germans in i'lustra- 
 tion is not merely inapplicable, but 
 unintelligible. Of the "Syrians" in 
 India Mr. Leland writes : — " Whether 
 they have or had any connection 
 with the migration to the West we 
 cannot establish " (p. 339). For 
 this reason he should not have 
 identiiied them with the Gipsies out 
 of India. " Their language and 
 their name would seem to indicate 
 it ; but then it must be borne in 
 mind that the word roin, like dom, is 
 one of wide dissemination, diim 
 being a Syrian Gipsy word for 
 the race" (p. 339); and "among 
 the Copts .... the word for man 
 is romi" (p. 20).* " Among llie 
 hundred and fifty wandering tribes 
 of India and Persia .... it is of 
 course difficult to identify the exact 
 origin of the European Gipsy" 
 (p. 18). For that reason he should 
 not have written so i>ositively that 
 he had "definitely determined the 
 existence in India of a peculiar tribe 
 of Gipsies who are/ar eminence the 
 
 * In T/ie English Gipsies, etc., Mr. 
 Leland writes : — "I asked a Copt scribe 
 if he were Muslim, and he replied, ' Z^, 
 ana Gipti ' (' No, I am a Copt ') pronounc- 
 ing the word Gip/i, or Copt, so that it 
 might readily be taken for ' Gipsy.' And 
 learning that ro>//i is the Coptic for a 
 man, I was again startled ; and when I 
 found ief/ia (tern, land) and other Ro- 
 many words in ancient Egyptian (vii/e 
 Brugsch. Gramniaire, etc.) it seemed as if 
 there were still many mysteries to solve 
 ia this strange language." Of some 
 Egyptian Gipsies Mr. Leland says that 
 "they all resembled the one whom I 
 have described They all dif- 
 fered slightly, as I thought, from the 
 ordinary Egyptians in their appearance " 
 (p. 193)-
 
 MR. LELAND ON THE GIPSIES. 
 
 13 
 
 Romanys of the East, and whose 
 language is there what it is in Eng- 
 land, the same in vocabulary and 
 the chief slang of the roads. This 
 I claim as a discovery, having 
 learned it from a Hindoo who had 
 been himself a Gipsy in his native 
 land" (Pref iv.). He describes 
 them as " thieves, fortune-tellers and 
 vagrants" (p. 339), yet his inform- 
 ant, John Nano, said he was, or had 
 been, one of them ; which would 
 imply that there were different kinds 
 of "Syrians," inasmuch as he was 
 found to be a maker of curry pow- 
 der in London, and the husband of 
 an English wnman, a Mahometan 
 by religion, and sufficiently educated 
 to have written an autobiography, 
 which had unfortunately been burnt. 
 According to John's account, these 
 "Syrians" were "full blood Hindoos, 
 and not Syrians," and he " was very 
 sure that his Gipsies were Indians." 
 The term "full-blood Hindoos" who 
 are "thieves, fortune-tellers and 
 vagrants," and strollers out of and 
 back to India, requires explanation. 
 John's information as to these peo- 
 ple being called by the other na- 
 tives of India "Syrians" may be 
 very reliable ; but that ^ley were 
 "full-blood Hindoos" could have 
 been, at its best, nothing but a sup- 
 position on his part. As I said in 
 the Introduction to the History of 
 the Gipsies, " I can conceive noth- 
 ing more difficult than an attemjit to 
 elucidate the history of any of the 
 infinity of sects, castes or tribes to 
 be met widi in India" (p. 41). The 
 nature of the population of India is 
 such that there would hardly be a 
 possibility of its people at large be- 
 coming acquainted with the move- 
 ments of a few families of outcasts 
 leaving their race behind and going 
 to and returning from Syria (if they 
 ever did that), so as to give the 
 whole race the name of Syrians. 
 The name must have had its origin 
 from the people having come origi- 
 nally from Syria, or from parts sur- 
 rounding it. 
 
 In The Gipsies Mr. Leland says 
 that he has " carefully read every- 
 thing ever printed on the Romany" 
 (Pref. V.) ; and that it is his " opin- 
 ion that one ought, when setting 
 forth any subject, to give quite as 
 good an opportunity to others who 
 are in our business as to ourselves " 
 (p. 88). And yet, although he made 
 exclusive use of the work I edited 
 and published for parts of his article 
 in Johnson's Cyclopczdia, and has al- 
 luded to Messrs. Borrow, Smart, 
 Palmer and Groome, he has care- 
 fully abstained from mentioning my 
 name, however much he may have 
 been indebted to my work. By re- 
 ferring to it, he cannot but remem- 
 ber having " carefully read " the 
 following : — 
 
 " I am inclined to believe that the 
 people in India corresponding to the 
 Gipsies in Europe will be found among 
 those tented tribes who perform 
 certain services to the British armies ; 
 at all events there is such a tribe in 
 India who are called Gipsies by the 
 Europeans who come in contact with 
 them. A short time ago, one of these 
 people, who followed the occupation of 
 a camel driver, found his way to Eng- 
 land, and ' pulled up ' with some Eng- 
 lish Gipsies, whom he recognized as his 
 own people ; at least he found that they 
 had the ways and ceremonies of them. 
 But it would be unreasonable to sup- 
 pose that such a tribe in India did not 
 t'ollow various occupations " (p. 40). 
 " What evidently leads Mr. Borrow 
 and others astray in the matter of the 
 origin of the Gipsies, is that they con- 
 clude that because the language spoken 
 by the Gipsies is apparently, or for the 
 most part, Hindostanee, therefore the 
 people speaking it originated in Hindo- 
 stan ; as just a conclusion as it would 
 be to maintain that the Negroes in 
 Liberia originated in England because 
 they speak the English language ! " (p. 
 41). [Mr. Leland alludes to this simile 
 by saying that English spoken by 
 American Negroes does not prove 
 Saxon descent (p. 20).] 
 
 In discussing the question of the 
 origin of the Gipsies with some 
 English members of the race, I
 
 14 
 
 MR. LELAND ON THE GIPSIES. 
 
 found that "a ver)- intelligent Gipsy 
 informed me that his race sprang 
 from a body of men — a cross be- 
 tween the Arabs and Egyptians — 
 that left Egypt in the train of the 
 Jews " (p. 14). And I wrote when 
 I published this, that " the inteUigent 
 reader will not ditifcr with me as to 
 the weight to be attached to the 
 Gipsy's remark on this point." To 
 that question I devoted ten (13-23) 
 closely printed pages to demonstrate 
 that the " mixed multitude," or part 
 of it, that left Egypt with Moses, 
 afier separating from the Jews, 
 travelled East into Northern Hindo- 
 stan, where they formed the Gipsy 
 caste (p. 2t); becoming in every 
 way a people like the Gipsy to far 
 as he is known to the pubHc to-day. 
 1 further said that this jieople 
 " travelled East, their oiun masters, 
 and became the origin of the Gipsy 
 nation throughout the world" (p. 
 40). 
 
 " What objection could any one ad- 
 vance against the Gipsies being the 
 people that left Egypt in the train of 
 the Jews ? Not certainly an objection 
 as to race, for there must have been 
 many captive people or tribes intro- 
 duced into Egypt from the many 
 
 countries surrounding it That 
 
 the ' mixed multitude ' travelled into 
 India, acquired the language of that 
 part of Asia, a7id perhaps modified its 
 appearance there, and became the 
 origin of the Gipsy race, we may safely 
 
 assume Everything harmonizes 
 
 so beautifully with the idea that the 
 Gipsies are the 'mixed multitude' of 
 the Exodus that it may be admitted by 
 the world. Even in the matter of re- 
 ligion, we could imagine Egyptian cap- 
 tives losing a knowledge of their re- 
 ligion, as has happened with the 
 Africans in the New World,* and, not 
 having had another taught them, leav- 
 
 * Tacitus makes Caius Cassius, in the 
 time of Nero, say: — "At present we 
 have in our service whole nations of 
 slaves, the scum of mankind, collected 
 from all quarters of the globe ; a race 
 of men who bring with them foreign 
 rites, and the religion of their country, 
 or probably no religion at all." — Alurphy's 
 Translation. 
 
 ing Egypt under Moses without any 
 religion at all. After entering India 
 they would in all probability become a 
 wandering people, and for a certainty 
 live aloof from all others " (pp. 494- 
 496). " If we could but find traces of 
 an Egyptian origin among the Gipsies 
 of Asia, say Central and Western Asia, 
 the question would be beyond dispute. 
 But that might be a matter of some 
 trouble " (p. 40). 
 
