tended the ceremony. Her portrait adorns the sign-post of a house of entertainment in Norwood, called the Gipsy-house. In an adjoining cottage lives an old woman, grand-daughter of queen Margaret, who inherits her title. She is niece of queen Bridget, who was buried at Dulwich in 1768. Her rank seems to be merely titular: I do not find that the Gipsies pay her any parti cular deference; or that she differs in any other respect, than that of being a householder, from the rest of her tribe." He adds some leading facts concerning this extraordinary race of people, who are scattered over most parts of Europe, Asia, and America.

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"The Gipsies," continues he, "in most places on the continent, are called Cingari, or Zingari: the Spaniards call them Gitanos. It is not certain when they first appeared in Europe; but mention is made of them in Hungary and Germany, so early as the year 1417. Within ten years afterwards, we hear of them in France, Switzerland, and Italy. The date of their arrival in England is more uncertain it is most probable, that it was not till nearly a century afterwards. In the year 1530, they are thus spoken of in the penal statutes. "Forasmuch as before this time, divers and many outlandish people, calling themselves Egyptians, using no craft nor feat of merchandise, have come into this realm, and gone from shire to shire, and from place to place, in great company, and used great subtil and crafty means to deceive the people; bearing them in hand, that they, by palmistry, could tell men's and women's fortunes; and so, many times, by craft

and subtilty, have deceived the people of their money; and also have committed many heinous felonies and robberies, to the great hurt and deceit of the people they have come among," &c. It was afterwards made death for them to continue in the kingdoin; and it remains on record, that thirteen were executed on this ground, a few years before the restoration; nor was this cruel act repealed till about the year 1783.

"The Gipsies were expelled France in 1560, and Spain in 1591; but it does not appear that they have been extirpated in any country. Their collective numbers in every quarter of the globe, have been calculated at 7 or 800,000. They are most numerous in Asia, and in the northern parts of Europe. Various have been the opinions relating to their origin. That they came from Egypt has been the most prevalent. This opinion (which has procured them here the name of Gipsies, and in Spain that of Gitanos) arose, from some of the first who arrived in Europe, pretending that they came from that country; which they did, perhaps, to heighten their reputation for skill in palmistry* and the occult sciences. It is now, I believe, pretty generally agreed, that they came originally from Hindoostan ; since their language so far coincides with the Hindoostanic, that even now, after a lapse of more than three centuries, during which they have been dispersed in various foreign countries, nearly one half of their words

* Palmistry is the pretended art of telling the future events of men's lives by the lines in their hands.

are precisely those of Hindoostan; and scarcely any variation is to be found in vocabularies procured from the Gipsies in Turkey, Hungary, Germany, and those in England.

“Their manners, for the most part, coincide, as well as their language, in every quarter of the world where they are found; being the same idle, wandering set of beings, and seldom professing any ostensible mode of livelihood, except that of fortune-telling. Their religion is always that of the country in which they reside; and though they are no great frequenters either of mosques or churches, they generally conform to rites and ceremonies, as they find them established.

"Upon the whole, we may certainly agree with Grellman, who has written their history, in regarding them as a singular phenomenon in Europe. For the space of between three and four hundred years, they have gone wandering about like pilgrims and strangers, yet neither time nor example has made in them any alteration: they remain ever, and everywhere, what their fathers Africa makes them no blacker, nor does Europe

were.

make them whiter."

It is not the least singular feature of this wandering race, that they should have so long maintained their credit for foretelling events, when the fallacy of their predictions must have been so often experienced, and their ignorance, and want of principle so well known. What reliance can be placed on the oracular decisions of a man who has not sufficient foresight of his own affairs, to escape the hands of justice for robbing a henroost?

And yet, the votaries of these itinerant prophets are not always wholly confined to the lowest classes of mankind, who are as ignorant as those they consult. Ill-educated misses have been known to indulge their curiosity in inquiries concerning the features and complexions of their future husbands, by crossing the hand of an artful Gipsy with silver. I do not mean to infer, that young ladies of cultivated understandings ever descend to such an absurdity; but it is really astonishing, that any one, above the lowest vulgar, should-be guilty of a folly that has no excuse.

It is the half-educated, who have imbibed notions of gentility above their station, and are in hopes of making their fortunes by what is called a lucky marriage, who are most likely to fall into this error.

The desire of prying into futurity seems a natural propensity. In the ancient world, the consultation of oracles, soothsayers, and augurs, divining by the flight of birds, the entrails of the victims, or the feeding of chickens, were so many efforts of a weak endeavour to withdraw that veil, that in mercy is appointed to conceal from our view the events that are to befal us.

In modern times, the impudent pretensions of astrologers, conjurors, and fortune-tellers, have deluded the credulous, even of that rank that should set a more rational example. About fifty years ago, a celebrated professor of this dark science lived in London, in a place called Fryingpan Alley; and crowds of carriages were daily seen waiting in the neighbourhood, whilst the artful impostor was distributing different allotments to

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their owners, according to his arbitrary caprice, or what he thought would bring most money into his purse.

Some young ladies of my acquaintance, observing, in a gentleman with whom they were very intimate, a strong propensity to know his future destiny, from any one who assumed the character of a fortune-teller, contrived an ingenious stratagem to cure him of this folly, though not without some sacrifice of truth. He had formed a strong attachment to a lady, with whom his success was long doubtful; and, as his hopes were the constant theme of his conversation, mixed with anxious wishes to foresee the termination of an affair, on which his happiness so much depended, these ladies told him, that a Gipsy had lately been stationed in the neighbourhood of the village where they lived, who was famous for the veracity of her predictions; and that, if he liked to consult her, they would appoint her to meet him, in a private place in their pleasure-grounds. He greedily swallowed the bait, and repaired, with great punctuality, to the spot proposed. One of those concerned in the plot was furnished with a mask, a hump, and tattered garments, that gave her so complete an appearance of a shrivelled old hag, that the unsuspecting youth never doubted that she was really the character she had assumed.

She personated the fortune-teller with such address, by telling some things that she knew, and by leading him to unbosom the secrets of his heart, that he was so well satisfied with her ambiguous promises, he agreed to give her a second meeting. The same farce was again re