I have spoken of Mr. Leland’s “confident assertions,” but I have space merely to allude to some of them. Among these are the following:—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 invader 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” (p. 34); and that there is hardly a travelling company of dancers, musicians, singers, or acrobats, or theatre “in Europe or America in which there is not at least one person with some Romany blood” (p. 332). This at least is common, I dare say very common. On one occasion I looked over the show-bill while in MS. of an English Gipsy company who travelled in America with a small panorama. [19a]
The conclusion which I drew of Mr. Leland after reading his Cyclopædia article was that, apart from the language, he knew little of the subject of the Gipsies. The knowledge of the language has given him the entrée 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” generally, he disposes of it by saying that “the child is perhaps born who will see the last Gipsy.” [19b]
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 acknowledgment of it in any way. Even on the subject of the tinkers in England, he—so far as he may be considered an authority—has confirmed what I said of their being Gipsies of mixed blood:—“These are but instances of, I might say, all the English tinkers. Almost every old countrywoman about the Scottish Border knows that the Scottish tinkers are Gipsies” (p. 508). He also speaks 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 articles in the early part of 1858, in which the outline of the History of the Gipsies was given; so that the question of Bunyan’s nationality has been before “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 discovered 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, saying nothing of the press. I also think that I have embraced almost all, if not all, of the principles connected with the existence and perpetuation of the race; so that others in discussing them should ‘comment on and admit or reject’ what I have advanced, and I think proved, in place of putting forth opinions apparently without due investigation” (p. 14).—“His illustrations of their language, in common with those of other writers, are very interesting, . . . and the occasional, as if accidental, remarks made by the Gipsies, at intervals, bearing on the Gipsy question 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 those and his turn for 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 exercise the intellect to discover and explain what is not obvious or hidden, and illustrate 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 attractive (if it can ever be made attractive) 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 useful 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 knowledge of the science of race, in the essential 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 ‘all about the Gipsies,’ why do they so persistently 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).
With all his professed candour in regard to all who have written on the subject of the Gipsies, and cooperating with his “colleagues” in connection with it, why did Mr. Leland not take it up from where it was left by me, and used by him for his article in Johnson’s Cyclopædia! In place of amusing the world with the fictions that the Gipsy race is disappearing as “British birds are chasing American ones out of Philadelphia,” and that “the child is perhaps born who will see the last Gipsy,” he might have assisted me 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 allowed 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, The Gipsies, taking it all in all, is an interesting book, and deserves to be well read. [21]
ADVERTISEMENTS.
Ever since entering Great Britain, about the year 1506, the Gipsies have been drawing into their body the blood of the ordinary inhabitants and conforming to their ways; and so prolific has the race been, that there cannot be less than 250,000 Gipsies of all castes, colours, characters, occupations, degrees of education, culture, and position in life, in the British Isles alone, and possibly double that number. There are many of the same race in the 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. John Bunyan, the author of the celebrated Pilgrim’s Progress, was one of this singular people, as will be conclusively shown in the present work. The philosophy of the existence of the Jews, since the dispersion, will 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 readers, being a subject unique, distinct from, and unknown to, the rest of 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 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.