The tinkler-gypsies . oway. It could not, therefore, Mr MacRitchiepoints out, have been the nominal head of theclan whom the young MacClellan killed. MrMacRitchie concludes that The leaders ofthe Black Douglases, when finally brought tobay, were the chiefs brothers—the Earls ofMoray and of Ormond. Thus the Gypsy orMoor of the MacClellan story was in all proba-bility one of these. It may be that he was theEarl of Moray, who was killed at the crushingdefeat of Arkinholme or Langholm— durked in Annandale, as the local tradition has it. Butit is much more likely that he was the thirdbrother, Hugh,
The tinkler-gypsies . oway. It could not, therefore, Mr MacRitchiepoints out, have been the nominal head of theclan whom the young MacClellan killed. MrMacRitchie concludes that The leaders ofthe Black Douglases, when finally brought tobay, were the chiefs brothers—the Earls ofMoray and of Ormond. Thus the Gypsy orMoor of the MacClellan story was in all proba-bility one of these. It may be that he was theEarl of Moray, who was killed at the crushingdefeat of Arkinholme or Langholm— durked in Annandale, as the local tradition has it. Butit is much more likely that he was the thirdbrother, Hugh, Earl of Ormond, who is notsaid to have been slain c)n the field of liattle aswas Moray, but to have been taken prisoner andafterwards beheaded. The Black More Tradition. 409 Doubtless the leader had retired with afollowing of irreconcilable Douglases, andamongst these we may not unreasonably assumewere at least Tinkler Douglases, if not Gypsiesas the tradition asserts. Tradition, then, in this case, as in so many. Site of The Blackmorrow Well, near Kirkcudbright. Photo IJ-A. Mtormiok. others, does not seem to be so far out. The more would be a Tinkler—probably eitherone of the Black Douglas race of Tinklers, or, astradition suggests, a man named Black Morrow,of Irish Tinkler descent, who was first druggedand then killed at the spot still known as The Blackmorrow ^^ell. Jradition is sub- 4IO The Tinkler-Gypsies. stantially correct, and if the word Tinkler hadbeen used in place of the word Gypsy, the tradi-tion might be accepted as quite consistent withpresent-day information. Tinklers may beregarded as a kind of Gypsies, but they havenever been proved to be de facto Romani-speaking Gypsies. What could be more natural than that theDouglases should, in the hour of defeat, comelurking into the neighbourhood of their ancientstronghold ? These various castes would ap-pear, then, to have their origin partly in specialTinkler castes of ancient clans, and partly, butwe think to a
Size: 1838px × 1359px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookidtinkl, bookpublisheretcetc
