The older Gypsey children assist their parents in their trades; a few of the younger go to school during winter. Most of those who have children, are desirous of their receiving an education; though but few have the means of procuring it.
They complain of the scarcity of work; and in some instances appear to be distressed for want of it; the more so, as their ideas of independence prevent their applying to parishes for assistance.—It is much to their credit, that so few instances occur of their begging in London. In the minutes of evidence before the Committee of the House of Commons, on mendicity, there is only one example of a Gypsey girl begging in the streets.
Some of the women go in a morning to principal houses in the squares, before the heads of the families have risen, and tell fortunes to the servants, from whom they obtain sixpence or a shilling each.
A few of the Gypsies continue all the year in London, excepting their attendance of fairs in the vicinity. Others, when work is scarce, go out twenty or thirty miles round the metropolis, carrying their implements with them on asses; and support themselves by the employment they obtain in the towns and villages through which they pass; and assist sometimes in hay-making, and plucking hops, in the counties of Kent, Surry, and Sussex.
Among those who have winter-quarters in London, there are a few that take circuits of great extent. Some of them mentioned going through Herts into Suffolk, then crossing Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire to Herefordshire, Monmouthshire, Bristol, &c. Others spoke of being at Yarmouth, Portsmouth, South Wales, Wiltshire, &c.
There is reason to think, the greatest part of the Island is traversed in different directions, by hordes of Gypsies.
For the purpose of comparing the language of English Gypsies with that of the Continental, exhibited in Section VIII, the following list of
words was sent to James Corder, Broadstreet, Bloomsbury. He obtained from the Gypsies in his neighbourhood, the translation affixed to them.
| English. | Gypsey. |
| One | Yake |
| Two | Duèe |
| Three | Trin |
| Four | Stor |
| Five | Pan |
| Ten | Dyche |
| Head | Charro |
| Eyes | Yock |
| Nose | Nack |
| Bread | Mor |
| Bread & butter | Kil-môr |
| Beer | Limbar |
| Hair | Bâlo. |
| Cold day | Shil-dewes |
| Hot day | Tal-dewes |
| Ear | Kau |
| Day | Dewes |
| Night | Raut |
| White | Parnau |
| Sheep | Bolko |
| Hog | Borlo |
| Fish | Marcho |
| House | Kare |
| Gold | Sonnekar |
| Silver | Rupe |
| Dog | Jukou |
| Horse | Grarre |
When it is known that Gypsies are unacquainted with letters, and that James Corder, who took from the mouths of those in the parish called St. Giles, the preceding Gypsey