 In this way Mr. Leland's inform- 
 ant, John Nano, if he was correct in 
 what he said, confirmed my con- 
 jecture as to the Gipsies' Egyptian 
 or rather Syrian origin ; for after 
 escaping from Egypt they would re- 
 main for some time in Syria or its 
 neighbourhood before they woidd 
 become a body and proceed P^ast. 
 As illustrative of Mr. Leland's de- 
 sire to " give quite as good an op- 
 portunity to others who are in our 
 business as to ourselves," 1 find him 
 writing thus : — 
 
 "Here I interrupt the lady," a 
 writer on Magyarland, " to remark that 
 I cannot agree with her nor with her. 
 probable (!) authority, Walter (!) 
 Simson, in believing that the Gipsies 
 are the descendants of the mixed races 
 who followed Moses out of Egypt. 
 The Rom in Egypt is a Hindoo 
 stranger, as he ever was (!) " (p. 89). 
 
 The "authority" was mine, not 
 Walter Simson' s, which Mr. Leland 
 perhaps did not care to state. One 
 would naturally think that a people 
 who left Egypt under Moses would 
 be looked upon there as "strangers" 
 to-day, rather than that a straggling 
 family or company of Gipsies re- 
 turning to India from Syria (if they 
 ever did that) would cause all their 
 race that never left India to be called 
 Syrians for ever ! According to Mr. 
 Leland's style of reasoning it would 
 follow that he and Americans gener- 
 ally could not have originated in 
 England, because they are " stran- 
 gers" there, and are looked upon as 
 foreigners by the law and by people 
 whose sentiments are not of the 
 most delicate nature I
 
 MR. LELAND ON THE GIPSIES. 
 
 15 
 
 II. 
 
 Mr. Leland's style of reasoning, his 
 lack of candour, and his reserve as 
 to how he took up the Gipsy question, 
 and to whom he had been indebted 
 at first for some of his ideas, detract 
 very much from the desire that one 
 would naturally have to put confi- 
 dence in him. His many confident 
 assertions about what others have 
 grave doubts and his frequent contra- 
 dictions have a similar effect. 
 
 In The Gipsies there is very little 
 told us of the race in America (not 
 American Gipsies) of any kind, and 
 yet Mr. Leland says that it will 
 
 " Possess at least the charm of nov- 
 elty, but little having as yet been writ- 
 ten on this extensive and very interest- 
 ing branch of our nomadic population " 
 (Pref. HI.). 
 
 In my Preface I said : — 
 
 " To the American reader generally 
 the work will illustrate a phase of life 
 and history with which it may be rea- 
 sonably assumed he is not much con- 
 versant ; for, although he must have 
 some knowledge of the Gipsy race gen- 
 erally, there is no work, that I am aware 
 of, that treats of the body like the pres- 
 ent " (p. 7). 
 
 And I illustrated the race in Amer- 
 ica in notes to the work, and in as 
 much as I could well introduce in 
 my long Disquisition, bringing in that 
 part of it which had its origin perhaps 
 from the settlement of the American 
 Colonies. When Mr. Leland bor- 
 rowed from my work for his article 
 in Johnson's Cyclopmdia he gave the 
 name of the book with the London 
 imprint, while from the first page to 
 the last it showed that it was an 
 American book, based on a Scotch 
 MS.; and the copy which he used in 
 all probability bore a New York im- 
 print. 
 
 I admit this of Mr. Leland, that, 
 by availing himself of the hard labours 
 of others, at least to give him a start, 
 he has added greatly to our know- 
 ledge of the Gipsy language, so far 
 
 as I know and can judge ; but that 
 is nearly all that can be said of him. 
 What he has told us of the informa- 
 tion got from a native of India as to 
 the Gipsies there being called " Syr- 
 ians " shows that he was merely in 
 good luck in failing in with the man 
 from whom he obtained it ; while, if 
 it is reliable, it confirms my conjec- 
 ture, although of that it does not 
 seem to have been his business to 
 inform the world. His chapter on 
 the " Shelta or Tinkers' Talk," picked 
 up also as it were by accident from 
 a stray tinker, is indeed of great in- 
 terest ; but theovorld has reason to 
 question his judgment when he says 
 that " it is, in fact, a language, for^^^ifes^ 
 can be spoken grammatically, and 
 without using English or Romany " 
 (P- 37 1^)- Another occasion for ques- 
 tioning his judgment is when he says 
 that '• Mr. [Walter] Simson, had he 
 known the ' Tinklers ' better, would 
 have found that, not Romany, but 
 Shelta was the really secret language 
 which they employed, although Ro- 
 many is also more or less familiar to 
 them all" (p. 371) ; for almost any- 
 one by reading the History can see 
 the absurdity of it.* 
 
 This book of Mr. Leland (although 
 described in the Preface as "Sketches 
 of experiences among the Gipsies"), 
 to justify its title of The Gipsies, 
 should have been constructed on 
 some plan and scientifically arranged, 
 with a great variety of particulars, 
 and no extraneous matter or padding 
 in it. In place of that we have little 
 but random sketches or scenes con- 
 nected with the race. There is no 
 principle running through it, for we 
 are told in the Introduction that 
 
 ,* Perhaps the most interesting scene 
 connected with the Gipsy language in 
 Scotland, given in the History, is that at 
 St. Boswell's (pp. 309-318). The word 
 " Tinkler," assumed by and applied to 
 the Scotch Gipsies, seems to have been 
 used from a desire to escape the legal 
 responsibility attaching to the word 
 " Gipsy."
 
 i6 
 
 MR. LELAND ON THE GIPSIES. 
 
 " The day is comings when there will 
 be no ... . wild wanderers . . . . 
 and certainly no Gipsies" (p. 15). 
 And after describing how I-lnglish spar- 
 rows have driven so many kinds of na- 
 tive liirds out of Philadelphia, he says, 
 " So the people of self-conscious culture 
 and the mart and factory are banishing 
 tlie wilder sort As a Lon- 
 don reviewer said when I asserted in a 
 book that the child was perhaps born 
 who would see the last Gipsy, ' Some- 
 how we feel sorry for that child ' "(p. 1 5). 
 And in describing English fairs, as rep- 
 resented by that at Cobham, he says, 
 •• In a few years the last of them will 
 have been closed, and the last Gipsy 
 will be there to look on " (p. 142). 
 
 Profoiind research and ])hilosophi- 
 cal observation and reasoning do not 
 seem to constitute Mr. Leiand's forte. 
 It is a little puzzling to decide how 
 to treat a man like him ; for his 
 " confident assertions " in regard to 
 the disappearance, or wliat some 
 would call tiie extinction, of the race 
 are but "contradictions" of his own 
 information and opinions ; saying 
 nothing of what 1 published at great 
 lengtii on the ])eri)etuation of the 
 Gipsies in a settled stale, all of which 
 he admits having " carefully read." 
 Among Mr. Iceland's information is 
 the following : — 
 
 " Go where we may we find the Jew. 
 Has any other wandered so far.-* Yes, 
 one ; for wherever Jew has gone there 
 too we find the Gipsy" (p. 18). "It 
 .... has penetrated into every 
 village which European civilization has 
 ever touched. He who speaks Romany 
 .... will meet those with whoin 
 a very few words may at once estab- 
 lish a peculiar understanding 
 
 This widely spread brotherhood . . . . 
 are honestly nroud that a gentle- 
 man is not ashamed of them " (p. 25). 
 " Communitiesof gemlemanly and lady- 
 like (Tip,;ies " in Russia (p. 25). " All 
 the Gi|)sie3 in the country are not upon 
 the roads. Many of them live in houses, 
 and tiiat very respectably, nay, even 
 aristocratically. Yea, and it may be, 
 O reader, that thou hast met them and 
 knowest thenc not It is in- 
 telligible enough " that such a Gipsy 
 " should say as little as possible of 
 
 his origin and ever carefully 
 
 keep the lid of silence on the pot of his 
 birth " (p. 272). " The Gipsy of society, 
 not always, but yet frequently, retains 
 a keen interest in his wild ancestrv. He 
 keeps up the language; it is a delight- 
 ful secret ; he loves now and then to 
 take a look at ' the old thing ' [one of 
 my phrases, as I have already men- 
 tioned] I know ladies in 
 
 England and in America, both of the 
 blood and otherwise, who would give 
 up a ball of the highest flight in society 
 to sit an hour in a Gipsy tent, and on 
 whom a whispered word in Roinany 
 acts like wild-fire. Great as my experi- 
 ence has been I can really no more ex- 
 plain the intensity of this yearning, this 
 rapport, than I can fly. My own fancy 
 for Gipsydom is faint and feeble com- 
 pared to what I have found in many 
 others " (p. 274). 
 
