Milnes.
In other ways, really in every way, excepting where met by laws which can be neither broken nor circumvented, gypsies live their own life apart, and whether in childhood they have, or have not received education with non-gypsy children, they have, as adults, all the apparently ineradicable and unchangeable Romany attributes and tastes, with physical powers well developed by the simple, open-air life, and although they are not subjected to the same mental exercises as many of the town dwellers, some of their faculties become highly developed, and by no means always in an undesirable direction.
A gypsy might not show to advantage if questioned on abstruse scientific matters, but he would be able to gain a good living and realize comfort in places where his scientific master would perish miserably from starvation; he would be able to point out a hare or a rabbit at such a distance that it would be an unrecognizable speck in the landscape to a keen-eyed gorgio. Comparisons of this nature might be multiplied ad libitum, but while it would be both foolish and unfair to attempt to belittle the achievements of the city worker or scholar, it must be admitted that they very frequently gain immensely in one direction but lose heavily in the other.
The gypsy appreciates—often unconsciously, perhaps—the glorious colouring at rise or set of sun, he loves the daybreak music of waking Nature and the voices of the night; but all too often, it is to be feared, his brother of the town looks upon Nature as putting up a very poor show in comparison with the scenic display and the orchestral work of his favourite house of entertainment.
CHAPTER VIII
TIME sped on apace,—as to the occupied mind it ever has,—and, before I fully realized how quickly the weeks had slipped by, I found myself bound for the Mecca of many a Romanichal and home-dweller alike,—the hop country.
As the majority of my Romany friends were to be found in the Hampshire gardens rather than in those of Kent, I directed my steps to the picturesque district in the vicinity of Alton, and soon discovered that families with whom I was acquainted were located at two encampments some four or five miles apart, to say nothing of the separated sections of each encampment.