Since the tour in Wales in 1854, from which he returned with the four "Note Books," Borrow had been working steadily at Wild Wales. In 1857 the book had been announced as "ready for the press"; but this was obviously an anticipation. The manuscript was submitted to John Murray early in November 1861. On the 20th of that month he wrote the following letter, addressing it, not to Borrow, but to his wife:-

Dear Mrs Borrow,—The MS. of Wild Wales has occupied my thoughts almost ever since Friday last.

I approached this MS. with some diffidence, recollecting the unsatisfactory results, on the whole, of our last publication—Romany Rye. I have read a large part of this new work with care and attention, and although it is beautifully written and in a style of English undefiled, which few writers can surpass, there is yet a want of stirring incident in it which makes me fearful as to the result of its publication.

In my hands at least I cannot think it would succeed even as well as Romany Rye—and I am fearful of not doing justice to it. I do not like to undertake a work with the chance of reproach that it may have failed through my want of power to promote its circulation, and I do wish, for Borrow's own sake, that in this instance he would try some other publisher and perhaps some other form of publication.

In my hands I am convinced the work will not answer the author's expectations, and I am not prepared to take on me this amount of responsibility.

I will give the best advice I can if called upon, and shall be only too glad if I can be useful to Mr Borrow. I regret to have to write in this sense, but believe me always, Dear Mrs Borrow,

Your faithful friend, JOHN MURRAY.

The reply to this letter has not been preserved. It would appear that some "stirring incidents" were added, among others most probably the account of Borrow blessing the Irish reapers, who mistook him for Father Toban. This anecdote was one of John Murray's favourite passages. It is evident that some concession was made to induce Murray to change his mind. In any case Wild Wales appeared towards the close of 1862 in an edition of 1000 copies. The publisher's misgivings were not justified, as the first edition produced a profit, up to 30th June 1863, of 531 pounds, 14s., which was equally divided between author and publisher. The second, and cheap, edition of 3000 copies lasted for thirteen years, and the deficiency on this absorbed the greater part of the publisher's profit.

In a way it is the most remarkable of Borrow's books; for it shows that he was making a serious effort to regain his public. It is an older, wiser and chastened Borrow that appears in its pages, striding through the land of the bards at six miles an hour, his satchel slung over his shoulder, his green umbrella grasped in his right hand, shouting the songs of Wales, about which he knew more than any man he met. There are no gypsies (except towards the end of the book a reference to his meeting with Captain Bosvile), no bruisers, the pope is scarcely mentioned, and "gentility-nonsense" is veiled almost to the point of elimination. It seems scarcely conceivable that the hand that had written the appendix to The Romany Rye could have so restrained itself as to write Wild Wales. Borrow had evidently read and carefully digested Whitwell Elwin's friendly strictures upon The Romany Rye. Instead of the pope, the gypsies and the bruisers of England, there were the vicarage cat, the bards and the thousand and one trivial incidents of the wayside. There were occasional gleams of the old fighting spirit, notably when he characterises sherry, {453a} as "a silly, sickly compound, the use of which will transform a nation, however bold and warlike by nature, into a race of sketchers, scribblers, and punsters,—in fact, into what Englishmen are at the present day." He has created the atmosphere of Wales as he did that of the gypsy encampment. He shows the jealous way in which the Welsh cling to their language, and their suspicion of the Saesneg, or Saxon. Above all, he shows how national are the Welsh poets, belonging not to the cultured few; but to the labouring man as much as to the landed proprietor. Borrow earned the respect of the people, not only because he knew their language; but on account of his profound knowledge of their literature, their history, and their traditions. No one could escape him, he accosted every soul he met, and evinced a desire for information as to place-names that instantly arrested their attention.

The most curious thing about Wild Wales is the omission of all mention of the Welsh Gypsies, who, with those of Hungary, share the distinction of being the aristocrats of their race. Several explanations have been suggested to account for the curious circumstance. Had Borrow's knowledge of Welsh Romany been scanty, he could very soon have improved it. The presence of his wife and stepdaughter was no hindrance; for, as a matter of fact, they were very little with him, even when they and Borrow were staying at Llangollen; but during the long tours they were many miles away. In all probability the Welsh Gypsies were sacrificed to British prejudice, much as were pugilism and the baiting of the pope.

In spite of its simple charm and convincing atmosphere, Wild Wales did not please the critics. Those who noticed it (and there were many who did not) either questioned its genuineness, or found it crowded with triviality and self-glorification. It was full of the superfluous, the superfluous repeated, and above all it was too long (some 250,000 words). The Spectator notice was an exception; it did credit to the critical faculty of the man who wrote it. He declined "to boggle and wrangle over minor defects in what is intrinsically good," and praised Wild Wales as "the first really clever book . . . in which an honest attempt is made to do justice to Welsh literature."

Borrow had much time upon his hands in London, which he occupied largely in walking. He visited the Metropolitan Gypsyries at Wandsworth, "the Potteries," and "the Mounts," as described in Romano Lavo-Lil. Sometimes he would be present at some sporting event, such as the race between the Indian Deerfoot and Jackson, styled the American Deer—tame sport in comparison with the "mills" of his boyhood. He did very little writing, and from 1862, when Wild Wales appeared, until he published The Romano Lavo-Lil in 1874, his literary output consisted of only some translations contributed to Once a Week (January 1862 to December 1863).

In 1865 he was to lose his stepdaughter, who married a William MacOubrey, M.D., described in the marriage register as a physician of Sloane Street, London, and subsequently upon his tombstone as a barrister. In the July of 1866 Borrow and his wife went to Belfast on a visit to the newly married pair. From Belfast Borrow took another trip into Scotland, crossing over to Stranraer. From there he proceeded to Glen Luce and subsequently to Newton Stewart, Castle Douglas, Dumfries, Ecclefechan, Gretna Green, Carlisle, Langholm, Hawick, Jedburgh, Yetholm (where he saw Esther Blyth of Kirk Yetholm), Kelso, Abbotsford, Melrose, Berwick, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and so back to Belfast, having been absent for nearly four weeks.

Mrs Borrow's health had been the cause of the family leaving Oulton for Great Yarmouth, and about the time of the Irish visit it seems to have become worse. When Borrow was away upon his excursion he received a letter at Carlisle in which his wife informed him that she was not so well; but urging him not to return if he were enjoying his trip and it were benefiting his health.

In the autumn of the following year (1867) they were at Bognor, Mrs Borrow taking the sea air, her husband tramping about the country and penetrating into the New Forest. On their return to town Mrs Borrow appears to have become worse. There was much correspondence to be attended to with regard to the Oulton Estate, and she had to go down to Suffolk to give her personal attention to certain important details. Miss Cobbe throws a little light on the period in a letter to a friend, in which she says:

"Mr Borrow says his wife is very ill and anxious to keep the peace with C. (a litigious neighbour). Poor old B. was very sad at first, but I cheered him up and sent him off quite brisk last night. He talked all about the Fathers again, arguing that their quotations went to prove that it was NOT our gospels they had in their hands. I knew most of it before, but it was admirably done. I talked a little theology to him in a serious way (finding him talk of his 'horrors') and he abounded in my sense of the non-existence of Hell, and of the presence and action on the soul of A Spirit, rewarding and punishing. He would not say 'God'; but repeated over and over again that he spoke not from books but from his own personal experience." {456a}

On 24th January (1869) Mrs Borrow was taken suddenly ill and the family doctor being out of town, Borrow sent for Dr W. S. Playfair of 5 Curzon Street. A letter from Dr Playfair, 25th January, to the family doctor is the only coherent testimony in existence as to what was actually the matter with Mrs Borrow. It runs:-

"I found great difficulty in making out the case exactly," he writes, "since Mr Borrow himself was so agitated that I could get no very clear account of it. I could detect no marked organic affection about the heart or lungs, of which she chiefly complained. It seemed to me to be either a very aggravated form of hysteria, or, what appears more likely, some more serious mental affection. In any case, the chief requisite seemed very careful and intelligent nursing or management, and I doubt very much, from what I saw, whether she gets that with her present surroundings. If it is really the more serious mental affection, I should fancy that the sooner means are taken to have her properly taken care of, the better."

Dr Playfair saw in Borrow's highly nervous excitable nature, if not the cause of his wife's breakdown, at least an obstacle to her recovery, and was of opinion that Mrs Borrow's disorder had been greatly aggravated by her husband's presence.

Mrs Borrow never rallied from the attack, and on the 30th she died of "valvular disease of the heart and dropsy," being then in her seventy-seventh year. On 4th February she was buried in Brompton Cemetery, and the lonely man, her husband, returned to Hereford Square. The grave bears the inscription, "To the Beloved Memory of My Mother, Mary Borrow, who fell asleep in Jesus, 30th January 1869." It is strange that this should be in Henrietta's and not Borrow's name.

Mrs Borrow evidently made over her property to her husband during her lifetime, as there is no will in existence, and no application appears to have been made either by Borrow or anyone else for letters of administration.



CHAPTER XXIX: JANUARY 1869-1881



The death of his wife was a last blow to Borrow, and he soon retired from the world. At first he appears to have sought consolation in books, to judge from the number of purchases he made about this time; but it was, apparently, with pitiably unsuccessful results. In a letter to a friend Miss Cobbe gives a picture in his lonliness:

"Poor old Borrow is in a sad state," she wrote. "I hope he is starting in a day or two for Scotland. I sent C. with a note begging him to come and eat the Welsh mutton you sent me to-day, and he sent back word, 'Yes.' Then, an hour afterwards, he arrived, and in a most agitated manner said he had come to say 'he would rather not. He would not trouble anyone with his sorrows.' I made him sit down, and talked as gently to him as possible, saying: 'It won't be a trouble Mr. Borrow, it will be a pleasure to me.' But it was all of no use. He was so cross, so RUDE, I had the greatest difficulty in talking to him. I asked about his servant, and he said I could not help him. I asked him about Bowring, and he said: 'Don't speak of it.' (It was some dispute with Sir John Bowring, who was an acquaintance of mine, and with whom I offered to mediate.) 'I asked him would he look at the photos of the Siamese,' and he said: 'Don't show them to me!' So, in despair, as he sat silent, I told him I had been at a pleasant dinner-party the night before, and had met Mr L— , who told me of certain curious books of mediaeval history. 'Did he know them?' 'No, and he DARE SAID Mr L— did not, either! Who was Mr L—?' I described that OBSCURE individual, (one of the foremost writers of the day), and added that he was immensely liked by everybody. Whereupon Borrow repeated at least twelve times, 'Immensely liked! As if a man could be immensely liked!' quite insultingly. To make a diversion (I was very patient with him as he was in trouble), 'I said I had just come home from the Lyell's and had heard—' . . . But there was no time to say what I had heard! Mr Borrow asked: 'Is that old Lyle I met here once, the man who stands at the door (of some den or other) and BETS?' I explained who Sir Charles was, {459a} (of course he knew very well), but he went on and on, till I said gravely: 'I don't think you will meet those sort of people here, Mr Borrow. We don't associate with blacklegs, exactly.'" {459b}

In the Autumn of 1870 Borrow became acquainted with Charles G. Leland ("Hans Breitmann") as the result of receiving from him the following letter:-

BRIGHTON, 24th October 1870.

