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diff --git a/18588.txt b/18588.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3f2baff --- /dev/null +++ b/18588.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11342 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, George Borrow, by Edward Thomas + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: George Borrow + The Man and His Books + + +Author: Edward Thomas + + + +Release Date: June 14, 2006 [eBook #18588] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GEORGE BORROW*** + + + + + + +Transcribed from the 1912 Chapman & Hall edition by David Price, email +ccx074@pglaf.org + + + + + +GEORGE BORROW +THE MAN AND HIS BOOKS + + +BY +EDWARD THOMAS + +AUTHOR OF + +"THE LIFE OF RICHARD JEFFERIES," "LIGHT AND TWILIGHT," "REST AND UNREST," +"MAURICE MAETERLINCK," ETC. + +WITH PORTRAITS AND ILLUSTRATIONS + +LONDON +CHAPMAN & HALL, LTD. +1912 + +Printed by +JAS. TRUSCOTT AND SON, LTD., +London, E.C. + +{picture: George Borrow, (From the painting by H. W. Phillips, R.A., in +the possession of Mr. John Murray, by whose kind permission the picture +is reproduced.): page0.jpg} + + + + +NOTE + + +The late Dr. W. I. Knapp's Life (John Murray) and Mr. Watts-Dunton's +prefaces are the fountains of information about Borrow, and I have +clearly indicated how much I owe to them. What I owe to my friend, Mr. +Thomas Seccombe, cannot be so clearly indicated, but his prefaces have +been meat and drink to me. I have also used Mr. R. A. J. Walling's +sympathetic and interesting "George Borrow." The British and Foreign +Bible Society has given me permission to quote from Borrow's letters to +the Society, edited in 1911 by the Rev. T. H. Darlow; and Messrs. T. C. +Cantrill and J. Pringle have put at my disposal their publication of +Borrow's journal of his second Welsh tour, wonderfully annotated by +themselves ("Y Cymmrodor," 1910). These and other sources are mentioned +where they are used and in the bibliography. + + + + +DEDICATION TO E. S. P. HAYNES + + +MY DEAR HAYNES, + +By dedicating this book to you, I believe it is my privilege to introduce +you and Borrow. This were sufficient reason for the dedication. The +many better reasons are beyond my eloquence, much though I have +remembered them this winter, listening to the storms of Caermarthen Bay, +the screams of pigs, and the street tunes of "Fall in and follow me," +"Yip-i-addy," and "The first good joy that Mary had." + +Yours, +EDWARD THOMAS. + +LAUGHARNE, +CAERMARTHENSHIRE, +_December_, 1911. + + + + +CHAPTER I--BORROW'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY + + +The subject of this book was a man who was continually writing about +himself, whether openly or in disguise. He was by nature inclined to +thinking about himself and when he came to write he naturally wrote about +himself; and his inclination was fortified by the obvious impression made +upon other men by himself and by his writings. He has been dead thirty +years; much has been written about him by those who knew him or knew +those that did: yet the impression still made by him, and it is one of +the most powerful, is due mainly to his own books. Nor has anything +lately come to light to provide another writer on Borrow with an excuse. +The impertinence of the task can be tempered only by its apparent +hopelessness and by that necessity which Voltaire did not see. + +I shall attempt only a re-arrangement of the myriad details accessible to +all in the writings of Borrow and about Borrow. Such re-arrangement will +sometimes heighten the old effects and sometimes modify them. The total +impression will, I hope, not be a smaller one, though it must inevitably +be softer, less clear, less isolated, less gigantic. I do not wish, and +I shall not try, to deface Borrow's portrait of himself; I can only hope +that I shall not do it by accident. There may be a sense in which that +portrait can be called inaccurate. It may even be true that "lies--damned +lies" {1} helped to make it. But nobody else knows anything like as much +about the truth, and a peddling biographer's mouldy fragment of plain +fact may be far more dangerous than the manly lying of one who was in +possession of all the facts. In most cases the fact--to use an equivocal +term--is dead and blown away in dust while Borrow's impression is as +green as grass. His "lies" are lies only in the same sense as all +clothing is a lie. + +For example, he knew a Gypsy named Ambrose Smith, and had sworn +brotherhood with him as a boy. He wrote about this Gypsy, man and boy, +and at first called him, as the manuscripts bear witness, by his real +name, though Borrow thought of him in 1842 as Petulengro. In print he +was given the name Jasper Petulengro--Petulengro being Gypsy for +shoesmith--and as Jasper Petulengro he is now one of the most +unforgetable of heroes; the name is the man, and for many Englishmen his +form and character have probably created quite a new value for the name +of Jasper. Well, Jasper Petulengro lives. Ambrose Smith died in 1878, +at the age of seventy-four, after being visited by the late Queen +Victoria at Knockenhair Park: he was buried in Dunbar Cemetery. {2} + +In the matter of his own name Borrow made another creative change of a +significant kind. He was christened George Henry Borrow on July 17th +(having been born on the 5th), 1803, at East Dereham, in Norfolk. As a +boy he signed his name, George Henry Borrow. As a young man of the +Byronic age and a translator of Scandinavian literature, he called +himself in print, George Olaus Borrow. His biographer, Dr. William +Ireland Knapp, says that Borrow's first name "expressed the father's +admiration for the reigning monarch," George III.; but there is no reason +to believe this, and certainly Borrow himself made of the combination +which he finally adopted--George Borrow--something that retains not the +slightest flavour of any other George. Such changes are common enough. +John Richard Jefferies becomes Richard Jefferies; Robert Lewis Balfour +Stevenson becomes Robert Louis Stevenson. But Borrow could touch nothing +without transmuting it. For example, in his Byronic period, when he was +about twenty years of age, he was translating "romantic ballads" from the +Danish. In the last verse of one of these, called "Elvir Hill," he takes +the liberty of using the Byronic "lay": + + 'Tis therefore I counsel each young Danish swain who may ride in the + forest so dreary, + Ne'er to lay down upon lone Elvir Hill though he chance to be ever so + weary. + +Twenty years later he used this ballad romantically in writing about his +early childhood. He was travelling with his father's regiment from town +to town and from school to school, and they came to Berwick-upon-Tweed: +{3} + +"And it came to pass that, one morning, I found myself extended on the +bank of a river. It was a beautiful morning of early spring; small white +clouds were floating in the heaven, occasionally veiling the countenance +of the sun, whose light, as they retired, would again burst forth, +coursing like a racehorse over the scene--and a goodly scene it was! +Before me, across the water, on an eminence, stood a white old city, +surrounded with lofty walls, above which rose the tops of tall houses, +with here and there a church or steeple. To my right hand was a long and +massive bridge, with many arches and of antique architecture, which +traversed the river. The river was a noble one; the broadest that I had +hitherto seen. Its waters, of a greenish tinge, poured with impetuosity +beneath the narrow arches to meet the sea, close at hand, as the boom of +the billows breaking distinctly upon a beach declared. There were songs +upon the river from the fisher-barks; and occasionally a chorus, +plaintive and wild, such as I had never heard before, the words of which +I did not understand, but which at the present time, down the long avenue +of years, seem in memory's ear to sound like 'Horam, coram, dago.' +Several robust fellows were near me, some knee-deep in water, employed in +hauling the seine upon the strand. Huge fish were struggling amidst the +meshes--princely salmon--their brilliant mail of blue and silver flashing +in the morning beam; so goodly and gay a scene, in truth, had never +greeted my boyish eye. + +"And, as I gazed upon the prospect, my bosom began to heave, and my tears +to trickle. Was it the beauty of the scene which gave rise to these +emotions? Possibly; for though a poor ignorant child--a half-wild +creature--I was not insensible to the loveliness of nature, and took +pleasure in the happiness and handiworks of my fellow-creatures. Yet, +perhaps, in something more deep and mysterious the feeling which then +pervaded me might originate. Who can lie down on Elvir Hill without +experiencing something of the sorcery of the place? Flee from Elvir +Hill, young swain, or the maids of Elle will have power over you, and you +will go elf-wild!--so say the Danes. I had unconsciously laid myself +down on haunted ground; and I am willing to imagine that what I then +experienced was rather connected with the world of spirits and dreams +than with what I actually saw and heard around me. Surely the elves and +genii of the place were conversing, by some inscrutable means, with the +principle of intelligence lurking within the poor uncultivated clod! +Perhaps to that ethereal principle the wonders of the past, as connected +with that stream, the glories of the present, and even the history of the +future, were at that moment being revealed! Of how many feats of +chivalry had those old walls been witness, when hostile kings contended +for their possession?--how many an army from the south and from the north +had trod that old bridge?--what red and noble blood had crimsoned those +rushing waters?--what strains had been sung, ay, were yet being sung on +its banks?--some soft as Doric reed; some fierce and sharp as those of +Norwegian Skaldaglam; some as replete with wild and wizard force as +Finland's runes, singing of Kalevale's moors, and the deeds of +Woinomoinen! Honour to thee, thou island stream! Onward mayst thou ever +roll, fresh and green, rejoicing in thy bright past, thy glorious +present, and in vivid hope of a triumphant future! Flow on, beautiful +one!--which of the world's streams canst thou envy, with thy beauty and +renown? Stately is the Danube, rolling in its might through lands +romantic with the wild exploits of Turk, Polak, and Magyar! Lovely is +the Rhine! on its shelvy banks grows the racy grape; and strange old +keeps of robber-knights of yore are reflected in its waters, from +picturesque crags and airy headlands!--yet neither the stately Danube, +nor the beauteous Rhine, with all their fame, though abundant, needst +thou envy, thou pure island stream!--and far less yon turbid river of +old, not modern renown, gurgling beneath the walls of what was once proud +Rome, towering Rome, Jupiter's town, but now vile Rome, crumbling Rome, +Batuscha's town, far less needst thou envy the turbid Tiber of bygone +fame, creeping sadly to the sea, surcharged with the abominations of +modern Rome--how unlike to thee, thou pure island stream!" + +In this passage Borrow concentrates upon one scene the feelings of three +remote periods of his life. He gives the outward scene as he remembers +it forty years after, and together with the thoughts which now come into +his mind. He gives the romantic suggestion from one of the favourite +ballads of his youth, "Elvir Hill." He gives the child himself weeping, +he knows not why. Yet the passage is one and indivisible. + +These, at any rate, are not "lies--damned lies." + + + + +CHAPTER II--HIS OWN HERO + + +Borrow's principal study was himself, and in all his best books he is the +chief subject and the chief object. Yet when he came to write +confessedly and consecutively about himself he found it no easy task. Dr. +Knapp gives an interesting account of the stages by which he approached +and executed it. His first mature and original books, "The Zincali," or +"The Gypsies of Spain," and "The Bible in Spain," had a solid body of +subject matter more or less interesting in itself, and anyone with a pen +could have made it acceptable to the public which desires information. +"The Bible of Spain" was the book of the year 1843, read by everybody in +one or other of the six editions published in the first twelve months. +These books were also full of himself. Even "The Zincali," written for +the most part in Spain, when he was a man of about thirty and had no +reason for expecting the public to be interested in himself, especially +in a Gypsy crowd--even that early book prophesied very different things. +He said in the "preface" that he bore the Gypsies no ill-will, for he had +known them "for upwards of twenty years, in various countries, and they +never injured a hair of his head, or deprived him of a shred of his +raiment." The motive for this forbearance, he said, was that they +thought him a Gypsy. In his "introduction" he satisfied some curiosity, +but raised still more, when speaking of the English Gypsies and +especially of their eminence "in those disgraceful and brutalising +exhibitions called pugilistic combats." + +"When a boy of fourteen," he says, "I was present at a prize fight; why +should I hide the truth? It took place on a green meadow, beside a +running stream, close by the old church of E---, and within a league of +the ancient town of N---, the capital of one of the eastern counties. The +terrible Thurtell was present, lord of the concourse; for wherever he +moved he was master, and whenever he spoke, even when in chains, every +other voice was silent. He stood on the mead, grim and pale as usual, +with his bruisers around. He it was, indeed, who _got up_ the fight, as +he had previously done with respect to twenty others; it being his +frequent boast that he had first introduced bruising and bloodshed amidst +rural scenes, and transformed a quiet slumbering town into a den of Jews +and metropolitan thieves. Some time before the commencement of the +combat, three men, mounted on wild-looking horses, came dashing down the +road in the direction of the meadow, in the midst of which they presently +showed themselves, their horses clearing the deep ditches with wonderful +alacrity. 'That's Gypsy Will and his gang,' lisped a Hebrew pickpocket; +'we shall have another fight.' The word Gypsy was always sufficient to +excite my curiosity, and I looked attentively at the new comers. + +"I have seen Gypsies of various lands, Russian, Hungarian, and Turkish; +and I have also seen the legitimate children of most countries of the +world, but I never saw, upon the whole, three more remarkable +individuals, as far as personal appearance was concerned, than the three +English Gypsies who now presented themselves to my eyes on that spot. Two +of them had dismounted, and were holding their horses by the reins. The +tallest, and, at the first glance, the most interesting of the two, was +almost a giant, for his height could not have been less than six feet +three. It is impossible for the imagination to conceive any thing more +perfectly beautiful than were the features of this man, and the most +skilful sculptor of Greece might have taken them as his model for a hero +and a god. The forehead was exceedingly lofty--a rare thing in a Gypsy; +the nose less Roman than Grecian--fine yet delicate; the eyes large, +overhung with long drooping lashes, giving them almost a melancholy +expression; it was only when they were highly elevated that the Gypsy +glance peered out, if that can be called glance which is a strange stare, +like nothing else in this world. His complexion--a beautiful olive; and +his teeth of a brilliancy uncommon even amongst these people, who have +all fine teeth. He was dressed in a coarse waggoner's slop, which, +however, was unable to conceal altogether the proportions of his noble +and Herculean figure. He might be about twenty-eight. His companion and +his captain, Gypsy Will, was, I think, fifty when he was hanged, ten +years subsequently (for I never afterwards lost sight of him), in the +front of the jail of Bury St. Edmunds. I have still present before me +his bushy black hair, his black face, and his big black eyes, full and +thoughtful, but fixed and staring. His dress consisted of a loose blue +jockey coat, jockey boots and breeches; in his hand a huge jockey whip, +and on his head (it struck me at the time for its singularity) a broad- +brimmed, high-peaked Andalusian hat, or at least one very much resembling +those generally worn in that province. In stature he was shorter than +his more youthful companion, yet he must have measured six feet at least, +and was stronger built, if possible. What brawn!--what bone!--what +legs!--what thighs! The third Gypsy, who remained on horseback, looked +more like a phantom than any thing human. His complexion was the colour +of pale dust, and of that same colour was all that pertained to him, hat +and clothes. His boots were dusty of course, for it was midsummer, and +his very horse was of a dusty dun. His features were whimsically ugly, +most of his teeth were gone, and as to his age, he might be thirty or +sixty. He was somewhat lame and halt, but an unequalled rider when once +upon his steed, which he was naturally not very solicitous to quit. I +subsequently discovered that he was considered the wizard of the gang. + +{picture: John Thurtell. (From an old print.): page9.jpg} + +"I have been already prolix with respect to these Gypsies, but I will not +leave them quite yet. The intended combatants at length arrived; it was +necessary to clear the ring--always a troublesome and difficult task. +Thurtell went up to the two Gypsies, with whom he seemed to be +acquainted, and, with his surly smile, said two or three words, which I, +who was standing by, did not understand. The Gypsies smiled in return, +and giving the reins of their animals to their mounted companion, +immediately set about the task which the king of the flash-men had, as I +conjecture, imposed upon them; this they soon accomplished. Who could +stand against such fellows and such whips? The fight was soon over--then +there was a pause. Once more Thurtell came up to the Gypsies and said +something--the Gypsies looked at each other and conversed; but their +words had then no meaning for my ears. The tall Gypsy shook his head. +'Very well,' said the other, in English, 'I will--that's all.' + +"Then pushing the people aside, he strode to the ropes, over which he +bounded into the ring, flinging his Spanish hat high into the air. + +"_Gypsy Will_.--'The best man in England for twenty pounds!' + +"_Thurtell_.--'I am backer!' + +"Twenty pounds is a tempting sum, and there were men that day upon the +green meadow who would have shed the blood of their own fathers for the +fifth of the price. But the Gypsy was not an unknown man, his prowess +and strength were notorious, and no one cared to encounter him. Some of +the Jews looked eager for a moment; but their sharp eyes quailed quickly +before his savage glances, as he towered in the ring, his huge form +dilating, and his black features convulsed with excitement. The +Westminster bravos eyed the Gypsy askance; but the comparison, if they +made any, seemed by no means favourable to themselves. 'Gypsy! rum +chap.--Ugly customer,--always in training.' Such were the exclamations +which I heard, some of which at that period of my life I did not +understand. + +"No man would fight the Gypsy.--Yes! a strong country fellow wished to +win the stakes, and was about to fling up his hat in defiance, but he was +prevented by his friends, with--'Fool! he'll kill you!' + +"As the Gypsies were mounting their horses, I heard the dusty phantom +exclaim-- + +"'Brother, you are an arrant ring-maker and a horse-breaker; you'll make +a hempen ring to break your own neck of a horse one of these days.' + +"They pressed their horses' flanks, again leaped over the ditches, and +speedily vanished, amidst the whirlwinds of dust which they raised upon +the road. + +"The words of the phantom Gypsy were ominous. Gypsy Will was eventually +executed for a murder committed in his early youth, in company with two +English labourers, one of whom confessed the fact on his death-bed. He +was the head of the clan Young, which, with the clan Smith, still haunts +two of the eastern counties." + +In spite of this, Borrow said in the same book that this would probably +be the last occasion he would have to speak of the Gypsies or anything +relating to them. In "The Bible in Spain," written and revised several +years later, he changed his mind. He wrote plenty about Gypsies and +still more about himself. When he wished to show the height of the +Spanish Prime Minister, Mendizabal, he called him "a huge athletic man, +somewhat taller than myself, who measure six feet two without my shoes." +He informed the public that when he met an immense dog in strolling round +the ruins above Monte Moro, he stooped till his chin nearly touched his +knee and looked the animal full in the face, "and, as John Leyden says, +in the noblest ballad which the Land of Heather has produced:-- + + 'The hound he yowled, and back he fled, + As struck with fairy charm.'" + +When his servant Lopez was imprisoned at Villallos, Borrow had reason to +fear that the man would be sacrificed to political opponents in that +violent time, so, as he told the English minister at Madrid, he bore off +Lopez, single-handed and entirely unarmed, through a crowd of at least +one hundred peasants, and furthermore shouted: "Hurrah for Isabella the +Second." And as for mystery, "The Bible in Spain" abounds with +invitations to admiration and curiosity. Let one example suffice. He +had come back to Seville from a walk in the country when a man emerging +from an archway looked in his face and started back, "exclaiming in the +purest and most melodious French: 'What do I see? If my eyes do not +deceive me--it is himself. Yes, the very same as I saw him first at +Bayonne; then long subsequently beneath the brick wall at Novgorod; then +beside the Bosphorus; and last at--at--O my respectable and cherished +friend, where was it that I had last the felicity of seeing your well- +remembered and most remarkable physiognomy?'" + +Borrows answers: "It was in the south of Ireland, if I mistake not. Was +it not there that I introduced you to the sorcerer who tamed the savage +horses by a single whisper into their ear? But tell me, what brings you +to Spain and Andalusia, the last place where I should have expected to +find you." + +Baron Taylor (Isidore Justin Severin, Baron Taylor, 1789-1879) now +introduces him to a friend as "My most cherished and respectable friend, +one who is better acquainted with Gypsy ways than the Chef de Bohemiens a +Triana, one who is an expert whisperer and horse-sorcerer, and who, to +his honour I say it, can wield hammer and tongs, and handle a horse-shoe, +with the best of the smiths amongst the Alpujarras of Granada." + +Borrow then lightly portrays his accomplished and extraordinary +cosmopolitan friend, with the conclusion: + +"He has visited most portions of the earth, and it is remarkable enough +that we are continually encountering each other in strange places and +under singular circumstances. Whenever he descries me, whether in the +street or the desert, the brilliant hall or amongst Bedouin haimas, at +Novgorod or Stamboul, he flings up his arms and exclaims, 'O ciel! I +have again the felicity of seeing my cherished and most respectable B---.'" + +Borrow could not avoid making himself impressive and mysterious. He was +impressive and mysterious without an effort; the individual or the public +was impressed, and he was naturally tempted to be more impressive. Thus, +in December of the year 1832 he had to go to London for his first meeting +with the Bible Society, who had been recommended to give him work where +he could use his knowledge of languages. As he was at Norwich, the +distance was a hundred and twelve miles, and as he was poor he walked. He +spent fivepence-halfpenny on a pint of ale, half-pint of milk, a roll of +bread and two apples during the journey, which took him twenty-seven +hours. He reached the Society's office early in the morning and waited +for the secretary. When the secretary arrived he hoped that Borrow had +slept well on his journey. Borrow said that, as far as he knew, he had +not slept, because he had walked. The secretary's surprise can be +imagined from this alone, or if not, from what followed. For Borrow went +on talking, and told the man, among other things, that he was stolen by +Gypsies when he was a boy--had passed several years with them, but had at +last been recognised at a fair in Norfolk, and brought home to his family +by an uncle. It was not to be expected that Borrow would conceal from +the public "several years" of this kind. Nevertheless, in none of his +books has he so much as hinted at a period of adoption with Gypsies when +he was a boy. Nor has that massive sleuth-hound, Dr. Knapp, discovered +any traces of such an adoption. If there is any foundation for the story +except Borrow's wish to please the secretary, it is the escapade of his +fourteenth or fifteenth year--when he and three other boys from Norwich +Grammar School played truant, intending to make caves to dwell in among +the sandhills twenty miles away on the coast, but were recognised on the +road, deceitfully detained by a benevolent gentleman and within a few +days brought back, Borrow himself being horsed on the back of James +Martineau, according to the picturesque legend, for such a thrashing that +he had to lie in bed a fortnight and must bear the marks of it while he +was flesh and blood. Borrow celebrated this escapade by a ballad in +dialogue called "The Wandering Children and the Benevolent Gentleman. An +Idyll of the Roads." {13a} There may have been another escapade of the +same kind, for Dr Knapp {13b} prints an account of how Borrow, at the age +of fifteen, and two schoolfellows lived for three days in a cave at Acle +when they ought to have been at school. But his companions were the same +in both stories, and "three days in a cave" is a very modest increase for +such a story in half-a-century. It was only fifteen years later that +Borrow took revenge upon the truth and told the story of his exile with +the Gypsies. + +{picture: The Grammar School Norwich. Photo: Jarrold & Sons, Norwich: +page12.jpg} + +Probably every man has more or less clearly and more or less constantly +before his mind's eye an ideal self which the real seldom more than +approaches. This ideal self may be morally or in other ways inferior, +but it remains the standard by which the man judges his acts. Some men +prove the existence of this ideal self by announcing now and then that +they are misunderstood. Or they do things which they afterwards condemn +as irrelevant or uncharacteristic and out of harmony. Borrow had an +ideal self very clearly before him when he was writing, and it is +probable that in writing he often described not what he was but what in a +better, larger, freer, more Borrovian world he would have actually +become. He admired the work of his Creator, but he would not affect to +be satisfied with it in every detail, and stepping forward he snatched +the brush and made a bolder line and braver colour. Also he ardently +desired to do more than he ever did. When in Spain he wrote to his +friend Hasfeldt at St. Petersburg, telling him that he wished to visit +China by way of Russia or Constantinople and Armenia. When indignant +with the Bible Society in 1838 he suggested retiring to "the Wilds of +Tartary or the Zigani camps of Siberia." He continued to suggest China +even after his engagement to Mrs. Clarke. + +Just as he played up to the Secretary in conversation, so he played up to +the friends and the public who were allured by the stories left untold or +half-told in "The Zincali" and "The Bible in Spain." Chief among his +encouragers was Richard Ford, author (in 1845) of the "Handbook for +Travellers in Spain and Readers at Home," a man of character and style, +learned and a traveller. In 1841, before "The Bible in Spain" appeared, +Ford told Borrow how he wished that he had told more about himself, and +how he was going to hint in a review that Borrow ought to publish the +whole of his adventures for the last twenty years. The publisher's +reader, who saw the manuscript of "The Bible in Spain" in 1842, suggested +that Borrow should prefix a short account of his birth, parentage, +education and life. But already Borrow had taken Ford's hint and was +thinking of an autobiography. By the end of 1842 he was suggesting a +book on his early life, studies and adventures, Gypsies, boxers, +philosophers; and he afterwards announced that "Lavengro" was planned and +the characters sketched in 1842 and 1843. He saw himself as a public +figure that had to be treated heroically. Read, for example, his preface +to the second edition of "The Zincali," dated March 1, 1843. There he +tells of his astonishment at the success of "The Zincali," and of John +Murray bidding him not to think too much of the book but to try again and +avoid "Gypsy poetry, dry laws, and compilations from dull Spanish +authors." + +"Borromeo," he makes Murray say to him, "Borromeo, don't believe all you +hear, nor think that you have accomplished anything so very +extraordinary. . . ." + +And so, he says, he sat down and began "The Bible in Spain." He proceeds +to make a picture of himself amidst a landscape by some raving Titanic +painter's hand: + +"At first," he says, "I proceeded slowly,--sickness was in the land and +the face of nature was overcast,--heavy rain-clouds swam in the +heavens,--the blast howled amid the pines which nearly surround my lonely +dwelling, and the waters of the lake which lies before it, so quiet in +general and tranquil, were fearfully agitated. 'Bring lights hither, O +Hayim Ben Attar, son of the miracle!' And the Jew of Fez brought in the +lights, for though it was midday I could scarcely see in the little room +where I was writing. . . . + +"A dreary summer and autumn passed by, and were succeeded by as gloomy a +winter. I still proceeded with 'The Bible in Spain.' The winter passed +and spring came with cold dry winds and occasional sunshine, whereupon I +arose, shouted, and mounting my horse, even Sidi Habismilk, I scoured all +the surrounding district, and thought but little of 'The Bible in Spain.' + +"So I rode about the country, over the heaths, and through the green +lanes of my native land, occasionally visiting friends at a distance, and +sometimes, for variety's sake, I staid at home and amused myself by +catching huge pike, which lie perdue in certain deep ponds skirted with +lofty reeds, upon my land, and to which there is a communication from the +lagoon by a deep and narrow watercourse.--I had almost forgotten 'The +Bible in Spain.' + +"Then came the summer with much heat and sunshine, and then I would lie +for hours in the sun and recall the sunny days I had spent in Andalusia, +and my thoughts were continually reverting to Spain, and at last I +remembered that 'The Bible in Spain' was still unfinished; whereupon I +arose and said: This loitering profiteth nothing,--and I hastened to my +summer-house by the side of the lake, and there I thought and wrote, and +every day I repaired to the same place, and thought and wrote until I had +finished 'The Bible in Spain.' + +"And at the proper season 'The Bible in Spain' was given to the world; +and the world, both learned and unlearned, was delighted with 'The Bible +in Spain,' and the highest authority said, 'This is a much better book +than the Gypsies;' and the next great authority said, 'Something betwixt +Le Sage and Bunyan.' 'A far more entertaining work than Don Quixote,' +exclaimed a literary lady. 'Another Gil Blas,' said the cleverest writer +in Europe. 'Yes,' exclaimed the cool sensible Spectator, 'a Gil Blas _in +water colours_.' + +"A _Gil Blas_ in water colours"--that, he says himself, pleased him +better than all the rest. He liked to think that out of his adventures +in distributing Bibles in Spain, out of letters describing his work to +his employers, the Bible Society, he had made a narrative to be compared +with the fictitious life and adventures of that gentle Spanish rogue, Gil +Blas of Santillana. No wonder that he saw himself a public figure to be +treated reverently, nay! heroically. And so when he comes to consider +somebody's suggestion that the Gypsies are of Jewish origin, he relates a +"little adventure" of his own, bringing in Mr. Petulengro and the Jewish +servant whom he had brought back with him after his last visit to Spain. +He mounts the heroic figure upon an heroic horse: + +"So it came to pass," he says, "that one day I was scampering over a +heath, at some distance from my present home: I was mounted upon the good +horse Sidi Habismilk, and the Jew of Fez, swifter than the wind, ran by +the side of the good horse Habismilk, when what should I see at a corner +of the heath but the encampment of certain friends of mine; and the chief +of that camp, even Mr. Petulengro, stood before the encampment, and his +adopted daughter, Miss Pinfold, stood beside him. + +"_Myself_.--'Kosko divvus, {17a} Mr. Petulengro! I am glad to see you: +how are you getting on?' + +"_Mr. Petulengro_.--'How am I getting on? as well as I can. What will +you have for that nokengro?' {17b} + +"Thereupon I dismounted, and delivering the reins of the good horse to +Miss Pinfold, I took the Jew of Fez, even Hayim Ben Attar, by the hand, +and went up to Mr. Petulengro, exclaiming, 'Sure ye are two brothers.' +Anon the Gypsy passed his hand over the Jew's face, and stared him in the +eyes: then turning to me, he said, 'We are not dui palor; {17c} this man +is no Roman; I believe him to be a Jew; he has the face of one; besides +if he were a Rom, even from Jericho, he could rokra a few words in +Rommany.'" + +Still more important than this equestrian figure of Borrow on Sidi +Habismilk is the note on "The English Dialect of the Rommany" hidden away +at the end of the second edition of "The Zincali." + +"'Tachipen if I jaw 'doi, I can lel a bit of tan to hatch: N'etist I +shan't puch kekomi wafu gorgies.' + +"The above sentence, dear reader, I heard from the mouth of Mr. +Petulengro, the last time that he did me the honour to visit me at my +poor house, which was the day after Mol-divvus, {18a} 1842: he stayed +with me during the greatest part of the morning, discoursing on the +affairs of Egypt, the aspect of which, he assured me, was becoming daily +worse and worse. 'There is no living for the poor people, brother,' said +he, 'the chokengres (police) pursue us from place to place, and the +gorgios are become either so poor or miserly, that they grudge our cattle +a bite of grass by the way side, and ourselves a yard of ground to light +a fire upon. Unless times alter, brother, and of that I see no +probability, unless you are made either poknees or mecralliskoe geiro +(justice of the peace or prime minister), I am afraid the poor persons +will have to give up wandering altogether, and then what will become of +them? + +"'However, brother,' he continued, in a more cheerful tone: 'I am no +hindity mush, {18b} as you well know. I suppose you have not forgot how, +fifteen years ago, when you made horse-shoes in the little dingle by the +side of the great north road, I lent you fifty cottors {18c} to purchase +the wonderful trotting cob of the innkeeper with the green Newmarket +coat, which three days after you sold for two hundred. + +"'Well, brother, if you had wanted the two hundred, instead of the fifty, +I could have lent them to you, and would have done so, for I knew you +would not be long pazorrhus to me. I am no hindity mush, brother, no +Irishman; I laid out the other day twenty pounds, in buying ruponoe +peamengries; {19a} and in the Chong-gav, {19b} have a house of my own +with a yard behind it. + +"'_And_, _forsooth_, _if I go thither_, _I can choose a place to light a +fire upon_, _and shall have no necessity to ask leave of these here +Gentiles_.' + +"Well, dear reader, this last is the translation of the Gypsy sentence +which heads the chapter, and which is a very characteristic specimen of +the general way of speaking of the English Gypsies." + +Here be mysteries. The author of "The Bible in Spain" is not only taken +for a Gypsy, but once upon a time made horse-shoes in a dingle beside the +great north road and trafficked in horses. When Borrow told John Murray +of the Christmas meeting with Ambrose Smith, whom he now called "The +Gypsy King," he said he was dressed in "true regal fashion." On the last +day of that year he told Murray that he often meditated on his "life" and +was arranging scenes. That reminder about the dingle and the wonderful +trotting cob, and the Christmas wine, was stirring his brain. In two +months time he had begun to write his "Life." He got back from the Bible +Society the letters written to them when he was their representative in +Russia, and these he hoped to use as he had already used those written in +Spain. Ford encouraged him, saying: "Truth is great and always pleases. +Never mind nimminy-pimminy people thinking subjects _low_. Things are +low in manner of handling." In the midsummer of 1843 Borrow told Murray +that he was getting on--"some parts are very wild and strange," others +are full of "useful information." In another place he called the +pictures in it Rembrandts interspersed with Claudes. At first the book +was to have been "My Life, a Drama, by George Borrow"; at the end of the +year it was "Lavengro, a Biography," and also "My Life." He was writing +slowly "to please himself." Later on he called it a biography "in the +Robinson Crusoe style." Nearly three years passed since that meeting +with Mr. Petulengro, and still the book was not ready. Ford had been +pressing him to lift a corner of the curtain which he had gradually let +fall over the seven years of his life preceding his work for the Bible +Society, but he made no promise. He was bent on putting in nothing but +his best work, and avoiding haste. In July, 1848, Murray announced, +among his "new works in preparation," "Lavengro, an Autobiography, by +George Borrow." The first volume went to press in the autumn, and there +was another announcement of "Lavengro, an Autobiography," followed by one +of "Life, a Drama." Yet again in 1849 the book was announced as +"Lavengro, an Autobiography," though the first volume already bore the +title, "Life, a Drama." In 1850 publication was still delayed by +Borrow's ill health and his reluctance to finish and have done with the +book. It was still announced as "Lavengro, an Autobiography." But at +the end of the year it was "Lavengro: the Scholar--the Gypsy--the +Priest," and with that title it appeared early in 1851. Borrow was then +forty-six years old, and the third volume of his book left him still in +the dingle beside the great north road, when he was, according to the +conversation with Mr. Petulengro, a young man of twenty-one. + +{picture: East Dereham Church, Norfolk. Photo: H. T. Cave, East Dereham: +page21.jpg} + + + + +CHAPTER III--PRESENTING THE TRUTH + + +"Life, a Drama," was to have been published in 1849, and proof sheets +with this name and date on the title page were lately in my hands: as far +as page 168 the left hand page heading is "A Dramatic History," which is +there crossed out and "Life, a Drama" thenceforward substituted. Borrow's +corrections are worth the attention of anyone who cares for men and +books. + +"Lavengro" now opens with the sentence: "On an evening of July, in the +year 18--, at East D---, a beautiful little town in a certain district of +East Anglia, I first saw the light." + +The proof shows that Borrow preferred "a certain district of East Anglia" +to "The western division of Norfolk." Here the added shade of +indefiniteness can hardly seem valuable to any but the author himself. In +another place he prefers (chapter XIII.) the vague "one of the most +glorious of Homer's rhapsodies" to "the enchantments of Canidia, the +masterpiece of the prince of Roman poets." + +In the second chapter he describes how, near Pett, in Sussex, as a child +less than three years old, he took up a viper without being injured or +even resisted, amid the alarms of his mother and elder brother. After +this description he comments: + +"It is my firm belief that certain individuals possess an inherent power, +or fascination, over certain creatures, otherwise I should be unable to +account for many feats which I have witnessed, and, indeed, borne a share +in, connected with the taming of brutes and reptiles." + +This was in the proof preceded by a passage at first modified and then +cut out, reading thus: + +"In some parts of the world and more particularly in India there are +people who devote themselves to the pursuit and taming of serpents. Had +I been born in those regions I perhaps should have been what is termed a +snake charmer. That I had a genius for the profession, as probably all +have who follow it, I gave decided proof of the above instance as in +others which I shall have occasion subsequently to relate." + +This he cut out presumably because it was too "informing" and too little +"wild and strange." + +A little later in the same chapter he describes how, before he was four +years old, near Hythe, in Kent, he saw in a penthouse against an old +village church, "skulls of the old Danes": + +"'Long ago' (said the sexton, with Borrow's aid), 'long ago they came +pirating into these parts: and then there chanced a mighty shipwreck, for +God was angry with them, and He sunk them; and their skulls, as they came +ashore, were placed here as a memorial. There were many more when I was +young, but now they are fast disappearing. Some of them must have +belonged to strange fellows, madam. Only see that one; why, the two +young gentry can scarcely lift it!' And, indeed, my brother and myself +had entered the Golgotha, and commenced handling these grim relics of +mortality. One enormous skull, lying in a corner, had fixed our +attention, and we had drawn it forth. Spirit of eld, what a skull was +yon! + +"I still seem to see it, the huge grim thing; many of the others were +large, strikingly so, and appeared fully to justify the old man's +conclusion that their owners must have been strange fellows; but compared +with this mighty mass of bone they looked small and diminutive, like +those of pigmies; it must have belonged to a giant, one of those +red-haired warriors of whose strength and stature such wondrous tales are +told in the ancient chronicles of the north, and whose grave-hills, when +ransacked, occasionally reveal secrets which fill the minds of puny +moderns with astonishment and awe. Reader, have you ever pored days and +nights over the pages of Snorro? probably not, for he wrote in a language +which few of the present day understand, and few would be tempted to read +him tamed down by Latin dragomans. A brave old book is that of Snorro, +containing the histories and adventures of old northern kings and +champions, who seemed to have been quite different men, if we may judge +from the feats which they performed, from those of these days. One of +the best of his histories is that which describes the life of Harald +Haardraade, who, after manifold adventures by land and sea, now a pirate, +now a mercenary of the Greek emperor, became King of Norway, and +eventually perished at the battle of Stanford Bridge, whilst engaged in a +gallant onslaught upon England. Now, I have often thought that the old +Kemp, whose mouldering skull in the Golgotha at Hythe my brother and +myself could scarcely lift, must have resembled in one respect at least +this Harald, whom Snorro describes as a great and wise ruler and a +determined leader, dangerous in battle, of fair presence, and measuring +in height just _five ells_, neither more nor less." + +Of this incident he says he need offer no apology for relating it "as it +subsequently exercised considerable influence over his pursuits," _i.e._, +his study of Danish literature; but in the proof he added also that the +incident, "perhaps more than anything else, tended to bring my +imaginative powers into action"--this he cut out, though the skulls may +have impressed him as the skeleton disinterred by a horse impressed +Richard Jefferies and haunted him in his "Gamekeeper," "Meadow Thoughts," +and elsewhere. + +Sometimes he modified a showy phrase, and "when I became ambitious of the +title of Lavengro and strove to deserve it" was cut down to "when I +became a student." When he wrote of Cowper in the third chapter he said, +to justify Cowper's melancholy, that "Providence, whose ways are not our +ways, interposed, and with the withering blasts of misery nipped that +which otherwise might have terminated in fruit, noxious and lamentable"; +but he substituted a mere "perhaps" for the words about Providence. In +the description of young Jasper he changed his "short arms like" his +father, into "long arms unlike." + +In the fourteenth chapter Borrow describes his father's retirement from +the army after Waterloo, and his settling down at Norwich, so poor as to +be anxious for his children's future. He speaks of poor officers who +"had slight influence with the great who gave themselves very little +trouble either about them or their families." Originally he went on +thus, but cut out the words from the proof: + +"Yet I have reason for concluding that they were not altogether +overlooked by a certain power still higher than even the aristocracy of +England and with yet more extensive influence in the affairs of the +world. I allude to Providence, which, it is said, never forsakes those +who trust in it, as I suppose these old soldiers did, for I have known +many instances in which their children have contrived to make their way +gallantly in the world, unaided by the patronage of the great, whilst +others who were possessed of it were most miserably shipwrecked, being +suddenly overset by some unexpected squall, against which it could avail +them nothing." + +This change is a relief to the style. The next which I shall quote is +something more than that. It shows Borrow constructing the conversation +of his father and mother when they were considering his prospects at the +age of twelve. His father was complaining of the boy's Gypsy look, and +of his ways and manners, and of the strange company he kept in +Ireland--"people of evil report, of whom terrible things were said--horse- +witches and the like." His mother made the excuse: "But he thinks of +other things now." "Other languages, you mean," said his father. But in +the proof his mother adds to her speech, "He is no longer in Ireland," +and the father takes her up with, "So much the better for him; yet should +he ever fall into evil practices, I shall always lay it to the account of +that melancholy sojourn in Ireland and the acquaintances he formed +there." + +Instead of putting into his friend, the Anglo-Germanist Williams Taylor's +mouth, the opinion "that as we are aware that others frequently +misinterpret us, we are equally liable to fall into the same error with +respect to them," he alters it to the very different one, "That there is +always some eye upon us; and that it is impossible to keep anything we do +from the world, as it will assuredly be divulged by somebody as soon as +it is his interest to do so." + +In the twenty-fourth chapter Borrow makes Thurtell, the friend of +bruisers, hint, with unconscious tragic irony, at his famous end--by +dying upon the gallows for the murder of Mr. William Weare. He tells the +magistrate whom he has asked to lend him a piece of land for a +prize-fight that his own name is no matter. + +"However," he continues, "a time may come--we are not yet +buried--whensoever my hour arrives, I hope I shall prove myself equal to +my destiny, however high-- + + "Like bird that's bred amongst the Helicons." + +In the original Thurtell's quotation was: + + "No poor unminded outlaw sneaking home." + +This chapter now ends with the magistrate's question to young Borrow +about this man: "What is his name?" In the manuscript Borrow answered, +"John Thurtell." The proof had, "John . . ." Borrow hesitated, and in +the margin, having crossed out "John," he put the initial "J" as a +substitute, but finally crossed that out also. He was afraid of names +which other people might know and regard in a different way. Thus in the +same proof he altered "the philologist Scaliger" to "a certain +philologist": thus, too, he would not write down the name of Dereham, but +kept on calling it "pretty D---"; and when he had to refer to Cowper as +buried in Dereham Church he spoke of the poet, not by name, but as +"England's sweetest and most pious bard." + +{picture: Page 1 of "Lavengro," showing Borrow's corrections. +(Photographed from the Author's proof copy, by kind permission of Mr. +Kyllmann and Mr. Thos. Seccombe.) Photo: W. J. Roberts: page27.jpg} + + + + +CHAPTER IV--WHAT IS TRUTH? + + +These changes in the proof of what was afterwards called "Lavengro" were, +it need hardly be said, made in order to bring the words nearer to a +representation of the idea in Borrow's brain, and nearer to a perfect +harmony with one another. Take the case of Jasper Petulengro's arm. +Borrow knew the man Ambrose Smith well enough to know whether he had a +long or a short arm: for did not Jasper say to him when he was dismal, +"We'll now go to the tents and put on the gloves, and I'll try to make +you feel what a sweet thing it is to be alive, brother!" Possibly he had +a short arm like his father, but in reading the proof it must somehow +have seemed to Borrow that his Jasper Petulengro--founded on Ambrose +Smith and at many points resembling him--ought to have a long arm. The +short arm was true to "the facts"; the long arm was more impressive and +was truer to the created character, which was more important. + +It was hardly these little things that kept Borrow working at "Lavengro" +for nearly half of his fourth decade and a full half of his fifth. But +these little things were part of the great difficulty of making an +harmonious whole by changing, cutting out and inserting. When Ford and +John Murray's reader asked him for his life they probably meant a plain +statement of a few "important facts," such facts as there could hardly be +two opinions about, such facts as fill the ordinary biography or "Who's +Who." Borrow knew well enough that these facts either produce no effect +in the reader's mind or they produce one effect here and a different one +there, since the dullest mind cannot blankly receive a dead statement +without some effort to give it life. Borrow was not going to commit +himself to incontrovertible statements such as are or might be made to a +Life Insurance Company. He had no command of a tombstone style and would +not have himself circumscribed with full Christian name, date of birth, +etc., as a sexton or parish clerk might have done for him. Twenty years +later indeed--in 1862--he did write such an account of himself to be +printed as part of an appendix to a history of his old school at Norwich. +It is full of dates, but they are often inaccurate, and the years 1825 to +1833 he fills with "a life of roving adventures." He cannot refrain from +calling himself a great rider, walker and swimmer, or from telling the +story of how he walked from Norwich to London--he calls it London to +Norwich--in twenty-seven hours. But in 1862 he could rely on "Lavengro" +and "The Romany Rye"; he was an author at the end of his career, and he +had written himself down to the best of his genius. The case was +different in 1842. + +He saw himself as a man variously and mysteriously alive, very different +from every other man and especially from certain kinds of man. When you +look at a larch wood with a floor of fern in October at the end of +twilight, you are not content to have that wood described as so many +hundred poles growing on three acres of land, the property of a +manufacturer of gin. Still less was Borrow content to sit down at +Oulton, while the blast howled amid the pines which nearly surround his +lonely dwelling, and answer the genial Ford's questions one by one: "What +countries have you been in? What languages do you understand?" and so +on. Ford probably divined a book as substantial and well-furnished with +milestones as "The Bible in Spain," and he cheerfully told Borrow to make +the broth "thick and slab." + +Ford, in fact, doubled the difficulty. Not only did Borrow feel that his +book must create a living soul, but the soul must be heroic to meet the +expectations of Ford and the public. The equestrian group had been easy +enough--himself mounted on Sidi Habismilk, with the swift Jew and the +Gypsy at his side--but the life of a man was a different matter. Nor was +the task eased by his exceptional memory. He claimed, as has been seen, +to remember the look of the viper seen in his third year. Later, in +"Lavengro," he meets a tinker and buys his stock-in-trade to set himself +up with. The tinker tries to put him off by tales of the Blazing Tinman +who has driven him from his beat. Borrow answers that he can manage the +Tinman one way or other, saying, "I know all kinds of strange words and +names, and, as I told you before, I sometimes hit people when they put me +out." At last the tinker consents to sell his pony and things on one +condition. "Tell me what's my name," he says; "if you can't, may I--." +Borrow answers: "Don't swear, it's a bad habit, neither pleasant nor +profitable. Your name is Slingsby--Jack Slingsby. There, don't stare, +there's nothing in my telling you your name: I've been in these parts +before, at least not very far from here. Ten years ago, when I was +little more than a child, I was about twenty miles from here in a post +chaise, at the door of an inn, and as I looked from the window of the +chaise, I saw you standing by a gutter, with a big tin ladle in your +hand, and somebody called you Jack Slingsby. I never forget anything I +hear or see; I can't, I wish I could. So there's nothing strange in my +knowing your name; indeed there's nothing strange in anything, provided +you examine it to the bottom. Now what am I to give you for the things?" + +(I once heard a Gypsy give a similar and equal display of memory.) Dr. +Knapp has corroborated several details of "Lavengro" which confirm +Borrow's opinion of his memory. Hearing the author whom he met on his +walk beyond Salisbury, speak of the "wine of 1811, the comet year," +Borrow said that he remembered being in the market-place of Dereham, +looking at that comet. {30} Dr Knapp first makes sure exactly when +Borrow was at Dereham in 1811 and then that there was a comet visible +during that time. He proves also from newspapers of 1820 that the fight, +in the twenty sixth chapter of "Lavengro," ended in a thunderstorm like +that described by Borrow and used by Petulengro to forecast the violent +end of Thurtell. + +Now a brute memory like that, which cannot be gainsaid, is not an +entirely good servant to a man who will not put down everything he can, +like a boy at an examination. The ordinary man probably recalls all that +is of importance in his past life, though he may not like to think so, +but a man with a memory like Borrow's or with a supply of diaries like +Sir Mountstuart Grant Duff's may well ask, "What is truth?" as Borrow +often did. The facts may convey a false impression which an omission or +a positive "lie" may correct. + +{picture: A page from the author's proof copy of "Lavengro," showing +Borrow's significant corrections. (Photographed by kind permission of +Mr. Kyllmann and Mr. Thos. Seccombe.) Photo: W. J. Roberts: page30.jpg} + +Just at first, as has been seen, a month after his Christmas wine with Mr +Petulengro, Borrow saw his life as a drama, perhaps as a melodrama, full +of Gypsies, jockeys and horses, wild men of many lands and several +murderers. "Capital subject," he repeated. That was when he saw himself +as an adventurer and Europe craning its neck to keep him in sight. But +he knew well, and after the first flush he remembered, that he was not +merely a robust walker, rider and philologist. When he was only eighteen +he was continually asking himself "What is truth?" "I had," he says, +"involved myself imperceptibly in a dreary labyrinth of doubt, and, +whichever way I turned, no reasonable prospect of extricating myself +appeared. The means by which I had brought myself into this situation +may be very briefly told; I had inquired into many matters, in order that +I might become wise, and I had read and pondered over the words of the +wise, so called, till I had made myself master of the sum of human +wisdom; namely, that everything is enigmatical and that man is an enigma +to himself; thence the cry of 'What is truth?' I had ceased to believe +in the truth of that in which I had hitherto trusted, and yet could find +nothing in which I could put any fixed or deliberate belief. I was, +indeed, in a labyrinth! In what did I not doubt? With respect to crime +and virtue I was in doubt; I doubted that the one was blameable and the +other praiseworthy. Are not all things subjected to the law of +necessity? Assuredly; time and chance govern all things: yet how can +this be? alas! + +"Then there was myself; for what was I born? Are not all things born to +be forgotten? That's incomprehensible: yet is it not so? Those +butterflies fall and are forgotten. In what is man better than a +butterfly? All then is born to be forgotten. Ah! that was a pang +indeed; 'tis at such a moment that a man wishes to die. The wise king of +Jerusalem, who sat in his shady arbours beside his sunny fishpools, +saying so many fine things, wished to die, when he saw that not only all +was vanity, but that he himself was vanity. Will a time come when all +will be forgotten that now is beneath the sun? If so, of what profit is +life? . . . + +"'Would I had never been born!' I said to myself; and a thought would +occasionally intrude. But was I ever born? Is not all that I see a +lie--a deceitful phantom? Is there a world, and earth, and sky? . . ." + +If he no longer articulated these doubts he was still not as sure of +himself as Ford imagined. He was, by the way, seldom sure of his own +age, and Dr. Knapp {31} gives four instances of his underestimating it by +two and even five years. Whatever may be the explanation of this, after +three years' work at "Lavengro" he "will not be hurried for anyone." He +was probably finding that, with no notebooks or letters to help, the work +was very different from the writing of "The Bible in Spain," which was +pieced together out of long letters to the Bible Society, and, moreover, +was written within a few years of the events described. The events of +his childhood and youth had retired into a perspective that was beyond +his control: he would often be tempted to change their perspective, to +bring forward some things, to set back others. In any case these things +were no longer mere solid material facts. They were living a silent life +of spirits within his brain. He took to calling the book his "life" or +"autobiography," not "Life: a Drama." It was advertised as such; but he +would not have it. At the last moment he refused to label it an +autobiography, because he knew that it was inadequate, and that in any +case other men would not understand or would misunderstand it. He must +have felt certain that the fair figure of "Don Jorge," created in "The +Bible of Spain," had been poisoned for most readers by many a passage in +"Lavengro," like that where he doubted the existence of self and sky and +stars, or where he told of the breakdown in his health when he was +sixteen and of the gloom that followed: + +"But how much more quickly does strength desert the human frame than +return to it! I had become convalescent, it is true, but my state of +feebleness was truly pitiable. I believe it is in that state that the +most remarkable feature of human physiology frequently exhibits itself. +Oh, how dare I mention the dark feeling of mysterious dread which comes +over the mind, and which the lamp of reason, though burning bright the +while, is unable to dispel! Art thou, as leeches say, the concomitant of +disease--the result of shattered nerves? Nay, rather the principle of +woe itself, the fountain head of all sorrow co-existent with man, whose +influence he feels when yet unborn, and whose workings he testifies with +his earliest cries, when, 'drowned in tears,' he first beholds the light; +for, as the sparks fly upward, so is man born to trouble, and woe doth he +bring with him into the world, even thyself, dark one, terrible one, +causeless, unbegotten, without a father. Oh, how frequently dost thou +break down the barriers which divide thee from the poor soul of man, and +overcast its sunshine with thy gloomy shadow. In the brightest days of +prosperity--in the midst of health and wealth--how sentient is the poor +human creature of thy neighbourhood! how instinctively aware that the +floodgates of horror may be cast open, and the dark stream engulf him for +ever and ever! Then is it not lawful for man to exclaim, 'Better that I +had never been born!' Fool, for thyself thou wast not born, but to +fulfil the inscrutable decrees of thy Creator; and how dost thou know +that this dark principle is not, after all, thy best friend; that it is +not that which tempers the whole mass of thy corruption? It may be, for +what thou knowest, the mother of wisdom, and of the great works: it is +the dread of the horror of the night that makes the pilgrim hasten on his +way. When thou feelest it nigh, let thy safety word be 'Onward'; if thou +tarry, thou art overwhelmed. Courage! build great works--'tis urging +thee--it is ever nearest the favourites of God--the fool knows little of +it. Thou wouldst be joyous, wouldst thou? then be a fool. What great +work was ever the result of joy, the puny one? Who have been the wise +ones, the mighty ones, the conquering ones of this earth? the joyous? I +believe not. The fool is happy, or comparatively so--certainly the least +sorrowful, but he is still a fool; and whose notes are sweetest, those of +the nightingale, or of the silly lark? + +* * * * * + +"'What ails you, my child?' said a mother to her son, as he lay on a +couch under the influence of the dreadful one; 'what ails you? you seem +afraid!' + +"_Boy_.--'And so I am; a dreadful fear is upon me.' + +"_Mother_.--'But of what? there is no one can harm you; of what are you +apprehensive?' + +"_Boy_.--'Of nothing that I can express; I know not what I am afraid of, +but afraid I am.' + +"_Mother_.--'Perhaps you see sights and visions; I knew a lady once who +was continually thinking that she saw an armed man threaten her, but it +was only an imagination, a phantom of the brain.' + +"_Boy_.--'No armed man threatens me; and 'tis not a thing that would +cause me any fear. Did an armed man threaten me, I would get up and +fight him; weak as I am, I would wish for nothing better, for then, +perhaps, I should lose this fear; mine is a dread of I know not what, and +there the horror lies.' + +"_Mother_.--'Your forehead is cool, and your speech collected. Do you +know where you are?' + +"_Boy_.--'I know where I am, and I see things just as they are; you are +beside me, and upon the table there is a book which was written by a +Florentine; all this I see, and that there is no ground for being afraid. +I am, moreover, quite cool, and feel no pain--but, but--' + +"And then there was a burst of 'gemiti, sospiri ed alti guai.' Alas, +alas, poor child of clay! as the sparks fly upward, so wast thou born to +sorrow--Onward!" + +And if men passed over this as a youthful distemper, rather often +recurring, what would they make of his saying that "Fame after death is +better than the top of fashion in life"? Would they not accuse him of +entertaining them, as he did his companion and half-sweetheart of the +dingle, Isopel Berners, "with strange dreams of adventure, in which he +figures in opaque forests, strangling wild beasts, or discovering and +plundering the hordes of dragons; and sometimes . . . other things far +more genuine--how he had tamed savage mares, wrestled with Satan, and had +dealings with ferocious publishers"? + +He did not simplify the matter by his preface. There he announced that +the book was "a dream." He had, he said, endeavoured to describe a +dream, partly of adventure, in which will be found copious notices of +books and many descriptions of life and manners, some in a very unusual +form. A dream containing "copious notices of books"! A dream in three +volumes and over a thousand pages! A dream which he had "endeavoured to +describe"! From these three words it was necessary to suppose that it +was a real dream, not a narrative introduced by the machinery of a dream, +like "Pilgrim's Progress," and "The Dream of Fair Women." And so it was. +The book was not an autobiography but a representation of a man's life in +the backward dream of memory. He had refused to drag the events of his +life out of the spirit land, to turn them into a narrative on the same +plane as a newspaper, leaving readers to convert them back again into +reality or not, according to their choice or ability. His life seemed to +him a dream, not a newspaper obituary, not an equestrian statue on a +pedestal in Albemarle Street opposite John Murray's office. + +The result was that "the long-talked-of autobiography" disappointed those +who expected more than a collection of bold picaresque sketches. "It is +not," complained the "Athenaeum," "an autobiography, even with the +licence of fiction;" "the interest of autobiography is lost," and as a +work of fiction it is a failure. "Fraser's Magazine" said that it was +"for ever hovering between Romance and Reality, and the whole tone of the +narrative inspires profound distrust. Nay, more, it will make us +disbelieve the tales in 'The Zincali' and 'The Bible in Spain.'" Another +critic found "a false dream in the place of reality, a shadowy nothing in +the place of that something all who had read 'The Bible in Spain' craved +and hoped for from his pen." His friend, William Bodham Donne, in +"Tait's Edinburgh Magazine," explained how "Lavengro" was "not exactly +what the public had been expecting." Another friend, Whitwell Elwin, in +the "Quarterly Review," reviewing "Lavengro" and its continuation, "The +Romany Rye," not only praised the truth and vividness of the +descriptions, but said that "various portions of the history are known to +be a faithful narrative of Mr. Borrow's career, while we ourselves can +testify, as to many other parts of his volumes, that nothing can excel +the fidelity with which he has described both men and things," and "why +under these circumstances he should envelop the question in mystery is +more than we can divine. There can be no doubt that the larger part, and +possibly the whole, of the work is a narrative of actual occurrences, and +just as little that it would gain immensely by a plain avowal of the +fact." I have suggested that there were good reasons for not calling the +work an autobiography. Dr. Knapp has shown in his fortieth chapter that +the narrative was interrupted to admit lengthy references to much later +events for purposes of "occult vengeance"; and that these interruptions +helped to cause the delay and to change the title there can be little +doubt. + +Borrow was angry at the failure of "Lavengro," and in the appendix to +"The Romany Rye" he actually said that he had never called "Lavengro" an +autobiography and never authorised anyone to call it such. This was not +a lie but a somewhat frantic assertion that his critics were mistaken +about his "dream." In later years he quietly admitted that "Lavengro" +gave an account of his early life. + +Yet Dr. Knapp was not strictly and completely accurate in saying that the +first volume of "Lavengro" is "strictly autobiographical and authentic as +the whole was at first intended to be." He could give no proof that +Borrow's memory went back to his third year or that he first handled a +viper at that time. He could only show that Borrow's accounts do not +conflict with other accounts of the same matters. When they did +conflict, Dr. Knapp was unduly elated by the discovery. + +Take, for example, the sixteenth chapter of "Lavengro," where he +describes the horse fair at Norwich when he was a boy: + +"The reader is already aware that I had long since conceived a passion +for the equine race, a passion in which circumstances had of late not +permitted me to indulge. I had no horses to ride, but I took pleasure in +looking at them; and I had already attended more than one of these fairs: +the present was lively enough, indeed horse fairs are seldom dull. There +was shouting and whooping, neighing and braying; there was galloping and +trotting; fellows with highlows and white stockings, and with many a +string dangling from the knees of their tight breeches, were running +desperately, holding horses by the halter, and in some cases dragging +them along; there were long-tailed steeds, and dock-tailed steeds of +every degree and breed; there were droves of wild ponies, and long rows +of sober cart horses; there were donkeys and even mules: the last rare +things to be seen in damp, misty England, for the mule pines in mud and +rain, and thrives best with a hot sun above and a burning sand below. +There were--oh, the gallant creatures! I hear their neigh upon the wind; +there were--goodliest sight of all--certain enormous quadrupeds only seen +to perfection in our native isle, led about by dapper grooms, their manes +ribanded and their tails curiously clubbed and balled. Ha! ha!--how +distinctly do they say, ha! ha! + +"An old man draws nigh, he is mounted on a lean pony, and he leads by the +bridle one of these animals; nothing very remarkable about that creature, +unless in being smaller than the rest and gentle, which they are not; he +is not of the sightliest look; he is almost dun, and over one eye a thick +film has gathered. But stay! there _is_ something remarkable about that +horse, there is something in his action in which he differs from all the +rest: as he advances, the clamour is hushed! all eyes are turned upon +him--what looks of interest--of respect--and, what is this? people are +taking off their hats--surely not to that steed! Yes, verily! men, +especially old men, are taking off their hats to that one-eyed steed, and +I hear more than one deep-drawn ah! + +"'What horse is that?' said I to a very old fellow, the counterpart of +the old man on the pony, save that the last wore a faded suit of +velveteen, and this one was dressed in a white frock. + +"'The best in mother England,' said the very old man, taking a knobbed +stick from his mouth, and looking me in the face, at first carelessly, +but presently with something like interest; 'he is old like myself, but +can still trot his twenty miles an hour. You won't live long, my swain; +tall and overgrown ones like thee never does; yet, if you should chance +to reach my years, you may boast to thy great grand boys, thou hast seen +Marshland Shales.' + +"Amain I did for the horse what I would neither do for earl or baron, +doffed my hat; yes! I doffed my hat to the wondrous horse, the fast +trotter, the best in mother England; and I, too, drew a deep ah! and +repeated the words of the old fellows around. 'Such a horse as this we +shall never see again, a pity that he is so old.'" + +But Dr. Knapp informs us that the well-known trotting stallion, Marshland +Shales, was not offered for sale by auction until 1827, when he was +twenty-five years old, and ten years after the date implied in +"Lavengro." And what is more, Dr. Knapp concludes that Borrow must have +been in Norwich in 1827, on the fair day, April 12. + + + + +CHAPTER V--HIS PREDECESSORS + + +I do not wish to make Borrow out a suffering innocent in the hands of +that learned heavy-weight and wag, Dr. Knapp. Borrow was a writing man; +he was sometimes a friend of jockeys, of Gypsies and of pugilists, but he +was always a writing man; and the writer who is delighted to have his +travels in Spain compared with the rogue romance, "Gil Blas," is no +innocent. Photography, it must be remembered, was not invented. It was +not in those days thought possible to get life on to the paper by copying +it with ink. Words could not be the equivalents of acts. Life itself is +fleeting, but words remain and are put to our account. Every action, it +is true, is as old as man and never perishes without an heir. But so are +words as old as man, and they are conservative and stern in their +treatment of transitory life. Every action seems new and unique to the +doer, but how rarely does it seem so when it is recorded in words, how +rarely perhaps it is possible for it to seem so. A new form of +literature cannot be invented to match the most grand or most lovely +life. And fortunately; for if it could, one more proof of the ancient +lineage of our life would have been lost. Borrow did not sacrifice the +proof. He had read many books in many languages, and he had a strong +taste. He liked "Gil Blas," which is a simple chain of various and +surprising adventures. He liked the lives of criminals in the "Newgate +Lives and Trials" (or rather "Celebrated Trials," 1825), which he +compiled for a publisher in his youth. + +"What struck me most," he said, "with respect to these lives was the art +which the writers, whoever they were, possessed of telling a plain story. +It is no easy thing to tell a story plainly and distinctly by mouth; but +to tell one on paper is difficult indeed, so many snares lie in the way. +People are afraid to put down what is common on paper, they seek to +embellish their narrative, as they think, by philosophic speculations and +reflections; they are anxious to shine, and people who are anxious to +shine, can never tell a plain story. 'So I went with them to a music +booth, where they made me almost drunk with gin, and began to talk their +flash language, which I did not understand,' says, or is made to say, +Henry Simms, executed at Tyburn some seventy years before the time of +which I am speaking. I have always looked upon this sentence as a +masterpiece of the narrative style, it is so concise and yet so very +clear." + +Borrow read Bunyan, Sterne and Smollett: he liked Byron's "Childe Harold" +and his "Ode to Napoleon Bonaparte";--he liked that portrait with all +Europe and all history for a background. Above all, he read Defoe, and +in the third chapter of "Lavengro" he has described his first sight of +"Robinson Crusoe" as a little child: + +"The first object on which my eyes rested was a picture; it was +exceedingly well executed, at least the scene which it represented made a +vivid impression upon me, which would hardly have been the case had the +artist not been faithful to nature. A wild scene it was--a heavy sea and +rocky shore, with mountains in the background, above which the moon was +peering. Not far from the shore, upon the water, was a boat with two +figures in it, one of which stood at the bow, pointing with what I knew +to be a gun at a dreadful shape in the water; fire was flashing from the +muzzle of the gun, and the monster appeared to be transfixed. I almost +thought I heard its cry. I remained motionless, gazing upon the picture, +scarcely daring to draw my breath, lest the new and wondrous world should +vanish of which I had now obtained a glimpse. 