 | The works of Washington Irving |  |
GIPSIES.
What's that to absolute freedom; such as the
very beggars have; to feast and revel here to-day,
and yonder to-morrow; next day where they
please; and so on still, the whole country or kingdom
over? There's liberty! the birds of the air
can take no more.
Jovial Crew.
Since the meeting with the gipsies,
which I have related in a former paper,
I have observed several of them haunting
the purlieus of the Hall, in spite of a
positive interdiction of the squire. They
are part of a gang that has long kept
about this neighbourhood, to the great
annoyance of the farmers, whose poultry-yards
often suffer from their nocturnal
invasions. They are, however, in some
measure, patronized by the squire, who
considers the race as belonging to the
good old times; which, to confess the
private truth, seems to have abounded
with good-for-nothing characters.
This roving crew is called "Starlight
Tom's Gang," from the name of its
chieftain, a notorious poacher. I have
heard repeatedly of the misdeeds of this
"minion of the moon;" for every midnight
depredation that takes place in
park, or fold, or farm-yard, is laid to his
charge. Starlight Tom, in fact, answers
to his name; he seems to walk in darkness,
and, like a fox, to be traced in the
morning by the mischief he has done.
He reminds me of that fearful personage
in the nursery rhyme:
None but bloody Tom!
Who steals all the sheep at night?
None but one by one!
In short, Starlight Tom is the scapegoat
of the neighbourhood; but so cunning
and adroit, that there is no detecting
him. Old Christy and the gamekeeper
have watched many a night in hopes of
entrapping him; and Christy often patrols
the park with his dogs, for the purpose,
but all in vain. It is said that the
squire winks hard at his misdeeds, having
an indulgent feeling towards the vagabond,
because of his being very expert at
all kinds of games, a great shot with the
cross-bow, and the best morris-dancer in
the country.
The squire also suffers the gang to
lurk unmolested about the skirts of his
estate, on condition that they do not
come about the house. The approaching
wedding, however, has made a kind of
Saturnalia at the Hall, and has caused a
suspension of all sober rule. It has produced
a great sensation throughout the
female part of the household; not a
housemaid but dreams of wedding-favours,
and has a husband running in
her head. Such a time is a harvest for
the gipsies; there is a public footpath
leading across one part of the park, by
which they have free ingress, and they
are continually hovering about the
grounds, telling the servant girls' fortunes,
or getting smuggled in to the
young ladies.
I believe the Oxonian amuses himself
very much by furnishing them with hints
in private, and bewildering all the weak
brains in the house with their wonderful
revelations. The general certainly was
very much astonished by the communications
made to him the other evening
by the gipsy girl: he kept a wary silence
towards us on the subject, and affected to
treat it lightly; but I have noticed that
he has since redoubled his attentions to
Lady Lillycraft and her dogs.
I have seen also Phœbe Wilkins