Heres a pre-Christmas treat, a clip from Old Country, one of my favourites - Jack on Stow Fair and Gypsies - maintainers of one the two great traditions of skill with horses in this country. The very first time I ever walked through the New Forest I saw a forest man walking across his farmyard with a sandy lurchery kind of old sheepdog of the sort we used to call a Smithfield, and I hadnt seen one for ages and I said to him Where did you get that dog? and he said I had her mother from the dear sirs I said Who are the dear sirs, for heavens sake? He said Thats what we used to call the Gypsies, because thats the way they used to speak to you in those days when they came up to you. They always said Dear Sir Well, thats quite a nice name Dear Sir. Its better than Gypsy, and I said to him How did you get on them? and he said We got on with them very well. The Foresters and the Gypsies got on very well indeed. We knew all the Gypsy families. I used to know the mothers of all the Gypsy families - Mrs Penrose, Mrs Barnes, and they got on very well until the time came when the well-to-do started to buy cottages in the country and some of them bought cottages in the Forest and they settled down and then of course they got on the council and they didnt like the Gypsies. They seemed to think that they made the place untidy and after that life for Gypsies in the Forest became hard until - they finally put them in compounds... This clip is unlisted. Try not to to spread round outside this group...As always thanks to the viewer who recorded this at the time of broadcast, kept the VHS tape, and years later got it to me on a DVD https://youtube/watch?v=JyhT3-87mto
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 08:48:30 +0000
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