Lavengro, the autobiographer, scholar and philologist (Lavengro=word-master); known among the road-faring folk as the Romany rye, or young squire turned gypsy.

Jasper Petulengro, a Romany kral or tribal chief, horse-dealer and blacksmith (petulengro=lord of the horseshoe). “The Gypsy.”

Fraser, a popish emissary or propagandist, known as the “man in black.” “The Priest.”

Tawno Chikno, the little one, so called on account of his immense size; the “Antinous of the dusky people;” a great horseman and Jasper’s brother-in-law.

Sylvester, another brother-in-law, an ill-conditioned fellow, “the Lazarus of the Romany tribe.”

Black or Blazing John Bosville (Anselo Herne), “the flaming tinman” a “half-in-half” itinerant tinker and bruiser.

Catchpole, the landlord of a small inn, two miles from the Dingle, and not far from Willenhall in Staffordshire.

Mr. Hunter, a radical, who wears a snuff-coloured coat and frequents the inn above named.

A postilion, whose headquarters are The Swan, Stafford.

WOMEN.

Isopel or Belle Berners, the beauteous queen of the Dingle.

Grey Moll, wife of Bosville, the flying tinker.

A niece of the landlord of the inn.

The three daughters of Mrs. Herne:—

Pakomovna, (Mrs.) Petulengro,

Mikailia, (Mrs.) Chikno.

Ursula, widow of Launcelot Lovell, who subsequently marries Sylvester.

ANIMALS.

Ambrol (in gypsy=a pear), Lavengro’s little gry or pony.

Traveller, a donkey (gypsy, mailla), belonging to Isopel Berners.

The Scene is laid under the greenwood tree, in the height of an English summer.

The Dingle is a deep, wooded, and consequently somewhat gloomy, hollow in the middle of a very large, desolate field. The shelving sides of the hollow are overgrown with trees and bushes. A belt of sallows crowns the circular edge of the small crater. At the lowest part of the Dingle are discovered a stone and a fire of charcoal, from which spot a winding path ascends to “the plain.” On either side of the fire is a small encampment. One consists of a small pony cart and a small hut-shaped tent, occupied by the word-master. On the other side is erected a kind of tent, consisting of large hoops covered over with tarpaulin, quite impenetrable to rain; hard by stands a small donkey-cart. This is “the tabernacle” of Isopel Berners. A short distance off, near a spring of clear water, is the encampment of the Romany chals and chies—the Petulengres and their small clan.

The Place is about five miles from Willenhall in Staffordshire.

The Time is July 1825.