SC - My birthday present

[snowfire at mail.snet.net]

- -Poster: Jean Holtom <snowfire at mail.snet.net>

>>And we also had a "peg man" who whittled "dolly pegs" (clothes pins).
>> Usually "peg men (or women) were tinkers.

>An interesting usage there...in the British Isles, tinkers are what most
>of the world calls gypsys, and it seems to be a mostly pejorative term,
>as far as I can tell. Whether or not it refers to the actual profession
>of a tinker (or whether these tinkers are actually tinkers by
>profession) is another question.  

>A tinker, of course, is someone who comes to your door to see if you
>have any pots that need mending, and is, in theory, a perfectly
>honorable profession.
 
Actually, the tinkers who sold pegs might have been either tinker or gypsy.  I think you're 
right in that their being labelled as tinkers was because of a general "muddiness" people 
seemed to have about the difference between the two groups of people.  I don't think it was 
meant to imply that they were tinker by trade though, they were just called "tinkers" because 
they were of the gypsy/tinker ilke.  And yes it was used as a pejorative term by some people.  
 
Elysant
P.S. Some of my ancestors were Tinkers. 
No I don't sell pegs. 
============================================================================

To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".

============================================================================