BY GEORGE SMITH. THE ROYAL Epping Forest Gipsies THE GROUNDS , INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION LIVERPOOL. WILLSONS’, NEW WALK PRINTING WORKS, LEICESTER....

H.M. QUEEN VICTORIA. PRINCE VICTOR. SON OF THE KHEDIVE OF EGYPT. LORD LATHOM, High Chamberlain. LORD POLTIMORE. LORD CAMPBELL. LORD MONKS. LORD MAYO. LORD CLONMELL. LORD FARNHAM. LATE DUKE OF MACLIN. MARQUIS & MARCHIONESS OF TWEEDALE. SIR DAVID (Mayor of Liverpool) and LADY RADCLIFFE. SIR A. B. WALKER, Bart. SIR JOHN MAXWELL STIRLING. ALSO SON OF THE BISHOP OF WORCESTER. BISHOP OF THE ISLE OF MAN. LETTER FROM GOVERNOR WALPOLE of I.O.M. 10 LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. And at the GRE

My idea in writing this little pamphlet is to enlighten the minds of people as to the mode of living, and the customs of our tribe; and I think the reader will be convinced that we are not the desperadoes that some people think, but, on the other hand, honest living and a christian race; always ready to do good.  To young men especially, if they follow my career they will find that my success in life is due to being straight-forward and honest in all my dealings; firm purpose of mind; and an obj

Many writers have spent months and years of their lives in studying the language, character, and customs of the Romany Rye.  Many able pens have written volumes on the subject. For my part I simply give an unvarnished statement of facts, as they occur to me, so that my readers may glean some little information as to the general life and incidents in the career of a gipsy. With regard to the language of the Romany, whether heard in the most distant parts of the globe or in the Liverpool Exhibitio

The King and Queen (Mr. George Smith and Mrs. Smith) were “at home,” and they and their four comely daughters were the cynosure of all eyes.  A distinguishing feature of these “Epping Forest” Gipsies is their extreme cleanliness.  Their tent is scrupulously neat and tidy, its appointments are comfortable not to say luxurious, and the caravan reveals the snug sleeping chamber of the daughters of their majesties.  Fortune-telling is not the stock-in-trade of the tribe, but the dark-skinned “Gitano

The poor Laplanders have now to play second fiddle to another wandering tribe whose origin is lost in the mists of antiquity.  Ever since their celebrated moonlight flit the little northerners had been under a cloud, but their social extinction has been completed by the advent of the “Epping Forest Gipsies.”  The King and Queen of these nomads bear the prosaic name of Smith.  Nevertheless they claim to be in the line of descent of “Romany Ri.”  It is an open question whether the Gitano complexio

Her Majesty is not the only Royal visitor who has honoured the Exhibition with her presence.  Another has made his appearance lately and set up what I suppose must be styled his “Palace” near Cross’s Indian Pavillion, and in the middle of what may be called a quagmire.  The “palace” of course is not a very imposing erection, the only difference between it and an ordinary gipsy tent being that it is a little larger and that the stuff with which it is covered is red in colour, the accommodation be

Whence came those guests who, unknown and uninvited, migrated into Europe in the fifteenth century?  This question, which has puzzled the fertile minds of many historians, was the one that naturally presented itself to me as I wended my way to the gipsy encampment in the grounds of the great International Exhibition.  I confess I had no poetic or sentimental ideas in regard to the tribes who own Bohemia as their birthplace.  On the contrary, I was afflicted with the common prejudice that these n

The gipsies are still the rage at the Exhibition, and each day King Smith and his Royal consort receive the homage of well-dressed crowds of lady admirers.  With the prestige gained by the patronage of Queen Victoria, they come with confidence before a credulous public, and so far their levees have been pecuniarily successful.  Their cleanly and well ordered encampment was visited this week by the Mayor and Mayoress, who were much interested, if not edified, by their interviews with these ultra

GIPSY KING IN GLASGOW . IN A TENT OF ISHMAEL. Lord Rosebery’s statement last Friday, in the St. Andrew’s Halls, that there were 138,000 vagrants in Scotland, persons who did nothing but roam the country and admire the scenery, induced me to pay the Gipsy King, Mr. George, a visit.  His Majesty, with family, are presently located in Glasgow, in Great Western road.  I found Mr. Smith in his tent, a large and commodius structure, some eight feet in height, the frame of strong ash girders covered wi