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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Life of George Borrow, by Herbert Jenkins
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
+other parts of the world 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.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
+to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Life of George Borrow
+       Compiled from Unpublished Official Documents, his Works,
+       Correspondence, etc.
+
+
+Author: Herbert Jenkins
+
+
+
+Release Date: October 12, 2014  [eBook #3481]
+[This file was first posted on May 11, 2001]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF GEORGE BORROW***
+
+
+Transcribed from the 1912 John Murray edition by David Price, email
+ccx074@pglaf.org
+
+                          [Picture: Book cover]
+
+    [Picture: George Borrow from the picture in the possession of John
+                                 Murray]
+
+
+
+
+
+                               THE LIFE OF
+                              GEORGE BORROW
+
+
+                        COMPILED FROM UNPUBLISHED
+                         OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS, HIS
+                       WORKS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.
+
+                            BY HERBERT JENKINS
+
+                 WITH A FRONTISPIECE IN PHOTOGRAVURE, AND
+                        TWELVE OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+                                  LONDON
+                    JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.
+                                   1912
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+                                    TO
+                         JOHN MURRARY THE FOURTH
+
+              IN GRATEFUL RECOLLECTION OF THE KEEN INTEREST
+                HE HAS SHOWN IN THE WRITING OF THE LIFE OF
+              A MAN WHOM HE WELL REMEMBERS AND MUCH ADMIRES
+                         THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED
+                              BY THE AUTHOR
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+DURING the whole of Borrow’s manhood there was probably only one period
+when he was unquestionably happy in his work and content with his
+surroundings.  He may almost be said to have concentrated into the seven
+years (1833–1840) that he was employed by the British and Foreign Bible
+Society in Russia, Portugal and Spain, a lifetime’s energy and resource.
+From an unknown hack-writer, who hawked about unsaleable translations of
+Welsh and Danish bards, a travelling tinker and a vagabond Ulysses, he
+became a person of considerable importance.  His name was acclaimed with
+praise and enthusiasm at Bible meetings from one end of the country to
+the other.  He developed an astonishing aptitude for affairs, a tireless
+energy, and a diplomatic resourcefulness that aroused silent wonder in
+those who had hitherto regarded him as a failure.  His illegal
+imprisonment in Madrid nearly brought about a diplomatic rupture between
+Great Britain and Spain, and later his missionary work in the Peninsula
+was referred to by Sir Robert Peel in the House of Commons as an instance
+of what could be achieved by courage and determination in the face of
+great difficulties.
+
+Those seven rich and productive years realised to the full the strange
+talents and unsuspected abilities of George Borrow’s unique character.
+He himself referred to the period spent in Spain as the “five happiest
+years” of his life.  When, however, his life came to be written by Dr
+Knapp, than whom no biographer has approved himself more loyal or
+enthusiastic, it was found that the records of that period were not
+accessible.  The letters that he had addressed to the Bible Society had
+been mislaid.  These came to light shortly after the publication of Dr
+Knapp’s work, and type-written copies were placed at my disposal by the
+General Committee long before they were given to the public in volume
+form.
+
+A systematic search at the Public Record Office has revealed a wealth of
+unpublished documents, including a lengthy letter from Borrow relating to
+his imprisonment at Seville in 1839.  From other sources much valuable
+information and many interesting anecdotes have been obtained, and
+through the courtesy of their possessor a number of unpublished Borrow
+letters are either printed in their entirety or are quoted from in this
+volume.
+
+My thanks are due in particular to the Committee of British and Foreign
+Bible Society for placing at my disposal the copies of the Borrow
+Letters, and also for permission to reproduce the interesting silhouette
+of the Rev. Andrew Brandram, and to the Rev. T. H. Darlow, M.A. (Literary
+Superintendent), whose uniform kindness and desire to assist me I find it
+impossible adequately to acknowledge.  My thanks are also due to the Rt.
+Hon. Sir Edward Grey, M.P., for permission to examine the despatches from
+the British Embassy at Madrid at the Record Office, and the Registers of
+Passports at the Foreign Office, and to Mr F. H. Bowring (son of Sir John
+Bowring), Mr Wilfrid J. Bowring (who has placed at my disposal a number
+of letters from Borrow to his grandfather), Mr R. W. Brant, Mr Ernest H.
+Caddie, Mr William Canton, Mr S. D. Charles, an ardent Borrovian from
+whom I have received much kindness and many valuable suggestions, Mr A.
+I. Dasent, the editors of _The Athenæum_ and _The Bookman_, Mr Thomas
+Hake, Mr D. B. Hill of Mattishall, Norfolk, Mr James Hooper, Mr W. F. T.
+Jarrold (for permission to reproduce the hitherto unpublished portrait of
+Borrow painted by his brother), Dr F. G. Kenyon, C.B., Mr F. A. Mumby, Mr
+George Porter of Denbigh (for interesting particulars about Borrow’s
+first visit to Wales), Mr Theodore Rossi, Mr Theodore Watts-Dunton, Mr
+Thomas Vade-Walpole, who have all responded to my appeal for help with
+great willingness.
+
+To one friend, who elects to be nameless, I am deeply grateful for many
+valuable suggestions and much help; but above all for the keen interest
+he has taken in a work which he first encouraged me to write.  To her who
+gave so plentifully of her leisure in transcribing documents at the
+Record Office and in research work at the British Museum and elsewhere, I
+am indebted beyond all possibility of acknowledgment.  To no one more
+than to Mr John Murray are my acknowledgments due for his unfailing
+kindness, patience and assistance.  It is no exaggeration to state that
+but for his aid and encouragement this book could not have been written.
+
+                                                          HERBERT JENKINS.
+
+_January_, 1912.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I:
+1678–MAY 1816
+
+
+ON 28th July 1783 was held the annual fair at Menheniot, and for miles
+round the country folk flocked into the little Cornish village to join in
+the festivities.  Among the throng was a strong contingent of young men
+from Liskeard, a town three miles distant, between whom and the youth of
+Menheniot an ancient feud existed.  In days when the bruisers of England
+were national heroes, and a fight was a fitting incident of a day’s
+revelry, the very presence of their rivals was a sufficient challenge to
+the chivalry of Menheniot, and a contest became inevitable.  Some
+unrecorded incident was accepted by both parties as a sufficient cause
+for battle, and the two factions were soon fighting furiously midst
+collapsing stalls and tumbled merchandise.  Women shrieked and fainted,
+men shouted and struck out grimly, whilst the stall-holders, in a frenzy
+of grief and despair, wrung their hands helplessly as they saw their
+goods being trampled to ruin beneath the feet of the contestants.
+
+Slowly the men of Liskeard were borne back by their more numerous
+opponents.  They wavered, and just as defeat seemed inevitable, there
+arrived upon the scene a young man who, on seeing his townsmen in danger
+of being beaten, placed himself at their head and charged down upon the
+enemy, forcing them back by the impetuosity of his attack.
+
+The new arrival was a man of fine physique, above the medium height and a
+magnificent fighter, who, later in life, was to achieve something of
+which a Mendoza or a Belcher might have been proud.  He fought strongly
+and silently, inspiring his fellow townsmen by his example.  The new
+leader had entirely turned the tide of battle, but just as the defeat of
+the men of Menheniot seemed certain, a diversion was created by the
+arrival of the local constables.  Now that their own villagers were on
+the verge of disaster, there was no longer any reason why they should
+remain in the background.  They made a determined effort to arrest the
+leader of the Liskeard contingent, and were promptly knocked down by him.
+
+At that moment Mr Edmund Hambley, a much-respected maltster and the
+headborough of Liskeard, was attracted to the spot.  Seeing in the person
+of the outrageous leader of the battle one of his own apprentices, he
+stepped forward and threatened him with arrest.  Goaded to desperation by
+the scornful attitude of the young man, the master-maltster laid hands
+upon him, and instantly shared the fate of the constables.  With great
+courage and determination the headborough rose to his feet and again
+attempted to enforce his authority, but with no better result.  When he
+picked himself up for a second time, it was to pass from the scene of his
+humiliation and, incidentally, out of the life of the young man who had
+defied his authority.
+
+The young apprentice was Thomas Borrow (born December 1758), eighth and
+posthumous child of John Borrow and of Mary his wife, of Trethinnick (the
+House on the Hill), in the neighbouring parish of St Cleer, two and a
+half miles north of Liskeard.  At the age of fifteen, Thomas had begun to
+work upon his father’s farm.  At nineteen he was apprenticed to Edmund
+Hambley, maltster, of Liskeard, who five years later, in his official
+capacity as Constable of the Hundred of Liskeard, was to be publicly
+defied and twice knocked down by his insubordinate apprentice.
+
+A trifling affair in itself, this village fracas was to have a lasting
+effect upon the career of Thomas Borrow.  He was given to understand by
+his kinsmen that he need not look to them for sympathy or assistance in
+his wrongdoing.  The Borrows of Trethinnick could trace back further than
+the parish registers record (1678).  They were godly and law-abiding
+people, who had stood for the king and lost blood and harvests in his
+cause.  If a son of the house disgrace himself, the responsibility must
+be his, not theirs.  In the opinion of his family, Thomas Borrow had, by
+his vigorous conduct towards the headborough, who was also his master,
+placed himself outside the radius of their sympathy.  At this period
+Trethinnick, a farm of some fifty acres in extent, was in the hands of
+Henry, Thomas’ eldest brother, who since his mother’s death, ten years
+before, had assumed the responsibility of launching his youngest brother
+upon the world.
+
+Fearful of the result of his assault on the headborough, Thomas Borrow
+left St Cleer with great suddenness, and for five months disappeared
+entirely.  On 29th December he presented himself as a recruit before
+Captain Morshead, {3} in command of a detachment of the Coldstream
+Guards, at that time stationed in the duchy.
+
+Thomas Borrow was no stranger to military training.  For five years he
+had been in the Yeomanry Militia, which involved a short annual training.
+In the regimental records he is credited with five years “former
+service.”  He remained for eight years with the Coldstream Guards, most
+of the time being passed in London barracks.  He had no money with which
+to purchase a commission, and his rise was slow and deliberate.  At the
+end of nine months he was promoted to the rank of corporal, and five
+years later he became a sergeant.  In 1792 he was transferred as
+Sergeant-Major to the First, or West Norfolk Regiment of Militia, whose
+headquarters were at East Dereham in Norfolk.
+
+It was just previous to this transfer that Sergeant Borrow had his famous
+encounter in Hyde Park with Big Ben Bryan, the champion of England; he
+“whose skin was brown and dusky as that of a toad.”  It was a combat in
+which “even Wellington or Napoleon would have been heartily glad to cry
+for quarter ere the lapse of five minutes, and even the Blacksmith Tartar
+would, perhaps, have shrunk from the opponent with whom, after having had
+a dispute with him,” Sergeant Borrow “engaged in single combat for one
+hour, at the end of which time the champions shook hands and retired,
+each having experienced quite enough of the other’s prowess.” {4a}
+
+At East Dereham Thomas Borrow met Ann {4b} Perfrement, {4c} a strikingly
+handsome girl of twenty, whose dark eyes first flashed upon him from over
+the footlights.  It was, and still is, the custom for small touring
+companies to engage their supernumeraries in the towns in which they were
+playing.  The pretty daughter of Farmer Perfrement, whose farm lay about
+one and a half miles out of East Dereham, was one of those who took
+occasion to earn a few shillings for pin-money.  The Perfrements were of
+Huguenot stock.  On the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, their
+ancestors had fled from their native town of Caen and taken refuge in
+East Anglia, there to enjoy the liberty of conscience denied them in
+their beloved Normandy.  Thomas Borrow made the acquaintance of the young
+probationer, and promptly settled any aspirations that she may have had
+towards the stage by marrying her.  The wedding took place on 11th
+February 1793 at East Dereham church, best known as the resting-place of
+the poet Cowper, Ann being twenty-one and Thomas thirty-four years of
+age.
+
+For the next seven years Thomas and Ann Borrow moved about with the West
+Norfolk Militia, which now marched off into Essex, a few months later
+doubling back again into Norfolk.  Then it dived into Kent and for a time
+hovered about the Cinque Ports, Thomas Borrow in the meantime being
+promoted to the rank of quarter-master (27th May 1795).  It was not until
+he had completed fourteen years of service that he received a commission.
+On 27th February 1798 he became Adjutant in the same regiment, a
+promotion that carried with it a captain’s rank.
+
+Whilst at Sandgate Mrs Borrow became acquainted with John Murray, the son
+of the founder of the publishing house from which, forty-four years
+later, were to be published the books of her second son, then unborn.
+The widow of John Murray the First had married in 1795 Lieutenant Henry
+Paget of the West Norfolk Militia.  Years later (27th March 1843) George
+Borrow wrote to John Murray, Junr., third of the line:
+
+    “I am at present in Norwich with my mother, who has been ill, but is
+    now, thank God, recovering fast.  She begs leave to send her kind
+    remembrances to Mr Murray.  She knew him at Sandgate in Kent
+    _forty-six_ years ago, when he came to see his mother, Mrs P[aget].
+    She was also acquainted with his sister, Miss Jane Murray, {5} who
+    used to ride on horseback with her on the Downs.  She says Captain
+    [_sic_] Paget once cooked a dinner for Mrs P. and herself; and sat
+    down to table with his cook’s apron on.  Is not this funny?  Does it
+    not ‘beat the Union,’ as the Yankees say?”
+
+The first child of the marriage was born in 1800, it is not known exactly
+when or where.  This was John, “the brother some three years older than
+myself,” whose beauty in infancy was so great “that people, especially
+those of the poorer classes, would follow the nurse who carried him about
+in order to look at and bless his lovely face,” {6a} with its rosy cheeks
+and smiling, blue-eyed innocence.  On one occasion even, an attempt was
+made to snatch him from the arms of his nurse as she was about to enter a
+coach.  The parents became a prey to anxiety; for the child seems to have
+possessed many endearing qualities as well as good looks.  He was quick
+and clever, and when the time came for instruction, “he mastered his
+letters in a few hours, and in a day or two could decipher the names of
+people on the doors of houses and over the shop windows.” {6b}  His
+cleverness increased as he grew up, and later he seems to have become, in
+the mind of Captain Borrow at least, a standard by which to measure the
+shortcomings of his younger son George, whom he never was able to
+understand.
+
+For the next three years, 1800–3, the regiment continued to hover about
+the home counties.  The Peace of Amiens released many of the untried
+warriors, who had enlisted “until the peace,” their adjutant having to
+find new recruits to fill up the gaps.  War broke out again the following
+year (18th May 1803), and the Great Terror assumed a phase so critical as
+to subdue almost entirely all thought of party strife.  On 5th July Ann
+Borrow gave birth to a second son, in the house of her father.  At the
+time Captain Borrow was hunting for recruits in other parts of Norfolk,
+in order to send them to Colchester, where the regiment was stationed.
+In due course the child was christened George Henry {7a} at the church of
+East Dereham, and, within a few weeks of his birth, he received his first
+experience of the vicissitudes of a soldier’s life, by accompanying his
+father, mother, and brother to Colchester to rejoin the regiment.  The
+whole infancy of George Borrow was spent in the same trailing
+restlessness.  Napoleon was alive and at large, and the West Norfolks
+seemed doomed eternally to march and countermarch in the threatened area,
+Sussex, Kent, Essex.
+
+No efforts appear to have been made to steal the younger brother,
+although “people were in the habit of standing still to look at me, ay,
+more than at my brother.” {7b}  Unlike John in about everything that one
+child could be unlike another, George was a gloomy, introspective
+creature who considerably puzzled his parents.  He compares himself to “a
+deep, dark lagoon, shaded by black pines, cypresses and yews,” {7c}
+beside which he once paused to contemplate “a beautiful stream . . .
+sparkling in the sunshine, and . . . tumbling merrily into cascades,”
+{7d} which he likened to his brother.
+
+Slow of comprehension, almost dull-witted, shy of society, sometimes
+bursting into tears when spoken to, George became “a lover of nooks and
+retired corners,” {7e} where he would sit for hours at a time a prey to
+“a peculiar heaviness . . . and at times . . . a strange sensation of
+fear, which occasionally amounted to horror,” {7f} for which there was no
+apparent cause.  In time he grew to be as much disliked as his brother
+was admired.  On one occasion an old Jew pedlar, attracted by the latent
+intelligence in the smouldering eyes of the silent child, who ignored his
+questions and continued tracing in the dust with his fingers curious
+lines, pronounced him “a prophet’s child.”  This carried to the mother’s
+heart a quiet comfort; and reawakened in her hope for the future of her
+second son.
+
+  [Picture: The birthplace of George Borrow, East Dereham.  Photo. H. T.
+                           Cave, East Dereham]
+
+The early childhood of George Borrow was spent in stirring times.
+Without, there was the menace of Napoleon’s invasion; within, every
+effort was being made to meet and repel it.  Dumouriez was preparing his
+great scheme of defence; Captain Thomas Borrow was doing his utmost to
+collect and drill men to help in carrying it into effect.  Sometimes the
+family were in lodgings; but more frequently in barracks, for reasons of
+economy.  Once, at least, they lived under canvas.
+
+The strange and puzzling child continued to impress his parents in a
+manner well-calculated to alarm them.  One day, with a cry of delight, he
+seized a viper that, “like a line of golden light,” was moving across the
+lane in which he was playing.  Whilst making no effort to harm the child,
+who held and regarded it with awe and admiration, the reptile showed its
+displeasure towards John, his brother, by hissing and raising its head as
+if to strike.  This happened when George was between two and three years
+of age.  At about the same period he ate largely of some poisonous
+berries, which resulted in “strong convulsions,” lasting for several
+hours.  He seems to have been a source of constant anxiety to his
+parents, who were utterly unable to understand the strange and gloomy
+child who had been vouchsafed to them by the inscrutable decree of
+providence.
+
+In the middle of the year 1809 the regiment returned from Essex to
+Norfolk, marching first to Norwich and thence to other towns in the
+county.  Captain Borrow and his family took up their quarters once more
+at Dereham.  George was now six years old, acutely observant of the
+things that interested him, but reluctant to proceed with studies which,
+in his eyes, seemed to have nothing to recommend them.  Books possessed
+no attraction for him, although he knew his alphabet and could even read
+imperfectly.  The acquirement of book-learning he found a dull and
+dolorous business, to which he was driven only by the threats or
+entreaties of his parents, who showed some concern lest he should become
+an “arrant dunce.”
+
+The intelligence that the old Jew pedlar had discovered still lay
+dormant, as if unwilling to manifest itself.  The boy loved best “to look
+upon the heavens, and to bask in the rays of the sun, or to sit beneath
+hedgerows and listen to the chirping of the birds, indulging the while in
+musing and meditation.” {9a}  Meanwhile John was earning golden opinions
+for the astonishing progress he continued to make at school,
+unconsciously throwing into bolder relief the apparent dullness of his
+younger brother.  George, however, was as active mentally as the elder.
+The one was studying men, the other books.  George was absorbing
+impressions of the things around him: of the quaint old Norfolk town, its
+“clean but narrow streets branching out from thy modest market-place,
+with thine old-fashioned houses, with here and there a roof of venerable
+thatch”; of that exquisite old gentlewoman Lady Fenn, {9b} as she passed
+to and from her mansion upon some errand of bounty or of mercy, “leaning
+on her gold-headed cane, whilst the sleek old footman walked at a
+respectful distance behind.” {9c}  On Sundays, from the black
+leather-covered seat in the church-pew, he would contemplate with
+large-eyed wonder the rector and James Philo his clerk, “as they read
+their respective portions of the venerable liturgy,” sometimes being
+lulled to sleep by the monotonous drone of their voices.
+
+On fine Sundays there was the evening walk “with my mother and brother—a
+quiet, sober walk, during which I would not break into a run, even to
+chase a butterfly, or yet more a honey-bee, being fully convinced of the
+dread importance of the day which God had hallowed.  And how glad I was
+when I had got over the Sabbath day without having done anything to
+profane it.  And how soundly I slept on the Sabbath night after the toil
+of being very good throughout the day.” {10a}
+
+During these early years there was being photographed upon the brain of
+George Borrow a series of impressions which, to the end of his life,
+remained as vivid as at the moment they were absorbed.  What appeared to
+those around him as dull-witted stupidity was, in reality, mental
+surfeit.  His mind was occupied with other things than books, things that
+it eagerly took cognisance of, strove to understand and was never to
+forget. {10b}  Hitherto he had taken “no pleasure in books . . . and bade
+fair to be as arrant a dunce as ever brought the blush of shame into the
+cheeks of anxious and affectionate parents.” {10c}  His mind was not
+ready for them.  When the time came there was no question of dullness: he
+proved an eager and earnest student.
+
+One day an intimate friend of Mrs Borrow’s, who was also godmother to
+John, brought with her a present of a book for each of the two boys, a
+history of England for the elder and for the younger _Robinson Crusoe_.
+Instantly George became absorbed.
+
+“The true chord had now been touched . . . Weeks succeeded weeks, months
+followed months, and the wondrous volume was my only study and principal
+source of amusement.  For hours together I would sit poring over a page
+till I had become acquainted with the import of every line.  My progress,
+slow enough at first, became by degrees more rapid, till at last, under a
+‘shoulder of mutton sail,’ I found myself cantering before a steady
+breeze over an ocean of enchantment, so well pleased with my voyage that
+I cared not how long it might be ere it reached its termination.  And it
+was in this manner that I first took to the paths of knowledge.” {11a}
+
+In the spring of 1810 the regiment was ordered to Norman Cross, in
+Huntingdonshire, situated at the junction of the Peterborough and Great
+North Roads.  At this spot the Government had caused to be erected in
+1796 an extensive prison, covering forty acres of ground, in which to
+confine some of the prisoners made during the Napoleonic wars.  There
+were sixteen large buildings roofed with red tiles.  Each group of four
+was surrounded by a palisade, whilst another palisade “lofty and of
+prodigious strength” surrounded the whole.  At the time when the West
+Norfolk Militia arrived there were some six thousand prisoners, who, with
+their guards, constituted a considerable-sized township.  From time to
+time fresh batches of captives arrived amid a storm of cheers and cries
+of “Vive L’Empereur!”  These were the only incidents in the day’s
+monotony, save when some prisoner strove to evade the hospitality of King
+George, and was shot for his ingratitude.
+
+Captain Borrow rejoined his regiment at Norman Cross, leaving his
+family to follow a few days later.  At the time the country round
+Peterborough was under water owing to the recent heavy rains, and at one
+portion of the journey the whole party had to embark in a species of
+punt, which was towed by horses “up to the knees in water, and, on coming
+to blind pools and ‘greedy depths,’ were not unfrequently swimming.”
+{11b}  But they were all old campaigners and accepted such adventures as
+incidents of a soldier’s life.
+
+At Norman Cross George made the acquaintance of an old snake-catcher and
+herbalist, a circumstance which, insignificant in itself, was to exercise
+a considerable influence over his whole life.  Frequently this curious
+pair were to be seen tramping the countryside together; a tall, quaint
+figure with fur cap and gaiters carrying a leathern bag of wriggling
+venom, and an eager child with eyes that now burned with interest and
+intelligence—and the talk of the two was the lore of the viper.  When the
+snake-catcher passed out of the life of his young disciple, he left
+behind him as a present a tame and fangless viper, which George often
+carried with him on his walks.  It was this well-meaning and inoffensive
+viper that turned aside the wrath of Gypsy Smith, {12a} and awakened in
+his heart a superstitious awe and veneration for the child, the
+_Sap-engro_, who might be a goblin, but who certainly would make a most
+admirable “clergyman and God Almighty,” who read from a book that
+contained the kind of prayers particularly to his taste—perhaps the
+greatest encomium ever bestowed upon the immortal _Robinson Crusoe_.
+Thus it came about that George Borrow was proclaimed brother to the
+gypsy’s son Ambrose, {12b} who as Jasper Petulengro figures so largely in
+_Lavengro_ and _The Romany Rye_, and is credited with that exquisitely
+phrased pagan glorification of mere existence:
+
+    “Life is sweet, brother . . . There’s night and day, brother, both
+    sweet things; sun, moon and stars, brother, all sweet things; there’s
+    likewise the wind on the heath.  Life is very sweet, brother; who
+    would wish to die?” {13a}
+
+The Borrows were nomads, permitted by God and the king to tarry not over
+long in any one place.  In the following July (1811) the West Norfolks
+proceeded to Colchester _via_ Norfolk, after fifteen months of prison
+duty and straw-plait destroying. {13b}  Captain Borrow betook himself to
+East Dereham again to seek for likely recruits.  In the meantime George
+made his first acquaintance with that universal specific for success in
+life, for correctness of conduct, for soundness of principles—Lilly’s
+Latin Grammar, which to learn by heart was to acquire a virtue that
+defied evil.  The good old pedagogue who advocated Lilly’s Latin Grammar
+as a remedy for all ills, would have traced George Borrow’s eventual
+success in life entirely to the fact that within three years of the date
+that the solemn exhortation was pronounced the boy had learned Lilly by
+heart, although without in the least degree comprehending him.
+
+Early in 1812 the regiment turned its head north, and by slow degrees,
+with occasional counter marchings, continued to progress towards
+Edinburgh, which was reached thirteen months later (6th April 1813).
+“With drums beating, colours flying, and a long train of baggage-waggons
+behind,” {13c} the West Norfolk Militia wound its way up the hill to the
+Castle, the adjutant’s family in a chaise forming part of the procession.
+There in barracks the regiment might rest itself after long and weary
+marches, and the two young sons of the adjutant be permitted to continue
+their studies at the High School, without the probability that the morrow
+would see them on the road to somewhere else.
+
+Whilst at Edinburgh George met with his first experience of racial
+feeling, which, under uncongenial conditions, develops into race-hatred.
+He discovered that one English boy, when faced by a throng of young Scots
+patriots, had best be silent as to the virtues of his own race.  He
+joined in and enjoyed the fights between the “Auld and the New Toon,” and
+incidentally acquired a Scots accent that somewhat alarmed his loyal
+father, who had named him after the Hanoverian Georges.  Proving himself
+a good fighter, he earned the praise of his Scots acquaintances, and a
+general invitation to assist them in their “bickers” with “thae New Toon
+blackguards.”
+
+He loved to climb and clamber over the rocks, peeping into “all manner of
+strange crypts, crannies, and recesses, where owls nestled and the weasel
+brought forth her young.”  He would go out on all-day excursions,
+enjoying the thrills of clambering up to what appeared to be inaccessible
+ledges, until eventually he became an expert cragsman.  One day he came
+upon David Haggart {14} sitting on the extreme verge of a precipice,
+“thinking of Willie Wallace.”
+
+For fifteen months the regiment remained at Edinburgh.  In the spring of
+1814 the waning star of Napoleon had, to all appearances, set, and he was
+on his way to his miniature kingdom, the Isle of Elba (28th April).
+Europe commenced to disband its huge armies, Great Britain among the
+rest.  On 21st June the West Norfolks received orders to proceed to
+Norwich by ship _via_ Leith and Great Yarmouth.  The Government, relieved
+of all apprehension of an invasion, had time to think of the personal
+comfort of the country’s defenders.  With marked consideration, the
+orders provided that those who wished might march instead of embarking on
+the sea.  Accordingly Captain Borrow and his family chose the land route.
+Arrived at Norwich, the regiment was formally disbanded amid great
+festivity.  The officers, at the Maid’s Head, the queen of East Anglian
+inns, and the men in the spacious market-place, drank to the king’s
+health and peace.  The regiment was formally mustered out on 19th July.
+
+The Borrows took up their quarters at the Crown and Angel in St Stephen’s
+Street, a thoroughfare that connects the main roads from Ipswich and
+Newmarket with the city.  George, now eleven years old, had an
+opportunity of continuing his education at the Norwich Grammar School,
+whilst his brother proceeded to study drawing and painting with a “little
+dark man with brown coat . . . and top-boots, whose name will one day be
+considered the chief ornament of the old town,” {15a} and whose works are
+to “rank among the proudest pictures of England,”—the Norwich painter,
+“Old Crome.” {15b}
+
+Whilst the two boys were thus occupied, Louis XVIII. was endeavouring to
+reorder his kingdom, and on a little island in the Mediterranean,
+Napoleon was preparing a bombshell that was to shatter the peace of
+Europe and send Captain Borrow hurrying hither and thither in search of
+the men who, a few months before, had left the colours, convinced that a
+generation of peace was before them.
+
+On 1st March Napoleon was at Cannes; eighteen days later Louis XVIII.
+fled from Paris.  Everywhere there were feverish preparations for war.
+John Borrow threw aside pencil and brush and was gazetted ensign in his
+father’s regiment (29th May).  Europe united against the unexpected and
+astonishing danger.  By the time Captain Borrow had finished his task,
+however, the crisis was past, Waterloo had been won and Napoleon was on
+his way to St Helena.
+
+By a happy inspiration it was decided to send the West Norfolks to
+Ireland, where “disturbances were apprehended” and private stills
+flourished.  On 31st August the regiment, some eight hundred strong,
+sailed in two vessels from Harwich for Cork, the passage occupying eight
+days.  The ship that carried the Borrows was old and crazy, constantly
+missing stays and shipping seas, until it seemed that only by a miracle
+she escaped “from being dashed upon the foreland.”
+
+After a few days’ rest at Cork, the “city of contradictions,” where
+wealth and filth jostled one another in the public highways and
+“boisterous shouts of laughter were heard on every side,” the regiment
+marched off in two divisions for Clonmel in Tipperary.  Walking beside
+his father, who was in command of the second division, and holding on to
+his stirrup-leather, George found a new country opening out before him.
+On one occasion, as they were passing through a village of low huts,
+“that seemed to be inhabited solely by women and children,” he went up to
+an old beldam who sat spinning at the door of one of the hovels and asked
+for some water.  She “appeared to consider for a moment, then tottering
+into her hut, presently reappeared with a small pipkin of milk, which she
+offered . . . with a trembling hand.”  When the lad tendered payment she
+declined the money, and patted his face, murmuring some unintelligible
+words.  Obviously there was nothing in the boy’s nature now that appeared
+strange to simple-minded folk.  Probably the intercourse with other boys
+at Edinburgh and Norwich had been beneficial in its effect.  Keenly
+interested in everything around him, George fell to speculating as to
+whether he could learn Irish and speak to the people in their own tongue.
