SIM SON'S H1STOR Y OF THE GIPSIES. 



Ill 



human nature, that he was present- 

 ing himself as an object of admira- 

 tion to the world, notwithstanding 

 that he said, /'I do not for a mo- 

 ment imagine that any part of what 

 I have to relate can be interesting 

 to the public as a narrative, or as 

 being connected with myself" (p.i) ; 

 his only reasons being that the cause 

 of education, and the improvement 

 of the mind, might be advanced by 



his own history, and especially that 

 acknowledgement should be made 

 of the debt he owed to his wife, 

 who predeceased him, for his intellec- 

 tual and moral development ! It 

 can safely be said that Pan never 

 would have had a temple, priests 

 and worshippers, had be hobnobbed 

 with every one, and been brought 

 home every night on a barrow or 

 stretcher. 



SIMSON'S HISTORY OF THE GIPSIES* 



II7E cannot but think that the last 

 VV few years have wrought sad 

 havoc with these queer wanderers ; for 

 a long time they stoutly withstood the 

 inroads of civilization, but now, like 

 many other romantic nuisances, they are 

 being improved off the face of the earth. 

 We can hardly sympa- 

 thise with the sorrow Mr. Simson 

 would doubtless have felt, had he been 

 alive, at their extinction." t 



* New York : James Miller. 



f In a comparatively late number of 

 Chambers 1 Journal is the following: "As 

 the wild-cat, the otter and the wolf gene- 

 rally disappear before the advance of 

 civilization, the wild races of mankind 

 are, in like manner and degree, gradually 

 coming to an end, and from the same 

 causes [!]. The wastelands get enclosed, 

 the woods are cut down, the police be- 

 comes yearly more efficient, and the 

 Pariahs vanish with their means of sub- 

 sistence. [Cannot they find ' means of sub- 

 sistence ' away from the waste lands and 

 the woods?] In England there are at 

 most 1,500 Gipsies. Before the end of the 

 present century they will probably be ex- 

 tinct over Western Europe." [!] 



The Atheneeum, on the 30* December, 

 1870, says: "The rest of this people, 

 who are scattered over Europe, and who 

 are disappearing gradually with the in- 

 crease of the civilization that surrounds 

 them." And the Saturday Review, on the 

 2qth November, 1873, writes: "In this j 

 country the gradual enclosure of com- 

 mons and waste lands, with other dis- 

 couragements to vagabond life, can hard- 

 ly fail ere long to extinguish the race." 



I confess I felt surprised on read- 

 ing the above in Land and Water of 

 the 1 9th July, in the face of the author 

 showing that the Gipsies had only 

 changed their style of life, from an 

 out-door to a settled condition, and 

 were following a variety of callings 

 common to the ordinary natives of 

 the country. In my addition to the 

 work I showed, fully and elaborate- 

 ly, how the tribe exist, and perpetu- 

 ate their existence, in a mixed, set- 

 tled, and more or less civilized state ; 

 and that " so prolific has the race 

 been that there cannot be less than 

 250,000 Gipsies of all castes, colours, 

 characters, occupations, degrees of 

 education, culture, and position in 

 life, in the British Isles alone, and 

 possibly double that number." The 

 subject of the Gipsies stands thus 

 on an entirely different footing from 

 what has hitherto been believed of 

 it. The idea is novel, but why 

 should anything, merely because it 

 is novel, be tacitly or actually pro- 

 scribed; to say nothing of those 

 amenities and courtesies that are 

 supposed to be observed in the re- 

 public of letters, and particularly 

 between those of the two conti- 

 nents ? If such a course had been 

 followed in other matters, and the 

 impression of society, however ill- 

 founded, had been the o^y test of 



