Blackwood's Magazine/Volume 1/Issue 2/Notices Concerning the Scottish Gypsies
NOTICES CONCERNING THE SCOTTISH GYPSIES.
(Continued from page 58.)
"On Yeta's banks the vagrant gypsies place
Their turf-built cots; a sun-burnt swarthy race!
From Nubian realms their tawny line they bring,
And their brown chieftain vaunts the name of king:
With loitering steps from town to town they pass,
Their lazy dames rocked on the panniered ass,
From pilfered roots, or nauseous carrion, fed,
By hedge-rows green they strew the leafy bed,
While scarce the cloak of tawdry red conceals
The fine-turned limbs, which every breeze reveals:
Their bright black eyes thro' silken lashes shine,
Around their necks their raven tresses twine;
But chilling damps, and dews of night, impair
Its soft sleek gloss, and tan the bosom bare.
Adroit the lines of palmistry to trace,
Or read the damsel's wishes in her face,
Her hoarded silver store they charm away,
A pleasing debt, for promised wealth to pay.
But, in the lonely barn, from towns remote,
The pipe and bladder opes its screaking throat,
To aid the revels of the noisy rout,
Who wanton dance, or push the cups about:
Then for their paramours the maddening brawl,
Shrill, fierce, and frantic, echoes round the hall.
No glimmering light to rage supplies a mark,
Save the red firebrand, hissing through the dark;
And oft the beams of morn, the peasants say,
The blood-stained turf, and new-formed graves, display.
Fell race, unworthy of the Scotian name!
Your brutal deeds your barbarous line proclaim;
With dreadful Gallas linked in kindred bands,
The locust brood of Ethiopia's sands,
Whose frantic shouts the thunder blue defy,
And launch their arrows at the glowing sky.
In barbarous pomp, they glut the inhuman feast
With dismal viands man abhors to taste;
And grimly smile, when red the goblets shine,
When mantles red the shell but not with wine!"
The village of Kirk-Yetholm, in Roxburghshire, has long been remarkable as a favourite haunt of the Scottish Gypsies; and it still continues, in the present day, to be their most important settlement, and the head-quarters of their principal clans. The original causes of this preference may be readily traced to its local situation, which afforded peculiar facilities for the indulgence of their roaming and predatory habits, and for the evasion of legal restraints and penalties. Though remote from the principal public roads, they obtained, from this station, a ready access to the neighbouring districts of both kingdoms, by various wild and unfrequented by-paths, little known since the days of the border forays, except to themselves and a few cattle-drovers. The hills and waters, also, teemed with game and fish, and the upland farms and hamlets required a constant supply of tinkering, crockery, and horn spoons, and abounded with good cheer,—while magistrates and constables, and country-towns, were 'few and far between.—All these were advantages of no trivial nature to the vagrant community, and they seem, accordingly, to have been neither overlooked nor left unimproved by the colonists of Kirk-Yetholm.
The village itself lies quite embosomed among the Cheviot hills, and besides its claims to celebrity as the modern metropolis of the "Lordis of Littil Egipt," it is not undeserving of some notice, also, on account of the simple and sequestered beauty of its scenery. It hangs upon the lower declivity of a steep rocky hill, called Stairroch, on the southern bank of the Bowmont, or as Leyden, in the elegant poem above quoted, has named it—the Yeta. This is a fine trouting stream, which issues, a few miles above, from the west side of Cheviot; and after winding through a narrow pastoral valley, unsheltered with wood, but bounded everywhere by smooth steep hills of the most beautiful verdure, flows down between the two villages of Kirk and Town Yetholm. The Bowmont is here joined by a large brook from the bottom of a picturesque recess among the neighbouring hills, which pours into it the superfluous waters of the little lake of Loch-Tower or Lochside, A short way below this it enters England, and afterwards falls into the Till near Flodden Field.
