Gipsy Life: Being an account of our Gipsies and their children, with suggestions for their improvementSmith, George
History
Gipsy Life: Being an account of our Gipsies and their children, with suggestions for their improvement
Smith, George
Romanies -- Great Britain
“This merry time over, they go to the _Livinengro tem_, or
hop-land—_i.e._, Kent. Here they work hard, not neglecting the beer-pot,
which goes about gaily. In this life they have great advantages over the
tramps and London poor. Hopping over, they go, almost _en masse_, or
within a few days, to London to buy French and German baskets, which they
get in Houndsditch. Of late years they send more for the baskets to be
delivered at certain stations. Some of them make baskets themselves very
well, but, as a rule, they prefer to buy them. While the weather is good
they live by selling baskets, brooms, clothes-lines, and other small
wares. Most families have their regular ‘beats’ or rounds, and confine
themselves to certain districts. In winter the men begin to _chiv the
kosh_, or cut wood—_i.e._, they make butchers’ skewers and clothes-pegs.
Even this is not unprofitable, as a family, what between manufacturing
and selling them, can earn from twelve to eighteen shillings a week.
With this and begging, and occasional jobs of honest hard work which they
pick up here and there, they contrive to feed well, find themselves in
beer, and pay, as they now often must, for permission to camp in fields.
Altogether they work hard and retire early.
“Considering the lives they lead, Gipsies are not dishonest. If a Gipsy
is camped anywhere, and a hen is missing for miles around, the theft is
always at once attributed to him. The result is that, being sharply
looked after by everybody, and especially by the police, they cannot act
like their ancestors. Their crimes are not generally of a heinous
nature. _Chiving a gry_, or stealing a horse, is, I admit, looked upon
by them with Yorkshire leniency, nor do they regard stealing wood for
fuel as a great sin. In this matter they are subject to great
temptation. When the nights are cold—
“Could anything be more alluring
Than an old hedge?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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