The Wind on the Heath - A Gypsy Anthology (Romany History Series)

John Sampson

Description

This magnificent Gypsy anthology was first published in London 1930. It contains over 300 items of prose and verse gleaned from classical literature, folklore, history and true Gypsy life. It has long been considered unique in its field and is very hard to find in its first edition. We have now re-published this scarce book incorporating the original text and illustrations. The book's 380 pages are divided into 12 sections designed to bring to light the chief facets of Gypsy life. They have been chosen for their historical and anthropological interest and are supported with illustrations of the real Gypsy way of life, and yet the same wind blows over all on this Gypsy heath. Contents include: The Dark Race. - The Roaming Life. - Field and Sky. - Gypsies and Gentiles. - The Romany Chye. - Gypsy Children. - Sturt and Strife. - Black Arts. - A Gypsy Bestiary. - Egipte Speche. - Scholar Gypsies. - Envoy. Also included is a glossary of Romani words. This important book is thoroughly recommended for inclusion on the bookshelf of all with an interest in Gypsy ways.

Sujets

• Social Science
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Anthropology
• Social
• Culture

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 14 juillet 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528769839
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

The Wind on the Heath
A Gypsy Anthology
HEAD OF A GITANA
BY AUGUSTUS JOHN
The Wind on the Heath
A GYPSY ANTHOLOGY
CHOSEN BY
John Sampson
With a Frontispiece in colour by
AUGUSTUS JOHN, R.A.
and
Fourteen designs by John Garside
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY T. AND A. CONSTABLE LTD. AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS EDINBURGH
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
To all the Affectionated
Preface
THIS little work is an attempt to interpret to gentile (and I tru s to gentle) readers something of the glamour that enwraps the Gypsy race, of their s range choice of ways in their earthly pilgrimage, and of that life romantic which Lavengro eulogized as the happie s under Heaven, the true Eden-life.
I call this Wind on the Heath a Gypsy anthology; but it is rather an anthology of the Gypsy spirit, since I include some pieces which are not definitely Romani, and exclude others as Counterfeit Egyptian, whose sole claim is the use of the name Gypsy, and a few words purloined from Borrow.
The Gypsies are in truth a touch s one to the personality of a man. Ju s as one person may see in an ancient battered coin merely a worthless piece of metal, of no utility as currency, so to another it may conjure up visions of famous men and bygone civilization, and even seem a thing of worth and beauty in itself. The rea c ion of great minds to this theme is an intere s ing chapter in literary hi s ory. It covers a wide field, from the myth-makers of the Middle Ages to the Elizabethans with their happy acceptance of these fellow romantics as part of the multicoloured pageant of life; the be-wigged philosophy of the eighteenth century, disapprobatory, judicial or cynical; and the various views, arti s ic, sympathetic or philanthropic, of the present day. The sentiments of these worthies differ as notably as the co s ume of their period.
Our Gypsies meanwhile have gone on in their old way serenely indifferent to opinion. Are you aware, Rosaina, I asked a pi c uresquely clad young Romani, that Wordsworth, the great Mr. Wordsworth, has called you a wild outca s of Society ? There are two societies, Raia, was the disdainful reply. Yes, certainly, there are two Societies, and which is the happier remains a que s ion. Do we not find Shakespeare-through the mouth of Amiens-Hazlitt, Kinglake, Stevenson, Housman, Masefield, and many another, sometimes wondering whether Madam Civilization may not have put her money on the wrong horse?
I have divided the book into twelve se c ions which are designed to bring to light the chief facets of Gypsy life. And if one dare advise a reader as to how he should read, may I say that it were better if he read these consecutively, since the pieces are arranged in an ordered sequence, and gain by their neighbourhood. I have tried to hang my pi c ures with judgment, and should it be charged again s me that I have not everywhere succeeded, and that there is in fa c too much Borrow, it should be borne in mind that such a painter can hardly be over-represented in the Gypsy Gallery, even though he has a tendency to throw others into the shade; ju s as Turner s single blob of vermilion (affixed to his own pi c ure on varnishing day) obliterated his rivals work in the exhibition.
While these extra c s include some of the fine flower of literature, it will be perceived that this anthology is not merely a colle c ion of classical pieces in vacuo . Some of my flora-weeds doubtless in the eyes of the horticulturi s -have been chosen for their hi s orical and archaeological intere s , or as real illu s rations of Gypsy life and thought. Yet the same wind blows over them all, and it is hoped may welcome with an invigorating gale the adventurer on our Gypsy heath.

