eration that he was only enforcing the gypsey subordination. The crimes that were committed among this hapless race were often atrocious. Incest and murder were frequent among them. In our recollection, an individual was tried for a theft of considerable magnitude, and acquitted, owing to the absence of one witness, a girl belonging to the gang, who had spoken freely out at the precognition. This young woman was afterwards found in a well near Cornhill, with her head downwards, and there was little doubt that she had been murdered by her companions. We extract the following anecdotes from an interesting communication on this subject, with which we have been favoured by Mr Hogg, author of The Queen's Wake.' It was in the month of May that a gang of gypsies came up Ettrick ;-one party of them lodged at a farm-house called ScobCleugh, and the rest went forward to Cossarhill, another farm about a mile farther on. Among the latter was one who played on the pipes and violin, delighting all that heard him; and the gang, principally on his account, were very civilly treated. Next day the two parties again joined, and proceeded westward in a body. There were about thirty souls in all, and they had five horses. On a sloping grassy spot, which I know very well, on the farm of Brockhoprig, they halted to rest. Here the hapless musician quarrelled with another of the tribe, about a girl, who, I think, was sister to the latter. Weapons were instantly drawn, and the piper losing courage, or knowing that he was not a match for his antagonist, fled, the other pursuing close at his heels. For a full mile and a half they continued to strain most violently, the one running for life, and the other thirsting for blood,-until they came again to Cossarhill, the place they had left. The family were all gone out, either to the sheep or the peats, save one servant girl, who was baking bread at the kitchen table, when the piper rushed breathless into the house. She screamed, and asked what was the matter? He answered, "Nae skaith to you-nae skaith to you-for God in heaven's sake hide me !"-With that he essayed to hide himself behind a salt barrel that stood in a corner-but his ruthless pursuer instantly entering, his panting betrayed him. The ruf fian pulled him out by the hair, dragged him into the middle of the floor, and ran him through the body with his dirk. The piper never asked for mercy, but cursed the other as long as he had breath. The girl was struck motionless with horror, but the mur derer told her never to heed or regard it, for no ill should happen to her. It was this woman's daughter, Isabel Scott, who told me the story, which she had often heard related with all the minute particulars. If she had been still alive, I think she would have been bordering upon ninety years of age ;-her mother, when this happened, was a young unmarried womanfit, it seems, to be a kitchen-maid in a farm-house, so that this must have taken place about 100 years ago.-By the time the breath was well out of the unfortunate musician, some more of the gang arrived, bringing with them a horse, on which they carried back the body, and buried it on the spot where they first quarrelled. His grave is marked by one stone at the head, and another at the foot, which the gypsies themselves placed; and it is still looked upon by the rustics, as a dangerous place for a walking ghost to this day. There was no cognizance taken of the affair, that any of the old people ever heard of-but God forbid that every amorous minstrel should be so sharply taken to task in these days! "There is a similar story, of later date, of a murder committed at Lowrie's-den, on Soutra Hill, by one gypsey on another: but I do not remember the particulars farther, than that it was before many witnesses;-that they fought for a considerable time most furiously with their fists, till at last one getting the other down, drew a knife, and stabbed him to the heart when he pulled the weapon out, the blood sprung to the ceiling, where it remained as long as that house stood; and that though there were many of the gang present, none of them offered to separate the combatants, or made any observation on the issue, farther than one saying "Gude faith, ye hae done for him now, Rob!" The story bears, that the assassin fled, but was pursued by some travellers who came up at the time, and after a hot chace, was taken, and afterwards hanged." The travellers here mentioned, we happen to know, were the late Mr Walter Scott, writer to the signet, then a very young man, and Mr Fairbairn, long afterwards innkeeper at Blackshiels, who chanced to pass about the time this murder was committed, and being shocked at the indifference with which the bystanders seemed to regard what had passed, pursued, and with the assistance of a neighbouring blacksmith, who joined in the chase, succeeded in apprehending the murderer, whose name, it is believed, was Robert Keith. The blacksmith judged it prudent, however, to emigrate soon after to another part of the country, in order to escape the threatened vengeance of the murderer's clan. "In my parents' early years," continues Mr Hogg, "the Faas and the Bailleys used to traverse the country in bodies of from twenty to thirty in number, among whom were many stout, handsome, and athletic men. They generally cleared the waters and burns of fish, the farmers' out-houses of poultry and eggs, and the lums of all superfluous and moveable stuff, such as hams, &c. that hung there for the purpose of reisting. It was like wise well known, that they never scrupled killing a lamb or a wether occasionally; but they always managed matters so dexterously, that no one could ever ascertain from whom these were taken. The gypsies were otherwise civil, full of humour and merriment, and the country people did not dislike them. They fought desperately with one another, but were seldom the aggressors in any dispute or quarrel with others.