on another occasion by Dr. Grey. Dr. Grey's assertion may be supported by the following passage in an old comedy called the "Family of Love," 1608:

66

"Can you think I get my living by a bell and a clack-dish?

By a bell and a clack-dish? How's that?
Why, begging, Sir," &c.

And by a stage direction in the second part of
King Edward IV." 1619: "Enter Mrs.
Blague, very poorly,-begging with her bas-
ket and a clack-dish." See Reed's edition of
Shaksp. 1803, vol. vi. p. 325.

(3) Sir Thomas Browne, in his "Vulgar Errors," p. 286, gives this general account of the Gipsies: "They are a kind of counterfeit Moors, to be found in many parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa. They are commonly supposed to have come from Egypt, from whence they derive themselves. Munster discovered, in the letters and pass which they obtained from Sigismund the Emperor, that they first came out of Lesser Egypt; that having turned apostates from Christianity and relapsed into Pagan rites, some of every family were enjoined this penance, to wander about the world. Aventinus tells us, that they pretend, for this vagabond course, a judgment of God upon their forefathers, who refused to entertain the Virgin Mary and Jesus, when she fled into their country."

(4) Yet Bellonius, who met great droves of Gipsies in Egypt in villages on the banks of the Nile, where they were accounted strangers and wanderers from foreign parts, as with us, affirms that they are no Egyptians. (Observat. lib. ii.)

It seems pretty clear that the first of the Gipsies were Asiatic, brought hither by the crusaders, on their return from the holy wars, but to these it is objected that there is no trace of them to be found in history at that time.

Ralph Volaterranus affirms that they first proceeded, or strolled, from among the Uxi, a people of Persia. Sir Thomas Browne cites Polydore Vergil as accounting them originally Syrians: Philip Bergoinas as deriving them from Chaldea: Æneas Sylvius, as from some part of Tartary: Bellonius, as from Wallachia and Bulgaria: and Aventinus as fetching them

from the confines of Hungary. He adds that "they have been banished by most Christian princes. The great Turk at least tolerates them near the imperial city: he is said to employ them as spies: they were banished as such by the Emperor Charles the Fifth."

(5) Sir Thomas Browne, ut supra, p. 287, says: "Their first appearance was in Germany since the year 1400. Nor were they observed before in other parts of Europe, as is deducible from Munster, Genebrard, Crantsius, and Ortelius."

(6) Spelman's portrait of the Gipsy fraternity in his time, which seems to have been taken ad vivum, is as follows: "EGYPTIANI. Erronum Impostorumque genus nequissimum : in Continente ortum, sed ad Britannias nostras et Europam reliquam pervolans :-nigredine deformes, excocti sole, immundi veste, et usu rerum omnium fœdi.-Fœminæ, cum stratis et parvulis, jumento invehuntur. Literas circumferunt Principum, ut innoxius illis permittatur transitus.-Oriuntur quippe et in nostra et in omni Regione, spurci hujusmodi nebulones, qui sui similes in Gymnasium sceleris adsciscentes; vultum, cultum, moresque supradictos sibi inducunt. Linguam (ut exotici magis videantur) fictitiam blaterant, provinciasque vicatim pervagantes, auguriis et furtis, imposturis & technarum millibus plebeculam rodunt et illudunt, linguam hanc Germani Rotwelch, quasi rubrum Wallicum, id est Barbarismum Angli Canting nuncupant."

In "The Art of Jugling and Legerdemaine," by S. R., 4to. 1612, signat. B b, is the following account: "These kinde of people about an hundred yeares agoe, about the twentieth yeare of King Henry the Eight, began to gather an head, at the first heere about the southerne parts, and this (as I am informed, and as I can gather) was their beginning. Certaine Egiptians banished their cuntry (belike not for their good conditions) arrived heere in England, who, being excellent in quaint tricks and devises, not known heere at that time among us, were esteemed and had in great admiration, for what with strangeness of their attire and garments, together with their sleights and legerdemaines, they were spoke of farre and neere, insomuch that many of our English loyterers joyned with them, and in time learned

their crafte and cosening. The speach which they used was the right Egyptian language, with whome our Englishmen conversing with, at last learned their language. These people continuing about the cuntry in this fashion, practising their cosening art of fast and loose and legerdemaine, purchased themselves great credit among the cuntry people, and got much by palmistry and telling of fortunes: insomuch they pitifully cosened the poore contry girles, both of money, silver spones, and the best of their apparrell, or any good thing they could make, onely to heare their fortunes.""This Giles Hather (for so was his name) together with his whore Kit Calot, in short space had following them a pretty traine, he terming himself the King of the Egiptians, and she the Queene, ryding about the cuntry at their pleasure uncontrolld." He then mentions the statute against them of the 1st and 2nd of Philip and Mary, on which he observes: "But what a number were executed presently upon this statute, you would wonder yet, notwithstanding, all would not prevaile: but still they wandred, as before, up and downe, and meeting once in a yeere at a place appointed sometimes at the Devils A

