James Simson

Was John Bunyan A Gipsy? James Simson

The title-page of this little publication states that it is "particularly addressed to the students of the universities." It is based on a History of the Gipsies, published in 1865, in a prefatory note to which it was said that this subject, "When thus comprehensively treated, forms a study for the most advanced and cultivated mind, as well as for the youth whose intellectual and literary character is still to be formed; and furnishes, among other things, a system of science not too abstract in its nature, and having for its subject-matter the strongest of human feelings and sympathies." This race entered Great Britain before the year 1506, and sooner or later became legally and socially proscribed. It has been my endeavour for some years back to have the social proscription removed (the legal one having ceased to exist), so that at least the name and blood of this people should be acknowledged by the rest of the world, and each member of the race as such treated according to his personal merits. The great difficulty I have encountered in this matter is the general impression that this race is confined to a few wandering people of swarthy appearance, who live in tents, or are popularly known as Gipsies; and that these "cease to be Gipsies" when they in any way "fall into the ranks," and dress and live, more or less, like other people. Unfortunately many have so publicly committed themselves to this view of the subject that it is hardly possible to get them to revise their opinion, and admit the leading fact of the question, viz.: that the Gipsies do not "cease to be Gipsies" by any change in their style of life or character, and that the same holds good with their descendants.