As the Gypsies were mounting their horses, I heard the dusty

phantom exclaim -
'Brother, you are an arrant ring-maker and a horse-breaker; you'll

make a hempen ring to break your own neck of a horse one of these
days.'

They pressed their horses' flanks, again leaped over the ditches,
and speedily vanished, amidst the whirlwinds of dust which they

raised upon the road.
The words of the phantom Gypsy were ominous. Gypsy Will was

eventually executed for a murder committed in his early youth, in
company with two English labourers, one of whom confessed the fact

on his death-bed. He was the head of the clan Young, which, with
the clan Smith, still haunts two of the eastern counties.

SOME FURTHER PARTICULARS RESPECTING THE ENGLISH GYPSIES
It is difficult to say at what period the Gypsies or Rommany made

their first appearance in England. They had become, however, such
a nuisance in the time of Henry the Eighth, Philip and Mary, and

Elizabeth, that Gypsyism was denounced by various royal statutes,
and, if persisted in, was to be punished as felony without benefit

of clergy; it is probable, however, that they had overrun England
long before the period of the earliest of these monarchs. The

Gypsies penetrate into all countries, save poor ones, and it is
hardly to be supposed that a few leagues of intervening salt water

would have kept a race so enterprising any considerable length of
time, after their arrival on the continent of Europe, from

obtaining a footing in the fairest and richest country of the West.
It is easy enough to conceive the manner in which the Gypsies lived

in England for a long time subsequent to their arrival: doubtless
in a half-savage state, wandering about from place to place,

encamping on the uninhabited spots, of which there were then so
many in England, feared and hated by the population, who looked

upon them as thieves and foreign sorcerers, occasionally committing
acts of brigandage, but depending chiefly for subsistence on the

practice of the 'arts of Egypt,' in which cunning and dexterity
were far more necessary than courage or strength of hand.

It would appear that they were always divided into clans or tribes,
each bearing a particular name, and to which a particular district

more especially belonged, though occasionally they would exchange
districts for a period, and, incited by their characteristic love

of wandering, would travel far and wide. Of these families each
had a sher-engro, or head man, but that they were ever united under

one Rommany Krallis, or Gypsy King, as some people have insisted,
there is not the slightest ground for supposing.

It is possible that many of the original Gypsy tribes are no longer
in existence: disease or the law may have made sad havoc among

them, and the few survivors have incorporated themselves with other
families, whose name they have adopted. Two or three instances of

this description have occurred within the sphere of my own
knowledge: the heads of small families have been cut off, and the

subordinate members, too young and inexperienced to continue
Gypsying as independent wanderers, have been adopted by other

tribes.
The principal Gypsy tribes at present in existence are the

Stanleys, whose grand haunt is the New Forest; the Lovells, who are
fond of London and its vicinity; the Coopers, who call Windsor

Castle their home; the Hernes, to whom the north country, more
especially Yorkshire, belongeth; and lastly, my brethren, the

Smiths, - to whom East Anglia appears to have been allotted from
the beginning.

All these families have Gypsy names, which seem, however, to be
little more than attempts at translation of the English ones:- thus

the Stanleys are called Bar-engres (11), which means stony-fellows,
or stony-hearts; the Coopers, Wardo-engres, or wheelwrights; the

Lovells, Camo-mescres, or amorous fellows the Hernes (German
Haaren) Balors, hairs, or hairy men; while the Smiths are called

Petul-engres, signifying horseshoe fellows, or blacksmiths.
It is not very easy to determine how the Gypsies became possessed

of some of these names: the reader, however, will have observed
that two of them, Stanley and Lovell, are the names of two highly

aristocratic English families; the Gypsies who bear them perhaps
adopted them from having, at their first arrival, established

themselves on the estates of those great people; or it is possible
that they translated their original Gypsy appellations by these

names, which they deemed synonymous. Much the same may be said
with respect to Herne, an ancient English name; they probably

sometimes officiated as coopers or wheelwrights, whence the
cognomination. Of the term Petul-engro, or Smith, however, I wish

to say something in particular.
There is every reason for believing that this last is a genuine

Gypsy name, brought with them from the country from which they
originally came; it is compounded of two words, signifying, as has

been already observed, horseshoe fellows, or people whose trade is
to manufacture horseshoes, a trade which the Gypsies ply in various

parts of the world, - for example, in Russia and Hungary, and more
particularly about Granada in Spain, as will subsequently be shown.

True it is, that at present there are none amongst the English
Gypsies who manufacture horseshoes; all the men, however, are

tinkers more or less, and the word Petul-engro is applied to the
tinker also, though the proper meaning of it is undoubtedly what I

have already stated above. In other dialects of the Gypsy tongue,
this cognomen exists, though not exactly with the same

signification; for example, in the Hungarian dialect, PINDORO,
which is evidently a modification of Petul-engro, is applied to a

Gypsy in general, whilst in Spanish Pepindorio is the Gypsy word
for Antonio. In some parts of Northern Asia, the Gypsies call

themselves Wattul (12), which seems to be one and the same as
Petul.

Besides the above-named Gypsy clans, there are other smaller ones,
some of which do not comprise more than a dozen individuals,

children included. For example, the Bosviles, the Browns, the
Chilcotts, the Grays, Lees, Taylors, and Whites; of these the

principal is the Bosvile tribe.
After the days of the great persecution in England against the

Gypsies, there can be little doubt that they lived a right merry
and tranquil life, wandering about and pitching their tents

wherever inclination led them: indeed, I can scarcely conceive any
human condition more enviable than Gypsy life must have been in

England during the latter part of the seventeenth, and the whole of
the eighteenth century, which were likewise the happy days for

Englishmen in general; there was peace and plenty in the land, a
contented population, and everything went well. Yes, those were

brave times for the Rommany chals, to which the old people often
revert with a sigh: the poor Gypsies, say they, were then allowed

to SOVE ABRI (sleep abroad) where they listed, to heat their
kettles at the foot of the oaks, and no people grudged the poor

persons one night's use of a meadow to feed their cattle in.
TUGNIS AMANDE, our heart is heavy, brother, - there is no longer

Gypsy law in the land, - our people have become negligent, - they
are but half Rommany, - they are divided and care for nothing, -

they do not even fear Pazorrhus, brother.
Much the same complaints are at present made by the Spanish

Gypsies. Gypsyism is certainly on the decline in both countries.
In England, a superabundant population, and, of late, a very

vigilant police, have done much to modify Gypsy life; whilst in
Spain, causes widely different have produced a still greater

change, as will be seen further on.
Gypsy law does not flourish at present in England, and still less

in Spain, nor does Gypsyism. I need not explain here what Gypsyism