LETTER TO LORD WALSINGHAM— GYPSIES 159 



me the locality, date, and approximate number 

 of Sand-grouse mentioned to you by Mr. 

 Hamond ? I see that several have been recently 

 killed in Norfolk.' 



To Lord Walsingham, F.B.S. 



' Lilford : October 16, 1889. 



' Dear Walsingham, — During my winter's 

 imprisonment at Bournemouth I took up the 

 study of the Romany tongue, and found a 

 great deal of interest therein. Borrow's books, 

 "Lavengro," "Romany Rai," "The Gypsies in 

 Spain," and the "Romany Lavo Lil " are most 

 interesting, and I had his vocabulary transposed 

 for my own use, rather a work of supererogation, 

 as a very fair vocabulary of Romany-English 

 and English-Romany by Smart and Crofton is 

 in existence. So many authors have gone into 

 details about the origin of the tongue, and the 

 manners and customs of this very extraordinary 

 race (who are fast dying out as a pure-blooded 

 people in Europe), that it is not for a beginner 

 to attempt authority on the subject, but I will, 

 if you care to have it, very willingly lend you a 

 list of books, some of them most amusing. . . . 



