ed him most because he had once vanquished Big Ben Brain in a fight
in Hyde Park.

"He was always at his best," writes Mr. Theodore Watts, "in describing a
pugilistic encounter; for in the saving grace of pugilism as an English
accomplishment, he believed as devoutly as he believed in East Anglia and
the Bible."

CHAPTER VII: BORROW AND THE EAST ANGLIAN GIPSIES

East Anglia has for centuries been a favourite roaming ground for certain
of the families of the true Romany tribe. The reason for this, assigned
by the gipsies themselves, is not a flattering one to East Englanders.
They will tell you, if you are in their confidence, that they come to
East Anglia on account of the simplicity and gullibility of its
inhabitants. Nowhere else can the swarthy _chals_ find _gorgios_ so
ready to purchase a doctored nag, or the dark-eyed _chis_ so easily cozen
credulous villagers and simple servant-girls by the mysteries of
_dukkeripen_. Every fair-ground and race-course is dotted with their
travelling vans; the end of every harvest sees them congregate on the
village greens; the "making up" of the North Sea fishing-boats attracts
them to the Eastern coast.

It may well be that Borrow first made the acquaintance of the Romanies
when a child at East Dereham, for there is a heath just outside the
little town which has long been their central halting-place for the
district. If this was the case, he has left no record of such a meeting:
in all probability, had his wondering eyes rested upon their unfamiliar
faces and smouldering camp-fires he would have shared the childish fears
instilled by kitchen and nursery legends and have fled the scene. It was
outside Norman Cross that he first came into close contact with the alien
wanderers. Straying into a green lane he fell in with a low tent from
which smoke was issuing, and in front of which a man was carding plaited
straw, while a woman was engaged in the manufacture of spurious coin.
Their queer appearance, so unlike that of any men or women he had
hitherto encountered, excited his lively curiosity; but, ere he had time
to examine them closely, they were down upon him with threats and curses.
Violence was about to be done to him when a viper, which he had concealed
in his jacket, lifted its head from his bosom, and the gipsies' wrath at
being discovered changed to awe of one who fearlessly handled such a
deadly creature. From that day Borrow's interest in the Romany tribe