-Old Will of Phaup, a well-known character at the head of Ettrick, was wont to shelter them for many years;-they asked nothing but house-room and grass for their horses; and though they sometimes remained for several days, he could have left every chest and press about the house open, with the certainty that nothing would be missing; for he said, 'he aye ken'd fu' weel that the tod wad keep his ain hole clean.' But times altered sadly with honest Will-which happened as follows:The gypsies (or tinklers, as they then began to be called) were lodged at a place called Potburn, and the farmer either having bad grass about his house, or not choosing to have it eaten up, had made the gypsies turn their horses over the water to Phaup ground. One morning about break of day, Will found the stoutest man of the gang, Ellick Kennedy, feeding six horses on the Coomb-loan, the best piece of grass on the farm, and which he was carefully haining for winter fodder. A desperate combat ensued-but there was no man a match for Will-he threshed the tinkler to his heart's content, cut the girthing and sunks off the horses, and hunted them out of the country. A warfare of five years duration ensued between Will and the gypsies. They nearly ruined him; and at the end of that period he was glad to make up matters with his old friends, and shelter them as formerly. said, 'He could maistly hae hauden his ain wi' them, an' it hadna been for their warlockry, but the deil-be-licket he could keep fra their kenning-they ance fand out his purse, though he had gart Meg dibble't into the kailyaird.'-Lochmaben is now one of their great resorts---being nearly stocked with them. The redoubted Rachel Bailley, noted for her high honour, is viewed as the queen of the tribe." He A woman of the name of Rachel Bailley, (but not the same person, we believe, that our correspondent alludes to) a few years ago, in Selkirkshire, afforded a remarkable evidence of the force of her gypsey habits and propensities. This woman, having been guilty of repeated acts of theft, was condemned by Mr W. Scott, sheriff of that county, to imprisonment in the bridewell there, on hard labour, for six months. She became so excessively wearied of the confinement, to which she had not been accustomed, and so impatient of the labour of spinning, although she span well, that she attempted suicide, by opening her veins with the point of a pair of scissors. In compassion for her state of mind, she was set at liberty by the magistrate; but she had not travelled farther than Yair Bridge-end, being about four miles from Selkirk, when she thought proper to steal a watch from a cottage, and being taken with it in her possession, was restored to her place of confinement just about four hours after she had been dismissed from it. She was afterwards banished the county. The unabashed hardihood of the gypsies in the face of suspicion, or even of open conviction, is not less characteristic than the facility with which they commit crimes, or their address in concealing them. A gypsey of note, still alive (an acquaintance of ours), was, about twenty years ago, tried for a theft of a considerable sum of money at a Dalkeith market. The proof seemed to the judge fully sufficient, but the jury being of a different opinion, brought in the verdict Not Proven; on which occasion, the presiding judge, when he dismissed the prisoner from the bar, informed him, in his own characteristic language, "That he had rubbit shouthers wi' the gallows that morning," and warned him not again to appear there with a similar body of proof against him, as it seemed scarce possible he should meet with another jury who would construe it as favourably. Upon the same occasion, the prisoner's counsel, a gentleman now deceased, thought it proper also to say something to his client on the risk he had run, and the necessity of future propriety of conduct; to which the gypsey replied, to the great entertainment of all around, "That he was proven an innocent man, and that naebody had ony right to use siccan language to him." We have much satisfaction in being enabled to relate the following characteristic anecdotes, in the words of another correspondent of the highest respectability : "A gang, of the name of Winters, long inhabited the wastes of Northum berland, and committed many crimes; among others, a murder upon a poor woman, with singular atrocity, for which one of them was hung in chains, near Tone-pitt, in Reedsdale. His mortal reliques having decayed, the lord of the manor has replaced them by a wooden effigy, and still maintains the gibbet. The remnant of this gang came to Scotland about fifteen years ago, and assumed the Roxburghshire name of Winterip, as they found their own something odious. They settled at a cottage within about four miles of Earlston, and became great plagues to the country, until they were secured, after a tight battle, tried before the sircuit court at Jedburgh, and banished back to their native country of England. The dalesmen of Reedwater shewed great reluctance to receive these returned emigrants. After the Sunday service at a little chapel near Otterbourne, one of the