130 



MR. BORROW ON THE GIPSIES. 



them," they say; ''they have fairly de- 

 stroyed Scotland as a country to travel 

 in ; if they get a loan of anything from 

 the country-people, to wrap themselves 

 in, in the barn, at night, they will de- 

 camp with it in the morning. They 

 have brought a disgrace upon the very 

 name of Gipsy, in Scotland, and are 

 heartily disliked by both English and 

 Scotch." " There is a family of Irish 

 Gipsies living across the road there, 

 whom I would not be seen speaking to," 

 said a superior English Gipsy ; " I hate 

 a Jew, and I dislike an Irish Gipsy." But 

 English and Scottish Gipsies pull well 

 together ; and are on very friendly terms 

 in America, and frequently visit each 

 other. The English sympathize with 

 the Scottish, under the wrongs they 

 have experienced at the hands of 

 the Irish, as well as on account 

 of the persecutions they experi- 

 enced in Scotland, so long after such 

 had ceased in England. Twenty-five 

 years ago, there were many Gipsies to 

 be found between Londonderry and Bel- 

 fast, following the style of life described 

 under the chapter of Tweeddale and 

 Clydesdale Gipsies. Their names were 

 Docherty, McCurdy, McCloskey, Mc- 

 Guire, McKay, Holmes, Dinsmore, Mor- 

 row, Allan, Stewart, Lindsay, Cochrane, 

 and Williamson. Some of these seem 

 to have migrated from Scotland and the 

 North of England. In England, some 

 of the Irish Gipsies send their children 

 to learn trades. There are many of 

 such Irish mechanic Gipsies in America. 

 A short time ago, a company of them 

 landed in New York, and proceeded on 

 to Chicago. Their occupations, among 

 others, were those of hatters and tailors 

 (Ed, p. 357). 



Mr. Borrow speaks of three kinds 

 of travelling people in England, 

 which he says the so-called Gipsies 

 proper designate under the names of 

 Chorodies, Kora-mengre, and Hin- 

 dity-mengre. Of the first he says : 



" The trades of the men are tinkering 

 and basket-making, and some few ' peel 

 the stick ' [that is, make skewers]. The 

 women go about with the articles made 

 by their husbands, or rather partners, 

 and sometimes do a little in the fortune- 

 telling line " (p. 267). Those he met 

 at Wandsworth " live in the vilest tents, 

 with the exception of two or three 

 families, who have their abode in broken 



and filthy caravans. They have none 

 of the comforts and elegancies of the 

 Gipsies " (p. 267). " They have coarse, 

 vulgar features, "and hair which puts 

 one wonderfully in mind of refuse flax, 

 or the material of which mops are com- 

 posed [a very good description of fair, 

 mixed Gipsies]. Their complexions, 

 when not obscured with grime, are 

 rather fair than dark, evidencing that 

 their origin is low, swinish Saxon, and 

 not gentle Romany. Their language is 

 the frowsiest English, interlarded with 

 cant expressions and a few words of 

 bastard Romany " (p. 267) [a point worth 

 noticing]. But they say of themselves, 

 " We are no Gipsies not we ! no, nor 

 Irish either. We are English, and decent 

 folks none of your rubbish." * " The 

 Gipsies hold them, and with reason, in 

 supreme contempt, and it is from them 

 that they got their name of Chorodies " 

 (p. 268) \Choredo, in Gipsy, signifying a 

 poor, miserable person]. 



" The Kora-mengre are the lowest of 

 those hawkers who go about the coun- 

 try villages and the streets of London, 

 with caravans hung about with various 

 common articles, such as mats, brooms, 

 mops, tin pans, and kettles. These low 

 hawkers seem to be of much the same 

 origin as the Chorodies [whatever that 

 is], and are almost equally brutal and 

 repulsive in their manners. The name 

 Kora-mengre is Gipsy, and signifies fel- 

 lows who cry out and shout, from their 

 practice o/ shouting out the names of 

 their goods " (p. 268). 



" Lastly come the Hindity-mengre, or 

 Filthy People. This term has been be- 

 stowed upon the vagrant Irish by the 

 Gipsies, from the dirty ways attributed 

 to them The trade they osten- 

 sibly drive is tinkering, repairing old 

 kettles, and making little pots and pans 

 of tin. The one, however, on which 

 they principally depend, is not tinkering, 

 but one far more lucrative, and requir- 

 ing more cleverness and dexterity ; they 

 make false rings, like the Gipsy smiths " 

 (p. 269). " Each of these Hindity-men- 

 gre has his blow-pipe, and some of 

 them can execute their work in a style 

 little inferior to that of a first-rate work- 

 ing goldsmith " (p. 270). 



* Mixed Gipsies tell no lies, when they 

 say that they are not Gipsies ; for, physi- 

 ologically speaking, they are not Gipsies, 

 but only partly Gipsies, as regards blood. 

 In every other way they are Gipsies, that 

 is, chabos, cabs, or dials (Ed., p. 427). 



