I am, etc.
Letter XXV
To The Honourable Daines Barrington
Selborne, Oct. 2, 1775.
Dear Sir,
We have two gangs or hordes of gypsies which infest the south and
west of England, and come round in their circuit two or three times
in the year. One of these tribes calls itself by the noble name of
Stanley, of which I have nothing particular to say; but the other is
distinguished by an appellative somewhat remarkable. -- As far as
their harsh gibberish can be understood, they seem to say that the
name of their clan is Curleople; now the termination of this word is
apparently Grecian: and as Mezeray and the gravest historians all
agree that these vagrants did certainly migrate from Egypt and the
East two or three centuries ago, and so spread by degrees over
Europe, may not this name, a little corrupted, be the very name
they brought with them from the Levant? It would be matter of
some curiosity, could one meet with an intelligent person among
them, to inquire whether, in their jargon, they still retain any Greek
words: the Greek radicals will appear in hand, foot, head, water,
earth, etc.
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