Dear Sir,—During the eighteen months that I have been in England, my efforts to find some mutual friend who would introduce me to you have been quite in vain. As the author of two or three works which have been kindly received in England, I have made the acquaintance of many literary men and enjoyed much hospitality; but I assure you very sincerely that my inability to find you out or get at you has been a source of great annoyance to me. As you never published a book which I have not read through five times—excepting The Bible in Spain and Wild Wales, which I have only read once—you will perfectly understand why I should be so desirous of meeting you.

As you have very possibly never heard of me before, I would state that I wrote a collection of Ballads satirising Germany and the Germans under the title of Hans Breitmann.

I never before in my life solicited the favour of any man's acquaintance, except through the regular medium of an introduction. If my request to be allowed the favour of meeting and seeing you does not seem too outre, I would be to glad to go to London, or wherever you may be, if it can be done without causing you any inconvenience, and if I should not be regarded as an intruder. I am an American, and among us such requests are parfaitment (sic) en regle.

I am, . . .

CHARLES G. LELAND.

Borrow replied on 2nd Nov.:

Sir,

I have received your letter and am gratified by the desire you express to make my acquaintance.

Whenever you please to come I shall be happy to see you.

Truly yours, GEORGE BORROW. {460a}

The meeting unquestionably took place at Hereford Square, and Leland found Borrow "a tall, large, fine-looking man who must have been handsome in his youth." {460b} The result of the interview was that Leland sent to Borrow a copy of his Ballads and also The Music Lesson of Confucius, then about to appear. At the same time he wrote to Borrow drawing his attention to one of the ballads written in German Romany jib, and enquiring if it were worth anything. Whilst deprecating his "impudence" in writing a Romany gili and telling, as a pupil might a master, of his interest in and his association with the gypsies, he continues: "My dear Mr Borrow, for all this you are entirely responsible. More than twenty years ago your books had an incredible influence on me, and now you see the results." After telling him that he can NEVER thank him sufficiently for the instructions he has given in The Romany Rye as to how to take care of a horse on a thirty mile ride, he concludes—"With apologies for the careless tone of this letter, and with sincere thanks for your kindness in permitting me to call on you and for your courteous note,—I am your sincere admirer."

The account that Leland gives of this episode in his Memoirs is puzzling and contradictory in the light of his first letter. He writes:

"There was another hard old character with whom I became acquainted in those days, and one who, though not a Carlyle, still, like him, exercised in a peculiar way a great influence on English literature. This was George Borrow. I was in the habit of reading a great deal in the British Museum, where he also came, and there I was introduced to him. {461a} [Leland seems to be in error here; see ante, page 460.] He was busy with a venerable-looking volume in old Irish, and made the remark to me that he did not believe there was a man living who could read old Irish with ease (which I now observe to myself was 'fished' out of Sir W. Betham). We discussed several Gypsy words and phrases. I met him in the same place several times." {461b}

Leland states that he sent a note to Borrow, care of John Murray, asking permission to dedicate to him his forthcoming book, The English Gypsies and Their Language; but received no reply, although Murray assured him that the letter had been received by Borrow. "He received my note on the Saturday," Leland writes—"never answered it- -and on Monday morning advertised in all the journals his own forthcoming work on the same subject." {461c} Had Borrow asked him to delay publishing his own book, Leland says he would have done so, "for I had so great a respect for the Nestor of Gypsyism, that I would have been very glad to have gratified him with such a small sacrifice." {462a}

However Borrow may have heard that Leland had in preparation a book on the English Gypsies, he seemed to feel that it was a trespass upon ground that was peculiarly his own. Having revised and prepared for the press the new edition of the Gypsy St Luke for the Bible Society (published December 1872), and the one-volume editions of Lavengro and The Romany Rye, he set to work to forestall Leland with his own Romano Lavo-Lil.

In spite of his haste, however, Borrow was beaten in the race, and Leland got his volume out first. When the Romano Lavo-Lil {462b} appeared in March 1874, Borrow found what, in all probability he had not dreamed of, that the thirty-three years intervening between its publication and that of The Zincali, had changed the whole literary world as regards "things of Egypt." In 1841 Borrow had produced a unique book, such as only one man in England could have written, and that man himself {462c}; but in 1874 he found himself not only out of date, but out-classed.

The title very thoroughly explains the scope of the work. The Vocabulary had existed in manuscript for many years. For some reason, difficult to explain, Borrow had omitted from this Vocabulary a number of the gypsy words that appeared in Lavengro and The Romany Rye. In spite of this "Mr Borrow's present vocabulary makes a goodly show," wrote F. H. Groome, ". . . containing no fewer than fourteen hundred words, of which about fifty will be entirely new to those who only know Romany in books." {463a}

After praising the Gypsy songs as the best portion of the book, Groome proceeds:

"Of his prose I cannot say so much. It is the Romany of the study rather than of the tents [!] Mr Borrow has attempted to rehabilitate English Romany by enduing it with forms and inflections, of which some are still rarely to be heard, some extinct, and others absolutely incorrect; while Mr Leland has been content to give it as it really is. Of the two methods I cannot doubt that most readers will agree with me in thinking that Mr Leland's is the more satisfactory." {463b}

The Athenaeum sternly rebuked Borrow for seeming "to make the mistake of confounding the amount of Rommanis which he has collected in this book with the actual extent of the language itself." The reviewer pays a somewhat grudging tribute to other portions of the book, the accounts of the Gypsyries and the biographical particulars of the Romany worthies, but the work suffers by comparison with those of Paspati and Leland. He acknowledges that Borrow was one of the pioneers of those who gave accounts of the Gypsies in English, who gave to many their present taste for Gypsy matters,

"but," he proceeds, "we cannot allow merely sentimental considerations to prevent us from telling the honest truth. The fact is that the Romano Lavo-Lil is nothing more than a rechauffe of the materials collected by Mr Borrow at an early stage of his investigations, and nearly every word and every phrase may be found in one form or another in his earlier works. Whether or not Mr Borrow HAS in the course of his long experience become the DEEP Gypsy which he has always been supposed to be, we cannot say; but it is certain that his present book contains little more than he gave to the public forty years ago, and does not by any means represent the present state of knowledge on the subject. But at the present day, when comparative philology has made such strides, and when want of accurate scholarship is as little tolerated in strange and remote languages as in classical literature, the Romano Lavo-Lil is, to speak mildly, an anachronism."

This notice, if Borrow read it, must have been very bitter to him. All the loyalty to, and enthusiasm for, Borrow cannot disguise the fact that his work, as far as the Gypsies were concerned, was finished. He had first explored the path, but others had followed and levelled it into a thoroughfare, and Borrow found his facts and theories obsolete—a humiliating discovery to a man so shy, so proud, and so sensitive.

The Romano Lavo-Lil was Borrow's swan song. He lived for another seven years; but as far as the world was concerned he was dead. In an obituary notice of Robert Latham, Mr Watts-Dunton tells a story that emphasizes how thoroughly his existence had been forgotten. At one of Mrs Procter's "at homes" he was talking of Latham and Borrow, but when he happened to mention that both men were still alive, that is in the early Seventies, and that quite recently he had been in the company of each on separate occasions, he found that he had lost caste in the eyes of his hearers for talking about men as alive "who were well known to have been dead years ago." {464a}

There is an interesting picture of Borrow as he appeared in the Seventies, given by F. H. Groome, who writes:

"The first time I ever saw him was at Ascot, the Wednesday evening of the Cup week in, I think, the year 1872. I was stopping at a wayside inn, half-a-mile on the Windsor road, just opposite which inn there was a great encampment of Gypsies. One of their lads had on the Tuesday affronted a soldier; so two or three hundred redcoats came over from Windsor, intending to wreck the camp. There was a babel of cursing and screaming, much brandishing of belts and tent-rods, when suddenly an arbiter appeared, a white-haired, brown-eyed, calm Colossus, speaking Romany fluently, and drinking deep draughts of ale—in a quarter of an hour Tommy Atkins and Anselo Stanley were sworn friends over a loving-quart. "Mr Burroughs," said one of the Gypsies (it is the name by which Gypsies still speak of him), and I knew that at last I had met him whom of all men I most wished to meet. Matty Cooper, the 'celebrated Windsor Frog' (vide Leland), presented me as 'a young gentleman, Rya, a scholard from Oxford'; and 'H'm,' quoth Colossus, 'a good many fools come from Oxford.' It was a bad beginning, but it ended well, by his asking me to walk with him to the station, and on the way inviting me to call on him in London. I did so, but not until nearly a twelve-month afterwards, when I found him in Hereford Square, and when he set strong ale before me, as again on the occasion of my third and last meeting with him in the tent of our common acquaintance, Shadrach Herne, at the Potteries, Notting Hill. Both these times we had much talk together, but I remember only that it was partly about East Anglia, and more about 'things of Egypt.' Conversations twenty years old are easy to imagine, hard to reproduce . . . Probably Borrow asked me the Romany for 'frying-pan,' and I modestly answered, 'Either maasalli or tasseromengri' (this is password No. 1), and then I may have asked him the Romany for 'brick,' to which he will have answered, that 'there is no such word' (this is No. 2). But one thing I do remember, that he was frank and kindly, interesting and interested; I was only a lad, and he was verging on seventy. I could tell him about a few 'travellers' whom he had not recently seen—Charlie Pinfold, the hoary polygamist, Plato and Mantis Buckland, Cinderella Petulengro, and Old Tom Oliver ('Ha! so he has seen Tom Oliver,' I seem to remember that)." {466a}