'Who are those people, and +what could have brought them into that strange situation?' I asked +myself; and now the seed of curiosity, which had so long lain dormant, +began to expand, and I vowed to myself to become speedily acquainted with +the whole history of the people in the boat. After looking on the +picture till every mark and line in it were familiar to me, I turned over +various leaves till I came to another engraving; a new source of wonder--a +low sandy beach on which the furious sea was breaking in mountain-like +billows; cloud and rack deformed the firmament, which wore a dull and +leaden-like hue; gulls and other aquatic fowls were toppling upon the +blast, or skimming over the tops of the maddening waves--'Mercy upon him! +he must be drowned!' I exclaimed, as my eyes fell upon a poor wretch who +appeared to be striving to reach the shore; he was upon his legs, but was +evidently half smothered with the brine; high above his head curled a +horrible billow, as if to engulf him for ever. 'He must be drowned! he +must be drowned!' I almost shrieked, and dropped the book. I soon +snatched it up again, and now my eye lighted on a third picture; again a +shore, but what a sweet and lovely one, and how I wished to be treading +it; there were beautiful shells lying on the smooth white sand, some were +empty like those I had occasionally seen on marble mantelpieces, but out +of others peered the heads and bodies of wondrous crayfish; a wood of +thick green trees skirted the beach and partly shaded it from the rays of +the sun, which shone hot above, while blue waves slightly crested with +foam were gently curling against it; there was a human figure upon the +beach, wild and uncouth, clad in the skins of animals, with a huge cap on +his head, a hatchet at his girdle, and in his hand a gun; his feet and +legs were bare; he stood in an attitude of horror and surprise; his body +was bent far back, and his eyes, which seemed starting out of his head, +were fixed upon a mark on the sand--a large distinct mark--a human +footprint! + +"Reader, is it necessary to name the book which now stood open in my +hand, and whose very prints, feeble expounders of its wondrous lines, had +produced within me emotions strange and novel? Scarcely, for it was a +book which has exerted over the minds of Englishmen an influence +certainly greater than any other of modern times, which has been in most +people's hands, and with the contents of which even those who cannot read +are to a certain extent acquainted; a book from which the most luxuriant +and fertile of our modern prose writers have drunk inspiration; a book, +moreover, to which, from the hardy deeds which it narrates, and the +spirit of strange and romantic enterprise which it tends to awaken, +England owes many of her astonishing discoveries both by sea and land, +and no inconsiderable part of her naval glory. + +"Hail to thee, spirit of De Foe! What does not my own poor self owe to +thee? England has better bards than either Greece or Rome, yet I could +spare them easier far than De Foe, 'unabashed De Foe,' as the hunchbacked +rhymer styled him." + +It was in this manner, he declares, that he "first took to the paths of +knowledge," and when he began his own "autobiography" he must have well +remembered the opening of "Robinson Crusoe":--"I was born in the year +1632, in the City of York, of a good family, though not of that country, +my father being a foreigner of Bremen, named Kreutznaer, who first +settled at Hull," though Borrow himself would have written it: "I was +born in the year 16---, in the City of Y---, of a good family, though not +of that country, my father being a foreigner of Bremen, named Kruschen, +who first settled at H---." Probably he remembered also that other +fictitious autobiography of Defoe's, "The Adventures of Captain +Singleton," of the child who was stolen and disposed of to a Gypsy and +lived with his good Gypsy mother until she happened to be hanged, a +little too soon for him to be "perfected in the strolling trade." Defoe +had told him long before Richard Ford that he need not be afraid of being +low. He could always give the same excuse as Defoe in "Moll +Flanders"--"as the best use is to be made even of the worst story, the +moral, 'tis hoped, will keep the reader serious, even where the story +might incline him to be otherwise." In fact, Borrow did afterwards claim +that his book set forth in as striking a way as any "the kindness and +providence of God." Even so, De Quincey suggested as an excuse in his +"Confessions" the service possibly to be rendered to other opium-eaters. +Borrow tells us in the twenty-second chapter of "Lavengro" how he sought +for other books of adventure like "Robinson Crusoe"--which he will not +mention by name!--and how he read many "books of singular power, but of +coarse and prurient imagination." One of these, "The English Rogue," he +describes as a book "written by a remarkable genius." He might have +remembered in its preface the author lamenting that, though it was meant +for the life of a "witty extravagant," readers would regard it as the +author's own life, "and notwithstanding all that hath been said to the +contrary many still continue in this belief." He might also have +remembered that the apology for portraying so much vice was that the +ugliness of it--"her _vizard-mask_ being remov'd"--"cannot but cause in +her (_quondam_) adorers, a _loathing_ instead of _loving_." The dirty +hero runs away as a boy and on the very first day tires of nuts and +blackberries and longs "to taste of the _fleshpots_ again." He sleeps in +a barn until he is waked, pursued and caught by Gypsies. He agrees to +stay with them, and they have a debauch of eating, drinking and +fornication, which makes him well content to join the "Ragged Regiment." +They colour his face with walnut juice so that he looks a "true son of an +Egyptian." Hundreds of pages are filled thereafter by tediously dragging +in, mostly from other books, joyless and leering adventures of low +dishonesty and low lust. Another book of the kind which Borrow knew was +the life of Bamfylde Moore-Carew, born in 1693 at a Devonshire rectory. +He hunted the deer with some of his schoolfellows from Tiverton and they +played truant for fear of punishment. They fell in with some Gypsies +feasting and carousing and asked to be allowed to "enlist into their +company." The Gypsies admitted them after the "requisite ceremonies" and +"proper oaths." The philosophy of Carew or his historian is worth +noticing. He says of the Gypsies: + +"There are perhaps no people so completely happy as they are, or enjoy so +great a share of liberty. The king is elective by the whole people, but +none are allowed to stand as candidates for that honour but such as have +been long in their society, and perfectly studied the nature and +institution of it; they must likewise have given repeated proofs of their +personal wisdom, courage and capacity; this is better known as they +always keep a public record or register of all remarkable (either good or +bad) actions performed by any of their society, and they can have no +temptation to make choice of any but the most worthy, as their king has +no titles or legislative employments to bestow, which might influence or +corrupt their judgments. + +"The laws of these people are few and simple, but most exactly and +punctually observed; the fundamental of which is that strong love and +mutual regard for each member in particular and for the whole community +in general, which is inculcated into them from the earliest infancy. . . . +Experience has shown them that, by keeping up their nice sense of +honour and shame, they are always enabled to keep their community in +better order than the most severe corporal punishments have been able to +effect in other governments. + +"But what has still more tended to preserve their happiness is that they +know no other use of riches than the enjoyment of them. They know no +other use of it than that of promoting mirth and good humour; for which +end they generously bring their gains into a common stock, whereby they +whose gains are small have an equal enjoyment with those whose profits +are larger, excepting only that a mark or ignominy is affixed on those +who do not contribute to the common stock proportionately to their +abilities and the opportunities they have of gain, and this is the source +of their uninterrupted happiness; fully this means they have no griping +usurer to grind them, no lordly possessor to trample on them, nor any +envyings to torment them; they have no settled habitations, but, like the +Scythian of old, remove from place to place, as often as their +convenience or pleasure requires it, which render their life a perpetual +source of the greatest variety. + +"By what we have said above, and much more that we could add of the +happiness of these people and of their peculiar attachment to each other, +we may account for what has been matter of much surprise to the friends +of our hero, viz., his strong attachment, for the space of about forty +years, to this community, and his refusing the large offers that have +been made to quit their society." + +Carew himself met with nothing but success in his various impersonations +of Tom o' Bedlam, a rat-catcher, a non-juring clergyman, a shipwrecked +Quaker, and an aged woman with three orphan grandchildren. He was +elected King of the Beggars, and lost the dignity only by deliberate +abdication. "The restraints of a town not suiting him after the free +rambling life he had led, he took a house in the country, and having +acquired some property on the decease of a relation, he was in a position +to purchase a residence more suited to his taste, and lived for some +years a quiet life 'respected best by those who knew him best.'" + +A very different literary hero of Borrow's was William Cobbett, in spite +of his radical opinions. Cobbett was a man who wrote, as it were, with +his fist, not the tips of his fingers. When I begin to read him I think +at once of a small country town where men talk loudly to one another at a +distance or as they walk along in opposite directions, and the voices +ring as their heels do on the cobbles. He is not a man of arguments, but +of convictions. He is so full of convictions that, though not an +indolent man, he has no time for arguments. "On this stiff ground," he +says in North Wiltshire, "they grow a good many beans and give them to +the pigs with whey; which makes excellent pork for the _Londoners_; but +which must meet with a pretty hungry stomach to swallow it in Hampshire." +When he was being shouted down at Lewes in 1822, and someone moved that +he should be put out of the room, he says: "I rose that they might see +the man that they had to put out." The hand that holds the bridle holds +the pen. The night after he has been hare-hunting--Friday, November the +sixteenth, 1821, at Old Hall, in Herefordshire--he writes down this note +of it: + +"A whole day most delightfully passed a hare-hunting, with a pretty pack +of hounds kept here by Messrs. Palmer. They put me upon a horse that +seemed to have been made on purpose for me, strong, tall, gentle and +bold; and that carried me either over or through every thing. I, who am +just the weight of a four-bushel sack of good wheat, actually sat on her +back from daylight in the morning to dusk (about nine hours) without once +setting my foot on the ground. Our ground was at Orcop, a place about +four miles distance from this place. We found a hare in a few minutes +after throwing off; and, in the course of the day, we had to find four, +and were never more than ten minutes in finding. A steep and naked +ridge, lying between two flat valleys, having a mixture of pretty large +fields and small woods, formed our ground. The hares crossed the ridge +forward and backward, and gave us numerous views and very fine sport. I +never rode on such steep ground before; and, really, in going up and down +some of the craggy places, where the rain had washed the earth from the +rocks, I did think, once or twice of my neck, and how Sidmouth would like +to see me. As to the _cruelty_, as some pretend, of this sport, that +point I have, I think, settled, in one of the chapters of my 'Year's +Residence in America.' As to the expense, a pack, even a full pack of +harriers, like this, costs less than two bottles of wine a day with their +inseparable concomitants. And as to the _time_ spent, hunting is +inseparable from _early rising_; and, with habits of early rising, who +ever wanted time for any business?" + +Borrow could not resist this man's plain living and plain thinking, or +his sentences that are like acts--like blows or strides. And if he had +needed any encouragement in the expression of prejudices, Cobbett offered +it. The following, from "Cottage Economy," will serve as an example. It +is from a chapter on "Brewing":-- + +"The practice of tea drinking must render the frame feeble and unfit to +encounter hard labour or severe weather, while, as I have shown, it +deducts from the means of replenishing the belly and covering the back. +Hence succeeds a softness, an effeminacy, a seeking for the fireside, a +lurking in the bed, and, in short, all the characteristics of idleness +for which, in his case, real want of strength furnishes an apology. The +tea drinking fills the public-house, makes the frequenting of it +habitual, corrupts boys as soon as they are able to move from home, and +does little less for the girls, to whom the gossip of the teatable is no +bad preparatory school for the brothel. At the very least, it teaches +them idleness. The everlasting dawdling about with the slops of the tea- +tackle gives them a relish for nothing that requires strength and +activity. When they go from home, they know how to do nothing that is +useful, to brew, to bake, to make butter, to milk, to rear poultry; to do +any earthly thing of use they are wholly unqualified. To shut poor young +creatures up in manufactories is bad enough; but there at any rate they +do something that is useful; whereas the girl that has been brought up +merely to boil the teakettle, and to assist in the gossip inseparable +from the practice, is a mere consumer of food, a pest to her employer, +and a curse to her husband, if any man be so unfortunate as to fix his +affections upon her. + +"But is it in the power of any man, any good labourer who has attained +the age of fifty, to look back upon the last thirty years of his life, +without cursing the day in which tea was introduced into England? Where +is there such a man who cannot trace to this cause a very considerable +part of all the mortifications and sufferings of his life? When was he +ever too late at his labour; when did he ever meet with a frown, with a +turning off and with pauperism on that account, without being able to +trace it to the teakettle? When reproached with lagging in the morning, +the poor wretch tells you that he will make up for it by _working during +his breakfast time_! I have heard this a hundred and a hundred times +over. He was up time enough; but the teakettle kept him lolling and +lounging at home; and now instead of sitting down to a breakfast upon +bread, bacon and beer, which is to carry him on to the hour of dinner, he +has to force his limbs along under the sweat of feebleness, and at dinner- +time to swallow his dry bread, or slake his half-feverish thirst at the +pump or the brook. To the wretched teakettle he has to return at night +with legs hardly sufficient to maintain him; and then he makes his +miserable progress towards that death which he finds ten or fifteen years +sooner than he would have found it had he made his wife brew beer instead +of making tea. If he now and then gladdens his heart with the drugs of +the public-house, some quarrel, some accident, some illness is the +probable consequence; to the affray abroad succeeds an affray at home; +the mischievous example reaches the children, cramps them or scatters +them, and misery for life is the consequence." As Cobbett wrote against +tea so was Borrow to write against the Pope. + +Being a reading and a writing man who had set down all his most +substantial adventures in earlier books, Borrow, says Mr. Thomas +Seccombe, had no choice but "to interpret autobiography as +'autobiographiction.'" {50} Parts of the autobiography, he says, are "as +accurate and veracious as John Wesley's 'Journal,' but the way in which +the dingle ingredients" [in the stories of Isopel Berners, the +postillion, and the Man in Black] "are mingled, and the extent to which +lies--damned lies--or facts predominate, will always be a fascinating +topic for literary conjecture." It must not be forgotten, however, that +Borrow never called the published book his autobiography. He did +something like what I believe young writers often do; he described events +in his own life with modifications for the purpose of concealment in some +cases and of embellishment in others. If he had never labelled it an +autobiography there would have been no mystery, and the conclusion of +readers would be that most of it could not have been invented, but that +the postillion's story, for example, is a short story written to embody +some facts and some opinions, without any appearance of being the whole +truth and nothing but the truth. If Borrow made a set of letters to the +Bible Society into a book like "Gil Blas," he could hardly do +less--especially when he had been reminded of the fact--with his remoter +adventures; and having taken out dates and names of persons and places he +felt free. He produced his view of himself, as De Quincey did in his +"Confessions of an English Opium Eater." This view was modified by his +public reputation, by his too potent memory and the need for selection, +by his artistic sense, and by his literary training. So far from +suffering by the two elements, if they are to be separated, of fiction +and autobiography, "Lavengro" and "The Romany Rye" gain immensely. The +autobiographical form--the use of the first person singular--is no mere +device to attract an interest and belief as in "Captain Singleton" and a +thousand novels. Again and again we are made perfectly certain that the +man could not have written otherwise. He is sounding his own depths, and +out of mere shyness, at times, uses the transparent amateur trick of +pretending that he was writing of someone else. Years afterwards, when +Mr. Watts-Dunton asked him, "What is the real nature of autobiography?" +he answered in questions: "Is it a mere record of the incidents of a +man's life? or is it a picture of the man himself--his character, his +soul?" + + + + +CHAPTER VI--THE BIOGRAPHER'S MATERIAL + + +"Lavengro" and "The Romany Rye" give Borrow's character and soul by +direct and indirect means. Their truth and fiction produce a consistent +picture which we feel to be true. Dr. Knapp has shown, where the facts +are accessible, that Borrow does not much neglect, mislay or pervert +them. But neither Dr. Knapp nor anyone else has captured facts which +would be of any significance had Borrow told us nothing himself. Some of +the anecdotes lap a branch here and there; some disclose a little rotten +wood or fungus; others show the might of a great limb, perhaps a knotty +protuberance with a grotesque likeness, or the height of the whole; +others again are like clumsy arrogant initials carved on the venerable +bark. I shall use some of them, but for the most part I shall use +Borrow's own brush both to portray and to correct. + + + + +CHAPTER VII--PORTRAITS OF THE ARTIST + + +The five works of Borrow's maturity--from "The Zincali: or the Gypsies of +Spain," written when he had turned thirty, to "Wild Wales," written when +he had turned fifty--have this in common, and perhaps for their chief +quality, that of set purpose and by inevitable accident they reveal +Borrow, the body and the spirit of the man. Together they compose a +portrait, if not a small gallery of portraits. Of these the most +deliberate is the one that emerges from "Lavengro" and "The Romany Rye." +In these books, written after he had passed forty, he described the first +twenty-two years of his life, without, so far as is known, using any +notebooks or other contemporary documents. As I have said before, the +literal accuracy of such a description must have been limited by his +power and his willingness to see things as they were. In some ways there +is no greater stranger to the youth of twenty than the man of forty who +was once that youth, and if he overcomes that strangeness it is often by +the perilous process of concealing the strangeness and the difference. +The result is--or is it an individual misfortune of mine?--that the +figure of "Lavengro" seems to me, more often than not, and on the whole, +to be nearer the age of forty than of twenty. The artist, that is to +say, dominates his subject, the tall overgrown youth of twenty-two, as +grey as a badger. It is very different in "The Bible in Spain," where +artist and subject are equally matched, and both mature. In "Lavengro" +there is a roundabout method, a painful poring subtlety and minuteness, a +marvellous combination of Sterne and Defoe, resulting in something very +little like any book written by either man: in "The Bible in Spain" a +straightforward, confident, unqualified revelation that seems almost +unconsidered. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII--CHILDHOOD + + +And now for some raw bones of the life of a man who was born in 1803 and +died in 1881, bones picked white and dry by the winds of thirty, forty, +fifty, and a hundred years. + +Thomas Borrow, his father, an eighth and youngest son, was born in 1758 +of a yeoman family long and still settled in Cornwall, near Liskeard. He +worked for some time on his brother's farm. At nineteen he joined the +Militia and was apprenticed to a maltster, but, having knocked his master +down in a free fight at Menheniot Fair in 1783, disappeared and enlisted +as a private in the Coldstream Guards. He was then a man of fresh +complexion and light brown hair, just under five feet eight inches in +height. He was a sergeant when he was transferred nine years later to +the West Norfolk Regiment of Militia. In 1798 he was promoted to the +office of adjutant with the rank of captain. In 1793 he had married Ann +Perfrement, a tenant farmer's daughter from East Dereham, and probably of +French Protestant descent, whom he had first met when she was playing a +minor part as an amateur at East Dereham with a company from the Theatre +Royal at Norwich. She had, says Borrow, dark brilliant eyes, oval face, +olive complexion, and Grecian forehead. + +The first child of this marriage, John Thomas, was born in 1800. Borrow +describes this elder brother as a beautiful child of "rosy, angelic face, +blue eyes and light chestnut hair," yet of "not exactly an Anglo-Saxon +countenance," having something of "the Celtic character, particularly in +the fire and vivacity which illumined it." John was his father's +favourite. He entered the army and became a lieutenant, but also, and +especially after the end of the war, a painter, studying under B. R. +Haydon and old Crome. He went out to Mexico in the service of a mining +company in 1826, and died there in 1834. + +George Borrow was born in 1803 at another station of the regiment, East +Dereham. He calls himself a gloomy child, a "lover of nooks and retired +corners . . . sitting for hours together with my head on my breast . . . +conscious of a peculiar heaviness within me, and at times of a strange +sensation of fear, which occasionally amounted to horror, and for which I +could assign no real cause whatever." A maidservant thought him a little +wrong in the head, but a Jew pedlar rebuked her for saying so, and said +the child had "all the look of one of our people's children," and praised +his bright eyes. With the regiment he travelled along the Sussex and +Kent coast during the next four years. They were at Pett in 1806, and +there he tells us that he first handled a viper, fearless and unharmed. +In 1806 also they were at Hythe, where he saw the skulls of the Danes. +They were at Canterbury in 1807, and near there was the scene of his +eating the "green, red, and purple" berries from the hedge and suffering +convulsions. They were, says Dr. Knapp, from the regimental records, +never at Winchester, but at Winchelsea. In 1809 and 1810 they were back +at Dereham, which was then the home of Eleanor Fenn, his "Lady +Bountiful," widow of the editor of the "Paston Letters," Sir John Fenn. +He had "increased rapidly in size and in strength," but not in mind, and +could read only imperfectly until "Robinson Crusoe" drew him out. He +went to church twice on Sundays, and never heard God's name without a +tremor, "for I now knew that God was an awful and inscrutable being, the +maker of all things; that we were His children, and that we, by our sins, +had justly offended Him; that we were in very great peril from His anger, +not so much in this life as in another and far stranger state of being +yet to come; that we had a Saviour withal to whom it was necessary to +look for help: upon this point, however, I was yet very much in the dark, +as, indeed, were most of those with whom I was connected. The power and +terrors of God were uppermost in my thoughts; they fascinated though they +astounded me." + +{picture: Borrow's birth-place, East Dereham, Norfolk. Photo: H. T. +Cave, East Dereham: page57.jpg} + +Later in 1810 he was at Norman Cross, in Huntingdonshire, and was free to +wander alone by Whittlesea Mere. There he met the old viper-hunter and +herbalist, into whose mouth he puts the tale of the King of the Vipers. +There he met the Gypsies. He answered their threats with a viper that +had lain hid in his breast; they called him "Sapengro, a chap who catches +snakes and plays tricks with them." He was sworn brother to Jasper, the +son, who despised him for being puny. + +The Borrows were at Dereham again in 1811, and George went to school "for +the acquisition of Latin," and learnt the whole of Lilly's Grammar by +heart. Other marches of the regiment left him time to wonder at that +"stupendous erection, the aqueduct at Stockport"--to visit Durham and "a +capital old inn" there, where he had "a capital dinner off roast Durham +beef, and a capital glass of ale, which I believe was the cause of my +being ever after fond of ale"--so he told the Durham miner whom he met on +his way to the Devil's Bridge, in Cardiganshire--and to attend school at +Huddersfield in 1812 and at Edinburgh in 1813 and 1814. + +He mentions the frequent fights at the High School and the pitched +battles between the Old and the New Town. Climbing the Castle Rock was +his favourite diversion, and on one "horrible edge" he came upon David +Haggart sitting and thinking of William Wallace: + +"And why were ye thinking of him?" Borrow says that he asked the lad. +"The English hanged him long since, as I have heard say." + +"I was thinking," he answered, "that I should wish to be like him." + +"Do ye mean," Borrow says that he said, "that ye would wish to be +hanged?" + +This youth was a drummer boy in Captain Borrow's regiment. Borrow +describes him upsetting the New Town champion in one of the bickers. +Seven years later he was condemned to death at Edinburgh, and to earn a +little money for his mother he dictated an account of his life to the +prison chaplain before he died. It was published in 1821 with the title: +"The Life of David Haggart, alias John Wilson, alias John Morison, alias +Barney M'Coul, alias John M'Colgan, alias David O'Brien, alias the +Switcher. Written by himself, while under sentence of death." It is +worth reading, notable in itself and for its style. + +He was a gamekeeper's son, and being a merry boy was liberally tipped by +sportsmen. Yet he ran away from home at the age of ten. One of his +first exploits was the stealing of a bantam cock. It belonged to a woman +at the back of the New Town of Edinburgh, says he, and he took a great +fancy to it, "for it was a real beauty and I offered to _buy_, but +mistress would not _sell_, so I got another cock, and set the two a +fighting, and then off with my prize." This is like Mr. W. B. Yeats' +Paddy Cockfight in "Where there is nothing"; he got a fighting cock from +a man below Mullingar--"The first day I saw him I fastened my eyes on +him, he preyed on my mind, and next night if I didn't go back every foot +of nine miles to put him in my bag." When he was twelve he got drunk at +the Leith races and enlisted in the Norfolk Militia, which had a +recruiting party for patriots at the races. "I learned," he says, "to +beat the drum very well in the course of three months, and afterwards +made considerable progress in blowing the bugle-horn. I liked the red +coat and the soldiering well enough for a while, but soon tired. We were +too much confined, and there was too little pay for me;" and so he got +his discharge. "The restraining influences of military discipline," says +Dr. Knapp, "gradually wore away." He went back to school even, but in +vain. He was "never happier in his life" than when he "fingered all this +money"-- 200 pounds acquired by theft. He worked at his trade of +thieving in many parts of Scotland and Ireland. As early as 1818 he was +sentenced to death, but escaped, and, being recognised by a policeman, +killed him and got clear away. He served one or two sentences and +escaped from another. He escaped a third time, with a friend, after +hitting the gaoler in such a manner that he afterwards died. The friend +was caught at once, but David ran well--"never did a fox double the +hounds in better style"--and got away in woman's clothes. As he was +resting in a haystack after his run of ten miles in an hour, he heard a +woman ask "if that lad was taken that had broken out of Dumfries Gaol," +and the answer: "No; but the gaoler died last night at ten o'clock." He +got arrested in Ireland through sheer carelessness, was recognised and +taken in irons to Dumfries again--and so he died. + +In 1814 and 1815 Borrow was for a time at the Grammar School at Norwich, +but sailed with the regiment "in the autumn of the year 1815" for +Ireland. "On the eighth day of our voyage," he says, "we were in sight +of Ireland. The weather was now calm and serene, the sun shone brightly +on the sea and on certain green hills in the distance, on which I +descried what at first sight I believed to be two ladies gathering +flowers, which, however, on our near approach, proved to be two tall +white towers, doubtless built for some purpose or other, though I did not +learn for what." He was at "the Protestant Academy" at Clonmel, and +"read the Latin tongue and the Greek letters with a nice old clergyman." +From a schoolfellow he learnt something of the Irish tongue in exchange +for a pack of cards. + +School, he says, had helped him to cast aside, in a great degree, his +unsocial habits and natural reserve, and when he moved to Templemore, +where there was no school, he roamed about the wild country, "sometimes +entering the cabins of the peasantry with a 'God's blessing upon you good +people!'" Here, as in Scotland, he seems to have done as he liked. His +father had other things to do than look after the child whom he was later +on to upbraid for growing up in a displeasing way. Ireland made a strong +impression upon the boy, if we may judge from his writing about it when +he looked back on those days. He recalls, in "Wild Wales," hearing the +glorious tune of "Croppies lie Down" in the barrack yard at Clonmel. +Again and again he recalls Murtagh, the wild Irish boy who taught him +Irish for a pack of cards. In Ireland he learnt to be "a frank rider" +without a saddle, and had awakened in him his "passion for the equine +race": and here he had his cob shoed by a "fairy smith" who first roused +the animal to a frenzy by uttering a strange word "in a sharp pungent +tone," and then calmed it by another word "in a voice singularly modified +but sweet and almost plaintive." Above all there is a mystery which +might easily be called Celtic about his memories of Ireland, due chiefly +to something in his own blood, but also to the Irish atmosphere which +evoked that something in its perfection. + +After less than a year in Ireland the regiment was back at Norwich, and +war being at an end, the men were mustered out in 1815. + +{picture: Borrow's Court, Norwich. Photo: Jarrold & Sons, Norwich: +page61.jpg} + + + + +CHAPTER IX--SCHOOLDAYS + + +The Borrows now settled at Norwich in what was then King's Court and is +now Borrow's Court, off Willow Lane. George Borrow, therefore, again +attended the Grammar School of Norwich. He could then, he says, read +Greek. His father's dissatisfaction was apparently due to some +instinctive antipathy for the child, who had neither his hair nor his +eyes, but was "absolutely swarthy, God forgive me! I had almost said +like that of a Gypsy." As in Scotland and Ireland, so now at Norwich, +Captain Borrow probably let the boy do what he liked. As for Mrs. +Borrow, perhaps she favoured the boy, who took after her in eyes and +complexion, if not also in temperament. Her influence was of an +unconscious kind, strengthening her prenatal influence; unlike her +husband, she had no doubt that "Providence" would take care of the boy. +Borrow, at least, thought her like himself. In a suppressed portion of +the twentieth chapter of "Lavengo" he makes his parents talk together in +the garden, and the mother having a story to tell suggests their going in +because it is growing dark. The father says that a tale of terror is the +better for being told in the dark, and hopes she is not afraid. The +mother scoffs at the mention of fear, and yet, she says, she feels a +thrill as if something were casting a cold shadow on her. She wonders if +this feeling is like the indescribable fear, "which he calls the shadow," +which sometimes attacks her younger child. "Never mind the child or his +shadow," says the father, and bids her go on. And from what follows the +mother has evidently told the story before to her son. This dialogue may +very well express the contrast between husband and wife and their +attitudes towards their younger son. Borrow very eloquently addresses +his father as "a noble specimen of those strong single-minded Englishmen, +who, without making a parade either of religion or loyalty, feared God +and honoured their king, and were not particularly friendly to the +French," and as a pugilist who almost vanquished the famous Ben Bryan; +but he does not conceal the fact that he was "so little to thee that thou +understoodst me not." + +At Norwich Grammar School Borrow had as schoolfellows James Martineau and +James Brooke, afterwards Rajah of Sarawak. The headmaster was one Edward +Valpy, who thrashed Borrow, and there is nothing more to be said. The +boy was fond of study but not of school. "For want of something better +to do," he taught himself some French and Italian, but wished he had a +master. A master was found in a French _emigre_, the Rev. Thomas +D'Eterville, who gave private lessons to Borrow, among others, in French, +Italian and Spanish. His other teachers were an old musket with which he +shot bullfinches, blackbirds and linnets, a fishing rod with which he +haunted the Yare, and the sporting gent, John Thurtell, who taught him to +box and accustomed him to pugilism. + +Something is known of Thurtell apart from Borrow. He was the son of a +man who was afterwards Mayor of Norwich. He had been a soldier and he +was now in business. He arranged prize fights and boxed himself. He +afterwards murdered a man who had dishonestly relieved him of 400 pounds +at gambling, and he was executed for the offence at Hertford in 1824. The +trial was celebrated. It was there that a "respectable" man was defined +by a witness as one who "kept a gig." The trial was included in the +"Celebrated Trials and Remarkable Cases of Criminal Jurisprudence" which +Borrow compiled in 1825; and Borrow may have written this description of +the accused: + +"Thurtell was dressed in a plum-coloured frock coat, with a drab +waistcoat and gilt buttons, and white corded breeches. His neck had a +black stock on, which fitted as usual stiffly up to the bottom of the +cheek and end of the chin, and which therefore pushed forward the flesh +on this part of the face so as to give an additionally sullen weight to +the countenance. The lower part of the face was unusually large, +muscular and heavy, and appeared to hang like a load to the head, and to +make it drop like the mastiff's jowl. The upper lip was long and large, +and the mouth had a severe and dogged appearance. His nose was rather +small for such a face, but it was not badly shaped; his eyes, too, were +small and buried deep under his protruding forehead, so indeed as to defy +detection of their colour. The forehead was extremely strong, bony and +knotted--and the eyebrows were forcibly marked though irregular--that +over the right eye being nearly straight and that on the left turning up +to a point so as to give a very painful expression to the whole face. His +hair was of a good lightish brown, and not worn after any fashion. His +frame was exceedingly well knit and athletic." + +An eye witness reports that seven hours before his execution, Thurtell +said: "It is perhaps wrong in my situation, but I own I should like to +read Pierce Egan's account of the great fight yesterday" (meaning that +between Spring and Langan). He slept well through his last night, and +said: "I have dreamt many odd things, but I never dreamt anything about +_this business_ since I have been in Hertford." Pierce Egan described +the trial and execution, and how Thurtell bowed in a friendly and +dignified manner to someone--"we believe, Mr. Pierce Egan"--in the crowd +about the gallows. Pierce Egan did not mention the sound of his cracking +neck, but Borrow is reported to have said it was a shame to hang such a +man as Thurtell: "Why, when his neck broke it went off like a pistol." + +Thurtell is the second of Borrow's friends who preceded him in fame. + +During his school days under Valpy, Borrow met his sworn brother +again--the Gypsy Petulengro. He places this meeting at the Tombland Fair +at Norwich, and Dr. Knapp fixes it, precisely, on March 19, 1818. +According to Borrow's account, which is the only one, he was shadowed and +then greeted by Jasper Petulengro. They went together to the Gypsy +encampment on Household Heath, and they were together there often again, +in spite of the hostility of one Gypsy, Mrs. Herne, to Borrow. He says +that he went with them to fairs and markets and learnt their language in +spite of Mrs. Herne, so that they called him Lav-engro, or Word Master. +The mighty Tawno Chikno also called him Cooro-mengro, because of his +mastery with the fist. He was then sixteen. He is said to have stained +his face to darken it further, and to have been asked by Valpy: "Is that +jaundice or only dirt, Borrow?" + + + + +CHAPTER X--LEAVING SCHOOL + + +With so much liberty Borrow desired more. He played truant and, as we +have seen, was thrashed for it. He was soon to leave school for good, +though there is nothing to prove that he left on account of this +escapade, or that the thrashing produced the "symptoms of a rapid +decline," with a failure of strength and appetite, which he speaks of in +the eighteenth chapter of "Lavengro," after the Gypsies had gone away. He +was almost given over by the physicians, he tells us, but cured by an +"ancient female, a kind of doctress," with a decoction of "a bitter root +which grows on commons and desolate places." An attack of "the dark +feeling of mysterious dread" came with convalescence. + +But "never during any portion of my life did time flow on more speedily," +he says, than during the next two or three years. After some hesitation +between Church and Law, he was articled in 1819 to Messrs. Simpson and +Rackham, solicitors, of Tuck's Court, St. Giles', Norwich, and he lived +with Simpson in the Upper Close. As a friend said, the law was an +excellent profession for those who never intend to follow it. As Borrow +himself said, "I have ever loved to be as explicit as possible; on which +account, perhaps, I never attained to any proficiency in the law." Borrow +sat faithfully at his desk and learned a good deal of Welsh, Danish, +Hebrew, Arabic, Gaelic, and Armenian, making translations from these +languages in prose and verse. In "Wild Wales" he recalls translating +Danish poems "over the desk of his ancient master, the gentleman +solicitor of East Anglia," and learning Welsh by reading a Welsh +"Paradise Lost" side by side with the original, and by having lessons on +Sunday afternoons at his father's house from a groom named Lloyd. + +His chief master was William Taylor, the "Anglo-Germanist" of "Lavengro." +Taylor was born in 1765. He studied in Germany as a youth and returned +to England with a great enthusiasm for German literature. He translated +Goethe's "Iphigenia" (1793), Lessing's "Nathan" (1791), Wieland's +"Dialogues of the Gods," etc. (1795); he published "Tales of Yore," +translated from several languages, and a "Letter concerning the two first +chapters of Luke," in 1810, "English Synonyms discriminated" in 1813, and +an "Historical Survey of German Poetry," interspersed with various +translations, in 1823-30. He was bred among Unitarians, read Hume, +Voltaire and Rousseau, disliked the Church, and welcomed the French +Revolution, though he was no friend to "the cause of national ambition +and aggrandisement." He belonged to a Revolution Society at Norwich, and +in 1790 wrote from Paris calling the National Assembly "that well-head of +philosophical legislation, whose pure streams are now overflowing the +fairest country upon earth and will soon be sluiced off into the other +realms of Europe, fertilising all with the living energy of its waters." +In 1791 he and his father withdrew their capital from manufacture and +William Taylor devoted himself to literature. Hazlitt speaks of the +"style of philosophical criticism which has been the boast of the +'Edinburgh Review,'" as first introduced into the "Monthly Review" by +Taylor in 1796. Scott said that Taylor's translation of Burger's +"Lenore" made him a poet. Sir James Mackintosh learned the Taylorian +language for the sake of the man's "vigour and originality"--"As the +Hebrew is studied for one book, so is the Taylorian by me for one +author." + +{picture: William Taylor, of Norwich: page66.jpg} + +I will give a few hints at the nature of his speculation. In one of his +letters he speaks of stumbling on "the new hypothesis that the +Nebuchadnezzar of Scripture is the Cyrus of Greek History," and second, +that "David, the Jew, a favourite of this prince, wrote all those oracles +scattered in Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel relative to his enterprises, +for the particularisation of which they afford ample materials." Writing +of his analysis, in the "Critical Review," of Paulus' Commentary on the +New Testament, he blames the editor for a suppression--"an attempt to +prove, from the first and second chapter of Luke, that Zacharias, who +wrote these chapters, meant to hold himself out as the father of Jesus +Christ as well as of John the Baptist. The Jewish idea of being +conceived of the Holy Ghost did not exclude the idea of human parentage. +The rabbinical commentator on Genesis explains this." He was called +"Godless Billy Taylor," but says he: "When I publish my other pamphlet in +proof of the great truth that Jesus Christ wrote the 'Wisdom' and +translated the 'Ecclesiasticus' from the Hebrew of his grandfather +Hillel, you will be convinced (that I am convinced) that I and I alone am +a precise and classical Christian; the only man alive who thinks +concerning the person and doctrines of Christ what he himself thought and +taught." His "Letter concerning the two first chapters of Luke" has the +further title, "Who was the father of Christ?" He calls "not absolutely +indefensible" the opinion of the anonymous German author of the "Natural +History of Jesus of Nazareth," that Joseph of Arimathaea was the father +of Jesus Christ. He mentions that "a more recent anonymous theorist, +with greater plausibility, imagines that the acolytes employed in the +Temple of Jerusalem were called by the names of angels, Michael, Raphael, +Gabriel, accordingly as they were stationed behind, beside, or before, +the mercy-seat; and that the Gabriel of the Temple found means to impose +on the innocence of the virgin." "This," he says, "is in many ways +compatible with Mary's having faithfully given the testimony put together +by Luke." He gives at great length the arguments in favour of Zacharias +as the father, and tells Josephus' story of Mundus and Paulina. {68} + +Norwich was then "a little Academe among provincial cities," as Mr. +Seccombe calls it; he continues: + +"Among the high lights of the illuminated capital of East Anglia were the +Cromes, the Opies, John Sell Cotman, Elizabeth Fry, Dr. William Enfield +(of Speaker fame), and Dr. Rigby, the father of Lady Eastlake; but pre- +eminent above all reigned the twin cliques of Taylors and Martineaus, who +amalgamated at impressive intervals for purposes of mutual elevation and +refinement. + +"The salon of Susannah Taylor, the mother of Sarah Austin, the wife of +John Taylor, hymn writer and deacon of the seminal chapel, the once noted +Octagon, in Norwich, included in its zenith Sir James Mackintosh, Mrs. +Barbauld, Crabb Robinson, the solemn Dr. John Alderson, Amelia Opie, +Henry Reeve of Edinburgh fame, Basil Montagu, the Sewards, the Quaker +Gurneys of Earlham, and Dr. Frank Sayers, whom the German critics +compared to Gray, who had handled the Norse mythology in poetry, to which +Borrow was introduced by Sayer's private biographer, the eminent and +aforesaid William Taylor" [no relation of _the_ "Taylors of Norwich"] +"whose 'Jail-delivery of German Studies' the jealous Thomas Carlyle +stigmatized in 1830 as the work of a natural-born English Philistine." + +Nevertheless, in spite of _the_ Taylors and the Martineaus, says William +Taylor's biographer, Robberds: "The love of society almost necessarily +produces the habit of indulging in the pleasures of the table; and, +though he cannot be charged with having carried this to an immoderate +excess, still the daily repetition of it had taxed too much the powers of +nature and exhausted them before the usual period." Taylor died in 1836 +and was remembered best for his drinking and for his bloated appearance. +Harriet Martineau wrote of him in her autobiography: + +"William Taylor was managed by a regular process, first of feeding, then +of wine-bibbing, and immediately after of poking to make him talk: and +then came his sayings, devoured by the gentlemen and making ladies and +children aghast;--defences of suicide, avowals that snuff alone had +rescued him from it: information given as certain that 'God Save the +King' was sung by Jeremiah in the Temple of Solomon,--that Christ was +watched on the day of His supposed ascension, and observed to hide +Himself till dark, and then to make His way down the other side of the +mountain; and other such plagiarisms from the German Rationalists. When +William Taylor began with 'I firmly believe,' we knew that something +particularly incredible was coming. . . . His virtues as a son were +before our eyes when we witnessed his endurance of his father's brutality +of temper and manners, and his watchfulness in ministering to the old +man's comfort in his infirmities. When we saw, on a Sunday morning, +William Taylor guiding his blind mother to chapel, and getting her there +with her shoes as clean as if she had crossed no gutters in those flint- +paved streets, we could forgive anything that had shocked or disgusted us +at the dinner table. But matters grew worse in his old age, when his +habits of intemperance kept him out of the sight of the ladies, and he +got round him a set of ignorant and conceited young men, who thought they +could set the world right by their destructive tendencies. One of his +chief favourites was George Borrow. . . ." + +Another of "the harum-scarum young men" taken up by Taylor and introduced +"into the best society the place afforded," writes Harriet Martineau, was +Polidori. + +Borrow was introduced to Taylor in 1820 by "Mousha," the Jew who taught +him Hebrew. Taylor "took a great interest" in him and taught him German. +"What I tell Borrow _once_," he said, "he ever remembers." In 1821 +Taylor wrote to Southey, who was an early friend: + +"A Norwich young man is construing with me Schiller's 'Wilhelm Tell,' +with the view of translating it for the Press. His name is George Henry +Borrow, and he has learnt German with extraordinary rapidity; indeed he +has the gift of tongues, and, though not yet eighteen, understands twelve +languages--English, Welsh, Erse, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, German, Danish, +French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese; he would like to get into the +Office for Foreign Affairs, but does not know how." + +Borrow was at that time a "reserved and solitary" youth, tall, spare, +dark complexioned and usually dressed in black, who used to be seen +hanging about the Close and talking through the railings of his garden to +some of the Grammar School boys. He was a noticeable youth, and he told +his father that a lady had painted him and compared his face to that of +Alfieri's Saul. + +{picture: Tuck's Court, Norwich. Photo: Jarrold & Sons, Norwich: +page70.jpg} + +Borrow pleased neither his master nor his father by his knowledge of +languages, though it was largely acquired in the lawyer's office. "The +lad is too independent by half," Borrow makes his father say, after +painting a filial portrait of the old man, "with locks of silver gray +which set off so nobly his fine bold but benevolent face, his faithful +consort at his side, and his trusty dog at his feet." Nor did the youth +please himself. He was languid again, tired even of the Welsh poet, Ab +Gwilym. He was anxious about his father, who was low spirited over his +elder son's absence in London as a painter, and over his younger son's +misconduct and the "strange notions and doctrines"--especially the +doctrine that everyone has a right to dispose as he thinks best of that +which is his own, even of his life--which he had imbibed from Taylor. +Taylor was "fond of getting hold of young men and, according to orthodox +accounts, doing them a deal of harm." {71a} His views, says Dr. Knapp, +sank deep "into the organism of his pupil," and "would only be +eradicated, if at all, through much suffering." Dr. Knapp thought that +the execution of Thurtell ought to have produced a "favourable change in +his mode of thinking"--as if prize fighting and murder were not far more +common among Christians than atheists. But if Borrow had never met +Taylor he would have met someone else, atheist or religious enthusiast, +who would have lured him from the straight, smooth, flowery path of +orthodoxy; otherwise he might have been a clergyman or he might have been +Dr. Knapp, but he would not have been George Borrow. "What is truth?" he +asked. "Would that I had never been born!" he said to himself. And it +was an open air ranter, not a clergyman or unobtrusive godly man, that +made him exclaim: "Would that my life had been like his--even like that +man's." Then the Gypsy reminded him of "the wind on the heath" and the +boxing gloves. + +When his father asked Borrow what he proposed to do, {71b} seeing that he +was likely to do nothing at law, he had nothing to suggest. Southey +apparently could not help him to the Foreign Office. The only opening +that can have seemed possible to him was literature. He might, for +example, produce a volume of translations like the "Specimen of Russian +Poets" (1820) of John Bowring, whom he met at Taylor's. Bowring, a man +of twenty-nine in 1821, was the head of a commercial firm and afterwards +a friend of Borrow and the author of many translations from Russian, +Dutch, Spanish, Polish, Servian, Hungarian and Bohemian song. He was, as +the "Old Radical" of "The Romany Rye," Borrow's victim in his lifetime, +and after his death the victim of Dr. Knapp as the supposed false friend +of his hero. The mud thrown at him had long since dried, and has now +been brushed off in a satisfactory manner by Mr. R. A. J. Walling. {72} + +{picture: Tom Shelton, Jack Randall: page72.jpg} + + + + +CHAPTER XI--LITERATURE AND LANGUAGES + + +When Borrow was in his nineteenth year--according to Dr. Knapp's +estimate--he told his father what he had done: "I have learned Welsh, and +have translated the songs of Ab Gwilym, some ten thousand lines, into +English rhyme. I have also learnt Danish, and have rendered the old book +of Ballads into English metre. I have learned many other tongues, and +have acquired some knowledge even of Hebrew and Arabic." He read and +conversed with William Taylor; he read alone in the Guildhall of Norwich, +where the Corporation Library offered him the books from which he gained +"his knowledge of Anglo-Saxon and early English, Welsh or British, +Northern or Scandinavian learning"--so writes Dr. Knapp, who has seen the +"neat young pencilled notes" of Borrow in Edmund Lhuyd's 'Archaeologia +Britannica' and the 'Danica Literatura Antiquissima' of Olaus Wormius, +etc. He tells us himself that he passed entire nights in reading an old +Danish book, till he was almost blind. + +In 1823 Borrow began to publish his translations. Taylor introduced him +to Thomas Campbell, then editor of the "New Monthly," and to Sir Richard +Phillips, editor and proprietor of the "Monthly Magazine." Both editors +printed Borrow's works. + +Sir Richard Phillips was particularly flattering: he used Borrow's +article on "Danish Poetry and Ballad Writing" and about six hundred lines +of translation from German, Danish, Swedish and Dutch poetry in the first +year of the connection, usually with the signature, "George Olaus +Borrow." I will quote only one specimen, his version of Goethe's "Erl +King" ("Monthly Magazine," December, 1823): + + Who is it that gallops so late on the wild! + O it is the father that carries his child! + He presses him close in his circling arm, + To save him from cold, and to shield him from harm. + + "Dear baby, what makes ye your countenance hide?" + "Spur, father, your courser and rowel his side; + The Erl-King is chasing us over the heath;" + "Peace, baby, thou seest a vapoury wreath?" + + "Dear boy, come with me, and I'll join in your sport, + And show ye the place where the fairies resort; + My mother, who dwells in the cool pleasant mine + Shall clothe thee in garments so fair and so fine." + + "My father, my father, in mercy attend, + And hear what is said by the whispering fiend." + "Be quiet, be quiet, my dearly-loved child; + 'Tis naught but the wind as it stirs in the wild." + + "Dear baby, if thou wilt but venture with me, + My daughter shall dandle thy form on her knee; + My daughter, who dwells where the moon-shadows play, + Shall lull ye to sleep with the song of the fay." + + "My father, my father, and seest thou not + His sorceress daughter in yonder dark spot?" + "I see something truly, thou dear little fool,-- + I see the great alders that hang by the pool." + + "Sweet baby, I doat on that beautiful form, + And thou shalt ride with me the wings of the storm." + "O father, my father, he grapples me now, + And already has done me a mischief, I vow." + + The father was terrified, onward he press'd, + And closer he cradled the child to his breast, + And reach'd the far cottage, and, wild with alarm, + He found that the baby hung dead on his arm! + +The only criticism that need be passed on this is that any man of some +intelligence and patience can hope to do as well: he seldom wrote any +verse that was either much better or much worse. At the same time it +must not be forgotten that the success of the translation is no measure +of the impression made on the young Borrow by the legend. + +His translations from Ab Gwilym are not interesting either to lovers of +that poet or to lovers of Borrow: some are preserved in a sort of life in +death in the pages of "Wild Wales." + +From the German he had also translated F. M. Von Klinger's "Faustus: his +life, death and descent into hell." {75a} The preface announces that +"although scenes of vice and crime are here exhibited, it is merely in +the hope that they may serve as beacons, to guide the ignorant and unwary +from the shoals on which they might otherwise be wrecked." He insisted, +furthermore, that the book contained "the highly useful advice," that +everyone should bear their lot in patience and not seek "at the expense +of his repose to penetrate into those secrets which the spirit of man, +while dressed in the garb of mortality cannot and must not unveil. . . . +To the mind of man all is dark; he is an enigma to himself; let him live, +therefore, in the hope of once seeing clearly; and happy indeed is he who +in that manner passeth his days." + +From the Danish of Johannes Evald, he translated "The Death of Balder," a +play, into blank verse with consistently feminine endings, as in this +speech of Thor to Balder: {75b} + + How long dost think, degenerate son of Odin, + Unmanly pining for a foolish maiden, + And all the weary train of love-sick follies, + Will move a bosom that is steel'd by virtue? + Thou dotest! Dote and weep, in tears swim ever; + But by thy father's arm, by Odin's honour, + Haste, hide thy tears and thee in shades of alder! + Haste to the still, the peace-accustom'd valley, + Where lazy herdsmen dance amid the clover. + There wet each leaf which soft the west wind kisses, + Each plant which breathes around voluptuous odours, + With tears! There sigh and moan, and the tired peasant + Shall hear thee, and, behind his ploughshare resting, + Shall wonder at thy grief, and pity Balder! + +There are lyrics interspersed. The following is sung by three Valkyries +marching round the cauldron before Rota dips the fatal spear that she is +to present to Hother: + + In juice of rue + And trefoil too; + In marrow of bear + And blood of Trold, + Be cool'd the spear, + Threetimes cool'd, + When hot from blazes + Which Nastroud raises + For Valhall's May. + + 1st Valk. Whom it woundeth, + It shall slay. + + 2nd Whom it woundeth, + It shall slay. + + 3rd Whom it woundeth, + It shall slay. + +In 1826 he was to publish "Romantic Ballads," translated from the Gaelic, +Danish, Norse, Swedish, and German, with eight original pieces. He +"hoped shortly" to publish a complete translation of the "Kjaempe Viser" +and of Gaelic songs, made by him "some years ago." Few of these are +valuable or interesting, but I must quote "Svend Vonved" because Borrow +himself so often refers to it. The legend haunted him of "that strange +melancholy Swayne Vonved, who roams about the world propounding people +riddles; slaying those who cannot answer, and rewarding those who can +with golden bracelets." When he was walking alone in wild weather in +Cornwall he roared it aloud: + + Svend Vonved sits in his lonely bower; + He strikes his harp with a hand of power; + His harp returned a responsive din; + Then came his mother hurrying in: + Look out, look out, Svend Vonved. + + In came his mother Adeline, + And who was she, but a queen so fine: + "Now hark, Svend Vonved! out must thou ride + And wage stout battle with knights of pride." + Look out, look out, Svend Vonved. + + "Avenge thy father's untimely end; + To me, or another, thy gold harp lend; + This moment boune thee, and straight begone! + I rede thee, do it, my own dear son." + Look out, look out, Svend Vonved. + + Svend Vonved binds his sword to his side; + He fain will battle with knights of pride. + "When may I look for thee once more here? + When roast the heifer and spice the beer?" + Look out, look out, Svend Vonved. + + "When stones shall take, of themselves, a flight + And ravens' feathers are waxen white, + Then may'st thou expect Svend Vonved home: + In all my days, I will never come." + Look out, look out, Svend Vonved. + +If we did not know that Borrow used these verses as a kind of incantation +we should be sorry to have read them. But one of the original pieces in +this book is as good in itself as it is interesting. I mean "Lines to +Six-foot-three": + + A lad, who twenty tongues can talk, + And sixty miles a day can walk; + Drink at a draught a pint of rum, + And then be neither sick nor dumb; + Can tune a song, and make a verse, + And deeds of northern kings rehearse; + Who never will forsake his friend, + While he his bony fist can bend; + And, though averse to brawl and strife, + Will fight a Dutchman with a knife. + O that is just the lad for me, + And such is honest six-foot three. + + A braver being ne'er had birth + Since God first kneaded man from earth; + O, I have come to know him well, + As Ferroe's blacken'd rocks can tell. + Who was it did, at Suderoe, + The deed no other dared to do? + Who was it, when the Boff had burst, + And whelm'd me in its womb accurst, + Who was it dashed amid the wave, + With frantic zeal, my life to save? + Who was it flung the rope to me? + O, who, but honest six-foot three! + + Who was it taught my willing tongue, + The songs that Braga fram'd and sung? + Who was it op'd to me the store + Of dark unearthly Runic lore, + And taught me to beguile my time + With Denmark's aged and witching rhyme; + To rest in thought in Elvir shades, + And hear the song of fairy maids; + Or climb the top of Dovrefeld, + Where magic knights their muster held! + Who was it did all this for me? + O, who, but honest six-foot three! + + Wherever fate shall bid me roam, + Far, far from social joy and home; + 'Mid burning Afric's desert sands; + Or wild Kamschatka's frozen lands; + Bit by the poison-loaded breeze + Or blasts which clog with ice the seas; + In lowly cot or lordly hall, + In beggar's rags or robes of pall, + 'Mong robber-bands or honest men, + In crowded town or forest den, + I never will unmindful be + Of what I owe to six-foot three. + + That form which moves with giant grace-- + That wild, tho' not unhandsome face; + That voice which sometimes in its tone + Is softer than the wood-dove's moan, + At others, louder than the storm + Which beats the side of old Cairn Gorm; + That hand, as white as falling snow, + Which yet can fell the stoutest foe; + And, last of all, that noble heart, + Which ne'er from honour's path would start, + Shall never be forgot by me-- + So farewell, honest six-foot three. + +This is already pure Borrow, with a vigour excusing if not quite +transmuting its rant. He creates a sort of hero in his own image, and it +should be read as an introduction and invocation to "Lavengro" and "The +Romany Rye." It is one of the few contemporary records of Borrow at +about the age when he wrote "Celebrated Trials," made horse-shoes and +fought the Blazing Tinman. So far as I know, it was more than ten years +before he wrote anything so good again, and he never wrote anything +better in verse, unless it is the song of the "genuine old English +gentleman," in the twenty-fourth chapter of "Lavengro": + + "Give me the haunch of a buck to eat, and to drink Madeira old, + And a gentle wife to rest with, and in my arms to fold, + An Arabic book to study, a Norfolk cob to ride, + And a house to live in shaded with trees, and near to a river side; + With such good things around me, and blessed with good health withal, + Though I should live for a hundred years, for death I would not call." + +The only other verse of his which can be remembered for any good reason +is this song from the Romany, included among the translations from thirty +languages and dialects which he published, in 1835, with the title of +"Targum," and the appropriate motto: "The raven has ascended to the nest +of the nightingale." The Gypsy verses are as follows: + + The strength of the ox, + The wit of the fox, + And the leveret's speed,-- + Full oft to oppose + To their numerous foes, + The Rommany need. + + Our horses they take, + Our waggons they break, + And ourselves they seize, + In their prisons to coop, + Where we pine and droop, + For want of breeze. + + When the dead swallow + The fly shall follow + O'er Burra-panee, + Then we will forget + The wrongs we have met + And forgiving be. + +It will not be necessary to say anything more about Borrow's verses. +Poetry for him was above all declamatory sentiment or wild narrative, and +so he never wrote, and perhaps never cared much for poetry, except +ballads and his contemporary Byron. He desired, as he said in the note +to "Romantic Ballads," not the merely harmonious but the grand, and he +condemned the modern muse for "the violent desire to be smooth and +tuneful, forgetting that smoothness and tunefulness are nearly synonymous +with tameness and unmeaningness." He once said of Keats: "They are +attempting to resuscitate him, I believe." He regarded Wordsworth as a +soporific merely. + + + + +CHAPTER XII--LONDON + + +Early in 1824, and just before George Borrow's articles with the +solicitors expired, Captain Borrow died. He left all that he had to his +widow, with something for the maintenance and education of the younger +son during his minority. Borrow had already planned to go to London, to +write, to abuse religion and to get himself prosecuted. A month later, +the day after the expiration of his articles, before he had quite reached +his majority, he went up to London. He was "cast upon the world" in no +very hopeful condition. He had lately been laid up again--was it by the +"fear" or something else?--by a complaint which destroyed his strength, +impaired his understanding and threatened his life, as he wrote to a +friend: he was taking mercury for a cure. But he had his translations +from Ab Gwilym and his romantic ballads, and he believed in them. He +took them to Sir Richard Phillips, who did not believe in them, and had +moreover given up publishing. According to his own account, which is +very well known (Lavengro, chapter XXX.), Sir Richard suggested that he +should write something in the style of the "Dairyman's Daughter" instead. + +Men of this generation, fortunate at least in this ignorance, probably +think of the "Dairyman's Daughter" as a fictitious title, like the +"Oxford Review" (which stood for "The Universal Review") and the "Newgate +Lives" (which should have been "Celebrated Trials," etc.). But such a +book really was published in 1811. It was an "authentic narrative" by a +clergyman of the Church of England named Legh Richmond, who thought it +"delightful to trace and discover the operations of Divine love among the +poorer classes of mankind." The book was about the conversion and holy +life and early death of a pale, delicate, consumptive dairyman's daughter +in the Isle of Wight. It became famous, was translated into many +languages, and was reprinted by some misguided or malevolent man not long +ago. I will give a specimen of the book which the writer of "Six-foot- +three" was asked to imitate: + +"Travellers, as they pass through the country, usually stop to inquire +whose are the splendid mansions which they discover among the woods and +plains around them. The families, titles, fortune, or character of the +respective owners, engage much attention. . . . In the meantime, the +lowly cottage of the poor husbandman is passed by as scarcely deserving +of notice. Yet, perchance, such a cottage may often contain a treasure +of infinitely more value than the sumptuous palace of the rich man; even +"the pearl of great price." If this be set in the heart of the poor +cottager, it proves a jewel of unspeakable value, and will shine among +the brightest ornaments of the Redeemer's crown, in that day when he +maketh up his "jewels." + +{picture: Sir Richard Phillips. (From the painting by James Saxon in The +National Portrait Gallery.) Photo: Emery Walker: page82.jpg} + +"Hence, the Christian traveller, while he bestows, in common with others, +his due share of applause on the decorations of the rich, and is not +insensible to the beauties and magnificence which are the lawfully +allowed appendages of rank and fortune, cannot overlook the humbler +dwelling of the poor. And if he should find that true piety and grace +beneath the thatched roof, which he has in vain looked for amidst the +worldly grandeur of the rich, he remembers the word of God. . . . He +sees, with admiration, that 'the high and lofty One, that inhabiteth +eternity, whose name is Holy, who dwelleth in the high and holy place, +dwelleth with _him also_ that is of a contrite and humble spirit,' Isaiah +lvii., 15; and although heaven is his throne, and the earth his +footstool, yet when a home is to be built, and a place of rest to be +sought for himself, he says, 'To this man will I look, even to him that +is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word,' Isaiah +lxvi., 1, 2. When a home is thus tenanted, faith beholds this +inscription written on the walls, _The Lord lives here_. Faith, +therefore, cannot pass it by unnoticed, but loves to lift up the latch of +the door, and sit down, and converse with the poor, though perhaps +despised, inhabitant. Many a sweet interview does faith obtain when she +thus takes her walks abroad. Many such a sweet interview have I myself +enjoyed beneath the roof where dwelt the Dairyman and his little family. + +"I soon perceived that his daughter's health was rapidly on the decline. +The pale, wasting consumption, which is the Lord's instrument for +removing so many thousands every year from the land of the living, made +hasty strides on her constitution. The hollow eye, the distressing +cough, and the often too flattering red on the cheek, foretold the +approach of death. + +"I have often thought what a field for usefulness and affectionate +attention, on the part of ministers and Christian friends, is opened by +the frequent attacks and lingering progress of _consumptive_ illness. How +many such precious opportunities are daily lost, where Providence seems +in so marked a way to afford time and space for serious and Godly +instruction! Of how many may it be said: 'The way of peace have they not +known'; for not one friend ever came nigh to warn them to 'flee from the +wrath to come.' + +"But the Dairyman's Daughter was happily made acquainted with the things +which belonged to her everlasting peace before the present disease had +taken root in her constitution. In my visits to her I might be said +rather to receive information than to impart it. Her mind was abundantly +stored with Divine truths, and her conversations truly edifying. The +recollection of it still produces a thankful sensation in my heart." + +Nevertheless, when Borrow had bought a copy of this book he was willing +to do what was asked, and to attempt also to translate into German +Phillips' "Proximate Causes of the Material Phenomena of the Universe," +or what the translator called "his tale of an apple and a pear." But +Phillips changed his mind about the "Dairyman's Daughter" and +commissioned a compilation of "Newgate Lives and Trials" instead. Borrow +failed with the translation of the "Proximate Causes" but liked very well +the compiling of the "Celebrated Trials"--of Joan of Arc, Cagliostro, +Mary Queen of Scots, Raleigh, the Gunpowder Plotters, Queen Caroline, +Thurtell, the Cato Street Conspirators, and many more--in six volumes. He +also wrote reviews for Phillips' Magazine, and contributed more +translations of poetry and many scraps of "Danish Traditions and +Superstitions," like the following: + +"At East Hessing, in the district of Calling, there was once a rural +wedding; and when the morning was near at hand, the guests rushed out of +the house with much noise and tumult. When they were putting their +horses to the carts, in order to leave the place, each of them boasted +and bragged of his bridal present. But when the uproar was at the +highest, and they were all speaking together, a maiden dressed in green, +and with a bulrush plaited over her head, came from a neighbouring +morass, and going up to the fellow who was noisiest and bragged most of +his bridal gift, she said, 'What will you give to Lady Boe?' The boor, +who was half intoxicated from the brandy and ale he had swallowed, seized +a whip, and answered, 'Three strokes of my waggon-whip.' But at the same +moment he fell a corpse to the ground." + +If translation like this is journeyman's work for the journeyman, for +Borrow it was of great value because it familiarised him with the +marvellous and the supernatural and so helped him towards the expression +of his own material and spiritual adventures. The wild and often other- +worldly air of much of his work is doubtless due to his wild and other- +worldly mind, but owes a considerable if uncertain debt to his reading of +ballads and legends, which give a little to the substance of his work and +far more to the tone of it. Among other things translated at this time +he mentions the "Saga of Burnt Njal." + +He was not happy in London. He had few friends there, and perhaps those +he had only disturbed without sweetening his solitude. One of these was +a Norwich friend, named Roger Kerrison, who shared lodgings with him at +16, Millman Street, Bedford Row. Borrow confided in Kerrison, and had +written to him before leaving Norwich in terms of perhaps unconsciously +worked-up affection. But Borrow's low spirits in London were more than +Kerrison could stand. When Borrow was proposing a short visit to Norwich +his friend wrote to John Thomas Borrow, suggesting that he should keep +his brother there for a time, or else return with him, for this reason. +Borrow had "repeatedly" threatened suicide, and unable to endure his fits +of desperation Kerrison had gone into separate lodgings: if his friend +were to return in this state and find himself alone he would "again make +some attempt to destroy himself." Nothing was done, so far as is known, +and he did not commit suicide. It is a curious commentary on the work of +hack writers that this youth should have written as a note to his +translation of "The Suicide's Grave," {85} that it was not translated for +its sentiments but for its poetry; "although the path of human life is +rough and thorny, the mind may always receive consolation by looking +forward to the world to come. The mind which rejects a future state has +to thank itself for its utter misery and hopelessness." His malady was +youth, aggravated, the food reformer would say, by eating fourteen +pennyworth of bread and cheese at a meal, and certainly aggravated by +literary ambition. + +Judging from the thirty-first chapter of "Lavengro," he was exceptionally +sensitive at this time to all impressions--probably both pleasant and +unpleasant. He describes himself on his first day gazing at the dome of +St. Paul's until his brain became dizzy, and he thought the dome would +fall and crush him, and he shrank within himself, and struck yet deeper +into the heart of the big city. He stood on London Bridge dazed by the +mighty motion of the waters and the multitude of men and "horses as large +as elephants. There I stood, just above the principal arch, looking +through the balustrade at the scene that presented itself--and such a +scene! Towards the left bank of the river, a forest of masts, thick and +close, as far as the eye could reach; spacious wharfs, surmounted with +gigantic edifices; and, far away, Caesar's Castle, with its White Tower. +To the right, another forest of masts, and a maze of buildings, from +which, here and there, shot up to the sky chimneys taller than +Cleopatra's Needle, vomiting forth huge wreaths of that black smoke which +forms the canopy--occasionally a gorgeous one--of the more than Babel +city. Stretching before me, the troubled breast of the mighty river, +and, immediately below, the main whirlpool of the Thames--the Maelstrom +of the bulwarks of the middle arch--a grisly pool, which, with its +superabundance of horror, fascinated me. Who knows but I should have +leapt into its depths?