together, and regularly into Lincolnshire, to call on all the sheep dealers. Robert Hecklefield was his first whip, and Naylor, afterwards with the Holderness, the second. Sir Tatton lived to the 'great age of ninety-one, and always wore boots and breeches and a long black coat down to his heels. He died in 1863, and on the day of his funeral not a hound in Yorkshire left his kennel.'

6

Who were the principal men hunting in his time?'

Why, Mr. Ridsdale of Merton, a light weight, always in the first 'flight when on his grey horse Sedan; he was owner of St. Giles and the Queen of Trumps, and was a noted man on the turf, Rev. 'T. Preston of Bulmer, Mr. Robert Bower of Welham, Mr. Allen ' of Malton, Mark Foulis of Heslerton, Messrs. Henry Legard and George Legard of Burlington, Sir Thomas Legard of Ganton, Mr. Yarburgh Yarburgh of Heslington, a stanch patron of the turf, Mr. Rudston Read of Sand Hutton, Mr. John Agar of Brockfield. Sir Francis Boynton of Burton Agnes, "Jack" Healy, who lived latterly at Stokesley, and rode jealous of Mr. H. Mellish, who lived latterly at Blythe, Alec Bosville of Thorpe, Jem and Ned Bayard ' of Burlington, Messrs. George and John Swann of York, Mr. R. Bethell of Rise, John Clough of York, E. Copley of Potto, who lived then in York, Sir Digby Cayley of Brompton, Major Rickaby ' of Burlington, Mr. Revis of Newstead, Mr. Harrington Hudson of 'Bessingby, George Lloyd of Stockton, Messrs. John Woodall and Hebden of Scarborough, Rev. H. Trueman of Grimston, Mr. 'Bielby, who was an old friend of Sir Tatton, Mr. John Newton of Norton, and Mr. Newton of Watt House, who would have out 'three horses, his groom riding one and leading another, Rev. F. Simpson of Foxton.

In 1853, Mr. Henry Willoughby, now Lord Middleton, suc'ceeded Sir Tatton. Ben Morgan, commonly called "Hard-riding "Ben," and who always had his hounds as clean as a pin, was huntsman latterly, and went to the Essex and Suffolk in 1869; and Charles Powell, the first whip, a fine horseman, went to Lord Kesteven in 1862. George Orvis, from the Worcestershire, and son of Will Orvis who was drowned with the York and Ainsty, 'who had formerly been first whip, and with the Cottesmore, 'succeeded Morgan in 1869; and John Baily, from Mr. Tailby, ' turned them to him. These hounds hunt six days a week up 'to Christmas, his lordship taking the horn two days. After Christmas they go out five times. The kennels at Birdsall are well worthy of a visit, as they are as good as any in England. They are so situated under cover that a huntsman can draw his hounds for inspection in any weather. The hounds lie on fern, which, Orvis says, is cleaner than straw. All the cooking is done. C by steam. Harrison, the stud groom, who has been twenty years ' with Lord Middleton, has the stables and horses as smart as Mr. 'George Rice's in Piccadilly; and a saddler and blacksmith are kept on the premises. His lordship has a fine stud of hunters, and his men cannot wish to be better mounted.'

I have heard Lady Middleton spoken of as a first-rate judge of a 'hound.'

And justly so, as few people know what they should be better ' than her Ladyship.'

Is the country well off for foxes?'

Yes, very well; and some of the best preserves are Sir Tatton 'Sykes' of Sledmere, Sir G. Cholmley of Howsham, Sir C. Legard of Ganton, Lord Wenlock of Escrick Park, Lord Halifax, who 'only has a shooting-box at Garsby, but looks well after the coverts, and has plenty of foxes, Sir Henry Boynton of Burton Agnes, Henry Darley of Aldby Park, and Albert Darley of Burton Field, Mr.-R. H. Bower of Welham, a nephew of the celebrated John Bower, Mr. T. Rivers of Norton, Mr. Cadman of Wold Newton, owner of Lady Newton, on the Castle Howard estate, who has a 'patriarchal appearance.

While those most regular in their attendance are:

'Lord Wenlock, Sir Henry Boynton of Burton Agnes, the 'Messrs. Darley of Aldby Park, Mr. Christopher Sykes, M.P., and 'Sir John Thorold, whose horses stand at Malton, Mr. Henry Hird 'Foster of Norton, Captain Haworth of Booth, near Malton, Mr. Algie W. Legard of Filey, who will stop at nothing, Mr. Cecil 'Legard of Boynton, who used to be seen between the flags, Captain Fyfe, and Mr. Hebden, jun., from Scarborough, Mr. James Walker of Foxton Hall, and the York men once a week.' 'Do the farmers hunt much in this district?'

