CHAPTER VII
Come, princes of the ragged regiment, You of the blood! PRIGS, my most upright lord, And these, what name or title e'er they bear, JARKMAN, or PATRICO, CRANKE or CLAPPER-DUDGEON, PRATER or ABRAM-MAN--I speak of all.
Beggar's Bush.
Although the character of those gipsy tribes which formerly inundatedmost of the nations of Europe, and which in some degree still subsistamong them as a distinct people, is generally understood, the readerwill pardon my saying a few words respecting their situation inScotland.
It is well known that the gipsies were at an early period acknowledgedas a separate and independent race by one of the Scottish monarchs, andthat they were less favourably distinguished by a subsequent law, whichrendered the character of gipsy equal in the judicial balance to thatof common and habitual thief, and prescribed his punishmentaccordingly. Notwithstanding the severity of this and other statutes,the fraternity prospered amid the distresses of the country, andreceived large accessions from among those whom famine, oppression, orthe sword of war had deprived of the ordinary means of subsistence.They lost in a great measure by this intermixture the nationalcharacter of Egyptians, and became a mingled race, having all theidleness and predatory habits of their Eastern ancestors, with aferocity which they probably borrowed from the men of the north whojoined their society. They travelled in different bands, and had rulesamong themselves, by which each tribe was confined to its own district.The slightest invasion of the precincts which had been assigned toanother tribe produced desperate skirmishes, in which there was oftenmuch blood shed.
The patriotic Fletcher of Saltoun drew a picture of these bandittiabout a century ago, which my readers will peruse with astonishment:--
'There are at this day in Scotland (besides a great many poor familiesvery meanly provided for by the church boxes, with others who, byliving on bad food, fall into various diseases) two hundred thousandpeople begging from door to door. These are not only no wayadvantageous, but a very grievous burden to so poor a country. Andthough the number of them be perhaps double to what it was formerly, byreason of this present great distress, yet in all times there have beenabout one hundred thousand of those vagabonds, who have lived withoutany regard or subjection either to the laws of the land or even thoseof God and nature ... No magistrate could ever discover, or beinformed, which way one in a hundred of these wretches died, or thatever they were baptized. Many murders have been discovered among them;and they are not only a most unspeakable oppression to poor tenants(who, if they give not bread or some kind of provision to perhaps fortysuch villains in one day, are sure to be insulted by them), but theyrob many poor people who live in houses distant from any neighbourhood.In years of plenty, many thousands of them meet together in themountains, where they feast and riot for many days; and at countryweddings, markets, burials, and other the like public occasions, theyare to be seen, both man and woman, perpetually drunk, cursing,blaspheming, and fighting together.'
Notwithstanding the deplorable picture presented in this extract, andwhich Fletcher himself, though the energetic and eloquent friend offreedom, saw no better mode of correcting than by introducing a systemof domestic slavery, the progress of time, and increase both of themeans of life and of the power of the laws, gradually reduced thisdreadful evil within more narrow bounds. The tribes of gipsies,jockies, or cairds--for by all these denominations such banditti wereknown--became few in number, and many were entirely rooted out. Still,however, a sufficient number remained to give, occasional alarm andconstant vexation. Some rude handicrafts were entirely resigned tothese itinerants, particularly the art of trencher-making, ofmanufacturing horn-spoons, and the whole mystery of the tinker. Tothese they added a petty trade in the coarse sorts of earthenware. Suchwere their ostensible means of livelihood. Each tribe had usually somefixed place of rendezvous, which they occasionally occupied andconsidered as their standing camp, and in the vicinity of which theygenerally abstained from depredation. They had even talents andaccomplishments, which made them occasionally useful and entertaining.Many cultivated music with success; and the favourite fiddler or piperof a district was often to be found in a gipsy town. They understoodall out-of-door sports, especially otter-hunting, fishing, or findinggame. They bred the best and boldest terriers, and sometimes had goodpointers for sale. In winter the women told fortunes, the men showedtricks of legerdemain; and these accomplishments often helped to whileaway a weary or stormy evening in the circle of the 'farmer's ha'.' Thewildness of their character, and the indomitable pride with which theydespised all regular labour, commanded a certain awe, which was notdiminished by the consideration that these strollers were a vindictiverace, and were restrained by no check, either of fear or conscience,from taking desperate vengeance upon those who had offended them. Thesetribes were, in short, the pariahs of Scotland, living like wildIndians among European settlers, and, like them, judged of rather bytheir own customs, habits, and opinions, than as if they had beenmembers of the civilised part of the community. Some hordes of them yetremain, chiefly in such situations as afford a ready escape either intoa waste country or into another Jurisdiction. Nor are the features oftheir character much softened. Their numbers, however, are so greatlydiminished that, instead of one hundred thousand, as calculated byFletcher, it would now perhaps be impossible to collect above fivehundred throughout all Scotland.
