The Catholic World Volume Iii Part 126

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It is not certain when they first appeared in Great Britain; but they were in Scotland at least as early as 1506 in which year they so far imposed upon King James IV., that his majesty addressed a letter of commendation to the King of Denmark, in favor of "Anthonius Gawino, Earl of Little Egypt, and the other afflicted and lamentable tribe of his retinue," who, having been "pilgriming" by command of the pope, over the Christian world, were now anxious to cross the ocean into Denmark. "But," concluded the Scottish monarch, with beautiful simplicity, "we believe that the fates, manners, and race of the wandering Egyptians are better known to thee than to us, because Egypt is nearer thy kingdom." We see from this that the vagabonds still kept up the fiction of a penitential pilgrimage, though it must have seemed a long seven years' wandering which, beginning about 1417, was not finished in 1506. In 1540 a still more remarkable doc.u.ment appears on record, being nothing less than a sort of league or treaty between James V. and his "loved John Faw, Lord and Earl of Little Egypt,"

whereby the officers of the realm were commanded to a.s.sist the said John Faw "in execution of justice upon his company and folk, conform to the laws of Egypt, and in punishing of all them that rebel against him." But this state of things did not last long. James, as we all know, liked to go a masquerading now and then, in the character of "the Gaberlunzie Man," [Footnote 175] or "the Guid Man of Ballangiegh," and on one occasion, while in this dignified disguise, he fell in with a gang of gipsies carousing in a cave, near Wemyss, in Fifeshire. His majesty heartily joined in the revels; but before long a scuffle ensued, in the course of which one of the men "came crack over the royal head with a bottle." Nor was this indignity enough, for suspecting that the "guid man" was a spy, the trampers treated him with the utmost harshness, and when they resumed their march compelled him to go along with them, loaded with their budgets and wallets, and leading an a.s.s. The king pa.s.sed several days in this disgusting captivity, but at length found an opportunity to send a boy with a written message to some of his n.o.bles at Falkland. He was then rescued. Two of the gipsies he caused to be hanged at once; a third, who had treated him with some kindness, he let go free; and he caused an edict to be published banishing the whole race from the kingdom under penalty of death. James died the next year, however, and the edict was never enforced; nor were subsequent laws, of equal severity, able either to got the gipsies out of the country or to check their wandering and thievish propensities. A great many of the race attached themselves, nominally as clansmen, to chieftains and n.o.blemen, who were willing and able to afford them protection. But a great many were nevertheless hanged merely for being "by habit and repute Egyptians."

So they got to look upon themselves as a persecuted race. They learned to deny their origin, to keep their language a secret, and to resent with all the savage fierceness of their fiery natures, the slightest attempt on the part of the "gorgios," (as they called the Europeans among whom they had cast their lot) to pry into the hidden mysteries of gipsy life.

[Footnote 175: i.e. "Ragged begger."]

In this country we know little about gipsies except what we have learned from novels, and from those curious books by Mr. Borrow, on the gipsies of Spain, in which tact and fiction are so strangely blended that it is difficult to tell them apart. The gipsy, to the average American mind, is a dark-featured woman in a red skirt, and with a shawl drawn over her head; who tells fortunes and steals little babies; who lives in a tent and cooks her meals in the open air, with the aid of an iron pot suspended from two crossed sticks. And the picture is not very far from the truth after all; for all the actions it paints, the gipsies have many a time performed. {706} Child-stealing, however, they are not so much given to as we commonly suppose; for they have too many children of their own to indulge in such a costly luxury; nor do many of them profess palmistry, although the few who do lay claim to a knowledge of the mysterious art drive a thriving business in it. We purpose to collect from Mr. Simson's book on account of the Scottish gipsies as he found them; but we ought to warn our readers that the author wrote many years ago, and that the progress of society in Scotland has made great changes in the condition of the tribe. If wandering gipsies, however, are not so numerous as they were, and if they do not practice their peculiar arts and customs so openly as they formerly did, they are very far from being extinct; and, according to Mr. James Simson, have merely carried unsuspected, into the bosom of orderly and respectable society, the vagabond propensities, itching palms, savagery, wickedness, appet.i.te for loathsome carca.s.ses--nay, even that dark unwritten language, spoken by none but a gipsy of the true blood--which characterized them in the days of Meg Merrilies or the Gaberlunzie man.

The Scottish gipsies almost always traversed the country in bands of twenty, thirty, or more, though so many were seldom seen together on the road. While travelling they broke up into parties of twos and threes, having according to all appearance no connection with each other, and at night they used to meet in some spot previously agreed upon. It was not their general custom to sleep in tents. They preferred for their lodgings deserted kilns, or barns or out-houses.

