picture presented in this extract, and
which Fletcher himself, though the energetic and eloquent friend of
freedom, saw no better mode of correcting than by introducing a system of
domestic slavery, the progress of time, and increase both of the means of
life and of the power of the laws, gradually reduced this dreadful evil
within more narrow bounds. The tribes of gipsies, jockies, or cairds--for
by all these denominations such banditti were known--became few in
number, and many were entirely rooted out. Still, however, a sufficient
number remained to give, occasional alarm and constant vexation. Some
rude handicrafts were entirely resigned to these itinerants, particularly
the art of trencher-making, of manufacturing horn-spoons, and the whole
mystery of the tinker. To these they added a petty trade in the coarse
sorts of earthenware. Such were their ostensible means of livelihood.
Each tribe had usually some fixed place of rendezvous, which they
occasionally occupied and considered as their standing camp, and in the
vicinity of which they generally abstained from depredation. They had
even talents and accomplishments, which made them occasionally useful and
entertaining. Many cultivated music with success; and the favourite
fiddler or piper of a district was often to be found in a gipsy town.
They understood all out-of-door sports, especially otter-hunting,
fishing, or finding game. They bred the best and boldest terriers, and
sometimes had good pointers for sale. In winter the women told fortunes,
the men showed tricks of legerdemain; and these accomplishments often
helped to while away a weary or stormy evening in the circle of the
'farmer's ha'.' The wildness of their character, and the indomitable
pride with which they despised all regular labour, commanded a certain
awe, which was not diminished by the consideration that these strollers
were a vindictive race, and were restrained by no check, either of fear
or conscience, from taking desperate vengeance upon those who had
offended them. These tribes were, in short, the pariahs of Scotland,
living like wild Indians among European settlers, and, like them, judged
of rather by their own customs, habits, and opinions, than as if they had
been members of the civilised part of the community. Some hordes of them
yet remain, chiefly in such situations as afford a ready escape either
into a waste country or into another Jurisdiction. Nor are the features
of their character