 One woidd naturally conclude that 
 this race is not disappearing as 
 " British birds are chasing American 
 ones out of Philadelphia"; and that 
 it could not be said that " the child 
 is perhaps born who will see the last 
 Gijisy," even in his primitive condi- 
 tion.* 
 
 * It is not only puzzling, but provoking 
 to decide how to treat a writer like Mr. 
 Leland, for sometimes he shows a great 
 deal of knowledge of his subject, and 
 sometimes apparently nothing of it — one 
 assertion contradicting another on the 
 same question. What in reality has an 
 antipathy between birds, or the idea of 
 " people of self-conscious culture and the 
 marL and factory," or the destiny of the 
 American Indians to do with the destiny 
 of the Gipsies ? For he says, "Gipsies 
 in England are passing away as rapidly 
 as Indians in North America " {Ttie Eng- 
 lish Gipsies, Pref. X.). As a native of 
 the United States. Mr. Leland must know 
 that these Indians become extinct, and of 
 the Gipsies in England that although 
 tl'.ere are comparatively few "dwellers 
 in tents " of full blood, so called, there 
 are many, many thousands of more or 
 less mixed blood following various call- 
 ings, or in various positions in lie, as he 
 has frequently admitted. The distinction 
 between " old-fashioned " Gipsies and 
 other members of the tribe is but trifling 
 with the subject. 
 
 The following extracts from The Eng- 
 lish Gipsies and their Language are in- 
 teresting : — 
 
 " Other writers have had much to say
 
 MR. LELAND ON THE GIPSIES. 
 
 17 
 
 Mr. Leland explains, in his chapter 
 on Cobham P'air, how the Gipsy 
 problem "puzzled and muddled" 
 him. 
 
 " I was very much impressed at this 
 fair widi the extensive and unsuspected 
 amount of Romany existent in our 
 
 rural population There were 
 
 many men in the common room, mostly 
 well dressed, and decent even if doubt- 
 ful lookinsf. I observed that several 
 used Romany words in casual conversa- 
 tion. I came to the conclusion at last 
 that all who were present knew some- 
 thing- of it " (p. 140). And of eleven 
 kinds of people that were at the fair, he 
 said that " there is always a leaven and 
 a suspicion of Gipsiness. If there be no 
 descent, there is affinity by marriage, 
 familiarity, knowledge of words and 
 ways, sweet he.irting and trafficking, so 
 that they know the children of the Rom 
 as the house-world does not know 
 them, and they in some sort belong 
 together " (p. 140). 
 
 In my Disquisition on the Gipsies 
 I said : — 
 
 " In Scotland the prejudice towards 
 the name of Gipsy might be safely al- 
 
 of their incredible distrust of Gorgios and 
 unwillingness to impart their language, 
 but I have always found them obliging 
 and communicative " (Pref. V.). — " In 
 every part of the world it is extremely 
 difficult to get Romany words even from 
 intelligent Gipsies, although ihey tiiav he 
 williiii^ until all their heart to comrminicate 
 them " (p. 17). — " Now the reader is pos- 
 sioly aware that of all difBcult tasks, one 
 of the most difficult is to induce a dis- 
 guised Gipsy, or even a professed one. 
 to utter a word of Romany to a man not 
 of the blood " (p. 37). — "Be it remem- 
 bered, reader, that in Germany, at the 
 present day, the mere fact of being a 
 Gip^y is still treated as a crime " (p. 74). 
 — " Though the language of the Gipsies 
 has been kept a great secret for centuries, 
 still a few words have in England oozed 
 out here and there from some unguarded 
 crevice" (p. 78). — " The very fact that 
 they hide as much as they can of their 
 Gipsy life and nature from the Gorgios 
 woulJ of itself indicate the depths of 
 singularity concealed beneath their ap- 
 parent life" (p. 153). — "Behind it all 
 .... the fierce spirit of social exile 
 from the world in which they liv'ed 
 .... and the joyous consciousness of a 
 
 lowed to drop, were it only for this 
 reason, that the race has got so much 
 mixed up with the native blood, and 
 even with good families of the country, 
 as to be, in plain language, a jumble, a 
 pretty kettle offish, indeed " (p. 427). 
 
 Mr. Leland continues : — 
 
 " No novelist, no writer whatever, 
 has as yet clearly explained the curious 
 fact that our entire nomadic population, 
 excepting tramps, is not, as we thought 
 in our childhood, composed of English 
 people like ourselves. It is leavened 
 with direct Indian blood ; it has, more 
 or less modified, a peculiar rn^rale." 
 " It is a muddle, perhaps, and a puzzle ; 
 I doubt if anybody quite understands 
 it " (p. 140). 
 
 Had Mr. Iceland said that, with 
 the exception of myself, " no writer 
 whatever" had even alluded to the 
 phenomenon described, 1 believe he 
 would have stated what was true. I 
 endeavoured to explain it in a Dis- 
 quisition of 171 Images, which he indi- 
 rectly admitted he "carefully read"; 
 so that if I did not " clearly explain " 
 the " puzzle and muddle " it must 
 
 secret tongue and hidden ways " (p. 156). 
 — "A feeling of free-masonry, and of 
 guarding a social secret, long after they 
 leave the roads and become highly 
 reputable members of society. But they 
 have a secret, and no one can know 
 them who has not penetrated it " (p. 
 
 174)- 
 
 With all that has been said, the words 
 which I have put in italics have a curious 
 meaning — that the Gipsies in giving their 
 language to " strangers " " may be 
 willing with all their heart to communi- 
 cate them "! I have explained this sub- 
 ject at length in the Disquisition (pp. 
 281 and 282) in reference to Mr. Borrow 
 and others, not in regard to the willing- 
 ness and stupidity, but the shufiBing of 
 the Gipsy in giving the meaning of Vvords, 
 although isolated and abstract ideas might 
 occasionally puzzle some of them ; for 
 they translated to Mr. Borrov/ the Apos- 
 tles' Creed, sentence by sentence. The 
 Lord's Prayer, given by Mr. Borrow, 
 Mr. Leland admits to be " pure English 
 Gip.':y " (p. 70). I do not think Mr. Le- 
 land states, with what stock of words 
 and how acquired, he first approached 
 the Gipsies, and how he used them, to get 
 inside of the guard of the tribe.
 
 i8 
 
 MR. L ELAND ON THE GIPSIES. 
 
 have proceeded from a lack of intel- 
 lect on my part, or on his in not un- 
 derstanding me. Since then 1 have 
 frequently expatiated on and de- 
 scribed it, but I am not aware that 
 Mr. Leland has seen what I wrote 
 on these occasions. In The Scoffish 
 Churches and the Gipsies I said that 
 the Gii^sy problem " may at first pre- 
 sent an aspect of a ' labyrinth of diffi- 
 culties ' " ; but that to solve it '• there 
 is little intellect wanted for the occa- 
 sion, but such as it is it should be 
 allowed to act freely on the subject 
 of inquiry " (p. 23). To judge of 
 Mr. Leland's works on the (Jipsies 
 one would think that he had been 
 indebted to no one for anything ; so 
 that it is remarkable he should have 
 complained that novelists should not 
 have " clearly explained " to him 
 what he himself should have told us 
 — particularly as he spoke of his 
 "great experience" among the Gii)- 
 sies — unless it appears that even to 
 novelists he — as a professional writer 
 taking up a subject that came to his 
 hand — has been indebted for putting 
 him on the track for repeating or 
 illustrating an '• oft-told tale."* We 
 can easily imagine how I\rr. Leland 
 got " puzzled and muddled " in con- 
 templating his subject when he says 
 so positively that the Gipsies are dis- 
 appearing as " British birds are chas- 
 
 * In the Preface to The Eui^lish Gipsies 
 and their Language, Mr. Leland says 
 that all that it contains "was gathered 
 directly from the Gipsies themselves " 
 (v.); that he did not take "anything 
 from Simson, Hoyland, or any other 
 writer on the Romany race in England "; 
 and that nothing is a " re-warming of that 
 which was gathered by others " (x.). All 
 that appears strictly true ; yet he says 
 nothing of how he was " put on the track 
 for repeating or illustrating an ' oft-told 
 tale.' " But he says : — 
 
 " If I have not given in this book a 
 sketch of the history of the Gipsies, or 
 statistics of their numbers, or accounts of 
 their social condition in different coun- 
 tries, it is because nearly everything of 
 the kind may be found in the works of 
 George Borrow and Walter Simson " 
 (xi.). 
 