Between the two villages is stretched a broad and level haugh, which the Bowmont occasionally overflows. At Fasten's Even this always forms the theatre for the toughest foot-ball match now played in the south of Scotland. Town-Yetholm lies rather low, and exhibits nothing remarkable either in the character of its inhabitants or its internal appearance; but a small conical hill, whose rocky summit retains the vestiges of some ancient entrenchments, rises between it and Loch-Tower, and presents a very pleasing view on approaching from the north. It is cultivated on all sides quite to the top,—and the small village-tenants, by whom it is chiefly occupied, have parcelled out its sloping declivities into parks, or little enclosures, of almost Chinese variety,—each of which annually exhibits, on a small scale, the diversified operations and variegated vegetation of Scottish husbandry.
The aspect of the opposite village, to which the gypsey population is entirely confined, is of a different character:—a mill and a church-yard rising from the brink of the water—the church itself low and covered with thatch—beyond which appear the straggled houses of the village, built in the old Scottish style, many of them with their gable-ends, backs, or corners, turned to the street or toun-gate—and still farther up, the Tinkler-Row, with its low, unequal, straw-covered roofs, and chimneys bound with rushes and hay-ropes—men and women loitering at their doors, or lazily busied among their carts and panniers—and ragged children scrambling on the midden-steads (which rise before every cottage) in intimate and equal fellowship with pigs, poultry, dogs, and cuddies.
This description, though brief and general, may perhaps appear to some readers more minute than the occasion requires; but some little indulgence, we trust, will be allowed,—if not on account of our own early partialities, at least for the sake of the now-classical scenery of gypsey heroism—the native haunts of Jean Gordon, alias Meg Merrilies.
The general aspect of the surrounding country, however, cannot be said to bear any striking analogy to the more dark and savage features of the gypsey character. Though the mountains of Cheviot can never fail to awaken in the breast of a Scotsman a thousand elevating emotions, there is little in their natural scenery that deserves the epithets of terrible or sublime. It is wild, indeed, but without ruggedness—and interesting rather than picturesque. Its chief characteristic is pastoral simplicity—with something of that homely and affecting bareness peculiar to Scottish landscape:—like the Border scenery in general, the green banks of Bowmont seem more calculated to soothe the fancy and soften the heart, than to exasperate the passions by exciting the imagination. To sources very different from the influences of external nature must be traced the strange peculiarities of these wild and wayward tribes. In the same Arcadian vallies, reside at the present moment a peasantry distinguished for superior intelligence, morality, and delicacy of feeling—whose moss-trooping ancestors, little more than a hundred years ago, were nevertheless sufficiently familiar with 'stouthe reif and pykarie,' with feudal rancour and bloody revenge—but the moral causes, which have happily changed the Border reivers into a religious and industrious people, have scarcely yet begun to dawn upon the despised and degraded Gypsies.
Tradition affords no intelligence respecting the time when the first Gypsey colony fixed their residence at Kirk-Yetholm. The clan of Faas are generally supposed to have established themselves there at a very remote period; and the pretensions of the present chieftain of that name to unmixed nobility of blood, as the lineal descendant of the renowned 'Erie Johnne,' are probably as well founded, at least if not so splendidly illustrated, as the proud genealogy of the famous Prince de Paz, which certain northern heralds, it is said, had lately the merit of tracing up to the ancient royal blood of Scotland!
The tribe of Youngs are next to the Faas in honour and antiquity. They have preserved the following tradition respecting their first settlement in Yetholm:—At a siege of the city of Namur (date unknown) the laird of Kirk-Yetholm, of the ancient family of Bennets of Grubet and Marlfield, in attempting to mount a breach at the head of his company, was struck to the ground, and all his followers killed or put to flight, except a gypsey, the ancestor of the Youngs, who resolutely defended his master till he recovered his feet, and then springing past him upon the rampart, seized a flag, which he put into his leader's hand. The besieged were struck with panic—the assailants rushed again to the breach—Namur was taken—and Captain Bennet had the glory of the capture. On returning to Scotland, the laird, out of gratitude to his faithful follower, settled him and his family (who had formerly been wandering tinkers and heckle-makers) in Kirk-Yetholm, and conferred upon them and the Faas a feu of their cottages for the space of nineteen times nineteen years—which they still hold from the Marquis of Tweeddale, the present proprietor of the estate. The other families now resident in this village (as we shall afterwards see) are of more recent introduction. They seem to have gradually retreated to this as their last strong hold, on being successively extirpated from their other haunts and fastnesses upon the borders.
