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
Thomas Porter, do. 3 do. Works at the Canal,
Paddington.
Charlotte Allen, widow 7 do. Sells Earthenware,
Kent-street, Borough.
James Cole, wife 4 do. Lamplighter and
Grinder, Kent-street,
Borough.
Edward Martin, do. 2 do. Sells Fruit in the
Street, Kent-street,
Borough.
Samuel Martin, do. 6 do. Journeyman Saddler,
White-street.
John Sinfield, do. 0 do. Sells Fish in the
Streets,
White-street.
John Taylor, do. 3 do. Ditto. Ditto.
Men and Women, 25—44 Children.
There has not been any information obtained concerning who winter in
Bull’s Court, Kingsland Road, or in Cooper’s Gardens.
The older Gypsey children assist their parents in their trades; a few of
the younger go to school during winter. Most of those who have children,
are desirous of their receiving an education; though but few have the
means of procuring it.
They complain of the scarcity of work; and in some instances appear to be
distressed for want of it; the more so, as their ideas of independence
prevent their applying to parishes for assistance.—It is much to their
credit, that so few instances occur of their begging in London. In the
minutes of evidence before the Committee of the House of Commons, on
mendicity, there is only one example of a Gypsey girl begging in the
streets.
Some of the women go in a morning to principal houses in the squares,
before the heads of the families have risen, and tell fortunes to the
servants, from whom they obtain sixpence or a shilling each.
A few of the Gypsies continue all the year in London, excepting their
attendance of fairs in the vicinity. Others, when work is scarce, go out
twenty or thirty miles round the metropolis, carrying their implements
with them on asses; and support themselves by the employment they obtain
in the towns and villages through which they pass; and assist sometimes
in hay-making, and plucking hops, in the counties of Kent, Surry, and
Sussex.
Among those who have winter-quarters in London, there are a few that take
circuits of great extent. Some of them mentioned going through Herts
into Suffolk, then crossing Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire to
Herefordshire, Monmouthshire, Bristol, &c. Others spoke of being at
Yarmouth, Portsmouth, South Wales, Wiltshire, &c.
There is reason to think, the greatest part of the Island is traversed in
different directions, by hordes of Gypsies.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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