+
+At Clonmel the Borrows lodged with an Orangeman, who had run out of his
+house as the Adjutant rode by at the head of his men, and proceeded to
+welcome him with flowery volubility.  On the advice of his host Captain
+Borrow sent George to a Protestant school, where he met the Irish boy
+Murtagh, who figures so largely in _Lavengro_ and _The Romany Rye_.
+Murtagh settled any doubts that Borrow may have had as to his ability to
+acquire Erse, by teaching it to him in exchange for a pack of cards.
+
+On 23rd December 1815 Ensign John Thomas Borrow was promoted to the rank
+of lieutenant, he being then in his sixteenth year.  In the following
+January, after only a few months’ stay, the West Norfolks were moved on
+to Templemore.  It was here that George learned to ride, and that without
+a saddle, and had awakened in him that “passion for the equine race” that
+never left him. {17}
+
+The nine months spent in Ireland left an indelible mark upon Borrow’s
+imagination.  In later life he repeatedly referred to his knowledge of
+the country, its people, and their language.  In overcoming the
+difficulties of Erse, he had opened up for himself a larger prospect than
+was to be enjoyed by a traveller whose first word of greeting or enquiry
+is uttered in a hated tongue.
+
+On 11th May 1816 the West Norfolk Militia was back again at Norwich.
+Peace was now finally restored to Europe, and every nation was far too
+impoverished, both as regards men and money, to nourish any schemes of
+aggression.  Napoleon was safe at St Helena, under the eye of that
+instinctive gaoler, Sir Hudson Lowe.  The army had completed its work and
+was being disbanded with all possible speed.  The turn of the West
+Norfolk Militia came on 17th June, when they were formally mustered out
+for the second time within two years.  Three years later their Adjutant
+was retired upon full-pay—eight shillings a day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II:
+MAY 1816–MARCH 1824
+
+
+FOR the first time since his marriage, Captain Borrow found himself at
+liberty to settle down and educate his sons.  He had spent much of his
+life in Norfolk, and he decided to remain there and make Norwich his
+home.  It was a quiet and beautiful old-world city: healthy, picturesque,
+ancient, and, above all, possessed of a Grammar School, where George
+could try and gather together the stray threads of education that he had
+acquired at various times and in various dialects.  It was an ideal city
+for a warrior to take his rest in; but probably what counted most with
+Captain Borrow was the Grammar School—more than the Norman Cathedral, the
+grim old Castle that stands guardian-like upon its mound, the fact of its
+being a garrison town, or even the traditions that surrounded the place.
+He had two sons who must be appropriately sent out into the world, and
+Norwich offered facilities for educating both.  He accordingly took a
+small house in Willow Lane, to which access was obtained by a covered
+passage then called King’s, but now Borrow’s Court.
+
+During the most nomadic portion of his life, when, with discouraging
+rapidity, he was moving from place to place, Captain Borrow never for one
+moment seems to have forgotten his obligations as a father.  Whenever he
+had been quartered in a town for a few months, he had sought out a school
+to which to send John and George, notably at Huddersfield and Sheffield.
+Had he known it, these precautions were unnecessary; for he had two sons
+who were of what may be called the self-educating type: John, by virtue
+of the quickness of his parts; George, on account of the strangeness of
+his interests and his thirst for a knowledge of men and the tongues in
+which they communicate to each other their ideas.  It would be impossible
+for an unconventional linguist, such as George Borrow was by instinct, to
+remain uneducated, and it was equally impossible to educate him.
+
+Quite unaware of the trend of his younger son’s genius, Captain Borrow
+obtained for him a free-scholarship at the Grammar School, then under the
+headmastership of the Rev. Edward Valpy, B.D., whose principal claims to
+fame are his severity, his having flogged the conqueror of the “Flaming
+Tinman,” and his destruction of the School Records of Admission, which
+dated back to the Sixteenth Century.  Among Borrow’s contemporaries at
+the Grammar School were “Rajah” Brooke of Sarawak (for whose achievements
+he in after life expressed a profound admiration), Sir Archdale Wilson of
+Delhi, Colonel Charles Stoddart, Dr James Martineau, and Thomas Borrow
+Burcham, the London Magistrate.
+
+Borrow was now thirteen, and, it would appear, as determined as ever to
+evade as much as possible academic learning.  He was “far from an
+industrious boy, fond of idling, and discovered no symptoms by his
+progress either in Latin or Greek of that philology, so prominent a
+feature of his last work (_Lavengro_).” {20}  Borrow was an idler merely
+because his work was uncongenial to him.  “Mere idleness is the most
+disagreeable state of existence, and both mind and body are continually
+making efforts to escape from it,” he wrote in later years concerning
+this period.  He wanted an object in life, an occupation that would prove
+not wholly uncongenial.  That he should dislike the routine of school
+life was not unnatural; for he had lived quite free from those
+conventional restraints to which other boys of his age had always been
+accustomed.  Occupation of some sort he must have, if only to keep at a
+distance that insistent melancholy that seems to have been for ever
+hovering about him, and the tempter whispered “Languages.” {21a}  One day
+chance led him to a bookstall whereon lay a polyglot dictionary, “which
+pretended to be an easy guide to the acquirement of French, Italian, Low
+Dutch, and English.”  He took the two first, and when he had gleaned from
+the old volume all it had to teach him, he longed for a master.  Him he
+found in the person of an old French _émigré_ priest, {21b} a study in
+snuff-colour and drab with a frill of dubious whiteness, who attended to
+the accents of a number of boarding-school young ladies.  The progress of
+his pupil so much pleased the old priest that “after six months’ tuition,
+the master would sometimes, on his occasional absences to teach in the
+country, request his so forward pupil to attend for him his home
+scholars.” {21c}  It was M. D’Eterville who uttered the second recorded
+prophecy concerning George Borrow: “Vous serez un jour un grand
+philologue, mon cher,” he remarked, and heard that his pupil nourished
+aspirations towards other things than mere philology.
+
+In the study of French, Spanish, and Italian, Borrow spent many hours
+that other boys would have devoted to pleasure; yet he was by no means a
+student only.  He found time to fish and to shoot, using a condemned,
+honey-combed musket that bore the date of 1746.  His fishing was done in
+the river Yare, which flowed through the estate of John Joseph Gurney,
+the Quaker-banker of Earlham Hall, two miles out of Norwich.  It was here
+that he was reproached by the voice, “clear and sonorous as a bell,” of
+the banker himself; not for trespassing, but “for pulling all those fish
+out of the water, and leaving them to gasp in the sun.”
+
+At Harford Bridge, some two miles along the Ipswich Road, lived “the
+terrible Thurtell,” a patron and companion of “the bruisers of England,”
+who taught Borrow to box, and who ultimately ended his own inglorious
+career by being hanged (9th January 1824) for the murder of Mr Weare, and
+incidentally figuring in De Quincey’s “On Murder Considered As One of the
+Fine Arts.”  It was through “the king of flash-men” that Borrow saw his
+first prize-fight at Eaton, near Norwich.
+
+The passion for horses that came suddenly to Borrow with his first ride
+upon the cob in Ireland had continued to grow.  He had an opportunity of
+gratifying it at the Norwich Horse Fair, held each Easter under the
+shadow of the Castle, and famous throughout the country. {22}  It was
+here, in 1818, that Borrow encountered again Ambrose Petulengro, an event
+that was to exercise a considerable influence upon his life.  Mr
+Petulengro had become the head of his tribe, his father and mother having
+been transported for passing bad money.  He was now a man, with a wife, a
+child, and also a mother-in-law, who took a violent dislike to the tall,
+fair-haired _gorgio_.  Borrow’s life was much broadened by his
+intercourse with Mr Petulengro.  He was often at the gypsy encampment on
+Mousehold, a heath just outside Norwich, where, under the tuition of his
+host, he learned the Romany tongue with such rapidity as to astonish his
+instructor and earn for him among the gypsies the name of “Lav-engro,”
+word-fellow or word-master.  He also boxed with the godlike Tawno Chikno,
+who in turn pronounced him worthy to bear the name “Cooro-mengro,”
+fist-fellow or fist-master.  He frequently accompanied Mr Petulengro to
+neighbouring fairs and markets, riding one of the gypsy’s horses.  At
+other times the two would roam over the gorse-covered Mousehold,
+discoursing largely about things Romany.
+
+The departure of Mr Petulengro and his retinue from Norwich threw Borrow
+back once more upon his linguistic studies, his fishing, his shooting,
+and his smouldering discontent at the constraints of school life.  It was
+probably an endeavour on Borrow’s part to make himself more like his
+gypsy friends that prompted him to stain his face with walnut juice,
+drawing from the Rev. Edward Valpy the question: “Borrow, are you
+suffering from jaundice, or is it only dirt?”  The gypsies were not the
+only vagabonds of Borrow’s acquaintance at this period.  There were the
+Italian peripatetic vendors of weather-glasses, who had their
+headquarters at Norwich.  In after years he met again more than one of
+these merchants.  They were always glad to see him and revive old
+memories of the Norwich days.
+
+About this time he saved a boy from drowning in the Yare. {23}  It may be
+this act with which he generously credits his brother John when he says—
+
+    “I have known him dash from a steep bank into a stream in his full
+    dress, and pull out a man who was drowning; yet there were twenty
+    others bathing in the water, who might have saved him by putting out
+    a hand, without inconvenience to themselves, which, however, they did
+    not do, but stared with stupid surprise at the drowning one’s
+    struggles.” {24}
+
+From the first Borrow had shown a strong distaste for the humdrum routine
+of school life.  In a thousand ways he was different from his fellows.
+He had been accustomed to meet strange and, to him, deeply interesting
+people.  Now he was bidden adopt a course of life against which his whole
+nature rebelled.  It was impossible.  He missed the atmosphere of
+vagabondage that had inspired and stimulated his early boyhood.
+
+The crisis came at last.  There was only one way to avoid the awkward and
+distasteful destiny that was being forced upon him.  He entered into a
+conspiracy with three school-fellows, all younger than himself, to make a
+dash for a life that should offer wider opportunities to their
+adventurous natures.  The plan was to tramp to Great Yarmouth and there
+excavate on the seashore caves for their habitation.  From these
+headquarters they would make foraging expeditions, and live on what they
+could extract from the surrounding country, either by force or by the
+terror that they inspired.  One morning the four started on their
+twenty-mile trudge to the sea; but, when only a few miles out, one of
+their number became fearful and turned back.
+
+Encouraged by their leader, the others continued on their way.  The
+father of the other two boys appears to have got wind of the project and
+posted after them in a chaise.  He came up with them at Acle, about
+eleven miles from Norwich.  When they were first seen, Borrow was
+striving to hearten his fellow buccaneers, who were tired and dispirited
+after their long walk.  The three were unceremoniously bundled into the
+chaise and returned to their homes and, subsequently, to the wrath of the
+Rev. Edward Valpy. {25a}
+
+The names of the three confederates were John Dalrymple (whose heart
+failed him) and Theodosius and Francis Purland, sons of a Norwich
+chemist.  The Purlands are credited with robbing “the paternal till,”
+while Dalrymple confined himself to the less compromising duty of
+“gathering horse-pistols and potatoes.”  If the boys robbed their
+father’s till, why did they beg?  In the ballad entitled _The Wandering
+Children and the Benevolent Gentleman_, Borrow depicts the “eldest child”
+as begging for charity for these hungry children, who have had “no
+breakfast, save the haws.”  This does not seem to suggest that the boys
+were in the possession of money.  Again, it was the father of one of
+their schoolfellows who was responsible for their capture, according to
+Dr Knapp, by asking them to dinner whilst he despatched a messenger to
+the Rev. Edward Valpy.  The story of Borrow’s being “horsed” on Dr
+Martineau’s back is apocryphal.  Martineau himself denied it. {25b}
+
+There is no record of how Captain Borrow received the news of his younger
+son’s breach of discipline.  It probably reminded him that the boy was
+now fifteen and it was time to think about his future.  The old soldier
+was puzzled.  Not only had his second son shown a great partiality for
+acquiring Continental tongues, but he had learned Irish, and Captain
+Borrow seemed to think that by learning the language of Papists and
+rebels, his son had sullied the family honour.  To his father’s way of
+thinking, this accomplishment seemed to bar him from most things that
+were at one and the same time honourable and desirable.
+
+The boy’s own inclinations pointed to the army; but Captain Borrow had
+apparently seen too much of the army in war time, and the slowness of
+promotion, to think of it as offering a career suitable to his son, now
+that there was every prospect of a prolonged peace.  He thought of the
+church as an alternative; but here again that fatal facility the boy had
+shown in learning Erse seemed to stand out as a barrier.  “I have
+observed the poor lad attentively and really I do not see what to make of
+him,” Captain Borrow is said to have remarked.  What could be expected of
+a lad who would forsake Greek for Irish, or Latin for the barbarous
+tongue of homeless vagabonds?  Certainly not a good churchman.  At length
+it became obvious to the distressed parents that there was only one
+choice left them—the law.
+
+About this period Borrow fell ill of some nameless and unclassified
+disease, which defied the wisdom of physicians, who shook their heads
+gravely by his bedside.  An old woman, however, cured him by a decoction
+prepared from a bitter root.  The convalescence was slow and laborious;
+for the boy’s nerves were shattered, and that deep, haunting melancholy,
+which he first called the “Fear” and afterwards the “Horrors,” descended
+upon him.
+
+On the 30th of March 1819 Borrow was articled for five years to Simpson &
+Rackham, solicitors, of Tuck’s Court, St Giles, Norwich. {26}  He
+consequently left home to take up his abode at the house of the senior
+partner in the Upper Close. {27a}  Mr William Simpson was a man of
+considerable importance in the city; for besides being Treasurer of the
+County, he was Chamberlain and Town Clerk, whilst his wife was famed for
+her hospitality, in particular her expensive dinners.
+
+With that unerring instinct of contrariety that never seemed to forsake
+him, Borrow proceeded to learn, not law but Welsh.  When the eyes of
+authority were on him he transcribed Blackstone, but when they were
+turned away he read and translated the poems of Ab Gwilym.  He performed
+his tasks “as well as could be expected in one who was occupied by so
+many and busy thoughts of his own.”
+
+At the end of Tuck’s Court was a house at which was employed a Welsh
+groom, a queer fellow who soon attracted the notice of Simpson &
+Rackham’s clerks, young gentlemen who were bent on “mis-spending the time
+which was not legally their own.” {27b}  They would make audible remarks
+about the unfortunate and inoffensive Welsh groom, calling out after him
+“Taffy”—in short, rendering the poor fellow’s life a misery with their
+jibes, until at last, almost distracted, he had come to the determination
+either to give his master notice or to hang himself, that he might get
+away from that “nest of parcupines.”  Borrow saw in the predicament of
+the Welsh groom the hand of providence.  He made a compact with him, that
+in exchange for lessons in Welsh, he, Borrow, should persuade his fellow
+clerks to cease their annoyance.
+
+From that time, each Sunday afternoon, the Welsh groom would go to
+Captain Borrow’s house to instruct his son in Welsh pronunciation; for in
+book Welsh Borrow was stronger than his preceptor.  Borrow had learned
+the language of the bards “chiefly by going through Owen Pugh’s version
+of ‘Paradise Lost’ twice” with the original by his side.  After which
+“there was very little in Welsh poetry that I could not make out with a
+little pondering.” {28a}  This had occupied some three years.  The
+studies with the groom lasted for about twelve months, until he left
+Norwich with his family. {28b}
+
+Captain Borrow’s thoughts were frequently occupied with the future of his
+younger son, a problem that had by no means been determined by signing
+the articles that bound him to Simpson & Rackham.  The boy was frank and
+honest and did not scruple to give expression to ideas of his own, and it
+was these ideas that alarmed his father.  Once at the house of Mr
+Simpson, and before the assembled guests, he told an archdeacon, worth
+£7000 a year, that the classics were much overvalued, and compared Ab
+Gwilym with Ovid, to the detriment of the Roman.  To Captain Borrow the
+possession of ideas upon any subject by one so young was in itself a
+thing to be deplored; but to venture an opinion contrary to that commonly
+held by men of weight and substance was an unforgivable act of
+insubordination.
+
+The boy had been sent to Tuck’s Court to learn law, and instead he
+persisted in acquiring languages, and such languages!  Welsh, Danish,
+Arabic, Armenian, Saxon; for these were the tongues with which he
+occupied himself.  None but a perfect mother such as Mrs Borrow could
+have found excuses for a son who pursued such studies, and her husband
+pointed out to her, it is “in the nature of women invariably to take the
+part of the second born.”
+
+In one of those curiously self-revelatory passages with which his
+writings abound, Borrow tells how he continued to act as door-keeper long
+after it had ceased to be part of his duty.  As a student of men and a
+collector of strange characters, it was in keeping with his genius to do
+so, although he himself was unable to explain why he took pleasure in the
+task.  No one was admitted to the presence of the senior partner who did
+not first pass the searching scrutiny of his articled clerk.  Those who
+pleased him were admitted to Mr Simpson’s private room; to those who did
+not he proved himself an almost insuperable obstacle.  Unfortunately
+Borrow’s standards were those of the physiognomist rather than the
+lawyer; he inverted the whole fabric of professional desirability by
+admitting the goats and refusing the sheep.  He turned away a knight, or
+a baronet, and admitted a poet, until at last the distressed old
+gentleman in black, with the philanthropical head, his master, was forced
+to expostulate and adjure his clerk to judge, not by faces but by
+clothes, which in reality make the man.  Borrow bowed to the ruling of
+“the prince of English solicitors,” revised his standards and continued
+to act as keeper of the door.
+
+Mr Simpson seems to have earned Borrow’s thorough regard, no small
+achievement considering in how much he differed from his illustrious
+articled-clerk in everything, not excepting humour, of which the
+delightful, old-world gentleman seems to have had a generous share.  He
+was doubtless puzzled to classify the strange being by whose
+instrumentality a stream of undesirable people was admitted to his
+presence, whilst distinguished clients were sternly and rigorously turned
+away.  He probably smiled at the story of the old yeoman and his wife
+who, in return for some civility shown to them by Borrow, presented him
+with an old volume of Danish ballads, which inspired him to learn the
+language, aided by a Danish Bible. {30a}  He was not only “the first
+solicitor in East Anglia,” but “the prince of all English solicitors—for
+he was a gentleman!” {30b}  In another place Borrow refers to him as “my
+old master . . . who would have died sooner than broken his word.  God
+bless him!” {30c}  And yet again as “my ancient master, the gentleman
+solicitor of East Anglia.” {30d}
+
+Borrow was always handsome in everything he did.  If he hated a man he
+hated him, his kith and kin and all who bore his name.  His friendship
+was similarly sweeping, and his regard for William Simpson prompted him
+to write subsequently of the law as “a profession which abounds with
+honourable men, and in which I believe there are fewer scamps than in any
+other.  The most honourable men I have ever known have been lawyers; they
+were men whose word was their bond, and who would have preferred ruin to
+breaking it.” {31a}
+
+Fortunately for Borrow there was at the Norwich Guildhall a valuable
+library consisting of a large number of ancient folios written in many
+languages.  “Amidst the dust and cobwebs of the Corporation Library” he
+studied earnestly and, with a fine disregard for a librarian’s feelings,
+annotated some of the volumes, his marginalia existing to this day.  One
+of his favourite works was the _Danica Literatura Antiquissima_ of Olaus
+Wormius, 1636, which inspired him with the idea of adopting the name
+Olaus, his subsequent contributions to _The New Magazine_ being signed
+George Olaus Borrow.
+
+Whilst Borrow was striving to learn languages and avoid the law, {31b}
+the question of his brother’s career was seriously occupying the mind of
+their father.  Borrow loved and admired his brother.  There is sincerity
+in all he writes concerning John, and there is something of nobility
+about the way in which he tells of his father’s preference for him.
+“Who,” he asks, “cannot excuse the honest pride of the old man—the stout
+old man?” {31c}
+
+The Peace had closed to John Borrow the army as a profession, and he had
+devoted himself assiduously to his art.  Under Crome the elder he had
+made considerable progress, and had exhibited a number of pictures at the
+yearly exhibitions of the Norwich Society of Artists.  He continued to
+study with Crome until the artist’s death (22nd April 1821), when a new
+master had to be sought.  With his father’s blessing and £150 he
+proceeded to London, where he remained for more than a year studying with
+B. R. Haydon. {32a}  Later he went to Paris to copy Old Masters.
+
+About this time Borrow had an opportunity of seeing many of “the bruisers
+of England.”  In his veins flowed the blood of the man who had met Big
+Ben Bryan and survived the encounter undefeated.  “Let no one sneer at
+the bruisers of England,” Borrow wrote—“What were the gladiators of Rome,
+or the bull-fighters of Spain, in its palmiest days, compared to
+England’s bruisers?” {32b} he asks.  On 17th July 1820 Edward Painter of
+Norwich was to meet Thomas Oliver of London for a purse of a hundred
+guineas.  On the Saturday previous (the 15th) the Norwich hotels began to
+fill with bruisers and their patrons, and men went their ways anxiously
+polite to the stranger, lest he turn out to be some champion whom it were
+dangerous to affront.  Thomas Cribb, the champion of England, had come to
+see the fight, “Teucer Belcher, savage Shelton, . . . the terrible
+Randall, . . . Bulldog Hudson, . . . fearless Scroggins, . . . Black
+Richmond, . . . Tom of Bedford,” and a host of lesser lights of the
+“Fancy.”
+
+On the Monday, upwards of 20,000 men swept out of the old city towards
+North Walsham, less than twenty miles distant, among them George Borrow,
+striding along among the varied stream of men and vehicles (some 2000 in
+number) to see the great fight, which was to end in the victory of the
+local man and a terrible storm, as if heaven were thundering its anger
+against a brutal spectacle.  The sportsmen were left to find their way to
+shelter, Borrow and Mr Petulengro, whom he had encountered just after the
+fight, with them, talking of dukkeripens (fortunes).
+
+Some time during the year 1820, a Jew named Levy (the Mousha of
+_Lavengro_), Borrow’s instructor in Hebrew, introduced him to William
+Taylor, {33a} one of the most extraordinary men that Norwich ever
+produced.  In the long-limbed young lawyer’s clerk, whose hair was
+rapidly becoming grey, Taylor showed great interest, and, as an act of
+friendship, undertook to teach him German.  He was gratified by the young
+man’s astonishing progress, and much interested in his remarkable
+personality.  As a result Borrow became a frequent visitor at 21 King
+Street, Norwich, where Taylor lived and many strange men assembled.
+
+It is doubtful if William Taylor ever found another pupil so apt, or a
+disciple so enthusiastic among all the “harum-scarum young men” {33b}
+that he was so fond of taking up and introducing “into the best society
+the place afforded.” {33c}  He was much impressed by Borrow’s
+extraordinary memory and power of concentration.  Speaking one day of the
+different degrees of intelligence in men he said:—“I cannot give you a
+better example to explain my meaning than my two pupils (there was
+another named Cooke, who was said to be ‘a genius in his way’); what I
+tell Borrow once he ever remembers; whilst to the fellow Cooke I have to
+repeat the same thing twenty times, often without effect; and it is not
+from want of memory either, but he will never be a linguist.” {33d}
+
+To a correspondent Taylor wrote:—
+
+    “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.” {34a}
+
+This was in 1821; two years later Borrow is said to have “translated with
+fidelity and elegance from twenty different languages.” {34b}  In spite
+of his later achievements in learning languages, it seems scarcely
+credible that he acquired eight separate languages in two years, although
+it must be remembered that with him the learning of a language was to be
+able to read it after a rather laborious fashion.  Taylor, however, uses
+the words “facility and elegance.”
+
+                   [Picture: William Taylor of Norwich]
+
+In the autobiographical notes that Borrow supplied to Mr John Longe in
+1862 there appears the following passage:—
+
+    “At the expiration of his clerkship he knew little of the law, but he
+    was well versed in languages, being not only a good Greek and Latin
+    scholar, but acquainted with French, Italian, Spanish, all the Celtic
+    and Gothic dialects, and likewise with the peculiar language of the
+    English Romany Chals or gypsies.”
+
+At William Taylor’s table Borrow met “the most intellectual and talented
+men of Norwich, as also those of note who visited the city.” {34c}
+Taylor was much interested in young men, into whose minds he did not
+hesitate to instil his own ideas, ideas that not only earned for him the
+name of “Godless Billy,” but outraged his respectable fellow-citizens as
+much as did his intemperate habits.  “His face was terribly bloated from
+drink, and he had a look as if his intellect was almost as much decayed
+as his body,” wrote a contemporary. {35a}  “Matters grew worse in his old
+age,” says Harriet Martineau, “when his habits of intemperance kept him
+out of the sight of ladies, and he got round him a set of ignorant and
+conceited young men, who thought they could set the whole world right by
+their destructive propensities.  One of his chief favourites was George
+Borrow.” {35b}  Borrow has given the following convincing picture of
+Taylor:
+
+    “Methought I was in a small, comfortable room wainscotted with oak; I
+    was seated on one side of a fireplace, close by a table on which were
+    wine and fruit; on the other side of the fire sat a man in a plain
+    suit of brown, with the hair combed back from the somewhat high
+    forehead; he had a pipe in his mouth, which for some time he smoked
+    gravely and placidly, without saying a word; at length, after drawing
+    at the pipe for some time rather vigorously, he removed it from his
+    mouth, and emitting an accumulated cloud of smoke, he exclaimed in a
+    slow and measured tone: ‘As I was telling you just now, my good chap,
+    I have always been an enemy of humbug.’” {35c}
+
+William Taylor appears to have flattered “the harum-scarum young men”
+with whom he surrounded himself by talking to them as if they were his
+intellectual equals.  He encouraged them to form their own opinions, in
+itself a thing scarcely likely to make him popular with either parents or
+guardians, least of all with discipline-loving Captain Borrow, who
+declined even to return the salute of his son’s friend on the public
+highway.
+
+Borrow now began to look to the future and speculate as to what his
+present life would lead to.  His cogitations seem to have ended, almost
+invariably, in a gloomy mist of pessimism and despair—in other words, an
+attack of the “Horrors.”  If Mr Petulengro were encamped upon Mousehold,
+the antidote lay near to hand in his friend’s pagan optimism; if, on the
+other hand, the tents of Egypt were pitched on other soil, there was no
+remedy, unless perhaps a prize-fight supplied the necessary stimulus to
+divert his thoughts from their melancholy trend.
+
+ [Picture: George Borrow (1821).  From a hitherto unpublished painting by
+       John Borrow, now in the posession of W. F. T. Jarrold, Esq.]
+
+Borrow met at the house of his tutor and friend, in July 1821, Dr Bowring
+{36a} (afterwards Sir John) at a dinner given in his honour.  Bowring had
+recently published _Specimen of Russian Poets_, in recognition of which
+the Czar (Alexander I.) had presented him with a diamond ring.  He had a
+considerable reputation as a linguist, which naturally attracted Borrow
+to him.  Dr Bowring was told of Borrow’s accomplishments, and during the
+evening took a seat beside him.  Borrow confessed to being “a little
+frightened at first” of the distinguished man, whom he described as
+having “a thin weaselly figure, a sallow complexion, a certain obliquity
+of vision, and a large pair of spectacles.”  It would be dangerous to
+accept entirely the account that Borrow gives of the meeting, {36b}
+because when that was written he had come to hate and despise the man
+whom he had begun by regarding with such awe.  Bowring appears to have
+ventilated his views with some freedom, and to have had a rather serious
+passage of arms with another guest whom he had rudely contradicted.  It
+is very probable that Borrow’s dislike of Bowring prompted him to
+exaggerate his account of what happened at Taylor’s house that evening.
+
+Whilst Borrow was industriously occupied in collecting vagabonds and
+imbibing the dangerous beliefs of William Taylor, there sat in an
+easy-chair in the small front-parlour of the little house in Willow Lane,
+in a faded regimental coat, a prematurely old man, whose frame still
+showed signs of the magnificent physique of his vigorous manhood.
+“Sometimes in prayer, sometimes in meditation, and sometimes in reading
+the Scriptures,” with his dog beside him, Captain Thomas Borrow, now
+sixty-five, was preparing for the end that he felt to be approaching.  He
+frequently meditated upon what was to become of his younger son George,
+who held his father in such awe as to feel ill at ease when alone with
+him.
+
+One day the inevitable interrogation took place.  “What do you propose to
+do?” and the equally inevitable reply followed, “I really do not know
+what I shall do.”  In the course of a somewhat lengthy cross-examination,
+Captain Borrow discovered that his son knew the Armenian tongue, for
+which he very cunningly strove to enlist his father’s interest by telling
+him that in Armenia was Mount Ararat, whereon the ark rested.  Captain
+Borrow also discovered that his son could not only shoe a horse, but also
+make the shoes; but, what was most important, he found that George had
+learned “very little” law.  When asked if he thought he could support
+himself by Armenian or his “other acquirements,” the younger man was not
+very hopeful, and horrified the old soldier by suggesting that if all
+else failed there was always suicide.
+
+The dying man was thus left to yearn for the return of his elder son, in
+whom all his hopes lay centred.  John appears to have been by no means
+dutiful to his parents in the matter of letters.  For six months he left
+them unacquainted even with his address in Paris, where he was still
+copying Old Masters in the Louvre.
+
+After their talk the father and younger son seem to have come to a better
+understanding.  George would frequently read aloud from the Bible, whilst
+Captain Borrow would tell about his early life.  His son “had no idea
+that he knew and had seen so much; my respect for him increased, and I
+looked upon him almost with admiration.  His anecdotes were in general
+highly curious; some of them related to people in the highest stations,
+and to men whose names are closely connected with some of the brightest
+glories of our native land.” {38}
+
+At last John arrived, apparently a little disillusioned with the world;
+but the coming of his favourite son produced no change for the better in
+Captain Borrow’s health.  He was content and happy that God had granted
+his wish.  There remained nothing now to do but “to bless my little
+family and go.”  George learned “that it is possible to feel deeply and
+yet make no outward sign.”