We mentioned in our last Number, that Mr Hoyland, in the prosecution of his meritorious design for ameliorating the condition of this unfortunate race, had addressed a circular to the chief provincial magistrates, with a list of queries respecting their present state, &c. These, being transmitted to the sheriffs of the different Scottish counties, produced replies, several of which Mr Hoyland has published. Of these notices by far the most interesting are, a short report of Mr Walter Scott, sheriff of Selkirkshire, and an account of the Yetholm Gypsies by Bailie Smith of Kelso—which we shall extract in full; for though they relate, in some points, to particulars already detailed, they are altogether too graphical and curious to be subjected to any abridgement.—Mr Scott writes as follows:—
"A set of people possessing the same erratic habits, and practising the trade of tinkers, are well known in the borders; and have often fallen under the cognizance of the law. They are often called Gypsies, and pass through the county annually in small bands, with their carts and asses. The men are tinkers, poachers, and thieves upon a small scale. They also sell crockery, deal in old rags, in eggs, in salt, in tobacco, and such trifles; and manufacture horn into spoons. I believe most of those who come through Selkirkshire reside, during winter, in the villages of Horncliff and Spittal, in Northumberland, and in that of Kirk-Yetholm, Roxburghshire.
"Mr Smith, the respectable Bailie[1] of Kelso, can give the most complete information concerning those who reside at Kirk-Yetholm. Formerly, I believe, they were much more desperate in their conduct than at present. But some of the most atrocious families have been extirpated; I allude particularly to the Winters, a Northumberland clan, who, I fancy, are all buried by this time.
"Mr Riddell, Justice of Peace for Roxburghshire, with my assistance and concurrence, cleared this county of the last of them, about eight or nine years ago. They were thorough desperadoes, of the worst class of vagabonds. Those who now travel through this county give offence chiefly by poaching and small thefts. They are divided into clans, the principal names being Faa, Baillie, Young, Ruthven, and Gordon.
"All of them are perfectly ignorant of religion, and few of their children receive any education. They marry and cohabit amongst each other, and are held in a sort of horror by the common people.
"I do not conceive them to be the proper Oriental Egyptian race, at least they are much intermingled with our own national outlaws and vagabonds. They are said to keep up a communication with each other throughout Scotland, and to have some internal government and regulation as to the districts which each family travels.
"I cannot help again referring to Mr Smith of Kelso, a gentleman who can give the most accurate information respecting the habits of those itinerants, as their winter-quarters of Yetholm are upon an estate of which he has long had the management."
In consequence of this reference, Mr Hoyland applied to Bailie Smith, and was furnished by that gentleman with an interesting report, dated November 1815, from which he has given the following extracts:—
"A considerable time having elapsed since I had an opportunity or occasion to attend to the situation of the colony of gypsies in our neighbourhood, I was obliged to delay my answer to your inquiries, until I could obtain more information respecting their present numbers.
"The great bar to the benevolent intentions of improving their situation will be, the impossibility to convince them that there either is, or can be, a mode of life preferable, or even equal, to their own.
"A strong spirit of independence, or what they would distinguish by the name of liberty, runs through the whole tribe. It is no doubt a very licentious liberty, but entirely to their taste. Some kind of honour, peculiar to themselves, seems to prevail in their community. They reckon it a disgrace to steal near their homes, or even at a distance, if detected. I must always except that petty theft of feeding their shelties and asses on the farmer's grass and corn, which they will do, whether at home or abroad.