 He did not find much of the kind men- 
 
 ing American ones out of Philadel- 
 phia"; and that the mixed state of 
 Gipsydoni seen at Cobhain Fair 
 " was old before the Saxon Hep- 
 tarchy " (p. 140). What he said he 
 could find in " no writer whatever " 
 was elaborately described in the book 
 which I published. That he used 
 for his own purposes, and then ap- 
 parently turned round and threw out 
 his heels at it. 
 
 I have spoken of Mr. Iceland's 
 "confident assertions," but 1 have 
 space merely to allude to some of 
 them. Among these are the follow- 
 ing : — That there is no mystery about 
 the origin of the Gipsies (p. 331), 
 and that " it is a matter of history 
 that, since the Aryan morning- of 
 mankind, the Romany have been 
 chiromancing " (p. 225); that "among 
 those who left India were men of 
 different castes and different colours, 
 ranging from the pure Northern in- 
 vader to the Negro-like Southern 
 Indian" (p. 24) ; that the Gipsies in 
 Egypt have lost their tongue (p. 296) ; 
 that the English Gipsy cares not a 
 farthing " to know anything about his 
 race as it exists in foreign countries, 
 or whence it came " (\). 34) ; and 
 that there is hardly a travelling com- 
 pany of dancers, musicians, singers, 
 or acrobats, or theatre " in Europe 
 or America in w'hich there is not 
 at least one person with some Ro- 
 
 tioned in Mr. Borrow's books, so far as I 
 remember, and omitted to say that I had 
 written very fully on the points stated. 
 It would have been interesting to have 
 been told by Mr. Leland about his being 
 " puzzled and muddled " at what he saw 
 at Cobham Fair, how he came to write, 
 nine years before that, as follows : — 
 
 " There have been thousands of swell 
 Romany chals who have moved in sport- 
 ing circles of a higher class than they are 
 to be found in at the present day " (p. 92). 
 — "It may be worth while to state, in this 
 connection, that Gipsy blood intermingled 
 with Anglo-Saxon, when educated, gen- 
 erally results in intellectual and physical 
 vigour " (p. 174)- — And where was it that 
 he found the idea that John Banyan was 
 a member of the Gipsy race (p. 63), if it 
 was not as elaborately given in my Dis- 
 quisition ?
 
 MR. LELAND ON THE GIPSIES. 
 
 19 
 
 many blood " (p. 332). This at 
 least is commoii, I dare say very 
 coinnion. On one occasion I looked 
 over the show-bill while in MS. of 
 an English Gipsy company who trav- 
 elled in America with a small pano- 
 rama.* 
 
 The conclusion which I drew of 
 Mr. Leland after reading his Cyclo- 
 paedia article was that, apart from the 
 language, he knew little of the sub- 
 ject of the Gipsies. The knowledge 
 of the language has given him the 
 entree into the circle of a certain 
 class of the Gipsies, leading to a 
 " flash-in-the-pan " knowledge of 
 them ; but not constituting him a 
 reliable guide on the whole question 
 under consideration ; for, in keeping 
 with his "confident assertions" gen- 
 erall)^, he disposes of it by saying 
 
 * One of Mr. Leland's " confident as- 
 sertions " is that " the English Gipsy 
 cares not a farthing ' to know anything 
 about his race as it exists in foreign 
 countries, or whence it came ' "; which 
 is not a fact. He seems to have misin- 
 terpreted the English Gipsy peculiariiy 
 which assimilates in appearance to the 
 native English one, as I have written 
 thus in the History of the Gipsies: — 
 " Though Gipsies everywhere, they differ 
 in some respects in the various countries 
 which they inhabit. For example, an 
 English Gipsy of pugilistic tendencies 
 will, in a vapouring way, engage to 
 thrash a dozen of his Hungarian breth- 
 ren " (p. 359). And of the more mixed 
 kind of Gipsies, I have said : — " In Great 
 Britain the Gipsies are entitled, in one 
 respect at least, to be called Englishmen, 
 Scotchmen, or Irishmen ; for their gen- 
 eral ideas as men, as distinguished from 
 their being Gipsies, and their language 
 indicate them at once to be such, nearly 
 as much as the common natives of these 
 countries " (p. 372). — What is described 
 very fully throughout the History, and 
 especially in the note at pp. 342 and 343, 
 about the different colours or castes of 
 the Gipsies, meets Mr. Leland's remarks 
 about those who left India. Thus : — 
 " What are full-blood Gipsies, to com- 
 mence with? The idea itself is intangi- 
 ble ; for, by adopting, more or less, 
 wherever they have been, others into 
 their body, during their singular history, 
 a pure Gipsy, like the pure Gipsy lan- 
 guage, is doubtless nowhere to be 
 found " (p. 342). 
 
 that " the child is perhaps born who 
 will see the last Gipsy. "t 
 
 As long as Mr. Leland has stuck 
 to his subject he has confirmed what 
 I said in the work published by me, 
 although he has made no acknow- 
 ledgment of it in any way. P'ven 
 on the subject of the tinkers in Eng- 
 land, he — so far as he may be con- 
 sidered an authority — has confirmed 
 what I said of their being Gipsies of 
 mixed blood : — '' These are but in- 
 stances of, I might say, all the Eng- 
 lish tinkers. Almost every old coun- 
 trywoman about the Scottish Border 
 knows that the Scottish tinkers are 
 Gipsies ■' (p. 508). He also sjieaks 
 of John Bunyan having been a "half- 
 blood Gipsy tinker" (p. 213). He 
 was only justified in saying that he 
 was of " mixed blood"; but he made 
 no allusion to my long argument 
 (pp. 313 and 506-523) in defence of 
 it, which I published in Notes and 
 Queries on the 12th December, 1857, 
 and illustrated it in two shorter arti- 
 cles in the early part of 1858, in 
 
 f With the limited space at his disposal 
 for his cyclopaedia article, Mr. Leland 
 could not be expected to tell us much in 
 it about the Gipsies. In it he says that 
 " their hair seldom turns gray, even in 
 advanced age, unless there be ' white ' 
 blood in their veins"; that, " like North 
 American Indians, the Gipsies all walk 
 with their feet straight "; and that " there 
 are nearly 100 English Gipsy family 
 names, most of which are represented in 
 America." And further : — " At the pres- 
 ent day the Romany is the life of the 
 entire vagabond population of the roads 
 in England, it being almost impossible 
 to find a tinker or petty hawker who is 
 not part Gipsy. There are now but a 
 few hundred full-blooded tetit Gipsy per- 
 sons in England (1S74), but of ... . 
 house-dwellers, who keep their Gipsy 
 blood a secret, and of half-breeds .... 
 or of those affiliated by blood, all of whom 
 possess the great secret of the Romany 
 language ta a greater or less degree, 
 there are perhaps 20,000." " The tinkers 
 in England are all Gipsies." 
 
 Including o//of " the blood " in various 
 positions in life, there are doubtless 
 vastly more of the tribe in England than 
 20.000, considering the time they have 
 been in the country, and the healthy and 
 prolific nature of the race.
 
 20 
 
 MR. LELAND ON THE GIPSIES. 
 
 which the outline of the History of 
 the Gipsies was given ; so that the 
 question of lUin^an's nationality has 
 been bet'ore " all England " for a 
 quarter of a century unanswered. 
 