+
+The end came on the morning of 28th February 1824.  It was by a strange
+chance that the old man should die in the arms of his younger son, who
+had run down on hearing his mother’s anguished screams.  Borrow has given
+a dramatic account of his father’s last moments:—
+
+    “At the dead hour of night, it might be about two, I was awakened
+    from sleep by a cry which sounded from the room immediately below
+    that in which I slept.  I knew the cry, it was the cry of my mother,
+    and I also knew its import; yet I made no effort to rise, for I was
+    for the moment paralysed.  Again the cry sounded, yet still I lay
+    motionless—the stupidity of horror was upon me.  A third time, and it
+    was then that, by a violent effort bursting the spell which appeared
+    to bind me, I sprang from the bed and rushed downstairs.  My mother
+    was running wildly about the room; she had awoke and found my father
+    senseless in the bed by her side.  I essayed to raise him, and after
+    a few efforts supported him in the bed in a sitting posture.  My
+    brother now rushed in, and snatching a light that was burning, he
+    held it to my father’s face.  ‘The surgeon, the surgeon!’ he cried;
+    then dropping the light, he ran out of the room followed by my
+    mother; I remained alone, supporting the senseless form of my father;
+    the light had been extinguished by the fall, and an almost total
+    darkness reigned in the room.  The form pressed heavily against my
+    bosom—at last methought it moved.  Yes, I was right, there was a
+    heaving of the breast, and then a gasping.  Were those words which I
+    heard?  Yes, they were words, low and indistinct at first, and then
+    audible.  The mind of the dying man was reverting to former scenes.
+    I heard him mention names which I had often heard him mention before.
+    It was an awful moment; I felt stupified, but I still contrived to
+    support my dying father.  There was a pause, again my father spoke: I
+    heard him speak of Minden, and of Meredith, the old Minden sergeant,
+    and then he uttered another name, which at one period of his life was
+    much on his lips, the name of—but this is a solemn moment!  There was
+    a deep gasp: I shook, and thought all was over; but I was mistaken—my
+    father moved and revived for a moment; he supported himself in bed
+    without my assistance.  I make no doubt that for a moment he was
+    perfectly sensible, and it was then that, clasping his hands, he
+    uttered another name clearly, distinctly—it was the name of Christ.
+    With that name upon his lips, the brave old soldier sank back upon my
+    bosom, and, with his hands still clasped, yielded up his soul.” {39}
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+APRIL 1824–MAY 1825
+
+
+ON 2nd April 1824, George Borrow was cast upon the world of London by the
+death of his father, “with an exterior shy and cold, under which lurk
+much curiosity, especially with regard to what is wild and extraordinary,
+a considerable quantity of energy and industry, and an unconquerable love
+of independence.” {40a}
+
+It had become necessary for him to earn his own livelihood.  Captain
+Borrow’s pension had ceased with his death, and the old soldier’s savings
+of a lifetime were barely sufficient to produce an income of a hundred
+pounds a year for his widow.  The provision made in the will for his
+younger son during his minority would operate only for about four months,
+as he would be of age in the following July. {40b}  The clerkship with
+Simpson & Rackham would expire at the end of March.  Borrow had outlined
+his ambitions in a letter written on 20th January 1824, when he was ill
+and wretched, to Roger Kerrison, then in London: “If ever my health mends
+[this has reference to a very unpleasant complaint he had contracted],
+and possibly it may by the time my clerkship is expired, I intend to live
+in London, write plays, poetry, etc., abuse religion and get myself
+prosecuted,” for he was tired of the “dull and gloomy town.”  It was
+therefore with a feeling of relief that, on the evening of 1st April, he
+took his seat on the top of the London coach, his hopes centred in a
+small green box that he carried with him.  It contained his
+stock-in-trade as an author: his beloved manuscripts, “closely written
+over in a singular hand.”
+
+Among the bundles of papers were:
+
+  (i.)  The Ancient Songs of Denmark, heroic and romantic, translated by
+  himself, with notes philological, critical and historical.
+
+  (ii.)  The Songs of Ab Gwilym, the Welsh Bard, also translated by
+  himself, with notes critical, philological and historical. {41}
+
+  (iii.)  A romance in the German style.
+
+In addition to his manuscripts, Borrow had some twenty or thirty pounds,
+his testimonials, and a letter from William Taylor to Sir Richard
+Phillips, the publisher, to whose _New Magazine_ he had already
+contributed a number of translations of poems.  He had also printed in
+_The Monthly Magazine_ and _The New Monthly Magazine_ translations of
+verse from the German, Swedish, Dutch, Danish and Spanish, and an essay
+on Danish ballad writing.
+
+On the morning of 2nd April there arrived at 16 Milman Street, Bedford
+Row, London, W.C.,
+
+   “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 broil and strife,
+   Will fight a Dutchman with a knife;
+   O that is just the lad for me,
+   And such is honest six-foot-three.” {42a}
+
+It was through the Kerrisons that Borrow went to 16 Milman Street, where
+Roger was lodging.  His apartments seem to have been dismal enough,
+consisting of “a small room, up two pair of stairs, in which I was to
+sit, and another, still smaller, above it, in which I was to sleep.”
+After the first feeling of loneliness had passed, dispelled largely by a
+bright fire and breakfast, he sallied forth, the contents of the green
+box under his arm, to present his letter of introduction to Sir Richard
+Phillips, {42b} in whom centred his hopes of employment.
+
+ [Picture: Sir Richard Phillips.  From the painting by James Saxon in the
+                        National Portrait Gallery]
+
+On arriving at the publisher’s house in Tavistock Square, he was
+immediately shown into Sir Richard’s study, where he found “a tall, stout
+man, about sixty, dressed in a loose morning gown,” and with him his
+confidential clerk Bartlett (the Taggart of _Lavengro_).  Sir Richard was
+at first enthusiastic and cordial, but when he learned from William
+Taylor’s letter that Borrow had come up to earn his livelihood by
+authorship, his manner underwent a marked change.  The bluff, hearty
+expression gave place to “a sinister glance,” and Borrow found that
+within that loose morning gown there was a second Sir Richard.
+
+He learned two things—first, that Sir Richard Phillips had retired from
+publishing and had reserved only _The Monthly Magazine_; {43} secondly,
+that literature was a drug upon the market.  With airy
+self-assertiveness, the ex-publisher dismissed the contents of the green
+box that Borrow had brought with him, which had already aroused
+considerable suspicion in the mind of the maid who had admitted him to
+the publisher’s presence.
+
+When he had thoroughly dashed the young author’s hopes of employment, Sir
+Richard informed him of a new publication he had in preparation, _The
+Universal Review_ [_The Oxford Review_ of _Lavengro_], which was to
+support the son of the house and the wife he had married.  With a promise
+that he should become a contributor to the new review, an earnest
+exhortation to write a story in the style of _The Dairyman’s Daughter_,
+and an invitation to dinner for the following Sunday, the first interview
+between George Borrow and Sir Richard Phillips ended, and Borrow left the
+great man’s presence to begin his exploration of London, first leaving
+his manuscripts at Milman Street.  During the rest of the day he walked
+“scarcely less than thirty miles about the big city.”  It was late when
+he returned to his lodgings, thoroughly tired, but with a copy of _The
+Dairyman’s Daughter_, for “a well-written tale in the style” of which Sir
+Richard Phillips “could afford as much as ten pounds.”  The day had been
+one of the most eventful in Borrow’s life.
+
+On the following Sunday Borrow dined at Tavistock Square, and met Lady
+Phillips, young Phillips and his bride.  He learned that Sir Richard was
+a vegetarian of twenty years’ standing and a total abstainer, although
+meat and wine were not banished from his table.  When publisher and
+potential author were left alone, the son having soon followed the ladies
+into the drawing-room, Borrow heard of Sir Richard’s amiable intentions
+towards him.  He was to compile six volumes of the lives and trials of
+criminals [the _Newgate Lives and Trials_ of _Lavengro_], each to contain
+not less than a thousand pages. {44a}  For this work he was to receive
+the munificent sum of fifty pounds, which was to cover all expenses
+incurred in the purchase of books, papers and manuscripts necessary to
+the compilation of the work.  This was only one of the employments that
+the fertile brain of the publisher had schemed for him.  He was also to
+make himself useful in connection with the forthcoming _Universal
+Review_.  “Generally useful, sir—doing whatever is required of you”; for
+it was not Sir Richard’s custom to allow young writers to select their
+own subjects.
+
+With impressive manner and ponderous diction, Sir Richard Phillips
+unfolded his philanthropic designs regarding the young writer to whom his
+words meant a career.  He did not end with the appointment of Borrow as
+general utility writer upon _The Universal Review_; but proceeded to
+astonish him with the announcement that to him, George Borrow,
+understanding German in a manner that aroused the “strong admiration” of
+William Taylor, was to be entrusted the translating into that tongue of
+Sir Richard Phillips’ book of Philosophy. {44b}  If translations of
+Goethe into English were a drug, Sir Richard Phillips’ _Proximate Causes_
+was to prove that neither he nor his book would be a drug in Germany.
+For this work the remuneration was to be determined by the success of the
+translation, an arrangement sufficiently vague to ensure eventual
+disagreement.
+
+When Sir Richard had finished his account of what were his intentions
+towards his guest, he gave him to understand that the interview was at an
+end, at the same time intimating how seldom it was that he dealt so
+generously with a young writer.  Borrow then rose from the table and
+passed out of the house, leaving his host to muse, as was his custom on
+Sunday afternoons, “on the magnificence of nature and the moral dignity
+of man.”
+
+For the next few weeks Borrow was occupied in searching in out-of-the-way
+corners for criminal biography.  If he flagged, a visit from his
+philosopher-publisher spurred him on to fresh effort.  He received a copy
+of _Proximate Causes_, with an injunction that he should review it in
+_The Universal Review_, as well as translate it into German.  He was
+taken to and introduced to the working editor {45a} of the new
+publication, which was only ostensibly under the control of young
+Phillips.
+
+In the provision that he should purchase at his own expense all the
+necessary materials for _Celebrated Trials_, Borrow found a serious tax
+upon his resources; but a harder thing to bear with patience and
+good-humour were the frequent visits he received from Sir Richard
+himself, who showed the keenest possible interest in the progress of the
+compilation.  He had already caused a preliminary announcement to be made
+{45b} to the effect that:
+
+    “A Selection of the most remarkable Trials and Criminal Causes is
+    printing, in five volumes. {46a}  It will include all famous cases,
+    from that of Lord Cobham, in the reign of Henry the Fifth, to that of
+    John Thurtell: and those connected with foreign as well as English
+    jurisprudence.  Mr Borrow, the editor, has availed himself of all the
+    resources of the English, German, French, and Italian languages; and
+    his work, including from 150 to 200 {46b} of the most interesting
+    cases on record, will appear in October next.” {46c}
+
+Sir Richard’s visits to Milman Street were always accompanied by numerous
+suggestions as to criminals whose claims to be included in this literary
+chamber of horrors were in his, Sir Richard’s, opinion unquestionable.
+The English character of the compilation was soon sacrificed in order to
+admit notable malefactors of other nationalities, and the drain upon the
+editor’s small capital became greater than ever.
+
+The leisure that he allowed himself, Borrow spent in exploring the city,
+or in the company of Francis Arden (Ardrey in _Lavengro_), whom he had
+met by chance in the coffee-room of a hotel.  The two appear to have been
+excellent friends, perhaps because of the dissimilarity of their natures.
+“He was an Irishman,” Borrow explains, “I an Englishman; he fiery,
+enthusiastic and opened-hearted; I neither fiery, enthusiastic, nor
+open-hearted; he fond of pleasure and dissipation, I of study and
+reflection.” {46d}
+
+They went to the play together, to dog-fights, gaming-houses, in short
+saw the sights of London.  The arrival of Francis Arden at 16 Milman
+Street was a signal for books and manuscripts to be thrown aside in
+favour either of some expedition or an hour or two’s conversation.
+Borrow, however, soon tired of the pleasures of London, and devoted
+himself almost entirely to work.  Although he saw less of Francis Arden
+in consequence, they continued to be excellent friends.
+
+After being some four weeks in London, Borrow received a surprise visit
+(29th April) from his brother, whom he found waiting for him one morning
+when he came down to breakfast.  John told him of his mother’s anxiety at
+receiving only one letter from him since his departure, of her fits of
+crying, of the grief of Captain Borrow’s dog at the loss of his master.
+He also explained the reason for his being in London.  He had been
+invited to paint the portrait of Robert Hawkes, an ex-mayor of Norwich,
+for a fee of a hundred guineas.  Lacking confidence in his own ability,
+he had declined the honour and suggested that Benjamin Haydon should be
+approached.  At the request of a deputation of his fellow citizens, which
+had waited upon him, he had undertaken to enter into negotiations with
+Haydon.  He even undertook to come up to London at his own expense, that
+he might see his old master and complete the bargain.  Borrow
+subsequently accompanied his brother when calling upon Haydon, and was
+enabled to give a thumbnail-sketch of the painter of the Heroic at work
+that has been pronounced to be photographic in its faithfulness.
+
+John returned to Norwich about a fortnight later accompanied by Haydon,
+who was to become the guest of his sitter, {47} and George was left to
+the compilation of _Celebrated Trials_.  Sir Richard Phillips appears to
+have been a man as prolific of suggestion as he was destitute of tact.
+He regarded his authors as the instruments of his own genius.  Their
+business it was to carry out his ideas in a manner entirely congenial to
+his colossal conceit.  His latest author he exposed “to incredible
+mortification and ceaseless trouble from this same rage for
+interference.”
+
+The result of all this was an attack of the “Horrors.”  Towards the end
+of May, Roger Kerrison received from Borrow a note saying that he
+believed himself to be dying, and imploring him to “come to me
+immediately.”  The direct outcome of this note was, not the death of
+Borrow, but the departure from Milman Street of Roger Kerrison, lest he
+should become involved in a tragedy connected with Borrow’s oft-repeated
+threat of suicide.  Kerrison became “very uneasy and uncomfortable on his
+account, so that I have found it utterly impossible to live any longer in
+the same lodgings with him.” {48a}  Looked at dispassionately it seems
+nothing short of an act of cowardice on Kerrison’s part to leave alone a
+man such as Borrow, who might at any moment be assailed by one of those
+periods of gloom from which suicide seemed the only outlet.  On the other
+hand, from an anecdote told by C. G. Leland (“Hans Breitmann”), there
+seems to be some excuse for Kerrison’s wish to live alone.  “I knew at
+that time [about 1870],” he writes, {48b} “a Mr Kerrison, who had been as
+a young man, probably in the Twenties, on intimate terms with Borrow.  He
+told me that one night Borrow acted very wildly, whooping and
+vociferating so as to cause the police to follow him, and after a long
+run led them to the edge of the Thames, ‘and there they thought they had
+him.’  But he plunged boldly into the water and swam in his clothes to
+the opposite shore, and so escaped.”
+
+A serious misfortune now befell Borrow in the premature death of _The
+Universal Review_, which expired with the sixth number (March
+1824—January 1825).  It is not known what was the rate of pay to young
+and impecunious reviewers {49a} certainly not large, if it may be judged
+by the amount agreed upon for _Celebrated Trials_.  Still, its end meant
+that Borrow was now dependent upon what he received for his compilation,
+and what he merited by his translation into German of _Proximate Causes_.
+
+There appears to have been some difficulty about payment for Borrow’s
+contributions to the now defunct review, which considerably widened the
+breach that the _Trials_ had created.  Sir Richard became more exacting
+and more than ever critical. {49b}  The end could not be far off.  Borrow
+had come to London determined to be an author, and by no juggling with
+facts could his present drudgery be considered as authorship.
+Occasionally his mind reverted to the manuscripts in the green box, his
+faith in which continued undiminished.  He made further efforts to get
+his translations published, but everywhere the answer was the same, in
+effect, “A drug, sir, a drug!”
+
+At last he determined to approach John Murray (the Second), “Glorious
+John, who lived at the western end of the town”; but he called many times
+without being successful in seeing him.  Another seventeen years were to
+elapse before he was to meet and be published by John Murray.
+
+Yet another dispute arose between Borrow and Sir Richard Phillips.
+Neither appeared to have realised the supreme folly of entrusting to a
+young Englishman the translation into German of an English work.  A novel
+would have presented almost insurmountable difficulties; but a work of
+philosophy!  The whole project was absurd.  The diction of philosophy in
+all languages is individual, just as it is in other branches of science,
+and a very thorough knowledge of, and deep reading in both languages are
+necessary to qualify a man to translate from a foreign tongue into his
+own.  To expect an inexperienced youth to reverse the order seems to
+suggest that Sir Richard Phillips must have been a publisher whose
+enthusiasm was greater than his judgment.
+
+One day when calling at Tavistock Square, Borrow found Sir Richard in a
+fury of rage.  He had submitted the first chapter of the translation of
+_Proximate Causes_ to some Germans, who found it utterly unintelligible.
+This was only to be expected, as Borrow confesses that, when he found
+himself unable to comprehend what was the meaning of the English text, he
+had translated it _literally into German_!
+
+The result of the interview was that Borrow, after what appears to be a
+tactless, not to say impertinent, rejoinder, {50a} relapsed into silence
+and finally left the house, ordered back to his compilation by Sir
+Richard, as soon as he became sufficiently calm to appear coherent, and
+Borrow walked away musing on the “difference in clever men.”
+
+The discovery of the inadequacy of the German translation apparently
+urged Borrow to hasten on with _Celebrated Trials_.  _The Universal
+Review_ was dead, the German version of _Proximate Causes_ {50b} had
+passed out of his hands.  It was desirable, therefore, that the remaining
+undertaking should be completed as soon as possible, that the two might
+part.  The last of the manuscript was delivered, the proofs passed for
+press, and on 19th March the work appeared, the six volumes, running to
+between three and four thousand pages, containing accounts of some four
+hundred trials, including that of Borrow’s old friend Thurtell for the
+murder of Mr Weare.
+
+Borrow’s name did not appear.  He was “the editor,” and as such was
+referred to in the preface contributed by Sir Richard himself.  Among
+other things he tells of how, in some cases, “the Editor has compressed
+into a score of pages the substance of an entire volume.”  Sir Richard
+was a philosopher as well as a preface-writing publisher, and it was only
+natural that he should speculate as to the effect upon his editor’s mind
+of months spent in reading and editing such records of vice.  “It may be
+expected,” he writes, “that the Editor should convey to his readers the
+intellectual impressions which the execution of his task has produced on
+his mind.  He confesses that they are mournful.”  Sir Richard was either
+a master of irony, or a man of singular obtuseness.
+
+One effect of this delving into criminal records had been to raise in
+Borrow’s mind strange doubts about virtue and crime.  When a boy, he had
+written an essay in which he strove to prove that crime and virtue were
+mere terms, and that we were the creatures of necessity or circumstance.
+These broodings in turn reawakened the theory that everything is a lie,
+and that nothing really exists except in our imaginations.  The world was
+“a maze of doubt.”  These indications of an overtaxed brain increased,
+and eventually forced Borrow to leave London.  His work was thoroughly
+uncongenial.  He disliked reviewing; he had failed in his endeavours to
+render _Proximate Causes_ into intelligible German; and it had taken him
+some time to overcome his dislike of the sordid stories of crime and
+criminals that he had to read and edit.  He became gloomy and depressed,
+and prone to compare the real conditions of authorship with those that
+his imagination had conjured up.
+
+The most important result of his labours in connection with _Celebrated
+Trials_ was that upon his literary style.  There is a tremendous
+significance in the following passage.  It tells of the transition of the
+actual vagabond into the literary vagabond, with power to express in
+words what proved so congenial to Borrow’s vagabond temperament:
+
+    “Of all my occupations at this period I am free to confess I liked
+    that of compiling the Newgate Lives and Trials [Celebrated Trials]
+    the best; that is, after I had surmounted a kind of prejudice which I
+    originally entertained.  The trials were entertaining enough; but the
+    lives—how full were they of wild and racy adventures, and in what
+    racy, genuine language were they told.  What struck me most 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 narratives, 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,’ {52a} 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 clear.” {52b}
+
+By the time the work was published and Borrow had been paid his fee, all
+relations between editor and publisher had ceased, and there was “a poor
+author, or rather philologist, upon the streets of London, possessed of
+many tongues,” which he found “of no use in the world.” {52c}  A month
+after the appearance of _Celebrated Trials_ (18th April), and a little
+more than a year after his arrival in London, Borrow published a
+translation of Klinger’s _Faustus_. {53a}  He himself gives no
+particulars as to whether it was commissioned or no.  It may even have
+been “the Romance in the German style” from the Green Box.  It is known
+that he received payment for it by a bill at five or six months, {53b}
+but there is no mention of the amount.  It would appear that the
+translation had long been projected, for in _The Monthly Magazine_, July
+1824, there appeared, in conjunction with the announcement of _Celebrated
+Trials_, the following paragraph: “The editor of the preceding has ready
+for the press, a Life of Faustus, his Death and Descent into Hell, which
+will also appear the next winter.”
+
+_Faustus_ did not meet with a very cordial reception.  _The Literary
+Gazette_ (16th July 1825) characterised it as “another work to which no
+respectable publisher ought to have allowed his name to be put.  The
+political allusion and metaphysics, which may have made it popular among
+a low class in Germany, do not sufficiently season its lewd scenes and
+coarse descriptions for British palates.  We have occasionally
+publications for the fireside,—these are only fit for the fire.”
+
+Borrow had apparently been in some doubt about certain passages, for in a
+note headed “The Translator to the Public,” he defends the work as moral
+in its general teaching:
+
+    “The publication of the present volume may at first sight appear to
+    require some brief explanation from the Translator, inasmuch as the
+    character of the incidents may justify such an expectation on the
+    part of the reader.  It is, therefore, necessary to state 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.  The
+    work, when considered as a whole, is strictly moral.”
+
+It must be confessed that Faustus does not err on the side of restraint.
+Many of its scenes might appear “lewd . . . and coarse” to anyone who for
+a moment allowed his mind to wander from the morality of “its general
+teaching.”  The attacks upon the lax morals of the priesthood must have
+proved particularly congenial to the translator.
+
+The more Borrow read his translations of Ab Gwilym, the more convinced he
+became of their merit and the profit they would bring to him who
+published them.  The booksellers, however, with singular unanimity,
+declined the risk of introducing to the English public either Welsh or
+Danish ballads; and their translator became so shabby in consequence,
+that he refrained from calling upon his friend Arden, for whom he had
+always cherished a very real friendship.  He began to lose heart.  His
+energy left him and with it went hope.  He was forced to review his
+situation.  Authorship had obviously failed, and he found himself with no
+reasonable prospect of employment.
+
+There is no episode in Borrow’s life that has so exercised the minds of
+commentators and critics as his account of the book he terms in
+_Lavengro_, _The Life and Adventures of Joseph Sell_, _the Great
+Traveller_.  Some dismiss the whole story as apocryphal; others see in it
+a grain of truth distorted into something of vital importance; whilst
+there are a number of earnest Borrovians that accept the whole story as
+it is written.  Dr Knapp has said that Joseph Sell “was not a book at
+all, and the author of it never said that it was.”  This was obviously an
+error, for the bookseller is credited with saying, “I think I shall
+venture on sending your book to the press,” {55a} referring to it as a
+“book” four times in nine lines.  Again, in another place, Borrow
+describes how he rescued 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_.” {55b}
+This removes all question of the _Life and Adventures of Joseph Sell_
+being included in a collection of short stories.  The title would not be
+the same, the date is most probably wrongly given, as in the case of
+Marshland Shales; but the general accuracy of the account as written
+seems to be highly probable.  Many efforts have been made to trace the
+story; but so far unsuccessfully.  It must be remembered that Borrow
+loved to stretch the long arm of coincidence; but he loved more than
+anything else a dramatic situation.  He was always on the look out for
+effective “curtains.”
+
+In favour of the story having been actually written, is the knowledge
+that Borrow invented little or nothing.  Collateral evidence has shown
+how little he deviated from actual happenings, although he did not
+hesitate to revise dates or colour events.  The strongest evidence,
+however, lies in the atmosphere of truth that pervades Chapters LV.–LVII.
+of _Lavengro_.  They are convincing.  At one time or another during his
+career, it would appear that Borrow wrote against time from grim
+necessity; otherwise he must have been a master of invention, which
+everything that is known about him clearly shows that he was not.
+
+_Joseph Sell_ has disappeared, a most careful search of the Registers at
+Stationers’ Hall can show no trace of that work, or any book that seems
+to suggest it, and the contemporary literary papers render no assistance.
+
+According to Borrow’s own account, one morning on getting up he found
+that he had only half a crown in the world.  It was this circumstance,
+coupled with the timely notice that he saw affixed to a bookseller’s
+window to the effect that “A Novel or Tale is much wanted,” that
+determined him to endeavour to emulate Dr Johnson and William Beckford.
+He had tired of “the Great City,” and his thoughts turned instinctively
+to the woods and the fields, where he could be free to meditate and muse
+in solitude.
+
+When he returned to Milman Street after seeing the bookseller’s
+advertisement, he found that his resources had been still further reduced
+to eighteen-pence.  He was too proud to write home for assistance, he had
+broken with Sir Richard Phillips, and he had no reasonable expectation of
+obtaining employment of any description; for his accomplishments found no
+place in the catalogue of everyday wants.  He was a proper man with his
+hands, and knew some score or more languages.  No matter how he regarded
+the situation, the facts were obvious.  Between him and actual starvation
+there was the inconsiderable sum of eighteen-pence and the bookseller’s
+advertisement.  The gravity of the situation banished the cloud of
+despondency that threatened to settle upon him, and also the doubts that
+presented themselves as to whether he possessed the requisite ability to
+produce what the bookseller required.  The all-important question was,
+could he exist sufficiently long on eighteen-pence to complete a story?
+Sir Richard Phillips had told him to live on bread and water.  He now did
+so.
+
+For a week he wrote ceaselessly at the _Life and Adventures of Joseph
+Sell_, _the Great Traveller_.  He wrote with the feverish energy of a man
+who sees the shadow of actual starvation cast across his manuscript.
+When the tale was finished there remained the work of revision, and after
+that, worst of all, fears lest the bookseller were already suited.
+
+Fortune, however, was kind to him, and he was successful in extracting
+for his story the sum of twenty pounds.  Borrow had not mixed among
+gypsies for nothing.  He, a starving and unknown author, succeeded in
+extracting from a bookseller twenty pounds for a story, twice the amount
+offered by Sir Richard Phillips for a novel on the lines of _The
+Dairyman’s Daughter_.  It was an achievement.
+
+The first argument against the story, as related by Borrow, is that he
+was not without resources at the time.  Why should he be so impoverished
+a few weeks after receiving payment for _Celebrated Trials_? {57}  Above
+all, why did he not realise upon Simpkin & Marshall’s bill for _Faustus_?
+He would have experienced no difficulty in discounting a bill accepted by
+such a firm.  It seems hardly conceivable that he should preserve this
+piece of paper when he had only eighteen-pence in the world.  Everything
+seems to point to the fact that in May 1825 Borrow was not in want of
+money, and if he were not, why did he almost kill himself by writing the
+_Life and Adventures of Joseph Sell_?  Again, at that period he had met
+with no adventures such as might be included in the life of a “Great
+Traveller,” and Borrow was not an inventive writer.  Later he possessed
+plenty of material; for there can be no question that he roamed about the
+world for a considerable portion of those seven mysterious years of his
+life that came to be known as the “Veiled Period.”  His accuracy as to
+actual occurrences has been so emphasised that this particular argument
+holds considerable significance.
+
+The strongest evidence against _Joseph Sell_ having been written in 1825,
+however, lies in the fact that Greenwich Fair was held on 23rd May, and
+not 12th May, as given by Dr Knapp.  By his error Dr Knapp makes Borrow
+leave London a day before the Fair took place that he describes.  Borrow
+must have left London on the day following Greenwich Fair (24th May).  If
+he left later, then those things which tend to confirm his story of the
+life in the Dingle do not fit in, as will be seen.  He certainly could
+not have left before Greenwich Fair was held.
+
+In one of his brother John’s letters, written at the end of 1829, there
+is a significant passage, “Let me know how you sold your manuscript.”
+{58}  What manuscript is it that is referred to?  There is no record of
+George having sold a manuscript in the autumn of 1829.  The passage can
+scarcely have reference to some article or translation; it seems to
+suggest something of importance, an event in George’s life that his
+brother is anxious to know more about.  If this be _Joseph Sell_, then it
+explains where Borrow got the money from to go up to London at the end of
+1829, when he entered into relations with Dr Bowring.  It is merely a
+theory, it must be confessed; but there is certain evidence that seems to
+support it.  In the first place, Borrow was a chronicler before all else.
+He possessed an amazing memory and a great gift for turning his
+experiences into literary material.  If he coloured facts, he appears to
+have done so unconsciously, to judge from those portions of _The Bible in
+Spain_ that were covered by letters to the Bible Society.  Not only are
+the facts the same, but, with very slight changes, the words in which he
+relates them.  He never hesitated to change a date if it served his
+purpose, much as an artist will change the position of a tree in a
+landscape to suit the exigencies of composition.  His five volumes of
+autobiography bristle with coincidences so amazing that, if they were
+actually true, he must have been the most remarkable genius on record for
+attracting to himself strange adventures.  He met the sailor son of the
+old Apple-Woman returning from his enforced exile; Murtagh tells him of
+how the postilion frightened the Pope at Rome by his denunciation, a
+story Borrow had already heard from the postilion himself; the Hungarian
+at Horncastle narrates how an Armenian once silenced a Moldavian, the
+same Moldavian whom Borrow had encountered in London; the postilion meets
+the man in black again.  There are scores of such coincidences, which
+must be accepted as dramatic embellishments.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+MAY–SEPTEMBER 1825
+
+
+FOURTEEN months in London had shown Borrow how hard was the road of
+authorship.  He confessed that he was not “formed by nature to be a
+pallid indoor student.”  “The peculiar atmosphere of the big city” did
+not agree with him, and this fact, together with the anxiety and hard
+work of the past twelve months, caused him to flag, and his first thought
+was how to recover his health.  He was disillusioned as to the busy
+world, and the opportunities it offered to a young man fired with
+ambition to make a stir in it.  He determined to leave London, which he
+did towards the end of May, {60} first despatching his trunk “containing
+a few clothes and books to the old town [Norwich].”  He struck out in a
+south-westerly direction, musing on his achievements as an author, and
+finding that in having preserved his independence and health, he had
+“abundant cause to be grateful.”
