Fortune Telling on Gypsy Hill
Gypsy Hill got its name because gypsies, who were not allowed to camp in London, had to put up their tents and their wagons in the woodlands and on the open land outside the city. Well, London has grown so much that Gypsy Hill is no longer outside London, but is now a part of it.
One famous gypsy who used to camp here was an old lady called Margaret Finch. She made a living by telling fortunes which in the Romany, or Gypsy language, is known as ‘dukkering’. She would look at people’s hands, and from the lines on their palms, she would tell them what was happening in their life, and what would happen in the future. She was so famous in her day, that even Samuel Pepys’ wrote about her in his famous diary, because his own wife came to Gypsy Hill have her fortune told.
Well, Margaret used to sit crouched down with her knees to her chest,
smoking her pipe, with her dog at her side, and she’d tell
people’s fortunes . She died at the age of 109, and,
because she spent all her time crouching down, she had to be buried in a
square coffin as they couldn’t straighten her legs to put
her in a normal coffin. 
Now Margaret, like all gypsy folk, told stories, sitting around the campfire, especially in winter when the darkness comes early. This little story, would probably have been one she might have told. It tells us just how important observation is in fortune-telling or ‘dukkerring'
. . .
You call us gypsies but we call ourselves Rom or Romany, and we’ve been travelling the world for hundreds of years. We started out in India and we've travelled through the Middle East, through Turkey, through France and Spain. Well, those of us who ended up here in England survive by making baskets, wooden spoons and clothes pegs, we mend pots and pans and sometimes we tell fortunes because the Gorgios, (the non-gypsies), love to know what life will bring them.
Now we know that some people don't like us. But we think it’s always better to be nice to people. We call them nice names like my darling and my dear and, even if they say horrible things, we try to be polite and cheerful, and we try to see the good in everything. Well, one time there was a woman who didn't like her neighbour and would always be quarrelling with her. She was always very rude to her and called her nasty names. So this poor lady called over a gypsy woman who she saw passing on the road. "Oh please come here and I'll give you whatever I can, if you'll just tell my fortune!” - “Well of course my dear.” she answered.
Just as the gypsy woman was coming over she saw the neighbour make a really rude gesture to the woman and stuck her tongue out to her. The gypsy noticed this and said: "I see that this is a bad place for you to live. You are unhappy here because your neighbours are jealous of you. That is because you are a good woman and they don’t like that.”
“That's amazing! You seem to know what's in my mind. What can I give you? I'll give you whatever I can.” And so she gave her bread, and cheese, and fruit from the garden." And then she said, you're so clever to know all that, please come back tomorrow when I shall have some money to give you.” So the gypsy woman, who now had a long walk home to her camp outside the city, said she would come back next day and she happily walked home, thinking of these good things she would share with her children.
Next day, as she was walking back into London, it started to rain very heavily, but she saw a cave and thought: "I'll go in there and get dry." As she entered the cave she saw that there was a lovely fire burning, and said to herself, “Oh goodie! I can dry myself in the warmth of that fire.” As she got closer she noticed there was a group of young men sitting around the fire. There were 12 of them in all, and they all said together, “Welcome grandmother, where are you going?”
“Well I was on my way back to the city but then it started to rain. So I came in here found you my dear children.”
“And why is it raining so hard? - It’s because it's March . . . that awful month. Horrible rain and snow, miserable!”
“Oh, don’t say that, my dears. March is the best month!”
“Why is that?”
“Because March brings April . . . and April brings the
springtime, you see. So, without March there would be no spring. And if
there were no February there’d be no March. So you see each
month brings something good.’
By now it seemed that the rain had stopped, and the gypsy woman said that she should go back to the camp to feed her hungry children. But before she left the young men gave her sack, and told her to wait until she got home before she opened it. So the old gypsy woman returned to her children and said, "I didn't do any fortune-telling today, but I found 12 lovely young men - 12 little angels - and they gave me this.
“What's inside?” And so, altogether they opened it, and what did they find? Golden coins! You see, the twelve young men were really the Twelve Months, and because the gypsy woman had something good to say about each month of the year, she was rewarded with gold. Next day the weather was fine and the gypsy woman set out, as she’d promised, to the lady who had given her the bread and the cheese and the fruit from her garden. On the way there she saw the rude neighbour. The woman was jealous and said: “What ever she gave you I'll give you more. Just tell me what you want.”
“I don’t want anything from you, as God has given me what I need.”
“And what did God give you?”
And so the gypsy woman told her everything about the cave, and going in to get dry and keep warm, and the young men, and everything. So the woman rushed to the cave of the Twelve Months and went in pretending to be cold. The young men asked her what month it was, as she seemed so cold. “It’s March, of course. Everybody knows that! And it’s the worst month of the lot. It’s horrible and cold and miserable and wet!”
“So what do you think of February?”
“Oh, that’s even worse. It’s terrible! Too much snow. Eughh!”
“Well, here take this sack. But don’t open it till you get home.”
The rude neighbour was delighted. She thought she had got a sack of
gold too, like the gypsy woman had got. It certainly was heavy! So when
she got home, she said: "Now let’s see all those lovely
golden coins. I’m so excited!” She opened the sack and out
of it came a whole lot of snakes who ate everything in her house,
including her.
Her neighbour now had no one calling her names, and no one being nasty to her all day, and she said: “That gypsy knew everything. She knew my neighbour was bad. And so she did her magic on her.” And that is why, ever since then, hundreds of years later, the people still say that the gypsies know everything! They’ll certainly tell your fortune if you ask them - And you might be surprised at how much they seem to know about you!
The Gypsy woman in this story is part of a people who have been travelling for hundreds of years. They are known by many names, but in England they call themselves Gypsy, Romany or Travellers. Each group has it’s own way of calling itself.
London Folk Tales for Children
https://thehistorypress.co.uk/publication/london-folk-tales-for-children
London’s River Takes for Children
https://thehistorypress.co.uk/publication/londons-river-tales-for-children/
© 2025 Sef Townsend