Last of the Wight Romany
This is an extract from the Portsmouth Evening News dated June 19 1936.
The quality is not particular good as the cutting is rather yellow and worn.
I have transcribed it below
I have included the full article unamended, although certain wording would not be used now, but bear in mind the article is almost 70 years old
Transcription
Last
of the Wight Romany Tells of His Race
The Romany, proud wanderers of Europe, are dying out. Everyone is familiar with the gypsies, but the Romany must not be classified with them. There are only two clans of real Romany in England now – the Stanleys and the Lees. Of the former clan comes Jimmy, familiar figure in the streets of Newport, Isle of Wight, and believed to be the last Romany left in the Island.
OF THE CONTINENT In
the streets of the town, amid the busy traffic, Jimmy strangely seems to be of
the dusty lanes of the Continent, and is associated in the mind with ramshackle
caravans and the pots, pans, and horses of tradition. His family, however, has
been fairly settled for the last 200 years in the Island.
Legend, passed on from father to son, has it that the first Romany who arrived in the Island was Jimmy’s grandfather, who came from the New Forest with a fine batch of ponies and spent his first night sleeping in a churchyard, with 500 gold guineas adorning his velveteen coat and breeches, in the Romany style of the day. I was told that Romany women in those days were bartered over a gallon of beer, although this conflicts with the claim that the Romany marriage ceremony, performed informally in a caravan, by troth, was practically irrevocable.
A
CENTENARIAN This
forefather of the last Wight Romany went to his forefathers at the age of 104
years, having settled inthe Island as the keeper of a toll-gate-—a contrast to
his previous wanderings.
Jimmy’s father seems to have become famous by winning a hurdle race at 70, but in negotiating a hurdle be hurt his knee and never recovered from the shock. The Romany blood was passed on to his children, and one daughter followed that time-honoured profession of fortune-telling at Rottingdean, near Brighton where it is said that she once told the fortunes of the then Prince of Wales and the German Emperor. She predicted the fall of the Kaiser because be mounted his horse the wrong way. She was known as “the Queen of fortune-tellers.”
The
mother language, Romany, is a sibilant, delightfully, soft and drawling
collection of sounds reminiscent of a hot climate, and meant for cloudless
climes and lazy days. It is still in use, although it varies slightly from
country to country, as each part of the clan adapts certain phrases of the
native tongue to Its own use, but it is universally understandable.
CONTEMPT FOR THE GIPSY
The true Romany has nothing but contempt for the gipsy, who gives the clan a bad
name with his shifty ways, and apes the honourable language with his own jargon.
Where
did the Romany come from? I asked Jimmy this question, which puzzled so great an
authority on the Romany as George Borrow. “We come from the forests,” he
answered vaguely. When I persisted, he told me of the belief that the Romany
wee, descended from the tribe of Levites, of the Old Testament, but this belief
is to be strongly doubted.
Transactions among the clan are carried out by word of mouth, and bargains are clinched by a smack of the hands. Theft is scorned by the Romany, and a member of the clan who thus falls to temptation is said to be ostracized by his fellows. A Romany oath is binding for life, and it is a form of this oath that is used in the matrimonial ceremony.
I had heard a story of how the children of the clan were immersed in cold water within 24 hours of birth in the belief of the survival of the fittest, but this Jimmy indignantly denied. The Romany “babbies” received as much care as was possible, he declared, but he added that such a test may have existed In far-off days.
Nowadays
the Romany allow their children to be taught the language of the country, and it
tends to get the upper hand of the ancient and picturesque tongue of the
wanderers.
SPOTLESS
CARAVANS
A
Romany
caravan is always kept scrupulously clean, and the women, handsome creatures of
the East, with flashing smiles and shining, pure white teeth, show as much
“house-pride” as any other women.
Jimmy has ‘spent a great deal of his life travelling with, circuses in England and looking after horses. Horses are a passion with him, and is a very shrewd judge of their value. In these days of easy transport, however, some gipsies (as distinct from the Romany) get about the country In motor-cars, thus abandoning their sometime best worker and friend. Horses are “gries” in Romany, by the way.
THEIR MUSIC The Hungarian comes nearest to the Romany music, spontaneous and fiery dances being handed down from mother to daughter, the accompaniment being learned by the men folk.
Can the Romany ever become extinct? I do
not think so. This landless race possesses enough vitality and sufficient
race-pride not to become merged with its less colourful neighbours.