money, silver spoons, and the best of their apparelle, or any good they could make. They had a leader of the name of Giles Hather, who was termed their King; and a woman of the name of Calot was called Queen. These riding through the streets on horseback, and in strange attire, had a prettie traine after them."

At first no official notice was taken of these wandering bodies, and they were tacitly allowed to increase and extend at will. But in process of time their numbers and deeds attracted the attention of government, which passed several restrictive laws against them. According to the statute of the 22nd of Henry VIII. "they were commanded to quit the realm and not to return under pain of imprisonment and forfeiture of their goods and chattels, and upon their trial for any felonies which they may have committed they shall not be entitled to trial by jury." But these laws, like many issued by the continental sovereigns, seem to have been powerless; for the Gipsies continued to increase both in numbers and crime. Hence, the severity of the law against them was increased in the twenty-seventh year of the same reign. It reads thus:-"It is hereby ordered that the said vagrants, commonly called Egyptians, in case they remain one month in the kingdom, shall be proceeded against as thieves and rascals; and on the importation of any such Egyptian, he (the importer), shall forfeit forty pounds for every trespass.'

From this it is evident that the Gipsies were so much in request in our land as to "induce some of our countrymen to import them from the continent, or at least to encourage their imigration to this island. The importation of this people must have been prevalent from some cause, to require parliamentary interference, and even a fine to prevent it, of such an amount as forty pounds, which, according to the relative value of money would, at the present time be equal to a large sum." (Hoyland p. 81.)

During the same reign, the Gipsies were so dangerous to the morals and comfort of the country that many of them were sent back to Calis. In the roll of expenses of the 25th of Henry's reign there is an entry of thirty-seven pounds, ten shillings and seven. pence having been paid for one shipment of Gipsies to Calis.

The above pains and penalties, however, did not effect the end proposed. "What numbers were executed on these statutes you would wonder;" says the quaint writer we have quoted above, "yet, notwithstanding, all would not prevail, but they wandered as before uppe and downe, and meeting once in a year at a place appointed; sometimes at the Peake's Hole in Derbyshire, and other whiles by Ketbroak in Blackheath."

The following regime was introduced during the early part of Elizabeth's reign:-" If any person, being fourteen years old, whether natural born subject or stranger who had been seen in the fellowship of such persons (the Gipsies), or had disguised himself like them, should remain with them one month at once, or at several times, it should be felony without benefit of clergy."

These laws, however, failed to suppress the Gipsies; for during the latter part of Elizabeth's reign their number is said to have exceeded 10,000, and they afterwards increased to 18,000.

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Eighty years ago the Gipsies had their regular journies, and often remained one or two months in a place, when they worked at their trades. And as access to different towns was more difficult than at the present day, partly from the badness of the roads, and partly from the paucity of carriers, they were considered by the peasantry, and by small farmers, of whom there were great numbers in those days, as very useful branches of the human family; I mean the industrious and better part of them. At that period

they usually encamped in the farmers' fields, or slept in their barns; and not being subject to the driving system, as they now are, they seldom robbed hedges; for their fires were replenished with dead wood procured, without any risk of fines or imprisonments, from decayed trees and wooded banks."

The aristocracy and the middle classes, no less than the farmers and peasantry, showed themselves kindly disposed towards these tawny wanderers. Towards the close of the eighteenth century their establishment at Norwood excited so much curiosity that, according to Mr. Doddington's Diary, "on June 28th, 1750, the Prince and Princess of Wales, Lady Middlesex, Lord Bathurst, Mr. Parcton, Mr. Doddington, and Lady Torrington (lady in waiting), went in private coaches to Norwood Forest to see a settlement of Gipsies."-(Gentleman's Mag. 1801.)

It is not easy to ascertain their exact number in England at the present time. Some say there are not more than 9,000, while the Editor of "The Book and its Mission" raises them to 18,000. The truth probably lies about midway between these figures. The chief tribes now existing in our land are the Stanleys who are found in the New Forest; the Lovells who traverse the suburbs of London; the Coopers who have selected Windsor Castle as their rendezvous; the Hernes who make the northern counties, and especially Yorkshire, the scene of their peregrinations; and lastly, the Smiths, who occupy East Anglia.

