THE TINKLER-GYPSIES. "LS^ iflnl!! ToTOif^-lSv^sag MW- ^''^ 1907. Dumfries : | Edinhttrgh ^ Glasgow : ]. Maxwell & Son. I John Menzies & Co., Ltd. London: SiMPKiN, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., Ltd. -J ■■♦0-. . TO MY MOTHER. ■c:. 41928 First Iinpressioti, December, igo6. Second Intpression, December, igoj. " .... I tell yoti -what, brother, frequently as I have sat under the hedge in spring or siintiner time, and have heard the cuckoo, I have thought that zve chals and cuckoos are alike in many respects, hit especially in character. Everybody speaks ill of its both, and everybody is glad to see both of us again." Jasper Petulengro in George Borrow's " The Romany Bye." " We a'x only beginning to recognise, the vast value of all folklore or legends Juit as they are perishing ivith great rapidity — '■ et on n' en fait pas des noiivelles'' — no new ones are created . . . ." C. G. Lelaml, 1). 320 " Gypsy Lore Journal," vol. i. (1st series). " What is wanted in the present state of folklore, I here repeat, is ' collection ' from original sources and materials, that is, from people and not merely fom books. The ciitics -we have— like the poor— akvays -with us, and a century hence ive shall doubtless have far better ones than those in -whom -we now rejoice or sorrow." C. G. Leland. ]). 369 " Gypsy Lore Jonrnal," vol. ii. iisl series). ^ %ip6y Chilli's Christina?. T/ie child arose and danced through Jrozen dells, Draivn by the Christmas chimes, and soon she sate Where, ^neath the snow around the churchyard gate. The plotighmen slept in bra>nble-banded cells : The gorgios passed, half-fearing Gypsy spells, While Rhona, gazing, seevi'd to meditate ; Then laugh' d for joy, then wept disconsolate : " De poor dead gorgios cannot hear de bells.'" JVithin the church the clouds of gorgio-breath Arose, a steam of lazy praise arui prayer 7^0 Him who weaves the loving Christmas-stair O'er sorrow and sin and wintry deeps of Death ; But where stood He ? Beside our Rhona there. Remembering childish tears in Nazareth. Kroni 'Tile CoiiiiilK of Love" iKhona linswells storji, eighth cditiiin. Mr Theodore Watts-Dunton, author of Ay/win^ The Co/ning of Love, &c., in kindly granting permission to the author of this book to use the foregoing beautiful sonnet, writes him as follows : — The Pines, Putney Hill, 2^ih N'ovei/iber, igo6. Dear Mr M'Cormick, Of course I shall be delighted to have my sonnet, " A Gypsy Child's Christmas,'" reprinted in your book. It attracted more attention and gave more pleasure to my readers than any other part of The Coming of Love. I have had scores of letters from unknown friends upon The Coming of Love, and most of them have specially dwelt upon this sonnet. I can say this without laying myself open to the charge of egotism, because the subject of the sonnet was suggested by a beautiful anec- dote of the child Lavinia Lee given in Frank Groome's charming volume In Gypsy Tents. I am, and always have been, a great lover of children, and I know them well in all their varieties, and I do not hesitate to say that for whimsical fascination the Romany children surpass all others. They combine the bright- eyed intelligence of Gorgio children with the unspeak- able, unconscious fascination of kittens. As to your graphic and admirable sketches, when I read them in the proof I felt grateful to you for this labour of love of yours. Your book will be greatly prized, not only by all Romany Ryes, but by all who take interest in Gypsydom. Two cf the friends I have lost, George Borrow and Frank Groome, would have prized it more than any volume that has issued from the Press for a long time past, and whatever may be its acceptance at the present moment its documentary value will increase every year as time goes on, and as the pictures of the Romanies become more and more shadowy dreams of the past. Believe me to be. Very sincerely yours, Theodore Watts-Dunton. INTRODUCTION, ■"Does do^ prey on dog?" asked the Spanish Gypsy soldier in I3orrow's Zincali. I fancied not ; yet here is Mr M'Cormick, a brother Romano Rai, with his pistol pointed at my head, demanding a benediction for his Tinkler - Gypsies, or else — — Pretty work for the Provost ! But I must e'en stand and deliver. Gypsies are Gypsies all the world over — cousins separated only by their different beats and a few family peculiarities. Such at any rate was the opinion of old Isaac Heme, in whose company I visited my first foreign Gypsies, a band of Greek and Rumelian Romane, who invaded this island some twenty years ago. Driven from their squatting-place in a railway station, tlie picturesque vavcr-teinengyos, looking for all the world like Callot's Bohemians, were encamped in a large field near Aintree race-course. " Dere, my boy !" said Isaac, gazing at them much as Darwin must have gazed at the naked Patagonians when the reflection occurred to him that "such were our ancestors" — "Dere, my boy, centres behind de time of day, but still de right breedipcn. Dat must be de werry way we looked like when we first come to Angiierra, years and years and double years ago. But we've picked up a few bits of tings since den." Yet Isaac's attitude was not wholly critical. He cast an approving glance upon a merry Gypsy lass with mocking eye and flashing teeth, whose perfect shape was little con- cealed by the gad and choxa which formed her sole apparel, and who had just retorted to some pleasantry of the younger Boswells with thecjuaint saying — ".)//;// iiai lashi : iniiij kand^d ?''^ — words surprising to ears whicii have lost familiarity with the directness of primitive folk- speech. "Not a bad-looking (7^(77, my dear />«/," quoth Isaac ; "one of de right sort — a bit wildish just now may- be ; but we could do werry well with her, my boy, if we only took and trained her for a bit and poger''d\\zx adn' \.o mendt's drouiyas " (broke her in to our ways). Yes, Gypsies are Gypsies, but are Tinkler-Gypsies Roman6 ? That is the cjuestion. And if so, where about in the hierarchy of the Romani races should we Introducticni. xi. place them ? The classification of Miklosich is based on linguistics alone, and ignores all the other features which go to the making of a Gypsy. But Gypsies are none the less Gypsies because they have lost a perfect knowledge of their own tongue. Wherever may be the rank of the Tinklers— and 1 propose to return to this point in a moment if the Provost will kindly lower his blunderbuss — there is happily no doubt whatever of the place they occupy in the national afi'cctions of the Scottish people. Their history is hound up with that of .Scotland in a way which we never find in southern Britain — Johnny Faa and the Countess of Cassillis ; Macpherson, the hero of Burns' glorious lyric ; Maclellan of Bombie, who slew a Gypsy (or Saracen) chief and took the tawny head of his victim as his crest, are but a few cases in point. Nor is it uncommon to find Scottish personages like Jeannie Welsh, or the late Principal Story, who were proud rather than ashamed of the Gypsy strain in their ancestry. Nor, again, can any British student of Gypsy lore afford to overlook the Scottish variety. He may turn for his knowledge of the Romani tongue in its purity to the Welsh descendants of Abram Wood, or seek for ancient customs and traditions in the tents of the English Stanleys, Lees, and Hemes, but his complete realisation of the race will fall short unless he grasp something also of the spirit of romance and adventure, the " life of start and strife," best exemplified by the Scottish Gypsies. But still this brings us back to the question— Who and what are these Tinkler-Gypsies to whom the Provost has given his hand and heart ? We are entitled to ask them, as Borrow asked the Gypsy Queen of Yetholm : ^^ Shan tu a Diiimpli-iniishi, or a tatchi Roinaiiy V (Are you of mumping breed, or true Gypsy ?) If we go back jast four centuries, there can be no doubt that the " Egyptianis," who were paid seven pounds to "be the Kingis command," " the Egyptians that danced before the King in Holyrood House in the year 1530," and the members of the band who ten years later gave mocking Romani noinnies de guerre to the officers of the law, were what Borrow would call "real Gypsies of the .old order." With whom did these early Gypsy inhabi- tants of Scotland intermarry, either with the assistance of the Church or by the simpler ceremony of leaping over a broomstick ? and to what extent can the Tinkler-Gypsies of to-day be regarded as a Romani stock ? Until anthro- pologists can agree as to the right method and value of their anthropometric measurements we must fall back -xii. Introduction. upon the only criterion possible, tiiat of llie language. And here fortunately we have valuable material in the lists of Tinkler words collected by Scott's friend, Walter Simson, author of A History of the Gypsies^ and by his worthy successor, Mr M'Cormick, whose vocabulary is not the least important part of this fresh and delightful book. Already in Simson's day we find that the Scottish dialect of Romani had lost all its air of being a modern Indian dialect like Hindustani or Sindhi, and had taken its colour from the soil. Altogether about half of Simson's words are debased Gypsy : the remainder is derived from some different source, and it is from the study of these words we must seek to identify the class of people with whom the Scottish Tinklers interbred. The historical student of secret or cant languages will have no difficulty in recognising at once the predominant factor in the non-Gypsy element. It is none oth.er than the ancient cant of tlie Elizabethan rogue or vagabond, not changed materially since it was first published to the world by Thomas Ilarman in his Caveat for Cotnvton Cursetors, and familiar to us from the conversations and songs introduced into the plays of Fletcher, Greene, Dekker, and other early dramatists. This cant is largely a descriptive one, full of such simple coinages a% gliniiner for "fire," lightiiians for "day," and darkmans for "night," with here and there a Latin importation like graiiiiaiii, "corn," showing that even before the days of Glanvil's " Scholar Gypsy " the vagrants' bands must now and then have been recruited by a broken scholar. Among the words recorded by Harman three hundred years ago which still, though occasionally with some slight change of meaning or pronunciation, form part of the Tinkler tongue are he)ie and /lotship, " good ;" bord, "a shilling" (Simson, p. 305, "a penny"); chete, "a thing ;" deli, " a young wench " (Simson, pp. 296, 394 ; dtll, " a servant maid ") ; fambies, " hands ;" grannam, "corn ;" ruffian, "the devil" (Simson, p. 305, ruffle) ; strovuiiell, "straw;" while Mr M'Cormick supplies additions to those noted by Simson in his -wiin, witig, " penny," and luapsi, " merelrix " — a word formed from Ilarman's verb wap, perhaps preserved in the name of the old sailors' quarter in London, " Wapping." The language test proves that the early Scottish Tinklers must be a blend of Koniani and "gabcrlunzie " man. Small wonder, then, if the descenclants of this Introdiiclion. xiii. stock should have won a name for themselves for reckless daring and predatory ferocity. What this life and its usual ending were in bygone days we may gather from the legal documents and other historical evidence collected in Mr MacRitchie's scholarly work, 77ie Scoliish Gypsies tinder the Steivarts, or, even more vividly, in Ilarman's account of his conversation with a travelling " doxy" — "a pleasant wench, but not so pleasant as witty, and not so witty as void of all grace and goodness " — or vagrant woman, one of those nomads whom, the Kentish Esquire himself tells us, he had bribed with good meat and drink that he might the better "grope her mind." "Then, first tell me," quoth I, "how many Upright Men and Rogues dost thou know or hast thou known and been conversant with, and what their names be ?"' She paused awhile, and said — " Why do you ask me, or wherefore ?" " For nothing else,"' as I si id, " but that I would know them uhen they came to my gate." " Xow, by my troth," quoth she, " then are ye never the nearer, for all my acquaintance, for the most part, are dead.'' " Dead I" quoth I; "how died they? — for want of cherishing, or of painful diseases?" Then she sighed, and said they were hanged. " What, all ?" quoth I, " and so many walk abroad, as I daily see ?" " By my troth," quoth she, " I know not past six or seven by their names," and named the same to me. " When were they hanged?" quoth I. "Some seven years agone, some three years, and some within this fortnight," and declared the place where they were executed, which I knew well to be true by the report of others. "Why," quoth I, " did not this sorrowful and fearful sight much grieve thee, and for thy time, long and evil spent ?" "I was sorry," quotli she, " by the mass, for some of them were good loving men ; for I lacked not when they had it, and they wanted not when I had it, and divers of them I never did lorsake, until the gallows departed us." " O merciful God I" quoth I, and began to bless me. "Why bless ye?" quoth she. "Alas! good gentleman, every one must have a living." I turn next to another question upon which the language test is able to throw light. Besides the Gypsies — the aristocrats of the road — and the baser confraternity of vagabonds there exists, here and across the Atlantic, an ancient and widespread caste which has hitherto received scant attention — the Irish Tinkers. Omniscient Shake- speare indeed makes "Prince ffal" boast of being able xiv. Introduction. to " drink with any Tinker in his own language ;" but it was not until our own day that " Hans Breitmann " dis- covered that the caste of Cairds do actually possess a lang- uage of their own which later research has shown to be a perversion of old Irish, oritjinating as far back as the time of King Alfred the Great. In Ireland this secret language, commonly known as Shelta, is spoken by four classes — the Tinkers, Beggars, Pipers, and Sieve-makers ; in England by almost every knife-grinder. Examples of this secret speech have been collected in localities so far apart as the islands of Tiree and Coll in the north of Scotland and Philadelphia in the United States. In ihe four provinces of Ireland the Irish Tinkers occupy the place of our own Gypsies ; in Wales they are the people described by Borrow under the name of Gwyddelod, " the men buying and selling horses, and someiimes tinkering, whilst the women told fortunes .... ' What kind of people are these Gwyddelod ? " ' Savage, brutish people, sir ; in general without shoes and stockings, with coarse features and heads of hair like mops.'" Borrow's guide, John Jones, describes "a terrible fright " which they caused him returning from the Berwyn. " It was night as I returned, and when I was about half-way down the hill, at a place uhich is called AUt Paddy, becau.se the Gwyddelod are in the habit of taking up their quarters there, I came upon a gang of them, who had come there and camped and lighted their fire, whilst I was on the other side of the hill. There were nearly twenty of them, men and women, and amongst the r^st was a man standing naked in a tub of water with two women stroking him down with clouts. He was a large, fierce-looking fellow, and his body, on which the flame of the fire glittered, was nearly covered with red hair. I never saw such a sight. .As I passed they glared at me and talked violently in their Paddy Gwyddch, but did not offer to molest me. I hastened down the hill, and right glad I was when I found my.self safe and sound at my house in Llangollen." Hear also Captain Bosvile on the relations between the Irish Tinkers and the Gypsies : " I wonder you didn't try- to serve some of the Irish out." said Borrow, the peace-maker. " I served one out, brother ; and iny wife and childer helped to wipe off a little of the .score. We had stopped on a nice green, near a village over the hills in Glamorganshire, when up comes a Hindify [Iri-^h] family, and bids us take ourselves off. Now, it so happened that '.here was but one man and a woman and hitroduction. xv, some childer, so I laughed, and told ihem to drive us off. Well, brother, without many words there was a regular scrimmage. The Hindity w«j-//"cameat me, the Hindity nnishi at my jitwa, and the Hindity chaves at my chavi. It didn't last long, iirother. In less than three minutes I had hit the Hindity mush, who was a plaguey big fellow, but couldn't fight, just under the point of the chin, and sent him to the ground with all his senses gone. JNIy juwa had almost scratched an eye out of the Hindity muski, and my ckai had sent the Hindity childer scamp- ering over the green. 'Who has got to quit now .' ' said I to the Hindity nntsh after he had got on his legs, looking like a man who has been cut down after hanging Just a minute and a half. ' Who has got notice to quit now, I wonder ? ' Well, brother, he didn't say anything, nor did any of them, but after a little time they all took themselves ofl", with a cart they had, to the south. Just as they got to the edge of the green, however, they turned round and gave a yell which made all our blood cold. I knew what it meant, and said, ' This is no place for us.' So we got everything together and came away, and, though the horses were tired, never stopped till we had got ten miles from the place : and well it was we acted as we did, for, had we stayed, I have no doubt that a whole Hindity clan would have been down upon us before morning and cut our throats. " It is surely worth while to determine how far, if at all, the blood of this amiable race runs in the veins of our Scottish Tinklers. And the answer must be hardly at all. For there is not a single SheUa word in any of Simson's lists, and the few words I recognise as Shelta in Mr M'Cormick's vocabulary show that any interfusion of the Scottish and Irish Tinkers must be of compara- tively recent date. These Shelta words are : hewr, "woman;" hm, "little;" chant, "gill" (properly " pint ") ; gather, " father;" gatter, " beer ; " gloinhach, " man ;" gothliii, " child;" granyi, " finger ring ;" kain, " house ;" vieltyug, " shirt ;" midjik, '' sixpence ;" vionkery, "lodgings" (properly "counny"); niiiog, "pig;" needi, "tinker" (not suggested as some might suppose by Canning's needy knife-grinder, but a regular backslang formation from Irish dame " person ") ; nyuk, " a penny ;" trass (read hi ass), " food ;" tohcr, " road ;" and tyitg, " coat." Printed in a rare tract is a sermon of Parson Haberdyne " in Praise of Thieves and Thievery . . . which he xvi. Inttodidction. made al the commandment of certain thieves, after they had robbed him, Vieside Hartlerow in Hampshire, in the fields, there standing upon a hill, where a wind-mill had been, in the presence of the thieves that robbed him." It is one of the most excellent discourses in the world, with a happy conclusion, for we read that " Thus his sermon being ended they gave him his money again that they took from him, and ijs to drink for his sermon." I have none of Parson Haberdyne's happy gift of impro- visation, nor is the role of the rashai mine ; but to all Tinklers and Tinkler scholars I have nothing but good- will ; while to Mr M'Cormick's book I heartily wish te jal develesa. JoH.v Sampson. Preface to the First Edition. I AM grateful to all who havs in any way helped me in the preparation of this book. I must commend and thank my friends the Tinklers themselves for their un- failing courtesy and kindness to me during my many interviews with them. They have flung their " coats upon the green " over some points treated of in this book, and manfully maintained their arguments by hard blows given and taken in real Tinkler fashion, but they have on all occasions been kindly disposed and polite to me. I owe a speci'il word of thanks to Mr David MacRitchie, Edinburgh, formerly co-ediior (with the late Mr F. II. Groome) of the Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, for invaluable advice, help, and encouragement ; also to the late Mr Alexander Waugh, banker, Newton- Stewart, and Dr M'Kie, Newton-Stewart, for information in regard to local folklore and for helping with the revisal of the proof sheets ; and to Dr J. Maxwell Wood, the editor, and Messrs J. Maxwell & Son, the publishers of The Gallovidian, for their forbearance and kindness when the work was passing through the Press. To Mr Theodore Watts-Dunton, the author of Aylwin, The Coming of Love, &c., &c. , I am greatly obliged for leave granted to make use of the foregoing beautiful sonnet and generously-v\orded letter. To Miss E. M. Johnstone, Edinburgh ; Dr Hamilton Irving, Iludders- field ; Mr Malcolm M L. Harper, author of Rwiibles in Galloivay, iSic. ; and Mr John Copland, artist, I am indebted for sketches, and to ^Ir R. B. Sutcliffe for a plan, specially drawn for this book, and to numerous other friends for illustrations and information supplied. The articles included — with the exception of chapter vii. (chapter x. of this edition), now published for the first time, and chapter viii. (chapter xi. of this edition), which appeared in atjbreviated form in the Galloivay Gazette — appeared in The Galloviaian under the title " Billy Marshall, the Caird of Barullion and King of the Galloway Tinklers." In respect that Billy Marshall was ihe most noteworthy of the Tinklers of Galloway that title was not altogether inappropriate, but in view of the scope of the work it has been thought advi.sable to change the title to " The Tinkler-Gypsies of Galloway." The book itself is a record of some gleanings along a literary Gypsy by-path. There is a Polish proverb which says, " He who fraternises with a Gypsy becomes himself a Gypsy," and so far as treatment of the subiect is con- xviii. Prejace. cerned I have grown Gypsy-like, for I liave roamed about far and near— and ofuimes searched many a blind alley — to rescue and record some of the meagre infor- mation still obtainable about our Tinklers, and indeed (must I admit it ?) I have at times strayed into subjects merely akin to Gypsyism. In the hope of enabling others, better able than I, to judge of the former gangs by the presenl-day lot, T have recorded a number of my interviews with some of the hitter at camps and elsewhere, and copiously illustrated the book by photo- graphs. Even the " nimminy-pimminy people" who think such a subject loiv may find, by thoughtfully studying the so-called common Tinklers, much that will not only interest them but broaden their minds and add to their humility and charity — unless they are only capable of seeing what is loiv in these creatures formed by God as part of the plan of the universe. Indeed, such a book as the late Mr F. II. Groome's In Gypsy Tents might, with propriety — and splendid results too — be commended by " My Lords " as a model of the intimate and cordial relationship which should exist in every home circle. It has been shown that the Irish Tinklers' language, Sheila or Sheldrn —discovered quite recently by the late Mr C. G. Iceland — is none other tlian that used by the ancient bards of that country, and surely it is worthy of an efil'ort on the part of philologists to try to prove what the cant ((•rt'/w;// = speech) of the Scotch Tinklers is? In pul)lishing this reprint I lake courage from the fact that the late ^lr F. H. Groome has left it on record that "There lives not a Romany Rye thai has not something new to impart to his tellow-studcnts."' Loving to ramble in the open air, and fond of reading, I have already extracted sufficient reward for making this somewhat belated attempt to rescue information about the strange people treated of in the following pages. In summer my visits to camps have added zest and excitement to many an enjoyable walk in this lovely Galloway of ours. Only those uho have caught the cult of Gypsyism can tell what an extraordinary charm and fascination there is in studying and reading and writing about the Gypsy race. If, perchance, I have succeeded in comnninicaling some of that enjoyment or of my enthusiasm to any of my readers I shall feel driubly rewarded. .\. M-CORMICK. XK«T(1X-STR\VAKT, Chiishnastitle, V.'Or,. Preface to the Second Edition. The generous impulse which caused the first edition of my book to be bought up within a few weeks after it was issued has placed me in the honourable position of being invited to issue a new edition. My warmest thanks are due to Mr John Sampson, Liverpool, " our greatest Gypsiologist," for his fine, scholarly Introduction, and to Mr George Meredith for his admirable analysis of the character of the Tinklers, which he has very kindly allowed me to make use of in issuing this edition, and which will be found, as a fitting final word about the Tinklers, at the end of this book. The book has been revised and amended throughout. Two new chapters (No. \TI., "A Scotch fjvpsy A'iliage,"' and VIII., " Tinklers' Bairns") and three Tinkler l-'olk- tales have been added, and a number of new illustrations are given. As a wider field is now covered by this work it has been resolved further to alter the title to "The Tinkler-Gypsies."' I offer my most cordial thanks to my readers, and I am proud to acknowledge that the kind words of praise bestowed by many critics gladdened my heart. It would be " like death to the Tinkler— something for newance " — if my book had not, in some of its details, met with adverse criticism. I have sought to benefit as much as possible by the guidance of such criticism. I have eliminated a good deal of local lore — which was interesting to those for whom the articles were originally written — to make room for a nuMiber of folk-tales and traditions calculated to be of greater interest to the general reader. A word of explanation is called for by some of my readers as to how I came to write this book and as to the plan of it : For a reason which I need not give here, I desired to study the Gyps)' character. I had read several historical treatises c)n the subject when the perusal of Ayhvin caused me lo fall in love with Gypsy- ism, and mj' love still grows. I read everything I could lay my hands on pertaining to it. Not long after I had been thus infected I was approached by the Editor of the Gallovidian to write an article on " Billy Marshall,' a Gypsy who bulks largely in the public memory. At first I could only find two brief references to that hero, and XX. Preface. these in comparalively rare voUiincs. I wrote the article, but searched further afield both in books and by conversing with the Tinklers and representatives of old Galloway families possessed of traditions of the ancient province — the result Ijeing that instead of writing one article there are now twelve, all embodied in the volume, the one on Billy Marshall being partly at the beginning and partly at the end, with here and there a connecting link throughout. Vou have seen a rose Ijush grafted on a wild briar ; and anon you may have observed the briar gaining the ascendency and producing a wild rose. Just such a flower, thrown off from the aboriginal stem, is my book, for through the ages there has descended to me a love for what is free, and wild, and grand in nature and in people. I trust that the wider publicity which this issue aims at may both disseminate information about, and deepen sympathy for, the [loor Tinklers, many of whom have daily a liard struggle for existence. A. M'CORMICK. Xkwtdx-Stkwart, Christ inaathle, 1'.I07. CONTENTS. Chapter. I. — Billy Marshall, the Caird of Barullion and King of the Galloway Tinklers II.- Do. do. d III. — The Gypsies of Guy Maniiering IV. — Galwegian Gypsy Gangs V. — Gypsy Gangs in Galloway \T. — Gypsy Yarns and Camp Scenes \TI. — A Scotch Gypsy Village VIII. — Tinklers' Bairns IX. — A Modern Gypsy Folk-tale Teller X. — Tinkler-Gypsies' Origin Discussed XI. — "German" Gypsies in Galloway .^ XII. — Galwegian Gypsy Worthies " The Tinklers' Waddin' " . 42 85 126 204 266 324 347 365 386 457 484 536 Appendix : " Note on Shivering the Back LilL' List of Authorities. List of Authorities for Traditions. Tinklers' Cant Vocabulary. Index. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, Sketch : Tinkler Encampment Sketch : Tinklers on the .March (Blackcraig) Typical Marshall Encampment Billy Marshall's Signature (fac-siuiile) Billy Marshall's Signature Boy's Hand, showing " Marshall Mark " . Horn Cup made by Billy Marshall Site of Billy's Camping Ground (Brig o' Dee) " Dirk Hatteraick's " Cave, near Ravenshall Sketch : Barholm Castle ('' Ellangowan ") Cave on " Red Strand " .... Cave near "Three Cairns," Cairnsmore " M'Clave's Pantry," Cairnsmore Cave on " Red Strand" .... Sketch : " Old Minnigaff Fire-worshippers " Tail-piece ...... Barholm Castle (" Ellangowan ") Caerlaverock Castle ..... Carsluith Castle "Julia Mannering" at " Ellangowan " (Barholm Castle) Dominie Sampson and Meg Merrilies in the Vault Map of Galwegian Localities Terrs Cave ..... Sketch : " Dirk Hatteraick's" Cave, Ravenshall A Modern " Meg Merrilies " " Dirk Hatteraick's" (Vawkins') Pistol "The Boy Tree" .... " The Tinkler's Loup " . Davock Marshall (" Roughie Paws ") Descendants of Kilmaurs Marshalls . "The Roughie Paw "... Spoon-making Implements used by Marshalls . Galloway, Perthshire, and Argyleshire Tinklers . Malcolm Marshall Horn Spoons and Ladles made by the Kennedies " Caulms " used by Andrew Kennedy Watsons ........ MacMillans Galloway, Cumberland, Perthshire, and Argyleshire Tinkle The Doctor and the Blind (Highland) Tinkler Woman Vetholm (Black) Douglases ..... Galloway and Cumberland Tinklers .... Galloway, Cumberland, Perthshire, and Argyleshire Tinklers " King William" Foots it Gaily .Marslialls Page. Frontispiece Title Page 3 List of Illusirations. Wilsons ..... Watsons, MacMillans, and ^larshall Tail-piece Pretty Partners . " Kibsing goes by Favour ' " On Guard " . Yetholm (Black) D.iuglases English Gypsy Group O I\iishto Diikkerin . " Patience " and '"Lijah" A Caught Smile A Tickling Joke Reading Happy Bozzle Tacho Romanies (W.B.) . ,., . „ (G.B.) . Tail-piece Pocket-hook stolen by Billy's Gang Marshalls .... Marshalls .... A Typical Marshal! . A Marshall A King and Queen . MacMillans A Gcnetan Paper Flag Vendors . Settled Marshalls Watsons .... Watsons .... Tinkler "White Boys" . A North American Indian Woman Tail-piece .... Gypsy Woman and Child at Las Pal " The Good Samaritan " . Cumberland and Galloway Tinkl The Blind Tinkler Woman Marshalls' Hardy Upbringing A Derelict and an Orphan Boy Spanish Gypsy Woman and Children Tail-piece The Gvpsy Folk-tale Teller Tail-piece Burns's "Jolly Beggars"' . Spoiling the Gaiijoes . A Gypsy Troup on the March through Lorraine, 1604 A Gypsy Troup on the March through Lorraine, 1604 "The Halt" Piper Allan ...... Esther Faa Blythe, late Queen of the Scotch Gypsies Site of the Blackmorrow Well, near Kirkcudbright Kirk Yetholm, Headquarters of the Scotch Gypsies List of Illustratiofis. Charles Faa Blyihe, late King of tlie Scotch CJypsies Officials of Gypsy Coronation at Yetholm . Gypsy C'oronation at Vetholm .... Irish Tinklers ....... Irish Tinklers . ... Irish Tinklers . . .... Orcadian Tinkler Boys ..... Perthshire Tinklers ...... M'Larens : Forfarshire Tinklers Forfarshire Tinkler . .... Tinkler (Roumanian " Calderar") of Gross-.Scheurn, sylvania ....... Gypsy " Lingurar" (Spoonmaker) of Transylvania Gypsy " Lingurar " (Spoonmaker) of Transylvania Tail -piece ....... " German " Gypsies in Galloway (July, 1906) . " German " Gypsies in Galloway (July, 1906) . 'Gyptian-wise ....... Marono and her Rom Marono Dammo and Chabos Marono Dammo .... Posing for Bischli Geld "An Early Visit " .... Initial letter T (Cuddy and Creels) Sketch from The Gaberhinzie^ s Walk- Katie O'Neil or Marshall . " Vagrants "..... English Gypsies in Galloway Irish Tinklers ..... "Cuddy's Cave,"' on Ilazelrigg Hill, near umberland ..... Snuff " MuU" made by Billy Mar.shall Horn "Dividers" made by Billy Marshall Smoothing Iron made by Billy Marshall " Ursari " (Bear-leaders) in Galloway " Ursari " (Bear-leaders) of Asia Minor "Ursari" (Bear-leaders) of Turkey . " Edie Ochiltree's " Tombstone Back of " Edie Ochiltree's " Tombstone . Billy Mar.shall's Tombstone, Churchyard, Kirkcudbri Back of I?illy .Marshall's Tombstone, Churchyard, Ki: bright ' . Marshalls and a Wilson ..... The " Murder Hole" of Tradition The " -Murder Hole " of Romance . , Perthshire and Argyleshire Tinklers (with reduced y^c note !jy Mr George Meredith on the Tinklers) Reduced fac-sintile note by Mr George Meredith o Tinklers ....... Tail-piece .....-,. Chatton, Nortl Tran- ;lit kcud- the THE TINKLER-GYPSIES. " The duddy deils, in mountain glen, Lamenteth ane an' a', man ; For sic a king they'll never ken In bonnie Gallowa', man." Epitaph on Billy Marshall (MacTayg-art^. CHAPTER I. ILLY MARSHALL was held in high regard by the Galloway Tinklers of whom he was Chief, and even after the lapse of over a century since Billy's death his name and fame are known in every home in Galloway. In the annals of the Gypsy race Billy stands pre-eminent on account of his remarkable longevity, and if the facts of his life could be completely laid bare to the gypsiologist, that would enable many a point in dispute with regard to the Gypsy race to be settled. Billy was both a Tinkler and a Gypsy, and is supposed, besides being a renowned Gypsy Chief, to have been the 2 The Ti)ikler-Gypsies. last of the Pictish Kings. A study of the languages used by him and his gang should therefore prove an invaluable auxiliary, not only to the philologist in settling whether Billy really was both a Gypsy and a Pict, but also to the gypsiologist in determining the proper degree of relationship of the Scottish Tinklers and Tinkler- Gypsies to the wave of Gypsies which entered Ireland or Great Britain either towards the end of the fifteenth or the beginning of the sixteenth century. Our attitude towards the Tinklers renders it somewhat difficult to obtain information from them. When we chance upon a gang of Tinklers — such as that depicted in Mr Malcolm M'L. Harper's excellent sketch of a Tinklers' encamp- ment, showing " Will Marshall, the Protestant Tinkler," a descendant of our hero Billy Marshall, busy making tin cans — what are our feelings ? Do we not admire the picturesque scene, and then noting the Tinklers themselves and the primitive conditions under which they exist, does not some- thing akin to contempt take possession of us ? These same feelings are the direct descendants of the feelings which have alw^s drawn out, in self-defence, the worst characteristics of the Gypsies. Their physical beauty, graced by a pretty style of dress and ornamentation, charmed our forefathers, who, nevertheless, persecuted z^ 5 -2 o II 4 The Tnikler-Gxpsies. and even hanged many of them merely because they were habit and repute Egyptians. Need we wonder, then, that in self-defence they retaliated ? and so is it now. Our attitude of contempt towards the poor Tinklers is our surest way to perpetuate their worst characteris- tics. Why should we treat them so ? There is much in their ancestry and history to be justly proud of. They possess a strong strain of Pictish(?) and Gypsy blood. It is the strength of that strain that has caused them to cling longer than their neighbours to the manners and customs of their ancestors. Their individuality has been too strongly marked to allow them to change with changing polities. Don't let us pass them by merely as objects of idle curiosity. They are a most intensely interesting class, and if we would only break down that barrier of reserve which we, by our attitude of contempt for these poor strugglers with their own individuality, have created in them, w^e would draw out what is best in them, and, whilst improving their minds and adding to their comforts at the same time, obtain much useful and interesting information. Our perpetuated attitude of contempt for the Tinklers makes them reserved and uncommunicative in the extreme, but when once this defensive wall is broken through, as Mr Watts-Duntons, Tinklers' Defensive Reserve. 5 the late George l^orrow, and F. H. Groome have all affirmed, " the charm of the Romany character is ' frankness and simplicity.' " Often as the reader may have seen and conversed with the Marshalls, MacMillans, and other Tinklers who frequent Galloway, did he ever imagine that they possess the remnants of languages unknown to ordinary Gallovidians ? It was only in the summer before last — so the Marshalls say — that any outsider has ever learned from them that they possess a speech or " cant " of their own in which there are many Romani words. It is unfortunate that no systematic attempt was made immediately after Billy's death to record the stirring events of his life, and any meagre particulars now obtainable are open only to those having access to a few rare books, and who have an opportunity of meeting with Billy's descendants, of hearing traditions related by old residenters, and of visiting the lonely haunts which Billy used to frequent. Since even such mengre particulars as remain of Billy's eventful life can only be found in that scattered form, it may be of interest if, in order to get a belter insight into Billy's lifework and character, an attempt is made to compile the essential parts of written accounts, and if the opportunity thus afforded is taken to place upon record as many as po?sible of the floating tradi- 6 The Tinkler-Gyf'sies. tions and particulars as are yet obtainable about Billy. Even at this eleventh hour it may prove useful to rescue from oblivion what little inftjrma- tion still remains. It is only by supplying from all quarters where Gypsies and Tinklers fre([uent carefully collected local information that suffi cient data will ever be obtained to enable some clever Gypsiologist to write an up-to-date history of the Gypsies, and in this connection it is a thousand pities that The Gypsy Lore Journal* has become defunct, for it is only through the medium of a central journal, such as it wa"?, that the collection oi such information can be judiciously encouraged and the material so obtained carefully classified. There are many books in which references to Billy occur, but in most cases these have merely been culled from former records, and in this account of Billy's life the primal record of any event will, as far as practicable, be taken. The M'Culloch family, of whom there are at present several branches of landed proprietors in the Stevvaitr)-, seem to have taken a kindly interest m Billy, and in return he appears to have been very grateful to them ; indeed to this day Billy's descendants speak highly of the varicnis branches of that family. Bill)- * Revived, we rejoice to record, on -JuIn , 1!K>7, under the Honorary Secretaryship of Mr R. A. Scott-Maefie, « Hope Place, Liverpool. Former Recnrds. 7 and his gang often halted at the home of the M'CuUochs, and it is fitting and fortunate that a scion of that house, the late Mr James Murray M'Culloch of Ardwall, should have placed upon record, in the following letter to Blackwood's Magazine,^* what is the most trustworthy account of Billy's life : — " Some Account of Billy Marshall, a Gypsy Chief. " Mr Editor, — Among some instructive and many entertaining articles in your magazine, I have been a good deal amused in reading your account of the Gypsies, and more particu- larly of the Gypsies of our own country. The race has certainly degenerated (if I may be allowed to use the expression), and is in some risk of becoming extinct — whether to the advan- tage of society or not I will leave to the profound to determine. In the meantime I am very well pleased that you have united with the anonymous author of Guy Maimering in recording the existence, the manners, and the customs of this wonderful people. " But I have been, I assure you, in no small degree disappointed when reading the names of the Faas, the Baileys, the Gordons, the Shaws, the Browns, the Keiths, the Kennedies, the *Such numbers refer to a list of authorities which will be found in the Appendix. 8 The Tinkler-Gypsies. Ruthvens, the Youngs, the Taits, the Douglases, the Blythes, the Allans, and the Montgomeries, etc., to observe so noted a family as the Marshalls altogether omitted. I beg leave to add that your author will be considered either a very ignorant or a very partial historian by all the readers and critics in the extensive districts of Galloway and Ayrshire if he persists in passing over in silence the distinguished family of Billy Marshall, and its numerous cadets. I cannot say that I, as an individual, owe any obligations to the late Billy Marshall ; but, sir, I am one of an old family in the Stewartry of Galloway with whom Billy was intimate for nearly a whole century. He visited regularly twice a year my great-grandfather, grandfather, and father, and partook, I daresay, of their hospitality, but he made a grateful and ample return ; for during all the days of Billy's natural life, which the sequel will shew not to have been few, the washings could have been safely left out all night without anything from a sheet or a tablecloth down to a dishclout being in any danger. During that long period of time there never was a goose, turkey, duck, or hen taken away but what could have been clearly traced to the fox, the brock, or the fumart ; and I have heard an old female domestic of ours declare that she had known Billy Marshall and Billy Proves his Gratitude. 