three centuries since, a dreadfulpersecution was raised against
them, the aim of which was their utter extermination; the being a

Gypsy was esteemed a crime worthy of death, and the gibbets of
England groaned and creaked beneath the weight of Gypsy carcases,

and the miserable survivors were literally obliged to creep into
the earth in order to preserve their lives. But these days passed

by; their persecutors became weary of pursuing them; they showed
their heads from the holes and caves where they had hidden

themselves, they ventured forth, increased in numbers, and, each
tribe or family choosing a particular circuit, they fairly divided

the land amongst them.
In England, the male Gypsies are all dealers in horses, and

sometimes employ their idle time in mending the tin and copper
utensils of the peasantry; the females tell fortunes. They

generally pitch their tents in the vicinity of a village or small
town by the road side, under the shelter of the hedges and trees.

The climate of England is well known to be favourable to beauty,
and in no part of the world is the appearance of the Gypsies so

prepossessing as in that country; their complexion is dark, but not
disagreeably so; their faces are oval, their features regular,

their foreheads rather low, and their hands and feet small. The
men are taller than the English peasantry, and far more active.

They all speak the English language with fluency, and in their gait
and demeanour are easy and graceful; in both points standing in

striking contrast with the peasantry, who in speech are slow and
uncouth, and in manner dogged and brutal.

The dialect of the Rommany, which they speak, though mixed with
English words, may be considered as tolerably pure, from the fact

that it is intelligible to the Gypsy race in the heart of Russia.
Whatever crimes they may commit, their vices are few, for the men

are not drunkards, nor are the women harlots; there are no two
characters which they hold in so much abhorrence, nor do any words

when applied by them convey so much execration as these two.
The crimes of which these people were originally accused were

various, but the principal were theft, sorcery, and causing disease
among the cattle; and there is every reason for supposing that in

none of these points they were altogether guiltless.
With respect to sorcery, a thing in itself impossible, not only the

English Gypsies, but the whole race, have ever professed it;
therefore, whatevermisery they may have suffered on that account,

they may be considered as having called it down upon their own
heads.

Dabbling in sorcery is in some degree the province of the female
Gypsy. She affects to tell the future, and to prepare philtres by

means of which love can be awakened in any individual towards any
particular object; and such is the credulity of the human race,

even in the most enlightened countries, that the profits arising
from these practices are great. The following is a case in point:

two females, neighbours and friends, were tried some years since,
in England, for the murder of their husbands. It appeared that

they were in love with the same individual, and had conjointly, at
various times, paid sums of money to a Gypsy woman to work charms

to captivate his affections. Whatever little effect the charms
might produce, they were successful in their principal object, for

the person in question carried on for some time a criminal
intercourse with both. The matter came to the knowledge of the

husbands, who, taking means to break off this connection, were
respectively poisoned by their wives. Till the moment of

conviction these wretched females betrayed neither emotion nor
fear, but then their consternation was indescribable; and they

afterwards confessed that the Gypsy, who had visited them in
prison, had promised to shield them from conviction by means of her

art. It is therefore not surprising that in the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries, when a belief in sorcery was supported by the

laws of all Europe, these people were regarded as practisers of
sorcery, and punished as such, when, even in the nineteenth, they

still find people weak enough to place confidence in their claims
to supernatural power.

The accusation of producing disease and death amongst the cattle
was far from groundless. Indeed, however strange and incredible it

may sound in the present day to those who are unacquainted with
this caste, and the peculiar habits of the Rommanees, the practice

is still occasionally pursued in England and many other countries
where they are found. From this practice, when they are not

detected, they deriveconsiderableadvantage. Poisoning cattle is
exercised by them in two ways: by one, they merely cause disease

in the animals, with the view of receiving money for curing them
upon offering their services; the poison is generally administered

by powders cast at night into the mangers of the animals: this way
is only practised upon the larger cattle, such as horses and cows.

By the other, which they practisechiefly on swine, speedy death is
almost invariably produced, the drug administered being of a highly

intoxicating nature, and affecting the brain. They then apply at
the house or farm where the disaster has occurred for the carcase

of the animal, which is generally given them without suspicion, and
then they feast on the flesh, which is not injured by the poison,

which only affects the head.
The English Gypsies are constant attendants at the racecourse; what

jockey is not? Perhaps jockeyism originated with them, and even
racing, at least in England. Jockeyism properly implies THE

MANAGEMENT OF A WHIP, and the word jockey is neither more nor less
than the term slightly modified, by which they designate the

formidable whips which they usually carry, and which are at present
in general use amongst horse-traffickers, under the title of jockey

whips. They are likewise fond of resorting to the prize-ring, and
have occasionally even attained some eminence, as principals, in

those disgraceful and brutalising exhibitions called pugilistic
combats. I believe a great deal has been written on the subject of

the English Gypsies, but the writers have dwelt too much in
generalities; they have been afraid to take the Gypsy by the hand,

lead him forth from the crowd, and exhibit him in the area; he is
well worth observing. When a boy of fourteen, I was present at a

prize-fight; why should I hide the truth? It took place on a green
meadow, beside a runningstream, close by the old church of E-, and

within a league of the ancient town of N-, the capital of one of
the eastern counties. The terrible Thurtell was present, lord of

the concourse; for wherever he moved he was master, and whenever he
spoke, even when in chains, every other voice was silent. He stood

on the mead, grim and pale as usual, with his bruisers around. He
it was, indeed, who GOT UP the fight, as he had previously done

twenty others; it being his frequent boast that he had first
introduced bruising and bloodshedamidst rural scenes, and

transformed a quiet slumbering town into a den of Jews and
metropolitan thieves. Some time before the commencement of the

combat, three men, mounted on wild-looking horses, came dashing
down the road in the direction of the meadow, in the midst of which

they presently showed themselves, their horses clearing the deep
ditches with wonderful alacrity. 'That's Gypsy Will and his gang,'

lisped a Hebrew pickpocket; 'we shall have another fight.' The
word Gypsy was always sufficient to excite my curiosity, and I

looked attentively at the newcomers.
I have seen Gypsies of various lands, Russian, Hungarian, and

Turkish; and I have also seen the legitimate children of most
countries of the world; but I never saw, upon the whole, three more

remarkable individuals, as far as personal appearance was
concerned, than the three English Gypsies who now presented

themselves to my eyes on that spot. Two of them had dismounted,
and were holding their horses by the reins. The tallest, and, at

the first glance, the most interesting of the two, was almost a
giant, for his height could not have been less than six feet three.

It is impossible for the imagination to conceive anything more
perfectly beautiful than were the features of this man, and the

most skilful sculptor of Greece might have taken them as his model
for a hero and a god. The forehead was exceedingly lofty, - a rare

thing in a Gypsy; the nose less Roman than Grecian, - fine yet
delicate; the eyes large, overhung with long drooping lashes,

giving them almost a melancholy expression; it was only when the
lashes were elevated that the Gypsy glance was seen, if that can be