Transcribed from the 1882 James Miller edition ,
BY
JAMES SIMSON,
Editor of
“SIMSON’S HISTORY OF THEGIPSIES,”
and Author of
“CONTRIBUTIONS TO NATURAL HISTORY ANDPAPERS ON OTHER SUBJECTS”; “CHARLES
WATERTON”; “THE ENGLISHUNIVERSITIES AND JOHN BUNYAN”; “THESCOTTISH
CHURCHES AND THE GIPSIES”; AND“REMINISCENCES OF CHILDHOOD
AT INVERKEITHING, OR LIFE AT ALAZARETTO.”
“According to the fair playof the world,
Let me have audience.”—Shakspeare.
NEW YORK: JAMES MILLER.
EDINBURGH: MACLACHLAN & STEWART.
LONDON: BAILLIÈRE, TYNDALL &CO.
1882.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
p. 2COPYRIGHT,1882, BY
JAMES SIMSON
Although what is contained in the following pages shouldexplain itself, a few prefatory remarks may not be out ofplace. In the Scottish Churches and the Gipsies Isaid that, “in regard to the belief about the destiny ofthe Gipsies,” “almost all have joined in it, assomething established”—that “the Gipsies‘cease to be Gipsies’ by conforming, in a greatmeasure, with the dress and habits of others, and keeping silenceas to their being members of the race;” and that “inbringing forward this subject for discussion and action I thusfind the way barred in every direction.” Although Ihave said that the belief about the disappearance, or rather theextinction, of the race has been tacitly if not formallymaintained by almost everyone, “no one seems inclined togive a reason for this belief in regard to the destiny of theGipsies, nor an intelligible definition of the wordGipsy.”
This is the position in which the Gipsy problem standsto-day. The latest work on the subject which I have seen isthat of The Gipsies (New York, 1882), by Mr. Leland, sofully reviewed in the following pages. He leaves thequestion, in its most important meaning, just where he found it;and confesses that it has “puzzled and muddled”him. In 1874 I wrote in Contributions to NaturalHistory, etc., as follows:—
“What becomes of the Gipsies is a questionthat cannot be settled by reference to any of Mr. Borrow’swritings, although these contain a few incidental remarks thatthrow some light on it when information of a positive andcircumstantial nature is added” (p. 120).
In offering to a London journal the double-article on Mr.Leland on the Gipsies I said, on the 30th May,1882:—
“I admit that it is a very difficult anddelicate matter for a journal to ‘go back on’ aposition once taken up on any question; but I think that if youadmit the intended article the point will be gained, without anyresponsibility on the part of the journal or editor;” andthat the insertion of it would put the journal “in itsproper position before the world, without recantinganything.” I further wrote that “Purelyliterary journals must necessarily labour und
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