One of the most singular chapters in a _History of Vagabondism_ would
certainly be an account of the Hieroglyphic signs used by tramps and
thieves. The reader may be startled to know that, in addition to a
secret language, the wandering tribes of this country have private
marks and symbolic signs with which to score their successes, failures,
and advice to succeeding beggars; in fact, that the country is
really dotted over with beggars’ finger posts and guide stones. The
assertion, however strange it may appear, is no fiction. The subject
was not long since brought under the attention of the Government by
Mr. Rawlinson.[26] “There is,” he says in his report, “a sort of
blackguards’ literature, and the initiated understand each other by
slang [cant] terms, by pantomimic signs, _and by_ HIEROGLYPHICS. _The
vagrant’s mark may be seen in Havant, on corners of streets, on door
posts, and on house steps. Simple as these chalk lines appear, they
inform the succeeding vagrants of all they require to know; and a few
white scratches may say, ‘be importunate,’ or ‘pass on.’_”
Another very curious account was taken from a provincial newspaper,
published in 1849, and forwarded to _Notes and Queries_,[27] under
the head of MENDICANT FREEMASONRY. “Persons,” remarks the writer,
“indiscreet enough to open their purses to the relief of the beggar
tribe, would do well to take a readily learned lesson as to the
folly of that misguided benevolence which encourages and perpetuates
vagabondism. Every door or passage is pregnant with instruction as
to the error committed by the patron of beggars, as the beggar-marks
show that a system of freemasonry is followed, by which a beggar knows
whether it will be worth his while to call into a passage or knock
at a door. Let any one examine the entrances to the passages in any
town, and there he will find chalk marks, unintelligible to him, but
significant enough to beggars. If a thousand towns are examined, the
same marks will be found at every passage entrance. The passage mark
is a cypher with a twisted tail: in some cases the tail projects into
the passage, in others outwardly; thus seeming to indicate whether the
houses down the passage are worth calling at or not. Almost every door
has its marks: these are varied. In some cases there is a cross on the
brick work, in others a cypher: the figures 1, 2, 3, are also used.
Every person may for himself test the accuracy of these statements
by the examination of the brick work near his own doorway—thus
demonstrating that mendicity is a regular trade, carried out upon a
system calculated to save time, and realise the largest profits.” These
remarks refer mainly to provincial towns, London being looked upon as
the tramps’ home, and therefore too FLY, or experienced, to be duped by
such means.
The only other notice of the hieroglyphics of vagabonds that I have
met with, is in _Mayhew’s London Labour and London Poor_.[28] Mayhew
obtained his information from two tramps, who stated that hawkers
employ these signs as well as beggars. One tramp thus described
the method of WORKING[29] a small town. “Two hawkers (PALS[29]) go
together, but separate when they enter a village, one taking one side
of the road, and selling different things; and so as to inform each
other as to the character of the people at whose houses they call,
_they chalk certain marks on their door posts_.” Another informant
stated that “if a PATTERER[29] has been CRABBED (that is, offended) at
any of the CRIBS (houses), _he mostly chalks a signal at or near the
door_.”
