I read your blog on a song called The Gyspsy Rover (July 00). These things never seem to go away. In answer to your concern about "everything being hunky-dory when the father finds out the Gypsy is rich", I think you misinterpreted the song. The Gypsy Rover is not rich in terms of money or lands. By "lord of these lands all over", it means that he is free to wander all through the open country at will. He has no title to these lands, he just uses them for his own pleasure. Wanderlust. It is a common desire to think of the poor wanderer as "owning" the lands about him. And as far as "was he a real Gypsy"? Maybe, but maybe not. All people who went a'wandering were said to be gypsies. Gypsy was more likely a lifestyle than a race. Real gypsies were found more in the Balkans than in Ireland or Britain though stories about them travelled far in song and poetry.