The conduct of our goverment towards these poor wicked wanderers during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was such, that neither humanity nor piety can look upon without a blush. For the right of society to punish those whom it has not sought to instruct and reform admits of doubt. And within the writer's recollection, they were regarded as outcasts and vagrants, whom children were wont to hoot, and constables drive from the parish bounds. But it is now too late to rebuke those deeds of un

kindness, for the actors-most of them, at least,*. have gone where the censures of the living cannot reach them. We can only hope that the conduct of our countrymen towards them in the future will prove some compensation for the scorn, neglect, and ill. treatment of the past.

THE SCOTTISH GIPSIES.

It is probable that the Gipsies entered Scotland a short time after they had first pitched their tents in our country. "The northern mountains, which protected the Gallic races from the sword of invaders, could not raise an obstacle to the new nomadic invaders." For awhile they appear to have enjoyed some degree of indulgence, owing, doubtless, to the stratagem by which the authorities were completely deceived. In the 28th year of James V. (1540), a writt under the privy seal was issued in favour of "Johnne Faa, Lord and Earl of Little Egypt." It enjoined all magistrates and officers to support his (Johnne Faa) authority in compelling "his clan to conform to the laws of Egypt," and in punishing them if they rebelled against him. Despite these laws, several of his followers revolted from his jurisdiction, "robbed him of divers sums of money, jewels, claiths, and other goods, and on nae wise would pass hame with him; howbeit he was bidden and remained of lang time upon them (waited for them long), and is bounden and obliged to bring hame with him all them of his company that are alive, and ane testimonial of them that are dead." Johnne pretended

"On Tuesday morning seven Gipsies were charged, before the Rev. Uriah Tonkin, at Hayle (Cornwall), with sleeping under tents, and were each committed to twenty-one days' imprisonment in the county gaol, with hard labour. The party consisted of mother and six children, aged 20, 16, 15, 13, 10, and 8 years." --Manchester Examiner, May, 1864.

A copy of the original writ in the Scottish language may be seen in the Edinburgh Monthly Magazine 1817-18.

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that some of his rebellious followers were countenanced by the "king's officers," on which account he could neither apprehend them nor induce them to return, complaining at the same time that he had already sustained "heavy damages" and run the risk of losing his heritage" if he returned to Egypt without them. The government was imposed upon by this pretence,* and the magistrates were enjoined to support the authority of the "Count of Egypt" and lend him an hand in "reducing his refractory subjects to order." A charge was given to all the 'king's lieges, not to molest John Faa or his com-pany in their lawful business, within the realm, in their passing," while masters of vessels and mariners were specially ordered to receive them when they shall be ready to go "forth of the realm to the parts beyond the sea." Johnne and his clans did not go beyond the sea. For during the next year this selfstyled "Earl of Egypt and Captain of the Gipsies" was found guilty, with twelve of his men, of a murder committed at Tyntown; yet so effectually had he impressed the government with the idea of his being "Lord and Earl of Lesser Egypt" that he obtained pardon for himself and his accomplices. We hear no more about the return of "Earl Johnne" and his company to their own country. But from an act issued from the lords of the council ten years after

*In Germany they succeeded in imposing upon the people the belief of their very apocryphal dignity, which they assumed during their lives, and recorded upon their tombs, as appears from three epitaphs quoted by Dr Weissenbruch. One is a convent at Stambach, and recorded that on St. Sabastian's eve 1445, "died Lord Panuel, Duke in Little Egypt and Baron Thrschhorn in the same land." A monumental inscription at Bautmer records the death of "the noble Earl Peter of Lesser Egypt, in 1453," and a third at Pfery as late as 1498, announces the death of the "high born Lord John, Earl of Little Egypt, to whose soul God be gracious and merciful."-Edinburgh Monthly Mag.,

1818.