following particulars, related to me by a
well-known Gipsy woman in the neighbourhood of 'Wormwood Scrubs' and the
'North Pole,' remarkable for her truthfulness, honesty, and uprightness,
will tend to show that my previous statement as regards the amount of
ignorance prevalent among the poor Gipsy children has not been
over-stated. She has had six brothers and one sister, all born in a
tent, and only one of the eight could read a little. She has had nine
children born in a tent, four of whom are alive, and only one could read
and write a little. She has seventeen grandchildren, and only two of
them can read and write a little, and thinks this a fair average of other
Gipsy children. She tells me that she got a most fat living for more
than twenty years by telling lies and fortunes to servant-girls, old
maids, and young men, mostly out of a book of which she could not read a
sentence, or tell a letter. She said she had heard that I had taken up
the cause of the poor Gipsy children to get them educated, and, with
hands uplifted and tears in her eyes, which left no doubt of her meaning,
said, 'I do hope from the bottom of my heart that God will bless and
prosper you in the work till a law is passed, and the poor Gipsy children
are brought under the School Board, and their parents compelled to send
them to school as other people are. The poor Gipsy children are poor,
ignorant things, I can assure you.' She also said 'Does the Queen wish
all our poor Gipsy children to be educated?' I told her that the Queen
took special interest in the children of the working-classes, and was
always pleased to hear of their welfare. Again, with tears trickling
down her face, she said, 'I do thank the Lord for such a good Queen, and
for such a noble-hearted woman. I do bless her. Do Thou, 'Lord, bless
her!' After some further conversation, and taking dinner with her in her
humble way in the van, she said she hoped I would not be insulted if she
offered me, as from a poor Gipsy woman, a shilling to help me in the work
of getting a law passed to compel the Gipsies to send their children to
school. I took the shilling, and, after making her a present of a copy
of the new edition of my 'Cry of the Children from the Brick-yards of
England,' which she wrapped in a beautiful white cloth, and after a shake
of the hand, we parted, hoping to meet again on some future day."

The foregoing letter brought forth the following letter from Mr. Dani