The Pocket George Borrow | Page 8

their own fashion, louder than castanets,
distorting their forms into all kinds of obscene attitudes, and uttering
words to repeat which were an abomination. In a corner of the
apartment capered the while Sebastianillo, a convict Gypsy from
Melilla, strumming the guitar most furiously, and producing
demoniacal sounds which had some resemblance to Malbrun
(Malbrouk), and, as he strummed, repeating at intervals the Gypsy
modification of the song.
* * * * *
The English Gypsies are constant attendants at the racecourse; what
jockey is not? Perhaps jockeyism originated with them, and even racing,
at least in England. Jockeyism properly implies the management of a
whip, and the word jockey is neither more nor less than the term
slightly modified, by which they designate the formidable whips which
they usually carry, and which are at present in general use amongst
horse- traffickers, under the title of jockey whips. They are likewise
fond of resorting to the prize-ring, and have occasionally even attained
some eminence, as principals, in those disgraceful and brutalizing
exhibitions called pugilistic combats. I believe a great deal has been
written on the subject of the English Gypsies, but the writers have
dwelt too much in generalities; they have been afraid to take the Gypsy
by the hand, lead him forth from the crowd, and exhibit him, in the area;
he is well worth observing. When a boy of fourteen, I was present at a

prize-fight; why should I hide the truth? It took place on a green
meadow, beside a running stream, close by the old church of E---, and
within a league of the ancient town of N---, the capital of one of the
eastern counties. The terrible Thurtell was present, lord of the
concourse; for wherever he moved he was master, and whenever he
spoke, even when in chains, every other voice was silent. He stood on
the mead, grim and pale as usual, with his bruisers around. He it was,
indeed, who got up the fight, as he had previously done twenty others;
it being his frequent boast that he had first introduced bruising and
bloodshed amidst rural scenes, and transformed a quiet slumbering
town into a den of Jews and metropolitan thieves. Some time before the
commencement of the combat, three men, mounted on wild-looking
horses, came dashing down the road in the direction of the meadow, in
the midst of which they presently showed themselves, their horses
clearing the deep ditches with wonderful alacrity. 'That's Gypsy Will
and his gang,' lisped a Hebrew pickpocket; 'we shall have another
fight.' The word Gypsy was always sufficient to excite my curiosity,
and I looked attentively at the new-comers.
I have seen Gypsies of various lands, Russian, Hungarian, and Turkish;
and I have also seen the legitimate children of most countries of the
world; but I never saw, upon the whole, three more remarkable
individuals, as far as personal appearance was concerned, than the three
English Gypsies who now presented themselves to my eyes on that spot.
Two of them had dismounted, and were holding their horses by the
reins. The tallest, and, at the first glance, the most interesting of the two,
was almost a giant, for his height could not have been less than six feet
three. It is impossible for the imagination to conceive anything more
perfectly beautiful than were the features of this man, and the most
skilful sculptor of Greece might have taken them as his model for a
hero and a god. The forehead was exceedingly lofty,--a rare thing in a
Gypsy; the nose less Roman than Grecian,--fine yet delicate; the eye
large, overhung with long drooping lashes, giving them almost a
melancholy expression; it was only when the lashes were elevated that
the Gypsy glance was seen, if that can be called a glance which is a
strange stare, like nothing else in this world. His complexion was a
beautiful olive; and his teeth were of a brilliancy uncommon even

amongst these people, who have all fine teeth. He was dressed in a
coarse waggoner's slop, which, however, was unable to conceal
altogether the proportions of his noble and Herculean figure. He might
be about twenty-eight. His companion and his captain, Gypsy Will, was,
I think, fifty when he was hanged, ten years subsequently (for I never
afterwards lost sight of him), in the front of the jail of Bury St.
Edmunds. I have still present before me his bushy black hair, his black
face, and his big black eyes fixed and staring. His dress consisted of a
loose blue jockey coat, jockey boots and breeches; in his hand was a
huge jockey whip, and on his head (it struck me at the time for its
singularity) a broad-brimmed high- peaked Andalusian hat, or at least
one very much resembling