2 SEPTEMBER 1911, Page 17

"DIDDIKIES."

(To TES EDITOR Or THE "SPECTATOR."] Slit,—Why are gypsies in some parts of Hampshire known in the vernacular as " diddikies," such gypsies, for instance, as do " outcomer " work on the farms in harvest time ? A native of Itchen Talley, aged ninety, has just told me that "if you did meet a gyppoe "--" A what ?" " Gypsy, then—you'd say to'n, 'Where be goen, then, diddikie?" "But, master" (a futile question this), " how do you spell it?" " Spell P " cries master, " bless ee, there bain't no spell belonging to't. 'Tis just a word!" Yes. But is it by chance a Romany word; and, if so, what does it mean P—I am, Sir, &c.,