The usual way was for one of the women to precede them, if possible with a child in her arms, and coax from some tender-hearted farmer permission to shelter herself for the night in one of the farm buildings. When the family awoke in the morning they were pretty sure to find the one miserable vagrant surrounded by a gang of st.u.r.dy trampers, and some twenty or thirty a.s.ses tethered on the green. For twenty-four hours after their arrival they expected to receive food gratis from the family on whose land they halted. After that, no matter how long they remained, they provided for themselves. The farmers generally found it for their interest to treat the gipsies kindly, for these curious people never robbed their entertainers. A farmer's wife whom Mr. Simson knew, on granting the customary privilege of lodging to one of the tribe, added by way of caution: "But ye must not steal anything from me then." "We'll no play any tricks on you, mistress," was the reply; "but others will pay for that." The men of the band seldom or never set foot within the door of the farmhouse, but kept aloof from observation. They employed themselves in repairing broken china, and utensils of copper, bra.s.s, and pewter; and making horn spoons, wool-cards, smoothing-irons, and sole-clouts for ploughs, which the women then disposed of. A good deal of their time was pa.s.sed in athletic exercises. They were famous leapers and cudgel players, and despite their instinct of retirement they could rarely resist a temptation "to throw the hammer," cast the putting-stone, or beat the farm laborers at quoits, golf, and other games. They were musicians, too, and their skill with the violin and the bagpipes often a.s.sured them a night's lodging or a hearty welcome at fairs, weddings, and other country merry-makings. Working in horn was their favorite and most ancient occupation, and such was the care they bestowed upon it that one tribe could always distinguish the handiwork of another. Their devotion to the art of tinkering obtained for them the name of Tinklers, by which they are generally known in Scotland. They were also great horse-dealers, or, what in their case meant very nearly the same thing, horse-thieves. They were not scrupulous as to how they obtained {707} the animals, but they were rare hands at selling them to advantage, though when a customer trusted to their honor many of them would serve him with strict honesty.

The women concerned themselves in domestic cares and in helping the men to sell the articles they had made. It was the women who managed all their intercourse with the farmers and other country people, and who did most of the begging. In this art they displayed an apt.i.tude which partook of the character of genius. They never closed a bargain without demanding a present of victuals and drink, which they called "boont.i.th"; and as they were ready enough to take by foul means what they could not get by fair, the closest-fisted housewife in Scotland seldom resisted their importunities very long. The fortune-telling, of course, fell to the women.

But petty larceny, after all, was their princ.i.p.al means of support.

They were expert pickpockets and daring riflers of hen-roosts. The bolder spirits rose to the dignity of highwaymen, coiners, and cattle thieves. The children were trained from infancy to thievish pursuits, and almost every gipsy encampment was a school of practice like that kept by f.a.gin the Jew, to which poor little Oliver Twist was introduced by the Artful Dodger. When legitimate business was dull, they picked each other's pockets in a friendly way, just for the sake of keeping their hands in. Sometimes a pair of breeches was hung aloft by a string, and the children were required to abstract money from the pockets without moving the garments. If the young rascal succeeded, he was praised and rewarded; if he failed, he was beaten. Having pa.s.sed through this stage of his probation, the neophyte was admitted to a higher degree. A purse was laid down in an exposed part of the encampment, in plain view of all the gang, and while the older members were busied in their daily pursuits, the children exercised all their ingenuity and patience to carry off the purse without being perceived.

The instructor in this training-school was generally a woman. By the time he was ten years old, the gipsy boy was thought fit to be let loose upon the community, and became a member of an organized band of thieves. The captains, whose dignity was usually hereditary, dressed well, carried themselves gallantly, and could not be taken for what they really were, especially as they never showed themselves in the company of their men. The inferior thieves travelled to fairs, singly, or at most two together, and as fast as they collected their booty repaired with it to the headquarters of their chief. This latter personage always had some ostensible business--such as that of a horse dealer--and it was easy for the gang to communicate with him under cover of a bargain, without arousing suspicion! For ripping pockets open they had a short steel blade attached to a piece of leather, like a sail-maker's palm, and concealed under their sleeves; or the women wore upon their forefingers large rings containing sharp steel instruments which were made to dart forth by the pressure of a spring, when the hand was closed. Of the dexterity of these light-fingered gentry Mr. Simson tells the following story:

"A princ.i.p.al male gipsy, of a very respectable appearance, whose name it is unnecessary to mention, happened, on a market day, to be drinking in a public house, with several farmers with whom he was well acquainted. The party observed from the window a countryman purchase something at a stand in the market, and, after paying for it, thrust his purse into his watch-pocket, in the band of his breeches. One of the company remarked that it would be a very difficult matter to rob the cautious man of his purse, without being detected. The gipsy immediately offered to bet two bottles of wine that he would rob the man of his purse, in the open and public market, without being perceived by him. The bet was taken, and the gipsy proceeded about the difficult and delicate business. Going up to the unsuspecting man, he requested as a particular favor, if he would ease the stock about his neck, which buckled behind--an article of dress at that time in {708} fashion. The countryman most readily agreed to oblige the stranger gentleman--as he supposed him to be. The gipsy, now stooping down, to allow his stock to be adjusted, placed his head against the countryman's, stomach, and, pressing it forward a little, he reached down one hand, under the pretense of adjusting his shoe, while the other was employed in extracting the farmer's purse. The purse was immediately brought into the company, and the cautious, unsuspecting countryman did not know of his loss, till he was sent for, and had his property returned to him."

