llachia and Moldavia, their
favourite spot and stronghold, saw what was brewing, and had begun to
divide themselves into small bands. A band of 300 of these wanderers,
calling themselves Secani, appeared in 1417 at Luneburg, and in 1418 at
Basil and Bern in Switzerland. Some were seen at Augsberg on November 1,
1418. Near to Paris there were to be seen numbers of Gipsies in 1424,
1426, and 1427; but it is not likely they remained long in Paris. Later
on we find them at Arnheim in 1429, and at Metz in 1430, Erfurt in 1432,
and in Bavaria in 1433. The reason they appeared at these places at
those particular times, was, no doubt, owing to the internal troubles of
France; for it was during 1429 that Joan of Arc raised the siege of
Orleans. The Gipsies appearing in small bands in various parts of the
Continent at this particular time were, no doubt, as Mr. Groom says in
his article in the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," sent forward by the main
body of Gipsies left behind in Asiatic and European Turkey, to spy out
the land whither they were anxious to bend their ways; for it was in the
year 1438, fifteen years before the terrible struggle by the Mohammedans
for Constantinople, that the great exodus of Gipsies from Wallachia,
Roumania, and Moldavia, for the golden cities of the West commenced.
From the period of 1427 to 1514, a space of about eighty-seven
years--except spies--they were content to remain on the Continent without
visiting our shores; probably from two causes--first, their dislike to
crossing the water; second, the unsettled state of our own country during
this period. For it should be remembered that the Wars of the Roses
commenced in 1455, Richard III. was killed at the Battle of Bosworth
Field, and in 1513 the Battle of Flodden took place in Scotland, in which
the Scots were defeated. The first appearance of the Gipsies in large
numbers in Great Britain was in Scotland in 1514, the year after the
Battle of Flodden. Another remarkable coincidence connected with their
appearance in this country came out during my inquiries; but whether
there is any foundation for it further than it is an idea floating in my
brain I have not yet been able to ascertain, as nothing is mentioned of
it in any of the writings I have perused. It seems reasonable to suppose
that the Gipsies, would retain and hand down some of their pleasant, as
well as some of the bitter, recollections of India, which, no doubt,
would at this time