:

Peake in Darbishire, and otherwhiles at Ketbrooke by Blackheath, or elsewhere, as they agreed still at their meeting." Speaking of his own time, he adds: "These fellows, seeing that no profit comes by wandring, but hazard of their lives, do daily decrease and breake off their wonted society, and betake themselves, many of them, some to be pedlers, some tinkers, some juglers, and some to one kinde of life or other."

(7) Twiss, in his "Travels," gives the following account of them in Spain: "They are very numerous about and in Murcia, Cordova, Cadiz, and Ronda. The race of these vagabonds is found in every part of Europe; the French call them Bohemiens; the Italians Zingari; the Germans, Ziegenners; the Dutch, Heydenen (Pagans); the Portuguese, Siganos; and the Spaniards, Gitanos; in Latin, Cingari. Their language, which is peculiar to themselves, is everywhere so similar, that they undoubtedly are all derived from the same source. They began to appear in Europe in the fifteenth century, and are probably a mixture of Egyptians and Ethiopians. The

VOL. III.

men are all thieves, and the women libertines. They follow no certain trade, and have no fixed religion. They do not enter into the order of society, wherein they are only tolerated. It is supposed there are upwards of 40,000 of them in Spain, great numbers of whom are innkeepers in the villages and small towns, and are everywhere fortune-tellers. In Spain they are not allowed to possess any lands, or even to serve as soldiers. They marry among themselves, stroll in troops about the country, and bury their dead under water. They are contented if they can procure food by showing feats of dexterity, and only pilfer to supply themselves with the trifles they want; so that they never render themselves liable to any severer chastisement than whipping for having stolen chickens, linen, &c. Most of the men have a smattering of physic and surgery, and are skilled in tricks performed by slight of hand. The foregoing account is partly extracted from 'Le Voyageur François,' vol. xvi., but the assertion that they are all so abandoned as that author says is too general."

(8) In a provincial council held at Tarragona in the year 1591 there was the following decree against them: "Curandum etiam est ut publici Magistratus eos coerceant qui se Ægyptiacos vel Bohemianos vocant, quos vix constat esse Christianos, nisi ex eorum relatione; cum tamen sint mendaces, fures, et deceptores, et aliis sceleribus multi eorum assueti."

66

The Gipsies are universally considered in the same light, i. e. of cheats and pilferers. Witness the definition of them in Dufresne, and the curious etchings of them by Callot. Ægyptiaci," says Dufresne, "vagi homines, harioli ac fatidici, qui hac & illac errantes ex manus inspectione futura præsagire se fingunt, ut de marsupiis incautorum nummos corrogent." The engraver does not represent them in a more favourable light than the lexicographer, for besides his inimitable delineations of their dissolute manner of living, he has accompanied his plates with verses which are very far from celebrating their honesty.

Pasquier, in his "Recherches de la France," has the following account of them: "On August 17, 1427, came to Paris twelve Penitents (Penanciers) as they called themselves, viz. a duke, an earl, and ten men, all

E

on horseback, and calling themselves good Christians. They were of Lower Egypt, and gave out that not long before the Christians had subdued their country, and obliged them to embrace Christianity, or put them to death. Those who were baptized were great lords in their own country, and had a king and queen there. Some time after their conversion, the Saracens overran their country and obliged them to renounce Christianity. When the Emperor of Germany, the King of Poland, and other Christian princes, heard this, they fell upon them and obliged them all, both great and small, to quit their country and go to the Pope at Rome, who enjoined them seven years' penance to wander over the world without lying in a bed; every bishop and abbot to give them once 10 livres tournois, and he gave them letters to this purpose, and his blessing.