There was nothing now to keep Borrow in London. Nobody wanted to read his books, other stars had risen in the East. His publisher had exclaimed with energy, as Borrow himself would relate, "I want to meet with good writers, but there are none to be had: I want a man who can write like Ecclesiastes." There is something tragic in the account that Mr Watts-Dunton gives of his last encounter with Borrow:

"The last time I ever saw him," he writes, "was shortly before he left London to live in the country. It was, I remember well, on Waterloo Bridge, where I had stopped to gaze at a sunset of singular and striking splendour, whose gorgeous clouds and ruddy mists were reeling and boiling over the West-End. Borrow came up and stood leaning over the parapet, entranced by the sight, as well he might be. Like most people born in flat districts, he had a passion for sunsets. Turner could not have painted that one, I think, and certainly my pen could not describe it . . . I never saw such a sunset before or since, not even on Waterloo Bridge; and from its association with 'the last of Borrow,' I shall never forget it." {466b}

In 1874 Borrow withdrew to Oulton, there to end his lonely life, his spirit seeming to enjoy the dreary solitude of the Cottage, with its mournful surroundings. His stepdaughter, the Henrietta of old, remained in London with her husband, and Borrow's loneliness was complete. Sometimes he was to be seen stalking along the highways at a great pace, wearing a broad-brimmed hat and a Spanish cloak, a tragic figure of solitude and despair, speaking to no one, no one daring to speak to him, who locally was considered as "a funny tempered man."

In a fragment of a letter from Edward FitzGerald to W. B. Donne (June 1874), there is an interesting reference to Borrow:-

"Wait!" he writes. "I have one little thing to tell you, which, little as it is, is worth all the rest, if you don't know already.

"Borrow—has got back to his own Oulton Lodge. My Nephew, Edmund Kerrich, now Adjutant to some Volunteer Battalion, wants a house NEAR, not IN, Lowestoft: and got some Agent to apply for Borrow's— who sent word that he is himself there—an old Man—wanting Retirement, etc. This was the account Edmund got.

"I saw in some Athenaeum a somewhat contemptuous notice of G. B.'s 'Rommany Lil' or whatever the name is. I can easily understand that B. should not meddle with SCIENCE of any sort; but some years ago he would not have liked to be told so, however Old Age may have cooled him now." {467a}

Borrow sent a message to FitzGerald through Edmund Kerrich of Geldeston, asking him to visit Oulton Cottage. The reply shows all the sweetness of the writer's nature:-

LITTLE GRANGE, WOODBRIDGE, Jan. 10/75.

Dear Borrow,—My nephew Kerrich told me of a very kind invitation that you sent to me, through him, some while ago. I think the more of it because I imagine, from what I have heard, that you have slunk away from human company as much—as I have! For the last fifteen years I have not visited any one of my very oldest friends, except the daughters of my old [?friend] George Crabbe, and Donne—once only, and for half a day, just to assure myself by—my own eyes how he was after the severe illness he had last year, and which he never will quite recover from, I think; though he looked and moved better than I expected.

Well—to tell you all about WHY I have thus fallen from my company would be a tedious thing, and all about one's self too—whom, Montaigne says, one never talks about without detriment to the person talked about. Suffice to say, 'so it is'; and one's friends, however kind and 'loyal' (as the phrase goes), do manage to exist and enjoy themselves pretty reasonably without one.

So with me. And is it not much the same with you also? Are you not glad now to be mainly alone, and find company a heavier burden than the grasshopper? If one ever had this solitary habit, it is not likely to alter for the better as one grows older—as one grows OLD. I like to think over my old friends. There they are, lingering as ineffaceable portraits—done in the prime of life—in my memory. Perhaps we should not like one another so well after a fifteen-years separation, when all of us change and most of us for the worse. I do not say THAT would be your case; but you must, at any rate, be less inclined to disturb the settled repose into which you, I suppose, have fallen. I remember first seeing you at Oulton, some twenty-five years ago; then at Donne's in London; then at my own happy home in Regent's Park; then ditto at Gorleston—after which, I have seen nobody, except the nephews and nieces left me by my good sister Kerrich.

So shall things rest? I could not go to you, after refusing all this while to go to older—if not better—friends, fellow Collegians, fellow schoolfellows; and yet will you still believe me (as I hope THEY do)

Yours and theirs sincerely, EDWARD FITZGERALD.

Borrow was still a remarkably robust man. Mr Watts-Dunton tells how,

"At seventy years of age, after breakfasting at eight o'clock in Hereford Square, he would walk to Putney, meet one or more of us at Roehampton, roam about Wimbledon and Richmond Park with us, bathe in the Fen Ponds with a north-east wind cutting across the icy water like a razor, run about the grass afterwards like a boy to shake off some of the water-drops, stride about the park for hours, and then, after fasting for twelve hours, eat a dinner at Roehampton that would have done Sir Walter Scott's eyes good to see. Finally, he would walk back to Hereford Square, getting home late at night. And if the physique of the man was bracing, his conversation, unless he happened to be suffering from one of his occasional fits of depression, was still more so. Its freshness, raciness and eccentric whim no pen could describe. There is a kind of humour the delight of which is that while you smile at the pictures it draws, you smile quite as much or more to think that there is a mind so whimsical, crotchetty, and odd as to draw them. This was the humour of Borrow." {469a}

He was seventy years of age when, one March day during a bitterly- cold east wind, he stripped and plunged into one of the Fen Ponds in Richmond Park, which was covered with ice, and dived and swam under the water for a time, reappearing some distance from the spot where he had entered the water. {469b}

The remaining years of Borrow's life were spent in Suffolk. He would frequently go to Norwich, however; for the old city seemed to draw him irresistibly from his hermitage. He would take a lodging there, and spend much of his time occupying a certain chair in the Norfolk Hotel in St Giles. There were so many old associations with Norwich that made it appear home to him. He was possessed of sentiment in plenty, it had caused his old mother to wish that "dear George would not have such fancies about THE OLD HOUSE" in Willow Lane.

Later, Dr and Mrs MacOubrey removed to Oulton (about 1878), and Borrow's life became less dismal and lonely; but he was nearing his end. Sometimes there would be a flash of that old unconquerable spirit. His stepdaughter relates how,

"on the 21st of November [1878], the place [the farm] having been going to decay for fourteen months, Mr Palmer [the tenant] called to demand that Mr Borrow should put it in repair; otherwise he would do it himself and send in the bills, saying, 'I don't care for the old farm or you either,' and several other insulting things; whereupon Mr Borrow remarked very calmly, 'Sir, you came in by that door, you can go out by it'—and so it ended." {470a}

It was on an occasion such as this that Borrow yearned for a son to knock the rascal down. He was an infirm man, his body feeling the wear and tear of the strenuous open-air life he had led. In 1879, according to Mrs MacOubrey, he was "unable to walk as far as the white gate," the boundary of his estate. He was obviously breaking- up very rapidly. The surroundings appear to have reflected the gloomy nature of the master of the estate. The house was dilapidated, "with everything about it more or less untidy," {470b} although at this period his income amounted to upwards of five hundred pounds a year.

"During his latter years," writes Mr W. A. Dutt, "his tall, erect, somewhat mysterious figure was often seen in the early hours of summer mornings or late at night on the lonely pathways that wind in and out from the banks of Oulton Broad . . . the village children used to hush their voices and draw aside at his approach. They looked upon him with fear and awe. . . . In his heart, Borrow was fond of the little ones, though it amused him to watch the impression his strange personality made upon them. Older people he seldom spoke to when out on his solitary rambles; but sometimes he would flash out such a glance from beneath his broad-brimmed hat and shaggy eyebrows as would make timid country folk hasten on their way filled with vague thoughts and fears of the evil eye." {470c}

Even to the last the old sensitiveness occasionally flashed out, as on the occasion of a visit from the Vicar of Lowestoft, who drove over with an acquaintance of Borrow's to make the hermit's acquaintance. The visitor was so incautious as to ask the age of his host, when, with Johnsonian emphasis, came the reply: "Sir, I tell my age to no man!" This occurred some time during the year 1880. Immediately his discomfited guest had departed, Borrow withdrew to the summer-house, where he drew up the following apothegm on "People's Age": -

"Never talk to people about their age. Call a boy a boy, and he will fly into a passion and say, 'Not quite so much of a boy either; I'm a young man.' Tell an elderly person that he's not so young as he was, and you will make him hate you for life. Compliment a man of eighty- five on the venerableness of his appearance, and he will shriek out: 'No more venerable than yourself,' and will perhaps hit you with his crutch."

On 1st December 1880 Borrow sent for his solicitor from Lowestoft, and made his will, by which he bequeathed all his property, real and personal, to his stepdaughter Henrietta, devising that it should be held in trust for her by his friend Elizabeth Harvey. It was evidently Borrow's intention so to tie up the bequest that Dr MacOubrey could not in any way touch his wife's estate.

The end came suddenly. On the morning of 26th July 1881 Dr and Mrs MacOubrey drove into Lowestoft, leaving Borrow alone in the house. When they returned he was dead. Throughout his life Borrow had been a solitary, and it seems fitting that he should die alone. It has been urged against his stepdaughter that she disregarded Borrow's appeals not to be left alone in the house, as he felt himself to be dying. He may have made similar requests on other occasions; still, whatever the facts, it was strange to leave so old and so infirm a man quite unattended.

On 4th August the body was brought to London, and buried beside that of Mrs George Borrow in Brompton Cemetery. On the stone, which is what is known as a saddle-back, is inscribed:

IN LOVING REMEMBRANCE OF GEORGE HENRY BORROW, ESQ., WHO DIED JULY 26TH, 1881 (AT HIS RESIDENCE "OULTON COTTAGE, SUFFOLK") IN HIS 79TH YEAR. (AUTHOR OF THE BIBLE IN SPAIN, LAVENGRO—AND OTHER WORKS.) "IN HOPE OF A GLORIOUS RESURRECTION."

