[110] There are a number of small landed proprietors in the hilly parts of Kinross-shire; hence the appellation of Brae-laird.
[111] It is interesting to notice such rencounters between these pretty, genteel-looking Gipsies and the ordinary natives. The denouement, in this instance, might have been a marriage, and the plantation of a colony of Gipsies among the Braes of Kinross-shire. The same might have happened in the case of the other lady Wilson, with the adjutant at Stirling, or with one of his acquaintances.—Ed.
[112] Vol. ii., page 17.
[113] Golbery’s Travels, translated by Francis Blagden. Vol. i, page 158.
[114] What is said here is, of course, applicable to a class, only, of the Gipsies. Our author need not have gone so very far away from home, for instances of theft and robbery being, under certain circumstances, deemed honourable. Both were, at one time, followed in Scotland, when all practised
“The good old rule, the simple plan,
That they should take who have the power,
And they should keep who can.”
See [Disquisition] on the Gipsies.—Ed.
[115] Asiatic Researches, vol. vii., pages 189 and 193.
[116] Dr. James Grieve’s translation of a Russian account of Kamtschatka, page 323.
[117] An old Gipsy told me that he had seen one of the principal chiefs, dressed like a gentleman, travelling in a post-chaise, for the purpose of attending fairs.