At one time the gipsies had all Scotland divided into districts, each of which was a.s.signed to a particular tribe, and wo to the Tinkler who attempted to plunder within the limits of any other territory than his own! The chieftains issued tokens to the members of their respective hordes when they scattered themselves over the face of the country, and these tokens protected the bearers within their proper districts.

A safe-guard from the Baillie family, who held a royal rank among the gipsies, was good all over Scotland.

Besides their common Scottish Christian and surnames, they had names in their own language, as well as various pseudonyms which they a.s.sumed from time to time in different parts of the country. When they were travelling they used to take new names every morning, and retain them till money was received in one way or another by every member of the company, or at least until noon-tide; for they considered it unlucky to set out out on a journey under their own names.

They appear never to have at a loss for "the best of eating and drinking," and might sometimes be seen seated at their dinner on the sward, and pa.s.sing about their wine, for all the world like gentlemen.

Sir Walter Scott's father was once forced to accept the hospitality of a party of gipsies carousing on a moor, and found them supplied with "all the varieties of game, poultry, pigs, and so forth." That rich and savory decoction known to the modern cuisine as _potage a la Meg Merrilies de Derncleugh_, is a soup of gipsy invention, composed of many kinds of game and poultry boiled together. Their style of cookery seems rather barbarous, but we must admit that it is admirably adapted to the wants of a rude and barbarous people, among whom ovens, spits, pots, and stew-pans are unknown and often unattainable luxuries. To cook a fowl, they wind a strong rope of straw tightly around the body of the bird, just as it has been killed, with its feathers on and its entrails untouched. It is then covered with hot peat ashes, and a slow fire is kept up around it till it is sufficiently done. When taken out, the half-burnt straw and feathers peel off like a sh.e.l.l, and those who have tasted the food thus prepared, say it is very palatable. One advantage the method certainly has: it affords a safe way of cooking a stolen fowl unperceived. Meat is roasted in a similar manner. The flesh is covered with a wrapping of rags, and then encased in well-wrought clay. Being now covered with hot ashes or turned before a fire, it stews in its own juices, which, being saved from escape by the clay, combine with the rags, Mr. Simson says, to form a thick sauce or gravy. A gipsy has a keen zest for this juicy dish; but we doubt whether most people would devour it with a very good appet.i.te. Their favorite viand of all, however, can certainly not be relished outside of the tribe. This is a kind of mutton called _braxy_, being nothing less than the flesh of a sheep which has died of a certain disease. It has a _sharp_ flavor which tickles their palates amazingly. So fond of it are they, that Mr. Simson attributes the great number of gipsies in Tweed-dale partly to the abundance of sheep in that district, and the consequent plenty of braxy. "The flesh of a beast which G.o.d kills," say the gipsies, "must be better than that of one which man kills." Nevertheless they are not loath, on occasion, to take the killing into their own hands, by stuffing wool down a sheep's throat, so that {709} it may die as if by disease; and then they beg the carca.s.s from the owner.

As far as can be ascertained, the gipsies have no religious sentiments whatever, so that an old proverb runs: "The gipsy church was built of lard and the dogs ate it." They have a word in their language for devil, but none for G.o.d. Of late years it has been common for them to have their children baptized, and sometimes they attend the service which seems to be most in repute in the place where they happen to be; but this is only because they do not want to be known as gipsies. They marry very young, seldom remaining single beyond the age of twenty.

Their courtship used to be performed somewhat after the Tartar fashion, the most approved way of getting a wife being to steal one; not that the girl was unwilling, but they seemed to have a natural propensity to carry their dishonest practices into all the relations of life. One Matthew Baillie, a celebrated chieftain of the tribe in the latter part of the 18th century used to say that the toughest battle he ever fought (and he fought many) was when he stole his bride from her mother. The ceremonies of marriage are very curious, and also, we must add, very disgusting. The marital relation seems to have been on the whole pretty well respected, though there is an old reprobate named George Drummond, mentioned in Mr. Simson's book, who used to travel about the country with a number of wives in his company, and chastise them with a cudgel, so that the blood followed every blow. Sometimes, after he had knocked them senseless to the ground, he would call out to them, "What the deevil are ye fighting at--can ye no' 'gree? I'm sure there's no sae mony o' ye!" Divorces, however were very common, and were attended with great parade and many curious ceremonies. The act of separation took place over the body of a horse sacrificed for the occasion. The rites were performed if possible at noon, "when the sun was at his height." A priest for the nonce was chosen by lot, and the horse, which must be without blemish and in no manner of way lame, was then led forth.

