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APPENDIX. 



to his more prosperous relative when he 

 fell into trouble? [!] Quite recently 

 also it has been discovered that between 

 October, 1581, and January, 1645, the 

 name of Bunnion or Bunion occurs no 

 less than sixteen times in the register 

 of the parish church at Wootton, a vil- 

 lage three or four miles from Elstow. 

 There can be little doubt that these dif- 

 ferent modes of spelling are simply vari- 

 ations of the same name, and their long 

 existence in the county effectually dis- 

 poses of the supposition that the Bun- 

 yans were Gipsies." 



From the above-mentioned no- 

 tices of the Gipsies, as well as others 

 scattered of late through Notes and 

 Queries, it does not appear that the 

 writers have made any real inqui- 

 ries in regard to the subject, but 

 merely to have set out with precon- 

 ceived ideas, popular impressions, 

 or suppositions and theories, and 

 made their remarks dovetail into 

 them. Now, what is wanted is a 

 carefully considered investigation, 

 starting from certain facts connected 

 with the Gipsies, as they exist, such 

 as: 



" i st. What constitutes a Gipsy in a 

 settled or unsettled state ? 2d. What 

 should we ask a Gipsy to do to ' cease 

 to be a Gipsy,' and become more 

 a native of the country of his birth 

 than he is already ? 3d. In what rela- 

 tion does the race stand to others around 

 it, with reference to intermarriage and 

 the destiny of the mixed progeny, and 

 that of the tribe generally ? An inves- 

 tigation of this kind would involve a 

 search for so many facts, however diffi- 

 cult of being found ; and should be con- 

 ducted as .... a fact is proved in a court 

 of justice ; difficulties, suppositions or 

 theories, or analogies not being allowed 

 to form part of the testimony." Con- 

 tributions, p. 134. 



Many who take an interest in this 

 subject, and are doubtless desirous 

 of getting to the bottom of it, and 

 learning most of the facts of it, may 

 not have the time or opportunities 

 to investigate it ; or they may not 

 have the talents suitable for the busi- 

 ness, or may find it difficult to get 

 hold of the thread of it, so as to 



unravel it to the satisfaction of them- 

 selves and others. Such people I 

 would refer to Simsorfs History of 

 the Gipsies, edited by myself, and 

 published by Sampson Low & Co., 

 in 1865 ; a work of 575 pp., con- 

 taining a minute index of all the 

 information to be found in it. In 

 the ordinary course of things, what 

 is contained in this work would be 

 commented on, admitted or reject- 

 ed, so far as current ideas are con- 

 cerned, and taken as the basis of 

 future investigations. But the wri- 

 ters alluded to have apparently 

 either never seen or heard of the 

 book, and are therefore not " read 

 up " on the subject they discuss ; or 

 they purposely ignore it, and so 

 raise the question whether they are 

 merely treating the subject to make 

 a paragraph, or maintain a theory. 

 And that applies more particularly 

 to the fact of Bynnion, Bunnyon, 

 Bonyon, Bunnion or Bunion being 

 a name not uncommon, in the seven- 

 teenth century, in Bedfordshire. 

 Hence the two writers specially al- 

 luded to conclude in triumph, and 

 perhaps with a flourish of trumpets, 

 that John Bunyan could not possi- 

 bly have been a Gipsy, for the rea- 

 son that others of the British race 

 were of the same name ! and, as a 

 corollary, that no one bearing a 

 British name can, under any circum- 

 stances, be a Gipsy ! The two gen- 

 tlemen mentioned seem to know 

 very little, if anything, of the sub- 

 ject, and should have exhausted 

 every source of information, and 

 looked at every side of the question, 

 before so dogmatically asserting that 

 they " do away with the supposition 

 of those who think that John Bunyan 

 may have had Gipsy blood in his 

 veins ; " that " the idea of Bunyan 

 being of Gipsy race, is totally dis- 

 countenanced," and that the long 

 existence of the name in the county, 

 " effectually disposes of the suppo- 

 sition that the Bunyans were Gip- 

 sies." 



The question is, When, and for 