--I have heard of such things--but for a rather +startling occurrence which broke the spell. As I stood upon the bridge, +gazing into the jaws of the pool, a small boat shot suddenly through the +arch beneath my feet. There were three persons in it; an oarsman in the +middle, whilst a man and woman sat at the stern. I shall never forget +the thrill of horror which went through me at this sudden apparition. +What!--a boat--a small boat--passing beneath that arch into yonder +roaring gulf! Yes, yes, down through that awful water-way, with more +than the swiftness of an arrow, shot the boat, or skiff, right into the +jaws of the pool. A monstrous breaker curls over the prow--there is no +hope; the boat is swamped, and all drowned in that strangling vortex. No! +the boat, which appeared to have the buoyancy of a feather, skipped over +the threatening horror, and the next moment was out of danger, the +boatman--a true boatman of Cockaigne, that--elevating one of his skulls +in sign of triumph, the man hallooing, and the woman, a true Englishwoman +that--of a certain class--waving her shawl. Whether any one observed +them save myself, or whether the feat was a common one, I know not; but +nobody appeared to take any notice of them. As for myself, I was so +excited, that I strove to clamber up the balustrade of the bridge, in +order to obtain a better view of the daring adventurers. Before I could +accomplish my design, however, I felt myself seized by the body, and, +turning my head, perceived the old fruit-woman, who was clinging to me." + +On this very day, in his account, he first met the "fiery, enthusiastic +and open-hearted," pleasure-loving young Irishman, whom he calls Francis +Ardry, who took him to the theatre and to "the strange and eccentric +places of London," and no doubt helped to give him the feeling of "a +regular Arabian Nights' entertainment." C. G. Leland {87} tells a story +told to him by one who might have been the original of Ardry. The story +is the only independent evidence of Borrow's London life. This "old +gentleman" had been in youth for a long time the most intimate friend of +George Borrow, who was, he said, a very wild and eccentric youth. "One +night, when skylarking about London, Borrow was pursued by the police, as +he wished to be, even as Panurge so planned as to be chased by the night- +watch. He was very tall and strong in those days, a trained shoulder- +hitter, and could run like a deer. He was hunted to the Thames, and +there they thought they had him. But the Romany Rye made for the edge, +and leaping into the wan water, like the Squyre in the old ballad, swam +to the other side, and escaped." + +It is no wonder he "did not like reviewing at all," especially as he +"never could understand why reviews were instituted; works of merit do +not require to be reviewed, they can speak for themselves, and require no +praising; works of no merit at all will die of themselves, they require +no killing." He forgot "The Dairyman's Daughter," and he could not +foresee the early fate of "Lavengro" itself. He preferred manlier crime +and riskier deception to reviewing. As he read over the tales of rogues, +he says, he became again what he had been as a boy, a necessitarian, and +could not "imagine how, taking all circumstances into consideration, +these highwaymen, these pickpockets, should have been anything else than +highwaymen and pickpockets." + +These were the days of such books as "The Life and Extraordinary +Adventures of Samuel Denmore Hayward, denominated the Modern Macheath, +who suffered at the Old Bailey, on Tuesday, November 27, 1821, for the +Crime of Burglary," by Pierce Egan, embellished with a highly-finished +miniature by Mr. Smart, etched by T. R. Cruikshank; and a facsimile of +his handwriting. London, 1822." + +It is a poor book, and now has descendants lower in the social scale. It +pretends to give "a most awful but useful lesson to the rising +generation" by an account of the criminal whose appearance as a boy "was +so superior to other boys of his class in life as to have the look of a +gentleman's child." He naturally became a waiter, and "though the +situation did not exactly accord with his ambition, it answered his +purpose, because it afforded him an opportunity of studying _character_, +and being in the company of gentlemen." He was "a generous high-minded +fellow towards the ladies," and became the fancy man of someone else's +mistress, living "in the style of a gentleman _solely_ at the expense of +the beautiful Miss ---." His "unembarrassed and gentlemanly" behaviour +survived even while he was being searched, and he entered the chapel +before execution "with a firm step, accompanied with the most gentlemanly +deportment." The end came nevertheless: "Bowing to the sheriffs and the +few persons around him with all the manners of an accomplished gentleman, +he ascended the drop with a firmness that astonished everyone present; +and resigned his eventful life without scarce a struggle." + +The moral was the obvious one. "His talents were his misfortunes." The +biographer pretends to believe that, though the fellow lived in luxury, +he must always have had a harassed mind; the truth being that he himself +would have had a harassed mind if he had played so distinguished a part. +"The chequered life of that young man," he says, "abounding with +incidents and facts almost incredible, and scarcely ever before practised +with so much art and delusion in so short a period, impressively points +out the danger arising from the possession of _great talents_ when +perverted or _misapplied_." + +He points out, furthermore, how vice sinks before virtue. "For instance, +view the countenances of thieves, who are regaling themselves on the most +expensive liquors, laughing and singing, how they are changed in an +instant by the appearance of police officers entering a room in search of +them. . . ." + +Finally, "let the youth of London bear in mind that honesty is the best +policy. . . . + +"In this happy country, where every individual has an opportunity of +raising himself to the highest office in the State, what might the +abilities of the unfortunate Hayward have accomplished for him if he had +not deviated from the paths of virtue? There is no place like London in +the world where a man of talents meets with so much encouragement and +liberality; his society is courted, and his presence gives a weight to +any company in which he appears; if supported by a good character." + +But the crime was the thing. Of a different class was John Hamilton +Reynolds' "The Fancy." This book, published in 1820, would have wholly +delighted Borrow. I will quote the footnote to the "Lines to Philip +Samson, the Brummagem Youth": + +"Of all the great men of this age, in poetry, philosophy, or pugilism, +there is no one of such transcendent talent as Randall;--no one who +combines the finest natural powers with the most elegant and finished +acquired ones. The late Professor Stewart (who has left the learned +ring) is acknowledged to be clever in philosophy, but he is a left-handed +metaphysical fighter at best, and cannot be relied upon at closing with +his subject. Lord Byron is a powerful poet, with a mind weighing +fourteen stone; but he is too sombre and bitter, and is apt to lose his +temper. Randall has no defect, or at best he has not yet betrayed the +appearance of one. His figure is remarkable, when _peeled_, for its +statue-like beauty, and nothing can equal the alacrity with which he uses +either hand, or the coolness with which he _receives_. His goodness on +his legs, Boxiana (a Lord Eldon in the skill and caution of his +judgments) assures us, is unequalled. He doubles up an opponent, as a +friend lately declared, as easily as though he were picking a flower or +pinching a girl's cheek. He is about to fight Jos. Hudson, who +challenged him lately at the Royal Tennis Court. Randall declared, that +'though he had declined fighting, he would _accommodate Joshua_'; a kind +and benevolent reply, which does equal honour to his head and heart. The +editor of this little volume, like Goldfinch in the 'Road to Ruin,' +'would not stay away for a thousand pounds.' He has already looked about +for a tall horse and a taxed cart, and he has some hopes of compassing a +drab coat and a white hat, for he has no wish to appear singular at such +scenes." + +Reynolds, like Borrow, was an admirer of Byron, and he anticipated Borrow +in the spirit of his remark to John Murray that the author's trade was +contemptible compared with the jockey's. At that moment it was +unquestionably so. Soon even reviewing failed. The "Universal Review" +died at the beginning of 1825, and Borrow seems to have quarrelled with +Phillips because some Germans had found the German of his translation as +unintelligible as he had found the publisher's English. He had nothing +left but his physical strength, his translations, and a very little +money. When he had come down to half-a-crown, he says, he thought of +accepting a patriotic Armenian's invitation to translate an Armenian work +into English; only the Armenian went away. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII--"JOSEPH SELL" + + +Then, on a fair day on Blackheath, he met Mr. Petulengro again who said +he looked ill and offered him the loan of 50 pounds, which he would not +accept, nor his invitation to join the band. Dr. Knapp confidently gives +the date of May 12 to this incident because that is the day of the annual +fair. Then seeing an advertisement: "A Novel or Tale is much wanted," +outside a bookseller's shop, Borrow wrote "The Life and Adventures of +Joseph Sell, the Great Traveller." Did he? Dr. Knapp thinks he did, but +that the story had another name, and is to be sought for in such +collections of 1825 and 1826 as "Watt's Literary Souvenir." As Borrow +speaks of the materials of it having come from his own brain, and as Dr. +Knapp says he could not invent, why not conclude that it was +autobiographical? + +There is no evidence except that the account sounds true, and might very +well be true. Dr. Knapp thinks that he wrote this book, and that he did +many other things which he said he did, because wherever there is any +evidence it corroborates Borrow's statements except in small matters of +names and dates. In the earlier version of "Lavengro," represented by a +manuscript and a proof, "Ardry" is "Arden," "Jasper" is "Ambrose," and +the question "What is his name?" is answered by "Thurtell," instead of a +blank. Now there was an Ambrose Smith whom Borrow knew, and Thurtell was +such a man as he describes in search of a place for the fight. Therefore, +Dr. Knapp would be inclined to say that Borrow did know a young man named +Arden. And, furthermore, as Isopel is called Elizabeth in that earlier +version, Isopel did exist, but her name was Elizabeth: she was, says Mr. +Watts-Dunton, "really an East Anglian road girl" (not a Gypsy) "of the +finest type, known to the Boswells and remembered not many years ago." +And speaking of Isopel--there is a story still to be heard at Long +Melford of a girl "who lived on the green and ran away with the Gypsy," +in about the year 1825. With this may possibly be connected another +story: of a young painter of dogs and horses who was living at Melford in +1805 and seduced either one or two sisters of the warden of the hospital +or almshouse, and had two illegitimate children, one at any rate a girl. +The Great House was one used, but not built, for a workhouse: it stood +near the vicarage at Melford, but has now disappeared, and apparently its +records with it. + +Borrow did not invent, says Knapp, which is absurd. Some of his +reappearances, recognitions and coincidences must be inventions. The +postillion's tale must be largely invention. But it is not fair or +necessary to retort as Hindes Groome did: "Is the Man in Black then also +a reality, and the Reverend Mr. Platitude? In other words, did +Tractarianism exist in 1825, eight years before it was engendered by +Keble's sermon?" For Borrow was unscrupulous or careless about time and +place. But it is fair and necessary to say, as Hindes Groome did, that +some of the unverities in "Lavengro" and "The Romany Rye" are "probably +due to forgetfulness," the rest to "love of posing, but much more to an +honest desire to produce an amusing and interesting book." {93a} Borrow +was a great admirer of the "Memoirs" {93b} of Vidocq," principal agent of +the French police till 1827--now proprietor of the paper manufactory at +St. Maude," and formerly showman, soldier, galley slave, and highwayman. +Of this book the editor says: + +"It is not our province or intention to enter into a discussion of the +veracity of Vidocq's "Memoirs": be they true or false, were they purely +fiction from the first chapter to the last, they would, from fertility of +invention, knowledge of human nature, and easy style, rank only second to +the novels of Le Sage." + +It was certainly with books such as this in his mind that Borrow composed +his autobiography, but it goes so much deeper that it is at every point a +revelation, usually of actual events and emotions, always of thought and +taste. In these "Memoirs" of Vidocq there is a man named Christian, or +Caron, with a reputation for removing charms cast on animals, and he +takes Vidocq to his Gypsy friends at Malines: + +"Having traversed the city, we stopped in the Faubourg de Louvain, before +a wretched looking house with blackened walls, furrowed with wide +crevices, and many bundles of straw as substitutes for window glasses. It +was midnight, and I had time to make my observations by the moonlight, +for more than half an hour elapsed before the door was opened by one of +the most hideous old hags I ever saw in my life. We were then introduced +to a long room where thirty persons of both sexes were indiscriminately +smoking and drinking, mingling in strange and licentious positions. Under +their blue loose frocks, ornamented with red embroidery, the men wore +blue velvet waistcoats with silver buttons, like the Andalusian +muleteers; the clothing of the women was all of one bright colour; there +were some ferocious countenances amongst them, but yet they were all +feasting. The monotonous sound of a drum, mingled with the howling of +two dogs tied under the table, accompanied the strange songs, which I +mistook for a funeral psalm. The smoke of tobacco and wood which filled +this den, scarcely allowed me to perceive in the midst of the room a +woman, who, adorned with a scarlet turban, was performing a wild dance +with the most wanton postures." + +Dr. Knapp, on insufficient evidence, attributes the translation to +Borrow. But certainly Borrow might have incorporated this passage in his +own work almost word for word without justifying a charge either of +plagiarism or untruth. Other men had written fiction as if it were +autobiography; he was writing autobiography as if it were fiction; he +used his own life as a subject for fiction. Ford crudely said that +Borrow "coloured up and poetised" his adventures. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV--OUT OF LONDON + + +If Borrow is taken literally, he was at Blackheath on May 12, 1825, sold +his "Life of Joseph Sell" on the 20th, and left London on the 22nd. "For +some months past I had been far from well, and my original indisposition, +brought on partly by the peculiar atmosphere of the Big City, partly by +anxiety of mind, had been much increased by the exertions which I had +been compelled to make during the last few days. I felt that, were I to +remain where I was, I should die, or become a confirmed valetudinarian. I +would go forth into the country, travelling on foot, and, by exercise and +inhaling pure air, endeavour to recover my health, leaving my subsequent +movements to be determined by Providence." + +He says definitely in the appendix to "The Romany Rye," that he fled from +London and hack-authorship for "fear of a consumption." Walking on an +unknown road out of London the "poor thin lad" felt tired at the ninth +milestone, and thought of putting up at an inn for the night, but instead +took the coach to ---, _i.e._, Amesbury. + +The remaining ninety chapters of "Lavengro" and "The Romany Rye" are +filled by the story of the next four months of Borrow's life and by +stories told to him during that period. The preceding fifty-seven +chapters had sufficed for twenty-two years. "The novelty" of the new +itinerant life, says Mr. Thomas Seccombe, {96} "graved every incident in +the most vivid possible manner upon the writer's recollection." After +walking for four days northwest from Salisbury he met an author, a rich +man who was continually touching things to avert the evil chance, and +with him he stayed the night. On the next day he bought a pony and cart +from the tinker, Jack Slingsby, with the purpose of working on the +tinker's beat and making horse-shoes. After some days he was visited +down in a Shropshire dingle by a Gypsy girl, who poisoned him at the +instigation of his enemy, old Mrs. Herne. Only the accidental appearance +of the Welsh preacher, Peter Williams, saved him. Years afterwards, in +1854, it may be mentioned here, he told a friend in Cornwall that his +fits of melancholy were due to the poison of a Gypsy crone. He spent a +week in the company of the preacher and his wife, and was about to cross +the Welsh border with them when Jasper Petulengro reappeared, and he +turned back. Jasper told him that Mrs. Herne had hanged herself out of +disappointment at his escape from her poison. This made it a point of +honour for Jasper to fight Borrow, whose bloody face satisfied him in +half an hour: he even offered Borrow his sister Ursula for a wife. Borrow +refused, and settled alone in Mumper's Dingle, which was perhaps Mumber +Lane, five miles from Willenhall in Staffordshire. {97} Here he fought +the Flaming Tinman, who had driven Slingsby out of his beat. The Tinman +brought with him his wife and Isopel Berners, the tall fair-haired girl +who struck Borrow first with her beauty and then with her right arm. +Isopel stayed with Borrow after the defeat of the Tinman, and their +companionship in the dingle fills a very large part of "Lavengro" and +"The Romany Rye," with interruptions and diversions from the Man in +Black, the gin-drinking priest, who was then at work undermining the +Protestantism of old England. Isopel stood by him when suffering from +"indescribable horror," and recommended "ale, and let it be strong." +Borrow makes her evidently inclined to marry him; for example, when she +says that if she goes to America she will go alone "unless--unless that +should happen which is not likely," and when he says ". . . If I had the +power I would make you queen of something better than the dingle--Queen +of China. Come, let us have tea," and "'Something less would content +me,' said Belle, sighing, as she rose to prepare our evening meal"--and +when at the postillion's suggestion of a love affair, she buries her face +in her hands. "She would sigh, too," he says, "as I recounted the many +slights and degradations I had received at the hands of ferocious +publishers." In one place Borrow says: "I am, of course, nothing to her, +but she is mistaken in thinking she is nothing to me." Borrow represents +himself as tyrannically imposing himself upon the girl as teacher of +Armenian, enlivening the instruction with the one mild _double entendre_, +of "I decline a mistress." At times they seem on terms of as perfect +good fellowship as ever was, with a touch of post-matrimonial +indifference; but Isopel had fits of weeping and Borrow of listlessness. +Borrow was uncommonly fond of prophetic tragic irony. As he made +Thurtell unconsciously suggest to the reader his own execution, so he +makes Isopel say one day when she is going a journey: "I shall return +once more." Lavengro starts but thinks no more of it. + +While she was away he began to think: "I began to think, 'What was likely +to be the profit of my present way of life; the living in dingles, making +pony and donkey shoes, conversing with Gypsy-women under hedges, and +extracting from them their odd secrets?' What was likely to be the +profit of such a kind of life, even should it continue for a length of +time?--a supposition not very probable, for I was earning nothing to +support me, and the funds with which I had entered upon this life were +gradually disappearing. I was living, it is true, not unpleasantly, +enjoying the healthy air of heaven; but, upon the whole, was I not sadly +misspending my time? Surely I was; and, as I looked back, it appeared to +me that I had always been doing so. What had been the profit of the +tongues which I had learned? had they ever assisted me in the day of +hunger? No, no! it appeared to me that I had always misspent my time, +save in one instance, when by a desperate effort I had collected all the +powers of my imagination, and written the 'Life of Joseph Sell'; but even +when I wrote the 'Life of Sell,' was I not in a false position? Provided +I had not misspent my time, would it have been necessary to make that +effort, which, after all, had only enabled me to leave London, and wander +about the country for a time? But could I, taking all circumstances into +consideration, have done better than I had? With my peculiar temperament +and ideas, could I have pursued with advantage the profession to which my +respectable parents had endeavoured to bring me up? It appeared to me +that I could not, and that the hand of necessity had guided me from my +earliest years, until the present night in which I found myself seated in +the dingle, staring on the brands of the fire. But ceasing to think of +the past which, as irrecoverably gone, it was useless to regret, even +were there cause to regret it, what should I do in future? Should I +write another book like the 'Life of Joseph Sell;' take it to London, and +offer it to a publisher? But when I reflected on the grisly sufferings +which I had undergone whilst engaged in writing the 'Life of Sell,' I +shrank from the idea of a similar attempt; moreover, I doubted whether I +possessed the power to write a similar work--whether the materials for +the life of another Sell lurked within the recesses of my brain? Had I +not better become in reality what I had hitherto been merely playing at--a +tinker or a Gypsy? But I soon saw that I was not fitted to become either +in reality. It was much more agreeable to play the Gypsy or the tinker, +than to become either in reality. I had seen enough of gypsying and +tinkering to be convinced of that. All of a sudden the idea of tilling +the soil came into my head; tilling the soil was a healthful and noble +pursuit! but my idea of tilling the soil had no connection with Britain; +for I could only expect to till the soil in Britain as a serf. I thought +of tilling it in America, in which it was said there was plenty of wild, +unclaimed land, of which any one, who chose to clear it of its trees, +might take possession. I figured myself in America, in an immense +forest, clearing the land destined, by my exertions, to become a fruitful +and smiling plain. Methought I heard the crash of the huge trees as they +fell beneath my axe; and then I bethought me that a man was intended to +marry--I ought to marry; and if I married, where was I likely to be more +happy as a husband and a father than in America, engaged in tilling the +ground? I fancied myself in America, engaged in tilling the ground, +assisted by an enormous progeny. Well, why not marry, and go and till +the ground in America? I was young, and youth was the time to marry in, +and to labour in. I had the use of all my faculties; my eyes, it is +true, were rather dull from early study, and from writing the 'Life of +Joseph Sell'; but I could see tolerably well with them, and they were not +bleared. I felt my arms, and thighs, and teeth--they were strong and +sound enough; so now was the time to labour, to marry, eat strong flesh, +and beget strong children--the power of doing all this would pass away +with youth, which was terribly transitory. I bethought me that a time +would come when my eyes would be bleared, and perhaps, sightless; my arms +and thighs strengthless and sapless; when my teeth would shake in my +jaws, even supposing they did not drop out. No going a wooing then--no +labouring--no eating strong flesh, and begetting lusty children then; and +I bethought me how, when all this should be, I should bewail the days of +my youth as misspent, provided I had not in them founded for myself a +home, and begotten strong children to take care of me in the days when I +could not take care of myself; and thinking of these things, I became +sadder and sadder, and stared vacantly upon the fire till my eyes closed +in a doze." + +So, before going to bed, he filled the kettle in case Isopel should +return during the night. He fell asleep and was dreaming hard and +hearing the sound of wheels in his dream "grating amidst sand and +gravel," when suddenly he awoke. "The next moment I was awake, and found +myself sitting up in my tent; there was a glimmer of light through the +canvas caused by the fire; a feeling of dread came over me, which was +perhaps natural, on starting suddenly from one's sleep in that wild lone +place; I half imagined that some one was nigh the tent; the idea made me +rather uncomfortable, and to dissipate it I lifted up the canvas of the +door and peeped out, and, lo! I had an indistinct view of a tall figure +standing by the tent. 'Who is that?' said I, whilst I felt my blood rush +to my heart. 'It is I,' said the voice of Isopel Berners; 'you little +expected me, I dare say; well, sleep on, I do not wish to disturb you.' +'But I was expecting you,' said I, recovering myself, 'as you may see by +the fire and the kettle. I will be with you in a moment.' + +"Putting on in haste the articles of dress which I had flung off, I came +out of the tent, and addressing myself to Isopel, who was standing beside +her cart, I said--'Just as I was about to retire to rest I thought it +possible that you might come to-night, and got everything in readiness +for you. Now, sit down by the fire whilst I lead the donkey and cart to +the place where you stay; I will unharness the animal, and presently come +and join you.' 'I need not trouble you,' said Isopel; 'I will go myself +and see after my things.' 'We will go together,' said I, 'and then +return and have some tea.' Isopel made no objection, and in about half +an hour we had arranged everything at her quarters. I then hastened and +prepared tea. Presently Isopel rejoined me, bringing her stool; she had +divested herself of her bonnet, and her hair fell over her shoulders; she +sat down, and I poured out the beverage, handing her a cup. 'Have you +made a long journey to-night?' said I. 'A very long one,' replied +Belle,' I have come nearly twenty miles since six o'clock.' 'I believe I +heard you coming in my sleep,' said I; 'did the dogs above bark at you?' +'Yes,' said Isopel, 'very violently; did you think of me in your sleep?' +'No,' said I, 'I was thinking of Ursula and something she had told me.' +'When and where was that?' said Isopel. 'Yesterday evening,' said I, +'beneath the dingle hedge.' 'Then you were talking with her beneath the +hedge?' 'I was,' said I, 'but only upon Gypsy matters. Do you know, +Belle, that she has just been married to Sylvester, so you need not think +that she and I . . . ' 'She and you are quite at liberty to sit where +you please,' said Isopel. 'However, young man,' she continued, dropping +her tone, which she had slightly raised, 'I believe what you said, that +you were merely talking about Gypsy matters, and also what you were going +to say, if it was, as I suppose, that she and you had no particular +acquaintance.' Isopel was now silent for some time. 'What are you +thinking of?' said I. 'I was thinking,' said Belle, 'how exceedingly +kind it was of you to get everything in readiness for me, though you did +not know that I should come.' 'I had a presentiment that you would +come,' said I; 'but you forget that I have prepared the kettle for you +before, though it was true I was then certain that you would come.' 'I +had not forgotten your doing so, young man,' said Belle; 'but I was +beginning to think that you were utterly selfish, caring for nothing but +the gratification of your own strange whims.' 'I am very fond of having +my own way,' said I, 'but utterly selfish I am not, as I dare say I shall +frequently prove to you. You will often find the kettle boiling when you +come home.' 'Not heated by you,' said Isopel, with a sigh. 'By whom +else?' said I; 'surely you are not thinking of driving me away?' 'You +have as much right here as myself,' said Isopel, 'as I have told you +before; but I must be going myself.' 'Well,' said I, 'we can go +together; to tell you the truth, I am rather tired of this place.' 'Our +paths must be separate,' said Belle. 'Separate,' said I, 'what do you +mean? I shan't let you go alone, I shall go with you; and you know the +road is as free to me as to you; besides, you can't think of parting +company with me, considering how much you would lose by doing so; +remember that you scarcely know anything of the Armenian language; now, +to learn Armenian from me would take you twenty years.' + +"Belle faintly smiled. 'Come,' said I, 'take another cup of tea.' Belle +took another cup of tea, and yet another; we had some indifferent +conversation, after which I arose and gave her donkey a considerable feed +of corn. Belle thanked me, shook me by the hand, and then went to her +own tabernacle, and I returned to mine." + +He torments her once more with Armenian and makes her speak in such a way +that the reader sees--what he himself did not then see--that she was too +sick with love for banter. She bade him farewell with the same +transparent significance on the next day, when he was off early to a +fair. "I waved my hand towards her. She slowly lifted up her right arm. +I turned away and never saw Isopel Berners again." That night as he was +going home he said: "Isopel Berners is waiting for me, and the first word +that I shall hear from her lips is that she has made up her mind. We +shall go to America, and be so happy together." She sent him a letter of +farewell, and he could not follow her, he would not try, lest if he +overtook her she should despise him for running after her. + +I can only say that it is an extraordinary love-making, but then all love- +making, when truthfully reported, is extraordinary. There can be little +doubt, therefore, that this episode is truthfully reported. Borrow +himself has made a comment on himself and women through the mouth of +Jasper. The Gypsy had overheard him talking to his sister Ursula for +three hours under a hedge, and his opinion was: "I begin to think you +care for nothing in this world but old words and strange stories." When, +afterwards, invited to kiss the same Ursula, he refused, "having," he +says, "inherited from nature a considerable fund of modesty, to which was +added no slight store acquired in the course of my Irish education," +_i.e._ at the age of twelve. + +After Isopel had gone he bought a fine horse with the help of a loan of +50 pounds from Jasper, and travelled with it across England, meeting +adventures and hearing of others. He was for a time bookkeeper at a +coaching inn, still with some pounds in his purse. At Horncastle, which +he mentions more than once by name, he sold the horse for 150 pounds. As +the fair at Horncastle lasted from the 11th to the 21st of August, the +date of this last adventure is almost exactly fixed. Here the book ends. + +{picture: Horncastle Horse Fair. (From an old print.): page104.jpg} + + + + +CHAPTER XV--AN EARLY PORTRAIT + + +At the end of these travels Borrow had turned twenty-two. His brother +John painted his portrait, but it has disappeared, and Borrow himself, as +if fearing lest no adequate picture of him should remain, took pains to +leave the material for one. It is a peculiarity of his books that people +whom he meets and converses with often remark on his appearance. He must +himself have been tolerably familiar with it and used to comment on it. +He told his father that a lady thought him like Alfieri's Saul; at a +later date Haydon, the painter, said he would "make a capital Pharaoh." +Years before, when he was a boy, Petulengro recognised him after a long +absence, because there was something in his face to prevent people from +forgetting him. Mrs. Herne, his Gypsy enemy, praised him for his +"singular and outrageous ugliness." He was lean, long-limbed and tall, +having reached his full height of six-feet-two probably before the end of +his teens; he had plenty of room to fill before becoming a big man, and +yet he was already powerful and clearly destined to be a big man. His +hair had for some time been rapidly becoming grey, and was soon to be +altogether white: it had once been black, and his strongly-marked +eyebrows were still dark brown. His face was oval and inclining to olive +in complexion; his nose rounded, but not too large; his mouth good and +well-moulded; his eyes dark brown and noticeable indescribably, either +through their light or through the curve of the eyelids across them. "You +have a flash about that eye of yours," says the old apple woman, and it +is she that notices the "blob of foam" on his lips, while he is musing +aloud, exclaiming "Necessity!" and cracking his finger-joints. He had an +Irish look, or so thought his London acquaintance, Ardry. He looked +"rather wild" at times and he had a way of clenching his fist when he was +determined not to be put upon, as the bullying coachman found who had +said: "One-and-ninepence, sir, or the things which you have brought with +you will be taken away from you." Yet he had small hands for his size +and "long white fingers," which "would just serve for the business," said +the thimble-rigger. Though ready to hit people when he is angry, "a more +civil and pleasant-spoken person than yourself," says Ursula, "can't be +found." His own opinion was "that he was not altogether deficient in +courage and in propriety of behaviour. . . . That his appearance was not +particularly against him, his face not being like that of a convicted +pickpocket, nor his gait resembling that of a fox that has lost his +tail." It is as a "poor thin lad" that he commends himself to us, +through the mouth of the old apple woman, at his setting out from London, +but as he gets on he shows himself "an excellent pedestrian." + +Already in London he has made one or two favourable impressions, as when +he convinces the superb waiter that he is "accustomed to claret." But it +is upon the roads that he wishes to shine. When the Man in Black asks +how he knows him, he answers that "Gypsies have various ways of obtaining +information." Later on, he makes the Man in Black address him as +"Zingaro." He impresses the commercial traveller as "a confounded +sensible young fellow, and not at all opinionated," and Lord Whitefeather +as a highwayman in disguise, and the Gypsies as one who never spoke a bad +word and never did a bad thing. This is his most impressive moment, when +the jockey discovers that he is the Romany Rye and tells him there is +scarcely a part of England where he has not heard the name of the Romany +Rye mentioned by the Gypsies. Here he makes another praise him. Now let +him mount the fine horse he has bought with 50 pounds borrowed from a +Gypsy, and is about to sell for 150 pounds at Horncastle Fair. + +"After a slight breakfast I mounted the horse, which, decked out in his +borrowed finery, really looked better by a large sum of money than on any +former occasion. Making my way out of the yard of the inn, I was +instantly in the principal street of the town, up and down which an +immense number of horses were being exhibited, some led, and others with +riders. 'A wonderful small quantity of good horses in the fair this +time!' I heard a stout jockey-looking individual say, who was staring up +the street with his side towards me. 'Halloo, young fellow!' said he, a +few moments after I had passed, 'whose horse is that? Stop! I want to +look at him!' Though confident that he was addressing himself to me, I +took no notice, remembering the advice of the ostler, and proceeded up +the street. My horse possessed a good walking step; but walking, as the +reader knows, was not his best pace, which was the long trot, at which I +could not well exercise him in the street, on account of the crowd of men +and animals; however, as he walked along, I could easily perceive that he +attracted no slight attention amongst those who, by their jockey dress +and general appearance, I imagined to be connoisseurs; I heard various +calls to stop, to none of which I paid the slightest attention. In a few +minutes I found myself out of the town, when, turning round for the +purpose of returning, I found I had been followed by several of the +connoisseur-looking individuals, whom I had observed in the fair. 'Now +would be the time for a display,' thought I; and looking around me I +observed two five-barred gates, one on each side of the road, and +fronting each other. Turning my horse's head to one, I pressed my heels +to his sides, loosened the reins, and gave an encouraging cry, whereupon +the animal cleared the gate in a twinkling. Before he had advanced ten +yards in the field to which the gate opened, I had turned him round, and +again giving him cry and rein, I caused him to leap back again into the +road, and still allowing him head, I made him leap the other gate; and +forthwith turning him round, I caused him to leap once more into the +road, where he stood proudly tossing his head, as much as to say, 'What +more?' 'A fine horse! a capital horse!' said several of the +connoisseurs. 'What do you ask for him?' 'Too much for any of you to +pay,' said I. 'A horse like this is intended for other kind of customers +than any of you.' 'How do you know that?' said one; the very same person +whom I had heard complaining in the street of the paucity of good horses +in the fair. 'Come, let us know what you ask for him?' 'A hundred and +fifty pounds!' said I; 'neither more nor less.' 'Do you call that a +great price?' said the man. 'Why, I thought you would have asked double +that amount! You do yourself injustice, young man.' 'Perhaps I do,' +said I, 'but that's my affair; I do not choose to take more.' 'I wish +you would let me get into the saddle,' said the man; 'the horse knows +you, and therefore shows to more advantage; but I should like to see how +he would move under me, who am a stranger. Will you let me get into the +saddle, young man?' 'No,' said I, 'I will not let you get into the +saddle.' 'Why not?' said the man. 'Lest you should be a Yorkshireman,' +said I, 'and should run away with the horse.' 'Yorkshire?' said the man; +'I am from Suffolk; silly Suffolk--so you need not be afraid of my +running away with the horse.' 'Oh! if that's the case,' said I, 'I +should be afraid that the horse would run away with you; so I will by no +means let you mount.' 'Will you let me look in his mouth?' said the man. +'If you please,' said I; 'but I tell you, he's apt to bite.' 'He can +scarcely be a worse bite than his master,' said the man, looking into the +horse's mouth; 'he's four off. I say, young man, will you warrant this +horse?' 'No,' said I; 'I never warrant horses; the horses that I ride +can always warrant themselves.' 'I wish you would let me speak a word to +you,' said he. 'Just come aside. It's a nice horse,' said he, in a half +whisper, after I had ridden a few paces aside with him. 'It's a nice +horse,' said he, placing his hand upon the pommel of the saddle and +looking up in my face, 'and I think I can find you a customer. If you +would take a hundred, I think my lord would purchase it, for he has sent +me about the fair to look him up a horse, by which he could hope to make +an honest penny.' 'Well,' said I, 'and could he not make an honest +penny, and yet give me the price I ask?' 'Why,' said the go-between, 'a +hundred and fifty pounds is as much as the animal is worth, or nearly so; +and my lord, do you see . . .' 'I see no reason at all,' said I, 'why I +should sell the animal for less than he is worth, in order that his +lordship may be benefited by him; so that if his lordship wants to make +an honest penny, he must find some person who would consider the +disadvantage of selling him a horse for less than it is worth, as +counterbalanced by the honour of dealing with a lord, which I should +never do; but I can't be wasting my time here. I am going back to the . . ., +where if you, or any person, are desirous of purchasing the horse, +you must come within the next half-hour, or I shall probably not feel +disposed to sell him at all.' 'Another word, young man,' said the +jockey; but without staying to hear what he had to say, I put the horse +to his best trot, and re-entering the town, and threading my way as well +as I could through the press, I returned to the yard of the inn, where, +dismounting, I stood still, holding the horse by the bridle." + +As no one else troubled to paint Borrow either at Horncastle or any other +place, and as he took advantage of the fact to such purpose, I must leave +this portrait as it is, only I shall remind the reader that it is not a +photograph but a portrait of the painter. A little time ago this painter +was a consumptive-looking literary hack, and is still a philologist, with +eyes a bit dim from too much reading, and subject to frantic +melancholy;--a liker of solitude and of men and women who do not disturb +it, but a man accustomed to men and very well able to deal with them. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI--THE VEILED PERIOD + + +The last words of "The Romany Rye" narrative are: "I shouldn't wonder if +Mr. Petulengro and Tawno Chikno came originally from India. I think I'll +go there." This is his way of giving impressiveness to the "veiled +period" of the following seven or eight years, for the benefit of those +who had read "The Zincali" and "The Bible in Spain," and had been allured +by the hints of earlier travel. In "The Zincali" he has spoken of seeing +"Gypsies of various lands, Russian, Hungarian and Turkish; and also the +legitimate children of most countries of the world": of being "in the +shop of an Armenian at Constantinople," and "lately at Janina in +Albania." In "The Bible in Spain" he had spoken of "an acquaintance of +mine, a Tartar Khan." He had described strange things, and said: "This +is not the first instance in which it has been my lot to verify the +wisdom of the saying, that truth is sometimes wilder than fiction;" he +had met Baron Taylor and reminded the reader of other meetings "in the +street or the desert, the brilliant hall or amongst Bedouin haimas, at +Novgorod or Stambul." Before 1833 he had been in Paris and Madrid. "I +have been everywhere," he said to the simple company at a Welsh inn. +Speaking to Colonel Napier in 1839 at Seville, he said that he had picked +up the Gypsy tongue "some years ago in Moultan," and he gave the +impression that he had visited most parts of the East. + +A little too much has been made of this "veiled period," not by Borrow, +but by others. It would have been fair to surmise that if he chose not +to write about this period of his life, either there was very little in +it, or there was something in it which he was unwilling--perhaps +ashamed--to disclose; and what has been discovered suggests that he was +in an unsettled state--writing to please himself and perhaps also the +booksellers, travelling a little and perhaps meeting some of the +adventures which he crammed into those few months of 1825, suffering from +"the horrors" either in solitude or with no confidant but his mother. + +Borrow himself took no great pains to preserve the veil. For instance, +in the preface to his translation of "Y Bardd Cwsg" in 1860, he says that +it was made "in the year 1830 at the request of a little Welsh bookseller +of his acquaintance" in Smithfield. + +In 1826 he was in Norwich: the "Romantic Ballads" were published there, +and in May he received a letter from Allan Cunningham, whose cheery +commendatory verses ushered in the book. The letter suggests that Borrow +was indolent from apathy. The book had no success or notice, which Knapp +puts down to his not sending out presentation copies. "I judge, +however," says he, "that he sent one to Walter Scott, and that that busy +writer forgot to acknowledge the courtesy. Borrow's lifelong hostility +to Scott would thus be accounted for;" but the hostility is his reason +for supposing that the copy was sent. Some time afterwards, in 1826, he +was at 26, Bryanstone Street, Portman Square, and was to sit for the +artist, B. R. Haydon, before going off to the South of France. If he +went, he may have paid the visits to Paris, Bayonne, Italy and Spain, +which he alludes to in "The Bible in Spain"; he may, as Dr. Knapp +suggests, have covered the ground of Murtagh's alleged travels in "The +Romany Rye," and have been at Pau, with Quesada's army marching to +Pamplona, at Torrelodones, and at Seville. But in a letter to the Bible +Society in 1838 he spoke of his earlier acquaintance with Spain being +confined almost entirely to Madrid. It may be true, as he says in "The +Zincali," that "once in the south of France, when he was weary, hungry, +and penniless, he observed one of these patterans or Gypsy trails, and, +following the direction pointed out, arrived at the resting place of some +Gypsies, who received him with kindness and hospitality on the faith of +no other word of recommendation than patteran." It may be true that he +wandered in Italy, and rested at nightfall by a kiln "about four leagues +from Genoa." But by April, 1827, he must have been back in Norwich, +according to Knapp, to see Marshland Shales at the fair. Knapp gives +certain proof that he was there between September and December. +Thereafter, if Knapp was right, he was translating Vidocq's "Memoirs." In +1829 again he was in London, at 17, Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, and +was projecting with John Bowring a collection of "Songs of Scandinavia." +He applied for work to the Highland Society and to the British Museum, in +1830. In that summer he was at 7, Museum Street, Bloomsbury. He was not +satisfied with his work or its remuneration. He thought of entering the +French Army, of going to Greece, of getting work, with Bowring's help, +under the Belgian Government. His name "had been down for several years" +for the purchase of a commission in the English Army, and Bowring offered +to recommend him to "a corps in one of the Eastern Colonies," where he +could perfect his Arabic and Persian. In 1842 he wrote a letter to +Bowring, printed by Mr. Walling, asking for "as many of the papers and +manuscripts which I left at yours some twelve years ago, as you can +find," and for advice and a loan of books, and promising that Murray will +send a copy of "The Bible in Spain" to "my oldest, I may say my _only_ +friend." But whatever Bowring's help, Borrow was "drifting on the sea of +the world, and likely to be so," and especially hurt because of the +figure he must cut in the eyes of his own people. Was it now, or when he +was bookkeeper at the inn in 1825, that he saw so much of the ways of +commercial travellers? {114} + +It is not necessary to quote from the metrical translations, probably of +this period, "selections from a huge, undigested mass of translation, +accumulated during several years devoted to philological pursuits," +published in "The Targum" of 1835. They were made from originals in the +Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Tartar, Tibetian, Chinese, Mandchou, +Russian, Malo-Russian, Polish, Finnish, Anglo-Saxon, Ancient Norse, +Suabian, German, Dutch, Danish, Ancient Danish, Swedish, Ancient Irish, +Irish, Gaelic, Ancient British, Cambrian British, Greek, Modern Greek, +Latin, Provencal, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Rommany. + +I will, however, quote from "The Sleeping Bard, or Visions of the World, +Death and Hell," his translation of Elis Wyn's "Y Bardd Cwsg." The book +would please Borrow, because in the City of Perdition Rome stands at the +gate of Pride, and the Pope has palaces in the streets of Pleasure and of +Lucre; because the Church of England is the fairest part of the Catholic +Church, surmounted by "Queen Anne on the pinnacle of the building, with a +sword in each hand"; and because the Papist is turned away from the +Catholic Church by a porter with "an exceedingly large Bible." "One fair +morning," he begins: + +"One fair morning of genial April, when the earth was green and pregnant, +and Britain, like a paradise, was wearing splendid liveries, tokens of +the smile of the summer sun, I was walking upon the bank of the Severn, +in the midst of the sweet notes of the little songsters of the wood, who +appeared to be striving to break through all the measures of music, +whilst pouring forth praise to the Creator. I, too, occasionally raised +my voice and warbled with the feathered choir, though in a manner +somewhat more restrained than that in which they sang; and occasionally +read a portion of the book of 'The Practice of Godliness.'" + +And in his vision he saw fiends drive men and women through the foul +river of the Fiend to their eternal damnation, where + +"I at the first glance saw more pains and torments than the heart of man +can imagine or the tongue relate; a single one of which was sufficient to +make the hair stand erect, the blood to freeze, the flesh to melt, the +bones to drop from their places--yea, the spirit to faint. What is +empaling or sawing men alive, tearing off the flesh piecemeal with iron +pincers, or broiling the flesh with candles, collop fashion, or squeezing +heads flat in a vice, and all the most shocking devices which ever were +upon earth, compared with one of these? Mere pastime! There were a +hundred thousand shoutings, hoarse cries, and strong groans; yonder a +boisterous wailing and horrible outcry answering them, and the howling of +a dog is sweet, delicious music when compared with these sounds. When we +had proceeded a little way onward from the accursed beach, towards the +wild place of Damnation, I perceived, by their own light, innumerable men +and women here and there; and devils without number and without rest, +incessantly employing their strength in tormenting. Yes, there they +were, devils and damned, the devils roaring with their own torments, and +making the damned roar by means of the torments which they inflicted upon +them. I paid particular observation to the corner which was nearest me. +There I beheld the devils with pitchforks, tossing the damned up into the +air that they might fall headlong on poisoned hatchets or barbed pikes, +there to wriggle their bowels out. After a time the wretches would crawl +in multitudes, one upon another, to the top of one of the burning crags, +there to be broiled like mutton; from there they would be snatched afar, +to the top of one of the mountains of eternal frost and snow, where they +would be allowed to shiver for a time; thence they would be precipitated +into a loathsome pool of boiling brimstone, to wallow there in +conflagration, smoke and the suffocation of horrible stench; from the +pool they would be driven to the marsh of Hell, that they might embrace +and be embraced by the reptiles, many times worse than serpents and +vipers; after allowing them half an hour's dalliance with these creatures +the devils would seize a bundle of rods of steel, fiery hot from the +furnace, and would scourge them till their howling, caused by the +horrible inexpressible pain which they endured, would fill the vast abode +of darkness, and when the fiends deemed that they had scourged them +enough, they would take hot irons and sear their bloody wounds. . . ." + +And this would have particularly pleased Borrow, who disliked and +condemned smoking: + +"For one of late origin I will not deny, O Cerberus, that thou hast +brought to us many a booty from the island of our enemies, by means of +tobacco, a weed the cause of much deceit; for how much deceit is +practised in carrying it about, in mixing it, and in weighing it: a weed +which entices some people to bib ale; others to curse, swear, and to +flatter in order to obtain it, and others to tell lies in denying that +they use it: a weed productive of maladies in various bodies, the excess +of which is injurious to every man's body, without speaking of his +_soul_: a weed, moreover, by which we get multitudes of the poor, whom we +should never get did they not set their love on tobacco, allow it to +master them, and pull the bread from the mouths of their children." + +In the preface to this book as it was finally published in 1860, Borrow +said that the little Welsh bookseller had rejected it for fear of being +ruined--"The terrible descriptions of vice and torment would frighten the +genteel part of the English public out of their wits. . . . I had no +idea, till I read him in English, that Elis Wyn had been such a terrible +fellow." + +In September, 1830, Borrow left London and returned to Norwich, having +done nothing which attracted attention or deserved to. His brother's +opinion was that his want of success in life was due chiefly to his being +unlike other people. So far as his failure in literature went, it was +due to the fact that he was doing either poorly or only moderately well +work that very few people wanted to read, viz., chiefly verse +translations from unfashionable languages. It may be also that his +health was partly the cause and was in turn lowered by the long continued +failure. When Borrow, at the age of forty or more, came to write about +the first twenty-two years of his life, he not only described himself +suffering from several attacks of "the horrors," but also with almost +equal vividness three men suffering from mental afflictions of different +kinds: the author who lived alone and was continually touching things to +avert the evil chance; the old man who had saved himself from being +overwhelmed in his terrible misfortunes by studying the inscriptions on +Chinese pots, but could not tell the time; and the Welshman who wandered +over the country preaching and living piously, but haunted by the +knowledge that in his boyhood he had committed the sin against the Holy +Ghost. The most vivid description of his "horrors," which he said in +1834 always followed if they did not result from weakness, is in the +eighty-fourth chapter of "Lavengro": + +"Heaviness had suddenly come over me, heaviness of heart, and of body +also. I had accomplished the task which I had imposed upon myself, and +now that nothing more remained to do, my energies suddenly deserted me, +and I felt without strength, and without hope. Several causes, perhaps, +co-operated to bring about the state in which I then felt myself. It is +not improbable that my energies had been overstrained during the work, +the progress of which I have attempted to describe; and every one is +aware that the results of overstrained energies are feebleness and +lassitude--want of nourishment might likewise have something to do with +it. During my sojourn in the dingle my food had been of the simplest and +most unsatisfying description, by no means calculated to support the +exertions which the labour I had been engaged upon required; it had +consisted of coarse oaten cakes, and hard cheese, and for beverage I had +been indebted to a neighbouring pit, in which, in the heat of the day, I +frequently saw, not golden or silver fish, but frogs and efts swimming +about. I am, however, inclined to believe that Mrs. Herne's cake had +quite as much to do with the matter as insufficient nourishment. I had +never entirely recovered from the effects of its poison, but had +occasionally, especially at night, been visited by a grinding pain in the +stomach, and my whole body had been suffused with cold sweat; and indeed +these memorials of the drow have never entirely disappeared--even at the +present time they display themselves in my system, especially after much +fatigue of body, and excitement of mind. So there I sat in the dingle +upon my stone, nerveless and hopeless, by whatever cause or causes that +state had been produced--there I sat with my head leaning upon my hand, +and so I continued a long, long time. At last I lifted my head from my +hand, and began to cast anxious, unquiet looks about the dingle--the +entire hollow was now enveloped in deep shade--I cast my eyes up; there +was a golden gleam on the tops of the trees which grew towards the upper +parts of the dingle; but lower down, all was gloom and twilight--yet, +when I first sat down on my stone, the sun was right above the dingle, +illuminating all its depths by the rays which it cast perpendicularly +down--so I must have sat a long, long time upon my stone. And now, once +more, I rested my head upon my hand, but almost instantly lifted it again +in a kind of fear, and began looking at the objects before me, the forge, +the tools, the branches of the trees, endeavouring to follow their rows, +till they were lost in the darkness of the dingle; and now I found my +right hand grasping convulsively the three forefingers of the left, first +collectively, and then successively, wringing them till the joints +cracked; then I became quiet, but not for long. + +"Suddenly I started up, and could scarcely repress the shriek which was +rising to my lips. Was it possible? Yes, all too certain; the evil one +was upon me; the inscrutable horror which I had felt in my boyhood had +once more taken possession of me. I had thought that it had forsaken me; +that it would never visit me again; that I had outgrown it; that I might +almost bid defiance to it; and I had even begun to think of it without +horror, as we are in the habit of doing of horrors of which we conceive +we run no danger; and lo! when least thought of, it had seized me again. +Every moment I felt it gathering force, and making me more wholly its +own. What should I do?--resist, of course; and I did resist. I grasped, +I tore, and strove to fling it from me; but of what avail were my +efforts? I could only have got rid of it by getting rid of myself; it +was a part of myself, or rather it was all myself. I rushed among the +trees, and struck at them with my bare fists, and dashed my head against +them, but I felt no pain. How could I feel pain with that horror upon +me! and then I flung myself on the ground, gnawed the earth, and +swallowed it; and then I looked round; it was almost total darkness in +the dingle, and the darkness added to my horror. I could no longer stay +there; up I rose from the ground, and attempted to escape; at the bottom +of the winding path which led up the acclivity I fell over something +which was lying on the ground; the something moved, and gave a kind of +whine. It was my little horse, which had made that place its lair; my +little horse; my only companion and friend, in that now awful solitude. I +reached the mouth of the dingle; the sun was just sinking in the far +west, behind me; the fields were flooded with his last gleams. How +beautiful everything looked in the last gleams of the sun! I felt +relieved for a moment; I was no longer in the horrid dingle; in another +minute the sun was gone, and a big cloud occupied the place where he had +been; in a little time it was almost as dark as it had previously been in +the open part of the dingle. My horror increased; what was I to do?--it +was of no use fighting against the horror; that I saw; the more I fought +against it, the stronger it became. What should I do: say my prayers? +Ah! why not? So I knelt down under the hedge, and said, 'Our father'; +but that was of no use; and now I could no longer repress cries; the +horror was too great to be borne. What should I do: run to the nearest +town or village, and request the assistance of my fellow-men? No! that I +was ashamed to do; notwithstanding the horror was upon me, I was ashamed +to do that. I knew they would consider me a maniac, if I went screaming +amongst them; and I did not wish to be considered a maniac. Moreover, I +knew that I was not a maniac, for I possessed all my reasoning powers, +only the horror was upon me--the screaming horror! But how were +indifferent people to distinguish between madness and this screaming +horror? So I thought and reasoned; and at last I determined not to go +amongst my fellow men, whatever the result might be. I went to the mouth +of the dingle, and there, placing myself on my knees, I again said the +Lord's Prayer; but it was of no use; praying seemed to have no effect +over the horror; the unutterable fear appeared rather to increase than +diminish; and I again uttered wild cries, so loud that I was apprehensive +they would be heard by some chance passenger on the neighbouring road; I +therefore went deeper into the dingle; I sat down with my back against a +thorn bush; the thorns entered my flesh, and when I felt them, I pressed +harder against the bush; I thought the pain of the flesh might in some +degree counteract the mental agony; presently I felt them no longer; the +power of the mental horror was so great that it was impossible, with that +upon me, to feel any pain from the thorns. I continued in this posture a +long time, undergoing what I cannot describe, and would not attempt if I +were able. Several times I was on the point of starting up and rushing +anywhere; but I restrained myself, for I knew I could not escape from +myself, so why should I not remain in the dingle? So I thought and said +to myself, for my reasoning powers were still uninjured. At last it +appeared to me that the horror was not so strong, not quite so strong +upon me. Was it possible that it was relaxing its grasp, releasing its +prey? O what a mercy! but it could not be--and yet I looked up to +heaven, and clasped my hands, and said 'Our Father.' I said no more; I +was too agitated; and now I was almost sure that the horror had done its +worst. + +"After a little time I arose, and staggered down yet farther into the +dingle. I again found my little horse on the same spot as before, I put +my hand to his mouth; he licked my hand. I flung myself down by him and +put my arms round his neck, the creature whinnied, and appeared to +sympathise with me; what a comfort to have any one, even a dumb brute, to +sympathise with me at such a moment! I clung to my little horse, as if +for safety and protection. I laid my head on his neck, and felt almost +calm; presently the fear returned, but not so wild as before; it +subsided, came again, again subsided; then drowsiness came over me, and +at last I fell asleep, my head supported on the neck of the little horse. +I awoke; it was dark, dark night--not a star was to be seen--but I felt +no fear, the horror had left me. I arose from the side of the little +horse, and went into my tent, lay down, and again went to sleep. . . ." + +It may be said that the man who had gone through this, and could describe +it, would find it easy enough to depict other sufferings of the same +kind, though in later or less violent stages. It is certain, however, +that for such a one to acquire the habit of touching was easy. He says +himself, that after the night with the author who had this habit and who +feared ideas more than thunder and lightning, he himself touched things +and wondered if "the long-forgotten influence" had returned. Mr. Walling +says that "he has been informed" that Borrow "suffered in his youth from +the touching mania," and like many other readers probably, I had +concluded the same. But Mr. Watts-Dunton had already told us that "in +walking through Richmond Park," when an old man, Borrow "would step out +of his way constantly to touch a tree and was offended if observed." The +old man diverting himself with Chinese inscriptions on teapots would be +an easy invention for Borrow; he may not have done this very thing, but +he had done similar things. Here again, Mr. Walling says that "he has +been told" the incident was drawn from Borrow's own experience. As to +Peter Williams and the sin against the Holy Ghost, Borrow hinted to him +that his case was not exceptional: + +"'Dost thou then imagine,' said Peter, 'the sin against the Holy Ghost to +be so common an occurrence?' + +"'As you have described it,' said I, 'of very common occurrence, +especially amongst children, who are, indeed, the only beings likely to +commit it.' + +"'Truly,' said Winifred, 'the young man talks wisely.' + +"Peter was silent for some moments, and appeared to be reflecting; at +last, suddenly raising his head, he looked me full in the face, and, +grasping my hand with vehemence, he said, 'Tell me, young man, only one +thing, hast thou, too, committed the sin against the Holy Ghost?' + +"'I am neither Papist nor Methodist,' said I, 'but of the Church, and, +being so, confess myself to no one, but keep my own counsel; I will tell +thee, however, had I committed at the same age, twenty such sins as that +which you committed, I should feel no uneasiness at these years--but I am +sleepy, and must go to rest.'" + +This is due to probably something more than a desire to make himself and +his past impressive. The man's story in several places reminds me of +Borrow, where, for instance, after he has realised his unpardonable sin, +he runs wild through Wales, "climbing mountains and wading streams, burnt +by the sun, drenched by the rain," so that for three years he hardly knew +what befel him, living with robbers and Gypsies, and once about to fling +himself into the sea from a lofty rock. + +If it be true, as it is likely, that Borrow suffered in a more extended +manner than he showed in his accounts of the horrors, the time of the +suffering is still uncertain. Was it before his first escape from +London, as he says in "Lavengro"? Was it during his second long stay in +London or after his second escape? Or was it really not long before the +actual narrative was written in the 'forties? There is some reason for +thinking so. The most vivid description of "the horrors," and the +account of the touching gentleman and of Peter Williams, together with a +second reference to "the horrors" or the "evil one," all occur in a +section of "Lavengro" equal to hardly more than a sixth of the whole. And +further, when Borrow was writing "Wild Wales," or when he met the sickly +young man at the "Castle Inn" of Caernarvon, he thought of himself as +always having had "the health of an elephant." I should be inclined to +conclude at least that when he was forty great mental suffering was still +fresh in his mind, something worse than the heavy melancholy which +returned now and then when he was past fifty. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII--THE BIBLE SOCIETY: RUSSIA + + +From the phrase, "He said in '32," which Borrow uses of himself in +Chapter X. of the Appendix to "The Romany Rye," it was to be concluded +that he was writing political articles in 1832; and Dr. Knapp was able to +quote a manuscript of the time where he says that "there is no Radical +who would not rejoice to see his native land invaded by the bitterest of +her foreign enemies," etc., and also a letter, printed in the "Norfolk +Chronicle," on August 18, 1832, on the origin of the word "Tory." + +At the end of this year he became friendly with the family of Skepper, +including the widowed Mrs. Mary Clarke, then 36 years old, who lived at +Oulton Hall, near Lowestoft, in Suffolk. With or through them he met the +Rev. Francis Cunningham, Vicar of St. Margaret's, Lowestoft, who had +married a sister of the Quaker banker, Joseph John Gurney, and through +the offices of these two, Borrow was invited to go before the British and +Foreign Bible Society, as a candidate for employment in some branch of +the Society's work where his knowledge of languages would be useful. He +walked to London for the purpose in December, 1832. The Society was +satisfied and sent him back to Norwich to learn the Manchu-Tartar +language. There he wrote a letter, which, if we take Dr. Knapp's word +for it, was "a sort of recantation of the Taylorism of 1824." Being now +near thirty, and perhaps having his worst "horrors" behind him, or at +least having reason to think so if he was already fond of Mrs. Clarke, +whom he afterwards married, it was easy for him to fall into the same way +of speaking as these good and kindly people, and to abuse Buddhism, which +he did not understand, for their delectation. Mrs. Clarke had four or +five hundred pounds a year of her own, and one child, a daughter, then +about fourteen years old. Perhaps it was natural that he should remember +then, as he did later, the words of the cheerful and forgetful wise man: +"I have been young and now am grown old, yet never have I seen the +righteous forsaken, or his seed begging bread." + +From a gloomily fanatical atheist Borrow changed to a cheerfully +fanatical Protestant, described as "of the middle order in society, and a +very produceable person." {126} He was probably never a good atheist of +the reasonable critical type like William Taylor, whose thinking was too +dull and too difficult for him. Above all it was too negative and +unrelated to anything but the brain for the man who wrote "Lines to Six- +foot-three" and consorted with Gypsies. He had taken atheism along with +Taylor's literary and linguistic teaching, perhaps with some eagerness at +first as a form of protest against conventionally pious and respectable +Norwich life. The Bible Society and Mrs. Clarke and her friends came +radiant and benevolent to his "looped and windowed" atheism. They gave +him friends and money: they gave him an occupation on which he felt, and +afterwards found, that he could spend his hesitating energies. He +gathered up all his powers to serve the Bible Society. He suffered +hunger, cold, imprisonment, wounded feet, long hours of indoor labour and +long hours of dismal attendance upon inexorable official delay. +Personally he irritated Mr. Brandram, the secretary, and his bold and +unexpected ways gave the Society something to put up with, but he was +always a faithful and enthusiastic servant. He had many reasons for +being grateful to them. He, who was going to get himself imprisoned for +atheism, had already become, as Mr. Cunningham thought, a man "of certain +Christian principle," if "of no very exactly defined denomination of +Christians." He certainly did become an unquestioning wild +missionary--though not merely wild, for he was discreet in his boldness; +he was careful to save the Society money; he made himself respected by +the highest English and Spanish officials in Spain; so that in 1837, for +the first time in the Society's history, an English ambassador made their +cause a national one. He wanted to shout and the Bible Society gave him +something to shout for. He wanted to fight and they gave him something +to fight for. Twenty years afterwards, in writing the Appendix to "The +Romany Rye," he looked back on his travels in Spain as on a campaign: + +"It is true he went to Spain with the colours of that Society on his +hat--oh! the blood glows in his veins! oh! the marrow awakes in his old +bones when he thinks of what he accomplished in Spain in the cause of +religion and civilisation with the colours of that Society on his hat, +and its weapon in his hand, even the sword of the word of God; how with +that weapon he hewed left and right, making the priests fly before him, +and run away squeaking: 'Vaya! que demonio es este!' Ay, and when he +thinks of the plenty of bible swords which he left behind him, destined +to prove, and which have already proved, pretty calthrops in the heels of +Popery. 