 What I wrote in The Scottish 
 Churches and the Gipsies is equally 
 applicable to Mr. Leland : — 
 
 " As I have said of Mr. Borrow, any 
 one treating- of such a subject as the 
 Gipsies should, so far as space allowed, 
 ' comment on and admit or reject the 
 facts and opinions of his case as dis- 
 covered and advanced by others,' and 
 not 'put forth his own ideas only, as if 
 nothing- had been said by others before 
 or besides him'" (p. 12). — "I think 
 that what I have written and published 
 on the Gipsies should have been treated 
 with more candour and courtesy, at 
 least with more care and consideration, 
 by others who have done likewise, say- 
 ing notiiing of the press. I also think 
 that I have embraced almost all, if not 
 all, of the principles connected vvith 
 the existence and perpetuation of the 
 race; so that others in discussing them 
 should ' comment on and admit or re- 
 ject ' what 1 have advanced, and I think 
 proved, in place of putting forth opin- 
 ions apparently without due investiga- 
 tion " (p. 14).— "His illustrations of 
 their language, in common with those 
 of other writers, are very interesting, 
 .... and the occasional, as if ac- 
 cidental, remarks made by the Gipsies, 
 at intervals, bearing on the Gipsy ques- 
 tion proper, are of importance " (p. 17). — 
 " He gives us nothing of the philosophy 
 of the existence, history, perpetuation, 
 development and destiny of the tribe 
 and its off-shoots. He seems to use 
 his eyes and ears only, and with these 
 and his turn tor writing he has given 
 us some really good sketches and 
 
 scenes But besides using 
 
 the eyes and ears in connection with 
 such a subject, it is necessary to exer- 
 cise the intellect to discover and explain 
 what is not ob\ious or hidden, and il- 
 lustrate the meaning and bearing of 
 
 what is described His book. 
 
 however interesting parts of it may 
 be, is not calculated to serve any 
 ultimate purpose of importance; nor is 
 it written in a regular or systematic 
 
 manner Nothing can make a 
 
 subject like that of the Gipsies at- 
 tractive (if it can ever be made attract- 
 
 ive) to the better classes of readers, 
 and perpetuate an interest in it, but by 
 treating it in such a way as will combine 
 a variety of facts, well arranged and 
 illustrated, and principles; out of which 
 can be constructed a theory or system 
 that can be discussed and proved by a 
 reference to the facts and principles 
 given These writers are use- 
 ful in their ways, but beyond that 
 they spoil the subject of the Gipsies, in 
 consequence of the 'utter absence in 
 them of everything of the nature of a 
 philosophy of the subject ' ; which is 
 peculiar to ' all the works that have 
 hitherto appeared on the Gipsies ' 
 {Dis., p. 532), so far as I have seen or 
 heard of them " (p. 18). — "A know- 
 ledge of the science of race, in the es- 
 sential meaning of the word, and 
 especially as it applies to the Gipsies, 
 cannot be said to be even in its infancy. 
 Still, it might have been asked, what 
 could two Scotch Gipsies propagate, in 
 body and mind, but Gipsies? They 
 certainly could not give origin to Jews 
 or common Scotch ; but Gipsy Scotch 
 or Scotch Gipsy would infallibly follow " 
 (p. 19). — "Of late years a number of 
 publications and articles, of more or 
 less importance, on the Gipsies have 
 appeared in Great Britain. Some of 
 these doubtless had their origin in the 
 work published by me in 1865, although 
 no acknowledgment was made of it in 
 any way ; and yet the most of the 
 original MS. of it was prepared before 
 Mr. Borrow had apparently even 
 thought of writing on the race " (p. 17), 
 (that is, between 1817 and 1831). — " If 
 they really have at heart the desire of 
 knowing and informing the public 'ail 
 about the Gipsies,' why do they so per- 
 sistently lead it inferentially to believe 
 that the mass of information on the 
 subject, in all its bearings, published 
 by me has no existence ? One would 
 naturally think that they would grasp 
 at it, and illustrate and supplement it ; 
 and prove anything in it to be wrong- 
 that they allege or suppose to be so, 
 and let me hear of their objections" 
 (p. 17). 
 
 ^Vith all his professed candour in 
 regard to all who have written oa 
 the subject of the (;i|)sies, and co- 
 operating with his "colleagues" in 
 connection with it, why did Mr. Le- 
 land not take it up from where it
 
 MR. LELAND ON THE GIPSIES. 
 
 21 
 
 was lefl by me, and used by him for 
 his article in Johnson'' s Cyclopcedia I 
 In place of amusing the world with 
 the fictions that the Gipsy race is 
 disappearing as "British birds are 
 chasing American ones out of Phila- 
 delphia," and that " the child is per- 
 haps born who will see the last 
 Gipsy," he might have assisted nie 
 in " breaking down the middle wall 
 of partition " between them and the 
 rest of the world ; so that the Gipsy 
 race, at least in its off-shoots, may 
 be acknowledged openly, and al- 
 
 lowed as such to take their places in 
 society, as "men and brethren," 
 which in many instances they do 
 now, although unknown to the 
 world. 
 
 Notwithstanding all that has been 
 and could be said of Mr. Leland as 
 a writer on the Gipsies, and of the 
 work under review, Tlie GipsieSy 
 taking it all in all, is an interesting 
 book, and deserves to be well 
 read.* 
 
 * The same remark applies to The 
 English Gipsies and their Langnage.
 
 Ever since entering Great Britain, about the year 1 506, the 
 Gipsies have been drawing into their body the blood of the ordin- 
 ary inhabitants and conforming to their ways; and so prohfic has 
 the race been, that there cannot be less than 250,000 Gipsies of all 
 castes, colours, characters, occupations, degrees of education, cul- 
 ture, and position in life, in the British Isles alone, and possibly 
 double that number. There are many of the same race in t'nt 
 United States of America. Indeed, there have been Gipsies in 
 America from nearly the first day of its settlement; for many of 
 the race were banished to the plantations, often for very trifling 
 offences, and sometimes merely for being by " habit and repute 
 Egyptians." But as the Gipsy race leaves the tent, and rises to 
 civilization, it hides its nationality from the rest of the world, so 
 great is the prejudice against the name of Gipsy. In Europe and 
 America together, there cannot be less than 4,000,000 Gipsies in 
 existence. _,-i.in Bunyan, the author of the cclehraKd Pilgrim's 
 Progress, was one of this singular people, as will be conclusively 
 shown in the present work. The philosophy of the existence ct 
 the Jews, since the dispersion, v/ill also be discussed and established 
 in it. 
 
 When the "wonderful story" of the Gipsies is told, as it ought 
 to be told, it constitutes a work of interest to many classes of read- 
 ers, being a subject unique, distinct from, and u.nknown to, the rest 
 ot the human family. In the present work, the race has been treated 
 of so fully and elaborately, in all its aspects, as in a great meas- 
 ure to fill and satisfy the mind, instead of being, as heretofore, little 
 better than a myth to the understanding of the most intelligent 
 person. 
 
 The history of the Gipsies, when thus comprehensively treated, 
 forms a study for the most advanced and cultivated mind, as well 
 as for the youth whose intellectual and literary character is still to 
 be formed ; and furnishes, among other things, a system of science 
 not too abstract in its nature, and having for its subject-matter the 
 strongest of human feelings and sympathies. The work also seeks 
 to raise the name of Gipsy out of the dust, where it now lies ; 
 while it has a very important bearing on the conversion of the 
 jews, the advancement of Christianity generally, and the devclor 
 ment of historical and moral science. 
 
 London, October icth, 1865,
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 SIMSON'S HISTORY OF THE GIPSIES. 
 
 575 Pages. Crown 8vo. Price, $2.00. 
 
 NOTICES OF THE AMERICAN PEESS. 
 
 Kdilovnl Oiifrrfrrh/ J{ri:iew. — "The tiMe of tliis work (rives 
 ft correct ith-a ol its cliaractor ; the matter fully justifies it. Even in its 
 oriuiiinl form it was the most intereftinfr and reliable history of the 
 Oi])sies with which we were flc(]nainted. But it is now much en- 
 iar^red, and hrou/xht down to the present time. The disfjuisition on the 
 past, present, and future of tliat sitijxular race, added l)v the editor, 
 greatly enhances the value of tlie work, for it emboilies the results of 
 extensive research and careful investigation." " The chaj)ter on tlie Gip- 
 sy lanjruafjre should be read Ity all who take any interest eitlier in com- 
 parative j)hilolojfy or ethnolopy ; for it is mucli more curious and in- 
 structive than most people would expect from the nature of the subject. 
 The volume is well printed and neatly bound, and has the advantage of 
 a cojjious al_ habetical index." 
 
