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 Linen hangs
upon an Hedge, says Sir Roger, they are sure to have it; if a 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 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 about 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 often very white Teeth
and black Eyes.
Sir Roger observing that I listened 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 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 further Enquiry into his Hand, that his
True-love was constant, and that she should dream of him to Night. My
old Friend cryed 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 Conjuror, as he went to relieve him he
found his Pocket was pickt: That being a Kind of Palmistry at which
this Race of Vermin are very dexterous.
I might here entertain my Reader with Historical Remarks on this idle
profligate People, who 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 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 _Leiden_ to _Amsterdam_, was putting off, a Boy
running along the Side of the Canal, desir'd 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, 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 further Examination that he
had been stolen away when he was a Child by a Gypsy, and had rambled
ever since with a gang of those Strolers 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 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 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 Practices 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, and that he
has visited several Countries as a publick Minister, in which he
formerly wandered as a Gypsy.
_Addison._