w seeking to have all movable habitations--_i.e._,
tents, vans, shows, &c.--in which the families live who are earning a
living by travelling from place to place, registered and numbered, as in
the case of canal-boats, and the parents compelled to send their children
to school at the place wherever they may be temporarily located, be it
National, British, or Board school. The following is Mr. Smith's note
upon what was to be seen in the Gipsies' tent on Mitcham Common:--

"'Inside this tent--with no other home--there were two men, their wives,
and about fourteen children of all ages: two or three of these were
almost men and women. The wife of one of the men had been confined of a
baby the day before I called--her bed consisting of a layer of straw upon
the damp ground. Such was the wretched and miserable condition they were
in that I could not do otherwise than help the poor woman, and gave her a
little money. But, in her feelings of gratitude to me for this simple
act of kindness, she said she would name the baby anything I would like
to chose; and, knowing that Gipsies are fond of outlandish names, I was
in a difficulty. After turning the thing over in my mind for a few
hours, I could think of nothing but "Deliverance." This seemed to please
the poor woman very much; and the poor child is named Deliverance G---.
Strange to say, the next older child is named "Moses."'"

On December 13th, an additional sketch, showing the inside of a van, was
given, to which were added the following remarks:--"Another sketch of the
singular habits and rather deplorable condition of these vagrant people,
who hang about, as the parasites of civilisation, close on the suburban
outskirts of our wealthy metropolis, is presented by our artist,
following those which have appeared in the last two weeks. Mr. G. Smith,
of Coalville, Leicester, having taken in hand the question of providing
due supervision and police regulation for the Gipsies, with compulsory
education for their children, we readily dedicate these local
illustrations to the furtherance of his good work. The ugliest place we
know in the neighbourhood of London, the most dismal and forlorn, is not
Hackney Marshes, or those of the Lea, beyond Old Ford, at the East-end;
but it is the tract of land, half torn up for brick-field clay, half
consisting of fields laid waste in expectation of the house-builder,
which lies just outside of Shepherd's Bush and Notting Hill. There it