hood. In years of plenty, many thousands of them meet together in the mountains, where they feast and riot for many days; and at country weddings, markets, burials, and other the like public occasions, they are to be seen, both man and woman, perpetually drunk, cursing, blaspheming, and fighting together.

"Notwithstanding the deplorable picture presented in this extract, and which Fletcher himself, though the energetic and eloquent friend of freedom, saw no better mode of correcting than by introducing a system of domestic slavery, the progress of time, and increase both of the means of life and of the power of the laws, gradually reduced this dreadful evil within more narrow bounds. The tribes of gypsies, jockies, or cairds, for by all these denominations such banditti were known, became few in number, and many were entirely rooted out. Still, however, enough remained to give occasional alarm and constant vexation. Some rude handicrafts were entirely resigned to these itinerants, particularly the art of trencher-making, of manufacturing horn-spoons, and the whole mystery of the tinker. To these they added a petty trade in the coarser sorts of earthen-ware. Such were their ostensible means of livelihood. Each tribe had usually some fixed place of rendezvous, which they occasionally occupied and considered as their standing camp, and in the vicinity of which they generally abstained from depredation. They had even talents and accomplishments, which made them occasionally useful and entertaining. Many cultivated music with success; and the favourite fiddler or piper of a district was often to be found in a gypsey town. They understood all out-of-door sports, especially otterhunting, fishing, or finding game. In winter, the women told fortunes, the men showed tricks of legerdemain; and these accomplishments often helped away a weary or a stormy evening in the circle of the "farmer's ha'." The wildness of their character, and the indomitable pride with which they despised all regular labour, commanded a certain awe, which was not diminished by the consideration, that these strollers were a vindictive race, and were restrained by no check, either of fear or conscience, from taking desperate vengeance upon those who had VOL. I.

offended them. These tribes were in short the Parias of Scotland, living like wild Indians among European settlers, and, like them, judged of rather by their own customs, habits, and opinions, than as if they had been members of the civilized part of the community. Some hordes of them yet remain, chiefly in such situations as afford a ready escape either into a waste country, or into another jurisdiction. Nor are the features of their character much softened. Their numbers, however, are so greatly diminished, that, instead of one hundred thousand, as calculated by Fletcher, it would now perhaps be impossible to collect above five hundred throughout

all Scotland."

Having, in the preceding pages, endeavoured to give our readers a general outline of what may be termed the public annals of our Scottish Gypsies, we now proceed to detail some of those more private and personal anecdotes, concerning them, with which we have been furnished chiefly from local traditions, or the observation of intelligent individuals. These we shall relate without much regard to arrangement, and, for the present, without any further remarks of our own than may be requisite merely for connecting or explaining them. It may be proper generally to mention, that though we deem it unnecessary to quote our authorities by name in every particular case, or for every little anecdote, yet we can very confidently pledge ourselves, in every instance, for the personal credibility of our informers.

The intrigue of the celebrated Johnnie Faa with the Earl of Cassilis' lady, rests on ballad and popular authority. Tradition points out an old tower in Maybole, as the place where the frail countess was confined. The portrait shown as hers in the Abbey of Holyroodhouse, however, is not genuine.-Of this affair of gypsey gallantry, Mr Finlay, in his notes to the old ballad of the Gypsie Laddie, gives the following account, as the result of his inquiries regarding the truth of the traditionary stories on the subject: -"The Earl of Cassilis had married a nobleman's daughter contrary to her wishes, she having been previously engaged to another; but the persuasion and importunity of her friends at last brought her to consent. G

Sir

John Faw of Dunbar, her former lover, seizing the opportunity of the earl's absence on a foreign embassy, disguised himself and a number of his retainers as gypsies, and carried off the lady, ' nothing loth.' The earl having returned opportunely at the time of the commission of the act, and nowise inclined to participate in his consort's ideas on the subject, collected his vassals, and pursued the lady and her paramour to the borders of England; where, having overtaken them, a battle ensued, in which Faw and his followers were all killed, or taken prisoners, excepting one,

the meanest of them all, Who lives to weep, and sing their fall. It is by this survivor that the ballad is supposed to have been written. The earl, on bringing back the fair fugitive, banished her a mensa et thoro, and, it is said, confined her for life in a tower at the village of Maybole, in Ayrshire, built for the purpose; and that nothing might remain about this tower unappropriated to its original destination, eight heads carved in stone, below one of the turrets, are said to be the effigies of so many of the gypsies. The lady herself, as well as the survivor of Faw's followers, contributed to perpetuate the remembrance of the transaction; for if he wrote a song about it, she wrought it in tapestry; and this piece of workmanship is still preserved at Culzean Castle. It remains to be mentioned, that the ford, by which the lady and her lover crossed the river Doon from a wood near Cassilis House, is still denominated the Gypsie steps."