 Co)ifjr('frnfioiial JievicnK (Bcston) — "The senior partner \n 
 tliH authorship of this book was n Scotchman who made it his life-long 
 pleasure to go a ' (iiy)sy liunting,' to use his own phrase. He was a per 
 
 Bonal friend of Sir N\'!ilter Scott Ilis enthusiasm was genuine, his 
 
 diligence great, his sapracity remarkable, and Ids discoveries rewarding." 
 " 'J'he book is undoubttMlly the fullest and most reliable which our lan- 
 guage contain-! on the subject. ' " This volume is valuable for its in- 
 Btruction, and excee 'iiigly amusing anecdotically. It overnins with the 
 humorous " " The subject in its i)resenl form is novel, and we freely 
 add, very sensational." " Indeed, the book assures us that our country 
 is full of this peoph;. mixed up as they liave l>ocome. by marriage, wifJi 
 all the European stocks during the last thrc^ centuries. The amalg 'ma 
 tiori has done mucii to merge them in the gen<'ral current of modern 
 eflucation and civilization ; yet they retain their lanjruage with closest 
 tenacity, as a sort of Freemason medium of intercommunion ; and 
 while they never are wiling to own their orisfin among outsiders, they 
 are very proud of it among themselves." " VN'e liad regarded them aa 
 entitle(l to considerab f anticjuity, but we now fmd tlu\t they were nono 
 other than the ' mix-d multitude' which accompanied the Hebrew ex- 
 ode(Ex. XII 08) under .Moses— straggling or di.-iatfected Efry])tians, who 
 went along to ventilati; tlieir discontent, or to improve their fortunes. 
 .... We are not )>repared to take issue with these authors on any of 
 the points raised by them " 
 
 UTef/Mflisf Qiinrforlif Jievietv. — " Have wo Qlpsies amon(jr 
 as t Yea, verih , if .Mr. Simson is to be believed, they swarm our country 
 in secret legions. There is no place on the four (]uariers of the globo 
 wliere some of them have not penetrated. Even in New Euffland a sly 
 Gipsy girl will enter the factory as em])loye, will by her allurements 
 v.iii a young .Jonathan to marry her, and in due season, tlie 'cute gen- 
 tleman will f\n(\ himself the father of a young brood of intense Gip.'ies. 
 Tho mother will have opened to her young progeny the mystery and
 
 NOTICES OF THE AMERICAN PRESS. 
 
 tht AJmance of Its lineage, will have disclosed its bixth-riglit connection 
 with a secret brotberliood, whose protounder Freemasonry is based on 
 blood, historicallv extending itself into the most dim antiquity, and 
 geographically spreading over most of the earth. The fatscinaiions of 
 this mystic tie are wonderfid. Afraid or ashamed to reveal the secret 
 to the outside world, the young Gipsy is inwardly intensely proud of 
 his unique nobility, and is very likely to despise his alien father, who ia 
 of course glad to keep the late discovered secret from the world. Uence 
 dear reader, you know not but your next neighbour is a (Jipsy." " The 
 volume before us possesses a rare interest, both from the unique charac- 
 ter of the subject, and from the absence of nearly any other source of 
 full information. It is the result of observation from real life." I'he 
 language " is spoken with varying dialects in diflerent countries, but 
 with standard purity in Hungary. It is the precious inheritance and 
 proud peculiarity of the Oipey, which he will never forget and seldom 
 reveal. The varied and skillful mancEuvres of Mr. Simson to purloin or 
 wheedle out a small vocabulary, with the various efl'ects of the opera- 
 tion on the minds and actions of the Gipsies, furnish many an amusing 
 narrative in these pages," " Persecutions of the most cruel character 
 have embittered and barbarized them. . . . Even now . . . they do not 
 realize the kindly feeling of enlightened minds toward them, and view 
 with fierce suspicion every apjiroach designed to draw from them the se- 
 crets of their history, habits, laws and language." " The age of racial 
 caste is passing away. Modern Christianity will refuse to tolerate the 
 spirit of hostility and oppression based on feature, colour, or lineage." The 
 "book is an intended first step for the improvement of the race that forma 
 its subject, and every magnanimous spirit must wish that it may prove 
 not the last. We heartily commend the work to our readers as not only 
 full of fascinating details, but abounding with points of interest to the 
 benevolent Christian heart." " The general spirit of the work is em- 
 inently enlightened, liberal, and humane." 
 
 Evangelical Quarterlt/ J{evi€W.—"'i'he Gipsies, their race 
 end language have always excited a more than ordinary interest. The 
 work before us, apparently the result of careful research, is a compre- 
 hensive history of this singular people, abounding in marvelous inci- 
 dents and curious information, it is highly instructive, and there is 
 appended a full and most careful index — so important in every work." 
 
 National Freemason.—" We feel confident that our readers 
 Will relish the following concerning the Gipsies, from the British Ma- 
 sonic Organ : That an article on Gipsyism is not out of place in this Mag- 
 azine will be admitted by every one who knows anything of the history, 
 manners, and customs of these strange wanderers among the nations o{ 
 the earth. The Freemasons have a language, words, and signs pfctiliar 
 to themselves ; so have the Gipsies. A Freemason basin every country 
 & friend, and in every climate a home, secured to him by the mystic in- 
 fluence of that worldwide association to which he belongs ; siiiiilar are 
 the privileges of the Gipsy. But here, of course, the analogy ceases 
 Freemasonry is an Order banded together for purposes of the' liighest 
 benevolence. Gipsyisra, we fear, has been a source of constant trouble 
 and inconvenience to European nations. The interest, therefore, wliich 
 as Masons we may evince in the Gipsies arises principally, we may say 
 wholly, from the fact of their being a secret society, and also from the 
 fact that many of them are enrolled in our lodges. . . . There are
 
 NOTICES OF THE AMERICAN PRESS. 
 
 In Iho ITmted Kinfrdom a vast raultitude of mixed Gipsies, diflFerinjj 
 very little in outward npjiearance, mnnuers. and cuetoms from ordinary 
 }3riton8; Imi in heart tliorouffb (Jipsies, as carefully inil jealously 
 puardinfj their lanfjuajje and secrets, as we do the secrets of the Masonic 
 Order." "" Mr. Simson makes masterly establii^hment of the fact that 
 John iiunyan, the world-renowned author of the ' Pilgrim's Progress,' 
 was descended from Gipsy blood." 
 
 Neiv York Independent — " Such a book is the History of thb 
 Gipsies. Every one who has a fondness for the acquisition of out-of-the- 
 way knowledge, chietly for the pleasure afforded by its possession, will 
 like lliis book. It contains a mass of facts, of stories, and of legends 
 connected with the Oii)sies ; a variety of theories as to their origin . . . 
 and various interesting incidents of adventures amonfi; these mo(iern 
 Ishmaelites. There is a great deal of curious infonnation to be ob- 
 tained from this history, nearly all of which will be new to Americans." 
 "It is singular that so little attention has been heretofore given to this 
 particular topic ; but it is probably owing to the fact that Gipsies are so 
 careful to keep outsiders from a knowledge of their language that they 
 even deny its existence." " The history is just the book with which to 
 occupy one's idle moments ; for, whatever else it lacks, it certainly is 
 not wanting in interest." 
 
 New Yorh Observer. — " Among the peoples of the world, the 
 Gipsies are the most mysterious and romantic. 1 heir origin, modes of 
 life, and habits have been, until quite recently, rather conjectural than 
 known. Mr. Walter Simson, after years of investigation and study, 
 produced a history of this remarkable people which is unrivalled for the 
 amount of information which it conveys in a manner adu{)te(i to excite 
 the deepest interest." " We are glad that Mr. James simson has not 
 felt the same timidity, but has given the book to the public, having en- 
 riched it with many notes, an able introduction, and a disquisition upon 
 the past, present, and future of the (iip^y rac*'." "Of the Gipsies in 
 Spain we have already learned much from the work of Borrow, but this 
 Is a more thorough and elaborate treati.se upon (Sipsy life in general, 
 though larjrely devoted to the tribe as it appeared in England and Scot- 
 land." " Such are some views and oj)inions respecting a curious people, 
 of whose history and customs Mr. Simson has given a deeply interestr 
 Ing delineation." 
 