A fruitless effort was made by the late J. J. Colman of Carrow to purchase the whole of Borrow's manuscripts, library, and papers for the Carrow Abbey Library; but the price asked, a thousand pounds, was considered too high, and they passed into the possession of another. Eventually they found their way into the reverent hands of the man who subsequently made Borrow his hero, and who devoted years of his life to the writing of his biography—Dr W. J. Knapp.

It was Borrow's fate, a tragic fate for a man so proud, to outlive the period of his fame. Not only were his books forgotten, but the world anticipated his death by some seven or eight years. His was a curiously complex nature, one that seems specially to have been conceived by Providence to arouse enmity among the many, and to awaken in the hearts of the few a sterling, unwavering friendship. It is impossible to reconcile the accounts of those who hated him with those whose love and respect he engaged.

He was in sympathy with vagrants and vagabonds—a taste that was perhaps emphasised by the months he spent in preparing Celebrated Trials. If those months of hack work taught him sympathy with pariahs, it also taught him to write strong, nervous English.

He was one of the most remarkable characters of his century— whimsical, eccentric, lovable, inexplicable; possessed of an odd, dry humour that sometimes failed him when most he needed it. He lived and died a stranger to the class to which he belonged, and was the intimate friend and associate of that dark and mysterious personage, Mr Petulengro. He hated his social equals, and admired Tamerlane and Jerry Abershaw. It has been said that he was born three centuries too late, and that he belonged to the age when men dropped mysteriously down the river in ships, later to return with strange stories and great treasure from the Spanish Main. Mr Watts-Dunton has said:-

"When Borrow was talking to people in his own class of life there was always in his bearing a kind of shy, defiant egotism. What Carlyle called the 'armed neutrality' of social intercourse oppressed him. He felt himself to be in the enemy's camp. In his eyes there was always a kind of watchfulness, as if he were taking stock of his interlocutor and weighing him against himself. He seemed to be observing what effect his words were having, and this attitude repelled people at first. But the moment he approached a gypsy on the heath, or a poor Jew in Houndsditch, or a homeless wanderer by the wayside, he became another man. He threw off the burden of restraint. The feeling of the 'armed neutrality' was left behind, and he seemed to be at last enjoying the only social intercourse that could give him pleasure. This it was that enabled him to make friends so entirely with the gypsies. Notwithstanding what is called 'Romany guile' (which is the growth of ages of oppression), the basis of the Romany character is a joyous frankness. Once let the isolating wall which shuts off the Romany from the 'Gorgio' be broken through, and the communicativeness of the Romany temperament begins to show itself. The gypsies are extremely close observers; they were very quick to notice how different was Borrow's bearing towards themselves from his bearing towards people of his own race, and Borrow used to say that 'old Mrs Herne and Leonora were the only gypsies who suspected and disliked him.'" {474a}

This convincing character sketch seems to show the real Borrow. It accounts even for that high-piping, artificial voice (a gypsy trait) that he assumed when speaking with those who were not his intimate friends, and which any sudden interest in the conversation would cause him to abandon in favour of his own deep, rich tones. Mr F. J. Bowring, himself no friend of Borrow's for very obvious reasons, has described this artificial intonation as something between a beggar's whine and the high-pitched voice of a gypsy—in sort, a falsetto. He tells how, on one occasion, when in conversation with Borrow, he happened to mention to him something of particular interest concerning the gypsies, Borrow became immensely interested, immediately dropped the falsetto and spoke in his natural voice, which Mr Bowring describes as deep and manly.

Even his friends were led sometimes into criticisms that appear unsympathetic. {474b} He was, Dr Hake has said, "essentially hypochondriacal. Society he loved and hated alike: he loved it that he might be pointed out and talked of; he hated it because he was not the prince that he felt himself in its midst." {474c} It is the son who shows the better understanding, although there is no doubt about Dr Hake's loyalty to Borrow. There is a faithful presentation of a man such as Borrow really seems to have been, in the following words:-

"Few men have ever made so deep an impression on me as George Borrow. His tall, broad figure, his stately bearing, his fine brown eyes, so bright yet soft, his thick white hair, his oval beardless face, his loud rich voice and bold heroic air were such as to impress the most indifferent lookers-on. Added to this there was something not easily forgotten in the manner in which he would unexpectedly come to our gates, singing some gypsy song, and as suddenly depart." {475a}

If Borrow wrote that he was ashamed of being an Englishman and referred to their "pinched and mortified expressions," if he found the virtues of the Saxons "uncouth and ungracious," he never permitted others to make disparaging remarks about his country or his countrymen. {475b} He was typically English in this: agree with his strictures, add a word or two of dispraise of the English, and there appeared a terrifying figure of a patriot; "not only an Englishman but an East Englishman," which in Borrow's vocabulary meant the finest of the breed. He might with more truth have said a Cornishman. "I could not command myself when I heard my own glorious land traduced in this unmerited manner," {475c} he once exclaimed. He permitted to himself, and to himself only, a certain latitude in such matters.

That Borrow exaggerated is beyond all question, but it must not be called deliberate. He desired to give impressions of scenes and people, and he was inclined to emphasize certain features. Isopel Berners he wished it to be known was a queenly creature, and he described her as taller than himself (he was 6 feet 2 inches without his shoes). Exaggeration is colour, not form. A disbelief in his having encountered the convict son of the old apple-woman near Salisbury does not imply that the old woman herself is a fiction. Borrow insisted upon Norfolk as his county, "where the people eat the best dumplings in the world, and speak the purest English." He even spoke with a strong, if imperfect, East Anglian accent. As a matter of fact his father was Cornish and his mother of Huguenot stock. It would be absurd to argue from this obvious exaggeration of the actual facts that Borrow was a myth.

Then he has been taken to task for not being a philologist as well as a linguist. He may have used the word philologist somewhat loosely on occasion. "Think what the reader would have lost," says one eminent but by no means prejudiced critic {476a} with real sympathy and insight, "had Borrow waited to verify his etymologies." In all probability Nature will never produce a Humboldt-Le Sage combination of intellect. Language was to Borrow merely the key that permitted him access to the chamber of men's minds. It must be confessed that sometimes he invaded the sacred precincts of philology. His chapter on the Basque language in The Bible in Spain has been described as "utterly frantic," and German philologists, speechless in their astonishment, have expressed themselves upon his conclusions in marks of exclamation! He was not qualified to discourse upon the science of language.

He was a staunch member of the Church of England, because he believed there was in it more religion than in any other Church; but this did not hinder him from consorting with the godless children of the tents, or contributing towards the upkeep of Nonconformist-schools. The gypsies honoured and trusted him because, crooked themselves, they appreciated straightness and clean living in another. They had never known him use a bad word or do a bad thing. He was, on occasion, arrogant, overbearing, ungracious, in short all the unattractive things that a proud and masterful man can be; but his friendship was as strong as the man himself; his charity above the narrow prejudices of sect. When he threw his tremendous power into any enterprise or undertaking, it was with the determination that it should succeed, if work and self-sacrifice could make it. "The wisest course," he thought, was, " . . . to blend the whole of the philosophy of the tombstone with a portion of the philosophy of the publican and something more, to enjoy one's pint and pipe and other innocent pleasures, and to think every now and then of death and judgment."

Borrow loved mystery for its own sake, and none were ever able quite to penetrate into the inner fastness of his personality. Those who came nearest to it were probably Hasfeldt and Ford, whose persistent good-humour was an armour against a reserve that chilled most men. Of all Borrow's friends it is probable that none understood him so well as Hasfeldt. He recognised the strength of character of the white-haired man who sang when he was happy, and he refused to be affected by his gloomy moods. "Write and tell me," he requests, "if you have not fallen in love with some nun or Gypsy in Spain, or have met with some other romantic adventure worthy of a roaming knight." On another occasion (June 1845) he boasts with some justification, "Heaven be praised, I can comprehend you as a reality, while many regard you as an imaginary, fantastic being. But they who portray you have not eaten bread and salt with you."

Borrow's contemporary recognition was a chance; he was writing for another generation, and some of the friends that he left behind have loyally striven to erect to him the only monument an artist desires— the proclaiming of his works.

Nature it appeared had framed Borrow in a moment of magnificence, and, lest he should be enticed away from her, had instilled into his soul a hatred of all things artificial and at variance with her august decrees. He was shy and suspicious with the men and women who regulated their lives by the narrow standards of civilisation and decorum; but with the children of the tents and the vagrants of the wayside he was a single-minded man, eager to learn the lore of the open air. He recognised in these vagabonds the true sons and daughters of "the Great Mother who mixes all our bloods."



APPENDIX: LIST OF BORROW'S WORKS



1825

Celebrated Trials, and Remarkable Cases of Criminal Jurisprudence, from the Earliest Records to the Year 1825. Six volumes, with plates. London.

Faustus: His Life, Death, and Descent into Hell. Translated from the German [of F. M. von Klinger]. W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, London.

1826

Romantic Ballads. Translated from the Danish: and Miscellaneous Pieces. S. Wilkin, Norwich.

1835

Targum: or, Metrical Translations from Thirty Languages and Dialects. St Petersburgh. Reprinted later by Jarrold & Sons, Norwich.

The Talisman. From the Russian of Alexander Pushkin. With Other Pieces. St Petersburg.

1841

The Zincali; or, An Account of the Gypsies of Spain. With an Original Collection of their Songs and Poetry, and a Copious Dictionary of their Language. Two volumes. John Murray, London.

1842

The Bible in Spain; or, the Journeys, Adventures, and Imprisonments of an Englishman in an Attempt to Circulate the Scriptures in the Peninsula. Three volumes. John Murray, London.

Lavengro: The Scholar—The Gypsy—The Priest. Three volumes. John Murray, London.

The Romany Rye: a Sequel to Lavengro. Two volumes. John Murray, London.

The Sleeping Bard; or, Visions of the World, Death, and Hell. By Elis Wyn. Translated from the Cambrian British. John Murray, London.

1862

Wild Wales: Its People, Language, and Scenery. Three volumes. John Murray, London.