9 his gang, again and again, mend all the ' kettles, pans, and crackit pigs in the house, and make twa or three dozen o' horn spoons into the bargain, and never tak' a farthin' o' the laird's siller.' I am sorry that I cannot give you any very minute history of my hero : however, I think it a duty I owe on account of my family not to allow, as far as I can hinder it, the memory and name of so old a friend and benefactor to fall into oblivion when such people as the Faas and Baileys, etc., are spoken of. "Where he was born I cannot tell. Who were his descendants I cannot tell ; I am sure he could not do it himself if he were living. It is known that they were prodigiously numerous — I daresay numberless. For a great part of his long life he reigned with sovereign sway over a numerous and powerful gang of Gypsy Tinkers who took their range over Carrick, in Ayrshire, the Carrick mountains, and over the Stewartry and Shire of Galloway ; and now and then by way of improving themselves and seeing more of the world they crossed at Donaghadee, and visited the counties of Down and Derry. I am not very sure about giving you up Meg Merrilies quite so easily ; 1 have reason to think she was a Marshall, and not a Gordon ; and we folks in Oalloway think this attempt of the Borderers to rob us of Meg Merrilies no proof that they have lo The Ti>ikler-Gypsies. become quite so religious and pious as your author would have us to believe, but rather that with their religion and piety they still retain some of their ancient habits. We think this attempt to deprive us of Meg Merrilies almost as bad as that of the descendants of the barbarous Picts now inhabiting the banks of the Dee in Aberdeenshire, who some years ago attempted to run off with the beautiful lyric of " Mary's Dream," and which we were under the necessity of proving in one of the courts of Apollo to be the effusion of Low's muse on the classic and romantic spot, situated at the conflux of the Dee and the Ken, in the Stewartry of Galloway. But to return from this digression to Piilly Marshall — I will tell \ou everything more about him I know, hoping this may catch the eye of some one who knew him better, and who will tell you more. "Billy Marshall's account ot himself was this : He was born in or about the year 1666, but he might have been mistaken as to the exact year of his birth. However, the fact never was doubted of his having been a i)rivate soldier m the army of King William at the battle of the Boyne. It was also well known that he was a private in some of the British regiments which served under the great Duke of Marlborough in Germany about the year 1705. But at this Appreciation of Keltouhill Fair. \ i period Billy's military career in the service of his country ended. About this time he went to his commanding officer, one of the M'Gufifogs of Ruscoe, a very old family in Galloway, and asked him if he had any commands for his native country. Being asked if there rt'as any opportunity, he replied yes ; he was going to Keltonhill Fair, having for some years made it a rule never to be absent. His officer, knowmg his man, thought it needless to take any very strong measures to hinder him ; and Billy was at Keltonhill accordingly. " Now Billy's destinies placed him in a high sphere; it was about this period that, either electively or by usurpation, he was placed at the head of that mighty people in the south-west, whom he governed with equal prudence and talent for the long space of eighty or ninety years. Some of his admirers assert that he was of Royal ancestry, and that he succeeded by the laws of hereditary succession ; but no regular annals of Billy's house were kept, and oral tradition and testimony weigh heavily against this assertion. From any research I have been able to make I am strongly disposed to think that in this crisis of his life Billy Marshall had been no better than Julius C^sar, Richard III., Oliver Cromwell, Hyder Alley, or Napoleon Buonaparte. I do not mean to say that he 12 The Ti/ikhr-Gypsies. waded through as much blood as some of those to seat himself on a throne, or to grasp at the diadem and sceptre, but it was shrewdly suspected that Billy Marshall had stained his character and his hands with human blood. His predecessor died very suddenly, it never was supposed by his own hand, and he was buried as privately about the foot of Cairnsmuir, Craig Nelder, or the Corse of Slakes without the •ceremony, or perhaps, more properly speaking, the benefit of a precognition being taken, or an inquest held by the coroner's jury. During this long reign he and his followers were not outdone in their exploits by any of the colonies of Kirk- Yetholm, Horncliff, Spital, or I-ochmaben. The following anecdote will convey a pretty correct notion of what kind of personage Billy was in the evening of his life ; as for his early days, I redly know nothing more of them than what I have already told. " The writer of this, in the month of May, 1789, had returned to Galloway after a long absence. He soon learned that Billy Marshall, of whom he had heard so many tales in his childhood, was still in existence. U[)on one occasion he went to Newton-Stewart, with the late Mr M'Culloch of Barholm and the late Mr Hannay of Bargaly, to dine with Mr Samuel M'Caul. Billy Marshall then lived at the Billy in his iijth Year. 13 hamlet or clachan of Polnure, a spot beautifully situated on the burn or stream of that name. We called on our old hero — he was at home — he never denied himself, and soon appeared. He walked slowly, but firmly, towards the carriage, and asked Mr Hanniy, who was a warm friend of his, how he was. Mr Hannay asked if he knew who was in the carriage ? He answered that his eyes ' had failed him a gude dale,' but added that he saw his friend Barholm. and that he could see a youth sitting betwixt them whom he did not know. I was introduced, and had a gracious shake of his hand. He told me I was setting out in life, and admonished me to ' tak' care o' my han', and do naething to dishonour the gude stock o' folk that I was come o'.' He added that I was the fourth generation of us he had been acquaint wi'. Each of us paid a small pecuniary tribute of respect. I attempted to add to mine, but Barholm told me he had fully as much as would be put to a good use. We were returning the same way, betwixt ten and eleven at night, after spending a pleasant day, and taking a cheerful glass with our friend Mr M'Caul ; we were des- cending the beautifully wooded hills, above the picturesque glen of Polnure, my two companions were napping, the moon shone clear, and all nature was quiet excepting Polnure Burn and T4 The Ti/ikkr-Gypsits. the dwelling of Billy Marshall, the postillion stopped (in these parts the well-known and well- liked Johnny Whurk), and turning round with a I voice which indicated terror, he said ' Gude guide us, there's folk singing Psalms in the wud.' My companions awoke and listened. Barholm said 'Psalms, sure enough,' but Bargaly said ' the deil a-bit o' them are Psalms.' We went on, and stopped again at the door of the old king. We then heard . Billy go through a great many stanzas of a song in such a way as convinced us that his memory and voice had, at any rate, not failed him ; he was joined by a numerous and powerful chorus. It is quite needless to be so minute as to give any account of the song which Billy sung ; it will be enough to say that my friend Barholm was completely wrong in supposing it to be a Psalm — it resembled in no particular Psalm, Paraphrase, or hymn. We called him out again ; he appeared much brisker than he was in the morning. We advised him to go to bed, but he replied that ' he didna think he wad be muckle in his bed that nicht, they had to lak' the country in the mornin' ' (meaning that they were to begin a ramble over ■V - the country), and that they ' were just takin' a ' \ wee drap drink to the health of our honours, wi' the lock siller we had gi'en them.' I shook hands with him for the last time ; he then Remarkable Longevity Confirmed. 15 called himself above one hundred and twenty j years of age; he died about 1790. His great I age never was disputed to the extent of more I than three or four years ; the oldest people in i the country allowed the account to be correct. } The great-grandmother of the present writer | died at the advanced age of 104 ; her age was correctly known. She said that Wull Marshall t was a man when she was a bit callant (pro- vincially, in Galloway, a very young girl). She had no doubt as to his being fifteen or sixteen years older than herself, and he survived her several years. His long reign, if not glorious, was in the main fortunate for himself and his people. Only one great calamity befel him and them during that long space of time in which he held the reins of government. It may have been already suspected that, with Billy Marshall, ambition was a ruling passion, and this bane of human fortune had stimulated in him a desire 1 to extend his dominions, from the Brig-en' of \ Dumfries to the Newton of Ayr, at a time when- he well knew the Braes of Glenapp and the Water of Doon to be his western precinct. He reached the Newton of Ayr, which I believe is in Kyle, but there he was opposed and com- pelled to recross the river by a powerful body of Tinkers from Argyle or Dumbarton. He said in his bulletins that they were supported by 1 6 The Tinkler-Gypsies. strong bodies of Irish sailors and Kyle colliers. Billy had no artillery, but his cavalry and infantry suffered very severely. He was obliged to leave a great part of his baggage, provisions^ and camp equipage behind him, consisting of kettles, pots, pans, blankets, ciockery, horns, pigs, poultry, etc. A large proportion of shelties, asses, and mules were driven into the water and drowned, which occasioned a heavy loss in creels, panniers, hampers. Tinkers' tools, and cooking utensils, and, although he was as well appointed, as to a medical staff, as such expeditions usually were, in addition to those who were missing many died of their wounds. However, on reaching Maybole with his broken and dispirited troops he was joined by a faithful ally from the county of Down, who, unlike other allies on such occasions, did not forsake him in his adversity. This junction enabled our hero to rally, and pursue in his turn. A pitched battle was again fought, somewhere about the Brig of Doon or AUoway Kirk, when both sides, as is~iisual, claimed a victory, but, however this may have been, it is believed that this disaster, which happened a.d. 17 12, had slaked the thirst of Billy's ambition. He was many years in recovering from the effects of this great pcjlitical error; indeed, it had nearly proved as fatal to the fortunes of Billy Marshall Bi/Ifs Character. I'j as the ever-memorable Russian Campaign did to Napoleon Buonaparte, about the same year in the succeeding century. " It is usual for writers to give the character along with the death of their prince or hero. I would like to be excused from the performance •of any such task as drawing the character of Billy Marshall, but it may be done in a few words by saying that he had from nature a strong mind, with a vigorous and active person; and that, either naturally or by acquirement, he possessed every mental and personal quality which was requisite for one who was placed in his high station, and who held sovereign power over his fellow creatures for so great a length of time. I would be glad if I could, with impar- tiality, close my account here ; but it becomes my duty to add that (from expediency, it is believed, not from choice), with the exception of intemperate drinking, treachery, and ingratitude, he practised every crime which is incident to human nature. Those of the deepest dye, I am afraid, cannot with truth be included in the exception. In short, his people met with an irreparable loss in the death of their king and leader, but it never was alleged that the moral world sustained any loss by the death of the man. " (Intd.) L. "Edinburgh, May 26, 1S17." 1 8 The Tinkler-Gypsies. Fortunate it is, also, that no less an authority than Sir Walter Scott has furnished us — in his additional Prefatory Note to Guy Mann'ring' — ■ with a list showing some of Billy's peculiarities. That list, though not by any means exhaustive, is sufficiently comprehensive and characteristic to indicate that Billy was, at least, entitled to notoriety : " ' Meg Merrilies ' is, in Galloway, considered as having had her origin in the tradi- tions concerning the celebrated Flora Marshall, one of the Royal Contorts of William Marshall, more commonly called the Caird of BaruUioiir King of the Gypsies of the A\'estern Lowlands. That potentate was himself deserving of notice from the following peculiarities : — He was born in the parish of Kirkmichael about the year 1671 ; and as he died at Kirkcudbright, 23rd November, 1792, he must then have been in the I 20th year of his age. It cannot be said that this unusually long lease of existence was noted by any peculiar e.xcellence of conduct or habits of life. Willie had been pressed or enlisted seven times, and had deserted as often ; besides three times running away from the Naval Service. He had been seventeen times lawfully married, and besides such a reasonably large V^ share of matrimonial comforts was, after his , 1 00th year, the avowed father of four children (, by less legitimate affections. He subsisted in Some Peculiarities. 19 his extremely old age by a pension from the present Earl of Selkirk's grandfather. Will Marshall is buried in Kirkcudbright Church, where his monument is still shown, decorated with a scutcheon suitably blazoned with two tups' horns and two cutty spoons." Some of these " peculiarities," when practised amongst Galloway men who fought and bled to uphold their Covenanting principles, and who at the period in question seldom read aught save books on religious instruction — such as the Bible, Bunyan's Pilgrim s Progress, and Boston's Fom-fold State — would have branded any man as infamous. Nevertheless, if the reader fails to remember that Billy Marshall was possibly a Pictish King as well as a Gypsy Chief, ruled by different laws and customs from those prevailing in the district frequented by his gang, he will do the memory of Billy a grave injustice. And, whisper it softly, it can be clearly demonstrated that many of Billy's worst " peculiarities " are not Romani characteristics, and must be attri- buted to his Pictish blood, a strain common alike to the Tinklers of Galloway and to many another Gallovidian. Reprehensible as many of Billy's peculiarities may appear when judged by modern standards, it would seem " that parsons contended for him, and different parishes claimed the honour of 20 The Tifikler-Gypsies. his nativity." Kirkmichiel, Dumfriesshire, and Kirkmichael, Ayrshire, and Crossmichael and Minnigaff in Kirkcudbrightshire, appear to be the claimants for this honour. The Scots Magazine'^ gives the palm to Kirk- michael Parish, Ayrshire, in the following obituary notice, under date November 28, 1792 :— "At Kirkcudbright, aged 120, ^\'illiam Marshall, Tinkler. He was a native of the Parish of Kirkmichael, Ayrshire." Sir \\'alter Scott, as above indicated, also names Kirkmichael — but does not say whether of Dumfriesshire or Ayrshire — as his birthplace, and that information, according to the Memoir of Joseph Train, the antiquarian correspondent of Sir Walter Scott, ^ would be obtained from Train, who lived for a time at each of Newton- Stewart, Dumfries, Wigtown, and Castle-Douglas — all towns situated within Billy's sphere of influence. It is interesting to note that the Old Statistical Account^ for the Parishes of Kirk- michael, Dumfriesshire (1791), and Kirkmichael, Ayrshire (1793), makes no reference to Billy Marshall ; but in the Old Statistical Account for the Parishes of Crossmichael (1791), Minnigaff (1793), and Kirkcudbright (1794) — all in Kirk- cudbrightshire— the followinii references occur : Place of Birth. 2 r CROSSMICIIAEL.— Vol.. I., p. 16S. By the Rev. John Johnstone. " The people live not in towns or villages, and most of them are employed in agriculture, which is favourable at once to health, longevity, and morals. Within these twenty years at least 12 persons have died in the lower; parts of Galloway from 100 to 115 years old. William I Marshal, a tinker in this place, is now 118. lie might pass for a man of 60. His faculties are unimpaired, and ' he walks through the country with ease." MINNIGAFF.- -Vol. VII., p. 53. By the Rev. John GAULiiis Maitland. " Instances of longevity are frequent in this parish. One man, still alive, is said to be 118 years of age. This, however, rests chiefly on his own testimony, as no authentic record of his birth has ever been produced. Ilis name is William Marshall ; he has the remains of an athletic frame. In his youth he was a soldier. He says he served under King William in Ireland. If this was _ the case he certainly does not exaggerate his age, but of this part of his history there is no better evidence than that of his age itself. That his age, however, is very great there is this presumptive proof, that none of the oldest people in this county have ever contradicted his assertion." KIRKCUDBRIGHT.— Vol. XL, pp. 15 and 16. By the Rev. Robkrt Muter, D.D. " The following instances of longevity it may be pro- per to insert. . . . And on 28th November, 1792, VVillinm Marshall, tinker, died here at the astonishing age of I20.^'' Though he was not a native of this place, but of Kirkmichael, in the shixe_of Ayr, yet for several years before he died he resided often in this burgh. This miracle of longevity retained his senses almost to the last hour, and distinctly remembered to have seen King * Erroneously quoted as 90 at p. 5-21, Vol. II., reprint of Chambers's Caledonia. 2 2 The Tinkkr-Gypsits. William's fleet when on Iheir way to Ireland, ridint; at anchor in the Solway Firth, close by the Bay of Kirkcud- bright, and the transports lying in the harbour. His funeral was attended by a large concourse of people of all ranks, who paid due respect to his astonishing age." It is only fair to Kirkmichael, Dumfriesshire, to add that the following interesting account, which may or may not refer to Billy, appears in the Old Statistical Account for that parish (1791) : — KIRKMICHAEL IN COUNTY OF DUMFRIES. Vol. I., p. 57. " One man in the parish is 103 years old. His account of himself is that he was born in the borrowing days of the year that King William came in {i.e., in one of the three last days of March, 1688), and that he was baptised in hidlings {i.e., secretly) by a Presbyterian minister the following summer, as the curates were then in the kirks. Though he is now mostly confined to bed he retains his mental faculties very distinct, and three years ago he wrought at the harvest in perfect health and spirits." However, the accounts of liilly in the Statis- tical Accounts for Crossmichael, Minnigaff, and Kirkcudbright seem to negative any pro- bability of that account being a description of Billy. The fact also that when Mr M'Culloch met with him in the month of May, 1789, he was so hale and healthy as to be able to indulge in an all-night spree before proceeding "to tak' the country in the morning," and that, when in his 120th year, he had journeyed from Place of Birth. 23 Kirkcudbright, where he then lived, to Newton- Stewart, where on 21st March, 1792, he signed the conveyance of his property at Minnigaff, precludes that it could be reasonably claimed that the man referred to in the Kirkmichael (Dumfriesshire) Account is the same as the one (William Marshall) actually named in the other three Accounts. In the New Statistical Account (1845)" for the five parishes above alluded to the following is the only reference made to Billy : — " Minnigaff. — The parish is liealihy, and instances of longevity are not infrequent. The person mentioned in the last Account as being 118 years of age died aged 121." In Herotis Tours' the conflicting claims of Minnigaff and Crossmichael are thus dealt •with : — " William Marshall, a man of the gypsey-gang, a native of the adjacent parish of Minnigaff, died lately at an age considerably above an hundred years. . . . Old William might have said that Parsons had contended for him and •different parishes had claimed the honour of his nativity. . . . Old Marshall has been claimed as a native of two different parishes. One clergyman, willing to do his parish all possible honour, took advantage of Marshall's being accidentally in his neighbourhood, and popped him down in his Account. When the minister of the parish to which William truly belonged came to give in his Account to the. compiler he found it necessary to reclaim the waif. I am not sure, however, that any personal contention took place between the two clergy- men on account of Mr ^Marshall." 24 The Tinkler-Gypsies. And again Heron disposes of the question thus : — " Later and more curious encjuiry has, however, evinced that Egypt has no better claim to be considered as the parent country of the Gypsies than Crossmichael to be regarded as the native parish of old William Marshall." Other references might be made, but these, it is thought, are merely quotations from one or other of the authorities already quoted. Now, it will be observed that the Accounts for Minnigaff and Crossmichnel above quoted do not bear out — as alleged by Heron — that these parishes claimed to be his birthplace, but it should be noted that Heron made his tour through Galloway in the autumn of 1792, that is to say, just about three months before Billy died, and may have obtained private informa- tion about the claims of the respective parishes, either then or when helping Sir John Sinclair in compiling the Old Statistical Account. At this late hour in the day it is difficult to bring any further evidence to bear upon Heron's contention. Even William Marshall, the present " King " of the Marshall gang, is at a loss to throw light on the matter; and in an amusing letter recently received from him by the writer anent the birthplace of his illustrious ancestor, he hints that Kirkcudbright and Moniaive have also somehow laid claim to the honour of being Place of Birth. 25 Billy's native place. He says — "Just a fe\r lines to let you know that I could not find out where my friend was boren, though no' boren ini Kilcoobrie. As far as I can hear he was boren in Mineyhive, and no' Kilcoobrie." It would seem, however, that the honour of being Billy's birthplace lies between Kirkmichael, Ayrshire, and Minnigaff, Kirkcudbrightshire, but rather than give an opinion upon such conflict- ing evidence, we prefer to content ourselves with having recorded the pros and cons of the case, and to leave the point undecided in the hope that someone may yet be able to produce evidence making it clearer which parish is Billy's birthplace. It was natural that any "howf" where he happened to make his headquarters for a time should claim him ; but, in the absence of direct evidence, the tent, or a barn, when the gang_were_l' takin' the country," would be more likely to be his birthplace than any village. But whether or not Heron is correct in his- contention that Minnigaff is Billy's birthplace, it is certain that Billy made Minnigaff his head- quarters for a considerable portion of his life. We hear of him having as his headquarters aj house, which he owned, in old Minnigaff Village, ^^ and a cottage in Bargally Glen, both in the parish of Minnigaff. The title deeds^ show that Billy was actually 2 6 The Tinkhr-Gypsies. proprietor of that royal residence in Old Minni- gafif from 21st November, 1766, to 2[.st March, 1792. As will be observed from the illustrations, Billy's signature to the deed ])urchasing the property is written in a b(jld masterly hand thoroughly in keeping with his character, and his signature on the deed disposing of the property — though somewhat shaky — is surely not only highly creditable to him, but unique as a specimen signature of a Pictish King (?) and Gypsy Chief written in his 120th year. Billy, according to a tradition, for which we are indebted to Mr James G. Kinna's admirable History of the Parish of Minnigaff,^ being unable to sign his name, " conscientious scruples would not allow of his making the sign of the cross, but a printed copy of his name ^vas placed before him which he imitated as nearly as possible." But the reader may nevertheless ask, " Are these signatures genuine, and was the later signature really written during Jiiliy's 1 20th year?" The disjcjintt'd lettfrs in all the seven signatures adhibited to the two deeds go to confirm the tradition that Billy had copied from a specimen signature, and it seems ■' from one of the deeds that the signature has in the first instance been written in [)encil, and that Billy has simply copied it over in ink. Here and there throughout the signature there < -J 2 8 The Tinkler-Gypsies. are still distinct pencil markings indicating that Billy had simply filled in with ink the signature previously traced in pencil. But, apart from the light which the story about Billy's " conscientious scruples " undoubtedly throws upon the adhibition of his signatures, the tradition must be of some interest to readers of Gypsy Folk Lore : The late Mr F. H. Groome, in the introduction to his Gypsy Folk Tales,^'^ says — " Du Cange's last passage is by far the most interesting. ' Anonymus de Passione Domini. And when they arrive at the place, the koinodromos coming to crucify him, (S:c.' Why so interesting ? There does not seem much in that, my readers may exclaim, ^^'hy, because there is a widely spread superstition that a gypsy forged the nails for the crucifixion, and that henceforth his race has been accursed of heaven. ... It is a far cry from the Greek Archipelago to the Highlands of Scotland, but in the Gypsy Lore Journal (III., 1892, p. 190) is this brief unsigned note : ' I should be pleased to know if you have the tradition in the South of Scotland that the tinkers are descend- ants of the one who made the nails for the cross, and are condemned to wander continually with- out re!-t.' No answer appeared ; and I know of Superstitions about the Cross. 29 no other hint of the currency of this belief in Western Europe, unless it be the couplet: — ' A whistling maid and a crowing hen, Are hateful alike to God and men,' * because,' according to Lieut. -Col. A. Fergusson (Notes and Queries, August, 1879, p. 93), though he gives no authority, ' A woman stood by and \ whistled while she watched the nails for the Cross being forged.' " ll That the tradition about the whistling maid also wields a powerful influence over the super- stitious Irish peasantry is evidenced by the following quotation from a recent article" : — " Morning, noon, or night that Mairgread Kelly would be going or coming through the village it is either laughmg or whistling she'd be, oftenest whistling. At that sound the women would /:ross themselves and murmur one to another — ■ ' A whistling maid or a crowing hen, There's never luck in the place they're in.'" According to a writer in the Gypsy Lore Journal^'-^ the tradition about the gypsy forging the nails for the cross is also widespread amongst the continental Gypsies. In Gypsy Folk Tales,^' No. 14, "The Red King and the \\'itch," will be found this further confirmation of the superstition with which Gypsies regard the sign of the cross : "His father gave him a couple of sacks of ducats, and he put ^^ i^i^N^ H vCj \Jjj '%. i^^ :J ^1 Superstitious about the Cross. ^ i them on his horse. The lad went and made a hole on the border of the city. He made a chest of stone and put all the money there, and buried it. He placed a stone cross above and departed. And he journeyed eight days and came to the king of all the birds that fly. . . . He came where his father's palace stood, and looked about him. There was no palace, no anything. And he fell to marvelling : ' God, Thou are mighty.' He only recognised his father's well, and went to it. His sister, the witch, when she saw him, said to him, ' I have waited long for you, dog.' She rushed at him to devour him, but he made the si^n of the cross, and slie perished." Another WTiter in the Gypsy Lore Journal^^ also points out that the Lithuanian Gypsies possess a tradition that they steal under Divine patronage : " Stealing, they say, has been per- mitted in their favour by the crucified Jesus, because the Gypsies, being present at the cruci- fixion, stole one of the four nails, by the aid of which the Saviour was nailed to the cross ;. hence it is that, when the hands had been nailed fast, there was only one nail left for the feet, and God allowed them to steal, and it is not accounted a sin to them." In reviewing Mr Andrew Lang's Cusioin and Myth (London, 1885), in the Athtnceunv 32 The Tinkler-Gypsies. of 2i!it February, 1885, Mr A\'atts-Dunton, then Mr Theodore Watts, complains that Mr Lang had ignored altogether Romani customs and traditions, and states, among other examples, that the cross is the most powerful of all symbols amongst the Romani : " Tattoed on the breast of the South Papuan women we find the same cross (or Sanscrit irisu/a), which the Romanis believe to be the most powerful of all symbols — so power- \ ful that the rainbow will fade from the sky 'at 'the very sight of it.'"^"' Then most readers will remember the im- portant part the trushul (gypsy, a cross) is made to play in Mr \Vatts-I)unton's delightful -Gypsy story, " Aylwin,"'^ and the superstitious awe with which the Gypsies of " Aylwin " re- garded it : "A trushul V (queried Henry Aylwin). And then the Gypsy heroine, Mr Watts- Dunton's " Sinfi Lovel," is made to reply : " \\'hat you call a cross. There's nothin' in the world so strong for cussin' and blessin' as a Irihhul, unless the stars shinin' in the river or the hand in the clouds is as strong. . . ." In Aiident and Modern Britons^' Mr David MacRitchie abl)' discusses Billy's claim to be de- scended from a family of ancient standing, and in that connection it is also interesting to note that, The " Marshall Mark." 35 in the various Marshall arms registered in the Lyon Office at Edinburgh, the Saltire — i.e., the St. Andrew's Cross — appears as the principal charge.''* There is also this further tradition,'** among the present gang of Marshalls, relating to the sign of the cross : Dr M'Kie, Newton- Stewart — when attending a little boy, one of the descendants of Billy Marshall — asked the boy if he was a descendant of old Billy, and the boy's mother at once said, " Oh, ay, he's a real Marshall ; he's even got the ' Marshall mark.' " " What's that ?" asked the Doctor. Thereupon she drew the little boy forward and showed the Doctor the deeply indented mark of an X upon the boy's hand. The sceptical will no doubt say, " Many a one has a similar marking on his hand," but have they ever heard of any one in humble circum- stances who had a similar tradition about the lines on the palm of his hand ? It would, therefore, have been highly appropriate for Billy to have used the sign of the cross in place of a signature, and, as a matter of fact^ Billy has actually carved with his own hands an X between his initials on the horn mug after- wards alluded to ; and the only explanation for * Such letters refer to a list, of authorities for traditions, which will be found in the appendix. Boy d Hano, shjwing " Marshall^Mark ' I'holoby J. I'. Millies. jPublislie 1 liy kinil p^jriiiisBion of Mrs Alexander Marshall, Tinkli-r, (ialloway.) Aversion to Sigiiifig by an X. 35 his declining to sign by a cross must lie in the f fact that the Gypsies as a class are most super- stitious, and Billy, as will afterwards be shown, was a victim to superstitious fears. Bearing in mind that the Marshalls one and all avow themselves to be Protestants, and that the " Marshall mark " cannot therefore be regarded as a Roman Catholic holy symbol, may not, therefore, these two traditions — about Billy's superstitious aversion to signing by an X, and of a descendant possessing the " Marshall mark " — form a belated though somewhat indirect answer to the query contained in the late Mr Groome's quotation from The Gypsy Lore Journal ? The genuineness of Billy's signature is proved by all the requirements of the law of Scotland, the signing, of each document, has been duly witnessed by two witnesses — the WMtnesses to the one deed being the steward and the servant of Patrick Heron of Heron, the superior of the ground whereon the house stood, and to the other deed a merchant and a school- master. Then, as to Billy's age. it will be more con- venient, when all these excerpts are fresh in mind, to discuss this vexed question. The obituary notice, already quoted, in The Scots Magazine^ at the time of Billy's death 36 The Tnikler-Gypsies. stated his age at 120, and the age given therein is also corroborated by the following obituary notice which appeared in The New Annual Register^^ immediately after Billy's death :— NEW ANNUAL REGISTER, 1792, No. 34, part 2, p. 47. "Died, 28th. (Nov., 1792). At Kirkcudl)right, Scot- land, at the great age of 120, William Marshall, linker. This miracle of longevity retained liis senses almost to the last hour of his life. He remembered distinctly to have seen King William's Fleet, when on their way to- Ireland, riding at anchor in the Sol way Firth close by the bay of Kirkcudbright, and the transports lying in the harbour. He was present at the siege of Derry, where, having lost his uncle, who commanded a King's frigate, he returned home, enlisted in the Dutch service, went to Holland and soon after deserted, and came back to his^ native country. Naturally of a wandering and unsettled turn of mind, he could never remain long in any particular place. Hence he took up the occupation of a tinker, headed a body of lawless banditti, and frequently traversed the kingdom from one end to the other. But it is to be observed to his credit that of all the thieving wandering geniuses who, during the weakness of the established government, led forth their various gangs to plunder and to alarm the country, he was far the most honourable in his profession." But there are even more reliable evidences than those of obituary notices published at a time when it was out of the question to trouble enquiring for confirmation of such communica- tions when forwarded from a distance ; The Selkirk family, who helped in many ways to make Billy's burden lighter for him in his old Remarkable Loni^evity. 37 age, do not appear to have doubted that Billy was as old as he professed to be. In October, 1905, an old box — belonging to the Selkirk family — which had remained sealed for a great many years, was opened, and amongst other interesting relics handed over by Captain Hope of St. Mary's Isle, Kirkcudbright, to Mr John McKie, R.N., then Honorary Curator of the Stewartry Museum, Kirkcudbright, were the horn mug and spoon, which had been pre- sented by Billy and his son to Dunbar, Earl of Selkirk. Thanks to the above disinterested act •on the part of Captain Hope and to the kind permission granted by the Honorary Curator of the Stewartry Museum, we are pleased to be able to reproduce a photo of these very interest- ing relics. The description embodied in the photo is taken from the original labels found attached to the mug and spoon, and it will be noted that Billy has actually carved on the mug his own initials, a cross and the year of carving ; and on the other side his age, " 115," has also been carved by him: — "W x M 115, 1788." Since Billy carved that X between his initials the question naturally arises did he, in this particular instance, have recourse to a com- promise by combining his initials with the '' Marshall mark," or did a perception of the distinction between signing by a cross and to l.y T. II. I!;.nl;i.v. Remarkable Longevity. 39 carving a cross suffice to allay his supposed conscientious scruples and superstitious fears as to using the sign of the cross ? If, however, it was to Billy's interest to be regarded as a miracle of longevity, then some may be inclined to doubt his credibility. That Billy's family are a long-lived race is further supported by the writing on his tombstone in Kirkcudbright Churchyard, and by the statement ' that one of his sons " lived to be over 100 years old." But perhaps the best proof of all will be found in the recorded evidence^of Mr James Murray M'CuUoch, of Ardwall, who had actually met and conversed with Billy — con- tained in his interesting and instructive letter above referred to. That letter shows that Billy's great age was never disputed to the extent of more than " three or four years,'' and that the " oldest people " in the country allowed the account to be correct. Mr M'Culloch states that Billy's own account was that he was "born in or about the year 1666, but that he might have been mistaken as to the exact year of his birth," but as he undoubtedly died in 1792, and as it is claimed that he was then 120, he must have been born in 1672 or 1673. So it would appear, in stating his age at 120, that the " three or four years " which may have been disputed have already been deducted. The 40 The Tinkler-Gxpsies. carving upon the mug also indicates that Billy himself must, notwithstanding Mr M'Culloch's statement, have understood he was born either in the end of 1672 or in the beginning of 1673. In addition to Mr M'Culloch's own testimony, and his record of the opinions in regard to Billy's great age held by the " oldest people " in the country, we have, in the letter above quoted, this more particular and convincing, although .also second-hand comparison of the ages of Billy Marshall and Mr M'Culloch's great-grand- ■mother, Mrs M'Culloch of Kirkclaugh, corro- borating the view that Billy must have been about 120 years of age at his death: "The great-grandmother of the writer (Mr M'Culloch) of this article died at the advanced age of 104 ; her age was correctly known. She said Wull Marshall was a man when she was a bit callant (provincially in Galloway, a young girl). She had no doubt as to his being fifteen or sixteen years older than herself, and he survived her several years." Further corroboration may also be had from The Life of James Allan ( 1 8 18),-" and MacTaggart's Gallovidian Encyclopedia (1824),^' and Sir WaHer Scott's Guy Ma7ineringi^- To sum up then — That Billy lived till he was ah. ut the age of 120 is borne testimony to by (1) The Scots Magazine ; (2) The Neiv Annual Jieiiister in their re^])ective issues immediately Proofs of Billy's Longevity. 41 ^fter Billy's death ; (3) The Old Statistical Account for Crossmichael, Minnigaff, and Kirk- cudbright Parishes — the reports alluding to Billy's longevity being in all likelihood written by ministers who would know Billy ; (4) The New statistical Account (1845) for Minnigaff Parish ; (5) Robert Heron, author of Heron's Tours (Autumn of 1792) ; (6) Mr James Murray M'Culloch of Ardwall, who had conversed with Billy, as will be seen from the letter above ■quoted, three years before the date of Billy's ■death ; (7) Billy's own carving upon the horn ~| mug, presented by him to the Earl of Selkirk I <1788) ; (8) Life of James Allan (1818) ; (9) MacTaggart's Gallovidian Encyclopcedia (1824); \^ ■(10) Sir Walter Scott's Guy Mannering ; and ■(11) The Epitaph on Billy's Tombstone in Kirkcudbright Churchyard. Is it not amazing that there should remain such a formidable list of corroboratory authorities, and yet even these may fail to satisfy the hypercritical who, none the less, may quite readily swallow every tradi- tion that has been handed down accrediting Billy with immorality, rapine, and murder ! j But how many of those, of the men of Billy's ■day, who had no notion of becoming famous in the days to come, have left such a mass of artlessly corroboratory evidence as to their respective ages ? CHAPTER II. " With Gypsy gangs, in dales and dells, In woods and caves, on moors and fells, Bedecked with bonny heather bells, Where te-wits flew, A caird I ken, who often tells What lilts he blew." From Verses on Jainus Allan. .^^^^ ILLY MARSHALL had a daughter J^ named Jean, who was married to ^? James Allan, the celebrated North- umberland Piper, and the above verse, taken from a poem written about him, gives a very exact des- cription of the homes and haunts of our herO' Billy Marshall, who was sometimes known as the Cairtl of Harullion. But for Billy's appre- ciation of good music and Allan's uncommon dexterity in " shivering the back-lill," * Billy's Royal assent to the marriage might not have been obtained. The following is the account of the presentation by Princess Jean, of her con- sort, to the King of the Galloway Gypsies '■^■' : — " They (James Allan and Jean) soon arrived, at a hovel near Carrick, where they found Will ■ See Ndtc I. in A)iiieiiili\. Billy s Homes, Hauiils, and Avocations. 43 Marshall and some of his gang. He received- Allan's companion with a hearty welcome, en- quiring what success had attended her journey and what places she had visited ; to all of which questions she gave the most satisfactory answers. At length, viewing Allan with particular atten- tion. Will said — 'But wha's that wi' ye, Jean?' She replied — ' My husband ; we were lawfully pledged in presence of a lowland tribe.' ' Weel, weel, lass, but what can the callan do?' ' He can play fou weel on the sma' pipes,' replied the nymph. " Will rubbed his left elbow with his right hand, as was his custom when pleased, and said, ' Gi'en that be leel, ye hae made a braw bargain ',. but let's hae a swatch o' his skill.' Jean then requested Allan to play ' Felton Lonen,' her favourite tune ; knowing he was in the presence of Royalty, James exerted his utmost skill, but before the tune was half-finished, ^^'ill rose from his seat, and, shaking Allan by the hand, said — ' Ye're weel worth your room ; nae music pleases me but the pipes : Tam Fairbairn could maist hae made them speak, but, puir chiel, he lost his spunk wi' mony main' '" The homes and haunts ot Billy are situated in a district famed for its romantic beauty and savage grandeur. For a freedom-loving people,, the Galloway of those days held special 44 The Tinkler-Gypsies. attractions. There were then no railway communications, and so commodities and infor- mation took a long time in transit. That made ■Galloway, isolated as it was, admirably suited -alike for doing legitimate business and for pursuing a nefarious^ calling. Where in all Scot- land could a more suitable district be found ? Wher>e in all Scotland could Billy have found three more beautiful spots for his dwelling-place than those at Old Minnigaff, Palnure, and Cairnsmore ? There is living in Kirkcudbright an old gentleman whose grandmother knew Billy Marshall well, and who has often heard his ^grannie speaking highly of Billy, and here is how he sums up Billy's avocations : — " Billy was no tinker in the modern sense. He was a ^. homer and handicraftsman. But the tinworker , was in Billy's day not so much in vogue. These were the guid aul' days of water stoups, horn suoons, and porridge noggies — and that Avas the case long after Billy's day. Billy made such things, and also wrought in metals — • making smoothing-irons, etc., and was probably a locksmith — and hence it was that the Hammer- men admitted him to membership of the Master Craft and took the part they did at his funeral.'"" Billy's ordinary avocations sufficed as a mask to enable him and his numerous gang to move Billy s Homes and Haunts. 45 about over all parts of the district without excit- ing suspicion, and at the same time to attend to the more lucrative departments of their calling. At the time in question Gallovidians were still bearing a grudge for the treatment meted out to them in Covenanting times and many of them were ever on the alert to take up arms, as in the rebellion of 17 15 and 1745, and they looked upon smuggling as quite a legitimate way of settling old scores. A weak government and an impotent arm of the law made Galloway and Ayrshire an ideal country for such a band to operate in. In fact, in many districts Gypsies were actually employed as constables, and the writer has learned of one such case in Galloway. Billy Marshall, however, without even obtaining such an appointment, acted as chief constable from Ayr to Dumfries, and his gang of ruthless desperadoes policed the district, the whole gang exacting blackmail, chiefly in the shape of food for themselves and fodder and' bedding for their horses, and billeting them- selves wherever they pleased. Woe betide the man who dared to say them nay ! Formerly, " 'Twixt Wigtown and the town of Air, Portpatrick and the Cruives o' Ctee, No man need think for to bide there, Unless he court Saint Kennedie." But then, from the Brig-en' o' Dumfries to the V braes o' Glenapp, Billy Marshall lorded it over , 46 The Tiiikkr-Gypsies. rich and poor. The gentry, however, naturally received most of Billy's awkward patronage, for it was one of Billy's traits of character never to molest or wrong the poor. The old gentleman above referred to, whose grannie knew Billy well, says that she held Billy in very high regard and resented any suggestion that he was a common tinker — in the latter-day sense — or any reflections upon his character. She held that he was far above the average for honesty and respectability, and so, it would seem, he can have been no common or indiscriminating thief or footpad. Billy showed much tact in choosing the cen- tres from which he operated. Minnigaff Village had many admirable qualities to recommend it to him. Being situated just between the flat lands surrounding Wigtown Bay and the Minni- gaff hills, a speedy retreat could readily be effected to his mountain fastnesses. It was also a place much freijuentcd by smugglers, with whom Billy conducted a profitable trade in aiding und abetting them in their nefarious call- ing ; and occasionally in levying blackmail upon even the smugglers themselves. In The Book of Galloway, 77.^5 -^ (published 1882), M'Kerlie, in his imaginary tour, points out that the inhabitants of Minnigaff were so much ad- dicted to smuggling that even their houses Bil/ys Gang. 47 -were deafened to conceal smuggling operations. M'Kerlie asked a mason why they used this miserable substitute for lime, to which he replied, " We like oor hooses weel deafened here (to conceal smuggling operations) ; even the quality are trying half-baked clay instead ■0' fog." In addition to these qualifications, Minnigaff Village was also admirably suited on account of its being the principal market town in Galloway, which circumstance afforded _^ Billy and his gang — particularly the women folks — a fine chance for attending to the "cutpurse" department of their calling. One. can fancy Billy sitting in his old thatched | dwelling as the receiver of stolen goods. An old residenter said his house in Old Minnigaff ■' had been described to her as " a rum aul' den, '. a' hung roun' wi' tipps' horns.""' No foe dare li venture in, but if a friend should have lost his purse or pocket-book in the market, Billy could produce, from a safe hiding place, a large assort- ment to enable him to pick out his own. There is a place — just at the corner of the wood at Thorneybrae, Minnigaff^ — which still goes under the name of " The Tinklers' Loop." Although being now enclosed with a dyke, and no longer used as an encampment, in olden times large companies of Billy's gang were wont to / assemble there. A daughter of Billy Marshall 48 The Tinkler-Gypsies. by his last wife was married to one Philip Phie^ a woodman, and ihey lived at Thorneybrae Cottage. It is said by one whom the present William Marshall would term " an aul' desiden- ter " (residenter) that there was a time when every second tumbril or cart that went up Minnigaff belonged to one of the Marshall gang. It appears, however, that our hero, when going on a tour through his domains, seldom left Old Mmnigaff with more than one or two followers ; but if any one happened to meet him amongst the hills the next day, the gang then consisted of large numbers of men, women, and children. A descendant of a farmer — Mr Carter, the Slack. — -who used to have frequent visits of Billy and his gang, says that there were usually about thirty men in his gang, and a large number of women and children besides. On one of these visits, Mr Carter happened to be behind with his harvest, and the whole gang turned in and soon finished the work. They never dreamed of ask- ing for pay ; but, of course, the big set-pot had to be filled—^ v^^^^ ^^ -^■ " To set their gabs a-sleerin' O." ^Vhen asked if they never stole anything from the farm, the writer's informant replied, " Not they ; they were like the craws — they aye gaed. awa' frae their nests to steal."'' Billys Homes and Haunts. 