 Ne^v York STethodist. — " The Gipsies present one of the most 
 remarkable anomalies in the history of the human race. Though they 
 Lave lived among European nations for centuries, forming in some dis- 
 tricts a ])rominent element in the population, they have succeeded in 
 keei)ing themselves separate in social rehitions, customs, lantruajie, and 
 in a measure, in government, and excludinir strangers from real knowl- 
 edge of the character of iheir communities and organizations. Scarcely 
 more is known of them by the world in i^eneral than was know when 
 they first made their api)earance among civilized nations." " Another 
 curioue thing advanced by Mr. Sim.son is that of the jierpetuity of the 
 
 race lie thinks that it never dies out, and that <j'ipsies, liowevei 
 
 much they n.ay intermarry with the world's [)eople, and adopt the hab- 
 its of civilization, remain (Mpsies, preserve the hinj^uage. the ( iipsy mode 
 of thought, and loyalty to the race and its traditions to remote genera- 
 Uoaa. 11 Ih w^rk turns, In lact, upon those two theories, and tLo incl-
 
 NOTICES OF THE AMERICAN PKESS. 
 
 dents, facts, and citations from history with which it abounds, are all 
 ekillt'iilly used in support of theiu " " There are some facts of interest 
 in relation to the Gipsies in Scotland and America, which are broutrjit 
 out quite fully in Mr. Simson's book," Avhich "abounds in novel and 
 interesting matter . . . and will well repay perusal." " Pertinent anec- 
 dotes, illustrating the habits and craft of the Gipsies, may be picked up 
 at random in any part of the book." 
 
 Netv Yorh Eveninff Post. — " The editor corrects some popular 
 notions in regard to the habits of the Gipsies. They are not now, iu 
 the main, the wanderers they used to be. Through intermarriage with 
 other people, and from other causes, they have adopted more stationary 
 modes of life, and have assimilated to the manners of the countries in 
 
 which they live As the editor of this volume says : ' They 
 
 carry the language, the associations, and the sympathies of their race, 
 and their peculiar feelin^^s toward the community with them ; and, aa 
 residents of towns, have greater facilities, from others of their race re- 
 eiding near them, for perpetuating their language, than when strolling 
 over the country.' " " We have no space for such full extracts as we 
 Biiould like to give." 
 
 Netv Yorh Journal of Commerce. — " We have seldom 
 found a more readable book than Simson's History of the Gipsies. A large 
 pert of the volume is necessarily devoted to th3 local histories of fami- 
 lies in England (Scotland), but these go to form part of one of the most 
 interesting chapters of human history." " We commend the book as 
 very readable, and giving mucU instruction on a curious subject." 
 
 New York Times. — "Mr has done good service to the 
 
 American public by reproducing here this very interesting and valuable 
 volume." " The work is more interesting than a romance, and that it is 
 full of facts is very easily seen by a glance at the index, which is very 
 minute, and adds greatly to the value of the book." 
 
 JVc?f' YorJc Albion. — " An extremely curious work is a History 
 of the Gipsies." " The wildest scenes in ' Lavengro,' as for instance the 
 fight with the Flaming Tinman, are comparatively tame beside some 
 of the incidents narrated here." 
 
 Hours at Home (now Scribner's ^fowYZ*??/^-—" Years 
 
 ago we read, with an interest we shall never forg(!t, Sorrow's book on 
 the Gipsies of Spain. W'e have now a history of this niysterif)us race 
 as it exists in the British Islands, which, though written before Sor- 
 row's, has just been published. It is the result of much time and 
 
 patient labor, and is a valuable contribution toward a complete history 
 of this extraordinary people. The (xipsy race and the Gipsy Innguugo 
 are subjects of much interest, socially and ethno]oo;ical]y." " lie? esti- 
 mates the number of Gipsies in Great Britain at 250,000, and the wliole 
 number in Europe and America at 4,000.000." "The work is what it 
 profesres to be, a veritable historj- — a history in which Gipsy life has 
 been stripped of everything pertaining to fiction, so that the reader 
 will see depicted in their true character this strange people. .... .And 
 
 yet, these pages of sober history are crowded with focts and incidents 
 stranger and more tlirilliug than the wildest imagiiuugs of the roman- 
 tic school." 
 
 NEW YORK: JAMES MILLER.
 
 NOTICES OF THE BRITISH PRESS. 
 
 THE ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES AND JOHN BUNYAN. AND THE 
 ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA AND THE GIPSIES. 
 
 " In this pamphlet Mr. James Simson again does battle in support of his con- 
 tention that Bunyan was a Gipsy — a thesis first promulgated by him in an elabo- 
 rate work on the Gipsies, published in 1S65. He is indignant at Mr. Froude for 
 ignoring the discussion of the question in his recent biography of Bunyan, and he 
 comments in strong terms on the dicta of Mr. Francis H. Groome, in the article 
 'Gipsies,' in the new edition of the Encyclopcrdia Britannica, that John Bunyan 
 'does not appear to have had one drop of Gipsy blood.'" "Mr. Simson's tractate 
 will be perused with deep interest by all students of the customs and history of the 
 Gipsies." — Edinburgh Coutant, November 'i, 1880. 
 
 " In this pamphlet Mr. James Simson, editor of Simson's History of the Gipsies, 
 states his grounds for believing that John Bunyan was a Gipsy, and invokes the 
 assistance of the Universities to investigate the matter and put it beyond the pos- 
 sibility of doubt. It may not matter much whether or not the 'immortal dreamer' 
 was a Gipsy ; and we do not think Mr. Simson attaches any great importance to 
 the circumstance /tv j^. What he aims at, we believe, is to stir up some interest 
 in the Gipsy race, and this he thinks may be done were the public to have their 
 sympathies awakened by the fact that John Bunyan was a descendant of it. By 
 way of supplement, Mr. Simson criticises some statements made in an article in 
 the Encych'picdia Britannica, on the Gipsies. The curious in the subject of Gipsy 
 lore will doubtless find in the pamphlet matter that will interest them." — Perthshire 
 Advertiser, October 28, 18S0. 
 
 " Mr. Simson suggests, and supports, on arguments that have the highest bear- 
 ing on anthropological questions, the theory that John Bunyan was a Gipsy. The 
 great secret that civilised Europe has even now amongst it a few individuals who 
 are descended from a Hindoo race, and are capable, by reason of the fact that they 
 have a particularly original soul of their own, to reconcile some of the difficulties 
 between the eastern and the western schools of thought, may be the real future fact 
 of modern anthropology. The difficulty is, of course, where and how to find the 
 Gipsies. We have been much pleased with Mr. Simson's pamphlet. It is not 
 every writer who has treated the subject in his philosophical manner ; and we are 
 glad to perceive that he strongly accents the fact that a person may be a Gipsy 
 and yet be entirely ignorant [not absolutely so] of the Gipsy language. Evidently 
 Mr. Simson has studied anthropological problems at first hand, and apart from the 
 speculators who have regarded language as the first key to the science of man." — 
 Public Opinion, October 15, 1880. 
 
 CHARLES WATERTON, Naturalist. 
 
 " That Mr. Simson had a duty — to himself as well as to the public — to perform 
 in justifying his previous remarks about Charles Waterton, b)' writing this mono- 
 graph, is unquestionable. Although it is a somewhat difficult task unsparingly to 
 point out the mistakes and shortcomings of a man, when he can no longer defend 
 himself, without seeming to be guilty of an ofience against the old rule — Nil nisi 
 bonuin de iiiortuis — Mr. Simson may fairly claim credit for having adhered to the 
 Shakespearian advice in regard to fault-finding ; for, if he has extenuated nothing, 
 he has set down naught in malice. The example of Charles Waterton, country 
 gentleman and naturalist, may serve as a useful warning to students of natural 
 history, by teaching them that only the most patient investigation and careful reflec- 
 tion can produce results that will be of real and permanent value to science. Thej' 
 have here the example of a man who had most excellent opportunities for such in- 
 vestigations, as well as the strongest taste for their pursuit, and who, by an exact 
 and sjstemaiic method of study, might have made most important additions to our 
 knowledge of natural history. But by inaccurate observation, by a certain loose- 
 ness of statement, and by taking things for granted instead of personally verifying 
 them, he has greatly diminished the value of his labours. Mr. Simson, though 
 his task is to set right the unduly high estimate in which the squire of Walton Hall 
 has been held as a man of science, shows an appreciation ot the strong points of 
 his character that completely takes away any appearance of censoriousness ; and 
 his work incidentally aflfords an interesting study of the man himself, who, in his 
 persona! life and his enthusiastic devotion to natural history, showed a strong 
 individuality that is quite refreshing in this age of conventionalities." — Aberdeen 
 jfournal, August 30, i38o.
 