squires rose, and, addressing the congregation, told them they would be accounted no longer Reedsdale men, but Reedsdale women, if they permitted this marked and atrocious family to enter their district. The people answered, that they would not permit them to come that way; and the proscribed family, hearing of the unanimous resolution to oppose their passage, went more souther ly by the heads of Tyne, and I never heard more of them, but have little doubt they are all hanged. "Will Allan, mentioned by the Reedwater Minstrel,* I did not know, but was well acquainted with his son, Jamie, a most excellent piper, and at one time in the household of the Northumberland family; but being an utterly unprincipled vagabond, he wearied the benevolence of all his protectors, who were numerous and powerful, and saved him from the gallows more than once. Upon one occasion, being closely pursued, when surprised in some villany, he dropped from the top of a very high wall, not without receiving a severe cut upon the fingers with a hanger from one of his pursu ers, who came up at the moment he hung suspended for descent. Allan exclaimed, with minstrel pride, Ye hae spoiled the best pipe hand in Britain. Latterly, he became an absolute mendicant, and I saw him refused quarters at the house of my uncle, Mr at (himself a most excellent Border piper.) I begged hard to have him let in, but my uncle was inexorable, alleging his depredations on former occasions. He died, I believe, in jail, at Morpeth. 66 My father remembered old Jean Gordon of Yetholm, who had great sway among her tribe. She was quite a Meg Merrilies, and possessed the savage virtue of fidelity in the same perfection. Having been often hospi tably received at the farm-house of "A stalwart Tinkler wight was he, In a note upon a preceding passage of the same poem, the author (whose name was George Rokesby) says "Here was the rendezvous of the vagrant train of Faas, tinklers, &c. The celebrated Wull Allan frequently sojourned here, in the progress of his fishing and otter-hunting expeditions; and here often resounded the drones of his no less celebrated son, Jamie Allan, the Northumberland piper." Lochside, near Yetholm, she had carefully abstained from committing any depredations on the farmer's property. But her sons (nine in number) had not, it seems, the same delicacy, and stole a brood-sow from their kind entertainer. Jean was so much mortified at this ungrateful conduct, and so much ashamed at it, that she absented herself from Lochside for several years. At length, in consequence of some temporary pecuniary necessity, the Goodman of Lochside was obliged to go to Newcastle to get some money to pay his rent. Returning through the mountains of Cheviot, he was benight ed, and lost his way. A light, glimmering through the window of a large waste barn, which had survived the farm-house to which it had once belonged, guided him to a place of shel ter; and when he knocked at the door, it was opened by Jean Gordon. Her very remarkable figure, for she was nearly six feet high, and her equally remarkable features and dress, rendered it impossible to mistake her for a moment; and to meet with such a character in so solitary a place, and probably at no great distance from her olan, was a terrible surprise to the poor man, whose rent (to lose which would have been ruin to him) was about his person. Jean set up a loud shout of joyful recognition-Eh, sirs! the winsome gudeman of Lochside! Light down, light down; for ye manna gang farther the night, and a friend's house sae near. The farmer was obliged to dismount, and accept of the gypsey's offer of supper and a bed. There was plenty of meat in the barn, however it might be come by, and preparations were going on for a plentiful supper, which the farmer, to the great increase of his anxiety, observed, was calculated for ten or twelve guests, of the same description no doubt with his landlady. Jean left him in no doubt on the subject. She brought up the story of the stolen sow, and noticed how much pain and vexation it had given her. Like other philosophers, she remarked that the world grows worse daily; and, like other parents, that the bairns got out of her guiding, and neglected the old gypsey regulations, which commanded them to respect, in their depredations, the property of their benefactors. The end of all this was, an inquiry what money the farmer had about him, and an urgent request, that he would make her his purse-keeper, as the bairns, so she called her sons, would be soon home. The poor farmer made a virtue of necessity, told his story, and surrendered his gold into Jane's custody. She made him put a few shillings in his pocket, observing it would excite suspicion should he be found travelling altogether pennyless. This arrangement being made, the farmer lay down on a sort of shakedown, as the Scotch call it, upon some straw, but, as will easily be believed, slept not. About midnight the gang returned with various articles of plunder, and talked over their exploits in language which made the farmer tremble. They were not long in discovering their guest, and demanded of Jane whom she had got there? "E'en the winsome gudeman of Lochside, poor body," replied Jane: "he's been at Newcastle seeking for siller to pay his rent, honest man, but deil-be-licket he's been able to gather in, and sae he's gaun e'en hame wi' a toom purse and a sair heart." "That may be, Jane," replied one of the banditti ; maun ripe his pouches a bit, and see if it be true or no.' Jean set up her throat in