THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE.

The Author of the following pages has been urged by numerous friends, and
more particularly by his own conscience, to present to the Christian
Public a brief account of the people called Gipsies, now wandering in
Britain. This, to many readers, may appear inexpedient; as Grellman and
Hoyland have written largely on this neglected part of the human family.
But it should be recollected, that there are thousands of respectable and
intelligent christians, who never have read, and never may read either of
the above authors. The writer of the present work is partly indebted for
the sympathies he feels, and which he wishes to awaken in others toward
these miserable wanderers, to various authors who have written on them,
but more particularly to Grellman and Hoyland, who, in addition to the
facts which came under their own immediate notice, have published the
observations of travellers and others interested in the history of this
people. A list of these authors may be seen in the Appendix.

But his knowledge of this people does not entirely depend on the
testimony of others, having had the opportunity of closely examining for
himself their habits and character in familiar visits to their tents, and
by allowing his door to be free of access to all those encamped near
Southampton, when they have needed his help and advice. Thus has he
gained a general knowledge of their vicious habits, their comparative
virtues, and their unhappy modes of life, which he hopes the following
pages will fully prove, and be the means of placing their character in
the light of truth, and of correcting various mistakes respecting them,
which have given rise to many unjust and injurious prejudices against
them.

The Author could have enlarged the present work very considerably, had he
detailed all the facts with which he is well acquainted.

His object, however, was to furnish a work which should be concise and
cheap, that he might be the means of exciting among his countrymen an
energetic benevolence toward this despised people; for it cannot be
denied that many thousands of them have never given the condition of the
Gipsies a single thought.

Such a work is now presented to the public. Whether the author has
succeeded, will be best known to those persons who have the most correct
and extensive information relative to the unhappy race in question.
Should he be the honoured instrume