+
+Throughout his life Borrow was hypnotised by independence.  Like many
+other proud natures, he carried his theory of independence to such an
+extreme as to become a slave to it and render himself unsociable,
+sometimes churlish.  It was this virtue carried to excess that drove
+Borrow from London.  He must tell men what was in his mind, and his one
+patron, Sir Richard Phillips, he had mortally offended in this manner.
+
+Finding that he was unequal to much fatigue, after a few hours’ walking
+he hailed a passing coach, which took him as far as Amesbury in
+Wiltshire.  From here he walked to Stonehenge and on to Salisbury,
+“inspecting the curiosities of the place,” and endeavouring by sleep and
+good food to make up the wastage of the last few months.  The weather was
+fine and his health and spirits rapidly improved as he tramped on, his
+“daily journeys varying from twenty to twenty-five miles.”  He
+encountered the mysterious stranger who “touched” against the evil eye.
+F. H. Groome asserts, on the authority of W. B. Donne, that this was in
+reality William Beckford.  Borrow must have met him at some other time
+and place, as he had already left Fonthill in 1825.  It is, however,
+interesting to recall that Borrow himself “touched” against the evil eye.
+Mr Watts-Dunton has said:
+
+    “There was nothing that Borrow strove against with more energy than
+    the curious impulse, which he seems to have shared with Dr Johnson,
+    to touch the objects along his path in order to save himself from the
+    evil chance.  He never conquered the superstition.  In walking
+    through Richmond Park he would step out of his way constantly to
+    touch a tree, and he was offended if the friend he was with seemed to
+    observe it.” {61a}
+
+The chance meeting with Jack Slingsby (in fear of his life from the
+Flaming Tinman, and bound by oath not to continue on the same beat) gave
+Borrow the idea of buying out Slingsby, beat, plant, pony and all.  “A
+tinker is his own master, a scholar is not,” {61b} he remarks, and then
+proceeds to draw tears and moans from the dispirited Slingsby and his
+family by a description of the joys of tinkering, “the happiest life
+under heaven . . . pitching your tent under the pleasant hedge-row,
+listening to the song of the feathered tribes, collecting all the leaky
+kettles in the neighbourhood, soldering and joining, earning your honest
+bread by the wholesome sweat of your brow.” {62a}
+
+By the expenditure of five pounds ten shillings, plus the cost of a
+smock-frock and some provisions, George Borrow, linguist, editor and
+translator, became a travelling tinker.  With his dauntless little pony,
+Ambrol, he set out, a tinkering Ulysses, indifferent to what direction he
+took, allowing the pony to go whither he felt inclined.  At first he
+experienced some apprehension at passing the night with only a tent or
+the stars as a roof.  Rain fell to mar the opening day of the adventure,
+but the pony, with unerring instinct, led his new master to one of
+Slingsby’s usual camping grounds.
+
+In the morning Borrow fell to examining what it was beyond the pony and
+cart that his five pounds ten shillings had purchased.  He found a tent,
+a straw mattress and a blanket, “quite clean and nearly new.”  There were
+also a frying-pan, a kettle, a teapot (broken in three pieces) and some
+cups and saucers.  The stock-in-trade “consisted of various tools, an
+iron ladle, a chafing-pan, and small bellows, sundry pans and kettles,
+the latter being of tin, with the exception of one which was of copper,
+all in a state of considerable dilapidation.”  The pans and kettles were
+to be sold after being mended, for which purpose there was “a block of
+tin, sheet-tin, and solder.”  But most precious of all his possessions
+was “a small anvil and bellows of the kind which are used in forges, and
+two hammers such as smiths use, one great, and the other small.” {62b}
+Borrow had learned the blacksmith’s art when in Ireland, and the anvil,
+bellows and smith’s hammers were to prove extremely useful.
+
+A few days after pitching his tent, Borrow received from his old enemy
+Mrs Herne, Mr Petulengro’s mother-in-law, a poisoned cake, which came
+very near to ending his career.  He then encountered the Welsh preacher
+(“the worthiest creature I ever knew”) and his wife, who were largely
+instrumental in saving him from Mrs Herne’s poison.  Having remained with
+his new friends for nine days, he accompanied them as far as the Welsh
+border, where he confessed himself the translator of Ab Gwilym, giving as
+an excuse for not accompanying them further that it was “neither fit nor
+proper that I cross into Wales at this time, and in this manner.  When I
+go into Wales, I should wish to go in a new suit of superfine black, with
+hat and beaver, mounted on a powerful steed, black and glossy, like that
+which bore Greduv to the fight of Catraeth.  I should wish, moreover,” he
+continued, “to see the Welshmen assembled on the border ready to welcome
+me with pipe and fiddle, and much whooping and shouting, and to attend me
+to Wrexham, or even as far as Machynllaith, where I should wish to be
+invited to a dinner at which all the bards should be present, and to be
+seated at the right hand of the president, who, when the cloth was
+removed, should arise, and amidst cries of silence, exclaim—‘Brethren and
+Welshmen, allow me to propose the health of my most respectable friend
+the translator of the odes of the great Ab Gwilym, the pride and glory of
+Wales.’” {63a}
+
+He returned with Mr Petulengro, who directed him to Mumber Lane (Mumper’s
+Dingle), near Willenhall, in Staffordshire, “the little dingle by the
+side of the great north road.”  Here Borrow encamped and shod little
+Ambrol, who kicked him over as a reminder of his clumsiness.
+
+He had refused an invitation from Mr Petulengro to become a Romany _chal_
+and take a Romany bride, the granddaughter of his would-be murderess, who
+“occasionally talked of” him.  He yearned for solitude and the country’s
+quiet.  He told Mr Petulengro that he desired only some peaceful spot
+where he might hold uninterrupted communion with his own thoughts, and
+practise, if so inclined, either tinkering or the blacksmith’s art, and
+he had been directed to Mumper’s Dingle, which was to become the setting
+of the most romantic episode in his life.
+
+In the dingle Borrow experienced one of his worst attacks of the
+“Horrors”—the “Screaming Horrors.”  He raged like a madman, a prey to
+some indefinable, intangible fear; clinging to his “little horse as if
+for safety and protection.” {64a}  He had not recovered from the
+prostrating effects of that night of tragedy when he was called upon to
+fight Anselo Herne, “the Flaming Tinman,” who somehow or other seemed to
+be part of the bargain he had made with Jack Slingsby, and encounter the
+queen of road-girls, Isopel Berners.  The description of the fight has
+been proclaimed the finest in our language, and by some the finest in the
+world’s literature.
+
+Isopel Berners is one of the great heroines of English Literature.  As
+drawn by Borrow, with her strong arm, lion-like courage and tender
+tearfulness, she is unique.  However true or false the account of her
+relations with Borrow may be, she is drawn by him as a living woman.  He
+was incapable of conceiving her from his imagination.  It may go
+unquestioned that he actually met an Isopel Berners, {64b} but whether or
+no his parting from her was as heart-rendingly tragic as he has depicted
+it, is open to very grave question.
+
+                 [Picture: Mumber Lane (Mumper’s Dingle)]
+
+With this queen of the roads he seems to have been less reticent and more
+himself than with any other of his vagabond acquaintance, not excepting
+even Mr Petulengro.  To the handsome, tall girl with “the flaxen hair,
+which hung down over her shoulders unconfined,” and the “determined but
+open expression,” he showed a more amiable side of his character; yet he
+seems to have treated her with no little cruelty.  He told her about
+himself, how he “had tamed savage mares, wrestled with Satan, and had
+dealings with ferocious publishers,” bringing tears to her eyes, and when
+she grew too curious, he administered an antidote in the form of a few
+Armenian numerals.  If his _Autobiography_ is to be credited, Isopel
+loved him, and he was aware of it; but the knowledge did not hinder him
+from torturing the poor girl by insisting that she should decline the
+verb “to love” in Armenian.
+
+Borrow’s attitude towards Isopel was curiously complex; he seemed to find
+pleasure in playing upon her emotions.  At times he appeared as
+deliberately brutal to her, as to the gypsy girl Ursula when he talked
+with her beneath the hedge.  He forced from Isopel a passionate rebuke
+that he sought only to vex and irritate “a poor ignorant girl . . . who
+can scarcely read or write.”  He asked her to marry him, but not until he
+had convinced her that he was mad.  How much she had become part of his
+life in the dingle he did not seem to realise until after she had left
+him.  Isopel Berners was a woman whose character was almost masculine in
+its strength; but she was prepared to subdue her spirit to his, wished to
+do so even.  With her strength, however, there was wisdom, and she left
+Borrow and the dingle, sending him a letter of farewell that was
+certainly not the composition of “a poor girl” who could “scarcely read
+or write.”  The story itself is in all probability true; but the letter
+rings false.  Isopel may have sent Borrow a letter of farewell, but not
+the one that appears in _The Romany Rye_.
+
+Among Borrow’s papers Dr Knapp discovered a fragment of manuscript in
+which Mr Petulengro is shown deliberating upon the expediency of
+emulating King Pharaoh in the number of his wives.  Mrs Petulengro
+desires “a little pleasant company,” and urges her husband to take a
+second spouse.  He proceeds:—
+
+    “Now I am thinking that this here Bess of yours would be just the
+    kind of person both for my wife and myself.  My wife wants something
+    _gorgiko_, something genteel.  Now Bess is of blood gorgious; if you
+    doubt it, look at her face, all full of _pawno ratter_, white blood,
+    brother; and as for gentility, nobody can make exceptions to Bess’s
+    gentility, seeing she was born in the workhouse of Melford the
+    Short.”
+
+Mr Petulengro sees in Bess another advantage.  If “the Flaming Tinman”
+{66a} were to descend upon them, as he once did, with the offer to fight
+the best of them for nothing, and Tawno Chikno were absent, who was to
+fight him?  Mr Petulengro could not do so for less than five pounds; but
+with Bess as a second wife the problem would be solved.  She would fight
+“the Flaming Tinman.”
+
+This proves nothing, one way or the other, and can scarcely be said to
+“dispel any allusions,” as Dr Knapp suggests, or confirm the story of
+Isopel.  Why did Borrow omit it from Lavengro?  Not from caprice surely.
+It has been stated that those who know the gypsies can vouch for the fact
+that no such suggestion could have been made by a gypsy woman.
+
+It would appear that Isopel Berners existed, but the account of her given
+by Borrow in Lavengro and The Romany Rye is in all probability coloured,
+just as her stature was heightened by him.  If she were taller than he,
+she must have appeared a giantess.  Borrow was an impressionist, and he
+has probably succeeded far better in giving a faithful picture of Isopel
+Berners than if he had been photographically accurate in his
+measurements.
+
+According to Borrow’s own account, he left Willenhall mounted upon a fine
+horse, purchased with money lent to him by Mr Petulengro, a small valise
+strapped to the saddle, and “some desire to meet with one of those
+adventures which upon the roads of England are generally as plentiful as
+blackberries.”  From this point, however, _The Romany Rye_ becomes
+dangerous as autobiography. {66b}
+
+For one thing, it was unlike Borrow to remain in debt, and it is
+incredible that he should have ridden away upon a horse purchased with
+another man’s money, without any set purpose in his mind.  Therefore the
+story of his employment at the Swan Inn, Stafford, where he found his
+postilion friend, and the subsequent adventures must be reluctantly
+sacrificed.  They do not ring true, nor do they fit in with the rest of
+the story.  That he experienced such adventures is highly probable; but
+it is equally probable that he took some liberty with the dates.
+
+Up to the point where he purchases the horse, Borrow’s story is
+convincing; but from there onwards it seems to go to pieces, that is as
+autobiography.  The arrival of Ardry (Arden) at the inn, {67a} _passing
+through Stafford on his way to Warwick_ to be present at a dog and lion
+fight that had already taken place (26th July), is in itself enough to
+shake our confidence in the whole episode of the inn.  In _The Gypsies of
+Spain_ Mr Petulengro is made to say:
+
+    “I suppose you have not forgot how, fifteen years ago, when you made
+    horseshoes in the little dingle by the side of the great north road,
+    I lent you fifty cottors [guineas] 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
+    [indebted] to me.” {67b}
+
+It seems more in accordance with Borrow’s character to repay the loan
+within three days than to continue in Mr Petulengro’s debt for weeks, at
+one time making no actual effort to realise upon the horse.  The question
+as to whether Borrow received a hundred and fifty (as he himself states)
+or two hundred pounds is immaterial.  It is quite likely that he sold the
+horse before he left the dingle, and that the adventures he narrates may
+be true in all else save the continued possession of his steed, that is,
+with the exception of the Francis Ardry episode, the encounter with the
+man in black, and the arrival at Horncastle during the fair.  If Borrow
+left London on 24th May, and he could not have left earlier, as has been
+shown, he must have visited the Fair (Tamworth) with Mr Petulengro on
+26th July, and set out from Willenhall about 2nd August.
+
+It has been pointed out by that distinguished scholar and
+gentleman-gypsy, Mr John Sampson, {68} that as the Horse Fair at
+Horncastle was held 12th–21st August, if Borrow took the horse there it
+could not have been in the manner described in _The Romany Rye_, where he
+is shown as spending some considerable time at the inn, if we may judge
+by the handsome cheque (£10) offered to him by the landlord as a bonus on
+account of his services.  Then there was the accident and the consequent
+lying-up at the house of the man who knew Chinese, but could not tell
+what o’clock it was.  To confirm Borrow’s itinerary all this must have
+been crowded into less than three weeks, fully a third of which Borrow
+spent in recovering from his fall.  This would mean that for less than a
+fortnight’s work, the innkeeper offered him ten pounds as a gratuity, in
+addition to the bargain he had made, which included the horse’s keep.
+
+Mr Sampson has supported his itinerary with several very important pieces
+of evidence.  Borrow states in _Lavengro_ that “a young moon gave a
+feeble light” as he mounted the coach that was to take him to Amesbury.
+The moon was in its first quarter on 24th May.  There actually was a
+great thunderstorm in the Willenhall district about the time that Borrow
+describes (18th July).  It is Mr Sampson also who has identified the fair
+to which Borrow went with the gypsies as that held at Tamworth on 26th
+July.
+
+Whatever else Borrow may have been doing immediately after leaving the
+dingle, he appears to have been much occupied in speculating as to the
+future.  Was he not “sadly misspending his time?”  He was forced to the
+conclusion that he had done nothing else throughout his life but misspend
+his time.  He was ambitious.  He chafed at his narrow life.  “Oh! what a
+vast deal may be done with intellect, courage, riches, accompanied by the
+desire of doing something great and good!” {69a} he exclaims, and his
+thoughts turned instinctively to the career of his old school-fellow,
+Rajah Brooke of Sarawak. {69b}  He was now, by his own confession, “a
+moody man, bearing on my face, as I well knew, the marks of my strivings
+and my strugglings, of what I had learnt and unlearnt.” {69c}  He
+recognised the possibilities that lay in every man, only awaiting the
+hour when they should be called forth.  He believed implicitly in the
+power of the will. {69d}  He possessed ambition and a fine workable
+theory of how success was to be obtained; but he lacked initiative.  He
+expected fortune to wait for him on the high-road, just as he knew
+adventures awaited him.  He would not go “across the country,” to use a
+phrase of the time common to postilions.  He was too independent, perhaps
+too sensitive of being patronised, to seek employment.  That he cared
+“for nothing in this world but old words and strange stories,” was an
+error into which his friend Mr Petulengro might well fall.  The
+mightiness of the man’s pride could be covered only by a cloak of assumed
+indifference.  He must be independent of the world, not only in material
+things, but in those intangible qualities of the spirit.  It was this
+that lost him Isopel Berners, whose love he awakened by a strong right
+arm and quenched with an Armenian noun.  Again, his independence stood in
+the way of his happiness.  A man is a king, he seemed to think, and the
+attribute of kings is their splendid isolation, their godlike solitude.
+If his Ego were lonely and crying out for sympathy, Borrow thought it a
+moment for solitude, in which to discipline his insurgent spirit.  The
+“Horrors” were the result of this self-repression.  When they became
+unbearable, his spirit broke down, the yearning for sympathy and
+affection overmastered him, and he stumbled to his little horse in the
+desolate dingle, and found comfort in the faithful creature’s whinny of
+sympathy and its affectionate licking of his hand.  The strong man clung
+to his dumb brute friend as a protection against the unknown horror—the
+screaming horror that had gripped him.
+
+One quality Borrow possessed in common with many other men of strange and
+taciturn personality.  He could always make friends when he chose.
+Ostlers, scholars, farmers, gypsies; it mattered not one jot to him what,
+or who they were.  He could earn their respect and obtain their
+good-will, if he wished to do so.  He demanded of men that they should
+have done things, or be capable of doing things.  They must know
+everything there was to be known about some one thing; and the ostler,
+than whom none could groom a horse better, was worthy of being ranked
+with the best man in the land.  He demanded of every man that he should
+justify his existence, and was logical in his attitude, save in the
+insignificant particular that he applied the same rule to himself only in
+theory.
+
+He was shrewd and a good judge of character, provided it were Protestant
+character, and could hold his own with a Jew or a Gypsy.  He was fully
+justified in his boast of being able to take “precious good care of”
+himself, and “drive a precious hard bargain”; yet these qualities were
+not to find a market until he was thirty years of age.
+
+Sometime during the autumn (1825) Borrow returned to Norwich, where he
+busied himself with literary affairs, among other things writing to the
+publishers of _Faustus_ about the bill that was shortly to fall due.  The
+fact of the book having been destroyed at both the Norwich libraries,
+gave him the idea that he might make some profit by selling copies of the
+suppressed volume.  Hence his offer to Simpkin & Marshall to take copies
+in lieu of money.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+SEPTEMBER 1825–DECEMBER 1832
+
+
+FROM the autumn of 1825 until the winter of 1832, when he obtained an
+introduction to the British & Foreign Bible Society, only fragmentary
+details of Borrow’s life exist.  He decided to keep sacred to himself the
+“Veiled Period,” as it came to be called.  In all probability it was a
+time of great hardship and mortification, and he wished it to be thought
+that the whole period was devoted to “a grand philological expedition,”
+or expeditions.  There is no doubt that some portion of the mysterious
+epoch was so spent, but not all.  Many of the adventures ascribed to
+characters in _Lavengro_ and _The Romany Rye_ were, most probably,
+Borrow’s own experiences during that period of mystery and misfortune.
+Time after time he was implored to “lift up a corner of the curtain”; but
+he remained obdurate, and the seven years are in his life what the New
+Orleans days were in that of Walt Whitman.
+
+Soon after his return to Norwich, Borrow seems to have turned his
+attention to the manuscripts in the green box.  In the days of happy
+augury, before he had quarrelled with Sir Richard Phillips, there had
+appeared in _The Monthly Magazine_ the two following paragraphs:—
+
+    “We have heard and seen much of the legends and popular superstitions
+    of the North, but, in truth, all the exhibitions of these subjects
+    which have hitherto appeared in England have been translations from
+    the German.  Mr Olaus Borrow, who is familiar with the Northern
+    Languages, proposes, however, to present these curious reliques of
+    romantic antiquity directly from the Danish and Swedish, and two
+    elegant volumes of them now printing will appear in September.  They
+    are highly interesting in themselves, but more so as the basis of
+    most of the popular superstitions of England, when they were
+    introduced during the incursions and dominion of the Danes and
+    Norwegians.”  (1st September 1824.)
+
+    “We have to acknowledge the favour of a beautiful collection of
+    Danish songs and ballads, of which a specimen will be seen among the
+    poetical articles of the present month.  One, or more, of these very
+    interesting translations will appear in each succeeding number.”
+    (1st December 1824.)
+
+It seems to have been Borrow’s plan to run his ballads serially through
+_The Monthly Magazine_ and then to publish them in book-form.  His
+initial contribution to _The Monthly Magazine_ had appeared in October
+1823.  The first of the articles, entitled “Danish Traditions and
+Superstitions,” appeared August 1824, and continued, with the omission of
+one or two months, until December 1825, there being in all nine articles;
+but there was only one instalment of “Danish Songs and Ballads.” {73}
+
+Borrow was determined that these ballads, at least, should be published,
+and he set to work to prepare them for the press.  Allan Cunningham, with
+whom Borrow was acquainted, contributed, at his request, a metrical
+dedication.  The volume appeared on 10th May, in an edition of five
+hundred copies at ten shillings and sixpence each.  It appears that some
+two hundred copies were subscribed for, thus ensuring the cost of
+production.  The balance, or a large proportion of it, was consigned to
+John Taylor, the London publisher, who printed a new title-page and sold
+them at seven shillings each, probably the trade price for a half-guinea
+book.
+
+Cunningham wrote to Borrow advising him to send out freely copies for
+review, and with each a note saying that it was the translator’s ultimate
+intention to publish an English version of the whole _Kiæmpe Viser_ with
+notes; also to “scatter a few judiciously among literary men.”  It is
+doubtful if this sage counsel were acted upon; for there is no record of
+any review or announcement of the work.  This in itself was not
+altogether a misfortune; for Borrow did not prove himself an inspired
+translator of verse.  Apart from the two hundred copies sold to
+subscribers, the book was still-born.
+
+After the publication of _Romantic Ballads_, Borrow appears to have
+returned to London, not to his old lodging at Milman Street, possibly on
+account of the associations, but to 26 Bryanston Street, Portman Square,
+from which address he wrote to Benjamin Haydon the following note:—{74}
+
+    DEAR SIR,—
+
+    I should feel extremely obliged if you would allow me to sit to you
+    as soon as possible.  I am going to the South of France in little
+    better than a fortnight, and I would sooner lose a thousand pounds
+    than not have the honour of appearing in the picture.
+
+                               Yours sincerely,
+
+                                                            GEORGE BORROW.
+
+In his account of how he first became acquainted with Haydon, Borrow
+shows himself as anything but desirous of appearing in a picture.  When
+John tells of the artist’s wish to include him as one of the characters
+in a painting upon which he is engaged, Borrow replies: “I have no wish
+to appear on canvas.”  It is probable that in some way or other Haydon
+offended his sitter, who, regretting his acquiescence, antedated the
+episode and depicted himself as refusing the invitation.  Such a liberty
+with fact and date would be quite in accordance with Borrow’s
+autobiographical methods.
+
+Borrow wrote in _Lavengro_, “I have been a wanderer the greater part of
+my life; indeed I remember only two periods, and these by no means
+lengthy, when I was, strictly speaking, stationary.” {75a}  One of the
+“two periods” was obviously the eight years spent at Norwich, 1816–24,
+the other is probably the years spent at Oulton.  Thus the “Veiled
+Period” may be assumed to have been one of wandering.  The seven years
+are gloomy and mysterious, but not utterly dark.  There is a hint here, a
+suggestion there—a letter or a paragraph, that gives in a vague way some
+idea of what Borrow was doing, and where.  It seems comparatively safe to
+assume that after the publication of _Romantic Ballads_ he plunged into a
+life of roving and vagabondage, which, in all probability, was brought to
+an abrupt termination by either the loss or the exhaustion of his money.
+Anything beyond this is pure conjecture. {75b}
+
+After he became associated with the British & Foreign Bible Society, his
+movements are easily accounted for; but all we have to guide us as to
+what countries he had seen before 1833 is an occasional hint.  He
+casually admits having been in Italy, {75c} at Bayonne, {75d} Paris,
+{75e} Madrid, {75f} the south of France. {75g}  “I have visited most of
+the principal capitals of the world,” he writes in 1843; and again in the
+same year, “I have heard the ballad of Alonzo Guzman chanted in Danish,
+by a hind in the wilds of Jutland.” {76a}  “I have lived in different
+parts of the world, much amongst the Hebrew race, and I am well
+acquainted with their words and phraseology,” {76b} he writes; and on
+another occasion: “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.” {76c}  An even more significant admission
+is that made when Colonel Elers Napier, whom Borrow met in Seville in
+1839, enquired where he had obtained his knowledge of Moultanee.  “Some
+years ago, in Moultan,” was the reply; then, as if regretting that he had
+confessed so much, showed by his manner that he intended to divulge
+nothing more. {76d}
+
+“Once, during my own wanderings in Italy,” Borrow writes, “I rested at
+nightfall by the side of a kiln, the air being piercingly cold; it was
+about four leagues from Genoa.” {76e}  Again, “Once in the south of
+France, when I was weary, hungry, and penniless, I observed one of these
+last patterans {76f} [a cross marked in the dust], and following the
+direction pointed out, arrived at the resting-place of ‘certain
+Bohemians,’ by whom I was received with kindness and hospitality, on the
+faith of no other word of recommendation than patteran.” {76g}  In a
+letter of introduction to the Rev. E. Whitely, of Oporto, the Rev. Andrew
+Brandram, of the Bible Society, wrote in 1835: “With Portugal he [Borrow]
+is already acquainted, and speaks the language.”  This statement is
+significant, for only during the “Veiled Period” could Borrow have
+visited Portugal.
+
+It may be argued that Borrow was merely posing as a great traveller, but
+the foregoing remarks are too casual, too much in the nature of asides,
+to be the utterances of a poseur.  A man seeking to impress himself upon
+the world as a great traveller would probably have been a little more
+definite.
+
+The only really reliable information as to Borrow’s movements after his
+arrival in London is contained in the note to Haydon.  In all probability
+he went to Paris, where possibly he met Vidocq, the master-rogue turned
+detective. {77a}  It has been suggested by Dr Knapp that he went to
+Paris, and thence on foot to Bayonne and Madrid, after which he tramped
+to Pamplona, where he gets into trouble, is imprisoned, and is released
+on condition that he leave the country; he proceeds towards Marseilles
+and Genoa, where he takes ship and is landed safely in London.  The data,
+however, upon which this itinerary is constructed are too frail to be
+convincing.  There is every probability that he roamed about the
+Continent and met with adventures—he was a man to whom adventures
+gravitated quite naturally—but the fact of his saying that he had been
+imprisoned on three occasions, and there being only two instances on
+record at the time, cannot in itself be considered as conclusive evidence
+of his having been arrested at Pamplona. {77b}
+
+In the spring of 1827 Borrow was unquestionably at Norwich, for he saw
+the famous trotting stallion Marshland Shales on the Castle Hill (12th
+April), and did for that grand horse “what I would neither do for earl or
+baron, doffed my hat.” {78}  Borrow apparently remained with his mother
+for some months, to judge from certain entries (29th September to 19th
+November) in his hand that appear in her account books.
+
+In December 1829 he was back again in London at 77 Great Russell Street,
+W.C.  He was as usual eager to obtain some sort of work.  He wrote to
+“the Committee of the Honourable and Praiseworthy Association, known by
+the name of the Highland Society . . . a body animate with patriotism,
+which, guided by philosophy, produces the noblest results, and many of
+whose members stand amongst the very eminent in the various departments
+of knowledge.”
+
+The project itself was that of translating into English “the best and
+most approved poetry of the Ancient and Modern Scoto-Gaelic Bards, with
+such notes on the usages and superstitions therein alluded to, as will
+enable the English reader to form a clear and correct idea of the
+originals.”  In the course of a rather ornate letter, Borrow offers
+himself as the translator and compiler of such a work as he suggests,
+avowing his willingness to accept whatsoever remuneration might be
+thought adequate compensation for his expenditure of time.  Furthermore,
+he undertakes to complete the work within a period of two years.
+
+On 7th December he wrote to Dr Bowring, recently returned from Denmark:—
+
+    “Lest I should intrude upon you when you are busy, I write to enquire
+    when you will be unoccupied.  I wish to show you my translation of
+    The Death of Balder, Ewald’s most celebrated production, which, if
+    you approve of, you will perhaps render me some assistance in
+    bringing forth, for I don’t know many publishers.  I think this will
+    be a proper time to introduce it to the British public, as your
+    account of Danish literature will doubtless cause a sensation.” {79}
+
+On 29th December he wrote again:—
+
+    “When I had last the pleasure of being at yours, you mentioned that
+    we might at some future period unite our strength in composing a kind
+    of Danish Anthology.  Suppose we bring forward at once the first
+    volume of the Danish Anthology, which should contain the heroic
+    supernatural songs of the _K_[_iæmpe_] _V_[_iser_].”
+
+It was suggested that there should be four volumes in all, and the first,
+with an introduction that Borrow expressed himself as not ashamed of, was
+ready and “might appear instanter, with no further trouble to yourself
+than writing, if you should think fit, a page or two of introductory
+matter.”  Dr Bowring replied by return of post that he thought that no
+more than two volumes could be ventured on, and Borrow acquiesced,
+writing: “The sooner the work is advertised the better, _for I am
+terribly afraid of being forestalled in the Kiæmpe Viser by some of those
+Scotch blackguards_, who affect to translate from all languages, of which
+they are fully as ignorant as Lockhart is of Spanish.”
+
+Borrow was full of enthusiasm for the project, and repeated that the
+first volume was ready, adding: “If we unite our strength in the second,
+I think we can produce something worthy of fame, for we shall have plenty
+of matter to employ talent upon.”  A later letter, which was written from
+7 Museum Street (8th January), told how he had “been obliged to decamp
+from Russell St. for the cogent reason of an execution having been sent
+into the house, and I thought myself happy in escaping with my things.”
+
+He drew up a prospectus, endeavouring “to assume a Danish style,” which
+he submitted to his collaborator, begging him to “alter . . . whatever
+false logic has crept into it, find a remedy for its incoherencies, and
+render it fit for its intended purpose.  I have had for the two last days
+a rising headache which has almost prevented me doing anything.”
+
+It would appear that Dr Bowring did not altogether approve of the “Danish
+style,” for on 14th January Borrow wrote, “I approve of the prospectus in
+every respect; it is business-like, and there is nothing flashy in it.  I
+do not wish to suggest one alteration . . .  When you see the foreign
+Editor,” he continues, “I should feel much obliged if you would speak to
+him about my reviewing Tegner, and enquire whether a _good_ article on
+Welsh poetry would be received.  I have the advantage of not being a
+Welshman.  I would speak the truth, and would give translations of some
+of the best Welsh poetry; and I really believe that my translations would
+not be the worst that have been made from the Welsh tongue.”