"They had been wandering five years when they came to Paris. They were lodged by the police out of the city, at Chapel St. Denis. Almost all had their ears bored, and one or two silver rings in each, which they said was esteemed an ornament in their country. The men were very black, their hair curled; the women remarkably ugly and black, all their faces scarred (deplayez), their hair black, like a horse's tail, their only habit an old shaggy garment (flossoye) tied over their shoulders with a cloth or cord-sash, and under it a poor petticoat or shift. In short they were the poorest wretches that had ever been seen in France; and, notwithstanding their poverty, there were among them women who, by looking into people's hands, told their fortunes et meirent contens en plusieurs mariages: for they said, Thy wife has played thee false (Ta femme t'a fait coup), and what was worse, they picked people's pockets of their money and got it into their own by telling these things by art, magic, or the intervention of the Devil, or by a certain knack." Thus Pasquier. It is added that they were expelled from France in 1561.

In the "Statistical Account of Scotland," vol. ii. p. 124, parish of Eaglesham, county of Renfrew, we read: "There is no magistrate nearer than within four miles; and the place is oppressed with gangs of Gipsies, commonly called tinkers, or randy-beggars, because there is nobody to take the smallest account of them."

(9) In the "Gent. Mag." for Oct. 1785, vol. Ív. p. 765, we read: "In a Privy Seal Book at Edinburgh, No. xiv. fol. 59, is this entry: Letters of Defence and Concurrence to John Fall, Lord and Earl of Little Egypt, for assisting him in the execution of Justice upon his Company, conform to the Laws of Egypt, Feb. 15, 1540.' These are supposed to have been a gang of Gipsies associated together in defiance of the state, under Fall as their head or king: and these the articles of association for their internal government, mu. tual defence, and security, the embroiled and infirm state of the Scotch nation at that time not permitting them to repress or restrain a combination of vagrants who had got above the laws and erected themselves into a separate community as a set of banditti.

(10) In "Lodge's Illustrations of British History," &c., vol. i. p. 135, is a curious Letter of the Justices of Durham to the Earl of Shrewsbury, Lord President of the Council in the North, dated at Duresme, Jan. 19th, 1549, concerning the Gipsies and Faws.

"Pleasyth yor good Lordship t'understaund, John Roland, oon of that sorte of people callinge themsellfes Egiptians, dyd before us accuse Babtist Fawe, Amy Fawe, and George Fawe, Egiptians, that they had counterfeate the kyngs maties greate seale: wherupon we caused th' above named Baptist, Amye, and George, to be apprehended by th'officers, who, emongst other things, dyd find one wryting with a greate seall moche like to the kings maties great seall, which we, bothe by the wrytinge, and also by the seall, do suppose to be counterfeate and feanyd; the which seall we do send to your L. herwith, by post, for triall of the same. Signifieing also to yo' L. that we have examynet the said Babtist, Amye, and George, upon the said matter; who doithe afferme and saye, with great othes and execracions, that they never dyd see the said seall before this tyme, and that they dyd not counterfeate it; and that the said John Roland is their mortall enemye, and haithe often tymes accused the said Babtist before this, and is moche in his debte, as appeareth by ther wrytinges redy to be shewed, for the whiche money the said John doithe falsly all he can agaynst them, and, as they suppose, the above-named John Roland, or some of

his complices, haithe put the counterfeate seall emongst there wrytyngs; with such lyke sayngs. Wherfor we have co'mit all th above named Egiptians to the gaoll of Duresme, to such tyme as we do knowe your L. pleasor in the premises. And thus Almightie God preserve your good L. in moche honor. Duresme this 19th of Januarye, 1549.

Yor Lordship's assured,

GEORGE CONYERS,

At

ROBERT HYNDMERS,
CUTHBERTT CONYERS,
JERRERD SALVEYN.

To the right honorable and or sing❜ler good
Lord th' Erll of Shrewisburye, Lord Pre-
sident of the Kyng's Maties Counsell in
the Northe.

(11) There is a well-known Scottish song entitled "Johnny Faa, the Gypsie Laddie." There is an advertisement in the "Newcastle Courant," July 27, 1754, offering a reward for the apprehending of John Fall and Margaret his wife, William Fall and Jane, otherwise Ann, his wife, &c., "commonly called or known by the name of Fawes," &c.

Gipsies still continue to be called "Faws" in the North of England.