49 The dogs which usually accompanied the gang were of a half-mastiff, half-lurcher breed, and Mr Carter says they had the reputation of being uncommonly wise, and had the useful quality of being able to convey an alarm to their masters without barking. A heap of stones is all that now marks the site of Billy's dwelling-place in Palnure Glen. It should be noted that many of Billy's deeds of derring-do happened in places far from the present public roads, but on closer enquiry it will almost invariably be found that an old coach or military road used to run close to the place indicated. Billy's house in Palnure Glen, for example, was situated a considerable distance from the new public road, and yet the old road ran close by it. The site of that place of abode will be found about 300 yards above the falls on the Mill Burn near Bardrochwood. It is said that this particular rendezvous, besides being a place of comparative safety, owing to its prox- imity to Cairnsmore and Craignelder, enabled Billy to do a good trade in distilling whisky. Tradition has it that when dyking operations were renewed on Cairnsmore — not commenced there, for it must be remembered that the famous " Deil's Dyke " runs across Cairnsmore — Billy succeeded in killing two birds with one stone. The laird was greatly annoyed at the slow pro- 4 50 The Tinkler-Gypsies. gress made in h,iikling the dykes, and eventually, on that accouiit, dismissed the dykers ; but it was shrewdly suspected that Billy not only did a roarint( trade in supplying the dykers with whisky made at his " still " on the Stell Brae on Cairnsmore, but also — in pursuince of his " levelling " propensities, and in case a ready market should be removed from the neighbour- hood— kept knocking over each night a bit of the dyke which the men had built on the pre vious day." Such may have been the real inception of the great rebellion by farmers, crofters, Gypsies, and labourers against the proprietors, for fencing and annexing fields moorlands, and commonties, and demolishing old houses, and which innovations " The Levellers '" considered to be a blow calculated to prevent many from earning a livelihood. Oil Cairnsmore Billy may have learned to use the '' kent " stick to the greatest advantage in knocking over a dyke. It appears that each leveller " was furnished with a strong kent (or piece of wood) from six to eight feet in length, which he fixed into the dyke at the approved distance from the foundation and from his neighbour. lAfter having ascertained that all was ready, the captain bawled out ' Ow'r wi't, boys,' and 'ow'r' accordingly it tumbled with a shout that might have been heard at the distance Billy leads the Levellers. 5 1 of miles."'-''' Billy's experience thus gained may have secured for him the leadership of the level- lers. Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart, M.P., in his Historv of Dumfries and Gallowa\\^^ says : — " The ringleader of these levellers was the cele- brated Billy Marshall, of the blood royal of the Gypsies, who desertei from the Royal Regiment of Dragoons (the Scots Greys), when serving under Marlborough in Flanders," and the author J of the Memoir of Joseph Train '"' thus refers lo Billy's leadership of the levellers : — " Another worthy. Train mention,^, namely, Willie Marshall, the King of the Randies, who encouraged the insubordination of the peasantry of Galloway in their last ebullition of discontent. This hap- pened in 1724, and their attack was principally -directed against the King's fences. In this they were led by Marshall, who, despising all rule and authority, was a proper [)erson to direct the movements of the rebellious peasantry. The summer fair of Keltonhill was at that time the most general rendezvous in the south west of Scotland for the transaction of business. Among others, delegates from all the parishes in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright met for the purpose of concerting measures for the levelling of all the ' ring fences ' in the country. Over these presided the King of the Randies. Before the period mentioned, he had been frequently sent 52 The Tinkler-Gypsies. to the army, and had served several campaigns in Flanders ; but he always deserted in time to reach Keltonhill Fair, which, it is said, he attended regularly for above a hundred years, without being once absent. "The levellers found in him an active leader, and under his directions they conducted their operations with such secrecy, that every stone which was laid above another for the formation of a ring fence during the day, between Thigger Law and Shambelly, was thrown down in the night, without a single person concerned therein being discovered either by the landholders or their agents. The levellers became at length more daring. They practised the use of fire- i^arms on the hills by the light of the moon, formed themselves into companies, and openly res'sted every attem{)t on the part of the pro- prietors to enclose their land. Many witty sayings are related of Marshall. He was, like the rest of his fraternity, greatly addicted to whisky, which some individual in his hearing denounced as slow poison. ' It maun be d — d slow, for I ha'e drunk it for a hunner years, an' ,J'm livin' yet.' " It was found necessary to march a regiment of dragoons from Edinburgh to restore tran- quility to the country. Marshall himself was taken prisoner, but escaped by the assistance of Billy leads the Levellers. 53 his intimate friend, Edie Ochiltree, or Andrew ' Gemmil, then a private soldier in the regiment of Black Horse." An account of the actions of the levellers will be found in the second volume, p. 393, et seq of Rev. W. Mackenzie's (Nicholson's) History of Galloivay^ and those who wish more elaborate information upon that subject can turn with profit to Mr Crockett's Dark d the Aioon and Mr Armstrong's The Levellers. It was due to the astuteness of Mr Heron of Kirroughtree that this local rebellion fizzled out, and here is how that satisfactory termina- tion was effected : — " The levellers likewise exhibited much courage and coolness. On their route from Kirkcudbright, through the parish of Tongland, they knew that their motions were strictly watched by a party of dragoons, in company with a number of gentle- men whom the increasing danger had roused into exertion and called unto one pUce. The insurgents proceeded along the east side of the small river Tarff, and took up a position on the braes of Culquha, nearly opposite to Barcaple, where the military were stationed. The levellers having held a consultation, arranged themselves in order of battle, and seemed prepared to make a desperate stand. The counsels of their opponents were divided ; some proposed that 54 The Tinkler-Gypsies. they should immediately cro'^s the river and attack ihe insurgents, while others wished to spare the effusion of blood and try the effect of negotiation. Mr Heron, of Kiiroughtrce, who had been in the army, was present with the gentlemen of the district, and dissuaded them from their rash design. He plainly informed them that, from the appearance < f ihe insur- gents, he was convinced they numbered among them individuals well skilled in military affairs ; and he entreated his friends not to hazard an encounter which might prove dishonourable to themselves and disastrous to the country. Mr Heron's experience added weight to his repre- sentations. A flag of truce, accompanied by several gentlemen and ministers, repaired to the position of the outlaws. This judicious step produced the desired effect ; for, after some fair promises had been made, the country people partially dispersed, and never agaui mustered in numbers so formidable and over- bearing. The last remains of these deluded men were defeated at Duchrae. in the parish of Ba'maghie. The commanding officer of the military party behaved on this occasion v ith great lenity, and j rohibited his men from using their swords, unless in Felf- defence. The prisoners, amounting to upwards of 200 men, he marched to Kirkcudbright : but manv of them Site of Billys Camfing Ground, near Brig o' Dee. Pl\(ito t..v D. C;ass. Rhnnehouse. 56 The Tinkler-Gypsies. were allowed to make their escape on the road thither. " Mr Heron had been right in his conjecture, for, exclusive of many of the disbanded soldiers of inferior note, the ranks of the levellers were dignified by the presence of the celebrated Gypsy chief, the redoubted William Marshall, who had been in the army."-'' Surely no ordi- nary man, this Gypsy chief, who, either electively or by sufferance, commanded the combined forces of farmers, crofters, cottars, and Gypsies ! 1 The Brig o' Dee has long been a recognised abode of Tinkler Marshalls, but it does not seem quite clear that Billy actually possessed a house of his own there. Probably, when attending Keltonhill Fair, he may occasionally have lived with his relatives there, but it is more likely that he simply encamped on the Kelton side of the Dee, near the Brig o' Dee, where the site of his camp is still pointed out. Its proximity to Keltonhill, where important fairs were frecjuently held, rendered it singularly well situated for transferring other folks' money and \aluahles into the treasury of the Marshall gang. MacTaggart, in his entertaining Gallo- vidian Kncyclopiedia (i824),-'' gives the following detailed and graphic description of Keltoniiill Fair, from which one is inclined to conclude that Mac'l'aggart had freciuently been present Keltonhill Fair. 57 at this interesting annual agricultural function : — " Keltonhill Fair. — This is one of the largest meetings or gatherings of Gallovidians that are to be met with. This fair is held on a day about Midsummer every year, on rising ground beside the clauchan of Rhonehouse, in the parish of Kelton. At this fair one is gratified with a sight of the peasantry of both Scotland and Ireland ; and here may sometimes be lifled a tolerable idea of the Donnybrook of Erin or Ballinasloe ; at one time in danger of having the skull bared with a cudgel : at other times hemmed in, as it were, with rowly-puivly men, fling sticks, and siveetie ivives. Then the ears get charmed with the hoarse throa's of ballad singers, and not infrequently nearly rode over with horse jockies. And all this humbug and) jostling combined form the best of fun; one gets del'ghted. Tennant's Anster rather seems flatter than the reality, though sometimes we see with the drollish poet. \Vhile the scenes thicken the tents get crowded ; whisky is skilted over like whey : bonny lassies aie to be met with, who cling round one like binwud : and who would not cling to them in return, sweet souls ? For an hour or two of bustling nonsense, then, I know of few places where it is to be had in greater perfection than at Keltonhill Fair." 58 The Tinkler-Gypsies. Billy's usual mode of raisicig a ruction at the fair was to send a number of his gang into a drinking booth, and then from the outside of the tent pressing hmiself under the counter he raised himself up and upset the whole concern ! ^ The followuig story shows the modus opej-andi of the cutpurse Gypsies at the fair :* " An uncle of ours," quoth the relaters of this tradition, "on our mother's side told us that two of their forefolks, Milroys of the Blairs — a farmer and his wife — went to Keltonhill Fair on one occasion. The farmer had a horse to sell. A\'hen passing through the fair a C'Vpsy woman — probably a Marshall— came up to her and asked her to hold her child for a moment. She consented, and suddenly the mother disap- peared. As she was long in returning, the farmer's wife put the child on her shoulder and proceeded to wend her way through the fair in the hope of catching the eye of the Gypsy woman. Suddenly a man en me rushing through the crowd, and as he ran past the farmer's wife he thrust something into the breast of her dress, which at that time was worn o])en at the neck. Next moment the (>>'i)sy woman came back, claimed the child, and disappeared ere the farmer's wife took aii\- thought about what ' But see a somewhat similar story told by Dr John Hrowri in Unrae Suhxecicae under a "Jacobite Ka.nil v." " Cutpurse " Gypsies. 59 the Gypsy man had done. She found sticking inside her dress her hushand's pocket-book with the price of the horse which the Gypsy man must have stolen from him and had intended to pa'^s on to the Gypsy woman, but the child being on the shoulder of the farmer's wife he (the Gypsy man) had unconsciously restored the money to its rightful owner." = Then there remain to be considered two other resorts said to have been frequented by Billy, viz.. The Fell o' Barullion, in the parish of Mochrum, Wigtownshire, and " a large cave or cavern in the high grounds of Cairnsmore, in Galloway "' (the Stewartry). Obviously, both places had great advantages as retreats in case of pursuit, or as places for concealing plunder ; but Billy knew that those particular retreats enjoyed other advantages. Billy's gang un- doubtedly were deeply implicated in the smuggling trade, which, at that time, must have been regarded as an honourable department of his profession, for even the hands of ministers were not clean in that respect : A story is told that somewhere on our coast a vessel, contain- ing a cargo of brandy, had been stranded — whether by fair or foul means is not said — but, in the bacchanalian orgie that ensued, a stranger thought fit to intervene. " Are there no Revenue ofificials present ?" he ventured to in(juire. 6o The Tiiikler-Gypiics. " Thank gudeness, there's nane," was the laconic reply. " Then," said he in desperation, " where's the minister?" "That's him," was the answer, and a hand pointed towards a man in black holding up a torch to enable the smugglers to broach another keg. In Sir H. E. Maxwell's History of Dwiifries and Ga/Ioivay,''^' above referred to, there is an interesting account, showing the great extent to which smuggling was carried on in this district, and indicating that the Gypsies were instrumental in forwarding " run goods " to their proper destination : — "The Gypsies were numerous in the Border counties in those days, and were among the most intrepid riders concerned in smuggling. j There were many grades of them, from big Will \ Baillie, the chief (jf one sept, who marauded on the romantic scale of Robin Hojd, to the . common ' tinklers,' or ' cairds,' who pitched their tents in Nithsdale, and harbaured among the Galloway hills. Sir Walter Scott, who never, so far as is known, was in Galloway,* was able to make use of information given him by Joseph 'IVain, an Excise officer in Castle- Dougla'^, and to describe truthfully, in Gi/y Afaniicnng, the position held by Gypsies in ihe social scale. * * * -;'r * * ■ sir Walter Scolt jircilmlilv did \ isit, (;allo\va\', but see Chaplir HI. Tinklers as Litigfowineii. 6i " The contraband trade had become almost as common an investment for men of capital as any other business. Merchants fitted out well- found vessels for smuggling ; lairds and ministers not only connived at it, but put their ht ney into the venture. Mr Carson, minister of Anwolh, was deprived of his living in 1767, because he was proved to be deeply implicated in the ' fair trade.' " The lingtowmen were in the habit of requisitioning the services of horses belonging to crofters. On one occasion a lingtowman shouted out a(ter the procession had passed a crofter's house, " Did ye mind Grannie Milligan's rum ?'' Whereupon a keg was taken back, and the door being found to have been conveniently left open, an entrance was readily effected. A can of water silting inside the passage was emptied, and the can was then filled up with rum. Grannie Miliigan unwit- tingly made her porridge with that rum, and ever afterwards avowed that no dish could equal " rum porridge.'"^ A glance at the map will show that both places were admirably suited for keeping an eye upon all " run goods," and for headquarters from which to essay when the services of Billy and his gang were required to act as " lingtowmen," to ensure a safe transit. The shore near Port- william was a favourite place for smuggling, and 62 The linkltr Gypsies. is within easy distance of the Fell o' Barullion. An old road ran alon^ through amongst the hil's nigli to Billy's retreat on Cairnsniore, and Avas also connected with the military road which passed over " The Corse o' Slakes," one of the / Marshall gang's favourite places for waylaying and / robbing travellers. The Corse is thus described ' in MacTaggart's Gallovidian Encyclopoidia'''^: — '' Corse o' Slakes, Cross of Rocky H'lls — S'akes, in Saxon, meaning rocky hills or rocky brows. In Galloway there are no roads so wild as the one which leads over the celebrated pass of the above name, between Cairnsmoor and Cairn- hattie ; it is a perfect Alpine pass, and was a haunt of Billy Marshill and his gang in the days of yore — even yet, it is frequently selected as a .suitable station for the bludgeon tribe." Billy is believed to have co-operated with the celebrated Yawkins, the " Dirk Hatteraick "' of Guy Manneri/^:^'- In the additional prefatory note to that book, Sir Walter says : — " The Black Prince (\'awkins' smuggling lugger) used to discharge her cargo at Luce, Balcarry, and elsewhere on the coast : bat her owner's favourite landing jilaces were at the entrance of tlie Dee and the Cree." In The Memoir of Joseph Traifi;^^ will also be found particulars about the illicit j traffic, Yawkins and his smuggling lugger, The \ Black I'rifice., antl of the modus operandi of trie Tinklers as Lingioivnien. 63 smuggles : but this interesting description of the lingtowmen — who would often be Gypsies — had better be recorded here : — "The carriers from the coast to the interior Avere called lingtowmen, from the coil of ropes, or lingtows, which they generally wore like a soldier's shoulder belt when not employed in slinging or carrying their goods. The fixed price for carrying a box of tea, or a bale of tobacco, from the coast of Galloway to Edin- burgh, was fifteen shillings ; and a man with two horses could carry four packages. Two hundred horses have been frequently laden in a night at Balcarry, and at the Abbey Burn-foot of Dundrennan." One of the most famous of these Galloway caves is that known as " Dirk Hatteraick's Cave," near Ravenshall, whereof the following minute and graphic description is contained in Gullotvay GHinpses^"^ the new edition of which should be in the hands of all lovers of Galloway : ■ — "After resting ourselves in this delightful summer-house, on the top of the moat-hill (Ravenshall), and surveying the extensive scene presented from it, we descend and wander down to the sea-beach in search of the famous cave of Dirk Hatteraick. The way to it, east- ward, along the shore, is in places difficult of 'walking — the boulders being large and necessi- 64 The Tinkler-Gypsies. tating careful footing. But, after a scramble of a quarter of a mile or so, we arrive at that part of the heuch which leads up to the mouth of the cave. It requires a quick eye, or the guid- ing of some one who has been there before, to discover the entrance, for it is wooded, and hidden up on the face of the cliff by large boulders all around. The ascent from the shore to the mouth of the cave is steep and rough, and part of it requires to be climbed up on hands and knees. Arrived at it, the entrance is found to be narrow and difficult, the rock on each side forming something like two sides of a triangle. Peering through the opening, nothing can be seen in the darkness which prevails down in the cave. On throwing a stone down into it, one ascertains by the hollow sound below that the floor of the cave is composed of gravel, and is a considerable way down. After squeezing yourself through the narrow entrance for a few yards, you come to the edge of a precipice. You must then get down on your hands and knees, turn your back to the cave, hang on with your fingers to the ledge of the precipice, let yourself down all your length, and (full of faith) allow yourself to drop into dark- ness. You land several feet down, on the gravelly bottom of which we have spoken. Recovering your breath and equilibrium, and Di7-k Hatteraick's Cave. 65 having come prepared with matches and candle, you strike a light, and the spacious cavern is disclosed to view. "The wiiter recollects his first introduction^ very many years ago —to this cave. With some companions, he had sailed across from the Wigtownshire coast. None of the party had ever be^n there before. Arrived at the mouth of the cave, and peering down into the darkness within, the question arose, who was first to enter and make the drop into the unknovvn bottom. Lots were drawn, and the lot fell to the present writer. Not then knowing anything about the interior, and summoning up as much courage, faith, and hope as he could pump up, he descended to the edge of the interior preci- pice, held on by his fingers, if not by the skin of his teeth, closed his eyes, and — dropped into the dark abyss. The result was that he found himself prone on the shingle of the floor of the cave, thankful, however, that he had not dropped fathoms deep into water ! "The cave within is a high-arched, roomy place, capable of comfortably accommodating a considerable number of persons. Along one side of the rock has been built a wall, perf )rated with square pigeon holes for holding Dutch bottles. The use to which the cave had been put — a smuggling cellar — is thus disclosed. At Dirk Hatt£raicks Cave 'Interior), ne^r Ravenshall. li.v M. Ml,. 11mi|..i-. Diik Hat tern ick' s Cave. 67 the upper end is a natural bunker in the rock, very much like a berth in a ship's cabin, and -evidently used for sleeping purposes. At the top, and quite close to the rock-ceiling of the cave, it is stated that there is a crevice, which admits a man's recumbent body sideways, and leads to yet another cave on the western side. Many people, who have been in the principal cave, and thought they had fully explored it, have never seen this high crevice, or had any suspicion that there was another cave entering only from the top of the interior wall of the principal one. In the event of this latter being besieged and taken, this second cave would prove a useful refuge, not likely to be easily discovered. Altogether, the place is a very interesting one. No doubt the cave was used by smugglers, and amongst others, by that notorious Dutch Captain, Hawkins (Yawkins), the Dirk Hatteraick of Guy Mannering, who | long visited the coast with contraband goods, setting Revenue officers and cutters, and the laws of God and man, at defiance." The description of the cave itself in Guy Mannering corresponds very closely with the above, and the access to it from the Carsluith side is very graphically described by Sir Walter's words : " ' We maun go the precise track,' said Meg Mcrrilies, and continued to go forward. Yawkius and Billy and Flora Marshall. 69 but rather in a zig-zag and involved course than according to her former steady and direct hne of motion. At length she guided them through the mazes of the wood to a little open glade of about a quarter of an acre, surrounded by trees and bushes, and which made a wild and irregular boundary. Even in winter it was a sheltered and snugly sequestered spot ; but when arrayed in the verdure of spring, the earth sending forth all its wild flowers, the shrubs spreading their waste of blossom around it, and the weeping birches which towered over the underwood, drooping their long and leafy fibres to intercept the sun, it must have seemed a place for a youthful poet to study his earliest sonnet, or a pair of lovers to exchange their first mutual avowal of affection." With the aid of a flash light photograph, of the cave, kindly lent by Mrs Cliff-M'CuUoch ot Kirkclaugh, Mr M. M'L. Harper has been able to produce an excellent black and while sketch ol Billy, his wife (Flora), and Yawkins in the midst of imaginary smuggling operations within Dirk Hatteraick's cave, Ravenshall, and we are pleased to be allowed to reproduce it as an illustration. Near to Dirk Hatteraick's cave is situated Barholm Castle— one of the places having claims to be the " Ellanguwan " of Gt^y Mannerini;; but of that anon. ' Meantime we 70 The Tinkler-Gypsies. direct the reader's notice to the accompanying graphic sketch, of Barholm Castle, by Mr John Copland. It is evident that Luce Bay and Wigtown Bay were favourite places for discharging " run goods," and Billy's supposed retreat at Cairnsmore would form a splendid point for observation. The following account of a pro- cession of lingtowmen from Wigtownshire shows- that the old path taken on such occasions- led right past " The Dore of Cairnsmore," where Billy's cave dwellirg is supposed to have beenr situated :—" In old times, smuggling was a common practice in Galloway. All classes were engaged in it more or less ; even the gentry did not disdain to take part in it. \\'igtownshire was a nest of them. W. Burnie, The Cuil,. when a young man, had seen eighty pack horses (with men in attendance), laden with brandy and tea, pass the house on their way through the moor by the Dore of Cairnsmore. They avoided the public roads, all classes aiding and abetting them, and none seeming to think there was any harm in the practice."' The smugglers from the Ravenshall side would take the back road, which led from Dirk Hatter- ')aick's Cave, up The Cleugh, over the Nick o' \Doon, past "The Gypsy Weil," and strike the Corse Road at Billy's Brig. That lonely road. Black Malthetv's Folk-tak. 7 1 the Corse, passes within a couple of miles of the Dore of Cairnsmore, where Billy's famous cave is supposed to have been situated, and from which point of vantage Billy could not only see whatever chanced to pass up the Cuil road or along The Corse o' Slakes, but also what was going on in Wigtown Bay and even in Luce Bay. In regar J to that " large cave or cavern in the high grounds of Cairnsmore in Galloway," no one living appears ever to have seen any cave which corresponded with that description, and still less with descriptions given in books subse- quently published. The first hint given of the existence of such a cave is contained in the following story published in Black'cvooifs Alas^n- zitie of i8i7'"': — "A correspondent ("-ays the editor of Blackwood's i\/agazi?te) has lately sent us the following anecdote of Billy Mar>hall, derived, as he informs us, from Black Matthew Marshall, grandson of the said chieftain : — Marshall's gang had long held possession of a large cave or cavern in the high grounds of Cairnsmore in Galloway, where they usually deposited their plunder and sometimes resided secure from the officers of the law, as no one durst venture to molest the tribe in that retired subterraneous situation. It happened that two Highlami pipers, strangers to the country, were 72 The Tinkler-Gxpsies. travelling that way ; and falling in by chance with this cave, they entered it to shelter them- selves from the weather, and resolved to rest there during the night. They found pretty good quaiters, hut observed some very suspici- ous furniture in the cave, which indicated the profession and character of its absent inhabi- tants. They had not remained long till they were alarmed by the voices of a numerous band advancing to its entrance. The pipers expected nothing but death from the ruthless Gypsies. One of them, however, being a man of some presence of mind, called to his neighbour instantlv to fiJ his bags (doing llie same him- self) and to strike up a pibroch with all his might and main. Both pipes accf)rdingly at once commenced a most tremendous onset, the cave with all its echoes pealing back the ■"Pibroch of Donuil I)hu" or such like. At this very unex[)ected and terrific reception — the yelling of the bagpipe-;, issuing from the bowels of the earth, just at the moment the (jyi)sies entered the cave — Billy Marshall with all his band precip tately fled in the greatest constenia- t'on, and Irom that night never again would go near their fav(niriie haunt, believing that the blast they had lieard ])roceeded from the devil or some of his agents. 'l"he pi{)ers next morning prosecuted their journey in s.ifety, carrying with '' Life of James Allan.'" 73 them the spolia opii?ia of the redoubted Billy and the clan Marshall.'' The presence of bag- pipers— who were apparently not Gypsies — and the story being told by a Gypsy — a race of great folk-tale tellers — suggests that this storv may be a folk-tale, like all the other wonderful tales of bagpipers playing in subterranean galleries. The parties in this case are, however, not even accompanied by fairies. 'J'he tale is, of course, spoiled in the recording. How different Black Matthew's language would have been from the spdha opima of the recorder ! But it had better be stated that the present Marshalls as a class are not nearly so fond of telling folk-tales as the Macmillans. 'i'he only seemingly direct confirmation obtainable of the existence of such a cave will he found in The Life (f James Allan, the celebrated Northumberland Piper, contain- ing his surprising adventures and wonderful achievements in England, Scotland, Ireland, France, India, Tartary, Rus--ia, Egypt, and various other countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa, taken principally from his own relation {1818),^" and while we regard the book as of doubtful authority upon the subject under con- sideration, it is only fair to cite it in pos-ible confirmation of the tradition. There is no intention, however, to cast doubt upon the credibilitv of its author. Nevertheless, one 74 The Tinkler-Gypsies. requires to take cum ^raiw the stories told ta him by one whom the author shows in ahnost every page of his book to be utterly regardless alike of veracity and morality. That book tacitly bears out this remarkable trait in the Gypsy character, viz., the care with which they manage to prevent outsiders from getting to know about their language. If memory serves aright, there is no indication whatever in that book that Allan knew anything about the Romani language, and yet he was married to a Marshall — who, it will be shown in a later article, spoke a cant language containing many Romani words ; and mixed with Gypsies all over England, Scotland, and Ireland. More- over, although he was constantly getting into trouble, and as marvellously — with Gypsy cunning — getting out of it again, when commg. from India through countries, travelled by Gypsies, in passing from Ilindoostan ; visiting Moscow and various other cities — where large (jypsy colonies are known to exist — and whilst he had to make his livelihood in these places by playing his pipes, yet he never seems to have attracted the attention of any Gypsies ! Nor does his Gypsy language ever appear to have stood him in stead. One is inclined to say if James Allan ever visited these countries he left the author (jf his life very much in the dark as- to what actually hajjpened. Billy s Caie-haioits. 75 But ihere are four small caves on Cairnsmore,. although no trace can be found of a cave such as that indicated, and which in books subse- quently published is thus described : — " In the side of the mountain (Cairnsmore), facing the station (Dromore), there is a cave of very large dimensions said to have been at one time the safe retreat of the renowned Gypsy K.ing, Billy Marshall, and his lawless followers." Now, you will see that the original description does not tally wnth this more recent one. In the former description, " a large cave or cavern in the high grounds of Cairnsmore in Galloway " is referred to ; in the latter, the " cave of very large dimen- sions " is described as situated in the " side of the mountain (Cairnsmore) facing the station (Dromore)." Having repeatedly searched Cairnsmore and Craignelder for caves, and either interviewed or communicated with every proprietor, tenant, gamekeeper, foxhunter, and shepherd likely to be able to give information about Cairnsmore or Craignelder, we can find no place that exactly tallies with either descrip- tion. Four places, however, have been dis- covered that might possibly — with a stretch of the imagination — be described by the word " cave." First. There is, on the " Red Strand " — close to a well-known fox-yard — which lies on the Billy'' s Cav€-haiiii1s. 77 eastern sice of the neck of mountain which joins Cairnsmore with Craignelder, a hole of about three feet in width, and which runs back between rocks for about eight feet. This, how- ever, has no evidence of man's handiwork about it ; there is no tradition about its ever having been occupied ; and it is the least entitled of the four to be called a " cave." Second. — Near to the " Red Strand," and situated — lower down — on the north-western shoulder of Cairnsmore, there is a similar cave which runs about 30 feet into the mountains, and at its broadest part will be about nine feet in width. Third. U[ion the eastern face of Cairnsmore, and to the left of the Mill Burn as you ascend, there is a substantially built cave. It is situated about 200 yards lower down the mountain than the " Three Cairns " — which, by the way, now number "four'' — and a little further to the left of the cairns as you ascend. It will be seen from the photograph (produced as an illustra- tion) of this cave that it has been carefully con- structed, and a large flat stone lying at the entrance exactly fits as a door to obscure the opening, and when thus closed it is most diffi- cult, even for those who have visited it before, to find it. A large flat boulder forms the roof, and from its sloping position it would rather 78 The Tinkler- G i 'psies. ■seem as if the roof had fallen in, thus making the cave smaller than it had originally been, bat ■even now there is room for three ordinary folks, Lini.-liL-ht i.hni, Cave on ''Red Strand or four Marshalls, as, according to a story which will be related later on, they had the knack of huddling together as closely as herrings in .a barrel. Billy s Cave-haunts. 79 Fourth. There is a second cave on Cairns- more, and this one goes under the name of " M'Clave's Pantry." To find this cave one ■requires to follow the march dyke between Bargally and Bardrochwood till it joins " The Deil's Dyke ;" thereafter you follow " The Deil's Dyke " along the mountain side in a south-easterly direction until a ridge is reached, and following, down the mountain for about 100 yards, a course taken almost at rigrit angles to ^' The Deil's Dyke," a rocky face will be found wherein is situated " M'Clave's Pantry." It is a cave of natural formation amongst rocks ; it is about three feet in width, and runs back for about nme feet. To enter it, one requires to stoop. There is a tradition to the effect that this cave is named " M'Clave's Pantry " because it was the hiding-place in Covenanting times of a man of the name of M'Clave. This cave also looks as if it had to some extent fallen in — probably as the result of foxhunters digging round about it. Curiously enough, there is, all along the brae in front of this cave, evidences of illicit "■ stills " having at one time been much in vogue. The place still goes under the appropriate name of "The Stell Braes," and near the cave will be found the remains of several shielings, and close by them of several •"stdls." Something similar will also be found So The Tijtkkr-Gypsie<. near the " rees," at the head of the Graddock Eurn. Now, these two latter caves can neither be said to be of "very large" dimensions, nor even of "large" dimensions, but there is little doubt that Billy, when he lived in his little hut in Bargaly (lien, just at the foot of Cairns- more, and only about a mile and a half from the built cave and " M'Clave's Pantry," would know about these caves. Billy, like many another Tinkler, would be able to make the "worm," the "copper," and other distilling paraphernalia. When carrying on the distillmg and " levelling " departments of his profession, he would find the built cave and " M'Clave's- Pantry " almost of daily use to him, and, when hard pressed, all of these caves would afford . him places of safety, where it would be courting death for a foe to venture, and where, even if anyone should venture, he would have great difficulty in finding Billy's place of hiding, liut this is not a point upon which to dogmatise. We only wish, in regard to this matter, as indeed in regard to all the other information collected, to state frankly what has been learned, so that others may take uj) the thread where it has been left off. And while we say, after most careful enquiry at likely sources, and after enjoying many a long tramp in search of this mysterious cave, no such cave is known to exist, we do not Billfs Cave-liaunts. 8r mean anyone to run away with the idea that such a cave never existed. It may have existed ; it may still exist ; but no one knows its whereabouts. It must be borne in mind that it is no easy task to find a cave on Cairnsmore or Craignelder. From a rough calculation, it would seem that Cairnsmore and Craignelder cover an area of about 24 square miles of the wildest and most rugged mountainous character in the South of Scotland. In the course of our enquiries, it was only after almost despairing to find any cave on Cairnsmore that Mr Gavin M'Crae, formerly of Bargaly, was approached upon the subject, and he gave full particulars as to where the built cave and " M'Clave's Pantry " would be found ; but four visits had to be paid to Cairnsmore — once in company with a shepherd who had herded that mountain for years, and once with a gamekeeper — before the four caves were located. Even with the most; careful written description before us, the shep- herd and the writer hereof had to come away without finding " M'Clave's Pantry." Now, all this shows that Billy's cave should by no means be regarded as a myth. Probably one of these above described may be the cave referred to ; but, on the other hand, there may exist some- / where a large cave on Cairnsmore, the mouth of which may at present be obscured. The late. 6 o S _] o ^ Billy s Pictish Descent. 83 Mr Stroyan, Clendrie, who knew every foot of Cairnsmore, and particularly of the Dore of Cairnsmore, offered this feasible solution. He said " that landslips are of frequent occurrence on the Dore of Cairnsmore, and that it is just possible that the entrance to Billy's large cave or cavern has been blinded up." Perchance, through Nature's mysterious operations, the mouth of the cave may again be laid bare, and some lucky mountaineer may yet chance upon the cave and " its many valuable articles," which the author of Junies Allan's Life — writing in full knowledge of the article which appeared in Blackwood's Alaqazine, and which stated that the two pipers carried off with them the spolia opima of the redoubted Billy and the Clan Marshall— says are still deposited in that cave. But let us make a suggestion to those who believe in the reality of such a tradition : why 1 not enter at the Co' o' Caerclaugh,''" and, resting 1 manfully upon tradition, struggle on — as did a | certain dog who came out with his whiskers singed — till you reach its other orifice, which will be found at the Dore of Cairnsmore nearly 10 miles away, and then, and probably not till then, will you find Billy Marshall's cave "of, very large dimensions "I ' It is impossible to prove that Billy had any real claim to being the last Pictish King. Any 84 The Tinkler- Gypsies. evidence now forthcoming can only be regarded • as of doubtful value, but whether his Scottish ancestors were Picts or not, he and his gang exercised many of the primitive characteristics — such as polygamous habits, cave dwelling, painting their faces with ruddle — practised by uncivilised races.* * See details in former edition. CHAPTER III. " Donald Caird can wire a maukin, Kens the wiles of dun-deer staukin', Leisters kipper, makes a shift To shoot a muir-fowl i" the drift : Water-bailiffs, rangers, keepers. He can wauk when they are sleepers ; Not for bountith, or reward, Daur they mell wi' Donald Caird. Donald Caird's come again, Donald Caird's come again, Tell the news in brugh and glen, Donald Caird's come again." " Donald Caird,' by Sir Walter Scott. 'h0' N the Additional Note to Guy Ma?ineri7ig •''* we have Sir \A'alter Scott's own authority for taking it that "Meg Merrilies" may be re- garded at least as ''a representative of her sect and class in general — Flora (Marshall, one of Billy's many wives), as well as others." His utterance upon that subject is somewhat equivocal : — • "Now, I cannot grant that the idea of Meg Merrilies was, in the first concoction of the character, derived from Flora Marshall, seeing I have already said she was identified with Jean Gordon, and as I have not the Laird of Bargaly's apology for charging the same fact on two. 86 The Tinkler-Gypsies. several individuals, ^'et I am quite content that Metj should be considered as a representative of her sect and class in general — Flora, as well as others." It is the truth, but is it the whole truth ? Indeed, does the wording not rather indicate that the author, in identifying " Meg MerriHes " with Jean Gordon, had been caught in faiUng to attribute to Flora Marshall and the Galloway Gypsies a fair share in what may at least be described as a composite picture of Madge Gordon and other Gypsy women ? In the letter quoted in a previous chapter, Mr James Murray M'Culloch, with whose farnily — the M'CuUochs of Ardwall — Sir Walter was on most intimate terms, says : — " I am not very sure about giving you up Meg MerriHes quite so easily ; I have reason to think she was a Marshall and not a Gordon, and we folks in Galloway think this attempt of the Borderers to rob us of Meg MerriHes no proof that they have become quite so religious and pious as your author would have us to believe, but rather that, with their religion and piety, they still retain some of their ancient hal:)its." Do not Sir Walter's own remarks, above quoted, about Y\o\i\ Marshall read like admitting — as much as ever he could, consistently with having already said Jean Gordon was the prototype of " Meg MerriHes " — the truth of the claim made by Mr James Murray M'Culloch many years previously, and which he prefaced with the words, " I have reasofi to ihink " ? Train s Galloway Gypsy Stones. 87 In the groundwork of Guy Mannering, 1842,'^* included in recent editions of Guy Mannering, we find : — " Shortly after (on Xovember 7th, 1814) the publica- tion of IVaverley, as stated in the Life of Scott, Mr Train forwarded to Abbotsford a MS. collection of anecdotes relating to the Galloway Gypsies, together with (in Mr Train's own words) ' a local story of an astrologer. . . .'" That these Gypsy stories contributed by Mr Joseph Train had an important influence upon Sir A\'alter is clearly indicated in a letter ""' ad- dressed by Train himself to Mr J. G. Lockhart, the writer of The Life, on ist July, 1833 : — " Many of my earliest communications to Sir Walter of which I have not a copy are now, I daresay, in your hands, and I believe you will find what I have written in the following sheets from recollection to be in strict accordance with the original document referred to. "At my last interview with Sir Walter he adverted to having at nearly the commencement of our acquaintance received a letter from me of which I had then only a faint remembrance, which first directed his attention to the peculiarities of the Gypsy character afterwards so accurately and strongly delineated by his inimitable hand." That letter, written by Train to Lockhart, forwarding a MS. volume re written under Train's direction by his son William, contained a resume of his communications and meetings with Sir Walter. In acknowledging the letter, Lockhart wrote as follows ■*' : — 88 The Tinkler-Gypsies. "24 Sussex Place, Regent's Park, " London, October i, if^33. " Dear Sir, — Vour MS. volume, thougii dated July the 1st, only reached me yesterday. I have perused it with great interest, shall avail myself of it largely in drawing up the narrative of your great and dear friend's life, and then return it carefully to your hands. I have now by me three volumes of your MS. communications to Sir Walter which I found bound in one of his cabinets, but I have not yet had time to read their contents. I pre- sume I am at liberty to make use of them also, and will do so unless you forbid me. The whole story of your connection is most honourable to you, and in no account of Sir Walter can your name ever fail to occupy a distinguished place." It would be interesting to know precisely what these Gypsy stories were which Train communicated to Sir Walter /r.w to publication of the first edition of Guy Ma/mering so as to see to what extent these had influenced the plot or scope of Guy Manneriiio. But, alas, what do we find ? In spite of Lockhart's protestation that he would return Train's MS. volume " carefully to your hands," there stand these two notes in Train's own handwriting on the volume*- itself, showing how Lockhart failed to keep his promise : — " I33> 1341 5' 6, 7, 8. These leaves were torn out by Mr Lockhart and the contents published in his Life of Sir Walter Scott, vol. v., pp. 325-6. (Intd.) f. T." " 13-28. The leaves here wanting were lorn out by Mr Lockhart and the contents published in his Life of Sir Walter Siott, vol. iii., jjp. 405-6-7-8-9-10, 41 1 12- 13-14. (Intd.) J. T." Sir Walter and Mr and Airs Thos. Scott. 