+
+The prospectus, which appeared in several publications ran as follows:—
+
+    “Dr Bowring and Mr George Borrow are about to publish, dedicated to
+    the King of Denmark, by His Majesy’s permission, THE SONGS OF
+    SCANDINAVIA, in 2 vols. 8vo, containing a Selection of the most
+    interesting of the Historical and Romantic Ballads of North-Western
+    Europe, with Specimens of the Danish and Norwegian Poets down to the
+    present day.
+
+    Price to Subscribers, £1, 1s.—to Non-Subscribers £1, 5s.
+
+    The First Volume will be devoted to Ancient Popular Poetry; the
+    Second will give the choicest productions of the Modern School,
+    beginning with Tullin.” {81}
+
+_The Songs of Scandinavia_ now became to Borrow what the _Celebrated
+Trials_ had been four years previously, a source of constant toil.  On
+one occasion he writes to Dr Bowring telling him that he has just
+translated an ode “as I breakfasted.”  What Borrow lived on at this
+period it is impossible to say.  It may be assumed that Mrs Borrow did
+not keep him, for, apart from the slender proportions of the income of
+the mother, the unconquerable independence of the son must be considered;
+and Borrow loved his mother too tenderly to allow her to deprive herself
+of luxuries even to keep him.  He borrowed money from her at various
+times; but he subsequently faithfully repaid her.  Even John was puzzled.
+“You never tell me what you are doing,” he writes to his brother at the
+end of 1832; “you can’t be living on nothing.”
+
+Borrow appears to have kept Dr Bowring well occupied with suggestions as
+to how that good-natured man might assist him.  Although he is to see him
+on the morrow, he writes on the evening of 21st May regarding another
+idea that has just struck him:
+
+    “As at present no doubt seems to be entertained of Prince Leopold’s
+    accepting the sovereignty of Greece, would you have any objection to
+    write to him concerning me?  I should be very happy to go to Greece
+    in his service.  I do not wish to go in a civil or domestic capacity,
+    and I have, moreover, no doubt that all such situations have been
+    long since filled up; I wish to go in a military one, for which I am
+    qualified by birth and early habits.  You might inform the Prince
+    that I have been for years on the Commander-in-Chiefs list for a
+    commission, but that I have not had sufficient interest to procure an
+    appointment.  One of my reasons for wishing to reside in Greece is,
+    that the mines of Eastern literature would be accessible to me.  I
+    should soon become an adept in Turkish, and would weave and transmit
+    to you such an anthology as would gladden your very heart.  As for
+    the _Songs of Scandinavia_, all the ballads would be ready before
+    departure, and as I should have books, I would in a few months send
+    you translations of the modern Lyric Poetry.  I hope this letter will
+    not displease you.  I do not write it from _flightiness_, but from
+    thoughtfulness.  I am uneasy to find myself at four and twenty
+    drifting on the sea of the world, and likely to continue so.”
+
+On 22nd May Dr Bowring introduced Borrow to Dr Grundtvig, the Danish
+poet, who required some transcriptions done.  On 7th June, Borrow wrote
+to Dr Bowring:
+
+    “I have looked over Mr Gruntvig’s (_sic_) manuscript.  It is a very
+    long affair, and the language is Norman Saxon.  £40 would not be an
+    extravagant price for a transcript, and so they told him at the
+    Museum.  However, as I am doing nothing particular at present, and as
+    I might learn something from transcribing it, I would do it for £20.
+    He will call on you to-morrow morning, and then, if you please, you
+    may recommend me.  The character closely resembles the ancient Irish,
+    so I think you can answer for my competency.”
+
+At this time there were a hundred schemes seething through Borrow’s eager
+brain.  Hearing that “an order has been issued for the making a
+transcript of the celebrated Anglo-Saxon Codex of Exeter, for the use of
+the British Museum,” he applied to some unknown correspondent for his
+interest and help to obtain the appointment as transcriber.  The work,
+however, was carried out by a Museum official.
+
+Another project appears to have been to obtain a post at the British
+Museum.  On 9th March 1830 he had written to Dr Bowring:
+
+    “I have thought over the Museum matter, which we were talking about
+    last night, and it appears to me that it would be the very thing for
+    me, provided that it could be accomplished.  I should feel obliged if
+    you would deliberate upon the best mode of proceeding, so that when I
+    see you again I may have the benefit of your advice.”
+
+In reply Dr Bowring commended the scheme, and promised to assist “by
+every sort of counsel and exertion.  But it would injure you,” he
+proceeds, “if I were to take the initiative.  [The Gibraltar house of
+Bowring & Murdock had recently failed.]  Quietly make yourself master of
+that department of the Museum.  We must then think of how best to get at
+the Council.  If by any management they can be induced to ask my opinion,
+I will give you a character which shall take you to the top of Hecla
+itself.  You have claims, strong ones, and I should rejoice to see you
+_niched_ in the British Museum.”
+
+Again failure!  Disappointment seemed to be dogging Borrow’s footsteps at
+this period.  For years past he had been seeking some sort of occupation,
+into which he could throw all that energy and determination of character
+that he possessed.  He was earnest and able, and he knew that he only
+required an opportunity of showing to the world what manner of man he
+was.  He seemed doomed to meet everywhere with discouragement; for no one
+wanted him, just as no one wanted his translations of the glorious Ab
+Gwilym.  He appeared before the world as a failure, which probably
+troubled him very little; but there was another aspect of the case that
+was in his eyes, “the most heartbreaking of everything, the strange, the
+disadvantageous light in which I am aware that I must frequently have
+appeared to those whom I most love and honour.” {83}
+
+On 14th September he wrote to Dr Bowring:
+
+    “I am going to Norwich for some short time, as I am very unwell and
+    hope that cold bathing in October and November may prove of service
+    to me.  My complaints are, I believe, the offspring of ennui and
+    unsettled prospects.  I have thoughts of attempting to get into the
+    French service, as I should like prodigiously to serve under Clausel
+    in the next Bedouin campaign.  I shall leave London next Sunday and
+    will call some evening to take my leave; I cannot come in the
+    morning, as early rising kills me.”
+
+A year later he writes again to Dr Bowring, who once more has been
+exerting himself on his friend’s behalf:
+
+                                                    “WILLOW LANE, NORWICH,
+                                                  11_th_ _September_ 1831.
+
+    MY DEAR SIR,—
+
+    I return you my most sincere thanks for your kind letter of the 2nd
+    inst., and though you have not been successful in your application to
+    the Belgian authorities in my behalf, I know full well that you did
+    your utmost, and am only sorry that at my instigation you attempted
+    an impossibility.
+
+    The Belgians seem either not to know or not to care for the opinion
+    of the great Cyrus who gives this advice to his captains.  ‘Take no
+    heed from what countries ye fill up your ranks, but seek recruits as
+    ye do horses, not those particularly who are of your own country, but
+    those of merit.’  The Belgians will only have such recruits as are
+    born in Belgium, and when we consider the heroic manner in which the
+    native Belgian army defended the person of their new sovereign in the
+    last conflict with the Dutch, can we blame them for their
+    determination?  It is rather singular, however, that resolved as they
+    are to be served only by themselves they should have sent for 5000
+    Frenchmen to clear their country of a handful of Hollanders, who have
+    generally been considered the most unwarlike people in Europe, but
+    who, if they had fair play given them, would long ere this time have
+    replanted the Orange flag on the towers of Brussels, and made the
+    Belgians what they deserve to be, hewers of wood and drawers of
+    water.
+
+    And now, my dear Sir, allow me to reply to a very important part of
+    your letter; you ask me whether I wish to purchase a commission in
+    the British service, because in that case you would speak to the
+    Secretary at War about me.  I must inform you therefore that my name
+    has been for several years upon the list for the purchase of a
+    commission, and I have never yet had sufficient interest to procure
+    an appointment.  If I can do nothing better I shall be very glad to
+    purchase; but I will pause two or three months before I call upon you
+    to fulfil your kind promise.  It is believed that the Militia will be
+    embodied in order to be sent to that unhappy country Ireland, and
+    provided I can obtain a commission in one of them, and they are kept
+    in service, it would be better than spending £500 about one in the
+    line.  I am acquainted with the Colonels of the two Norfolk
+    regiments, and I daresay that neither of them would have any
+    objection to receive me.  If they are not embodied I will most
+    certainly apply to you, and you may say when you recommend me that
+    being well grounded in Arabic, and having some talent for languages,
+    I might be an acquisition to a corps in one of our Eastern Colonies.
+    I flatter myself that I could do a great deal in the East provided I
+    could once get there, either in a civil or military capacity; there
+    is much talk at present about translating European books into the two
+    great languages, the Arabic and Persian; now I believe that with my
+    enthusiasm for these tongues I could, if resident in the East, become
+    in a year or two better acquainted with them than any European has
+    been yet, and more capable of executing such a task.  Bear this in
+    mind, and if before you hear from me again you should have any
+    opportunity to recommend me as a proper person to fill any civil
+    situation in those countries or to attend any expedition thither, I
+    pray you to lay hold of it, and no conduct of mine shall ever give
+    you reason to repent it.
+
+    I remain,
+
+                                 My Dear Sir,
+                   Your most obliged and obedient Servant,
+
+                                                            GEORGE BORROW.
+
+    _P.S._—Present my best remembrances to Mrs B. and to Edgar, and tell
+    them that they will both be starved.  There is now a report in the
+    street that twelve corn-stacks are blazing within twenty miles of
+    this place.  I have lately been wandering about Norfolk, and I am
+    sorry to say that the minds of the peasantry are in a horrible state
+    of excitement; I have repeatedly heard men and women in the
+    harvest-field swear that not a grain of the corn they were cutting
+    should be eaten, and that they would as lieve be hanged as live.  I
+    am afraid all this will end in a famine and a rustic war.”
+
+It was pride that prompted Borrow to ask Dr Bowring to stay his hand for
+the moment about a commission.  There was no reasonable possibility of
+his being able to raise £500.  Even if his mother had possessed it, which
+she did not, he would not have drained her resources of so large an
+amount.  His subsequent attitude towards the Belgians was characteristic
+of him.  To his acutely sensitive perceptions, failure to obtain an
+appointment he sought was a rebuff, and his whole nature rose up against
+what, at the moment, appeared to be an intolerable slight.
+
+Nothing came of the project of collaboration between Bowring and Borrow
+beyond an article on Danish and Norwegian literature that appeared in
+_The Foreign Quarterly Review_ (June 1830), in which Borrow supplied
+translations of the sixteen poems illustrating Bowring’s text.  In all
+probability the response to the prospectus was deemed inadequate, and
+Bowring did not wish to face a certain financial loss.
+
+From Borrow’s own letters there is no question that Dr Bowring was acting
+towards him in a most friendly manner, and really endeavouring to assist
+him to obtain some sort of employment.  It may be, as has been said, and
+as seems extremely probable, that Bowring used his “facility in acquiring
+and translating tongues deliberately as a ladder to an administrative
+post abroad,” {86a} but if Borrow “put a wrong construction upon his
+sympathy” and was led into “a veritable _cul-de-sac_ of literature,”
+{86b} it was no fault of Bowring’s.
+
+Borrow’s relations with Dr Bowring continued to be most cordial for many
+years, as his letters show.  “Pray excuse me for troubling you with these
+lines,” he writes years later; “I write to you, as usual, for assistance
+in my projects, convinced that you will withhold none which it may be in
+your power to afford, more especially when by so doing you will perhaps
+be promoting the happiness of our fellow-creatures.”  This is very
+significant as indicating the nature of the relations between the two
+men.
+
+Borrow was to experience yet another disappointment.  A Welsh bookseller,
+living in the neighbourhood of Smithfield, commissioned him to translate
+into English Elis Wyn’s _The Sleeping Bard_, a book printed originally in
+1703.  The bookseller foresaw for the volume a large sale, not only in
+England but in Wales; but “on the eve of committing it to the press,
+however, the Cambrian-Briton felt his small heart give way within him.
+‘Were I to print it,’ said he, ‘I should be ruined; the terrible
+descriptions of vice and torment would frighten the genteel part of the
+English public out of its wits, and I should to a certainty be prosecuted
+by Sir James Scarlett . . . Myn Diawl!  I had no idea, till I had read
+him in English, that Elis Wyn had been such a terrible fellow.’” {87a}
+
+With this Borrow had to be content and retire from the presence of the
+little bookseller, who told him he was “much obliged . . . for the
+trouble you have given yourself on my account,” {87b} and his bundle of
+manuscript, containing nearly three thousand lines, the work probably of
+some months, was to be put aside for thirty years before eventually
+appearing in a limited edition.
+
+It cannot be determined with exactness when Borrow relinquished the
+unequal struggle against adverse circumstances in London.  He had met
+with sufficient discouragement to dishearten him from further effort.
+Perhaps his greatest misfortune was his disinclination to make friends
+with anybody save vagabonds.  He could attract and earn the friendship of
+an apple-woman, thimble-riggers, tramps, thieves, gypsies, in short with
+any vagrant he chose to speak to; but his hatred of gentility was a great
+and grave obstacle in the way of his material advancement.  His brother
+John seemed to recognise this; for in 1831 he wrote, “I am convinced that
+_your want of success in life_ is more owing to your being unlike other
+people than to any other cause.”
+
+It would appear that, finding nothing to do in London, Borrow once more
+became a wanderer.  He was in London in March; but on 27th, 28th, and
+29th July 1830 he was unquestionably in Paris.  Writing about the
+Revolution of La Granja (August 1836) and of the energy, courage and
+activity of the war correspondents, he says:
+
+    “I saw them [the war correspondents] during the three days at Paris,
+    mingled with _canaille_ and _gamins_ behind the barriers, whilst the
+    _mitraille_ was flying in all directions, and the desperate
+    cuirassiers were dashing their fierce horses against these seemingly
+    feeble bulwarks.  There stood they, dotting down their observations
+    in their pocket-books as unconcernedly as if reporting the
+    proceedings of a reform meeting in Covent Garden or Finsbury Square.”
+    {88a}
+
+This can have reference only to the “Three Glorious Days” of Revolution,
+27th to 29th July 1830, during which Charles X. lost, and Louis-Philippe
+gained, a throne.  He returned to Norwich sometime during the autumn of
+1830. {88b}  In November he was entering upon his epistolary duel with
+the Army Pay Office in connection with John’s half-pay as a lieutenant in
+the West Norfolk Militia.
+
+In 1826 John had gone to Mexico, then looked upon as a land of promise
+for young Englishmen, who might expect to find fortunes in its silver
+mines.  Allday, brother of Roger Kerrison, was there, and John Borrow
+determined to join him.  Obtaining a year’s leave of absence from his
+colonel, together with permission to apply for an extension, he entered
+the service of the Real del Monte Company, receiving a salary of three
+hundred pounds a year.  He arranged that his mother should have his
+half-pay, and it was in connection with this that George entered upon a
+correspondence with the Army Pay Office that was to extend over a period
+of fifteen months.
+
+Originally John had arranged for the amounts to be remitted to Mexico,
+and he sent them back again to his mother.  This involved heavy losses in
+connection with the bills of exchange, and wishing to avoid this tax,
+John sent to his brother an official copy of a Mexican Power of Attorney,
+which George strove to persuade the Army Pay Office was the original.
+
+Tact was unfortunately not one of George Borrow’s acquirements at this
+period, and in this correspondence he adopted an attitude that must have
+seriously prejudiced his case.  “I am a solicitor myself, Sir,” he
+states, and proceeds to threaten to bring the matter before Parliament.
+He writes to the Solicitor of the Treasury “as a member of the same
+honourable profession to which I was myself bred up,” and demands whether
+he has not law, etc., on his side.  The outcome of the correspondence was
+that the disembodied allowance was refused on the plea “that Lieutenant
+Borrow having been absent without Leave from the Training of the West
+Norfolk Militia has, under the provisions of the 12th Section of the
+Militia Pay and Clothing Act, forfeited his Allowance.”  In consequence,
+payment was made only for the amount due from 25th June 1829 to 24th
+December 1830.  The whole tone of Borrow’s letters was unfortunate for
+the cause he pleaded.  He wrote to the Secretary of State for War as he
+might have written to the little Welsh bookseller with “the small heart.”
+He was indignant at what he conceived to be an injustice, and was unable
+to dissemble his anger.
+
+George had thought of joining his brother, but had not received any very
+marked encouragement to do so.  John despised Mexican methods.  On one
+occasion he writes apropos of George’s suggestion of the army, “If you
+can raise the pewter, come out here rather than that, and _rob_.”  One
+sage thing at least John is to be credited with, when he wrote to his
+brother, “Do not enter the army; it is a bad spec.”  It would have been
+for George Borrow.
+
+Among the papers left at Borrow’s death was a fragment of a political
+article in dispraise of the Radicals.  The editorial “We” suggests that
+Borrow might possibly have been engaged in political journalism.  The
+statement made by him that he “frequently spoke up for Wellington” {90}
+may or may not have had reference to contributions to the press.  The
+fragment itself proves nothing.  Many would-be journalists write
+“leaders” that never see the case-room.
+
+It is useless to speculate further regarding the period that Borrow
+himself elected to veil from the eyes, not only of his contemporaries,
+but those of another generation.  Men who have overcome adverse
+conditions and achieved fame are not as a rule averse from publishing, or
+at least allowing to be known, the difficulties that they had to contend
+with.  Borrow was in no sense of the word an ordinary man.  He
+unquestionably suffered acutely during the years of failure, when it
+seemed likely that his life was to be wasted, barren of anything else
+save the acquirement of a score or more languages; keys that could open
+literary storehouses that nobody wanted to explore, to the very existence
+of which, in fact, the public was frigidly indifferent.
+
+“Poor George . . .  I wish he was making money . . . He works hard and
+remains poor,” is the comment of his brother John, written in the autumn
+of 1830.  To no small degree Borrow was responsible for his own failure,
+or perhaps it would be more just to say that he had been denied many of
+the attributes that make for success.  His independence was aggressive,
+and it offended people.  Even with the Welsh Preacher and his wife he
+refused to unbend.
+
+“‘What a disposition!’” Winifred had exclaimed, holding up her hands;
+“‘and this is pride, genuine pride—that feeling which the world agrees to
+call so noble.  Oh, how mean a thing is pride! never before did I see all
+the meanness of what is called pride!’” {91a}
+
+This pride, magnificent as the loneliness of kings, and about as
+unproductive of a sympathetic view of life, always constituted a barrier
+in the way of Borrow’s success.  There were innumerable other obstacles:
+his choice of friends, his fierce denunciatory hatred of gentility,
+together with humbug, which he always seemed to confuse with it, the
+attacks of the “Horrors,” his grave bearing, which no laugh ever
+disturbed, and, above all, his uncompromising hostility to the things
+that the world chose to consider excellent.  The world in return could
+make nothing of a man who was a mass of moods and sensibilities, strange
+tastes and pursuits.  It is not remarkable that he should fail to make
+the stir that he had hoped to make.
+
+With the unerring instinct of a hypersensitive nature, he knew his merit,
+his honesty, his capacity—knew that he possessed one thing that
+eventually commands success, which “through life has ever been of
+incalculable utility to me, and has not unfrequently supplied the place
+of friends, money, and many other things of almost equal importance—iron
+perseverance, without which all the advantages of time and circumstance
+are of very little avail in any undertaking.” {91b}  It was this dogged
+determination that was to carry him through the most critical period of
+his life, enable him to earn the approval of those in whose interests he
+worked, and eventually achieve fame and an unassailable place in English
+literature.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+JANUARY–JULY 1833
+
+
+IT is not a little curious that no one should have thought of putting
+Borrow’s undoubted gifts as a linguist to some practical use.  He himself
+had frequently cast his eyes in the direction of a political appointment
+abroad.  It remained, however, for the Rev. Francis Cunningham, {92}
+vicar of Lowestoft, in Suffolk, to see in this young man against whom the
+curse of Babel was inoperative, a sword that, in the hands of the British
+and Foreign Bible Society, might be wielded with considerable effect
+against the heathen.
+
+Borrow appears to have become acquainted with the Rev. Francis Cunningham
+through the Skeppers of Oulton Hall, near Lowestoft, of whom it is
+necessary to give some account.  Edmund Skepper had married Anne Breame
+of Beetley, who, on the death of her father, came into £9000.  She and
+her husband purchased the Oulton Hall estate, upon which Anne Skepper
+seems to have been given a five per cent. mortgage.  There were two
+children of the marriage, Breame (born 1794) and Mary (born 1796).  The
+boy inherited the estate, and the girl the mortgage, worth about £450 per
+annum.  Mary married Henry Clarke, a lieutenant in the Navy (26th July
+1817), who within eight months died of consumption.  Two months later Mrs
+Clarke gave birth to a daughter, who was christened Henrietta Mary.  Mrs
+Clarke became acquainted with the Cunninghams while they were at
+Pakefield, and there is every reason to believe that she was instrumental
+in introducing Borrow to Cunningham.  It is most probable that they met
+during Borrow’s visit at Oulton Hall in November 1832.
+
+The Rev. Francis Cunningham appears to have been impressed by Borrow’s
+talent for languages, and fully alive to his value to an institution such
+as the Bible Society, of which he, Cunningham, was an active member.  He
+accordingly addressed {93a} to the secretary, the Rev. Andrew Brandram,
+the following letter:
+
+                                                       LOWESTOFT VICARAGE,
+                                                       27_th_ _Dec._ 1832.
+
+    MY DEAR FRIEND,—
+
+    A young farmer in this neighbourhood has introduced me to-day to a
+    person of whom I have long heard, who appears to me to promise so
+    much that I am induced to offer him to you as a successor of Platt
+    and Greenfield. {93b}  He is a person without University education,
+    but who has read the Bible in thirteen languages.  He is independent
+    in circumstances, of no very defined denomination of Christians, but
+    I think of certain Christian principle.  I shall make more enquiry
+    about him and see him again.  Next week I propose to meet him in
+    London, and I could wish that you should see him, and, if you please,
+    take him under your charge for a few days.  He is of the middle order
+    in Society, and a very produceable person.
+
+    I intend to be in town on Tuesday morning to go to the Socy. P. C. K.
+    On Wednesday is Dr Wilson’s meeting at Islington.  He may be in town
+    on Monday evening, and will attend to any appointment.
+
+    Will you write me word by return of post, and believe me ever
+
+    Most truly and affectionately yours,
+
+                                                            F. CUNNINGHAM.
+
+The recommendation was well-timed, for the Bible Society at that
+particular moment required such a man as Borrow for a Manchu-Tartar
+project it had in view.  In 1821 the Bible Society had commissioned
+Stepán Vasiliévitch Lipovzoff, {94a} of St Petersburg, to translate the
+New Testament into Manchu, the court and diplomatic language of China.  A
+year later, an edition of 550 copies of the First Gospel was printed from
+type specially cast for the undertaking.  A hundred copies were
+despatched to headquarters in London, and the remainder, together with
+the type, placed with the Society’s bankers at St Petersburg, {94b} until
+the time should arrive for the distribution of the books.
+
+Three years after (1824), the overflowing Neva flooded the cellars in
+which the books were stored, causing their irretrievable ruin, and doing
+serious damage to the type.  This misfortune appeared temporarily to
+discourage the authorities at home, although Mr Lipovzoff was permitted
+to proceed with the work of translation, which he completed in two years
+from the date of the inundation.
+
+In 1832 the Rev. Wm. Swann, of the London Missionary Society, discovered
+in the famous library of Baron Schilling de Canstadt at St Petersburg the
+manuscript of a Manchu translation of “the principal part of the Old
+Testament,” and two books of the New.  The discovery was considered to be
+so important that Mr Swann decided to delay his departure for his post in
+Siberia and make a transcription, which he did.  The Manchu translation
+was the work of Father Puerot, “originally a Jesuit emissary at Pekin
+[who] passed the latter years of his life in the service of the Russian
+Mission in the capacity of physician.” {95}
+
+The immediate outcome of Mr Cunningham’s letter was an interview between
+Borrow and the Bible Society’s officials.  With characteristic energy and
+determination, Borrow trudged up to London, covering the 112 miles on
+foot in 27.5 hours.  His expenses by the way amounted to
+fivepence-halfpenny for the purchase of a roll, two apples, a pint of ale
+and a glass of milk.  On reaching London he proceeded direct to the Bible
+Society’s offices in Earl Street, in spite of the early hour, and there
+awaited the arrival of the Rev. Andrew Brandram (Secretary), and the Rev.
+Joseph Jowett (Literary Superintendent).
+
+The story of Borrow’s arrival at Earl Street was subsequently told, by
+one of the secretaries at a provincial meeting in connection with the
+Bible Society.  The Rev. Wentworth Webster writes:
+
+    “I was little more than a boy when I first heard George Borrow spoken
+    of at the annual dinner given by a connection of my family to the
+    deputation of the British and Foreign Bible Society in a country town
+    near London . . . I can distinctly recall one of the secretaries
+    telling of his first meeting with Borrow, whom he found waiting at
+    the offices of the Society one morning;—how puzzled he was by his
+    appearance; how, after he had read his letter of introduction, he
+    wished to while away the time until a brother secretary should
+    arrive, and did not want to say anything to commit himself to such a
+    strange applicant; so he began by politely hoping that Borrow had
+    slept well.  ‘I am not aware that I fell asleep on the road,’ was the
+    reply; I have walked from Norwich to London.’” {96a}
+
+It would appear that this conference took place on Friday, 4th January;
+for on that day there is an entry in the records of the Society of the
+loan to George Borrow of several books from the Society’s library.  On
+this and subsequent occasions, Borrow was examined as to his
+capabilities, the result appearing to be quite satisfactory.  To judge
+from the books lent to Borrow, one of the subjects would seem to have
+been Arabic.
+
+Borrow appeared before the Committee on 14th January, with the result
+that they seemed to be “quite satisfied with me and my philological
+capabilities,” which they judged of from the report given by the
+Secretary and his colleague.  A more material sign of approval was found
+in the undertaking to defray “the expenses of my journey to and from
+London, and also of my residence in that city, in the most handsome
+manner.” {96b}  That is to say, the Committee voted him the sum of ten
+pounds.
+
+Borrow had been formally asked if he were prepared to learn Manchu
+sufficiently well to edit, or translate, into that language such portions
+of the Scriptures as the Society might decide to issue, provided means of
+acquiring the language were put within his reach, and employment should
+follow as soon as he showed himself proficient.  To this Borrow had
+willingly agreed.  At this period, the idea appears to have been to
+execute the work in London.
+
+Shortly after appearing before the Committee Borrow returned to Norwich,
+this time by coach, with several books in the Manchu-Tartar dialect,
+including the Gospel of St Matthew and Amyot’s Manchu-French Dictionary.
+His instructions were to learn the language and come up for examination
+in six months’ time.  Possibly the time limit was suggested by Borrow
+himself, for he had said that he believed he could master any tongue in a
+few months.
+
+After two or three weeks of incessant study of a language that Amyot says
+“one may acquire in five or six years,” Borrow, who, it should be
+remembered, possessed no grammar of the tongue, wrote to Mr Jowett:
+
+    “It is, then, your opinion that, from the lack of anything in the
+    form of Grammar, I have scarcely made any progress towards the
+    attainment of Manchu: {97} perhaps you will not be perfectly
+    miserable at being informed that you were never more mistaken in your
+    life.  I can already, with the assistance of Amyot, translate Manchu
+    with no great difficulty, and am perfectly qualified to write a
+    critique on the version of St Matthew’s Gospel, which I brought with
+    me into the country . . . I will now conclude by beseeching you to
+    send me, as soon as possible, _whatever can serve to enlighten me in
+    respect to Manchu Grammar_, for, had I a Grammar, I should in a
+    month’s time be able to send a Manchu translation of _Jonah_.”
+
+The racy style of Borrow’s letters must have been something of a
+revelation to the Bible Society’s officers, who seem to have shown great
+tact and consideration in dealing with their self-confident correspondent
+There is something magnificent in the letters that Borrow wrote about
+this period; their directness and virility, their courage and
+determination suggest, not a man who up to the thirtieth year of his age
+has been a conspicuous failure, as the world gauges failure; but one who
+had grown confident through many victories and is merely proceeding from
+one success to another.
+
+Whilst in London, Borrow had discussed with Mr Brandram “the Gypsies and
+the profound darkness as to religion and morality that envolved them.”
+{98}  The Secretary told him of the Southampton Committee for the
+Amelioration of the Condition of the Gypsies that had recently been
+formed by the Rev. James Crabbe for the express purpose of enlightening
+and spreading the Gospel among the Romanys.  Furthermore, Mr Brandram, on
+hearing of Borrow’s interest in, and knowledge of, the gypsies, had
+requested him immediately on his return to Norwich to draw up a
+vocabulary of Mr Petulengro’s language, during such time as he might have
+free from his other studies.  Borrow showed himself, as usual, prolific
+of suggestions, all of which involved him in additional labour.  He
+enquired through Mr Jowett if Mr Brandram would write about him to the
+Southampton Committee.  He wished to translate into the gypsy tongue the
+Gospel of St John, “which I could easily do,” he tells Mr Jowett, “with
+the assistance of one or two of the old people, but then they must be
+paid, for the gypsies are more mercenary than the Jews.”
+
+He also informed Mr Jowett that he had a brother in Mexico, subsequently
+assuring him that he had no doubt of John’s willingness to assist the
+Society in “flinging the rays of scriptural light o’er that most
+benighted and miserable region.”  He sent to his brother, at Mr Jowett’s
+request, first a sheet, and afterwards a complete copy, of the Gospel of
+St Luke translated into Nahuatl, the prevailing dialect of the Mexican
+Indians, by Mariano Paz y Sanchez. {99a}
+
+In addition to learning Manchu, Borrow is credited with correcting and
+passing for press the Nahuatl version of St. Luke. {99b}  The Bible
+Society’s records, however, point to the fact that this work was carried
+through by John Hattersley, who later was to come up with Borrow for
+examination in Manchu.  In the light of this, the following passage from
+one of John’s letters is puzzling in the extreme:—“I have just received
+your letter of the 16th of February, together with your translation of St
+Luke.  I am glad you have got the job, but I must say that the Bible
+Society are just throwing away their time.”
