the savage breast.' The complacent reception this wandering minstrel experienced in the most wild and inhospitable regions, evinces that the love of music is an instinct subsisting in our nature. This feeling is excellently adapted for soothing the cares, and augmenting the happiness of life; and it possesses the rare felicity of combining pleasure and innocence, which are too often at variance.

Every man, in short, must peruse with pleasure and profit the history of a man who was so rarely endowed; whose errors, crimes, and misfortunes were so numerous and remarkable; and whose fortitude, courage, and sufferings would, had he been capable of recording their nature and succession, have formed one of the most useful and splendid exhibitions of human exertions ever offered to the attention of mankind.

"The life of this singular character has all the air of a romance, the incidents being so various and extraordinary; but the relation possesses such genuine marks of authenticity as must satisfy the most scrupulous. Allan was extremely illiterate, and utterly incapable of perusing the narratives of the adventurous voyager and the curious traveller, much less of collecting and arranging their scattered remarks on the manners and customs which prevail in distant and unfre quented countries, with a view to impose upon the public, Yet his observations in China, in India, in Tartary, and in other countries, exactly correspond with those published by the most learned, accurate, and esteemed travellers, and afford such presumptive and internal evidences of the substantial veracity of this history, as must dissipate the most marvellous and obstinate credulity.

"Few of the local events that distinguished the chequered and vagrant life of Allan rest on his own authority alone: they are known to numerous and respectable living witnesses.

2

vi

The shades of difference that may distinguish their modes of relation are inseparable from that species of testimony."

In explanation of the above, it is necessary to observe that many of the occurrences in Allan's eventful life were, at different times, related by himself to various persons in the confidence of private conversation; and as he never suspected that his words would be penned, much less published to the world, his vanity was the less likely to give a false and plausible colouring to his achievements. He could have no ambition to rival Psalmanazer. Indeed, his ignorance of letters was so great, that he never knew the alphabet; and though he was occasionally seen in company perusing the newspapers with much apparent interest, yet he never ventured upon this exhibition unless he had first noticed the figure of a horse, a cock, or a house, by which he distinguished the top from the bottom of the paper.

It is a curious fact, that the first signature of his present majesty George the Fourth, when Prince Regent, officially addressed to the sheriff of Durham, was affixed to a free pardon for James Allan, then under sentence of transportation for life. But ere this merciful document arrived, the aged sufferer had descended into the tranquil grave, and was thus placed beyond the reach of human relief and of royal clemency.

The memoirs of this famous piper will be found interspersed with much curious information respecting the Gipsy tribes, whose persons have always been objects of persecution, instead of the protection of the laws. It is calculated that about eight hundred thousand Gipsies are scattered over Europe, of which number eighteen thousand reside in England. A people so numerous and so singular is certainly entitled to general attention; though their history, their condition, and their habits, are only very imperfectly understood.

THE

LIFE

OF

JAMES ALLAN.

CHAPTER I.

The Allan Family---Birth of William, the Father of James--- His Person and Pursuits---Removes to Rothbury, and marries a Gipsy Girl---Anecdotes of his second Wife--- His Dogs and Success in Otter Hunting---Anecdote of Lord Ravensworth---Will's Search for his Dog Peachem--- His Independence and Dislike of soft Beds---Made Water-keeper of the Coquet--- His Attachment to that River ---Excels in Pipe Music--- His Minstrel Pride---His last Days---Dies playing a favourite Air---Poetically described in the Lay of the Reedwater Minstrel.

THE name of the family of Allan is familiar to all the inhabitants of the north of England, where the recital of their many singular exploits continues to excite feelings of the most lively interest. Some have doubted whether the Allans were genuine Gipsies. It is certain that they displayed all the peculiarities of that caste; but whether these were acquired by adoption, or by their regular descent from the original stock, is unknown. The latter is the most probable opinion.

William Allan, commonly called "old Wull," the father of James, the subject of these memoirs, was born in 1704, at Bellingham, in the parish of Si

monburn,* in the west of Northumberland.

He

was a man of much rustic shrewdness, dry wit, and proud independence. Hating the unremitted toils, and despising the refined comforts of civilized life, he loved to indulge in his own simple feelings of enjoyment, and to resist all powers but those of nature and of necessity. In person he was about six feet high, raw-boned, and agile, with a hardy, weather-beaten complexion. He became, in early life, an expert and skilful player on the bagpipes, which endeared him to his Gipsy associates, and secured him the warm hospitality of the merry and spirited inhabitants of North Tindale. When obliged to seek shelter from the storms of winter in his native hut, he added to his means of subsist ence by mending pots and pans, and by making spoons, besoms, and baskets; but when the season and the weather permitted, he was always engaged in travelling, or in his favourite employment, fish

* This wild, romantic, and mountainous parish, was 103 miles in circumference. The inhabitants, who were divided into clans, were always celebrated for their bold, adroit, predatory exploits; and even so late as the reign of Queen Anne, the industrious paid a kind of protection tribute to the most powerful chiefs. Many of the Incorporated Companies of Newcastle upon Tyne refused to take a native of Tindale for an apprentice. But the rebellion in 1715 removed the more daring spirits from this district. A bold and desperate outlaw, commonly called Sir William Brown, who was hanged at Newcastle in 1743, was the last distinguished head of the Border thieves or Moss-troopers. Hareshaw Common, nearBellingham, contains above 7000 acres, so that this place was ex cellently well adapted for the rendezvous of wandering vagabonds. In 1811, Simonburn parish was divided into five distinct rectories, and the inhabitants have long since become as honest and nearly as sedate as their neighbours.

ing. In this art his skill and dexterity were confessedly unrivalled. This attachment to fishing was so strongly displayed in all the members of his family, that a gentleman well acquainted with their pursuits once observed, "that if any of the Allan family were dying, the very mention of a salmon would bring them to life again.'

At an early period of Will's life, he and his brother James left the place of their nativity, and took up their station in the romantic wilds of Rothbury.* Amongst other attractions this place possessed, it was the head quarters of a strong gang of Gipsies. At Swindon were several houses, formerly occupied by colliers; but on the working of the adjoining pit being abandoned, the workmen removed, and their cottages were immediately converted into a Gipsy station. Here Will and his pipes were engaged in many a midnight revel. At this place he married a fine Gipsy girl, named Betty, who bore

**Rothbury parish, which occupies a central situation in Northumberland, consists partly of naked rocks, sterile mountains, dreary morasses, and bleak heaths, and partly of highly cultivated lands, with extensive and fertile haughs, through which—

In fact, the Coquet is one of the pleasantest trout streams in England. Previous to the Union, the inhabitants of this district, in consequence of constant feuds and alarms, were fierce, daring, and subtle; and when the authority of law began to operate, they became equally famous for poaching, drinking, gambling, and fighting. During the last century, these habits gradually grew weaker; but a passionate fondness for music retained all its ancient vigour. Considering all these circumstances, Allan shewed much judgment in the selection of his residence.

B