he tents of "ye Egypcians," I overheard
a knot of men discussing the merits of a degraded-looking doglet, who
seemed as if he must have committed suicide, were he only gifted with
sense enough to know how idiotic he looked. "Would you take seven pounds
for him?" asked one. "Avo, I would take seven bar; but I wouldn't take
six, nor six an' a half neither."

The stranger who casts an inquisitive eye, though from afar off, into a
Gipsy camp, is at once noted; and if he can do this before the wolf--I
mean the Rom--sees him, he must possess the gift of fern-seed and walk
invisible, as was illustrated by the above-mentioned yesterday visit.
Passing over the bridge, I paused to admire the scene. It was a fresh
sunny morning in October, the autumnal tints were beautiful in golden
brown or oak red, while here and there the horse-chestnuts spread their
saffron robes, waving in the embraces of the breeze like hetairae of the
forest. Below me ran the silver Thames, and above a few silver
clouds--the belles of the air--were following its course, as if to watch
themselves in the watery winding mirror. And near the reedy island, at
the shadowy point always haunted by three swans, whom I suspect of having
been there ever since the days of Odin-faith, was the usual punt, with
its elderly gentlemanly gudgeon-fishers. But far below me, along the
dark line of the hedge, was a sight which completed the English character
of the scene--a real Gipsy camp. Caravans, tents, waggons, asses,
smouldering fires; while among them the small forms of dark children
could be seen frolicking about. One Gipsy youth was fishing in the
stream from the bank, and beyond him a knot of busy basketmakers were
visible.

I turned the bridge, adown the bank, and found myself near two young men
mending chairs. They greeted me civilly; and when I spoke Rommany, they
answered me in the same language; but they did not speak it well, nor did
they, indeed, claim to be "Gipsies" at all, though their complexions had
the peculiar hue which indicates some other than Saxon admixture of
blood. Half Rommany in their knowledge, and yet not regarded as such,
these "travellers" represented a very large class in England, which is as
yet but little understood by our writers, whether of fact or fiction.
They laughed while telling me anecdotes of gentlemen who had mistaken
them for real Rommany chals, and finally referred me to "Old Henry,"
further down, who "could talk with