I thank my old friend and brother Rai, Augu s us John, for his generous gift of the frontispiece of the Gitana, and for a vivid sketch in words of foreign Gypsies at Marseilles. I owe to the loved and revered Robert Bridges, who since this preface fir s was written has set in glory like the sun, two passages from the Te s ament of Beauty , which he graciously gave me before the publication of that noble poem. I tender my thanks to my friends: Arthur Symons for a poem from Images of Good and Evil , and extra c s from two articles in the Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society ; Oliver Elton for a translation from the Russian of Pushkin; Mrs. Joseph Pennell for two passages from To Gipsyland , and several extra c s from the Life and various works of Charles Godfrey Leland; Mrs. Watts-Dunton for permission to quote two of her husband s poems and a passage from Aylwin ; William Meredith and the Tru s ees of George Meredith for permission to reprint The Orchard and the Heath and three short passages from Harry Richmond (Messrs. Constable Co. Ltd., Lond., and Messrs. Charles Scribner s Sons, N.Y.); T. W. Thompson and D. F. de l Hoste Ranking for articles from the J. G. L. S .; Sir Donald MacAlister for permission to quote a stanza from his Romani version of Stevenson s Vagabond ; Miss M. E. Lyster, Miss F. Marston and Miss D. E. Yates for extracts from articles in the J. G. L. S .; and J. Glyn Davies for a translation of a Welsh poem by Eifion Wyn (Foyle s Welsh Depot), and of a couplet from Dafydd ab Gwilym.
My cordial thanks are also offered to the following authors and publishers for kind permission to use poems or extracts from their works: A. E. Housman for one of his La s Poems ; John Masefield for a poem from Salt Water Ballads and a passage from The Everla s ing Mercy (Sidgwick Jackson); John Galsworthy for a passage from In Chancery ; George Bernard Shaw for two passages from Cashel Byron s Profession ; Edmund Blunden for a poem from The Shepherd (Cobden-Sanderson); Miss Sackville-We s for a passage from The Land (Heinemann), and for three poems from Orchard and Vineyard (John Lane); Mrs. Hardy for an extra c from The Early Life of Thomas Hardy ; Sacheverell Sitwell for two passages from The Visit of the Gypsies ; Gipsy Smith for an extra c from his Life (National Council of the Evangelical Free Churches); Arthur B. Talbot for a quatrain from his translation of Omar Khayyam (Elkin Mathews); the executor of the late Sir James Yoxall and Messrs. Longmans Green Co. for a passage from The Rommany Stone ; Mr. John Murray for an extra c from The Girlhood of Queen Vi c oria ; Messrs. Chatto Windus for two passages from the Works of R. L. Stevenson; Messrs. William Heinemann for the passage from Swinburne s Tale of Balen , and three stanzas by Sarojini Naidu; Messrs. Kegan Paul Trench Trubner Co. for an extra c from A. G. and E. Warner s translation of Firdausi; Messrs. Longmans for three passages from Richard Jefferies Field and Hedgerow ; Messrs. Dent for a passage from W. H. Hudson s Hampshire Days ; Messrs. Sampson Low for an extra c from Francis Hitchman s Life of Sir Richard Burton; Messrs. Abel Heywood Son for a passage from Jannock by Edwin Waugh; and the poet s family and the Oxford University Press for a stanza from Gerard Hopkins Inversnaid.