+
+He goes on to explain how many dialects there are in Mexico.  “The job”
+can only refer to the Mexican translation, as, at that period, Borrow was
+merely studying Manchu.  He had received no appointment from the Society.
+It may have happened that Borrow expressed a wish to look through the
+proofs and that a set was sent to him for this purpose; but there seems
+no doubt that the actual official responsibility for the work rested with
+Hattersley.  A very important point in support of this view is that there
+is no record of Borrow being paid anything in connection with this
+Mexican translation, beyond the amount of fifteen shillings and
+fivepence, which he had expended in postage on the advance sheet and
+complete copy sent to John.  To judge from the subsequent financial
+arrangements between the Society and its agent, it is very improbable
+that he was given work to do without payment.
+
+After seven weeks’ study Borrow wrote again to Mr Jowett:
+
+    “I am advancing at full gallop, and . . . able to translate with
+    pleasure and facility the specimens of the best authors who have
+    written in the language contained in the compilation of the Klaproth.
+    But I confess that the want of a Grammar has been, particularly in
+    the beginning of my course, a great clog to my speed, and I have
+    little doubt that had I been furnished with one I should have
+    attained my present knowledge of Manchu in half the time.  I was
+    determined, however, not to be discouraged, and, not having a hatchet
+    at hand to cut down the tree with, to attack it with my knife; and I
+    would advise every one to make the most of the tools which happen to
+    be in his possession until he can procure better ones, and it is not
+    improbable that by the time the good tools arrive he will find he has
+    not much need of them, having almost accomplished his work.” {100a}
+
+There is a hint of the difficulties he was experiencing in his confession
+that tools would still be of service to him, in particular “this same
+tripartite Grammar which Mr Brandram is hunting for, my ideas respecting
+Manchu construction being still very vague and wandering.” {100b}  There
+is also a request for “the original grammatical work of Amyot, printed in
+the _Memoires_.” {100c}
+
+Borrow had been studying Manchu for seven weeks when, feeling that his
+glowing report of the progress he was making might be regarded as “a
+piece of exaggeration and vain boasting,” he enclosed a specimen
+translation from Manchu into English.  This he accompanied with an
+assurance that, if required, he could at that moment edit any book
+printed in the Manchu dialect.  About this period Mr Jowett and his
+colleagues passed from one sensation to another.  The calm confidence of
+this astonishing man was more than justified by his performance.  His
+attitude towards life was strange to Earl Street.
+
+Nineteen weeks from the date of commencing his study of Manchu, Borrow
+wrote again to Mr Jowett with unmistakable triumph: “I have mastered
+Manchu, and I should feel obliged by your informing the Committee of the
+fact, and also my excellent friend Mr Brandram.”  He proceeds to indicate
+some of the many difficulties with which he has had to contend, the
+absolute difference of Manchu from all the other languages that he has
+studied, with the single exception of Turkish; the number of its
+idiomatic phrases, which must of necessity be learnt off by heart; the
+little assistance he has had in the nature of books.  Finally he
+acknowledges “the assistance of God,” and asks “to be regularly employed,
+for though I am not in want, my affairs are not in a very flourishing
+condition.”
+
+The response to this letter was an invitation to proceed to London to
+undergo an examination.  His competitor was John Hattersley, upon whom,
+in the event of Borrow’s failure, would in all probability have devolved
+the duty of assisting Mr Lipovzoff.  A Manchu hymn, a pæan to the great
+Fûtsa, was the test.  Each candidate prepared a translation, which was
+handed to the examiners, who in turn were to report to the Sub-Committee.
+Borrow returned to Norwich to await the result.  This was most probably
+towards the end of June. {101}
+
+Mr Jowett wrote encouragingly to Borrow of his prospects of obtaining the
+coveted appointment.  In acknowledgment of this letter, Borrow dashed off
+a reply, magnificent in its confidence and manly sincerity.  It was a
+defiance to the fate that had so long dogged his footsteps.
+
+    “What you have written has given me great pleasure,” he wrote, “as it
+    holds out hope that I may be employed usefully to the Deity, to man,
+    and myself.  I shall be very happy to visit St Petersburg and to
+    become the coadjutor of Lipovzoff, {102} and to avail myself of his
+    acquirements in what you very happily designate a most singular
+    language, towards obtaining a still greater proficiency in it.  I
+    flatter myself that I am for one or two reasons tolerably well
+    adapted for the contemplated expedition, for besides a competent
+    knowledge of French and German, I possess some acquaintance with
+    Russian, being able to read without much difficulty any printed
+    Russian book, and I have little doubt that after a few months
+    intercourse with the natives, I should be able to speak it fluently.
+    It would ill become me to bargain like a Jew or a Gypsy as to terms;
+    all I wish to say on that point is, that I have nothing of my own,
+    having been too long dependent on an excellent mother, who is not
+    herself in very easy circumstances.”
+
+Whilst still waiting for the confirmation by the General Committee of the
+Sub-Committee’s resolution, which was favourable to Borrow, Mr Jowett
+wrote to him (5th July), telling him how good were his prospects; but
+warning him not to be too confident of success.  The Sub-Committee had
+recommended that Borrow’s services should be engaged that he might go to
+St Petersburg and assist Mr Lipovzoff in editing St Luke and the Acts and
+any other portions of the New Testament that it was thought desirable to
+publish in Manchu.  Should the Russian Government refuse to permit the
+work to be proceeded with, Borrow was to occupy himself in assisting the
+Rev. Wm. Swan to transcribe and collate the manuscript of the Old
+Testament in Manchu that had recently come to light.  At the same time,
+he was to seize every opportunity that presented itself of perfecting
+himself in Manchu.  For this he was to receive a salary of two hundred
+pounds a year to cover all expenses, save those of the journey to and
+from St Petersburg, for which the Society was to be responsible.  Borrow
+was advised to think carefully over the proposal, and, if it should prove
+attractive to him, to hold himself in readiness to start as soon as the
+General Committee should approve of the recommendation that was to be
+placed before it.  In conclusion, Mr Jowett proceeded to administer a
+gentle rebuke to the confident pride with which the candidate indited his
+letters.  Only a quotation can show the tact with which the admonition
+was conveyed.
+
+“Excuse me,” wrote the Literary Superintendent, “if as a clergyman, and
+your senior in years though not in talent, I venture, with the kindest of
+motives, to throw out a hint which may not be without its use.  I am sure
+you will not be offended if I suggest that there is occasionally a tone
+of confidence in speaking of yourself, which has alarmed some of the
+excellent members of our Committee.  It may have been this feeling, more
+than once displayed before, which prepared one or two of them to stumble
+at an expression in your letter of yesterday, in which, till pointed out,
+I confess I was not struck with anything objectionable, but at which,
+nevertheless, a humble Christian might not unreasonably take umbrage.  It
+is where you speak of the prospect of becoming ‘useful to the Deity, to
+man, and to yourself.’  Doubtless you meant the prospect of glorifying
+God.”
+
+Borrow had yet to learn the idiom of Earl Street, which he showed himself
+most anxious to acquire.  He clearly recognised that the Bible Society
+required different treatment from the Army Pay Office, or the Solicitor
+of the Treasury.  It was accustomed to humility in those it employed, and
+a trust in a higher power, and Borrow’s self-confident letters alarmed
+the members of the Committee.  How thoroughly Borrow appreciated what was
+required is shown in a letter that he wrote to his mother from Russia,
+when anticipating the return of his brother.  “Should John return home,”
+he warns her, “by no means let him go near the Bible Society, for he
+would not do for them.”
+
+Borrow’s reply to the Literary Superintendent’s kindly worded admonition
+was entirely satisfactory and “in harmony with the rule laid down by
+Christ himself.”  It was something of a triumph, too, for Mr Jowett to
+rebuke a man of such sensitiveness as Borrow, without goading him to an
+impatient retort.
+
+The meeting of the General Committee that was to decide upon Borrow’s
+future was held on 22nd July, and on the following day Mr Jowett informed
+him that the recommendation of the Sub-Committee had been adopted and
+confirmed, at the same time requesting him to be at Earl Street on the
+morning of Friday, 26th July, that he might set out for St Petersburg the
+following Tuesday.  On 25th July Borrow took the night coach to London.
+On the 29th he appeared before the Editorial Sub-Committee and heard read
+the resolution of his appointment, and drafts of letters recommending him
+to the Rev. Wm. Swan and Dr I. J. Schmidt, a correspondent of the
+Society’s in St Petersburg and a member of the Russian Board of Censors.
+Finally, there was impressed upon him “the necessity of confining himself
+closely to the one object of his mission, carefully abstaining from
+mingling himself with political or ecclesiastical affairs during his
+residence in Russia.  Mr Borrow assured them of his full determination
+religiously to comply with this admonition, and to use every prudent
+method for enlarging his acquaintance with the Manchu language.” {104}
+
+The salary was to date from the day he embarked, and on account of
+expenses to St Petersburg he drew the sum of £37.  The actual amount he
+expended was £27, 7s. 6d., according to the account he submitted, which
+was dated 2nd October 1834.  It is to be feared that Borrow was not very
+punctual in rendering his accounts, as Mr Brandram wrote to him (18th
+October 1837):—“I know you are no accountant, but do not forget that
+there are some who are.  My memory was jogged upon this subject the other
+day, and I was expected to say to you that a letter of figures would be
+acceptable.”
+
+It is not unnatural that those who remembered Borrow as one of William
+Taylor’s “harum-scarum” young men, who at one time intended to “abuse
+religion and get prosecuted,” should find in his appointment as an agent
+of the British and Foreign Bible Society a subject for derisive mirth.
+Harriet Martineau’s voice was heard well above the rest.  “When this
+polyglott gentleman appeared before the public as a devout agent of the
+Bible Society in foreign parts,” she wrote, “there was one burst of
+laughter from all who remembered the old Norwich days.” {105}  Like
+hundreds of other men, Borrow had, in youth, been led to somewhat hasty
+and ill-considered conclusions; but this in itself does not seem to be
+sufficiently strong reason why he should not change his views.  Many
+young men pass through an aggressively irreligious phase without
+suffering much harm.  Harriet Martineau was rather too precipitate in
+assuming that what a man believes, or disbelieves, at twenty, he holds to
+at thirty; such a view negatives the reformer.  Perhaps the chief cause
+of the change in Borrow’s views was that he had touched the depths of
+failure.  Here was an opening that promised much.  He was a diplomatist
+when it suited his purpose, and if the old poison were not quite gone out
+of his system, he would hide his wounds, or allow the secretaries to
+bandage them with mild reproof.
+
+Very different from the attitude of Harriet Martineau was that of John
+Venning, an English merchant resident at Norwich and recently returned
+from St Petersburg, where his charity and probity had placed him in high
+favour with the Emperor and the Goverment officials.  Mr Venning gave
+Borrow letters of introduction to a number of influential personages at
+St Petersburg, including Prince Alexander Galitzin and Baron Schilling de
+Canstadt.  Dr Bowring obtained a letter from Lord Palmerston to someone
+whose name is not known.  There were letters of introduction from other
+hands, so that when he was ready to sail Borrow found himself “loaded
+with letters of recommendation to some of the first people in Russia.  Mr
+Venning’s packet has arrived with letters to several of the Princes, so
+that I shall be protected if I am seized as a spy; for the Emperor is
+particularly cautious as to the foreigners whom he admits.  It costs £2,
+7s. 6d. merely for permission to go to Russia, which alone is enough to
+deter most people.” {106}
+
+Before leaving England, Borrow paid into his mother’s account at her bank
+the sum of seventeen pounds, an amount that she had advanced to him
+either during his unproductive years, or on account of his expenses in
+connection with the expedition to St Petersburg.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+AUGUST 1833–JANUARY 1834
+
+
+ON 19th/31st July 1833 Borrow set out on a journey that was to some
+extent to realise his ambitions.  He was to be trusted and encouraged
+and, what was most important of all, praised for what he accomplished;
+for Borrow’s was a nature that responded best to the praise and entire
+confidence of those for whom he worked.
+
+Travelling second class for reasons of economy, he landed at Hamburg at
+seven in the morning of the fourth day, after having experienced “a
+disagreeable passage of three days, in which I suffered much from
+sea-sickness.” {107a}  Exhausted by these days of suffering and want of
+sleep, the heat of the sun brought on “a transient fit of delirium,”
+{107b} in other words, an attack of the “Horrors.”  Two fellow-passengers
+(Jews), with whom he had become acquainted, conveyed him to a comfortable
+hotel, where he was visited by a physician, who administered forty drops
+of laudanum, caused his head to be swathed in wet towels, ordered him to
+bed, and charged a fee of seven shillings.  The result was that by the
+evening he had quite recovered.
+
+One of Borrow’s first duties was to write a lengthy letter to Mr Jowett,
+telling him of his movements, describing the city, the service at a
+church he attended, the lax morality of the Hamburgers in permitting
+rope-dancers in the park, and the opening of dancing-saloons, “most
+infamous places,” on the Lord’s day.  “England, with all her faults,” he
+proceeds, “has still some regard to decency, and will not tolerate such a
+shameless display of vice on so sacred a season, when a decent
+cheerfulness is the freest form in which the mind or countenance ought to
+invest themselves.”  In conclusion, he announced his intention of leaving
+for Lübeck on the sixth, {108a} and he would be on the Baltic two days
+later en route for St Petersburg.  “My next letter, provided it pleases
+the Almighty to vouchsafe me a happy arrival, will be from the Russian
+capital.”  By “a fervent request that you will not forget me in your
+prayers,” he demonstrated that Mr Jowett’s hint had not been forgotten.
+
+The distance between Hamburg and Lübeck is only about thirty miles, yet
+it occupied Borrow thirteen hours, so abominable was the road, which “was
+paved at intervals with huge masses of unhewn rock, and over this
+pavement the carriage was very prudently driven at a snail’s pace; for,
+had anything approaching speed been attempted, the entire demolition of
+the wheels in a few minutes must have been the necessary result.  No
+sooner had we quitted this terrible pavement than we sank to our
+axle-trees in sand, mud, and water; for, to render the journey perfectly
+delectable, the rain fell in torrents and ceaselessly.” {108b}  The state
+of the road Borrow attributed to the ill-nature of the King of Denmark,
+for immediately on leaving his dominions it improved into an excellent
+carriageway.
+
+On 28th July/9th August Borrow took steamer from Travemünde, and three
+days later landed at St Petersburg.  His first duty was to call upon Mr
+Swan, whom he found “one of the most amiable and interesting characters”
+he had ever met.  The arrival of a coadjutor caused Mr Swan considerable
+relief, as he had suffered in health in consequence of his uninterrupted
+labours in transcribing the Manchu manuscript.
+
+Borrow was enthusiastic in his admiration of the capital of “our dear and
+glorious Russia.”  St Petersburg he considered “the finest city in the
+world” {109} other European capitals were unworthy of comparison.  The
+enormous palaces, the long, straight streets, the grandeur of the public
+buildings, the noble Neva that flows majestically through “this Queen of
+the cities,” the three miles long Nevsky Prospect, paved with wood; all
+aroused in him enthusiasm and admiration.  “In a word,” he wrote to his
+mother, “I can do little else but look and wonder.”  All that he had read
+and heard of the capital of All the Russias had failed to prepare him for
+this scene of splendour.  The meeting and harmonious mixing of East and
+West early attracted his attention.  The Oriental cultivation of a
+twelve-inch beard among the middle and lower classes, placed them in
+marked contrast with the moustached or clean-shaven patricians and
+foreigners.  In short, Russia gripped hold of and warmed Borrow’s
+imagination.  Here were new types, curious blendings of nationalities
+unthought of and strange to him, a mine of wealth to a man whose studies
+were never books, except when they helped him the better to understand
+men.
+
+Another thing that attracted him to Russia was the great kindness with
+which he was received, both by the English Colony and the natives: to the
+one he appealed by virtue of a common ancestry; to the other, on account
+of his knowledge of the Russian tongue, not to speak of his mission,
+which acted as a strong recommendation to their favour.  On his part
+Borrow reciprocated the esteem.  If he were an implacable enemy, he was
+also a good friend, and he thoroughly appreciated the manner in which he
+was welcomed by his countrymen, especially the invitation he received
+from one of them to make his house his home until he found a suitable
+dwelling.  To his mother he wrote:
+
+    “The Russians are the best-natured, kindest people in the world, and
+    though they do not know as much as the English [he was not referring
+    to the Colony], they have not their fiendish, spiteful dispositions,
+    and if you go amongst them and speak their language, however badly,
+    they would go through fire and water to do you a kindness.”  Later,
+    when in Portugal, he heartily wished himself “back in Russia . . .
+    where I had left cherished friends and warm affections.”
+
+High as was his opinion of the Russians, he was at a loss to understand
+how they had earned their reputation as “the best general linguists in
+the world.”  He found Russian absolutely necessary to anyone who wished
+to make himself understood.  French and German as equivalents were of
+less value in St Petersburg than in England.
+
+At first Borrow took up his residence “for nearly a fortnight in a hotel,
+as the difficulty of procuring lodgings in this place is very great, and
+when you have procured them you have to furnish them yourself at a
+considerable expense . . . eventually I took up my abode with Mr Egerton
+Hubbard, a friend of Mr Venning’s [at 221 Galernoy Ulitza], where I am
+for the present very comfortably situated.” {110}  He stayed with Mr
+Hubbard for three months; but was eventually forced to leave on account
+of constant interruptions, probably by his fellow-boarders, in
+consequence of which he could neither perform his task of transcription
+nor devote himself to study.  He therefore took a small lodging at a cost
+of nine shillings a week, including fires, where he could enjoy quiet and
+solitude.  His meals he got at a Russian eating-house, dinner costing
+fivepence, “consequently,” he writes to his mother, “I am not at much
+expense, being able to live for about sixty pounds a year and pay a
+Russian teacher, who has five shillings for one lesson a week.”
+
+One of Borrow’s earliest thoughts on arriving at St Petersburg had been
+to present his letters of introduction.  Within two days of landing he
+called upon Prince Alexander Galítzin, {111} accompanied by his
+fellow-lodger, young Venning.  One of the most important, and at the same
+time useful, friendships that he made was with Baron Schilling de
+Canstadt, the philologist and savant, who, later, with his accustomed
+generosity, was to place his unique library at Borrow’s disposition.  The
+Baron was one of the greatest bibliophiles of his age, and possessed a
+collection of Eastern manuscripts and other priceless treasures that was
+world-famous.  He spared neither expense nor trouble in procuring
+additions to his collection, which after his death was acquired by the
+Imperial Academy of Science at St Petersburg.  In this literary
+treasure-house Borrow found facilities for study such as he nowhere else
+could hope to obtain.
+
+Another friendship that Borrow made was with John P. Hasfeldt, a man of
+about his own age attached to the Danish Legation, who also gave lessons
+in languages.  Borrow seems to have been greatly attracted to Hasfeldt,
+who wrote to him with such cordiality.  It was Hasfeldt who gave to
+Borrow as a parting gift the silver shekel that he invariably carried
+about with him, and which caused him to be hailed as blessed by the
+Gibraltar Jews.
+
+In his letter Hasfeldt shows himself a delightful correspondent.  His
+generous camaraderie seemed to warm Borrow to response, as indeed well it
+might.  Who could resist the breezy good humour of the following from a
+letter addressed to Borrow by Hasfeldt years later?—
+
+    “Do you still eat Pike soup?  Do you remember the time when you lived
+    on that dish for more than six weeks, and came near exterminating the
+    whole breed?  And the pudding that accompanied it, that always lay as
+    hard as a stone on the stomach?  This you surely have not forgotten.
+    Yes, your kitchen was delicately manipulated by Machmoud, your Tartar
+    servant, who only needed to give you horse-meat to have merited a
+    diploma.  Do you still sing when you are in a good humour?  Doubtless
+    you are not troubled with many friends to visit you, for you are not
+    of the sort who are easily understood, nor do you care to have
+    everyone understand you; you prefer to have people call you grey and
+    let you gae.”
+
+Other friends Borrow made, including Nikolai Ivánovitch Gretch, {112a}
+the grammarian, and Friedrich von Adelung, {112b} who assisted him with
+the loan of books and MSS. in Oriental tongues.
+
+The story of Borrow’s labours in connection with the printing of the
+Manchu version of the New Testament, forms a remarkable study of
+unswerving courage and will-power triumphing over apparently
+insurmountable obstacles.  The mere presence of difficulties seemed to
+increase his eagerness and determination to overcome them.
+Disappointments he had in plenty; but his indomitable courage and
+untiring energy, backed up by the earnest support he received from Earl
+Street, enabled him to emerge from his first serious undertaking with the
+knowledge that he had succeeded where failure would not have been
+discreditable.
+
+He threw himself into his work with characteristic eagerness.  At the end
+of the first two months he had transcribed the Second Book of Chronicles
+and the Gospel of St Matthew.  He formed a very high opinion of the work
+of the translator, and took the opportunity of paying a tribute to the
+followers of Ignatius Loyola (Father Puerot was a Jesuit).  “When,” he
+writes, “did a Jesuit any thing which he undertook, whether laudable or
+the reverse, not far better than any other person?” yet they laboured in
+vain, for “they thought not of His glory, but of the glory of their
+order.” {113}
+
+Borrow discovered that Mr Lipovzoff knew nothing of the Bible Society’s
+scheme for printing the New Testament in Manchu; but he found, what was
+of even greater importance to him, that the old man knew no European
+language but Russian.  Thus the frequent conversations and explanations
+all tended to improve Borrow’s knowledge of the language of the people
+among whom he was living.
+
+Mr Lipovzoff struck Borrow as being “rather a singular man,” as he took
+occasion to inform Mr Jowett, apparently utterly indifferent as to the
+fate of his translation, excellent though it was.  As a matter of fact,
+Mr Lipovzoff was occupied with his own concerns, and, as an official in
+the Russian Foreign Office, most likely saw the inexpediency of a too
+eager enthusiasm for the Bible Society’s Manchu-Tartar programme.  He was
+probably bewildered by the fierce energy of its honest and compelling
+agent, who had descended upon St Petersburg to do the Society’s bidding
+with an impetuosity and determination foreign to Russian official life.
+Borrow was on fire with zeal and impatient of the apathy of those around
+him.
+
+He soon began to show signs of that singleness of purpose and
+resourcefulness that, later, was to arouse so much enthusiasm among the
+members of the Bible Society at home.  The transcribing and collating
+Puerot’s version of the Scriptures occupied the remainder of the year.
+On the completion of this work, it had been arranged that Mr Swan should
+return to his mission-station in Siberia.  The next step was to obtain
+official sanction to print the Lipovzoff version of the New Testament.
+Dr Schmidt, to whom Borrow turned for advice and information, was
+apparently very busily occupied with his own affairs, which included the
+compilation of a Mongolian Grammar and Dictionary.  The Doctor was
+optimistic, and promised to make enquiries about the steps to be taken to
+obtain the necessary permission to print; but Borrow heard nothing
+further from him.
+
+    “Thus circumstanced, and being very uneasy in my mind,” he writes, “I
+    determined to take a bold step, and directly and without further
+    feeling my way, to petition the Government in my own name for
+    permission to print the Manchu Scriptures.  Having communicated this
+    determination to our beloved, sincere, and most truly Christian
+    friend Mr Swan (who has lately departed to his station in Siberia,
+    shielded I trust by the arm of his Master), it met with his perfect
+    approbation and cordial encouragement.  I therefore drew up a
+    petition, and presented it with my own hand to His Excellence Mr
+    Bludoff, Minister of the Interior.” {114a}
+
+The minister made reply that he doubted his jurisdiction in the matter;
+but that he would consider.  Fearful lest the matter should miscarry or
+be shelved, Borrow called on the evening of the same day upon the British
+Minister, the Hon. J. D. Bligh, “a person of superb talents, kind
+disposition, and of much piety,” {114b} whose friendship Borrow had
+“assiduously cultivated,” and who had shown him “many condescending marks
+of kindness.” {114c}  But Mr Bligh was out.  Nothing daunted, Borrow
+wrote a note entreating his interest with the Russian officials.  On
+calling for an answer in the morning, he was received by Mr Bligh, when
+“he was kind enough to say that if I desired it he would apply officially
+to the Minister, and exert all his influence in his official character in
+order to obtain the accomplishment of my views, but at the same time
+suggested that it would, perhaps, be as well at a private interview to
+beg it as a personal favour.” {115a}
+
+There was hesitation, perhaps suspicion, in official quarters.  It is
+easy to realise that the Government was not eager to assist the agent of
+an institution closely allied to the Russian Bible Society, which it had
+recently been successful in suppressing.  It might with impunity suppress
+a Society; but in George Borrow it soon became evident that the officials
+had to deal with a man of purpose and determination who used a British
+Minister as a two-edged sword.  Borrow was invited to call at the Asiatic
+Department: he did so, and learned that if permission were granted, Mr
+Lipovzoff (who was a clerk in the Department) was to be censor (over his
+own translation!) and Borrow editor.  There was still the “If.”  Borrow
+waited a fortnight, then called on Mr Bligh.  By great good chance Mr
+Bludoff was dining that evening with the British Minister.  The same
+night Borrow received a message requesting him to call on Mr Bludoff the
+next day.  On presenting himself he was given a letter to the Director of
+Worship, which he delivered without delay, and was told to call again on
+the first day of the following week.
+
+“On calling there _I found that permission had been granted to print the
+Manchu Scripture_.” {115b}  Baron Schilling had rendered some assistance
+in getting the permission, and Borrow was requested to inform him of “the
+deep sense of obligation” of the Bible Society, to which was added a
+present of some books.
+
+Borrow clearly viewed this as only a preliminary success; he had in mind
+the eventual printing of the whole Bible.  He was beginning to feel
+conscious of his own powers.  Mr Swan had gone, and upon Borrow’s
+shoulders rested the whole enterprise.  A mild wave of enthusiasm passed
+over the Head Office at Earl Street on receipt of the news that
+permission to print had been obtained.
+
+“You cannot conceive,” Borrow wrote to Mr Jowett, “the cold, heartless
+apathy in respect to the affair, on which I have been despatched hither
+as an _assistant_, which I have found in people to whom I looked not
+unreasonably for encouragement and advice.” {116}  Well might he
+underline the word “assistant.”  In this same letter, with a spasmodic
+flicker of the old self-confidence, he adds, “In regard to what we have
+yet to do, let it be borne in mind, that we are by no means dependent
+upon Mr Lipovzoff, though certainly to secure the services, which he is
+capable of performing, would be highly desirable, and though he cannot
+act outwardly in the character of Editor (he having been appointed
+censor), he may privately be of great utility to us.”  Borrow seems to
+have formed no very high opinion of Mr Lipovzoff’s capacity for affairs,
+although he recognised his skill as a translator.
+
+At first Borrow seems to have found the severity of the winter very
+trying.  “The cold when you go out into it,” he writes to his mother
+(1st/13th Feb. 1834), “cuts your face like a razor, and were you not to
+cover it with furs the flesh would be bitten off.  The rooms in the
+morning are heated with a stove as hot as ovens, and you would not be
+able to exist in one for a minute; but I have become used to them and
+like them much, though at first they made me dreadfully sick and brought
+on bilious headaches.”
+
+There was still at the Sarepta House, the premises of the Bible Society’s
+bankers in St Petersburg, the box of Manchu type, which had not been
+examined since the river floods.  In addition to this, the only other
+Manchu characters in St Petersburg belonged to Baron Schilling, who
+possessed a small fount of the type, which he used “for the convenience
+of printing trifles in that tongue,” as Borrow phrased it.  This was to
+be put at Borrow’s disposal if necessary; but first the type at the
+Sarepta House had to be examined.  Borrow’s plan was, provided the type
+were not entirely ruined, to engage the services of a printer who was
+accustomed to setting Mongolian characters, which are very similar to
+those of Manchu, who would, he thought, be competent to undertake the
+work.  He suggested following the style of the St Matthew’s Gospel
+already printed, giving to each Gospel and the Acts a volume and printing
+the Epistles and the Apocalypse in three more, making eight volumes in
+all.
+
+These he proposed putting “in a small thin wooden case, covered with blue
+stuff, precisely after the manner of Chinese books, in order that they
+may not give offence to the eyes of the people for whom they are intended
+by a foreign and unusual appearance, for the mere idea that they are
+barbarian books would certainly prevent them being read, and probably
+cause their destruction if ever they found their way into the Chinese
+Empire.” {117}  Borrow left nothing to chance; he thought out every
+detail with great care before venturing to put his plans into execution.
+
+Although busily occupied in an endeavour to stimulate Russian government
+officials to energy and decision, Borrow was not neglecting what had been
+so strongly urged upon him, the perfecting of himself in the Manchu
+dialect.  In reply to an enquiry from Mr Jowett as to what manner of
+progress he was making, he wrote:—
+
+    “For some time past I have taken lessons from a person who was twelve
+    years in Pekin, and who speaks Manchu and Chinese with fluency.  I
+    pay him about six shillings English for each lesson, which I grudge
+    not, for the perfect acquirement of Manchu is one of my most ardent
+    wishes.” {118a}
+
+This person Borrow subsequently recommended to the Society “to assist me
+in making a translation into Manchu of the Psalms and Isaiah,” but the
+pundit proved “of no utility at all, but only the cause of error.”
+
+Borrow was soon able to transcribe the Manchu characters with greater
+facility and speed than he could English.  In addition to being able to
+translate from and into Manchu, he could compose hymns in the language,
+and even prepared a Manchu rendering of the second Homily of the Church
+of England, “On the Misery of Man.”  He had, however, made the discovery
+that Manchu was far less easy to him than it had at first appeared, and
+that Amyot was to some extent justified in his view of the difficulties
+it presented.  “It is one of those deceitful tongues,” he confesses in a
+letter to Mr Jowett, “the seeming simplicity of whose structure induces
+you to suppose, after applying to it for a month or two, that little more
+remains to be learned, but which, should you continue to study a year, as
+I have studied this, show themselves to you in their veritable colours,
+amazing you with their copiousness, puzzling with their idioms.”{118b}
+Its difficulties, however, did not discourage him; for he had a great
+admiration for the language which “for majesty and grandeur of sound, and
+also for general copiousness is unequalled by any existing tongue.”
