[140] Nearly 2,000 miles.
[141] “Yog,” the English gipsy word for fire; the Norwegian gipsy being “jag.”
[142] “An account of the Gipsies of Norway,” both editions, of 1850 and 1852, are exactly the same in title, number of pages, and contents. We had not seen the first edition of 1850 until after page 13 of this work was printed.
[143] We have been told that the Norwegian gipsy is sometimes called an “earth-digger.” Possibly at times, in winter, they may shelter themselves in holes as some of the gipsies do in Transylvania. We have only been able to ascertain one instance of “gipsy earth dwellings” in England. Our informant, now advanced in life, remembers, when shooting in the winter, about the year 1818, on Finchley common, near London, to have seen excavations in the common used as dwellings by gipsies. One kind of earth-dwelling, he remembers, was formed by sinking a deep hole, from the bottom of which an excavation made at right angles served the gipsies for sleeping purposes. Another kind of earth-dwelling he then remembers was an oblong excavation, at no very great depth, below the surface of the soil, having an arched covering above ground formed with branches cut from the pollard oaks near, and covered with turf. In a paper read before the Anthropological Society of London, by Dr. R. S. Charnock, F.S.A., F.R.G.S., on the 4th May, 1866, entitled “The peoples of Transylvania,” an interesting account is given of the gipsies inhabiting that country. Dr. Charnock says that the gipsies of Transylvania ordinarily dwell in tents in the summer, and their winter habitation are holes in the earth which they excavate for the purpose. The holes are usually from eight to twelve feet deep. Dr. Charnock also says that many of the gipsies have fixed habitations in Transylvania, and keep wine shops and public-houses. The dwellings are usually situate on the outskirts of a town or village. Some dwell in the suburb of the capital of Vásárhely. A little hill outside the town of Klausenberg is covered with gipsy dwellings. The located gipsies are generally honest, and their females virtuous. Many of the located gipsies are skilled in music. Dr. Charnock states that the number of gipsies in Transylvania is variously estimated at 78,923 and 60,000.
[144] Our enquiries incline us to believe that in England gipsies usually seek the baptismal rite for their children, and that their dead are generally buried in consecrated ground. On some occasions the attendance at a funeral has been large, and a tomb or grave-stone erected to the memory of the gipsy who sometimes was said to be a gipsy king, as, for instance, James Boswell, buried at Rossington, near Doncaster, 1708-9; also the instance of a gipsy said to be a gipsy king mentioned in “Notes and Queries” as having been buried at West Winch, Norfolk. In the “Gentleman’s Magazine” mention is made of Henry Boswell, said to be a gipsy king, who died in affluent circumstances, and was buried in 1687, at the parish of Wittering. We are also informed that a grave-stone marks the grave of a gipsy in the churchyard of Winchcombe, Gloucestershire. In the churchyard of Calne, Wiltshire, a handsome tomb was erected to the memory of Inverto Boswell, said to have been the son of a gipsy king, who was buried there, 1774. In “Notes and Queries,” series 4, vol. 4, page 206, it is stated that a grave-stone erected on the grave of a gipsy buried in the churchyard of Coggeshall, Essex, has the following inscription:—
“In
Memory of
Cassello Chilcott,
Who died in this Parish,
Sept. 29, 1842,
Aged 28 Years.
Cassello Chilcott truly was my name,
I never brought my friends to grief or shame;
Yet I have left them to lament. But why
Lament for death? ’Tis gain in Christ to die!”
We could cite many other instances, if space permitted; and we believe that the non-burial of their dead in consecrated ground in England has occurred only under very exceptional circumstances.
[145] Gipsies have occasionally attained to a very advanced period of life. Margaret Finch, who, during the greater part of her life, wandered over England, at length settled at Norwood, and died at the age of 109. Her fame as a fortune-teller brought many visitors to her camp to consult her, and she had the title of queen of the gipsies. She was buried at the parish of Beckenham, in Kent, on the 24 Oct., 1740. Her funeral was said to be attended by two mourning coaches, a funeral sermon was preached on the occasion, and a great concourse of people attended her funeral. It is stated in “Dugdale’s England and Wales,” that, from the habit of sitting on the ground with her chin resting on her knees, her sinews at length became so contracted, she could not rise from that posture, and after her death they were obliged to enclose her body in a deep square box. At an inn called the “Gipsy House,” at Norwood, her picture adorned the sign-post. Another instance is that of “Liddy the Gipsy,” who not many years since wandered through Radnorshire and the adjoining counties. She is said to have danced at a wedding at the age of 100. Towards the close of her life, she travelled with a knife-grinder, sleeping at the towns on her route. She was of active, restless, blithesome temperament, and was lost in a snow drift whilst crossing through Radnor Forest, at the age, it was said, of 104. We afterwards questioned one of her people, and he said she was only 102.
[146] A dot over the n denotes a nasal, as in French, mon, bon.
[147] This government proclamation is noticed by the Rev. Frederick Medcalfe in “The Oxonian in Thelemarken,” vol. 1, page 160, who says—“I make a point in all these spots of examining any printed notice that I may come across as being likely to throw light on the country and its institutions. Here, for instance, is a government ordinance of 1855 about the Fantefolk, otherwise Tatare or gipsies. From this I learn that some fifteen hundred of these Bedouins are moving about the kingdom, with children, who, like themselves, have never had Christian baptism or Christian instruction. They are herewith invited to settle down, and the government promises to afford them help for this purpose; otherwise, they will still be called ‘gipsies,’ and be persecuted in various ways.”