. . .Indeed, what we do know of their earliest history is not nearly so barbarous as that of our own; for we must contemplate our own ancestors at one time as painted and skin-clad barbarians.  What we do know for certainty of the earliest history of the Scottish Gipsies is contained more particularly in the Act of 1540; and we would naturally say that, for a people in a barbarous state, such is the dignity and majesty, with all the roguishness displayed in the conduct of the Gipsies of that period, one could hardly have a better, certainly not a more romantic descent; provided the person whose descent it is, is to be found amid the ranks of Scots, with talents, a character, and a position equal to those of others around him.  For this reason, it must be said of the race, that whenever it shakes itself clear of objectionable habits, and follows any kind of ordinary industry, the cause of every prejudice against it is gone, or ought to disappear; for then, as I have already said, t. . . Read More