[Footnotes 1: that]
[Footnote 2: and a]
[Footnote 3: Fashion of 1706]
[Footnote 4: that]
[Footnotes 5: that]
[Footnote 6: whole Area]
[Footnote 7: that]
[Footnote 8: Of 1685.]
[Footnote 9: Fashion of 1692-3.]
* * * * *
No. 130. Monday, July 30, 1711. Addison.
'... Semperque recentes
Convectare juvat prædas, et vivere rapto.'
Virg.
As I was Yesterday riding out in the Fields with my Friend Sir ROGER, we
saw at a little Distance from us a Troop of Gypsies. Upon the first
Discovery of them, my Friend was in some doubt whether he should not
exert the Justice of the Peace upon such a Band of Lawless Vagrants; but
not having his Clerk with him, who is a necessary Counsellor on these
Occasions, and fearing that his Poultry might fare the worse for it, he
let the Thought drop: But at the same time gave me a particular Account
of the Mischiefs they do in the Country, in stealing People's Goods and
spoiling their Servants.
If a stray Piece of Linnen hangs upon an Hedge, says Sir ROGER, they
are sure to have it; if the Hog loses his Way in the Fields, it is ten
to one but he becomes their Prey; our Geese cannot live in Peace for
them; if a Man prosecutes them with Severity, his Hen-roost is sure to
pay for it: They generally straggle into these Parts about this Time
of the Year; and set the Heads of our Servant-Maids so agog for
Husbands, that we do not expect to have any Business done as it should
be whilst they are in the Country. I have an honest Dairy-maid [who
[1]] crosses their Hands with a Piece of Silver every Summer, and
never fails being promised the handsomest young Fellow in the Parish
for her pains. Your Friend the Butler has been Fool enough to be
seduced by them; and, though he is sure to lose a Knife, a Fork, or a
Spoon every time his Fortune is told him, generally shuts himself up
in the Pantry with an old Gypsie for above half an Hour once in a
Twelvemonth. Sweet-hearts are the things they live upon, which they
bestow very plentifully upon all those that apply themselves to them.
You see now and then some handsome young Jades among them: The Sluts
have very often white Teeth and black Eyes.
Sir ROGER observing that I listned with great Attention to his Account
of a People who were so entirely new to me, told me, That if I would
they should tell us our Fortunes. As I was very well pleased with the
Knight's Proposal, we rid up and communicated our Hands to them. A
_Cassandra_ of the Crew, after having examined my Lines very diligently,
told me, That I loved a pretty Maid in a Corner, that I was a good
Woman's Man, with some other Particulars which I do not think proper to
relate. My Friend Sir ROGER alighted from his Horse, and exposing his
Palm to two or three that stood by him, they crumpled it into all
Shapes, and diligently scanned every Wrinkle that could be made in it;
when one of them, [who [2]] was older and more Sun-burnt than the rest,
told him, That he had a Widow in his Line of Life: Upon which the Knight
cried, Go, go, you are an idle Baggage; and at the same time smiled upon
me. The Gypsie finding he was not displeased in his Heart, told him,
after a farther Enquiry into his Hand, that his True-love was constant,
and that she should dream of him to-night: My old Friend cried Pish, and
bid her go on. The Gypsie told him that he was a Batchelour, but would
not be so long; and that he was dearer to some Body than he thought: The
Knight still repeated, She was an idle Baggage, and bid her go on. Ah
Master, says the Gypsie, that roguish Leer of yours makes a pretty
Woman's Heart ake; you ha'n't that Simper about the Mouth for
Nothing--The uncouth Gibberish with which all this was uttered like the
Darkness of an Oracle, made us the more attentive to it. To be short,
the Knight left the Money with her that he had crossed her Hand with,
and got up again on his Horse.
As we were riding away, Sir ROGER told me, that he knew several sensible
People who believed these Gypsies now and then foretold very strange
things; and for half an Hour together appeared more jocund than
ordinary. In the Height of his good-Humour, meeting a common Beggar upon
the Road who was no Conjurer, as he went to relieve him he found his
Pocket was picked: That being a Kind of Palmistry at which this Race of
Vermin are very dextrous.
I might here entertain my Reader with Historical Remarks on this idle
profligate People, [who [3]] infest all the Countries of _Europe_, and
live in the midst of Governments in a kind of Commonwealth by
themselves. But instead of entering into Observations of this Nature, I
shall fill the remaining Part of my Paper with a Story [which [4]] is
still fresh in _Holland_, and was printed in one of our Monthly Accounts
about twenty Years ago.
'As the _Trekschuyt_, or Hackney-boat, which carries Passengers from
_Leyden_ to _Amsterdam_, was putting off, a Boy running along the
[Side [5]] of the Canal desired to be taken in; which the Master of
the Boat refused, because the Lad had not quite Money enough to pay
the usual Fare. An eminent Merchant being pleased with the Looks of
the Boy, and secretly touched with Compassion towards him, paid the
Money for him, [6] and ordered him to be taken on board. Upon talking
with him afterwards, he found that he could speak readily in three or
four Languages, and learned upon farther Examination that he had been
stoln away when he was a Child by a Gypsie, and had rambled ever since
with a Gang of those Strollers up and down several Parts of _Europe_.
It happened that the Merchant, whose Heart seems to have inclined
towards the Boy by a secret kind of Instinct, had himself lost a Child
some Years before. The Parents, after a long Search for him, gave him
for drowned in one of the Canals with which that Country abounds; and
the Mother was so afflicted at the Loss of a fine Boy, who was her
only Son, that she died for Grief of it. Upon laying together all
Particulars, and examining the several Moles and Marks [by] which the
Mother used to describe the Child [when [7]] he was first missing, the
Boy proved to be the Son of the Merchant whose Heart had so
unaccountably melted at the Sight of him. The Lad was very well
pleased to find a Father [who [8]] was so rich, and likely to leave
him a good Estate; the Father on the other hand was not a little
delighted to see a Son return to him, whom he had given for lost, with
such a Strength of Constitution, Sharpness of Understanding, and Skill
in Languages.'
Here the printed Story leaves off; but if I may give credit to Reports,
our Linguist having received such extraordinary Rudiments towards a good
Education, was afterwards trained up in every thing that becomes a
Gentleman; wearing off by little and little all the vicious Habits and
Practises that he had been used to in the Course of his Peregrinations:
Nay, it is said, that he has since been employed in foreign Courts upon
National Business, with great Reputation to himself and Honour to [those
who sent him, [9]] and that he has visited several Countries as a
publick Minister, in which he formerly wander'd as a Gypsie.