 AMERICAN EDITION OF 1878, WITH APPENDIX. 
 
 210 Pages, Octavo, Cloth. Price, $1.25. 
 
 CONTIUBUTIONS TO NATURAL IIISTOllY, 
 
 AND PAPERS ON OTHER SUBJECTS. 
 BY JAMES SIMSON, 
 
 NOTICES OF THE BRITISH PRESS. 
 
 Dublin University Magazine, July, 1875. 
 
 "The principal articles in this volume that have reference to natural history 
 originally appeared in Land and Water, and are, in many respects, highly interest- 
 ing. Concerning vipers and snakes, we are presented with a good deal of informa- 
 tion that is instructive, not only as regards their habits generally, but also with re- 
 spect to points that are in dispute among naturalists." " Foi instance, it is a vexed 
 question whether, under any circumstances, the young retreat into the stomach 
 [inside] of the mother snake. A great authority, [?] Mr. Frank Buckland, afhrms 
 that they do not ; while our author is as positive that they do. And he certainly, 
 with reason, contends that the question is entirely one of evidence, and, therefore, 
 should be settled ' as a fact is proved in a court of justice ; difficulties, suppositions, 
 
 or theories not being allowed to form part of the testimony. In support of his 
 
 own views, Mr. Simson has collected a large body of evidence that undoubtedly 
 appears authentic and conclusive." "Of the miscellaneous papers in this volume, 
 the best is a critical study of the late John Stuart Mill. Taken altogether, the 
 volume is very entertaining, and affords pleasing and instructive reading." 
 
 Evening Standard, June 8, 1875. 
 
 "It is with real pleasure we see these Contributions to Land and IVaferno 
 longer limited to the columns of a newspaper, whatever may be its circulation. 
 For the excellence and charm of these papers we must refer the reader to the vol- 
 ume before us, which cannot fail to interest and instruct its readers. Their variety 
 and range may be gathered from the subjects treated : — Snakes, Vipers, Erglish 
 Snakes, Waterton as a Naturalist, John Stuart Mill, History of the Gipsies, and 
 the Duke of Argyll on the Preservation of the Jews." 
 
 London Courier, June, 1875. 
 
 "The Natural History Contributions, which are very interesting, though par- 
 taking largely of a controversial nature, deal chiefly with questions affecting snakes 
 and vipers. Of the other Contributions, the most attractive and readable is the 
 one which contests some of Mr. Sorrow's conclusions in his well-known account of 
 the Gipsies. Mr. John Stuart Mill forms the subject of a slashing dissertation, 
 which is not likely to find much favour with the friends of the departed philosopher." 
 
 Rochdale Observer, June 19, 1875. 
 
 " The study of natural history has a peculiar charm tor most people, but for 
 Lancashire folk it seems to have a special interest. Perhaps the most striking 
 feature of the book at the head of this notice is the variety of topics touched upon •
 
 NOTICES OF THE BRITISH PRESS. 
 
 topics which, although apparently incompatible and incongruous, are, nevertheless, 
 both curious and interesting. The author certainly brings a large amount of special 
 knowledge to the discussion of the questions he introduces, and the essays are un- 
 doubtedly well written. Our readers will see that the work is full of controversial 
 matter, embracing natural history, theology, and biography, and consequently will 
 suit the taste of those who like to enter into discussions which excite the feelings, 
 and in which abundance of energy and ability is displayed. The book is certainly 
 ably written, and the author shows himself to be a man of large accomplishments." 
 
 Liverpool Albion, June i8, 1875. 
 
 " The articles are written in a very readable manner, and will be found inter- 
 esting even by those who have no special knowledge of natural history or interest 
 in it. The Gipsies are competitors with the snakes for Mr. Simson's regards, and 
 several papers are devoted to these mysterious nomadic tribes. Perhaps the most 
 curious paper in the volume is written to prove that John Hunyan was a Gipsy, and 
 a very fair case is certainly made out, principally from Bunyan's own autobiographi- 
 cal statements. With the exception of the papers on John Stuart Mill, to which we 
 have already alluded, and which are far worse than worthless, the book is one 
 which we can recommend." 
 
 Newcastle Courant, June 11, 1875. 
 
 " The bulk of these Contributions appeared in Land and Water. We think the 
 author has done well to give them to the public in the more enduring formr^f a well 
 got up volume. The book contains, also, a critical sketch of the career of John 
 Stuart Mill ; some gossip about Gipsies ; and the Duke of Argyll's notions about 
 the preservation of the Jews. Altogether, the book is very readable." 
 
 Northern Whig, June 17, 1875. 
 
 "This volume consists of Contributions to Land and ?F«/^r by a writer well- 
 known as the author [editor] of a standard book on the Gipsies, and is evidently 
 the production of a clear, intelligent, and most observant mind. Mr. Simson adds 
 a number of miscellaneous papers, including a masterly, though severe, criticism 
 of John Stuart Mill — ' his religion, his education, a crisis in his history, his wife, 
 Mill and son,' — as well as severaj desultory papers on the Gipsies, elicited, ^'jr the 
 most part, by criticisms on his work on that singular race." 
 
 Western Times, June 29, 1875. 
 
 " The preface to this volume is dated from New York, and the contents bear 
 marks of the free, racy style of transatlantic writers. The volume closes with a 
 paper on the ' Preservation of the Jews.' The writer deals with his several sub- 
 jects with marked ability, and his essays form a volume which will pay for reading, 
 and therefore pay for purchasing." 
 
 Daily Review, June 11, 1875. 
 
 " We need only mention the other subjects — Waterton as a Naturalist, Roman- 
 ism, John Stuart Mill, Simson's History of the Gipsies, Borrow on the Gipsies, the 
 Scottish Churches and the Gipsies, Was John Bunyan a Gipsy? and, of course, the 
 literary ubiquitous Duke of Argyll on the Preservation of the Jews. The only pa- 
 per we have not ventured to look at is the last, in the dread that on this question 
 the versatile Duke might be found, as in the matter of the Scottish Church, verify- 
 ing the French proverb — // va clie7-cher midl a qualorze heures — a work in which the 
 author of this volume is an adept, in quiet, quaint, and clever ways, however, 
 which make it interesting." 
 
 NEW YORK: JAMES MILLER.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGb; 
 VIPERS AND SNAKES GENERALLY, 7 
 
 WHITE OF SELBORNE ON THE VIPER, 10 
 
 WHITE OF SELBORNE ON SNAKES, 17 
 
 SNAKES SWALLOWING THEIR YOUNG, 23 
 
 SNAKES SWALLOWING THEIR YOUNG, 25 
 
 SNAKES CHARMING BIRDS, 30 
 
 Mr. FRANK BUCKLAND ON ENGLISH SNAKES, .... 31 
 
 Mr. GOSSE on THE JAMAICA BOA SWALLOWING HER YOUNG, . 33 
 
 AMERICAN SNAKES, 36 
 
 AMERICAN SCIENCE CONVENTION ON SNAKES, ... 36 
 
 CHARLES WATERTON AS A NATURALIST 39 
 
 ROMANISM 49 
 
 JOHN STUART MILL : A STUDY. 
 
 HIS RELIGION, 69 
 
 HIS EDUCATION, 82 
 
 « *' A CRISIS IN HIS HISTORY, ... 90 
 HIS WIFE, 97 
 
 " " MILL AND SON 105 
 
 SIMSON'S HISTORY OF THE GIPSIES, in 
 
 Mr. BORROW ON THE GIPSIES, 112 
 
 THE SCOTTISH CHURCHES AND THE SOCIAL EMANCIPATION 
 
 OF THE GIPSIES, 150 
 
 WAS JOHN BUNYAN A GIPSY? 157 
 
 THE DUKE OF ARGYLL ON THE PRESERVATION OF THE 
 
 JEWS, 161 
 
 INDEX, .... * . 171 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 I. JOHN BUNYAN AND THE GIPSIES, 183 
 
 11. Mr. FRANK BUCKLAND AND WHITE OF SELBORNE, . 187 
 
 in. Mr. frank BUCKLAND ON THE VIPER 192 
 
 IV. THE ENDOWMENT OF RESEARCH 199
 
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