89 And in regard to the three volumes of Train's MS. communications which Lockhart found bound in one of Sir Walter's cabinets, and which Lockhart also had before him when writing from London the letter above quoted^ these precious literary documents cannot now be discovered. Is it a fair inference that these interesting MSS. may al^o have fallen a victim to literary vandalism, and have been cut up to suit Sir Walter's biographer, and to save him the trouble of having the quotations — which he intended to use — re-copied? It', however, these three precious volumes are still in existence, for example, in the hands of whoever succeeded ta Lockhart's library, surely this wail will cause their present possessor to acknowledge where they are now deposited. Enquiry at Abbots- ford, and at most of the likely authorities upon such a subject, has elicited the information that these volumes are not in the catalogue of the Abbotsford Library; J. G. Cochrane, 1830, are not likely to be at Abbotsford : and also, that it is not known whether the missing three volumes are now in existence. But from the information still available and above quoted, it is quite clear that Sir Walter derived a considerable amount of information about the Gallow.iy Gypsies from Train. Moreover, Captain and Mrs Thomas Scott and 90 The Tinkler-Gypsies. their son and daughter all appear to have been great favourites with Sir Walter, and from them he would doubtless obtain furdier information. Previous to Captain Thomas Scott's death in 1823, his son had spent two years at Abbotsford, and Mrs Thomas Scott and the rest of her family were also guests there for a considerable time after she became a widow. Sir Walter was attached to his brother Thomas, whom he described as "a man of infinite humour and e.xcellent parts," and Mrs Thomas Scott's apti- tude in relating Galloway traditions to Sir Walter may have had much to do with his regard for her. We have already noted that her brother, James Murray M'Cultoch of Ardwall, and even his great-grandmother were both intimately acquainted with the Marshall gang, and it is not reasonable to suppose that any information about Galloway Gypsies at the disposal of any member -of the M'Culloch family would be withheld from Sir Walter, their intimate friend and relative. From an interesting, though somewhat loosely conducted correspondence, which appeared in the columns of the Galioiv ly Gazette newspaper during the months of February, March, and April, 1 88 1, a fair and reasonable construction of the facts adduced seems to be {a) that prior to publication of the first edition of Guy Man- nering. Train had communicated to Sir Walter '■^ Guy Mantiering" Cant JVords. 91 " a collection of anecdotes relating to the Galloway Gypsies, together with (in Train's own words) 'a local story of an astrologer . . . '" ; {l>) that Sir Walter's brother Thomas was married to Elizabeth M'CuUoch of Ardwall, that they were on most friendly teims with Sir Walter, frequently visiting him, and that, in all proba- bility. Sir Walter would be furnished with all the information at the di'^posal of Mrs EHzabeth M'CuUoch or Scott and the M'Culloch family in regard to Galwegian Gypsies, smugglers, localities, and families ; and (c) that the balance of evidence is in favour of Sir Walter's having visited Galloway.* The fact that the evidence in favour of Sir Walter's having visited Galloway is imperfect rather confirms one's belief in the^r accuracy than otherwise. George Borrow also made a tour through Galloway at a much later date than Scott, yet how many Gallovidians could produce confirmation of that fact, or, indeed, know anything about his visit ? But fortunately it is referred to in Dr Knapp's Life of Borroii\^^ and the Memorandum of his to'ir through Galloway has been recoided in vol. vii., p. 117, of The Ga/Iovidian.^ The cant language put in the mouths of the Gypsies of Guy Maniiering is quite as appro- priate to the Tmklers of Galloway as to the * See details in former edition. 92 The Ti)ikler-Gypsies. Yetholm Gypsies. The following words and expressions used by the Gypsies of Guy Alanner- ing appear to be still in use in one form or another amongst Galwegian Tinklers : — ■ DoiiseJhe^oJim — Put out the light. Cut hen zvhids and statu them — a gentry cove of the ken — Stop your uncivil language — a gentleman from the house below. Kitchenniorl—K girl ; (? kinchenmort). Aliliin' in the darkinans — Murder by night. Cheat (pronounced chaet) — A thing ; a generic word of very general application. Bing cot and tour — Go out and watch. Strain met — S t ra w. Z)a;-^;Vj- — Handcuffs. Shand—'Qz.d coin. fauthtes (pronounced fammels)^Hands. Kinchen — A child. Libken — Lodgings. These all seem to be known also to Yetholm Gypsies, and most of them can be found in lists of Yetholm (iypsy words. There are a few others which do not now appear to be in use, but may nevertheless have been common both to Yetholm and Galloway Gypsies a century or two ago. .Such are : — Bhinker — ? Oop — To unite. Sttnkie —\ low stool or cushicjii. Scouring the cramp-ring — Being thrown into fetters, or, generally, into prison. Cloyed a //W— Stolen a rag. /; ammagemm'd you — Throttled you. " Guy Alamieritig'' Gypsy Characteristics. 93 She sxvore by the sa 'iiion — The great and inviolable oaths of the strolling tribes. {cf. Mr Francis Hindes Groome's Note, p. 32, oi In Gypsy Tents, contrasting that oath with the Gypsy use of the word " sacra- ment " for an oath and the Tinkler-word " sallah " for a curse. ) Roughies — Withered boughs ; unless the term " roughie paws " applied to the Marshalls, the horners, of Kilmaurs, on account of their rough hands, can be held to be the same word. But whilst even at the present day there are still many Romany words in use amongst the Galloway Tinklers, we have it from no less an authority than the late Mr Groome that there is only one word of real Rojna7ies amongst all the cant words used in Sir Walter Scott's works. He say.s^' : — " Whence, by the bye, did Scott get chury, the only true Romany word in all his works ? It occurs not in Guy Mannering, but in The Heart of Alidlothiati and The Fortunes of Nigeir To that one word Mr David MacRitchie suggests that the term " Roughies " applied by " Meg Merrilies " to withered leaves, and the word " shand," used to denote bad coin, should be added. ^^ Since, then, the Gypsies of Guy Mamiering may be taken as typical of Galloway Gypsies, let us glance at the Gypsy character in the light of Sir Walter Scott's masterly analysis of it : Of all the many writers of literature treating of Gypsies, Sir Walter Scott has succeeded the 94 The Ti /I kkr- Gypsies. mosl admirably in hitting off the precise posi- tion Gypsies then occupied socially ; in boldly portraying their " idle and vicious " character- istics ; and yet with sympathetic hand in at same time recording their good qualities. Take, for example, his splendid word-picture of the eviction of the Gypsies from " Derncleugh." He begins by giving a description of the relative positions held by the Gypsies of that period and the Lord of the Manor, where they happened to have their headquarters : — " A tribe of these itinerants, to whom Meg Merrilies appertained, had long been as stationary as their habits permitted, in a glen upon the estate of Ellangowan. They had there erected a few huts, which they denomi- nated their ' city of refuge,' and when not absent on excursions, they harboured unmolested, as the crows that roosted in the old ash-trees around them. They had been such long occupants that they were considered in some degree as proprietors of the wretched shealings which they inhabited. This protection they were said anciently to have repaid, by service to the laird in war, or more frequently, by infesting or plundering the lands of those neighbouring barons with whom he chanced to be at feud. Latterly their services were of a more pacific nature. The women spun mittens for the lady, and knitted boot hose for the 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's cracked china, and assisted the laird in his " sporting parties, wormed his dogs, and cut the ears of his terrier puppies. The children gathered nuts in the woods, and cranberries in the moss, and mushrooms on the pastures, for tribute to the Place. These acts of Barholm Castle (" Ellangowan"). Photr, by Wm. Hunter & Son. 96 The Tinkler-Gypsies. voluntary service and acknowledgmenls of dependence were rewarded by protection on some occasions, conniv- ance on others, and broken victuals, ale and brandy, when circumstances called for a display of generosity ; and this mutual intercourse of good offices, which liad been carried on for at least two centuries, rendered the inhabitants of Derncleugh a kind of privileged retainers upon the estate of Ellangowan. ' The knaves ' were the laird's ' exceeding good friends ' ; and he would have deemed himself very ill-used if his countenance could not now and then have borne them out against the law of the country and the local magistrate. But this friendly union was soon to be dissolved." Then Sir Walter humorously describes the change in Mr Bertram's attitude towards his erstwhile friends — owing to his advancement to the office of Justice of the Peace : — " But these halcyon days were now to have an end, and a minatory inscription on one side of the gate intima- ted ' prosecution according to law ' (the painter had spelt \\. persecution — I'un vaut bien I'autre) to all who should be found trespassing on these enclosures. On the other side, for uniformity's sake, was a precautionary annuncia- tion of spring-guns and man-traps of such formidable power that, said the rubric, with an emphatic nota bene — ' if a man goes in, they will break a horse's leg.' " It is interesting to note how naturally Sir Walter causes the breach between the laird and -the Gypsies to commence — a breach for which the onus of blame clearly lay most heavily at the door of the laird : — " In defiance of these threats, six well-grown Gypsy boys and girls were riding cock-h.irse upon the new gate, and plaiting May-flowers, which it was but too evident ^'' Guy Afa?menng" Gypsy Characteristics. 97 had been gathered within the forbidden precincts. With as much anger as he was capable of feeling, or perhaps of assuming, the laird commanded them to descend ; they paid no attention to his mandate ; he then began to pull them down one after another ; they resisted, passively, at least, each sturdy bronzed varlet making himself as heavy as he could, or climbing up as fast as he was dismounted. "The laird then called in the assistance of his servant, a surly fellow, who had immediate recourse to his horse- whip. A few lashes sent the party a-scampering ; and thus commenced the first breach of the peace between the house of Ellangowan and the Gypsies of Derncleugh." Next followed, by instigation of the laird, horse-whippings of the children of the Gypsies, poindings of Gypsies' cuddies, curious enquiries into the Gypsies' mode of gaining a livelihood, and objections raised to their absence from their sleeping hovels during the night. Soon the Gypsies retaliated in defence : — " Ellangowan 's hen-roosts were plundered, his linen stolen from the lines or bleaching-ground, his fishings poached, his dogs kidnapped, his growing trees cut or barked. Much petty mischief was done, and some evidently for the mischiefs sake." The laird carried the war further ; warrants against, apprehensions of, Gypsies, floggings of children, "and one Egyptian matron sent to the house of correction " : — " Still, however, the Gypsies made no motion to leave the spot which they had so long inhabited, and Mr Bertram felt an unwillingness to deprive them of their 98 The Tinkler-Gypsies. ancient ' city of refuge ; ' so that the petty warfare we have noticed continued for several months, without increase or abatement of hostilities on either side." And yet in spite of all his cold-hearted treat- ment of his former proteges, we find that "Meg Merrilies" — " the Galwegian sibyl" — had not forgotten what she had said of the laird in the days when he treated the Gypsies of " Dern- cleugh " kindly : — " ' O troth, laird,' continued Meg, during this by-talk, ' it's but to the like o' you ane can open their heart. Ve see, 'they say Dunbog is nae mair a gentleman than the blunker that's biggit the bonnie house down in the howm. But the like o' you, laird, that's a real gentleman for sae mony hundred years, and never hunds puir fowk aff your grund as if they were mad tykes, nane o' our fowk wad stir your gear if ye had as mony capons as there's leaves on the trysting-tree. And now some o' ye maun lay down yer watch, and tell me the very minute o' the hour the wean's born, and I'll spae its fortune.'" But how did her gratitude for old-time kindness find an outlet ? Little Harry Bertram had been in the habit of wandering in the woods, and occasionally even made a stolen excursion as far as the Gypsy hamlet at Derncleugh : — " On these occasions he was generally brought back by Meg Merrilies, who, though she could not be pievailed upon to enter the place of Ellangowan after her nephew had been given up to the pressgang, did not apparently extend her resentment to the child. On the contrary, she often contrived to waylay him in his walks, sang him a Gyp.sy song, give him a ride upon her jackass, and '■'' Guy xMa/uiering" Gypsy Characteristics. 99 thrust into his pocket a piece of gingerbread or a red- clieeked apple. The woman's ancient attachment to the family, repelled and checked in every other direction, seemed to rejoice in having some object on which it could yet repose and expand itself. She prophesied a hundred times ' that young Mr liarry would be the pride o' the familj-, and there hadna been sic a sprout frae the auld aik since the death o' Arthur MacDingawaie, that was killed in the battle o' the Bloody Bay ; as for the present stick, it was good for naething but firewood.' On one occasion, when the child was ill, she lay all night below the window, chanting a rhyme which she believed sov-ereign as a febrifuge, and could neither be prevailed upon to enter the house, nor to leave the station she had chosen, till she was informed that the crisis was over." The laird's wife grew suspicious of Meg's affection for and influence over her child : — "The laird determined to make root and branch work with the Maroons of ' Derncleugh.' " The pathetic scene at the eviction — beheld " in sullen silence and inactivity by the Gypsies " — and that tragic picture, when the laird, who, not having the courage of his convictions, was slinking away out of the road to pay a visit to a friend at a distance, came unexpectedly face to face with the Gypsy procession as they sadly wended their way — by the old road which leads through the Nick o' the Doon (?) — from their demohshed homes, are described with the tender regard of one who has succeeded in identifying himself with the Gypsies' standpoint, ^^ Guy Ala uttering" Gypsy Characteristics. loi and shows himself capable of observing their true characteristics. In the concluding part of that chapter (x.) he also shows a keen insight into the Gypsies' habit of mind : — "'I'll be d d,' said the groom, ' if she has not been cutling the young ashes in the Dukit park !' The laird made no answer, but continued to look at the figure which was thus perched above his path. " ' Ride your ways,' said the Gypsy, ' ride your ways, Laird of Ellangowan— ride your ways, Godfrey Bertram ! This day have ye quenched seven smoking hearths — see if the fire in yer ain parlour burn the-ilither for that. Ye have riven the thack oft" seven cottar houses-^look if your ain roof-tree stand the faster. Ye may stable your stirks in the shealings at Derncleugh — see that the hare does not couch on the hearth-stane at Ellangowan. Ride your ways, Godfrey Bertram — what do ye glower after our folk for ? There's thirty hearts there that wud hae wanted bread ere ye had wanted sunkets, and spent their life-bluid ere ye had scratched your finger. Yes, tliere's thirty yonder, from the auld wife of an hundred to the babe that was born last week, that ye have turned out o' their bits o' bields, to sleep with the tod and the black- cock in the muirs ! Ride your ways, Ellangowan. Our bairns are hinging at our weary backs — look that your braw cradle at hame be the fairer spread up ; not that I am wishing ill to little Harry, or to the babe that's yet to be born — God forbid — and make them kind to the poor and better folk than their father ! And now, ride e'en your ways ; for these are the last words ye'll ever hear Meg Merrilies speak, and this is the last reise that I'll ever cut in the bonnie woods of Ellangowan.' " He never hesitates to write down their worst characteristics, but note with what tender solicitude for truth he gives " Meg Merrilies " — 102 The Tinkler Gypsies. even though she may have possessed all the bad qualities, " harlot, thief, witch, and Gypsy," ascribed to her by " Dominie Sampson " — her due for not visiting the iniquities of the father upon little Harry or " the babe that's yet to be born." To the Gypsies' fidelity and steadfastness of purpose, of which many cases in real life have been recorded. Sir Walter indirectly pays a noble eulogy in putting these words into " Meg Merrilics' '' mouth : — " It is to rebuild the auld house — it is to lay the corner-stone — and did I not warn him ? I lell'd him I was born to do it, if my father's head had been the stepping stane, let alane his. I was doomed— still I kept my purpose in the cage and in the stocks ; I was banished — I kept it in an unco land ; I was scourged —I was branded — my resolution lay deeper than scourge or red iron could reach — and now the hour is come ! " " Meg's " ability to write is also noteworthy. Like the specimen of Billy Marshall's signature^ •given in a previous chapter, her writing was — "a vile, greasy .scrawl, indeed — and the letters are uncial, or semi-uncial, as somebody calls your large text hand, and in size and perpendicularity resemble the ribs of a roasted pig — I can hardly make it out." The striking resemblance between the scenery described in Guy Mantierifig and that in the neighbourhood of Ravenshall can scarcely be '■'• Guy Mannering^' Galweglati Localities. 103 accounted for by Sir Walter's glib accusation against Gahvegians of " assigning to ' airy nothings A local habitation and a name.' " Nay rather, do not Sir Walter's own words, written to Train about Old Mortality, lead one to suppose that Sir Walter must have derived intimate local knowledge from some source or other ?^' : — " That novel (Old A/oitality) displays the same know- ledge of Scottish manners and scenery, and the same carelessness as to the arrangement of the story which characterise these curious narratives ( IVaverley and Gtiy AIanneri)ig).'' It may be of interest to note some of the principal local places with which the places named in Guy Alanne>ing are identified : " Dandie Dinmont " is said to have reached " Portanferry," after " a trot of sixty miles or near by," from Charlieshope in Liddesdale, and if " Guy Mannering " rode — on " Soople Sam," " a blood bay beast " — from Dumfries to the New Place of Ellangowan (Barholm) in four or five hours, which could be easily accomplished, then the distances can't be readily reconciled, but it is thciught that Creetown, formerly called the " Ferry Toun o' Cree," tallies best with the story. As " Guy Mannering " in the early pages of the novel is made, on his way from \ M Carsluith Castle. From a fine line Drawing by Mr .1. S. Fleming, F.S.A., Glasgow. '■^ Guy Ma/i/ieriiig" Galwegian Localities. 105 Dumfriesshire, to travel by winding passages through '■ a wide tract of black moss," eventually approaching the sea beach and had passed " Kippletringan '" ere he reached " Ellangowan," it would seem that Gatehouse is the place which corresponds most closely to " Kippletringan," -which lay to the " eassel " of " Ellangowan," and enjoyed the dignity of having an Inn and a Mason's Lodge, but some consider that Kirk- cudbright most nearly fits in with Sir ^^'alter's description. Undoubtedly the description of the actual building of " Ellangowan " tallies most exactly with Caerlaverock Castle, Dumfriesshire, and while neither Carsluith Castle nor Barholm Castle has " a front like a grenadier's cap," or is situated on "a promontory or projection of rock," or has a " Donagild's (Murdoch's) round tower," yet the former was the castle of the Browns — Harry Bertram having as an alias " Vanbeest Brown," and the story of his wander- ings being founded on a tradition about the smuggling of a child belonging to that family — and the latter was the stronghold of the M'Cullochs. It is claimed by some that the story of Harry Bertram's wanderings is founded on a tradition about a descendant of the Maxwells ot Orchardton, but in the days of 1 smuggling the mysterious disappearance of an s. ^ 1 06 The Tt/ikkr-Gypsies. I heir seems to have been a fashionable and rough-and-ready way of obtaining possession of an estate — for seemingly there is also a similar tradition' about the Browns of Car- sluith :— "The incident of the kidnapped heir happened to the old family of Brown of Carsluilh, now extinct in the male line.'' " Donagild " (Donegan O'Dowill) is a name which relates not to the Caerlaverock family, but to the M'Doualls. Sir Walter rightly causes the Browns of Carsluith to be related to the M'CuUochs, who in turn were related to the M'Doualls of r.arthland. Here is Harry ' Bertram's pedigree as taken from Guy Maiiner- ing:— " Good-night, colonel — good-night. Dominie Sampson — good-night, Dinmont the downright — good-night, last of all, to the new-found representative of the Bertrams and the Mac-Dingawaies, the Knarths, the Arths, the Godfreys, the Dennises, and the Rolands, and, last and dearest title, heir of tailzie and provision of the lands and barony of Ellangowan, under the settlement of Lewis Bertram, Esq., whose representative you are.' And on referring to Nisbet's Heraldry p. 250 et seq. of the Appendix, and M'Kerlie's Lands and their Owners in G:illoway^ vol. ii., p. 453 et seq., it will be found that most of these names are traceable in the genealogical trees of the M'Doualls and M'Cullochs. '■'■ Guy Mannering'' Gaiivegia/i Localities. 107 Hence it would seem to arise that Carsluith Castle and Barholm Castle are both claimed to be the " EUangowan " of Guy Manneriiig, Barholm Castle, however, standing on a wooded height overlooking the sea, tallies best with " Meg Merrilies' " proclamation : — " Dark shall he 1 1^,^11 1 And wrong done to right When Bertram's right and Bertram's might Shall meet on EUangowan height." Further resemblances will be found in its proximity to the rocky prominence known as "The Gauger's Loup," and in the fact that close to "The Ganger's Loup," ahiiost opposite Barholm Castle and half-way down the descent, there still exists a fine spring well — correspond- ing with — " the fine spring well about half-way down the descent, and which once supplied the castle with water." A remarkable coincidence is also contained in the statement : "And several of her tribe made oath in her (' Meg Merrilies ') behalf that she had never quitted her encamp- ment, which was in a glen about ten miles distant from EUangowan." The site of that encampment would correspond precisely with Palnure Glen, which, as has been shown in a previous chapter, was a favourite rendezvous of the Marshall gang and is tei\ miles distant from Barholm Castle. ^i^ A^ •'- k4.' Photo by J. P. >lilnes. "JuLrA Mannering" at "Ellangowan" CBarholm CastleX From a Paintins: l>y the late Mr .Tohn Kae<l. K.S.A. The oriinnal is in the roesession of the represeiitatiTes of the late Mr Waugh. National Kink. Newton- Stewart, l>y whose kind vemiissiou it is here tvprvxluoeJ. '■'■Guy Ma/i/iering" Gakvegian Localities. 109 Be it remembered also that Train (an Ayrshire man) was stationed at Newton-Stewart until 15th December, 1820, five years later than the publica- tion of Guy Ma?inering, and any informatiorr supplied by him or the M'CuUoch family would be far more likely to refer to the " Dirk Hatteraick's Cave," and other places in and around Ravenshall, than to the Torrs Cave or even further afield. There are also references, such as — " Frank Kennedy's Ijeing away round to Wigtown to warn a King's ship that's lying in the bay about ' Dirk Hatteraick's' lugger being on the coast again, and he'll be back this day," and about " Dirk's " lugger " standing across the bay" which rather suggest the idea that Torrs Cave is too far afield to be the " Dirk Hatteraick's Cave " of the Novel. The tradition*^ as to the fate of Supervisor Kennedy, as recorded in Guy Manneringy also relates to the Ravenshall district, and was forwarded to Sir Walter by Train. As "Kippletringan" was apparently on the same side — the south-eastern — as " Hazlewood House,"^ the messenger from " EUangowan " having " proceeded to a point where the roads to- Kippletringan and Hazlewood separated," Ardwall House might fit in with that descrip- tion, and as it also belonged to the M'CuUoch. no The Tinkler-Gypsies. family Sir Walter would be sure to know all about it. In "The Derncleugh " stood the impregnable tower called "The Kaim of Derncleugh " with its vault wherein "Meg Merrilies" and " Domi- nie Sampson " had the interview so graphically depicted in one of the late Mr John Faed's sketches herewith reproduced : — " ' Aweel,' said Meg, 'but an ye kenn'd how it was gotten ye maybe wadna like it so weel.' Sampson's spoon dropped in the act of conveying its load to his mouth." "Derncleugh" is identified with " The Cleugh Head " near to Carsluith Castle. This is a wild and thickly wooded ravine, and a halo of romance hangs around it. Apparently when Harry Bertram, travelling from Liddesdale to " Kippletringan," left " Dandie Dinmont " and proceeded "across the country " he had travelled by the hill road, and it would be quite a natural mistake for him to stumble, as he did, in the dark into "The Derncleugh" (The Cleugh Head), in place of striking "The Nick o' Doon." And why should not the old Castle of Carsluith, standing as it does at the lower end of " The Derncleugh " (Cleugh Head), have afforded to Sir Walter the idea of describing an even more ancient ruin, which he called " The Kaim of Derncleugh " as situated there ? There is a local tradition" associated with that trlen of a Photo by J. P. Millies. Dominie Sampson" and "Meg Merrilies" in the Vaul,t of "The Kaim of Derncleugh." From a Sepia Sketch by the late Mr John FaeJ, R.S.A., Kindly lent by Mr James Faed, jr. 112 The Tinkler-Gypsiis. quarrel between two lovers which terminated fatally, the blood-guilty one being tracked down the ravine by his shoe-shods, which in these olden days had been nailed on by a blacksmith, who gave evidence against the guilty man. Alas, that lovely Glen is being ruthlessly despoiled by having its rocky faces blasted to supply stones for building purposes ! There is also a further tradition'" about a Gypsy killing a woman near Kirkdale Ikidge. At 12 o'clock at night, it is said, the ghost of a woman with half of her head cut off, and all clad in white, appears at Kirkdale Bridge and slowly wends its way along the road and disappears by the wooded path- way leading to Kirkdale Bank. This apparition is firmly believed in by some folks in that local- ity. A farmer told the writer that he knew a farmer who at any time he had to pass Kirkdale Bridge after darkness had set in, used regularly to put his horse to the gallop, lest he should be caught by the ghost. There is also a field on a farm not far from Barholm Castle known as " Little Egypt," but when asked why it was so called, the farmer said, " Because it is a dry, barren place." Mr David MacRitchie, in Notes and Queries, Gypsy Lore Journal, vol. i. p. 53, shows that " Egypt " is a place name in many districts frequented by Gypsies ; and surely it is not without significance that we should "•pORTANFERf? Garsluiblv Village. CarsluilhCaslley "dirk hattericks cave: *GAUG E R S L O U P^ l^iglon Bay "' G/fV AIa}inering'^ Localities. i 13 have '' The Oypsy Weil," " The Gypsy Burn " at Carsluith, and " Little Egypt " near Mossyard, and the coincidence should not be so readily accepted as accounted for by the farmer's simple and quite natural explanation, especially when that particular field is situated in a district which, in the days when Billy Marshall and his numerous gang held sway, must have been greatly frequented by Gypsies, and which to this day is a place where Gypsies, Tinklers, and vagrants still " Most do congregate." The descriptions of local places are not quite accurate, but are in most cases sufficiently accurate to be recognisable, and are precisely what one would expect to find where such had first been accurately described by some one who knew the locality thoroughly, to another who did not and who had afterwards described them from memory. Here, then, in this comparatively iso- lated and romantic corner, at a time when the country folks were much more superstitious than they are now, the Gypsies, who were and still are most superstitious, would find a suitable place T for practising their black arts. " Meg Merrilies," ' i " the Galwegian sibyl, . . . wha was the maist nDtorious witch within a' Galloway and Dumfriesshire," , would be able to overawe the whole country side \ I '•\\i glamour, cantrip, charm, and spell. ' !''■'"''■' ''J' TORSS Cave. A. M'Cormiik. Tinkkr-Gypsy Charactei-istics. 115 The Galloway Tinklers are still most super- stitious. They will turn back if they meet a "gley-eyed" woman when setting out in the morning. A flat-footed person is so unlucky that they won't tolerate one inside the door. Once when a Tinkler woman told that to the writer hereof, he looked down at his feet, and she said, " I noticed ye werena fiat-fitted whun ye cam' forrit to the door." " But," says an old Tinkler, " the sonsiest thing on this yirth is, gin ye're Jawin' avri (going away) to the t'ither watches (another beat) in the morgen (morning) wi' a yucal o' mashlam (dozen of tin cans) on yer back, and ye meet a heavy tramplei'ed Jiianishi (woman) wi' a clQeLw/oredru/?! (apron) and a big back burden, ye may Jaw (go) alang the lig (road) for ye'll get bara iowie (big money) that devies (day) frae the been hantle (good country people)." They deem it very lucky to be first-footed by a donkey or a sheep, but particularly the former ; indeed, one of the gang generally makes it his duty to lead the cuddy into the house first thing on New Year s morning. One Tinkler woman told the writer hereof that all the Mar- ' shalls she ever knew believed in witches. When ; asked why she kept two little shoes — a cuddy's and a pony's — hanging behind the door, she at once replied, "To keep out the witches." ii6 The Tinkler-Gypsies. " But do you really believe in witches?" was next asked. " Certaintly, and wha had ever ony mair reason to believe in them?" she replied, and proceeded to tell a wonderful story of how at her birth a gentleman had foretold that she would marry a man of the same name as him- self (Campbell), and how by a remarkable coincidence his |)rophecy had come true. Then she added that " a flat-fitted or a shan-ivinklered (bad-eyed) body " was most unlucky, and related this story : — " A flat-fitted woman yince first- fitted my mither on New Year's day morning ; the mare foaled on the 24th May ; it was kicked to death by a horse in the field a few days efter, and the foal didna survive it mony days " ! Frequently has the writer heard of the death of animals accounted for in that way. Once he heard a tale that shows the elasticity of the Tinklers' belief in superstitions : In Wigtownshire an old woman with a gley eye had looked at a Tinkler's bairn. The Tinklers were travelling towards Dumfriesshire. The child cried all the way to Dumfries, when another old woman looked at the child, and at once said — " That wean has been owerlookit." She advised them to take it back to the first old woman, but the mother being a Catholic took it to the priest, and Dirk Hatteraicks Cave, Ravenshall. From a Painting l.y Mr James Faei, sair., taken by the aid of a flambeau within the interior of the Cave upwanls of forty years ago. ii8 The Thikler-Gypsies. the father being a Protestant beat the wife unmercifully, as they still seem to think the\- are entitled to do, " like the chief of the horde who acknowledged he had corrected her (' Meg Merrilies ') with a whinger." The husband got h's own way, and took the child to the first old woman to withdraw the spell she had cast over the child. The Tinklers had not long left her when " the wean a' at yince drappit greetin', and the mare, lang by her time, at the same meenit drapt a foal "" I So the Tinklers of to-day cling to many of the traits ascribed to " Meg Merrilies." Tradition" has it that " Flora," one of Billy's many dulcineas, whose maiden name appears to have been P'loia Maxwell, " was so very transparently fair of the complexion that one could see a glass of (red) wine go down her throat." Mr David MacRitchie, in his Ancient and Afodern Briio/is,*'^ states that it was a Gypsy who, to Mr Groome, ascribed a similar compliment to Mary Queen of Scots, and that it was also a Gypsy who ascribed the same peculiarity to Fair Rosamond. In the additional note to Guy Manuerin<:;, Sir Walter relates the following story of liilly Marshall, which — who knows? — may even have been included amongst the Gypsy stories sent to him by Train prior to publication of the first edition of Guv Mnnnen'/n:; : Billy befriends a Friend in Need. 1 1 9 " In his youth he occasionally took an evening walk on the highway, with the purpose of assisting travellers by relieving them of the weight of their purses. On one occasion, the Caird of Barullion robbed the Laird of Bargally at a place between Carsphairn and Dalmelling- ton. His purpose was not achieved without a severe struggle, in which the Gypsy lost his bonnet, and was obliged to escape, leaving it on the road. A respectable farmer happened to be the next passenger, and seeing the bonnet, alighted, took it up, and rather imprudently put 11 on his head. At this instant Bargally came up with some assistants, and recognising the bonnet, charged the farmer of Bantoberick ( PBarstoberick) with having robbed him, and took him into custody. There being some like- ness between the parties, Bargally persisted in his charge, and though the respectability of the farmer's character was proved or admitted, his trial before the circuit court came on accordingly. The fatal bonnet lay on the table of the court ; Bargally swore that it was the identical article worn by the man who robbed him ; and he and others likewise deponed that they had found the accused on the spot where the crime was committed, with the bonnet on his head The case looked gloomily for the prisoner, and the opinion of the judge seemed unfavour- able. But there was a person in court who knew well both who did and who did not commit the crime. This was the Caird of Barullion, who, thrusting himself up to the bar, near the place where Bargally was standing, suddenly seized on the bonnet, put it on his head, and, looking the laird full in the face, asked him, with a voice which attracted the attention of the court and crowded audience — ' Look at me, sir, and tell me, by the oath you have sworn — am not / the man who rcjbbed you between Carsphairn and Dalmellington ? ' Bargally replied, in great astonishment, ' By Heaven, you are the very man.' 'You see what sort of a memory this gentle- man has,' said the volunteer pleader : ' he swears to the bonnet, whatever features are under it. If you yourself, my Lord, will put it on your head, he will be willing to swear that your lordship was the party who robbed him I20 The Tinkler-Gypsies. Letween Carsphnirn and Dalmellinglon.' The tenant of Bantoberick (Barstoberick) was unanimously acquitted, and thus Willie Marshall ingeniously contrived to save an innocent man from danger without incurring any him- self, since Bargally's evidence must have seemed to every one too fluctuating to be relied upon. "While the King of the Gypsies was thus laudably occupied, his royal consort. Flora, contrived, it is said, to steal the hood from the judge's gown ; for which offence, combined with her presumptive guilt as a Gypsy, she was banished to New England, whence she never returned." Strange to say, there is a somewhat similar tradition — common amongst the Galloway Tinklers at this day — which relates how Billy intervened in Court and got off a prisoner in an even more wonderful way. The resemblance of the two stories is noteworthy, and it would be interesting to discover in what words Joseph Train first related the story recorded by Sir Walter. The following is the tndiiion narrated to the writer hereof by a Galloway Tinkler : — " Billy Marshall and several of liis gang had l)een out on a foraging expedition with some other Gypsy gangs. They had killed a cow, and Billy had sent his comrades off l)y finother road to his camp with his 'corner' of the cow. Solitarily wending his way home to the encampment, he met in with a gamekeeper who had formerly attempted to have him imprisoned for poaching. Billy settled old scores by killing the gamekeeper. He then pitched him over a dyke, but when the gamekeeper lay there it occurred to Billy that his own coat was not so good as the game- keeper's, lie therefore exchanged coats and left his own one l)ing on the dyke. As his camp had been situated at some considerable distance, he thontrlit it advisable to h-f rK^^" A Modern "Meg Mfrrilies'' 122 The Tinkler-Gypsies. spend the niglit in a ccjmmon lodgint^-house in a village. He left the gamekeeper's jacket hanging on the back of a chair and then went to sleep. Billy had not long left the spot where he had left the gamekeeper's body lying, when along came a tramp, who espied Billy's own coat lying on the dyke, looked at it, and thinking it better than his own also promptly made an exchange. The tramp happened to hit upon the same lodging-house as Billy. The tramp was early astir in the morning, and seeing the gamekeeper's coat hanging on ihe back of the chair, he coveted it, donned it, and was soon hurrying along the road, having luckily for Billy left him in pos- session of his own coal. The tramp had not gone far when two 'beagles' (policemen) from Dumfries arrested him. He was taken before the Circuit Court at Dum- fries, and confronted with the damning evidence that whilst he was wearing the gamekeeper's coat when arrested, his own garment, as was clearly proven, was found lying on the dyke beside the murdered man. The tramp told a plain, straightforward story : He had been coming along the road, saw a coat lying on the wall, and thinking it better than his own had exchanged it ; and had done the same in the lodging-house. Nevertheless his guilt seemed established. But from the back of the Court there stepped down a man rigged out in a long blue coat, with huge silver buttons, and knee-breeks. Salut- ing the judge with a military salute, he said — 'I crave yer honour's pardon. May I ha'e a word wi' the Coort ? I was comin' alang the road jist in the same way as my unfortunate freen here, an' I too saw a better coat than my ain lyin' on the dyke, an' put it on and left this ane (holding up an old coat) lyin' on the dyke. An' my freen here maun ha'e picked it up, for whun I lay doon at nicht, I left the gude coal lyin' on the chair, an' I see noo hoo I come to fin' my ain aul' yin in its place in the morr.in'. He maun hae cheatit me oot o' the gude coal I fun" ! ^'e may sen' baith o' us to Botany Bay for stealin' a coat we fun' on the road, but a' the Coorts in the land daurna rax oor gorgets (hang us) for murderin' a man we never saw.' Billy, '^Giiy Mannering'' Localiiy. 123 with Gypsy cuteness, had grasped the situation,, and* had risked a little to befriend the tramp he had placed in an awkward predicament. The tr.inip was, needless to say, unanimous])- acquitted liy the jury. "^ In that romantic district which lies along what, it is said, was described to her late Majesty Queen Victoria as — " The most beautiful shore road in Britain," and amongst folks of a superstitious turn of mind, Sir Walter fittingly laid the scene of the most popular Gypsy tale ever written. In almost every letter addressed to Joseph Train, he kept asking him for Galloway tradition*;, and to Sir " Walter's honour be it said, no one could have made more generous acknowledgment of Train's invaluable services : — *' " Well, Mr Train, you never run out of excellent stories. You should really publish a collection of them. I will assist you to prepare them for the press. You know one good turn deserves another ; you have helped me ; it is now my turn to help you. From my influence with the booksellers, I will assure you of two or three hundred pounds. Vou may even publish some of the stories you sent nie ; the)- are not the worse of having passed through my hands, as I disguise them for reasons you well know." But no matter though every panicle of the information contained in Guy Manueriiig had been furnished, in draft or otherwise, by Train or Captain and Mrs Thomas Scott, Sir \\'alter's most precious legacy to the world — that touch 12 4 The Tuik/cr- G ) 'psies. of genius which transformed the other raw materials, in passing through the crucible of Sir \\'alter's brain, into his matchless novels — was clearly all his own, and no one can possibly filch that from him. No one knew better than Sir AA'alter Scott I'y "Dirk HATTERAlCKd " (Yawkins' PiiTOL. Ill- .1. imnn. The aliove iiistol forinevly IjcloiiKeil to thf late ]\Ir .loseiili Train, anil it is reproduced liere liy kind permixsion of one of his grand-daughters, Jlrs Dunn, ('astle-J)ouglas, to whom it now belongs. that there were inaccuracies and discrepancies in his desc-ription of the locality, and Sir Walter was therefore too astute to tie himself down to any particular locality ; but his descriptions, nevertheless, tally remarkably with the Ravens- hall district. The family names used in the [)lot of Guv Maiiueriiii:;. the traditions woven Characf''rs, c^'c, of " Guv Alaiuiering^.''' 125 into it, the aptness of the descriptions of places and characters, and the sources from which such information was derived — all point to the Ravenshall district as the one which Sir ^^'alter had most prominently in mind when he wrote Guy Mannering ; and, on the whole, less objec- tion can be urged against the Ravenshall district than any other claiming the honour of being the principal scene of Guy Mannering. Keeping in view, then, the aptness of Scott's descriptions to the Ravenshall locality and to the Galloway Gypsies, and the sources from which that information is supposed to have been derived, is it unreasonable to conclude that Guy Mannering is the outcome of a composite knowledge of (first) what Sir ^^'alter may have known from personal acquaintance with the Yetholm Gypsies — Madge Gordon, from whom the portrait of " Meg Merrilies'" avowed proto- type Jean Gordon was partially drawn, amongst the number — and with Caerlaverock Casde; and of (second) what he may have learned, from Joseph Train and the M'CuUoch family, of the Galloway Gypsies —Billy and Flora Marshall amongst the number — and of Barholm Castle and " Dirk Hatteraick's Cave," and the other Galwegian localities around Ravenshall ? CHAPTER IV. '■' Hast thou not noted on the bye- way side, Where aged saughs lean o'er the lazy tide, A vagrant crew, far straggled through the glade. With trifles busied, or in slumber laid ; Their children lolling round them on the grass. Or pestering with iheir sports the patient ass? The wrinkled beldame there you may espy. And ripe young maiden with the glossy eve, IMen in their prime, and striplings, darlTand dun, jScathed by the storm, and freckled by the sun : Their swarthy hue, and mantle's flowing fold, \JBespeak the remnant of a race of old ; Strange are their annals ! — list and mark them well — For thou hast much to hear and I to tell." HE Marshalls are said to have been Tinklers in Galloway '• time otit of mind," but as no regular annals of Billy's house were kept, it is impos- sible to trace them back further than his own time. Pitcairii^s Criminal Trials reveal nothing, and thereafter there is a hiatus (which covers the earlier part of Billy's long lifetime) during which it is difficult to consult the records. Hume's Commentaries show that members of the Marshall gang have frequently appeared in criminal cases. The crimes libelled in some of these are character- istic : "Stealing a horse," "stealing from a thief," " prison breaking." Galwegian Gypsy Gangs. 