Romano Lavo-Lil: Word-Book of Romany; or, English Gypsy Language. With Many Pieces in Gypsy, Illustrative of the Way of Speaking and Thinking of the English Gypsies; with Specimens of Their Poetry, and an Account of Certain Gypsyries or Places Inhabited by Them, and of Various Things Relating to Gypsy Life in England. John Murray, London.

1884

The Turkish Jester; or, the Pleasantries of Cogia Nasr Eddin Effendi. Translated from the Turkish. Jarrold & Sons, Norwich.

1892

The Death of Balder. Translated from the Danish of Evald. Jarrold & Sons, Norwich.

From the foregoing list has been omitted the mysterious Life and Adventures of Joseph Sell, the Great Traveller, and those works that Borrow edited or translated for the British and Foreign Bible Society.



Footnotes:

{3a} Afterwards General Morshead and friend of the Duke of York. Captain Morshead, himself a Cornishman, is credited with doing everything in his power to dissuade Thomas Borrow from enlisting, but without result.

{4a} Lavengro, page 2. References to Borrow's works throughout this volume are to the Standard Edition, published by John Murray.

{4b} Ann, the third of eight children born to Samuel Perfrement and Mary his wife, 23rd January 1772.

{4c} Locally, the name is pronounced "PARfrement." This is quite in accordance with the Norfolk dialect, which changes "e" into "a." Thus "Ernest" becomes "Arnest"; "Earlham," "Arlham"; "Erpingham," "Arpingham," and so on. In Norfolk there are grave peculiarities of pronunciation, which have caused many a stranger to wish that he had never enquired his way, so puzzling are the replies hurled at him in an incomprehensible vernacular.

{5a} Married the Rev. Wm. Holland, rector of Walmer and afterwards rector of Brasted, Kent.

{6a} Lavengro, page 5.

{6b} Lavengro, page 5.

{7a} George in honour of the King, it is said, and Henry after his father's eldest brother.

{7b} Lavengro, page 6.

{7c} Lavengro, page 6.

{7d} Lavengro, page 6.

{7e} Lavengro, page 7.

{7f} Lavengro, page 7.

{9a} Lavengro, page 16.

{9b} The widow of Sir John Fenn, editor of the Paston Letters.

{9c} Lavengro, page 15.

{10a} Lavengro, pages 398-9.

{10b} "Many years have not passed over my head, yet during those which I can call to remembrance, how many things have I seen flourish, pass away, and become forgotten, except by myself, who, in spite of all my endeavours, never can forget anything."—Lavengro, page 166.

{10c} Lavengro, page 16.

{11a} Lavengro, pages 19-20.

{11b} Lavengro, page 22.

{12a} The gypsies "have a double nomenclature, each tribe or family having a public and private name, one by which they are known to the Gentiles, and another to themselves alone . . . There are only two names of trades which have been adopted by English gypsies as proper names, Cooper and Smith: these names are expressed in the English gypsy dialect by Vardo-mescro and Petulengro (Romano Lavo-Lil, page 185). Thus the Smiths are known among themselves as the Petulengros. Petul, a horse shoe, and engro a "masculine affix used in the formation of figurative names." Thus Boshomengro (a fiddler) comes from Bosh a fiddle, Cooromengro (a soldier, a pugilist) from Coor = to fight.

{12b} The Rev. Wentworth Webster heard narrated at a provincial Bible Society's meeting that when Borrow first called at Earl Street "he said that he had been stolen by gypsies in his boyhood, had passed several years with them, but had been recognised at a fair in Norfolk and brought home to his family by his uncle." There is, however, nothing to confirm this story.

{13a} Lavengro, page 164.

{13b} The prisoners occupied much of their time in straw-plait making; but the quality of their work was so much superior to that of the English that it was forbidden, and consequently destroyed when found.

{13c} Lavengro, page 45.

{14a} David Haggart, born 24th June 1801, was an instinctive criminal, who, at Leith Races, in 1813, enlisted, whilst drunk, as a drummer in the West Norfolks. Eventually he obtained his discharge and continued on his career of crime and prison-breaking, among other things murdering a policeman and a gaoler, until, on 18th July 1821, he was hanged at Edinburgh.

{15a} Lavengro, page 138.

{15b} John Crome (1768-1821), landscape painter. Apprenticed 1783 as sign-painter; introduced into Norwich the art of graining; founded the Norwich School of Painting; first exhibited at the Royal Academy 1806.

{17a} Borrow was always a magnificent horseman. "Vaya! how you ride! It is dangerous to be in your way!" said the Archbishop of Toledo to him years later. In The Bible in Spain he wrote that he had "been accustomed from . . . childhood to ride without a saddle." The Rev. Wentworth Webster states that in Madrid "he used to ride with a Russian skin for a saddle and WITHOUT STIRRUPS."

{20a} Letter from "A School-fellow of Lavengro" in The Britannia, 26th April 1851.

{21a} "It is probable, that had I been launched about this time into some agreeable career, that of arms, for example, for which, being the son of a soldier, I had, as was natural, a sort of penchant, I might have thought nothing more of the acquisition of tongues of any kind; but, having nothing to do, I followed the only course suited to my genius which appeared open to me."—Lavengro, page 89.

{21b} The Rev. Thomas D'Eterville, M.A., "Poor Old Detterville," as the Grammar School boys called him, of Caen University, who arrived at Norwich in 1793. He acquired a small fortune by teaching languages. There were rumours that he was engaged in the contraband trade, an occupation more likely to bring fortune than teaching languages.

{21c} Letter from "A School-fellow of Lavengro" in The Britannia, 26th April 1851.

{22a} It was here, in 1827, that he saw the world's greatest trotter, Marshland Shales, and in common with other lovers of horses lifted his hat to salute "the wondrous horse, the fast trotter, the best in mother England." In Lavengro Borrow antedated this event by some nine years.

{23a} Manuscript autobiographical notes supplied by Borrow to Mr John Longe, 1862.

{24a} Lavengro, page 134.

{25a} This account is taken from a letter by "A Schoolfellow of Lavengro" in The Britannia, 26th April 1851.

{25b} In a letter to Borrow, dated 15th October 1862, John Longe, J.P., of Spixworth Park, Norwich, in acknowledging some biographical particulars that Borrow had sent him for inclusion in Burton's Antiquities of the Royal School of Norwich, wrote:-

"You have omitted an important and characteristic anecdote of your early days (fifteen years of age). When at school you, with Theodosius and Francis W. Purland, ABSENTED yourself from home and school and took up your abode in a certain 'Robber's Cave' at Acle, where you RESIDED three days, and once more returned to your homes."

{26a} According to the original manuscript of Lavengro, it appears that Roger Kerrison, a Norwich friend of Borrow's, strongly advised the law as "an excellent profession . . . for those who never intend to follow it."—Life of George Borrow, by Dr Knapp, i., 66.

{27a} The Rev. Wm. Drake of Mundesley, in a letter which appeared in The Eastern Daily Press, 22nd September 1892:-

" . . . I was at the Norwich Grammar School nine years, from 1820 to 1829, and during that time (probably in 1824 and 1825) George Borrow was lodging in the Upper Close . . . The house was a low old- fashioned building with a garden in front of it, and the fact of Borrow's residence there is fixed in my memory because I had spent the first five or six years of my own life in the same house, from 1811 to 1816 or 1817. My father occupied it in virtue of his being a minor canon in Norwich Cathedral. I remember Borrow very distinctly, because he was fond of chatting with the boys, who used to gather round the railings of his garden, and occasionally he would ask one or two of them to have tea with him. I have a faint recollection that he gave us some of our first notions of chess, but I am not sure of this. I . . . remember him a tall, spare, dark-complexioned man, usually dressed in black. In person he was not unlike another Norwich man, who obtained in those days a very different notoriety from that which now belongs to Borrow's name. I mean John Thurtell, who murdered Mr Weare."

{27b} Wild Wales, page 3.

{28a} Wild Wales, page 157.

{28b} Forty years later Borrow wrote of these days: —"'How much more happy, innocent, and holy I was in the days of my boyhood when I translated Iolo's ode than I am at the present time!' Then covering my face with my hands I wept like a child."—Wild Wales, page 448.

{30a} There is no doubt that Borrow became possessed of a copy of Kiaempe Viser, first collected by Anders Vedel, which may or may not have been given to him, with a handshake from the old farmer and a kiss from his wife, in recognition of the attention he had shown the pair in his official capacity. He refers to the volume repeatedly in Lavengro, and narrates how it was presented by some shipwrecked Danish mariners to the old couple in acknowledgment of their humanity and hospitality. It is, however, most likely that he was in error when he stated that "in less than a month" he was able "to read the book."—Lavengro, pages 140-4.

{30b} Wild Wales, page 2.

{30c} Wild Wales, page 374.

{30d} Wild Wales, page 9. There is an interesting letter written to Borrow by the old lawyer's son on the appearance of Lavengro, in which he says: "With tearful eyes, yet smiling lips, I have read and re-read your faithful portrait of my dear old father. I cannot mistake him—the creaking shoes, the florid face, the polished pate— all serve as marks of recognition to his youngest son!"

{31a} Wild Wales, page 374.

{31b} During the five years that he was articled to Simpson & Rackham, Borrow, according to Dr Knapp, studied Welsh, Danish, German, Hebrew, Arabic, Gaelic, and Armenian. He already had a knowledge of Latin, Greek, Irish, French, Italian, and Spanish.

{31c} Lavengro, page 235.

{32a} Benjamin Robert Haydon (1786-1846), the historical painter.

{32b} Lavengro, page 166.

{33a} William Taylor (1765-1836) was an admirer of German literature and a defender of the French Revolution. He is credited with having first inspired his friend Southey with a liking for poetry. He travelled much abroad, met Goethe, attended the National Assembly debates in 1790, translated from the German and contributed to a number of English periodicals.

{33b} Harriet Martineau's Autobiography, 1877.

{33c} Harriet Martineau's Autobiography, 1877.

{33d} Letter from "A School-fellow of Lavengro" in The Britannia, 26th April 1851.

{34a} Memoir of Wm. Taylor, by J. W. Robberds.

{34b} Memoir of Wm. Taylor, by J. W. Robberds.

