K"fi
n''^
fi t\ n „•;■
^_..-'^v.*-^ v,«- .A^-' .i-Jf --{V. *.''■
M M ,li iCii
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
)fJL)iXJf
f ? % ?: »■ 5f .« >,1 « ii \
* if >\ *^ !■>: J^ M ,1
112 T/ie Tinkler- Gypsies.
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 Bridge. 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 Jour?ial, v(^l. 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
{)nh
<J^'^. ',.»>/ /y
;oi.'fc/*^w»^-^/V'jf
''■^?'A^
i .1 .*
''pop TAN FERrW
Garsluitlv Village. CarsluilK Casl I e^
''dirk HATTER! CKS CAVE'
*GAUG E R S LOU P^
i^igloTL Bay
i
W\VVfV'»i
vV^Sf*/ "
>fyHy V
S/'\
"' 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,