127 In Billy's day many Gypsy gangs appear to have frequented Galloway. The principal gangs were Baillies, Millers, Kennedies, MacMillans, Marshalls, Watsons, Wilsons, and O'Neills. The Marshalls, MacMillans, Watsons, and Wil- sons still travel in Galloway ; and the Millers, still numerous in the north of England, fre- quently visit Galloway. The Kennedies have recently died out in Galloway ; the O'Neills have married into other gangs ; and the Baillies, of whom there must be many still in Scotland, do not seem to have frequented Galloway for some time. At the time of the Levellers' rebellion, 1720, and for some years afterwards — " Two bands of Gypsies infested the district and occasioned great loss to the inhabitants by constantly committing all sorts of depredations. One of them, headed by Isaac Miller, acted as fortune tellers, tinklers, and manufacturers of hornspoons ; but they lived chiefly by theft. The other, commanded by William Baillie, represented themselves as horse-dealers ; but they were in reality horsestealers and robbers. William Marshall, commonly called Billy Marshall, belonged to the first mentioned party ; but, having killed his chief at Maybole, who, he considered, was in terms of too much intimacy with his wife or mistress, Billj entered the army. He afterwards returned, however, and followed his former calling." 5" But while these various gangs as a rule travelled by themselves, it often happened that members ot one gang encamped with another gang, and a gang was ofte 1 joined by Gypsies 128 The Tinkler-Gypsies. from other districts. Indeed, from the names mentioned in some of the old criminal trials, one may infer that Billy's gang would often be a composite one ; and there has also been a good deal of inter-marriage between the various gangs. In Mackenzie's History of Gallo7vay, vol. ii., pp. 401-3 and 433-7, there are some interesting particulars in. regard to members of these gangs. The following indictment and judgment are curious instances of the brutal treatment meted out, in consonance with the laws of the time, to the Gypsies : — " Vou, John Johnstone (better known in Galloway by the name of Jock Johnstone), James Campbell, Christian Ker, Margaret and Isabella Marshalls, now prisoners within the Tolbooth- of Kirkcudbright, as vagrants, gipsies, and sorners, are indicted and accused before the quarter sessions for the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, at the instance of the procurator-fiscall, as being vagrant people of no certain residence, guilty of theft, pickery, and sorners and oppressors of the country, and so common-nauseances, and, therefore, ought to be punished, in terms of the acts of parliament made against sorners, vagrants, Egyptians, &c. "Quarter Sessions, Kirkcudbriglit, 7th of March, 1732. — Campbell acknowledges that he has no certain place of residence, but goes up and down the country making spoons and mending pans. Johnstone acknow- ledges that he has no certain place of residence, but goes up and down the country the same way as Campbell. Margaret and Isabell Marshalls alledge they live in the parish of Stratown, but cannot condescend upon the name of the place, and the whole four acknowledge they passed the boat of Tongland Sundays night last, and stayed in a wast house near the Grenny ford all night. Perseattion of Gypsies. 129 and that they lodged in a barn in the park of Balgreedan, near John Grears, on Mondays night, and the two men acknowledge that they kept two durks or hangers that they had for defending of their persons. (Signed) Geo. Gordon, J.P.J. " Eodem die. — The Justices of Peace having advised the indictment and judicial acknowledgments of the within named vagrants, they find they are persons of no certain residence, nor of any lawful! employments, and that they are such persons as by the law are described for Egyptians, vagrants, and sorners ; and, therefore, the justices of peace ordain them to be burnt on the cheeks severally, whipped on their naked shoulders, from one end of the Bridge end of Dumfries to the other by the hangman, and that upon the fifteenth day of March instant, and all this upon the charge of the Stewartry, which the collector of supply is hereby ordered to disburse, and after said punishment is inflicted, the said vagrants are hereby banished out of this Stewartry for ever, with certification, if ever they be found in the Stewartry thereafter, that they shall be imprisoned six months and whipped once a month, and thereafter burnt on the cheeks of new.— (Signed) J. P. Gordon, J.P.J. ■' And the quarter sessions recommend and committ to John Neilson of Chappell, William Coupland of Collies- toun, John Dalyell of Fairgirth, or any one of them to see the before sentence put into lawful execution. — (Signed) Geo. Gordon, J.P.J." -'i The crimes charged in the itidictment are not borne out by the evidence led, and the finding of the Quarter Sessions — that the accused are " persons of no certain residence nor of any lawful employments, and that they are such persons as are by law described for Egyptians, vagrants, and sorners " — shows how unduly 9 130 The Tinkler-Gypsies. keen the judges were to obtain an excuse for persecuting the Gypsies, and was merely a flimsy pretext for inflicting a brutal punishment which branded the country's legislators and those who carried out their behests as inhuman wretches. Such treatment created an inveterate hatred of house-dwellers in the heart of the wild-natured, freedom-loving Gypsy. Little wonder that they carried " durks or hangers to defend their persons," and the following may be taken as not an unnatural outcome of the cruel injustice meted out to them : — "John Johnstone was afterwards hanged for murder at Dumfries ; being a very powerful man, the magistrates found great difficulty in putting his sentence into execu- tion. He is said to have taken hold of and broken ilie rope by which he was to be suspended, and to have leaped from the scaffold. Before he could be secured his riglit arm was broken. After much exertion the executioner succeeded in throwing him off."'''- But even such drastic measures on the part of the authorities failed to stamp out the Gypsies : — " Representation being made to me that severall houses within this stewartry have been broke up in several nights of last week supposed to be done by a parcell of gypsies or vagrants that have been strolling through this country grants warrant to Stewart officers and their assistants to apprehend and secure liie persons of all gypsies or other strolling persons. Joiix Dai.vei 1.." " 2nd April, 1750." Persuution of Gypsies, 13 r "3rd April. — II. Carter in Trusliill and I'airick M'Kean in l.itlle AJains brought before me a young woman, calls herself Ann Gibson (or Marshall), spouse to William Hamilton, a piper, in possession of stolen goods. WlIX GORDONNE." " 6 April. — Complaint, Fiscal against Henry Greg, alias John Wilson, Margaret Stewart, his wife, Anne Gibson (or Marshall), wife to Wm. M'Gregor, alias Wm. Hamilton, travelling tinkers and vagabonds for house- breaking. John Miller." "6 April 1750." " Warrant for Apprehension against Omer Brown Milner, Bridge of Urr, for harbouring the above. "April 1750." "Tho. Millkr." " Homer Brown liberated in attestation of Mr Gordon of Troquhain. Thomas Miller." ^3 "3 April 1750." " The prisoners, Henry Greig, Margaret Stewart, and Anne Gibson (or Marshall), gave in on the day of trial, by their procurator, Roger Martin, a petition to the Steward, acknowledging some parts of the crimes charged against them in the indictment, and stating, ' that in order to save the court from farther trouble, they were willing to subject themselves to transportation to any of His Majesty's plantations, never to return.' The Petition having been openly read, the Procurator Fiscal (Mr Miller) consented to the prayer of it, ' so far as concerned Margaret Stewart and Anne Gibson. But so far as con- cerned Henry Greig, alias John Wilson, he refused his consent thereto, looking upon it as inconsistent with his duty to enter into any compromise with so great a criminal.' " The judge having found ' the libel relevant, pro- ceeded to name fifteen persons to pass upon the assise of the said Henry Greig, alias John Wilson.' "After the public pro.secutor had concluded his evidence, 132 The Tiiiklt)--Gypsics. the jury retired, and next day returned a verdict unani- mously finding the prisoner guilty of the crimes laid to his charge, namely, ' theft, robbery, and housebreaking.' ' The Steward Depute then decerned, and adjudged the said Henry Greig, alias John Wilson, to be taken upon Friday the sixth day of July next to come, from the tolbooth of Kirkcudbright to the ordinary place of execution of the said burgh, and there between the hours of two and four of the clock of the afternoon, to be hanged by the neck on a gibbet until he should be dead, and ordained all his moveable goods and gear to be escheat and inbrought to his majesties use, which was pronounced for doom. ' " "^ Well did the Gypsies know that the authorities were bound by law— with or without just cause — to exterminate them. Knowing that it was well-nigh impossible to obtain justice under such unjust laws, the Gypsies in many instances cutely pled guilty to " some parts of the crimes charged," and craved to be transported, hoping no doubt either to escape before transportation or to manage to secure a passage back to this country by some merchant vessel. The Town Council records also quoted, pp. 435-437 of Mackenzie's History of Gallo^v M', show that it was necessary lo incarcerate within the 'I'olbooth the hangman, John Nevvall, before he could be persuaded lo put the jury's verdict into force by hanging (ireig. One can read between the lines, from Omer Brown's kindly act and from the hangman's reluctance to perform his duty, that there were some at all events who recog- ''^ Cutpurse'' Gypsies Incarcerated. 133 nised that the punishment did not " fit the crime." In Wigtownshire the authorities seem to have acted more humanely. The following is an excerpt from the old Town Records of Wig- town : — " The Marshall Gang of Tinkers. " Wigioune, 6th November, 1728. "The qlk day . . . ihe Magistrals, and Council!, having receaved Severall Complaints anent young Marshall and his gang of thevs picking people's pocketts, and particularly upon Mnndaj- last, being the fair day of this Burgh, there was gripped one of the said Gang for cutting purses, and putt in prisone. And Marchall's wife and two young ones Lykeways Incarcerate in prisone as of that Gang. The Magistrats and Councill haveing brought before them the sd old wife, shee Judicially acknowledged that she was the wife of Marchall that, was hanged, and that all the Childreen in prisone with her were Belonging to her ; Yrfore it is by the sds Magis- trats enacted That in case any of the inliabitants of the Burgh of Wigtoune shall harbour or entertain in their houses any of the said Gypsie gang in time comeing, or any within the borrowland Belonging to the Burgh, They shal be deem'd art and part in all there Villanies, and fyned in the soume of Twenty pund, Scots money, and Imprisoned three Days ; And ordaines this Act to be Intimate at the Mercat Cross of Wigtown and By the presenter upon Sabbath nixt, Iinmediatly after Divine Service is over ; and in the mean time ordaines the said Gypsie wife and her Cliildreen to be Drummeil out of Town, with Certificatione if ever they return within the Burgh or Borrowland they shall be punished as the law directs ; And ordaines the ofticers to putt them out of the paroch of Wigtoune to the paroch of Peninghame, and to acquaint the adjacent houses the cause ot there 134 The Tinkler-Gypsies. being expelled furih of the said paroch ; And this Act to comprehend all Sturdie Beggars and oyr vagrant persons that cannot Give accott of themselves, and noe personne to harbour any of the sd Gang above three in number in time comeing, under the forsd penalty and corpall punishment."'"'' Can the "young Marshall" referred to be our hero Billy Marshall, who in 1728 would be about fifty-six? If so, it would seem as if his father had been hung, probably in his case for being merely " habit and repute an Egyptian ;" whereas Billy, notwithstanding the many capital crimes laid to his charge, always managed to evade his deserts. On 2ist June, 1746, Sam Walker and Jon MacMillan were also convicted of having com- mitted a breach of the peace at Wigtown Fair, and the sentence of the Court was as follows : — " Therefore they are ordained to remove themselves, and all concerned with them, immediately furth of the Burgh and libertys of the same for the space of 3 months after this date ; with certification if they, or any of their company or gang, happen after the expiration of said space to come to the place and be guilty of misdemeanour or offence of any kind, they shall be punished more exemplarly in their persons and effects, in further terror, and immediately after be incarcerate. "'•''" I>ut the Wigtownshire authorities did more than act humanely ; they actually allowed a Tinkler, who murdered a boy, to escape out of their clutches. There is a tradition in W'itrtown- Tinkler Bruiality and Slimness. 135 shire to the effect that a Tinkler named Cochrane had been helping himself to a farmer's potatoes from " the barn-fauld," near Drumbuie, when a number of school children, as they passed along the road, happened to see him. The children shouted out — " Tinkler, tinkler, tarrie bags, Drap yer shears and clip yer lags." Whereupon the Tinkler ran after them and -caught hold of a little boy, Peter Douglas, who had been attempting to climb up a tree for safety. Some say "the Tinkler took him by the heels and ' jauped ' out his brains against the tree," and others "that the Tinkler felled him with a graipe with which he had been digging the potatoes." The tree, of which an illustration is given, goes by the name of " The Boy Tree," and may still be seen standing by the side of the old road which leads past Ardachie, and the Old Place of Drumbuie, near Kirkcowan. Tradition also says that a brother of the Tinkler, Cochrane, was allowed to have an interview in the gaol with the murderer, and succeeding in effecting a speedy change of garments enabled the murderer to escape. Tradition in this case is borne out by the Town Records : — " At Wigtown the eighteenth day of June, one thousand seven hundred and eighty four years, the Magistrates and those of the Council hereto subscribing taking into their consideration that Alexander Cochrane, Magisirdfes Oninntted by a Tinkler. 137 Travelintj Tinkler, was lately Incarcerateii within the Tolbooth cf this Buigh for the alleged murder of Peter Douglas, son of George Douglas in Drumhuie and that there is a great heazard of the said Cochrane's being rescued or that he breake Prison it is therefore necessary that a guard be appointed to prevent the same. We accordingly hereby Decern Ordain and strictly- enjoine all the Inhabitants and others holding of the Borrow to perform watch and ward upon the said Alexander Cochrane during all the nights which he shall remain in our prison or till we issue contrary orders, and that two and two as they shall be warned by an officer for that purpose and we direct that the said two persons shall begin to guard precisely at ten o'clock at night, and shall continue and not be found off their duty till five o'clock in the morning, and tiat under the hi.hest pains of Law to be inflicted on them and their Employers. And we appoint this Act to be intimated by Tuck of Drum this evening. ^^ ,„. ,^ _. ,,^^, ^, ^ (Signed) James M'Colm, Ba. ,, John Hawthorn, Ba." " At Wigtown the eighth day of July one thousand seven hundred and eighty four the Magistrates and Council considering that by the inattention of Alexander Stewart their late Gaoler and the connivance of Janet Maxwell his spouse Alexander Cochrane confined in the prison of this Burgh for alledged murder had made his escape. Therefore as a punishment in the meantime they appoint that no salary shall be paid to the said Alexander Stewart either as a (ia^jler. Bellman, or Officer, since Michaelmass last and that they be both immediately taken from the barr and ijicareerated in the Tolbooth until tomorrow morning at six o'clock, when they are ordained again to be set at liberty, and as a further marks of the Displeasure of the magistra'es and Council it is declared that the said Alexander Stewart .shall be incapable of holding any office under this Borrow in time coming, and in regard that by his dismission the offices of Gaoler, Bellman, and Borrow Officer become 138 The 7 iiikler-Gvpsies. vacant, and Jcilin Kennedy, Indweller in VVigtuwn being recommended as a proper person to fill ihe said offices the magi-itrates and Council therefore appoint him Gaoler, Bellman, and Town Officer of this Burgh until Michaelmass next provided he beliaves properly and complies with the regulations and instructions after- mentioned and he is to receive a salary as Gaoler at the rate of Thirty shillings yearly, as Bellman at the rate of twenty shillings sterling yearly, and as officer at the ordinary rate of fourteen shillings and fourpence yearly with the usual lees and perquisites of both offices and he is likewise appointed scaffinger with liberty to dispose of the Rubbish and Dung for his own emolument. And the said [ohn Kennedy being present accepted of the said offices and gave his oath de fideli ; and James Guihrie burgess of Wigtown judicially hereby becomes enacted and bound as Cautioner that the said John Kennedy shall faithfully duly and attentively execute and perform the offices to which he is nosv appointed ; and the said John Kennedy is strictly enjoined to obey such instructions as from time to time he shall receive from the magistrates in office and particularly during the time that any Prisoners are confined he is not to go to any distance from the town, and in case of Criminals being in prison he is not to permitt any person access to them without the permission of the magistrates and he is to Ije attentive night and day to do his utmost to secure all prisoners that may be under his charge to the utmost of his power ; And thereby prevent the disgrace and expence that has come upon the town by the negligence of his predecessor. In witness whereof this Minute signed by the Magistrates and Councillors present, as also by the said John Kennedy and James Guthrie place and date first above written. " (Si^fi-) J<^"><' K'''^'^'KI>V. (Sgd.)jAS. M'Coi.M. Jas. Guthrie. Jas. Hannah. Ro. Murray. Alex. Gulline. Pat. Binxi.xg. John M'Carlie. RoBT. Ferguson. "5' " The Tinkler's Loi/p." 139 Truly the irreconcilability of the sentences pronounced by these ancient magistrates is amazing ! In the one county they hung people merely because they were Gypsies, and in the adjoining one they only mulcted a gaoler in about ^£2 9s 8d, and put him in gaol a night for allowing a murderer to escape from the gaol. The death of the boy was not the only loss to the family, for on their tombstone in Kirkcowan graveyard will be found engraven these pathetic words :— " Of Peter Douglas his younger brother who was killed by Cochrane the Tinkler in the Barnfauld of Drumbuie June 1784 aged 11 years. His death may be said to have brought on his mother's through grief." A picturesque gorge on the river Dengh, near Dairy, goes under the name of " The Tinkler's Loup," the name being derived from a tradition about a Tinkler, who being chased for some misdemeanour jumped the linn. There are two ways of the story. This is one account : — " Here is the ' Tinkler's Loup,' where, according to tradition, long before any bridge was built over the stream, and about a century ago, a certain Tinkler, by name Thomas (Marshall), made a fearful leap and actually cleared the entire river at a bound. It is said that the man was ' wanted ' by the authorities for some theft, and that a party of dragoons was sent to take him. He had eluded them for some days until they chanced to come suddenly upon him asleep at this spot. Rushing at him with a loud shout, Thomas was, of course, awakened. 140 The Tinkler Gypsies. and, d;^shing at l!ie narrowest part of the river, he cleared the boiling cauldron at a bound, his would-be captors, of course, never seeing him again.'" But the more popular account, and the one related on the spot by a native, is as follows : — " A Tinkler who had been mending cans for a farmer named M'Cormick at the farm of Xether Cairnminnow, near the Tinkler's Loup — (this was before the bridge was built at the place) — became wearied of waiting for his supper. Frizzling on the fire was a ' pan o' pudc'in's,' too tempting tor resistance. -Seizing his opportunity when the gudewife had left tlie kiiclien, the Tinkler sprang to the fire, and rushed off with the ' pan o' puddin's,' making straight for the linn. The hue and cry of the farm-house was soon at his heels, but his start was sufficient, and his courage equal to the emergency. ' lie lowpit owre there,' said the relater — pointing to the linn — ' wi' the pan o' puddin's in his teeth, sat doon on that rock and ate them, and then he threw back the pan to the owners and went his way.' " " Presumably it was the same Thomas Marshall who was the hero of the song " Galloway Tarn," and who is .said to have been a "stout and athletic Galwegian Gypsy equally celebrated for making songs, snuff mills, and horn-spoons. Some of his descendants, it is said, still (/.f., circa 1819) inhabit Nithsdale and Galloway."'"* Of the gangs which frequented Galloway during the i8th century, and have since ceased to travel that district, some note must be taken of the Kilmaurs branch of the Marshalls and the Kennedies. Tlie Kil'jiaurs JMarshalls. 141 The Marshalls — The Horners of KiLMAURS.* The Marshall family has been located in Kilmaurs, Ayrshire, between 200 and 300 years. They have often heard of Billy Marshall from their travelling relatives, but there is no personal knowledge of him in the family so far as is known. Francis Marshall, the father of Malcolm Marshall, Stewarton, was married twice, each time to his full cousin. He had fourteen of a family by his first wife, and ten by the second. Malcolm belongs to the second family. His full brothers were Rab Jock, and Davock. Rab and Djvock wrought regularly at the spoons in Kilmaurs. The former was quite an artist in horn, and for his wares there was always a good demand. Davock and Rab's wife hawked the spoons at Kilmarnock Cross every market day so long as they lived. Their figures were very familiar to the present genera- tion of farmers, but they left no representative of the industry. Jock gave up spoons and became a mason's labourer. x\ curious characteristic is the " roughie paws " (g, guttural), which, however, is not *Notc. — For the information embodied herein about the Kihnaurs Marshalls we are indebted to the kindness of Mr D. M'Naught, J. 1'. , Benrig, Kilmaurs, Ayrshire, who in turn received his information chiefly from Malcolm Marshall, Stewarton, Ayrshire. Davock Marshall ( Roughie Paws"), the last of THE KiLMAURS Horner?. Keproiluceci by kiii.l pi-iinissioii of Mr D. M'Xautrht, .T.I'.. BenriR, Kilmaurs. The Kilmaurs Alarshalls. 14J present in every member of the family. Davock and his full sister had the peculiarity very highly developed, and so has his son, but in a less degree. The palm of the hand and the inside of the fingers and soles of the feet are covered by a cuticle of the consistence of horn, across which run grooves corresponding to the knuckles and finger joints, to enable the hand to be closed. This is a curious illustration of heredity originally acquired by external influ- ences, which, in this case, have been the soldering bolt, contact with heated substances, and exposure to the elements. Malcolm himself never wrought at spoons. He was a country servant, and latterly a pack- man travelling through Arran and north of Ayrshire. His father, Francis, informed him that his forebears wrought at the cutlet y manu- facture in Main Street, Kilmaurs (Kilmaurs was famous for cutlery at one time, and hence the proverb " xA.s gleg's a Kilmaurs whittle "). The whole family of twenty-four children were born in one bed, and twenty-two of them were baptised in Kilmaurs Parish Church. Francis lived in same house (old U.P. Manse, now the Western Tavern) for 42 years. The " tra- velling " Marshalls from the south of Scotland often called at Malcolm's father's house, and were received as equals. Sometimes MacMillans and The Kilmaurs Marshall s. 145 Kennedies called and were received as kinsmen. The women sold the spoons. Francis's wife was •drowned one wild winter night at Cunninghame- head Mill when returning from Kilwinning Fair. ■Of the first family of fourteen only one was a spoonmaker. Cow horns were mostly used in the making of these ; rams' horns are more difificult to work, though more durable. Like the tailors of old who went out to "whip the cat " for months at a time, the Marshalls travelled from farm-house to farm-house working up the rams' horns for the farmers for board and so much money. Malcolm considers the soup-divider (now in the Dick Institute) made by Rah, and photo of which is given, to be unique and a splendid specimen of the spoon- maker's art, as it is difficult to find a ram's horn so large. Francis Marshall also made smooth- ing irons, and his name was put on the handle of each ; and although the Tinkler's home-made smoothing-irons have been superseded by the Carron Company's goods, some specimens of Francis's workmanship still exist. Malcolm often saw eighteen of the family sit down to a meal. His brother Rab married Janet Clark from Mauchline, his double cousin {i.e., her father was his uncle by blood, and her mother his aunt by blood). This is character- istic of such people, and the Kilmaurs Marshalls 10 2 3 = < : — .2 g < I S 5 o — 3 2^^ ^ 2 .^- S £ The Kilniaiirs Alarshalls. 147 are no exceptions, for they were sib lurd, and as a probable result many of the Marshalls have weak eyes and cannot look up to the light unless with the eyes almost closed. James Marshall of Muirkirk, Malcolm's uncle, practised the tin manufacture. An uncle in Maybole followed the same trade. The mould for shoe lifts, as seen in the illustration, was called a " caulm." The " whorl " was used with a string and bow to revolve the brad-awl when piercing handles for whistling spoons. The scrapers were called oo'shaves (outshaves) and inshaves. They made the rasp or file them- selves from a used-up file by striking on a very hard stone (still in existence). The mould for soup-divider was made oi li^i^^nian vitce. Big Francie, Jock's son, a factory operative in Kilmaurs, showed his Gypsy blood by roving about the parish with a fishing rod in his hand. He was a renowned fisher and " guddler " in summer time when the water was low. Even through the medium of the post it has been possible to prove that the Tinkler cant was known to this branch of the Marshalls. The Kennedies. The Kennedies are held in kindly remem- brance in almost every farm-house in Galloway. They were said to have hailed from Hightae, "^- • ^»L_^.:^ r. ..^httid V ^IrA C3 ^ The Kennedies (Homers). 149 Lochmaben, where it is said they claimed to own property. They were a dark, handsome, powerfully-built race, with strong aquiline features. If we go back for half a century the gang then appears to have consisted of the father and mother, John Kennedy and Isabella Hutchison or Kennedy, three daughters named Tibbuck, Janet, and Mary, and four sons named Sandy, John, Andrew, and Rob. There was also another horner named Andrew Kennedy, who travelled Galloway at the same time as the Kennedy gang, but he usually travelled alone. Although he was not much older than the sons and daughters above- named, they always called him " Uncle Anra." He appears to have passed as a sort of superior Tinkler, and was inclined to disown kinship with the others. Having saved some money in his younger days, he arrived one day at an out- of-the-way little inn where he was unknown. He passed himself off as a great gentleman and a descendant of King Robert the Bruce. He entertained all and sundry who came about the inn, and it was said that even the parish minister was amongst the number, but one day an evil chance brought the Kennedy gang along, and one of them popping his head into a room where "Uncle Anra " was busy entertaining a 150 The Tin k/er- Gypsies. number of drouthy cronies, shouted out " Halloa, Uncle Anra " ! He is said to have had lair, yea, even to have pretended to have been educated for the Church — and his appearance and stories generally bore some clerical affinity ! He always wore a tile hat and a frock coat, and was known as " the preacher," or sometimes as " the gentle- man Tinkler." The men of the gsng were all homers, and basket and creel makers. Eab and his sisters often travelled in company, but if anyone passed them on the road, they would be found straggling along at considerable distances from one an- other. Sometimes they had with them a pony, and two large dogs of a half-collie, half-mastiff type. The pony must have been a good one. The farmer at Ingliston in those days was a great horse-breeder, and one day seeing the Kennedies' pony, he remarked : " Ve'll lie showint^ liini at Kirl<ciKll)iii;ht Show?" " Deed, ihir, we're juiilit thinking we would," said Andrew. " And ye'll lake a prize, too." " Deed ay, maithter, if there ilhna a better yin there." It seems that altliough the gang travelled in separate detachments, they had cither some pre-arrangement or system of informing one another where they would be found at stated The Kennedies (Hornets). 151 times. Occasionally a Kennedy would intimate to a farmer with whom he was staying that their ranks would be increased. AVhen the gang met, they, however, generally adjourned to a public- house, and men and women alike celebrated the occasion by having a spree. The Kennedies were always fond of a glass. As a rule, they were nevertheless moderate drinkers. They had the reputation of being honest, and were try^ted everywhere. It is said that the wife of one of the Kennedies had been caught pilfering, and that ever afterwards her husband gave her an allowance, and would not permit her to travel along w'ith him. It was that same w'oman who told a school naster's wife that she had been bitten by an adder. In confirmation of the story she exhibited a freckled swollen ankle, and out of pity for her, the schoolmasters wife collected and handed over to her a good round sum of money. But it turned out after- wards that both ankles were alike swollen and freckled, owing, no doubt, to sitting over the camp fires. They seem to have had a great affection for one another. For many years prior to the death of the mother of the gang she was blind, and used to go about leaning on her son Andrew's arm, and latterly it was a humbling sight to see that tall, handsome man, the outcast of a 152 The Tinkler-Gypsies. Christian community, trudging wearily along roads or through the heather to some outlying farm-house, carrying his decrepit old mother on his back. No one appears ever to have learned from them whether they spoke the Tinklers' cant, but there need be no doubt upon the point, since they were splendid specimens of the Tinkler race, and as the writer hereof has met with relatives of theirs who know the Galloway cant thoroughly. George Borrow, in his diary, has this significant entry : — "July 17, 1S66. Stranraer. . . . The dark woman; believed her to be a Gypsy. Did not speak to her : sorry I did not." ■'■'3 A Kennedy doubtless ! We can only now join with him in his regret, for in a very few minutes he would have proved to the Gypsy woman that he had the inten^sts of her race at heart, and wouM have been sure also to have left an interesting record of tlieir conversation. The women folks vended the spoon«, etc., fashioned by the men and polished by the women, and attended to the culinary depart- ment. In some farms the Kennedies were allowed to have a bed in the house, but they generally carried with them their own bedclothes, and a l)ed was made for them in an outhouse. They usually also carried their own provisions,. The Kenntdies (Homers). 153 but if they happened to wish to make a potful of broth, in which, tradition relates, they often boiled a dumpling, they always had some want to be made good from the adjoining farm- house. They were welcomed by the folks at the farm-houses, but each farmer had his favourites amongst them, and sometimes he would let one lot in and refuse another. They were good at overcoming such obstacles : " If ye'll tak' uth in I'll make ye a richt nyth wee bathket, inithtreth," one of them would say. When the mistress came to ask for her basket, if they had been none too well entertained, she would be told : " Deed, mithtreth, I promithed you a bathket, but I dinna mind thaying I would gie ye't for naething." Those at the outlying farm-houses were dependent on them for the news of the country side, and no one knew better how to wield that power than the Kennedies. The young folks about the farm often gathered around them as they sat on the ground in the cartshed making spoons and baskets, and they delighted to enter- tain them. Sandy would ask : — " Wud ye like a thea thong, a war thong, or a love thong ?" and soon he would have his audience listening open- mouthed to his yarns and songs. The " Plains of Waterloo" and " M'Guire's Grey Mare " were great favourites of his, and those who heard him sing them say it was quite a treat. Here are three verses of the latter song The KetDiedies (Homers). 155 as still sung, after the manner of Sandy Kennedy, by a farmer : — " If you had been on Gilmore Green, You would have seen sport and play there, Two English fliers, they came down To beat Paddy M'Guire's grey mare. Chorus — i re a fal de la la fal lal la de la le ro. Away they went the very first heat, She made all the people wonder. The very first time she cam' round Was like the roaring claps o' thunder. C/^i^r/zj— same. " The Kennedies' dialect, from what can be gathered, seems different from that of the district frequented by them, and all of them pronounced "s" as "th." That lisp accentuated the peculiarity of their speech. They were adepts at the art of ingratiating themselves, but were never servile, and had ever a ready answer. In almost every farm-house in Galloway there are treasured up stories about them or told by them. Surely it is a pity that such should be lost ! We therefore make a beginning by recording a few gathered at farm-houses in different parts of Galloway, and the writer hereof will be thankful if readers will communicate to him any further stories about the Kennedies : — A very godly man, Mr Stevenson, first Free Church minister at Barrhill, once came on " Uncle Anra " Ken- nedy making baskets by the roadside, and, entering into conversation with him, asked — 156 The Tinkler-Gypsies. " Do you ever pray ? " " Didtht thou ever make bathketh ?" retorted " Uncle Anra," and relapsed into silence. A minister of Kirkcowan parish, when visiting his parishioners, once overtook " Uncle Anra." Out of curiosity the minister had asked him — " Do you carry a Bible about with you ?" " No," replied " Unc'e Anra," adding as an after- thought— "Do you?" The minister triumphantly produced a Bible from under his arm, and said — "Certainly." Whereupon "Uncle Anra," dropping his budget, and after fumbling about in it for a little, produced his " caulms," remarking as he did so — " I cairry my caulmth ; every man to hith ain tredd." A servant girl who hailed from New Luce had been unkind to " Uncle Anra." One day he was sitting by the kitchen fire at the farm-house where she served, and in presence of the servant girl he gave this conundrum to her mistress — " Why ith New Luce like Nathareth?" and when the mistress gave it up, " Uncle Anra" said — " Becauth nae guid can come oot o' eillier. " " Uncle Anra " used to speak somewhat deprecatingly of the workmanship of the other Kennedies. He would say — "They can make a guid thtrong thpune, but they canna make a thweet gaun thpune." The stories handed down about the other Kennedies are like their spoons — prol)abIy not so well polished as " Uncle Anra's," but just served the purpose for which they were intended equally well. One day the late Mr Kigby Wason, of Corwar, found Andrew Kennedy fishing in a specially preserved loch. Mr Wason was angry, and .said — The Ke /me dies' Stories. 157 " Do you know these fish are mine ?" But despite Mr Wason's great bodily strength, Andrew had confidence in his own and was prepared to try conclusions, and so replied — " Them in ta loch may be yourth, but them in ta bathketh mine. Ath thure aih you're there an' I'm here the aul' fellowth are the betht fisherth, but Maithter Thyminton o' The Holm could fish 1" Another story may be given cliiefly to show that the Kennedies inherited the Gypsy trait of being fond of out- of-door sports. Sandy had been at a fox hunt, and bare-footed, he had reached the top of The Dungeon o' Buchan, when a fox bolted from a scree half-way down the steep mountain side. Sandy shot from above and someone shot from below the precipice, and Sandy summed up the result thus : " Vou fired and I fired and the fox ith dead." A farmer, who, having had a little scientific training in boxing in his early youth, got the name of being always spoiling for a fight. Knowing that Sandy had the reputation of being a great boxer and wrestler, the farmer tried repeatedly 10 provoke a fight with him. Verbal insults had proved of no avail, but at length one day, as the farmer was driving along, he met Sandy walking. As he passed Sandy the farmer struck him with his whip. Sandy sprang at him like a tiger, and, hauling him from the trap, gave him a most unmerciful thrashing, until the farmer begged him to desist and promised better behaviour. It was after this fight that Sandy said : " Thienth ith a' verra weel, but it'th nae uth when thuperior thtrength cometh into play." A former tenant of Caldons, named MacMillan, on one occasion tried to get Sandy's authority for a rumour which he designed to circulate about a neighbour, but Sandy was too wide awake for him : "They tell me, Sandy," said MacMillan, slyly, 158 The Tinkler-Gypsies. " lliat we are to ha'c )in o' your l)reeil (Kennedy by name) as tenant o' the Stroan." " 'Deed no," replied Sandy, cautiously. " I wadna thwier to't either way. It'th mair nor pothible, for thereth gentle bluid in hith veinth, Ijut whether he'th a Tinkler or no, ril no thweir, but yer ain folkth are come o' a far waur kin', for they're a mixture o' Kennedith and MacMillanth. I yinth thaw the grun black wi' MacMillanth, an' their cuddy cairts an' tin cans, frae Babby Heronth to the Brig o' Dee (a distance of about a quarter of a mile), an' they were the wildeth lot o' Tinklerth I ever clapt een on." Sandy was on a later occasion making spoons at Caldons, when MacMillan passed through the steading with the lambs on the way to the hog wintering. " A pickle thnod lambth, Maithter Mac.Millan," said Sandy, seeking to ingratiate himself. " Ye may ken aboot horns, Kennedy, but what the deevil dae ye ken aboot sheep?" growled MacMillan, still bearing a grudge against Sandy. " Atweel no," assented Sandy, " I think ye maun be richt, for a' yer neebourth thay ye keep the warlh theep in a' the parith o' Minnigaff. " On one occasion Sandy had been sleeping in a stable and he had been displeased with the quarters assigned to him. He had turned out early to work at his spoon making. The farmer as he passed, on his way to the hill, remarked : — " You're early at work this morning Sandy." " Oh, yeth thir," replied Sandy, " we mutht be up and doing, but gin I had been a man o' your thtation o' life I wadna ha'e been oot o' my bed thith whyle yet." Near a farm-house, Bardrochet, where a farmer, also named Kennedy, lived, Sandy was busy one day cutting willow wands for basket-making purposes, when a servant lassie came running down the loaning and said : — The Kennedits' Stories.. 159 " I was sent to tell ye that these wands are being kept for Mr Kennedy.'" " Gie back," said Sandy, "an' tell yer maithter that Mr Kennedy ith juitht buthy cutting them." By the time she had returned Sandy had decamped with'a big burden of willow wands. Sandy bore a grudge against a farmer, and one night he was sitting by the fire in the kitchen, where a number of hams were hanging from the rafters. The farmer entered, and Sandy said : " Man, maithter, hamth make gran' pictureth, but gin ye were hog wunterin' theep for me I wad not care to thee tho inony o' them hangin' frae the theiling ! " He once told an ordained elder : "Ye couldna thay a graith fit for a thow'th denner. " But Sandy's tongue was like one of his old files, and had both a rough and a smooth side. One night a farmer's wife treated him to some haggis. " That'th a gran' haggith," said Sandy. " . . . . There'th a pickle o' gran' meal in that haggith, mithtreth. . . . Yin could thune thup themthelveth oot o' a thpune wi' that haggith, mithtreth." Sandy used to praise tlie short-grained hard horn of the Galloway sheep as compared with the soft " boss" horn of the larger sheep of South Ayrshire. When he took the heart out of a ram's horn he would say : " Maithter, that ram wath in great condition when it wath thlain." "A ram'th horn," he held, " made a durable thpune for the kitchen, but a gate'th (goat's) a thuperior yin for the room." " There," said Andrew, on one occasion to a customer, " ye have what nae ither in the parith hath — thix thpuneth oot o' twa ram'th hornth." i6o The Tinkler-Gypsies. Sandy had once Ijeen laid up at a farm-house. The farmer being aihng at the same time, liad called in the assistance of Dr Ilannay, The Gass, and had asked the Doctor to examine Sandy. Jle told Sandy that there was nothing seriously the matter, but that he would send him a pill. Sandy told what happened thus : " Whun I got the peel I juitht whuppit it under the bowlhter, and whun the Doctor cam' next day, he thaid : " ' J loo' re ye the day, Thandy?' an' I thaid : " ' Thank ye, Doctor ; I'm better. Hoo much am I in awin you ?' The Doctor said : " ' Theeing I wath vithiting the maithter I'll no charge ocht for my thkill, but it'll be eighteen penth for the peel.' " ' Thenk ye Doctor,' thaid I, 'for no chairgin' me ocht for yer thkill,' an' I juitht whuppit the peel frae under the bowthter and thaid : " ' An' thereth yer peel. Doctor ; it'th no yae haet the waur o' me ! ' " There are two stories reflecting on the affection of the Kennedies towards their parents, but we venture to record them solely on account of the humour contained in them, and because we know that no one would believe that the men — who carried their mother about on their backs when she was alive, and who also carried her corpse a long distance to her burial place— were in any degree lacking in filial affection. The father, it is said, was nearly drowned on one occasion, and as he was being rapidly borne down the stream one of his sons, who was running along the bank, shouted out : " For the love o' God, fayther, throw oot the caulmth." On another occasion the mother had slipped off" the back of one of her sons as he was carrying her across a stream. It was said that she had just been allowed to make the best of her way to the bank, and when chaffed about this, Sandy replied : The Last oj the Kennedies. i6i " 'Deed ay, I micht hae thaved my mither, but I wad hae lutht my tool bag I" When Sandy was giving the final p ilishing to a spoon he used to keep spitting in it, and a favourite saying of his at that stage was : " 'Deed ay, there'th mony a wyth man gled to lick whaur I thpit." One evening a Kennedy woman went up to a farm- house, where the Kennedies had been making spoons, and asked for twopence worth of milk. When she got the milk she said : " I daurna offer to pey ye the money on the Thabbath day, but I'll pey't in the mornin' before we leave." Next morning the farmer's wife spoke to them as they were about to depart, and as there was no word of the milk money she asked for it. " Atweel," said the Tinkler woman as she fumbled to get at her pouch, which she kept slung under her skirt, "ye need hardly ha'e mentioned the milk, for it barely coloured the thpune I" These Kennedie.s, as is mostly the case with the Tinkler class, seem in the end to have fallen on evil days. John was killed at Corsock by the breaking of a grindstone while he was sharpening his tools, and he is interred in Kirk- patrick-Durham Churchyard, where a tombstone was put up to his memory at public expense. A d3caying trade and supervening old age led to poverty and misery. Robert is said to have died in a lodging-house at Springholm about the year 1876. One by one the others dropped off, broken down by exposure and an unduly keen 11 The Last of the Kennedies. 