Acknowledgments for permission to reprint copyright poems and prose passages are due to: Miss Gwen Clear and Messrs. Longmans Green Co. for a sonnet from The Elde s Si s er ; the executrix of the late Kuno Meyer and Messrs. Constable Co. for two translations from Ancient Irish Poetry ; Messrs. Methuen for three passages from W. H. Hudson s A Shepherd s Life ; Messrs. Ingpen Grant for three poems of the late Edward Thomas; Messrs. Macmillan for a passage from Henley s Views and Reviews , and two of Ralph Hodgson s poems; and to the owners of copyright for two extracts from Mrs. Ewing s Father Hedgehog and his Neighbours ( Brothers of Pity and Other Tales ).
J. S.
CONTENTS
PREFACE
I. THE DARK RACE
L ORDS OF THE U NIVERSE
Cervantes
I N P RAISE OF G YPSIES
Arthur Symons
H ONESTEST OF THE H UMAN R ACE
John Ruskin
T HE N OMADES
James Russell Lowell
T HE C UCKOO
George Borrow
W ILDNESS AND W ET
Gerard Hopkins
T HE O LDEST R ACE ON E ARTH
Richard Jefferies
T HE Y OUTHFUL R USKIN SPEAKS
John Ruskin
F ANTASTICAL P ERSONAGES
Washington Irving
C HILDREN OF THE W ILDERNESS
Edwin Waugh
G AIS B OH MIENS
B ranger
A RABS OF E UROPE
Horace Smith
W HERE DO WE COME FROM ?
Charley Smith
T HE R EGION OF C HAL
George Borrow
H OW B AHR M G UR BROUGHT THE G IPSIES FROM I NDIA TO P ERSIA
Firdausi
T HE F AMILY OF H AM
Symon Simeonis
A VERY O DD S ORT OF G ENTRY
Vi c or Hugo
O F G YPSIES
Sir Thomas Browne
T HE L ONE P EOPLE
Arthur Penrhyn Stanley
A N E PITAPH
Chri s ian von Hofmannswaldau .
D E C EUX QU ON APPELAIT B OH MES
Voltaire
A S INGULAR R ACE
Sir Richard Phillips
H OUSELESS B IRDS
Samuel Roberts
A D IVINE P URPOSE
C. G. Leland
M R . P ETULENGRO AND THE J EW OF F EZ
George Borrow
G YPSY OR I SRAELITE ?
John Bunyan
A C OVEY OF G IPSIES
Ben Jonson
M OONE -M EN
Thomas Dekker
A V ISION OF H ELL
Ellis Wynne
A V AGABOND AND U SELESS T RIBE
William Cowper
T HE B LACK Z IGAN
Firdausi
C ATCH THEM WHO CAN
William Hazlitt
S EEKING AFTER G YPSIES
George Borrow
A G YPSY A PPOINTMENT
Thomas Middleton
II. THE ROAMING LIFE
M ENS AVET VAGARI
Catullus
T HE C ALL TO P ILGRIMAGE
Geoffrey Chaucer
W HY IN ONE PLACE TARRY WE ?
Richard Brome
T HE B UTTERFLY W ANDERER
Edmund Spenser
L ONGING TO BE OFF
Henry T. Crofton
F ROM S UNRISE TO S UNSET
Sacheverell Sitwell
T HE N ATURE OF THE H AWK
Richard Jefferies
T HE G YPSY S H OME
George Eliot
T HE C HARRED E ARTH
Sir James Yoxall
M AN MUST MOVE ABOUT
Armin Vamb ry
J OG ON
Shake eare
T HE S OUL OF A J OURNEY
William Hazlitt
T HE V AGABOND
Robert Louis Stevenson
T HE C OLT AND THE F ILLY
John Galsworthy
G IPSY J UNE
Leigh Hunt
W AYFARING M EN
John Bunyan
T RAMPING IN W ALES
Thomas De Quincey
C AMPING ON S NOWDON
Charles Kingsley
A J OURNEY BY C OACH
Charles Dickens
H IGHWAY AND P ACKWAY
Vi c oria Sackville-We s
R