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| Maharaja Sir Vijaysinhji of Rajpipla leading his horse Windsor Lad after winning the Epsom Derby 1934 |
I wrote in my book ‘A Maharaja’s Turf’ about
an uncanny forecast made by Gipsy Lee 66 years earlier:
“Way back in 1868, a young lady by the name
of Mrs. Boswell, popularly known as Gipsy Lee, made a forecast that no horse
with a ‘W’ in its name would win the Derby until a year after her death. The
story goes that a peer, as he walking past Gipsy Lee just as the Derby of 1868
was about to start, asked her to predict which horse would win. She was wearing
a blue dress and replied, “Look at my frock.” The brusque lord told her to
write it down, and she scribbled, “Blew Gown”. As it happened, Blue Gown won
that Derby.
Just as he was passing by again, the
aristocrat threw a sterling at Gipsy Lee and scoffed, “Go learn some spelling.”
Miffed at this condescending behaviour, the furious soothsayer shot back, “You
will not live to see another Derby and no horse with a ‘W’ in its name will win
the Derby till the year after I die.”
Gipsy Lee lived to a ripe old age and
during her lifetime no horse with a ‘W’ in its name was able to wrest the
Derby, even though Orwell and William IV were heavily fancied. She died in
1933.
This is no apocryphal tale, for 1934 being
the year after her death and Windsor Lad being one of the fancied horses,
though not the favourite, there was incredible excitement all around. Everyone
from the racegoers to the mammoth media contingent was abuzz with the prophesy
of Gipsy Lee. Would her prediction come true, was the question? And so it came
to pass that Windsor Lad did indeed triumph. The non-believers were nonplussed,
the believers were jubilant.
Whether this was a quirk of fate, or
whether Gipsy Lee was actually psychic, it is hard to say. The fact is that her
prophesy did come true.”
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Who exactly was Gipsy Lee? The website romanygenes.com/
states: “Rainie (Urania) Boswell, nee Lee, was the famous 'Gipsy Lee' - often
mistakenly called Gypsy 'Rose' Lee - the fortune-teller whose national fame for
that skill was at its height in the first quarter of the 20th century.
Urania Lee was born in June 1851. Her
father was Abraham Lee (born 28 May 1830), a travelling brazier tinker of
Charlton. Her mother was Mary Smith (alias Sarah 'Pol' Lee) of Devil's Dyke.
Urania and her husband Levi, sometimes
referred to as the 'King of the Gypsies',
settled in Farnborough, Kent. In the early
years in North Kent, Levi owned several donkeys which he used to hire out for
rides. The 1891 Census records him with such an occupation:
Caravan & Tent Crofton Road Orpington
Kent
Levi Boswell, head, 47 years, lets out donkeys
and ponies for hire, born Wanstead, Essex
Rainie Boswell, wife, 44 years, born - not
known
Georgina Boswell, daughter, 14 years, born
Kensal New Town, Middlesex
Nora Boswell, daughter, 12 years, born Dulwich
Levi Boswell, son, 9 years, born Chislehurst
Indeed for over 70 years Levi's family had
a stand for donkeys on Blackheath, just opposite the main gates of Greenwich
Park. Every morning the donkeys were driven there, and in the evening back to
wherever they were staying - in later years in Farnborough, Kent. Charles
Dickens lived in North Kent, and in his 'Sketches by Boz' wrote of such a donkey
ride by two Victorian misses. Levi Boswell was known at every horse fair and
fete in the county (and others) and was reputed to be without equal as a horse
dealer.
Urania Lee Boswell or Gipsy Lee had a
nationwide reputation as a palmist and fortune teller. Among her patrons were
people from all classes of society, from the poorest to the greatest in the
land. Lords and dukes were not ashamed to listen to her advice, and throughout
the district she was a familiar figure … She owned property in many places, and
spent six months of the year at Ramsgate, where she had a home, Margate, and
other resorts. The other six months were spent as a rule in her cottage at
Willow Walk, Farnborough.