"The priest, with a long pole or staff in his hand, [Footnote 176]

walks round and round the animal several times; repeating the names of all the persons in whose possession it has been, and extolling and expatiating on the rare qualities of so useful an animal. It is now let loose, and driven from their presence to do whatever it pleases. The horse, perfect and free, is put into the room of the woman who is to be divorced; and by its different movements is the degree of her guilt ascertained. Some of the gipsies now set off in pursuit of it, and endeavor to catch it. If it is wild and intractable, kicks, leaps d.y.k.es and ditches, scampers about and will not allow itself to be easily taken hold of, the crimes and guilt of the woman are looked upon as numerous and heinous. If the horse is tame and docile, when it is pursued, and suffers itself to be taken without much trouble, and without exhibiting many capers, the guilt of the woman is not considered so deep and aggravated; and it is then sacrificed in her stead. But if it is extremely wild and vicious, and cannot be taken without infinite trouble, her crimes are considered exceedingly wicked and atrocious; and my informant said instances occurred in which both horse and woman were sacrificed at the same time; the death of the horse, alone, being then considered insufficient to atone for her excessive guilt. The individuals who catch the course bring it before the priest. They repeat to him all the faults and tricks it had committed; laying the whole of the crimes of which the woman is supposed to have been guilty to its charge; and upbraiding and scolding the dumb creature, in an angry manner, for its conduct. They bring, as it were, an accusation against it, and plead for its condemnation. When this part of the trial is finished, the priest takes a large knife and thrusts it into the heart of the horse; and its blood is allowed to flow upon the ground till life is extinct. The dead animal is now stretched out upon the ground. The husband then takes his stand on one side of it, and the wife on the other; and, holding each other by the hand, repeat certain appropriate sentences in the gipsy language. They then quit hold of each other, and walk three times round the body of the horse, contrariwise, pa.s.sing and crossing each other, at certain points, as they proceed in opposite directions. At certain parts of the animal, {710} (the _corners_ of the horse, was the gipsy's expression,) such as the hind and fore feet, the shoulders and haunches, the head and tail, the parties halt, and face each other; and again repeat sentences, in their own speech, at each time they halt. The two last stops they make, in their circuit round the sacrifice, are at the head and tail. At the head, they again face each other, and speak; and lastly, at the tail, they again confront each other, utter some more gipsy expressions, shake hands, and finally part, the one going north, the other south, never again to be united in this life. [Footnote 177] Immediately after the separation takes place, the woman receives a token, which is made of cast-iron, about an inch and a half square, with a mark upon it resembling the Roman character, T. After the marriage has been dissolved, and the woman dismissed from the sacrifice, the heart of the horse is taken out and roasted with fire, then sprinkled with vinegar, or brandy, and eaten by the husband and his friends then present; the female not being allowed to join in this part of the ceremony. The body of the horse, skin and every thing about it, except the heart, is buried on the spot; and years after the ceremony has taken place, the husband and his friends visit the grave of the animal to see whether it has been disturbed. At these visits, they walk round about the grave, with much grief and mourning.

[Footnote 176: It appears all the gipsies, male as well as female, who perform ceremonies for their tribe, carry long staffs. In the Inst.i.tutes of Menu, page 23, it is written: "The staff of a priest must be of such a length as to reach his hair; that of a soldier to reach his forehead; and that of a merchant to reach the nose."]

[Footnote 177: That I might distinctly understand the gipsy, when he described the manner of crossing and wheeling round the corners of the horse, a common sitting-chair was placed on its side between us, which represented the animal lying on the ground.]

"The husband may take another wife whenever he pleases, but the female is never permitted to marry again. [Footnote 178] The token, or rather bill of divorce, which she receives, must never be from about her person. If she loses it, or attempts to pa.s.s herself off as a woman never before married, she becomes liable to the punishment of death. In the event of her breaking this law, a council of the chiefs is held upon her conduct, and her fate is decided by a majority of the members; and if she is to suffer death, her sentence must be confirmed by the king, or princ.i.p.al leader. The culprit is then tied to a stake, with an iron chain, and there cudgelled to death. The executioners do not extinguish life at one beating, but leave the unhappy woman for a little while, and return to her, and at last complete their work by despatching her on the spot.