'Hallo! Batuschca,' he exclaimed the other night, on reading an +article in a newspaper; 'what do you think of the present doings in +Spain? Your old friend the zingaro, the gitano who rode about Spain, to +say nothing of Galicia, with the Greek Buchini behind him as his squire, +had a hand in bringing them about; there are many brave Spaniards +connected with the present movement who took Bibles from his hands, and +read them and profited by them." + +He was as sure in 1839 as in 1857 of the diabolic power and intention of +Popery, that "unrelenting fiend," whose secrets few, he said, knew more +than himself. {128a} + +In the gladness of his now fully exerted powers of body and mind, +travelling in wild country and observing and conflicting with men, he +adopted not merely the unctuous phraseology of "I am at present, thanks +be to the Lord, comfortable and happy," {128b} but a more attractive +religious arrogance. "That I am an associate of Gypsies and +fortune-tellers I do not deny," he says, "and why should I be ashamed of +their company when my Master mingled with publicans and thieves." {128c} +He painted himself as a possible martyr among the wild Catholics, a St. +Stephen. When he suffered at the same time from hardship and the +Society's disfavour, he exclaimed: "It was God's will that I, who have +risked all and lost almost all in the cause, be taunted, suspected, and +the sweat of agony and tears which I have poured out be estimated at the +value of the water of the ditch or the moisture which exudes from rotten +dung. But I murmur not, and hope I shall at all times be willing to bow +to the dispensations of the Almighty." {128d} He exulted in melodramatic +nature, in the sublime of Salvator Rosa, in the desperate, wild, and +strange. His very prayers, as reported by himself to the Secretary, +distressed the Society because they were "passionate." True, he could +sometimes, under the inspiration of the respectable Secretary, write like +a perfect middle-class English Christian. He condemned the Sunday +amusements of Hamburg, for example, remarking that "England, with all her +faults, has still some regard to decency, and will not tolerate such a +shameful display of vice" (as rope-dancing) "in so sacred a season, when +a decent cheerfulness is the freest form in which the mind or countenance +ought to invest themselves." {129a} He argued against the translator of +the Bible into Manchu that concessions should not be made to a Chinese +way of thought, because it was the object of the Society to wean the +Chinese from their own customs and observances, not to encourage them. +But the opposite extreme was more congenial to Borrow. He would go to +the market place in a remote Spanish village and display his Testaments +on the outspread horsecloth, crying: "Peasants, peasants, I bring you the +Word of God at a cheap price." {129b} He would disguise himself, +travelling with a sack of Testaments on his donkey; and when a woman +asked if it was soap he had, he answered: "Yes; it is soap to wash souls +clean." This was the man to understand Peter Williams, the Welsh +preacher who had committed the sin against the Holy Ghost and wandered +about preaching and refusing a roof. Neither must it be forgotten that +this was the man who, in a conversation not reported to the Bible +Society, said: "What befalls my body or soul was written in a _gabicote_ +a thousand years before the foundation of the world." + +Borrow was only seven weeks in getting so far as to be able to translate +from Manchu, though it had been said, as he pointed out, that the +language took five or six years to acquire. It cost him an even shorter +time to acquire the dialect of his employers, for in less than a month +after he had retired to Norwich to learn Manchu, he was writing thus: + +"Revd. and Dear Sir,--I have just received your communication, and +notwithstanding it is Sunday morning, and the bells with their loud and +clear voices are calling me to church, I have sat down to answer it by +return of post. . . . + +"Return my kind and respected friend, Mr. Brandram, my best thanks for +his present of 'The Gypsies' Advocate,' and assure him that, next to the +acquirement of Mandchou, the conversion and enlightening of those +interesting people occupy the principal place in my mind. . . . {130} + +Never had his linguistic power a greater or more profitable triumph than +in this acquisition. As this was probably a dialect not unknown at +Earlham, Norwich, and Oulton, among people whom he loved, respected, or +beheld successful, the difficulty of the task was a little decreased. +Thurtell and Haggart had passed away, Petulengro had not yet reappeared. +There was no one to tell him that he was living in a country and an age +that were afterwards to appear among the most ignorant and cruel on +record. He himself had not yet discovered the "gentility-nonsense," nor +did he ever discover that gentility was of the same family, if it was not +an albinism of the same species, as pious and oily respectability. So +delighted was he with the new dialect that he rolled it on his tongue to +the confusion of habitues, who had to rap him over the knuckles for +speaking of becoming "useful to the Deity, to man, and to himself." + +In July, 1833, Borrow was appointed, with a salary of 200 pounds a year +and expenses, to go to St. Petersburg, to help in editing a Manchu +translation of the New Testament, or transcribing and collating a +translation of the Old, accompanied by a warning against "a tone of +confidence in speaking of yourself" in such a phrase as "useful to the +Deity, to man, and to yourself." Borrow accepted the correction, and +Norwich laughed at him in his new suit. At the end of July he sailed, +and as at this time he had no objection to gentility he regretted the end +of his passage with so many "genteel, well-bred and intelligent +passengers," though he had suffered from sea-sickness, followed by "the +horrors." + +St. Petersburg he thought the finest of the many capitals he had seen. He +made the acquaintance of several men who could help him with their +learning and their books, and above all he gained the friendship of John +P. Hasfeldt, a Dane, a little older than himself, who was interpreter to +the Danish Legation and teacher of European languages, evidently a man +after Borrow's own heart, with his opinion that "The greater part of +those products of art, called 'the learned,' would not be able to earn a +living if our Lord were not a guardian of fools." The copying of the Old +Testament was finished by the end of the year, without having prevented +Borrow from profiting by his unusual facilities for the acquisition of +languages. He had then to superintend, or as it fell out, to help +largely with his own hands, the printing of the first Manchu translation +of the New Testament, with type which had first to be cleansed of ten +years' rust and with compositors who knew nothing of Manchu. Lacking +almost in time to eat or to sleep he impressed the Bible Society by his +prodigious labours under "the blessing of a kind and gracious Providence +watching over the execution of a work in which the wide extension of the +Saviour's glory is involved." + +He was living cheaply, suffering sometimes from "the horrors," and curing +them with port wine--sending money home to his mother, bidding her to +employ a maid and to read and "think as much of God as possible." Nor +was he doing merely what he was bound to do. For example, he translated +some of the "Homilies of the Church of England" into Russian and into +Manchu. He also published in St. Petersburg his "Targum" and "Talisman," +a short further collection of translations from Pushkin, Mickiewicz, and +from Russian national songs. The work was finished and formally and +kindly approved by the Bible Society. He had proposed long before that +he should distribute the books himself, wandering overland with them by +Lake Baikal and Kiakhta right to Pekin; but the Russian Government +refused a passport. Dr. Knapp believes that this intention of going +among the Tartars and overland from Russia to Pekin was the sole ground +for his crediting himself with travels in the Far East. In the flesh he +had to content himself with a journey to Novgorod and Moscow. As he had +visited the Jews at Hamburg so he did the Gypsies at Moscow. This +adventure moved him to his first characteristic piece of prose, in a +letter to the Society. This letter, which was afterwards printed in the +"Athenaeum," {132} and incorporated in "The Zincali," mentions the +Gypsies who have become successful singers and married noblemen, but +continues: + +"It is not, however, to be supposed that all the female Gypsies are of +this high, talented and respectable order: amongst them are many low and +profligate females, who sing at taverns or at the various gardens in the +neighbourhood, and whose husbands and male connexions subsist by horse +jobbing and like kinds of traffic. The principal place of resort of this +class is Marina Rotche, lying about two versts from Moscow, and thither I +drove, attended by a _valet de place_. Upon my arriving there, the +Gypsies swarmed out from their tents, and from the little tradeer, or +tavern, and surrounded me; standing on the seat of the caleche, I +addressed them in a loud voice in the dialect of the English Gypsies, +with which I have some slight acquaintance. A scream of wonder instantly +arose, and welcomes and greetings were poured forth in torrents of +musical Rommany, amongst which, however, the most prominent air was, 'Ah +kak mi toute karmama,' 'Oh, how we love you'; for at first they supposed +me to be one of their brothers, who they said, were wandering about in +Turkey, China, and other parts, and that I had come over the great +pawnee, or water, to visit them. . . . I visited this place several times +during my sojourn at Moscow, and spoke to them upon their sinful manner +of living, upon the advent and suffering of Christ Jesus, and expressed, +upon my taking leave of them, a hope that they would be in a short period +furnished with the word of eternal life in their own language, which they +seemed to value and esteem much higher than the Russian." + +The tone of this letter suggests that it was meant for the Bible +Society--and a copy was addressed to them--but at this date it is +possible to see in it an outline of the Gypsy gentleman, very much the +gentleman, the "colossal clergyman" of later days. + +Borrow liked the Russians, and for some reasons was sorry to leave them +and Hasfeldt in September, 1835. But for other reasons he was glad. He +would see his mother and comfort her for the loss of her elder son in +November, 1833, as he had already done to some extent by telling her that +he would "endeavour to get ordained." He also would see Mrs. Clarke, +with whom he had been corresponding for the past two years. Both she and +his mother had been unwilling for him to go to Pekin. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII--THE BIBLE SOCIETY: SPAIN + + +Borrow's chief regret at leaving Russia was that his active life was +interrupted, perhaps at an end. He was dreading the old life of +unprofitable study with no complete friends. But luckily, when he had +only been a month in England, the Bible Society resolved to send him to +Lisbon and Oporto, to look for openings for circulating the Bible in +Portugal and perhaps in Spain. After this they had thoughts of sending +him to China by sea. In November, 1835, he sailed for Lisbon. + +Spain was at this time the victim of private quarrels which had been +allowed to assume public importance. King Ferdinand VII. had twice been +restored to an unloving people by foreign, especially English, aid. This +King had for heir his brother Carlos, until his fourth wife, Maria +Christina, bore him a daughter, Isabella, in 1830; and to secure her +succession he set aside the Salic law. In 1833 he died. Isabella II. +was proclaimed Queen, and Christina Regent. Christinists and Carlists +were soon at war, and very bloody war. The English intervened, once +diplomatically, once with a foreign legion. The war wavered, with +success now to the Carlist Generals Zumalacarregui and Cabrera and now to +the Christinist Espartero. There were new Prime Ministers about twice +yearly. The parties were divided amongst themselves, and treachery was +common. The only result that could always be foreseen was that the +people and the country would suffer. Not until 1841 did Espartero +finally defeat Cabrera. + +Portugal, in 1835, had just had its eight years of civil war between the +partisans of a child--Maria II.--aged seven, and her uncle, Miguel, +ending in the departure of Miguel. Borrow made a preliminary journey in +the forlorn country and decided for Spain instead. Escaping the bullets +of Portuguese soldiers, he crossed the boundary at the beginning of 1836 +and entered Badajoz. There he met the Gypsies, and put off his journey +to Madrid to see more of them and translate the fifteenth chapter of St. +Luke into their tongue. At Merida he stopped again for a Gypsy wedding. +His guide was the Gypsy, Antonio Lopez, who sold him the donkey which he +rode as far as Talavera. At Madrid his business was to print the New +Testament in a Spanish Catholic translation. He had to wait; but with a +new Cabinet permission was obtained and arrangements for the printing +were made. The Revolution of La Granja, which he describes in "The Bible +in Spain," caused another delay. Then, in October, after a visit to the +Gypsies of Granada, he returned to London. + +He had written long letters to the Bible Society, and one which was +combined and published in the "Athenaeum" with that written from Moscow. +It is dated, Madrid, July 19, 1836, but describes his visit to Badajoz on +January 6. He says, on entering Badajoz: + +"I instantly returned thanks to God, who had protected me during a +journey of five days through the wilds of the Alemtejo, the province of +Portugal the most infested by robbers and desperate characters, and which +I had traversed with no other human companion than a lad, nearly idiotic, +who was to convey back the mules which carried myself and luggage." + +Two men were passing him in the street, and seeing the face of one he +touched his arm: "I said a certain word, to which, after an exclamation +of surprise, he responded in the manner I expected." They were Gypsies. +He continues: + +"They left me in haste and went about the town informing the rest that a +stranger had arrived who spoke Rommany as well as themselves, who had the +eyes and face of a Gitano, and seemed to be of the 'cratti' or blood. In +less than half an hour the street before the inn was filled with the men, +women and children of Egypt. I went out amongst them, and my heart sank +within me as I surveyed them; so much squalidness, dirt and misery I had +never before seen amongst a similar number of human beings; but the worst +of all was the evil expression of their countenances, denoting that they +were familiar with every species of crime, and it was not long before I +found that their countenances did not belie them. After they had asked +me an infinity of questions, and felt my hands, face, and clothes, they +returned to their homes." + +He stayed with them nearly three weeks, he says; about ten days, says Dr. +Knapp. Borrow continues: + +"The result of my observations was a firm belief that the Spanish Gitanos +are the most vile, degraded and wretched people upon the earth. The +great wickedness of these outcasts may, perhaps, be attributed to their +having abandoned their wandering life and become inmates of the towns, +where, to the original bad traits of their character, they have +superadded the evil and vicious habits of the rabble. . . . They listened +with admiration, but alas, not of the truths, the eternal truths I was +telling them, but at finding that their broken jargon could be written +and read; the only words of assent to the heavenly doctrine which I ever +obtained, and which were rather of the negative kind, were the following, +from a woman--'Brother! you tell us strange things, though perhaps you do +not lie; a month since I would sooner have believed these tales than that +I should this day have seen one who could write Rommany.' . . ." + +He preserves the clergyman, but deepens the Gypsy stain. The "Athenaeum" +was "not at liberty on this occasion" to publish the name of this man +whom Gypsies called "Brother," but apparently it would not be the name of +any writer hitherto known to readers of the "Athenaeum." + +He was a month in England, and then left for Spain to print and +distribute Testaments. He had hardly put his feet on Spanish soil than, +said the Marquis of Santa Colona, {137} he "looked round, saw some +Gypsies lounging there, said something that the Marquis could not +understand, and immediately 'that man became _une grappe de Gitanos_.' +They hung round his neck, clung to his knees, seized his hands, kissed +his feet, so that the Marquis hardly liked to join his comrade again, +after such close embraces by so dirty a company." At Cordova he was very +well received by the Gypsies "on the supposition that he was one of their +own race." He says in "The Gypsies of Spain": + +"As for myself, I was admitted without scruple to their private meetings, +and was made a participator of their most secret thoughts. During our +intercourse, some remarkable scenes occurred: one night more than twenty +of us, men and women, were assembled in a long low room on the ground +floor, in a dark alley or court in the old gloomy town of Cordova. After +the Gitanos had discussed several jockey plans, and settled some private +bargains amongst themselves, we all gathered round a huge brasero of +flaming charcoal, and began conversing _sobre las cosas de Egypto_, when +I proposed that, as we had no better means of amusing ourselves, we +should endeavour to turn into the Calo language some piece of devotion, +that we might see whether this language, the gradual decay of which I had +frequently heard them lament, was capable of expressing any other matters +than those which related to horses, mules, and Gypsy traffic. It was in +this cautious manner that I first endeavoured to divert the attention of +these singular people to matters of eternal importance. My suggestion +was received with acclamations, and we forthwith proceeded to the +translation of the Apostle's Creed. I first recited in Spanish, in the +usual manner and without pausing, this noble confession, and then +repeated it again, sentence by sentence, the Gitanos translating as I +proceeded. They exhibited the greatest eagerness and interest in their +unwonted occupation, and frequently broke into loud disputes as to the +best rendering--many being offered at the same time. In the meanwhile, I +wrote down from their dictation, and at the conclusion I read aloud the +translation, the result of the united wisdom of the assembly, whereupon +they all raised a shout of exultation, and appeared not a little proud of +the composition." + +In his desire to see the Gypsies and the ways of the people he more than +doubled his difficulties, and suffered from cold and the rudeness of the +roads and of the people. But in spite of the internecine civil war he +got safe to Madrid. Printing was begun in 1837, and when copies were +ready Borrow advertised them and arranged for their distribution. He +himself set out with his servant, Antonio Buchini, a Greek of +Constantinople, who had served an infinity of masters, and once been a +cook to the overbearing General Cordova, and answered the General's sword +with a pistol. They travelled to Salamanca, Valladolid, Leon, Astorga, +Villafranca, Lugo, Coruna, to Santiago, Vigo, and again to Coruna, to +Ferrol, Oviedo, Santander, Burgos, Valladolid, and so back to Madrid in +October. He had suffered from fever, dysentery and ophthalmia on the +journey. According to Dr. Knapp it was the most unpropitious country +possible. If chosen by anything but ignorance, it must have been by whim +and the unconscious desire to delight posterity and amaze Dr. Knapp. +Borrow had met, among others, Benedict Mol, the Swiss seeker after +treasure hidden in the earth under the Church of San Roque at St. James' +of Compostella. This traveller was not his only acquaintance. He formed +a friendship at Madrid with the Spanish scholar, Luis de Usoz, afterwards +editor of "The Early Spanish Reformers," who became a member of the Bible +Society, helped Borrow in editing the Spanish Testament, and looked after +his interests while he was away from Madrid. At St. James' itself he +made a friend and a co-operator of the old bookseller, Rey Romero, who +knew Benedict Moll. + +Borrow returned to the sale of Testaments at Madrid, and to his own +favourite project of printing his Spanish Gypsy translation of the Gospel +of St. Luke. To advertise his Testaments he posted up and sent about +flaming tricoloured placards. This was too much for the Moderate +Government which had followed the Liberals: the sale of Testaments was +stopped, and that for thirty years after. The officials had been +irritated by the far graver indiscretions of another but irregular agent +of the Bible Society, Lieutenant Graydon, R.N., "a fervid Irish +Protestant." {139} Apparently this man had advertised Bibles in Valencia +as to be sold at very low prices and even given away; had printed abuse +of the Spanish clergy and Government, and had described himself as co- +operating with Borrow. Except at Madrid, the Bibles and Testaments in +Borrow's depots throughout Spain were seized by the Government. The +books had at last to be sent out of the country, British Consuls were +forbidden to countenance religious agents; and in the opinion of the +Consul at Seville, J. M. Brackenbury, this was directly due to Graydon's +indiscretions. The Society were kind to him. They cautioned him not to +attack Popery, but to leave the Bible to speak for itself. The caution +was vain, but in spite of the harm done to Borrow and themselves they +recalled Graydon with but a qualified disavowal of his conduct. Borrow +did not conceal from the Society his opinion that this man, with his +"lunatic vagaries," had been the "evil genius" of the Bible cause and of +himself. The incident did no good to the already bickering relations +between Borrow and the Rev. A. Brandram, the Secretary. Evidently +Borrow's character jarred upon Brandram, who took revenge by a tone of +facetious cavil and several criticisms upon Borrow's ways, upon his +confident masculine tone, for example, his "passionate" prayer, and his +confession of superstitious obedience to an ominous dream. Brandram even +took the trouble to remind Borrow that when it came to distribution in +Russia his success had ended: which was true but not through any fault of +his. Borrow took the criticism as if applied to his Spanish work also, +saying: "It was unkind and unjust to taunt me with having been +unsuccessful in distributing the Scriptures. Allow me to state that no +other person under the same circumstances would have distributed the +tenth part. Yet had I been utterly unsuccessful, it would have been +wrong to charge me with being so, after all I have undergone--and with +how little of that are you acquainted." {140} If Borrow had been as +revengeful as Dr. Knapp believed him, he would not have allowed Brandram +to escape an immortality of hate in "Lavengro" or "The Romany Rye." + +Borrow irritated the Spanish Government yet a little more by issuing his +Gypsy "Luke," and in May, 1838, he was illegally imprisoned in the +_Carcel de Corte_, where he insisted upon staying until he was set free +with honour and the payment of his expenses. He vindicated his position +by a letter to a newspaper, pointing out that his Society was neither +sectarian nor political, and that he was their sole authorised agent. +This led directly to the breaking of his connection with the Bible +Society, who reprimanded him for his letter and virtually recalled him +from Spain. + +Nevertheless Borrow made a series of excursions into the country to sell +his Testaments, until in August he was definitely recalled. He returned +to England, as he says himself, for "change of scene and air" after an +attack of fever. He obtained a new lease from the Bible Society and was +back in Spain at the end of 1838. Early in 1839 he made further +excursions with Antonio Lopez to sell his Testaments, until he had to +stop. Thereupon he went to Seville. He was still forming plans on +behalf of the Society. He wished to go to La Mancha, the worst part of +Spain, then through Saragossa and into France. + +At Seville it was, in May, 1839, that Colonel Napier met him. Nobody +knew who, or of what nationality, he was--this "mysterious Unknown," the +white-haired young man, with dark eyes of almost supernatural penetration +and lustre, who gave himself out to be thirty instead of thirty-five, who +spoke English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, and Romaic to those who +best understood these languages. Borrow and Napier rode out together to +the ruins of Italica: + +"We sat down," he says, "on a fragment of the walls; the "Unknown" began +to feel the vein of poetry creeping through his inward soul, and gave +vent to it by reciting, with great emphasis and effect, the following +well-known and beautiful lines: + + "Cypress and ivy, weed and wallflower, grown + Matted and massed together, hillocks heap'd + On what were chambers, arch crush'd, column strown + In fragments, choked up vaults, and frescoes steep'd + In subterranean damps, where the owl peep'd, + Deeming it midnight:--Temples, baths, or halls-- + Pronounce who can; for all that Learning reap'd + From her research hath been, that these are walls." + +"I had been too much taken up with the scene, the verses, and the strange +being who was repeating them with so much feeling, to notice the approach +of a slight female figure, beautiful in the extreme, but whose tattered +garments, raven hair, swarthy complexion, and flashing eyes, proclaimed +her to be of the wandering tribe of Gitanos. From an intuitive sense of +politeness she stood with crossed arms and a slight smile on her dark and +handsome countenance, until my companion had ceased, and then addressed +us in the usual whining tone of supplication--'Gentlemen, a little +charity; God will repay it to you!' The Gypsy girl was so pretty and her +voice so sweet, that I involuntarily put my hand in my pocket. + +"'Stop!' said the 'Unknown.' 'Do you remember what I told you of the +Eastern origin of these people? You shall see I am correct.' 'Come +here, my pretty child,' said he in Moultanee, 'and tell me where are the +rest of your tribe.' The girl looked astounded, and replied in the same +tongue, but in broken language; when, taking him by the arm, she said in +Spanish: 'Come, Caballero, come to one who will be able to answer you'; +and she led the way down among the ruins towards one of the dens formerly +occupied by the wild beasts, and disclosed to us a set of beings scarcely +less savage. The sombre walls of this gloomy abode were illumined by a +fire, the smoke from which escaped through a deep fissure in the mossy +roof, whilst the flickering flames threw a blood-red glare on the bronzed +features of a group of children, two men, and a decrepit old hag who +appeared busily engaged in some culinary operations. + +"On our entrance, the scowling glance of the males of the party, and a +quick motion of the hand towards the folds of the faja (where the clasp- +knife is concealed), caused in me, at least, anything but a comfortable +sensation; but their hostile intentions were immediately removed by a +wave of the hand from our conductress, who, leading my companion towards +the sibyl, whispered something in her ear. The old crone appeared +incredulous. The 'Unknown' uttered one word; but that word had the +effect of magic. She prostrated herself at his feet, and in an instant, +from an object of suspicion, he became one of worship to the whole +family, to whom on taking leave he made a handsome present, and departed +with their united blessings. + +"I was, as the phrase goes, dying with curiosity, and as soon as we +mounted our horses, exclaimed: 'Where, in the name of goodness, did you +pick up your acquaintance with the language of these extraordinary +people?' 'Some years ago, in Moultan,' he replied. 'And by what means +do you possess such apparent influence over them?' But the 'Unknown' had +already said more than he perhaps wished on the subject. He dryly +replied that he had more than once owed his life to Gypsies and had +reason to know them well; but this was said in a tone which precluded all +further queries on my part." + +This report is a wonderful testimony to Borrow's power, for he seems to +have made the Colonel write almost like himself and produce a picture +exactly like those which he so often draws of himself. + +From Seville Borrow took a journey of a few weeks to Tangier and Barbary. +There he met the strongest man in Tangier, one of the old Moors of +Granada, who waved a barrel of water over his head as if it had been a +quart pot. There he and his Jewish servant, Hayim Ben Attar, sold +Testaments, and, says he, "with humble gratitude to the Lord," the +blessed Book was soon in the hands of most of the Christians in Tangier. +But with an account of his first day in the city he concluded "The Bible +in Spain." + +When he was back again in Seville he had the society of Mrs. Clarke and +her daughter; Henrietta, who had come to Spain to avoid some legal +difficulties and presumably to see Borrow. Before the end of 1839 the +engagement of Borrow and Mrs. Clarke was announced without surprising old +Mrs. Borrow at Norwich. In November Borrow wrote almost his last long +letter to the Bible Society. He had the advantage of a singular address, +being for the moment in the prison of Seville, where he had been +illegally thrown, after a quarrel with the Alcalde over the matter of a +passport. He told them how this "ruffian" quailed before his gaze of +defiance. He told them how well he was treated by his fellow prisoners: + +{picture: The Summer House, Oulton Cottage. Photo: C. Wilson, Lowestoft: +page145.jpg} + +"The black-haired man who is now looking over my shoulder is the +celebrated thief Palacio, the most expert housebreaker and dexterous +swindler in Spain--in a word, the modern Guzman Dalfarache. The brawny +man who sits by the brasero of charcoal, is Salvador, the highwayman of +Ronda, who has committed a hundred murders. A fashionably dressed man, +short and slight in person, is walking about the room: he wears immense +whiskers and mustachios; he is one of that most singular race of Jews of +Spain; he is imprisoned for counterfeiting money. He is an atheist, but +like a true Jew, the name which he most hates is that of Christ: . . ." +{144} So well did Borrow choose his company, even in prison. Some of +his letters to the Society went astray at this time and he was vainly +expected in England. He was able to send them a very high testimony to +his discretion from the English Consul at Seville, and he himself +reminded them that he had been "fighting with wild beasts" during this +last visit. The Society several times repeated his recall, but he did +not return, apparently because he wished to remain with Mrs. Clarke in +Seville, and because he no longer felt himself at their beck and call. He +was also at work on "The Gypsies of Spain." Nevertheless he wrote to the +Society in March, 1840, a letter which would have been remarkable from +another man about to marry a wife, for he said that he wished to spend +the remaining years of his life in the northern parts of China, as he +thought he had a call, and still hoped "to die in the cause of my +Redeemer." In April he left Spain with Mrs. and Miss Clarke. Fifty or +sixty years later Mrs. Joseph Pennell "saw the sign, 'G. Borrow, Agent of +the British and Foreign Bible Society,' high upon a house in the Plaza de +la Constitucion, in Seville." Borrow was never again in Spain. After +reporting himself for the last time to the Society, and making a +suggestion which Brandram answered by saying, "the door seems shut," he +married Mrs. Clarke on April 23, 1840. She had 450 pounds a year and a +home at Oulton. Fifteen or sixteen years later he spoke of his wife and +daughter thus: "Of my wife I will merely say that she is a perfect +paragon of wives--can make puddings and sweets and treacle posset, and is +the best woman of business in Eastern Anglia--of my step daughter--for +such she is, though I generally call her daughter, and with good reason, +seeing that she has always shown herself a daughter to me--that she has +all kinds of good qualities, and several accomplishments, knowing +something of conchology, more of botany, drawing capitally in the Dutch +style, and playing remarkably well on the guitar--not the trumpery German +thing so called--but the real Spanish guitar." His wife wrote letters +for him, copied his manuscripts, and helped to correct his proofs. She +remained at Oulton, or Yarmouth, while he went about; if he went to Wales +or Ireland she sometimes accompanied him to a convenient centre and there +remained while he did as he pleased. She admired him, and she appears to +have become essential to his life, apart from her income, and not to have +resented her position at any time, though grieved by his unconcealed +melancholy. + +A second time he praised her in print, saying that he had an exceedingly +clever wife, and allowed her "to buy and sell, carry money to the bank, +draw cheques, inspect and pay tradesmen's bills, and transact all my real +business, whilst I myself pore over old books, walk about the shires, +discoursing with Gypsies, under hedgerows, or with sober bards--in hedge +alehouses." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX--"THE ZINCALI" + + +Borrow and his wife and stepdaughter settled at Oulton Cottage before the +spring of 1840 was over. This house, the property of Mrs. Borrow, was +separated from Oulton Broad only by a slope of lawn, at the foot of which +was a private boat. Away from the house, but equally near lawn and water +stood Borrow's library--a little peaked octagonal summer house, with +toplights and windows. The cottage is gone, but the summer house, now +mantled with ivy, where he wrote "The Bible in Spain" and "Lavengro," is +still to be seen. Here, too, he arranged and completed the book written +"at considerable intervals during a period of nearly five years passed in +Spain--in moments snatched from more important pursuits--chiefly in +ventas and posadas (inns), whilst wandering through the country in the +arduous and unthankful task of distributing the Gospel among its +children,"--"The Zincali: or the Gypsies of Spain." It was published in +April, 1841. + +This book is a description of Gypsies in Spain and wherever else he has +met them, with some history, and, as Borrow says himself, with "more +facts than theories." It abounds in quotations from out of the way +Spanish books, but was by far "less the result of reading than of close +observation." It is patched together from scattered notes with little +order or proportion, and cannot be regarded as a whole either in +intention or effect. Nor is this wholly due to the odd times and places +in which it was written. Borrow had never before written a continuous +original work of any length. He had formed no clear idea of himself, his +public, or his purpose. Personality was strong in him and it had to be +expressed. He was full also of extraordinary observation, and this he +could not afford to conceal. It was not easy to satisfy the two needs in +one coherent book; he hardly tried, and he certainly did not succeed. +Ford described it well in his review of "The Bible in Spain": {148} + +"'The Gypsies of Spain' was a Spanish olla--a hotchpotch of the jockey +tramper, philologist, and missionary. It was a thing of shreds and +patches--a true book of Spain; the chapters, like her bundle of +unamalgamating provinces, were just held together, and no more, by the +common tie of religion; yet it was strange and richly flavoured with +genuine _borracha_. It was the first work of a diffident, inexperienced +man, who, mistrusting his own powers, hoped to conciliate critics by +leaning on Spanish historians and Gypsy poets." + +Nevertheless, "The Zincali" is a book that is still valuable for these +two separate elements of personality and extraordinary observation. +Probably Borrow, his publisher, and the public, regarded it chiefly as a +work of information, picturesquely diversified, and this it still is, +though the increase and systematization of Gypsy studies are said to have +superseded it. A book of spirit cannot be superseded. But pure +information does not live long, and the fact that its information is +inaccurate or incomplete does not rot a book like "The Compleat Angler" +or the "Georgics." Thus it may happen that the first book on a subject +is the best, and its successors mere treatises destined to pave the way +for other treatises. "The Gypsies of Spain" is still read as no other +book on the Gypsy is read. It is still read, not only by those just +infected with Gypsy fever, but by men as men. It does not, indeed, +survive as a whole, because it never was a whole, but there is a spirit +in the best parts sufficiently strong to carry the reader on over the +rest. + +To-day very few will do more than smile when Borrow says of the Gypsies, +that there can be no doubt "they are human beings and have immortal +souls," and that the chief object of his book is to "draw the attention +of the Christian philanthropist towards them, especially that degraded +and unhappy portion of them, the Gitanos of Spain." In 1841 many of the +Christian public probably felt a slight glow of satisfaction at starting +on a book that brought the then certain millenium, of a Christian and +English cast, definitely nearer. Probably they liked to know that this +missionary called pugilistic combats "disgraceful and brutalising +exhibitions"; and they were almost as certainly, as we are to-day, +delighted with the descriptions that followed, because it brought for the +first time clearly before them a real prize-fighting scene, and the +author, a terrible child of fourteen, looking on--"why should I hide the +truth?" says he. This excellent moral tone accompanied the reader of +1841 with satisfaction to the end. For example, Borrow describes the +Gypsies at Tarifa swindling a country man and woman out of their donkey. +When he sees them being treated and fondled by their intending robbers, +he exclaims: "Behold, poor humanity, thought I to myself, in the hands of +devils; in this manner are human souls ensnared to destruction by the +fiends of the pit." When he sees them departing penniless and without +their donkey, the woman bitterly lamenting it, he comments: "Upon the +whole, however, I did not much pity them. The woman was certainly not +the man's wife. The labourer had probably left his village with some +strolling harlot, bringing with him the animal which had previously +served to support himself and a family." Borrow was a man who pronounced +the Bible to be "the wonderful Book which is capable of resolving every +mystery." He was a man, furthermore, who called sorcery simply "a thing +impossible," and thus addressed a writer on chiromancy: "We . . . believe +that the lines of the hand have as little connection with the events of +life as with the liver and stomach, notwithstanding Aristotle, who you +forget was a heathen and cared as little for the Scriptures as the +Gitanos, whether male or female." + +Another satisfactory side to Borrow's public character, as revealed in +"The Zincali," was his contempt for "other nations," such as Spain--"a +country whose name has long and justly been considered as synonymous with +every species of ignorance and barbarism." His voice rises when he says +that "avarice has always been the dominant passion in Spanish minds, +their rage for money being only to be compared to the wild hunger of +wolves for horseflesh in the time of winter; next to avarice, envy of +superior talent and accomplishment is the prevailing passion." These +were the people whom he had gone to convert. His contempt for those who +were not middle-class Englishmen seemed unmitigated. Speaking of the +Gypsies, to whom the schools were open and the laws kinder, he points out +that, nevertheless, they remain jockeys and blacksmiths, though it is +true they have in part given up their wandering life. But "much," he +says, "will have been accomplished if, after the lapse of a hundred +years, one hundred human beings shall have been evolved from the Gypsy +stock who shall prove sober, honest, and useful members of society," +_i.e._, resembling the Spaniards whom he so condemned. + +But if men love a big fellow at the street corner bellowing about sin and +the wrath to come, they love him better if he was a black sinner before +he became white as the driven snow. Borrow reprimanded Spaniard and +Gypsy, but he also knew them: there is even a suspicion that he liked +them, though in his public black-coated capacity he had to condemn them +and regret that their destiny was perdition. Had he not said, in his +preface, that he had known the Gypsies for twenty years and that they +treated him well because they thought him a Gypsy? and in another place +referred to the time when he lived with the English Gypsies? Had he not, +in his introductions, spoken of "my brethren, the Smiths," a phrase then +cryptic and only to be explained by revealing his sworn brotherhood with +Ambrose Smith, the Jasper Petulengro of later books? He had said, +moreover, in a perfectly genuine tone, with no trace of missionary +declamation: + +"After the days of the great persecution in England against the Gypsies, +there can be little doubt that they lived a right merry and tranquil +life, wandering about and pitching their tents wherever inclination led +them: indeed, I can scarcely conceive any human condition more enviable +than Gypsy life must have been in England during the latter part of the +seventeenth, and the whole of the eighteenth century, which were likewise +the happy days for Englishmen in general; there was peace and plenty in +the land, a contented population, and everything went well." + +If a man wishes to condemn the seven deadly sins we tolerate him if in +the process they are sufficiently well described. If Borrow described +the tinker family as wretched, and their donkey as miserable, he added, +"though life, seemingly so wretched, has its charms for these outcasts, +who live without care and anxiety, without a thought beyond the present +hour, and who sleep as sound in ruined posadas and ventas, or in ravines +amongst rocks and pines, as the proudest grandee in his palace at Seville +or Madrid." If he condemned superstition, he yet thought it possibly +"founded on a physical reality"; he regarded the moon as the true "evil +eye," and bade men "not sleep uncovered beneath the smile of the moon, +for her glance is poisonous, and produces insupportable itching in the +eye, and not infrequently blindness." If he believed in the immortality +of the soul, he did not disdain to know the vendor of poisons who was a +Gypsy. If he stayed three weeks in Badajoz because he knew he should +never meet any people "more in need of a little Christian exhortation" +than the Gypsies, he did not fill his pages with three weeks of Christian +exhortation, but told the story of the Gypsy soldier, Antonio--how he +recognised as a Gypsy the enemy who was about to kill him, and saved +himself from the uplifted bayonet by crying "Zincalo, Zincalo!" and then, +having been revived by him, sat for hours with his late enemy, who said: +"Let the dogs fight and tear each other's throats till they are all +destroyed, what matters it to the Zincali? they are not of our blood, and +shall that be shed for them?" This man who, if he had his way, would +have washed his face in the blood of the Busne (those who are not +Gypsies), this man called Borrow "brother!" If Borrow distributed +Testaments, he knew little more of the recipients than a bolt from the +blue, or if he did he cared to tell but little. That little is the story +of the Gypsy soldier, Chaleco, who came to him at Madrid in 1838 with a +copy of the Testament. He told his story from his cradle up; he imposed +himself on Borrow's hospitality, eating "like a wolf of the Sierra," and +drinking in proportion. Borrow could only escape from him by dining out. +When Borrow was imprisoned the fellow drew his sword at the news and +vowed to murder the Prime Minister "for having dared to imprison his +brother." In what follows, Borrow reveals in a consummate manner his +power of drawing into his vicinity extraordinary events: + +"On my release, I did not revisit my lodgings for some days, but lived at +an hotel. I returned late one afternoon, with my servant Francisco, a +Basque of Hernani, who had served me with the utmost fidelity during my +imprisonment, which he had voluntarily shared with me. The first person +I saw on entering was the Gypsy soldier, seated by the table, whereon +were several bottles of wine which he had ordered from the tavern, of +course on my account. He was smoking, and looked savage and sullen; +perhaps he was not much pleased with the reception he had experienced. He +had forced himself in, and the woman of the house sat in a corner looking +upon him with dread. I addressed him, but he would scarcely return an +answer. At last he commenced discoursing with great volubility in Gypsy +and Latin. I did not understand much of what he said. His words were +wild and incoherent, but he repeatedly threatened some person. The last +bottle was now exhausted--he demanded more. I told him in a gentle +manner that he had drunk enough. He looked on the ground for some time, +then slowly, and somewhat hesitatingly, drew his sword and laid it on the +table. It was become dark. I was not afraid of the fellow, but I wished +to avoid any thing unpleasant. I called to Francisco to bring lights, +and obeying a sign which I made him, he sat down at the table. The Gypsy +glared fiercely upon him--Francisco laughed, and began with great glee to +talk in Basque, of which the Gypsy understood not a word. The Basques, +like all Tartars, and such they are, are paragons of fidelity and good +nature; they are only dangerous when outraged, when they are terrible +indeed. Francisco to the strength of a giant joined the disposition of a +lamb. He was beloved even in the patio of the prison, where he used to +pitch the bar and wrestle with the murderers and felons, always coming +off victor. He continued speaking Basque. The Gypsy was incensed; and, +forgetting the languages in which, for the last hour, he had been +speaking, complained to Francisco of his rudeness in speaking any tongue +but Castilian. The Basque replied by a loud carcajada, and slightly +touched the Gypsy on the knee. The latter sprang up like a mine +discharged, seized his sword, and, retreating a few steps, made a +desperate lunge at Francisco. + +"The Basques, next to the Pasiegos, are the best cudgel-players in Spain, +and in the world. Francisco held in his hand part of a broomstick, which +he had broken in the stable, whence he had just ascended. With the +swiftness of lightning he foiled the stroke of Chaleco, and, in another +moment, with a dexterous blow, struck the sword out of his hand, sending +it ringing against the wall. + +"The Gypsy resumed his seat and his cigar. He occasionally looked at the +Basque. His glances were at first atrocious, but presently changed their +expression, and appeared to me to become prying and eagerly curious. He +at last arose, picked up his sword, sheathed it, and walked slowly to the +door, when there he stopped, turned round, advanced close to Francisco, +and looked him steadfastly in the face. 'My good fellow,' said he, 'I am +a Gypsy, and can read baji. Do you know where you will be this time to- +morrow?' {154} Then laughing like a hyena, he departed, and I never saw +him again. + +"At that time on the morrow, Francisco was on his death-bed. He had +caught the jail fever, which had long raged in the Carcel de la Corte, +where I was imprisoned. In a few days he was buried, a mass of +corruption, in the Campo Santo of Madrid." + +Having attracted the event, he recorded it with a vividness well set off +by his own nonchalance. Again and again he was to repeat this triumph of +depicting the wild, and the wild in a condition of activity and often +fury. + +His success is all the greater because it is unexpected. He sets out "to +direct the attention of the public towards the Gypsies; but he hopes to +be able to do so without any romantic appeals on their behalf." He is +far from having a romantic tone. He wields, as a rule, with any amount +of dignity the massive style of the early Victorian "Quarterly Review" +and Lane's so-called "Arabian Nights." Thus, speaking of Gypsy fortune- +tellers, he says: "Their practice chiefly lies among females, the portion +of the human race most given to curiosity and credulity." Sentences like +this always remind me of Lord Melbourne's indignation at the thought of +religion intruding on private life. His indignation is obviously of the +same period as the sentence: "Among the Zingari are not a few who deal in +precious stones, and some who vend poisons; and the most remarkable +individual whom it has been my fortune to encounter amongst the Gypsies, +whether of the Eastern or Western world, was a person who dealt in both +these articles." A style like this resembles a paunchy man who can be +relied on not to pick the daisies. At times Borrow writes as if he were +translating, as in "The anvil rings beneath the thundering stroke, hour +succeeds hour, and still endures the hard sullen toil." He adds a little +vanity of no value by a Biblical echo now and again, as in the clause: +"And it came to pass, moreover, that the said Fajardo . . . " or in "And +the chief of that camp, even Mr. Petulengro, stood before the +encampment. . . ." + +This is a style for information, instruction, edification, and intervals +of sleep. It is the style of an age, a class, a sect, not of an +individual. Deeds and not words are what count in it. Only by big, +wild, or extraordinary things can it be compelled to a semblance of life. +Borrow gives it such things a hundred times, and they help one another to +be effective. The reader does not forget the Gypsies of Granada: + +"Many of them reside in caves scooped in the sides of the ravines which +lead to the higher regions of the Alpujarras, on a skirt of which stands +Granada. A common occupation of the Gitanos of Granada is working in +iron, and it is not infrequent to find these caves tenanted by Gypsy +smiths and their families, who ply the hammer and forge in the bowels of +the earth. To one standing at the mouth of the cave, especially at +night, they afford a picturesque spectacle. Gathered round the forge, +their bronzed and naked bodies, illuminated by the flame, appear like +figures of demons; while the cave, with its flinty sides and uneven roof, +blackened by the charcoal vapours which hover about it in festoons, seems +to offer no inadequate representation of fabled purgatory." + +The picture of the Gitana of Seville hands on some of its own power to +the quieter pages, and at length, with a score of other achievements of +the same solid kind, kindles well-nigh every part of the shapeless book. +I shall quote it at length: + +"If there be one being in the world who, more than another, deserves the +title of sorceress (and where do you find a word of greater romance and +more thrilling interest?), it is the Gypsy female in the prime and vigour +of her age and ripeness of her understanding--the Gipsy wife, the mother +of two or three children. Mention to me a point of devilry with which +that woman is not acquainted. She can at any time, when it suits her, +show herself as expert a jockey as her husband, and he appears to +advantage in no other character, and is only eloquent when descanting on +the merits of some particular animal; but she can do much more; she is a +prophetess, though she believes not in prophecy; she is a physician, +though she will not taste her own philters; she is a procuress, though +she is not to be procured; she is a singer of obscene songs, though she +will suffer no obscene hands to touch her; and though no one is more +tenacious of the little she possesses, she is a cutpurse and a shoplifter +whenever opportunity shall offer. . . . Observe, for example, the Gitana, +even her of Seville. + +"She is standing before the portals of a large house in one of the narrow +Moorish streets of the capital of Andalusia; through the grated iron +door, she looks in upon the court; it is paved with small marble slabs of +almost snowy whiteness; in the middle is a fountain distilling limpid +water, and all around there is a profusion of macetas, in which flowering +plants and aromatic shrubs are growing, and at each corner there is an +orange tree, and the perfume of the azahar may be distinguished; you hear +the melody of birds from a small aviary beneath the piazza which +surrounds the court, which is surrounded by a toldo or linen awning, for +it is the commencement of May, and the glorious sun of Andalusia is +burning with a splendour too intense for its rays to be borne with +impunity. It is a fairy scene such as nowhere meets the eye but at +Seville, or perhaps at Fez and Shiraz, in the palaces of the Sultan and +the Shah. The Gypsy looks through the iron-grated door, and beholds, +seated near the fountain, a richly dressed dame and two lovely delicate +maidens; they are busied at their morning's occupation, intertwining with +their sharp needles the gold and silk on the tambour; several female +attendants are seated behind. The Gypsy pulls the bell, when is heard +the soft cry of 'Quien es'; the door, unlocked by means of a string, +recedes upon its hinges, when in walks the Gitana, the witch-wife of +Multan, with a look such as the tiger-cat casts when she stealeth from +her jungle into the plain. + +"Yes, well may you exclaim, 'Ave Maria purissima,' ye dames and maidens +of Seville, as she advances towards you; she is not of yourselves, she is +not of your blood, she or her fathers have walked to your clime from a +distance of three thousand leagues. She has come from the far East, like +the three enchanted kings to Cologne; but unlike them she and her race +have come with hate and not with love. She comes to flatter, and to +deceive, and to rob, for she is a lying prophetess, and a she-Thug; she +will greet you with blessings which will make your heart rejoice, but +your heart's blood would freeze, could you hear the curses which to +herself she murmurs against you; for she says, that in her children's +veins flows the dark blood of the 'husbands,' whilst in those of yours +flows the pale tide of the 'savages,' and therefore she would gladly set +her foot on all your corses first poisoned by her hands. For all her +love--and she can love--is for the Romas; and all her hate--and who can +hate like her?--is for the Busnees; for she says that the world would be +a fair world were there no Busnees, and if the Romamiks could heat their +kettles undisturbed at the foot of the olive trees; and therefore she +would kill them all if she could and if she dared. She never seeks the +houses of the Busnees but for the purpose of prey; for the wild animals +of the sierra do not more abhor the sight of man than she abhors the +countenances of the Busnees. She now comes to prey upon you and to scoff +at you. Will you believe her words? Fools! do you think that the being +before ye has any sympathy for the like of you? + +"She is of the middle stature, neither strongly nor slightly built, and +yet her every movement denotes agility and vigour. As she stands erect +before you, she appears like a falcon about to soar, and you are almost +tempted to believe that the power of volation is hers; and were you to +stretch forth your hand to seize her, she would spring above the house- +tops like a bird. Her face is oval, and her features are regular but +somewhat hard and coarse, for she was born amongst rocks in a thicket, +and she has been wind-beaten and sun-scorched for many a year, even like +her parents before her; there is many a speck upon her cheek, and perhaps +a scar, but no dimples of love; and her brow is wrinkled over, though she +is yet young. Her complexion is more than dark, for it is almost that of +a Mulatto; and her hair, which hangs in long locks on either side of her +face, is black as coal, and coarse as the tail of a horse, from which it +seems to have been gathered. + +"There is no female eye in Seville can support the glance of hers, so +fierce and penetrating, and yet so artful and sly, is the expression of +their dark orbs; her mouth is fine and almost delicate, and there is not +a queen on the proudest throne between Madrid and Moscow who might not, +and would not, envy the white and even rows of teeth which adorn it, +which seem not of pearl but of the purest elephant's bone of Multan. She +comes not alone; a swarthy two-year old bantling clasps her neck with one +arm, its naked body half extant from the coarse blanket which, drawn +round her shoulders, is secured at her bosom by a skewer. Though tender +of age it looks wicked and sly, like a veritable imp of Roma. Huge rings +of false gold dangle from wide slits in the lobes of her ears; her nether +garments are rags, and her feet are cased in hempen sandals. Such is the +wandering Gitana, such is the witch-wife of Multan, who has come to spae +the fortune of the Sevillian countess and her daughters. + +"'O may the blessing of Egypt light upon your head, you high-born Lady! +(May an evil end overtake your body, daughter of a Busnee harlot!) and +may the same blessing await the two fair roses of the Nile here flowering +by your side! (May evil Moors seize them and carry them across the +water!) O listen to the words of the poor woman who is come from a +distant country; she is of a wise people, though it has pleased the God +of the sky to punish them for their sins by sending them to wander +through the world. They denied shelter to the Majari, whom you call the +queen of heaven, and to the Son of God, when they flew to the land of +Egypt, before the wrath of the wicked king; it is said that they even +refused them a draught of the sweet waters of the great river when the +blessed two were athirst. O you will say that it was a heavy crime; and +truly so it was, and heavily has the Lord punished the Egyptians. He has +sent us a-wandering, poor as you see, with scarcely a blanket to cover +us. O blessed lady (accursed be thy dead as many as thou mayest have), +we have no money to purchase us bread; we have only our wisdom with which +to support ourselves and our poor hungry babes; when God took away their +silks from the Egyptians, and their gold from the Egyptians, he left them +their wisdom as a resource that they might not starve. O who can read +the stars like the Egyptians? and who can read the lines of the palm like +the Egyptians? The poor woman read in the stars that there was a rich +ventura for all of this goodly house, so she followed the bidding of the +stars and came to declare it. O blessed lady (I defile thy dead corse), +your husband is at Granada, fighting with King Ferdinand against the wild +Corahai! (May an evil ball smite him and split his head!) Within three +months he shall return with twenty captive Moors, round the neck of each +a chain of gold. (God grant that when he enter the house a beam may fall +upon him and crush him!) And within nine months after his return God +shall bless you with a fair chabo, the pledge for which you have sighed +so long! (Accursed be the salt placed in its mouth in the church when it +is baptized!) Your palm, blessed lady, your palm, and the palms of all I +see here, that I may tell you all the rich ventura which is hanging over +this good house; (May evil lightning fall upon it and consume it!) but +first let me sing you a song of Egypt, that the spirit of the Chowahanee +may descend more plenteously upon the poor woman.' + +"Her demeanour now instantly undergoes a change. Hitherto she has been +pouring forth a lying and wild harangue, without much flurry or agitation +of manner. Her speech, it is true, has been rapid, but her voice has +never been raised to a very high key; but she now stamps on the ground, +and placing her hands on her hips, she moves quickly to the right and +left, advancing and retreating in a sidelong direction. Her glances +become more fierce and fiery, and her coarse hair stands erect on her +head, stiff as the prickles of the hedgehog; and now she commences +clapping her hands, and uttering words of an unknown tongue, to a strange +and uncouth tune. The tawny bantling seems inspired with the same fiend, +and, foaming at the mouth, utters wild sounds, in imitation of its dam. +Still more rapid become the sidelong movements of the Gitana. Movements! +she springs, she bounds, and at every bound she is a yard above the +ground. She no longer bears the child in her bosom; she plucks it from +thence, and fiercely brandishes it aloft, till at last, with a yell, she +tosses it high into the air, like a ball, and then, with neck and head +thrown back, receives it, as it falls, on her hands and breast, +extracting a cry from the terrified beholders. Is it possible she can be +singing? Yes, in the wildest style of her people; and here is a snatch +of the song, in the language of Roma, which she occasionally screams: + + "En los sastos de yesque plai me diquelo, + Doscusanas de sonacai terelo,-- + Corojai diquelo abillar, + Y ne asislo chapescar, chapescar." + + "On the top of a mountain I stand, + With a crown of red gold in my hand,-- + Wild Moors come trooping o'er the lea, + O how from their fury shall I flee, flee, flee? + O how from their fury shall I flee? + +Such was the Gitana in the days of Ferdinand and Isabella, and much the +same is she now in the days of Isabel and Christina. . . ." + +Here, it is true, there is a substantial richly-coloured and strange +subject matter, such as could hardly be set down in any way or by anyone +without attracting the attention. Borrow makes it do more than this. The +word "extant" may offend a little, but the writer can afford many such +blemishes, for he has life in his pen. He is, as it were himself +substantial, richly-coloured, strange and with big strokes and splashes +he suggests the thing itself. There have been writers since Borrow's day +who have thought to use words so subtly that they are equivalent to +things, but in the end their words remain nothing but words. Borrow uses +language like a man, and we forget his words on account of the vividness +of the things which they do not so much create as evoke. I do not mean +that it can be called unconscious art, for it is naively conscious and +delighting in itself. The language is that of an orator, a man standing +up and addressing a mass in large and emphatic terms. He succeeds not +only in evoking things that are very much alive, but in suggesting an +artist that is their equal, instead of one, who like so many more refined +writers, is a more or less pathetic admirer of living things. In this he +resembles Byron. It may not be the highest form of art, but it is the +most immediate and disturbing and genial in its effect. Finally, the +whole book has body. It can be browsed on. It does not ask a particular +mood, being itself the result of no one mood, but of a great part of one +man's life. Turn over half a dozen pages and a story, or a picture, or a +bit of costume, or of superstition, will invariably be the reward. It +reads already like a book rather older than it really is, but not because +it has faded. There was nothing in it to fade, being too hard, massive +and unvarnished. It remains alive, capable of surviving the Gypsies +except in so far as they live within it and its fellow books. + + + + +CHAPTER XX--"THE BIBLE IN SPAIN" + + +In "The Zincali" Borrow used some of his private notes and others +supplied by Spanish friends, together with parts of letters to the Bible +Society. It used to be supposed that "The Bible in Spain" was made up +almost entirely from these letters. But this has now been disproved by +the newly published "Letters of George Borrow to the Bible Society." +{163a} These letters are about half the length of "The Bible in Spain," +and yet only about a third part of them was used by Borrow in writing +that book. Some of his letters were never received by the Society and +had probably been lost on the way. But this was more of a disaster to +the Society than to Borrow. He kept journals {163b} from which his +letters were probably copied or composed; and he was able, for example, +in July, 1836, to send the Society a detailed and dated account of his +entry into Spain in January, and his intercourse with the Gypsies of +Badajoz. It is also possible that the letters lent to him by the Society +were far more numerous than those returned by him. He missed little that +could have been turned to account, unless it was the suggestion that if +he knew the country his safest way from Seville to Madrid was to go afoot +in the dress of beggar or Gypsy, and the remark that in Tangier one of +his principal associates was a black slave, whose country was only three +days journey from Timbuctoo. {163c} He had already in 1835 planned to +write "a small volume" on what he was about to see and hear in Spain, and +it must have been from notes or full journals kept with this view that he +drew for "The Zincali" and still more for "The Bible in Spain." He wrote +his journals and letters very much as Cobbett his "Rural Rides," straight +after days in the saddle. Except when he was presenting a matter of pure +business he was not much troubled by the fact that he was addressing his +employers, the Bible Society. He did not always begin "Bible" with a +capital B, an error corrected by Mr. Darlow, his editor. He prefixed +"Revd. and dear sir," and thought little more about them unless to add +such a phrase as: "A fact which I hope I may be permitted to mention with +gladness and with decent triumph in the Lord." He did not, however, +scorn to make a favourable misrepresentation of his success, as for +example in the interview with Mendizabal, which was reduced probably to +the level of the facts in its book form. The Society were not always +pleased with his frankness and confidence, and the Secretary complained +of things which were inconvenient to be read aloud in a pious assembly, +less concerned with sinners than with repentance, and not easily +convinced by the improbable. He sent them, for example, after a specimen +Gypsy translation of the Gospel of St. Luke and of the Lord's Prayer, +"sixteen specimens of the horrid curses in use amongst the Spanish +Gypsies," with translations into English. These do not re-appear either +in "The Bible in Spain" or in the edition of Borrow's letters to the +Society. He spared them, apparently, the story of Benedict Moll and many +another good thing that was meant for mankind. + +I should be inclined to think that a very great part of "The Bible in +Spain" was written as the letters were, on the spot. Either it was not +sent to the Society for fear of loss, or if copied and sent to them, it +was lost on the way or never returned by Borrow after he had used it in +writing the book, for the letters are just as careful in most parts as +the book, and the book is just as fresh as the letters. When he wrote to +the Society, he said that he told the schoolmaster "the Almighty would +never have inspired His saints with a desire to write what was +unintelligible to the great mass of mankind"; in "The Bible in Spain" he +said: "It [_i.e._, the Bible] would never have been written if not +calculated by itself to illume the minds of all classes of mankind." +Continuous letters or journals would be more likely to suit Borrow's +purpose than notes such as he took in his second tour to Wales and never +used. Notes made on the spot are very likely to be disproportionate, to +lay undue stress on something that should be allowed to recede, and would +do so if left to memory; and once made they are liable to +misinterpretation if used after intervals of any length. But the flow +and continuity of letters insist on some proportion and on truth at least +to the impression of the day, and a balance is ensured between the scene +or the experience on the one hand and the observer on the other. + +"The Zincali" was not published before Borrow realised what a treasure he +had deposited with the Bible Society, and not long afterwards he obtained +the loan of his letters to make a new book on his travels in Spain. +Borrow's own account, in his preface to the second edition of "The +Zincali," is that the success of that book, and "the voice not only of +England but of the greater part of Europe" proclaiming it, astonished him +in his "humble retreat" at Oulton. He was, he implies, inclined to be +too much elated. Then the voice of a critic--whom we know to have been +Richard Ford--told him not to believe all he heard, but to try again and +avoid all his second hand stuff, his "Gypsy poetry, dry laws, and +compilations from dull Spanish authors." And so, he says, he began work +in the winter, but slowly, and on through summer and autumn and another +winter, and into another spring and summer, loitering and being +completely idle at times, until at last he went to his summer house daily +and finished the book. But as a matter of fact "The Zincali" had no +great success in either public or literary esteem, and Ford's criticism +was passed on the manuscript, not the printed book. + +Borrow and his wife took about six months to prepare the letters for +publication as a book. He took great pains with the writing and only +worked when he was in the mood. His health was not quite good, as he +implies in the preface to "The Zincali," and he tried "the water system" +and also "lessons in singing," to cure his indigestion and sleeplessness. +He had the advantage of Ford's advice, to avoid fine writing, mere +description, poetry and learned books, and to give plenty of "racy, real, +genuine scenes, and the more out of the way the better," stories of +adventure, extraordinary things, prisons, low life, Gypsies, and so on. +He was now drawing entirely from "his own well," and when the book was +out Ford took care to remark that the author had cast aside the learned +books which he had used as swimming corks in the "Zincali," and now +"leaped boldly into the tide" unaided. John Murray's reader sent back +the manuscript to be revised and augmented, and after this was done, "The +Bible in Spain" was published, at the end of 1842, when Borrow was thirty- +nine. + +"The Bible in Spain" was praised and moreover purchased by everyone. It +was translated into French, American, Russian, and printed in America. +The "Athenaeum" found it a "genuine book"; the "Examiner" said that +"apart from its adventurous interest, its literary merit is +extraordinary." Ford compared it with an old Spanish ballad, "going from +incident to incident, bang, bang, bang!" and with Gil Blas, and with +Bunyan. Ford, it must be remembered, had ridden over the same tracks as +Borrow in Spain, but before him, and had written his own book with a +combination of learning and gusto that is one of the rarest of literary +virtues. Like Borrow he wrote fresh from the thing itself when possible, +asserting for example that the fat of the hams of Montanches, when +boiled, "looked like melted topazes, and the flavour defies language, +although we have dined on one this very day, in order to secure accuracy +and undeniable prose." For the benefit of the public Ford pointed out +that "the Bible and its distribution have been _the_ business of his +existence; whenever moral darkness brooded, there, the Bible in his hand, +he forced his way." + +When Borrow was actually in Spain he was much influenced by the +conditions of the moment. The sun of Spain would shine so that he prized +it above English civilization. The anarchy and wildness of Spain at +another time would make him hate both men and land. But more lasting +than joy in the sun and misery at the sight of misery was the feeling +that he was "adrift in Spain, the land of old renown, the land of wonder +and mystery, with better opportunities of becoming acquainted with its +strange secrets and peculiarities than, perhaps, ever yet were afforded +to any individual, certainly to a foreigner." When he entered it, by +crossing a brook, out of Portugal, he shouted the Spanish battle-cry in +ecstasy, and in the end he described his five years in Spain as, "if not +the most eventful"--he cannot refrain from that vainglorious dark +hint--yet "the most happy years" of his existence. Spain was to him "the +most magnificent country in the world": it was also "one of the few +countries in Europe where poverty is not treated with contempt, and I may +add, where the wealthy are not blindly idolized." His book is a song of +wild Spain when Spain _was_ Spain. + +Borrow, as we already know, had in him many of the powers that go to make +a great book, yet "The Zincali" was not a great book. The important +power developed or employed later which made "The Bible in Spain" a great +book was the power of narrative. The writing of those letters from Spain +to the Bible Society had taught him or discovered in him the instinct for +proportion and connection which is the simplest, most inexplicable and +most essential of literary gifts. With the help of this he could write +narrative that should suggest and represent the continuity of life. He +could pause for description or dialogue or reflection without +interrupting this stream of life. Nothing need be, and nothing was, +alien to the narrator with this gift; for his writing would now +assimilate everything and enrich itself continually. + +The reader could follow, as he preferred, the Bible distribution in +particular, or the Gypsies, or Borrow himself, through the long ways and +dense forests of the book, and through the moral darkness of Spain. It +could be treated as a pious book, and as such it was attacked by +Catholics, as "Lavengro" still is. For certainly Borrow made no secret +of his piety. When "a fine young man of twenty-seven, the only son of a +widowed mother . . . the best sailor on board, and beloved by all who +were acquainted with him" was swept off the ship in which Borrow was +sailing, and drowned, as he had dreamed he would be, the author +exclaimed: "Truly wonderful are the ways of Providence!" When a Spanish +schoolmaster suggested that the Testament was unintelligible without +notes, Borrow informed him that on the contrary the notes were far more +difficult, and "it would never have been written if not calculated of +itself to illume the minds of all classes of mankind." The Bible was, in +his published words, "the well-head of all that is useful and conducive +to the happiness of society"; and he told the poor Catalans that their +souls' welfare depended on their being acquainted with the book he was +selling at half the cost price. He could write not unlike the author of +"The Dairyman's Daughter," as when he exclaimed: "Oh man, man, seek not +to dive into the mystery of moral good and evil; confess thyself a worm, +cast thyself on the earth, and murmur with thy lips in the dust, Jesus, +Jesus!" He thought the Pope "the head minister of Satan here on earth," +and inspired partly by contempt of Catholics, he declared that "no people +in the world entertain sublimer notions of the uncreated eternal God than +the Moors . . . and with respect to Christ, their ideas even of Him are +much more just than those of the Papists." And he said to the face of +the Spanish Prime Minister: "It is a pleasant thing to be persecuted for +the Gospel's sake." Nor was this pure cant; for he meant at least this, +that he loved conflict and would be fearless and stubborn in battle; and, +as he puts it, he was "cast into prison for the Gospel's sake." + +In 1843, no doubt, what first recommended this book to so many thousands +was the Protestant fervour and purpose of the book, and the romantic +reputation of Spain. At this day Borrow's Bible distribution is mainly +of antiquarian and sectarian interest. We should not estimate the +darkness of Madrid by the number of Testaments there in circulation and +daily use, nor on the other hand should we fear, like Borrow, to bring +them into contempt by making them too common. Yet his missionary work +makes the necessary backbone of the book. He was, as he justly said, "no +tourist, no writer of books of travels." His work brought him adventure +as no mere wandering could have done. What is more, the man's methods +are still entertaining to those who care nothing about the distribution +itself. Where he found the remains of a robber's camp he left a New +Testament and some tracts. To carry the Bibles over the flinty hills of +Galicia and the Asturias he bought "a black Andalusian stallion of great +power and strength, . . . unbroke, savage and furious": the cargo, he +says, would tame the animal. He fixed his advertisement on the church +porch at Pitiegua, announcing the sale of Testaments at Salamanca. He +had the courage without the ferocity of enthusiasm, and in the cause of +the Bible Society he saw and did things which little concerned it, which +in fact displeased it, but keep this book alive with a great stir and +shout of life, with a hundred pages where we are shown what the poet +meant by "forms more real than living men." We are shown the unrighteous +to the very life. What matters it then if the author professes the +opinion that "the friendship of the unrighteous is never of long +duration"? Nevertheless, these pious ejaculations are not without their +value in the composition of the author's amazing character. + +Borrow came near to being a perfect traveller. For he was, on the one +hand, a man whose individuality was carved in clear bold lines, who had a +manner and a set of opinions as remarkable as his appearance. Thus he +was bound to come into conflict with men wherever he went: he would bring +out their manners and opinions, if they had any. But on the other hand +he had abounding curiosity. He was bold but not rude: on the contrary he +was most vigilantly polite. He took snuff, though he detested it; he +avoided politics as much as possible: "No, no!" he said, "I have lived +too long with _Romany chals and Petulengres_ to be of any politics save +Gypsy politics," in spite of what he had said in '32 and was to say again +in '57. When he and the Gypsy Antonio came to Jaraicejo they separated +by Antonio's advice. The Gypsy got through the town unchallenged by the +guard, though not unnoticed by the townspeople. But Borrow was stopped +and asked by a man of the National Guard whether he came with the Gypsy, +to which he answered, "Do I look a person likely to keep company with +Gypsies?" though, says he, he probably did. Then the National asked for +his passport: + +"I remembered having read that the best way to win a Spaniard's heart is +to treat him with ceremonious civility. I therefore dismounted, and +taking off my hat, made a low bow to the constitutional soldier, saying, +'Senor Nacional, you must know that I am an English gentleman travelling +in this country for my pleasure. I bear a passport, which on inspecting +you will find to be perfectly regular. It was given me by the great Lord +Palmerston, Minister of England, whom you of course have heard of here. +At the bottom you will see his own handwriting. Look at it and rejoice; +perhaps you will never have another opportunity. As I put unbounded +confidence in the honour of every gentleman, I leave the passport in your +hands whilst I repair to the posada to refresh myself. When you have +inspected it, you will perhaps oblige me so far as to bring it to me. +Cavalier, I kiss your hands.' + +"I then made him another low bow, which he returned with one still lower, +and leaving him now staring at the passport and now looking at myself, I +went into a posada, to which I was directed by a beggar whom I met. + +"I fed the horse, and procured some bread and barley, as the Gypsy had +directed me. I likewise purchased three fine partridges of a fowler, who +was drinking wine in the posada. He was satisfied with the price I gave +him, and offered to treat me with a copita, to which I made no objection. +As we sat discoursing at the table, the National entered with the +passport in his hand, and sat down by us. + +"_National_.