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| Gipsy Lee, Mrs. Urania Lee Boswell |
Like all her family, Mrs. Boswell was an expert horsewoman, and she used to drive and break horses for her husband. She met with many accidents from time to time, and some 40 years ago when the wheel of a trap in which she was driving broke she fell and was dragged for a long distance by the runaway horse. Seven years later when driving a mule she was again thrown, and her face was badly cut, but she walked nearly half a mile to Farnborough hospital, bleeding profusely. Scarcely had she recovered from this accident when a branch of a tree under which she was sheltering fell on her.
The website romanygenes.com goes on to say:
“A nephew of theirs, Len Dighton, was interviewed for an article, which
appeared in the Orpington local press on 2nd September 1976. An extract states:
"Levi Boswell owned acres of land at
Tugmutton Common, Farnborough, and his 300 thoroughbred horses ranged over what
is now Farnborough Hospital. Lords and ladies from all over the world used to
visit his stables, stocked from the best horses from Ireland and Wales. After
buying their horses they would visit Gipsy Rose Lee who would tell the ladies
what sort of man they would marry and the men what horse was going to win the
Derby.
"Rose Lee and Levi did not really get
on that well - she lived in a bungalow and he lived in a thatched cottage just
down the road," Len recalled. "But they were both the best in their
field - if Rose Lee told your fortune you knew that was how it was going to be. She
always wanted to tell mine but I was too scared of what she might see and
always refused."
At the age of 12, Len witnessed an event
which has stayed in his memory ever since - the death of his uncle, the 'King
of the Gipsies'. In 1924, at the age of 77, the old man died - and all the
gypsies in Britain went into mourning. The splendid black funeral carriage
pulled by a team of six black horses, drove from Locks Bottom to St Giles the
Abbot Church at Farnborough, followed by hundreds of gypsies and members of the
gentry. Len said, "He was a hard man, but respected by everyone and his
funeral was a sight I shall never forget.
I remember walking back to his cottage and
seeing rows of his horses, with their heads bowed, facing towards his cottage,
as if they knew."
The Times of 8th May 1924 wrote:
"The death has occurred at
Farnborough, Kent, of Levi Boswell, the head of the Boswell tribe of Romanies,
who have relatives in all parts of the world. His widow, Urania Boswell, known
as the Gypsy Queen, is a descendent of the original Gypsy Lee. For 300 years
the two great Romany tribes, the Boswells and Lees, have intermarried. Levi
Boswell was formerly a widely known horse dealer, but for some years he had
been living in retirement in a Farnborough cottage. The funeral at Farnborough
this afternoon will be attended by Gypsies from all over the country."
The funeral was also reported in The
District Times, on 9 May 1924:
"The passing of a Gipsy king - Death
of Levi Boswell - Yesterday's funeral pageant
The passing of a great Gypsy King, Levi
Boswell (whose spouse is allied to the famous Lee family, and is popularly
known as 'the Gypsy Queen') occurred on Thursday of last week, at the age of 77
years. The great Boswell was known to every horse fair and fete in the country.
As a horse dealer he was without an equal, and his aid was sought by many in
search of a horse if not a kingdom - and they could always rely upon Boswell
for a square deal. Then, what of his herds of donkeys - and such donkeys they
were. Levi Boswell had acquired the property which he occupied at Willow Walk,
Tugmutton Green, Farnborough, and here the family (and donkeys) thrived. Now,
alas, there is a widowed Gypsy Queen, and all that remained of the famous
Boswell was committed to mother earth at Farnborough churchyard yesterday
(Thursday) afternoon. There was an attendance of nearly a thousand people, many
of whom came from various parts of the country, and there was a large
percentage of the Gypsy tribe amongst them…"
In early April 1933, Urania Boswell had a
fall just outside her door, and when a milkman arrived to deliver there he
found her lying unconscious. He roused the family, and she was got into bed,
and she never got up again. For the last fortnight of her life her brother (Job
‘Joby’ Lee) was with her, and during the last few days he sat by her side night
and day, never sleeping and hardly moving away to change his clothes.