163 struggle for existence. One of the family was named Mary, who was quite a character in her way. She was harmless, and her visits were always a source of amusement to the inmates of the houses at which she called. Her figure was peculiar, and once seen was never forgotten. With a sun-bonnet which may have been lilac when new, with clothing that had evidently seen better days, with bare feet, and stockings ending at the ankles, she moved about the country. Mary, like some politicians, had a programme to which, unlike them, she faithfully adhered. On entering a house she asked something from each inmate, and her questions generally followed this order : " Can ye gie's a penny ? Can ye gie's a pipe ? Can ye gie's a bit baccy ? Can ye gie's an apple ?" etc. After being supplied (for no one thought of refusing Mary) she made a pretence of leaving, when she was reminded that she had forgotten to favour the company with a song. Hereupon, Mary walked round a circle, and then began to give a specimen of her vocal powers. One verse ran as follows : — " The boatman dance and the boatman sing, The boatman can do everything ; And when the boatman comes ashore lie drinks his money, then he works for more." 164 The Tinkler-Gypsies. Between the verses she executed a kind of dance which added to the ludicrousness of the performance. Another of her songs referred to the " Merry Masons " with their aprons tied on, and brought into prominence the " burr " which marked her speech. Interesting stories could be told about Mary and her doings, but these little glimpses may perhaps be sufficient for the present.'' One of the women always wore as headgear a shawl drawn together around the face by means of a ribbon. The shawl was also drawn together on the nape of the neck, and the end hung down the back. In her hair she wore a long horn hairpin manufactured by herself. Tibbuck, the last of the sisters, spent her closing days in the ^^'^orkhouse, Dumfries, where she died on 1st May, 1893, aged 84 years. Andrew was weak both bodily and mentally towards the end. Enquiries in connection with an application for parochial relief elicited the information that he was born at Laird mannoch, Tongland parish, Kirkcudbrightshire. No doctor had been available, but hearing that a medical student, one Bennett, a son of the farmer's at Gatehouse, Balmaghie, was at home, John Kennedy had sent for Bennett. For timely help rendered, the independent John would not suffer himself to be a charity, and he presented the The Last of the Kennedies. 165 medical student, who afterwards practised in GatehoLise-of-Fleet, with a divider and a dozen green horn spoons. Latterly Andrew suffered from chronic cerebral disease, and, though his mind was darkened, his strong and abiding central passion — a love of freedom and the open air — never seems to have suffered eclipse. Let the simple facts pay their own eloquent tribute to poor Andrew's memory : — At West Crosherie, where he had been allowed to sleep overnight in a barn, he was found in the middle of the night wandering about the farm-yard with a blanket wrapped round him. At another farm— Barvennan — whilst apparently rambling about in the same way, he had fallen down a hatchway, and, sustaining an injury to his spine, had to be sent to the poorhouse. At one poorhouse he threatened to smash the window if the keeper would not let in the free air of heaven ; and in another poorhouse, when the (}overnor came round to lock up the place, Andrew declined to sleep in the house if he did so, giving as his reason, " I canna thleep in a hoothe an' the door lockit." Finally, on 2nd September, 1892, he was placed in Crichton Asylum, Dumfries, where he remained until his death. To complete the tragic outline of simple facts about Andrew's closing years, we shall record an 1 66 The Tinkler-Gypsies. account of a visit paid to him while he was an inmate at the Asylum, from which, in spite of his being incoherent and demented during his lengthened detention there, it will be seen that his absorbing passion continued to the end nobly to assert itself : — "The scene at the Asylum made a great impression on my mind, though I had been often in the Asylum seeing patients, and if one thing more than another struck me on such visits, it was their subdued air of resignation. Th's is how my visit to Andrew Kennedy is fixed in my mind now : I had occasion once to take back to the Asylum a patient who had been very violent at home. Under the firm hand- clasp, the steady eye, and the kind words of the doctor, it was wonderful to witness the fire subsiding in the patient's eye, and a striking calm overspreading the face. But when Andrew Kennedy was brought before the doctor and myself, I at all events felt myself confronted by the commanding presence of a tall, erect man, with good brow, and keen, dnrk eyes ; though evidently worn out and broken down bodily, he put intense energy without excitement into his pleading for liberty : " ' Oh, sir,' he ur ;ed, ' if ye've ocht to do wi' me tak' me oot o' here.' "'But,' said I, 'you are very comfortable here, and you have nowhere to go to.' Tinklers' Religion and Philosophy . 167 " ' I'm no fin'in' faut wi' the place, but I've everywhere to gang to. O man, let me oot, tak' me oot I ' he continued to plead. " I tried to get him to speak about his early days, his birthplace, etc. He answered sanely enough, but always hastened back to his main theme, repeating with pitiable eagerness, '0 man, let me oot, tak' me oot I ' " He died at the Asylum on 4th February, 1894, of chronic cerebral disease. Even so passed away the last of the Kennedies, the far-famed horriers, a splendid race, trusted by the public whom they served faithfully for many a day. Meredith, in his The Ordeal of Richard Feverel, portrays a philosophic Tinkler, who, regarding a pipe as a greater blessing than a wife, also held other philosophic views of life. Contrary to the usual religious indifference dis- played by Tinklers, that Tinkler believed that " God's above the devil," and from his superior knowledge of the Bible reproved " Speed the plough," who had asked — " A — who's him (Paul) ?'' by answering " Read your Bible." " There's a Tinkler and a ploughman," says Meredith, " who think that Ciod is always fight- ing with the devil which shall command the kingdom of the earth. The Tinkler's for God 1 68 The Tinkler-Gypsies. and the ploughman — ." A Tinkler who reads the Bible is an exception, but it is something to find even one such case. Once the writer hereof asked a Tinkler woman to allow him to set his camera on a box. She assented, but said there were some things in it that would require to be removed to save them from getting broken. When she opened the lid, there on the top was a Bible. But be careful not to give too much credit to the Tinkler in the matter of religion. Two friends paid a visit to a Tinklers' camp on a Sunday evening. They were disappointed because the Tinklers " froze " and were as dull as ditch water. The visitors attributed the Tinklers' quiet demeanour to regard for the Sabbath day. A few days afterwards a gentle- man related that one of the Tinklers had told him he knew one of the visitors well, but had anxiously enquired : — "But wha was yon wi' him ? ^^'e thocht he might be a pawnbroker or a detective " ! There is a certam breezy lightheartedness — call it philosophy if }()u will — about the Tinkler that enables him to rise superior to the misery of his lot. When we do so little to help him to rise, need we grudge him such happiness, even if it is the outcome of a spree ? Their upbringing is of the hnrdiest order: miserable shelter from exposure : alwavs on the Tinkler:,'' Upbringing. 169 borders of starvation, and yet they are not unusually prone to commit other than the most trifling offences, such as helping themselves to such things as wood, straw, hay, turnips, and the like : " The clerg}- take tlie tenth of swine, Potatoes, poultry, corn, and hay ; Why should not Gypsies, when they dine, Have a tithe pig as well as they ?" Dare we, who enjoy the necessaries, and many of the luxuries, of life condemn them ? Even in cases of petty theft, it is generally diiest necessity that leads them to make the depredation, which is only committed after they have first exhausted their peculiar, inventive genius for raising the wind : One day in the depths of winter a little boy of about five years of age might have been seen weeping bitterly at the footbridge at railway station. Moved to pity, a gentleiuan said : " What's the matter ?" " Boo, hoo, hoo," was the only response. "Who has been hurting you?"' was next asked. " My mither," was the answer. " ^Vhat's she done to you ?" "She said she'd tak' me in the train." " Which train is she in ?" " Boo, hoo, hoo " lyo The Tinkler-Gypsies. At this stage it suddenly dawned on the gentleman that the boy was a Tinkler, and he said : Stall (stop). Instantly the Tinkler boy said " Eh ? " the boo-hooing stopped, and he dried the big tears with his bonnet. J'avri (go on) said the gentleman, and he followed the boy along the footbridge. When they reached the open road, the gentleman said to the boy : " Now, chavi (boy), was that a dodge to raise money, or was your mother really in the train ? " And for answer the Tinkler laddie bolted down the road as hard as his little legs could carry him, and never once looked over his shoulder till quite a distance of a quarter of a mile lay l)etween him and his tormentor. A hard school of acting that for the poor Tinkler boy, and only a prospect of a copper or two for acting so naturally ! But it would not be long till the Tinkler woman would cause tliat little emissary to appear in quite a new role. The women lay their plans very deep at limes : A tipsy Tinkler man was recently seen sitting in a cuddy-cart nursing a child as the conveyance moved along tiic road. Sometime afterwards a Tinkler woman was seen rushing along the road crying " My bairn ! my bairn !'' but all at once Tinklers U/'l'ri/iguii:^. i 7 1 she wheeled as if possessed by some sudden resolve and returned to a public-house, where her husband, a Tinkler by marriage only, and some other Tinklers were drinking. Her hus- band came to the door, and she upbraided him : " There never was yin o' the breed o' ye ocht but a hard-hearted wretch." Suddenly he jumped into his cart, in which two children were already seated, and she jumped in after him. He thrashed the old, broken-kneed horse whilst she tried to prevent him ; and anon he whacked her and the old bag of bones by turns, and amidst the shrieks of " Murder ! help ! oh, my bairn I " onward staggered the old horse, followed by the groggy cart. It was a sickening sight, but all the time the children sat laughing in the cart quite unconscious that they were passing through any danger. Deeply embedded in the wild nature of that Tinkler woman was a love for her child, and that seemed to be the sole motive for her sudden resolve. Next day, how- ever, the gentleman said to her : '" Barrie davies, nawken, I wad like \o jan if you got the wee kinchin ye were deekin for alang the lig the t'ither raitieV (Good day. Tinkler, I would like to know if you got the infant you were looking for along the road the other night ?) 67^/ (yes), she replied, adding in a triumphant 172 The Tinkler-Gypsies. way, "an' I fekkit (took) the gudeman avri (away) frae the peevin keir (drinking house) " ! But to see the Galloway Tinklers as they renlly are let us take the liberty of recording, in the first person, the actual experiences of a visit to a Tinklers' encampment. One must bear in mind if one wishes to profit by such a visit that the iac/io droin to be a jiimevmengro is to shoon, dick and ris^ in si (i.e, The true way to be a wise man, is to hear, see, and bear in mind)."" Young Geordie MacMillan may be taken as a good specimen of the MacMillan gang. He is a strong, active fellow, who has travelled both in the Highlands and Lowlands of Scotland, and part of England and \Vales, and has spent some considerable time in Canada. He was married to a cousin of his own at Pictou, Canada. His ruddy complexion, black hair, dark eyes, quick inquisitive glance, and his restless manner all go to show that there is, for a Tinkler, an unusually large proportion of Gypsy blood in his veins ; indeed, one could readily believe that though Geordie knows only the Galloway cant there is more Gypsy blood in his veins than in many an English Gypsy who speaks Romanes, and knows little or nothing of cant. One day I was coming along a road when, at a considerable distance, I spied a woman walk- ing in front. She lifted her heels from the A Tinklers' Eucaiiipmeiii. 173 ground so unusually smartly that I thought to myself " that must be a Tinkler," for the Tinkler women are generally smart on their feet. She disappeared round a corner, and when I turned the corner there was Geordie MacMillan sitting in a cuddy-cart with a roll of waxcloth partly hanging over the end of his cart. It was his Photo by A. M'Coruiick. Galloway, Cumberland, Perthshire, and Argyleshire Tinklers. Blarshalls, Jlonisous, Stewarts, anil (.'ampliells. wife I had seen, and they were now talking to one another. " Good day, young man," said Geordie. " Good day to you both," said I, and when the wife moved to the other side, I asked : " And how're you, Geordie ?" " I'm weel," said he, "an' I was juist telling my mither before I left ' Parliament Knowe ' 174 The Tinkler-Gypsies. that it was this sliaji wee gav (bad wee town) that the }Oung man who was interested in travellers leeved. Dae ye ken what she said, young man ?" " No," said I. " ^^'eel, she said he maun be a rauge gnd^^i (daft man) that wad ha'e ocht to do wi' Tinklers." Whereat I laughed and said I would just go and interview her, seeing that I had never had the pleasure of meeting her before. " Parliament Knowe '" is an ideal camping ground ; it sits high and dry, commands a lovely outlook over the valley of Cree, and is sheltered by some fine Scotch firs. Mrs Mac- Millan was busy baking scones on her camp-fire when I arrived on the scene. " Good afternoon," I said somewhat stiffly. " 'Tis that, sir," she formally replied, but went on turning bar scones. Silence ensued, but she was determined not to break it. Then it occurred to me to ask : "Can you show me your licence ?"'" " Yes, young gentleman,'' she replied, rubbing her floury hands on her apron. She produced it from a box which had lieen used as a stool, and said : " That's the wee slangs " (pedlar's licence). '* Have you the cart licence ?" I asked. A Tinklers Enavnpinent. 175 " Yes, young gentleman," and as she handed it over she sa'd : " That's the big slanos " (waggon licence). " But," said I, '■ it's not in George MacMillan's name ?" " No," she promptly rejoined, " ye see I'm a widow." " Oh, but isn't there one George MacMillan camping here ?" I next asked. " Yes, yer honour : he was here, but dear knows whaur he is noo," and for a moment she seemed at a loss what to say ; but then it dawned on her to ask : " But wha are you, to ask sae mony ques- tions ? " " Oh," said I, " Fm the range gadgi." " Losh bless me," she ejaculated, "I could like to hae hut ye on the face wi' a scone whun ye asked for Geordie's leescience, for he's awa' into Newton wi' waxclaith, an' it's three days past the April (date when licences fall to be renewed), and I kenna whether he's paid the big siajigs or no. Weel, weel, ye're a range gadgi richt eneuch." Seeing that Mrs MacMillan was busy scone- baking, I said : " Are there any others about the camp ? " to which she replied : " Deil the body except an aul' blin' Hielan' Tinkler wumman ower there at that far camp." cc H A Tinklers Encainpnieut. i-ji "Well," said I, "finish your baking, and I'll go and have a crack with her and come back to see you later." A poorjold shrivelled-up mite of a woman was squatting on the ground in the mouth of the tent. Her frock was in tatters and hung loosely on her shrunken frame. Her bodice being open at the necl^ showed that she wore little or no underclothing. A cutty pipe was in her mouth, and if clouds of smoke are any criterion she was enjoying her smoke. She moved not as I approached, but a bantam cock which had been sitting on the top of the tent flapped its wings and flew down. On nearer inspection^the poor old body had no eyes in her head. What a study for the antiquary 1 What a reproach for Christian Scotland ! How comes it that Tinklers — the Marshalls always — still carry abouc with \.\\^\w bantam cocks and hens, which seems also, from Callot's picture (see illustrations to chapter ix.), to have been the custom with continental Gypsies in 1604? (see pages lo-ii, vol. ii. of The Gypsy Lore Journal). In this changeable climate how is it that the tent holds on the same as of old while other systems of housing have their day and cease to be ? " What care we though we be so small ? The tent shall stand when the palace shall fall." Could any more primitive sight have been seen 12 lyS The Tinkler-Gypsies. a thousand years ago ? A\'hat has a boasted civilisation done for such as she ? What has religion done ? ^Vhat philanthropy ? Poverty- stricken ! Religionless — who can tell ? The eyes eaten out of her head with inflammation through exposure, mayhap through misdeeds ! Yet, withal, she appeared to be quite contented, and did not seem to consider she was enduring hardship. Barrie dnvies, graii-naisinort (Fine day, grannie), I said, sitting down beside her. " 'Tis that, kind sir," she said, turning her sightless face round towards me. Momentarily I was spellbound ; regaining myself, I asked : " Don't you know cant, grannie ? " " Oh ay, dear; but I seldom speak it." " Why ? '' I asked. *' Oh, it's juist no' nice." " But why ? " " Oh, it's juist hatefu' to hear't." We talked for some time on the general aspects of the Tinkler's life, and soon the other members of the various gangs — there were four on this occasion — all began to drop in from the labours of the day, the women folk from selling tin ware made by the men, or from selling small drapery goods which they carry in rooskies ■(baskets), and the men from selling waxcloth or brashes, or from horse-dealing, or, as is too often A Tinklers' Enca}npment. 179 the case, from having a carousal. Mrs MacMillan having finished her baking, came forward and said : " Geordie and this young man's great com- rades ; he kens cant juist Hke yin o' oorsels." " I hae juist been tellin' him it's hatefu' to hear't," said old grannie. " That's the God's truth, aul' wumman, and it sometimes gets yin into trouble as weel as oot o't : Yince me an' anither wumman went up to Slogarie to sell cans. Whun we knocked at the door a big fat wumman answert't it. Whun she opened the door, I noticed a baskit o' aipples sittin' on a stand. Says I to my neebor : " ' I wish that barrie manishi (big Avoman) would nash avri (go away) ; I would chor (help myself to) some o' thae o-a/ishers (apples).' A young leddy that had been listenin' behin' the door cam' oot o' the room and said : " ' Never mind the big fat wumman, and if ye're decent we'll gie ye some o' the aipples.' Lo'd, aul' wumman, if ye had stuck me I wudna hae bled ! She had veesited aboot Yetholm and had every word o' the cant." While the Tinklers gulped down their rough and ready meal, 1 amused myself by taking snapshots of them, and chatting with old grannie. Our conversation was interrupted by a loud noise which proceeded from behind the tent, and old grannie ciied out — P ':imi ^ yi I O £ s A Tinklers' Encampment. i8i " Wull some yin look efter thae weans, or they'll get killed?" I looked behind the tent, and there was a plucky bare-legged and bare-chested Tinkler boy of about six years old trying to ride a donkey. He was in the act of sliding over its shoulder, though still embracing it round the neck. Then another mounted. Up went Neddy's heels and down went his head, and the boy met the fate of the other. Several tried, some of them making a better stand than others. At last it was decreed that one nicknamed ■" BuUer " — a name to conjure with in the clan Marshall — should mount the cuddy, and in vain did Neddy for some time kick up his heels. The rider twisted his long legs under the donkey. At last Neddy seemed to sulk. He backed steadily into a whin bush, and then feeling the pricks, gave a spring forward which almost unseated the valiant " Buller." Then the donkey stood stock-still. He was thinking, and looked decidedly wise. He began to back more vigorously than ever, and when he regained the whins he stood almost straight on end, and then giving a half-wheel, he caused "Buller" to lurch, and landed him in a whin close to the one the donkey had formerly been pricked by. Loud was the laughter, and Neddy, commonly regarded as stupid, but who, the Gypsies all say, A Tinklers' Encampment. 185 is most knowing, and " sees ghosts even quicker than a horse, because of the cross on his back," was decreed the victor. A Cumberland Tinkler and a Carlisle Lid who were travelling in company as clog dancers next favoured the company with a break-down. One of the two played a mouth harmonium as they danced, and better playing or dancing one could not wish for. This merely served to whet the appetite of William, the King of the Marshall gang, and he speedily formed a square for a reel. He and his consort were partners and soon amidst much " hooching " and yells of laughter, they were cleekin'j; and swinging and footing gaily the jolliest reel imaginable. Some- times it was the mouth harmonium that served as an accompaniment, but King William had a distinct preference for suiging out at double quick time the chorus of the " Tinkler's Waddin' " — " Dirrim day doo a day, Dirrim doo a da dee O, Dirrim day doo a day, Hurrah for the Tinkler's waddin' O." At the close of the reel I left the breathless dancers to go to resume my interview with old Grannie Stewart, who, I learned, hiiled fr )m Perthshire. She was standing alone with sight- less eye sockets upturned — it almost see ned pleadingly — towards the sun. A donkey had 184 The Tinkkr-Gypsies. strayed over the b;ae Lxc^^ and " King William " on his way to drive it hack passed between grannie and me As he passed he said — " God, that aul' wumman wad be far better dead."' " Syel'' ('deed ay), she listlessly assented. "Come and sit down, old grannie," I said. We sat down together on the brae face. I soon found she was thoroughly versed in cant, although she said, " I ken little aboot it com- pared wi' some o' my forebears." First one Tinkler came over and sat down, and then another, and presently a little circle formed round in front of us. The old Perthshire Tinkler woman, Stewart, sat on my right ; and on my left, her son-in-law, an Argyleshire Tinkler named Campbell, a polite, intelligent, red-haired man who spoke good English ; and the others were in fron^ At times I still imagine I feel the Argyleshire Tinkler's beard rubbing against my cheek 1 Said I, '' What's your word for — " Bacon ?" " Mass,^'' said a Marshall. " y'lger," the Carlisle lad. " Saw/lid," the Cumberland Tinkler. " Road ?" " Drum" said William Marshall. " Lig,^'' said a MacMillan. " Aye and ' tober,^ " said Campbell. " Shelta ? " " Never heard the word," chorus of voices. " Miiiklcrs thari?" " Never heard it, from all sides ; (Tinkler's talk) but the Cumberland Tinkler said, '" It's t/iadi" and some of them shouted "Gi'e Morrison a chance," and then he said : A Tinklers' Encampment. 185 ■" Stop your talk " is " Stall yei- thadiait," or " N'tckso bullien^'' or '■^ Stall yer whiiddiiC ,^'%2i\A^\\\\2im. Marshall ; ''''Aye, or ^ Stall yer iiia?!oan,'' " said old grannie. " Tent ?" " Coininodation^'' said the Carlisle lad. " Runk,^'' said several others. " Wattle, ^^ added old grannie ; and so on for over an hour I drank in the cant of several districts. One must, as somebody has remarked, strive to be " wax to receive, and marble to retain," amidst such a babel of tongues. The subject is full of interest, and a list of cant words collected by me in that way from Gallo- way, Perthshire, and Argyleshire Tinklers will be appended to the final chapter. If similar lists were collected in different parts throughout Great Britain and Ireland, the cant language would prove a splendid field for philologists. The following are a few strange expressions I heard for the first time on that occasion : — Morgen — Morning. Watches — England, Highlands, or America, land beyond. Dal zvatches — Ireland. Dal gadgi — Irishman. Sothern (pron. like so) gadgi — a Protestant. Yarrachan — Roman Catholic. Lenunaji cowl — An Orargeman. Cangi-i (or kanli by a Perthshire Tinkler) —Church. Dal ivhuddin chaet — Roman Cathobc chapel. Test — Head. 1 86 The Tinkler Gypsies. The cant lesson was rudely inteiTU[)ted by the sudden appeornnce of a wild-looking female figure over the hill. She was gesticulating furiously, and raving louldly. On she came — drunk and in a state of great deshabille, her dark hair hanging loosely on her shoulders. She halted on a knoll just above the company and yelled : ''^\'haur is she ? Til tak' her life. I'll learn the ... to insult me,"' and flinging her arms widely apart, she continued : " I'm as weel to be seen as her, the . . . ." " Losh, that's awfu" talk !" said Mrs Marshall. "There's a shannas (trouble) coming," said old grannie. Her words had a magical effect. The Tinkler woman buttoned the neck of her dress and glanced furtively over her shoulder as she did so. "Ay, it's Tarn" (the devil), said William Marshall. " But," added Mrs AFarshall, " he's lingin aree (going away) again "; and presently the enraged Tinkler woman sat dcjwn in a calmer state of mind. A few moments later she joined in the conversation, and in a cjuarter of an hour she seemed (juite sober. I met her on several other occasions, and she was always most polite, but I owe her a grudge for spoiling a lesson in A Tinklers' Encampment. 187 cant. A spirit of unrest set in : and it was left to William Marshall to break up the class amidst roars of laughter at my expense. I had said : " What would you say for this in cant — ' Have a glass of whisky ? ' " "Weel," said AVilliam, pushing in his oar quickly, " I'd say : " ' Thenk ye, yer honour; but if it's a' the same to you, I'd prefer a chant o gatter (pint of beer) to a cant oi peeve (glass of whisky) ! ' " Each gang then gathered around its own camp fire. Poor old Dnmbie Wilson sidled — paralysed with disease — along towards his bed-tent, avoiding the unevenness of the ground as he went. " Poor old Dumbie," said an English Tinkler, "it's a wonder the authorities don't do some- what for him. If they found him dead in the morning they'd likely say, ' Damned good riddance' ; never mind, my turn next ! " As I seated myself beside Mrs MacMillan's fire, I remarked : " It's a pity to see old Dumbie in a state like that?" " It is," she assented, " but it's a greater peety o' yon P^nglish traveller that spoke about him. D'ye ken why he aye stands ? Weel, it's juist because if he sits doon he canna get up withoot help. He's discharged frae the Infirmary as iMI^^^^^^^K^^m^MfiM i r^ ,- ■ m *■ »K A Tinklers Encampment. 189 incurable, an' he could show ye his certeeficate to that effect." " Poor fellows," I said; " who can fathom such misery ? and that poor blind woman's face haunts " " Was she telling ye the King and Queen yince honoured her by speakin' to her ? " inter- rupted Mrs Mac Mil Ian. "Oh, by the bye," I said, "I had almost forgotten that. She told me that the King and Queen, when Prince and Princess of Wales, once spoke to them when camping near Balmoral, and that on another occasion the Duchess of Fife gave her a sovereign. When I asked if she had kept that sovereign, she replied : " 'Deed, I wad hae liked to, but I had to let it gaun for bedclaes and claes for the bairns.' " " That's an example, na," said Mrs Mac- Millan, ambiguously. " But it isn't quite unique," I replied, and then I told them about a similar kindness shown to Gypsies near Windsor by her Majesty, our late Queen, and of the gratitude expressed by the Gypsies — " .So if she wants a man to box, I'll fight her battles, never fear ; 'Twas dry work talking of the socks^ Let's drink the Queen's good health in beer." IQO The Tinkler-Gypsies. " Tinklers," I added, " are just like other folks ; they have their ups and downs, and there's good and bad amongst them." " We get the name o' being a bad lot, and ■God kens we're far frae gude ; but ' they're no a' Tinklers that wield the budget,' " she replied, and her remark is full of meaning. Geordie said, " We'll soon be driven off the road." " 'Deed ay, faith," echoed his wife. " Na," objected Leezie Morrison, a Marshall who was nursing a baby, " they're no fit to do that, but they micht make us, in the mterest o' oor bairns, hae oor beds twa feet aff the grun'." " 'Deed ay," agreed Mrs MacMillan, as she drew her little hunchback boy more closely to her bosom, and then said feelingly — '' There's mony a yin meets his death wi' sleepin' on wat strae." Surely Leezie's suggestion is worthy of an Act of Parliament all to itself. It is simple, and would prevent disease and the spreading of dis- eise, and confer a real boc^i both on Tinklers and the public. Mrs MacMillan commenced to talk generally about the life of the Tmkler, but I "airted" her on to speak of folk-tales, and she replied — " Losh, ye're a real rau^^e qadgi that wad listen " The Steed o' Bells:' 191 to ony such trash. Lo"d, my brither, Stewart, wad juist delicht ye, for lie never tires o' tellin' auncient tales. He steyed \vi' me for a while at Whithorn last wunter, and whunever he saw me dull, he wad say ' Come on, Mary, and I'll tell ye a fairy tale,' and wi' his gestures, girns, and granes, he wadna be lang till he had us a' roarin'."' That statement contains a remarkable con- firmation of the late Mr Leland's and Mr David MacRitchie's theory about fairy tales serving as a sort of religion and sol ice in time of suffering. Presently a shower of rain came on, and I drew the little dwarf boy in between my knees out of the rain. Whilst he sat there he told the wonderful folk-tale : "The Steed o' Bells." "In former days there were old Kings and Queens. They lived long together. This ■Queen and King were married, and had two sons, John and William. The Queen took trouble and died. After a few years the King felt lonely, and he said to the young gentlemen : " ' I think I'll marry.' His second Queen was a young lady unmarried. They lived a long time together. She thought she would like a family. She did not like her step-sons William and John. She went to the old hen witch and said : 192 The Tinkler Gxpsies. " ' I am a young lady, and I would give any money of gold and silver if only I had a family. He adores those two sons, and if I should have a family to him perhaps he would like them. If you can make war with those two boys I'll give you a peck of gold and silver.' " ' I can do that, Queen. Go you home to your bed. Kill the best fresh young chicken, and drink its blood. Lie down and be very bad. Send for your maid, and when she comes tell her you want your husband, and be vomiting blood.' She feigns illness, and when the waiter comes the Queen says : " ' Fetch my husband to me immediately, waiter. I am going to die.' The King came. " ' What is the matter, my loving lady ?' Another mouthful of blood. ' She's vomiting blood ! ' " ' Is there nothing would make you better ? I will surely provide it.' " ' Nothing but one thing. It is the Steed o' Bells.' (This is a mare, the stalls' best, all clad with silver bells.) " ' If I don't get it,' pleads the Queen, ' I will die. You have two sons. They must go and find it.' " The King called the two sons, and fetched the two young gentlemen to the bedside. " ' Sons, you will do this.' " The Steed d Bells.'' 195 " ' Well, father, it is death for us, but we will go, my brother and I.' " Each gentleman got a parcel of victuals. Each gentleman jumped on a steed and said good-bye. They rode farther than you can tell me, or I can teil you. and reached cross-roads. The signboard said : " ' You may go thnt way, but you shall not come back. You may go that road, you may not come back.' The one brother jumped down, so did the other. " 'We'll have a little refreshment.' " They took a little food, and AVilliam said to John : " ' 1 will let you, the youngest son, go, and if you do come back, in one year and one day you and I shall meet here.' They shook hands. John rode on and on, farther than I can tell you, or you can tell me, until his horse and himself were hungry and tired and drouthy. " ' I will give my horse some grass and have some food.' This young nobleman sat down and opened his small parcel, and a totie wee thmg, with a wee red mutch and a wee red cloak, came up to him. " ' You are comforting yourself. Give me a bit of your piece and your meat.' The gentle- man divided the piece and the meat with this wee creature. So it stood alongside of him and said : 194 The Tinkler-Gypsies. " ' Mail}- thanks for great kindness. I know ■where you're going. You'll lose your life. I will •do you a good turn.' " ' I hope you will do what you can do.' " ' \\'ell, jump on your steed,' said she, for the totie wee bodie was a lassie. The gentle- man jumped on his steed, and told her to get up beside him. " ' No, no : I will go as fast as you. You must look at me well. I have something to say. I will convoy you loo miles. Soon we ■will come to an iron gate with two large pillars. You and your horse would not go through it nor jump it. I will open it for you. "W'hen you cross this gate you will go into a field of lions. Some may be sleeping, some grazing, some going about. They will make at the horse to eat you and the horse, ^^l•len I open the gate sorne will be sleeping and the rest going about, but when they get a certain distance from you, you will put your left hand into the left ear of your horse, pull something out, and scatter it all round you, and in place of attacking you they will fly for this.' " ' Thanks.' This wee creature and he rode on a long distance. They came to this great iron gate. The wee bodie said : " ' You cannot open this. Your horse cannot jump it.' She i)ut her wee linger on it and the ^^ate opened. " The Steed r/ Bellsr 195 " ' Now drive on and on, and remember, put your hand in your horse's ear when they are coming to devour you.' He put his hand to his horse's ear. When he pulled something out it was like your finger and was like a tablecloth with things for the animals. " He went on 300 miles. He came to another iron gate. They were both done. It was night. The birds were going to rest. " ' I will sit down and eat.' He sat down. Another wee thing came to him with a wee red cap and a wee red mantle. " ' You will not slumber. I ken whaur you're gaun. Many a hundred young gentlemen come this journey and never come back.' " ' I must try my best.' " ' I am vexed to see you. You are a noble- man's son. Give me a bit of your piece and a wee bit of your meat.' " ' I will do that.' So he divided with her. She stood beside him till he took his refresh- ment, and it would be wailted. " ' Now I know where you're going. You are a noble King's son. Your stepmother is leading you astray. I will put you on a plan. I will open this gate. The field is full of tigers. You put your right hand mto the horse's right ear. You will find a wee thing. You will pull it out and scatter it. They'll not have power to 196 The Tinkkf-Gypsies. touch you, and you'll keep the steed for speed. You will come to another gate, and meet a little boy there beside it. Good-bye.' So the gentleman rode on, farther than I could tell you or you could tell me, till he came to this tiger place. They come in their direction to devour him and his horse. He put his hand into his horse's right ear, found something like a wee thread, a tablecloth, and scattered it out — all sorts of things for the animals. He went through that place and came to this other iron gate. It would be three or four hundredweights. He couldn't open it. His horse was done. He himself was done. It was getting dark. " ' I will feed my steed.' He let his horse go and opened his parcel. Up came a wee old- looking boy, bareheaded and barefooted. " ' It is a good day.' " ' Yes.' " ' You are very fatigued looking. I know where you are going. Man, would you give a wee boy a share ?' " ' Yes,' said the nobleman. He divided his piece. This boy had no shoes nor stockings. They sat together and refreshed themselves. He said : " ' Nobleman, I am going to speak to you. Will you take me with you for a servant ?' " ' I have no place to put you.' " The Steed d Bells r 197 " ' Just you say that you will take me, and I will be a worthy servant.' " ' Well, well, come with me. Your feet will be tired. Jump on behind or before.' " ' I will travel beside you.' " ' But I must drive my steed.' " ' You are going to steal the Steed o' Bells from the Crystal Palace. It was your step- mother sent you to lose your life, and you have a brother in the t'other direction.' " ' Well, well, come along.' No matter how hard he galloped the boy ran beside him. He came to a great, great castle. He said : " ' You must wait here. This is an uncle of mine. I have a message, and you must wait till I come back.' So the gentleman pulled up his bridle. The boy went away and came back with boots and stockings. John mounted his steed again, and the boy kept up with the horse, always cracking and keeping him in great comfort. " ' Now here's another. This is a cousin. I must go to him. Don't leave me.' " ' I wnll wait.' He went to this great castle. He came up with a bonnet and a bell and the cloak of darkness. " ' What do you think of me now ?' " ' I think a lot of you.' *• ' I have just one friend to call on now, and ig8 The Tinkler Gypsies. then we will enter the Crystal Palace. You see the sun shining bright. You will see a great spire shining like stars. Yon's the Crystal Palace. We'll either lose or win there. There is another great castle. A relation of mine lives there. I am going down. Wait on me.' He went away walking, but came back riding a beautiful black steed. "'What do you think of me now?' " ' More than ever.' They rode along. He said : " ' Put your glass on and take a look. You see the Crystal Palace now ? I am your servant. I have to do a servant's duty to my master, but whatever is to be done you must obey me.' " ' I am quite agreeable.' " ' When we come in front of the Crystal Palace we will come on giants who will swallow us like a drink of water. But I know where the Steed o' Bells stands, and the King of the Crystal Palace sleeps by himself, and so does the Queen. They will be in a heavy slumber. When we go in the chamber door will fly open. You will see a fine young lady lying sleeping. Put your hand under the pillow. \'ou will find the keys. We are all right if the bells don't ring.' This noble Queen's door flew open. He put his hand under the pillow and got the '■'The Steed d Bells'' 199 keys. He came out to the lad now all clad in the cloak of darkness. Said he : " ' Now our hardships are only to commence. This gentleman of the Crystal Palace was once a little baby, and one of these giants lifted him and took him to his house and told a female servant to make a pie of him. When the giant went away the King's son Jack happened to be there and said to her : " ' I will save your life and the babe's. Cut a bit off its finger and put it in the pie — and the King thought it was baby's pie. But the servant took the baby away and reared him at a shepherd's house.' They went to the stable and opened it. The Steed turned round — the most beautiful black animal all hung round with shin- ing bells. The bells began to jingle and ring. " ' I have got you now !' roared the giant. 'I have the furnace waiting for you.' But the bare- footed boy said to the King who had been awakened from his slumber : "'Whoa, my King! I did not let you be bound and made a pie of. I saved your life as a babe. Have mercy on my master. Look at your hand.' When he looked he saw his finger was away. The King said : " ' Are you my friend of the Crystal Palace who saved me ? Hundreds and hundreds have come to steal the Steed o' Bells. I will save 200 The Tinkler-Gypsies. your lives,' and then, turning lo John, he said : ' You get the Steed o' Bells in a present, but when you go home you are to kiss your step- mother and tell her she is to get corn and hay for food.' Well, my boy and gentleman came along a considerable distance together till they came to the first place and went in, and there- after his wee fairies convoyed him safely home. Millions of gentlemen hjst their lives trying to steal the Steed o' Bells, but could not manage it. This young nobleman rode along and his wee fairy always came to him. " ' You got a very nice present. Have you got a piece ? ' and he never failed to give them a good one. So it came on to the last day and he was coming to his native place. lie arrived at the cross roads. He galloped up and down ! ' I went that road. My brother wouldn't come, but, hark ! I hear him whistling on me. One year and one day we should meet on this spot.' William hears the bells. He sets his steed away and sees his brother's steed come flying. " ' Well, you did not choose to come with me, but you did come to meet me. Here is the wonderful Steed o' Bells. Now, then, what are you going to give to the old lady? Will we give her her death as she intended to give us ?' " ' We will put a bit in her mouth and feed her on corn and hay till she dies.' They " The Steed d Be Us." 20 ( landed at the Palace, and their father came out. He was overjoyed when he saw them bringing •with them the Steed o' Bells, and said : " ' My lady will be spared now.' They were entertained to a fine banquet. They went to the place where the Queen was lying. They kissed her. John said : " ' You got your wish for your wife and your lady.' " ' Yes.' " ' Well,' said he to the Queen, ' we have got your cure, the Steed o' Bells. You said you would give us our wish.' " ' Yes.' " ' Well, our wish is that our father will get a bed put on the highest turret, and that you will go mto the bed and eat corn and hay till 30U die.' " Our horses are running around the castle, our bagpipes are playing, our drums are beating, and the jingling and music from the Steed o' Bells as it pranced up and down could be heard far farther than I'll tell you or you'll tell me. The Queen from the lonely turret looks over to see what was going on below when down bed and lady and all tumbled, and that's what comes of all wicked stepmothers." A dark object appeared, on the knoll, against the lingering sun';et light. 20 2 The Tinkler-Gypsies. " JA;//« (talk) to her," said Mrs MarMillan, and then under her breath she added, " It's the wumman I promised to get a sweetheart for, whun I sell'd her the wee pingle." "Has he no come yet, \oung wumman?" she asked, addressing her. "No." " Oh, he'll come yet." " I'm tired waitin'." " WuU ye no sit doon and gie's yer crack ? "" then louder, so that all the camps could hear : " It's the i'arra raii^i^e inanisiii " (big silly woman). Then from a distant c.imp came an English Tinkler's voice : " Come over here, my little jit-hi-jii, and I'll be your doxy-poxy " (sweetheart). " Gude nicht,'' she said, and ran away. " Glide nicht, young woman," shouted Mrs- MacMillan, "he'll come in the mornin'." Mrs MaclNlillan again took the hunchback on her knees, and soon he was sound asleep in her arms. He was snugly clad in a tartan suit. When Mrs MacMiUan started to unlace his boots--a strong p.iir — I rose to go ; but I noticed that there wasn't a hole in his stockings. She laid him quietly to bed without even wakening him — so- (juietly and tenderly did she handle him. A Tinklers' Encauipuient. 203 On my way fron camp, after bidding adieu to my friends, I met William Marshall. 1 asked : " Do you never tire of this kind of life ?" He replied without hesitation : " I like a free life in the open air, and we're as happy as the birds on the tree. I'm come o' the real aul' oreeginals. The life answer't them, and it'll do me my time." " Good-night, King William," said I. '' Gude nicht, yer honour," he replied. " I'm jawin awast (going away) the morn's iiwrgeii (to-morrow morning), an' whun I iiash avree (go away) I hope the country hanile (folks) wunna be gloyin' (laughing) at ye or makin' a ai/I o' yer nesis (a fool of you) for i}niiis;nn (talking) to us and us like. Gude nicht, yer honour," he repeated, adding this time, " and gude luck to ye." ^^:i iijj"ftMj' I CHAPTER V. Can youy'rtj to starihen ? Can you lei a kosht ? Can you besh under a bor Can you kel the bosh ? Misto ! Roinani-chal Del les ad It' his 7)iiii S'help me diri dalikeii ! You can kitr inistd' Said the Romani chai to the Romani i at "" <<tA --^o.. .prison. — gather ..sticks, —sit... hedge. — play. ..fiddle. -Well done ! Gypsy man. (Hit him in his face (literally ( " Give it " him.) — -dear father. — fight well. j Gypsy girl... Gypsy gentle- (^ man. IRK VETHOL-M has for many generations been regarded as the capital of the Scotch Tinklers. The colony there is, however, said to be almost extinct, and yet no one who knows anything about the inherent love for moving about of those peculiar people will doubt that there are still [)lenty of Tinklers in the Border counties. Let anyone in the neighbourhood of Kirk Yetholm make it known to a Tinkler that he takes a genuine interest in the affairs of Egypt, and he will learn by the almost daily calls which he \\\\\ receive from Tinklers that there are still plenty of the ra:e, and that Gypsyin-j; is a life hard to relin- I/i grained Habits. 