--'Caballero, I return you your passport; it is quite in +form. I rejoice much to have made your acquaintance. I have no doubt +that you can give me some information respecting the present war.' + +"_Myself_.--'I shall be very happy to afford so polite and honourable a +gentleman any information in my power.'" + +He won the hearts of the people of Villa Seca by the "formality" of his +behaviour and language; for he tells us that in such remote places might +still be found the gravity of deportment and the grandiose expressions +which are scoffed at as exaggerations in the romances. He speaks of +himself in one place as strolling about a town or neighbourhood, entering +into conversation with several people whom he met, shopkeepers, +professional men, and others. Near Evora he sat down daily at a fountain +and talked with everyone who came to it. He visited the College of the +English Catholics at Lisbon, excusing himself, indeed, by saying that his +favourite or his only study was man. His knowledge of languages and his +un-English appearance made it easier for him to become familiar with many +kinds of men. He introduced himself among some Jews of Lisbon, and +pronounced a blessing: they took him for a powerful rabbi, and he +favoured their mistake so that in a few days he knew all that related to +these people and their traffic. On his journey in Galicia, when he was +nearing Finisterra, the men of the cabin where he rested took him for a +Catalan, and "he favoured their mistake and began with a harsh Catalan +accent to talk of the fish of Galicia, and the high duties on salt." When +at this same cabin he found there was no bed, he went up into the loft +and lay down on the boards' without complaint. So in the prison at +Madrid he got on so well with the prisoners that on the third day he +spoke their language as if he were "a son of the prison." At Gibraltar +he talked to the man of Mogador in Arabic and was taken for "a holy man +from the kingdoms of the East," especially when he produced the shekel +which had been given him by Hasfeldt: a Jew there believed him to be a +Salamancan Jew. At Villafranca a woman mistook his voice in the dark for +that of "the German clockmaker from Pontevedra." For some time in 1839 +he went among the villages dressed in a peasant's leather helmet, jacket +and trousers, and resembling "a person between sixty and seventy years of +age," so that people addressed him as Uncle, and bought his Testaments, +though the Bible Society, on hearing it, "began to inquire whether, if +the old man were laid up in prison, they could very conveniently apply +for his release in the proper quarter." {173} + +He saw men and places, and with his pen he created a land as distinct, as +wild, as vast, and as wonderful as the Spain of Cervantes. He did this +with no conscious preconceived design. His creation was the effect of a +multitude of impressions, all contributory because all genuine and true +to the depth of Borrow's own nature. He had seen and felt Spain, and +"The Bible in Spain" shows how; nor probably could he have shown it in +any other way. Not but what he could speak of Spain as the land of old +renown, and of himself--in a letter to the Bible Society in 1837--as an +errant knight, and of his servant Francisco as his squire. He did not +see himself as he was, or he would have seen both Don Quixote and Sancho +Panza in one, now riding a black Andalusian stallion, now driving an ass +before him. + +Only a power as great as Borrow's own could show how this wild Spain was +built up. For it was not done by this and that, but by a great man and a +noble country in a state of accord continually vibrating. + +Thus he drew near to Finisterra with his wild Gallegan guide: + +"It was a beautiful autumnal morning when we left the choza and pursued +our way to Corcuvion. I satisfied our host by presenting him with a +couple of pesetas; and he requested as a favour that if on our return we +passed that way, and were overtaken by the night, we would again take up +our abode beneath his roof. This I promised, at the same time +determining to do my best to guard against the contingency, as sleeping +in the loft of a Gallegan hut, though preferable to passing the night on +a moor or mountain, is anything but desirable. + +"So we again started at a rapid pace along rough bridleways and +footpaths, amidst furze and brushwood. In about an hour we obtained a +view of the sea, and directed by a lad, whom we found on the moor +employed in tending a few miserable sheep, we bent our course to the +north-west, and at length reached the brow of an eminence, where we +stopped for some time to survey the prospect which opened before us. + +"It was not without reason that the Latins gave the name of Finisterrae +to this district. We had arrived exactly at such a place as in my +boyhood I had pictured to myself as the termination of the world, beyond +which there was a wild sea, or abyss, or chaos. I now saw far before me +an immense ocean, and below me a long and irregular line of lofty and +precipitous coast. Certainly in the whole world there is no bolder coast +than the Gallegan shore, from the _debouchement_ of the Minho to Cape +Finisterra. It consists of a granite wall of savage mountains, for the +most part serrated at the top, and occasionally broken, where bays and +firths like those of Vigo and Pontevedra intervene, running deep into the +land. These bays and firths are invariably of an immense depth, and +sufficiently capacious to shelter the navies of the proudest maritime +nations. + +"There is an air of stern and savage grandeur in everything around which +strongly captivates the imagination. This savage coast is the first +glimpse of Spain which the voyager from the north catches, or he who has +ploughed his way across the wide Atlantic; and well does it seem to +realize all his visions of this strange land. 'Yes,' he exclaims, 'this +is indeed Spain--stern, flinty Spain--land emblematic of those spirits to +which she has given birth. From what land but that before me could have +proceeded those portentous beings who astounded the Old World and filled +the New with horror and blood--Alba and Philip, Cortez and Pizarro--stern +colossal spectres looming through the gloom of bygone years, like yonder +granite mountains through the haze, upon the eye of the mariner? Yes, +yonder is indeed Spain--flinty, indomitable Spain--land emblematic of its +sons!' + +"As for myself, when I viewed that wide ocean and its savage shore, I +cried, 'Such is the grave, and such are its terrific sides; those moors +and wilds over which I have passed are the rough and dreary journey of +life. Cheered with hope, we struggle along through all the difficulties +of moor, bog, and mountain, to arrive at--what? The grave and its dreary +sides. Oh, may hope not desert us in the last hour--hope in the Redeemer +and in God!' + +"We descended from the eminence, and again lost sight of the sea amidst +ravines and dingles, amongst which patches of pine were occasionally +seen. Continuing to descend, we at last came, not to the sea, but to the +extremity of a long, narrow firth, where stood a village or hamlet; +whilst at a small distance, on the western side of the firth, appeared +one considerably larger, which was indeed almost entitled to the +appellation of town. This last was Corcuvion; the first, if I forget +not, was called Ria de Silla. We hastened on to Corcuvion, where I bade +my guide make inquiries respecting Finisterra. He entered the door of a +wine-house, from which proceeded much noise and vociferation, and +presently returned, informing me that the village of Finisterra was +distant about a league and a half. A man, evidently in a state of +intoxication, followed him to the door. 'Are you bound for Finisterra, +cavalheiros?' he shouted. + +"'Yes, my friend,' I replied; 'we are going thither.' + +"'Then you are going amongst a flock of drunkards' (_fato de borrachos_), +he answered. 'Take care that they do not play you a trick.' + +"We passed on, and striking across a sandy peninsula at the back of the +town, soon reached the shore of an immense bay, the north-westernmost end +of which was formed by the far-famed cape of Finisterra, which we now saw +before us stretching far into the sea. + +"Along the beach of dazzling white sand we advanced towards the cape, the +bourne of our journey. The sun was shining brightly, and every object +was illumined by his beams. The sea lay before us like a vast mirror, +and the waves which broke upon the shore were so tiny as scarcely to +produce a murmur. On we sped along the deep winding bay, overhung by +gigantic hills and mountains. Strange recollections began to throng upon +my mind. It was upon this beach that, according to the tradition of all +ancient Christendom, St. James, the patron saint of Spain, preached the +gospel to the heathen Spaniards. Upon this beach had once stood an +immense commercial city, the proudest in all Spain. This now desolate +bay had once resounded with the voices of myriads, when the keels and +commerce of all the then known world were wafted to Duyo. + +"'What is the name of this village?' said I to a woman, as we passed by +five or six ruinous houses at the bend of the bay, ere we entered upon +the peninsula of Finisterra. + +"'This is no village,' said the Gallegan--'this is no village, Sir +Cavalier; this is a city--this is Duyo.' + +"So much for the glory of the world! These huts were all that the +roaring sea and the tooth of time had left of Duyo, the great city! +Onward now to Finisterra." + +He spends little time on such declamatory description, but it is +essential to the whole effect. This particular piece is followed by the +difficulty of a long ascent, by a sleep of exhaustion on a rude and dirty +bed, by Borrow's arrest as the Pretender, Don Carlos, in disguise, by an +escape from immediate execution into the hands of an Alcalde who read +"Jeremy Bentham" day and night; all this in one short chapter. + +Equally essential is the type of landscape represented by the solitary +ruined fort in the monotonous waste between Estremoz and Elvas, which he +climbed to over stones that cut his feet: + +"Being about to leave the place, I heard a strange cry behind a part of +the wall which I had not visited; and hastening thither, I found a +miserable object in rags seated upon a stone. It was a maniac--a man +about thirty years of age, and I believe deaf and dumb. There he sat, +gibbering and mowing, and distorting his wild features into various +dreadful appearances. There wanted nothing but this object to render the +scene complete; banditti amongst such melancholy desolation would have +been by no means so much in keeping. But the manaic on his stone, in the +rear of the wind-beaten ruin overlooking the blasted heath, above which +scowled the leaden heaven, presented such a picture of gloom and misery +as I believe neither painter nor poet ever conceived in the saddest of +their musings. This is not the first instance in which it has been my +lot to verify the wisdom of the saying that truth is sometimes wilder +than fiction." + +At Oropesa he heard from the barber-surgeon of the mysterious Guadarrama +mountains, and of the valley that lay undiscovered and unknown for +thousands of years until a hunter found there a tribe of people speaking +a language unknown to anyone else and ignorant of the rest of men. Rough +wild ways intersect the book. Thunder storms overhang it. Immense +caverns echo beneath it. The travellers left behind a mill which "stood +at the bottom of a valley shaded by large trees, and its wheels were +turning with a dismal and monotonous noise," and they emerged, by the +light of "a corner of the moon," on to the wildest heath of the wildest +province of Spain, ignorant of their way, making for a place which the +guide believed not to exist. They passed a defile where the carrier had +been attacked on his last journey by robbers, who burnt the coach by +means of the letters in it, and butchered all except the carrier, who had +formerly been the master of one of the gang: as they passed, the ground +was still saturated with the blood of one of the murdered soldiers and a +dog was gnawing a piece of his skull. Borrow was told of an old viper +catcher caught by the robbers, who plundered and stripped him and then +tied his hands behind him and thrust his head into his sack, "which +contained several of these horrible reptiles alive," and so he ran mad +through the villages until he fell dead. As a background, he had again +and again a scene like that one, whose wild waters and mountains, and the +"Convent of the Precipices" standing out against the summit, reminded him +at once of Salvator Rosa and of Stolberg's lines to a mountain torrent: +"The pine trees are shaken. . . ." Describing the cave at Gibraltar, he +spoke of it as always having been "a den for foul night birds, reptiles, +and beasts of prey," of precipice after precipice, abyss after abyss, in +apparently endless succession, and of an explorer who perished there and +lay "even now rotting in the bowels of the mountain, preyed upon by its +blind and noisome worms." + +When he saw a peaceful rich landscape in a bright sunny hour, as at Monte +Moro, he shed tears of rapture, sitting on and on in those reveries +which, as he well knew, only enervate the mind: or he felt that he would +have desired "no better fate than that of a shepherd on the prairies or a +hunter on the hills of Bembibre": or looking through an iron-grated door +at a garden court in Seville he sighed that his fate did not permit him +to reside in such an Eden for the remainder of his days. For as he +delights in the dismal, grand, or wild, so he does with equal intensity +in the sweetness of loveliness, as in the country about Seville: "Oh how +pleasant it is, especially in springtide, to stray along the shores of +the Guadalquivir! Not far from the city, down the river, lies a grove +called Las Delicias, or the Delights. It consists of trees of various +kinds, but more especially of poplars and elms, and is traversed by long, +shady walks. This grove is the favourite promenade of the Sevillians, +and there one occasionally sees assembled whatever the town produces of +beauty or gallantry. There wander the black-eyed Andalusian dames and +damsels, clad in their graceful silken mantillas; and there gallops the +Andalusian cavalier on his long-tailed, thick-maned steed of Moorish +ancestry. As the sun is descending, it is enchanting to glance back from +this place in the direction of the city; the prospect is inexpressibly +beautiful. Yonder in the distance, high and enormous, stands the Golden +Tower, now used as a toll-house, but the principal bulwark of the city in +the time of the Moors. It stands on the shore of the river, like a giant +keeping watch, and is the first edifice which attracts the eye of the +voyager as he moves up the stream to Seville. On the other side, +opposite the tower, stands the noble Augustine Convent, the ornament of +the faubourg of Triana; whilst between the two edifices rolls the broad +Guadalquivir, bearing on its bosom a flotilla of barks from Catalonia and +Valencia. Farther up is seen the bridge of boats which traverses the +water. The principal object of this prospect, however, is the Golden +Tower, where the beams of the setting sun seem to be concentrated as in +the focus, so that it appears built of pure gold, and probably from that +circumstance received the name which it now bears. Cold, cold must the +heart be which can remain insensible to the beauties of this magic scene, +to do justice to which the pencil of Claude himself were barely equal. +Often have I shed tears of rapture whilst I beheld it, and listened to +the thrush and the nightingale piping forth their melodious songs in the +woods, and inhaled the breeze laden with the perfume of the thousand +orange gardens of Seville. + + 'Kennst du das land wo die citronen bluhen?'" + +If a scene was not in fact superlative his creative memory would furnish +it with what it lacked, giving the cathedral of Palencia, for example, +windows painted by Murillo. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI--"THE BIBLE IN SPAIN": THE CHARACTERS + + +In such scenes, naturally, Borrow placed nothing common and nothing mean. +He must have a madman among the ruins, or by a pool a peasant woman +sitting, who has been mad ever since her child was drowned there, or a +mule and a stallion fighting with hoofs and teeth. The clergy, in their +ugly shovel hats and long cloaks, glared at him askance as he passed by +their whispering groups in Salamanca: at the English College in +Valladolid, he thought of "those pale, smiling, half-foreign priests who, +like stealthy grimalkins, traversed green England in all directions" +under the persecution of Elizabeth. If he painted an archbishop plainly +dressed in black cassock and silken cap, stooping, feeble, pale and +emaciated, he set upon his finger a superb amethyst of a dazzling +lustre--Borrow never saw a finer, except one belonging to an acquaintance +of his own, a Tartar Khan. + +The day after his interview with the archbishop he had a visit from +Benedict Mol. This man is proved to have existed by a letter from Rey +Romero to Borrow mentioning "The German of the Treasure." {181} "True, +every word of it!" says Knapp: "Remember our artist never created; he +painted from models." Because he existed, therefore every word of +Borrow's concerning him is true. As Borrow made him, "He is a bulky old +man, somewhat above the middle height, and with white hair and ruddy +features; his eyes were large and blue, and, whenever he fixed them on +anyone's countenance, were full of an expression of great eagerness, as +if he were expecting the communication of some important tidings. He was +dressed commonly enough, in a jacket and trousers of coarse cloth of a +russet colour; on his head was an immense sombrero, the brim of which had +been much cut and mutilated, so as in some places to resemble the jags or +denticles of a saw." + +And thus, at Madrid in 1836, he told his story on the first meeting, as +men had to do when they were interrogated by Borrow: + +"Upon my asking him who he was, the following conversation ensued between +us: + +"'I am a Swiss of Lucerne, Benedict Mol by name, once a soldier in the +Walloon Guard, and now a soap-boiler, _para servir usted_.' + +"'You speak the language of Spain very imperfectly,' said I; 'how long +have you been in the country?' + +"'Forty-five years,' replied Benedict. 'But when the guard was broken up +I went to Minorca, where I lost the Spanish language without acquiring +the Catalan.' + +"'You have been a soldier of the King of Spain,' said I; 'how did you +like the service?' + +"'Not so well but that I should have been glad to leave it forty years +ago; the pay was bad, and the treatment worse. I will now speak Swiss to +you; for, if I am not much mistaken, you are a German man, and understand +the speech of Lucerne. I should soon have deserted from the service of +Spain, as I did from that of the Pope, whose soldier I was in my early +youth before I came here; but I had married a woman of Minorca, by whom I +had two children: it was this that detained me in these parts so long. +Before, however, I left Minorca, my wife died; and as for my children, +one went east, the other west, and I know not what became of them. I +intend shortly to return to Lucerne, and live there like a duke.' + +"'Have you then realized a large capital in Spain?' said I, glancing at +his hat and the rest of his apparel. + +"'Not a cuart, not a cuart; these two wash-balls are all that I possess.' + +"'Perhaps you are the son of good parents, and have lands and money in +your own country wherewith to support yourself.' + +"'Not a heller, not a heller. My father was hangman of Lucerne, and when +he died, his body was seized to pay his debts.' + +"'Then doubtless,' said I, 'you intend to ply your trade of soap-boiling +at Lucerne. You are quite right, my friend; I know of no occupation more +honourable or useful.' + +"'I have no thoughts of plying my trade at Lucerne,' replied Benedict. +'And now, as I see you are a German man, Lieber Herr, and as I like your +countenance and your manner of speaking, I will tell you in confidence +that I know very little of my trade, and have already been turned out of +several fabriques as an evil workman; the two wash-balls that I carry in +my pocket are not of my own making. _In kurtzen_, I know little more of +soap-boiling than I do of tailoring, horse-farriery, or shoe-making, all +of which I have practised.' + +"'Then I know not how you can hope to live like a hertzog in your native +canton, unless you expect that the men of Lucerne, in consideration of +your services to the Pope and to the King of Spain, will maintain you in +splendour at the public expense.' + +"'Lieber Herr,' said Benedict, 'the men of Lucerne are by no means fond +of maintaining the soldiers of the Pope and the King of Spain at their +own expense; many of the guard who have returned thither beg their bread +in the streets: but when I go, it shall be in a coach drawn by six mules +with a treasure, a mighty schatz which lies in the church of St. James of +Compostella, in Galicia.' + +"'I hope you do not intend to rob the church,' said I. 'If you do, +however, I believe you will be disappointed. Mendizabal and the Liberals +have been beforehand with you. I am informed that at present no other +treasure is to be found in the cathedrals of Spain than a few paltry +ornaments and plated utensils.' + +"'My good German Herr,' said Benedict, 'it is no church schatz; and no +person living, save myself, knows of its existence. Nearly thirty years +ago, amongst the sick soldiers who were brought to Madrid, was one of my +comrades of the Walloon Guard, who had accompanied the French to +Portugal; he was very sick, and shortly died. Before, however, he +breathed his last, he sent for me, and upon his death-bed told me that +himself and two other soldiers, both of whom had since been killed, had +buried in a certain church in Compostella a great booty which they had +made in Portugal; it consisted of gold moidores and of a packet of huge +diamonds from the Brazils: the whole was contained in a large copper +kettle. I listened with greedy ears, and from that moment, I may say, I +have known no rest, neither by day nor night, thinking of the schatz. It +is very easy to find, for the dying man was so exact in his description +of the place where it lies, that were I once at Compostella I should have +no difficulty in putting my hand upon it. Several times I have been on +the point of setting out on the journey, but something has always +happened to stop me. When my wife died, I left Minorca with a +determination to go to St. James; but on reaching Madrid, I fell into the +hands of a Basque woman, who persuaded me to live with her, which I have +done for several years. She is a great hax, {184} and says that if I +desert her she will breathe a spell which shall cling to me for ever. +_Dem Got sey dank_, she is now in the hospital, and daily expected to +die. This is my history, Lieber Herr.'" + +Notice that Borrow continues: + +"I have been the more careful in relating the above conversation, as I +shall have frequent occasion to mention the Swiss in the course of these +journals." + +Benedict Mol had the faculty of re-appearance. In the next year at +Compostella the moonlight fell on his grey locks and weatherbeaten face +and Borrow recognised him. "_Och_," said the man, "_mein Gott_, _es ist +der Herr_!" (it is that gentleman). "Och, what good fortune, that the +_Herr_ is the first person I meet in Compostella." Even Borrow could +scarcely believe his eyes. Benedict had come to dig for the treasure, +and in the meantime proposed to live at the best hotel and pay his score +when the digging was done. Borrow gave him a dollar, which he paid to a +witch for telling him where exactly the treasure lay. A third time, to +his own satisfaction and Borrow's astonishment, he re-appeared at Oviedo. +He had, in fact, followed Borrow to Corunna, having been despitefully +used at Compostella, met highwaymen on the road, and suffered hunger so +that he slaughtered a stray kid and devoured it raw. From Oviedo he trod +in Borrow's footsteps, which was "a great comfort in his horrible +journeys." "A strange life has he led," said Borrow's Greek servant, +"and a strange death he will die--it is written on his countenance." He +re-appeared a fourth time at Madrid, in light green coat and pantaloons +that were almost new, and a glossy Andalusian hat "of immense altitude of +cone," and leaning not on a ragged staff but "a huge bamboo rattan, +surmounted by the grim head of either a bear or lion, curiously cut out +of pewter." He had been wandering after Borrow in misery that almost +sent him mad: + +"Oh, the horror of wandering about the savage hills and wide plains of +Spain without money and without hope! Sometimes I became desperate, when +I found myself amongst rocks and barrancos, perhaps after having tasted +no food from sunrise to sunset, and then I would raise my staff towards +the sky and shake it, crying, Lieber herr Gott, ach lieber herr Gott, you +must help me now or never. If you tarry, I am lost. You must help me +now, now! And once when I was raving in this manner, methought I heard a +voice--nay, I am sure I heard it--sounding from the hollow of a rock, +clear and strong; and it cried, 'Der schatz, der schatz, it is not yet +dug up. To Madrid, to Madrid! The way to the schatz is through +Madrid.'" + +But now he had met people who supported him with an eye to the treasure. +Borrow tried to persuade him to circulate the Gospel instead of risking +failure and the anger of his clients. Luckily Benedict went on to +Compostella: + +"He went, and I never saw him more. What I heard, however, was +extraordinary enough. It appeared that the government had listened to +his tale, and had been so struck with Benedict's exaggerated description +of the buried treasure, that they imagined that, by a little trouble and +outlay, gold and diamonds might be dug up at St. James sufficient to +enrich themselves and to pay off the national debt of Spain. The Swiss +returned to Compostella 'like a duke,' to use his own words. The affair, +which had at first been kept a profound secret, was speedily divulged. It +was, indeed, resolved that the investigation, which involved consequences +of so much importance, should take place in a manner the most public and +imposing. A solemn festival was drawing nigh, and it was deemed +expedient that the search should take place upon that day. The day +arrived. All the bells in Compostella pealed. The whole populace +thronged from their houses; a thousand troops were drawn up in a square; +the expectation of all was wound up to the highest pitch. A procession +directed its course to the church of San Roque. At its head were the +captain-general and the Swiss, brandishing in his hand the magic rattan; +close behind walked the _meiga_, the Gallegan witch-wife, by whom the +treasure-seeker had been originally guided in the search; numerous masons +brought up the rear, bearing implements to break up the ground. The +procession enters the church; they pass through it in solemn march; they +find themselves in a vaulted passage. The Swiss looks around. 'Dig +here,' said he suddenly. 'Yes, dig here,' said the meiga. The masons +labour; the floor is broken up--a horrible and fetid odour arises. . . + +"Enough, no treasure was found, and my warning to the unfortunate Swiss +turned out but too prophetic. He was forthwith seized and flung into the +horrid prison of St. James, amidst the execrations of thousands, who +would have gladly torn him limb from limb. + +"The affair did not terminate here. The political opponents of the +government did not allow so favourable an opportunity to escape for +launching the shafts of ridicule. The Moderados were taunted in the +cortes for their avarice and credulity, whilst the Liberal press wafted +on its wings through Spain the story of the treasure-hunt at St. James. + +"'After all, it was a _trampa_ {187} of Don Jorge's,' said one of my +enemies. 'That fellow is at the bottom of half the picardias which +happen in Spain.' + +"Eager to learn the fate of the Swiss, I wrote to my old friend Rey +Romero, at Compostella. In his answer he states: 'I saw the Swiss in +prison, to which place he sent for me, craving my assistance, for the +sake of the friendship which I bore to you. But how could I help him? He +was speedily after removed from St. James, I know not whither. It is +said that he disappeared on the road.' + +"Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction. Where in the whole cycle of +romance shall we find anything more wild, grotesque, and sad than the +easily authenticated history of Benedict Mol, the treasure-digger of St. +James?" + +Knapp, by the way, prints this very letter from Rey Romero. It was his +son who saw Benedict in prison, and he simply says that he does not know +what has become of him. + +As Dr. Knapp says, Borrow painted from a model. That is to say, he did +like everybody else. Of course he did not invent. Why should a man with +such a life invent for the purpose of only five books? But there is no +such thing as invention (in the popular sense), except in the making of +_bad_ nonsense rhymes or novels. A writer composes out of his +experience, inward, outward and histrionic, or along the protracted lines +of his experience. Borrow felt that adventures and unusual scenes were +his due, and when they were not forthcoming he revived an old one or +revised the present in the weird light of the past. Is this invention? + +Pictures like that of Benedict Mol are not made out of nothing by Borrow +or anybody else. Nor are they copies. The man who could merely copy +nature would never have the eyes to see such beauties as Benedict Mol. It +must be noticed how effective is the re-appearance, the intermingling of +such a man with "ordinary life," and then finally the suggestion of one +of Borrow's enemies that he was put up to it by _Don Jorge_--"That fellow +is at the bottom of half the _picardias_ which happen in Spain." What +glory for _Don Jorge_. The story would have been entertaining enough as +a mere isolated short story: thus scattered, it is twice as effective as +if it were a mere fiction, whether labelled "a true story" or introduced +by an ingenious variation of the same. It is one of Borrow's triumphs +never to let us escape from the spell of actuality into a languid +acquiescence in what is "only pretending." The form never becomes a +fiction, even to the same extent as that of Turgenev's "Sportsman's +Sketches"; for Borrow is always faithful to the form of a book of travel +in Spain during the 'thirties. In "Don Quixote" and "Gil Blas," the +lesser narratives are as a rule introduced without much attempt at +probability, but as mere diversions. They are never such in "The Bible +in Spain," though they are in "Lavengro" and "The Romany Rye." The Gypsy +hag of Badajoz, who proposed to poison all the _Busne_ in Madrid, and +then away with the London Caloro to the land of the Moor--his Greek +servant Antonio, even though he begins with "Je vais vous raconter mon +histoire du commencement jusqu'ici."--the Italian whom he had met as a +boy and who now regretted leaving England, the toasted cheese and bread, +the Suffolk ale, the roaring song and merry jests of the labourers,--and +Antonio again, telling him "the history of the young man of the +inn,"--these story-tellers are not merely consummate variations upon +those of the "Decameron" and "Gil Blas." The book never ceases to be a +book of travel by an agent of the Bible Society. It is to its very great +advantage that it was not written all of a piece with one conscious aim. +The roughness, the merely accurate irrelevant detail here and there, the +mention of his journal, and the references to well-known and substantial +people, win from us an openness and simplicity of reception which ensure +a success for it beyond that of most fictions. I cannot refuse complete +belief in the gigantic Jew, Abarbanel, for example, when Borrow has said: +"I had now a full view of his face and figure, and those huge featured +and Herculean form still occasionally revisit me in my dreams. I see him +standing in the moonshine, staring me in the face with his deep calm +eyes." I do not feel bound to believe that he had met the Italian of +Corunna twenty years before at Norwich, though to a man with his memory +for faces such re-appearances are likely to happen many times as often as +to an ordinary man. But I feel no doubt about Judah Lib, who spoke to +him at Gibraltar: he was "about to exclaim, 'I know you not,' when one or +two lineaments struck him, and he cried, though somewhat hesitatingly, +'surely this is Judah Lib.'" He continues: "It was in a steamer in the +Baltic in the year '34, if I mistake not." That he had this strong +memory is certain; but that he knew it, and was proud of it, and likely +to exaggerate it, is almost equally certain. + +It was natural that such a knight should have squires of high degree, as +Francisco the Basque and the two Antonios, Gypsy and Greek. Antonio the +Greek left Borrow to serve a count as cook, but the count attacked him +with a rapier, whereupon he gave notice in the following manner: + +"Suddenly I took a large casserole from the fire in which various eggs +were frying; this I held out at arm's length, peering at it along my arm +as if I were curiously inspecting it--my right foot advanced, and the +other thrown back as far as possible. All stood still, imagining, +doubtless, that I was about to perform some grand operation; and so I +was: for suddenly the sinister leg advancing, with one rapid _coup de +pied_ I sent the casserole and its contents flying over my head, so that +they struck the wall far behind me. This was to let them know that I had +broken my staff and had shaken the dust off my feet. So casting upon the +count the peculiar glance of the Sceirote cooks when they feel themselves +insulted, and extending my mouth on either side nearly as far as the +ears, I took down my haversack and departed, singing as I went the song +of the ancient Demos, who, when dying, asked for his supper, and water +wherewith to lave his hands: + + [Greek verse] + +And in this manner, mon maitre, I left the house of the Count of ---." + +The morning after Francisco died, when Borrow was lying in bed ruminating +on his loss, he heard someone cleaning boots and singing in an unknown +tongue, so he rang the bell. Antonio appeared. He had, he said, engaged +himself to the Prime Minister at a high salary, but on hearing of +Borrow's loss, he "told the Duke, though it was late at night, that he +would not suit me; and here I am." Again he left Borrow. When he +returned it was in obedience to a dream, in which he saw his master ride +on a black horse up to his inn--yet this was immediately after Borrow's +landing on his third visit to Spain, of which "only two individuals in +Madrid were aware." This Greek was acquainted with all the cutthroats in +Galicia; he could tell a story like Sterne, and in every way was a +servant who deserved no less a master than _Monsieur Georges_. + +Francisco has already sufficiently adorned these pages. As for the other +Antonio, the Gypsy, he guided Borrow through the worst of Spain on his +way to Madrid. This he offered to do in such terms that Borrow's hint at +the possible danger of accepting it falls flat. He was as mysterious as +Borrow himself, and being asked why he was taking this particular road, +he answered: "It is an affair of Egypt, brother, and I shall not acquaint +you with it; peradventure it relates to a horse or an ass, or +peradventure it relates to a mule or a _macho_; it does not relate to +yourself, therefore I advise you not to inquire about it--_Dosta_. . . ." +He carried a loadstone in his bosom and swallowed some of the dust of it, +and it served both for passport and for prayers. When he had to leave +Borrow he sold him a savage and vicious she ass, recommending her for the +same reason as he bought her, because "a savage and vicious beast has +generally four excellent legs." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII--"THE BIBLE IN SPAIN": STYLE + + +Borrow's Spanish portrait of himself was worthy of its background. Much +was required of him in a world where a high fantastical acrobatic +mountebankery was almost a matter of ceremony, where riders stand on +their heads in passing their rivals and cooks punt a casserole over their +heads to the wall behind by way of giving notice: much was required of +him and he proved worthy. He saw himself, I suppose, as a great +imaginative master of fiction sees a hero. His attitude cannot be called +vanity: it is too consistent and continuous and its effect by far too +powerful. He puts his own name into the speeches of other men in a +manner that is very rare: he does not start at the sound of _Don Jorge_. +He said to the silent archbishop: "I suppose your lordship knows who I +am? . . . I am he whom the _Manolos_ of Madrid call _Don Jorgito el +Ingles_; I am just come out of prison, whither I was sent for circulating +my Lord's Gospel in this Kingdom of Spain." He allows the archbishop to +put this celebrity on horseback: "_Vaya_! how you ride! It is dangerous +to be in your way." His horses are magnificent: "What," he asks, "what +is a missionary in the heart of Spain without a horse? Which +consideration induced me now to purchase an Arabian of high caste, which +had been brought from Algiers by an officer of the French legion. The +name of this steed, the best I believe that ever issued from the desert, +was Sidi Habismilk." + +Who can forget Quesada and his two friends lording it on horseback over +the crowd, and Borrow shouting "_Viva_ _Quesada_," or forget the old Moor +of Tangier talking of horses?-- + +"'Good are the horses of the Moslems,' said my old friend; 'where will +you find such? They will descend rocky mountains at full speed and +neither trip nor fall; but you must be cautious with the horses of the +Moslems, and treat them with kindness, for the horses of the Moslems are +proud, and they like not being slaves. When they are young and first +mounted, jerk not their mouths with your bit, for be sure if you do they +will kill you--sooner or later you will perish beneath their feet. Good +are our horses, and good our riders--yea, very good are the Moslems at +mounting the horse; who are like them? I once saw a Frank rider compete +with a Moslem on this beach, and at first the Frank rider had it all his +own way, and he passed the Moslem. But the course was long, very long, +and the horse of the Frank rider, which was a Frank also, panted; but the +horse of the Moslem panted not, for he was a Moslem also, and the Moslem +rider at last gave a cry, and the horse sprang forward, and he overtook +the Frank horse, and then the Moslem rider stood up in his saddle. How +did he stand? Truly he stood on his head, and these eyes saw him. He +stood on his head in the saddle as he passed the Frank rider, and he +cried, Ha, ha! as he passed the Frank rider; and the Moslem horse cried, +Ha, ha! as he passed the Frank breed, and the Frank lost by a far +distance. Good are the Franks, good their horses; but better are the +Moslems, and better the horses of the Moslems.'" + +It is said that he used to ride his black Andalusian horse in Madrid with +a Russian skin for a saddle and without stirrups. He had, he says, been +accustomed from childhood to ride without a saddle. Yet Borrow could do +without a horse. He never fails to make himself impressive. He stoops +to his knee to scare a huge and ferocious dog by looking him full in the +eyes. The spies, as he sat waiting for the magistrate at Madrid, +whisper, "He understands the seven Gypsy jargons," or "He can ride a +horse and dart a knife full as well as if he came from my own country." +The captain of the ship tells a friend in a low voice, overheard by +Borrow: "That fellow who is lying on the deck can speak Christian, too, +when it serves his purpose; but he speaks others which are by no means +Christian. He can talk English, and I myself have heard him chatter in +Gitano with the Gypsies of Triana. He is now going amongst the Moors; +and when he arrives in their country, you will hear him, should you be +there, converse as fluently in their gibberish as in Christiano--nay, +better, for he is no Christian himself. He has been several times on +board my vessel already; but I do not like him, as I consider that he +carries something about with him which is not good." + +The American at Tangier is perplexed by his speaking both Moorish and +Gaelic, by hearing from an Irish woman that he is "a fairy man." + +He does not confine himself to the mysterious sublime. He tells us, for +example, that Mendizabal, the Prime Minister, was a huge athletic man, +"somewhat taller than myself, who measure six-feet-two without my shoes." +Several times he was mistaken for a Jew, and once for a Rabbi, by the +Jews themselves. Add to this the expression that he put on for the +benefit of the farrier at Betanzos: he was stooping to close the vein +that had been opened in the leg of his horse, and he "looked up into the +farrier's face, arching his eyebrows. '_Carracho_! what an evil wizard!' +muttered the farrier, as he walked away." + +{picture: Mendizabal, The Spanish Minister: page194.jpg} + +In the wilds he grew a beard--he had one at Jaraicejo--and it is perhaps +worth noticing this, to rebut the opinion that he could not grow a beard, +and that he was therefore as other men are with the same disability. He +speaks more than once of his shedding tears, and at Lisbon he kissed the +stone above Fielding's grave. But these are little things of little +importance in the landscape portrait which emerges from the whole of the +book, of the grave adventurer, all but always equal in his boldness and +his discretion, the lord of those wild ways and wild men, who "rides in +the whirlwind and directs the storm" all over Spain. + +In brief, he is the very hero that a wondering and waiting audience would +be satisfied to see appearing upon such a stage. Except Dante on his +background of Heaven and Hell, and Byron on his background of Europe and +Time, no writer had in one book placed himself with greater distinction +before the world. His glory was threefold. He was the man who was a +Gypsy in politics, because he had lived with Gypsies so long. He was the +man who said to the Spanish Prime Minister: "It is a pleasant thing to be +persecuted for the Gospel's sake." He was the man of whom it was said +_by an enemy_, after the affair of Benedict Mol, that _Don Jorge_ was at +the bottom of half the knavish farces in Spain. + +Very little of Borrow's effectiveness can seriously be attributed to this +or that quality of style, for it will all amount to saying that he had an +effective style. But it may be permissible to point out that it is also +a style that is unnoticeable except for what it effects. It runs at +times to rotten Victorianism, both heavy and vague, as when he calls _El +Greco_ or Domenico "a most extraordinary genius, some of whose +productions possess merit of a very high order." He is capable of +calling the eye the "orb of vision," and the moon "the beauteous +luminary." I quote a passage lest it should seem incredible: + +"The moon had arisen when we mounted our horses to return to the village, +and the rays of the beauteous luminary danced merrily on the rushing +waters of the Tagus, silvered the plain over which we were passing, and +bathed in a flood of brightness the bold sides of the calcareous hill of +Villaluengo, the antique ruins which crowned its brow. . . ." + +Description, taking him away from men and from his active self, often +lured him into this kind of thing. And, nevertheless, such is Borrow +that I should by no means employ a gentleman of refinement to go over +"The Bible in Spain" and cross out the like. It all helps in the total +of half theatrical and wholly wild exuberance and robustness. Another +minute contributory element of style is the Biblical phrasing. His home +and certainly his work for the Society had made him familiar with the +Bible. He quotes it several times in passages which bring him into +comparison, if not equality, with Jesus and with Paul. A little after +quoting, "Ride on, because of the word of righteousness," he writes: "I +repaired to the aqueduct, and sat down beneath the hundred and seventh +arch, where I waited the greater part of the day, _but he came not_, +_whereupon I arose and went into the city_." He is fond of "even," +saying, for example, or making Judah Lib say, "He bent his way unto the +East, _even to Jerusalem_." The "beauteous luminary" vein and the +Biblical vein may be said to be inseparable from the long cloak, the +sombrero, the picturesque romance and mystery of Spain, as they appeared +to one for whom romance and mystery alike were never without pomp. But +with all his rant he is invariably substantial, never aerial, and he +chequers it in a Byronic manner with a sudden prose reference to bugs, or +a question, or a piece of dialogue. + +His dialogue can hardly be over-praised. It is life-like in its effect, +though not in its actual phrases, and it breaks up the narrative and +description over and over again at the right time. What he puts into the +mouth of shepherds with whom he sits round the fire is more than twice as +potent as if it were in his own narrative; he varies the point of view, +and yet always without allowing himself to disappear from the scene--he, +the _senor_ traveller. These spoken words are, it is true, in Borrow's +own style, with little or no colloquialism, but they are simpler. They +also, in their turn, are broken up by words or phrases from the language +of the speaker. The effect of this must vary with the reader. The +learned will not pause, some of the unlearned will be impatient. But as +a glossary was afterwards granted at Ford's suggestion, and is now to be +had in the cheapest editions of "The Bible in Spain," these few hundred +Spanish or Gypsy words are at least no serious stumbling block. I find +them a very distinct additional flavour in the style. A good writer can +afford these mysteries. Children do not boggle at the unpronounceable +names of a good book like "The Arabian Nights," but rather use them as +charms, like Izaak Walton's marrow of the thighbone of a heron or a piece +of mummy. The bullfighter speaks: + +"'Cavaliers and strong men, this cavalier is the friend of a friend of +mine. _Es mucho hombre_. There is none like him in Spain. He speaks +the crabbed _Gitano_, though he is an _Inglesito_.' + +"'We do not believe it,' replied several grave voices. 'It is not +possible.' + +"'It is not possible, say you? I tell you it is.--Come forward, +Balseiro, you who have been in prison all your life, and are always +boasting that you can speak the crabbed _Gitano_, though I say you know +nothing of it--come forward and speak to his worship in the crabbed +_Gitano_.' + +"A low, slight, but active figure stepped forward. He was in his shirt +sleeves, and wore a _montero_ cap; his features were handsome, but they +were those of a demon. + +"He spoke a few words in the broken Gypsy slang of the prison, inquiring +of me whether I had ever been in the condemned cell, and whether I knew +what a _gitana_ was. + +"'_Vamos Inglesito_,' shouted Sevilla, in a voice of thunder, 'answer the +_monro_ in the crabbed _Gitano_.' + +"I answered the robber, for such he was, and one, too, whose name will +live for many years in the ruffian histories of Madrid--I answered him in +a speech of some length, in the dialect of the Estremenian Gypsies. + +"'I believe it is the crabbed _Gitano_,' muttered Balseiro. 'It is +either that or English, for I understand not a word of it.' + +"'Did I not say to you,' cried the bullfighter, 'that you knew nothing of +the crabbed _Gitano_? But this _Inglesito_ does. I understood all he +said. _Vaya_, there is none like him for the crabbed _Gitano_. He is a +good _ginete_, too; next to myself, there is none like him, only he rides +with stirrup leathers too short.--_Inglesito_, if you have need of money, +I will lend you my purse. All I have is at your service, and that is not +a little; I have just gained four thousand _chules_ by the lottery. +Courage, Englishman! Another cup. I will pay all--I, Sevilla!' + +"And he clapped his hand repeatedly on his breast, reiterating, 'I, +Sevilla! I--'" + +Borrow breaks up his own style in the same way with foreign words. As +Ford said in his "Edinburgh Review" criticism: + +"To use a Gypsy term for a linguist, 'he knows the seven jargons'; his +conversations and his writings resemble an intricate mosiac, of which we +see the rich effect, without comprehending the design. . . . Mr. Borrow, +in whose mouth are the tongues of Babel, selects, as he dashes along +_currente calamo_, the exact word for any idiom which best expresses the +precise idea which sparkles in his mind." + +This habit of Borrow's should be compared with Lamb's archaisms, but, +better still, with Robert Burton's interlardation of English and Latin in +"The Anatomy of Melancholy." + +Here again what I may call his spotted dog style is only a part of the +whole, and as the whole is effective, we solemnly conclude that this is +due in part to the spotted dog. My last word is that here, as always in +a good writer, the whole is greater than the mere sum of the parts, just +as with a bad writer the part is always greater than the whole. Or a +truer way of saying this is that many elements elude discovery, and +therefore the whole exceeds the discoverable parts. Nor is this the +whole truth, for the mixing is much if not all, and neither Borrow nor +any critic knows anything about the mixing, save that the drink is good +that comes of it. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII--BETWEEN THE ACTS + + +Six three-volume editions of "The Bible in Spain" were issued within the +first twelve months: ten thousand copies of a cheap edition were sold in +four months. In America it was sold rapidly without benefit to Borrow. +It was translated into German in 1844 and French in 1845. Borrow came up +to town and did not refuse to meet princes, bishops, ambassadors, and +members of Parliament. He was pleased and flattered by the sales and the +reviews, and declared that he had known it would succeed. He did not +quite know what to say to an invitation from the Royal Institution, but +as to the Royal Academy, it would "just suit him," because he was a safe +man, he said, fitted by nature for an Academician. He did not think much +of episcopal food, wine, or cigars. He was careful of his hero and +disliked hearing him abused or treated indifferently. If he had many +letters, he answered but few. He had made nothing yet out of literature +because the getting about to receive homage, etc., had been so expensive: +he did not care, for he hated to speak of money matters, yet he could not +but mention the fact. When the money began to arrive he did not resent +it by any means, as he was to buy a blood horse with it--no less. His +letters have a jolly, bullying, but offhand and jerky tone, and they are +very short. He gives Murray advice on publishing and is willing to +advise the Government how to manage the Irish--"the blackguards." + +He was now, by virtue of his wife, a "landed proprietor," and filled the +part with unction, though but little satisfaction. For he was not a +magistrate, and he had to get up in the middle of the night to look after +"poachers and thieves," as he says in giving a reason for an illness. In +the summer-house at Oulton hung his father's coat and sword, but it is to +be noticed that to the end of his life an old friend held it "doubtful +whether his father commenced his military career with a commission." +Borrow probably realised the importance of belonging to the ruling +classes and having a long steady pedigree. "If report be true," says the +same friend, {201} "his mother was of French origin, and in early life an +actress." The foreignness as an asset overcame his objection to the +French, and "an actress" also sounded unconventional. The friend +continues: "But the subject of his family was one on which Borrow never +touched. He would allude to Borrowdale as the country whence they came, +and then would make mysterious allusions to his father's pugilistic +triumphs. But this is certain, that he has not left a single relation +behind him." Yet he had many relatives in Cornwall and did not scorn to +visit their houses. He would only talk of his works to intimate friends, +and "when he went into company it was as a gentleman, not because he was +an author." + +Lady Eastlake, in March, 1844, calls him "a fine man, but a most +disagreeable one; a kind of character that would be most dangerous in +rebellious times--one that would suffer or persecute to the utmost. His +face is expressive of wrong-headed determination." + +A little earlier than this, in October, 1843, Caroline Fox saw him +"sitting on one side of the fire and his old mother on the other." It +was known to her that "his spirits always sink in wet weather, and to-day +was very rainy, but he was courteous and not displeased to be a little +lionised, for his delicacy is not of the most susceptible." He was "a +tall, ungainly, uncouth man," in her opinion, "with great physical +strength, a quick penetrating eye, a confident manner, and a disagreeable +tone and pronunciation." In no place does he make anyone praise his +voice, and, as he said, it reminded one Spanish woman of a German +clockmaker's. + +But Borrow was not happy or at ease. He took a riding tour in the east +of England; he walked, rowed and fished; but that was not enough. He was +restless, and yet did not get away. Evidently he did not conceal the +fact that he thought of travelling again. He had talked about Africa and +China: he was now talking about Constantinople and Africa. He was often +miserable, though he had, so far as he knew, "no particular disorder." If +at such times he was away from Oulton, he thought of his home as his only +refuge in this world; if he was at home he thought of travel or foreign +employment. His disease was, perhaps, now middle age, and too good a +memory in his blood and in his bones. Whatever it was it was apparently +not curable by his kind of Christianity, nor by a visit from the genial +Ford, and a present of caviare and pheasant; nor by the never-out-of-date +reminder from friends that he was very well off, etc. If he had been +caught by Dissenters, as he should have been, he might by this time have +had salvation, and an occupation for life, in founding a new truculent +sect of Borrovians. As the Rev. the Romany Rye he might have blazed in +an entertaining and becoming manner. As "a sincere member of the old- +fashioned Church of England, in which he believes there is more religion, +and consequently less cant, than in any other Church in the world," there +was nothing for him to do but sit down at Oulton and contemplate the +fact. This and the other fact that "he eats his own bread, and is one of +the very few men in England who are independent in every sense of the +word," were afterwards to be made subjects for public rejoicing in the +Appendix to "The Romany Rye." + +But in his discontent at the age of forty it cannot have been entirely +satisfactory, however flattering, to hear Ford, in the "Edinburgh," +saying: + +"We wish he would, on some leisure day, draw up the curtain of his own +eventful biography. We collected from his former work that he was not +always what he now is. The pursuits and society of his youth scarcely +could be denominated, in Troloppian euphemism, _la creme de la creme_; +but they stood him in good stead; then and there was he trained for the +encounter of Spain . . . whilst sowing his wild oats, he became +passionately fond of horseflesh. . . . + +"How much has Mr. Borrow yet to remember, yet to tell! let him not delay. +His has been a life, one day of which is more crowded than is the +fourscore-year vegetation of a squire or alderman. . . . Everything seems +sealed on a memory, wax to receive and marble to retain. He is not +subjective. He has the new fault of not talking about self. We vainly +want to know what sort of person must be the pilgrim in whose wanderings +we have been interested. That he has left to other pens. . . ." + +Then Ford went on to identify Borrow with the mysterious Unknown of +Colonel Napier's newly-published book. + +He began to write his autobiography to fulfil the expectations of Ford +and his own public. It was not until 1844, exactly four years after his +return from Spain, that he set out again on foreign travel. He made +stops at Paris, Vienna, Constantinople, Venice, and Rome, but spent most +of his time in Hungary and Roumania, visiting the Gypsies and compiling a +"vocabulary of the Gypsy language as spoken in Hungary and Transylvania," +which still exists in manuscript. He was seven months away altogether. + +Knapp possessed documents proving that Borrow was at this and that place, +and the Gypsy vocabulary is in the British Museum, but little other +record of these seven months remains. Knapp, indeed, takes it for +granted that the historical conversation between Borrow and the Magyar in +"The Romany Rye" was drawn from his experiences in Hungary and +Transylvania in the year 1844; but that is absurd, as the chapter might +have been written by a man born and bred in the reading room of the +British Museum who had never met any but similar unfortunates. It is +very likely that the journey was a failure, and if it had been a success, +an account of it would have interrupted the progress of the +autobiography, as Ford expected it to do. But the thing was too +deliberate to succeed. Borrow's right instinct was to get work which +would take him abroad; he failed, and so he travelled because travel +offered him relief from his melancholy and unrest. Whether or no he +"satisfied his roving demon for a time," as Mr. Walling puts it, is +unknown. What is known is that he did not make this journey a subject of +mystery or boasting, and that he stayed in England thereafter. He had +tasted comfort and celebrity; he had a wife; he was an older man, looking +weak in the eyes by the time he was fifty; and he had no motive for +travel except discontent with staying at home. He tried to get away +again on a mission to the Convent of St. Catherine, on Mount Sinai, to +acquire manuscripts for the British Museum; but he failed, and the +manuscripts went to St. Petersburg instead of Bloomsbury. + +In 1843 Henry Wyndham Phillips, R.A., painted his portrait. He was a +restless sitter until the painter remarked: "I have always heard, Mr. +Borrow, that the Persian is a very fine language; is it so?" "It is, +Phillips; it is." "Perhaps you will not mind reciting me something in +the Persian tongue?" said Phillips. "Dear me, no; certainly not." And +then "Mr. Borrow's face lit up with the light that Phillips longed for, +and he kept declaiming at the top of his voice, while the painter made +the most of his opportunity." {205} According to the story, Phillips had +the like success with Turkish and Armenian, and successfully stilled +Borrow's desire "to get out into the fresh air and sunlight." + +In the same way, writing and literary ambition kept Borrow from travel. +He stayed at home and he wrote "Lavengro," where, speaking of the rapid +flow of time in the years of his youth, he says: "Since then it has +flagged often enough; sometimes it has seemed to stand entirely still: +and the reader may easily judge how it fares at the present, from the +circumstance of my taking pen in hand, and endeavouring to write down the +passages of my life--a last resource with most people." At one moment he +got satisfaction from professing scorn of authorship, at another, +speaking of Byron, he reflected: + +"Well, perhaps after all it was better to have been mighty Milton in his +poverty and blindness--witty and ingenious Butler consigned to the tender +mercies of bailiffs, and starving Otway; they might enjoy more real +pleasure than this lordling; they must have been aware that the world +would one day do them justice--fame after death is better than the top of +fashion in life. They have left a fame behind them which shall never +die, whilst this lordling--a time will come when he will be out of +fashion and forgotten. And yet I don't know; didn't he write Childe +Harold and that ode? Yes, he wrote Childe Harold and that ode. Then a +time will scarcely come when he will be forgotten. Lords, squires, and +cockneys may pass away, but a time will scarcely come when Childe Harold +and that ode will be forgotten. He was a poet, after all--and he must +have known it; a real poet, equal to--to--what a destiny!" + +It is said that in actual life Borrow refused to be introduced to a +Russian scholar "simply because he moved in the literary world." {206} + +Yet again he made the glorious Gypsy say that he would rather be a book- +writer than a fighting-man, because the book-writers "have so much to say +for themselves even when dead and gone": + +"'When they are laid in the churchyard, it is their own fault if people +a'n't talking of them. Who will know, after I am dead, or bitchadey +pawdel, that I was once the beauty of the world, or that you, Jasper, +were--' + +"'The best man in England of my inches. That's true, Tawno--however, +here's our brother will perhaps let the world know something about us.'" + +I should think, too, that Borrow was both questioner and answerer in the +conversation with the literary man who had the touching mania: + +"'With respect to your present troubles and anxieties, would it not be +wise, seeing that authorship causes you so much trouble and anxiety, to +give it up altogether?' + +"'Were you an author yourself,' replied my host, 'you would not talk in +this manner; once an author, ever an author--besides, what could I do? +return to my former state of vegetation? no, much as I endure, I do not +wish that; besides, every now and then my reason tells me that these +troubles and anxieties of mine are utterly without foundation; that +whatever I write is the legitimate growth of my own mind, and that it is +the height of folly to afflict myself at any chance resemblance between +my own thoughts and those of other writers, such resemblance being +inevitable from the fact of our common human origin. . . ." + +Knapp gives at length a story showing what an author Borrow was, and how +little his travels had sweetened him. He had long promised to review +Ford's "Handbook for Spain," when it should appear. In 1845 he wrote an +article and sent it in to the "Quarterly" as a review of the Handbook. It +had nothing to do with the book and very little to do with the subject of +the book, and Lockhart, the "Quarterly" editor, suggested turning it into +a review by a few interpolations and extracts. Borrow would not have the +article touched. Both Lockhart and Ford advised him to send it to +"Fraser's" or another magazine where it was certain to be welcomed as a +Spanish essay by the author of "The Bible in Spain." But no: and the +article was never printed anywhere. + +Yet Borrow was not settling down to authorship pure and simple. He flew +into a passion because a new railway line, in 1846, ran through his +estate. He flew into a passion, did nothing, and remained on his estates +until 1853, when he and his family went into lodgings at Yarmouth. I +have not discovered how much he profited by the intrusion of the railway, +except when he pilloried the contractor, his neighbour, Mr. Peto, as +Flamson, in the Appendix to "The Romany Rye." Then he tried again to be +put on the Commission of the Peace, with no success. He probably spent +much of his time in being either suspicious, or ambitious, or indignant. +In 1847, for example, he suspected his friend Dr. Bowring--his "only +friend" in 1842--of using his work to get for himself the consulship at +Canton, which he was professing to obtain for Borrow. The result was the +foaming abuse of "The Romany Rye," where Bowring is the old Radical. The +affair of the Sinai manuscripts followed close on this. All that he saw +of foreign lands was at the Exhibition of 1851, where he frequently +accosted foreigners in their own tongue, so that it began to be whispered +about that he was "uncanny": he excited so much remark that his daughter +thought it better to drag him away. + +He was suffering from ill-health and untranquility of mind which gave his +mother anxiety, though his physical strength appears not to have +degenerated, for in 1853, at Yarmouth, he rescued a man out of a stormy +sea. He was an unpleasant companion for those whom he did not like or +could not get on with. Thackeray tried to get up a conversation with +him, his final effort being the question, "Have you seen my 'Snob Papers' +in 'Punch'?" To which Borrow answered: "In 'Punch'? It is a periodical +I never look at." He once met Miss Agnes Strickland: + +"Borrow was unwilling to be introduced, but was prevailed on to submit. +He sat down at her side; before long she spoke with rapture of his works, +and asked his permission to send him a copy of her 'Queens of England.' +He exclaimed, 'For God's sake, don't, madam, I should not know where to +put them or what to do with them.' On this he rose, fuming, as was his +wont when offended, and said to Mr. Donne, 'What a damned fool that woman +is!' The fact is that, whenever Borrow was induced to do anything +unwillingly, he lost his temper." {208} + +The friend who tells this story, Gordon Hake, a poet and doctor at Bury +St. Edmunds, tells also that once when he was at dinner with a banker who +had recently "struck the docket" to secure payment from a friend of +Borrow's, and the banker's wife said to him: "Oh Mr. Borrow, I have read +your books with so much pleasure!" the great man exclaimed: "Pray, what +books do you mean, madam? Do you mean my account books?" How touchy he +was, Mr. Walling shows, by his story of Borrow in Cornwall neglecting a +lady all one evening because she bore the name of the man his father had +knocked down at Menheniot Fair. Several stories of his crushing remarks +prove nothing but that he was big and alarming and uncontrolled. + +{picture: Gordon Hake. From the painting by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. By +kind permission of Mrs. George Gordon Hake: page209.jpg} + +Very little record of his friendly intercourse with men at this middle +period remains. Several letters, of 1853, 1856 and 1857, alone survive +to show that he met and received letters from Fitzgerald. That +Fitzgerald enjoyed an evening with him in 1856 tells us little; and even +so it appears that Fitzgerald only wanted to ask him to read some of the +"Northern Ballads"--"but you shut the book"--and that he doubted whether +Borrow wished to keep up the acquaintance. They had friends in common, +and Fitzgerald had sent Borrow a copy of his "Six Dramas of Calderon," in +1853, confessing that he had had thoughts of sending the manuscript first +for an inspection. He also told Borrow when he was about to make the +"dangerous experiment" of marriage with Miss Barton "of Quaker memory." +In 1857 Borrow came to see him and had the loan of the "Rubaiyat" in +manuscript, and Fitzgerald showed his readiness to see more of the "Great +Man." In 1859 he sent Borrow a copy of "Omar." He found Borrow's +"masterful manners and irritable temper uncongenial," {209} but +succeeded, unlike many other friends, in having no quarrel with him. Near +the end of his life, in 1875, it was Borrow that tried to renew the +acquaintance, but in vain, for Fitzgerald reminded him that friends +"exist and enjoy themselves pretty reasonably without me," and asked, was +not being alone better than having company? + +If Borrow had little consideration for others' feelings, his +consideration for his own was exquisite, as this story, belonging to +1856, may help to prove: + +"There were three personages in the world whom he always had a desire to +see; two of these had slipped through his fingers, so he was determined +to see the third. 'Pray, Mr. Borrow, who were they?' He held up three +fingers of his left hand and pointed them off with the forefinger of the +right: the first, Daniel O'Connell; the second, Lamplighter (the sire of +Phosphorus, Lord Berners's winner of the Derby); the third, Anna +Gurney. . . ." + +One spring day during the Crimean War, when he was walking round Norfolk, +he sent word to Anna Gurney to announce his coming, and she was ready to +receive him. + +"When, according to his account, he had been but a very short time in her +presence, she wheeled her chair round and reached her hand to one of her +bookshelves and took down an Arabic Grammar, and put it into his hand, +asking for explanation of some difficult point, which he tried to +decipher; but meanwhile she talked to him continuously; when, said he, 'I +could not study the Arabic Grammar and listen to her at the same time, so +I threw down the book and ran out of the room.' He seems not to have +stopped running till he reached Old Tucker's Inn, at Cromer, where he +renewed his strength, or calmed his temper, with five excellent sausages, +and then came on to Sheringham. . . ." {210a} + +The distance is a very good two miles, and Borrow's age was forty-nine. + +He is said also to have been considerate towards his mother, the poor, +and domestic animals. Probably he and his mother understood one another. +When he could not write to her, he got his wife to do so; and from 1849 +she lived with them at Oulton. As to the poor, Knapp tells us that he +left behind him letters of gratitude or acknowledgment from individuals, +churches, and chapels. As to animals, once when he came upon some men +beating a horse that had fallen, he gave it ale of sufficient quantity +and strength to set it soon upon the road trotting with the rest of its +kind, after the men had received a lecture. {210b} It is also related +that when a favourite old cat crawled out to die in the hedge he brought +it into the house, where he "laid it down in a comfortable spot and +watched it till it was dead." His horse, Sidi Habismilk, the Arab, seems +to have returned his admiration and esteem. He said himself, in "Wild +Wales," after expressing his relief that a boy and dog had not seen a +weazel that ran across his path: + +"I hate to see poor wild animals persecuted and murdered, lose my +appetite for dinner at hearing the screams of a hare pursued by +greyhounds, and am silly enough to feel disgust and horror at the squeals +of a rat in the fangs of a terrier, which one of the sporting tribe once +told me were the sweetest sounds in 'natur.'" