The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-09-21
HER ROYAL MAJESTY, ESTHER.
A Race of People Who for More
Than SevenH-fve Years Have
Never Been Charged With
Crime Their Home and Family
Relations Have Been Singu!arly
Free From Unhappiness.

q
7 out-Of-the-way spot, hid like
meadow-lark's nest in one
- of Scotland's shining border
wales Besides, my old friends, the gypsIeS,
who have made the place their haunt and
home for nearly 400 years, greet me so Joy
ously that their radiant faces, viSe-like
hand-grasps and loudly beloved, ever
quaint words of greeting, thrill me as one
knows in gladstone homecoming.
The valley of YethOlm itself is enchant-
ing enough without its tinge and flavor of
true gvpsvism. 1t lies within cannOn-range
of the English border, in the southeastern
shire of Scotland, RoXburgshire and in its
eastern district which comprises the par
ishes of Linton, Hownam, Yeth0lm and
Morebattle On all sides rise the noble
Cheviot Hills. more beautiful and charm
ing in reality than anywhere painted
in all border minstrelsy. The vale is So shut
in from the outside world that 1t is only ac-
cessible by two roads, so hidden as one wan
ders 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 ke!so, and
another to JedbuIgh, both places
being fine examples Of old border towns.
through most enhancing scenes. Inc one
trailing along 10 kelSO. gives noble views OF
fhe region at the junction of the TeviOt and
Tweed, and of the ruins OF hoXourEn
Abbey, TO my mind The sweetest spot ana
the finest Scottish medieval rum TO De
found. Just beyond where it leaves Yet
holm through the circuit0us opening IN
the hills, is the famous OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
reference to which ever brings broad
smile to every Scotch face; Tor IL was mere
that the famous David Williamson, per
secuted PRESBYTERIAN clergyman. who after
ri min a II tutlDnTt 5. Eull-
burgh, was put by the lady OF the ManSe
into bed with her own daughter, body aud
boots, to escape the pursuing dragons, by
whice means the reverend Cherrytree DAVE,
as he was ever afterward known was saved
from his pursuers. but at the expense OF the
young lady, who, however, afterward be-
came the first Of the reverend gentleman
seven wives"
ovERsHADoWING YETHoLM
Itself are six noble hills of the CheviOt,
Sherbrougb, Staerough, GoldSnout, Green
Hamilton, Harelaw and Great Nenchen,
hiding from the hamlet the bilOwy. YER
dure-clad reaches of English NOTthumbrlan
wales. Between the circling base OF Ven
chen and the sunny haughS Of the five other
half mountains flows the BuwmOnt Water, an
endless water song tuned in hollow reeds
and over myriad banks of bleaching peb-
bles; miles-long shadows OF woadrous tint
and tone. At the cTescent-lke base OF the
five hills is an ancient Scottish hamlet. A
wide. clean street, huge square houses with
peaked, thatched roofs; two old inns TO
which nobody ever comes save hOb-sOled
binds at the rare intervals OF market-days
AID holidays; tiny windows and huge doors;
monstrous knobs and knockers; red tiles
and brown matching; with here and there
the forms and faces of old, old women with
bent backs and trem6llng-trllled 'mutch
caps, are what one sees In It.
This is old Ye:hOlm. Winding out of
its russell side underneath a shadOwy vault
ing Of trees, pleasant way leads across
Rowmont Water vale, where, often in the
very water itself, occur the fiercest strug-
giles of the famous BowmOntSlde games OF
Fasten's Fen, or Shrove Tuesday. This
sunny road, at last threading around the
bold side of Nenchen, passes a gray old
mill, then is lost in mass OF foliage by an
ancient manse in which lives my friend,
good minister Davidson, for more than
quarter of a century tile pastor of the
heather ROmmanA tribe at his very door;
and then TO the right and LETT and before you,
fringing q ragged triangle, lncl0sing etholm
Green, are all that are left of the cottage
homes of what was once the largest gypsy
settlement in any English-speaking land.
This is Kirk etho!m.
Gypsies stole into Scotland about the year
1900 So cnnsummately shrewd were they
in carr ing out their assumption of pill
grimage under The leadership of An
thonigs Gawino. Earl of Egypt, and
of being under commands Of the
Pope to wander seven years without
sleeping in a bed" that they actually Sc
cured the ceountenanee 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 a statute was passed
"fur punishment Of strong and idle vaga-
bonds and beggars; and relief Of the poor
and impotent." This statute was very
severe against the gypsies, and ordered
that their ears should be cut off and them
selves banished. This law was ratified in
1892, and another statue passed in 1897 that
they be, on conviction.
MADE SLAVES FOR LIFE.
In 1000 another act, enforcing all previouu
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 1903
the Privy Council ordered the whole race
to leave the kingdom by certain date I'M
der the penalty of death. In 1863 this Or
der was made perpetual law; but it APP
pears that, if these statutes were not actu-
ally set at defiance by the gypsies them
selves, they were effectually voided by the
sympathy and assistance extended them by
the different powerful Scottish clans, some
of which were allied to the wanderers, or
marriage or secret and still more influential
ties, which the Government at that period
very loosely controlled.
but lilt ilSIDlI VI CCOlliSu Ky polto dlteG
the beginning of the seventeenth century
is not marked by striking episodes save in
a few instances, and those of local ma
ture and interest, where the Rommany peO-
pie were ersecuted and punished much
the same as all vagAboDds coming under
the surveillance of Scottish justice. The
most that can be said of them is that they
were gypsies. Royal edictS and parlia-
mentary statutes. whatever their severity
operated about the same as edcts and stat
utes would have operated against foxes.
special furry Of excited vigilance and gypsy
prejudice would from time to time cause re-
Dewed persecution, which ouly drove the
Rypsies into their hiding places, where, still
like foxes, they propagated the more
rapidly, aud after 81 quiet had re
more daring gypsies and more of them
Perhaps some poor lame fox of gypsy
would occasionally get caught and be
dubbed to death by 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
u all European countries to almost as great
degree as they have prospered under con-
ditions of absolute freedom in America.
The most noted OF Scottish gypsies were
leader; the Bailyows, afterward the Bail
lies, from whom the many families of
American gypsy Baileys are descended,
and old John Faw, progenitor Of all the
gypsy Flaws, Faas ana rails OIL Scotland
and America. Many members of the
family have attained wealth and political
preferment in Scotland. The once wealthy
Falls, merchants of Dunbar, are gypsies.
One OF the Falls became Colonel in the
British army. Another served term in
Parliament Hosts have been and are
Under Sheriffs and baiiffs. Lady An
struther, wife OF the late
SIR JOHN ANSTRUTHER
OF Ellie, was Jennie Faa, gypsy 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 frequent social intelligence concerning
the noted Baroness Burdett CoGtts;
while the celebrated poem, "rhe Gypse
Laddie," commentaries the abduction by
the gypsy King. John Faa, in 1913. Of Lady
Casiilis, wife of the Earl of Casillis, " a
sulIen and ill-tempered man, more given TO
theology than ilka-day goodness, VINO
WAS absent IN n deputation to ratify the