290 NATURAL HISTORY 



came from warmer climates ; and that is, that while 

 other beggars lodge in barns, stables, and cow-houses, 

 these sturdy savages seem to pride themselves in braving 

 the severities of winter, and in living sub dio the whole 

 year round. Last September was as wet a month as ever 

 was known ; and yet during those deluges did a young 

 gipsy girl lie-in in the midst of one of our hop gardens, 

 on the cold ground, with nothing over her but a piece 

 of a blanket extended on a few hazel rods bent hoop 

 fashion, and stuck into the earth at each end, in cir- 

 cumstances too trying for a cow in the same condition : 

 yet within this garden there was a large hop-kiln, into 

 the chambers of which she might have retired, had she 

 thought shelter an object worthy her attention. 



Europe itself, it seems, cannot set bounds to the 

 rovings of these vagabonds : for Mr. Bell, in his return 

 from Pekin, met a gang of these people on the confines 

 of Tartary, who were endeavouring to penetrate those 

 deserts and try their fortune in China 1 . 



Gipsies are called in French, Bohemiens, in Italian 

 and modern Greek, Zingari. 



I am, &c. 



LETTER XXVI. 



TO THE SAME. 



DEAR SIR, SELBORNE, Nov. 1, 1775. 



" Hie taedae pingues, hie plurimus ignis 



Semper, et assidua postes fuligine nigri." 



1 SHALL make no apology for troubling you with the 

 detail of a very simple piece of domestic economy, 

 being satisfied that you think nothing beneath your 

 attention that tends to utility : the matter alluded to is 

 the use of rushes instead of candles, which I am well 



1 See Bell's Travels in China. 



