Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-09-13
THEYETH0LM VALLEY
A Romantic Spot Amid the CheviOt
Hills and a Fine Example of
THE OLD SCOTTISH BORDER TOWN.
Famous Gipsy Settlement Where a
Great Contest Took Place.
CORONATION OF A R0MANY QUEEN
THE OLD SCOTTISH BORDER TOWN.
CORONATION OF A ROMANY QUEEN
CORRESPONDENCE OF THE D1srArcB.n

shining border wales. Besides, my ole
friends, the Gipsies, who have made the
place their haunt and home for nearly 40(
years, greet me so joyously that their ra
diant faces, vise-like hand-grasps and loudly
beloved, ever-quaint words of greeting
thrill me as one knows in gladsome home
coming.
The valley OF Yeth0lm itself is enchant
ing enough without its tinge and flavor o.
true Gipsyism. On all sides rise the noble
Cheviot Hills, more beautiful and charm
ing in reality than anywhere painted in al
border minstrelsy. The vale is so shut in
from the outside world that it is only &C
cessible by two roads, so hidden, as one
wanders in hamlet and valley, that no egress
from the romantic spot can anywhere
be seen. But winding through the Cheviot
peaks, one thoroughfare leads to Kelso,
and another to Jedburg, both places
fine examples of old border towns,
through most enhancing scenes. The one
trailing along to Kelso gives noble views Of
the region at the junction of the Teviot and
Tweed, and of the ruins of Roxburg Abbey,
to my mind the sweetest spot and the finest
Scottish medieval ruin TO be found. Just
beyond where it leaves Yetholm through
the circuitous opening in the hills, is the
famous Cherry-trees-Man reference to
which ever brings broad smile to every
Scotch face.
Overshadowing Yetholm itself are six
noble hills of the Cheviot, Sherbrough,
Staerough, Goldsnout Green Hamilton,
Harelaw and great Vencen, hiding from
the hamlet the billowy, verdure-ciad reaches
of English Northumbrian wales. AT the
crescent-like base of the five hills is an an
cient Scottish hamlet.
YETHoLM Gypsy SETTLEMENT.
This is old Yetholm. Winding out of its
russet side underneath a shadowy vaulting
of trees, pleasant way leads across Bow
mont Water vale, where, often in the very
water itself, occur the tercest struggle OF
the famous Bowmontside games of Fasten' S
E'en. or Shrove Tuesday. This sunny road,
at last threading around the bold side OF
Venchen. passes gray old mill, then is lost
In mass of foliage by an ancient manse In
which lives my friend, good Minister David
son, ior more than quarter Of century the
pastor OF the heathen Romany tribe at his
very door; and then, to the right and left,
and before YOU, tringing ragged triangle
enclosing Yetholm Green, are all that are
left of the cottage homes of what was once
the largest Gipsy settlement in any English
speaking land. This is Kirk Yetholm.
Gipsies stole iuto Scotland from Ireland
about the year 1900. So consummately
shrewd were they in carving out their as
sumption OF pilgrimage under the leader
ship of Anthonius Gawino, Earl of Little
Egypt, and of being under commands of
the Pope TO wander seven years without
sleeping in a bed, i" that they actually Sc
cured the eountenance if not the favor of
James ~. They received no molestation
worthy to be called such until 1879, when
James VI. took the Government into his
own hands" Then statute was passed
"lor punishment of strong and idle vaga-
bonds and beggars, and relief of the poor
and impotent" This statute was very Sc
we're against the Gipsies, and ordered that
their ears should be cut off and themselves
banished. This law was ratified in 1892
and another statute passed in 1897 that they
be- on conviction, made slaves for life.
MORE STRINGENT LAWS.
In 1000 another act enforcing all previous
statutes bearing on their regulation and
punishment, and severely condemning the
negligence OF justices and commissioners in
not putting previous laws against them into
execution. was passed; and in 160S the
Privy Council ordered the whole race to
leave the kingdom by certain date, under
the penalty of death. In 1909 this order
was made a perpetual law, but it appears
that, if these statutes were not actually set
at defiance by the Gipsies themselves, they
were effectually voided by the sympathy
and assistance extended them by the differ
ent 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 Gipsies after
the beginning of the seventeenth century is
not marked by striking episodes save ia a
few instances, and those or local nature
and interest, where the Romanv people
were persecuted and punished much the
same as all vagabonds coming under the
surveillance of Scottish Justice. The most
that can be said of them is that they were
Gipsies. Royal edicts and parliamentary
statutes, whatever their severity, operated
about the same as edic, and statutes would
have operated against foxes. \ special
furry OF excited vigilance and Gipsy preiu-
dice would from time to time cause renewed
persecution, which only drove the Gipsies
into their hiding places, where, still like
TADlQlY.
and after quiet had returned they came to
the suriace again, more daring Gipsies and
more OF them. Perhaps some poor lame
fox o. a Gipsy would occasionally get
caught and be clubbed to death bv the
butt end of cruel Scotch law, as though
there had been mighty conquest; but that
was all. They never failed to thrive under
persecution in all European countries to
almost as great degree as they have pros
pereG under conditions of absolute freedom
in America.
FAMOUS ROMANY FOLK
The most noted of Scottish Gipsies were
Authonius Gawino, the original chief and
leader, the Bailyows, atterward the Baillies,
from whom the many families of American
GiDsv Baileys are descended, and old John
Faw, progenitOr Of ali the Gipsy Faws,
Faas and Falls of Scotland and America.
Many members of the Faa family have at
tained wealth and political preferment in
Scotland. The once wealthy Falls, mer-
chants of Dunbar, are Gipsies. One of the
Falls became colonel in the British army.
Another served term in Parliament.
Hosts have been and are under-sheriffs
and bailiffs. Lady Anstruther, wife
of the late Sir John Anstruther, of
Ellie, was Jenny Faa, Gipsy woman of
great wit and beauty. These Falls, or Faas.
of Dunbar, are also connected by marriage
with the great banking family of Coutts,
widely known in America through the fire.
ouent social intelligence concerning the
noted Baroness Burdette-Coutts While
the celebrated poem, "The Gipsie Laddie,"
commentaries the abduction by the Gipsy
King, John Faa, in 1643 OF Lady Casillis,
wife OF the Earl of Casillis, "a sullen and
iIl-tempered man, more given to theology
than ilka-day goodness, I" who was absent on
a deputation to ratify the solemn league and
covenant of that year at Westminster. Sir
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