able
blood within him. He has never as yet shown the slightest concern about
the English phases of civilisation which Mr. Smith would like to press
upon his notice. Such ideas as those of God, immortality, and marriage
are as unknown to him as the commonest distinction between mine and
thine. He is a well-looking artistic vagabond, to whom a half-time book
and a penalty will in all probability be no better than a standing joke
to be cracked with impunity at the expense of the rural School Boards."

[Picture: Gipsies' Winter Quarters near Latimer Road, Notting Hill]

The _Sportsman_ of October 16th, 1879, has the following notice:--"Mr.
George Smith, of Coalville, whose philanthropic efforts on behalf of 'our
canal-boat population' are well known, has lately turned his attention to
the wandering Gipsy tribes who infest the roadside, with the view to
procuring at least a modicum of education for their children. He says
that the Gipsies are lamentably ignorant, few of them being able even to
write their names. By certain proceedings which took place at
Christchurch Police-court on Tuesday, it would almost seem that some of
the dark-faced wanderers already are educated a little too much. At all
events, they occasionally manifest an ability to 'take a stave' out of
the rest of the community. At the court in question a Gipsy woman named
Emma Barney was brought to task for 'imposing by subtle craft to extort
money' from a Bournemouth shopkeeper named Richard Oliver. It seems that
Oliver is troubled with pimples on his face, and that Emma Barney--not an
inappropriate name, by the way--said she could cure these by means of a
certain herb, the name of which she would divulge 'for a consideration.'
Before doing so, however, she required Richard's coat and waistcoat, and
some silver to 'steam in hot water,' after which the name of the herb
would be given--on the following day. It is needless to say that the
coat, waistcoat, and silver did not return to the Oliver home, and that
the pimples did not depart from the Oliver face. The 'Gipsy's home' for
the next two months will be in the county gaol. It is a curious
reflection, however, that such strange credulity as that displayed by the
Bournemouth shopkeeper in this case can be found in the present year of
grace, with its gigantic machinery for educating the masses."

The following leading article, taken from the _Daily Telegraph_, under
date October 17th of last year,