28 DESCRIPTION OF THE STRATA. 



laige orifices, but appear to ascend from a multitude of small crevices 

 or openings, often trickling through the grass where the ground is 

 unbroken, and leaving scarcely a vestige of the places from whence 

 they issued, when the period of their flowing is over. As the rise of 

 the Gipsies depends on the quantity of moisture imbibed, they usually 

 rise in the most rainy season of the year; that is, in winter; or in 

 the beginning- of spring, when the snow is melting. Sometimes they 

 flow for two or three months together, and the discharge has been 

 known to be so copious, that the current filled a drain six feet wide, 

 and three feet deep. In other seasons they never rise at all, and in- 

 tervals of three or four years occasionally intervene between one over- 

 flowing and another. 



It is worthy of notice, that these intermitting springs were known 

 so early as the reign of king Stephen, when they presented the same 

 phenomena as they do now, and even passed by the same name. 

 William of Newburgh, in recording the events of that monarch's 

 reign, makes mention of the Gipsies; which he describes as rising 

 at intervals of some years, and forming, when they did- rise, a consid- 

 erable torrent. And he observes, that it was a good omen when 

 they were dry, for their flowing was deemed a sure prognostication of 

 an approaching famine. We are not aware, that their rise is consid- 

 ered as equally ominous now. Excess of drought is more likely tp 

 produce famine on the Wolds, than excess of wetness ; yet as a dry 

 summer may be expected to succeed a very rainy winter, the break- 

 ing out of the Gipsies may perhaps, in this light, still portend an un- 

 favourable season.* 



* William of Newburgh was born near the Gipsies. He gives these springs tlie name 

 Vipse; but G and For ^were then frequently interchanged. Vasconia was the same with 

 Gasconia, Willielmus the same as GuUelmus; and Vipse may therefore be said to be the same 

 itame as Gipse. 



It may be gratifying to some of our readers to give tiiat Historian's account of these 

 ^springs in his own words. He notices them in relating a prodigy, said to have been seen at a' 



