Self-reliant, resourceful, versatile he is, but his temperament is not plastic, and attempts to induce gypsies to break away from their mode of life, to live in houses and to become what may be termed normal citizens,—although made with the very best of intentions,—have either failed altogether, or have succeeded only in spoiling a decent gypsy or two to add to our slum population. A Londoner loves the sights, smells and sounds of the city,—the open road, moorland and forest are desolation to him; the Romany chal stifles amongst houses, suffocates under a roof, the rush and noises of the city distract him, its smells are as poison, and he turns with indescribable relief to the forest glade, the open heath,—his very nature demands them,—they are his breath of life. “But,” argues our philanthropist, “he would in time become accustomed to the town or village, and surely it would be for his ultimate good?” Would it? I may return to the subject later, meanwhile the following facts, replying indirectly to the question, are suggestive:— Those who know practically nothing of the gypsy character are confident in the possibility of gradually weaning them from the nomadic life, and of inducing them to settle down to the cottage, and the workaday existence of the respectable labourer or artisan. On the other hand:— Those who have gained intimate knowledge of the race by long and friendly intercourse with its people, and are consequently able to see and feel with them and to understand their inbred love of a life of freedom in touch with Nature, cannot dissociate the idea of sacrilege from any thought of “improving” out of existence all that to the gypsy—really counts. In some parts of the Continent gypsy children go naked for some years, but in our own country—possibly owing partly to changeability of climate—clothes are almost invariably worn, but often they are of the scantiest description. I have seen the children running barefoot in the snow, their bodies being protected only by one thin garment, but as they are subjected to such Spartan treatment from infancy, they do not, apparently, suffer as would house-dwellers under similar conditions. Much ingenuity is sometimes displayed by the poorer families in adapting for their own use clothes which have been given to them. The following incident, the principals in which are well known to me, is an amusing case in point:—