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV--"LAVENGRO" AND "THE ROMANY RYE" + + +Instead of travelling over the world Borrow wrote his autobiography and +spent so many years on it that his contempt for the pen had some excuse. +I have already said almost all there is to say about these labours. {212} +Knapp has shown that they were protracted to include matters relating to +Bowring and long posterior to the period covered by the autobiography, +and that the magnitude of these additions compelled him to divide the +book in two. The first part was "Lavengro," published in 1851, with an +ending that is now, and perhaps was then, obviously due to the knife. The +sceptical and hostile criticism of "Lavengro" delayed the appearance of +the remainder of the autobiography, "The Romany Rye." + +Borrow had to reply to his critics and explain himself. This he did in +the Appendix, and thus changed, the book was finished in 1853 or 1854. +Something in Murray's attitude while they were discussing publication +mounted Borrow on the high horse, and yet again he fumed because Murray +had expressed a private opinion and had revealed his feeling that the +book was not likely to make money for anyone. + +{picture: Cancelled title-page of "Lavengro". (Photographed from the +Author's corrected proof copy, by kind permission of Mr. Kyllmann and Mr. +Thos. Seccombe.) Photo: W. J. Roberts: page212.jpg} + +"Lavengro" and "The Romany Rye" describe the author's early adventures +and, at the same time, his later opinions and mature character. In some +places he turns openly aside to express his feeling or opinion at the +time of writing, as, for example, in his praise of the Orangemen, or, on +the very first page, where he claims to spring from a family of +gentlemen, though "not very wealthy," that the reader may see at once he +is "not altogether of low and plebeian origin." But by far more +important is the indirect self-revelation when he is recalling that other +distant self, the child of three or of ten, the youth of twenty. + +Ford had asked Borrow for a book of his adventures and travels, something +"thick and slab," to follow "The Bible in Spain." The result shows that +Borrow had almost done with outward adventure. "The Bible in Spain" had +an atmosphere composed at best of as much Spain as Borrow. But the +autobiography is pure inward Borrow: except a few detachable incidents +there is nothing in it which is not Borrow's creation, nothing which +would have any value apart from his own treatment of it. A man might +have used "The Bible in Spain" as a kind of guide to men and places in +1843, and it is possible he would not have been wholly disappointed. The +autobiography does not depend on anything outside itself, but creates its +own atmosphere and dwells in it without admitting that of the outer +world--no: not even by references to events like the campaign of Waterloo +or the funeral of Byron; and, as if conscious that this other atmosphere +must be excluded, Borrow has hardly mentioned a name which could act upon +the reader as a temporary check to the charm. When he does recall +contemporary events, and speaks as a Briton to Britons, the rant is of a +brave degree that is almost as much his own, and it makes more intense +than ever the solitude and inwardness of the individual life going on +side by side with war and with politics. + +"Pleasant were those days of my early boyhood; and a melancholy pleasure +steals over me as I recall them. Those were stirring times of which I am +speaking, and there was much passing around me calculated to captivate +the imagination. The dreadful struggle which so long convulsed Europe, +and in which England bore so prominent a part, was then at its hottest; +we were at war, and determination and enthusiasm shone in every face; +man, woman and child were eager to fight the Frank, the hereditary, but, +thank God, never dreaded enemy of the Anglo-Saxon race. 'Love your +country and beat the French, and then never mind what happens,' was the +cry of entire England. Oh those were days of power, gallant days, +bustling days, worth the bravest days of chivalry, at least; tall +battalions of native warriors were marching through the land; there was +the glitter of the bayonet and the gleam of the sabre; the shrill squeak +of the fife and loud rattling of the drum were heard in the streets of +county towns, and the loyal shouts of the inhabitants greeted the +soldiery on their arrival or cheered them at their departure. And now +let us leave the upland and descend to the sea-board; there is a sight +for you upon the billows! A dozen men-of-war are gliding majestically +out of port, their long buntings streaming from the top-gallant masts, +calling on the skulking Frenchman to come forth from his bights and bays; +and what looms upon us yonder from the fog-bank in the East? A gallant +frigate towing behind her the long low hull of a crippled privateer, +which but three short days ago had left Dieppe to skim the sea, and whose +crew of ferocious hearts are now cursing their impudence in an English +hold. Stirring times those, which I love to recall, for they were days +of gallantry and enthusiasm, and were moreover the days of my boyhood." + +"Pleasant were those days," and there is a "melancholy pleasure" in +recalling them. The two combine in this autobiography with strange +effect, for they set the man side by side with the child as an invisible +companion haunting him. + +Whatever was the change that came over Borrow in the 'forties, and showed +itself in melancholy and unrest, this long-continued contemplation of his +childhood betrayed him into a profound change of tone. Neither Africa +nor the East could have shown him as much mystery as this wide England of +a child ignorant of geography, and it kept hold of him for twice as long +as Spain. It offered him relief and escape, and gladly did he accept +them, and deeply he indulged in them. He found that he had that within +himself as wild as any mountain or maniac-haunted ruin of Spain. For +example, he recalled his schooldays in Ireland, and how one day he set +out to visit his elder brother, the boy lieutenant: + +"The distance was rather considerable, yet I hoped to be back by evening +fall, for I was now a shrewd walker, thanks to constant practice. I set +out early, and, directing my course towards the north, I had in less than +two hours accomplished considerably more than half of the journey. The +weather had been propitious: a slight frost had rendered the ground firm +to the tread, and the skies were clear; but now a change came over the +scene, the skies darkened, and a heavy snow-storm came on; the road then +lay straight through a bog, and was bounded by a deep trench on both +sides; I was making the best of my way, keeping as nearly as I could in +the middle of the road, lest, blinded by the snow which was frequently +borne into my eyes by the wind, I might fall into the dyke, when all at +once I heard a shout to windward, and turning my eyes I saw the figure of +a man, and what appeared to be an animal of some kind, coming across the +bog with great speed, in the direction of myself; the nature of the +ground seemed to offer but little impediment to these beings, both +clearing the holes and abysses which lay in their way with surprising +agility; the animal was, however, some slight way in advance, and, +bounding over the dyke, appeared on the road just before me. It was a +dog, of what species I cannot tell, never having seen the like before or +since; the head was large and round; the ears so tiny as scarcely to be +discernible; the eyes of a fiery red; in size it was rather small than +large; and the coat, which was remarkably smooth, as white as the falling +flakes. It placed itself directly in my path, and showing its teeth, and +bristling its coat, appeared determined to prevent my progress. I had an +ashen stick in my hand, with which I threatened it; this, however, only +served to increase its fury; it rushed upon me, and I had the utmost +difficulty to preserve myself from its fangs. + +"'What are you doing with the dog, the fairy dog?' said a man, who at +this time likewise cleared the dyke at a bound. + +"He was a very tall man, rather well dressed as it should seem; his +garments, however, were like my own, so covered with snow that I could +scarcely discern their quality. + +"'What are ye doing with the dog of peace?' + +"'I wish he would show himself one,' said I; 'I said nothing to him, but +he placed himself in my road, and would not let me pass.' + +"'Of course he would not be letting you till he knew where ye were +going.' + +"'He's not much of a fairy,' said I, 'or he would know that without +asking; tell him that I am going to see my brother.' + +"'And who is your brother, little Sas?' + +"'What my father is, a royal soldier.' + +"'Oh, ye are going then to the detachment at ---; by my shoul, I have a +good mind to be spoiling your journey.' + +"'You are doing that already,' said I, 'keeping me here talking about +dogs and fairies; you had better go home and get some salve to cure that +place over your eye; it's catching cold you'll be in so much snow.' + +"On one side of the man's forehead there was a raw and staring wound, as +if from a recent and terrible blow. + +"'Faith, then, I'll be going, but it's taking you wid me I will be.' + +"'And where will you take me?' + +"'Why, then, to Ryan's Castle, little Sas.' + +"'You do not speak the language very correctly,' said I; 'it is not Sas +you should call me--'tis Sassanach,' and forthwith I accompanied the word +with a speech full of flowers of Irish rhetoric. + +"The man looked upon me for a moment, fixedly, then, bending his head +towards his breast, he appeared to be undergoing a kind of convulsion, +which was accompanied by a sound something resembling laughter; presently +he looked at me, and there was a broad grin on his features. + +"'By my shoul, it's a thing of peace I'm thinking ye.' + +"But now with a whisking sound came running down the road a hare; it was +nearly upon us before it perceived us; suddenly stopping short, however, +it sprang into the bog on the right-hand side; after it amain bounded the +dog of peace, followed by the man, but not until he had nodded to me a +farewell salutation. In a few moments I lost sight of him amidst the +snow-flakes." + +This is more magical than nine-tenths of the deliberately Celtic prose or +verse. I mean that it is real and credible and yet insubstantial, the +too too solid flesh is melted into something like the mist over the +bogland, and it recalls to us times when an account of our physical self, +height, width, weight, colour, age, etc., would bear no relation whatever +to the true self. In part, this effect may be due to Ireland and to the +fact that Borrow was only there for one short impressionable year of his +boyhood, and had never seen any other country like it. But most of it is +due to Borrow's nature and the conditions under which the autobiography +was composed. While he was writing it he was probably living a more +solitary and sedentary life than ever before, and could hear the voices +of solitude; he was not the busy riding missionary of "The Bible in +Spain," nor the feted author, but the unsocial morbid tinker, +philologist, boxer, and religious doubter. It has been said that "he was +a Celt of Celts. His genius was truly Celtic." {218a} It has been said +that "he inherited nothing from Norfolk save his accent and his love of +'leg of mutton and turnips.'" {218b} Yet his father, the Cornish "Celt," +appears to have been entirely unlike him, while he draws his mother, the +Norfolk Huguenot, as innately sympathetic with himself. I am content to +leave this mystery for Celts and anti-Celts to grow lean on. I have +known Celts who said that five and five were ten or, at most, eleven; and +Saxons who said twenty-five, and even fifty-five. + +Borrow was writing without note books: things had therefore in his memory +the importance which his nature had decreed for them, and among these +things no doubt he exercised a conscious choice. Behind all was the +inexplicable singular force which, Celtic or not, gave the "dream"-like, +illusory quality which pervades the books in spite of more positive and +arresting qualities sometimes apparently hostile to this one. It is true +that his books have in them many rude or simple characters of Gypsies, +jockeys, and others, living chiefly by their hands, and it is part of the +conscious and unconscious object of the books to exalt them. But these +people in Borrow's hands seldom or never give the impression of coarse +solid bodies well endowed with the principal appetites. There is, for +example, a famous page where the young doubting Borrow listens to a +Wesleyan preacher and wishes that his life had been like that man's, and +then comes upon his Gypsy friend after a long absence. He asks the Gypsy +for news and hears of some deaths: + +"'What is your opinion of death, Mr. Petulengro?' said I, as I sat down +beside him + +"'My opinion of death, brother, is much the same as that in the old song +of Pharaoh, which I have heard my grandam sing-- + + "Canna marel o manus chivios ande puv, + Ta rovel pa leste o chavo ta romi." + +When a man dies, he is cast into the earth, and his wife and child sorrow +over him. If he has neither wife nor child, then his father and mother, +I suppose; and if he is quite alone in the world, why, then, he is cast +into the earth, and there is an end of the matter.' + +"'And do you think that is the end of man?' + +"'There's an end of him, brother, more's the pity.' + +"'Why do you say so?' + +"'Life is sweet, brother.' + +"'Do you think so?' + +"'Think so!--There's night and day, brother, both sweet things; sun, +moon, and stars, brother, all sweet things; there's likewise a wind on +the heath. Life is very sweet, brother; who would wish to die?' + +"'I would wish to die--' + +"'You talk like a gorgio--which is the same as talking like a fool--were +you a Rommany Chal you would talk wiser. Wish to die, indeed!--A Rommany +Chal would wish to live for ever!" + +"'In sickness, Jasper?' + +"'There's the sun and stars, brother.' + +"'In blindness, Jasper?' + +"'There's the wind on the heath, brother; if I could only feel that, I +would gladly live for ever. Dosta, we'll now go to the tents and put on +the gloves; and I'll try to make you feel what a sweet thing it is to be +alive, brother!'" + +But how delicate it is, the two lads talking amidst the furze of +Mousehold Heath at sunset. And so with the rest. As he grows older the +atmosphere thins but never quite fades away; even Thurtell, the +bull-necked friend of bruisers, is as much a spirit as a man. + +Mr. Watts-Dunton has complained {220} that Borrow makes Isopel taller +than Borrow, and therefore too tall for beauty. But Borrow was not +writing for readers who knew, or for those who, if they knew, always +remembered, that he was six-feet-two. We know that Lavengro is tall, but +we are not told so just before hearing that Isopel is taller; and the +effect is that we think, not too distinctly, of a girl who somehow +succeeds in being very tall and beautiful. If Borrow had said: "Whereas +I was six feet two inches, the girl was six feet two and three-quarter +inches," it would have been different, and it would not have been Borrow, +who, as I say, was not writing of ponderable, measurable bodies, but of +possible immortal souls curiously dressed in flesh that can be almost as +invisible. So again, Mr. Watts-Dunton says: + +"With regard to Isopel Berners, neither Lavengro, nor the man she +thrashed when he stole one of her flaxen hairs to conjure with, gives the +reader the faintest idea of Isopel's method of attack or defence, and we +have to take her prowess on trust. In a word Borrow was content to give +us the wonderful, without taking that trouble to find for it a logical +basis which a literary master would have taken. And instances might +easily be multiplied of this exaggeration of Borrow's, which is apt to +lend a sense of unreality to some of the most picturesque pages of +'Lavengro.'" + +But would Mr. Watts-Dunton seriously like to have these scenes touched up +by Driscoll or Sullivan. Borrow did not write for real or imaginary +connoisseurs. + +I do not mean that a man need sacrifice his effect upon the ordinary man +by satisfying the connoisseur. No one, for example, will deny that a +ship by Mr. Joseph Conrad is as beautiful and intelligible as one by +Stevenson; but neither would it be safe to foretell that Mr. Conrad's, +the more accurate, will seem the more like life in fifty years' time. +Borrow is never technical. If he quotes Gypsy it is not for the sake of +the colour effect on those who read Gypsy as they run. His effects are +for a certain distance and in a certain atmosphere where technicality +would be impertinent. + +Mr. Hindes Groome {221a} was more justified in saying: + +"Mr. Borrow, no doubt, knows the Gypsies well, and could describe them +perfectly. But his love of effect leads him away. In his wish to +impress his reader with a certain mysterious notion of himself, he +colours his Gypsy pictures (the _form_ of which is quite accurate) in a +fantastic style, which robs them altogether of the value they would have +as studies from life." + +For Groome wrote simply as a Gypsy student. He collected data which can +be verified, but do not often give an impression of life, except the life +of a young Cambridge man who is devoted to Gypsies. The "Athenaeum" +reviewer {221b} begs the question by calling the Gypsy dialogues of +Hindes Groome, photographic; and is plainly inaccurate in saying that if +they are compared with those in "Lavengro" "the illusion in Borrow's +narrative is disturbed by the uncolloquial vocabulary of the speakers." +For Borrow's dialogues do produce an effect of some kind of life; those +of Hindes Groome instruct us or pique our curiosity, but unless we know +Gypsies, they produce no life-like effect. + +Who else but Borrow could make the old viper-catcher thus describe the +King of the Vipers?-- + +"It may be about seven years ago that I happened to be far down yonder to +the west, on the other side of England, nearly two hundred miles from +here, following my business. It was a very sultry day, I remember, and I +had been out several hours catching creatures. It might be about three +o'clock in the afternoon, when I found myself on some heathy land near +the sea, on the ridge of a hill, the side of which, nearly as far down as +the sea, was heath; but on the top there was arable ground, which had +been planted, and from which the harvest had been gathered--oats or +barley, I know not which--but I remember that the ground was covered with +stubble. Well, about three o'clock, as I told you before, what with the +heat of the day and from having walked about for hours in a lazy way, I +felt very tired; so I determined to have a sleep, and I laid myself down, +my head just on the ridge of the hill, towards the field, and my body +over the side down amongst the heath; my bag, which was nearly filled +with creatures, lay at a little distance from my face; the creatures were +struggling in it, I remember, and I thought to myself, how much more +comfortably off I was than they; I was taking my ease on the nice open +hill, cooled with the breezes, whilst they were in the nasty close bag, +coiling about one another, and breaking their very hearts all to no +purpose; and I felt quite comfortable and happy in the thought, and +little by little closed my eyes, and fell into the sweetest snooze that +ever I was in in all my life; and there I lay over the hill's side, with +my head half in the field, I don't know how long, all dead asleep. At +last it seemed to me that I heard a noise in my sleep, something like a +thing moving, very faint, however, far away; then it died, and then it +came again upon my ear, as I slept, and now it appeared almost as if I +heard crackle, crackle; then it died again, or I became yet more dead +asleep than before, I know not which, but I certainly lay some time +without hearing it. All of a sudden I became awake, and there was I, on +the ridge of the hill, with my cheek on the ground towards the stubble, +with a noise in my ear like that of something moving towards me, among +the stubble of the field; well, I lay a moment or two listening to the +noise, and then I became frightened, for I did not like the noise at all, +it sounded so odd; so I rolled myself on my belly, and looked towards the +stubble. Mercy upon us! there was a huge snake, or rather a dreadful +viper, for it was all yellow and gold, moving towards me, bearing its +head about a foot and a half above the ground, the dry stubble crackling +beneath its outrageous belly. It might be about five yards off when I +first saw it, making straight towards me, child, as if it would devour +me. I lay quite still, for I was stupefied with horror, whilst the +creature came still nearer; and now it was nearly upon me, when it +suddenly drew back a little, and then--what do you think?--it lifted its +head and chest high in the air, and high over my face as I looked up, +flickering at me with its tongue as if it would fly at my face. Child, +what I felt at that moment I can scarcely say, but it was a sufficient +punishment for all the sins I ever committed; and there we two were, I +looking up at the viper, and the viper looking down upon me, flickering +at me with its tongue. It was only the kindness of God that saved me: +all at once there was a loud noise, the report of a gun, for a fowler was +shooting at a covey of birds, a little way off in the stubble. Whereupon +the viper sunk its head and immediately made off over the ridge of the +hill, down in the direction of the sea. As it passed by me, however--and +it passed close by me--it hesitated a moment, as if it was doubtful +whether it should not seize me; it did not, however, but made off down +the hill. It has often struck me that he was angry with me, and came +upon me unawares for presuming to meddle with his people, as I have +always been in the habit of doing." + +The passages quoted from "Lavengro" are representative only of the +_spirit_ of the book, which, as I have suggested, diminishes with +Borrow's increasing years, but pervades the physical activity, the "low +life" and open air, and prevails over them. I will give one other +example of his by no means everyday magic--the incident of the poisoned +cake. The Gypsy girl Leonora discovers him and betrays him to his enemy, +old hairy Mrs. Herne: + +"Leaning my back against the tree I was not long in falling into a +slumber; I quite clearly remember that slumber of mine beneath the ash +tree, for it was about the sweetest slumber that I ever enjoyed; how long +I continued in it I don't know; I could almost have wished that it had +lasted to the present time. All of a sudden it appeared to me that a +voice cried in my ear, 'Danger! danger! danger!' Nothing seemingly could +be more distinct than the words which I heard; then an uneasy sensation +came over me, which I strove to get rid of, and at last succeeded, for I +awoke. The Gypsy girl was standing just opposite to me, with her eyes +fixed upon my countenance; a singular kind of little dog stood beside +her. + +"'Ha!' said I, 'was it you that cried danger? What danger is there?' + +"'Danger, brother, there is no danger; what danger should there be? I +called to my little dog, but that was in the wood; my little dog's name +is not danger, but stranger; what danger should there be, brother.' + +"'What, indeed, except in sleeping beneath a tree; what is that you have +got in your hand?' + +"'Something for you,' said the girl, sitting down and proceeding to untie +a white napkin; 'a pretty manricli, so sweet, so nice; when I went home +to my people I told my grandbebee how kind you had been to the poor +person's child, and when my grandbebee saw the kekaubi, she said, "Hir mi +devlis, it won't do for the poor people to be ungrateful; by my God, I +will bake a cake for the young harko mescro."' + +"'But there are two cakes.' + +"'Yes, brother, two cakes, both for you; my grandbebee meant them both +for you--but list, brother, I will have one of them for bringing them. I +know you will give me one, pretty brother, grey-haired brother--which +shall I have, brother?' + +"In the napkin were two round cakes, seemingly made of rich and costly +compounds, and precisely similar in form, each weighing about half a +pound. + +"'Which shall I have, brother?' said the Gypsy girl. + +"'Whichever you please.' + +"'No, brother, no, the cakes are yours, not mine, it is for you to say.' + +"'Well, then, give me the one nearest you, and take the other.' + +"'Yes, brother, yes,' said the girl; and taking the cakes, she flung them +into the air two or three times, catching them as they fell, and singing +the while. 'Pretty brother, grey-haired brother--here, brother,' said +she, 'here is your cake, this other is mine. . . .'" + +I cannot afford to quote the whole passage, but it is at once as real and +as phantasmal as the witch scene in "Macbeth." He eats the poisoned cake +and lies deadly sick. Mrs. Herne and Leonora came to see the effect of +the poison: + +"'Ha, ha! bebee, and here he lies, poisoned like a hog.' + +"'You have taken drows, sir,' said Mrs. Herne; 'do you hear, sir? drows; +tip him a stave, child, of the song of poison.' + +"And thereupon the girl clapped her hands, and sang-- + + "The Rommany churl + And the Rommany girl + To-morrow shall hie + To poison the sty, + And bewitch on the mead + The farmer's steed." + +"'Do you hear that, sir?' said Mrs. Herne; 'the child has tipped you a +stave of the song of poison: that is, she has sung it Christianly, though +perhaps you would like to hear it Romanly; you were always fond of what +was Roman. Tip it him Romanly, child.'" + +It is not much use to remark on "the uncolloquial vocabulary of the +speakers." Iago's vocabulary is not colloquial when he says: + + "Not poppy nor mandragora + Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world + Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep + That thou ow'dst yesterday." + +Borrow is not describing Gypsy life but the "dream" of his own early +life. I should say that he succeeds, because his words work upon the +indifferent reader in something like the same way as memory worked upon +himself. The physical activity, the "low life," and the open air of the +books are powerful. These and the England of his youth gave Borrow his +refuge from middle age and Victorian England of the middle class. +"Youth," he says in "The Romany Rye," "is the only season for enjoyment, +and the first twenty-five years of one's life are worth all the rest of +the longest life of man, even though these five and twenty be spent in +penury and contempt, and the rest in the possession of wealth, honour, +respectability, ay, and many of them in strength and health. . . ." Still +more emphatically did he think the same when he was looking on his past +life in the dingle, feeling his arms and thighs and teeth, which were +strong and sound; "so now was the time to labour, to marry, to eat strong +flesh, and beget strong children--the power of doing all this would pass +away with youth, which was terribly transitory." + +{picture: View on Mousehold Heath, near Norwich. (From the painting by +"Old Crome" in The National Gallery.) Photo: W. J. Roberts: page227.jpg} + +Youth and strength or their extreme opposites alone attracted him, and +therefore he is best in writing of men, if we except the tall Brynhild, +Isopel, and the old witch, Mrs. Herne, than whom "no she bear of Lapland +ever looked more fierce and hairy." In the same breath as he praises +youth he praises England, pouring scorn on those who traverse Spain and +Portugal in quest of adventures, "whereas there are ten times more +adventures to be met with in England than in Spain, Portugal, or stupid +Germany to boot." It was the old England before railways, though Mr. +Petulengro heard a man speaking of a wonderful invention that "would set +aside all the old roads, which in a little time would be ploughed up, and +sowed with corn, and cause all England to be laid down with iron roads, +on which people would go thundering along in vehicles, pushed forward by +fire and smoke." Borrow makes another of his characters also foretell +the triumph of railways, and I insist on quoting part of the sentence as +another example of Borrow's mysterious way: the speaker has had his +information from the projector of the scheme: "which he has told me many +of the wisest heads of England have been dreaming of during a period of +six hundred years, and which it seems was alluded to by a certain Brazen +Head in the story-book of Friar Bacon, who is generally supposed to have +been a wizard, but in reality was a great philosopher. Young man, in +less than twenty years, by which time I shall be dead and gone, England +will be surrounded with roads of metal, on which armies may travel with +mighty velocity, and of which the walls of brass and iron by which the +friar proposed to defend his native land are types." And yet he makes +little of the practical difference between the England of railways and +the England of coaches; in fact he hated the bullying coachmen so that he +expressed nothing but gladness when they had disappeared from the road. +No: it was first as the England of the successful wars with Napoleon, and +second as the England of his youth that he idealised it--the country of +Byron and Farmer George, not that of Tennyson, Victoria and Albert; for +as Byron was one of the new age and yet looked back to Pope and down on +Wordsworth, so did Borrow look back. + +His English geography is far vaguer than his Spanish. He creeps--walking +or riding--over this land with more mystery. The variety and +difficulties of the roads were less, and actual movement fills very few +pages. He advances not so much step by step as adventure by adventure. +Well might he say, a little impudently, "there is not a chapter in the +present book which is not full of adventures, with the exception of the +present one, and this is not yet terminated"--it ends with a fall from +his horse which stuns him. There is an air of somnambulism about some of +the travel, especially when he is escaping alone from London and hack- +writing. He shows great art in his transitions from day to day, from +scene to scene, making it natural that one hour of one day should have +the importance of the whole of another year, and one house more than the +importance of several day's journeys. It matters not that he crammed +more than was possible between Greenwich and Horncastle fairs, probably +by transplanting earlier or later events. Time and space submit to him: +his old schoolfellows were vainly astonished that he gave no chapters to +them and his years at Norwich Grammar School. Thus England seems a great +and a strange land on Borrow's page, though he does not touch the sea or +the mountains, or any celebrated places except Stonehenge. His England +is strange, I think, because it is presented according to a purely +spiritual geography in which the childish drawling of "Witney on the +Windrush manufactures blankets," etc., is utterly forgot. Few men have +the courage or the power to be honestly impressionistic and to say what +they feel instead of compromising between that and what they believe to +be "the facts." + +It is also strange on account of the many adventures which it provides, +and these will always attract attention, because England in 1911 is not +what it was in 1825, but still more because few men, especially writing +men, ever take their chance upon the roads of England for a few months +together. At the same time it must be granted that Borrow had a morbid +fear of being dull or at least of being ordinary. He was a partly +conscious provider of entertainment when he made the book so thick with +incidents, scenes and portraits, and each incident, scene and portrait so +perfect after its kind. Where he overdoes his emphasis or refinement, +can only be decided by differing tastes. Some, for example, cannot abide +his description of the sleepless man who had at last discovered a perfect +opiate in Wordsworth's poetry. I find myself stopping short at the +effect of sherry and Popish leanings on the publican and his trade, and +still more the effect of his return to ale and commonsense religion: how +everyone bought his liquids and paid for them and wanted to treat him, +while the folk of his parish had already made him a churchwarden. This +might have been writ sarcastic by a witty Papist. + +Probably Borrow used the device of recognition and reappearances to +satisfy a rather primitive taste in fiction, and to add to the mystery, +though I will again suggest that a man who travelled and went about among +men as he did would take less offence at these things. The +re-appearances of Jasper are natural enough, except at the ford when +Borrow is about to pass into Wales: those of Ardry less so. But when +Borrow contrives to hear more of the old china collector and of Isopel +also from the jockey, and shuffles about the postillion, Murtagh, the Man +in Black, and Platitude, and introduces Sir John Bowring for punishment, +he makes "The Romany Rye" much inferior to "Lavengro." + +These devices never succeed, except where their extravagance makes us +laugh heartily--as when on Salisbury Plain he meets returning from Botany +Bay the long lost son of his old London Bridge apple-woman. The devices +are unnecessary and remain as stiffening stains upon a book that is +otherwise full of nature and human nature. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV--"LAVENGRO" AND "THE ROMANY RYE": THE CHARACTERS + + +As the atmosphere of the two autobiographical books is more intense and +pure than that of "The Bible in Spain," so the characters in it are more +elaborate. "The Bible in Spain" contained brilliant sketches and +suggestions of men and women. In the autobiography even the sketches are +intimate, like that of the "Anglo-Germanist," William Taylor; and they +are not less surprising than the Spanish sketches, from the Rommany chal +who "fought in the old Roman fashion. He bit, he kicked, and screamed +like a wild cat of Benygant; casting foam from his mouth, and fire from +his eyes"--from this man upwards and downwards. Some are highly +finished, and these are not always the best. For example, the portrait +of his father, the stiff, kindly, uncomprehending soldier, strikes me as +a little too much "done to a turn." It is a little too like a man in a +book, and so perfectly consistent, except for that one picturesque +weakness--the battle with Big Ben, whose skin was like a toad. Borrow +probably saw and cared very little for his father, and therefore found it +too easy to idealise and produce a mere type, chiefly out of his head. +His mother is more certainly from life, and he could not detach himself +from her sufficiently to make her clear; yet he makes her his own mother +plainly enough. His brother has something of the same unreality and +perfection as his father. These members of his family belong to one +distinct class of studies which includes among others the publisher, Sir +Richard Phillips. They are of persons not quite of his world whom he +presents to us with admiration, or, on the other hand, with dislike, but +in either case without sympathy. They do not contribute much to the +special character of the autobiography, except in humour. The interviews +with Sir Richard Phillips, in particular, give an example of Borrow's +obviously personal satire, poisonous and yet without rancour. He is a +type. He is the charlatan, holy and massive and not perfectly +self-convincing. When Borrow's money was running low and he asked the +publisher to pay for some contributions to a magazine, now deceased: + +"'Sir,' said the publisher, 'what do you want the money for?' + +"'Merely to live on,' I replied; 'it is very difficult to live in this +town without money.' + +"'How much money did you bring with you to town?' demanded the publisher. + +"'Some twenty or thirty pounds,' I replied. + +"'And you have spent it already?' + +"'No,' said I, 'not entirely; but it is fast disappearing.' + +"'Sir,' said the publisher, 'I believe you to be extravagant; yes, sir, +extravagant!' + +"'On what grounds do you suppose me to be so?' + +"'Sir,' said the publisher, 'you eat meat.' + +"'Yes,' said I, 'I eat meat sometimes; what should I eat?' + +"'Bread, sir,' said the publisher; 'bread and cheese.' + +"'So I do, sir, when I am disposed to indulge; but I cannot often afford +it--it is very expensive to dine on bread and cheese, especially when one +is fond of cheese, as I am. My last bread and cheese dinner cost me +fourteen pence. There is drink, sir; with bread and cheese one must +drink porter, sir.' + +"'Then, sir, eat bread--bread alone. As good men as yourself have eaten +bread alone; they have been glad to get it, sir. If with bread and +cheese you must drink porter, sir, with bread alone you can, perhaps, +drink water, sir.' + +"However, I got paid at last for my writings in the review, not, it is +true, in the current coin of the realm, but in certain bills; there were +two of them, one payable at twelve, and the other at eighteen months +after date." + +The incident serves to diversify the narrative, and may be taken from his +own London experiences, while the particular merriment of the rhyme is +Borrow's; but it is not of the essence of the book, and fits only +indifferently into the mysterious "Arabian Nights" London, the city of +the gallant Ardry and the old apple-woman who called him "dear" and +called Moll Flanders "blessed Mary Flanders." Sir Richard will not +mysteriously re-appear, nor will Captain and Mrs. Borrow. I should say, +in fact, that characters of this class have scarcely at all the power of +motion. What is more, they take us not only a little way out of Borrow's +world sometimes, but away from Borrow himself. + +Apart from these characters, the men and women of "Lavengro" and "The +Romany Rye" are all in harmony with one another, with Borrow, and with +Borrow's world. Jasper Petulengro and his wife, his sister Ursula, the +gigantic Tawno Chikno, the witch Mrs. Herne, and the evil sprite Leonora, +Thurtell, the fighting men, the Irish outlaw Jerry Grant, who was +suspected of raising a storm by "something Irish and supernatural" to win +a fight, Murtagh, that wicked innocent, the old apple-woman, Blazing +Bosville, Isopel Berners, the jockey who drove one hundred and ten miles +in eleven hours to see "the only friend he ever had in the world," John +Thurtell, and say, "God Almighty bless you, Jack!" before the drop fell, +the old gentleman who had learned "Sergeant Broughton's guard" and +knocked out the bullying coachman, the Welsh preacher and his wife, the +Arcadian old bee-keeper, the rat-catcher--all these and their companions +are woven into one piece by the genius of their creator, Borrow. I can +imagine them all greeting him together as the Gypsies did, and much as +the jockey did afterwards: + + "Here the Gipsy gemman see, + With his Roman jib and his rome and dree-- + Rome and dree, rum and dry + Rally round the Rommany Rye." + +He waves his wand and they disappear. He made them as Jerry Grant made +the storm and beat Sergeant Bagg. In "Lavengro" he actually does raise +such a storm, though Knapp affected to discover it in a newspaper of the +period. Sampson and Martin are fighting at North Walsham, and a storm +comes on: + +"There's wind and dust, a crash, rain and hail; is it possible to fight +amidst such a commotion? Yes! the fight goes on; again the boy strikes +the man full on the brow, but it is no use striking that man, his frame +is of adamant. 'Boy, thy strength is beginning to give way, thou art +becoming confused'; the man now goes to work, amidst rain and hail. 'Boy, +thou wilt not hold out ten minutes longer against rain, hail, and the +blows of such an antagonist.' + +"And now the storm was at its height; the black thundercloud had broken +into many, which assumed the wildest shapes and the strangest colours, +some of them unspeakably glorious; the rain poured in a deluge, and more +than one water-spout was seen at no great distance: an immense rabble is +hurrying in one direction; a multitude of men of all ranks, peers and +yokels, prize-fighters and Jews, and the last came to plunder, and are +now plundering amidst that wild confusion of hail and rain, men and +horses, carts and carriages. But all hurry in one direction, through mud +and mire; there's a town only three miles distant which is soon reached, +and soon filled, it will not contain one-third of that mighty rabble; but +there's another town farther on--the good old city is farther on, only +twelve miles; what's that! who'll stay here? onward to the old town. + +"Hurry skurry, a mixed multitude of men and horses, carts and carriages, +all in the direction of the old town; and, in the midst of all that mad +throng, at a moment when the rain gushes were coming down with particular +fury, and the artillery of the sky was pealing as I had never heard it +peal before, I felt some one seize me by the arm--I turned round and +beheld Mr. Petulengro. + +"'I can't hear you, Mr. Petulengro,' said I; for the thunder drowned the +words which he appeared to be uttering. + +"'Dearginni,' I heard Mr. Petulengro say, 'it thundereth. I was asking, +brother, whether you believe in dukkeripens?' + +"'I do not, Mr. Petulengro; but this is strange weather to be asking me +whether I believe in fortunes.' + +"'Grondinni,' said Mr. Petulengro, 'it haileth. I believe in +dukkeripens, brother.' + +"'And who has more right,' said I, 'seeing that you live by them? But +this tempest is truly horrible.' + +"'Dearginni, grondinni ta villaminni! It thundereth, it haileth, and +also flameth,' said Mr. Petulengro. 'Look up there, brother!' + +"I looked up. Connected with this tempest there was one feature to which +I have already alluded--the wonderful colours of the clouds. Some were +of vivid green; others of the brightest orange; others as black as pitch. +The Gypsy's finger was pointed to a particular part of the sky. + +"'What do you see there, brother?' + +"'A strange kind of cloud.' + +"'What does it look like, brother?' + +"'Something like a stream of blood.' + +"'That cloud foreshoweth a bloody dukkeripen.' + +"'A bloody fortune!' said I. 'And whom may it betide?' + +"'Who knows?' said the Gypsy. + +"Down the way, dashing and splashing, and scattering man, horse, and cart +to the left and right, came an open barouche, drawn by four smoking +steeds, with postillions in scarlet jackets, and leather skull-caps. Two +forms were conspicuous in it; that of the successful bruiser, and of his +friend and backer, the sporting gentleman of my acquaintance. + +"'His!' said the Gypsy, pointing to the latter, whose stern features wore +a smile of triumph, as, probably recognizing me in the crowd, he nodded +in the direction of where I stood, as the barouche hurried by. + +"There went the barouche, dashing through the rain gushes', and in it one +whose boast it was that he was equal to 'either fortune.' Many have +heard of that man--many may be desirous of knowing yet more of him. I +have nothing to do with that man's after life--he fulfilled his +dukkeripen. 'A bad, violent man!' Softly, friend; when thou wouldst +speak harshly of the dead, remember that thou hast not yet fulfilled thy +own dukkeripen!" + +As Borrow fits these pugilists into the texture of his autobiography, so +he does men who appear not once but a dozen times. Take Jasper +Petulengro out of the books and he does not amount to much. In them he +is a figure of most masculine beauty, a king, a trickster, and thief, but +simple, good with his fists, loving life, manly sport and fair play. He +and Borrow meet and shake hands as "brothers" when they are little boys. +They meet again, by chance, as big boys, and Jasper says: "Your blood +beat when mine was near, as mine always does at the coming of a brother; +and we became brothers in that lane." Jasper laughs at the Sapengro and +Lavengro and horse-witch because he lacks two things, "mother sense and +gentle Rommany," and he has something to do with teaching Borrow the +Gypsy tongue and Gypsy ways, and the "mother sense" of shifting for +himself. The Gypsies approve him also as "a pure fist master." In +return he teaches Mrs. Chikno's child to say his prayers in Rommany. They +were willing--all but Mrs. Herne--that he should marry Mr. Petulengro's +sister, Ursula. It is always by chance that they meet, and chance is +very favourable. They meet at significant times, as when Borrow has been +troubled by the preacher and the state of his own soul, or when he is +sick of London and hack-writing and poverty. In fact, the Gypsies, and +his "brother" Jasper in particular, returning and returning, are the +motive of the book. They connect Borrow with what is strange, with what +is simple, and with what is free. The very last words of "The Romany +Rye," spoken as he is walking eastward, are "I shouldn't wonder if Mr. +Petulengro and Tawno Chikno came originally from India. I think I'll go +there." They are not a device. The re-appearances of these wandering +men are for the most part only pleasantly unexpected. Their mystery is +the mystery of nature and life. They keep their language and their tents +against the mass of civilization and length of time. They are foreigners +but as native as the birds. It is Borrow's triumph to make them as +romantic as their reputation while yet satisfying Gypsy students as to +his facts. + +Jasper is almost like a second self, a kind of more simple, atavistic +self, to Borrow, as in that characteristic picture, where he is drawing +near to Wales with his friends, the Welsh preacher and his wife. A brook +is the border and they point it out. There is a horseman entering it: +"he stops in the middle of it as if to water his steed." They ask +Lavengro if he will come with them into Wales. They persuade him: + +"'I will not go with you,' said I. 'Dost thou see that man in the ford?' + +"'Who is staring at us so, and whose horse has not yet done drinking? Of +course I see him.' + +"'I shall turn back with him. God bless you!' + +"'Go back with him not,' said Peter, 'he is one of those whom I like not, +one of the clibberty-clabber, as Master Ellis Wyn observes--turn not with +that man.' + +"'Go not back with him,' said Winifred. 'If thou goest with that man, +thou wilt soon forget all our profitable counsels; come with us.' + +"'I cannot; I have much to say to him. Kosko Divous, Mr. Petulengro.' + +"'Kosko Divvus, Pal,' said Mr. Petulengro, riding through the water; 'are +you turning back?' + +"I turned back with Mr. Petulengro." + +At another time Jasper twists about like a weasel bewitching a bird, and +in so doing puts 50 pounds unnoticed into Lavengro's pocket. Lavengro is +indignant at the pleasantry. But Jasper insists; the money is for him to +buy a certain horse; if he will not take the money and buy the horse +there will be a quarrel. He has made the money by fair fighting in the +ring, has nowhere to put it, and seriously thinks that it were best +invested in this fine horse, which accordingly Borrow purchases and takes +across England, and sells at Horncastle Fair for 150 pounds. The next +scene shows Tawno Chikno at his best. Borrow has been trotting the horse +and racing it against a cob, amid a company that put him "wonderfully in +mind of the ancient horse-races of the heathen north," so that he almost +thought himself Gunnar of Lithend. But Tawno was the man to try the +horse at a jump, said Jasper. Tawno weighed sixteen stone, and the owner +thought him more likely to break the horse's back. Jasper became very +much excited, and offered to forfeit a handful of guineas if harm was +done. + +"'Here's the man. Here's the horse-leaper of the world. . . .' Tawno, +at a bound, leaped into the saddle, where he really looked like Gunnar of +Hlitharend, save and except that the complexion of Gunnar was florid, +whereas that of Tawno was of nearly Mulatto darkness; and that all +Tawno's features were cast in the Grecian model, whereas Gunnar had a +snub nose. 'There's a leaping-bar behind the house,' said the landlord. +'Leaping-bar!' said Mr. Petulengro, scornfully. 'Do you think my black +pal ever rides at a leaping bar? No more than at a windle-straw. Leap +over that meadow wall, Tawno.' Just past the house, in the direction in +which I had been trotting, was a wall about four feet high, beyond which +was a small meadow. Tawno rode the horse gently up to the wall, +permitted him to look over, then backed him for about ten yards, and +pressing his calves against the horse's sides, he loosed the rein, and +the horse launching forward, took the leap in gallant style. 'Well done, +man and horse!' said Mr. Petulengro; 'now come back, Tawno.' The leap +from the side of the meadow was, however, somewhat higher; and the horse, +when pushed at it, at first turned away; whereupon Tawno backed him to a +greater distance, pushed the horse to a full gallop, giving a wild cry; +whereupon the horse again took the wall, slightly grazing one of his legs +against it. 'A near thing,' said the landlord, 'but a good leap. Now, +no more leaping, so long as I have control over the animal.'" + +A very different beautiful scene is where Mrs. Petulengro braids Isopel's +fair hair in Gypsy fashion, half against her will, and Lavengro looks on, +showing Isopel at a glance his disapproval of the fashion, while +Petulengro admires it. If it is not too much to quote, I will do so, +because it is the clearest and most detailed picture of more than one +figure in the whole of the autobiography. Mr. and Mrs. Petulengro have +come to visit Isopel, and Lavengro has fetched her to his tent, where +they are awaiting her: + +"So Belle and I advanced towards our guests. As we drew nigh Mr. +Petulengro took off his hat and made a profound obeisance to Belle, +whilst Mrs. Petulengro rose from her stool and made a profound curtsey. +Belle, who had flung her hair back over her shoulders, returned their +salutations by bending her head, and after slightly glancing at Mr. +Petulengro, fixed her large blue eyes full upon his wife. Both these +females were very handsome--but how unlike! Belle fair, with blue eyes +and flaxen hair; Mrs. Petulengro with olive complexion, eyes black, and +hair dark--as dark could be. Belle, in demeanour calm and proud; the +Gypsy graceful, but full of movement and agitation. And then how +different were those two in stature! The head of the Romany rawnie +scarcely ascended to the breast of Isopel Berners. I could see that Mrs. +Petulengro gazed on Belle with unmixed admiration: so did her husband. +'Well,' said the latter, 'one thing I will say, which is, that there is +only one on earth worthy to stand up in front of this she, and that is +the beauty of the world, as far as man flesh is concerned, Tawno Chikno; +what a pity he did not come down! . . .' + +"Mrs. Petulengro says: 'You are very beautiful, madam, though you are not +dressed as I could wish to see you, and your hair is hanging down in sad +confusion; allow me to assist you in arranging your hair, madam; I will +dress it for you in our fashion; I would fain see how your hair would +look in our poor Gypsy fashion; pray allow me, madam?' and she took Belle +by the hand. + +"'I really can do no such thing,' said Belle, withdrawing her hand; 'I +thank you for coming to see me, but . . .' + +"'Do allow me to officiate upon your hair, madam,' said Mrs. Petulengro; +'I should esteem your allowing me a great mark of condescension. You are +very beautiful, madam, and I think you doubly so, because you are so +fair; I have a great esteem for persons with fair complexions and hair; I +have a less regard for people with dark hair and complexions, madam.' + +"'Then why did you turn off the lord, and take up with me?' said Mr. +Petulengro; 'that same lord was fair enough all about him.' + +"'People do when they are young and silly what they sometimes repent of +when they are of riper years and understandings. I sometimes think that +had I not been something of a simpleton, I might at this time be a great +court lady. Now, madam,' said she, again taking Belle by the hand, 'do +oblige me by allowing me to plait your hair a little?' + +"'I have really a good mind to be angry with you,' said Belle, giving +Mrs. Petulengro a peculiar glance. + +"'Do allow her to arrange your hair,' said I, 'she means no harm, and +wishes to do you honour; do oblige her and me too, for I should like to +see how your hair would look dressed in her fashion.' + +"'You hear what the young rye says?' said Mrs. Petulengro. 'I am sure +you will oblige the young rye, if not myself. Many people would be +willing to oblige the young rye, if he would but ask them; but he is not +in the habit of asking favours. He has a nose of his own, which he keeps +tolerably exalted; he does not think small-beer of himself, madam; and +all the time I have been with him, I never heard him ask a favour before; +therefore, madam, I am sure you will oblige him.' . . ." + +The men talk together, Jasper telling about the passing of the +"old-fashioned good-tempered constables," the advent of railways, and the +spoiling of road life. + +". . . 'Now, madam,' said Mrs. Petulengro, 'I have braided your hair in +our fashion: you look very beautiful, madam; more beautiful, if possible, +than before.' Belle now rose, and came forward with her tire-woman. Mr. +Petulengro was loud in his applause, but I said nothing, for I did not +think Belle was improved in appearance by having submitted to the +ministry of Mrs. Petulengro's hand. Nature never intended Belle to +appear as a Gypsy; she had made her too proud and serious. A more proper +part for her was that of a heroine, a queenly heroine,--that of Theresa +of Hungary, for example; or, better still, that of Brynhilda the +Valkyrie, the beloved of Sigurd, the serpent-killer, who incurred the +curse of Odin, because, in the tumult of spears, she sided with the young +king, and doomed the old warrior to die, to whom Odin had promised +victory. + +"Belle looked at me for a moment in silence; then turning to Mrs. +Petulengro, she said, 'You have had your will with me; are you +satisfied?' 'Quite so, madam,' said Mrs. Petulengro, 'and I hope you +will be so too, as soon as you have looked in the glass.' 'I have looked +in one already,' said Belle,' and the glass does not flatter.' . . ." + +Here it is easy to notice how the uncolloquial and even ugly English does +not destroy the illusion of the scene, but entirely subserves it and +makes these two or three pages fine painter's work for richness and still +drama. + +I have not forgotten the Man in Black, though I gladly would. Not that I +am any more in sympathy with his theology than Borrow's, if it is more +interesting and venerable. But in this priest, Borrow's method, always +instinctively intense if not exaggerated, falls to caricature. I have no +objection to caricature; when it is of a logical or incidental kind I +enjoy it, even in "The Romany Rye"; I enjoy, for example, the snoring +Wordsworthian, without any prejudice against Wordsworth. "The Catholic +Times" as late as 1900 was still angry with Borrow's "crass anti-Catholic +bigotry." I should have expected them to laugh consumedly at a priest, a +parson and a publican who deserve places in the same gallery with wicked +earls and noble savages of popular fiction. It may be true that this +"creation of Borrow's most studied hatred" is, as Mr. Seccombe says, +{242} "a triumph of complex characterisation." He is "a joyous liver and +an unscrupulous libertine, sceptical as Voltaire, as atheistic as a +German professor, as practical as a Jew banker, as subtle as a Jesuit, he +has as many ways of converting the folks among whom he is thrown as +Panurge had of eating the corn in ear. For the simple and +credulous--crosses and beads; for the hard-hearted and venal--material +considerations; for the cultured and educated--a fine tissue of epigrams +and anthropology; for the ladies--flattery and badinage. A spiritual +ancestor of Anatole France's marvellous full-length figure of Jerome +Coignard, Borrow's conception takes us back first to Rabelais and +secondly to the seventeenth-century conviction of the profound +Machiavellism of Jesuitry." + +But in "Lavengro" and "The Romany Rye" he is an intruder with a design of +turning these books into tracts. He is treated far more elaborately than +any other character except the author's, and with a massive man's +striving after subtlety. Moreover, Borrow has made it impossible to +ignore him or to cut him out, by interlacing him with every other +character in these two books. With sad persistency and naive ingenuity +he brings it about that every one shall see, or have seen in the past, +this terrible priest. Borrow's natural way of dealing with such a man +would be that of the converted pugilist who, on hearing of an atheist in +the vicinity, wanted to go and "knock the beggar down for Jesus' sake"; +and a variation upon this would have been delightful and in harmony with +the rest of the book. But clever as the priest is, Borrow himself is +stronger, honester and cleverer, too. Of course, the priest leads him to +some good things. Above all, he leads to the incident of the +half-converted publican, who is being ruined by sherry and Popery. Borrow +pursuades him to take ale, which gives him the courage to give up +thoughts of conversion, and to turn on his enemies and re-establish +himself, to make a good business, become a churchwarden, and teach boxing +to the brewer's sons, because it is "a fine manly English art and a great +defence against Popery." It is at least a greater defence than Borrow's +pen, or deserves to be. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI--"LAVENGRO" AND "THE ROMANY RYE": THE STYLE + + +The writing of the autobiography differs from that of "The Bible in +Spain." It is less flowing and more laboured. It has less movement and +buoyancy, but more delicacy and variety. It is a finer and more intimate +style, which over and over again distinguishes Borrow from the Victorian +pure and simple. The dialogue is finer; it is used less to disguise or +vary narrative, and more to reveal character and make dramatic effect; +and it is even lyrical at times. Borrow can be Victorian still. This +example is from the old man's history in "The Romany Rye": + +"My mother had died about three years previously. I felt the death of my +mother keenly, but that of my father less than was my duty; indeed, truth +compels me to acknowledge that I scarcely regretted his death. The cause +of this want of proper filial feeling was the opposition which I had +experienced from him in an affair which deeply concerned me. I had +formed an attachment for a young female in the neighbourhood, who, though +poor, was of highly respectable birth, her father having been a curate of +the Established Church." + +This better one is from "Lavengro": + +"And then Francis Ardry proceeded to make me his confidant. It appeared +that he had had the good fortune to make the acquaintance of the most +delightful young Frenchwoman imaginable, Annette La Noire by name, who +had just arrived from her native country with the intention of obtaining +the situation of governess in some English family; a position which, on +account of her many accomplishments, she was eminently qualified to fill. +Francis Ardry had, however, persuaded her to relinquish her intention for +the present, on the ground that, until she had become acclimated in +England, her health would probably suffer from the confinement +inseparable from the occupation in which she was desirous of engaging; he +had, moreover--for it appeared that she was the most frank and confiding +creature in the world--succeeded in persuading her to permit him to hire +for her a very handsome first floor in his own neighbourhood, and to +accept a few inconsiderable presents in money and jewellery." + +But coarse and rigid as this is the same vocabulary, the same ample, +oratorical tone, will help Borrow to genial, substantial effects such as +the dinner with the landlord and the commercial traveller: "The dinner +was good, though plain, consisting of boiled mackerel--rather a rarity in +those parts at that time--with fennel sauce, a prime baron of roast beef +after the mackerel, then a tart and noble Cheshire cheese; we had prime +sherry at dinner, and whilst eating the cheese prime porter, that of +Barclay, the only good porter in the world. After the cloth was removed +we had a bottle of very good port; and whilst partaking of the port I had +an argument with the commercial traveller on the subject of the +corn-laws." + +What is more, this is the vocabulary and tone of the whole book, and how +far the total effect is from coarseness and rigidity I cannot show now if +I have not done so already. Borrow's gusto triumphs over this style in +descriptions of men riding, fighting, talking or drinking. His sense of +mystery triumphs over it continually as the prevailing atmosphere must +prove. The gusto and the mystery are all the more impressive because the +means are entirely concealed, except when the writer draws himself up for +an apostrophe, and that is not much too often nor always tedious. The +style is capable of essential simplicity, though not of refined +simplicity, just as a man with a hard hat, black clothes and a malacca +cane may be a good deal simpler and more at home with natural things than +a hairy hygienic gentleman. I will quote one example--the old bee-keeper +in "The Romany Rye": + +"I was bidding him farewell, when he hemmed once or twice, and said that +as he did not live far off, he hoped that I would go with him and taste +some of his mead. As I had never tasted mead, of which I had frequently +read in the compositions of the Welsh bards, and, moreover, felt rather +thirsty from the heat of the day, I told him that I should have great +pleasure in attending him. Whereupon, turning off together, we proceeded +about half a mile, sometimes between stone walls, and at other times +hedges, till we reached a small hamlet, through which we passed, and +presently came to a very pretty cottage, delightfully situated within a +garden, surrounded by a hedge of woodbines. Opening a gate at one corner +of the garden, he led the way to a large shed which stood partly behind +the cottage, which he said was his stable; thereupon he dismounted and +led his donkey into the shed, which was without stalls, but had a long +rack and manger. On one side he tied his donkey, after taking off her +caparisons, and I followed his example, tying my horse at the other side +with a rope halter which he gave me; he then asked me to come in and +taste his mead, but I told him that I must attend to the comfort of my +horse first, and forthwith, taking a wisp of straw, rubbed him carefully +down. Then taking a pailful of clear water which stood in the shed, I +allowed the horse to drink about half a pint; and then turning to the old +man, who all the time had stood by looking at my proceedings, I asked him +whether he had any oats? 'I have all kinds of grain,' he replied; and, +going out, he presently returned with two measures, one a large and the +other a small one, both filled with oats, mixed with a few beans, and +handing the large one to me for the horse, he emptied the other before +the donkey, who, before she began to despatch it, turned her nose to her +master's face and fairly kissed him. Having given my horse his portion, +I told the old man that I was ready to taste his mead as soon as he +pleased, whereupon he ushered me into his cottage, where, making me sit +down by a deal table in a neatly-sanded kitchen, he produced from an old- +fashioned closet a bottle, holding about a quart, and a couple of cups, +which might each contain about half a pint, then opening the bottle and +filling the cups with a brown-coloured liquor, he handed one to me, and +taking a seat opposite to me, he lifted the other, nodded, and saying to +me--'Health and welcome,' placed it to his lips and drank. + +"'Health and thanks,' I replied; and being very thirsty, emptied my cup +at a draught; I had scarcely done so, however, when I half repented. The +mead was deliciously sweet and mellow, but appeared strong as brandy; my +eyes reeled in my head, and my brain became slightly dizzy. 'Mead is a +strong drink,' said the old man, as he looked at me, with a half smile on +his countenance. 'This is, at any rate,' said I, 'so strong, indeed, +that I would not drink another cup for any consideration.' 'And I would +not ask you,' said the old man; 'for, if you did, you would most probably +be stupid all day, and wake next morning with a headache. Mead is a good +drink, but woundily strong, especially to those who be not used to it, as +I suppose you are not.' 'Where do you get it?' said I. 'I make it +myself,' said the old man, 'from the honey which my bees make.' 'Have +you many bees?' I inquired. 'A great many,' said the old man. 'And do +you keep them,' said I, 'for the sake of making mead with their honey?' +'I keep them,' he replied, 'partly because I am fond of them, and partly +for what they bring me in; they make me a great deal of honey, some of +which I sell, and with a little I make me some mead to warm my poor heart +with, or occasionally to treat a friend with like yourself.' 'And do you +support yourself entirely by means of your bees?' 'No,' said the old +man; 'I have a little bit of ground behind my house, which is my +principal means of support.' 'And do you live alone?' 'Yes,' said he; +'with the exception of the bees and the donkey, I live quite alone.' 'And +have you always lived alone?' The old man emptied his cup, and his heart +being warmed with the mead, he told me his history, which was simplicity +itself. His father was a small yeoman, who, at his death, had left him, +his only child, the cottage, with a small piece of ground behind it, and +on this little property he had lived ever since. About the age of twenty- +five he had married an industrious young woman, by whom he had one +daughter, who died before reaching years of womanhood. His wife, +however, had survived her daughter many years, and had been a great +comfort to him, assisting him in his rural occupations; but, about four +years before the present period, he had lost her, since which time he had +lived alone, making himself as comfortable as he could; cultivating his +ground, with the help of a lad from the neighbouring village, attending +to his bees, and occasionally riding his donkey to market, and hearing +the word of God, which he said he was sorry he could not read, twice a +week regularly at the parish church. Such was the old man's tale. + +"When he had finished speaking, he led me behind his house, and showed me +his little domain. It consisted of about two acres in admirable +cultivation; a small portion of it formed a kitchen garden, while the +rest was sown with four kinds of grain, wheat, barley, pease, and beans. +The air was full of ambrosial sweets, resembling those proceeding from an +orange grove; a place, which though I had never seen at that time, I +since have. In the garden was the habitation of the bees, a long box, +supported upon three oaken stumps. It was full of small round glass +windows, and appeared to be divided into a great many compartments, much +resembling drawers placed sideways. He told me that, as one compartment +was filled, the bees left it for another; so that, whenever he wanted +honey, he could procure some without injuring the insects. Through the +little round windows I could see several of the bees at work; hundreds +were going in and out of the doors; hundreds were buzzing about on the +flowers, the woodbines, and beans. As I looked around on the +well-cultivated field, the garden, and the bees, I thought I had never +before seen so rural and peaceful a scene." + +It may be said of this that it is the style of the time, modified +inexplicably at almost every point by the writer's character. The Bible +and the older-fashioned narrative English of Defoe and Smollett have +obviously lent it some phrases, and also a nakedness and directness that +is half disdainful of the emotions and colours which it cannot hide. +Still further to qualify the Victorianism which he was heir to, Borrow +took over something from the insinuating Sterne. Mr. Thomas Seccombe +{250} has noticed Sterne particularly in Borrow's picture of his father, +one of the most deliberate and artificial portions of the book: + +"The ironical humour blent with pathos in his picture of this +ill-rewarded old disciplinarian (who combined a tenderness of heart with +a fondness for military metaphor that frequently reminds one of 'My Uncle +Toby'), the details of the ailments and the portents that attended his +infantile career, and, above all, the glimpses of the wandering military +life from barrack to barrack and from garrison to garrison, inevitably +remind the reader of the childish reminiscences of Laurence Sterne, a +writer to whom it may thus early be said that George Borrow paid no small +amount of unconscious homage." + +The same critic has remarked on "the Sterne-like conclusion of a chapter: +'Italy--what was I going to say about Italy?'" It was perhaps Sterne who +taught him the use of the dash when no more words are necessary or ready +to meet the case, and also when no more are permissible by contemporary +taste. The passage where Ardry and his French mistress talk to Borrow, +she using her own language, is like "The Sentimental Journey." And, as +Mr. Seccombe has suggested, Borrow found in Sterne's a precedent for the +rate of progress in his autobiography. + +But innumerable are the possible styles which combine something from the +Bible, Defoe, and Sterne, with something else upon a Victorian +foundation. Borrow's something else, which dominates and welds the rest, +is the most important. It expresses the man, or rather it allows the +man's qualities to appear, his melancholy, his independence, his +curiosity, his love of strong men and horses. Of little felicities there +are very few. It has gusto always at command, and mystery also. We feel +in it a kind of reality not often associated with professional +literature, but rather with the letters of men who are not writers and +with the speech of illiterate men of character. The great difference +between them and Borrow is that their speech can rarely be represented in +print except by another genius, and that their letters only now and then +reach the level which Borrow continues at and often rises above. Yet he +has something in common with such men--for example, in his feeling for +Nature. In Spain, it is true, he gave way to declamatory descriptions of +grandeur and desolation: in England, where he saw nothing of the kind, he +wrote little description, and the impression of the country through which +he is passing is that of an inarticulate outdoor man, strong and sincere +but vague. Here, again, he has something in common with the eighteenth- +century man, who liked the country, but would probably agree that one +green field was like another. He writes like the man who desired a +gentle wife, an Arabic book, the haunch of a buck, and Madeira old. He +reminds us of an even older or simpler type when he apostrophises the +retired pugilist: + +"'Tis a treat to see thee, Tom of Bedford, in thy 'public' in Holborn +way, whither thou hast retired with thy well-earned bays. 