205 quish. There are still Gypsies in Kirk Yeiholm, and in Swinton there is quite a large colony of Tinklers, or muggers as they are called. In Galloway, too, the uninitiated would imagine that the race was well-nigh extinct. At times, on the contrary, and by actual experience, the writer hereof begins to wonder if there are any other people besides Tinklers in Galloway ! It is astonishing the numbers of them who travel through Galloway. Some stay in a house for a few weeks in the dead of winter, but others never have any shelter other than may be obtained in their vans, tents, or in outhouses. In spite of the many inducements which a settled life holds out to them, they find the greatest difficulty in exchanging for such the freedom and absence of care which accompany their happy-go-lucky life in the open air. The following is a concrete example of the struggle which Tinklers have to pass through in giving up their nomadic life : — At a court recently held at Wigtown for registration of parliamentary^ voters a claim was put forward on behalf of a Marshall, his qualification being stated as inhabitant occupier of six different dwelling- houses within the qualifying period. He had actually occupied six dwelling-houses inside the twelve months ! The present writer had an opportunity of opposing the claim, but, needless 2o6 The Tinkler-Gypsies. to say, he could not see his way to discourage such a vahant effort to obtain the badge of •citizenship. The firm administration of just laws has done much to tone down the fierce nature of the Tinkler. Any acts of violence committed by them usually occur during a jollification. On such occasions, when under the influence of John Barleycorn, if one may judge from an Irish traveller's dictum, they look at matters somewhat obliquely : " Ach, sure, whin tliim Marshalls get a neggin or two o' skaihope (whisky) there'll be the divil an' all to pay. Ye never know how they'll be afther taking ov a joke. If it doesn't stroike them aroight, then begorra ye may just stand up and get yer nose broke. I've had to do it many's the time." Ructions amongst them frequently have their ■origin in horse-dealing transactions. A Gallo- way Tinkler, slightly under the influence of drink, was recently observed elbowing his way through a crowd at a horse fair. Another Tinkler — a Yetholm lad — was busy showing off the paces of a poor looking old horse. He turned the horse right in front of the Galloway Tinkler as he emerged. The Galloway Tinkler gave the horse a whack with his whip over the back — but the rider, although also the worse of ■drink, had little difficulty in retaining his seat. Tinklers' Ructions. 207 ^rhe Galloway Tinkler ran up to the other, and, taking the horse by the head, enquired : " What are ye speirin' for him ?" " A flimsy {;^s) ^^^^ y^^' nawken (Tinkler), or duce flimsies (y;£,\o) frae ■a. gadgV (house-dweller). " Baa," said the Galloway Tinkler, " I'll gi'e ye the geiuiitan (half-breed cuddy) foi't if ye'U gi'e me a r4' (pound) byi. He's a meghrin'" (staggered horse). " Go on wi' ye, wha ever heard o' a three- year-aul' jawin (falling) on his test (head). Deek (look) at his mun " (mouth). The Gallo- way Tinkler did so, and laughingly replied : " Get out wi' ye, he's a hammy'' (bad-mouthed horse). " A shan hatver (bad feeder) that could ha (eat) a gaunie d geeve ? '' (bag of corn). " Syet " (ay), retorted the Galloway Tinkler, "if he ever deeks (sees) it. Deek (look) at his tramplers (feet), they couldna jaiv (carry) a gaunie d geeve alang the droni (road). Bing mackem (throw puddled clay) on his shan tramplers (bad feet) and/fr>^ (take) ih^ grye aree (horse away) oot o' deekment (sight) an' dinna let the cleechy deek (policeman see) them. A grye feniniler (horse dealer) maun hae wannered (sold) the prod (done horse) to ye in the dark- nient (night-time) or when ye were bumie " (drunk). 2o8 The Ti/ik/er-Gvpsies. " Ruffert (no). F , the unciioneer (auc- tioneer), wantiered me the j^rye at a /evei go " (square bargain). " Syet," jeered the Galloway Tinkler, "but ye hinged'*' him." "You're a " " He's only gude," flouted the Galloway Tinkler, " for viulle-mass (dead meat) for the nyowhicheats " (cats). " VW. p agger (break; your test" (head), roared the Yetholm lad as he cut him across the face with his whi[x Writhing with pain and mad with anger, the Galloway Tinkler sprang at him, dragged him from his horse, and flung him to the ground. Two other Tinklers rushed up and interfered to prevent the Galloway Tinkler from wreaking his vengeance on him as he lay on the ground. But these two Tinklers — a son and son-in-law of one of the fighters — had no thought of stop- ping the fight, and during the remainder of it stood by thoroughly entering into the fun. Off went the Galloway Tinkler's coat and vest, and the crowd, which had collected, speedily scat- tered as he rushed like a mad bull at his oppo- nent. They met with a dull thud, and both * To " hing " a dealer is to sell him a horse for a sum of monev, pay him half the price, and owe him the balance ! Tinklers' Ructio/is. 209 fell heavily to the ground. From the Tinklers' and trenchers' tents and vans which lined the field the women folks, attracted by the shout- ing of the combatants and the crowd, came streaming over. In a trice they forced their way into the ring, and then the crowd swayed hither and thither. After a time, amidst shouts of '■^ /oiidnie "...'■'■ wapsie" ...Sind other stinging, ashamed of frailties, and much tearing of hair on the part of the rival factions of women, there emerged from the crowd a dark, thick-set, powerful virago, gripping as in a vice by the hand her lord and master. He apparently did not resist his queen, who, wearing a pair of strong taehis (shoes), plain blue duffle toggrie (dress), a red mortsplashtie (shawl), and a black howfie (bonnet), had quite a commanding ap- pearance. The Galloway Tinkler, as she led him along, kept hurling back the choicest of epithets at his quondam opponent ; his shirt hung in rags around him, and blood, streamed down his cheeks, but this was the result of the cut with the whip. The fight was said to have been a drawn one. Later on he and two men of the same gang were seen hurrying across the market field in the direction of the Yetholm Tinkler's tent, and the fight was renewed but without decisive re- sult. It is even said that it was fought again 2 I o The Tinkler- Gypsies. and again on different camping grounds, until at The Ferry camp the Galloway Tinkler, after an hour's hard fighting, was proclaimed the victor. But humps and bruises, the satiating punishment of the ancient and honourable trial by fisticuffs — the parent of all courts — is now deemed inadequate, and so these hardy and manly administrators of the primeval and funda- mental law of the realm had to appear before their evolved betters (?), and were subjected to the indignity of a plebeian 7/6 or five days. That is how Tinklers occasionally misbehave themselves nowadays, but they almost invari- ably confine such attentions to those of their own class — and after all it is not the worst way for such people to settle their disputes. By way of contrast one may profitably at this juncture allude to the description (as contained in M'Dowall's History of Dumfries^ p. 512 et seq ) of the Kennedies, " who made Mid- Annandale their chief haunt," the Gordons " whose tents were chiefly set up in Dtyfesdale and on the Galloway side of the Nith," and the Baillies "who roamed about in all directions and •were ranked as the ' upper ten ' of the Tinkler tribes " : " And truly to see a band of Baillies mounted on horseback attired in coats of scarlet or Lincoln green, rufiled in front and at the wrist, booted and spurred, with cocked hats for Phuto by Pretty Partners. Miss Bryden. 2 12 The Tink/er-Gvpsies. head gear, armed with swords and pistols, and followed by hunting dogs, was an imposing spectacle that went far to vindicate their claim to high descent and gentle blood." To complete the contrast let us turn again to the sad case of Jock Johnstone, briefly alluded to in chapter iv. Jock Johnstone belonged to a humbler Tinkler gang than the Baillies, and his tragic end will help to illustrate the darker feature of so frequent occurrence in Gypsy life of bygone days. The Gypsy race have a bad record for such crimes, but in judging of them let us not forget that unjust laws and a weak, vacillating, and grossly unequal administration thereof did much to foster a spirit of revenge in the hearts of Gypsies, and to bring about such crimes'" : — "On the 7th March, 1732, John (or, as he was usually termed, Jock) Johnstone was, with several other Tinklers, found guilty by the Kirk- cudbright Justices of being ' an Egyptian vagrant and sorner ' ; and for such negative crimes he was whipped through the Bridge-end, and then burned on the cheek. This was not the first or last time in which John suffered punishment ; but all the stripes, scorchings, and imprisonments he was subjected to did no more to cure his wandering and thievish disposition than to take the tan from his visage. \\'hen An Attempt to Cheat the Woodie. 213 Jock was roaming about he was invariably accompanied by quite a seraglio of women ; and on one occasion — ever memorable to him — he withdrew with some of them to a small ale- house, kept by an old widow named Margaret Parish, at Parkgate, eight miles from Dumfries, on the road to Edinburgh. A quarrel between one of his concubines and the hostess, about the price of the liquor, provoked the interfer- ence of Jock. Heated with drink and rage, he repeatedly struck the poor old woman on her head with a heavy pint stoup in which the ale was served, killing her on the spot. He was apprehended at Lockerbie next day, and forth- with lodged in Dumfries Tolbooth. During the dreary interval before his trial he was allowed the companionship of a pet jackdaw, which had travelled the district with him in happier days for them both. But just as the judges passed the prison, on their way to the court, the heralds of the procession blew a flourish with their trumpets, and that moment the Gypsy's feathered favourite dashed convul- sively against the iron bars of the window, and dropped down dead. ' Lord ha'e mercy on me, for I am gane ! ' cried Jock, naturally enough considering that the fate of the poor daw was ominous of his own, and so it turned out. He was condemned to die ; but life was sweet, and 2 14 The Tinkle) -Gypsies. he resolved to keci) it, or sell it dearly, while deceitful hope buoyed him up with the idea that the men of his own tribe would yet enable him to elude the gallows. Jock doggedly re- fused to leave liis cell ; and as he was one of the strongest men in Dumfriesshire, it was with the utmost difficulty that he was dragged out and carried to the upper storey, from the front of which the fatal noose hung dangling, waiting for its human tassel. The convict wanted the thumbs of both hands, and was often called ' Thoomie Johnstone ' on that account : but this defect no way unfitted him from maintaining a tremendous resistance. Apprehensive of rescue, the authorities placed a hundred stout bu'- gesses, armed with Lochaber axes, as a guard around the Tolbooth. Eventually, long after the appointed hour, the figure of Johnstone ap- peared at the scaffold, enclosed by six towit officers ; and we must leave the scene that ensued to be described by the Rev. Dr Carlyle, of Invcresk, who, when a boy, viewed it from the neighbourhood of his uncle Provost Bell's house, which was situated opposite the prison. ' When Jock first issued from the door,' says Carl)le, ' he looked a little astonished ; but looking round a while, he proceeded with a bold step. P.salms and prayers being over, the rope was fastened about his neck, and he was Jock Johnsiotie s Tragic End. 215 prompted to ascend a short ladder fastened to- the gallows, to be thrown off. Here his resist- ance and my terror began. Jock was curly- haired and fierce looking, and very strong of his size — about five feet eight inches. The moment they asked him to go up the ladder he took hold of the rope around his neck, which was fastened to the gallows, and with repeated violent pulls attempted to pull it down, and his efforts were so strong that it was feared he would have succeeded. The crowd in the meantime felt much emotion, and the fear of the magis- trates increased. I wished myself on the top of Crififel, or anywhere but there. But the attempt to go through the crowd appeared more danger- ous than to stay where I was. I returned to my station again, resolving manfully to abide the worst extremity. Jock struggled and roared, for he became like a furious wild beast, and all that the six men could do they could not bind him ; and having, with wrestling hard, forced up the pinions on his arms, they were afraid and he became more formidable; when one of the magistrates, recollecting that there was a master mason or carpenter of the name of Baxter, who was by far the strongest man in Dumfries, they with difficulty prevailed on him, for the honour of the town, to come on the scaffold. He came, and putting aside the six men who were 2i6 The Tinkler-Gypsies. keeping him down, he seized him, and made no more difficulty than a nurse does in handling her child ; he bound him hand and foot in a few minutes, and laid him quietly down on his face near the edge of the scaffold, and retired. Jock, the moment he felt his grasp, found him- self subdued, and became calm and resigned himself to his fate.' Carlyle closes his gra[)hic narrative by saying, ' The dreadful scene cost me many nights' sleep ' — a circumstance not to be wondered at. If a rescuing party of Jock's friends had appeared in his time of need they would very likely have succeeded in carrying him away in trium[)h." In chapter first it is shown that Billy, when he succeeded to his high office of King of the Galloway Gypsies, at once set about redding his "beat," which included Carrick, in Ayrshire — as a part of the ancient province of Galloway — of the other Tinkler bands who sought to encioach uptjn it. \\'e have seen also in chapter ii. that Billy was appointed and acted as Ringleader of "The Levellers.'" In further testimony of his being thoroughly embued with the militiry s[)irit, with a high sense of the responsibilities of his high office, and with a gn'm determination not to brook any rivals within his realms, we give this thorough- going specimen of the "Tinkler mettle " of the old days*- : — ' ' Tinkkfi. 'Mettled 217 "After Billy was firmly seated on the throne of his predecessor, he made a progress over his extensive dominions, with an intention of punishing severely those neighbouring Gypsy chiefs who had made invasions on his empire. 'Twas on a Sunday forenoon in the month of April, 1707, that he, along with part of his clan, came to a solitary farm-house on the borders of Dumfries and Roxburgh shires in quest of a gang of Teviotdale Gypsies, who, he had understood, had quartered there the night before. The family were all out at church except one female left to look after the house. No sooner had Billy and his train arrived than their antagonists turned out and instantly gave them battle. The poor woman shut the door, and remained in the house in great apprehen- sion until the door was suddenly forced open, when one of the combatants rushed into the apartment, and she perceived with horror that his left hand had been struck off. Without speaking to or looking at her, he thrust the bloody stump, with desperate resolution, against the glowing bars of the grate ; and having staunched the blood by actual cautery, seized a knife used for killing sheep, which lay on a -shelf, and rushed out again to join the combat. All was over before the family returned from ■church, and both gangs had decamped, carrying 2i8 The Ti/ik/er-Gypsies. probably their dead and wounded nlong with them ; for the place where the)' fought was absolutely soaked with blood, and exhibited, among other reliques of the fray, the amputated hand of the wretch w^hose desperate conduct the maid-servant had witnessed." In A[u?-rays Poems''"' there is a poem of peculiar interest to those interested in the study of Gypsy life. The details of the poem are such as would lead most Gypsiologists to exclaim " Gypsies !" The following is a note appended to the original edition of tS6S, and ap[)arently the poem has been founded largely upon the information contained therein : — " The above poem is founded on facts still remembered in Galloway. They were com- municated by Mr Joseph Tra'n to S'r Walter Scott, in view of a fresh edition of his novel of Redgaii?iilet. The narrative of Train is so like an inventory of facts tiiat it is difficult to think that it is not entirely correct, and yet there may be reason to suspect that it was coloured and modified in his zeal to find a prototype of ' Wandering Willie.' At all events, his version of the story has not been adopted by the author of ' Helen.' According tcj the testimony of parties still living in Galloway, it was the husband and not the wife who was blind, and " JJ'a ndering Willie. " 219 her skilful performance on the IvM-p is still remembered. This statement is largely con- firmed by the Dumfries aftd Gaiioivay Courier of the day, in whose columns the calamity i& recorded, and where it is distinctly mentioned that the hapless family did not frequent the South of Scotland, as indicated by Train, but were on their way home from Ireland to AVales. Hugh Pritchard was a farmer's son of Carnar- von, and his w-ife, Helen Hughes, was a curate's daughter. " Dumfries and Gadozvay Courier^ April 23,. 1816. — 'On the evening of Saturday a poor man with his wife and five children, who were travelling through the country with a small cart drawn by an ass, being unable to find lodging, took refuge in a sandhole, at the side of the public road, near Twynholm Kirk. In the course of the night a mass of earth, which haci been undermined in taking out the sand, unfor- tunately gave way and buried them all under it. Their bodies were dug out on the Sunday morn- ing, and carried into the church.' '■^ Duiifries and Galloway Courier^ April 30, 1816. — 'Our correspondent at Kirkcudbright writes us that the people mentioned in our pub- lication of last week to have been smothered in a sandhole near Twynholm Kirk, in conse- quence of part of the earth falling on then) 2 20 The Tinkler-Gypsies. while asleep, were travelling from Ireland through Scotland, on their way home to Wales, and being naturally anxious for accommodation till the Monday following, they earnestly solicited quarters at several places in that neighbourhood, offering to pay for it thankfully, but were uniformly refused ; and from this inhospitable treatment were under the necessity of taking up their quarters in the sandhole where they all met their melancholy fate. The unfortunate accident is the more to be lamented, as the un- happy sufferers were not travelling the country as vagrants, but on their way home. The man was a discharged soldier, and his wife played on a harp, by which they principally supported themselves on their journey.' " It may here be added that on the person of the soldier were found a discharge, a letter from a boy at sea, some little money and papers connected with a small property in Wales, to which the wanderers were looking forward. The hapless family were placed in four coffin^, and interred to the right of Twjnholm Church, close to the churchyard wall. No memorial •Stone marks the spot where they were buried. The ass became the properi\- of Tibbie Mitchell, the Borgue carrier, as did also the wicker-cart of which the wheels were of solid wood, like that of a peat-bairow. The har[) full into the Photo by TiUsB Jess;e A. S. Armstrong. The Welsh Harpers Tombstone. 222 The Tinkler-Gypsies. hands of Mr Joseph Train, and remained with him till the 7th December, 1852, when that zealous antiquary, the friend of Scott, and author of Tin BiiJianites, breathed his last. A year or so after that event, when his curiosi- ties were sold and dispersed, it was allowed, being old and worm-eaten, to go to decay, so that now only two fragments remain of the old harp of Wales, which was so intimately connected with Helen's early and chequered history, which had cheered the wanderers in exile and poverty, and was treasured to the last as a tuneful and loved companion of the long and homeward march." To complete the picture of " Wandering Willie," we shall record Train's description of his meeting with that worthy'^* : — " 1 was returning to Newton-Stewart when the blind minstrel approached, with a large harp over his shoulder, led by a wcMiian who, I afterwards learned, was his wife, and followed by some children walking, and others in a small wicker-cart of singular construction, drawn by a little cuddie of the old Gypsy kind. As I drew near to them, the female caused him to raise his harp and he began to play the well-known air, ' Kenmure's on an' awa', \Villie.' It was a calm evening in the month of April, and the melodious sound of the harp soon brought a " IVande/'i/ig Willie^ 223 •crowd of peasants from the neighbouring hamlet of Machermore, and the fields of Kirroughtree, which, with a fiddle played by one of the younger branches ot the minstrel's family, formed a band that called into action the dancing powers not only of the other children, but like- wise of several of the spectators. The appear- ance of the minstrel was somewhat singular ; he was seemingly upwards of fifty years of age, of very diminutive stature, the small part of his countenance that appeared above his bushy beard was of a sallow complexion, very much pitted by the smallpox, and nowise improved by his large sightless eyeballs, which seemed to roll instinctively as he moved his hand across the strings of the harp. His habiliments seemed to be just whatever chance had thrown in his way. On his legs he wore a pair of blue rigg- an'-fur stockings, partly drawn over the knees of his small clothes, the original part of which had been evidently worn by a person of more spacious dimensions ; his vest of red plush cloth, with deep pockets hanging over the thighs, was in every way similar to that kept in the wardrobe of Eglinton Castle, stained with the blood of the unfortunate Earl, who was shot by Campbell, the exciseman. The outside colour of his coat was brown, the inside yellow ; it was the only part of his dress which bore any 2 2}. The Tinkler-Gypsies. proportion at all to his person. On his head he wore a cap in old times called a megiskie, with a large Roman letter in front, such as was usually worn by Chattering Charlie, the last professional jester of the House of Cassilis." From the mass of conjectural and apparently disputed information several agreed upon facts may be gleaned : one of the company was a Welsh harper : — " When Helen touched her harp, and sani^ Lays of the mountain land, There was a spell in Helen's voice, And power in Helen's hand. " In hamlet, town, or lonely cot. The harp was still their stay ; It was a friend and gained them friends. And cheered the dreary way." The husband was a soldier pensioner, and their mode of life was characteristic of Gypsies : — " There long they lived. If poor their lot, They had a thrifty hand ; Neat hose they sold, and baskets tiiui, Made of the willow wand. " In wicker-cart a patient ass Dragged on their humble store ; It bore the harp that Helen loved, And played in days of yore." The Gypsies of Wales are famous harpists — as any one who has read Borrow's, Groome's, or Watts-Dunton's Gypsy works will remember.. " Wandering JVil/ie." 225 The presence of the donkey is a further Gypsy indication. The Gypsies of that period were "pressed" into the service, and many of them still take to soldiering. Even granting that the allegation about Helen being a curate's daugh- ter had been obtained direct from her own lips, it would neither prove its truth nor even estab- lish that she had not Gypsy blood in her veins, as it is a well-known trait for Gypsies to claim, at times rightly, at times wrongly, that they are related by blood to families of high descent. Mr Murray's poem is thus prefaced : — " ' He's nae gentleman, nor drap's bluid o' gentleman, wad grudge twa gangrel puir bodies the shelter o' a waste house, and the thristles by the road-side for a bit cuddie,' Sir Walter Scott," and concludes its pathetic tale with this scathing application of Sir Walter's lash : — " Their living tomb may still be seen By TarfFs wild-wooded vale ; The house still stands where hearts of stone Heard Helen's dying wail." Mr Murray suspects Train of colouring his narrative of the tragedy, ai:id claims that it was Helen and not " Wandering Willie " who was blind. It is, however, enough for our purpose that it is^admitted that one or the other was a blind harper. In Notes and Queiies, p. 180, vol. I, of The Gypsy Lore Journal, there is an 15 2 26 The Tinkkt-Gypsies. interesting account of Gypsy musicians in Wales which may be regarded as throwing a sidelight upon the question under consideration. The writer thereof, "J. Ceiriog Hughes," explains that he obtained the information from " a vener- able minstrel, one of a tawny tribe, who had twelve sons and a daughter who daily played the triple-stringed instrument." He also in- forms us, " ^Ir John Parry, of Ruabon (a blind man), harper to Sir AA'atkin \\'. Wynn, Bart., taught ^^'illiam Williams of Penmorfa (a blind man), who became afterwards Welsh harper to the ancient family of the Hugheses of Tregib, near Llandilo, Carmarthenshire. William Williams taught the celebrated Richard Roberts of Carnarvon (also a blind man), who had the honour of performing upon different occasions before the Royal Family." Mr Hughes gives a list of Mr Roberts's pupils who all "gained silver harps" for the excellence of their playing, and concludes with a descrip- tion " of the Egyptians who first came from Wales and continue to the present day " : "About 200 years ago came an old man, of the name of Abraham Woods, his wife, three sons, and a daughter. He brought with him a violin, and he is supi)osed to be the first one that ever played upon one in Wales. Then followed a list of descendants who were either violinists or " lVa/ideri;ig IViL'ie." 227 harpists, and very often both. ' All these harpers (says the venerable minstrel) were after ' Parry of Ruabon.' " The same venerable minstrel says at p. 124 of vol. iii. of The Gypsy Lore Journal : — "The Ingrams lived near Llanidloes, and the Woods near Llanbrynmair. They were supposed to be in possession of abundance of gold when taking these places ; they were thought gentle folks of in those days." Mr Leland tells us that there is a Gypsy tribe of Hugheses who chiefly frequent \\'iltshire, and are " short, stubby, and dark." May not, then, this Gypsy-like family who were entombed in the sandpit, and one of whom was said to be named Helen Hughes, have been related either to the Gypsy Hugheses or to the ancient family of the Hugheses of Tregib ? In claiming the honour of being the proto- type of " Wandering Willie " for a Gypsy harpist, we do not consider that we are putting any undue strain upon the details supplied by the various narratives. Galloway has within the memory of living man been frequently visited by large bands of Gypsies. About 30 years ago a large band of English Gypsies visited Galloway. Horse- deal- ing was the occupation of the men, and the women told fortunes. There was a large com- Strange Gypsy Gangs. 229 pany on that occasion, and they encamped for several weeks in a field— which they had rented — near Newton-Stewart. Crowds of people flocked to visit their encampment, and people still speak of some of that company as being the handsomest men and women they have ever seen. A Gypsy, who was one of that com- pany on the occasion referred to, says that at the larger centres where they camped they gave balls which the public were entitled to attend upon paying a subscription. About ten years ago a band of strange-look- ing Gypsies passed through Galloway. Mr Groome, in his introduction to his Gypsy Folk Tales, describes that company as follows''' : — - " ' Two years ago,' writes Mr Robert Burns, the Edinburgh artist, to Mr Groome in 1895, * while walking with my wife near Kirkcudbright, I met a large troupe of Gypsies, of a type quite different from any I had formerly seen. The first to appear round a corner was a tall, swarthy man leading a brown bear. My dog, a big, powerful beast, immediately made a rush for the bear, but I managed to catch him in time. On seeing me holding the dog, the man came up and, in very broken English, said the bear would not hurt the dog. I explained that my fears were not for the dog but for the bear, an under-sized, emaciated beast, and strongly 2-?0 The Tinkler-Gypsies. muzzled. By this time we were surromided by the whole troupe, numbering, I should think, sixteen or seventeen, all begging from the 'pretty lady' and 'kind gentleman,' which •seemed to be about all the English they knew. A good-looking young woman, with a baby on her back, asked me in French if I understood that language. I said I did, and asked her where they came from. ' From Spain.' Then she spoke Spanish also ? ' Oh, yes, and Ger- man and other languages as well.' I tried her with a few sentences in German and Spanish, and found she spoke both languages fluently, although with an accent which made it difficult to understand her. While we were talking, the men, not having stopped, were a considerable distance off. So I gave the woman some silver, while my wife distributed pennies among the children, and with many smiles and thanks they started off to join the others. They were very dark in colour, like Hindoos ; the men and the older women were aquiline in features ; some of the younger girls really beautiful, with lithe, graceful figures ; and all without exception had splendid teeth. Their dresses, though ragged and dirty, suggested Eastern Europe rather than Spain ; some cheap brass and silver orna- ments seemed to point in the same direction. They had tsvo ponies with panniers, full of The ' U/Siui" (or Bear-wards). 231 babies and cabbages, empty strawberry biskets, and other odds and ends ; one of the ponies had a headstall of plaited cord similar to those used in Hungary. I saw them several times about Kirkcudbright and Gatehouse-on-Fleet ; and from mental studies painted the head exhi- bited in the R.S.A. Exhibition in 1896.' " These must have been Ursari, or bear- wards, and recent arrivals in Britain ; but what were they doing in that remote corner of Gallo- way, in Billy Marshall's old kingdom ? Framp- ton Boswell, an English Gypsy of my acquaint- ance, met the very same band, I fancy, near Glasgow in 1896, and they were perhaps the foreign Gypsies encamped at Dunfermline in the autumn of 1897. I was lying ill at the time in Edinburgh. Almost certainly they were identical with 'a little band of Roumanian Ursari ' whom Mr Sampson met in Lancashire in the latter half of 1897, and who were 'travelling in English Gypsy vans which they had bought in this country. They stopped for a month or more at Wavertree, quite close to us, and I sa^v a good deal of them. The first time, crossing a field by night, and expecting to meet some of the English breed, I stumbled among the six un- muzzled bears, chained to the wheels of the vans, and took them for large dogs till their grunts undeceived me ; fortunately I got off with 232 The Tinkler-Gypsies. whole legs. They spoke a jumble of tongues — some Slavonic dialect (^^/-^/-brother), bad French, Italian, no German, and little English ; but with the help of Romani and scraps of other tongues we held some instructive conversations. The younger girls were beautiful, half clad, savage, but the older women ugly as sin. When I first spoke to them, they replied to a question in Romani with an Italian denial : ' We are not Gypsies, we are Christianos.' " Another gentleman who met this band adds the following peculiarities about their appur- tenances : " Some of the women folks carried poles — apparently either tent poles or kettle props, and others carried a mat — slung from the shoulders — behind them. Their babies were either carried in shawls or in laced straw cases ■swung over their backs." Single families of real English Gypsies occasionally visit Galloway. Chumoinistos and Petule/igros, as Borrow names them in Romanes, generally pass once or twice every year. Gypsy Greys also visit the district. Let us record — again in the first person for the sake of direct- ness— a few interviews with some of these Gypsy families : On entering Mrs C 's dukkeriii tan (for- tune-telling tent) I informed her that I did not want to have mv hand read. Fortune-tellins. 233 "Then," she smilingly enquired, " why have you come in ? " " Oh ! " I repHed, " I want to make your Will." "Yes," she retorted, "I can see you are a lawyer ; but we read the hand of all — good, bad, and indififerent — and besides I have nothing 10 will ! " A sharp discussion followed as to the remune- r.itiveness of the fortune-telling business, in which her glibness of tongue completely over- matched the halting arguments of the village lawyer. My views about palmistry had been t()o orthodox for her, and she at once took me seriously to task — •" There are palmists," she said, " whose race have inherited a knowledge of the art, and there are 7vafedi gorgios (wicked house-dwellers) who pretend to tell fortunes. A young gent volunteered to tell me my fortune the other day. He told me a number of things that anyone could tell, and then he said : ' You'ie fond of dress ! ' 'No, sir.' ' But you are.' ' It's untrue, sir, unless for business pur- poses.' ' I know better.' ' You can read no such thing there.' Foi-tinie-telling. 231; ' But I know better ; you are desperately fond ' ' 'Tis false, sir.' ' I never saw it more clearly.' ' Where do you find that ? ' Pointing to a line running from the wrist to the tip of the middle finger, he said — ' Do you see that long line ? ' ' Yes.' ' Well, that's the clothes line ! ' That is the class of palmists you have been mixing amongst, sir." Much has recently been written condemning — and deservedly so — the host of sham fortune- tellers, who deceive the simple. But is there no good in fortune-telling? Do not professional men use the past as a guide to the future ? Is not the prototype of " Sherlock Hohnes " famous for his cleverness in diagnosing a man's calling, ailment, and character from his general appearance ? The Prime Minister, in choosing his Cabinet, also predicts the future of these men. The Gypsies have a won- derfully keen perception of character, and it is that supersensitivene's of perception that enables such men as Gypsy .Smith to sway by his oratory large audiences. Mr Leland, in his Gypsies, points out that, " It is this ready intuition of feeling which, when it is 236 The Tinkler-Gvpsies. raised from an instinct to an art by practice, enables shrewd old women to tell fortunes with so much skill." From a skilful reading of the lines of the hand, but more especially from a keen perception of the past through a rapid survey of the face, such Gypsies can frequently give useful hints for the future ordering of our lives. But apart from the genius at times displayed by clever, far-seeing Gypsies, the wonder to me is that people don't flock in hundreds and pay their shilling purely for the pleasure afforded by meeting and chatting with these most interesting people. Being interested in the Gypsy race and its traditions, I naturally enquired whether Mrs C spoke the Romani language. " Yes," was the prompt reply, " I know it, and my children know it too ; but my husband, who is a bit older than myself, kncnvs it best of any of us." " Amongst yourselves do you speak it often ? " I asked. " Well, we have been living away from the rest of our lot for a long time, and it is only occasionally we speak Romanes, but when we are amongst our own lot we speak Romanes frequently." " But," I entjuired, "is it really a language?" " Oh, yes. It is not a jargon like what Romanes. 237 tinklers, potters, and showmen speak. We have names for almost everything, but we don't like outsiders to get to know our language. For instance, we avoid using Romanes except amongst ourselves, lest others hearing it might pick it up and make capital out of it by posing, as real Gypsies." The Chumomistos speak with a nice English accent. Their accent, coupled with a melodious rounding of the vowels in such words as Borrow^ Tiiorro (bread), lollo (red), makes their speech very pleasant to listen to. That musical quality^ of Gypsy words has been admirably represented by Mr Watts-Dunton in "The Coming of Love," in such verses as where he makes Rhona, a kinswoman of these very Gypsies, say''": " All night I heerd them bees and grasshoppers ; All night I smelt the breath o' grass and may. Mixed sweet wi' smells o' honey and the furze, Like on that morning when you went away ; All night I heerd in dreams my daddy sal,"^ Sayin', De blessed chi'- ud give de chollo"' O Bozzles breed — tans,^ vai'dey,^ greis,'^ and all To see dat tamo rye" o' \\&xxi palall^ Wots left her till the coming o' the swallow." I assured Mrs C that I was acting from purely disinterested motives, and that I had a friend outside who was thoroughly versed in. 'Laugh, -girl, 'whole_ ■'tents, ■'■waafgon, "horses, 'young gentleman, "lack. 238 Tlie Tinkler-Gypsies. Hindustani, and wished to compare that lan- guage with Romanes. " Well," she agreed, " under these circum- stances, I don't mind telling you," and then proceeded to name a lot of familiar objects. Amongst others, pointing to a lighted lamp she said, that is dood in our language ; a chair, she said, was stavimen (as I caught it). I then thanked Mrs C for the very interesting interview, and left, so that my Hindustani-speaking friend might talk with her. As I passed out I observed, standing at the entrance, a Gypsy girl (a young lady — I beg her pardon !) G C , and it occurred to me that I might put her mother's statements to a stricter test : "What is the Romanes for a lamp, please?' I enquired. Her mouth opened, revealing a perfect set of white ivories — ^and I felt as if she had smiled — but the smile was suspended ! " Well, what is it yourself?" she warily asked. " Dood," I at once answered. " No, you are wrong. Dood means a light," and I perceived the mistake I had made in thinking that the mother had pointed to the /amp, when it was really the li^i^ht she had indicated. I next more cauti(jusly asked — Romanes. 239 "Well, what is the Romanes for a chair or a seat ? " "Well, what is it yourself?" she again enquired. " Stammen" I replied. "You are wrong again," she laughingly twitted me. " What is it, then ? " I asked. " Skamnien,''' she answered, and I remem- bered that I had difficulty in making out the word, as pronounced by Mrs C — ■ — -, but observed the similarity of that given by her daughter. My friend emerged from the tent and pro- ceeded to give me a number of words which he said undoubtedly bore a similarity to Hindu- stani— Romanes. Hindustani. English, grye. gorah. a horse. pani. paunie. water. riea. rajah. a king. Ijoro. burrah. great. churi. choree. a knife. Moreover, he said, apart from similarity of languages, he agreed — (with Leland, Borrow, Groome, Watts-Dunton, and others) — in tracing the Romani race back to Hindustan, because, he said, there is an unmistakable resemblance be- tween several of the Chumomisto Gypsies and the offspring of Mohammedan-Christian alliances. Romanies averse to being Photogt-aphed. 241 When we were standing conversing; at the tent door, it suddenly occurred to my friend to ask Mrs C : " Am I a married man ? " and she at once answered : " '^'ou have tied a knot with your tongue that you dare nut cut with your teeth."' She had spoken truly. Then said my friend, pointing to me : "Is he married, then?" but laughingly she told him : " U'e never tell tales out of school ! " Next morning I thought it would be interest ing to contrast the appearance of Romanies with those of Tinklers, and I again — this time with camera in hand — visited the Chumoinistos' living-waggon. Raising my hat, I enquired at Mrs C if they were in the habit of distributing photos of themselves. " No, sir," she replied, " and we resent any attempts to snapshot us ; and whenever we see anyone attempting it we at once conceal our faces. But, sir, we have some photos of our- selves, and I shall be most happy to show them to you." My friend and I greatly admired the photos, and I laughingly said : " Oh, I see the name of the photographer, and I suppose if I write her she will supply me with one ?" 16 242 The Tinkler-Gypfiies. " No, sir, she will not. I have taken precious good care of that," was her reply. I then thought I must take other means if I wished to secure a photo, and it occurred to me that the best thing I could do would be to tell her I wished by photographs, as illustrations, to show the unmistakable difference between Tinklers and Romanies. The idea was a happy one, and appealed to her " There can be no doubt," she said, " we are of a higher caste. Writers speak of Kings and Queens of the Gypsies, but there are neither Kings nor Queens, for the poorest amongst the Romanies is regarded as good as the richest ; but of course we sometimes single out the best looking pair of Gypsies to appear as Kings and Queens at fairs so as to draw the public. When I say that Tinklers and potters are of a different order, I don't want to say anything in disparage- ment of them — they can't help being of a different order." I thought, and think, her statement fairly and in moderate language represents Gypsy opinion about " mumpers," as they sometimes term Tinklers. I told her so, and added, " But as with Tinklers, I suppose there have been some very wicked men who were Romanies ? " " Yes," she at once agreed, " and there are good and bad amongst us still ; but there is a Aversion Overcome and Explained. 243 great deal of misconception about us. We are superstitious, and don't like our children to marry the Gorgios " — that is, people who dwell in houses — " hut we are even beginning to regard that as foolish. I was married in an English Church, and my children never take a meal without asking grace before and after it. ' Don't you, dearie ? ' " she asked of a sweet little dark- eyed Gypsy girl who had been listening to the conversation, and who winsomely smiled her assent. " We always live in living waggons or tents, and in the winter we have our head- quarters at ■, where we are well known. My children all attend school there." " Well," said I, " my object is to use photo- graphs to illustrate the difference between Romanies and Tinklers." " Then, if I must," she conceded, " I must tidy myself a little," and asking to be excused, she ran up the steps and disappeared into the living-waggon. As we awaited, my Hindustani- speaking friend informed me that "it is against the strict tenets of the Koran to have any likeness or image made of the true follower of the prophet. Purity of race and aloofness from people of other religions is also a trait of the Mohammedans." This, he said, might have something to do with their aversion to being photographed. His opinion — and I give it, €^" iiAte«<£ ^_^ito ^ ^K'T"^ ^^'' 0^ i 1 y • 1 Gypsy Children. 245 though it differs from the opinion of Leland — was that the Gypsies are more likely to be descended from Hindustani-speaking Moham- medans, who are nomadic in tendenc)' and not tied down to any country by caste rules, than from the Hindus, who are tied down by caste to their own country. How it came about I must leave my readers to guess, but the four Gypsy children were all beautifully dressed in their best Sunday-go- to-meeting clothes, and scrupulously clean. They remained outside, and I amused myself by trying to get snapshots of them. Mo •, who by-the-bye, was born in the Isle of Man, con- cealed herself in the shadow of the waggon, and the others kept turning away their faces, while one of the little girls cried, " Mammy, the ge'man wants to take us ; must we ?" " \^ery well, my dear," she answered, "but take off your hats — look out, he has already lelled (taken) you," and so I snapshotted the pretty little Gypsy children, whilst G retired into the waggon to help her mother to dress. Presently both appeared, and as Mrs C • descended the steps I could not help exclaiming, " I thought you said there is no Queen of the Gypsies," for verily she looked a Queen. "V\'ell," said she, "if I am to be photo- 246 The Tinkler-Gypsies. graphed, I must have it done properly, but G here simply detests it," and jokingly added, " Never mind, G dear, look your best, and some young Gorgio will perhaps see your photo and fall in love with y(ni ! " Two family groups being taken, triumphantly I bade adieu to my friends, and as I withdrew I said to Mrs C : " By-the-bye, I think you told the amateur fortune-teller you were not fond of dress," and she, laughing heartily, again retorted : "Only in the interests of my business." As we turned out of the field where the Romanies were camped, we looked back, and seeing Mrs C- walking towards the living- waggon we raised our hats. " Ilia iiiciait regina,'^ remarked my friend. Next time the Chiunomistos came round I again paid them a visit, but this time it was on their camping ground near The Ferry. I had the good fortune to meet with Mr W C , Mrs C^ 's husband. He is a tacho Rflmani- chal (real Gypsy), and a son of the famous Syl- vester, who gave so much valuable information to Messrs Smart & Crofton for their book on The Dialect of the English Gypsies. Fortunately, I was able to show them a photo of old Westarus (Sylvester), and I could not have done anything to please them more. W — — is, to all api)ear- Gypsy Children. 