SOME FURTHER PARTICULARS RESPECTING THE ENGLISH GYPSIES
It is difficult to say at what period the Gypsies or Rommany made
their first appearance in England. They had become, however, such
a nuisance in the time of Henry the Eighth, Philip and Mary, and
Elizabeth, that Gypsyism was denounced by various royal statutes,
and, if persisted in, was to be punished as felony without benefit
of clergy; it is probable, however, that they had overrun England
long before the period of the earliest of these monarchs. The
Gypsies penetrate into all countries, save poor ones, and it is
hardly to be supposed that a few leagues of intervening salt water
would have kept a race so enterprising any considerable length of
time, after their arrival on the continent of Europe, from
obtaining a footing in the fairest and richest country of the West.
It is easy enough to conceive the manner in which the Gypsies lived
in England for a long time subsequent to their arrival: doubtless
in a half-savage state, wandering about from place to place,
encamping on the uninhabited spots, of which there were then so
many in England, feared and hated by the population, who looked
upon them as thieves and foreign sorcerers, occasionally committing
acts of brigandage, but depending chiefly for subsistence on the
practice of the 'arts of Egypt,' in which cunning and dexterity
were far more necessary than courage or strength of hand.
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