HIS VISIT TO YETHOLM. 



117 



[standards and tastes differ], had much 

 of the appearance of one of those Irish 

 girls, born in London, whom one so 

 frequently sees carrying milk-pails about 

 the streets of the metropolis " (p. 329). 



The two Gipsy women whom the 

 queen pointed out to him at the fair 

 he describes as "common-looking 

 females." And the young men, who 

 had evidently been set to watch the 

 "tall lusty man, with a skellying 

 look with the left eye " (p. 322), that 

 entered the village, firing off Gipsy 

 words right and left so different 

 from the ordinary visitors, who gen- 

 erally come in companies, with fe- 

 males among them he describes 

 thus: 



"Their countenances were rather 

 dark, but had nothing of the vivacious 

 expression observable in the Gipsy face 

 [' they were lying on their bellies, oc- 

 casionally kicking their heels into 

 the air'], but much of the dogged, 

 sullen look which makes the counte- 

 nances of the generality of the Irish 

 who inhabit London and some other 

 of the large English towns so disagree- 

 able " (p. 327]. "They were a hard, 

 sullen, cautious set, in whom a few 

 drops of Gipsy blood were mixed with 

 some Scottish and a much larger quan- 

 tity of low Irish. Between them and 

 their queen a striking difference was ob- 

 servable. In her there was both fun 

 and cordiality [and doubtless plenty of 

 sullenness and revenge, had they been 

 called forth] ; in them not the slightest 

 appearance of either [for they were per- 

 haps ready to fly at him, like so many 

 tigers, whatever frolic or devilment they 

 might indulge in at other times].* What 



* The first woman Mr. Borrow spoke 

 to said of old Will Faa's house: "It 

 still is an inn, and has always been an 

 inn ; and though it has such an eerie 

 look, it is sometimes lively enough, more 

 especially after the Gipsies have returned 

 from their summer excursions in the coun- 

 try. It's a roaring place then. They spend 

 most of their sleight-o'-hand gains in that 

 house" (p. 309). [Considering what is 

 popularly understood to be the natural 

 disposition and capacity of the Gipsies, 

 we would readily conclude that to turn 

 innkeepers would be the most unlikely 

 of all their employments ; yet that is very 

 common. Mohammed said, " If the moun- 

 tain will not come to us, we will go to the 



was the cause of this disparity ? The 

 reason [and a very odd one indeed] was, 

 they were neither the children nor the 

 grandchildren of real Gipsies, but only 

 the remote descendants, [and, paradoxi- 

 cal as it may appear, still Gipsies, own- 

 ing allegiance to a Gipsy queen], whereas 

 she was the granddaughter of two gen- 

 uine Gipsies, old Will Faa and his wife 

 [of both of whose pedigrees he is doubt- 

 less ignorant], whose daughter was her 

 mother ; so that. she might be considered 

 all but a thorough Gipsy [even with her 

 blue eyes, and his asking her whether 

 she was a ' mumping woman ' or a true 

 Gipsy] ; for being by her mother's side a 

 Gipsy, she was of course much more so 

 than she would have been had: she 

 sprung from a Gipsy father and a Gen- 

 tile mother; the qualities of a child, 

 both mental and bodily, depending 

 much less on the father than on the 

 mother [saying nothing of the special 

 Gipsy training the child receives from 

 its mother and her relations, before its 

 earliest recollection, as described in the 

 Disquisition on the Gipsies, pages 379- 

 381]. Had her father been a Faa, in- 

 stead of her mother, I should probably 

 never have heard from her lips a single 

 word of Romany [did he never know a 

 case of the kind ?], but found her as sul- 

 len and inductile as the Nokkums [or 

 Gipsies] on the Green [for what reason ?], 

 whom it was of little more use question- 

 ing than so many stones f" (p. 328). 



mountain." The Gipsies say, "If "we do 

 not go to the people, the people must 

 come to us;" and so they open their 

 houses of entertainment (Ed., p. 467).] 



f The probability mentioned by Mr. 

 Borrow would be to the contrary. He 

 says that Thomas Herne, whose mother 

 was a " Gentile of Oxford," when ninety- 

 two years of age, "could not talk much 

 Gipsy, but understood almost all that I 

 said to him " (p. 157). " His face was as 

 red as a winter apple, and his hair was 

 rather red than grey" (p. 155). His son, 

 aged seventy, was in one of the caravans ; 

 and of his grandson, aged thirty-five, who 

 was also " around," nothing is said beyond 

 his being "a good-looking and rather 

 well-dressed man, with something of a 

 knowing card in his countenance " (p. 

 159). The old man admitted he was a 

 half-and-half, but " seemed to be rather 

 ashamed of being of Gipsy blood" (p. 

 157), and " never had any particular liking 

 for the Gipsy manner of living," although 

 he had followed it all his life, excepting 

 when fourteen years in the militia. This 



