exclamations, and begged to be allowed to throw herself on the coffin, that she might be buried with her husband.  The religion of the Redeemer would have taught her to say, The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.

A woman of the name of B--- lived to the reputed age of a hundred and twenty years, and up to that age was accustomed to sing her song very gaily.  Many events in the life of this woman were very remarkable.  In her youth she was a noted swindler.  At one time she got a large sum of money, and other valuable effects, from a lady; for which and other offences, she was condemned to die.  A petition was presented to George the Third, to use the Gipsy’s own expression, who told the author, just after he had set

up business, that is, begun to reign, and he attended to its prayer.  The sentence was reversed, and her life was consequently spared.  But, poor woman, she repented not of her sins; for she taught her daughter to commit the same crimes for which she had been condemned; so that her delivery from condemnation led to no salutary reformation.

The mutual attachment which subsists between the nominal husband and wife, is so truly sincere, that instances of infidelity, on either side, occur but seldom.  They are known strictly to avoid all conversation of an unchaste kind in their camps, except among the most degraded of them; and instances of young females having children, before they pledge themselves to those they love, are rare.  This purity of morals, among a people living as they do, speaks much in their favour.

The anxiety of a Gipsy parent to preserve the purity of the morals of a daughter, is strongly portrayed in the following fact.  The author wished to engage as a servant the daughter of a Gipsy who was desirous of quitting her vagrant life; but her mother strongly objected for some time; and when pressed for the reason of such objection, she named the danger she would be in a town, far from a mother’s eye.  It would be well if all others felt for their children as did this unlettered Gipsy.  After having promised that the morals of the child should be watched over, she was confided to his care.  And the author has known a Gipsy parent correct with stripes a grown daughter,

for mentioning what a profligate person had talked about.

The following is an instance of conjugal attachment.  A poor woman, whose eldest child is now under the care of the Society for the improvement of the Gipsies, being near her confinement, came into the neighbourhood of Southampton, to be with her friends, who are reformed, during the time.  This not taking place so soon as she expected, and having promised to meet her husband at a distance on a certain day, he not daring to shew himself in Hampshire, she determined on going to him; and having mounted her donkey, set off with her little family.  She had a distance of nearly fifty miles to travel, and happily reached the desired spot, where she met her husband before her confinement took place.  The good people at Warminster, near which place she was, afforded her kind and needful assistance; and one well-disposed lady became God-mother to the babe, who was a fine little girl; the grateful mother pledging that, at a proper age, she should be given up to Christians to be educated.

Before this woman left Southampton, referring to many kind attentions shewn her by the charitable of that place, she was heard to say, Well—I did not think any one would take such trouble for me!

Professing to be church people whenever they speak of religion, the Gipsies generally have their children baptized at the church near which they are born,

partly because they think it right, and partly, perhaps chiefly, to secure the knowledge of the parish to which the child belongs; for every illegitimate child is parishioner in the parish in which it happens to be born.  They will sometimes apply to the parish officers for something toward the support of a child, which they call settling the baby.

The sponsors at baptism are generally branches of the same family, and they speak of their God-children with pleasure, who in return manifest a high feeling of respect for them, and superstitiously ask their blessing on old Christmas-days, when in company with them.  It is worthy of remark that all the better sort of Gipsies teach their children the Lord’s Prayer.

The anxiety evidenced by some parish officers to prevent these families from settling in their districts, has occasionally led the Gipsies to act unjustifiably by menacing them with the settlement of a number of their families; but this, from their perpetual wandering, need never be feared.  Happy would it be for the Gipsies as a people, if these civil officers did encourage them to stay longer in their neighbourhood; for they then might be induced to commence and persevere in honest, industrious and regular habits.  Not long ago thirty-five Gipsies came to a parish in Hampshire, to which they belonged, and demanded of the overseers ten pounds, declaring that, if that sum were not given them, they would remain there.  Seven pounds were advanced, and they soon left the place.

CHAP. III.  The Character, Manners and Habits of the English Gipsies, continued.

From the mode of living among the Gipsies, the parents are often necessitated to leave their tents in the morning, and seldom return to them before night.  Their children are then left in or about their solitary camps, having many times no adult with them; the elder children then have the care of the younger.  Those who are old enough gather wood for fuel; nor is stealing it thought a crime.  By the culpable neglect of the parents in this respect, the children are often exposed to accidents by fire; and melancholy instances of children being burnt and scalded to death, are not unfrequent.  The author knows one poor woman, two of whose children have thus lost their lives, during her absence from her tent, at different periods: and very lately a child was scalded to death in the parish where the author writes.

The Gipsies are not very regular in attending to the calls of appetite and hunger.  Their principal meal is supper, and their food is supplied in proportion to the success they have had through the day; or, to use their own words, the luck they have met with.

Like the poor of the land through which they wander, they are fond of tea, drinking it at every meal. 

When times are hard with them, they use English herbs, of which they generally carry a stock, such as agrimony, ground-ivy, wild mint, and the root of a herb called spice-herb.

The trades they follow are generally chair-mending, knife-grinding, tinkering, and basket-making, the wood for which they mostly steal.  Some of them sell hardware, brushes, corks, &c.; but in general, neither old nor young among them, do much that can be called labour.  And it is lamentable that the greatest part of the little they do earn, is laid by to spend at their festivals; for like many tribes of uncivilized Indians, they mostly make their women support their families, who generally do it by swindling and fortune-telling.  Their baskets introduce them to the servants of families, of whom they beg victuals, to whom they sell trifling wares, and tell their fortunes, which indeed is their principal aim, as it is their greatest source of gain.  They have been awkwardly fixed, both servants and the Gipsy fortune-teller, when the lady