exclamations against this breach of hospitality, but without producing any change of their determi nation. The farmer soon heard their stifled whispers and light steps by his bedside, and understood they were rummaging his clothes. When they found the money which the providence of Jean Gordon had made him retain, they held a consultation if they should take it or no, but the smallness of the booty, and the vehemence of Jean's remonstrances, determined them in the negative. They caroused and went to rest. So soon as day dawned, Jean roused her guest, produced his horse, which she had accommodated behind the hallan, and guided him for some miles till he was on the high road to Lochside. She then restored his whole property, nor could his earnest intreaties prevail on her to accept so much as a single guinea. but we "I have heard the old people at Jedburgh say, that all Jean's son's were condemned to die there on the same day. It is said the jury were equally divided; but that a friend to justice, who had slept during the whole discussion, waked suddenly, and gave his vote for condemnation, in the emphat ic words, " Hang them a'." Jean was present, and only said, "The Lord help the innocent in a day like this!" Her own death was accompanied with circumstances of brutal outrage, of which poor Jean was in many respects wholly undeserving. Jean had among other demerits, or merits, as you may choose to rank it, that of being a staunch Jacobite. She chanced to be at Carlisle upon a fair or market day, soon after the year 1746, where she gave vent to her political partiality, to the great offence of the rabble of that city. Being zealous in their loyalty when there was no danger, in proportion to the tameness with which they had surrendered to the Highlanders in 1745, they inflicted upon poor Jean Gordon no slighter penalty than that of ducking her to death in the Eden. It was an operation of some time, for Jean was a stout woman, and, struggling with her murderers, often got her head above water; and while she had voice left, continued to exclaim at such intervals, Charlie yet! Charlie yet!" -When a child, and among the scenes which she frequented, I have often heard these stories, and cried piteously for poor Jean Gordon. "Before quitting the border gypsies, I may mention, that my grandfather riding over Charterhouse-moor, then a very extensive common, fell suddenly among a large band of them, who were carousing in a hollow of the moor, surrounded by bushes. They instantly seized on his horse's bridle, with many shouts of welcome, exclaiming (for he was well known to most of them) that they had often dined at his expense, and he must now stay and share their good cheer. My ancestor was a little alarmed, for, like the gudeman of Lochside, he had more money about his person than he cared to venture with into such society. However, being naturally a bold lively man, he entered into the humour of the thing, and sate down to the feast, which consisted of all the varieties of game, poultry, pigs, and so forth, that could be collected by a wide and indiscriminate system of plunder. The feast was a very merry one, but my relative got a hint from some of the older gypsies to retire just when The mirth and fun grew fast and furious,' and mounting his horse accordingly, he took a French leave of his entertainers, but without experiencing the least breach of hospitality. I believe Jean Gordon was at this festival.To the admirers of good eating, gypsey cookery seems to have little to recommend it. I can assure you, however, that the cook of a nobleman of high distinction, a person who never reads even a novel without an eye to the enlargement of the culinary science, has added to the Almanach des Gour mands, a certain Potage a la Meg Merrilies de Derncleugh, consisting of game and poultry of all kinds, stewed with vegetables into a soup, which rivals in savour and richness the gallant messes of Comacho's wedding; and which the Baron of Bradwardine would certainly have reckoned among the Epulæ lautiores. "The principal settlements of the gypsies, in my time, have been the two villages of Easter and Wester Gordon, and what is called Kirk-Yetholm. Making good the proverb odd, A list of their surnames would be very desirable. The following are among the principal clans: Faas, Bailleys, Gordons, Shaws, Browns, Keiths, Kennedies, Ruthvens, Youngs, Taits, Douglasses, Blythes, Allans, Montgomeries.' Many of the preceding stories were familiar to us in our schoolboy days, and we well remember the peculiar feelings of curiosity and apprehension with which we sometimes encountered the formidable bands of this roaming people, in our rambles among the Border hills, or when fishing for perch in the picturesque little lake at Lochside. The late Madge Gordon was at that time accounted the queen of the Yetholm clans. She was, we believe, a granddaughter of the celebrated Jean Gordon, and was said to have much resembled her in appearance. The following account of her is extracted from the letter of a friend, who for many years enjoyed frequent and favourable opportunities of observing the characteristic peculiarities of the Yetholm tribes." Madge Gordon was descended from the Faas by the mother's side, and was married to a Young. She was rather a remarkable personage of a very commanding presence and high stature, being nearly six feet high. She had a large aquiline nose -penetrating eyes, even in her old age-bushy hair that hung around her shoulders from beneath a gypsey bonnet of straw-a short cloak of a |