"When avowedly trusted, even in money transactions, they never deceived me, nor forfeited their promise. I am sorry to say, however, that when checked in their licentious appropriations, &c. they are much addicted both to threaten and to execute revenge.
"Having so far premised with respect to their general conduct and character, I shall proceed to answer, as far as I am able, the four queries subjoined to the circular which you sent me, and then subjoin, in notes, some instances of their conduct in particular cases, which may perhaps elucidate their general disposition and character."
"Query 1st.What number of gypsies are in the county?
"A.I know of none except the colony of Yetholm, and one family who lately removed from that place to Kelso. Yetholm consists of two towns, or large villages, called Town-Yetholm and Kirk-Yetholm. The first is on the estate of Mr Wauchope of Niddry; the latter on that of the Marquis of Tweeddale. The number of the gypsey colony at present in Kirk-Yetholm amounts to at least 109 men, women, and children; and perhaps two or three may have escaped notice. They marry early in life, in general have many children, and their number seems to be increasing."
"Query 2d.In what do the men and women mostly employ themselves?
"B.I have known the colony between forty and fifty years. At my first remembrance of them, they were called the Tinklers (Tinkers) of Yetholm, from the males being chiefly then employed in mending pots and other culinary utensils, especially in their peregrinations through the hilly and less populous parts of the country.
"Sometimes they were called Horners, from their occupation in making and selling horn spoons, called cutties. Now their common appellation is Muggers, or, what pleases them better, Potters. They purchase, at a cheap rate, the cast or faulty articles at the different manufactories of earthenware, which they carry for sale all over the country; consisting of groups of six, ten, and sometimes twelve or fourteen persons, male and female, young and old, provided with a horse and cart to transport the pottery, besides shelties and asses to carry the youngest of the children, and such baggage as they find necessary.
"In the country, they sleep in barns and byres, or other out-houses; and when they cannot find that accommodation, they take the canvas covering from the pottery cart, and squat below it like a covey of partridges in the snow.
"A few of the colony also employ themselves occasionally in making besoms, foot-basses, &c. from heath, broom, and bent, and sell them at Kelso, and the neighbouring towns. After all, their employment can be considered little better than an apology for idleness and vagrancy.
"They are in general great adepts in hunting, shooting, and fishing; in which last they use the net and spear, as well as the rod; and often supply themselves with a hearty meal by their dexterity. They have no notion of being limited in their field sports, either to time, place, or mode of destruction.
"I do not see that the women are any otherwise employed, than attending the young children, and assisting to sell the pottery, when carried through the country."
"Query 3d.Have they any settled abode in winter, and where?
"C.Their residence, with the exception of a single family, who some years ago came to Kelso, is at Kirk-Yetholm, and chiefly confined to one row of houses, or street of that town, which goes by the name of Tinkler-Row. Most of them have leases of their possessions, granted for a term of nineteen times nineteen years, for payment of a small sum yearly; something of the nature of a quit-rent. There is no tradition in the neighbourhood concerning the time when the gypsies first took up their residence at that place, nor whence they came.
"Most of their leases, I believe, were granted by the family of the Bennets of Grubet; the last of whom was Sir David Bennet, who died about sixty years ago. The late Mr Nisbet of Dirleton then succeeded to the estate, comprehending the baronies of Kirk-Yetholm and Grubet. He died about the year 1783; and not long after, the property was acquired by the late Lord Tweeddale's trustees.
"During the latter part of the life of the late Mr Nisbet, he was less frequently at his estate in Roxburghshire than formerly. He was a great favourite of the gypsies, and was in use to call them his body guards, and often gave them money, &c.
"On the other hand, both the late and present Mr Wauchope were of opinion, that the example of these people had a bad effect upon the morals and industry of the neighbourhood; and seeing no prospect of their removal, and as little of their reformation, considered it as a duty to the public, to prevent the evil increasing, and never would consent to any of the colony taking up their residence in Town-Yetholm.
"They mostly remain at home during winter; but as soon as the weather becomes tolerably mild in spring, most of them, men, women, and children, set out on their peregrinations over the country, and live in a state of vagrancy, until again driven into their habitations by the approach of winter.
