All these families have Gypsy names, which seem, however, to be
little more than attempts at translation of the English ones:- thus
the Stanleys are called Bar-engres (11), which means stony-fellows,
or stony-hearts; the Coopers, Wardo-engres, or wheelwrights; the
Lovells, Camo-mescres, or amorous fellows the Hernes (German
Haaren) Balors, hairs, or hairy men; while the Smiths are called
Petul-engres, signifying horseshoe fellows, or blacksmiths.
It is not very easy to determine how the Gypsies became possessed
of some of these names: the reader, however, will have observed
that two of them, Stanley and Lovell, are the names of two highly
aristocratic English families; the Gypsies who bear them perhaps
adopted them from having, at their first arrival, established
themselves on the estates of those great people; or it is possible
that they translated their original Gypsy appellations by these
names, which they deemed synonymous. Much the same may be said
with respect to Herne, an ancient English name; they probably
sometimes officiated as coopers or wheelwrights, whence the
cognomination. Of the term Petul-engro, or Smith, however, I wish
to say something in particular.
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