, 1890-09-18

the different powerful Scottish
clans, some OF which were allied to
the wanderers by marriage or secret
and still more influential ties, which
the government at that period very
loosely controlled.
But the history of Scottish gip-
sizes after the beginning of the sew
enteenth century Is not marked by
striking episodes save In u few in
stances, and those of local nature
and interest, where the Rommany
people were persecuted and pun
ished much the same as ull vaga-
bonds coming under the surveillance
of Scottish Justice. The most that
can be said of them is that they
were gipsies. Royal edicts and par
liamentary statutes, whatever their
severity, operated about the same AZ
edicts and statutes would have ope-
rated against foxes. A special furry
of excited vigilance and glpsy pref
udice would from time to to time
cause renewed persecution, which
only drove the gipsies into their
hiding places, where, still like foxes,
they propogated the more rapidly,
aud after quiet had returned they
came to the surface again, more
daring gipsies and more of them.
Perhaps some poor lame fox of II
gtpsy would occasionally get caught
and be clubbed to death by the
butt-end of cruel Scotch law, as
though there had been mighty
conque' {; but that was all. They
never ,ailed to thrive under perse-
cution In all European countries to
almost as great u degree rs they
have prospered under conditions of
absolute freedom In America.
SOME WEALTHY GYPsIEs.
The most noted of Scottish gipsies
were Anthonius Gawino, the origi-
nal chief and leader, the Bailyows,
afterward the Baillies from whom
the many families of American
gypsy Daileys are descended, and old
John Faw, progenitor of all the
gypsy Faws, Fass and Falls of Scot
land and America. Many members
of the Faa family have attained
wealth and political prefcrment in
Scotland. The once wealthy Falls,
merchants of Dunbar, are gips!es.
One of the Falls became n colonel in
the British army. Another served
term In parliament. Hosts have
been and are under-sherllis and
bailins, Lady ,Anstruther, of Ellie,
was Jenny Faa, a gypsy woman of
great wit and beauty. These
Falls or Fass, Of Dunbar, are
also connected by marriage with
the great banking family of
Coutts, widely known In America
through the frequent social inte lii
gence concerning the noted Baron
ess Burdette- Coutts. While the cell
ebrated poem, 1.-THE Gipsie Laddie," f"
commemo the abduction by
the gypsy king, John Faa, in 1643,
of Lady Casillis, wife of the Earl of
Casillis, "a sullen and ill-tempered
man, more given to theology than
ilka-day goodness, who was absent
on deputation to ratify the solemn
league and covenant of that year ut
Westminster. Sir Walter Scott ere
ated his great character of Meg
| Merrilles" out of Jean Gordon, u
gipsy woman of this very Kirk
Yetholm; and ! have many times
broken bread with her descendants
here as well as during my wander
ings among the gipsies in America.
| Scott himself said of Jean Gordon
"She had n great sway among her
tribe. She was quite Meg
Merrilies, and possessed the savage
virtue of fidelity in the same perfec-
tion."
HOME OF THE WANDERERS.
The interest in Kirk Yetholm as q
haunt Of the Scottish gipsies lies
rather in what they once were here,
than in what they now are. They
originally acquired their footing in
the place through bravery in battle
as adherents of Scottish border lords.
That was fully 200 years ago. The
few leases of many of their homes
and at one time nearly n hundred
cottages were In their possession
We're remarkable as illustrating the
friendship existing between the
nomads and the successive lords OF
the manor. These were either for
"nineteen times nineteen years, or,
as with some of the more favored
ones, "as long AS grass grows and
water runs" Their increased here
undoubtedly ~ reached 1t climax about
the middle of the present century.
Over 400 gipsies then had their homes
in Kirk Yetholm; aud at the death
of their chief, William Faa, in lS47,
they mustered from Yetholm and its
immediate neighborhood 500 gipsies
and 800 asses as an escort for his re-
mains from Coldstream to the par
ish burying ground at Yetholm.
| This Fua was the acknowledged
king of the Scottish gipsies. Short
ly after his death on the sudden de-
cease of Charles Blythe, King Will
iam's immediate successor, a remark
able con test took place between the
late Faa's two daughters, Princess
Ether and Princess Helen--the lat
ter hale old woman still living
here alone in her cottage at the side
of Tinker's Green, Yetholm.
These Faas were the pick of the
Scottish gypsy race, and by their So
gacity, address and physical Prov
ess were able for nearly 300 years to
exercise royal supremacy.
THE ROYAL LINE EXTINCT.
The Blythe line was extinct in
Scotland; and no one could be found
to dispute tho royal line reverting to
one or the other of the two Faa
princesses. Helen, the younger,
urged her claims on the ground of
the well-known and often-expressed