ark stone blind and lives with son john at gurtain I hope and trust
you will send us word how you are getting Fanny mother is not only a
very poor crater somtimes Mother often thinks she should often like to
see your bazy and joby you might com land see us in the summer if we had
nothing elce I ca il find them something to eat if mother never see you
in this world she is hopining to see you in heaven so no more from your
afexenen brother and sister Vickers good buy * * * * Kiss all on you * *
* *"

In speaking of the Gipsies in Scotland sixty years ago, Mr.
Deputy-Sheriff Moor, of Aberdeenshire, says as follows:--"Occasionally
vagrants, both single and in bands, appear in this part of the country,
resorting to fairs, when they commit depredations on the unwary." Sir
Walter Scott, Bart., says of the Gipsies:--"A set of people possessing
the same erratic habits, and practising the trade of tinkers, are well
known in the Borders, and have often fallen under the cognisance of the
law. They are often called Gipsies, and pass through the country
annually in small bands, with their carts and asses. The men are
tinkers, poachers, and thieves upon a small scale," and he goes on to say
that "some of the more atrocious families have been extirpated." Mr.
Riddell, Justice of Peace for Roxburghshire, says:--"They are thorough
desperadoes of the worst class of vagabonds. Those who travel through
this county give offence chiefly by poaching and small thefts. All of
them are perfectly ignorant of religion. They marry and cohabit amongst
each other, and are held in a sort of horror by the common people." Mr.
William Smith, the Baillie of Kelso, and a gentlemen of high position,
says:--"Some kind of honour peculiar to themselves seems to prevail in
their community. They reckon it a disgrace to steal near their homes, or
even at a distance if detected. I must always except that petty theft of
feeding their shilties and asses on the farmers' grass and corn, which
they will do whether at home or abroad." And he further says, "I am
sorry to say, however, that when checked in their licentious
appropriations they are much addicted both to threaten and to execute
revenge." Mr. Smith always visited the Gipsies upon one of the estates
of which he had the charge, consequently he would be likely to know more
about them than most people. A number of other gentleman confirmed these
statements. By comparing these remarks with the sta