150 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°a S. X Aug. 2S. '60. 



At p. 97. is given a long list of Gypsy -words 

 for familiar things, taken down from the mouth of 

 one Clara Hearn, a Gypsy girl, by Mr. Roberts' 

 daughters. 



An interesting and well-compiled " Account of 

 the Gipsies" appeared in Chambers's Miscellany, 

 Edinb. 1847, vol. xvi.. No. 139. The writer ob- 

 jects to the Egyptian theory : — 



"Not only is the Gipsy language different from the 

 Coptic, and the Gipsy manners different from those of the 

 natives of Egypt, but, what is still more decisive, Gipsies 

 are found wandering through Egypt as through other 

 countries, and are there treated as foreigners, just as with 

 us. . . . The conclusion of the Indian origin of the 

 Gipsies, to which we are led by a consideration of their 

 language, is remarkably corroborated by the similarity of 

 character, customs, and occupations which the Gipsies 

 exhibit with certain existing tribes or castes among the 

 Hindoos, particularly the Nuls or Bazegurs, a wandering 

 race in Hindoostan, of very low repute among the other 

 Hindoos, and speaking a dialect apparently as different 

 from the pure Hindoostanee as the Gipsy is." — p. 2. 



To the above, Mr. Roberts would reply, that 

 " the ancient language of the Egyptians is a lost 

 language," p. 59., and that from the remote period 

 of their expulsion from Egypt, the Gypsies in 

 Egypt are strangers at home. The fact is, His- 

 tory fails us with regard to the origin of the 

 Gypsies, and the theory of their being Hindoos 

 expelled by Timour Beg is as hypothetical as any 

 other. We are sadly in want of some facts to 

 bridge over the chasm which, at present, we are 

 obliged to jump. Mr. Borrow observes : — 



" As to the story of their Egyptian origin, it is pro- 

 bable that its authors were the European Ecclesiastics, 

 who, surprised at so strange an apparition as these wan- 

 derers must have been, and building on some hint that 

 they had come from Egypt, imagined that they saw in 

 them the fulfilment of the Prophecy of Ezekiel : — ' I will 

 make the land of Egypt desolate in the midst of the 

 countries that are desolate; and her cities among the 

 cities that are laid waste, shall be desolate for forty years ; 

 and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and 

 will disperse them through the countries.' " 



Yet this is but a guess too, and was perhaps 

 suggested by Mr. Roberts' book. 



Another work on the Gypsies, which has not 

 been noticed, is entitled : — 



" The Gipsies' Advocate, or Observations on the Origin, 

 Character, Manners, and Habits of the English Gipsies ; 

 to which are added many Interesting Anecdotes. By the 

 Rev. James Crabb. 1821, 12mo. 1832, 12mo." 



In The Penny Magazine, Lond. 1836, vol. vii. 

 pp. 17. 114., are two papers entitled "The Eng- 

 lish Gypsies " and " Continental Gypsies." 



EiRIONNACH. 



LIBRARIES BUILT UP IN WALLS. 



(2"'' S. ix. 511.; X. 16.) 



Though the editor of the Southern Times seems 

 to think that a likely tale is as good, if not better, 



than a real one, I beg to say that I do not agree 

 with him ; and I congratulate myself in having 

 been the means of exposing in the pages of " N. 

 & Q.," through the inquiry and report of our 

 friend James Dix, that the Willscot story was a 

 hoax, — pretending, as it did, to have discovered 

 a copy of so rare and valuable a book as Cover- 

 dale's Bible of 1535. 



There has, I understood, been another similar 

 story afloat, that a book was recently found at 

 Wolvercote, a village -two or three miles from 

 Oxford, on the rebuilding of the church ; but this 

 story also may be fairly suspected of having no 

 better foundation. 



There was, however, a real discovery of this 

 kind made three years ago at Addington, near 

 Winslow, Buckinghamshire ; and some particulars 

 of it have been communicated by the Rev. Thomas 

 Walter Parry, the curate, to the Buckinghamshire 

 Archaeological Society. Browne Willis had stated, 

 that about the time of his publication of the Anti^ 

 quities of the county, several missals were found 

 in the chancel wall of this church. Mr. Parry 

 consequently gave instructions, when the old 

 church was pulled down, to look out for any ap- 

 parent openings in the walls, and especially near 

 the piscina. On the 5th Aug. 1857, the workmen 

 came upon several books, together with a super- 

 altare, some fragments of glass, &c., which had 

 been deposited in the north wall of the chancel. 

 I am informed that they were exhibited at the 

 meeting of the Buckinghamshire Society recently 

 held at Newport Pagnell, and described in the 

 Catalogue circulated on that occasion. Mr. Parry 

 is of opinion that they were concealed by Thomas 

 Andrews, who had been instituted to the rectory 

 in 1559, and who may have taken alarm at the 

 articles touching ancient office-books, &c., which 

 were circulated by Archbishop Grindal soon after 

 his appointment to the See of Canterbury, in 1576. 

 The books remain in the possession of the Rev. T. 

 W. Parry. The missals of which Browne Willis 

 speaks are lost sight of. John Gough Nichols. 



P.S. — Having been favoured by Mr. Parry 

 with a sight of the Catalogue of the temporary 

 museum at Newton Pagnell, I am now enabled to 

 enumerate the books. They are six in number : — 



1. "Opusculum reverendi patris fratris Guillermi Pepyn, 

 sacre theologie professoris Parisiensis clarissimi, ordinis 

 predicatorum, super Confiteor novissime editum. Paris. 

 1519." 



2. An imperfect volume of Sermons for Lent, of about 

 the same date. 



3. « Modus Confidenti compositus (illegible) Reverendu 

 ep'm Andream." 



4. " The Prymer in Englysshe and Laten after the use 

 of Sarum, set out at length with many goodly Prayers, 

 and with the exposicion of Miserere and In te Do mine 

 speravi, with the Epystles and Gospels throughout the 

 hoole year. Prynted at London by Thomas Petyt, 1541." 

 (The only other known copy of this edition is at -Stony- 

 hurst.) 