+{118c}
+
+However great his exertions or discouragements, Borrow never forgot his
+mother, to whom he was a model son.  On 1st/13th February he sent her a
+draft for twenty pounds, being the second since his arrival six months
+previously.  Thus out of his first half-year’s salary of a hundred
+pounds, he sent to his mother forty pounds (in addition to the seventeen
+pounds he had paid into her account before sailing), and with it a
+promise that “next quarter I shall try and send you thirty,” lest in the
+recent storms of which he had heard, some of her property should have
+suffered damage and be in need of repair.  The larger remittance,
+however, he was unable to make on account of the illness that had
+necessitated the drinking of a bottle of port wine each day (by doctor’s
+orders); but he was punctual in remitting the twenty pounds.  The attack
+which required so drastic a remedy originated in a chill caught as the
+ice was breaking up.  “I went mad,” he tells his mother, “and when the
+fever subsided, I was seized with the ‘Horrors,’ which never left me day
+or night for a week.” {119}  During this illness everyone seems to have
+been extremely kind and attentive, the Emperor’s apothecary, even,
+sending word that Borrow was to order of him anything, medical or
+otherwise, that he found himself in need of.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+FEBRUARY–OCTOBER 1834
+
+
+BORROW had at last found work that was thoroughly congenial to him.  It
+was not in his nature to exist outside his occupations, and his whole
+personality became bound up in the mission upon which he was engaged.
+Not content with preparing the way for printing the New Testament in
+Manchu, he set himself the problem of how it was to be distributed when
+printed.  He foresaw serious obstacles to its introduction into China, on
+account of the suspicion with which was regarded any and everything
+European.  With a modest disclaimer that his suggestion arose “from a
+plenitude of self-conceit and a disposition to offer advice upon all
+matters, however far they may be above my understanding,” he proceeds to
+deal with the difficulties of distribution with great clearness.
+
+To send the printed books to Canton, to be distributed by English
+missionaries, he thought would be productive of very little good, nor
+would it achieve the object of the Society, to distribute copies at
+seaports along the coasts, because it was unlikely that there would be
+many Tartars or people there who understood Manchu.  There was a further
+obstacle in the suspicion in which the Chinese held all things English.
+On the other hand, he tells Mr Jowett,
+
+    “there is a most admirable opening for the work on the Russian side
+    of the Chinese Empire.  About five thousand miles from St Petersburg,
+    on the frontiers of Chinese Tartary, and only nine hundred miles
+    distant from Pekin, the seat of the Tartar Monarchy, stands the town
+    of Kiakhta, {121a} which properly belongs to Russia, but the
+    inhabitants of which are a medley of Tartary, Chinese, and Russ
+    (_sic_).  As far as this town a Russian or foreigner is permitted to
+    advance, but his further progress is forbidden, and if he make the
+    attempt he is liable to be taken up as a spy or deserter, and sent
+    back under guard.  This town is the emporium of Chinese and Russian
+    trade.  Chinese caravans are continually arriving and returning,
+    bringing and carrying away articles of merchandise.  There are
+    likewise a Chinese and a Tartar Mandarin, also a school where Chinese
+    and Tartar are taught, and where Chinese and Tartar children along
+    with Russian are educated.” {121b}
+
+The advantages of such a town as a base of operations were obvious.
+Borrow was convinced that he could dispose “of any quantity of Testaments
+to the Chinese merchants who arrive thither from Pekin and other places,
+and who would be glad to purchase them on speculation.” {121c}
+
+Russia and China were friendly to each other, so much so, that there was
+at Pekin a Russian mission, the only one of its kind.  These good
+relations rendered Borrow confident that books from Russia, especially
+books which had not an outlandish appearance, would be purchased without
+scruple.  “In a word, were an agent for the Bible Society to reside at
+this town [Kiakhta] for a year or so, it is my humble opinion, and the
+opinion of much wiser people, that if he were active, zealous and
+likewise courageous, the blessings resulting from his labours would be
+incalculable.” {121d}
+
+He might even make excursions into Tartary, and become friendly with the
+inhabitants, and eventually perhaps, “with a little management and
+dexterity,” he might “penetrate even to Pekin, and return in safety,
+after having examined the state of the land.  I can only say that if it
+were my fortune to have the opportunity, I would make the attempt, and
+should consider myself only to blame if I did not succeed.”  Borrow was
+to revert to this suggestion on many occasions, in fact it seems to have
+been in his mind during the whole period of his association with the
+Bible Society.
+
+Acting upon instructions from Earl Street, Borrow proceeded to find out
+the approximate cost of printing the Manchu New Testament.  He early
+discovered that in Russia “the wisdom of the serpent is quite as
+necessary as the innocence of the dove,” as he took occasion to inform Mr
+Jowett.  The Russians rendered him estimates of cost as if of the opinion
+that “Englishmen are made of gold, and that it is only necessary to ask
+the most extravagant price for any article in order to obtain it.”
+
+In St Petersburg Borrow was taken for a German, a nation for which he
+cherished a cordial dislike.  This mistake as to nationality, however,
+did not hinder the Russian tradesmen from asking exorbitant prices for
+their services or their goods.  At first Borrow “was quite terrified at
+the enormous sums which some of the printers . . . required for the
+work.”  At length he applied to the University Press, which asked 30
+roubles 60 copecks (24s. 8d.) per sheet of two pages for composition and
+printing.  A young firm of German printers, Schultz & Beneze, was,
+however, willing to undertake the same work at the rate of 12.5 roubles
+(10s.) per two sheets.
+
+In contracting for the paper Borrow showed himself quite equal to the
+commercial finesse of the Russian.  He scoured the neighbourhood round St
+Petersburg in a calash at a cost of about four pounds.  Russian methods
+of conducting business are amazing to the English mind.  At Peterhof, a
+town about twenty miles out of St Petersburg, he found fifty reams of a
+paper such as he required.  “Concerning the price of this paper,” he
+writes, “I could obtain no positive information, for the Director and
+first and second clerks were invariably absent, and the place abandoned
+to ignorant understrappers (according to the custom of Russia).  And
+notwithstanding I found out the Director in St Petersburg, he himself
+could not tell me the price.” {123a}
+
+Eventually 75 roubles (£3) a ream was quoted for the stock, and 100
+roubles (£4) a ream for any further quantity required.  Thus the paper
+for a thousand copies would run to 40,000 roubles (£1600), or 32s. a
+copy.  Borrow found that the law of commerce prevalent in the East was
+that adopted in St Petersburg.  A price is named merely as a basis of
+negotiation, and the customer beats it down to a figure that suits him,
+or he goes elsewhere.  Borrow was a master of such methods.  The sum he
+eventually paid for the paper was 25 roubles (£1) a ream!  Of all these
+negotiations he kept Mr Jowett well informed.  By June he had received
+from Earl Street the official sanction to proceed, together with a
+handsome remittance.
+
+For some time past Borrow had been anxious on account of his brother
+John.  On 9th/21st November, he had written to his mother telling her to
+write to John urging him to come home at once, as he had seen in the
+Russian newspapers how the town of Guanajuato had been taken and sacked
+by the rebels, and also that cholera was ravaging Mexico.  Later {123b}
+he tells her of that nice house at Lakenham, {123c} which he means to
+buy, and how John can keep a boat and amuse himself on the river, and
+adds, “I dare say I shall continue for a long time with the Bible
+Society, as they see that I am useful to them and can be depended upon.”
+
+On the day following that on which Borrow wrote asking his mother to urge
+his brother to return home, viz., 10th/22nd November, John died.  He was
+taken ill suddenly in the morning and passed away the same afternoon.
+
+In February 1832 John Borrow had, much against the advice of his friends,
+left the United Mexican Company, which he had become associated with the
+previous year.  He was of a restless disposition, never content with what
+he was doing.  Thinking he could better himself, and having saved a few
+hundred dollars, he resigned his post.  He appears soon to have
+discovered his mistake.  First he indulged in an unfortunate speculation,
+by which he was a considerable loser, then cholera broke out.  Without a
+thought of himself he turned nurse and doctor, witnessing terrible scenes
+of misery and death and ministering to the poor with an energy and
+humanity that earned for him the admiration of the whole township.
+Finally, finding himself in serious financial difficulties, he entered
+the service of the Colombian Mining Company, and was to be sent to
+Colombia “for the purpose of introducing the Mexican system of
+beneficiating there.”  It only remained for the agreement to be signed,
+when he was taken ill.
+
+In the letter in which she tells George of their loss, Mrs Borrow
+expresses fear that he does “not live regular.  When you find yourself
+low,” she continues, “take a little wine, but not too much at one time;
+it will do you the more good; I find that by myself.”  Her solicitude for
+George’s health is easily understandable.  He is now her “only hope,” as
+she pathetically tells him.  “Do not grieve, my dear George,” she
+proceeds tenderly, “I trust we shall all meet in heaven.  Put a crape on
+your hat for some time.”
+
+George wrote immediately to acknowledge his mother’s letter containing
+the news of John’s death, which had given him “the severest stroke I ever
+experienced.  It [the letter] quite stunned me, and since reading its
+contents I have done little else but moan and lament . . . O that our
+darling John had taken the advice which I gave him nearly three years
+since, to abandon that horrid country and return to England! . . . Would
+that I had died for him! for I loved him dearly, dearly.”  Borrow’s
+affection for his bright and attractive brother is everywhere manifest in
+his writings.  He never showed the least jealousy when his father held up
+his first-born as a model to the strange and incomprehensible younger
+son.  His love for and admiration of John were genuine and deep-rooted.
+In the same letter he goes on to assure his mother that he was never
+better in his life, and that experience teaches him how to cure his
+disorders.  “The ‘Horrors,’ for example.  Whenever they come I must drink
+strong Port wine, and then they are stopped instantly.  But do not think
+that I drink habitually, for you ought to know that I abhor drink.  The
+‘Horrors’ are brought on by weakness.”
+
+He goes on to reassure his mother as to the care he takes of himself,
+telling her that he has three meals a day, although, as a rule, dinner is
+a poor one, “for the Russians, in the first place, are very indifferent
+cooks, and the meat is very bad, as in fact are almost all the
+provisions.”  The fish is without taste, Russian salmon having less
+savour than English skate; the fowls are dry because no endeavour is made
+to fatten them, and the “mutton stinks worst than carrion, for they never
+cut the wool.”
+
+With great thought and tenderness he tells her that he wishes her “to
+keep a maid, for I do not like that you should live alone.  Do not take
+one of the wretched girls of Norwich,” he advises her, but rather the
+daughter of one of her tenants.  “What am I working for here and saving
+money, unless it is for your comfort? for I assure you that to make you
+comfortable is my greatest happiness, almost my only one.”  Urging her to
+keep up her spirits and read much of the things that interest her, he
+concludes with a warning to her not to pay any debts contracted by John.
+{126a}  The letter concludes with the postscript: “I have got the crape.”
+
+In July 1834 Borrow again changed his quarters, taking an unfurnished
+floor, {126b} at the same time hiring a Tartar servant named Mahmoud,
+“the best servant I ever had.” {126c}  The wages he paid this prince of
+body-servants was thirty shillings a month, out of which Mahmoud supplied
+himself “with food and everything.”  Borrow’s reason for making this
+change in his lodgings was that he wanted more room than he had, and
+furnished apartments were very expensive.  The actual furnishing was not
+a very costly matter to a man of Borrow’s simple wants; for the
+expenditure of seven pounds he provided himself with all he required.
+
+After the letter of 27th June/9th July the Bible Society received no
+further news of what was taking place in St Petersburg.  Week after week
+passed without anything being heard of its Russian agent’s movements or
+activities.  On 25th September/7th October Mr Jowett wrote an extremely
+moderate letter beseeching Borrow to remember “the very lively interest”
+taken by the General Committee in the printing of the Manchu version of
+the New Testament; that people were asking, “What is Mr Borrow doing?”
+that the Committee stands between its agents and an eager public,
+desirous of knowing the trials and tribulations, the hopes and fears of
+those actively engaged in printing or disseminating the Scriptures.  “You
+can have no difficulty,” he continues, “in furnishing me with such
+monthly information as may satisfy the Committee that they are not
+expending a large sum of money in vain.”  There was also a request for
+information as to how “some critical difficulty has been surmounted by
+the translator, or editor, or both united, not to mention the advance
+already made in actual printing.”  On 1st/13th Oct. Borrow had written a
+brief letter giving an account of his disbursements during the journey to
+St Petersburg _fifteen months previously_; but he made no mention of what
+was taking place with regard to the printing.
+
+The letter in which Borrow replied to Mr Jowett is probably the most
+remarkable he ever wrote.  It presents him in a light that must have
+astonished those who had been so eager to ridicule his appointment as an
+agent of the Bible Society.  The letter runs:—
+
+                                                            ST PETERSBURG,
+                                            8_th_ [20_th_] _October_ 1834.
+
+    I have just received your most kind epistle, the perusal of which has
+    given me both pain and pleasure—pain that from unavoidable
+    circumstances I have been unable to gratify eager expectation, and
+    pleasure that any individual should have been considerate enough to
+    foresee my situation and to make allowance for it.  The nature of my
+    occupations during the last two months and a half has been such as
+    would have entirely unfitted me for correspondence, had I been aware
+    that it was necessary, which, on my sacred word, I was not.  Now, and
+    only now, when by the blessing of God I have surmounted all my
+    troubles and difficulties, I will tell, and were I not a Christian I
+    should be proud to tell, what I have been engaged upon and
+    accomplished during the last ten weeks.  I have been working in the
+    printing-office, as a common compositor, between ten and thirteen
+    hours every day during that period; the result of this is that St
+    Matthew’s Gospel, printed from such a copy as I believe nothing was
+    ever printed from before, has been brought out in the Manchu
+    language; two rude Esthonian peasants, who previously could barely
+    compose with decency in a plain language which they spoke and were
+    accustomed to, have received such instruction that with ease they can
+    each compose at the rate of a sheet a day in the Manchu, perhaps the
+    most difficult language for composition in the whole world.
+    Considerable progress has also been made in St Mark’s Gospel, and I
+    will venture to promise, provided always the Almighty smiles upon the
+    undertaking, that the entire work of which I have the superintendence
+    will be published within eight months from the present time.  Now,
+    therefore, with the premise that I most unwillingly speak of myself
+    and what I have done and suffered for some time past, all of which I
+    wished to keep locked up in my own breast, I will give a regular and
+    circumstantial account of my proceedings from the day when I received
+    your letter, by which I was authorised by the Committee to bespeak
+    paper, engage with a printer, and cause our type to be set in order.
+
+    My first care was to endeavour to make suitable arrangements for the
+    obtaining of Chinese paper.  Now those who reside in England, the
+    most civilised and blessed of countries, where everything is to be
+    obtained at a fair price, have not the slightest idea of the anxiety
+    and difficulty which, in a country like this, harass the foreigner
+    who has to disburse money not his own, if he wish that his employers
+    be not shamefully and outrageously imposed upon.  In my last epistle
+    to you I stated that I had been asked 100 roubles per ream for such
+    paper as we wanted.  I likewise informed you that I believed that it
+    was possible to procure it for 35 roubles, notwithstanding our
+    Society had formerly paid 40 roubles for worse paper than the samples
+    I was in possession of.  Now I have always been of opinion that in
+    the expending of money collected for sacred purposes, it behoves the
+    agent to be extraordinarily circumspect and sparing.  I therefore was
+    determined, whatever trouble it might cost me, to procure for the
+    Society unexceptionable paper at a yet more reasonable rate than 35
+    roubles.  I was aware that an acquaintance of mine, a young Dane, was
+    particularly intimate with one of the first printers of this city,
+    who is accustomed to purchase vast quantities of paper every month
+    for his various publications.  I gave this young gentleman a specimen
+    of the paper I required, and desired him (he was under obligations to
+    me) to inquire of his friend, _as if from curiosity_, the least
+    possible sum per ream at which _the printer himself_ (who from his
+    immense demand for paper should necessarily obtain it cheaper than
+    any one else) could expect to purchase the article in question.  The
+    answer I received within a day or two was 25 roubles.  Upon hearing
+    this I prevailed upon my acquaintance to endeavour to persuade his
+    friend to bespeak the paper at 25 roubles, and to allow me,
+    notwithstanding I was a perfect stranger, to have it at that price.
+    All this was brought about.  I was introduced to the printer, Mr
+    Pluchard, by the Dane, Mr Hasfeldt, and between the former gentleman
+    and myself a contract was made to the effect that by the end of
+    October he should supply me with 450 reams of Chinese paper at 25
+    roubles per ream, the first delivery to be made on the 1st of August;
+    for as my order given at an advanced period of the year, when all the
+    paper manufactories were at full work towards the executing of orders
+    already received, it was but natural that I should verify the old
+    apophthegm, ‘Last come, last served.’  As no orders are attended to
+    in Russia unless money be advanced upon them, I deposited in the
+    hands of Mr Pluchard the sum of 2000 roubles, receiving his receipt
+    for that amount.
+
+    Having arranged this most important matter to my satisfaction, I
+    turned my attention to the printing process.  I accepted the offer of
+    Messrs Schultz & Beneze to compose and print the Manchu Testament at
+    the rate of 25 roubles per sheet [of four pages], and caused our
+    fount of type to be conveyed to their office.  I wish to say here a
+    few words respecting the state in which these types came into my
+    possession.  I found them in a kind of warehouse, or rather cellar.
+    They had been originally confined in two cases; but these having
+    burst, the type lay on the floor trampled amidst mud and filth.  They
+    were, moreover, not improved by having been immersed within the
+    waters of the inundation of ’27 [1824].  I caused them all to be
+    collected and sent to their destination, where they were purified and
+    arranged—a work of no small time and difficulty, at which I was
+    obliged to assist.  Not finding with the type what is called
+    ‘Durchschuss’ by the printers here, consisting of leaden wedges of
+    about six ounces weight each, which form the spaces between the
+    lines, I ordered 120 pounds weight of those at a rouble a pound,
+    being barely enough for three sheets. {129}  I had now to teach the
+    compositors the Manchu alphabet, and to distinguish one character
+    from another.  This occupied a few days, at the end of which I gave
+    them the commencement of St Matthew’s Gospel to copy.  They no sooner
+    saw the work they were called upon to perform than there were loud
+    murmurs of dissatisfaction, and . . . ‘It is quite impossible to do
+    the like,’ was the cry—and no wonder.  The original printed Gospel
+    had been so interlined and scribbled upon by the author, in a hand so
+    obscure and irregular, that, accustomed as I was to the perusal of
+    the written Manchu, it was not without the greatest difficulty that I
+    could decipher the new matter myself.  Moreover, the corrections had
+    been so carelessly made that they themselves required far more
+    correction than the original matter.  I was therefore obliged to be
+    continually in the printing-office, and to do three parts of the work
+    myself.  For some time I found it necessary to select every character
+    with my own fingers, and to deliver it to the compositor, and by so
+    doing I learnt myself to compose.  We continued in this way till all
+    our characters were exhausted, for no paper had arrived.  For two
+    weeks and more we were obliged to pause, the want of paper being
+    insurmountable.  At the end of this period came six reams; but partly
+    from the manufacturers not being accustomed to make this species of
+    paper, and partly from the excessive heat of the weather, which
+    caused it to dry too fast, only one ream and a half could be used,
+    and this was not enough for one sheet; the rest I refused to take,
+    and sent back.  The next week came fifteen reams.  This paper, from
+    the same causes, was as bad as the last.  I selected four reams, and
+    sent the rest back.  But this paper enabled us to make a beginning,
+    which we did not fail to do, though we received no more for upwards
+    of a fortnight, which caused another pause.  At the end of that time,
+    owing to my pressing remonstrances and entreaties, a regular supply
+    of about twelve reams per week of most excellent paper commenced.
+    This continued until we had composed the last five sheets of St
+    Matthew, when some paper arrived, which in my absence was received by
+    Mr Beneze, who, without examining it, as was his duty, delivered it
+    to the printers to use in the printing of the said sheets, who
+    accordingly printed upon part of it.  But the next day, when my
+    occupation permitted me to see what they were about, I observed that
+    the last paper was of a quality very different from that which had
+    been previously sent.  I accordingly instantly stopped the press,
+    and, notwithstanding eight reams had been printed upon, I sent all
+    the strange paper back, and caused Mr Beneze to recompose three
+    sheets, which had been broken up, at his own expense.  But this
+    caused the delay of another week.
+
+    This last circumstance made me determine not to depend in future for
+    paper on one manufactory alone.  I therefore stated to Mr P[luchard]
+    that, as his people were unable to furnish me with the article fast
+    enough, I should apply to others for 250 reams, and begged him to
+    supply me with the rest as fast as possible.  He made no objection.
+    Thereupon I prevailed upon my most excellent friend, Baron Schilling,
+    to speak to his acquaintance, State-Councillor Alquin, who is
+    possessed of a paper-factory, on the subject.  M. Alquin, as a
+    personal favour to Baron Schilling (whom, I confess, I was ashamed to
+    trouble upon such an affair, and should never have done so had not
+    zeal for the cause induced me), consented to furnish me with the
+    required paper on the same terms as Mr P.  At present there is not
+    the slightest risk of the progress of our work being retarded—at
+    present, indeed, the path is quite easy; but the trouble, anxiety,
+    and misery which have till lately harassed me, alone in a situation
+    of great responsibility, have almost reduced me to a skeleton.
+
+    My dearest Sir, do me the favour to ask our excellent Committee,
+    Would it have answered any useful purpose if, instead of continuing
+    to struggle with difficulties and using my utmost to overcome them, I
+    had written in the following strain—and what else could I have
+    written if I had written at all?—‘I was sent out to St Petersburg to
+    assist Mr Lipovzoff in the editing of the Manchu Testament.  That
+    gentleman, who holds three important Situations under the Russian
+    Government, and who is far advanced in years, has neither time,
+    inclination, nor eyesight for the task, and I am apprehensive that my
+    strength and powers unassisted are incompetent to it’ (praised be the
+    Lord, they were not!), ‘therefore I should be glad to return home.
+    Moreover, the compositors say they are unaccustomed to compose in an
+    unknown tongue from such scribbled and illegible copy, and they will
+    scarcely assist me to compose.  Moreover, the working printers say
+    (several went away in disgust) that the paper on which they have to
+    print is too thin to be wetted, and that to print on dry requires a
+    twofold exertion of strength, and that they will not do such work for
+    double wages, for it ruptures them.’  Would that have been a welcome
+    communication to the Committee?  Would that have been a communication
+    suited to the public?  I was resolved ‘to do or die,’ and, instead of
+    distressing and perplexing the Committee with complaints, to write
+    nothing until I could write something perfectly satisfactory, as I
+    now can; {132a} and to bring about that result I have spared neither
+    myself nor my own money.  I have toiled in a close printing-office
+    the whole day, during ninety degrees of heat, for the purpose of
+    setting an example, and have bribed people to work when nothing but
+    bribes would induce them so to do.
+
+    I am obliged to say all this in self-justification.  No member of the
+    Bible Society would ever have heard a syllable respecting what I have
+    undergone but for the question, ‘What has Mr Borrow been about?’  I
+    hope and trust that question is now answered to the satisfaction of
+    those who do Mr Borrow the honour to employ him.  In respect to the
+    expense attending the editing of such a work as the New Testament in
+    Manchu, I beg leave to observe that I have obtained the paper, the
+    principal source of expense, at fifteen roubles per ream less than
+    the Society formerly paid for it—that is to say, at nearly half the
+    price.
+
+    As St Matthew’s Gospel has been ready for some weeks, it is high time
+    that it should be bound; for if that process be delayed, the paper
+    will be dirtied and the work injured.  I am sorry to inform you that
+    book-binding in Russia is incredibly dear, {132b} and that the
+    expenses attending the binding of the Testament would amount, were
+    the usual course pursued, to two-thirds of the entire expenses of the
+    work.  Various book-binders to whom I have applied have demanded one
+    rouble and a half for the binding of every section of the work, so
+    that the sum required for the binding of one Testament alone would be
+    twelve roubles.  Doctor Schmidt assured me that one rouble and forty
+    copecks, or, according to the English currency, fourteenpence
+    halfpenny, were formerly paid for the binding of every individual
+    copy of St Matthew’s Gospel.
+
+    I pray you, my dear Sir, to cause the books to be referred to, for I
+    wish to know if that statement be correct.  In the meantime
+    arrangements have to be made, and the Society will have to pay for
+    each volume of the Testament the comparatively small sum of
+    forty-five copecks, or fourpence halfpenny, whereas the usual price
+    here for the most paltry covering of the most paltry pamphlet is
+    fivepence.  Should it be demanded how I have been able to effect
+    this, my reply is that I have had little hand in the matter.  A
+    nobleman who honours me with particular friendship, and who is one of
+    the most illustrious ornaments of Russia and of Europe, has, at my
+    request, prevailed on his own book-binder, over whom he has much
+    influence, to do the work on these terms.  That nobleman is Baron
+    Schilling.
+
+    Commend me to our most respected Committee.  Assure them that in
+    whatever I have done or left undone, I have been influenced by a
+    desire to promote the glory of the Trinity and to give my employers
+    ultimate and permanent satisfaction.  If I have erred, it has been
+    from a defect of judgment, and I ask pardon of God and them.  In the
+    course of a week I shall write again, and give a further account of
+    my proceedings, for I have not communicated one-tenth of what I have
+    to impart; but I can write no more now.  It is two hours past
+    midnight; the post goes away to-morrow, and against that morrow I
+    have to examine and correct three sheets of St Mark’s Gospel, which
+    lie beneath the paper on which I am writing.  With my best regards to
+    Mr Brandram,
+
+    I remain, dear Sir,
+
+                              Most truly yours,
+
+                                                                G. BORROW.
+
+    Rev. JOSEPH JOWETT.
+
+Closely following upon this letter, and without waiting for a reply,
+Borrow wrote again to Mr Jowett, 13th/25th October, enclosing a
+certificate from Mr Lipovzoff, which read:—
+
+    “Testifio:—Dominum Burro ab initio usque ad hoc tempus summa cum
+    diligentia et studio in re Mantshurica laborasse, Lipovzoff.”
+
+He also reported progress as regards the printing, and promised (D.V.)
+that the entire undertaking should be completed by the first of May; but
+the letter was principally concerned with the projected expedition to
+Kiakhta, to distribute the books he was so busily occupied in printing.
+He repeated his former arguments, urging the Committee to send an agent
+to Kiakhta.  “I am a person of few words,” he assured Mr Jowett, “and
+will therefore state without circumlocution that I am willing to become
+that agent.  I speak Russ, Manchu, and the Tartar or broken Turkish of
+the Russian Steppes, and have also some knowledge of Chinese, which I
+might easily improve.”  As regards the danger to himself of such a
+hazardous undertaking, the conversion of the Tartar would never be
+achieved without danger to someone.  He had become acquainted with many
+of the Tartars resident in St Petersburg, whose language he had learned
+through conversing with his servant (a native of Bucharia [Bokhara]), and
+he had become “much attached to them; for their conscientiousness,
+honesty, and fidelity are beyond all praise.”
+
+To this further offer Mr Jowett replied:—
+
+    “Be not disheartened, even though the Committee postpone for the
+    present the consideration of your enterprising, not to say intrepid,
+    proposal.  Thus much, however, I may venture to say: that the offer
+    is more likely to be accepted now, than when you first made it.  If,
+    when the time approaches for executing such a plan, you give us
+    reason to believe that a more mature consideration of it in all its
+    bearings still leaves you in hope of a successful result, and in
+    heart for making the attempt, my own opinion is that the offer will
+    ultimately be accepted, and that very cordially.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+NOVEMBER 1834–SEPTEMBER 1835
+
+
+BORROW was an unconventional editor.  He foresaw the interminable delays
+likely to arise from allowing workmen to incorporate his corrections in
+the type.  To obviate these, he first corrected the proof, then,
+proceeding to the printing office, he made with his own hands the
+necessary alterations in the type.  This involved only two proofs, the
+second to be submitted to Mr Lipovzoff, instead of some half a dozen that
+otherwise would have been necessary.  During these days Borrow was
+ubiquitous.  Even the binder required his assistance, “for everything
+goes wrong without a strict surveillance.”
+
+Borrow had passed through _the_ crisis in his career.  Stricken with
+fever, which was followed by an attack of the “Horrors” (only to be
+driven away by port wine), he had scarcely found time in which to eat or
+sleep.  He had emerged triumphantly from the ordeal, and if he had
+“almost killed Beneze and his lads”{135a} with work, he had not spared
+himself.  If he had to report, as he did, that “my two compositors, whom
+I had instructed in all the mysteries of Manchu composition, are in the
+hospital, down with the brain fever,” {135b} he himself had grown thin
+from the incessant toil.
+
+The simple manliness and restrained dignity of his justification had
+produced a marked effect upon the authorities at home.  If the rebuke
+administered by Mr Jowett had been mild, his acknowledgment of the reply
+that it had called forth was most cordial and friendly.  After assuring
+Borrow of the Committee’s high satisfaction at the way in which its
+interests had been looked after, he proceeds sincerely to deprecate
+anything in his previous letter which may have caused Borrow pain, and
+continues:
+
+    “Yet I scarcely know how to be sorry for what has been the occasion
+    of drawing from you (what you might otherwise have kept locked up in
+    your own breast) the very interesting story of your labours,
+    vexations, disappointments, vigilance, address, perseverance, and
+    successes.  How you were able in your solitude to keep up your
+    spirits in the face of so many impediments, apparently
+    insurmountable, I know not . . . Do not fear that _we_ should in any
+    way interrupt your proceedings.  We know our interest too well to
+    interfere with an agent who has shown so much address in planning,
+    and so much diligence in effecting, the execution of our wishes.”
