e gypsies who roamed the south of England, to be beloved
of the old fortune-tellers and the children and mothers as I was, and to
be much in tents, involves a great deal of strangely picturesque rural
life, night-scenes by firelight, in forests and by river-banks, and
marvellously odd reminiscences of other days. There was a gypsy child
who knew me so well that the very first words she could speak were "_O
'omany 'i_" (O Romany rye), to the great delight of her parents.

After a little while I found that the _Romany_ element was spread
strangely and mysteriously round about among the rural population in many
ways. I went one day with Francis H. Groome to Cobham Fair. As I was
about to enter a tavern, there stood near by three men whose faces and
general appearance had nothing of the gypsy, but as I passed one said to
the other so that I could hear--

"_Dikk adovo rye_, _se o Romany rye_, _yuv_, _tacho_!" (Look at that
gentleman; he is a gypsy gentleman, sure!)

I naturally turned my head hearing this, when he burst out laughing, and
said--

"I told you I'd make him look round."

Once I was startled at hearing a well-dressed, I may say a gentlemanly-
looking man, seated in a gig with a fine horse stopping by the road, say,
as I passed with my wife--

"_Dikk adovo gorgio adoi_!" (Look at that Gentile, of no-gypsy!)

Not being accustomed to hear myself called a _gorgio_, I glanced up at
him angrily, when he, perceiving that I understood him and was of the
mysterious brotherhood, smiled, and touched his hat to me. One touch of
nature makes the whole world grin.

But the drollest proposal ever made to me in serious earnest came from
that indomitable incarnate old _gypssissimus Tsingarorum_, Matthew
Cooper, who proposed that I should buy a donkey. He knew where to get
one for a pound, but 2 pounds 10s. would buy a "stunner." He would
borrow a small cart and a tent, and brown my face and hands so that I
would be dark enough, and then on the _drum_--"over the hills." As for
all the expenses of the journey, I need not spend anything, for he could
provide a neat nut-brown maid, who would not only do all our cooking, but
earn money enough by fortune-telling to support us all. I would be
expected, however, to greatly aid by my superior knowledge of ladies and
gentlemen; and so all would go merrily on, with unlimited bread and
cheese, bacon and ale, and tobacco--into the blue away!

I regret to say that Matthew ex