Suibhne Astray -- I've got the paperback version of John Sampson's Gypsy Folk Tales in front of me right now, and I'm in the process of transcribing "The Squirrel and the Fox."

AIUI, since Sampson died in 1931, the stories are just recently in the Public Domain (Life of the author, plus 70 years).

But the blurb on the back only says:

"To collect these stories, Sampson lived at the end of the last century with Romany fiddlers, harpers, fishermen, and basket-makers in the Welsh mountains where the gypsies spoke one of the purest and richest Romany dialects of Europe."

And the foreword, dated May 1, 1933, is ascribed only to a D.E.Y., with no full name given. And neither does this piece give any specific information on when Sampson collected these stories (though it goes to great lengths to describe and romanticize the authentic gypsy tellers from which he heard the tales).

I was wondering if you or anyone else, had any more specific information.