Whether both words were derived originally from the same
source, as I believe some people have supposed, is a question
which, with my present lights, I cannot pretend to determine.
THE ENGLISH GYPSIES
No country appears less adapted for that wandering life, which
seems so natural to these people, than England. Those wildernesses
and forests, which they are so attached to, are not to be found
there; every inch of land is cultivated, and its produce watched
with a jealous eye; and as the laws against trampers, without the
visible means of supporting themselves, are exceedingly severe, the
possibility of the Gypsies existing as a distinct race, and
retaining their original free and independent habits, might
naturally be called in question by those who had not satisfactorily
verified the fact. Yet it is a truth that, amidst all these
seeming disadvantages, they not only exist there, but in no part of
the world is their life more in accordance with the general idea
that the Gypsy is like Cain, a wanderer of the earth; for in
England the covered cart and the little tent are the houses of the
Gypsy, and he seldom remains more than three days in the same
place.
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