[Footnote 178: Bright, on the Spanish gipsies, says: "Widows never marry again, and are distinguished by mourning-veils, and black shoes made like those of a man; no slight mortification, in a country where the females are so remarkable for the beauty of their feet." It is most likely that _divorced female gipsies_ are confounded here with _widows_.--Ed.]

"I have been informed of an instance of a gipsy falling out with his wife, and, in the heat of his pa.s.sion, shooting his own horse dead on the spot with his pistol, and forthwith performing the ceremony of divorce over the animal, without allowing himself a moments's time for reflection on the subject. Some of the country-people observed the transaction, and were horrified at so extraordinary a proceeding. It was considered by them as merely a mad frolic of an enraged Tinkler. It took place many years ago, in a wild, sequestered spot between Galloway and Ayrshire."

The burial ceremonies of the tribes are not very fully described; but we are told that the funeral is, or used to be, preceded by a wake, during which furious feasting and carousing went on for several days.

In England, at one time, the gipsies burned their dead, and they still keep as close as they can to that ancient practice, by burning the clothes and some of the other effects of the deceased. It is the custom of some of them to bury the corpse with a paper cap on its head, and paper around its feet. All the rest of the body is bare except that upon the breast, opposite the heart, is placed a c.o.c.kade of red and blue ribbons.

The country people stood in dreadful awe of the savage hordes, and in many places the magistrates themselves were afraid to punish them.

Their honors did not disdain now and then to share a convivial bowl with the wandering Tinklers, and the man who sat to-day with his legs under the provost's mahogany, may have slept last night in a deserted lime-kiln, and dined yesterday off a "sharp"-flavored joint of "braxy." As we have said already, the farmers knew it was safer to be the friend of the gipsy than his enemy, for he was equally generous to those he liked, and vindictive toward those he hated. Mr. Simson tells many an anecdote of favors shown by the tribe to their neighbors and favorites. A widow who had often given shelter to a chief named Charlie Graham, was in great distress for want of money to pay her rent. Charlie lent her the amount required, then stole it back again from the agent to whom it had been pad, and gave {711} the widow a full discharge for the sum she had borrowed of him. This same Graham was hanged at last, and when asked before his execution if he had ever performed any good action to recommend him to the Mercy of G.o.d, replied that he remembered none but the incident we have just narrated. A dissolute old rogue of a gipsy, named Jamie Robertson, had been often befriended by a decent man named Robert or Robin Gray. One day a countryman pa.s.sed him on the road, and as he trudged along was singing "Auld Robin Gray," which unfortunately Jamie had never heard before. The only Robin Gray he knew of was his kind-hearted friend, and he made no doubt the song was intended as an insult. When the unconscious stranger came to the words "Auld Robin Gray was a kind man to me," the gipsy started to his feet with a volley of oaths, felled the poor man to the ground, and nearly killed him with repeated blows.

"Auld Robin Gray was a kind man to him, indeed," exclaimed Jamie in his wrath; "but it was not for him to make a song on Robin for that!"

The gipsy chieftains often gave safeguards to their particular friends, which never failed to protect them from robbery or violence at the hands of any of the gang. These pa.s.sports were generally knives, tobacco-boxes, or rings bearing some peculiar mark. To those who had ever injured them or their people, and to vagrants of another race who were found poaching on their allotted district, they were savagely vindictive. A man named Thomson, who had offended them by encroaching on one of their supposed privileges--that of gathering rags through the country, was roasted to death on his own fire.

"But the most terrible instances of gipsy ferocity were witnessed in their frequent battles among themselves--battles by the way, in which the women bore their full share of wounds and glory. It was in an engagement of this sort in the shire of Angus, where the Tinklers fought with Highland dirks, that the celebrated gipsy Lizzie Brown met with the mishap which spoiled her once comely face, and obtained for her the sobriquet of "Snippy." When her nose was struck off by the sweep of a dirk, she clapped her hand to the wound, as if little had befallen her, and cried out in the heat of the scuffle to those nearest her: "But in the middle of the meantime, where is my nose?" In the spring of the year 1772 or 1773 an awful battle was fought between two tribes at the bridge of Hawick:

"On the one side, in this battle, was the celebrated Alexander Kennedy, a handsome and athletic man, and head of his tribe. Next to him, in consideration, was little Wull Ruthven, Kennedy's father-in-law. This man was known all over the country by the extraordinary t.i.tle of the Earl of h.e.l.l, [Footnote 179] and, although he was above five feet ten inches in height, he got the appellation of Little Wull to distinguish him from Muckle William Ruthven, who was a man of uncommon stature and personal strength.