(12) Gay, in his "Pastorals," speaking of a girl who is slighted by her lover, thus decribes the Gipsies:

"Last Friday's eve, when as the sun was set, I, near yon stile, three sallow Gipsies met; Upon my hand they cast a poring look, Bid me beware, and thrice their heads they shook :

They said that many crosses I must prove,
Some in my worldly gain, but most in love.
Next morn I miss'd three hens and our old
cock,

And, off the hedge, two pinners and a

smock." The Ditty.

The following beautiful lines on the same subject are from Prior's "Henry and Emma." Henry is personating a Gipsy.

"A frantic Gipsy now the house he haunts, And in wild phrases speaks dissembled

wants:

With the fond maids in palmistry he deals; They tell the secret first which he reveals:

Says who shall wed, and who shall be beguil'd,

What groom shall get, and 'squire maintain the child."

Rogers, in his "Pleasures of Memory," 1. 107, has also described the Gipsy: "Down by yon hazel copse, at evening, blaz'd The Gipsy's fagot. There we stood and gaz'd;

Gaz'd on her sun-burnt face with silent awe, Her tatter'd mantle, and her hood of straw; Her moving lips, her caldron brimming o'er;

The drowsy brood that on her back she bore,

Imps, in the barn with mousing owlet bred, From rifled roost at nightly revel fed; Whose dark eyes flash'd thro' locks of blackest shade,

When in the breeze the distant watch-dog bay'd:

And heroes fled the Sibyl's mutter'd call, Whose elfin prowess scal'd the orchard wall.

As o'er my palm the silver piece she drew, And trac'd the line of life with searching

view,

How throbb'd my fluttering pulse with hopes and fears

To learn the colour of my future years!"

Strype, in his "Annals of the Reformation," vol. ii. p. 611, mentions a book written by William Bullein "Of Simples and Surgery," A. D. 1562, in which the author speaks of dog-leaches, and Egyptians, and Jews: all pretending to the telling of fortunes and curing by charms. They (dog-leaches) buy some gross stuff, with a box of salve and cases of tools, to set forth their slender market withal, &c.

Then fall they to palmistry and telling of fortunes, daily deceiving the simple. Like unto the swarms of vagabonds, Egyptians, and some that call themselves Jews: whose eyes were so sharp as lynx. For they see all the people with their knacks, pricks, domifying, and figuring, with such like fantasies. Faining that they have familiers and glasses, whereby they may find things that be lost. And, besides them, are infinite of old doltish witches with blessings for the fair and conjuring of

cattel."

"We have different modes of restraining evil. and a pound for beasts."-JOHNSON. See

THE Cucking-stool was an engine invented for the punishment of scolds and unquiet women, by ducking them in the water, after having placed them in a stool or chair fixed at the end of a long pole, by which they were immerged in some muddy or stinking pond. Blount tells us that some think it a corruption from Ducking-stool, (3) but that others derive it from Choking-stool. (4) Though of the most remote antiquity, it is now, it should seem, totally disused.

Mr. Lysons, in his "Environs of London," vol. i. p. 233, gives us a curious extract from the churchwardens' and chamberlain's accounts at Kingston-upon-Thames, in the year 1572, which contains a bill of expenses (5) for making one of these Cucking-stools, which, he says, must have been much in use formerly, as there are frequent entries of money paid for its repairs. He adds, that this arbitrary attempt at laying an embargo upon the female tongue has long since been laid aside. It was continued, however, at Kingston to a late period, as appears from the following paragraph in the "London Evening Post," April 27 to 30, 1745: "Last week a woman that keeps the Queen's Head alehouse at Kingston, in Surrey, was ordered by the court

(a) See Cowel, in v. ex Carta Joh. regis, dat. 11 Jun. anno regni 1.

(b) It is so called in Lambarde's " Eirenarchia," lib. i. c. 12.

In his xlviiith. vol. (MS. Brit. Mus.) p. 172, Cole says, "In my time, when I was a boy, and lived with my grandmother in the great corner house at the bridge foot next to Magdalen College, Cambridge, and re-built since by my uncle, Mr. Joseph Cock, I remember to have seen a woman ducked for scolding.

"The chair hung by a pulley fastened to a beam about the middle of the bridge, in which the woman was confined, and let down under the water three times, and then taken out. The bridge was then of timber, before the present stone bridge of one arch was builded. The Ducking-stool was constantly hanging in its place, and on the back panel of it was engraved devils laying hold of scolds, &c. Some time after a new chair was erected in the place of the old one, having the same devils carved