[68]. Mr. Marsden first made inquiries among the English Gipsies concerning their language.—Vide Archæologia, vol. ii. p. 382–386. Mr. Coxe communicated a vocabulary of words used by those of Hungary.—See the same vol. of the Archæologia, p. 387. Vocabularies of the German Gipsies may be seen in Grellman’s Book. Any person wishing to be convinced of this similarity of language, and being possessed of a vocabulary of words used in Hindostan, may be satisfied of its truth by conversing with the first Gipsey he meets.
[69]. Margaret Finch, a celebrated modern adventuress, was buried October 24, 1740, at Beckenham, in Kent. This remarkable person lived to the age of 109 years. She was one of the people called Gipsies, and had the title of their queen. After travelling over various parts of the kingdom, during the greater part of a century, she settled at Norwood, a place notorious for vagrants of this description, whither her great age and the fame of her fortune-telling, attracted numerous visitors. From a habit of sitting on the ground, with her chin resting on her knees, the sinews at length became so contracted, that she could not rise from that posture. After her death they were obliged to inclose her body in a deep square box. Her funeral was attended by two mourning coaches, a sermon was preached on the occasion; and a great concourse of people attended the ceremony.
There is an engraved portrait of Margaret Finch, from a drawing made in 1739. Her picture adorned the sign of a house of public entertainment in Norwood, called the Gipsey house, which was situated in a small green, in a valley, surrounded by woods. On this green, a few families of Gipsies used to pitch their tents, during the summer season. In winter they either procure lodgings in London, or take up their abode in barns, in some of the more distant counties. In a cottage that adjoined the Gipsey house, lived an old woman, granddaughter of Queen Margaret, who inherited her title. She was niece of Queen Budget, who was buried (see Lysons, vol i. p. 107.) at Dulwich, in 1768. Her rank seemed, however, to be merely titular; nor do we find that the gipsies paid her any particular respect, or that she differed in any other manner than that of being a householder, from the rest of her tribe.—
[70]. A private dwelling house.
[71]. The woods, hedges or bushes.
[72]. His wench, &c.
[73]. Clothes.
[74]. Hens.
[75]. Turkies.
[76]. Young Pigs.