That over, he goes into Sussex
(Chichester--'wheat-fagging' or tying), and on that being done, returns
toward Hampshire--North Hants--to 'fag' or tie, and that being done he
enters Surrey for hop-picking (previously securing a 'bin' in one of the
gardens). Some idea of his gross earnings may be obtained from the
following fact:--Two able-bodied men, an old woman of about 75 years of
age, and two women, earned on a farm in one harvest, no less than 42
pounds. After that, they went hop-picking, and, in answer to my
question, 'How much will they earn there?' the farmer, who is a
hop-grower, said, 'More than they have here.' These operations were
performed in less than a quarter of the year. In the places through
which they pass to their work they sell what they can, and at night pitch
their tent or draw their van on some common or waste land, buy no corn
for their horses, nor spend any money for coal or wood. If they locate
themselves on the margin of a wood, and make a prolonged sojourn, the
uproar, the screams, the cries of 'murder' heard from their rendezvous

"'Make night hideous.'

All this, and more, they do with impunity. 'It is only the Gipsies
quarrelling.' No inspector of nuisances pays them a visit; the
tax-gatherer knows not their whereabouts; the rate-collector troubles
them not with any 'demand note;' their children are not provided with
proper and necessary education, yet no school attendance officer serves
them with a summons. Their existence is not known officially, saving the
time a census is taken, when, at the _expense of the house-dwellers_, a
registry is made of them. Not a farthing do they contribute to the
government, imperial or local, though many of them are in a position to
do it, and can, without inconvenience, find from 40 to 80 pounds; or 100
pounds for a new-travelling van when they want one. Overcrowding and
numerous indecencies exist in galore among them, yet no representative of
the Board of Health troubles himself about the number of cubic feet of
air per individual there may be in their tent or van. Is this neglect,
indifference, obliviousness, or do the authorities believe that the
impurities and unsanitary exhalements are sufficiently oxidised to
prevent any disease? It is worthy of remark that they are not liable to
the epidemics which afflict others. The loss of a pony from a common
simultaneously with their exodus is a suspicious fact occasionally. They
live in de