"Seeming to pride themselves as a separate tribe, they very seldom inter-marry out of the colony; and in rare instances where that happens, the gypsey, whether male or female, by influence and example, always induces the stranger husband or wife to adopt the manners of the colony, so that no improvement is ever obtained in that way. The progeny of such alliances have almost universally the tawny complexion and fine black eyes of the gypsey parent, whether father or mother.
"So strongly remarkable is the gypsey cast of countenance, that even a description of them to a stranger, who has had no opportunity of formerly seeing them, will enable him to know them wherever he meets with them. Some individuals, but very rarely, separate from the colony altogether; and when they do so early in life, and go to a distance, such as to London, or even Edinburgh, their acquaintances in the country get favourable accounts of them. A few betake themselves to regular and constant employments at home, but soon tire, and return to their old way of life.
"When any of them, especially a leader or man of influence, dies, they have full meetings, not only of the colony, but of the gypsies from a distance; and those meetings, or lyke wakes, are by no means conducted with sobriety or decency."
"Query 4th.Are any of their children taught to read, and what proportion of them? With any anecdotes respecting their customs and conduct.
"D.Education being obtained at a cheap rate, the gypsies in general give their male children as good a one as is bestowed on those of the labouring people and farm servants in the neighbourhood; such as reading, writing, and the first principles of arithmetic. They all apply to the clergyman of the parish for baptism to their children; and a strong superstitious notion universally prevails with them, that it is unlucky to have an unchristened child long in the house. Only a very few ever attend divine service, and those as seldom as they can, just to prevent being refused as sponsors at their children's baptism.
"They are in general active and lively, particularly when engaged in field sports, or in such temporary pursuits as are agreeable to their habits and dispositions; but are destitute of the perseverance necessary for a settled occupation, or even for finishing what a moderate degree of continued labour would enable them to accomplish in a few weeks."
"I remember that about forty-five years ago, being then apprentice to a writer, who was in use to receive the rents as well as the small duties of Kirk-Yetholm, he sent me there with a list of names, and a statement of what was due; recommending me to apply to the landlord of the public-house, in the village, for any information or assistance which I might need.
"After waiting a long time, and receiving payment from most of the feuars, or rentallers, I observed to him that none of the persons of the names of Faa, Young, Blythe, Bailley, &c. who stood at the bottom of the list for small sums, had come to meet me, according to the notice given by the baron officer, and proposed sending to inform them that they were detaining me, and to request their immediate attendance.
"The landlord, with a grave face, inquired whether my master had desired me to ask money from those men. I said, not particularly; but they stood on the list. 'So I see,' said the landlord; 'but had your master been here himself, he had not dared to ask money from them, either as rent or feu duty.—He knows that it is as good as if it were in his pocket. They will pay when their own time comes; but do not like to pay at a set time with the rest of the barony, and still less to be craved.'
"I accordingly returned without their money, and reported progress. I found that the landlord was right: my master said with a smile, that it was unnecessary to send to them, after the previous notice from the baron officer; it was enough if I had received the money, if offered.—Their rent and feu duty was brought to the office in a few weeks. I need scarcely add, those persons all belonged to the tribe.
"Another instance of their licentious independent spirit occurs to me. The family of Niddry always gave a decent annual remuneration to a baron bailie, for the purpose of keeping good order within their barony of Town-Yetholm. The person whom I remember first in possession of that office, was an old man called Doctor Walker, from his being also the village surgeon; and from him I had the following anecdote:—
"Between Yetholm and the border farms in Northumberland, there were formerly, as in most border situations, some uncultivated lands, called the Plea Lands, or Debateable Lands, the pasturage of which was generally eaten up by the sorners and vagabonds on both sides of the marches.
