Isopel Berners: The History of certain doings in a Staffordshire Dingle, July, 1825Borrow, George
General
Isopel Berners: The History of certain doings in a Staffordshire Dingle, July, 1825
Borrow, George
England -- Fiction; Romanies -- Fiction
{238b} For later news of the red-haired Jack-priest and his dupe, Parson
Platitude, see _Romany Rye_, chap. xxvii.
{242} Plenty of gypsy lads; chals and chies, lads and lasses.
{244a} _Modest_.
{244b} _Gentlemen and ladies_.
{244c} Drop it.
{247} The Petulengres, a wandering clan of gypsies, led by Jasper
Petulengro and his wife Pakomovna are introduced to us in _Lavengro_
(chaps, v. and liv.). The etymology is thus explained by Borrow.
"Petulengro: A compound of the modern Greek [Greek text] and the Sanscrit
_kara_; the literal meaning being lord of the horse-shoe (_i.e_. maker),
it is one of the private cognominations of 'the Smiths,' an English gypsy
clan." Engro is apparently akin to the English suffix monger, and with
it may be compared the Anglo-Saxon suffix smith, in such words as lore-
smith or war-smith (warrior). Thus we have sapengro, lavengro, and
sherengro, head man. Of the gypsy tribes in England, Borrow in his
_Zincali_ (ed. 1846, Introd.) has the following: "The principal gypsy
tribes at present in existence are the Stanleys, whose grand haunt is the
New Forest; the Lovells, who are fond of London and its vicinity: the
Coopers, who call Windsor Castle their home; the Hernes, to whom the
north country, more especially Yorkshire, belongeth; and lastly my
brethren the Smiths, to whom East Anglia appears to have been allotted
from the beginning. All these families have gypsy names, which seem,
however, to be little more than attempts at translation of the English
ones. Thus the Stanleys are called Bar-engres, which means stony
fellows, the Coopers, Wardo-engres or wheelwrights, the Lovells, Camo-
mescres, or amorous fellows, the Hernes (German Haaren), Balors, hairs,
or hairy fellows, while the Smiths are called Petulengres, that is,
horseshoe-fellows, or blacksmiths. Besides the above-named gypsy clans,
there are other smaller ones, some of which do not comprise more than a
dozen individuals, children included. For example, the Bosviles, the
Browns, the Chilcotts, the Grays, Lees, Taylors and Whites; of these the
principal is the Bosvile tribe."
{249a} There's a witch and a wizard and their name is Petulengro.
{249b} _Tent_.
{256} This refers to a notorious match between a lion and six mastiffs,
arranged by George Wombwell at Warwick, in July 1825. The fight was that
between George Cooper and Ned Baldwin, 5 July, 1825.
{257} Peel's Metropolitan Police, constituted 1829.
{265} Said the gypsy lass to her mother--
'My dear mother, I am with child.'
'And what kind of a man made you with child,
My own daughter, my gypsy lass?'
'O my mother, a great gentleman,
A rich gentleman, a stranger to our race,
Who rides upon a fine stallion,
'Twas he that made me thus with child.'
'Vile little harlot that you are,
Be off, good-bye, you leave my tent!
Had a Romany lad got thee with child,
Then I had said to thee, poor lass!
But thou art just a vile harlot
By a stranger man to be with child.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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