At present they are considered in some degree as a privileged
people; for, though their way of life is unlawful, it is connived
at; the law of England having discovered by experience, that its
utmost fury is inefficient to reclaim them from their inveterate
habits.
Shortly after their first arrival in England, which is upwards of
three centuries since, a dreadful persecution was raised against
them, the aim of which was their utter extermination; the being a
Gypsy was esteemed a crime worthy of death, and the gibbets of
England groaned and creaked beneath the weight of Gypsy carcases,
and the miserable survivors were literally obliged to creep into
the earth in order to preserve their lives. But these days passed
by; their persecutors became weary of pursuing them; they showed
their heads from the holes and caves where they had hidden
themselves, they ventured forth, increased in numbers, and, each
tribe or family choosing a particular circuit, they fairly divided
the land amongst them.
In England, the male Gypsies are all dealers in horses, and
sometimes employ their idle time in mending the tin and copper
utensils of the peasantry; the females tell fortunes.
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