A tribe of these itinerants, to whom Meg Merrilies appertained, hadlong been as stationary as their habits permitted in a glen upon theestate of Ellangowan. They had there erected a few huts, which theydenominated their 'city of refuge,' and where, when not absent onexcursions, they harboured unmolested, as the crows that roosted in theold ash-trees around them. They had been such long occupants that theywere considered in some degree as proprietors of the wretched shealingswhich they inhabited. This protection they were said anciently to haverepaid by service to the Laird in war, or more frequently, by infestingor plundering the lands of those neighbouring barons with whom hechanced to be at feud. Latterly their services were of a more pacificnature. The women spun mittens for the lady, and knitted boot-hose forthe Laird, which were annually presented at Christmas with great form.The aged sibyls blessed the bridal bed of the Laird when he married,and the cradle of the heir when born. The men repaired her ladyship'scracked china, and assisted the Laird in his sporting parties, wormedhis dogs, and cut the ears of his terrier puppies. The childrengathered nuts in the woods, and cranberries in the moss, and mushroomson the pastures, for tribute to the Place. These acts of voluntaryservice, and acknowledgments of dependence, were rewarded by protectionon some occasions, connivance on others, and broken victuals, ale, andbrandy when circumstances called for a display of generosity; and thismutual intercourse of good offices, which had been carried on for atleast two centuries, rendered the inhabitants of Derncleugh a kind ofprivileged retainers upon the estate of Ellangowan. 'The knaves' werethe Laird's 'exceeding good friends'; and he would have deemed himselfvery ill used if his countenance could not now and then have borne themout against the law of the country and the local magistrate. But thisfriendly union was soon to be dissolved.
The community of Derncleugh, who cared for no rogues but their own,were wholly without alarm at the severity of the Justice's proceedingstowards other itinerants. They had no doubt that he determined tosuffer no mendicants or strollers in the country but what resided onhis own property, and practised their trade by his immediatepermission, implied or expressed. Nor was Mr. Bertram in a hurry toexert his newly-acquired authority at the expense of these oldsettlers. But he was driven on by circumstances.
At the quarter-sessions our new Justice was publicly upbraided by agentleman of the opposite party in county politics, that, while heaffected a great zeal for the public police, and seemed ambitious ofthe fame of an active magistrate, he fostered a tribe of the greatestrogues in the country, and permitted them to harbour within a mile ofthe house of Ellangowan. To this there was no reply, for the fa
ct wastoo evident and well known. The Laird digested the taunt as he bestcould, and in his way home amused himself with speculations on theeasiest method of ridding himself of these vagrants, who brought astain upon his fair fame as a magistrate. Just as he had resolved totake the first opportunity of quarrelling with the pariahs ofDerncleugh, a cause of provocation presented itself.
Since our friend's advancement to be a conservator of the peace, he hadcaused the gate at the head of his avenue, which formerly, having onlyone hinge, remained at all times hospitably open--he had caused thisgate, I say, to be newly hung and handsomely painted. He had also shutup with paling, curiously twisted with furze, certain holes in thefences adjoining, through which the gipsy boys used to scramble intothe plantations to gather birds' nests, the seniors of the village tomake a short cut from one point to another, and the lads and lasses forevening rendezvous--all without offence taken or leave asked. But thesehalcyon days were now to have an end, and a minatory inscription on oneside of the gate intimated 'prosecution according to law' (the painterhad spelt it 'persecution'--l'un vaut bien l'autre) to all who shouldbe found trespassing on these inclosures. On the other side, foruniformity's sake, was a precautionary annunciation of spring-guns andman-traps of such formidable powers that, said the rubrick, with anemphatic nota bene--'if a man goes in they will break a horse's leg.'
In defiance of these threats, six well-grown gipsy boys and girls wereriding cock-horse upon the new gate, and plaiting may-flowers, which itwas but too evident had been gathered within the forbidden precincts.With as much anger as he was capable of feeling, or perhaps ofassuming, the Laird commanded them to descend;--they paid no attentionto his mandate: he then began to pull them down one afteranother;--they resisted, passively at least, each sturdy bronzed varletmaking himself as heavy as he could, or climbing up as fast as he wasdismounted.
The Laird then called in the assistance of his servant, a surly fellow,who had immediate recourse to his horsewhip. A few lashes sent theparty a-scampering; and thus commenced the first breach of the peacebetween the house of Ellangowan and the gipsies of Derncleugh.
The latter could not for some time imagine that the war was real; untilthey found that their children were horsewhipped by the grieve whenfound trespassing; that their asses were poinded by the ground-officerwhen left in the plantations, or even when turned to graze by theroadside, against the provision of the turnpike acts; that theconstable began to make curious inquiries into their mode of gaining alivelihood, and expressed his surprise that the men should sleep in thehovels all day, and be abroad the greater part of the night.
When matters came to this point, the gipsies, without scruple, enteredupon measures of retaliation. Ellangowan's hen-roosts were plundered,his linen stolen from the lines or bleaching-ground, his fishingspoached, his dogs kidnapped, his growing trees cut or barked. Muchpetty mischief was done, and some evidently for the mischief's sake. Onthe other hand, warrants went forth, without mercy, to pursue, searchfor, take, and apprehend; and, notwithstanding their dexterity, one ortwo of the depredators were unable to avoid conviction. One, a stoutyoung fellow, who sometimes had gone to sea a-fishing, was handed overto the captain of the impress service at D--; two children were soundlyflogged, and one Egyptian matron sent to the house of correction.
Still, however, the gipsies made no motion to leave the spot which theyhad so long inhabited, and Mr. Bertram felt an unwillingness to deprivethem of their ancient 'city of refuge'; so that the petty warfare wehave noticed continued for several months, without increase orabatement of hostilities on either side.