She died on 24 April 1933 aged 82 years at
7 Willow Walk, Farnborough. On the death certificate she was the "widow of
Levi Boswell, horse dealer". A full report appeared in The Kentish Times,
on 28 April 1933:
"…..It was a queen, lying in state,
for Mrs. Urania Boswell, widow of the late Mr. Levi Boswell, had been, since
her husband's death, the accepted leader of the great clan of Lees and
Boswells, almost the last great families of the Romany tribe.
The funeral takes place at Farnborough
Churchyard this afternoon (Friday) and all this week members of the family and
friends have been hastening from all parts of the country to be present. It is
not every day that a queen dies, and Gypsy Lee will be given a royal
funeral."
The traditional cortege with black horses
and outriders, and the following of hundreds of her husband’s 'subjects' will
be repeated today (Friday) at Mrs. Boswell's funeral. She leaves three sons,
Herbert, Kenza, and Levi Boswell, and a daughter, who are also well known.
Now let her brother Job Lee tell his story
of how she foretold her own passing. "On the morning before she
died," he said, "a rain thrush came and sat on the tree behind the
house. She said to me 'My time is getting near now. It is the first time that
thrush has been here for three years. My time is getting near and we shall have
rain now for a couple of days.' Then her death bird came over at night time. It
is a bird we never see, and we don't know what it is. But it has a sweet noise.
It sang 'sweet, sweet' and it came over three times that night. 'Now it is
over' she said, 'tomorrow morning about six or seven o'clock I shall say adieu
to you all.' The next morning about a quarter or half past seven, a minute
before she died she said, 'Good bye to you all. I have finished,' and she died.
She never lost her faculties from the time of her illness till her death, nor
did she lose her courage, although she knew she was dying. There must be something
stoical about the make-up of this family, for her brother told our
representative that his sister had 'dated him' and he would die 'three years
next March'. 'She told me so, and so it will be,' he said, 'and you will
remember then what I told you.' And there was not a tremor in his voice, no
more emotion than when he told us of his own life, of his triumphs in the
boxing ring when he travelled the country with a boxing booth and 'beat all the
champions at 9st 6lbs' or of his circus experiences, his falls and broken
bones, or of the time when he was injured by a roundabout and lay with broken
bones underneath it for an hour.”
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Those are stories about Urania Lee Boswell,
or Gipsy Lee. As she had foretold a horse with a ‘W’ in its name - Windsor Lad -
won The Derby in 1934, the year after she died. Windsor Lad, owned by my
grandfather Maharaja Sir Vijaysinhji of Rajpipla, beat the hitherto undefeated favourite
Colombo who was considered almost a certainty to win the blue riband that year.
Even so, Epsom was agog with Gipsy Lee’s prediction before the race, especially
as Windsor Lad was one of the fancied horses. Windsor Lad won, making Maharaja
Sir Vijaysinhji of Rajpipla the only Indian owner ever to win The Derby before
a multitude that was estimated to be somewhere between a quarter and a half
million, and the entire British royal family led by King George V and Queen
Mary. Certainly, Epsom Derby 1934 is one of the most fascinating sagas in the
history of racing.
(Author
Indra Vikram Singh - grandson of Maharaja Vijaysinhji of Rajpipla - can be
contacted on email teddy.rajpipla@gmail.com and singh_iv@hotmail.com. His other
blog is singhiv.wordpress.com).
A Maharaja’s Turf
Published by Sporting Links
ISBN 978-81-901668-3-6
Distributed in India by:
Variety Book Depot,
AVG Bhawan, M-3, Middle Circle,
Connaught Circus,
New Delhi - 110 001. Tel. +91 11
23417175, 23412567.