been the disguised knight, but we know for certain, that the present gypsey family of Faa in Yetholm have been long accustomed to boast of their descent from the same stock with a very respectable family of the name of Faw, or Fall, in East Lothian, which we believe is now extinct.

The transformation of Johnnie Faa into a knight and gentleman, is not the only occasion on which the disguise of a gypsey is supposed to have been assumed for the purpose of intrigue. The old song of Clout the Caudron' is founded upon such a metamorphosis, as may be seen from the words in Allan Ramsay's Tea-table Miscellany; but an older copy preserves the name of the disguised lover :

"Yestreen I was a gentleman, This night I am a tinkler; Gae tell the lady o' this house, Come down to Sir John Sinclair.” Notwithstanding the severe laws frequently enacted by the Scottish legislature against this vagrant race, and, as we have seen, often rigorously enforced, they still continued grievously to molest the country about the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth century. They traversed the whole mountainous districts of the south, particularly Roxburghshire, mitted great and daring depredations. Selkirkshire, and Tweeddale, and comA gang of them once broke into the House of Pennycuick, while the greater John Clerke, the proprietor, barripart of the family were at church. Sir cadoed himself in his own apartment, where he sustained a sort of siege firing from the windows upon the robbers, who fired in return. By an odd accident, one of them, while quest of plate and other portable arthey strayed through the house in ticles, began to ascend the stair of a very narrow turret. When he had

Finlay's Scottish Ballads, vol. i. p. 39.

to save himself, in falling, the gypsey caught hold of what was rather an ominous means of assistance-a rope, namely, which hung conveniently for rope, and the fellow's weight, in fallthe purpose. It proved to be the belling, set the alarm-bell a-ringing, and startled the congregation who were assembled in the parish church. They instantly came to rescue the laird, and succeeded, it is said, in apprehending some of the gypsies, who were executed. There is a written account of

this daring assault kept in the records of the family.

Tweeddale was very much infested by these banditti, as appears from Dr Pennycuick's history of that county, who mentions the numerous executions to which their depredations gave occasion. He also gives the following account of a bloody skirmish which was fought between two clans of gypsies near his own house of Romanno. "Upon the 1st of October 1677, there happened at Romanno, in the very spot where now the dovecoat is built, a memorable polymachy betwixt two clanns of gipsies, the Fawes and Shawes, who had come from Haddingtoun fair, and were going to Harestains to meet with two other clanns of those rogues, the Baillies and Browns, with a resolution to fight them; they fell out at Romanno amongst themselves, about divideing the spoyl they had got at Haddingtoun, and fought it manfully; of the Fawes were four brethren and a brother's son; of the Shawes, the father with three sons, with seve ral women on both sides: Old Sandie Faw, a bold and proper fellow, with his wife, then with child, were both kill'd dead upon the place, and his brother George very dangerously wounded. February 1678, old Robin Shaw the gipsie, with his three sons, were hang'd at the Grass-mercat for the above-mentioned murder committed at Romanno, and John Faw was hang'd the Wednesday following for another murder. Sir Archibald Primrose was justice-general at the time, and Sir George M'Kenzie king's advocat.

."* Dr Pennycuick built a dove cote upon the spot where this affray took place, which he adorned with the following inscription:

left only one female to look after the house. She was presently alarmed by the noise of shouts, oaths, blows, and all the tumult of a gypsey battle. It seems another clan had arrived, and the earlier settlers instantly gave them battle. The poor woman shut the door, and remained in the house in great apprehension, until the door being suddenly forced open, one of the combatants rushed into the apartment, and she perceived with horror that his left hand had been struck off. Without speaking to or looking at her, he thrust the bloody stump, with desperate resolution, against the glowing bars of the grate; and having staunched the blood by actual cautery, seized a knife, used for killing sheep, which lay on the shelf, and rushed out again to join the combat.-All was over be fore the family returned from church, and both gangs had decamped, carrying probably their dead and wounded along with them: for the place where they fought was absolutely soaked with blood, and exhibited, among other reliques of the fray, the amputated hand of the wretch whose desperate conduct the maid-servant had witnessed.

