&IS VISIT TO YETHOLM. 



long not to Kirk Yetholm, but to 

 Haddington " (p. 308). She, how- 

 ever, gave him this sage counsel : 

 " I wish to caution you when you get 

 to the speech of the queen, not to put 

 any speerings to her about a certain 

 tongue or dialect which they say the 

 Gipsies have. All the Gipsies become 

 glum and dour as soon as they are spo- 

 ken to about their language, and partic- 

 ularly the queen. The queen might 

 say something uncivil to your honour, 

 should you ask her questions about her 

 language" (p. 311). 



The next woman, with blue eyes, 

 " who had had her eye on his honour 

 for some time past," was related to 

 the queen, and as indignantly de- 

 nied the impeachment that she was 

 not a Gipsy. She conducted him 

 to her majesty, who said, " I am 

 a Gipsy, and a real one ; I am not 

 ashamed of my blood" (p. 315). 

 As usual with the race, she denied 

 all knowledge of the language, till she 

 was nettled into admitting it. Af- 

 ter finding that it was " safe to talk 

 to him on Gipsy matters," she was 

 willing to do it as long as he liked, 

 and added : 



" I am now ready to talk to you as 

 much as you please about Nokkum 

 words and matters, for I see there is no 

 danger. But I tell you frankly that 

 had I not found that you knew as much 

 as, or a great deal more than, myself, 

 not a hundred pounds, nor indeed all 

 the money in Berwick, should have in- 

 duced me to hold discourse with you 

 about the words and matters of the 

 Brown Children of Kirk Yetholm " 

 (p. 318). 



Mr. Borrow then goes on to say : 



" I soon found that her knowledge of 

 Romany was anything but extensive ; 

 far less so, indeed, than that of the com- 

 monest English Gipsy woman. . . . 

 . . I should say that the sum total 

 of her vocabulary barely amounted to 

 three hundred words [a very unreliable 

 estimate, after a short, or comparatively 

 short, interview, for we are not told how 

 long, it lasted]. Even of these there 

 were several which were not pure Gipsy 

 words ; that is, belonging to the speech 

 which the ancient Zingary brought with 

 them to Britain. Some of her bastard 



Gipsy words belonged to the cant or al- 

 legorical jargon of thieves " (p. 319). 

 "After all, her knowledge of gentle 

 Romany was not altogether to be 

 sneezed at " (p. 322). " She said that 

 . . . . slight as I might consider 

 her knowledge of Romany to be, it was 

 far greater than that of any other Gipsy 

 on the Border, or indeed in the whole of 

 Scotland ; and that, as for the Nokkums, 

 there was not one on the Green who 

 was acquainted with half-a-dozen words 

 of Romany [all these assertions would 

 require to be proved], though the few 

 words they had [doubtless, more than 

 five, although she said that not one 

 of them had six] they prized high 

 enough, and would rather part with 

 their hearts' blood than communicate 

 them to a stranger " * (p. 321). 



* Of the Gipsy language at Yetholm, 

 Mr. Baird, the minister of the parish, 

 wrote, in 1840, thus : 



" It farther appears from these speci- 

 mens of words and expressions used by 

 the Yetholm Gipsies, that they have by 

 no means a complete language, but that 

 they are in the habit of connecting their 

 own words by the pronouns and other 

 smaller words of our language. . . . 

 It is a secret with them ; all of them will 

 at first positively and repeatedly deny 

 that they have any language peculiar to 

 themselves. It was only by some man- 

 agement that I obtained from them the 

 list I have now given. The children, 

 however, are known to speak it when 

 they imagine no one overhears them. 

 Their parents carefully instruct them in 

 this branch of knowledge. The grown- 

 up Gipsies also, when they are a little off 

 their guard on the occasion of any of 

 their merry-meetings, for instance fre- 

 quently converse, in the hearing of 

 others, in their strange jargon." 



It is not likely that of the children above 

 referred to (or such like them), "there 

 was not one on the Green who was ac- 

 quainted with half-a-dozen words of Ro- 

 many " in 1866, when they arrived at 

 ages ranging from thirty to forty years. 

 Mr. Baird had good opportunities for 

 judging of this subject ; and it is not to 

 be thought of that these children should 

 have lost the language at the time Mr. 

 Borrow visited them, when the five, or less 

 than five, words they had they prized so 

 highly that they would " rather part with 

 their hearts' blood than communicate 

 them to a stranger." And the queen's 

 " knowing more Gipsy than anyone in 

 Scotland," must be received with the 

 same reserved consideration. 



