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We had our travelling salesmen and gypsies who were so well-known to us as to be a part of the local scene. The present Mr. Morley's father came regularly from Wotton with his little float laden with china. A quick little man in shiny boots and leggings, he whistled his way around the country selling brightly coloured ware from Staffordshire. A Mr. Dillimore, with an old grey pony, came regularly with his home-made sweets and humbugs. A man whose name I forget came periodically with brushes which he made in Wotton, and there were always the gypsies - Smith's and Loveridge's - calling with clothes pegs and paper flowers.
Luke Smith was a tough old man whose weak spot was drink. His brother Bill had climbed out of the gypsy world and had become a respected farmer but Luke remained a Romany. He bought and sold a few poor old horses and when he had one to sell he could never make a deal without getting drunk. He would ride bare-back to the Portcullis on one of his knackers and tie it up outside while he had his first pint. We used to watch the poor old horse rest one painful leg in turn until Luke came out to jump on its back. With shout and stick he would urge his mount to a show of false activity, then back for another pint, another rest for the drooping steed, and so on until the deal was made. Luke was the despair of his wife. She had much more sense than he. A tall, upright figure, always dressed in red petticoat covered by a long black dress. Her grey hair was crowned by a black hat decorated with feathers and paper flowers. Anyone who has read Scott's 'Guy Mannering' would have seen in her the perfect 'Meg Merrilees'. She often visited our shop and my father listened to her tales of woe about her drunken husband. He always thought she was really a capable and intelligent woman. I remember being fascinated by her flashing black eyes as she called down curses on men who had robbed Luke when he was drunk.
Gypsies were real Romany's then. Poaching, peg-making, tinkering, perhaps a little discreet stealing, we accepted them as an established part of English country life.
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