The village of Denholm upon Teviot was, in former times, partly occupied by gypsies. The late Dr John Leyden, who was a native of that par ish, used to mention a skirmish which he had witnessed there between two clans, where the more desperate champions fought with clubs, having har row teeth driven transversely through the end of them.

About ten years ago, one John Young, a tinker chief, punished with instant death a brother tinker of inferior consequence who intruded on his walk. This happened in Aberdeenshire, and was remarked at the time chiefly from the strength and agility with which Young, constantly and closely pursued, and frequently in view, maintained a flight of nearly thirty miles. As he was chased by the Highlanders on foot, and by the late General Gordon of Cairnfield and others on horseback, the affair much resembled a fox chase. The pursuers were most of them gamekeepers; and that active race of men were so much exhausted, that they were lying by the springs lapping water with their tongues like dogs. It is scarce necessary to add, that the laws of the country were executed on Young without regard to the consid

eration that he was only enforcing the gypsey subordination.

The crimes that were committed among this hapless race were often atrocious. Incest and murder were frequent among them. In our recollection, an individual was tried for a theft of considerable magnitude, and acquitted, owing to the absence of one witness, a girl belonging to the gang, who had spoken freely out at the precognition. This young woman was afterwards found in a well near Cornhill, with her head downwards, and there was little doubt that she had been murdered by her companions.

We extract the following anecdotes from an interesting communication on this subject, with which we have been favoured by Mr Hogg, author of The Queen's Wake.'- "It was in the month of May that a gang of gypsies came up Ettrick;-one party of them lodged at a farm-house called ScobCleugh, and the rest went forward to Cossarhill, another farm about a mile farther on. Among the latter was one who played on the pipes and violin, delighting all that heard him; and the gang, principally on his account, were very civilly treated. Next day the two parties again joined, and proceeded westward in a body. There were about thirty souls in all, and they had five horses. On a sloping grassy spot, which I know very well, on the farm of Brockhoprig, they halted to rest. Here the hapless musician quarrelled with another of the tribe, about a girl, who, I think, was sister to the latter. Weapons were instantly drawn, and the piper losing courage, or knowing that he was not a match for his antagonist, fled, the other pursuing close at his heels. For a full mile and a half they continued to strain most violently, the one running for life, and the other thirsting for blood,-until they came again to Cossarhill, the place they had left. The family were all gone out, either to the sheep or the peats, save one servant girl, who was baking bread at the kitchen table, when the piper rushed breathless into the house. She screamed, and asked what was the matter? He answered, "Nae skaith to you-nae skaith to you-for God in heaven's sake hide me !"-With that he essayed to hide himself behind a salt barrel that stood in a corner-but his ruthless pursuer instantly entering, his panting betrayed him. The ruf

fian pulled him out by the hair, dragged him into the middle of the floor, and ran him through the body with his dirk. The piper never asked for mercy, but cursed the other as long as he had breath. The girl was struck motionless with horror, but the murderer told her never to heed or regard it, for no ill should happen to her. It was this woman's daughter, Isabel Scott, who told me the story, which she had often heard related with all the minute particulars. If she had been still alive, I think she would have been bordering upon ninety years of age; her mother, when this happened, was a young unmarried womanfit, it seems, to be a kitchen-maid in a farm-house,-so that this must have taken place about 100 years ago.-By the time the breath was well out of the unfortunate musician, some more of the gang arrived, bringing with them a horse, on which they carried back the body, and buried it on the spot where they first quarrelled. His grave is marked by one stone at the head, and another at the foot, which the gypsies themselves placed; and it is still looked upon by the rustics, as a dangerous place for a walking ghost to this day. There was no cognizance taken of the affair, that any of the old people ever heard of-but God forbid that every amorous minstrel should be so sharply taken to task in these days!