"Many years ago, Lord Tankerville and some other of the English borderers made their request to Sir David Bennet, and the late Mr Wauchope of Niddry, that they would accompany them at a riding of the Plea Lands, who readily complied with their request. They were induced to this, as they understood that the gypsies had taken offence, on the supposition that they might be circumscribed in the pasture for their shelties and asses, which they had held a long time, partly by stealth, and partly by violence.
"Both threats and entreaties were employed to keep them away; and at last Sir David obtained a promise from some of the heads of the gang, that none of them should show their faces on the occasion.
"They however got upon the hills at a little distance, whence they could see every thing that passed. At first they were very quiet. But when they saw the English Court Book spread out on a cushion before the clerk, and apparently taken in a line of direction interfering with what they considered to be their privileged ground, it was with great difficulty that the most moderate of them could restrain the rest from running down and taking vengeance, even in sight of their own lord of the manor.
"They only abstained for a short time; and no sooner had Sir David and the other gentlemen taken leave of each other in the most polite and friendly manner, as border chiefs are wont to do since border feuds ceased, and had departed to a sufficient distance, than the clan, armed with bludgeons, pitchforks, and such other hostile weapons as they could find, rushed down in a body; and before the chiefs on either side had reached their home, there was neither English tenant, horse, cow, nor sheep, left upon the premises.
"When first I knew any thing about the colony, old Will Faa was king or leader, and had held the sovereignty for many years.
"Meeting at Kelso with Mr Walter Scott, whose discriminating habits and just observation I had occasion to know from his youth, and at the same time seeing one of my Yetholm friends in the horse market, I merely said to Mr Scott, "Try to get before that man with the long drab coat, look at him on your return, and tell me whether you ever saw him, and what you think of him." He was so good as to indulge me; and rejoining me, said, without hesitation, "I never saw the man that I know of; but he is one of the gypsies of Yetholm, that you told me of several years ago." I need scarcely say that he was perfectly correct.
The descendants of Faa now take the name of Fall, from the Messrs Falls of Dunbar, who, they pride themselves in saying, are of the same stock and lineage. When old Will Faa was upwards of eighty years of age, he called on me at Kelso, in his way to Edinburgh, telling me that he was going to see the laird, the late Mr Nisbet of Dirleton, as he understood that he was very unwell; and himself being now old, and not so stout as he had been, he wished to see him once more before he died.
"The old man set out by the nearest road, which was by no means his common practice. Next market-day, some of the farmers informed me that they had been in Edinburgh, and had seen Will Faa upon the Bridge, (the South Bridge was not then built); that he was tossing about his old brown hat, and huzzaing with great vociferation, that he had seen the laird before he died. Indeed Will himself had no time to lose; for, having set his face homewards by the way of the sea coast, to vary his route, as is the general custom of the gang, he only got the length of Coldingham, when he was taken ill, and died.
"His death being notified to his friends at Yetholm, they and their acquaintance at Berwick-Spittal, Horncliff, &c. met to pay the last honours to their old leader. His obsequies were continued three successive days and nights, and afterwards repeated at Yetholm, whither he was brought for interment. I cannot say that the funeral rites were celebrated with decency and sobriety, for that was by no means the case. This happened in the year 1783 or 1784, and the late Mr Nisbet did not long survive."
We have occupied so much of our space with Mr Smith's interesting and accurate details, that we can only find room at present for a limited portion of our remaining original materials, and must restrict ourselves to a few additional traits.—Of the kingly demeanour and personal achievements of old Will Faa, many curious particulars are related. He never forgot his high descent from the 'Lords of Little Egypt.' He also claimed kindred with the Messrs Falls of Dunbar, with whom he affected to maintain some sort of family intercourse; and he is said to have paid them a regular visit once a-year. On solemn occasions he assumed, in his way, all the stately deportment of sovereignty. He had twenty-four children, and at each of their christenings he appeared dressed in his original wedding-robes. These christenings were celebrated with no small parade. Twelve young hand-maidens were always present as part of the family retinue, and for the purpose of waiting on the numerous guests who assembled to witness the ceremony, or to partake of the subsequent festivities. Besides Will's gypsey associates, several of the neighbouring farmers and lairds, with whom he was on terms of friendly intercourse (among others, the Murrays of Cherrytrees), used to attend these christenings.—In virtue of his high magisterial office, Will exercised the functions of country keeper (as it was called), or restorer of stolen property; which he was able often to do, when it suited his own inclination or interest, very effectually, through his extensive influence among the neighbouring tribes, and his absolute dominion over his own.