{34c} Letter from "A School-fellow of Lavengro" in The Britannia, 26th April 1851.

{35a} The Rev. Whitwell Elwin, in a letter, 17th February 1887.

{35b} Harriet Martineau's Autobiography, 1877.

{35c} Lavengro, page 355.

{36a} John Bowring, F.R.S. (1792-1872), began life in trade, went to the Peninsula for Milford & Co., army contractors, in 1811, set up for himself as a merchant, travelled and acquired a number of languages. He was ambitious, energetic and shrewd. He became editor of The Westminster Review in 1824, and LL.D., Gronigen, in 1829. He was sent by the Government upon a commercial mission to Belgium, 1833; to Egypt; Syria and Turkey, 1837-8; M.P. for Clyde burghs, 1835-7, and for Bolton, 1841; was instrumental in obtaining the issue of the florin as a first step toward a decimal system of currency; Consul of Canton, 1847; plenipotentiary to China; governor, commander-in-chief, and vice-admiral of Hong Kong, 1854; knighted 1854; established diplomatic and commercial relations with Siam, 1855. He published a number of volumes of translations from various languages. He died full of years and honours in 1872.

{36b} The Romany Rye, page 368, et seq.

{38a} Lavengro, pages 177-8.

{39a} Lavengro, pages 179-80. Captain Borrow was in his sixty-sixth year at his death; b. December 1758, d. 28th February 1824. He was buried in St Giles churchyard, Norwich, on 4th March 1824.

{40a } The Romany Rye, page 302.

{40b} In his will Captain Borrow bequeathed to George his watch and "the small Portrait," and to John "the large Portrait" of himself; his mother to hold and enjoy them during her lifetime. Should Mrs Borrow die or marry again, elaborate provision was made for the proper distribution of the property between the two sons.

{41a} In particular Borrow believed in Ab Gwilym "the greatest poetical genius that has appeared in Europe since the revival of literature" (Wild Wales, page 6). "The great poet of Nature, the contemporary of Chaucer, but worth half-a-dozen of the accomplished word-master, the ingenious versifier of Norman and Italian Tales." (Wild Wales, page xxviii.).

{42a} Lines to Six-Foot-Three. Romantic Ballads. Norwich 1826.

{42b} Sir Richard Phillips (1767-1840) before becoming a publisher was a schoolmaster, hosier, stationer, bookseller, and vendor of patent medicines at Leicester, where he also founded a newspaper. In 1795 he came to London, was sheriff in 1807, and received his knighthood a year later.

{43a} It has been urged against Borrow's accuracy that Sir Richard Phillips had retired to Brighton in 1823, vide The Dictionary of National Biography. In the January number (1824) of The Monthly Magazine appeared the following paragraph: "The Editor [Sir Richard Phillips], having retired from his commercial engagements and removed from his late house of business in New Bridge Street, communications should be addressed to the appointed Publishers [Messrs Whittakers]; but personal interviews of Correspondents and interested persons may be obtained at his private residence in Tavistock Square." This proves conclusively that Sir Richard was to be seen in London in the early part of 1824.

{44a} Celebrated Trials and Remarkable Cases of Criminal Jurisprudence from the Earliest Records to the Year 1825, 6 vols., with plates. London, 1825.

{44b} Proximate Causes of the Material Phenomena of the Universe. By Sir Richard Phillips. London, 1821.

{45a} Dr Knapp identified the editor as "William Gifford, editor of The Quarterly Review from 1809 to September 1824." (Life of George Borrow, i. 93.) The late Sir Leslie Stephen, however, cast very serious doubt upon this identification, himself concluding that the editor of The Universal Review was John Carey (1756-1826), whose name was actually associated with an edition of Quintilian published in 1822. Carey was a known contributor to two of Sir Richard Phillips' magazines.

{45b} The Monthly Magazine, July 1824.

{46a} It appeared in six volumes.

{46b} The work when completed contained accounts of over 400 trials.

{46c} It appeared on 19th March following.

{46d} Lavengro, page 210.

{47a} The picture was duly painted in the Heroic manner, the artist lending to the ex-mayor, for some reason or other, his own unheroically short legs. Haydon received his fee of a hundred guineas, and the picture now hangs in St Andrew's Hall, Norwich.

{48a} Letter from Roger Kerrison to John Borrow, 28th May 1824.

{48b} Memoirs, C. G. Leland 1893.

{49a} Borrow himself gave the sum as "eighteen-pence a page." The books themselves apparently did not become the property of the reviewer.—The Romany Rye, page 324.

{49b} Borrow says that he demanded lives of people who had never lived, and cancelled others that Borrow had prepared with great care, because be considered them as "drugs."—Lavengro, pages 245-6.

{50a} "'Sir,' said he, 'you know nothing of German; I have shown your translation of the first chapter of my Philosophy to several Germans: it is utterly unintelligible to them.' 'Did they see the Philosophy?' I replied. 'They did, sir, but they did not profess to understand English.' 'No more do I,' I replied, 'if the Philosophy be English.'"—Lavengro, page 254.

{50b} A German edition of the work appeared in Stuttgart in 1826.

{52a} This sentence is quoted in The Gypsies of Spain as a heading to the section "On Robber Language," page 335.

{52b} Lavengro, pages 216-7.

{52c} Lavengro, page 271.

{53a} Faustus: His Life, Death and Descent into Hell. Translated from the German. London: W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, 1825, pages xxii., 251. Coloured Plate.

{53b} A letter from Borrow to the publishers, which Dr Knapp quotes, and dates 15th September 1825, but without giving his reasons, was written from Norwich, and runs:

Dear Sir, -

As your bill will become payable in a few days, I am willing to take thirty copies of Faustus instead of the money. The book has been BURNT in both the libraries here, and, as it has been talked about, I may, perhaps, be able to dispose of some in the course of a year or so.—Yours, G. BORROW.

{55a} Lavengro, page 310.

{55b} The Romany Rye, Appendix, page 303.

{57a} Probably it was only a portion of the whole amount of 50 pounds that Borrow drew after the completion of the work. One thing is assured, that Sir Richard Phillips was too astute a man to pay the whole amount before the completion of the work.

{58a} Dr Knapp's Life of George Borrow, i., page 141.

{60a} Dr Knapp gives the date as the 22nd; but Mr John Sampson makes the date the 24th, which seems more likely to be correct.

{61a} The Athenaeum, 25th March 1899.

{61b} Lavengro, page 362.

{62a} Lavengro, page 362.

{62b} Lavengro, page 374.

{63a} Lavengro, pages 431-2.

{64a} Lavengro, page 451.

{64b} Mr Watts-Dunton in a review of Dr Knapp's Life of Borrow says that she "was really an East-Anglian road-girl of the finest type, known to the Boswells, and remembered not many years ago."— Athenaeum, 25th March 1899.

{66a} Mr Petulengro is made to say the "Flying Tinker."

{66b} Dr Knapp sees in the account of Murtagh's story of his travels Barrow's own adventures during 1826-7, but there is no evidence in support of this theory. Another contention of Dr Knapp's is more likely correct, viz., that the story of Finn MacCoul was that told him by Cronan the Cornish guide during the excursion to Land's End.

{67a} It will be remembered that in The Romany Rye Borrow takes his horse to the Swan Inn at Stafford, meets his postilion friend and is introduced by him to the landlord, with the result that he arranges to act as "general superintendent of the yard," and keep the hay and corn account. In return he and his horse are to be fed and lodged. Here Borrow encounters Francis Ardry, on his way to see the dog and lion fight at Warwick, and the man in black.

{67b} The Gypsies of Spain, page 360.

{68a} Introduction to The Romany Rye in The Little Library, Methuen & Co., Ltd.

{69a} The Romany Rye, page 162.

{69b} The Romany Rye, page 162.

{69c} The Romany Rye, page 50.

{69d} "Let but the will of a human being be turned to any particular object, and it is ten to one that sooner or later he achieves it."— Lavengro, page 16.

{73a} They appeared as Romantic Ballads, translated from the Danish, and Miscellaneous Pieces, by George Borrow. Norwich. S. Wilkin, 1826. Included in the volume were translations from the Kiaempe Viser and from Oehlenschlaeger.

{74a} Correspondence and Table-Talk of B. R. Haydon. London, 1876. The position of the letter in the Haydon Journal is between November 1825 and January 1826; but it is more likely that it was written some months later. Unfortunately, Borrow's portrait cannot be traced in any of Haydon's pictures.

{75a} Lavengro, page 9.

{75b} There was a tradition that Borrow became a foreign correspondent for the Morning Herald, and it was in this capacity that he travelled on the Continent in 1826-7; but Dr Knapp clearly showed that such a theory was untenable.

{75c} The Gypsies of Spain, page 11.

{75d} The Bible in Spain, page 219.

{75e} Letter to his mother, August 1833.

{75f} The Bible in Spain, page 172.

{75g} The Gypsies of Spain, page 31.

{76a} The Bible in Spain, page 703.

{76b} The Bible in Spain, page 67.

{76c} The Gypsies of Spain, page 19.

{76d} Excursions Along the Shores of the Mediterranean, by Lt.-Col. E. H. D. E. Napier. London, 1842.

{76e} The Gypsies of Spain, pages 10-11.

{76f} Patteran, or Patrin; a gypsy method of indicating by means of grass, leaves, or a mark in the dust to those behind the direction taken by the main body.

{76g} The Gypsies of Spain, page 31.

{77a} If he went abroad, he certainly did so without obtaining a passport from the Foreign Office. The only passports issued to him between the years 1825-1840 were:

27th July 1833, to St Petersburg; 2nd November 1836 and 20th December 1838, to Spain,

as far as the F. O. Registers show.

{77b} Dr Knapp takes Borrow's statement, made 29th March 1839, "I have been three times imprisoned and once on the point of being shot," as indicating that he was imprisoned at Pamplona in 1826. The imprisonments were September 1837, Finisterre; May 1838, Madrid; and another unknown. The occasion on which he was nearly shot, which may be assumed to be connected with one of the imprisonments (otherwise he was more than "once nearly shot"), was at Finisterre, when he, with his guide, was seized as a Carlist spy "by the fishermen of the place, who determined at first on shooting us." (Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 15th September 1837.)

