PREFACE
CONTENTS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
CHAPTER I GYPSY COURT MY INITIATION INTO GYPSYDOM
CHAPTER II CHARACTERS OF THE COURT READING BORROW
CHAPTER III NORTH-COUNTRY GYPSIES
CHAPTER IV MY POACHING PUSSY A ROMANY BENISON MY FIRST TASTE OF HEDGEHOG
CHAPTER V A GYPSY BAPTISM ROMANY NAMES
CHAPTER VI I MAKE A NEW ACQUAINTANCE
CHAPTER VII THE BLACKPOOL GYPSYRY
CHAPTER VIII A TRENTSIDE FAIR
CHAPTER IX TAKEN FOR TRAMPS AN EAST ANGLIAN FAMILY
CHAPTER X PETERBOROUGH FAIR
CHAPTER XI A FORGOTTEN HIGHWAY "ON THE ROAD" WITH JONATHAN THE PATRIN THE GHOST OF THE HAYSTACK
CHAPTER XII THE GYPSY OF THE TOWN
CHAPTER XIII WITH THE YORKSHIRE GYPSIES
CHAPTER XIV A NIGHT WITH THE GYPSIES THE SWEEP OF LYNN LONDON GYPSIES ON EPSOM DOWNS
CHAPTER XV TINKERS AND GRINDERS
CHAPTER XVI THE INN ON THE RIDGEWAY TALES BY THE FIRESIDE
CHAPTER XVII HORNCASTLE FAIR
CHAPTER XVIII A GYPSY SEPULCHRE BURIAL LORE THE PASSING OF JONATHAN
CHAPTER XIX BITSHADO PAWDEL (TRANSPORTED)
CHAPTER XX A ROMANY MUNCHAUSEN
CHAPTER XXI THE GYPSY OF THE HILLS IN THE HEART OF WALES A WESTMORLAND HORSE-FAIR I
CHAPTER XXII FURZEMOOR
GLOSSARY PRONUNCIATION [291] I. Vowel-Sounds
GYPSY "FORE" OR CHRISTIAN NAMES. Masculine Names .
INDEX
Footnotes
The Rev. George Hall. Photo: Brigham
THE
GYPSY’S PARSON
HIS EXPERIENCES AND ADVENTURES
BY
The Rev. GEORGE HALL
RECTOR OF RUCKLAND, LINCOLNSHIRE
ILLUSTRATED
PHILADELPHIA
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
London: SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & CO. LTD.
TO
MY WIFE
MY COMPANION
ON MANY A GYPSY-JAUNT
“They cast the glamour o’er him.”
“You must forgive us. We are barbarians. . . . We are ruffians of the sun . . . and we must be forgiven everything.”
“It is easy to forgive in the sun,” Domini said.
“Madame, it is impossible to be anything but lenient in the sun. That is my experience. . . . But, as I was saying, the sun teaches one a lesson of charity. When I first came to live in Africa in the midst of the sand-rascals—eh, Madame, I suppose as a priest I ought to have been shocked by their goings-on. And, indeed I tried to be, I conscientiously did my best, but it was no good. I couldn’t be shocked. The sunshine drove it all out of me. I could only say, ‘It is not for me to question le bon Dieu, and le bon Dieu has created these people and set them here in the sand to behave as they do. What is my business? I can’t convert them. I can’t change their morals—I must just be a friend to them, cheer them up in their sorrows, give them a bit if they’re starving, doctor them a little—I’m a first-rate hand at making an Arab take a pill or a powder—when they are ill, and I make them at home with the white marabout.’ That’s what the sun has taught me, and every sand-rascal and sand-rascal’s child in Amara is a friend of mine.”
“You are fond of the Arabs, then?” she said.
“Of course I am, Madame. I can speak their language, and I’m as much at home in their tents, and more, than I ever should be at the Vatican—with all respect to the Holy Father.”
(Conversation between Domini and Father Beret in The Garden of Allah, quoted here by the kind permission of Mr. Robert Hichens.)
