A Historical Survey of the Customs, Habits, & Present State of the GypsiesHoyland, John
History
A Historical Survey of the Customs, Habits, & Present State of the Gypsies
Hoyland, John
Romanies
In the summer of 1814, when the writer of this circular, visited a number
of Gypsey tents in Northamptonshire, as already stated, a woman about 80
years of age, who had forty grand-children, acknowledged, that not one of
them had been taught to read. In this land of Christian benevolence, can
we pronounce a certain proportion of its inhabitants to be wretchedly
depraved, and even a wicked set of people; advertise them as rogues and
vagabonds, and offer a reward for their apprehension, without devising
any means of remedying the defects of their habits, or holding out
encouragement to reformation, in any of them who are disposed to
relinquish their vicious courses?
The associations formed and forming in different parts of the nation for
the prosecution of felons, render the condition of Gypsies every day more
and more deplorable, by their being hunted like beasts of prey from
township to township.
The last winter but one, a company of these houseless wanderers were dug
out of the snow in Ditchford Lane, near Irchester, Northamptonshire, when
it appeared one woman had been lying in, and that an old man was dying.
If those who have been zealous in driving them from their accustomed
haunts, were to place themselves, if but ideally in their situation, can
we believe, that instead of augmenting their sufferings, they would not
be disposed to commiserate their case, and even attend to the precept of
the Christian Legislator: “Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you,
do ye even so to them?” It is worse than useless and unavailing to
harrass them from place to place, when no retreat or shelter is provided
for their refuge.
A writer on this subject, under the designation of Junius, in the
Northampton Mercury of June 27th, 1814, observes: “When we consider the
immense sums raised for every probable means of doing good, which have
hitherto been made public, we cannot doubt, if a proper method should be
proposed for the relief and ameliorating the state of these people, it
would meet with deserved encouragement. Suppose that the Legislature
should think them not unworthy its notice; and as a part of the great
family, they ought not to be overlooked.” Another writer in the
Northampton Mercury of July the 21st of the last year, on the necessity
of some plan being adopted for their advantage, remarks, thereby
“thousands of our fellow-creatures would be raised from depravity and
wretchedness to a state of comfort; the private property of individuals
be much more secure, and the public materially benefited.” In addition
to these observations, it may be asked, Would not the providing of an
education for their children, to which they should be induced to conform,
and the apprenticing of them, at a proper age, to suitable trades, enable
the rising generation to correct the errors of Gypsey habits?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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