{78a} The incident is given in Lavengro under date of 1818, when Marshland Shales was fifteen years old. It was not, however, until 1827 that he appeared at the Norwich Horse Fair and was put up for auction. "Such a horse as this we shall never see again; a pity that he is so old," was the opinion of those who lifted their hats as a token of respect.

{79a} This and subsequent letters from Borrow to Sir John Bowring not specially acknowledged have been courteously placed at the writer's disposal by Mr Wilfred J. Bowring, Sir John Bowring's grandson.

{81a} In The Monthly Review, March 1830, there appeared among the literary announcements a paragraph to the same effect.

{83a} From the original draft of his letter of 20th May to Dr Bowring, omitted from the letter itself.

{86a} Mr Thomas Seccombe in Bookman, February 1902.

{86b} It is only fair to add that Mr Seccombe wrote without having seen the correspondence quoted from above. His words have been given as representing the opinion held by most people regarding the Borrow- Bowring dispute. It has been said that Bowring sought to suck Borrow's brains; it would appear, however, that Borrow strove rather to make every possible use that he could of Bowring.

{87a} Preface to The Sleeping Bard, 1860.

{87b} Ibid.

{88a} The Bible in Spain, page 201.

{88b} Dr Knapp gives the date as during the early days of September, but without mentioning his authority.

{90a} The Romany Rye, page 362.

{91a} Lavengro, page 403.

{91b} Lavengro, page 446.

{92a} Vicar of Pakefield, in Norfolk, 1814-1830; Lowestoft, 1830-63. He married a sister of J. J. Gurney of Earlham Hall.

{93a} Dr Knapp was in error when he credited J. J. Gurney with the introduction. In a letter to the Rev. J. Jowett, 10th Feb. 1833, Borrow wrote, "I must obtain a letter from him [Rev. F. Cunningham] to Joseph Gurney."

{93b} T. Pell Platt, formerly the Hon. Librarian of the Society; W. Greenfield, its lately deceased Editorial Superintendent.

{94a} S. V. Lipovzoff (1773-1841) had studied Chinese and Manchu at the National College of Pekin, and had lived in China for 20 years; belonged to the Russian Foreign Office (Asiatic section); head of Board of Censors for books in Eastern languages printed in Russia: Corresponding member of Academy of Sciences for department of Oriental Literature and Antiquities. "A gentleman in the service of the Russian Department of Foreign Affairs, who has spent the greater part of an industrious life in Peking and the East."—J. P. H[asfeldt] in the Athenaeum, 5th March 1836.

{94b} Asmus, Simondsen & Co., Sarepta House.

{95a} Borrow's report upon Puerot's translation, 23rd September 5th October, 1835.

{96a} The Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, vol. i., July 1888 to October 1899. In the MS. autobiographical note he wrote later for Mr John Longe, Borrow stated that he walked from London to Norwich in November 1825. He may have performed the journey twice.

{96b} Letter from Borrow to the Rev. Francis Cunningham, to whom he wrote on his return home, circa January, acquainting him with what had transpired in London, assuring him that "I am returned with a firm determination to exert all my energies to attain the desired end [the learning of Manchu]; and I hope, Sir, that I shall have the benefit of your prayers for my speedy success, for the language is one of those which abound with difficulties against which human skill and labour, without the special favour of God, are as blunt hatchets against the oak; and though I shall almost weary Him with my own prayers, I wish not to place much confidence in them, being at present very far from a state of grace and regeneration, having a hard and stony heart, replete with worldy passions, vain wishes, and all kinds of ungodliness; so that it would be no wonder if God to prayers addressed from my lips were to turn away His head in wrath."

{97a} Borrow always writes Mandchow, but, for the sake of uniformity his spelling is corrected throughout.

{98a} Letter to Rev. Francis Cunningham, circa January 1833.

{99a} Dr Knapp ascribes the translation to Dr Pazos Kanki, who undertook it at the instance of the Bishop of Puebla, but gives no authority. Dr Kanki was a native of La Paz, Peru, and translated St Luke into his native dialect Aimara. He had no more connection with Mexico than "stout Cortez" with "a peak in Darien."

{99b} Life of George Borrow, by Dr Knapp, i., page 157.

{100a} Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, 18th March 1833.

{100b} Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, 18th March 1833.

{100c} Letter to Rev J. Jowett, 18th March 1833.

{101a} Caroline Fox wrote in her Memories of Old Friends (1882): "Andrew Brandram gave us at breakfast many personal recollections of curious people. J. J. Gurney recommended George Borrow to their Committee [!]; so he stalked up to London, and they gave him a hymn to translate into the Manchu language, and the same to one of their own people to translate also. When compared they proved to be very different. When put before their reader, he had the candour to say that Borrow's was much the better of the two. On this they sent him to St Petersburg, got it printed [!] and then gave him business in Portugal, which he took the liberty greatly to extend, and to do such good as occurred to his mind in a highly executive manner [22nd August 1844]."

{102a} Mr Lipovzoff's unfortunate name was a great stumbling-block. Borrow spelt it many ways, varying from Lipoffsky to Lipofsoff. It has been thought advisable to adopt Mr Lipovzoff's OWN spelling of his name, in order to preserve some uniformity.

{104a} Minutes of the Editorial Sub-Committee, 29th July 1833.

{105a} Harriet Martineau's Autobiography.

{106a} Letter to his mother, 30th July 1833.

{107a} Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, 4th August 1833.

{107b} Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, 4th August 1833.

{108a} Borrow is always puzzling when concerned with dates. He writes to his mother telling her that he left on the 7th, and later gives the date, in a letter to Mr Jowett, as 24th July, O.S. (5th August). The 7th seems to be the correct date.

{108b} Letter to his mother.

{109a} "If I had my choice of all the cities of the world to live in, I would choose Saint Petersburg."—Wild Wales, page 665.

{110a} Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, undated: received 26th September 1833.

{111a} In a letter dated 3rd/15th August, the Prince wrote to Mr Venning at Norwich, "On returning thence, your son came to introduce to me the Englishman who has come over here about the translation of the Manchu Bible, and who brought with him your letter."—Memorials of John Venning, 1862.

{112a} Best known for his Grammar, written in German.

{112b} Nephew of J. C Adelung, the philologist.

{113a} Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, undated, but received 26th September 1833.

{114a} Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, 20th January/1st February 1834.

{114b} Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, 20th January/1st February 1834.

{114c} Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, 20th January/1st February 1834.

{115a} Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, 20th January/1st February 1834.

{115b} Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, 20th January/1st February 1834. Probably this means the New Testament only, as there was no intention of printing the Old Testament at that date.

{116a} In a letter to his mother, dated 1st/13th Feb., Borrow writes: "The Bible Society depended upon Dr Schmidt and the Russian translator Lipovzoff to manage this business [the obtaining of the official sanction], but neither the one nor the other would give himself the least trouble about the matter, or give me the slightest advice how to proceed."

{117a} Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, 4th/16th February 1834.

{118a} Letter to the Rev. J. Jowett, 20th Jan./1st Feb. 1834.

{118b} Letter to the Rev. J. Jowett, 20th Jan./1st Feb. 1834.

{118c} Letter to the Rev. F. Cunningham, 17th/29th Nov. 1834.

{119a} 1st/13th May 1834.

{121a} This spelling is adopted throughout for uniformity. Borrow writes Chiachta.

{121b} Letter to the Rev. J. Jowett, 4th/16th February 1834.

{121c} Letter to the Rev. J. Jowett, 4th/16th February 1834.

{121d} Letter to the Rev. J. Jowett, 4th/16th February 1834.

{123a} Letter to the Rev. J. Jowett, 15th/23rd April 1834.

{123b} In a letter dated 1st/13th May 1834.

{123c} A suburb of Norwich.

{126a} Mrs Borrow eventually received from Allday Kerrison 50 pounds, 11s. 1d., the amount realised from the sale of John's effects.

{126b} This was partly on account of the Bible Society for storage purposes. In the minutes of the Sub-Committee, 18th August 1834, there is a record of an advice having been received from Borrow that he had drawn "for 400 Roubles for one year's rent in advance for a suitable place of deposit for the Society's paper, etc., part of which had been received."

{126c} Letter to John P. Hasfeldt from Madrid, 29th April 1837.

{129a} In the minutes of the Sub-Committee, 18th August (N.S.) 1834, there is a note of Borrow having drawn 210 roubles "to pay for certain articles required to complete the Society's fount of Manchu type."

{132a} "My letters to my private friends have always been written during gleams of sunshine, and traced in the characters of hope."

{132b} "You may easily judge of the state of book-binding here by the fact that for every volume, great or small, printed in Russia, there is a duty of 30 copecks, or threepence, to be paid to the Russian Government, if the said volume be exported unbound."

{135a} John Hasfeldt.

{135b} Letter to Mr J. Tarn, Treasurer of the Bible Society, 15th/27th December 1834.

{136a} Letter to the Rev. Joseph Jowett, 3rd/15th May 1835.

{138a} Letter from Borrow to the Rev. J. Jowett, 20th Feb./4th March 1834. In his Report on Puerot's translation, received on 23rd Sep. 1835, Borrow writes: "To translate literally, or even closely, according to the common acceptation of the term, into the Manchu language is of all impossibilities the greatest; partly from the grammatical structure of the language, and partly from the abundance of its idioms." The lack of "some of those conjunctions generally considered as indispensable" was one of the chief difficulties.

{138b} Letter, 31st Dec. 1834.

{139a} Letter, 31st Dec. 1834.

{139b} Letter, 20th Feb./4th Mar. 1835.

{139c} Letter, 20th Feb./4th Mar. 1835.

{139d} Letter to the Rev. J. Jowett, 3rd/15th May 1835.

{139e} Ibid.

{140a} Letter to the Rev. J. Jowett, 3rd/15th May 1835.

{141a} Letter to Mr J. Tarn.

{141b} None of these translations ever appeared, owing to the refusal of the Russian Government to grant permission. John Hasfeldt wrote to Borrow, June 1837, apropos of the project: "You know the Russian priesthood cannot suffer foreigners to mix themselves up in the affairs of the Orthodox Church. The same would have happened to the New Testament itself. You may certainly print in the Manchu- Tartar or what the d-l you choose, only not in Russian, for that the long-bearded he-goats do not like."

