[271] Mr. Borrow mentions, in the twenty-second chapter of the “Bible in Spain,” having met several cavalry soldiers from Granada, Gipsies incog. who were surprised at being discovered to be Gipsies. They had been impressed, but carried on a trade in horses, in league with the captain of their company. They said: “We have been to the wars, but not to fight; we left that to the Busné. We have kept together, and like true Caloré, have stood back to back. We have made money in the wars.”
[272] It would seem that the law in Spain, in regard to the Gipsies, stands pretty much where it did—that is, the people are, in a sense, tolerated, but that the use of their language is prohibited, as may be gathered from an incident mentioned in the ninth chapter of the “Bible in Spain,” by Mr. Borrow.
[273] Paget says these tinkers leave their women and children at home when on their travels. That is not customary with the tribe, although it may be their habit in the Austrian dominions.
[274] “I was one of these verminous ones, one of these great sin-breeders; I infected all the youth of the town where I was born with all manner of youthful vanities. The neighbours counted me so; my practice proved me so: wherefore Christ Jesus took me first, and taking me first, the contagion was much allayed all the town over.”—Bunyan.
[275] “Grand was the repose of his lofty brow, dark eye, and aspect of soft and melancholy meaning. It was a face from which every evil and earthly passion seemed purged. A deep gravity lay upon his countenance, which had the solemnity, without the sternness, of one of our old reformers. You could almost fancy a halo completing its apostolic character.”
[276] Burns alludes to this family, thus: “Passed through the most glorious corn country I ever saw, till I reached Dunbar, a neat little town. Dine with Provost Fall, an eminent merchant, and most respectable character, but indescribable, as he exhibits no marked traits. Mrs. Fall, a genius in painting; fully more clever in the fine arts and sciences than my friend Lady Wauchope, without her consummate assurance of her own abilities.”—Life of Burns, by Robert Chambers.
The crest of the Falls, of Dunbar, was three boars’ heads, couped; that of Baillie, of Lamington, is one boar’s head, couped. In the Statistical Account of Scotland, (1835,) appears the following notice of this family: “A family, of the name of Fall, established themselves at Dunbar, and became, during the last century, the most extensive merchants in Scotland. They were long the chief magistrates of the burgh, and preferred the public good to their own profit. They have left no one to bear their name, not even a stone to tell where they lie; but they will long be remembered for their enterprise and public spirit.” There is apparently a reason for “not even a stone being left to tell where they lie;” for in Hoyland’s “Survey of the Gipsies” appeared the account of Baillie Smith, in which it is said: “The descendants of Faa now take the name of Fall, from the Messrs. Fall, of Dunbar, who, they pride themselves in saying, are of the same stock and lineage;” which seems to have frightened their connexions at being known to be Gipsies.
Let all that has been said of the Falls be considered as their monument and epitaph; so that their memories may be preserved as long as this work exists.
It would be interesting to know who the Captain Fall was, who visited Dunbar, with an American ship-of-war, during the time of Paul Jones. He might have been a descendant of a Gipsy, sent to the plantations, in the olden times. There are, as I have said before, a great many scions of Gipsy Faas, under one name or other, scattered over the world.
[277] Whipping the cat: Tailoring from house to house. The cat is whipped by females, as well as males, in America, in some parts of which the expression is current.