Upon the death of old Will, a sort of civil war broke out among the Yetholm clans: an usurper thrust himself into the office of the deceased, but was dispossessed, after a battle, by the loyal subjects who adhered to the legitimate heir. This bold rebel was the leader of an inferior tribe, and the immediate successor of another doughty chief, usually known by the appropriate title of the Earl of Hell. He is alluded to at page 54, being the same individual, who, on the occasion there mentioned, "had rubbit shouthers wi' the gallows."
Among the many traditionary gypsey anecdotes which we used formerly to hear related, was the following very characteristic one of Jean Gordon. We avoided mentioning it in a more appropriate place last Number, having forgot some of the names which serve to authenticate it, and which we are now enabled to supply through the kindness of a correspondent. It happened that Jean's husband, Geordie Faa, was murdered at one of their clan-meetings by Rob Johnstone, another gypsey, who stabbed him with a graip, a sort of large three-pronged fork used about farm offices. Johnstone was instantly apprehended and committed to Jedburgh jail; out of which, however, he soon contrived to break, and got clear off the country. But it was easier to escape from the grasp of justice than to elude gypsey vengeance: Jean Gordon traced the murderer like a blood-hound—followed him to Holland—and from thence to Ireland, where she got him seized and brought back to Jedburgh; and she at length obtained a full reward for her toils, by enjoying the gratification of seeing him hanged on the Gallow-hill. Some time afterward, Jean being up at Sourhope, a sheep-farm on Bowmont Water, the goodman there said to her, "Weel, Jean, ye hae got Rob Johnstone hanged at last, and out o' the way."—" Aye, gudeman!" replied Jean, lifting up her apron by the two corners, "and a' that fu' o' gowd has nae done't."—Jean's "apron-fu' o' gowd," may perhaps remind some of our readers of Meg Merrilies' pock of jewels—and the whole transaction indeed forcibly recalls the powerful picture of that stern and intrepid heroine.
Two curious documents, relating to the early history of the gypsies in Scotland, which we had overlooked in our former researches, have been pointed out to us by a learned friend.—The first is a letter from King James the Fourth to the King of Denmark, dated 1506, in favour of Anthony Gawino, Earl of Little Egypt, and his followers;—which serves to ascertain pretty exactly what we formerly wanted—the date of the first arrival of the race in this country. His majesty specifies, that this miserable train had visited Scotland by command of the pope, being upon a pilgrimage; that they had conducted themselves properly, and now wished to go to Denmark: He therefore solicits the extension of his royal uncle's munificence toward them; adding, at the same time, that these wandering Egyptians must be better known to him, because the kingdom of Denmark was nearer to Egypt!—This epistle is mentioned in a short but comprehensive account of the gypsies, in the tenth volume of the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia.
The other article is an Act of the Lords of Council, dated at Stirling, June 6, 1541, and refers to the dispute, formerly mentioned, between Johnne Faw and his rebellious subjects, who it appears had now mutually agreed "to passe home, and to haue the samyn decydit before the Duke of Egipt." It is evident, that both the chieftain and his followers had greatly declined in credit with the Scottish government since the preceding year:—He is no longer complimented with his high title; the letters and privileges formerly granted had been revoked; and the Lords of Council proceed forthwith (for certain cogent reasons) to pass sentence of banishment upon the whole race, at thirty days warning, and under the pain of death.
Copies of both these papers will be found in our Antiquarian Repertory.
(To be continued.)
- ↑ "Bailie is a magisterial designation in Scotland, agreeing in rank with that of Alderman in England."