'Tis Friday +night, and nine by Holborn clock. There sits the yeoman at the end of +his long room, surrounded by his friends: glasses are filled, and a song +is the cry, and a song is sung well suited to the place; it finds an echo +in every heart--fists are clenched, arms are waved, and the portraits of +the mightly fighting men of yore, Broughton, and Slack, and Ben, which +adorn the walls, appear to smile grim approbation, whilst many a manly +voice joins in the bold chorus: + + 'Here's a health to old honest John Bull, + When he's gone we shan't find such another, + And with hearts and with glasses brim full, + We will drink to old England, his mother.'" + +There is little doubt of the immortality of this good old style, and it +testifies to the full heart and perhaps the full glass also of George +Borrow; but it was not this passage in particular that made Whitwell +Elwin call his writing "almost affectedly simple." + +{picture: Ned Turner, Tom Cribb: page253.jpg} + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII--BORROW AND LOW LIFE + + +"Lavengro" in 1851 and "The Romany Rye" in 1857 failed to impress the +critics or the public. Men were disappointed because "Lavengro" was "not +an autobiography." They said that the adventures did not bear "the +impress of truth." They suggested that the anti-Papistry was "added and +interpolated to suit the occasion of the recent Papal aggression." They +laughed at its mystery-making. They said that it gave "a false dream in +the place of reality." Ford regretted that Borrow had "told so little +about himself." Two friends praised it and foretold long life for it. +Whitwell Elwin in 1857 said that "the truth and vividness of the +descriptions both of scenes and persons, coupled with the purity, force +and simplicity of the language, should confer immortality upon many of +its pages." "The Saturday Review" found that he had humour and romance, +and that his writing left "a general impression of the scenery and +persons introduced so strongly vivid and life-like," that it reminded +them of Defoe rather than of any contemporary author; they called the +books a "strange cross between a novel and an autobiography." In 1857 +also, Emile Montegut wrote a study of "The Gypsy Gentleman," which he +published in his "Ecrivains Modernes de l'Angleterre." He said that +Borrow had revived a neglected literary form, not artificially, but as +being the natural frame for the scenes of his wandering life: he even +went so far as to say that the form and manner of the picaresque or rogue +novel, like "Gil Blas," is the inevitable one for pictures of the low and +vagabond life. This form, said he, Borrow adopted not deliberately but +intuitively, because he had a certain attitude to express: he +rediscovered it, as Cervantes and Mendoza invented it, because it was the +most appropriate clothing for his conceptions. Borrow had, without any +such ambition, become the Quevedo and the Mendoza of modern England. + +The autobiography resembles the rogue novel in that it is well peppered +with various isolated narratives strung upon the thread of the hero's +experience. It differs chiefly in that the study of the hero is serious +and without roguery. The conscious attempt to make it as good as a rogue +novel on its own ground caused some of the chief faults of the book, the +excess of recognitions and re-appearances, the postillion's story, and +the visits of the Man in Black. + +When Borrow came to answer his critics in the Appendix to "The Romany +Rye," he assumed that they thought him vulgar for dealing in Gypsies and +the like. He retorted: + +"Rank, wealth, fine clothes and dignified employments, are no doubt very +fine things, but they are merely externals, they do not make a gentleman, +they add external grace and dignity to the gentleman and scholar, but +they make neither; and is it not better to be a gentleman without them +than not a gentleman with them? Is not Lavengro, when he leaves London +on foot with twenty pounds in his pocket, entitled to more respect than +Mr. Flamson flaming in his coach with a million? And is not even the +honest jockey at Horncastle, who offers a fair price to Lavengro for his +horse, entitled to more than the scroundrel lord, who attempts to cheat +him of one-fourth of its value. . . ." + +He might have said the books were a long tract to prove that many waters +cannot quench gentlemanliness, or "once a gentleman always a gentleman." +As a rule, when Borrow gets away from life and begins to think about it, +he ceases to be an individual and becomes a tame and entirely convenient +member of society, fit for the Commission of the Peace or a berth at the +British Museum. After he has made 20 pounds by pen-slavery and saved +himself from serious poverty, he exclaims: + +"Reader, amidst the difficulties and dangers of this life, should you +ever be tempted to despair, call to mind these latter chapters of the +life of Lavengro. There are few positions, however difficult, from which +dogged resolution and perseverance may not liberate you." + +When he comes to discuss his own work he says that "it represents him, +however, as never forgetting that he is the son of a brave but poor +gentleman, and that if he is a hack author, he is likewise a scholar. It +shows him doing no dishonourable jobs, and proves that if he occasionally +associates with low characters, he does so chiefly to gratify the +curiosity of a scholar. In his conversations with the apple-woman of +London Bridge, the scholar is ever apparent, so again in his acquaintance +with the man of the table, for the book is no raker up of the uncleanness +of London, and if it gives what at first sight appears refuse, it +invariably shows that a pearl of some kind, generally a philological one, +is contained amongst it; it shows its hero always accompanied by his love +of independence, scorning in the greatest poverty to receive favours from +anybody, and describes him finally rescuing himself from peculiarly +miserable circumstances by writing a book, an original book, within a +week, even as Johnson is said to have written his 'Rasselas,' and +Beckford his 'Vathek,' and tells how, leaving London, he betakes himself +to the roads and fields. + +"In the country it shows him leading a life of roving adventure, becoming +tinker, Gypsy, postillion, ostler; associating with various kinds of +people, chiefly of the lower classes, whose ways and habits are +described; but, though leading this erratic life, we gather from the book +that his habits are neither vulgar nor vicious, that he still follows to +a certain extent his favourite pursuits, hunting after strange +characters, or analysing strange words and names. At the conclusion of +Chapter XLVII., which terminates the first part of the history, it hints +that he is about to quit his native land on a grand philological +expedition. + +"Those who read this book with attention--and the author begs to observe +that it would be of little utility to read it hurriedly--may derive much +information with respect to matters of philology and literature; it will +be found treating of most of the principal languages from Ireland to +China, and of the literature which they contain. . . ." + +Away from the dingle and Jasper his view of life is as follows--ale, Tate +and Brady, and the gloves: + +"But, above all, the care and providence of God are manifested in the +case of Lavengro himself, by the manner in which he is enabled to make +his way in the world up to a certain period, without falling a prey +either to vice or poverty. In his history there is a wonderful +illustration of part of the text quoted by his mother, 'I have been +young, and now am old, yet never saw I the righteous forsaken, or his +seed begging bread.' He is the son of good and honourable parents, but +at the critical period of life, that of entering into the world, he finds +himself without any earthly friend to help him, yet he manages to make +his way; he does not become a Captain in the Life Guards, it is true, nor +does he get into Parliament, nor does the last chapter conclude in the +most satisfactory and unobjectionable manner, by his marrying a dowager +countess, as that wise man Addison did, or by his settling down as a +great country gentleman, perfectly happy and contented, like the very +moral Roderick Random, or the equally estimable Peregrine Pickle; he is +hack author, Gypsy, tinker, and postillion, yet, upon the whole, he seems +to be quite as happy as the younger sons of most earls, to have as high +feelings of honour; and when the reader loses sight of him, he has money +in his pocket honestly acquired, to enable him to commence a journey +quite as laudable as those which the younger sons of earls generally +undertake. Surely all this is a manifestation of the kindness and +providence of God: and yet he is not a religious person; up to the time +when the reader loses sight of him, he is decidedly not a religious +person; he has glimpses, it is true, of that God who does not forsake +him, but he prays very seldom, is not fond of going to church; and, +though he admires Tate and Brady's version of the Psalms, his admiration +is rather caused by the beautiful poetry which that version contains than +the religion; yet his tale is not finished--like the tale of the +gentleman who touched objects, and that of the old man who knew Chinese +without knowing what was o'clock; perhaps, like them, he is destined to +become religious, and to have, instead of occasional glimpses, frequent +and distinct views of his God; yet, though he may become religious, it is +hardly to be expected that he will become a very precise and strait-laced +person; it is probable that he will retain, with his scholarship, +something of his Gypsyism, his predilection for the hammer and tongs, and +perhaps some inclination to put on certain gloves, not white kid, with +any friend who may be inclined for a little old English diversion, and a +readiness to take a glass of ale, with plenty of malt in it, and as +little hop as may well be--ale at least two years old--with the aforesaid +friend, when the diversion is over; for, as it is the belief of the +writer that a person may get to heaven very comfortably without knowing +what's o'clock, so it is his belief that he will not be refused admission +there because to the last he has been fond of healthy and invigorating +exercises, and felt a willingness to partake of any of the good things +which it pleases the Almighty to put within the reach of His children +during their sojourn upon earth." + +It is quite evident then that Borrow does not advocate the open air, the +tinkers' trade, and a-roving-a-roving, for the sons of gentlemen. It is +not apparent that the open air did his health much good. As for +tinkering, it was, he declares, a necessity and for lack of anything +better to do, and he realised that he was only playing at it. When he +was looking for a subject for his pen he rejected Harry Simms and Jemmy +Abershaw because both, though bold and extraordinary men, were "merely +highwaymen." + +On the other hand, when he has known a "bad man" he cannot content +himself with mere disapproval. Take, for example, his friends the +murderers, Haggart and Thurtell. He shows Haggart as an ambitious lad +too full of life, "with fine materials for a hero." He calls the +fatalist's question: "Can an Arabian steed submit to be a vile +drudge?"--nonsense, saying: "The greatest victory which a man can achieve +is over himself, by which is meant those unruly passions which are not +convenient to the time and place." Then he exclaims: + +"But peace to thee, poor David! why should a mortal worm be sitting in +judgment over thee? The Mighty and Just One has already judged thee, and +perhaps above thou hast received pardon for thy crimes, which could not +be pardoned here below; and now that thy feverish existence has closed, +and thy once active form become inanimate dust, thy very memory all but +forgotten, I will say a few words about thee, a few words soon also to be +forgotten. Thou wast the most extraordinary robber that ever lived +within the belt of Britain; Scotland rang with thy exploits, and England, +too, north of the Humber; strange deeds also didst thou achieve when, +fleeing from justice, thou didst find thyself in the sister Isle; busy +wast thou there in town and on curragh, at fair and race-course, and also +in the solitary place. Ireland thought thee her child, for who spoke her +brogue better than thyself?--she felt proud of thee, and said, 'Sure, +O'Hanlon is come again.' What might not have been thy fate in the far +west in America, whither thou hadst turned thine eye, saying, 'I will go +there, and become an honest man!' But thou wast not to go there, +David--the blood which thou hadst shed in Scotland was to be required of +thee; the avenger was at hand, the avenger of blood. Seized, manacled, +brought back to thy native land, condemned to die, thou wast left in thy +narrow cell, and told to make the most of thy time, for it was short; and +there, in thy narrow cell, and thy time so short, thou didst put the +crowning stone to thy strange deeds, by that strange history of thyself, +penned by thine own hand in the robber tongue. Thou mightest have been +better employed, David!--but the ruling passion was strong with thee, +even in the jaws of death. Thou mightest have been better employed!--but +peace be with thee, I repeat, and the Almighty's grace and pardon." + +He makes the jockey speak in the same fashion of Thurtell whom he went to +see hanged, according to an old agreement: + +"I arrived at H--- just in the nick of time. There was the ugly jail--the +scaffold--and there upon it stood the only friend I ever had in the +world. Driving my Punch, which was all in a foam, into the midst of the +crowd, which made way for me as if it knew what I came for, I stood up in +my gig, took off my hat, and shouted, 'God Almighty bless you, Jack!' The +dying man turned his pale grim face towards me--for his face was always +somewhat grim, do you see--nodded and said, or I thought I heard him say, +'All right, old chap.' The next moment . . . my eyes water. He had a +high heart, got into a scrape whilst in the Marines, lost his half-pay, +took to the turf, ring, gambling, and at last cut the throat of a villain +who had robbed him of nearly all he had. But he had good qualities, and +I know for certain that he never did half the bad things laid to his +charge; for example, he never bribed Tom Oliver to fight cross, as it was +said he did, on the day of the awful thunderstorm. Ned Flatnose fairly +beat Tom Oliver, for though Ned was not what's called a good fighter, he +had a particular blow, which if he could put in he was sure to win. His +right shoulder, do you see, was two inches farther back than it ought to +have been, and consequently his right fist generally fell short; but if +he could swing himself round, and put in a blow with that right arm, he +could kill or take away the senses of anybody in the world. It was by +putting in that blow in his second fight with Spring that he beat noble +Tom. Spring beat him like a sack in the first battle, but in the second +Ned Painter--for that was his real name--contrived to put in his blow, +and took the senses out of Spring; and in like manner he took the senses +out of Tom Oliver. + +"Well, some are born to be hanged, and some are not; and many of those +who are not hanged are much worse than those who are. Jack, with many a +good quality, is hanged, whilst that fellow of a lord, who wanted to get +the horse from you at about two-thirds of his value, without a single +good quality in the world, is not hanged, and probably will remain so. +You ask the reason why, perhaps. I'll tell you: the lack of a certain +quality called courage, which Jack possessed in abundance, will preserve +him; from the love which he bears his own neck he will do nothing that +can bring him to the gallows." + +Isopel Berners, with Moses and David in her mind, expresses Borrow's +private opinion more soberly when she says: + +"_Fear God_, and take your own part. There's Bible in that, young man; +see how Moses feared God, and how he took his own part against everybody +who meddled with him. And see how David feared God, and took his own +part against all the bloody enemies which surrounded him--so fear God, +young man, and never give in! The world can bully, and is fond, provided +it sees a man in a kind of difficulty, of getting about him, calling him +coarse names, and even going so far as to hustle him; but the world, like +all bullies, carries a white feather in its tail, and no sooner sees the +man taking off his coat, and offering to fight its best, than it scatters +here and there, and is always civil to him afterwards. So when folks are +disposed to ill-treat you, young man, say 'Lord, have mercy upon me!' and +then tip them Long Melford, to which, as the saying goes, there is +nothing comparable for shortness all the world over." + +{picture: The Green, Long Melford, Suffolk. Photo: C. F. Emeny, Sudbury: +page261.jpg} + +He had probably a natural inclination towards a liberal or eccentric +morality, but he was no thinker, and he gave way to a middle-class +phraseology--with exceptions, as when he gives it as the opinion of his +old master, the Norwich solicitor, that "all first-rate thieves were +sober, and of well-regulated morals, their bodily passions being kept in +abeyance by their love of gain." Sometimes Borrow allows these two sides +of him, his private and his social sides, to appear together +dramatically. For example, he more than half seriously advises Jasper to +read the Scriptures and learn his duty to his fellow-creatures and his +duty to his own soul, lest he should be ranked with those who are +"outcast, despised and miserable." Whereupon Jasper questions him and +gets him to admit that the Gypsies are very much like the cuckoos, +roguish, chaffing birds that everybody is glad to see again: + +"'You would wish to turn the cuckoos into barn-door fowls, wouldn't you?' + +"'Can't say I should, Jasper, whatever some people might wish.' + +"'And the chals and chies into radical weavers and factory wenches, hey, +brother?' + +"'Can't say that I should, Jasper. You are certainly a picturesque +people, and in many respects an ornament both to town and country; +painting and lil writing too are under great obligations to you. What +pretty pictures are made out of your campings and groupings, and what +pretty books have been written in which Gypsies, or at least creatures +intended to represent Gypsies, have been the principal figures! I think +if we were without you, we should begin to miss you.' + +"'Just as you would the cuckoos, if they were all converted into barn- +door fowls. I tell you what, brother, frequently as I have sat under a +hedge in spring or summer time, and heard the cuckoo, I have thought that +we chals and cuckoos are alike in many respects, but especially in +character. Everybody speaks ill of us both, and everybody is glad to see +both of us again.' + +"'Yes, Jasper, but there is some difference between men and cuckoos; men +have souls, Jasper!' + +"'And why not cuckoos, brother?' + +"'You should not talk so, Jasper; what you say is little short of +blasphemy. How should a bird have a soul?' + +"'And how should a man?' + +"'Oh, we know very well that a man has a soul.' + +"'How do you know it?' + +"'We know very well.' + +"'Would you take your oath of it, brother--your bodily oath?' + +"'Why, I think I might, Jasper!'" + +There is no doubt that Borrow liked a strong or an extraordinary man none +the less for being a scoundrel. There is equally little doubt that he +never demeaned himself with the lower orders. He never pretended, and +was seldom taken, to be one of themselves. His attitude differed in +degree, but not in kind, from that of a frank, free squire or parson +towards keepers, fishermen or labourers. And if he did not drink and +swear on an equality with them, neither did he crankily worship them as +Fitzgerald did "Posh," the fisherman. They respected him--at least so he +tells us--and he never gives himself away to any other effect--because he +was honest, courageous and fair. Thus he never gave cause for suspicion +as a man does who throws off the cloak of class, and he was probably as +interesting to them as they to him. Nor did his refusal to adopt their +ways and manners out and out prevent a very genuine kind of equality from +existing between him and some of them. A man or woman of equal character +and force became his equal, as Jasper did, as Isopel and David Haggart +did, and he accepted this equality without a trace of snobbishness. + +He says himself that he has "no abstract love for what is low, or what +the world calls low." Certainly there is nothing low in his familiars, +as he presents them, at least nothing sordid. It may be the result of +unconscious idealisation, but his Gypsies have nothing more sordid about +them than wild birds have. Mrs. Herne is diabolical, but in a manner +that would not be unbecoming to a duchess. Leonora is treacherous, but +as an elf is permitted to be. As for Jasper and Mrs. Petulengro, they +are as radiant as Mercutio and Rosalind. They have all the sweetness of +unimprisoned air: they would prefer, like Borrow, "the sound of the +leaves and the tinkling of the waters" to the parson and the church; and +the smell of the stable, which is strong in "Lavengro" and "The Romany +Rye," to the smell of the congregation and the tombs. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII--WALKING TOURS + + +When Borrow had almost finished "The Romany Rye" he went on a visit to +his cousins in Cornwall. The story of his saving a man's life in a +stormy sea had reached them, and they sent him an invitation, which he +accepted at Christmas time in 1853. He stayed for a fortnight with a +cousin's married daughter, Mrs. Anne Taylor, at Penquite Farm, near +Liskeard, and then several days again after a fortnight spent on a walk +to Land's End and back. In his last week he walked to Tintagel and +Pentire. He was welcomed with hospitality and admiration. He in turn +seems to have been pleased and at his ease, though he only understood +half of what was said. Those who remember his visit speak of his tears +in the house where his father was born, of his sitting in the centre of a +group telling stories of his travels and singing a Gypsy song, of his +singing foreign songs all day out of doors, of his fit of melancholy +cured by Scotch and Irish airs played on the piano, of his violent +opinions on sherry and "Uncle Tom's Cabin," of his protesting against +some sign of gentility by using a filthy rag as a pocket handkerchief, +and that in a conspicuous manner, of his being vain and not proud, of his +telling the children stories, of one child crying out at sight of him: +"That _is_ a man!" He made his mark by unusual ways and by intellectual +superiority to his rustic cousins. He rode about with one of his +cousin's grandchildren. He walked hither and thither alone, doing as +much as twenty-five miles a day with the help of "Look out, look out, +Svend Vonved," which he sang in the last dark stretches of road. Mr. +Walling was "told that he roamed the Caradons in all weathers without a +hat, in search of sport and specimens, antiquities and dialects," but I +should think the "specimens" were for the table. He talked to the men by +the wayside or dived into the slums of Liskeard for disreputable +characters. He visited remarkable and famous places, and was delighted +with "Druidic" remains and tales of fairies. + +Thus Borrow made "fifty quarto pages" of notes, says Knapp, about people, +places, dialect, and folk lore. Some of the notes are mere shorthand; +some are rapid gossipy jottings; and they include; a verse translation of +a Cornish tale. + +A book on Cornwall, to have grown out of these notes, was advertised; but +it was never written. Perhaps he found it hard to vivify or integrate +his notes. In any case there could hardly have been any backbone to the +book, and it would have been tourist's work, however good. He was not a +man who wrote about everything; the impulse was lacking and he went on +with the furious Appendix to "The Romany Rye." + +In 1854 he paid a much longer visit to Wales. He took his wife and +daughter as far as Llangollen, which he used as a centre during August. +Then he had ten days walking through Corwen, Cerrig-y-Drudion, Capel +Curig, Bangor, Anglesey, Snowdon, Beth Gelert, Festiniog, and Bala. After +three weeks more at Llangollen, he had his boots soled and his umbrella +mended, bought a leather satchel with a lock and key, and put in it a +white linen shirt, a pair of worsted stockings, a razor, and a prayer +book, and with twenty pounds in his pocket and his umbrella grasped in +the middle, set out on a tour of three weeks. He travelled through the +whole length of Wales, by Llangarmon, Sycharth, Bala, Machynlleth, +Devil's Bridge, Plinlimmon, Pont Rhyd Fendigaid, Strata Florida, +Tregaron, Lampeter, Pumpsaint, Llandovery, Llangadog, Gwynfe, Gutter Fawr +(Brynamman), Swansea, Neath, Merthyr, Caerphilly, Newport, and Chepstow. +He had loved the Welsh bards and Wales from his boyhood up, and these +three months kept him occupied and happy. When at Llangollen he walked +during the day, and in the evening showed his wife and stepdaughter a +view, if he had found one. His wife reported to his mother that she had +reason to praise God for his condition. + +Borrow was happy at seeing the places mentioned by the bards and the +houses where some of them were born. "Oh, the wild hills of Wales," he +exclaimed, "the land of old renown and of wonder, the land of Arthur and +Merlin!" These were the very tones of his Spanish enthusiasm nearly +twenty years ago. He travelled probably without maps, and with no +general knowledge of the country or of what had been written of it, so +that he did not know how to spell Manorbier or recognise it as the +birthplace of Gerald of Wales. He remembered his youth, when he +translated the bards, with complacent melancholy. He sunned himself in +the admiration of his inferiors, talking at great length on subjects with +which he was acquainted and repeating his own execrable verse +translations. "Nice man"--"civil man"--"clever man . . . has been +everywhere," the people said. In the South, too, he had the supreme good +fortune to meet Captain Bosvile for the first time for thirty years, and +not being recognised, said, "I am the chap what certain folks calls the +Romany Rye." Bejiggered if the Captain had not been thinking it was he, +and goes on to ask after that "fine young woman and a vartuous" that he +used to keep company with, and Borrow in his turn asked after +Jasper--"Lord!" was the answer, "you can't think what grand folks he and +his wife have become of late years, and all along of a trumpery lil which +somebody has written about them." He also met an Italian whose friends +he had last seen at Norwich, one whom he had found at Corunna. It is no +wonder that it seemed to him he had always had "the health of an +elephant," and could walk thirty-four miles a day, and the last mile in +ten minutes. He took his chance for a night's lodging, content to have +someone else's bed, but going to the best inn where he had a choice, as +at Haverfordwest. + +He was very much moved by the adventure. "I have a wonderful deal to say +if I once begin; I have been everywhere," he said to the old man at +Gutter Fawr. He gave the shepherd advice about his sheep. "I am in the +habit," he said to the landlord at Pont Erwyd, "of talking about +everything, being versed in all matters, do you see, or affecting to be +so, which comes much to the same thing." Even in the company of his +stepdaughter--as they were not in Hyde Park--he sang in Welsh at the top +of his voice. The miller's hospitality in Mona brought tears to his +eyes; so did his own verse translation of the "Ode to Sycharth," because +it made him think "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." He kissed the silver cup at Llanddewi Brefi and the tombstone of +Huw Morus at Llan Silin. When the chair of Huw Morus was wiped and he +was about to sit down in it, he uncovered and said in his best Welsh: + +"'Shade of Huw Morus, supposing your shade haunts the place which you +loved so well when alive--a Saxon, one of the seed of the Coiling +Serpent, has come to this place to pay that respect to true genius, the +Dawn Duw, which he is ever ready to pay. He read the songs of the +Nightingale of Ceiriog in the most distant part of Lloegr, when he was a +brown-haired boy, and now that he is a grey-haired man he is come to say +in this place that they frequently made his eyes overflow with tears of +rapture.' + +"I then sat down in the chair, and commenced repeating verses of Huw +Morus. All which I did in the presence of the stout old lady, the short, +buxom, and bare-armed damsel, and of John Jones, the Calvinistic weaver +of Llangollen, all of whom listened patiently and approvingly though the +rain was pouring down upon them, and the branches of the trees and the +tops of the tall nettles, agitated by the gusts from the mountain +hollows, were beating in their faces, for enthusiasm is never scoffed at +by the noble, simple-minded, genuine Welsh, whatever treatment it may +receive from the coarse-hearted, sensual, selfish Saxon." + +Unless we count the inn at Cemmaes, where he took vengeance on the +suspicious people by using his note-book in an obvious manner, "now +skewing at an object, now leering at an individual," he was only once +thoroughly put out, and that was at Beth Gelert by a Scotchman: which +suggests a great deal of amiability, on one side, considering that +Borrow's Welsh was book-Welsh, execrably pronounced. + +He filled four books with notes, says Knapp, who has printed from them +some parts which Borrow did not use, including the Orange words of +"Croppies lie down," and Borrow's translation of "the best ghost story in +the world," by Lope de Vega. The book founded on these Welsh notes was +advertised in 1857, but not published until 1862. + +In the September after his Welsh holiday, 1855, Borrow took his wife and +daughter to the Isle of Man, deposited them at Douglas, and travelled +over the island for seven weeks, with intervals at Douglas. He took +notes that make ninety-six quarto pages in Knapp's copy. He was to have +founded a book on them, entitled, "Wanderings in Quest of Manx +Literature." Knapp quotes an introduction which was written. This and +the notes show him collecting in manuscript or _viva voce_ the _carvals_ +or carols then in circulation among the Manx; and he had the good fortune +to receive two volumes of them as gifts. Some he translated during his +visit. He went about questioning people concerning the carvals and a +Manx poet, named George Killey. He read a Manx prayer-book to the poet's +daughter at Kirk Onchan, and asked her a score of questions. He +convinced one woman that he was "of the old Manx." Finding a Manxman who +spoke French and thought it the better language, he made the statement +that "Manx or something like it was spoken in France more than a thousand +years before French." He copied Runic inscriptions, and took down +several fairy tales and a Manx version of the story of "Finn McCoyle" and +the Scotch giant. He went to visit a descendant of the ballad hero, +Mollie Charane. When he wished to know the size of some old skeletons he +inquired if the bones were as large as those of modern ones. As he met +people to compliment him on his Manx, so he did on his walking. Knapp +speaks of a "terrible journey" over the mountain from Ramsay to Braddan +and Douglas in October, but does not make any quotation relating to it. +In his opinion the notes "seldom present any matter of general interest +save to the islanders of Man and the student of Runic inscriptions." +Enough, however, is quoted to show that Borrow was delighted with the +country and the people, finding plenty to satisfy his curiosity in +languages and customs. But he was irritable, and committed to paper some +sarcastic remarks about Sir John Bowring and Lord Raglan, "the secret +friend" of Russia; while the advancement of an enemy and the death of a +cousin caused him to reflect: "William Borrow, the wonderful inventor, +dead, and Leicester Curzon . . . a colonel. Pretty justice!" In 1862, +in the pages of "Once a Week," he published two of his Manx translations, +the ballads--"Brown William" and "Mollie Charane." In August and +September, 1857, Borrow was walking again in Wales, covering four hundred +miles, as he told John Murray, and once, at least, between Builth and +Mortimer's Cross, making twenty-eight miles in a day. His route was +through Laugharne, Saundersfoot, Tenby, Pembroke, Milford and Milford +Haven, Stainton, Johnston, Haverfordwest, St. Davids, Fishguard, Newport, +Cardigan, Llechryd, Cilgerran, Cenarth, Newcastle Emlyn, Lampeter, +Llanddewi Brefi, Builth, Presteign, Mortimer's Cross, and so to +Shrewsbury, and to Uppington, where Goronwy Owen was curate in the middle +of the eighteenth century. Knapp transcribed part of Borrow's journal +for Messrs. T. C. Cantrill and J. Pringle, remarking that the rubbed +pencil writing took him eight days to decipher. With the annotations of +Messrs. Cantrill and Pringle it was printed in "Y Cymmrodor," {270a} the +journal of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion. I will quote one +day's entries, with the annotations, which are the fruit of the most +patient devotion: + +"Haverfordwest--little river--bridge; {270b} steep ascent {270c}--sounds +of music--young fellows playing--steep descent--strange town--Castle Inn. +H.W. in Welsh Hool-fordd. + +"[August] 27th, Thursday.--Burning day as usual. Breakfasted on tea, +eggs, and soup. Went up to the Castle. St. Mary's +Church--river--bridge--toll--The two bridge keepers--River Dun Cledi +{270d}--runs into Milford Haven--exceedingly deep in some parts--would +swallow up the largest ship ever built {270e}--people in general dislike +and despise the Welsh. + +"Started for St. David's. Course S.W. {270f}After walking about 2 m. +crossed Pelkham Bridge {271a}--it separates St. Martin's from Camrwyn +{271b} parish, as a woman told me who was carrying a pipkin in which were +some potatoes in water but not boiled. In her other hand she had a dried +herring. She said she had lived in the parish all her life and could +speak no Welsh, but that there were some people within it who could speak +it. Rested against a shady bank, {271c} very thirsty and my hurt foot +very sore. She told me that the mountains to the N. were called by +various names. One the [Clo---?] mountain. {271d} + +"The old inn {271e}--the blind woman. {271f} Arrival of the odd-looking +man and the two women I had passed on the road. The collier [on] {271g} +the ass gives me the real history of Bosvile. Written in Roche Castle, a +kind of oblong tower built on the rock--there is a rock within it, a huge +crag standing towards the East in what was perhaps once a door. It +turned out to be a chapel. {271h} + +"The castle is call'd in Welsh Castel y Garn, a translation of Roche. The +girl and water--B---? (Nanny) Dallas. {272a} Dialogue with the Baptist +{272b} who was mending the roads. + +"Splendid view of sea--isolated rocks to the South. Sir las {272c} +headlands stretching S. Descent to the shore. New Gall Bridge. {272d} +The collier's wife. Jemmy Remaunt {272e} was the name of man on the ass. +Her own husband goes to work by the shore. The ascent round the hill. +Distant view of Roche Castle. The Welshers, the little village +{272f}--all looking down on the valley appropriately called Y Cwm. +Dialogue with tall man Merddyn? {272g}--The Dim o Clywed." + +Not much of this second tour can be shown to have been used in "Wild +Wales," where he alludes to it in the ninety-third chapter, saying that +he "long subsequently" found some of the wildest solitudes and most +romantic scenery among the mountains about Tregaron; but the collier may +have given him the suggestion for the encounter with Bosvile in the +ninety-eighth chapter. The spelling points to Borrow's ignorance of the +relation of pronunciation and orthography. + +In 1858 Borrow's mother died at Oulton and was buried in Oulton +churchyard. During October and November in that year, partly to take his +mind from his bereavement, he was walking in the Scottish Highlands and +Islands. His note-book contains "nothing of general interest," says +Knapp, except an imperfect outline of the journey, showing that he was at +Oban, Tobermory, the Mull of Cantire, Glasgow, Perth, Aberdeen, +Inverness, Dingwall, Tain, Dornoch, Helmsdale, Wick, John o'Groats, +Thurso, Stromness, Kirkwall, and Lerwick. + +In 1860, after taking a house at 20, Hereford Square, West Brompton, he +and his wife and stepdaughter went to Dublin, and himself walked to +Connemara and the Giant's Causeway. His wife thought this journey "full +of adventure and interest," but he left no record of it. They were again +in Ireland in 1866, Miss Clarke having lately married a Dr. MacOubrey, of +Belfast. Borrow himself crossed over to Stranraer and had a month's +walking in Scotland, to Glen Luce, Castle Douglas, Dumfries, Ecclefechan, +Carlisle, Gilnochie, Hawick, Jedburgh, Yetholm, Kelso, Melrose, +Coldstream, Berwick, and Edinburgh. He talked to the people, admired the +scenery, bathed, and enjoyed his meals. He left the briefest of +journals, but afterwards, in "Romano Lavo-Lil," published an account of +the "Gypsy toon" of Kirk Yetholm and how he was introduced to the Gypsy +Queen. He dropped his umbrella and flung his arms three times up into +the air and asked her in Romany what her name was, and if she was a +mumper or a true Gypsy. She asked him what was the meaning of this +"gibberish," but he describes how gradually he made her declare herself, +and how she examined him in Gypsy and at last offered him a chair, and +entered into "deep discourse" about Gypsy matters. He talked as he did +to such people, saying "Whoy, I calls that a juggal," etc. He found +fault with her Romany, which was thin and mixed with Gaelic and cant +words. She told him that he reminded her of her grandfather, Will Faa, +"being a tall, lusty man like himself, and having a skellying look with +the left eye, just like him." He displayed his knowledge of the affairs +of the tribe, both in her country and in England. She told him that she +had never heard so much Romany before. She promised to receive him next +day, but was out when he called. He found her at St. George's Fair, near +Roxburgh Castle, and she pointed him out several other Gypsies, but as +she assured him they knew not a word of Romany and would only be uncivil +to him, he left them to "pay his respects at the tomb of Walter Scott, a +man with whose principles he had no sympathy, but for whose genius he had +always entertained the most intense admiration." + +In 1868 he took an autumn walk through Sussex and Hampshire while his +wife was at Bognor. In the next year his wife died, after being +afflicted for some time by troubles connected with her property, by +dropsy, valvular disease of the heart, and "hysteria." Borrow was +melancholy and irritable, but apparently did not go for another walk in +Scotland as was suggested for a cure; nor ever again did he get far +afield on foot. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX--"WILD WALES" + + +In 1862, between Borrow's two visits to Ireland, his "Wild Wales" was +published. It had been heralded by an advertisement in 1857, by the +publication of the "Sleeping Bard" in 1860, and by an article on "The +Welsh and their Literature" in the "Quarterly" for January, 1861. This +article quotes "an unpublished work called 'Wild Wales'" and "Mr. +Borrow's unpublished work, 'Celtic Bards, Chiefs and Kings.'" It opened +with a vivid story of the coming of Hu Gadarn and his Cymry to Britain: + +"Hu and his people took possession of the best parts of the island, +either driving the few Gaels to other districts or admitting them to +their confederacy. As the country was in a very wild state, much +overgrown with forests in which bears and wolves wandered, and abounding +with deep stagnant pools, which were the haunts of the avanc or +crocodile, Hu forthwith set about clearing it of some of its horrors, and +making it more fit to be the abiding place of civilised beings. He made +his people cut down woods and forests, and destroy, as far as was +possible, wild beasts and crocodiles. He himself went to a gloomy pool, +the haunt of the king of the efync, baited a huge hook attached to a +cable, flung it into the pool, and when the monster had gorged the snare +drew him out by means of certain gigantic oxen, which he had tamed to the +plough, and burnt his horrid, wet, scaly carcass on a fire. He then +caused enclosures to be made, fields to be ploughed and sown, pleasant +wooden houses to be built, bees to be sheltered and encouraged, and +schools to be erected where song and music were taught. O a truly great +man was Hu Gadarn! though a warrior, he preferred the sickle and pruning +hook to the sword, and the sound of the song and lute to the hoarse blast +of the buffalo's horn: + + "The mighty Hu with mead would pay + The bard for his melodious lay; + The Emperor of land and sea + And of all living things was he." + +This probably represents Borrow's view of early history, simple, heroical +and clear, as it would have been had he been in command of it. The +article professed to be a review of Borrow's "Sleeping Bard," and was in +fact by Borrow himself. He had achieved the supreme honour of reviewing +his own work, and, as it fell out, he persuaded the public to buy every +copy. Very few were found to buy "Wild Wales," notwithstanding. The +first edition of a thousand copies lasted three years; the second, of +three thousand, lasted twenty-three years. Borrow was ridiculed for +informing his readers that he paid his bill at a Welsh inn, without +mentioning the amount. He was praised for having written "the first +clever book . . . in which an honest attempt is made to do justice to the +Welsh literature," for knowing far more than most educated Welshmen about +that literature, and for describing his travels and encounters "with much +of the freshness, humour and geniality of his earlier days," for writing +in fact "the best book about Wales ever published." + +Certainly no later book which could be compared with it has been as good, +or nearly as good. As for its predecessors, the "Itinerary" and the +"Description" of Gerald of Wales, even setting aside the charm of +antiquity, make a book that is equal to "Wild Wales" for originality, +vivacity and truth. Of the antiquarian and picturesque travellers in the +late eighteenth century and early nineteenth none wrote anything that is +valuable except for some facts and some evidence of taste. Borrow +himself probably knew few or none of them, though he mentions Gerald. +There is no evidence that he knew the great nineteenth-century +collections of Welsh manuscripts and translations. He says nothing of +the "Mabinogion." He had apparently never heard of the pedestrian Iolo +Morganwg. He perhaps never saw Stephens' "Literature of the Kymry." His +knowledge was picked up anyhow and anywhere from Welsh texts and Lhuyd's +"Archaeologia," without system and with very little friendly discussion +or comparison. Wales, therefore, was to him as wonderful as Spain, and +equally uncharted. What he saw did not spoil the visionary image, and +his enthusiasm coupled with curiosity gives the book of his travels just +the continuous impulse which he never found for his Cornish, Manx, Irish +or Scottish notes. He was able to fill the book with sympathetic +observation and genial self-revelation. + +The book is of course a tourist's book. Borrow went through the country +as a gentleman, running no risks, and having scarcely an object except to +see what was to be seen and to please himself. He got, as he probably +counted on getting, the consideration due to a gentleman who can pay his +way and meets only the humbler sort of people, publicans, farmers, +drovers, labourers, sextons, parish clerks, and men upon the road. He +seldom stayed more than a night or an hour or two anywhere. His +pictures, therefore, are the impressions of the moment, wrought up at +leisure. His few weeks in Wales made a book of the same size as an equal +number of years in Spain. + +Sometimes he writes like a detached observer working from notes, and the +result has little value except in so far as it is a pure record of what +was to be seen at such and such a place in the year 1854. There are many +short passages apparently straight from his notes, dead and useless. The +description of Llangollen Fair, on August 21, is of this kind, but +superior, and I shall quote it entire: + +"The day was dull with occasional showers. I went to see the fair about +noon. It was held in and near a little square in the south-east quarter +of the town, of which square the police-station is the principal feature +on the side of the west, and an inn, bearing the sign of the Grapes, on +the east. The fair was a little bustling fair, attended by plenty of +people from the country, and from the English border, and by some who +appeared to come from a greater distance than the border. A dense row of +carts extended from the police-station, half across the space. These +carts were filled with pigs, and had stout cord nettings drawn over them, +to prevent the animals escaping. By the sides of these carts the +principal business of the fair appeared to be going on--there stood the +owners, male and female, higgling with Llangollen men and women, who came +to buy. The pigs were all small, and the price given seemed to vary from +eighteen to twenty-five shillings. Those who bought pigs generally +carried them away in their arms; and then there was no little diversion; +dire was the screaming of the porkers, yet the purchaser invariably +appeared to know how to manage his bargain, keeping the left arm round +the body of the swine and with the right hand fast gripping the ear--some +few were led away by strings. There were some Welsh cattle, small of +course, and the purchasers of these seemed to be Englishmen, tall burly +fellows in general, far exceeding the Welsh in height and size. + +"Much business in the cattle-line did not seem, however, to be going on. +Now and then a big fellow made an offer, and held out his hand for a +little Pictish grazier to give it a slap--a cattle bargain being +concluded by a slap of the hand--but the Welshman generally turned away, +with a half-resentful exclamation. There were a few horses and ponies in +a street leading into the fair from the south. + +"I saw none sold, however. A tall athletic figure was striding amongst +them, evidently a jockey and a stranger, looking at them and occasionally +asking a slight question of one or another of their proprietors, but he +did not buy. He might in age be about eight-and-twenty, and about six +feet and three-quarters of an inch in height; in build he was perfection +itself--a better-built man I never saw. He wore a cap and a brown jockey +coat, trowsers, leggings, and highlows, and sported a single spur. He +had whiskers--all jockeys should have whiskers--but he had what I did not +like, and what no genuine jockey should have, a moustache, which looks +coxcombical and Frenchified--but most things have terribly changed since +I was young. Three or four hardy-looking fellows, policemen, were +gliding about in their blue coats and leather hats, holding their thin +walking-sticks behind them; conspicuous amongst whom was the leader, a +tall lathy North Briton with a keen eye and hard features. Now if I add +there was much gabbling of Welsh round about, and here and there some +slight sawing of English--that in the street leading from the north there +were some stalls of gingerbread and a table at which a queer-looking +being with a red Greek-looking cap on his head, sold rhubarb, herbs, and +phials containing the Lord knows what, and who spoke a low vulgar English +dialect,--I repeat, if I add this, I think I have said all that is +necessary about Llangollen Fair." + +But this is a somewhat exceptional passage, and the same detachment is +rarely found except in his descriptions of scenery, which are short and +serve well enough to remind the reader of the great hills, the rapid +waters, the rocks, and the furnaces, chimneys and pits. Borrow certainly +does remind us of these things. In the first place he does so by a +hundred minute and scattered suggestions of the romantic and sublime, and +so general that only a pedant will object to the nightingales which he +heard singing in August near Bethesda. He gives us black mountains, +gloomy shadows, cascades falling into lakes, "singular-looking" rocks, +and mountain villages like one in Castile or La Mancha but for the trees, +mountains that made him exclaim: "I have had Heaven opened to me," moors +of a "wretched russet colour," "black gloomy narrow glens." He can also +be precise and connoisseur-like, as when he describes the cataract at +Llan Rhaiadr: + +"What shall I liken it to? I scarcely know, unless to an immense skein +of silk agitated and disturbed by tempestuous blasts, or to the long tail +of a grey courser at furious speed. Through the profusion of long +silvery threads or hairs, or what looked such, I could here and there see +the black sides of the crag down which the Rhyadr precipitated itself +with something between a boom and a roar." + +He is still more a connoisseur when he continues: + +"I never saw water falling so gracefully, so much like thin beautiful +threads as here. Yet even this cataract has its blemish. What beautiful +object has not something which more or less mars its loveliness? There +is an ugly black bridge or semicircle of rock, about two feet in diameter +and about twenty feet high, which rises some little way below it, and +under which the water, after reaching the bottom, passes, which +intercepts the sight, and prevents it from taking in the whole fall at +once. This unsightly object has stood where it now stands since the day +of creation, and will probably remain there to the day of judgment. It +would be a desecration of nature to remove it by art, but no one could +regret if nature in one of her floods were to sweep it away." + +But Borrow's temperamental method--where he undertakes to do more than +sketch his environment in the blurred large method corresponding to +ordinary passing impressions--is the rhetorical sublime of this mountain +lake between Festiniog and Bala: + +"I sped towards it through gorse and heather, occasionally leaping a deep +drain. At last I reached it. It was a small lake. Wearied and panting, +I flung myself on its bank, and gazed upon it. + +"There lay the lake in the low bottom, surrounded by the heathery +hillocks; there it lay quite still, the hot sun reflected upon its +surface, which shone like a polished blue shield. Near the shore it was +shallow, at least near that shore upon which I lay. But farther on, my +eye, practised in deciding upon the depths of waters, saw reason to +suppose that its depth was very great. As I gazed upon it my mind +indulged in strange musings. I thought of the afanc, a creature which +some have supposed to be the harmless and industrious beaver, others the +frightful and destructive crocodile. I wondered whether the afanc was +the crocodile or the beaver, and speedily had no doubt that the name was +originally applied to the crocodile. + +"'O, who can doubt,' thought I, 'that the word was originally intended +for something monstrous and horrible? Is there not something horrible in +the look and sound of the word afanc, something connected with the +opening and shutting of immense jaws, and the swallowing of writhing +prey? Is not the word a fitting brother of the Arabic timsah, denoting +the dread horny lizard of the waters? Moreover, have we not the voice of +tradition that the afanc was something monstrous? Does it not say that +Hu the Mighty, the inventor of husbandry, who brought the Cumry from the +summer-country, drew the old afanc out of the lake of lakes with his four +gigantic oxen? Would he have had recourse to them to draw out the little +harmless beaver? O, surely not. Yet have I no doubt that, when the +crocodile had disappeared from the lands where the Cumric language was +spoken, the name afanc was applied to the beaver, probably his successor +in the pool; the beaver now called in Cumric Llostlydan, or the broad- +tailed, for tradition's voice is strong that the beaver has at one time +been called the afanc.' Then I wondered whether the pool before me had +been the haunt of the afanc, considered both as crocodile and beaver. I +saw no reason to suppose that it had not. 'If crocodiles,' thought I, +'ever existed in Britain, and who shall say they have not? seeing that +their remains have been discovered, why should they not have haunted this +pool? If beavers ever existed in Britain, and do not tradition and +Giraldus say that they have? why should they not have existed in this +pool? + +"'At a time almost inconceivably remote, when the hills around were +covered with woods, through which the elk and the bison and the wild cow +strolled, when men were rare throughout the lands, and unlike in most +things to the present race--at such a period--and such a period there has +been--I can easily conceive that the afanc-crocodile haunted this pool, +and that when the elk or bison or wild cow came to drink of its waters, +the grim beast would occasionally rush forth, and seizing his bellowing +victim, would return with it to the deeps before me to luxuriate at his +ease upon its flesh. And at time less remote, when the crocodile was no +more, and though the woods still covered the hills, and wild cattle +strolled about, men were more numerous than before, and less unlike the +present race, I can easily conceive this lake to have been the haunt of +the afanc-beaver, that he here built cunningly his house of trees and +clay, and that to this lake the native would come with his net and his +spear to hunt the animal for his precious fur. Probably if the depths of +that pool were searched, relics of the crocodile and the beaver might be +found, along with other strange things connected with the periods in +which they respectively lived. Happy were I if for a brief space I could +become a Cingalese, that I might swim out far into that pool, dive down +into its deepest part, and endeavour to discover any strange things which +beneath its surface may lie.' Much in this guise rolled my thoughts as I +lay stretched on the margin of the lake." + +In another place he tells a poor man that he believes in the sea-serpent, +and has a story of one seen in the very neighbourhood where he meets the +man. Immediately after the description of the lake there is a proof--one +of many--that he was writing straight from notes. Speaking of a rivulet, +he says: "It was crossed by two bridges, one immensely old and terribly +delapidated, the other old enough, but in better repair--_went and drank +under the oldest bridge of the two_." The book is large and strong +enough to stand many such infinitesimal blemishes. + +Alongside of the sublime I will put what Borrow says he liked better. He +is standing on a bridge over the Ceiriog, just after visiting the house +of Huw Morus at Pont y Meibion: + +"About a hundred yards distant was a small watermill, built over the +rivulet, the wheel going slowly, slowly round; large quantities of pigs, +the generality of them brindled, were either browsing on the banks, or +lying close to the sides, half immersed in the water; one immense white +hog, the monarch seemingly of the herd, was standing in the middle of the +current. Such was the scene which I saw from the bridge, a scene of +quiet rural life well suited to the brushes of two or three of the old +Dutch painters, or to those of men scarcely inferior to them in their own +style--Gainsborough, Moreland, and Crome. My mind for the last half-hour +had been in a highly-excited state; I had been repeating verses of old +Huw Morus, brought to my recollection by the sight of his dwelling-place; +they were ranting roaring verses, against the Roundheads. I admired the +vigour, but disliked the principles which they displayed; and admiration +on the one hand, and disapproval on the other, bred a commotion in my +mind like that raised on the sea when tide runs one way and wind blows +another. The quiet scene from the bridge, however, produced a sedative +effect on my mind, and when I resumed my journey I had forgotten Huw, his +verses, and all about Roundheads and Cavaliers." + +But it must be said that if the book is on the whole a cheerful one, its +cheerfulness not only receives a foil from the rhetorical sublime, but is +a little misted by a melancholy note here and there. Thus he sees "a +melancholy ship" out on the sea near Holyhead. He qualifies russet twice +as "wretched" in describing a moor. He speaks of "strange-looking" hills +near Pont Erwyd, and again near the Devil's Bridge. His moods were +easily changed. He speaks of "wretched russet hills," with no birds +singing, but only "the lowing of a wretched bullock," and then of +beautiful hills that filled his veins with fresh life so that he walked +on merrily. + +As for his people, it cannot be asserted that they are always alive +though they are often very Welsh. They are sketched, with dialogue and +description, after the manner of "The Bible in Spain," though being +nearer home they had to be more modest in their peculiarities. He +establishes Welsh enthusiasm, hospitality and suspiciousness, in a very +friendly manner. The poet-innkeeper is an excellent sketch of a mild but +by no means spiritless type. He is accompanied by a man with a bulging +shoe who drinks ale and continually ejaculates: "The greatest poet in the +world"; for example, when Borrow asks: "Then I have the honour to be +seated with a bard of Anglesey?" "Tut, tut," says the bard. Borrow +agrees with him that envy--which has kept him from the bardic chair--will +not always prevail: + +"'Sir,' said the man in grey, 'I am delighted to hear you. Give me your +hand, your honourable hand. Sir, you have now felt the hand-grasp of a +Welshman, to say nothing of an Anglesey bard, and I have felt that of a +Briton, perhaps a bard, a brother, sir? O, when I first saw your face +out there in the dyffryn, I at once recognised in it that of a kindred +spirit, and I felt compelled to ask you to drink. Drink, sir! but how is +this? the jug is empty--how is this?--O, I see--my friend, sir, though an +excellent individual, is indiscreet, sir--very indiscreet. Landlord, +bring this moment another jug of ale.' + +"'The greatest prydydd,' stuttered he of the bulged shoe--'the greatest +prydydd--Oh--' + +"'Tut, tut,' said the man in grey. + +"'I speak the truth and care for no one,' said he of the tattered hat. 'I +say the greatest prydydd. If any one wishes to gainsay me let him show +his face, and Myn Diawl--' + +The landlord brought the ale, placed it on the table, and then stood as +if waiting for something. + +"'I suppose you are waiting to be paid,' said I; 'what is your demand?' + +"'Sixpence for this jug, and sixpence for the other,' said the landlord. + +"I took out a shilling and said: 'It is but right that I should pay half +of the reckoning, and as the whole affair is merely a shilling matter I +should feel obliged in being permitted to pay the whole, so, landlord, +take the shilling and remember you are paid.' I then delivered the +shilling to the landlord, but had no sooner done so than the man in grey, +starting up in violent agitation, wrested the money from the other, and +flung it down on the table before me saying:-- + +"'No, no, that will never do. I invited you in here to drink, and now +you would pay for the liquor which I ordered. You English are free with +your money, but you are sometimes free with it at the expense of people's +feelings. I am a Welshman, and I know Englishmen consider all Welshmen +hogs. But we are not hogs, mind you! for we have little feelings which +hogs have not. Moreover, I would have you know that we have money, +though perhaps not so much as the Saxon.' Then putting his hand into his +pocket he pulled out a shilling, and giving it to the landlord, said in +Welsh: 'Now thou art paid, and mayst go thy ways till thou art again +called for. I do not know why thou didst stay after thou hadst put down +the ale. Thou didst know enough of me to know that thou didst run no +risk of not being paid.' + +"'But,' said I, after the landlord had departed, 'I must insist on being +[? _paying_] my share. Did you not hear me say that I would give a quart +of ale to see a poet?' + +"'A poet's face,' said the man in grey, 'should be common to all, even +like that of the sun. He is no true poet, who would keep his face from +the world.' + +"'But,' said I, 'the sun frequently hides his head from the world, behind +a cloud.' + +"'Not so,' said the man in grey. 'The sun does not hide his face, it is +the cloud that hides it. The sun is always glad enough to be seen, and +so is the poet. If both are occasionally hid, trust me it is no fault of +theirs. Bear that in mind; and now pray take up your money.' + +"'That man is a gentleman,' thought I to myself, 'whether poet or not; +but I really believe him to be a poet; were he not he could hardly talk +in the manner I have just heard him.' + +"The man in grey now filled my glass, his own and that of his companion. +The latter emptied his in a minute, not forgetting first to say 'the best +prydydd in all the world!' The man in grey was also not slow to empty +his own. The jug now passed rapidly between my two friends, for the poet +seemed determined to have his full share of the beverage. I allowed the +ale in my glass to remain untasted, and began to talk about the bards, +and to quote from their works. I soon found that the man in grey knew +quite as much of the old bards and their works as myself. In one +instance he convicted me of a mistake. + +"I had quoted those remarkable lines in which an old bard, doubtless +seeing the Menai Bridge by means of second sight, says: 'I will pass to +the land of Mona notwithstanding the waters of Menai, without waiting for +the ebb'--and was feeling not a little proud of my erudition when the man +in grey, after looking at me for a moment fixedly, asked me the name of +the bard who composed them--'Sion Tudor,' I replied. + +"'There you are wrong,' said the man in grey; 'his name was not Sion +Tudor, but Robert Vychan, in English, Little Bob. Sion Tudor wrote an +englyn on the Skerries whirlpool in the Menai; but it was Little Bob who +wrote the stanza in which the future bridge over the Menai is hinted at.' + +"'You are right,' said I, 'you are right. Well, I am glad that all song +and learning are not dead in Ynis Fon.' + +"'Dead,' said the man in grey, whose features began to be rather flushed, +'they are neither dead, nor ever will be. There are plenty of poets in +Anglesey. . . .'" + +The whole sketch is in Borrow's liberal unqualified style, but keeping on +the right side of caricature. The combination of modesty, touchiness and +pride, without humour, is typical and happily caught. + +The chief fault of his Welsh portraits, in fact, is his almost +invariable, and almost always unnecessary, exhibition of his own +superiority. He is nearly always the big clever gentleman catechizing +certain quaint little rustic foreigners. He met one old man with a +crabstick who told him his Welsh was almost as bad as his English, and a +drover who had the advantage of him in decided opinions and a sense of +superiority, and put him down as a pig-jobber; but these are exceptions. +He is not unkind, but on the other hand he forgets that as a rule his +size, his purse, and his remarkable appearance and qualities put his +casual hosts very much at a disadvantage, and he is thus led to +exaggerate what suspiciousness he observed. + +His success is all the more wonderful when his position and his almost +total lack of condescension and concession are considered, but considered +they must be. When he met a Welsh clergyman who could talk about the +Welsh language, Huw Morus and ale, he said nothing about him except that +he was "a capital specimen of the Welsh country clergyman. His name was +Walter Jones." Too often he merely got answers to his questions, which +break up his pages in an agreeable manner, but do little more. In such +conversations we should fare ill indeed if one of the parties were not +Borrow, and even as it is, he can be tedious beyond the limits necessary +for truth. I will give an example: + +"After a little time I entered into conversation with my guide. He had +not a word of English. 'Are you married?' said I. + +"'In truth I am, sir.' + +"'What family have you?' + +"'I have a daughter.' + +"'Where do you live?' + +"'At the house of the Rhyadr.' + +"'I suppose you live there as servant?' + +"'No, sir, I live there as master.' + +"'Is the good woman I saw there your wife?' + +"'In truth, sir, she is.' + +"'And the young girl I saw your daughter?' + +"'Yes, sir, she is my daughter.' + +"'And how came the good woman not to tell me you were her husband?' + +"'I suppose, sir, you did not ask who I was, and she thought you did not +care to know.' . . ." + +To multiply instances might cease to be amusing. It may have been +Borrow's right way of getting what he wanted, though it sounds like a +Charity Organization inquisitor. As to the effectiveness of setting down +every step of the process instead of the result, there can hardly be two +opinions, unless the reader prefers an impression of the wandering +inquisitive gentleman to one of the people questioned. Probably these +barren dialogues may be set down to indolence or to the too facile +adoption of a trick. They are too casual and slight to be exact, and on +the other hand they are too literal to give a direct impression. + +Luckily he diversified such conversation with stories of poets and +robbers, gleaned from his books or from wayside company. The best of +this company was naturally not the humble homekeeping publican or +cottager, but the man or woman of the roads, Gypsy or Irish. The +vagabond Irish, for example, give him early in the book an effective +contrast to the more quiet Welsh; his guide tells how they gave him a +terrible fright: + +"I had been across the Berwyn to carry home a piece of weaving work to a +person who employs me. It was night as I returned, and when I was about +half-way down the hill, at a place which is called Allt Paddy, because +the Gwyddelod are in the habit of taking up their quarters there, I came +upon a gang of them, who had come there and camped and lighted their +fire, whilst I was on the other side of the hill. There were nearly +twenty of them, men and women, and amongst the rest was a man standing +naked in a tub of water with two women stroking him down with clouts. He +was a large fierce-looking fellow, and his body, on which the flame of +the fire glittered, was nearly covered with red hair. I never saw such a +sight. As I passed they glared at me and talked violently in their Paddy +Gwyddel, but did not offer to molest me. I hastened down the hill, and +right glad I was when I found myself safe and sound at my house in +Llangollen, with my money in my pocket, for I had several shillings +there, which the man across the hill had paid me for the work which I had +done." + +The best man in the book is the Irish fiddler, with a shock of red hair, +a hat that had lost part of its crown and all its rim, and a game leg. +This Irishman in the early part of the book and the Irishwoman at the end +are characters that Borrow could put his own blood into. He has done so +in a manner equal to anything in the same kind in his earlier books. I +shall quote the whole interview with the man. It is an admirable piece +of imagination. If any man thinks it anything else, let him spend ten +years in taking down conversations in trains and taverns and ten years in +writing them up, and should he have anything as good as this to show, he +has a most rare talent: + +"'Good morning to you,' said I. + +"'A good marning to your hanner, a merry afternoon, and a roaring joyous +evening--that is the worst luck I wish to ye.' + +"'Are you a native of these parts?' said I. + +"'Not exactly, your hanner--I am a native of the city of Dublin, or, +what's all the same thing, of the village of Donnybrook which is close by +it.' + +"'A celebrated place,' said I. + +"'Your hanner may say that; all the world has heard of Donnybrook, owing +to the humours of its fair. Many is the merry tune I have played to the +boys at that fair.' + +"'You are a professor of music, I suppose?' + +"'And not a very bad one as your hanner will say if you will allow me to +play you a tune.' + +"'Can you play "Croppies Lie Down"?' + +"'I cannot, your hanner; my fingers never learnt to play such a +blackguard tune; but if ye wish to hear "Croppies Get Up" I can oblige +ye.' + +"'You are a Roman Catholic, I suppose?' + +"'I am not, your hanner--I am a Catholic to the backbone, just like my +father before me. Come, your hanner, shall I play ye "Croppies Get Up"?' + +"'No,' said I; 'It's a tune that doesn't please my ears. If, however, +you choose to play "Croppies Lie Down," I'll give you a shilling.' + +"'Your hanner will give me a shilling?' + +"'Yes,' said I, 'if you play "Croppies Lie Down": but you know you cannot +play it, your fingers never learned the tune.' + +"'They never did, your hanner; but they have heard it played of ould by +the blackguard Orange fiddlers of Dublin on the first of July, when the +Protestant boys used to walk round Willie's statue on College Green--so +if your hanner gives me the shilling they may perhaps bring out something +like it.' + +"'Very good,' said I; 'begin!' + +"'But, your hanner, what shall we do for the words? Though my fingers +may remember the tune, my tongue does not remember the words--that is +unless . . .' + +"'I give another shilling,' said I; 'but never mind you the words; I know +the words, and will repeat them.' + +"'And your hanner will give me a shilling?' + +"'If you play the tune,' said I. + +"'Hanner bright, your hanner?' + +"'Honour bright,' said I. + +"Thereupon the fiddler, taking his bow and shouldering his fiddle, struck +up in first-rate style the glorious tune, which I had so often heard with +rapture in the days of my boyhood in the barrack yard of Clonmel; whilst +I walking by his side as he stumped along, caused the welkin to resound +with the words, which were the delight of the young gentlemen of the +Protestant academy of that beautiful old town. + +"'I never heard those words before,' said the fiddler, after I had +finished the first stanza. + +"'Get on with you,' said I. + +"'Regular Orange words!' said the fiddler, on my finishing the second +stanza. + +"'Do you choose to get on?' said I. + +"'More blackguard Orange words I never heard!' cried the fiddler, on my +coming to the conclusion of the third stanza. 'Divil a bit farther will +I play; at any rate till I get the shilling.' + +"'Here it is for you,' said I; 'the song is ended and of course the +tune.' + +"'Thank your hanner,' said the fiddler, taking the money, 'your hanner +has kept your word with me, which is more than I thought your hanner +would. And now, your hanner, let me ask you why did your hanner wish for +that tune, which is not only a blackguard one, but quite out of date; and +where did your hanner get the words?' + +"'I used to hear the tune in my boyish days,' said I, 'and wished to hear +it again, for though you call it a blackguard tune, it is the sweetest +and most noble air that Ireland, the land of music, has ever produced. As +for the words, never mind where I got them; they are violent enough, but +not half so violent as the words of some of the songs made against the +Irish Protestants by the priests.' + +"'Your hanner is an Orange man, I see. Well, your hanner, the Orange is +now in the kennel, and the Croppies have it all their own way.' + +"'And perhaps,' said I, 'before I die, the Orange will be out of the +kennel and the Croppies in, even as they were in my young days.' + +"'Who knows, your hanner? and who knows that I may not play the ould tune +round Willie's image in College Green, even as I used some twenty-seven +years ago?' + +"'O then you have been an Orange fiddler?' + +"'I have, your hanner. And now as your hanner has behaved like a +gentleman to me I will tell ye all my history. I was born in the city of +Dublin, that is in the village of Donnybrook, as I tould your hanner +before. It was to the trade of bricklaying I was bred, and bricklaying I +followed till at last, getting my leg smashed, not by falling off the +ladder, but by a row in the fair, I was obliged to give it up, for how +could I run up the ladder with a patten on my foot, which they put on to +make my broken leg as long as the other. Well, your hanner; being +obliged to give up my bricklaying, I took to fiddling, to which I had +always a natural inclination, and played about the streets, and at fairs, +and wakes, and weddings. At length some Orange men getting acquainted +with me, and liking my style of playing, invited me to their lodge, where +they gave me to drink, and tould me that if I would change my religion +and join them, and play their tunes, they would make it answer my +purpose. Well, your hanner, without much stickling I gave up my Popery, +joined the Orange lodge, learned the Orange tunes, and became a regular +Protestant boy, and truly the Orange men kept their word, and made it +answer my purpose. O the meat and drink I got, and the money I made by +playing at the Orange lodges and before the processions when the Orange +men paraded the streets with their Orange colours. And O, what a day for +me was the glorious first of July when with my whole body covered with +Orange ribbons I fiddled "Croppies Lie Down"--"Boyne Water," and the +"Protestant Boys" before the procession which walked round Willie's +figure on horseback in College Green, the man and horse all ablaze with +Orange colours. But nothing lasts under the sun, as your hanner knows; +Orangeism began to go down; the Government scowled at it, and at last +passed a law preventing the Protestant boys dressing up the figure on the +first of July, and walking round it. That was the death-blow of the +Orange party, your hanner; they never recovered it, but began to despond +and dwindle, and I with them, for there was scarcely any demand for +Orange tunes. Then Dan O'Connell arose with his emancipation and repale +cries, and then instead of Orange processions and walkings, there were +Papist processions and mobs, which made me afraid to stir out, lest +knowing me for an Orange fiddler, they should break my head, as the boys +broke my leg at Donnybrook fair. At length some of the repalers and +emancipators knowing that I was a first-rate hand at fiddling came to me, +and tould me, that if I would give over playing "Croppies Lie Down" and +other Orange tunes, and would play "Croppies Get Up," and what not, and +become a Catholic and a repaler, and an emancipator, they would make a +man of me--so as my Orange trade was gone, and I was half-starved, I +consinted, not however till they had introduced me to Daniel O'Connell, +who called me a credit to my country, and the Irish Horpheus, and +promised me a sovereign if I would consint to join the cause, as he +called it. Well, your hanner, I joined with the cause and became a +Papist, I mane a Catholic once more, and went at the head of processions, +covered all over with green ribbons, playing "Croppies Get Up," "Granny +Whale," and the like. But, your hanner; though I went the whole hog with +the repalers and emancipators, they did not make their words good by +making a man of me. Scant and sparing were they in the mate and drink, +and yet more sparing in the money, and Daniel O'Connell never gave me the +sovereign which he promised me. No, your hanner, though I played +"Croppies Get Up," till my fingers ached, as I stumped before him and his +mobs and processions, he never gave me the sovereign: unlike your hanner +who gave me the shilling ye promised me for playing "Croppies Lie Down," +Daniel O'Connell never gave me the sovereign he promised me for playing +"Croppies Get Up." Och, your hanner, I often wished the ould Orange days +were back again. However as I could do no better I continued going the +whole hog with the emancipators and repalers and Dan O'Connell; I went +the whole animal with them till they had got emancipation; and I went the +whole animal with them till they nearly got repale--when all of a sudden +they let the whole thing drop--Dan and his party having frighted the +Government out of its seven senses, and gotten all they thought they +could get, in money and places, which was all they wanted, let the whole +hullabaloo drop, and of course myself, who formed part of it. I went to +those who had persuaded me to give up my Orange tunes, and to play Papist +ones, begging them to give me work; but they tould me very civilly that +they had no farther occasion for my services. I went to Daniel O'Connell +reminding him of the sovereign he had promised me, and offering if he +gave it me to play "Croppies Get Up" under the nose of the +lord-lieutenant himself; but he tould me that he had not time to attend +to me, and when I persisted, bade me go to the Divil and shake myself. +Well, your hanner, seeing no prospect for myself in my own country, and +having incurred some little debts, for which I feared to be arrested, I +came over to England and Wales, where with little content and +satisfaction I have passed seven years.' + +"'Well,' said I, 'thank you for your history--farewell.' + +"'Stap, your hanner; does your hanner think that the Orange will ever be +out of the kennel, and that the Orange boys will ever walk round the +brass man and horse in College Green as they did of ould?' + +"'Who knows?' said I. 