182 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
caution and circumspection, lest he should trample on his dimi- 
nutive companion. Thus, by mutual good offices, each seemed 
to console the vacant hours of the other : so that Milton, when 
he puts the following sentiment in the mouth of Adam, seems to 
be somewhat mistaken : 
" Much less can bird with beast, or fish with fowl. 
So well converse, nor with the ox the ape." 
LETTER XXV. To the Hon. DAINES BARRINGTON, 
DEAR SIR, Selborne, Oct, 2, 1775. 
We have two gangs or hordes of gypsies which infest the south 
and west of England, and come round in their circuit two or 
three times in the year. One of these tribes calls itself by the 
noble name of Stanley, of which I have nothing particular to 
say ; but the other is distinguished by an appellative somewhat 
remarkable — As far as their harsh gibberish can be understood, 
they seem to say that the name of their clan is Curleople ; now 
the termination of this word is apparently Grecian : and as Me- 
zeray and the gravest historians all agree that these vagrants did 
certainly migrate from Egypt and the East, two or three cen- 
turies ago, and so spread by degrees over Europe, may not this 
family-name, a little corrupted, be the very name they brought 
with them from the Levant ? It would be matter of some 
curiosity, could one meet with an intelligent person among them, 
to enquire whether, in their jargon, they still retain any Greek 
words : the Greek radicals will appear in hand, foot, head, water, 
earth, &c. It is possible that amidst their cant and corrupted 
dialect many mutilated remains of their native language might 
still be discovered. 
With regard to those peculiar people, the gypsies, one thing 
is very remarkable, and especially as they 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 
gypsy-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 ex- 
tended on a few hazel-rods bent hoop fashion, and stuck into 