247 ance, a very mild, unassuming man. As I squatted by the burn-side the children gathered around, and I rhymed to them Gypsy songs, in Romanes, which I had learned from the book published by Leland. Their favourite was : " Yeck bittD Rom'ni chal churyin ap a rukk, Chury'd ap t' truppo an' beshed apr6 a shock." {" One little Gypsy climbed a tree, and how ? He climbed up the branches and sat upon a bough.") But what took their fancy most was the story of " Happy Bozzle," as told by Mr Grooaie in his In Gypsy Tents. It was persoiral to them, and seemed to revive old memories. Somehow they thought they had heard it before, and little L laughed — at the Baron Munchausen- like feats performed by " Happy Bozzle " — till his little beady black eyes, in the shape of two dark drops of water, looked like rolling out of their sockets. On Mrs C 's invitation, I joined them at tea in their ivtirdo (van). L had been sent an errand up to the village, and G was deputed to attend to customers in the dun-ikin tan (fortune-telling tent). Whilst Mrs C busied herself getting tea ready I tried to make friends with the two pretty little Gypsy girls, Mo and Mu . But they were as shy as wild deer. Mo sat at the end of the van remote from me, casting side glances out of the ciirners uf her dark eyes, whilst A Gypsy Tea. 249 Mu sat with her back to me, and do as I would I could not get them to speak except in monosyllabic answers to questions about Romanes. The mother had been outside the van for water for the tea, and on re-entering she said : " Why, Mu , what has the Rye been doing? Has he been kissing you?" "No such luck,"' I replied; but turning to Mu , I said : " Muk mande del tuiti a chooma ?" (Let me give you a kiss ?) This set both the little git Is a-giggling, and the ice was broken. Later on one of them did come and sit on my knee, much as a little Scotch girl would have done — with far less persuasion. I had occasion to rise to let Mrs C get at her best silver, when I observed through the window which looked into the djirrtki/i fan that G had been joined by Mo , nnd that they were engaged in dancing a most graceful dance. The mother laughed aloud, and they hearing her, looked up at the window, and espying me at once stopped dancing, but do as I would I could not persuade them to continue the dance. I advised Mrs C to give them every opportunity for excelling in singing, dancing, and playing the violin and harp, the chief accomplishments of Gypsies 250 TJie Tiiikler-Gyl'sies. throughout the world, so that they might go through the country giving Gypsy concerts. She seemed to be quite taken on with the notion, and I do hope, in the interest, at all events, of all Romaui Ryes (gentlemen interested in Gypsies), that something may come out of my advice, and that sooner or later we may have public taste educated to see some of the good qualities of these children of nature. The tea table was tastefully arranged. The table in the house of any Gorgio could not have been nicer. The tablecloth was beauti- fully white — bleached upon the green — and the silver, placed upon the table out of compliment to me — would have been a credit to any table. The Gypsies take a s[)ecial i)ride in having good silver. There were scones, tea cakes, biscuits, and jams — all very much as the Gorgios have it ; everything neat and clean, though plain — just such a tea as a clean feeder can relish ; but there was just one thing Licking : Mrs C had said, " Mo , dear, will you ask the grace ? " and she had responded, when I asked : " But is the riukein' chci (])retty gypsy girl) not t(j join us ? " Mrs C laughed, got up, and shouted out at the door : " G , the Rye wants to know if the rinkeni chei is not coming in for tea ? " Quick as lightning came the retort : " Kci see A Gypsy Tea. 251 yoi V (where is she?) But though I saw her not, I knew that the smile was no longer sus- pended I Ere long, however, she joined us, and we had a very happy tea parly. Mo was too bashful to ask for anything, but when she had finished with a biscuit her heels commenced to knock against the boarding. When I learned her signal I kept plying her with biscuits to the amusement of all. Mu , when eating, kept her back turned towards me, but her mother explained her attitude : " Look at Mu 's mouth. Rye. She nibbles biscuits just like a rabbit," and all of us roared with laughter, in which Mu had to join. After tea I spied little L returning from his errand. He was running towards the van. I stood up in a corner — where there was barely room to conceal me — in order to give L a surprise when he came up the steps, but the little Gypsy girls laughed so much that I had to unbend, and the joke was out long before L reached the van I " Oh," said the droll Mu , pointing to her waist, " Mammy, dear, I'm sore all round here laughing at the Rye.'' " Now, L ," said Mrs C , as he was about to fall to, and L — — , before beginning, asked grace aloud. On leaving the van I saw 252 The Tinkler-Gypsies. W C , with shirt sleeves rolled up, proceeding to enjoy an evening wash. His appearance recalled Ryley Bosvil's address to Yocky Shuri "' : — " Tuley the Can I kokkeney cam, Like my rinkeny Vocky Shuri ; 0()rey the chongor in ratti I'd cour, For my rinkeny Yocky Shuri !" (" Beneath the biight sun there is none, there is none, I love like my Vocky Shuri ; With the greatest delight, in blood I would fight To the knees for my \'ocky Shuri 1"") I jumped back from him and said, "Are you a kooriii Roniiiichal ( fighting Gypsy) ?" He squared up in professional style, and I could see from the knit muscles of his neck and chest and the fire in his eye that he had not always been so mild as he looked. His passes were those of the born fighter. " Ah, yes" he replied, " me and my brother A r, that's him as you may see in the ward» (van), travelled the country with Jim Mace giving sparring exhibitions. These were the dear old times, Rye, but the best man I ever stripped my jacket to was a sweep. He was standing by poolc bridge, and he'd been doing a little business, Rve, in the way of brushing boots. Says he — ■ " ' Can I brush your boots, brotlur T alluding to my tawny skin. A Koorin Rom ni Chal. '■^^6 " ' No, you shan't sir.' Then says he : " ' I'll blacken your face for you,' and he just played lick that way and this way cross both sides o' my face. I picked up his bits o' brushes and stand and pitched them over the bridge. Says I — " ' Now, you go and fetch them.' " ' No,' says he, ' I've blackened your face, and now I'm going to blacken your eyes.' " ' Well,' says I, ' you take off your coat and everything else, for you'll have to have a good try at that first.' " He was the biggest bully in all poole, and a terror to the whole place. Well, we ats it, and a big crowd gathered round, and proud they was to see me putting up such a tidy fight." '* Where were the police all the time ?'' I enquired. "Oh," said he, "they were down at the pleasure grounds. Rye, where the sports were being held." "Well, how did it finish ?" I had interjected again in ^V 's long description of the fight. " Don't you hear what the gentleman is asking you ?" said Mrs C , backing me up, as W rattled on. "Well, it ended this way, Rye. I feigned to hit him with the left, and I hit him with the right on the left jaw, and sent it right through 254 '^^^^ Tinkler-Gypsies. his other jaw. That's the bit to hit him if you want to hear his jaw go crack hke that (as he snapped his fingers by way of illustration). Oh, I could both '■ del and /c7 ' (give and take) a bit could I. The folks of poole were so pleased that they would have given me a hat full of gold if I had cared to go round for it.'" Mrs C then related some blood-curdling stories of W 's pugilistic capacity, and pointed me out some of his scars. A quiet- looking, douce man, but when I got close up to him and saw his movements and the look in his eyes as he waxed reminiscent of his fighting days, I saw there was still some of the fire of the old kooromengro (pugilist) in him. We had a chat about the affairs of Egypt, and particularly about the language. He tried me with some Romani test words. Some of them I had heard before : Saliwardo... ... a bridle Weriglo . . . ... a watch chain Bauseri . . . ... a waistcoat But there was one word upon which he laid special stress as being one of the real old "deepo diredest" words, which I had not come across in any list — Kltiihtii ... ... a he<l,c;e slake In turn I sought to trap him with a modern word. The word " waxcloth " served as my Roinani Simplicity and Frankness. 255 bait, but the Gypsies have a way of overcoming such difficulties, and W ■ neatly escaped it by translating the word thus : Dovva (that), kovva (thing), tooti (you), perrov (walk), opre (upon). I observed that the C s prefer to use w in place of z', using iiKirdo and wafedi instead of vardo and vafedi. These Gypsies are — notwithstanding the reputation of the race for craftiness — very sim[)le and childlike in many ways. Had I approached W by offering him money to induce him to allow me to take his photograph, the chances are he would have indignantly refused. No, it was the simple, childlike side of his nature that stood me in good stead, I had read over to VV some of old Sylvester's own Romani compositions from Smart & Crofton's book, and when he saw old Sylvester's (his father's) photo he was overjoyed. On reading him 'VVestarus's (that " well-known and popalated " Gypsy's) certificate, as composed by himself, W gleefully remarked : " That's quite 'VVesterious, Rye. It's a right good /// (book) — that is." I then asked if I might take his photo, to which request he at once agreed, but he asked to be taken in the real old-fashioned way — as depicted in one of the illustrations — sitting with his legs criss-crossed by the yog tan (camp fire). < fc I- Rouiaui Chiricio (The Gypsy Bird). 257 As I was about to go I observed a water wagtail tripping about on the stones on the burn which flowed past the camp. I asked Mrs C if she had any name for that bird : " Oh, yes, Rye, that's the chiricio (Gypsy bird), and we'll be sure to see some of our people soon. But there is another bird which we do not welcome about our camps — and as sure as it comes there is a death. We call it the ' death- hawk,' but I forget its proper name." It was a strange coincidence that ere I left the green Mrs C • exclaimed: '•'' Dik adoi ! Hokki ! Kon see yon ?" (Look there ! Behold ! Who are they?) as another lot of Gypsies with horse and van turned down the loaning. Reluctantly I withdrew from my kind friends. I made the parting as gradual and easy as possible by giving little L a ride up the lane on my bicycle, and by making him promise to pay me a visit on his next return — a promise I am still hoping he will fulfil. Whilst walking up Queen Street, Newton- Stewart, one evening I met a girl. She was fair and rather pretty, but had a slight defect in one eye. I thought I spotted a Gypsy, and at once said, " Do you know what a rinkeni chei (pretty Gypsy girl) means?" The girl blushed for answer and passed on : and I knew I had surmised 17 258 The Tinkler-Gypsies. correctly. Further along, and just outside the town, I met two little children, and this time they were unmistakably Tinklers' bairns. " Deek at the cleechy ower the chaef'' (Look at the policeman behind the dyke), I said. One of the children immediately clambered up the dyke. I asked them a few questions, and as I moved on I heard the smaller of the two crying: '■'■Deek (look) at the curdee (id) the gadgi (house-dweller) gaed me." When I reached the market field I saw several vans and tents. A stout burly Roni'ni chal (Gypsy man) sat in the field with his back to the road. A koori (pot) hung from the ' kavvi-koshts (kettle- props), and the Ronini chal was busy mixing a bran mash in the pot. " Good evening, sir," I had somewhat doubt- ingly hazarded, and the Gypsy had as formally replied, when along came a Tinkler, and as he passed between the Gypsy man and me I heard him saying : " Do you Jail that gadgi wants to mang to ye?" (Do you know that house-dweller wants to speak to you ?). I promptly remarked : " Oh, yes, the gadgi ja?is what you are mangaii (saying)," whereupon the Roni}ii chal, perceiving that I was conversant with the Tinklers' cant, wheeled round on the stool upon which he was seated and said : A Gypsy Passport. 259 " ril bet you five pounds you don't know a dozen words of real Romanes I " I had a few Gypsy words at my disposal, but I did not think it would be wise to air my knowledge straight away. We talked for some time, and fortunately I was able to hum over to him one or two •verses :''^ ' ' Can you rokker Romany ? Can you kel the bosh ? Can yoMjal adrd the slaripen ? Can you chin the kosht ?'''' (" Can you speak Romany tongue ? Can you play the fiddle ? Can you go into prison ? Can you cut and whittle ?") This convinced him he had been somewhat rash, but the little episode led up to a most useful lesson in Gypsy. He said : " If you want to make friends with us Romanies always give it us back in our own language." Later on in the evening I visited the same Gypsies. The father and mother talked of Romanes with me, and the little Gypsy and Tinkler children, peeping out from under the wardo (van), plied me with Gypsy and cant words. Occasionally, one would run away to another van and bring me back a puzzler ; all of which pleased me mightily, as it told me 1 had made friends. In the midst of a discus- sion with my Gypsy friends as to the decadence 2 6o The Tinkler-Gypsies. of the Civpsy race, an old man came to the door of an adjoining van and shouted out in the midnight air (for I had dallied long) : " I know what the young gent is deluding (alluding) to, but believe me if I opperehend (apprehend) aright there isn't one drop of real Romani blood in the whole of Engaland." I had made an egregious blunder by omit- ting to make friends with the old man of the company, and I had to pay the penalty for this blunder of the novice. I had never spoken to the old gentleman, and apparently my visit was not altogether to his liking. I arranged to take photos of my Gypsy friends early next morning, but, alas ! when I put in an appearance at the appointed hour they had flown. The old gentle- man's voice had been a power in the camp ! A few weeks afterwards I met the same lot — the old gentleman, being, however, not one of the company this time — and they apologised ; explained that they had acted m the interests of peace, and invited me to visit their camp, which I did, and some of the photos taken then serve as illustrations for this work. There were two lots of Petulengros, camped on the green at The Ferry on that occasion. One lot I had never spoken to before, and the other lot — my friends — were absent attending to their daily avocations when I appeared at the camp. A Right and a Mixed Ditkkerin. : 6 1 "Is Mr P about?'' I asked of a dark complexioned woman who was sitting cooking an evening meal. I had heard of that same woman making, when on her basket and lace selling round, a wonderful prediction which had been strikingly confirmed the same day. She had been much more fortunate than the Gypsy who had got private advice in advance about two of her lady patrons. Somehow that Gypsy had mistaken the one for the other, and the fortunes got mixed I When Leland chaffed her about it she said : " ' Rye ' — with a droll smile and a shrug — ' I think I see it now. The dukkerin (prediction) was all right, but I put the right dukkerin on the wrong lady.' '"' To my enquiry she stiffly replied : " No, sir, he isn't." Apparently my company was not desirable at this particular time, for — how she managed it I can't say — the Gypsy children never drew near me. " Will he return soan ? " I next asked. "You can get him over yonder "—pointing to a stable at the other side of the conimon — *' if you must see him,"' was her answer. " May I sit down ? " I enquired, after assuring her I was in no hurry. " You're as welcome here as we are," was her doubtful assent. 262 The Tinkler Gypsies. I wondered how I could break this chilling reception, but the savoury smell from the frying-pan quickened my dull wits. " If that were hotchi-wikhi (hedge-hog)," I said, " I should like to have some,'' were the simple words which it occurred to me to use. That simple Romani word acted as magic. She smiled for the first time. " Yes," she said, " what wouldn't I give if that were the hind leg of a hedge-hog ? I'm sorry. Rye., we haven't anything half so nice to offer you, but you're welcome to what we have got so long as it lasts. Won't you have a cup of tea, sir ? " I could not refuse such an invita- tion, and so I said : " I shall be delighted to join you." She wanted to go for a cup, but I insisted on having the tea in a basin like the others, and she had just handed me a bowl of tea and a plate hanging over with liver, bacon, sausages, and steak when the other Gypsies arrived. They seemed surprised to see me feeding, but I told Mr P that it was "all along of him," as he had told me to give it them back in their own language, and I had discovered that the use of the word " hotchi-^vitchi" had quite unlocked the Gyps)- dye's (mother's) heart to me. Gypsies, as a rule, do not take dinner in the middle of the da)-. They are too busy at High Tea with Gypsy Frie/ids. 263 work during the day, and so have a high tea such as that I had the good fortune to partake of. Open - mouthedly the mumply Gorgios (house-dwellers) as they passed by stared at me as some abandoned soul taken to hobnobbing with Gypsies ! I had just had a long run on my bicycle, and despite the rude gaze of the passers-by never did I pai take of a repast with greater relish. A happy group we were. My friends the Petiilengros looked extra dusky as they squatted round the snow-white table cover, and one and all of us did ample justice to the homely but sumptuous meal scattered promiscu- ously on the cloth spread out upon nature's table — green grassy mother earth. Their appear- ance there did not belie their palmistry placard which was headed, " Real Indian Gypsies." But appearances must not always be trusted, for some of these Petulengros and Chumomistos (or Boshatiiks^ as old Westarus named them) are merely didakeis (half-breed Gypsies), and one or two of them — their swarthiness or tawni- ness and even their knowledge of Romanes notwithstanding — have not a single drop of Gypsy blood in their veins. The smoke of the camp fire curled up, partially veiling the rugged form of Cairnsmore. With the song of birds singing gaily in the woods, the call of sea-birds, the rippling laughter of the brook hard by, and 264 T/ie Tinkler-Gypsies the more distant sough of the sea, a spell of deep happiness wove itself round my heart. Pictures are at best but lifeless things ; but the recollection of such a pleasant evening spent ■■.vith these children of nature — in their proper haunts, in the green fields by stream and wood, where they are regaled by nature's many voices, is a living picture which memory must often recall. It is by keeping as close to nature as they can that Gypsies retain their love for the open air and the open road. But, alas ! for Gypsies, they are endowed with an instinct — ■ praiseworthy in landlords, but unpardonable in poor Gypsies — for game, similar to that possessed by landlords themselves, and the laws have been framed to stamp out Gypsies and to kill such poaching upon landlords' special preserves. Rhona Boswell, in Mr Watts-Dunton's charming Gypsy Heather, says : " Things o' fur an' fin an' feather, Like coneys, pheasants, perch, an' loach, An' even the famous ' Rington roach,' Wur born for Romani chies to poach, Gypsy Heather." I had a very interesting lesson in Romanes, but unfortunately was not able to remember so much of it as I could have wished. Further meetings with other Gypsies, however, recalled many words then heard for the first time. Good-iiii^ht and Good Luck. 265 One little Gypsy boy, " 'Lijah," whose face beamed with happiness, was just the living pic- ture of his father, and little " Patience," with fair ringlets clustering round her rosy, smiling cheeks, might have passed anywhere — her Romani extraction notwithstanding — for a bonnie wee Scotch lassie. Mr P suddenly arose, having remem- bered that he had a deal to conclude at the Head Inn, and I opined that it would be judi- cious to follow his example ! Thanking my kind friends, I wished them good-night, and they ex- pressed the wish that I would visit them next time they came round. As I walked briskly over the common, my ears were greeted with Kushto ratli, Rye (Good-night, sir), and Kushto hokt {Good luck), and looking back I saw the Gypsy children — with faces agleam with happi- ness^waving their hands, and mingling their adieus with those of the Gypsy women. CHAPTER VI. " Few things more sweetly vary civil life Than a barbarian, savage, Tinkler tale." — Christopher North. ■J EEDS of kindness, it is said, are written in water ; and yet, there is scarcely a farm-house in Galloway where, after the lapse of 113 years since Billy Marshall's death, stories of his kindness are not still related. These might be recorded by the hundred. From such we get an insight into the nature of this notorious character who still bulks so largely in the memory of those amongst whom he wandered. A King he was amongst his own people — and by the laws of Little Egypt he had the power to correct the members of his tribe — and none but a strong, resolute, capable mail could ever have held so well in check, as Billy did, such a gang of desperadoes. His race detested, and he himself said to have been an outlaw, in order to maintain his gang and him- self he had to have recourse to desperate measures, in which the poor Gypsies had daily Tinkler Tales. 267 to take their lives in their hands. Starvation^ the gallows, or banishment were the only other courses open to them. And, be it noted, that the Criminal Law Reports have not so far revealed that Billy ever was either indicted for murder or outlawed, and so, as in the eye of the law a man is not held guilty of a crime until it has been proven against him, let us bear in mind that the graver crimes laid to Billy's charge have, like the many stories of his kindly acts, been merely handed down by tradition. Nevertheless, in these traditions — a strange blend of brutality and kindness — we find what one would just expect from a chief at once powerful, masterly, and having an eye jealous to the rights and ever ready to redress the wrongs of the wild and oppressed gang over which he ruled. To confirm the acts of kindness brought out in some of the stories which follow, many similar stories about Billy could be recorded did space permit of it, but we content our- selves by recording a few which we thmk to be most characteristic of Billy and his gang : Billy Befriends a Tramp and Chastises Two Cowards.— OwQ day Billy was walking leisurely along the road, when he met a poor tramp crying most piteously. He stopped him and inquired what was the cause of his distress. The tramp replied that two of the Border Gypsies or Tinklers 2 68 The Tinkltr-Gypsics. had beaten him. Billy made him turn back, and, going at a brisk pace, they soon overtook the two Tinklers, whom Billy at once recognised as the only two cowards in his gang. After upbraiding them for such conduct, he made the tramp punish first one and then the other ; then giving the tramp some money, he sent him on his way rejoicing, and, cutting a stout ash stick from a tree close by, he beat the two bullies all the way to the encampment, a distance of two miles.'' Clever Ruse by a Rider Attacked by Billy. — A farmer named M'Nab had the satisfaction of outwitting Billy. M'Nab was riding slowly along on a Galloway pony, when Billy suddenly seized the bridle and demanded the rider's money. The night was intensely dark, and though M'Nab could not see Billy, he recog- nised his voice, and knew what to expect if the money, of which he had a considerable sum, was not instantly given up. There being no answer to this demand, it was repeated a second time. A second time there was no answer. A third time the demand was repeated, this time with the addition that there would be no more words. Neither there were; M'Nal) brought his switch down with full force on the pony's side, and in another moment Billy was holding the empty bridle. M'Nab had succeeded in Tinkler Tales. 269 unbuckling the cheek strap and in sh'pping the bridle and reins over the horse's head. Billy could not have his revenge, for M'Nab had never spoken, and the bridle gave no clue to its owner. ^" Billy and His Harem. — As stated in a former chapter, Billy lived in a hut on the Burn of Palnure, near Bargally ; and Mr Douglas, farmer. Little Park, on his way home one night met Billy's wives — one report says he had seven —running as for their lives. Billy was in hot pursuit, brandishing a large knife ; he was very scantily clad — the only garment he wore was a shirt. It is not known if he caught any of them or the punishment inflicted, but no doubt they were made to suffer in some way. It was on that occasion that he is said to have remarked, " I wonder that they canna agree ; I'm sure there's no' that mony o' them." Afterwards, Mr Douglas called to have a crack with him. He found him in bed, surrounded by his harem. While they were talking, he observed Billy getting irritable and making strange grimaces, but feared to make any enquiries as to the cause. Eventually he discovered that one of his wives was pricking him through the blankets with a pin. INIr Douglas fearing a repetition of the former scene and thinking discretion the better part of valour, took a hurried leave.' 270 The Tinkler-Gypsies. Billy Drowm a Coiicubine. — - Billy and his gang were one day coming from the Glenkens down through the Orchar Farm, and his wives — there were three on this occasion — ^were all fight- ing, and the favourite one — Flora Maxwell — was getting the worst of it, whereupon he caught the one who was abusing her most by the neck and heels and pitched her into a deep "wall e'e," which is said to be called " Marshall's Dub " to this day. Some, however, point out Loch Gower as the place where the tragedy was enacted. '^ Billys Criterion of Merit. — Billy said of his favourite wife, Flora Maxwell : " I'd raither hae yin rake o' Flora thro' Ayr Fair than o' a' the ithers put thegither."'' ^ Billy is Confronted by the Devil. — Billy took a sheep whenever he wanted it, and once, up in the Kirkcowan district (Calgalleach), he had shot one, and asked one of his wives to wash the pench, as he wanted a haggis. When she had it washed clean, she put it over her head and looked over the rees (dyke) where they had been camping. He told my father, says our informant, "I did think the devil was come at last for me, but I took the whup and v/armed her ])roperly."^ Billy Shoivs Kindness to a Stornistayed Way- farer.— On one occasion Billy took pity on a woman named Mrs James M'Connell, who lived Tinkler Tales. 271 at the Ferry Toun o' Cree. \\'hen crossing the Corse o' Slakes she had encountered a storm, and Billy, remembering former kindnesses meted out to him, insisted upon her taking shelter for the night at his camp. The Tinklers treated her kindly and saw her safely on the road in the morning. In after years she used to speak very highly of Billy Marshall, stoutly maintaining to the end that he was far above the ordinary Tinkler.'^ Billy Bites off a Thu>ni>. — -Billy one evening came to Craighlaw, and as it was threatening snow he wanted shelter for the night, and the landlord would not give him it. Billy threatened to set fire to the house. As there were no police in the neighbourhood, the laird gathered all the leish young men he could get in the district, and they pursued him till he reached a loch ; but Billy, being a capable swimmer, took to the water. One of the young men managed to get hold of him just as he was slipping into the water. Billy turned round and bit the man's thumb off and took it with him, and so they did not manage to catch him then, but it was said he was afterwards banished to Holland for that affair. The man whose thumb was bitten off was a William Stroyan. His father farmed Arniemore — part of Carseriggan — and he was an uncle of the late Mr Alexander Stroyan, Photo liy J. P. Milnes. Pocket-book stolen by Billys Gang, but restored by billy Tinkler Tales. 273 Clendrie, by whom the story used often to be related. ^ Billy Proves Grateful. — Billy often stayed about the Dinnans, near Lawrieston, when on his way to and from Keltonhill Fair. On one occasion the farmer, Affleck by name, after returning from the Fair, missed his pocket-book and a lot of money. Next day Billy paid him a visit, and when Affleck told him his misfortune, Billy said " Jist bide awee," and disappeared. He soon returned with the pocket-book and the money intact, and it was supposed that he had made one of his gang give up his ill-gotten gains so that he might restore it to its rightful owner, who had so often befriended Billy and those of his gang.* Billy Shows Bis Metile.-^The late Mr Alex- ander Stroyan used to take delight in relating the following story : — " My father once told me a story about old Billy having proved more than a match for the laird of and my father. The late laird of 's grandfather was then farmer in , and his wife had gone to the door when Billy called to ask for an awmous. She refused to give it. Billy rounded on her and called her vile names. She ran to her husband, who was repairing cart spokes in the workshop, and told him what Billy had called her. The husband ran out in a passion 18 2 74 The Tinkler-Gypsies. and pinned Billy with a spoke right on the back of the head, knocking him to the ground. Billy was soon on his feet again, and retaliated with his brazier's anvil, and my father, who was straightening the spittal croft, came running up with the straightening pole in his hand, and gave Billy a poke with it that knocked him down. A terrible struggle amongst the three of ihem ensued. I heard the late laird's father telling my father that the Tinkler had given his father and mine a good deal more than they gave Billy, and all my father could say was * Damn him, his skin was that teuch we couldna pierce't.' "'^ Billy Repays Kindness.— '■'' On one occasion," relates our informant, " Mr Carter, then farmer at Greenslack, was crossing the Corse o' Slakes on his way to Creetown to pay his rent, when he was suddenly accosted by several of Billy's gang. Resistance was out of the question, and when one of them demanded his pocket-book, he had to hand it over : and lie was left in a sore •dilemma about his rent. One of the gang, who had disappeared with the purse, returned and informed the others that ' aul' Billy wanted to see the stranger.' My grandfather was taken to a lonely dell where he found Billy sitting wi' a gun in the one hand and the pocket-book in the other. When he saw my grandfather, he sud- Tinkler Tales. 275 denly jumped up and said ' Dodsakes ! is't my guid frien' Greenslacks that I see?' Billy was very much overcome, and at once handed back the pocket-book (shown as an illustration), remarking as he did so, ' Mony a meal o' meat me and mine hae had at yer expense, and I'm gled to save a frien' frae being rookit.' Billy escorted him for a bit, and then, bidding ' guid day' to one another, Billy returned to his gang, and my grandfather proceeded to visit his land- lord."<» Billy Acts Diplomatically. — Two " footpads " had attacked a coach when passing along a lonely road amongst the mountains. They had just succeeded in overpowering the drivers, and had made two ladies, the only occupants of the coach, deliver up everything in their possession. At this juncture, Billy Marshall and two of his sons arrived on the scene and turned the tables against the " footpads." Billy told the ladies he would see them safely into Kirkcudbright, and jumping on to the "dickey" he accompanied them as far as the outskirts of that town. When he alighted, the ladies were profuse in their expressions of gratitude towards him for the timely assistance he had rendered them. They asked if there was anything they could do for him, as they would be willing to give whatever he might ask. But Billy declined their kind Tinklef Tales. 277 offers. At last one of the ladies said, " Then who have we to thank for this timely succour ? " but all Billy replied was, " It would be as muckle as my head is worth gin I tell'd ye." My informant told me that the ladies were of the Selkirk family, and that it was through the influence of that house that Billy, who was an outlaw, was not hunted out of his fastnesses." Billy Safeguards a Friend. — A son of Mr M'Culloch, of Ardwall, travelling on horseback by Thornhill to Edinburgh, met Billy on a very lonely part of the road. Billy had affected a stoop for the occasion, and, looking up sideways as the traveller approached, he enquired '•What's the time, sir?" But Billy was non- plussed when the rider said, " But surely you're my old friend Billy Marshall ? " Billy did not at first recognise Mr M'Culloch, but on dis- covering he was a son of Mr jVI'Culloch of Ardwall, he drew a whistle from his pocket and blew a shrill blast. Suddenly one after another of Billy's gang popped up out of the moor. He charged one of them to take care of the young gentleman and see him safely into the courtyard of the inn at Thornhill, which command was duly attended to.' Billy s Hardihood. — At Colmonell Fair Billy had on one occasion raised a ruction with some of the stalwarts attending the Fair, and finding 278 The Tinkle} -Gypsies. he had too many enemies, he had to flee for his hfe. He was hotly pursued, but, hickily for him, the Stinchar was in full flood, and plunging in, he swam across and thereby performed a feat his pursuers dared not emulate. \\'hen over, he shook his fist at them and defied them to swim across ; but, observing that one of his pur- suers had a gun, he ran away and rested not till he was at Glenapp, where he asked for salt to rub his bruises, which he had received in the fight.-" Billy Accepts a Douceur. — M'Adam, laird of Craigengillen, when returning from a Fair, was once stopped by Billy. Billy had demanded his purse. The laird said, " Billy, I am glad to see you," and wisely handed him half-a-sovereign, and asked him to convoy him, which he did. Billy said, " There is a lot of our folks out to- night, but tell them gin ye meet them whnt has happened, and they'll no' daur harm ye."^ Billy Marshall or the Devil — The wre-tle between the grandfather of the present Gordons of Arnsheen — probably still the biggest type of men in the South country — and Billy Marshall was caused by Billy's cuddies eating the corn from the kiln. Gordon, with a cow stake in his hand, had followed him down the road, and as Billy retreated, he said, " Never did a single man cause me to retreat in my life before. Throw doun the cow stake ami I'll wrastle ye Tinkler Tales. 279 for wha'a the best man." Gordon accepted ihe challenge, and though of prodigious strength, he could not throw Billy off his feet. Billy had, as already stated, very short legs, with wide built body, as the Marshalls have to this day. 'Twas when Arnsheen found himself unable to throw Billy that he exclaimed, " By God, ye maun either be Billy Marshall or the devil.' Strength of Billy's Adversary. — The following anecdotes about Billy's antagonist in the great wrestling match will convey some idea of Billy's strength. Mr Gordon, Arnsheen, carried a stone — said to be over half a ton in weight — on his loin, and that stone may still be seen in a field near the Rees of Arnsheen. His daughter helped to put the stone into position to enable him to carry it.-' Once when at Ayr buying tar, he laughed at the ironmonger when he was vainly endeavouring to get a barrel, weighing three hundredweights, hoisted into a cart, and told him he could toss it over his head. The ironmonger laid it down, and told Arnsheen that he would not charge him for the price of it if he tossed it over his head. Whereupon he picked the barrel up, and tossing it high over his head, it fell with a smash on the pavement, to the great amusement of the passers by.^ On another occasion he was at a funeral at Kirkcowan when some of the mourners, who were the worse of drink, fell a-fighting, and Arnsheen put an end to the fight by throwing several over the churchyard wall. It is said he fiung them over two and three at a time, remarking as he did so, " You Kirkcowan folks are ill, but ye're unco wee bookit." ^ Black Maltha's Ruse. — The house in Minni- gaff where Billy lived w-as, as explained in a previous chapter, ultimately sold by Billy and converted into a public-house. In after years it was a great howff for the Marshall gang of Gypsies. On one occasion a number of them were drinking there, but, according to their custom, the reckoning was never settled until they were ready to depart. After they had had many rounds, one of them asked : " What o'clock is't ?" and when mine host said : " It's drawin' near to eight," " Dear me," said his interrogator, " eight o'clock and ne'er a blow struck I " This remark had scarcely fallen from his lips, when two young Gypsies sitting at a round table in a corner fell into an argument, and from words it came to blows. Soon the house was in a terrible uproar. The two men tumbled on the ground, and several others joined in the fray, and what with the terrible struggle upon 282 The Tinkler-Gxpsies. the floor and the shrieking and tearing of women's hair, it looked as if murder would be the result. Eventually one of the original assailants disengaged himself from the struggling, swearing mass of humanity, and as he backed out of the door he cried : "Come on the haill ■ clanjamphry o' ye, an' I'll learn ye better than ca' Mattha Marshall a Papish 1 " Out through the passage they forced Black Mattha, and the fight continued for a time around the door, and then right across to the other side of the square, where it flickered out as suddenly as it had originated. It was only a well-known Gypsy ruse to avoid settling the reckoning.^' Scant Accommodation. — A gentleman saw a little girl sitting inside half of a sugar barrel as it lay on its side on the ground, and he asked the child, " Do you really find room to sleep in that barrel ?" " Oh ay," came the ready reply, " and my mither and faither an' aul' grannie forbye." " Divorce Ceremony. — As a rule, Tinklers like to have their children baptised, but they often dispense with a religious ctremony when enter- ing into the bonds of connubial bliss, and we fear that they too frequently part company without ever undergr)ing the form which. Tinkle}- Tales. 283 according to Simson, they used to have recourse to in the case of divorce : " I have been informed of an instance of a Gypsy falling out with his wife, and, in the heat of his passion, shooting his own horse dead on the spot with his pistol, and forthwith performing the ceremony of divorce over the animal, without allowing himself a moment's time for reflection on the subject. Some of the country people observed the transaction, and were horrified at so extraordinary a proceeding. It was con- sidered by them as merely the mad frolic of an enraged Tinkler. It took place many years ago in a wild and sequestered spot between Galloway and Ayrshire." '^^ A gentleman avers that he remembers one of the Kennedies parting company with his wife in a similar way. That ceremony, however, is not confined to Tinklers, for an eccentric being known as " The Laird of Trelorg," who used to wander about Galloway, sleeping out, or in farm steadings when he could manage it, once divorced his wife by a similar process. They had been sleeping together on a moor. The " Laird " killed a sheep, and dragged it between them, awakened his wife, and pointing to the dead sheep, rema'ked "Till death does us part," and there- upon deserted her for ever ! 284 The Tinkler-Gypsies. In Gypsies, Leland records a story, upholding the Gypsies for honesty, told to him by Thomas Carlyle. As Thomas Carlyle was brought up in Dumfriesshire, the story is likely to refer either to the Baillies, to whom Carlyle's wife was related, or to the Kennedies, or to some of the other Galloway Tinklers who occasionally visited Dumfriesshire, and even Northumberland and Cumberland ; and it may, therefore, be appro- priately recorded here : "You have paid some attention to Gypsies," said Mr Carlyle. " They're not altogether so bad as people think. In Scotland, we used to see many of them. I'll not say that they were not rovers and reivers, but they could be honest at times. The country folks feared them, but those who made friends wi' them had no cause to complain of their conduct. Once there was a man who was persuaded to lend a Gypsy a large sum of money. My father knew the man. It was to be repaid at a certain time. The day came ; the Gypsy did not. And months passed, and still the creditor had nothing of the money but the memory of it ; and ye remember '■ Nessuin iiiagi^ior do/ore ' — that there's no greater grief than to remember the siller you once had. Weel, one day the man was surprised to hear that his frien' the Gypsy wanted to see him —interview, ye call it in America. And the Tinkler Tales. 285 Gypsy explained that having been arrested, and unfortunately detained, by some little accident, in preeson, he hadna been able to keep his engagement. ' If ye'U just gang wi' me,' said the Gypsy, 'aw'll male' it all right.' ' Mon, aw wuU,' said the creditor — they were Scotch, ye know, and spoke deealect. So the Gypsy led the way to the house which he had inhabited, a cottage which belonged to the man himself to whom he owed the money. And there he lifted up the hearthstone — the hard stane they call it in Scotland ; it is called so in the prophecy of Thomas of Ercildowne. And under the hard stane there was an iron pot. It was full of gold, and out of that gold the Gypsy carle paid his creditor. Ye wonder how't was come by ? Well, ye'U have heard it's best to let sleeping dogs lie. Yes. And what was said of the Poles who had, during the Middle Ages, a reputation almost as good as that of Gypsies ? ''Ad sea-eias Foli\ curas extendere noW (Never concern your soul as to the secrets of a Pole)."'" In order to conceal their depredations, Gypsy gangs had often to desert for a time the district frequented by them, and the following story shows that both Gypsy and Scot alike were pre- pared to make considerable sacrifices to retain or obtain possession of a horse : "' In the beginning of the present century the 2 86 The Tinkler- Gypsies. farm of Knockburnie was tenanted by Mr John Kerr, the grand-uncle of the (then) present tenant •of MarshaUmark. He was a man of generous nature, and his house was ever open to rich and poor : and because of the kindness they received, ■" gangrel bodies " made it a place of very frequent resort. On at least one occasion the farmer's open-hearted hospitality was no protec- tion against the thieving propensities of his guests. It came about in this wise : One summer evening a small band of Highland Tinklers arrived at the steading, and, as usual, received nothing but kindness at the hands of the master. After supper, in which the strangers joined, every one retired to rest. Next morning on going to the stable, Knockburnie was amazed to discover that the stall was empty which should have been occupied by his good grey mare. A further look round disclosed the fact that the Tinklers had disappeared. In the style of their nomadic brethren of the East, they "had silently stolen away,'" but they had stolen away the farmer's pony also. Without any loss of time, Knockburnie set out for the neighbouring farm of MarshaUmark, and there he told the story of his loss. The two farmers, who were also brothers, found that each of them had lost a pony, and after talking the matter over, resolved to follow the thieves. One of the [)onies had Tinkler Tales. 287 cast the half of a shoe a few days before, and with that as a guide they soon found the track. There could be no mistake about the first direc- tion in which the thieves had gone, and following the track they reached Old Cumnock. There they learned that the party had rattled through the town during the night. On went Knock- burnie and Marshallmark. Inquiry by the way assured them that the grey mare was still in front. At last Kilmarnock was reached, and there they learned that the Tinklers had gone in the direction of Fenwick. Marshallmark went no further, and turned himself homeward ; but Knockburnie set out undaunted to follow the robbers throughout the Mearns. Knockburnie was not only upheld by righteous indignation, but the " dourness " which every Scottish man or woman has inborn in him or her would not permit him to give up the pursuit. He had come away unprovided with money, but the country folks were nothing loth to supply him with food as he paused at their doors and told his tale. He traced the runaways right through Glasgow, and having a hazy notion as to where they had their stopping-place, he followed them right into the Highlands, to the vicinity of Glencoe. Before approaching the place, he enlisted the services of a number of county constables. The home of the Tinklers was in a 288 The