[Footnote 180] The earl's son was also in the fray. These were the chief men in Kennedy's band. Jean Ruthven, Kennedy's wife, was also present, with a great number of inferior members of the clan, males as well as females, of all ages, down to mere children. The opposite band consisted of old Rob Tait, the chieftain of his horde, Jacob Tait, young Rob Tait, and three of old Rob Tait's sons-in-law. These individuals, with Jean Gordon, old Tait's wife, and a numerous train of youths of both s.e.xes and various ages, composed the adherents of old Robert Tait. These adverse tribes were all closely connected with one another by the ties of blood. The Kennedys and Ruthvens were from the ancient burgh of Lochmaben.

[Footnote 179: This seems a favorite t.i.tle among the Tinklers. One of the name of Young, bears it at the present time. But the gipsies are not singular in these terrible t.i.tles. In the late Burmese war, we find his Burmese majesty creating one of his generals "King of h.e.l.l, Prince of Darkness."--See _Constable's Miscellany_.]

[Footnote 180: A friend, in writing me, says: "I still think I see him (Muckie Wall) bruising the charred peat over the flame of his furnace, with hands equal to two pair of hands of the modern day, while his withered and hairy shackle-bones were more like the postern joints of a sorrel cart-horse than anything else."]

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"The whole of the gipsies in the field, females as well as males, were armed with bludgeons, excepting some of the Taits, who carried cutla.s.ses and pieces of iron hoops notched and serrated on either side, like a saw, and fixed to the end of sticks. The boldest of the tribe were in front of their respective bands, with their children and the other members of their clan in the rear, forming a long train behind them. In this order both parties boldly advanced, with their weapons uplifted above their heads. Both sides fought with extraordinary fury and obstinacy. Sometimes the one band gave way, and sometimes the other; but both, again and again, returned to the combat with fresh ardor. Not a word was spoken during the struggle; nothing was heard but the rattling of the cudgels and the strokes of the cutla.s.ses. After a long and doubtful contest, Jean Ruthven, big with child at the time, at last received, among many other blows, a dreadful wound with a cutla.s.s. She was cut to the bone above and below the breast, particularly on one side. It was said the slashes were so large and deep that one of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s was nearly severed from her body, and that the motions of her lungs, while she breathed, were observed through the aperture between her ribs. But, notwithstanding her dreadful condition, she would neither quit the field nor yield, but continued to a.s.sist her husband as long as she was able. Her father, the Earl of h.e.l.l, was also shockingly wounded; the flesh being literally cut from the bone of one of his legs, and, in the words of my informant, 'hanging down over his ankles, like beefsteaks.' The earl left the field to get his wounds dressed, but, observing his daughter, Kennedy's wife, so dangerously wounded, he lost heart, and, with others of his party, fled, leaving Kennedy alone to defend himself against the whole of the clan of Tait.

"Having now all the Taits, young and old, male and female, to contend with, Kennedy, like an experienced warrior, took advantage of the local situation of the place. Posting himself on the narrow bridge of Hawick, he defended himself in the defile, with his bludgeon, against the whole of his infuriated enemies. His handsome person, his undaunted bravery, his extraordinary dexterity in handling his weapon, and his desperate situation, (for it was evident to all that the Taits thirsted for his blood and were determined to dispatch him on the spot,) excited a general and lively interest in his favor among the inhabitants of the town who were present and had witnessed the conflict with amazement and horror. In one dash to the front, and with one powerful sweep of his cudgel, he disarmed two of the Taits, and, cutting a third to the skull, felled him to the ground. He sometimes daringly advanced upon his a.s.sailants and drove the whole band before him pell-mell. When he broke one cudgel on his enemies, by his powerful arm, the town's people were ready to hand him another. Still the vindictive Taits rallied and renewed the charge with unabated vigor, and every one present expected that Kennedy would fall a sacrifice to their desperate fury. A party of messengers and constables at last arrived to his relief, when the Taits were all apprehended and imprisoned, but as none of the gipsies were actually slain in the fray, they were soon set at liberty. [Footnote 181]

[Footnote 181: This gipsy battle is alluded to by Sir Walter Scott, in a postscript to a letter to Captain Adam Ferguson, 16th April, 1819.

"By the by, old Kennedy, the tinker, swam for his life at Jedburgh, and was only, by the sophisticated and timed evidence of a seceding doctor, who differed from all his brethren, saved from a well-deserved gibbet. He goes to botanize for fourteen years. Pray tell this to the Duke, (of Buccleuch,) for he was an old soldier of the duke and the duke's old soldier. Six of his brethren were, I am told, in the court, and kith and kin without end. I am sorry so many of the clan are left. The cause of the quarrel with the murdered man was an old feud between two gipsy clans, the Kennedys and Irvings, which, about forty years since gave rise to a desperate quarrel and battle at Hawick-green, in which the grandfather of both Kennedy and the man whom he murdered were engaged."--_Lockhart's Life of Sir Walter Scott._ Alexander Kennedy was tried for murdering Irving at Yarrows-ford.