Yes; many of them are capital men, and turn out regularly. Most of them are horse breeders, and go well on very good hunters. • Among them are Mr. Harrison of Wharram, Mr. Ellerby of Whitwell, who has always some good horses, often bought by Mr. Wimbush, Mr. Wise of Norton, who is very generous and hospitable, Mr. Midgeley of Settrington, Mr. Cooke of Fryton, and Mr. 'Jewison of Raisthorpe, who breeds some good hunters. Nor must we forget Mr. T. Hopper of Kirby Grindlayth, who rides over seventeen stone, and Mr. Thorpe, both of whom are undeniable men over a country.'

6

'Now, what of accommodation generally?'

At no place is a man better done than he is at York. The ' comfort and hospitality of the Yorkshire County Club is a house'hold word, and in his profession Mons. Blanchet cannot be beaten. To the travelling stranger we can safely recommend the Station 'Hotel; Ware, the cook, learnt his business in Paris, and can send up a dinner in capital style. The North Eastern belongs to the same proprietor, and is a comfortable house. Scawens is well spoken of, but has recently changed hands. Harker's Hotel has a high reputation for its old-fashioned comfort. It is the rendezvous good stabling, and it 'would be a very good speculation to build some. Perhaps Nelson's ' or the Windmill are the best. This is decidedly the weak point of 'accommodation at York, Mr. R. Cooper of the Pack Horse,

' of racing men. York is very badly off for

' in Micklegate, has some useful boxes, and is unremitting in his • attention to horses placed under his charge, and he has generally a hunter or two for hire, which if rum uns to look at are good ones to go. Many a Yorkshireman will bear witness to the merits of C a clever old chesnut he mounted us on two years ago. At Malton a sportsman will find quiet comfort and civility at the Talbot, kept by Mr. John Peart, who is going to build some new boxes for hunters. Bedroom No. I is noted for its beautiful view, and people 'write for it from all parts of England. Mr. Peart will show the stranger a curious place, in which on an emergency a party of six 6 or seven once dined. In their case ignorance was bliss.'

6

What of Scarborough ?'

'Of course hunting can be had from here, and very good, with 'Lord Middleton and Sir Harcourt Johnstone; but as winter ( quarters I cannot speak. In the summer season it is very hot, full of young Leeds and young Manchester, and of ladies with big 'chignons. In winter I hear it is very cold. Formerly the Crown ' used to be the best hotel, and it still is very good. The Prince of Wales is also good, but both of them have been rather eclipsed by 'the big Grand Hotel, a proprietary affair whose commissariat last season might have been very easily improved.'

SLANG TERMS, AND THE GIPSY TONGUE.

'Colchus an Assyrius; Thebis nutritus an Argis?'-HORACE.

FOR more than four centuries, tribes of wanderers, wild in aspect, and of swarthy complexion betraying an oriental origin, have traversed Europe from one end to the other. They are known in different countries by varying names. In Germany they are called Zigeuner; in Spain, Gitanos; in France, Bohemiens; in Russia, Zigani; in Turkey and Persia, Zincarri; in England, Gipsies. They call themselves Rommaneys. Until towards the close of the last century the learned were undecided as to the place of their birth; and the wildest theories were formed as to their origin and history. By divines they were looked upon as a remnant of the lost tribes of Israel, whilst the unlearned regarded them as nomadic Egyptians banished from their native land after some insurrection against the ruling powers; and this belief their leaders took pains to propagate; they styled themselves Dukes of Egypt, and endeavoured, by every means in their power, to conceal their true birthplace. The popular belief respecting them is embodied in the words of an anonymous poet :

'He was a son of Egypt, as he told me,

And one descended from those dread magicians

Who raged rash war, when Israel dwelt in Goshen,

With Israel and her prophet-matching rod

With his the son of Levi's-and encountering

Jehovah's miracles with incantations,

Till upon Egypt came the avenging angel,
And those proud sages wept for their firstborn
As wept the unlettered peasant.'

They doubtless preferred to be looked upon as Egyptians rather than as Pariahs, the lowest caste of Hindoos, from which they derive their origin. Their pretensions to foretell future events by palmistry and astrology were strengthened by the belief that they came from Egypt, which from time immemorial has been the birthplace of sorcery and necromancy. Their arrival in Europe, however, corresponds with the period in which Tamerlane invaded Hindostan, and these fugitives from the conqueror wandered in search of a country where they hoped not to be held in detestation by the rest of the inhabitants as a degraded race, as they had been in their native land. Wherever they appeared they were objects. of fear, from the universal belief that they kidnapped children, and from a superstitious notion that they were possessed of supernatural powers, which they were supposed to exercise in bewitching the cattle and injuring the property of those who offended them. In many countries they were subjected to severe persecution; and they were formally banished at different periods from Spain, Germany, and England by royal decrees. In more than one chapter of our statute book they are styled 'incorrigible rogues and vagabonds;' and this designation their manners and habits have fully earned for them. Seldom to be found in regular habitations, they live, in congenial climates, in the open air, with no roof above them but the firmament; and when compelled by tempestuous weather, they seek the natural shelter of the forest or the

