to talk to us." Doubtless. And yet there are really very few artists
who do not work more at their ease when not watched, and I have known
some to whom such watching was misery. They are not, O intruder,
painting for _your_ amusement!
This is not such a far cry from my Romanys as it may seem. When I think
of what I have lost in this life by impertinence coming between me and
gypsies, I feel that it could not be avoided. The proportion of men,
even of gentlemen, or of those who dress decently, who cannot see another
well-dressed man talking with a very poor one in public, without at once
surmising a mystery, and endeavoring to solve it, is amazing. And they
do not stop at a trifle, either.
It is a marked characteristic of all gypsies that they are quite free
from any such mean intrusiveness. Whether it is because they themselves
are continually treated as curiosities, or because great knowledge of
life in a small way has made them philosophers, I will not say, but it is
a fact that in this respect they are invariably the politest people in
the world. Perhaps their calm contempt of the _galerly_, or green
Gorgios, is founded on a consciousness of their superiority in this
matter.
The Hungarian gypsy differs from all his brethren of Europe in being more
intensely gypsy. He has deeper, wilder, and more original feeling in
music, and he is more inspired with a love of travel. Numbers of
Hungarian Romany chals--in which I include all Austrian gypsies--travel
annually all over Europe, but return as regularly to their own country.
I have met with them exhibiting bears in Baden-Baden. These Ricinari, or
bear-leaders, form, however, a set within a set, and are in fact more
nearly allied to the gypsy bear-leaders of Turkey and Syria than to any
other of their own people. They are wild and rude to a proverb, and
generally speak a peculiar dialect of Romany, which is called the
Bear-leaders' by philologists. I have also seen Syrian-gypsy Ricinari in
Cairo. Many of the better caste make a great deal of money, and some are
rich. Like all really pure-blooded gypsies, they have deep feelings,
which are easily awakened by kindness, but especially by sympathy and
interest.
ENGLISH GYPSIES.
I. OATLANDS PARK.
Oatlands Park (between Weybridge and Walton-upon-Thames) was once the
property of the Duke of York, but now the lordly manor-house is a hotel.
The grounds about it are well preserved and very pict
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