the brave old Westphalian Hebraist, Johannes Buxtorf. {0b}

The Gypsies of England, the Zigany, Zigeuner, and other tribes of the
Continent, descendants of the old Zingary and Romany Chals, retain many
of the characteristics of their forefathers, and, though differing from
each other in some respects, resemble each other in many. They are much
alike in hue and feature; speak amongst themselves much the same tongue;
exercise much the same trades, and are addicted to the same evil
practices. There is a little English Gypsy gillie, or song, of which the
following quatrain is a translation, containing four queries, to all of
which the English Romano might respond by Ava, and the foreign Chal by
the same affirmative to the three first, if not to the last:--

Can you speak the Roman tongue?
Can you make the fiddle ring?
Can you poison a jolly hog?
And split the stick for the linen string?

So much for the Gypsies. There are many other things in the book to
which perhaps the writer ought to advert; but he is weary, and, moreover,
is afraid of wearying others. He will, therefore, merely add that every
book must eventually stand or fall by its deserts; that praise, however
abundant, will not keep a bad book alive for any considerable time, nor
abuse, however virulent, a good one for ever in the dust; and he thinks
himself justified in saying, that were there not some good in _Lavengro_,
it would not again be raising its head, notwithstanding all it underwent
one and twenty years ago.

LAVENGRO. (1851.)

CHAPTER I.

On an evening of July, in the year 18--, at East D---, a beautiful little
town in a certain district of East Anglia, I first saw the light. {1a}

My father was a Cornish man, the youngest, as I have heard him say, of
seven brothers. He sprang from a family of gentlemen, or, as some people
would call them, _gentillatres_, for they were not very wealthy; they had
a coat of arms, however, and lived on their own property at a place
called Tredinnock, which being interpreted means _the house on the hill_,
which house and the neighbouring acres had been from time immemorial in
their possession. I mention these particulars that the reader may see at
once that I am not altogether of low and plebeian origin; the present age
is highly aristocratic, and I am convinced that the public will read my
pages with more zest from being told that I am a _gentillatre_ by birth
with Cornish blood {1b}