This gipsy fray at Hawick is known among the English gipsies as "the Battle of the Bridge."--Ed. ]

"In this battle, it was said that every gipsy, except Alexander Kennedy, the brave chief, was severely wounded, and that the ground on which they fought was wet with blood. Jean Gordon, however, stole un.o.bserved from her band, and, taking a circuitous road, came behind Kennedy and struck him on the head with her cudgel. What astonished the inhabitants of Hawick the most of all, was the fierce and stubborn disposition of the gipsy females. It was remarked that, when they were knocked down senseless to the ground they rose again, with redoubled vigor and energy, to the combat. This unconquerable obstinacy and courage of their females is held in high estimation by the tribe. I once heard a gipsy sing a song which celebrated one of their battles, and in it the brave and determined manner in which the girls bore the blows of the cudgel over their heads was particularly applauded.

"The battle at Hawick was not decisive to either party. The hostile bands a short time afterward came in contact in Ettrick Forest, at a place on the water of Teema called Deephope. They did not, however, engage here, but the females on both sides, at some distance from one another, with a stream between them, scolded and cursed, and, clapping their hands, urged the males again to fight. The men, however, more cautious, only observed a sullen and gloomy silence at this meeting. Probably both parties, from experience, were unwilling to renew the fight, being aware of the consequences which would follow should they again close in battle. The two clans then separated, each taking different roads, but both keeping possession of the disputed district. In the course of a few days, they again met in Eskdale moor, when a second desperate conflict ensued. The Taits were here completely routed and driven {713} from the district, in which they had attempted to travel by force.

"The country people were horrified at the sight of the wounded Tinklers after these sanguinary engagements. Several of them, lame and exhausted in consequence of the severity of their numerous wounds, were, by the a.s.sistance of their tribe, carried through the country on the backs of a.s.ses, so much were they cut up in their persons. Some of them, it was said, were slain outright, and never more heard of. Jean Ruthven, however, who was so dreadfully slashed, recovered from her wounds, to the surprise of all who had seen her mangled body, which was sewed in different parts by her clan."

The Ruthvens mentioned in this extract belonged to a distinguished family among the gipsies. Their male head, in those days, was a man over six feet in height, who lived to the age of one hundred and fifteen. In his youth he wore a white wig, a ruffled shirt, a blue Scottish bonnet, scarlet breeches and waistcoat, a fine long blue coat, white stockings, and silver shoe-buckles. The male gipsies at that time were often very handsomely dressed, and so too were the women. A favorite color with them was green. Mary Yorkston, or Yowston, the wife of the same Matthew Baillie, whose rough manner of courting we mentioned just now, went under the appellation of "my lady," and "the d.u.c.h.ess," and bore the t.i.tle of queen among her tribe.

Her appearance on the road, when she was pretty well advanced in life, is thus described: She was full six feet in height, of a stout figure, with harsh, strongly-marked features, and altogether very imposing in her manner. She wore a large black beaver hat tied down over her ears with a handkerchief; a short dark blue cloak, of Spanish cut; petticoats of dark blue camlet, barely reaching to her calves; dark blue worsted stockings, flowered and ornamented at the ankles with scarlet thread; and silver shoe-buckles. Sometimes instead of this garb she wore a green gown trimmed with red ribbons. All her garments were of excellent, substantial quality, and there was never a rag or rent to be seen about her person. Her outer petticoat was folded up round her haunches for a lap, with a large pocket dangling at each side; and below her cloak she carried, between her shoulders, a small pack containing her valuables. She bore a largo clasp-knife, with a long, broad blade, like a dagger, and in her hand was a pole or pike-staff that reached a foot above her head. The male branches of the royal gipsy family of the Baillies, a hundred years ago, used to traverse Scotland on the best horses to be found in the country, booted and spurred, and clad in the finest scarlet and green, with ruffles at their wrists and b.r.e.a.s.t.s. They wore c.o.c.ked hats on their heads, pistols at their belts, and broad-swords by their sides; and at their horses' heels followed greyhounds and other dogs of the chase.

They a.s.sumed the manners and characters of gentlemen with wonderful art and propriety. The women attended fairs in the attire of ladies, sitting their ponies with all the grace and dignity of high-bred women. Two chieftains of inferior degree to the Baillies were Alexander McDonald and James Jamieson, brothers-in-law, remarkable for their fine personal appearance and almost incredible bodily strength.

