not being
misplaced in Gypsies need not be given, than in the testimony of the
landlord at Kirk Yetholm, to William Smith, that his master knew he was
as sure of their money, as if he had it in his pocket.
In Dr. Clarke's Travels, published in the present year, Part the 2nd of
Section 3rd, page 592, are the following observations respecting the
Gypsies of Hungary: "The Wallachian Gypsies are not an idle race. They
might rather be described as a laborious people; and the greater part of
them honestly endeavour to earn a livelihood. It is this part of them
who work as gold-washers."
In page 637, the Doctor remarks: "The Wallachians of the Bannat, bear a
very bad character, and perhaps many of the offences attributed to
Gypsies, may be due to this people, who are the least civilized, and the
most ferocious of all the inhabitants of Hungary." {262}
Could grateful sensibility of favors received, and of personal
attachment, be more strikingly evinced than in the promptitude of Will
Faa, who when he was eighty years of age, on hearing of his landlord
being unwell, undertook, at the hazard of his life, a journey of a
hundred miles, to see him before he died?
The attention of Gypsies to the aged and infirm of their fraternity, is
not less exhibited in the case of Ann Day, whose age is inserted in a
work on human longevity, published at Salisbury in 1799. She was aged
108, and had not slept in a bed during seventy years. She was well known
in the counties of Bedford and Herts, and having been a long time blind,
she always rode upon an ass, attended by two or three of the tribe. A
friend of the author, a farmer near Baldock, who had frequently given
food and straw for the old woman, says of the attendants she had, her
comfort and support seemed to be their chief concern. He considers her
longevity a proof of the kindness she received. Her interment, which was
at Arsley, near Henlow, was attended by her son and daughter, the one 82,
the other 85 years of age, each having great grand-children.
It must have been a satisfaction to every one interested in the
improvement of human nature, to observe the number of advocates who have
come forward, within the last ten years, in this country, to plead the
cause of this despised and abused people.
In bringing their case before the public, the author has aimed at
discharging what he thought incumbent upon him to undertake on their
behalf. He trusts that persons much more
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