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grammar is perfectly English, which makes it pretty easy to follow, even though<br />
some Romany words are slotted in. A young man is trying to persuade a girl to run<br />
away with him. All you need to know is that gry-choring is ‘horse-stealing’:<br />
Av, my little Rumni chel,<br />
Av away with mansar;<br />
We will jal a gry-choring<br />
Pawdle across the chumba.<br />
The girl reasonably points out that horse-stealing is a risky business and usually<br />
ends in hanging; they would do better to stick to fortune-telling and tinkering. The<br />
young man agrees:<br />
Kusko my little Rumni chel,<br />
Your rokrapen is kusko;<br />
We’ll dukker and we’ll petuls ker<br />
Pawdle across the chumba.<br />
I am very fond of the phrase ‘pawdle across the chumba’. Borrow glosses it as ‘o’er<br />
the hills so far away’, which is rather wistful and dreamy: whereas ‘pawdle across<br />
the chumba’ seems to me far more punchily romantic, more mystery-filled, more<br />
redolent of exotic lands, but at the same time with its macaronic mix of English and<br />
Romany, utterly absurd. When I finally get round to writing my travel memoirs,<br />
I have the title now ready to hand, so watch out for the book in Blackwell’s in due<br />
course and be sure to give it to all your aunts and cousins for Christmas – Pawdle<br />
across the Chumba.<br />
But enough of these maunderings. This is a wonderful <strong>College</strong> to belong to, so let<br />
us all make the most of it, and tonight let us remember what we owe to the Iffley<br />
Fellows who brought it into being.<br />
The experimental furniture denounced by Dr Penney has since been removed.<br />
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