It would appear that they were always divided into clans or tribes,
each bearing a particular name, and to which a particular district
more especially belonged, though occasionally they would exchange
districts for a period, and, incited by their characteristic love
of wandering, would travel far and wide. Of these families each
had a sher-engro, or head man, but that they were ever united under
one Rommany Krallis, or Gypsy King, as some people have insisted,
there is not the slightest ground for supposing.
It is possible that many of the original Gypsy tribes are no longer
in existence: disease or the law may have made sad havoc among
them, and the few survivors have incorporated themselves with other
families, whose name they have adopted. Two or three instances of
this description have occurred within the sphere of my own
knowledge: the heads of small families have been cut off, and the
subordinate members, too young and inexperienced to continue
Gypsying as independent wanderers, have been adopted by other
tribes.
The principal Gypsy tribes at present in existence are the
Stanleys, whose grand haunt is the New Forest; the Lovells, who are
fond of London and its vicinity; the Coopers, who call Windsor
Castle their home; the Hernes, to whom the north country, more
especially Yorkshire, belongeth; and lastly, my brethren, the
Smiths, - to whom East Anglia appears to have been allotted from
the beginning.
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