almost a giant, for his height could not have been less than six feet
three. It is impossible for the imagination to conceive anything more
perfectly beautiful than were the features of this man, and the most
skilful sculptor of Greece might have taken them as his model for a hero
and a god. The forehead was exceedingly lofty,--a rare thing in a Gypsy;
the nose less Roman than Grecian,--fine yet delicate; the eye large,
overhung with long drooping lashes, giving them almost a melancholy
expression; it was only when the lashes were elevated that the Gypsy
glance was seen, if that can be called a glance which is a strange stare,
like nothing else in this world. His complexion was a beautiful olive;
and his teeth were of a brilliancy uncommon even amongst these people,
who have all fine teeth. He was dressed in a coarse waggoner's slop,
which, however, was unable to conceal altogether the proportions of his
noble and Herculean figure. He might be about twenty-eight. His
companion and his captain, Gypsy Will, was, I think, fifty when he was
hanged, ten years subsequently (for I never afterwards lost sight of
him), in the front of the jail of Bury St. Edmunds. I have still present
before me his bushy black hair, his black face, and his big black eyes
fixed and staring. His dress consisted of a loose blue jockey coat,
jockey boots and breeches; in his hand was a huge jockey whip, and on his
head (it struck me at the time for its singularity) a broad-brimmed high-
peaked Andalusian hat, or at least one very much resembling those
generally worn in that province. In stature he was shorter than his more
youthful companion, yet he must have measured six feet at least, and was
stronger built, if possible. What brawn!--what bone!--what legs!--what
thighs! The third Gypsy, who remained on horseback, looked more like a
phantom than anything human. His complexion was the colour of pale dust,
and of that same colour was all that pertained to him, hat and clothes.
His boots were dusty of course, for it was midsummer, and his very horse
was of a dusty dun. His features were whimsically ugly, most of his