{87} This practice is not so uncommon. Dr. Johnson had a very similar habit in his "sort of magical movement" (Life by Boswell, end of year 1764); and a member of my own college at Oxford, nearly thirty years ago, touched just like the man in _Lavengro_. Once in the Schools he remembered he had pa.s.sed by a pebble which he had noticed in the High Street: he tore up his papers, and went and picked up the pebble.
{88} Mr. William Bodham Donne, the examiner of plays 1857-74, was told by Borrow himself that this "Man who Touched" was drawn from the author of _Vathek_, William Beckford (1760-1844). There are difficulties in the way of accepting this statement, among them that Beckford had quitted Fonthill for Bath in 1822, three years before Borrow went a-gypsying.
Still, I believe there is something in it.
{114} A thing done oftener in books than in reality.
{121} Richard Hurrell Froude in a letter of 1831 brands Dissenters as "the promoters of d.a.m.nable heresy."
{139} A branch of the great Gypsy family of Boswell have contracted the surname to Boss.
{142} At Tamworth in May 1812 (Knapp, i. 105).
{156} The Gypsy la.s.s And the Gypsy lad Shall go to-morrow To poison the pig And bewitch the horse Of the farmer gentleman.
{160} The Gypsy la.s.s And the Gypsy lad Love stealing And fortune-telling, And lying, And every _-pen_ But goodness And truth.
{161} Dog. Better, _jukel_.
{165a} By my G.o.d; not Anglo-Romany.
{165b} Coppersmith.
{167} Grand-aunt"s.
{168} Cake.
{169} Rod.
{170} Aunt.
{174a} Poisoned.
{174b} Fortune-telling spirit. I never met the English Gypsy that used _dook_.
{177} Gentile"s coming.
{188} In my _Gypsy Folk-Tales_ (1899, pp. 293-95) I have discussed with some fulness Bunyan"s possible Gypsy ancestry. The most interesting point is that in 1586 at Launceston a child was baptized "Nicholas, sonne of James Bownian, an Egiptian rogue."
{201} Ellis Wynn (_c._ 1671-1741). Borrow himself at last printed his translation of _The Sleeping Bard_ at Yarmouth in 1860, and himself next year reviewed it in the _Quarterly_.
{238} Rhys Prichard (1579-1644).
{246} Hat of beaver.
{247} Good day, brother.
{249a} Seems meant for "hang-woman," but there is no such word.
{249b} Gipsy-wise--an odd form.
{250a} Good old blood. Should be _rat_, not _rati_.
{250b} Horse.
{251} Brother, comrade.
{252a} Aunt.
{252b} Poisoning pigs.
{253a} Poisons; not Anglo-Romany.
{253b} Better, _nashado_, hanged.
{254a} Magistrate.
{254b} Runner, detective.
{255a} Woman. Rightly _juvel_.
{255b} No such word.
{256} Seemingly "gallows," but no such word.
{257a} Gypsy chap.
{257b} _Engro_ is a mere termination, like _-er_ in _runner_.
{259} Fool.
{260} Fists. Prizefighters" slang.
{263} Blacksmith.
{264a} Tell fortunes.
{264b} Hill Town, Norwich, but better, _Chumba Gav_.
{264c} "Go with G.o.d." Not English Romany.
{267} Horse-shoe.
{268a} Better, _yogesko chivs_.
{268b} Probably "brother," but not English Romany.
{268c} Unknown to English Gypsies.
{268d} Beating.