ABSTRACT
The early modern English royal authorities showed little sympathy for those unwilling to earn a traditional and sedentary living. The Crown put a lot of emphasis on rounding up vagrants, especially during times of political upheaval. Given the continual proclamations, it is amazing that we do not have more reports of bands of gypsies being incarcerated during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Either Egyptians were not as prevalent as rumoured, or the local authorities did not pursue their capture as rigorously as instructed. Paul Slack asserts that less than 10 per cent of apprehended wanderers were whipped.1
