Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-09-28
A SCOTTISH MECCA,
Where is Now the Largest Romany
Colony Left in Great Britain.
QUAINT AND TINY YETH0LM.
The Scene Of Countless Cory ClaShings in
Border Warfare.
GIPsYDOM In KIRK-TETHOLM WANING

lcoRREsPoSpENcF OF THE DIsPArcH.1
JEDBURG, SCOTLAND, September IA
sunny little world almost entirely to them
selves have the largest Romany colony nov
known in Great Britain, my Scottish Clips
friends of the most secluded of all Tweed
dale hamIets, quaint and tiny old Yetholm
The little place nestles lovingly among tn
picturesque ielis near the source of tn,
beautiful Bowmont Water which divide
Yetholm into twin hamlets, about third o
mile apart, each on gentle elevation o
ground, the village on the northern shore O
the stream being called Town Yetholm, anG
the one on the southern bank, to which my
pilgrimage was made, Kirk-Yetholm. It i.
IN Kirk-Yetholm that the Gipsies live
and have had their homes much as they have
them to-day for 400 years.
The valley of Yetholm lies in the heart oi
the eastern district of Roxburgshire, which
comprises the parishes of Linton, Morebat.
tie, Hownam and Yetholm. On all sides
rise the noble Cheviot Hills, more beautiful
and charming in reality than anywhere
painted in all border minstrelsy, shutting in
the vale from the outside world, accessible
BY only two roads so hidden, as one wanders
about old Yetholm, that no egress from the
romantic spot can anywhere be seen. But
winding between the Cheviot peaks one
thcroughfare leads to Kelso, and another to
Jedburg, through most enhancing scenes.
That trailing along to Kelso, gives noble
views of the region at the junction of the
Teviot and Tweed, and of the ruins of Rox-
burg Castle, celebrated in border history.
Just beyond where it leaves Yetholm
81 III =.
is the famous Cherrytrees Manse, reference
to which ever
BRINGS A BROAD SMILE
upon every Scotch face; for it was here that
the famous David Williamson, a prosecuted
Presbyterian clergyman, who afterward min
istered at st. Cuthbert's, Edinburgh, was
put by the lady of the Manse into bed with
her own daughter, ''body and boots" to es-
cape the pursuing dragons, BY which means
the reverend Cherrytrees Davie, as he was
ever afterward known, Twas saved, but at
the expense of the young lady; who, how
ever, afterward became the first of the rev.
erend gentleman's seven wives"
Over to the westward up the Teviot Val
ley, the other sinuous road leads to Jedburg.
where any pilgrim to Yetholm leaves the
railway for a glorious drive among the
Cheviot Hills. Here are the enchanting
Teviot Valley and river, the Sylvan Jed"
of Thomson; and at the hard old burg itself,
the scene OF countless grim and gory clash
lngs in border warfare, in olden times scores
of male Gipsies were hanged, and dozens of
female Gipsies were drowned in Teviot' 8 sing
ing waters Indeed here originated the term
Scotch justice" or "Jethart Justice, I" i'm
plying the practice of first hanging and sub
sequently judging a culprit. At Jedburg
al fl.,k
lodged after her visit to Boutwell, at Her
mitage; roomy, vast old structure with a
quaint turret behind, like mansion house
of the time of Charles II. The entire region
is filed not only with interm1nable romances
of border chiValry, but every hill, stream
and mountain glen is given weird fascina-
tion by remains of Roman camps and for
tresses, with uncnunted relics in tumuli and
cromlechs of Gaelic age beyond. Over
shadowing Yetholm itself are the peak of
Castle Law and Camp Hill, where are found
the remains of Notifications, each inclosing
q circular area nearly ], 900 feet in circum.
ference,
DEFENDED BY DOUBLE POSSES
and ramparts, while upon the summit of
Yetholm Law are the remains of a Roman
camp. quadrilateral in form, in which an
urn of brass containing 800 Roman COINS
was discovered. It is within this historic
and romantic vale that the tawny descend
ants of Arysns. coeval with Vyasa himself
dwell, lessening remnant of a race of
sorners or forcible intruders who once we'll
nigh loverran Scotland.
GiPsies came into Scotland from Ireland
about tine year 1900. So consummatelv
shrewd were they in carrying out their as |
sumption OF pilgrimage under the leadership |
OF Antnonlus Gawlno, Earl of Little Egypt, |
and oil being under commands of the Pope |
to wander seven years without sleeping In a /
bed, that they actually secured the counte-
nance, IT not the favor, of James ", 1t was |
the same old trick they had PLAYED through
out all Europe, and played SO well that we
nnd they wandered up and down France,
under the eye of the magistracy, not for
seven years only, but for more than a hun
ored years, without molestation. This An
thonlus. GawlHo seemed to be diplomat by
nature. He inveigled King James into Civ
ing him very strong and sympathetic let
Ter to has uncle, the King of Denmark, in
which the Gipsy chief and his vagabond fol-
lowers are spoken of as "Anthonius Ca
wIEo, Earl OF Little Egypt, and the other
Ami eteo ana lamentable tribe of his retinue,
Whiie through desire of travelling and by
com mand of the Pope, pilgriming over the
christian world" etc., which shows that
their imposition upon the melancholy Scot
'lsh King was complete, whether or not his
estl monlal ever benefited them in Denmark
Scottish Gipsies received no molestation
Fort by to be called such until 1879. when
James vi. "took the governnent into his
'Nm hands. Then statute was passed
Tor punishment OF strong and idle vaga-
20 nos ana beggars, and relief of the poor
md 1mpotent. This statute was yery
evere against the Gipsies, and ordered that
heir ears should be cut off and themselves
This law was ratified in 1892
md another statute passed In 1897 that thew
'e, on conviction, made slaves for life. In
600 another act enforcing all previous
tatutes bearing on their religion and pun-
shment, and severely condemning the neg
igenee of the justices and Commissioners in
lot putting previous laws against them into
xecution, was passed; and in 1908 the Priyv
'ouncil ordered the whole race to leave the
iingdom by certain date, on penalty of
I'ath. This order was in 1909 made per-
{ tual law; but 1t appears that, if these
sltutes were not actually set at defiance bv ,
he Gipsies themselves, they were effectuaIly
oided by the sympathy and assistance ex.
N ded them by the different powerful :
cottlsh clans, some of which were allied to
De wanderers by marriage or secret and
ill more influential ties, which the Cow
rnment at that period very loosely con-
oiled.
RATHER HUMDRUM,
But the history of Scottish Gipsies after i
le beginning Of the seventeenth century is {
ot marked by striking episodes, save in a g
W instances, aud those of a local nature !
I'd interest, where the Romany people were t
and punished much the same as
vagabonds coming under the surveillance O
Scottish Justice. The most that can be v
id of them is that they were Gipsies. Fl