On being asked what gold was in their language, they replied without hesitation, sonnaka, and immediately added, silver was roop.
The opinion which has been entertained, that Gypsey language was composed only of cant terms, or of what has been denominated the slang of beggars, has probably been much promoted and strengthened by the dictionary contained in a pamphlet entitled, “The Life and Adventures of Bampfylde Moore Carew.” It consists for the most part of English words, vamped up apparently not so much for the purpose of concealment, as burlesque. Even if used by this people at all, the introduction of this cant, as the genuine language of the community of Gypsies, is a gross imposition on the public.
One of the women said, the education of their children was to be desired, but their travelling from place to place was against it.—A young man among them said, there were a
hundred of their people in Staffordshire. This gang was intelligent as well as communicative, and gave proof of more civility than is commonly attributed to Gypsies.
The author also visited Norwood, which was formerly a principal rendezvous of the Gypsies. This village, near Croydon, in Surry, is situated on a fine hill, and is a wildly rural spot; but having been considerably inclosed of late years, it is not now much frequented by the Gypsies.
John Westover, deputy of James Furnell, constable of Norwood, stated, that about two months before, the Gypsies in that neighbourhood had been apprehended as vagrants, and sent in three coaches to prison. This account was confirmed by Edward Morris, the landlord at the Gypsey house. It did not appear that these Gypsies were committed for depredations on property, but merely on the vagrant act.
Gypsies being routed, as it is termed, in this manner, from various parts of the south, may probably have occasioned their appearing in greater numbers in the northern parts of the
nation. The writer of this section being at Scarborough, in the bathing season of 1815, had intelligence of there being, at the same time, an encampment of Gypsies at Boroughbridge, another at Knaresborough, and a third at Pocklington, in the east-riding of Yorkshire.
On returning from Scarborough, he was told by an acquaintance at Tadcaster, that a gang of about twenty Gypsies, were just gone from the neighbourhood, after telling fortunes to most of the people in the town. The same summer, a numerous horde had been driven from the township of Rotherham; and there had been two encampments in the neighbourhood of Sheffield.
The winter before the last, severe as it was, a gang of about fifty or sixty, lay upon Bramley Moor, three miles from Chesterfield. This information was received from Joseph Storrs of Chesterfield, who has been an assiduous coadjutor. From the same authority, the writer learns, that a number of Gypsies usually came to Duckmanton, near Chesterfield, at the feast, who appear to be in pretty good reputation in