Tuesday, November 3, 2026 · 天火 · tianmu.org
History, Language and Ethnography
Older English books on Romani life, history and language, among them Borrow's word-book of English Romani, Simson's Scottish history, Grellmann's 1787 Dissertation and Leland's account of Shelta, the language of the Irish Travellers, kept whole as period witnesses.
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Texts
A Historical Survey of the Customs, Habits, & Present State of the Gypsies — John HoylandJohn Hoyland’s 1816 survey of the Gypsies in Europe and Britain, drawn from Grellmann and other printed authors and from inquiries he instituted in England, Scotland and London, which traces their history and, following Grellmann, their origin to India, sets Gypsy words beside Hindostani and Turkish, and proposes the schooling of their children.A History of the Gipsies, with Specimens of the Gipsy Language — Walter SimsonWalter Simson’s account of the Gipsies of Scotland, with chapters on those of the Continent and of England, their marriage and divorce ceremonies, and their language, with word lists taken down from Scottish Gipsies and compared with Hindostanee and Sanskrit, edited with notes and a Disquisition by James Simson and published in New York and London in 1866.Dissertation on the Gipseys — H. M. G. GrellmannH. M. G. Grellmann’s eighteenth-century survey of the Romani people of Europe, in M. Raper’s English translation from the German as reprinted in London in 1807: their names, numbers, customs, trades, language and religion, the measures of the European states against them, and an argument from their language that they came from India.Gipsy Life — George Smith, of CoalvilleGeorge Smith of Coalville’s 1880 campaign book on the Gipsies of England and especially their children: what he gathered on their origin, names and travels, the laws made against them, his own newspaper letters and 1879 paper to the Social Science Congress, visits to London camps, Romani words and verse, and his proposal that Parliament bring their vans and children under school and sanitary law.Gypsy Coppersmiths in Liverpool and Birkenhead — Andreas (Mui Shuko)Ten sketches, published in Liverpool in 1913 under the name Andreas (Mui Shuko), of a band of Romani coppersmiths from Marseilles who camped at Birkenhead in 1911 under their chief Kola: their trade and bargaining, councils, family life, a baptism and a pilgrimage, with a nursery tale in their Romani and a family table.I’ve Been a Gipsying — George Smith of CoalvilleGeorge Smith of Coalville’s account, in the 1885 popular edition, of his visits, chiefly in 1882, to gipsy camps, fairs and race meetings in England and at Yetholm in Scotland, written to urge the registration of vans and tents and a free schooling for gipsy and canal children, with his plans and a letter to Earl Aberdare in two appendices.Romano Lavo-Lil — George BorrowGeorge Borrow’s word-book of English Gypsy in the John Murray edition of 1905: an essay on the language, a vocabulary from A to Z with Sanskrit and other comparisons, verses, sayings, Scripture and short pieces in Romany with English renderings, twelve English and three foreign Gypsy songs, and accounts of Gypsy names, fortune-telling, the Gypsyries, or Gypsy quarters, of London, Ryley Bosvil and Kirk Yetholm.Romany Life — Frank CuttrissFrank Cuttriss’s 1915 first-hand account of English Romani families as an outsider friend saw them, covering tents and caravans, names, dress, fairs, trades, the hop-picking season and the Romany language, with a glossary of Romany and slang words.Tent Life with English Gipsies in Norway — Hubert SmithHubert Smith’s 1873 narrative of a summer’s tent journey through Norway with three young English Romani travellers, Noah, Zachariah and Esmeralda, and their donkeys, with Romani words and songs throughout, a chapter and three appendices on the Norwegian Romani drawn from Eilert Sundt’s reports, with word-lists comparing Norwegian and English Romani with Lithuanian, Spanish, Hindi and Sanskrit, and two last appendices, a Norwegian poet’s mortgage deed in verse and a Danish notice, each with its English translation.The Gipsies' Advocate — James CrabbJames Crabb’s 1831 account of the English Gipsies, written from his visits to their tents and his dealings with those encamped near Southampton: their origin and language, trades, fortune-telling and family life, the accusations and harsh treatment they met, the Southampton Committee that sought to educate and convert them, and letters and clergymen’s reports from other parts of Britain.The Gypsies — Charles G. LelandCharles G. Leland’s 1882 book of sketches among the Romany people — the musical gypsies of St. Petersburg and Moscow, Austrian, English, Welsh and American gypsies, a gypsy letter, Romany stories with English versions, family names and the question of origins — ending with his chapter on Shelta, the tinkers’ secret language.The Gypsy's Parson — The Rev. George HallThe Rev. George Hall’s memoir of his friendships with Gypsy families from boyhood in Lincoln to his years as a country clergyman: camps, horse fairs, tales told at the fireside, burial customs and names, with a Romany vocabulary and pronunciation key, lists of Gypsy Christian names and an index.