East European Gypsies

A group of East European Gypsies at Hazlewood, Creetown. These are Ursari or bear-leader Gypsies and the head of one of their performing bears can just be made out below the tree on the left. They toured Galloway in 1896. ‘Near Kirkcudbright I met a large troup of gypsies, of a type quite different from any I had met before. The first to appear round a corner was a tall, swarthy man leading a brown bear. My dog, a big, powerful beast, immediately made a rush for the bear but I managed to catch him in time. The man came up and, in very broken English, said the bear would not hurt the dog. I explained that my fears were not for the dog but for the bear, an under-sized, emaciated beast, and strongly muzzled.’ McCormick took this quote from F H Groome’s Gypsy Folk Tales. The photograph was taken by A McNeur.