A History of the Gipsies: with Specimens of the Gipsy LanguageSimson, Walter
History
A History of the Gipsies: with Specimens of the Gipsy Language
Simson, Walter
Romanies; Romanies -- Languages
Charles Brown, one of the principal members of the Lochgellie band, was
killed in a desperate fight at Raploch, near Stirling. A number of Gipsy
boys, belonging to several gangs in the south, obtained a considerable
quantity of plunder, at a fair in Perth, and had, in the division of the
spoil, somehow or another, imposed on the Lochgellie tribe, and their
associates. Charles Graham, already mentioned, and Charles Brown, went
south in pursuit of the young depredators, for the purpose of compelling
them to give up their ill-gotten booty to those to whom, by the Gipsy
regulations, it of right belonged. After an arduous chase, the boys were
overtaken near Stirling, when a furious battle immediately commenced.
Both parties were armed with bludgeons. After having fought for a
considerable time, with equal success on both sides, Graham, from some
unknown cause, fled, leaving his near relation, Brown, to contend alone
with the youths, in the best way he could. The boys now became the
assailants, and began to press hard upon Brown, who defended himself
long and manfully with his bludgeon, displaying much art in the use of
his weapon, in warding off the lighter blows of his opponents, which
came in upon him from all quarters. At length he was forced to give way,
although very few of the blows reached his person. On retreating, with
his front to his assailants, his foot struck upon an old feal dyke, when
he fell to the ground. The enraged youths now sprang in upon him, like
tigers, and, without showing him the least mercy, dispatched him on the
spot, by literally beating out his brains with their bludgeons. Brown's
coat was brought home to Lochgellie, by some of his wife's friends, with
the collar and shoulders besmeared all over with blood and brains, with
quantities of his hair sticking in the gore. It was preserved for some
time in this shocking condition by his wife, and exhibited as a proof
that her husband had not fled, as well as to arouse the clan to
vengeance. My informant, a man about fifty years of age, with others,
saw this dreadful relique of Brown, in the very state in which it is now
described.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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