In England they dwell in tents; but they seldom pursue any regular industry, though some few of them profess to be blacksmiths or tinkers. They neither sow nor reap, but pass their lives, not in the orderly manner other mortals must do, but fulfilling a destiny which, to any one not of their race, would appear wretched and precarious in the extreme. To filch a fat goose from the farmer's coop; to carry off a young lamb from the fold before the shepherd is afield; to sniggle a hare whilst the gamekeeper is asleep; to pasture a string of donkeys in a rich meadow between midnight and dawn: these are feats which the youthful Rommaney is early taught to accomplish. The existence of the Gipsies is almost entirely dependent upon the dexterity of the juveniles of their fraternity in executing petty thefts, and upon the success of their old women in imposing upon the credulity of farm servants, to whom they promise rich and handsome sweethearts, if they will only have faith in their power of ruling the. planets, and do not neglect to cross their hands with a shilling.

Such a people would appear to have little claim on our consideration; and yet the interest taken in them is widespread and apparently inexhaustible; and it no doubt owes its origin, to a great extent, to the lingering superstition as to their skill in palmistry and their power to read the destiny of man in the stars-a superstition not even in these days of enlightenment entirely confined to the cottage and the servants' hall. It is not, however, with their power of foretelling future events that we are about to deal, nor with their habits, manners, and mode of life, though these are subjects of legitimate interest; but we propose to examine their language (the Rommaney Tschib), to trace it to its roots, and to show the important influence which it

has exercised on our own familiar discourse. These gipsy tribe: migrated originally from the north-west of India; and their language so far as its principal words are concerned, is a dialect of Hindostanee and it is extraordinary that, after the lapse of four centuries, it should be found to be so pure as it is. It would have been a natural supposition to expect that in their migrations through so many countries the Rommaneys would have mutilated their own language, and debased it by so strong an admixture of foreign words, that its origin could scarcely have been recognised; but this has not been the case. Their language is almost identical with that now spoken in Hindostan, and where it differs from it, the difference often consists in its closer adherence to the original Sanscrit, and in its being less intermixed with words of Persian and Arabic origin. The legend which gives an Egyptian birthright to this people we have already intimated to be entirely unworthy of credence; and there is no Hebrew or Chaldaic element in the Rommaney Tschib to support the hypothesis that the lost tribes of Israel have contributed to its vocabulary. In examining this language we find that by far the larger proportion of words in common use, and denoting familiar objects, is of true Indian origin. The gipsy word for the full moon is chand, and the Hindostanee word is the same, and is derived from chandna, signifying light, whence the French took their word chandelier, an instrument by which light is dispensed, and we have adopted the same expression into our language. Sap is the gipsy word for a snake, in Hindostanee it is sarp, in Sanscrit sarpa, in Latin serpens, in English serpent. Yog is fire in gipsy, ag in Hindostanee, agni in Sanscrit, ignis in Latin, whence we have igneous. Devas is day in Gipsy, divas in Hindostanee, divasa in Sanscrit, dies in Latin. The gipsy word for God is Devel, the Hindostanee word is Dev, and deval in the same language signifies giver; and in Hindostanee aditya, and in Sanscrit daiva, signify deity. In Gipsy bock is hunger, in Hindostanee it is bhûkha, and in Sanscrit bubhukshâ. Rook is the gipsy word for a tree, in Hindostanee it is rūhk, and in Sanscrit rûksha. Bar is a stone in Gipsy and Hindostanee; in Sanscrit bārū signifies a fence, a barrier; and our words bar and barrier, though we have received them through the French, are yet no doubt remotely connected with the Sanscrit root. In Gipsy bero signifies a ship; in Hindostanee bera is a raft or float. Parnee is water in Gipsy; the Hindostanee word is pāni, and the Sanscrit pâniya. Matcho in Gipsy signifies a fish; the Hindoo word is machchh, the Sanscrit machchha. In Sanscrit kâsht'ha is wood, timber; kasht has the same signification in Gipsy, and kashtengro is a woodcutter. (Engro is a word of wide application in the gipsy language, and signifies creature, being, instrument: whenever the Gipsies have lost the original word, they coin a new one with the termination engro, or engra, affixed; for example, having lost the Indian word for the stars, they call them dud-engra, that is beings of the sky;' to express the word orator they have coined lavengro, 'word-creature; they call a plough pogger puv engro, an instrument to break up a field.') The termination pan, or pen, is of