'But suppose all that were to happen, what would +it signify to you?' + +"'Why then Divil in my patten if I would not go back to Donnybrook and +Dublin, hoist the Orange cockade, and become as good an Orange boy as +ever.' + +"'What,' said I, 'and give up Popery for the second time?' + +"'I would, your hanner; and why not? for in spite of what I have heard +Father Toban say, I am by no means certain that all Protestants will be +damned.' + +"'Farewell,' said I. + +"'Farewell, your hanner, and long life and prosperity to you! God bless +your hanner and your Orange face. Ah, the Orange boys are the boys for +keeping faith. They never served me as Dan O'Connell and his dirty gang +of repalers and emancipators did. Farewell, your hanner, once more; and +here's another scratch of the illigant tune your hanner is so fond of, to +cheer up your hanner's ears upon your way.' + +"And long after I had left him I could hear him playing on his fiddle in +first-rate style the beautiful tune of 'Down, down, Croppies Lie Down.'" + + + + +CHAPTER XXX--"WILD WALES" (_continued_) + + +Much more than in any of his other books Borrow is the hero in "Wild +Wales"--a strange black-coated gentleman with white hair striding over +the hills and along the rivers, carrying an umbrella, asking innumerable +questions and giving infinite information about history, literature, +religion, politics, and minor matters, willing to talk to anyone, but +determined not to put up at a trampers' hostelry. The Irish at Chester +took him for a minister, the Irish reapers in Anglesey took him for a +priest and got him to bless them in Latin while they knelt. All wondered +to hear the Saxon speaking or reading in Welsh. A man who could speak +Spanish addressed him in that language as a foreigner--"'I can't tell you +how it was, sir,' said he, looking me very innocently in the face, 'but I +was forced to speak Spanish to you.'" At Pentre Dwr the man with the +pigs heard his remarks on pigs and said: "I see you are in the trade and +understand a thing or two." The man on the road south to Tregaron told +him that he looked and spoke like the Earl of Leicester. + +He reveals himself also without recourse to impartial men upon the road. +The mere figure of the tall man inquiring for the birthplaces of poets +and literally translating place names for their meaning, is very powerful +in holding the attention. He does not conceal his opinions. Some were +already familiar to readers of Borrow, his admiration for Smollett and +for Scott as a writer, his hate of gentility, Cavaliers, Papists, France, +sherry, and teetotalism. He had some bad ale in Wales, and he had some +Allsopp, which he declared good enough for the summer, and at Bala one of +his best Welshmen gave him the best of home-brewed, "rich and mellow, +with scarcely any smack of the hop in it, and though so pale and delicate +to the eye nearly as strong as brandy." The Chester ale he spirted out +of the window after the Chester cheese. To his subjects of admiration he +also adds Robert Southey, as "not the least of Britain's four great +latter poets, decidedly her best prose writer, and probably the purest +and most noble character to which she has ever given birth"; but this was +when he was thinking of Madoc, the Welsh discoverer of America. I should +be sorry to have to name any of the other "four poets" except Byron. +Another literary _dictum_ is that Macpherson's "Ossian" is genuine +because a book which followed it and was undoubtedly genuine bore a +strong resemblance to it. An opinion that shows as fully as any single +one could Borrow's vivid and vague inaccuracy and perversity is this of +Snowdon: + +"But it is from its connection with romance that Snowdon derives its +chief interest. Who when he thinks of Snowdon does not associate it with +the heroes of romance, Arthur and his knights? whose fictitious +adventures, the splendid dreams of Welsh and Breton minstrels, many of +the scenes of which are the valleys and passes of Snowdon, are the origin +of romance, before which what is classic has for more than half a century +been waning, and is perhaps eventually destined to disappear. Yes, to +romance Snowdon is indebted for its interest and consequently for its +celebrity; but for romance Snowdon would assuredly not be what it at +present is, one of the very celebrated hills of the world, and to the +poets of modern Europe almost what Parnassus was to those of old." + +Who associates Snowdon with Arthur, and what Arthurian stories have the +valleys and passes of Snowdon for their scenes? what "poets of modern +Europe" have sung of it? And yet Borrow has probably often carried this +point with his reader. + +Borrow as a Christian is very conspicuous in this book. He cannot speak +of Sir Henry Morgan without calling him "a scourge of God on the cruel +Spaniards of the New World. . . . On which account God prospered and +favoured him, permitting him to attain the noble age of ninety." He was +fond of discovering the hand of God, for example, in changing a +nunnery--"a place devoted to gorgeous idolatry and obscene lust"--into a +quiet old barn: "Surely," he asks, "the hand of God is visible here?" and +the respectful mower answers: "It is so, sir." In the same way, when he +has told a man called Dafydd Tibbot, that he is a Frenchman--"Dearie me, +sir, am I indeed?" says the man, very pleased--he supposes the man a +descendant of a proud, cruel, violent Norman, for the descendants of +proud, cruel and violent men "are doomed by God to come to the dogs." He +tells us that he comforted himself, after thinking that his wife and +daughter and himself would before long be dead, by the reflection that +"such is the will of Heaven, and that Heaven is good." He showed his +respect for Sunday by going to church and hesitating to go to +Plynlimmon--"It is really not good to travel on the Sunday without going +into a place of worship." He wished, as he passed Gwynfe, which means +Paradise,--or _Gwynfa_ does; but no matter,--that he had never read Tom +Payne, who "thinks there's not such a place as Paradise." He lectures a +poet's mistress for not staying with her hunchbacked old husband and +making him comfortable: he expresses satisfaction at the poet's late +repentance. After praising Dafydd as the Welsh Ovid and Horace and +Martial, he says: + +"Finally, he was something more; he was what not one of the great Latin +poets was, a Christian; that is, in his latter days, when he began to +feel the vanity of all human pursuits, when his nerves began to be +unstrung, his hair to fall off, and his teeth to drop out, and he then +composed sacred pieces entitling him to rank with--we were going to say +Caedmon--had we done so we should have done wrong; no uninspired poet +ever handled sacred subjects like the grand Saxon Skald--but which +entitle him to be called a great religious poet, inferior to none but the +_protege_ of Hilda." + +(Here, by the way, he omits to correct the plural unity of the "Quarterly +Reviewer.") + +But perhaps these remarks are not more than the glib commonplaces of a +man who had found Christianity convenient, but not exactly sufficient. In +another place he says: "The wisest course evidently is to combine a +portion 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--that is what I intend to do, and indeed is what I +have done for the last thirty years." Which is as much as to say that he +was of "the religion of all sensible men": which is as much as to say +that he did not greatly trouble about such matters. + +In the cognate matter of patriotism Borrow is superficially more unsound +in "Wild Wales." At Birmingham railway station he "became a modern +Englishman, enthusiastically proud of modern England's science and +energy"; at the sight of Norman castles he felt no Norman enthusiasm, but +only hate for the Norman name, which he associated with "the deflowering +of helpless Englishwomen, the plundering of English homesteads, and the +tearing out of Englishmen's eyes"; but when he was asked on Snowdon if he +was a Breton, he replied: "I wish I was, or anything but what I am, one +of a nation amongst whom any knowledge save what relates to money-making +and over-reaching is looked upon as a disgrace. I am ashamed to say that +I am an Englishman." And at Gutter Fawr he gloomily expressed the +opinion that we were not going to beat the Russians--"the Russians are a +young nation and we are an old; they are coming on and we are going off; +every dog has its day." But this was mere refractoriness. England had +not asked his advice; she had moreover joined forces with her old enemy, +France: the patriot therefore hoped that she would perish to fulfil his +own prophecy that she must. And after the vaticination he sat down to a +large dish of veal cutlets, fried bacon and potatoes, with a jug of ale, +and "made one of the best suppers he ever made in his life," finally +"trifling" with some whisky and water. That is "the religion of every +sensible man," which is Lord Tennyson's phrase, I believe, but my +interpretation. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI--"WILD WALES": STYLE + + +"Wild Wales" having been written from a tourist's note books is less +flowing than "The Bible in Spain" and less delicate than "Lavengro" and +"The Romany Rye." A man is often called an "individual," the sun is +called "the candle of God." A book just bought is "my late literary +acquisition." Facts such as "I returned to Llangollen by nearly the same +way by which I had come," abound. Sentences straight from his note book, +lacking either in subject or predicate, occur here and there. At times a +clause with no sort of value is admitted, as when, forgetting the name of +Kilvey Hill, he says that Swansea town and harbour "are overhung on the +side of the east by a lofty green mountain with a Welsh name, no doubt +exceedingly appropriate, but which I regret to say has escaped my +memory." + +{picture: The Dolaucothy Arms. Photo: A. & G. Taylor, Swansea: +page302.jpg} + +More than once his direct simplicity slips into what could hardly have +been supposed to be within the power of such a pen, as in this conclusion +to a chapter: + +"How one enjoys one's supper at one's inn, after a good day's walk, +provided one has the proud and glorious consciousness of being able to +pay one's reckoning on the morrow!" + +Nor is the reader ever allowed to forget that a massive unfeeling +Victorianism is the basis of Borrow's style. Thus he tells the story of +the Treachery of the Long Knives: + +"Hengist, wishing to become paramount in Southern Britain, thought that +the easiest way to accomplish his wish would be by destroying the South +British chieftains. Not believing that he should be able to make away +with them by open force, he determined to see what he could do by +treachery. Accordingly he invited the chieftains to a banquet, to be +held near Stonehenge, or the Hanging Stones, on Salisbury Plain. The +unsuspecting chieftains accepted the invitation, and on the appointed day +repaired to the banquet, which was held in a huge tent. Hengist received +them with a smiling countenance, and every appearance of hospitality, and +caused them to sit down to table, placing by the side of every Briton one +of his own people. The banquet commenced and all seemingly was mirth and +hilarity. Now Hengist had commanded his people that, when he should get +up and cry 'nemet eoure saxes,' that is, take your knives, each Saxon +should draw his long sax, or knife, which he wore at his side, and should +plunge it into the throat of his neighbour. The banquet went on, and in +the midst of it, when the unsuspecting Britons were revelling on the good +cheer which had been provided for them, and half-drunken with the mead +and beer which flowed in torrents, uprose Hengist, and with a voice of +thunder uttered the fatal words, 'nemet eoure saxes'; the cry was obeyed, +each Saxon grasped his knife, and struck with it at the throat of his +defenceless neighbour. Almost every blow took effect; only three British +chieftains escaping from the banquet of blood. This infernal carnage the +Welsh have appropriately denominated the treachery of the long knives. It +will be as well to observe that the Saxons derived their name from the +saxes, or long knives, which they wore at their sides, and at the use of +which they were terribly proficient." + +Even so, Borrow's personal vitality triumphs, as it does over his many +mistakes, such as Lledach for Clydach, in Welsh orthography. There is +perhaps hardly such a thing as prose which shall be accounted perfect by +every different age: but what is most important of all, the harmony of +style which gradually steals upon the reader and subjects him to +incalculable minor effects, is not the property of any one age, but of +every age; and Victorian prose in general, and Borrow's in particular, +attains it. "Wild Wales" is rough in grain; it can be long-winded, +slovenly and dull: but it can also be read; and if the whole, or any +large portion, be read continuously it will give a lively and true +impression of a beautiful, diverse country, of a distinctive people, and +of a number of vivid men and women, including Borrow himself. It is less +rich than "The Bible in Spain," less atmospheric than "Lavengro." It is +Borrow's for reasons which lie open to the view, not on account of any +hidden pervasive quality. Thus what exaggeration there is may easily be +seen, as when a fallow deer is described as equal to a bull in size, or +when carn-lleidyr is said to be one "who, being without house and home, +was more desperate than other thieves, and as savage and brutish as the +wolves and foxes with whom he occasionally shared his pillow, the earn." +As a rule he keeps us upon an everyday normal plane. The bard of +Anglesey and the man who attends upon him come through no ivory gate: + +"They saluted me; I returned their salutation, and then we all three +stood still looking at one another. One of the men was rather a tall +figure, about forty, dressed in grey, or pepper-and-salt, with a cap of +some kind on his head, his face was long and rather good-looking, though +slightly pock-broken. There was a peculiar gravity upon it. The other +person was somewhat about sixty--he was much shorter than his companion, +and much worse dressed--he wore a hat that had several holes in it, a +dusty, rusty black coat, much too large for him; ragged yellow velveteen +breeches, indifferent fustian gaiters, and shoes, cobbled here and there, +one of which had rather an ugly bulge by the side near the toes. His +mouth was exceedingly wide, and his nose remarkably long; its extremity +of a deep purple; upon his features was a half-simple smile or leer; in +his hand was a long stick." + +{picture: Dolaucothy House. (From a photograph by Lady Pretyman, by +whose kind permission it is reproduced.): page305.jpg} + +My last example shall be the house of Dolau Cothi, near Pumpsaint, in +Caermarthenshire: + +"After breakfast I departed for Llandovery. Presently I came to a lodge +on the left-hand beside an ornamental gate at the bottom of an avenue +leading seemingly to a gentleman's seat. On inquiring of a woman who sat +at the door of the lodge to whom the grounds belonged, she said to Mr. +Johnes, and that if I pleased I was welcome to see them. I went in and +advanced along the avenue, which consisted of very noble oaks; on the +right was a vale in which a beautiful brook was running north and south. +Beyond the vale to the east were fine wooded hills. I thought I had +never seen a more pleasing locality, though I saw it to great +disadvantage, the day being dull, and the season the latter fall. +Presently, on the avenue making a slight turn, I saw the house, a plain +but comfortable gentleman's seat with wings. It looked to the south down +the dale. 'With what satisfaction I could live in that house,' said I to +myself, 'if backed by a couple of thousands a-year. With what gravity +could I sign a warrant in its library, and with what dreamy comfort +translate an ode of Lewis Glyn Cothi, my tankard of rich ale beside me. I +wonder whether the proprietor is fond of the old bard and keeps good ale. +Were I an Irishman instead of a Norfolk man I would go in and ask him.'" + +To the merit of this the whole book, perhaps the whole of Borrow's work, +contributes. Simple-looking tranquil successes of this kind are the +privilege of a master, and when they occur they proclaim the master with +a voice which, though gentle, will find but few confessing to be deaf to +it. They are not frequent in "Wild Wales." Borrow had set himself too +difficult a task to succeed altogether with his methods and at his age. +Wales was not unknown land; De Quincey, Shelley, and Peacock, had been +there in his own time; and Borrow had not sufficient impulse or +opportunity to transfigure it as he had done Spain; nor had he the time +behind him, if he had the power still, to treat it as he had done the +country of his youth in "Lavengro" and "The Romany Rye." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII--"ROMANO LAVO-LIL" + + +Ambition, with a little revenge, helped to impel Borrow to write +"Lavengro" and "The Romany Rye." Some of this ambition was left over for +"Wild Wales," which he began and finished before the publication of "The +Romany Rye." There was little of any impulse left for the writing of +books after "Wild Wales." In 1862 and 1863 he published in "Once a Week" +some translations in prose and verse, from Manx, Russian, Danish and +Norse--one poem, on Harald Harfagr, being illustrated by Frederick +Sandys. He never published the two-volume books, advertised as "ready +for the press" in 1857, "Celtic Bards, Chiefs, and Kings," "Kaempe Viser +. . . translated from the Ancient Danish," "Northern Skalds, Kings and +Earls." + +Borrow was living in Hereford Square, seeing many people, occasionally +dining well, walking out into the suburban country, and visiting the +Gypsy camps in London. He made notes of his observations and +conversations, which, says Knapp, "are not particularly edifying," +whatever that may mean. Knapp gives one example from the manuscript, +describing the race at Brompton, on October 14, 1861, between Deerfoot, +the Seneca Indian, and Jackson, the "American Deer." Borrow also wrote +for the "Antiquities of the Royal School of Norwich," an autobiography +too long for insertion. This survived to be captured and printed by +Knapp. It is very inaccurate, but it serves to corroborate parts of +"Lavengro," and its inaccuracy, though now transparent, is +characteristically exaggerated or picturesque. + +Borrow's scattered notes would perhaps never have been published in his +lifetime, but for an accident. In 1870 Charles Godfrey Leland, author of +"Hans Breitmann," introduced himself to Borrow as one who had read "The +Zincali," "Lavengro," and "The Romany Rye," five times. Borrow answered +that he would be pleased to see him at any time. They met and Leland +sent Borrow his "Breitmann Ballads" because of the German Romany ballad +in it, and his "Music Lesson of Confucius" because of the poem in it +inspired by Borrow's reference to Svend Vonved in "The Romany Rye." +Leland confessed in a genial familiar way what "an incredible influence" +Borrow's books had had on him, and thanked him for the "instructions in +'The Romany Rye' as to taking care of a horse on a thirty-mile ride." +Borrow became jealous of this American "Romany Rye." Leland, suspecting +nothing, wrote offering him the dedication of his "English Gypsies." John +Murray assured Leland that Borrow received this letter, but it was never +acknowledged except by the speedy announcement of a new book--"Romano +Lavo-Lil: a word book of the Romany or English Gypsy Language, by George +Borrow, with specimens of Gypsy poetry, and an account of certain +Gypsyries or places inhabited by them, and of various things relating to +Gypsy life in England." Leland speaks of the affair in "The Gypsies," +saying that he had nothing but pleasant memories of the good old Romany +Rye: + +"A grand old fellow he was--a fresh and hearty giant, holding his six- +feet-two or three inches as uprightly at eighty as he ever had at +eighteen. I believe that was his age, but may be wrong. Borrow was like +one of the old Norse heroes, whom he so much admired, or an old-fashioned +Gypsy bruiser, full of craft and merry tricks. One of these he played on +me, and I bear him no malice for it. The manner of the joke was this: I +had written a book on the English Gypsies and their language; but before +I announced it, I wrote a letter to Father George, telling him that I +proposed to print it, and asking his permission to dedicate it to him. He +did not answer the letter, but 'worked the tip' promptly enough, for he +immediately announced in the newspapers on the following Monday his 'Word- +book of the Romany 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 various things relating to Gypsy life +in England.' This was exactly what I had told him that my book would +contain. . . . I had no ill-feeling about it. + +"My obligations to him for 'Lavengro' and 'The Romany Rye' and his other +works are such as I owe to few men. I have enjoyed Gypsying more than +any other sport in the world, and I owe my love of it to George Borrow." + +"The English Gypsies" appeared in 1873, and the "Romano Lavo-Lil" in +1874. + +"Romano Lavo-Lil" contains a note on the English Gypsy language, a word- +book, some Gypsy songs and anecdotes with English translations, a list of +Gypsy names of English counties and towns, and accounts of several visits +to Gypsy camps in London and the country. It was hastily put together, +and the word-book, for example, did not include all the Romany used in +"Lavengro" and "The Romany Rye." There were now critics capable of +discovering other shortcomings. + +Borrow's book was reviewed along with Leland's "English Gypsies" and Dr. +Miklosich's "Dialects and Migrations of the Gypsies in Europe," and he +was attacked for his derivations, his ignorance of philology and of other +writers on his subject, his sketchy knowledge of languages, his +interference with the purity of the idiom in his Romany specimens. His +Gypsy songs were found interesting, his translations, of course, bad. The +final opinion of the book as a book on the Gypsy language was: {310} + +"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." + +Nor, apart from the word-book and Gypsy specimens, is the book a good +example of Borrow's writing. The accounts of visits to Gypsies at Kirk +Yetholm, Wandsworth, Pottery Lane (Notting Hill), and Friar's Mount +(Shore-ditch), are interesting as much for what they tell us of Borrow's +recreations in London as for anything else. The portrait of the "dark, +mysterious, beautiful, terrible" Mrs. Cooper, the story of Clara Bosvil, +the life of Ryley Bosvil--"a thorough Gypsy, versed in all the arts of +the old race, had two wives, never went to church, and considered that +when a man died he was cast into the earth, and there was an end of +him"--and his death and burial ceremony, and some of Borrow's own +opinions, for example, in favour of Pontius Pilate and George IV.--these +are simple and vigorous in the old style. They show that with a +sufficient impulse he could have written another book at least equal to +"Wild Wales." But these uneven fragments were not worthy of the living +man. They were the sort of thing that his friends might have been +expected to gather up after he was dead. Scraps like this from "Wisdom +of the Egyptians," are well enough: + +"'My father, why were worms made?' 'My son, that moles might live by +eating them.' 'My father, why were moles made?' 'My son, that you and I +might live by catching them.' 'My father, why were you and I made?' 'My +son, that worms might live by eating us.'" + +Related to Borrow, and to a living Gypsy, by Borrow's pen, how much +better! It is a book that can be browsed on again and again, but hardly +ever without this thought. It was the result of ambition, and might have +been equal to its predecessors, but competition destroyed the impulse of +ambition and spoilt the book. + +"Romano Lavo-Lil" was his last book. For posthumous publication he left +only "The Turkish Jester; or, The Pleasantries of Cogia Nasr Eddin +Effendi, translated from the Turkish by G. B." (Ipswich, 1884). This +was a string of the sayings and adventures of one Cogia, in this style: +"One day Cogia Nasr Eddin Effendi said: 'O Mussulmen, give thanks to God +Most High that He did not give the camel wings; for had He given them, +they would have perched upon your houses and chimneys, and have caused +them to tumble down upon your heads.'" This may have been the +translation from the Turkish that Fitzgerald read in 1857 and could not +admire. It is a diverting book and illustrates Borrow's taste. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII--LAST YEARS + + +From 1860 to 1874 Borrow lived at Brompton, and perhaps because he wrote +few letters these years seem to have been more cheerful, except at the +time of his wife's death. He is seen at "The Star and Garter" in 1861 +entertaining Murray and two others at dinner, in a heavy and expensive +style. He is still an uncomfortable, unattractive figure in a drawing- +room, especially with accurate and intelligent ladies, like Miss Frances +Power Cobbe, who would not humour his inaccurate dictatorship. Miss +Cobbe was his neighbour in Hereford Square. She says that if he was not +a Gypsy by blood he ought to have been one; she "never liked him, +thinking him more or less of a hypocrite," but nevertheless invited him +to her house and tried to console him in his bereavement by a gentle tact +which was not tact in Borrow's case: + +"Poor old Borrow is in a sad state. 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 to him as gently 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 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 _dared say_ 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 (of +course he knew very well), but he went on and on, till I said gravely: 'I +don't think you meet those sort of people here, Mr. Borrow--we don't +associate with Blacklegs, exactly.'" + +A cantankerous man, and as little fitted for Miss Cobbe as Miss Cobbe for +him. + +{picture: Francis Power Cobbe. (Reproduced by kind permission of Messrs. +Miller, Taylor and Holmes.): page313.jpg} + +There is not one pleasant story of Borrow in a drawing-room. His great +and stately stature, his bright "very black" or "soft brown" eyes, thick +white hair, and smooth oval face, his "loud rich voice" that could be +menacing with nervousness when he was roused, his "bold heroic air," +{313} ever encased in black raiment to complete the likeness to a +"colossal clergyman," never seemed to go with any kind of furniture, wall- +paper, or indoor company where there were strangers who might pester him. +His physical vigour endured, though when nearing sixty he is said to have +lamented that he was childless, saying mournfully: "I shall soon not be +able to knock a man down, and I have no son to do it for me." {314a} No +record remains of his knocking any man down. But, at seventy, he could +have walked off with E. J. Trelawny, Shelley's friend, under his arm, and +was not averse to putting up his "dukes" to a tramp if necessary. {314b} +At Ascot in 1872 he intervened when two or three hundred soldiers from +Windsor were going to wreck a Gypsy camp for some affront. Amid the +cursing and screaming and brandishing of belts and tent-rods appeared "an +arbiter, 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." +{314c} But this is told by Hindes Groome, who said in one place that he +met Borrow once, and in another three times. At seventy, he would +breakfast at eight in Hereford Square, walk to Roehampton and pick up Mr. +Watts-Dunton or Mr. Hake, roam about Wimbledon Common and Richmond Park, +bathe in the Pen Ponds even if it were March and there were ice on the +water, then run about to dry, and after fasting for twelve hours would +eat a dinner at Roehampton "that would have done Sir Walter Scott's eyes +good to see." {314d} He loved Richmond Park, and "seemed to know every +tree." {314e} He loved also "The Bald-faced Stag," in Roehampton Valley, +and over his pot of ale would talk about Jerry Abershaw, the highwayman, +and his deeds performed in the neighbourhood. {314f} If he liked old +Burton and '37 port he was willing to drink the worst swipes if +necessary. {314g} + +At another "Bald-faced Hind," above Fairlop, he used to see the Gypsies, +for it was their trysting place. He went in search of them in Wandsworth +and Battersea and whereever they were to be found, from Notting Hill to +Epsom Downs, though they were corrupted by loss of liberty and, in his +opinion, were destined soon to disappear, "merged in the dregs of the +English population." With them, as with others, his vocabulary was "rich +in picturesque words of the high road and dingle." Once he consented to +join a friend in trying Matthew Arnold's "Scholar Gypsy" on Gypsy taste. +The Gypsy girl was pleased with the seventeenth-century story on which +the poem is based, and with some "lovely bits of description," but she +was in the main at first bewildered, and at last unsympathetic and ran +away. The beauty of the girl was too much for Borrow's power of +expression--it was "really quite--quite--." The girl's companion, a +young woman with a child, was smoking a pipe, and Borrow took it out of +her mouth and asked her not to smoke till he came again, because the +child was sickly and his friend put it down to the tobacco. "It ought to +be a criminal offence for a woman to smoke at all," said Borrow; "fancy +kissing a woman's mouth that smelt of stale tobacco--pheugh!" {315} +Whether this proves Borrow's susceptibility to female charm I cannot say, +but it seems to me rather to prove a sort of connoisseurship, which is +not the same thing. + +Just after he was seventy, in 1874, the year of Jasper Petulengro's +death, Borrow left London for Oulton. He was no longer the walker and +winter bather of a year or two before, but was frequently at lodgings in +Norwich, and seen and noted as he walked in the streets or sat in the +"Norfolk." At Oulton he was much alone and was to be heard "by startled +rowers on the lake" chanting verses after his fashion. His remarkable +appearance, his solitariness in the neglected house and tangled garden, +his conversation with Gypsies whom he allowed to camp on his land, +created something of a legend. Children called after him "Gypsy!" or +"Witch!" {316} Towards the end he was joined at Oulton by his +stepdaughter and her husband, Dr. MacOubrey. In 1879 he was too feeble +to walk a few hundred yards, and furious with a man who asked his age. In +1880 he made his will. On July 26, 1881, when he was left entirely alone +for the day, he died, after having expected death for some time. He was +taken to West Brompton to be buried in that cemetery beside his wife. + + + + +CONCLUSION + + +In his introduction to "The Romany Rye," {317} Hindes Groome gave a long +list of Romany Ryes to show that Borrow was neither the only one nor the +first. He went on to say that there must have been over a dozen +Englishmen, in 1874, with a greater knowledge of the Anglo-Gypsy dialect +than Borrow showed in "Romano Lavo-Lil." He added that Borrow's +knowledge "of the strange history of the Gypsies was very elementary, of +their manners almost more so, and of their folk-lore practically _nil_." +And yet, he concluded, he "would put George Borrow above every other +writer on the Gypsies. . . . He communicates a subtle insight into +Gypsydom that is totally wanting in the works--mainly philological--of +Pott, Liebich . . . and their _confreres_." Hindes Groome was speaking, +too, from the point of view of a Romany student, not of a critic of human +literature. In the same way Borrow stands above other English writers on +Spain and Wales, for the insight and life that are lacking in the works +of the authorities. + +As a master of the living word, Borrow's place is high, and it is +unnecessary to make other claims for him. He was a wilful roamer in +literature and the world, who attained to no mastery except over words. +If there were many Romany Ryes before Borrow, as there were great men +before Agamemnon, there was not another Borrow, as there was not another +Homer. + +He sings himself. He creates a wild Spain, a wild England, a wild Wales, +and in them places himself, the Gypsies, and other wildish men, and +himself again. His outstanding character, his ways and gestures, +irresistible even when offensive, hold us while he is in our presence. In +these repressed indoor days, we like a swaggering man who does justice to +the size of the planet. We run after biographies of extraordinary +monarchs, poets, bandits, prostitutes, and see in them magnificent +expansions of our fragmentary, undeveloped, or mistaken selves. We love +strange mighty men, especially when they are dead and can no longer rob +us of property, sleep, or life: we can handle the great hero or +blackguard by the fireside as easily as a cat. Borrow, as his books +portray him, is admirably fitted to be our hero. He stood six-feet-two +and was so finely made that, in spite of his own statement which could +not be less than true, others have declared him six-feet-three and six- +feet-four. He could box, ride, walk, swim, and endure hardship. He was +adventurous. He was solitary. He was opinionated and a bully. He was +mysterious: he impressed all and puzzled many. He spoke thirty languages +and translated their poetry into verse. + +Moreover, he ran away. He ran away from school as a boy. He ran away +from London as a youth. He ran away from England as a man. He ran away +from West Brompton as an old man, to the Gypsyries of London. He went +out into the wilderness and he savoured of it. His running away from +London has something grand and allegorical about it. It reminds me of +the Welshman on London Bridge, carrying a hazel stick which a strange old +man recognised as coming from Craig-y-Dinas, and at the old man's bidding +he went to Craig-y-Dinas and to the cave in it, and found Arthur and his +knights sleeping and a great treasure buried. . . + +{picture: The Gipsyrie at Battersea. Photo: W. J. Roberts: page318.jpg} + +In these days when it is a remarkable thing if an author has his pocket +picked, or narrowly escapes being in a ship that is wrecked, or takes +poison when he is young, even the outline of Borrow's life is attractive. +Like Byron, Ben Jonson, and Chaucer, he reminds us that an author is not +bound to be a nun with a beard. He depicts himself continually, at all +ages, and in all conditions of pathos or pride. Other human beings, with +few exceptions, he depicts only in relation to himself. He never follows +men and women here and there, but reveals them in one or two concentrated +hours; and either he admires or he dislikes, and there is no mistaking +it. Thus his humour is limited by his egoism, which leads him into +extravagance, either to his own advantage or to the disadvantage of his +enemies. + +He kept good company from his youth up. Wistful or fancifully envious +admiration for the fortunate simple yeomen, or careless poor men, or +noble savages, or untradesmanlike fishermen, or unromanized _Germani_, or +animals who do not fret about their souls, admiration for those in any +class who are not for the fashion of these days, is a deep-seated and +ancient sentiment, akin to the sentiment for childhood and the golden +age. Borrow met a hundred men fit to awaken and satisfy this admiration +in an age when thousands can over-eat and over-dress in comfort all the +days of their life. Sometimes he shows that he himself admires in this +way, but more often he mingles with them as one almost on an equality +with them, though his melancholy or his book knowledge is at times +something of a foil. He introduces us to fighting men, jockeys, thieves, +and ratcatchers, without our running any risk of contamination. Above +all, he introduces us to the Gypsies, people who are either young and +beautiful or strong, or else witch-like in a fierce old age. + +Izaak Walton heard the Gypsies talking under the honeysuckle hedge at +Waltham, and the beggar virgin singing: + + "Bright shines the sun, play, beggars play! + Here's scraps enough to serve to-day." + +Glanvill told of the poor Oxford scholar who went away with the Gypsies +and learnt their "traditional kind of learning," and meant soon to leave +them and give the world an account of what he had learned. Men like +George Morland have lived for a time with Gypsies. Matthew Arnold +elaborated Glanvill's tale in a sweet Oxford strain. All these things +delight us. Some day we shall be pleased even with the Gypsy's carrion- +eating and thieving, "those habits of the Gypsy, shocking to the moralist +and sanitarian, and disgusting to the person of delicate stomach," which +please Mr. W. H. Hudson "rather than the romance and poetry which the +scholar-Gypsy enthusiasts are fond of reading into him." Borrow's +Gypsies are wild and uncoddled and without sordidness, and will not soon +be superseded. They are painted with a lively if ideal colouring, and +they live only in his books. They will not be seen again until the day +of Jefferies' wild England, "after London," shall come, and tents are +pitched amidst the ruins of palaces that had displaced earlier tents. +Borrow's England is the old England of Fielding, painted with more +intensity because even as Borrow was travelling the change was far +advanced, and when he was writing had been fulfilled. And now most +people have to keep off the grass, except in remotest parts or in the +neighbourhood of large towns where landowners are, to some extent, kept +in their place. The rivers, the very roads, are not ours, as they were +Borrow's. We go out to look for them still, and of those who adventure +with caravan, tent, or knapsack, the majority must be consciously under +Borrow's influence. + +Yet he was no mere lover and praiser of old times. His London in 1825 is +more romantic than the later London of more deliberate romances: he found +it romantic; he did not merely think it would be so if only we could see +it. He loved the old and the wild too well to deface his feeling by more +than an occasional comparison with the new and the refined, and these +comparisons are not effective. + +He is best when he is without apparent design. As a rule if he has a +design it is too obvious: he exaggerates, uses the old-fashioned trick of +re-appearance and recognition, or breaks out into heavy eloquence of +description or meditation. These things show up because he is the most +"natural" of writers. His style is a modification of the style of his +age, and is without the consistent personal quality of other vigorous +men's, like Hazlitt or Cobbett. Perhaps English became a foreign +language like his other thirty. Thus his books have no professional air, +and they create without difficulty the illusion of reality. This lack of +a literary manner, this appearance of writing like everybody else in his +day, combines, with his character and habits, to endear him to a +generation that has had its Pater and may find Stevenson too silky. + +More than most authors Borrow appears greater than his books, though he +is their offspring. It is one of his great achievements to have made his +books bring forth this lusty and mysterious figure which moves to and fro +in all of them, worthy of the finest scenes and making the duller ones +acceptable. He is not greater than his books in the sense that he is +greater than the sum of them: as a writer he made the most out of his +life. But in the flesh he was a fine figure of a man, and what he wrote +has added something, swelling him to more than human proportions, +stranger and more heroical. So we come to admire him as a rare specimen +of the _genus homo_, who had among other faculties that of writing +English; and at last we have him armed with a pen that is mightier than a +sword, but with a sword as well, and what he writes acquires a mythical +value. Should his writing ever lose the power to evoke this figure, it +might suffer heavily. We to-day have many temptations to over praise +him, because he is a Great Man, a big truculent outdoor wizard, who comes +to our doors with a marvellous company of Gypsies and fellows whose like +we shall never see again and could not invent. When we have used the +impulse he may give us towards a ruder liberty, he may be neglected; but +I cannot believe that things so much alive as many and many a page of +Borrow will ever die. + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY OF GEORGE BORROW + + +By EDWARD THOMAS. + + + +1823 + + +"New Monthly Magazine," Vol. 7: "The Diver, a Ballad translated from the +German," by G. O. B. + +"Monthly Magazine," Vol. 56: "Ode to a Mountain Torrent," from the German +of Stolberg; "Death," from the Swedish of J. C. Lohmann; "Mountain Song," +from the German of Schiller; "Danish Poetry and Ballad Writing," with a +translation of "Skion Middel"; "Lenora," a new translation from the +German, in the metre of the original; "Chloe," from the Dutch of Johannes +Bellamy; "Sea-Song," from the Danish of Evald; "The Erl-King, from the +German of Goethe; signed "George Olaus Borrow." + + + +1824 + + +"Monthly Magazine," Vol. 57: "Bernard's Address to his Army," a ballad +from the Spanish; "The Singing Mariner," a ballad from the Spanish; "The +French Princess," a ballad from the Spanish; "The Nightingale," +translated from the Danish; signed, all but the last, "George Olaus +Borrow." + +"Monthly Magazine," Vol. 58: "Danish Traditions and Superstitions"; "War- +Song," written when the French invaded Spain, translated from the Spanish +of Vincente, by George Olaus Borrow; "Danish Songs and Ballads," No. 1, +Bear Song, by "B." + +"Universal Review," Vols. 1 and 2, May, June, Sept, Nov.: Unsigned +reviews by Borrow. + + + +1825. + + +"Monthly Magazine," Vol. 58: "Danish Traditions and Superstitions." + +"Monthly Magazine," Vol. 59: "Danish Traditions and Superstitions," in +five parts; "The Deceived Merman," from the Danish, by "G. B." + +"Monthly Magazine," Vol. 60: "Danish Traditions and Superstitions," in +two parts. + +"Universal Review," Vol. 2, Jan.: Unsigned reviews by Borrow. + +"Celebrated Trials, and Remarkable Cases of Criminal Jurisprudence, from +the earliest records to the year 1825." 6 vols. Knight and Lacey, +Paternoster Row. + +"Faustus: His Life, Death, and Descent into Hell," translated from the +German. London, Simpkin and Marshall. + + + +1826. + + +"Romantic Ballads," translated from the Danish: and miscellaneous pieces, +by George Borrow. Norwich, S. Wilkin, Upper-Haymarket. Other copies +printed by S. Wilkin, published by John Taylor, London. + + + +1828-9. + + +"Memoirs of Vidocq," principal agent of the French police until 1827, and +now proprietor of the paper manufactory at St. Mande. Written by +himself. Translated from the French [by Borrow?]. 4 vols. London, +Whittaker, Treacher and Arnot, Ave Maria Lane. + + + +1830. + + +"Foreign Quarterly Review," Vol. 6, June. [Sixteen translations from the +Danish by Borrow, in an article by John Bowring.] + + + +1832. + + +"Norfolk Chronicle," August 18: On the origin of the word "Tory," by +George Borrow. + + + +1833. + + +"El Evangelio segun San Lucas traducido del Latin al Mexicano . . ." +Londres, Impreso por Samuel Bagster. [Corrected for the press by +Borrow.] + + + +1835. + + +"Targum, or Metrical Translations from Thirty Languages and Dialects," by +George Borrow. St. Petersburg, Schulz and Beneze. + +"The Talisman," from the Russian of Alexander Pushkin, with other pieces. +St. Petersburg, Schulz and Beneze. [Translated by Borrow.] + +"Mousei echen Isus Gheristos i tuta puha itche ghese." St. Petersburg, +Schulz and Beneze. [Edited by Borrow.] + + + +1836. + + +"Athenaeum," August 20: "The Gypsies of Russia and Spain." [Unsigned.] + +"Athenaeum," March 5. Review of "Targum," and of Borrow's edition of the +"Manchu Bible," by John P. Hasfeldt, + + + +1837. + + +"El Nuevo Testamento, traducido al Espanol. . . ." Madrid, D. Joaquin +de la Barrera. Edited by Borrow. + +"Embeo e Majaro Lucas. . . . El Evangelio segun S. Lucas, traducido al +Romani, o dialecto de los Gitanos de Espana." Madrid. [Translated by +Borrow, "in Badajoz, in the winter of 1836."] + + + +1838. + + +"Evangelioa San Lucasen Guissan. El Evangelio segun S. Lucas, traducido +al Vascuence." Madrid, Gompania Tipografica. [Edited by Borrow.] + + + +1841. + + +"The Zincali, or An Account of the Gypsies of Spain, with an original +collection of their songs, and a copious dictionary of their language." +By George Borrow, late Agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society. In +2 vols. London, John Murray. + + + +1842. + + +"Athenaeum," April and May; Review of "The Zincali." + +"Blackwood," September; Review of "The Zincali." + +"Monthly Review," May; Review of "The Zincali." + +"Westminster Review," May; Review of "The Zincali," by John Bowring. + +"British and Foreign Review," June. Review of "The Zincali," by Richard +Ford. + +"Excursions Along the Shores of the Mediterranean," by Col. E. H. D. +Elers Napier. + +"Gypsies," by Samuel Roberts. 5th edition. (Letter by Borrow.) + +"The Bible in Spain, or the Journeys, Adventures, and Imprisonments of an +Englishman, in an attempt to circulate the Scriptures in the Peninsula," +by George Borrow. In 3 vols. London, John Murray. + +"Athenaeum," December; Review of "The Bible in Spain." + +"Quarterly," December; Review of "The Bible in Spain." + +"Spectator," December; Review of "The Bible in Spain." + + + +1843. + + +"The Zincali." Second edition, with preface dated March 1, 1843. + +"Memoirs of William Taylor," by J. W. Robberds. + +"Edinburgh Review," February; review of "The Bible in Spain," by Richard +Ford. + +"Dublin Review," May; review of "The Bible in Spain." + +"Tait's Edinburgh Review," February, March; review of "The Bible in +Spain." + + + +1851. + + +"Lavengro: the Scholar--the Gypsy--the Priest," by George Borrow. In 3 +vols. London, John Murray. Portrait by Henry Wyndham Phillips. + +"Athenaeum," February; review of "Lavengro." + +"Blackwood," March; review of "Lavengro." + +"Fraser," March; review of "Lavengro." + +"New Monthly Magazine," March; review of "Lavengro," by W. H. Ainsworth. + +"New Monthly Magazine," April; review of "Lavengro," by T. Gordon Hake. + +"Tait's Edinburgh Magazine," May; review of "Lavengro," by William Bodham +Donne. + +"Britannia," April 26; review of "Lavengro." + + + +1852. + + +"Hungary in 1851; with an Experience of the Austrian Police," by Charles +L. Brace. + + + +1857. + + +"The Romany Rye," a sequel to "Lavengro," by George Borrow. In 2 vols. +London, John Murray. + +"Quarterly Review"; review of "Lavengro," by Whitwell Elwin. + +"Saturday Review," May 23; review of "Lavengro." + +"Athenaeum," May 23; review of "Lavengro." + + + +1859. + + +"History of the British and Foreign Bible Society," by George Browne. + + + +1860. + + +"The Sleeping Bard, or Visions of the World, Death, and Hell," by Elis +Wyn. Translated from the Cambrian British by George Borrow. London, +John Murray. + + + +1861. + + +"Quarterly Review," January: "The Welsh and their Literature," by George +Borrow. + + + +1862. + + +"Wild Wales: its People, Language, and Scenery," by George Borrow. 3 +vols. London, John Murray. + +"Spectator," December; review of "Wild Wales." + +"Once a Week," Vol. 6: "Ballads of the Isle of Man,"--"Brown William," +and "Mollie Charane." "Russian Popular Tales"--"Emelian the Fool," "The +Story of Yvashka with the Bear's Ear," and "The Story of Tim." Vol. 7: +"Harold Harfagr." [Translations by Borrow.] + + + +1863. + + +"Once a Week," Vol. 8: "The Count of Vendel's Daughter." Vol. 9: "The +Hail-Storm, or the Death of Bui." [Translations by Borrow.] + +"The Cornhill Magazine," January; review of "Wild Wales." + + + +1872. + + +"Romany Rye," 3rd edition, with note by Borrow. + + + +1874. + + +"Romano Lavo-Lil: Word-Book of the Romany, or English Gypsy Language. +With many pieces in Gypsy, illustrative of the way of 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." By George Borrow. London, John +Murray. + +"Athenaeum," April 25; review of "Romano Lavo-Lil." + +"Academy," June 13; review of "Romano Lavo-Lil," by F. Hindes Groome. + + + +1876. + + +"Correspondence and Table Talk of B. R. Haydon." + + + +1877. + + +"Autobiography of Harriet Martineau." + + + +1880. + + +"In Gypsy Tents," by F. Hindes Groome. + + + +1881. + + +"Athenaeum," August 6, article by Whitwell Elwin. + +"Athenaeum," August 13, article by A. Egmont Hake. + +"Athenaeum," September 3 and 10, articles by Theodore Watts. + +"Macmillan's Magazine," November, articles by A. Egmont Hake. + + + +1882. + + +"Memories of Old Friends," by Caroline Fox. + + + +1883. + + +"East Anglican Handbook," article by Charles Mackie. + +"East Anglia," by J. Ewing Ritchie. + +"The Red Dragon, the National Magazine of Wales." Vol. 3. "George +Borrow in Wales," by Tal-a-hen. + + + +1884. + + +"The Turkish Jester; or, The Pleasantries of Cogia Nasr Eddin Effendi." +Translated from the Turkish by George Borrow. Ipswich, W. Webber. + + + +1885. + + +"Ecrivains modernes de l'Angleterre," par Emile Montegut. + + + +1886. + + +"Macmillan's Magazine," article by George Saintsbury. + + + +1887. + + +"Obiter Dicta," by Augustine Birrell. [2nd Series.] + +"Epoch (U.S.A.)" article by Julian Hawthorne. + + + +1888. + + +"Athenaeum," March 17, article by Theodore Watts. + +"Reflector," Jan. 8, article by Augustine Birrell. + +"La Critique Scientifique," by Emile Hennequin. Paris. + + + +1889. + + +"The Death of Balder." Translated from the Danish of Evald, by George +Borrow. Norwich. London, Jarrold and Son. + +"Letters and Literary Remains of Edward Fitzgerald." + +"Journal of Gypsy Lore Society," Vol. 1, article by Rev. Wentworth +Webster. + +"Bible in Spain," with biographical introduction by G. T. Bettany, +London: Ward, Lock. + + + +1890. + + +"Views and Reviews," by W. E. Henley. + +"Essays in English Literature," by G. Saintsbury. + + + +1891. + + +"A Publisher and his Friends," by Samuel Smiles. + + + +1892. + + +"Eastern Daily Press," September 17, 19, 22. + +"Eastern Daily Press," October 1. + +"Bohemes et Gypsies" (translation of parts of "Lavengro," with +biographical sketch by H. Duclos. Paris). + +"Memoirs of Eighty Years," by Thomas Gordon Hake. + + + +1893. + + +"Bookman," February, article by F. Hindes Groome. + +"Athenaeum," July 8, article by Augustus Jessopp. + +"Athenaeum," July 22, article by A. W. Upcher. + +"Lavengro," with introduction by Theodore Watts. London, Ward, Lock. + +"Memoirs," by C. G. Leland. + + + +1894. + + +"Letters of Edward Fitzgerald," edited by W. Aldis Wright. + +"Life of Frances Power Cobbe," by herself. + + + +1895. + + +"Journals and Correspondence of Lady Eastlake," edited by C. E. Smith. + +"Good Words," February, article by John Murray. + + + +1896. + + +"George Borrow in East Anglia," by W. A. Dutt. + +"Lavengro," with introduction by Augustine Birrell; illustrated by E. J. +Sullivan. London, Macmillan. + +"Bible in Spain," with notes and glossary by Ulick Ralph Burke. London, +Murray. + +"Globe," July 21. "Vestiges of George Borrow: some Personal +Reminiscences." + + + +1899. + + +"Bible Society Reporter," July. + +"Life, Writings, and Correspondence of George Borrow," derived from +official and other authentic sources, by William I. Knapp, with portrait +and illustrations. 2 vols. London, John Murray. + +"Athenaeum," March 25; review of W. I. Knapp's "Life of Borrow," by +Theodore Watts-Dunton. + +"Bookman," May; review of Knapp, by F. Hindes Groome. + + + +1900. + + +"Lavengro." A new edition, containing the unaltered text of the original +issue; some suppressed episodes; MS. variorum, vocabulary and notes. By +the author of "The Life of George Borrow." Definitive edition. London, +John Murray. + +"Lavengro," illustrated by C. A. Shepperson, with introduction by C. E. +Beckett. + +"The Romany Rye." A new edition, containing the unaltered text of the +original issue; some suppressed episodes; MS. variorum, vocabulary and +notes. By the author of "The Life of George Borrow." Definitive +edition. London, John Murray. + +"The Romany Rye," with a defence of George Borrow, by Theodore +Watts-Dunton. + +"Daily Chronicle," April 30, 1900, article by Augustus Jessopp. + + + +1901. + + +"More Letters of Edward Fitzgerald," edited by W. Aldis Wright. + +"Archiv, N. S.," July; "George Borrow," by Georg Herzfeld. Berlin. + +"Isopel Berners," edited by Thomas Seccombe. [Passages arranged from +"Lavengro" and "The Romany Rye."] + +"Lavengro," edited by F. Hindes Groome. + + + +1902. + + +"Bookman," February; "George Borrow, his Homes and Haunts," by Thomas +Seccombe. + +"Some 18th Century Men of Letters," by Whitwell Elwin, edited by Warwick +Elwin. + + + +1903. + + +"The Romany Rye," edited by John Sampson. + + + +1904. + + +"Story of the Bible Society," by William Canton. + +"Gypsy Stories from 'The Bible in Spain,'" edited by W. H. D. Rouse. + +"Stories of Antonio and Benedict Mol," edited by W. H. D. Rouse. + +"Lavengro," illustrated by Claude Shepperson. + + + +1905. + + +"The Letters of Richard Ford," edited by R. E. Prothero. + +"William Bodham Donne and his Friends," by Catherine B. Johnson. + +"Selections from George Borrow." London, Arnold. + +"Spanish Influence on English Literature," by Martin A. S. Hume. + + + +1906. + + +"Lavengro," edited by Thomas Seccombe. (Everyman Library.) + +"Wild Wales," edited by Theodore Watts-Dunton. (Everyman Library.) + +"The Bible in Spain," edited by Edward Thomas. (Everyman Library.) + +"Charles Godfred Leland," by Elizabeth Robins Pennell. + +"The Vagabond in Literature," by Arthur Rickett. + + + +1907. + + +"Immortal Memories," by Clement Shorter. + +"The Literature of Roguery," by Frank W. Chandler. + + + +1908. + + +"George Borrow: the Man and his Work," by R. A. J. Walling. + +"The Annals of Willenhall," by Frederick William Hackwood. + +"The Bible in the World," July; "Footprints of George Borrow," by A. G. +Jayne. + + + +1909. + + +"The Border Magazine," March, April: "George Borrow and the Borders," by +J. Pringle. + +"Annals of the Harford family." + + + +1910. + + +"The Little Guide to Staffordshire," by Charles Masefield (s.v. +Willenhall and Bushbury). + +"Y Cymmrodor" (Journal of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion): +"Journal of Borrow's Second Tour in Wales," with notes by T. C. Cantrill +and J. Pringle. + +"Gypsy Lore." Vol. 3 (New Series): article on Borrow's "Gypsies," by T. +W. Thompson. + +"George Borrow," by Bernhard Blaesing. Berlin. + + + +1911. + + +"Letters of George Borrow to the Bible Society," edited by T. H. Darlow. + +"Post Liminium," by Lionel Johnson. + + + +1912. + + +"The Life of George Borrow," compiled from unpublished official +documents, his works, correspondence, etc. By Herbert Jenkins, with a +frontispiece and 12 other illustrations. London, John Murray. + +"Nation," review of above, Feb. 17. + +"New Age," review of above, by T. W. Thompson, March. + + + + +INDEX + + +"Adventures of Captain Singleton, The," pp. 43-44, 51. + +"Athenaeum, The," pp. 35, 166, 209-10, 218, 221, 310. + +Barbauld, Mrs., p. 68. + +Benson, A. C., p. 209. + +Berners, Isopel, pp. 34, 50, 93, 220. _See also_ ROMANY RYE--Characters. + +Berwick-upon-Tweed, p. 3. + +BIBLE IN SPAIN, THE, + general references, pp. 6, 10, 11, 28, 32, 111, 113, 147. + studied in detail, pp. 162-199. + autobiographical basis of, p. 112. + characters of, pp. 181-191: Benedict Mol, pp. 181-188; Antonio, pp. +190-191; Abarbanel, p. 189; Francisco, pp. 152-154. + materials of, pp. 6, 32, 163, 164, 169, 213. + style, pp. 168, 192-199: faults, p. 195; biblical touches, p. 196; +dialogue, pp. 196-199; foreign words, pp. 197, 198-199. + quotations from, pp. 173-176, 177, 179-180, 193, 197-198. + contemporary and other criticisms of:--pp. 16, 35-36, 148, 166, 198. + +British and Foreign Bible Society, the, pp. 14, 125, 126-127, 139-140, +144; for Borrow's letters to the Society, _see_ "Letters." + +Blackheath, pp. 92, 96. + +Borrow, Ann, pp. 55, 61, 81, 112, 133, 144, 201, 208, 210, 231, 272. + +Borrow, John Thomas, pp. 55-56, 85, 105, 133, 215, 231. + +BORROW, GEORGE HENRY, + +(i) LIFE:-- + + parentage, pp. 55-56. + birth, pp. 2, 56. + his name, pp. 2-4. + travelling with his father's regiment, pp. 56-57. + at Pett, pp. 21, 56. + at Hythe, pp. 22, 56. + at Canterbury, p. 56. + at Dereham, pp. 56, 57. + at Norman Cross, and first meeting with Gypsies, p. 57. + at school at Dereham, Huddersfield and Edinburgh, p. 57; at Norwich +Grammar School, p. 59; at the Protestant Academy, Clonmel, pp. 59-60; +again at Norwich Grammar School, pp. 60, 61-64. + plays truant, pp. 13, 64. + breakdown in health at sixteen, pp. 32, 65. + articled to a solicitor at Norwich, p. 65. + frequents Taylor's circle, pp. 66-72. + reads in the library of Norwich guildhall, p. 73. + publishes translations, pp. 73-80. + has another illness, p. 81. + goes to London, p. 81. + compiles "Celebrated Trials" and publishes translations and articles, +p. 85. + ill again: leaves London and begins wandering, p. 96. + poisoned by Mrs. Herne, p. 70; meets Isopel Berners, _id_. + at Norwich in 1826, p. 112; in London in same year, _id_. + at Norwich in 1827, p. 113. + in London in 1829 and 1830, _id_. + at Norwich in 1830, p. 117. + meets Mrs. Clarke, 1832, p. 125. + interview with the Bible Society in same year, _id_. + sent to St. Petersburg, July, 1833, pp. 130-131. + travels to Novgorod and Moscow, p. 133. + leaves Russia in 1835, p. 133. + after a month in England, sails for Lisbon in November, 1835, p. 134. + crosses into Spain early in 1836, reaches Madrid, and returns to +London in October, p. 135. + returns to Spain at the end of a month, p. 137. + quarrels with the Society, and is recalled in 1838, pp. 140-141. + returns to Spain at end of the same year, p. 141. + journeys to Tangier and Barbary in 1839, p. 143. + becomes engaged to Mrs. Clarke, p. 144. + leaves Spain finally in April, 1840, p. 145. + marries Mrs. Clarke, _id_. + settles at Oulton, p. 147. + publication of "The Zincali" in 1841, p. 147. + publication of "The Bible in Spain" in 1842, p. 166. + re-editions and translations of "The Bible in Spain," p. 200. + his fame and popularity, _id_. + is not made a J.P., p. 201. + restless and unsatisfied, p. 202. + travels again in 1844, p. 203. + settles in England, p. 204. + writes "Lavengro," p. 205. + publication of "Lavengro" in 1851, p. 212. + moves to Yarmouth in 1853, p. 207. + publication of "The Romany Rye" delayed, p. 212. + his annoyance at the criticisms of "Lavengro," pp. 212, 253-254. + tours in Cornwall in 1853, p. 264. + in Wales in 1854, pp. 265-268. + in the Isle of Man in 1855, pp. 268-269. + in Wales in 1857, pp. 269-272. + in Scotland in 1858, pp. 272-273. + settles in London in 1860, p. 273. + visits Ireland in 1860, p. 273. + publication of "Wild Wales" in 1862, p. 275. + in Scotland and Ireland in 1866, p. 273. + in Sussex and Hampshire in 1868, p. 274. + meets Leland in 1870, pp. 308-309. + publication of "Romano Lavo-Lil" in 1874, p. 309. + anecdotes of Borrow _aetat_. 60-70, pp. 312-315. + leaves London and goes to Oulton in 1874, p. 315. + is often in Norwich, _id_. + death in 1881, p. 316. + +(ii.) CHARACTER:-- + + appearance, pp. 55, 56, 61, 70, 105-106 (at twenty-two), 201-202 (at +forty), 308 (at eighty). + portraits, pp. 105, 112, 204. + manners, pp. 170-172. + habits as a child, pp. 56, 60. + self-centred, p. 1; reserved and solitary, p. 70; melancholy, pp. 85, +110, 112, 117; mysterious and impressive, pp. 12-13, 19, 167; sensitive, +p. 86 + attacks of "horrors," pp. 34, 98, 117 sqq., 131. + surly and ill-tempered in middle life, pp. 208, 209. + kindness to animals, pp. 210-211. + passion for horses, pp. 60, 107-109, 192, 203. + dislike of smoking, pp. 116, 315; and other prejudices, pp. 297-298. + attitude towards vagrants and criminals, pp. 258-263. + patriotism, pp. 214, 227-228. + religious belief, pp. 24, 30-31, 33, 50, 56-57, 71, 81, 114, 122-123, +126, 127-129, 168-169, 175, 218, 242, 299-300. + his memory, pp. 29-30, 70, 75. + +(iii.) CHARACTERISTICS AS A WRITER:-- + + collection and choice of material, pp. 20, 163-165, 218. + personality and observation, p. 148. + descriptive power, pp. 173-180. + vocabulary, pp. 226, 242. + use of the marvellous and supernatural, p. 85. + treatment of facts, pp. 2, 5, 12-13, 25, 27, 32, 35, 36, 39, 50-51, +93, 94, 95, 180, 188, 228-229. + use of dramatic re-appearances, pp. 11, 93, 185, 189-190, 229-230, +233, 254, 321. + love of mystery and romance, pp. 12, 193-194, 196, 217-218, 227, 320, +321. + final estimate, pp. 317-322. + +(iv.) LITERARY DEVELOPMENT:-- + + his imagination stimulated by Danish relics, p. 23. + his reading, pp. 40-51, 77-79, 85. + character of his early work, pp. 74-75, 77, 79-80, 117. + +(v.) KNOWLEDGE OF LANGUAGES:-- + + Latin, pp. 57, 60; Greek, pp. 60, 61; Irish, pp. 60, 65; French, p. +62; Italian, _id_.; Spanish, _id_.; Gypsy, pp. 64, 137-138, 236; Welsh, +pp. 65, 267-268; Danish, p. 65; Hebrew, p. 65; Arabic, pp. 65, 113; +Armenian, pp. 65, 98, 103; German, p. 70; Portuguese, p. 70; Old English, +p. 73; Old Norse, p. 73; Swedish, p. 73; Dutch, p. 73; Persian, pp. 113, +204; Manchu-Tartar, pp. 125, 129; Russian, pp. 131-132; Manx, pp. 268- +269: Translations from Welsh, pp. 73, 75, 114; from Danish, pp. 73, 75; +from German, pp. 73, 75, from Swedish, p. 73; from Dutch, p. 73; from +Gypsy, pp. 79-80; from Russian, pp. 131-132; from Manx, p. 269; from +"thirty languages," pp. 79, 114. + +(vi.) PORTRAYAL OF HIMSELF:-- + + general references, pp. 1, 6, 7, 10, 14, 17, 21, 28, 51, 53-54. + as a child, p. 56. + as a missionary, p. 128. + in "The Zincali," pp. 149-154. + in "The Bible in Spain," pp. 173, 188, 192, 194-195. + in "Lavengro," pp. 213-215. + in "The Romany Rye," pp. 255-256, 256-257. + in "Wild Wales," pp. 297-301. + +Borrow, Mary, pp. 147, 166, 273, 274. + +Borrow, Thomas, pp. 24, 61-62, 70, 201, 231. + early life and marriage, p. 25. + at Norwich, pp. 24, 61-62, 70. + death, p. 81. + +Bowring, J., pp. 71-72, 113, 207, 212, 269. + +Brooke, J., p. 62. + +Bunyan, J., p. 41. + +Burton, R., pp. 188-189. + +Byron, Ld., pp. 41, 80, 91, 205. + +Carlyle, J., p. 68. + +"Catholic Times, The," p. 242. + +"Celebrated Trials," pp. 40, 62, 79, 84. + +Clarke, Henrietta, pp. 126, 143, 145, 207, 267, 273, 316. + +Clarke, Mary, pp. 14, 125, 126, 133, 143-144, 145: _See also_ Borrow +Mary. + +Cobbe, F. P., pp. 312-313. + +Cobbett, W., pp. 47-50, 164. + +Cowper, W., pp 24, 26. + +"Dairyman's Daughter, the," pp. 81-84. + +Darlow, T. H., pp. 163, 164. + +Defoe, D., pp. 41, 43-44, 54, 250. + +De Quincey, T., pp. 44, 51. + +Donne, W. B., p. 36. + +Dutt, W. A., p. 205. + +East Dereham, pp. 2, 26, 30. + +Eastlake, Lady, p. 201. + +"Edinburgh Review, The," pp. 148, 198, 203. + +"Elvir Hill," p. 3. + +Elwin, W., pp. 36, 252, 253, 314. + +"English Rogue, The," p. 44. + +"Examiner, The," p. 166. + +Fitzgerald, E., pp. 209, 311. + +Flamson, p. 207. + +Ford, R., pp. 14, 19, 20, 26, 28, 29, 44, 148, 165, 166-167, 197, 198, +202, 203, 207, 213, 253. + +Fox, Caroline, p. 201. + +"Fraser's Magazine," pp. 35-36. + +Giraldus Cambrensis, pp. 276-277. + +"Gil Blas," pp. 16, 189. + +Goethe, p. 74. + +Groome, F. Hindes, pp. 221, 314, 317. + +Gurney, A., p. 210. + +Gypsies, pp. 2, 6-10, 12-13, 17-19, 45-46, 57, 64, 97, 132-133, 135-138, +142-143, 148-149, 152, 154, 170, 197-198, 219, 221-226, 234-242, 261-262, +273-274, 309-311, 314-315, 319-320. + +"Gypsies of Spain, The," _see_ "Zincali, The." + +"Gypsy Lore" (article by T. W. Thompson), p. 2. + +Haggart, David, pp. 57-59. + +Hake, A. E., pp. 313, 314. + +Hake, G., p. 208. + +Hardy, T., p. 68. + +"Hayward, S. D., The Life of," pp. 88-90. + +Hazlitt, W., p. 66. + +Hudson, W. H., p. 320. + +Jefferies, R., pp. 3, 23, 320. + +"Joseph Sell," pp. 92-95, 99. + +Keats, J., p, 80. + +Knapp, W. I., pp. 2, 6, 13, 29-30, 31-32, 36, 37, 39, 40, 52, 59, 64, 71, +72, 73, 92, 93, 95, 112, 113, 136, 138, 140, 181, 188, 203-204, 206-207, +210, 212, 234, 265, 268, 269, 273, 307. + +Lamb, C., p. 198. + +LAVENGRO, + general references, p. 14, 19-20, 28, 30, 32, 44, 65, 66, 79, 81, 86, +93, 96-98, 123, 147, 189. + studied in detail, pp. 212-252. + autobiographical basis, pp. 15, 50-51, 52. + characters of, pp. 50, 231-244. + the publisher, pp. 232-233. + the Anglo-Germanist, p. 231. + Jasper Petulengro, s.v. and pp. 236-238. + _see also_ ROMANY RYE--Characters. + materials of, pp. 50, 212-213. + style, pp. 21-26, 245-252. + occasionally Victorian, pp. 245-246. + the vocabulary, pp. 246-247. + quotations from, pp. 3-5, 21-26, 32-34, 37-38, 41-43, 86-87, 96, 98- +101, 101-103, 117-122, 213-214, 215-217, 219, 222-224, 224-225, 225-226, +234-236, 245, 258-259, 259-260. + contemporary and other criticisms of:--pp. 35, 36, 220, 221, 253. + +Leland, C. G., pp. 87-88, 308-309. + +Letters of Borrow to the Bible Society, + general references, pp. 19, 32, 50, 112, 163-164, 173. + quotations from, pp. 128-130, 132-133, 135-136, 140, 144. + +Lhuyd's "Archaeologia," p. 277. + +"Life, a Drama," pp. 20, 21. + +Lockhart, J. G., p. 207. + +"Mabinogion, The," p. 277. + +Mackintosh, Sir J., p. 66. + +Martineau, J., p. 62. + +Martineau, H., p. 69. + +"Moll Flanders," p. 44. + +Montegut, E., p. 253. + +"Monthly Magazine, The," pp. 73, 74. + +Moore-Carew, B., pp. 45-47. + +Morganwg, Iolo, p. 277. + +Murray, J., pp. 16, 19, 166, 212. + +"My Life: a Drama," p. 19. + +Napier, Col., pp. 141-143, 203. + +"New Monthly Magazine, The," p. 73. + +"Newgate Lives and Trials," _see_ "_Celebrated Trials_." + +"Once a Week," pp. 269, 307. + +Opie, A., p. 68. + +Oulton, pp. 28, 147, 315. + +"Oxford Review, The," _see_ "Universal Review, The." + +Perfrement, Ann, p. 55: _See also_ Borrow, Ann. + +Peto, Mr., p. 207. + +Petulengro, Jasper, pp. 2, 17-20, 26, 57, 64, 92, 315: _See also_ +LAVENGRO--Characters. + +Phillips, H. W., p. 204. + +Phillips, Sir, R., pp. 73, 81, 232. + +"Quarterly Review, The," pp. 36, 207, 275-276. + +Reynolds, J. H., pp. 90-91. + +Ritchie, J. E., p. 71. + +Robinson, Crabb, p. 68. + +"Robinson Crusoe," pp. 41-43, 44. + +"Romantic Ballads," pp. 76, 80, 112. + +ROMANO LAVO-LIL, + autobiographical anecdote in, pp. 273-274. + publication of, pp. 308-309. + criticisms of, pp. 309-310. + main interest of, pp. 310-311. + +ROMANY RYE, THE, + general references, pp. 28, 79, 93, 111, 189. + studied in detail, pp. 212-252. + inferiority to "Lavengro," p. 230. + autobiographical basis of, p. 50-51, 52, 112. + characters of, pp. 72, 231-244. + Flamson, p. 207. + the Old Radical, p. 207. + Isopel Berners, s.v. and pp. 239-242. + the Man in Black, pp. 242-244. + materials of, pp. 212-213. + style, _see under_ LAVENGRO--Style. + quotations from, pp. 107-109, 127-128, 237-238, 238-239, 239-241, 241- +242, 245-246, 247-250, 254, 255-256, 256-257, 260-261, 261-262. + contemporary and other criticisms of, pp. 36, 252. + +"Saturday Review, The," p. 253. + +Scaliger, J., p. 26. + +Scott, Sir W., pp. 66, 112. + +Seccombe, T., pp. 1, 50, 68, 96, 97, 242-243, 250-251. + +"Sleeping Bard, The," pp. 114-116, 275-276. + +Smith, Ambrose, pp. 2, 19, 26. + +Smollett, J., pp. 41, 250. + +"Songs of Scandinavia," p. 113. + +Southey, R., pp. 70, 71. + +Sterne, L. pp. 41, 54, 250. + +Stevenson, R. L., p. 3. + +Strickland, A., p. 208. + +"Tait's Edinburgh Magazine," p. 36. + +"Targum," pp. 79, 114. + +Taylor, W., pp. 25, 66-70. + +Thurtell, J., pp. 7, 62-64, 233, 258, 259-260. + +"Turkish Jester, The," p. 311. + +"Universal Review, The," pp. 84, 91. + +Vidocq's Memoirs, pp 93-95, 113. + +"Vocabulary of the Gypsy Language," p. 203. + +Walling, R. A. J., pp. 72, 113, 122, 204, 208, 218, 265. + +"Wandering Children and the Benevolent Gentleman, The," p. 13. + +Watts-Dunton, T., pp. 51, 93, 122, 206, 220, 314, 315. + +Wesley, J., p. 50. + +WILD WALES, + general references, pp. 65, 123-124. + studied in detail, pp. 275-306. + autobiographical basis, pp. 113-114. + characters of, pp. 284-289. + the bard, pp. 284-287. + the Irish fiddler, pp. 290-296. + materials of, pp. 272, 277. + style, pp. 302-306. + quotations from, pp. 278-279, 280, 281-283, 283-284, 284-287 288-296, +298, 299-300, 302-303, 304, 305. + criticisms of, p. 276. + +Wordsworth, W., p. 80. + +Yeats, W. B., p. 58. + +ZINCALI, THE, + general references, pp. 6, in, 144. + studied in detail, pp. 147-162. + autobiographical basis of, p. 113. + characters of, + the Gitana of Seville, pp. 156-161. + materials of, p. 6, 147-148, 163, 164. + style, pp. 155, 156, 162. + contemporary and other criticisms of, pp. 35-36, 148. + quotations from, p. 6-10, 15-17, 18-19, 137-138, 152-154, 155-156, 156- +161. + + + + +Footnotes: + + +{1} Thomas Seccombe; introduction to "Lavengro" (Everyman). + +{2} "Gypsy Lore," Jan., 1910. + +{3} "Lavengro," Chapter VI. + +{13a} Knapp I., 62-4. + +{13b} II., 207. + +{17a} Good-day. + +{17b} Glandered horse. + +{17c} Two brothers. + +{18a} Christmas, literally Wine-day. + +{18b} Irishman or beggar, literally a dirty squalid person. + +{18c} Guineas. + +{19a} Silver teapots. + +{19b} The Gypsy word for a certain town (Norwich). + +{30} Suppressed MS. of "Lavengro," quoted in Knapp I., 36. + +{31} Knapp I., 25. + +{50} "Lavengro." + +{68} _See_ "Panthera" in "Time's Laughing Stocks," by Thomas Hardy. + +{71a} J. Ewing Ritchie. + +{71b} Dr. Knapp, I., 79, connects this question with Captain Borrow's +last will and testament, made on Feb. 11, 1822. + +{72} "George Borrow: the Man and His Work," 1908. + +{75a} Translation published, Norwich, 1825, anonymous. + +{75b} Translation published, London, Jarrold & Sons, 1889. + +{85} "Romantic Ballads." + +{87} "The Gypsies." + +{93a} "The Romany Rye," edited by F. Hindes Groome. + +{93b} Translated, 1828. + +{96} "Isopel Berners." + +{97} Knapp, I., 105. + +{114} _See_ "_Wild Wales_," Chapter XXXIII. + +{126} Borrow's Letters to the Bible Society: Introduction, p. 2. + +{128a} Borrow's Letters to the Bible Society, p. 469. + +{128b} _Ibid_., p. 27. + +{128c} _Ibid_., p. 280. + +{128d} _Ibid_., p. 342. + +{129a} Borrow's Letters to the Bible Society, p. 20. + +{129b} _Ibid_., p. 364. + +{130} Borrow's Letters to the Bible Society, p. 8. + +{132} August 20, 1836. + +{137} Wentworth Webster, in "Journal of Gypsy Lore Society." + +{139} "Borrow's Letters to the Bible Society," p. 271. + +{140} "Borrow's Letters to the Bible Society," p. 334. + +{144} Letter to the Bible Society, 25th Nov., 1839. + +{148} "Edinburgh Review," February, 1843. + +{154} The hostess, Maria Diaz, and her son Juan Jose Lopez, were present +when the outcast uttered these prophetic words. + +{163a} Edited by T. H. Darlow, Hodder and Stoughton. + +{163b} _See_, _e.g._, "Bible in Spain," Chapter XIII. "I shall have +frequent occasion to mention the Swiss in the course of _these Journals_ +. . ."; also the preface. + +{163c} _Ibid_., p. 445. + +{173} Borrow's Letters to the Bible Society, p. 391. + +{181} Knapp, I., p. 270. + +{184} Witch. Ger. Hexe. + +{187} Fake. + +{201} Egmont Hake; "Athenaeum," 13th August, 1881. + +{205} "George Borrow in East Anglia," by W. A. Dutt. + +{206} T. Watts-Dunton in "Lavengro" (Minerva Library). + +{208} "Memoirs of 80 years," by Gordon Hake. + +{209} "Edward Fitzgerald," A. C. Benson. + +{210a} "Athenaeum," July, 1893. + +{210b} Knapp and W. A. Dutt. + +{212} See Chapters II., III., and IV. + +{218a} R. A. J. Walling. + +{218b} "Athenaeum," 25th March, 1889. + +{220} "Lavengro" (Minerva Library). + +{221a} "In Gypsy Tents." + +{221b} March 25th, 1899. + +{242} "Isopel Berners." + +{250} "Isopel Berners," edited by Thomas Seccombe. + +{270a} Vol. XXII., 1910. + +{270b} Merlin's Bridge, on the outskirts of Haverfordwest. + +{270c} Merlin's Hill. + +{270d} River Daucleddau. The river at Haverfordwest is the Western +Cleddau; it joins the Eastern Cleddau about six miles below the town. +Both rivers then become known as Daucleddau or the two Cleddaus. + +{270e} Borrow means Milford Haven; the swallowing capacities of the +Western Cleddau are small. + +{270f} North-west. + +{271a} Pelcomb Bridge. + +{271b} Camrose parish. + +{271c} Appropriately known as Tinker's Bank. + +{271d} Dr. Knapp was unable to decipher this word. He remarks in a note +that the pencillings are much rubbed and almost illegible. We think, +however, that the word should be Plumstone, a lofty hill which Borrow +would see just before he crossed Pelcomb Bridge. + +{271e} This was a low thatched cottage on the St. David's road, half-way +up Keeston Hill. A few years ago it was demolished, and a new and more +commodious building known as the Hill Arms erected on its site. + +{271f} The old inn was kept by the blind woman, whose name was Mrs. +Lloyd. Many stories are related of her wonderful cleverness in managing +her business, and it is said that no customer was ever able to cheat her +with a bad coin. Her blindness was the result of an attack of small-pox +when twelve years of age. + +{271g} Dr. Knapp's insertion. + +{271h} It is doubtful if there was a chapel; no one remembers it. + +{272a} Nanny Dallas is a mistake. No such name is remembered by the +oldest inhabitants, and it seems certain that the woman Borrow met was +Nanny Lawless, who lived at Simpson a short distance away. + +{272b} Evan Rees, of Summerhill (a mile south-east of Roch). + +{272c} Sger-las and Sger-ddu, two isolated rocky islets off Solva +Harbour. The headlands are the numerous prominences which jut out along +the north shore of St. Bride's Bay. + +{272d} Newgale Bridge. + +{272e} Jemmy Raymond. "Remaunt" is the local pronunciation. Jemmy and +his ass appear to have been two well-known figures in Roch thirty or +forty years ago; the former died about the year 1886. + +{272f} Pen-y-cwm. + +{272g} Davies the carpenter was undoubtedly the man; he was noted for +his stature. Dim-yn-clywed--deaf. + +{310} "Athenaeum," 25th April, 1874. + +{313} A. Egmont Hake. + +{314a} Whitwell Elwin. + +{314b} T. Watts-Dunton. + +{314c} F. Hindes Groome. + +{314d} T. Watts-Dunton. + +{314e} _Ibid_. + +{314f} A. Egmont Hake. + +{314g} _Ibid_. + +{315} T. Watts-Dunton. + +{316} Thomas Seccombe: "Everyman" edition of "Lavengro." + +{317} Methuen & Co. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GEORGE BORROW*** + + +******* This file should be named 18588.txt or 18588.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/5/8/18588 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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