This book throws fresh light on the experiences of Gypsies in Surrey and South London at the dawn of the modern era. It uses a wide range of records to paint a detailed picture of people who left few written records themselves. It shows how external forces including enclosure, urban expansion, changing economic circumstances and ever-intrusive legislation, increasingly challenged their way of life. The parallel struggles of local communities and institutions to respond effectively and the development of perceptions and prejudices have a contemporary resonance that should interest the general reader as well as academics and local and family historians.