THE GYPSY PROBLEM.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—Your correspondent of April 5th on the "Gypsy Problem " appears never to have learnt, or perhaps cared to learn, the difference between the low vagrant and the Romany chal, otherwise he could never have' misapplied that beautiful quotation from "Lavengro" in such a manner, or used it in connexion with the vagabonds such as he describes, whom, I am glad to say, I never came across. The reason why I number amongst my true friends such gypsies as the Stanleys, for example, is because I never beard any low language amongst them of the kind one hears amongst our ordinary cottage people; because, again, their habits of personal cleanliness and laws of living are far superior to those of our labouring classes. Then, again, amongst our Hampshire caravan-dwellers and tent-dwellers no such conditions exist at the birth of a child as those your correspondent has depicted. There was child born to a newly married couple in a tent not far from here. The young gypsy mother had a village nurse in attendance, and her mother and other women of the tribe sat up all night with her to keep the fire burning and a kettle boiling for tea, Quaker oats, &c. The younger girls of the tribe also sat up together "for company" during part of the night by themselves. Amongst caravan gypsies the doctor's services are generally called for on these occasions, and he is paid such fee as they can afford. I have never known a gypsy's child to be born in a workhouse. But I, of course, am speaking of the Romany people who speak Romance, and not of the low vagrant class which, according to George Borrow, existed_ in England long before the Romani set foot on our
shores.—I am, Sir, &c., THE ROMANY RAUNY. [This correspondence must now cease.—En. Spectator.]
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