Another use is also made of these hieroglyphics. Charts of successful
begging neighbourhoods are rudely drawn, and symbolical signs attached
to each house to show whether benevolent or adverse.[30] “In many cases
there is over the kitchen mantel-piece” of a tramps’ lodging-house “_a
map of the district_, dotted here and there with memorandums of failure
or success.”[31] A correct facsimile of one of these singular maps has
been placed as a frontispiece. It was obtained from the patterers and
tramps who supplied a great many words for this work, and who have
been employed by me for some time in collecting Old Ballads, Christmas
Carols, Dying Speeches, and Last Lamentations, as materials for a
_History of Popular Literature_. The reader will no doubt be amused
with the drawing. The locality depicted is near Maidstone, in Kent, and
I am informed that it was probably sketched by a wandering SCREEVER[32]
in payment for a night’s lodging. The English practice of marking
everything, and scratching names on public property, extends itself to
the tribe of vagabonds. On the map, as may be seen in the left hand
corner, some TRAVELLER[32] has drawn a favourite or noted female,
singularly nick-named _Three-quarter Sarah_. What were the peculiar
accomplishments of this lady to demand so uncommon a name, the reader
will be at a loss to discover, but a patterer says it probably refers
to a shuffling dance of that name, common in tramps’ lodging-houses,
and in which “¾ Sarah” may have been a proficient. Above her, three
beggars or hawkers have reckoned their day’s earnings, amounting to
13s.; and on the right a tolerably correct sketch of a low hawker,
or costermonger, is drawn. “To Dover, the _nigh_ way,” is the exact
phraseology; and “hup here,” a fair specimen of the self-acquired
education of the tribe of cadgers. No key or explanation to the
hieroglyphics was given in the original, because it would have been
superfluous, when every inmate of the lodging-house knew the marks from
their cradle—or rather their mother’s back.
Should there be no map, “in most lodging-houses there is an old man who
is guide to every ‘WALK’ in the vicinity, and who can tell each house
on every round, that is ‘good for a cold tatur.’”[33] The hieroglyphics
that are used are:—
☓ NO GOOD; too poor, and know too much.
◠+ STOP,—if you have what they want, they will buy. They are pretty
“_fly_” (knowing).
⸧— GO IN THIS DIRECTION, it is better than the other road. Nothing
that way.
◇ _BONE_ (good). Safe for a “cold tatur,” if for nothing else.
“_Cheese your patter_” (don’t talk much) here.
▽ _COOPER’D_ (spoilt), by too many tramps calling there.
□ _GAMMY_ (unfavourable), likely to have you taken up. Mind the dog.
☉ _FLUMMUXED_ (dangerous), sure of a month in “_quod_” (prison).
⊕ _RELIGIOUS_, but tidy on the whole.
Where did these signs come from, and when were they first used?
are questions which I have asked myself again and again, whilst
endeavouring to discover their history. Knowing the character of the
Gipseys, and ascertaining from a tramp that they are well acquainted
with the hieroglyphics, “and have been as long ago as ever he could
remember,” I have little hesitation in ascribing the invention to
them. And strange it would be if some modern Belzoni, or Champollion,
discovered in these beggars’ marks fragments of ancient Egyptian or
Hindoo hieroglyphical writing! But this, of course, is a simple vagary
of the imagination.
That the Gipseys were in the habit of leaving memorials of the road
they had taken, and the successes that had befallen them, there can
be no doubt. In an old book, _The Triumph of Wit_, 1724, there is a
passage which appears to have been copied from some older work, and
it runs thus:—“The Gipseys set out twice a year, and scatter all over
England, each parcel having their appointed stages, that they may not
interfere, nor hinder each other; and for that purpose, when they set
forward in the country, _they stick up boughs in the way of divers
kinds, according as it is agreed among them, that one company may know
which way another is gone, and so take a different road_.” The works of
_Hoyland_ and _Borrow_ supply other instances.
I cannot close this subject without drawing attention to the
extraordinary fact, that actually on the threshold of the gibbet the
sign of the vagabond is to be met with! “The murderer’s signal is even
exhibited from the gallows; as a red handkerchief held in the hand of
the felon about to be executed is a token that he dies without having
betrayed any professional secrets.”[34]
Since the first edition of this work was published the author has
received from various parts of England numerous evidences of the
still active use of beggars’ marks, and mendicant hieroglyphics. One
gentleman writes from Great Yarmouth to say that only a short time
since, whilst residing in Norwich, he used frequently to see them on
the houses and street corners. From another gentleman, a clergyman, I
learn that he has so far made himself acquainted with the meanings of
the signs employed, that by himself marking the characters □ (_Gammy_)
or ☉ (_Flummuxed_) on the gate posts of his parsonage, he enjoys a
singular immunity from alms-seekers of all orders.