Search -
Ancient and Modern Britons, a Retrospect [by D. Macritchie].
Ancient and Modern Britons a Retrospect - by D. Macritchie Author:David MacRitchie General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1884 Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million book... more »s for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER V. The period in which the powerful Scot-Egyptian began to lapse into the outlawed " Egyptian " cannot well be fixed. Assuming that Scot could be -- and perhaps was -- applied to all tribes that were " vagabonds" or nomadic; that were swarthy of skin ; like the Scots Proper; the painted Mauri, Moors, or Morays ; and the " black heathen " invaders, called Cimbri, or Dani; then the decadence of the Scots of Southwestern Scotland may fairly be said to have reached an advanced stage in the year 1445, when the power of the black section of the Douglases (who were once all dubh-glasses) was completely overthrown. This is the date at which gypsy- dom has hitherto been held to begin in Scotland (although it has been acknowledged that the Scotch Tinklers are spoken of as early as the twelfth century -- in a document of the reign of William the Lion). To a certain extent, this may still be held as the beginning of " gypsydom " in that district of Scotland. Because by " gypsy" we do not understand (conventionally) anything of national and political importance. And it was at that date that the Moors, or Dubh- glasses, or Picts, of Galloway fell from their high estate into the position of outlawed and landless marauders : became, in short, gypsies and faws rather than (Scot-) Egyptians and Picts. It was about that period, also, that the laws against sorners, Egyptians, and such like began to be passed, by the Governmental party -- which was the party of Norman, or semi-Norman ascendancy. These laws were continued, generation after generation, until all the tories of Scotland were either converted to Nation...« less