They were often attired in the most elegant and fashionable manner, and McDonald frequently changed his dress three or four times in one market-day. Now he would appear in the best of tartan, as a Highland gentleman in full costume. Again he might be seen on horseback, with boots, spurs, and ruffles, like a body of no little importance. And not infrequently he wandered through the fair in his own proper garb, as a travelling Tinkler. He had a piebald horse which he had trained to help him in his depredations. At a certain signal it would crouch to the ground like, a hare, and so conceal itself and its rider in a ditch or a hollow, or behind a hedge. There was a gallant gipsy in the seventeenth century named John Faa, {714} who, if tradition is to be trusted, won the heart of a fair countess of Ca.s.silis, so that she absconded with him. Many years later there was an extensive mercantile house at Dunbar, the heads of which, named Fall, were descendants of this same gay deceiver. One of the Misses Fall married Sir John Anstruther, of Elie, baronet, but her prejudiced Scottish neighbors could not forget that she carried Tinkler blood in her veins, and poor "Jenny Faa," as they persisted in calling her, was exposed to many an insult. Sir John was once a candidate for election to Parliament, and whenever Lady Jenny entered the burghs during the canva.s.s, the streets resounded with the old song of "Johnny Faa, the gipsy laddie," which recounts how--

"The gipsies came to my Lord Ca.s.silis' yett, And oh! but they sang bonnie; They sang sae sweet, and sae complete.

That down came our fair ladie."

It was not all a romance of love, and fine dresses, and free ranging up and down the realm, this life of the gipsies. Magistrates were found pretty often, not only to punish their repeated crimes of robbery and murder, but even to put in force the old savage law against "such as were by habit and repute Egyptians"--namely, that "their ears be nailed to the tron or other tree, and cut off." It is an odd fact that in this act were denounced not only gipsies, but "_such as make themselves fools_," strolling bards, and "vagabond scholars of the universities of St. Andrew's, Glasgow, and Aberdeen, not licensed by the rector and dean of faculty to ask alms." There was an old John Young, an uncle of the Charlie Graham before mentioned, who had seven sons, and when asked where they were, he used to say "They are all hanged." It was a pretty family record, but a just one.

Peter, one of the seven, was captain of a band of thieves whose exploits were long remembered in the north of Scotland. He was several times taken and sentenced to the gallows, but managed to escape. Once being recaptured at a distance from the jail out of which he had broken, the authorities were about to hang him on the spot, when some one in the crowd cried out, "Peter, deny you are the man;" whereupon he insisted that his name was John Anderson. Strange as it may appear, he managed to get off by this device, as there was no one present who could or would identify him.

Alexander Brown, a dashing fellow, but a dreadful rascal, and one of the princ.i.p.al members of Charlie Graham's band, after repeated escapes, was hanged at last at Edinburgh, together with his brother-in-law, Wilson. Martha Brown, the mother of one of the prisoners, and mother-in-law of the other, was apprehended in the act of stealing a pair of sheets, while attending their execution. When Charlie Graham was hanged, it was reported that the surgeons meant to disinter his body and dissect it. To prevent this his wife or sweetheart filled the coffin with hot lime, and then sat on the grave, in a state of beastly intoxication, until the corpse was destroyed.

The last part of the volume before us, namely, the editor's disquisition, we approach in fear and trembling. Old Mr. Walter Simson seems to have been a good sort of a gentleman, for whom we cannot help feeling a kindness, even though he did not write quite as well as Addison; but this Mr. James Simson, editor, is a terrible fellow. He a.s.sures us that all creation is full of unsuspected gipsies, who have crept into every circle of society, insidiously intruded themselves into the most respectable trades and professions; and contaminated the best blood in Christendom. No matter where we live now, or where our ancestors came from; it is quite possible--we are not sure that Mr.

James does not consider it almost as good as certain--that we may all of us have some of that dark blood in our veins. Our great-grandfathers may have been {715} hanged for horse-stealing, and our grand-mothers, horrible thought! May have eaten "braxy."

England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, France, Spain, Germany, and Italy, all have contributed their quotas to the gipsy population of the world, and even America itself is infested with descendants of the vagabond tinklers of the last century. It is only about a fortnight since the newspapers told us of the arrival of a band of wandering "Egyptians" at Liverpool, on their way to the United States, fugitives from the advancing civilization of Scotland, to the new settlements and free woods and plains of the great west. Now and then, though not very often, gipsy encampments of the old orthodox kind are seen in this country, and there have been tented gipsies near Baltimore, says Mr. Simson, for the last seventy years. He adds that a colony of them has existed in New England for a hundred years, and "has always been looked upon with a singular feeling of distrust and mystery by the inhabitants, who are the descendants of the early emigrants, and who did not suspect their origin till lately... . They follow pretty much the employments and mode of life of the same cla.s.s in Europe; the most striking feature being that the bulk of them leave the homestead for a length of time, scatter in different directions, and reunite periodically at their quarters, which are left in charge of some of the feeble members of the band." Pennsylvania and Maryland contain a great many Hungarian and German gipsies, who leave their farms to the care of hired hands during the summer, and proceed South with their tents.