"There is a similar story, of later date, of a murder committed at Lowrie's-den, on Soutra Hill, by one gypsey on another: but I do not remember the particulars farther, than that it was before many witnesses;-that they fought for a considerable time most furiously with their fists, till at last one getting the other down, drew a knife, and stabbed him to the heart

when he pulled the weapon out, the blood sprung to the ceiling, where it remained as long as that house stood;

and that though there were many of the gang present, none of them offered to separate the combatants, or made any observation on the issue, farther than one saying "Gude faith, ye hae done for him now, Rob!" The story bears, that the assassin fled, but was pursued by some travellers who came up at the time, and after a hot chace, was taken, and afterwards hanged."

The travellers here mentioned, we happen to know, were the late Mr

Walter Scott, writer to the signet, then a very young man, and Mr Fairbairn, long afterwards innkeeper at Blackshiels, who chanced to pass about the time this murder was committed, and being shocked at the indifference with which the bystanders seemed to regard what had passed, pursued, and with the assistance of a neighbouring blacksmith, who joined in the chase, succeeded in apprehending the murderer, whose name, it is believed, was Robert Keith. The blacksmith judged it prudent, however, to emigrate soon after to another part of the country, in order to escape the threatened vengeance of the murderer's clan.

"In my parents' early years," continues Mr Hogg, "the Faas and the Bailleys used to traverse the country in bodies of from twenty to thirty in number, among whom were many , stout, handsome, and athletic men. They generally cleared the waters and burns of fish, the farmers' out-houses of poultry and eggs, and the lums of all superfluous and moveable stuff, such as hams, &c. that hung there for the purpose of reisting. It was like wise well known, that they never scrupled killing a lamb or a wether occasionally; but they always managed matters so dexterously, that no one could ever ascertain from whom these were taken. The gypsies were otherwise civil, full of humour and merriment, and the country people did not dislike them. They fought desperately with one another, but were seldom the aggressors in any dispute or quarrel with others.-Old Will of Phaup, a well-known character at the head of Ettrick, was wont to shelter them for many years;-they asked nothing but house-room and grass for their horses; and though they sometimes remained for several days, he could have left every chest and press about the house open, with the certainty that nothing would be missing; for he said, 'he aye ken'd fu' weel that the tod wad keep his ain hole clean.' But times altered sadly with honest Will-which happened as follows:The gypsies (or tinklers, as they then began to be called) were lodged at a place called Potburn, and the farmer either having bad grass about his house, or not choosing to have it eaten up, had made the gypsies turn their horses over the water to Phaup ground. One morning about break of day, Will found the stoutest man of the gang,

Ellick Kennedy, feeding six horses on the Coomb-loan, the best piece of grass on the farm, and which he was carefully haining for winter fodder. A desperate combat ensued-but there was no man a match for Will-he threshed the tinkler to his heart's content, cut the girthing and sunks off the horses, and hunted them out of the country. A warfare of five years duration ensued between Will and the gypsies. They nearly ruined him; and at the end of that period he was glad to make up matters with his old friends, and shelter them as formerly. said, 'He could maistly hae hauden his ain wi' them, an' it hadna been for their warlockry, but the deil-be-licket he could keep fra their kenning-they ance fand out his purse, though he had gart Meg dibble't into the kailyaird.'-Lochmaben is now one of their great resorts-being nearly stocked with them. The redoubted Rachel Bailley, noted for her high honour, is viewed as the queen of the tribe."

He

A woman of the name of Rachel Bailley, (but not the same person, we believe, that our correspondent alludes to) a few years ago, in Selkirkshire, afforded a remarkable evidence of the force of her gypsey habits and propensities. This woman, having been guilty of repeated acts of theft, was condemned by Mr W. Scott, sheriff of that county, to imprisonment in the bridewell there, on hard labour, for six months. She became so excessively wearied of the confinement, to which she had not been accustomed, and so impatient of the labour of spinning, although she span well, that she attempted suicide, by opening her veins with the point of a pair of scissors. In compassion for her state of mind, she was set at liberty by the magistrate; but she had not travelled farther than Yair Bridge-end, being about four miles from Selkirk, when she thought proper to steal a watch from a cottage, and being taken with it in her possession, was restored to her place of confinement just about four hours after she had been dismissed from it. She was afterwards banished the county.

The unabashed hardihood of the gypsies in the face of suspicion, or even of open conviction, is not less characteristic than the facility with which they commit crimes, or their address in concealing them. A gypsey of note, still alive (an acquaintance of ours), was, about twenty years ago, tried for a