The record-union., 1894-11-17


my heart and mist my eyes with the
| heartlest, truest, sweetest welcomes l
ever knew in all the wide, wide world.
Everywhere the campside was filled
with reawakened life and activity.
| Mingled with the lusty notes of royster
ing gypsy ballads were merry "tally-yo-
! hosp rung out on the evening air by re-
turning horsemen who, with whoOp and
| halloa, dashed through the brush to
| tether, making the tree limbs rattle and
clatter in passage, while approving
shouts or half serious yells and objurga-
lions followed with the laughing children
and ecstatlc dogs.
Soon came the supper-the really one
great universal home meal of the gypsy
day. They were long time at il. as they
always are, and as much fun as food was
taken. Then with the CHEEKY campfires
brightly burning, here and there a LIANT
ern hung from elevated cartthill or
| blazing cressets in honor of the stranger,
| came chlldrens' games and ali manner OF
campside jollity. These were followed
by singing and dancing Of marvellous
jigs and reels, until at last sleep and
silence settled upon the Dalepark Camp
and the one ''gorgio chap within 1t, with
| that amplitude OF rest which so comes
with loving touch to no other people on
earth as to this wandering Romany
race.
The immediate outcome of my visit
among the Dalepark gypsies was making
the acquaintance OF curious and inter-
eSting corner of England. 1t is variOuSlv
kown as the Norfolk and Suffolk Fens,"
the "Broads of East Anglia" and, pro-
vincially and by fowlers and sportsmen,
as 1.-The Broads."
One Of the families of this Dalepark
community annually visited the Breads,
they told me, III a puntboat as floating
| w 1ioly-
cred and dUkkered among the lowly
peasant families, the men, often with the
| Womens' and childrens' assistance, added
to their hoard by weaving and selling all
manner OF rush and oSier bags, pouches,
crates and baskets required by fenmen,
marshmen, eel and mussel catchers and
the numberless sportsmen and yachting
| parties that frequent the region.
This family Hospitality asked me to be
their guest.
Our party comprised COP Gran'pop"
| Wharton, tinker, fiddler and what-not;
his son, Uriah Wharton. splendid type
of the shaggy, huge, manly, kind-hearted
English gypsy, the latter's wife, little,
| sharp-taced, sharp-eyed and sharp
tongued, number of gypsy chauvies of
both sexes, and three as pretty and inter-
esting gypsy maidens as one would wish
to find for poem, romance or idyllic COM
pany.
These were Fashion, Melinda and Bess.
Each was veritable incarnation of that
fascinating quality of beauty among gyp-
sizes where beauty exists at all, and more
curious and interesting still, each was a
graduate from noted school for women
in the northern suburbs Of London.
What, with visiting gypsy friends at
Keighly, Doncaster and Lincoln, we were
three days in reaching our destination,
the village of HicklIng, near Hicl1ling
Broad, in Norfolk. and short tramp
from Hickling, accompanied by village
cart we'll laden with gypsy belongings,
brought us to the pleasant watersde.
Here, hard by picturesque old daub
and waffle cottage, whose peasant owner
roared out an alarming welcome. we
found our waiting punt. 1t was already
in fine order for the season, the cottager
having cared for it in winter and got it III
readiness against the gypsies' coming,
and in an hour more our floating sum-
mer home was launched, the evening
meal in preparation, and snug quarters
for all our motley crew provided.
Altogether there are nearly fifty OF
these Norfolk and Suffolk breads or fens.
ali communicating WITH each other by
lazy currents called dykes" or with the
rivers which they feed, and their total
water surface is several thousand acres.
They TEEN with fish-the roach, Dream
perch and pike, and are the resort OF
countless waterfowl.
In their annual diversity, in their
drowsy, droneful quiet, in the character
full folk who live beside them, the almost
countless miles OF river and dyke water
way for small boating and catching the
quaint and sunny oId-time inns-of- call
dotting here and there their silent shores.
they no doubt possess sweeter and sub
tier charms than any other known re-
sort in England to the sportsman and
naturalist.
My tawny friends belonged to neither
class, but our houseboat possessed as
ample provision for necessary comfort
as many of the hundreds of aristocratic
yachts which haunt the region, and its
crew and passengers were quite as care
free and merry as the sunniest- hearted
of them all.
The boat itself was perhaps thirty feet
in length, and possibly eight in breadth.
At one end was a little compartment.
having at Its own extreme END a comfort
able bed for Gypsy Wharton and his
wife, with capacious door-closed
locker beneath, In which all our pro-
visions and valuables were stored.
Extending toward the middle of the
boat, were tour punks. two on either side.
with sliding windows above. In these
slept Fashion, Melinda, Bess and a couple
of the lesser progeny. Still beyond this
was the most curious compartment of all.
In its center, on the bottom of the punt
where there had been made solid bed of
baked clay, shaped like gigantic saucer.
was the gypsy fire that is never allowed
to go out, and above il the real pypsv
crooked iron kettle-stick firmly embed
ded in the clay.
Hero is where our kettles sung. and
where the sweet perch and luscious mix q
were broiled, while the smoke escaned
where it listed. II was kitchen and mar
lor in our boathouse. Necessary utensils
hung against the walls, but not ouite
hide many efforts at decorative art. from
the illustrated papers, pasted solidly in
their places and given rich and generous
coloring from the smoke of burning "ho-
yers'' of peat.
Amidships was our salon. 1t was not
large, but as 'Gran'pop' Wharton al
ways remarked:
.'H't 'as good prospects, an airy ones
asideI"
II was covered by an old sail that had
once done duty with the Yarmouth her
ring fleet. Here our hearty meals were
taken. and this place was also the work
room where the nimble fingers of the
gypsies wrought the pouches and bask-
cts of tag and osier.
Beyond this, and extending to the end of
the boat opposite that occupied at mig bit bv
| Gypsy Wharton and his wife, was a little
sned-like coop, and in this the gypsy
grandfather, myself land few of the
children had comfortable hunks; and
above this, something after the fashion of