{142a} Letter to Rev. F. Cunningham, 27th/29th Nov. 1834.

{142b} The principal interest in Targum lies in the number of languages and dialects from which the poems are translated; for it must be confessed that Borrow's verse translations have no very great claim to attention on account of their literary merit. The "Thirty Languages" were, in reality, thirty-five, viz.:-

Ancient British. Gaelic. Portuguese. " Danish. German. Provencal " Irish. Greek. Romany. " Norse. Hebrew. Russian. Anglo-Saxon. Irish. Spanish. Arabic. Italian. Suabian. Cambrian British. Latin. Swedish. Chinese. Malo-Russian. Tartar. Danish. Manchu. Tibetan. Dutch. Modern Greek. Turkish. Finnish. Persian. Welsh. French. Polish.

{143a} A copy was presented by John Hasfeldt to Pushkin, who expressed in a note to Borrow his gratification at receiving the book, and his regret at not having met the translator.

{143b} These two volumes were printed in one and published at a later date by Messrs Jarrold & Son, London & Norwich.

{143c} 5th March 1836.

{143d} From a letter to Borrow from Dr Gordon Hake.

{143e} Borrow's Report to the Committee of the Bible Society, received 23rd September 1835.

{144a} Borrow's Report to the Committee of the Bible Society, received 23rd September 1835.

{144b} Ibid.

{145a} Kak my tut kamasa.

{145b} Borrow's Report to the Committee of the Bible Society, received 23rd September 1835. He gives an account of the episode in The Gypsies of Spain, page 6.

{146a} The Thirty-First Annual Report.

{146b} Athenaeum, 5th March 1836.

{147a} Borrow's Report to the Committee of the Bible Society, received 23rd September 1835.

{148a} 18th/30th June 1834.

{149a} 27th October 1835.

{150a} His salary was paid continuously, and included the period of rest between the Russian and Peninsula expeditions.

{150b} Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, 26th October 1835.

{150c} In a letter dated 27th October 1835.

{151a} Minutes of the General Committee of the Bible Society, 2nd Nov. 1835.

{153a} In his first letter from Spain, addressed to Rev. J. Jowett (30th Nov. 1835), Borrow tells of this incident in practically the same words as it appears in The Bible in Spain, pages 1-3.

{154a} The Bible in Spain, pages 73-4.

{154b} Letter to the Rev. J. Jowett, 30th Nov. 1835.

{155a} Dr Knapp states that upon this expedition he was accompanied by Captain John Rowland Heyland of the 35th Regiment of Foot, whose acquaintance he had made on the voyage out.—Life of George Borrow, i., page 234.

{155b} Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, 30th Nov. 1835.

{155c} Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 15th Dec. 1835.

{159a} Letter to Dr Bowring, 26th December 1835.

{159b} The Bible in Spain, page 67.

{159c} Dated 8th and 10th January 1836, giving an account of his journey to Evora.

{160a} The Bible in Spain, page 78.

{160b} The Bible in Spain, pages 77-8.

{161a} The Bible in Spain, page 87.

{161b} The Bible in Spain, page 88.

{162a} The Bible in Spain, page 99.

{162b} Lavengro, page 191.

{162c} The Bible in Spain, pages 97-8.

{162d} Not 5th Jan., as given in The Bible in Spain.

{162e} The Bible in Spain, page 103.

{164a} The Bible in Spain, Preface, page vi.

{164b} The Gypsies of Spain, page 179.

{164c} "Throughout my life the Gypsy race has always had a peculiar interest for me. Indeed I can remember no period when the mere mention of the name Gypsy did not awaken within me feelings hard to be described. I cannot account for this—I merely state it as a fact."—The Gypsies of Spain, page 1.

{165a} The Gypsies of Spain, pages 184-5.

{165b} The Gypsies of Spain, page 186.

{166a} The Bible in Spain, page 109.

{166b} Dr Knapp states that the wedding described in The Gypsies of Spain took place during these three days.—Life of George Borrow, by Dr Knapp, i., page 242.

{167a} The Bible in Spain, page 162.

{167b} "I am not partial to Madrid, its climate, or anything it can offer, if I except its unequalled gallery of pictures."—Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 22nd March 1836.

{167c} 24th February 1836.

{167d} Letter to his mother, 24th February 1836.

{168a} Letter to his mother, 24th February 1836

{168b} Ibid.

{168c} Ibid.

{168d} Ibid.

{169a} The Bible in Spain, page 173.

{170a} Born 1790, commissariat contractor in 1808 during the French invasion, he was of great assistance to his country. In 1823 he fled from the despotism of Ferdinand VII.; he returned twelve years later as Minister of Finance under Toreno. He resigned in 1837, was again in power in 1841, and died in 1853.

{170b} George William Villiers, afterwards 4th Earl of Clarendon, born 12th Jan. 1800; created G.C.B., 19th Oct. 1837; succeeded his uncle as Earl of Clarendon, 1838; K.G., 1849. He twice refused a Marquisate, also the Governor-generalship of India. He refused the Order of the Black Eagle (Prussia) and the Legion of Honour. Lord Privy Seal, 1839-41; Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, 1840-1, 1864-5; Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, 1847-52. Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 1853-8, 1865-6, 1868-9. Died 27th June 1870.

{171a} The Bible in Spain, page 165.

{173a} Extracts accompanying letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 22nd March 1836.

{173b} Ibid.

{173c} Ibid.

{174a} Letter of 22nd March 1837.

{175a} Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 22nd May 1836.

{175b} Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 22nd May 1836.

{175c} Letter dated 6th April 1836.

{175d} Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 20th April 1836.

{175e} Ibid.

{176a} Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 20th April 1836.

{176b} Ibid. Borrow's destitution was entirely accidental, and immediately that his letter was received at Earl Street the sum of twenty-five pounds was forwarded to him.

{177a} Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 20th April 1836.

{178a} Letter of 9th May 1836.

{178b} Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 30th June 1836.

{178c} Ibid.

{178d} Ibid.

{179a} The Duke's secretary who had shown so profound a respect for the decrees of the Council of Trent.

{179b} Late of the Royal Navy, who for sheer love of the work distributed the Scriptures in Spain, and who later was to come into grave conflict with Borrow.

{180a} Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 30th June 1836.

{181a} Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 7th July 1836.

{181b} Ibid.

{181c} Ibid.

{181d} Ibid.

{182a} Dr Usoz was a Spaniard of noble birth, a pupil of Mezzofanti, and one of the editors of El Espanol. He occupied the chair of Hebrew at Valladolid. He was deeply interested in the work of the Bible Society, and was fully convinced that in nothing but the reading of the Bible could the liberty in Spain be found.

{182b} Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 25th December 1837.

{182c} La Granja was a royal palace some miles out of Madrid, to which the Queen Regent had withdrawn. On the night of 12th August, two sergeants had forced their way into the Queen Regent's presence, and successfully demanded that she should restore the Constitution of 1812. This incident was called the Revolution of La Granja.

{183a} The Bible in Spain, pages 197-206.

{183b} 30th July 1836.

{183c} Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 10th August 1836.

{184a} 17th October 1836.

{185a} The Bible in Spain, pages 209-11.

{185b} Ibid., page 211.

{186a} The Rev. Wentworth Webster in The Journal of Gypsy Lore Society, vol. i., July 1888-Oct. 1889.

{187a} Letter from Rev. A. Brandram, 6th Jan. 1837.

{188a} Isidor Just Severin, Baron Taylor (1789-1879), was a naturalised Frenchman and a great traveller. In 1821 he, with Charles Nodier, wrote the play Bertram, which was produced with great success at Paris in 1821. Later he was made Commissaire du Theatre Francais, and authorised the production of Hernani and Le Mariage de Figaro. Later he became Inspecteur-General des Beaux Arts (1838). When seen by Borrow in Seville he was collecting Spanish pictures for Louis-Philippe.

{189a} The Bible in Spain, page 221.

{190a} The Bible in Spain, page 237.

{190b} Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 26th Dec. 1836.

{191a} In letter to the Rev. A. Brandram (26th Dec. 1836), Borrow gives the quantity of brandy as two bottles. This letter was written within a few hours of the act and is more likely to be accurate.

{191b} The Bible in Spain, page 254.

{191c} Borrow's letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 14th Jan. 1837.

{191d} He was authorised to purchase 600 reams at 60 reals per ream, whereas he paid only 45 reals a ream for a paper "better," he wrote, "than I could have purchased at 70."

{192a} Author of La Historia de las Cortes de Espana durante el Siglo XIX. (1885) and other works of a political character. He was also proprietor and editor of El Espanol. Isturitz had intended raising Borrego to the position of minister of finance when his government suddenly terminated.

{192b} General report prepared by Borrow in the Autumn of 1838 for the General Committee of the Bible Society detailing his labours in Spain. This was subsequently withdrawn, probably on account of its somewhat aggressive tone. In the course of this work the document will be referred to as General Report, Withdrawn.

{192c} To Rev. A. Brandram, 14th Jan. 1837.

{193a} To Rev. A. Brandram, 14th Jan. 1837.

{194a} 27th January 1837.

{194b} Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 27th Feb. 1837.

{195a} Letter from Rev. A. Brandram to Borrow, 22nd March 1837.

{195b} Letter from Borrow to Rev. A. Brandram, 25th Dec. 1837.

{195c} Letter from Borrow to Rev. A. Brandram, 27th February 1837.

{195d} Rev. Wentworth Webster in The Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, vol. i., July 1888-October 1889.

{196a} General Report withdrawn.

{196b} General Report, withdrawn.

{196c} Borrow to Richard Ford. Letters of Richard Ford 1797-1858. Ed. R. E. Prothero. Murray, 1905.

{197a} Letter from Borrow to Rev. A. Brandram, 7th June 1837.

{197b} Ibid.

{197c} Ibid.

{198a} Letter from Borrow to the Rev. A. Brandram, 27th February 1837.

{199a} As the method adopted was practically the same in every town he visited, no further reference need be made to the fact, and in the brief survey of the journeys that Borrow himself has described so graphically, only incidents that tend to throw light upon his character or disposition, and such as he has not recorded himself, will be dealt with.