+
+These encouraging words were followed by a request that he would keep a
+careful account of all extraordinary expenses, that they might be duly
+met by the Society:—
+
+    “I allude, you perceive, to such things,” the letter goes on to
+    explain, “as your journies _huc et illuc_ in quest of a better
+    market, and to the occasional bribes to disheartened workmen.  In all
+    matters of this kind the Society is clearly your debtor.”  Borrow
+    replied with a flash of his old independent spirit: “I return my most
+    grateful thanks for this most considerate intimation, which,
+    nevertheless, I cannot avail myself of, as, according to one of the
+    articles of my agreement, my salary of £200 was to cover all extra
+    expenses.  Petersburg is doubtless the dearest capital in Europe, and
+    expenses meet an individual, especially one situated as I have been,
+    at every turn and corner; but an agreement is not to be broken on
+    that account.” {136}
+
+That the Committee, even before this proof of his ability, had been well
+pleased with their engagement of Borrow is shown by the acknowledgment
+made in the Society’s Thirtieth Annual Report: “Mr Borrow has not
+disappointed the expectation entertained.”
+
+There were other words of encouragement to cheer him in his labours.  His
+mother wrote in September of that year, telling him how, at a Bible
+Society’s gathering at Norwich, which had lasted the whole of a week, his
+name “was sounded through the Hall by Mr Gurney and Mr Cunningham”;
+telling how he had left his home and his friends to do God’s work in a
+foreign land, calling upon their fellow-citizens to offer up prayers
+beseeching the Almighty to vouchsafe to him health and strength that the
+great work he had undertaken might be completed.  “All this is very
+pleasing to me,” added the proud old lady.  “God bless you!”
+
+From Mrs Clarke of Oulton Hall, with whom he kept up a correspondence, he
+heard how his name had been mentioned at many of the Society’s meetings
+during the year, and how the Rev. Francis Cunningham had referred to him
+as “one of the most extraordinary and interesting individuals of the
+present day.”  Even at that date, viz., before the receipt of the
+remarkable account of his labours, the members and officials of the Bible
+Society seem to have come to the conclusion that he had achieved far more
+than they had any reason to expect of him.  Their subsequent approval is
+shown by the manner in which they caused his two letters of 8th/20th and
+13th/25th October to be circulated among the influential members of the
+Society, until at last they had reached the Rev. F. Cunningham and Mrs
+Clarke.
+
+About the middle of January (old style) 1835, Borrow placed in the hands
+of Baron Schilling a copy of each of the four Gospels in Manchu, to be
+conveyed to the Bible Society by one of the couriers attached to the
+Foreign Department at St Petersburg; but they did not reach Earl Street
+until several weeks later.  There were however, still the remaining four
+volumes to complete, and many more difficulties to overcome.
+
+One vexation that presented itself was a difference of opinion between
+Borrow and Lipovzoff, who “thought proper, when the Father Almighty is
+addressed, to erase the personal and possessive pronouns _thou_ or
+_thine_, as often as they occur, and in their stead to make use of the
+noun as the case may require.  For example, ‘O Father! thou art merciful’
+he would render, ‘O Father! the Father is merciful.’”  Borrow protested,
+but Lipovzoff, who was “a gentleman, whom the slightest contradiction
+never fails to incense to a most incredible degree,” told him that he
+talked nonsense, and refused to concede anything. {138a}  Lipovzoff, who
+had on his side the Chinese scholars and unlimited powers as official
+censor (from whose decree there was no appeal) over his own work, carried
+his point.  He urged that “amongst the Chinese and Tartars, none but the
+dregs of society were ever addressed in the second person; and that it
+would be most uncouth and indecent to speak of the Almighty as if He were
+a servant or a slave.”  This difficulty of the verbal ornament of the
+East was one that the Bible Society had frequently met with in the past.
+It was rightly considered as ill-fitting a translation of the words of
+Christ.  Simplicity of diction was to be preserved at all costs, whatever
+might be the rule with secular books.  Mr Jowett had warned Borrow to
+“beware of confounding the two distinct ideas of translation and
+interpretation!” {138b} and also informed him that “the passion for
+honorific-abilitudinity is a vice of Asiatic languages, which a Scripture
+translator, above all others, ought to beware of countenancing.” {139a}
+
+Well might Borrow write to Mr Jowett, “How I have been enabled to
+maintain terms of friendship and familiarity with Mr Lipovzoff, and yet
+fulfil the part which those who employ me expect me to fulfil, I am much
+at a loss to conjecture; and yet such is really the case.” {139b}  On the
+whole, however, the two men worked harmoniously together, the
+censor-translator being usually amenable to editorial reason and
+suggestion; and Borrow was able to assure Mr Jowett that with the
+exception of this one instance “the word of God has been rendered into
+Manchu as nearly and closely as the idiom of a very singular language
+would permit.”
+
+Borrow’s mind continued to dwell upon the project of penetrating into
+China and distributing the Scriptures himself.  He wrote again, repeating
+“the assurance that I am ready to attempt anything which the Society may
+wish me to execute, and, at a moment’s warning, will direct my course
+towards Canton, Pekin, or the court of the Grand Lama.” {139c}  The
+project had, however, to be abandoned.  The Russian Government, desirous
+of maintaining friendly relations with China, declined to risk her
+displeasure for a missionary project in which Russia had neither interest
+nor reasonable expectation of gain.  In agreeing to issue a passport such
+as Borrow desired, it stipulated that he should carry with him “not one
+single Manchu Bible thither.” {139d}  In spite of this discouragement,
+Borrow wrote to Mr Jowett with regard to the Chinese programme, “_I again
+repeat that I am at command_.” {139e}
+
+This determination on Borrow’s part to become a missionary filled his
+mother with alarm.  She had only one son now, and the very thought of his
+going into wild and unknown regions seemed to her tantamount to his going
+to his death.  Mrs Clarke also expressed strong disapproval of the
+project.  “I must tell you,” she wrote, “that your letter chilled me when
+I read your intention of going as a Missionary or Agent, with the Manchu
+Scriptures in your hand, to the Tartars, the land of incalculable
+dangers.”
+
+By the middle of May 1835 Borrow saw the end of his labours in sight.  On
+3rd/15th May he wrote asking for instructions relative to the despatch of
+the bulk of the volumes, and also as to the disposal of the type.  “As
+for myself,” he continues, “I suppose I must return to England, as my
+task will be speedily completed.  I hope the Society are convinced that I
+have served them faithfully, and that I have spared no labour to bring
+out the work, which they did me the honor of confiding to me, correctly
+and within as short a time as possible.  At my return, if the Society
+think that I can still prove of utility to them, I shall be most happy to
+devote myself still to their service.  I am a person full of faults and
+weaknesses, as I am every day reminded by bitter experience, but I am
+certain that my zeal and fidelity towards those who put confidence in me
+are not to be shaken.” {140}
+
+On 15th/27th June he reported the printing completed and six out of the
+eight volumes bound, and that as soon as the remaining two volumes were
+ready, he intended to take his departure from St Petersburg; but a new
+difficulty arose.  The East had laid a heavy hand upon St Petersburg.
+“To-morrow, please God!” met the energetic Westerner at every turn.  The
+bookbinder delayed six weeks because he could not procure some paper he
+required.  But the real obstacle to the despatch of the books was the
+non-arrival of the Government sanction to their shipment.  Nothing was
+permitted to move either in or out of the sacred city of the Tsars
+without official permission.  Probably those responsible for the
+administration of affairs had never in their experience been called upon
+to deal with a man such as Borrow.  To apply to him the customary rules
+of procedure was to bring upon “the House of Interior Affairs” a series
+of visits and demands that must have left it limp with astonishment.
+
+On 16th/28th July Borrow wrote to the Bible Society, “I herewith send you
+a bill of lading for six of the eight parts of the New Testament, which I
+have at last obtained permission to send away, after having paid sixteen
+visits to the House of Interior Affairs.” {141a}  He expresses a hope
+that in another fortnight he will have despatched the remaining two
+volumes and have “bidden adieu to Russia”; but it was dangerous to
+anticipate the official course of events in Russia.  Even to the last
+Borrow was tormented by red tape.  Early in August the last two volumes
+were ready for shipment to England; but he could not obtain the necessary
+permission.  He was told that he ought never to have printed the work, in
+spite of the license that had been granted, and that grave doubts existed
+in the official mind as to whether or no he really were an agent of the
+Bible Society.  At length Borrow lost patience and told the officials
+that during the week following the books would be despatched, with or
+without permission, and he warned them to have a care how they acted.
+These strong measures seem to have produced the desired result.
+
+Despite his many occupations on behalf of the Bible Society, Borrow found
+time in which to translate into Russian the first three Homilies of the
+Church of England, and into Manchu the Second.  His desire was that the
+Homily Society should cause these translations to be printed, and in a
+letter to the Rev. Francis Cunningham he strove to enlist his interest in
+the project, offering the translations without fee to the Society if they
+chose to make use of them. {141b}  As “a zealous, though most unworthy,
+member of the Anglican Church,” he found that his “cheeks glowed with
+shame at seeing dissenters, English and American, busily employed in
+circulating Tracts in the Russian tongue, whilst the members of the
+Church were following their secular concerns, almost regardless of things
+spiritual in respect to the Russian population.” {142a}
+
+Borrow also translated into English “one of the sacred books of Boudh, or
+Fo,” from Baron Schilling de Canstadt’s library.  The principal
+occupation of his leisure hours, however, was a collection of
+translations, which he had printed by Schultz & Beneze, and published
+(3rd/ 15th June 1835) under the title of _Targum_, _or Metrical
+Translations from Thirty Languages and Dialects_. {142b}  In a prefatory
+note, the collection is referred to as “selections from a huge and
+undigested mass of translation, accumulated during several years devoted
+to philological pursuits.”  Three months later he published another
+collection entitled _The Talisman_, _From the Russian of Alexander
+Pushkin_.  _With Other Pieces_. {143a}  There were seven poems in all,
+two after Pushkin, one from the Malo-Russian, one from Mickiewicz, and
+three “ancient Russian Songs.”  Again the printers were Schultz & Beneze.
+Each of these editions appears to have been limited to one hundred
+copies. {143b}
+
+Writing in the _Athenæum_, {143c} J. P. H[asfeldt] says:—“The work is a
+pearl in literature, and, like pearls, derives value from its scarcity,
+for the whole edition was limited to about a hundred copies.”  W. B.
+Donne admired the translations immensely, considering “the language and
+rhythm as vastly superior to Macaulay’s _Lays of Ancient Rome_.” {143d}
+
+Whilst the last two volumes of the Manchu New Testament were waiting for
+paper (probably for end-papers), Borrow determined to pay a hurried visit
+to Moscow, “by far the most remarkable city it has ever been my fortune
+to see.”  One of his principal objects in visiting the ancient capital of
+Russia was to see the gypsies, who flourished there as they flourished
+nowhere else in Europe.  They numbered several thousands, and many of
+them inhabited large and handsome houses, drove in their carriages, and
+were “distinguishable from the genteel class of the Russians only . . .
+by superior personal advantages and mental accomplishments.” {143e}  For
+this unusual state of prosperity the women were responsible, “having from
+time immemorial cultivated their vocal powers to such an extent that,
+although in the heart of a country in which the vocal art has arrived at
+greater perfection than in any other part of the world, the principal
+Gypsy choirs in Moscow are allowed by the general voice of the public to
+be unrivalled and to bear away the palm from all competitors.  It is a
+fact notorious in Russia that the celebrated Catalani was so filled with
+admiration for the powers of voice displayed by one of the Gypsy
+songsters, who, after the former had sung before a splendid audience at
+Moscow, stepped forward and with an astonishing burst of melody ravished
+every ear, that she [Catalani] tore from her own shoulders a shawl of
+immense value which had been presented to her by the Pope, and embracing
+the Gypsy, compelled her to accept it, saying that it had been originally
+intended for the matchless singer, which she now discovered was not
+herself.” {144a}
+
+These Russian gypsy singers lived luxurious lives and frequently married
+Russian gentry or even the nobility.  It was only the successes, however,
+who achieved such distinction, and there were “a great number of low,
+vulgar, and profligate females who sing in taverns, or at the various
+gardens in the neighbourhood, and whose husbands and male connections
+subsist by horse-jobbing and such kinds of low traffic.” {144b}
+
+One fine evening Borrow hired a calash and drove out to Marina Rotze, “a
+kind of sylvan garden,” about one and a half miles out of Moscow, where
+this particular class of Romanys resorted.  “Upon my arriving there,” he
+writes, “the Gypsies swarmed out of their tents and from the little
+_tracteer_ or tavern, and surrounded me.  Standing on the seat of the
+calash, 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 Romany, amongst which, however, the most pronounced cry was:
+_ah kak mi toute karmuma_ {145a}—‘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.” {145b}
+
+On several other occasions during his stay at Moscow, Borrow went out to
+Marina Rotze, to hold converse with the gypsies.  He “spoke to them upon
+their sinful manner of living,” about Christianity and the advent of
+Christ, to which the gypsies listened with attention, but apparently not
+much profit.  The promise that they would soon be able to obtain the
+teachings of Jesus of Nazareth in their own tongue interested them far
+more on account of the pleasurable strangeness of the idea, than from any
+anticipation that they might derive spiritual comfort from such writings.
+
+Returning to St Petersburg from Moscow, after four-days’ absence, Borrow
+completed his work, settled up his affairs, bade his friends good-bye,
+and on 28th August/9th September left for Cronstadt to take the packet
+for Lübeck.  The authorities seem to have raised no objection to his
+departure.  His passport bore the date 28th August O/S (the actual day he
+left) and described him as “of stature, tall—hair, grey—face,
+oval—forehead, medium—eyebrows, blonde—eyes, brown—nose and mouth,
+medium—chin, round.”
+
+Borrow’s work at St Petersburg gave entire satisfaction to the Bible
+Society.  The Official Report for the year 1835 informed the members
+that—
+
+    “The printing of the Manchu New Testament in St Petersburg is now
+    drawing to a conclusion.  Mr G. Borrow, who has had to superintend
+    the work, has in every way afforded satisfaction to the Committee.
+    They have reason to believe that his acquirements in the language are
+    of the most respectable order; while the devoted diligence with which
+    he has laboured, and the skill he has shown in surmounting
+    difficulties, and conducting his negotiations for the advantage of
+    the Society, justly entitle him to this public acknowledgment of his
+    services.” {146a}
+
+Of the actual work itself John Hasfeldt justly wrote:
+
+    “I can only say, that it is a beautiful edition of an oriental
+    work—that it is printed with great care on a fine imitation of
+    Chinese paper, made on purpose.  At the outset, Mr Borrow spent weeks
+    and months in the printing office to make the compositors acquainted
+    with the intricate Manchu types; and that, as for the contents, I am
+    assured by well-informed persons, that this translation is remarkable
+    for the correctness and fidelity with which it has been executed.”
+    {146b}
+
+The total cost to the Society of his labours in connection with the
+transcription of Puerot’s MS., and printing and binding one thousand
+copies of Lipovzoff’s New Testament had reached the very considerable sum
+of £2600.  What the amount would have been if Borrow had not proved a
+prince of bargainers, it is impossible to imagine.  The entire edition
+was sent to Earl Street, and eventually distributed in China as occasion
+offered.  An edition of the Gospels in this version has recently been
+reprinted, and is still in use among certain tribes in Mongolia.
+
+Borrow arrived in London somewhere about 20th September (new style),
+after an absence of a little more than two years.  He went to St
+Petersburg “prejudiced against the country, the government, and the
+people; the first is much more agreeable than is generally supposed; the
+second is seemingly the best adapted for so vast an empire; and the
+third, even the lowest classes, are in general kind, hospitable, and
+benevolent.” {147}
+
+On 23rd September Borrow was still in London writing his report to the
+General Committee upon his recent labours.  In all probability he left
+immediately afterwards for Norwich, there to await events.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+OCTOBER 1835–JANUARY 1836
+
+
+BORROW had strong hopes that the Bible Society would continue to employ
+him.  Mr Brandram had written (5th June 1835) that the Committee “will
+not very willingly suffer themselves to be deprived of your services.
+From Russia Borrow had written to his mother: {148}
+
+    “They [the Bible Society] place great confidence in me, and I am
+    firmly resolved to do all in my power to prove that they have not
+    misplaced that confidence.  I dare say that when I return home they
+    will always be happy to employ me to edit their Bibles, and there is
+    no employment in the whole world which I should prefer and for which
+    I am better fitted.  I shall, moreover, endeavour to get ordained.”
+
+On another occasion he wrote, also to his mother:
+
+    “I hope that the Bible Society will employ me upon something new, for
+    I have of late led an active life, and dread the thought of having
+    nothing to do except studying as formerly, and I am by no means
+    certain that I could sit down to study now.  I can do anything if it
+    is to turn to any account; but it is very hard to dig holes in the
+    sand and fill them up again, as I used to do.  However, I hope God
+    will find me something on which I can employ myself with credit and
+    profit.  I should like very much to get into the Church, though I
+    suppose that that, like all other professions, is overstocked.”
+
+Mrs Borrow reminded him that he had a good home ready to receive him, and
+a mother grown lonely with long waiting.  She told him, among other
+things, that she had spent none of the money that he had so generously
+and unsparingly sent her.
+
+Borrow certainly had every reason to expect further employment.  He had
+proved himself not only a thoroughly qualified editor; but had discovered
+business qualities that must have astonished and delighted the General
+Committee.  Above all he had brought to a most successful conclusion a
+venture that, but for his ability and address, would in all probability
+have failed utterly.  The application for permission to proceed with the
+distribution had, it is true, been unsuccessful; but there was, as Mr
+Brandram wrote, the “seed laid up in the granary; but ‘it is not yet
+written’ that the sowers are to go forth to sow.”
+
+After remaining for a short time with his mother at Norwich, Borrow
+appears to have paid a visit to his friends the Skeppers of Oulton.  Old
+Mrs Skepper, Mrs Clarke’s mother, had just died, and it is a proof of
+Borrow’s intimacy with the family that he should be invited to stay with
+them whilst they were still in mourning.  Although there is no record of
+the date when he arrived at Oulton, he is known to have been there on 9th
+October, when he addressed a Bible Society meeting, about which he wrote
+the following delectable postscript to a letter he addressed to Mr
+Brandram: {149}
+
+    “There has been a Bible meeting at Oulton, in Suffolk, to which I was
+    invited.  The speaking produced such an effect, that some of the most
+    vicious characters in the neighbourhood have become weekly
+    subscribers to the Branch Society.  So says the Chronicle of Norfolk
+    in its report.”  The actual paragraph read:
+
+    “It will doubtless afford satisfaction to the Christian public to
+    learn that many poor individuals in this neighbourhood, who previous
+    to attending this meeting were averse to the cause or indifferent to
+    it, had their feelings so aroused by what was communicated to them,
+    that they have since voluntarily subscribed to the Bible Society,
+    actuated by the hope of becoming humbly instrumental in extending the
+    dominion of the true light, and of circumscribing the domains of
+    darkness and of Satan.”
+
+On returning to the quiet of the old Cathedral city, Borrow had an
+opportunity of resting and meditating upon the events of the last two
+years; but he soon became restless and tired of inaction. {150a}  “I am
+weary of doing nothing, and am sighing for employment,” {150b} he wrote.
+He had impatiently awaited some word from Earl Street, where, seemingly,
+he had discussed various plans for the future, including a journey to
+Portugal and Spain, as well as the printing in Armenian of an edition of
+the New Testament.  Hearing nothing from Mr Jowett, he wrote begging to
+be excused for reminding him that he was ready to undertake any task that
+might be allotted to him.
+
+On the day following, he received a letter from Mr Brandram telling of
+how a resolution had been passed that he should go to Portugal.  Then the
+writer’s heart misgave him.  In his mind’s eye he saw Borrow set down at
+Oporto.  What would he do?  Fearful that the door was not sufficiently
+open to justify the step, he had suggested the suspension of the
+resolution.  Borrow was asked what he himself thought.  What did he think
+of China, and could he foresee any prospect for the distribution of the
+Scriptures there?  “Favour us with your thoughts,” Mr Brandram wrote.
+“Experimental agency in a Society like ours is a formidable undertaking.”
+Borrow replied the same day, {150c}
+
+    “As you ask me to favour you with my thoughts, I certainly will; for
+    I have thought much upon the matters in question, and the result I
+    will communicate to you in a very few words.  I decidedly approve
+    (and so do all the religious friends whom I have communicated it to)
+    of the plan of a journey to Portugal, and am sorry that it has been
+    suspended, though I am convinced that your own benevolent and
+    excellent heart was the cause, unwilling to fling me into an
+    undertaking which you supposed might be attended with peril and
+    difficulty.  Therefore I wish it to be clearly understood that I am
+    perfectly willing to undertake the expedition, nay, to extend it into
+    Spain, to visit the town and country, to discourse with the people,
+    especially those connected with institutions for infantine education,
+    and to learn what ways and opportunities present themselves for
+    conveying the Gospel into those benighted countries.  I will moreover
+    undertake, with the blessing of God, to draw up a small volume of
+    what I shall have seen and heard there, which cannot fail to be
+    interesting, and if patronised by the Society will probably help to
+    cover the expenses of the expedition.  On my return I can commence
+    the Armenian Testament, and whilst I am editing that, I may be
+    acquiring much vulgar Chinese from some unemployed Lascar or stray
+    Cantonman whom I may pick up upon the wharves, and then . . . to
+    China.  I have no more to say, for were I to pen twenty pages, and I
+    have time enough for so doing, I could communicate nothing which
+    would make my views more clear.”
+
+The earnestness of this letter seems effectually to have dissipated Mr
+Brandram’s scruples, for events moved forward with astonishing rapidity.
+Four days after the receipt of Borrow’s letter, a resolution was adopted
+by the Committee to the following effect:—
+
+    “That Mr Borrow be requested to proceed forthwith to Lisbon and
+    Oporto for the purpose of visiting the Society’s correspondents
+    there, and of making further enquiries respecting the means and
+    channels which may offer for promoting the circulation of the Holy
+    Scriptures in Portugal.” {151}
+
+Mr Brandram gave Borrow two letters of introduction, one to John Wilby, a
+merchant at Lisbon, and the other to the British Chaplain, the Rev. E.
+Whiteley.  Having explained to Mr Whiteley how Borrow had recently been
+eventually going to be employed in St Petersburg in editing the Manchu New
+Testament, he wrote:—
+
+    “We have some prospect of his eventually going to China; but having proved by experience
+    that he possesses an order of talent remarkably suited to the
+    purposes of our Society, we have felt unwilling to interrupt our
+    connection with him with the termination of his engagement at St
+    Petersburg.  In the interval we have thought that he might
+    advantageously visit Portugal, and strengthen your hands and those of
+    other friends, and see whether he could not extend the promising
+    opening at present existing.  He has no specific instructions, though
+    he is enjoined to confer very fully with yourself and Mr Wilby of
+    Lisbon.
+
+    “I have mentioned his recent occupation at St Petersburg, and you may
+    perhaps think that there is little affinity between it and his
+    present visit to Portugal.  But Mr Borrow possesses no little tact in
+    addressing himself to anything.  With Portugal he is already
+    acquainted, and speaks the language.  He proposes visiting several of
+    the principal cities and towns . . .
+
+    “Our correspondence about Spain is at this moment singularly
+    interesting, and if it continues so, and the way seems to open, Mr
+    Borrow will cross the frontier and go and enquire what can be done
+    there.  We believe him to be one who is endowed with no small portion
+    of address and a spirit of enterprise.  I recommend him to your kind
+    attentions, and I anticipate your thanks for so doing, after you
+    shall have become acquainted with him.  Do not, however, be too hasty
+    in forming your judgment.”
+
+This letter outlines very clearly what was in the minds of the Committee
+in sending Borrow to Portugal.  He was to spy out the land and advise the
+home authorities in what direction he would be most likely to prove
+useful.  He was in particular to direct his attention to schools, and was
+“authorised to be liberal in _giving_ New Testaments.”  Furthermore, he
+was to be permitted to draw upon the Society’s agents to the extent of
+one hundred pounds.
+
+The most significant part of this letter is the passage relating to
+China.  It leaves no doubt that Borrow’s reiterated requests to be
+employed in distributing the Manchu New Testament had appealed most
+strongly to the General Committee.  Mr Brandram was evidently in doubt as
+to how Borrow would strike his correspondent as an agent of the Bible
+Society, hence his warning against a hasty judgment.  Apparently this
+letter was never presented, as it was found among Borrow’s papers, and Mr
+Whiteley had to form his opinion entirely unaided.
+
+On 6th November Borrow sailed from the Thames for Lisbon in the steamship
+_London Merchant_.  The voyage was fair for the time of year, and was
+marked only by the tragic occurrence of a sailor falling from the
+cross-trees into the sea and being drowned.  The man had dreamed his fate
+a few minutes previously, and had told Borrow of the circumstances on
+coming up from below. {153}
+
+Borrow had scarcely been in Lisbon an hour before he heartily wished
+himself “back in Russia . . . where I had left cherished friends and warm
+affections.”  The Customs-house officers irritated him, first with their
+dilatoriness, then by the minuteness with which they examined every
+article of which he was possessed.  Again, there was the difficulty of
+obtaining a suitable lodging, which when eventually found proved to be
+“dark, dirty and exceedingly expensive without attendance.”  Mr Wilby was
+in the country and not expected to return for a week.  It would also
+appear that the British Chaplain was likewise away.  Thus Borrow found
+himself with no one to advise him as to the first step he should take.
+This in itself was no very great drawback; but he felt very much a
+stranger in a city that struck him as detestable.
+
+Determined to commence operations according to the dictates of his own
+judgment, he first engaged a Portuguese servant that he might have ample
+opportunities of perfecting himself in the language.  He was fortunate in
+his selection, for Antonio turned out an excellent fellow, who “always
+served me with the greatest fidelity, and . . . exhibited an assiduity
+and a wish to please which afforded me the utmost satisfaction.” {154a}
+
+When Borrow arrived in Portugal, it was to find it gasping and dazed by
+eight years of civil war (1826–1834).  In 1807, when Junot invaded the
+country, the Royal House of Braganza had sailed for Brazil.  In 1816 Dom
+Joāo succeeded to the thrones of Brazil and Portugal, and six years later
+he arrived in Portugal, leaving behind him as Viceroy his son Dom Pedro,
+who promptly declared himself Emperor of Brazil.  Dom Joāo died in 1826,
+leaving, in addition to the self-styled Emperor of Brazil, another son,
+Miguel.  Dom Pedro relinquished his claim to the throne of Portugal in
+favour of his seven years old daughter, Maria da Gloria, whose right was
+contested by her uncle Dom Miguel.  In 1834 Dom Miguel resigned his
+imaginary rights to the throne by the Convention of Evora, and departed
+from the country that for eight years had been at war with itself, and
+for seven with a foreign invader.
+
+Borrow proceeded to acquaint himself with the state of affairs in Lisbon
+and the surrounding country, that he might transmit a full account to the
+Bible Society.  He visited every part of the city, losing no opportunity
+of entering into conversation with anyone with whom he came in contact.
+The people he found indifferent to religion, the lower orders in
+particular.  They laughed in his face when he enquired if ever they
+confessed themselves, and a muleteer on being asked if he reverenced the
+cross, “instantly flew into a rage, stamped violently, and, spitting on
+the ground, said it was a piece of stone, and that he should have no more
+objection to spit upon it than the stones on which he trod.” {154b}
+
+Many of the people could read, as they proved when asked to do so from
+the Portuguese New Testament; but of all those whom he addressed none
+appeared to have read the Scriptures, or to know anything of what they
+contain.
+
+After spending four or five days at Lisbon, Borrow, accompanied by
+Antonio, proceeded to Cintra. {155a}  Here he pursued the same method,
+also visiting the schools and enquiring into the nature of the religious
+instruction.  During his stay of four days, he “traversed the country in
+all directions, riding into the fields, where I saw the peasants at work,
+and entering into discourse with them, and notwithstanding many of my
+questions must have appeared to them very singular, I never experienced
+any incivility, though they frequently answered me with smiles and
+laughter.” {155b}
+
+From Cintra he proceeded on horseback to Mafra, a large village some
+three leagues distant.  Everywhere he subjected the inhabitants to a
+searching cross-examination, laying bare their minds upon religious
+matters, experiencing surprise at the “free and unembarrassed manner in
+which the Portuguese peasantry sustain a conversation, and the purity of
+the language in which they express their thoughts,” {155c} although few
+could read or write.
+
+On the return journey from Mafra to Cintra he nearly lost his life, owing
+to the girth of his saddle breaking during his horse’s exertions in
+climbing a hill.  Borrow was cast violently to the ground; but
+fortunately on the right side, otherwise he would in all probability have
+been bruised to death by tumbling down the steep hill-side.  As it was,
+he was dazed, and felt the effects of his mishap for several days.
+
+On his return to Lisbon, Borrow found that Mr Wilby was back, and he had
+many opportunities of taking counsel with him as to the best means to be
+adopted to further the Society’s ends.  He learned that four hundred
+copies of the Bible and the New Testament had arrived, and it was decided
+to begin operations at once.  Mr Wilby recommended the booksellers as the
+best medium of distribution; but Borrow urged strongly that at least half
+of the available copies “should be entrusted to colporteurs,” who were to
+receive a commission upon every copy sold.  To this Mr Wilby agreed,
+provided the operations of the colporteurs were restricted to Lisbon, as
+there was considerable danger in the country, where the priests were very
+powerful and might urge the people to mishandle, or even assassinate, the
+bearers of the Word.
+
+By nature Borrow was not addicted to half measures.  His whole record as
+an agent of the Bible Society was of a series of determined onslaughts
+upon the obstacles animate and inanimate, that beset his path.  Sometimes
+he took away the breath of his adversaries by the very vigour of his
+attack, and, like the old Northern leaders, whose deeds he wished to give
+to an uneager world in translated verse, he faced great dangers and
+achieved great ends.  Recognising that the darkest region is most in need
+of light, he enquired of Mr Wilby in what province of Portugal were to be
+found the most ignorant and benighted people, and on being told the
+Alemtejo (the other side of the Tagus), he immediately announced his
+intention of making a journey through it, in order to discover how dense
+spiritual gloom could really be in an ostensibly Christian country.
+
+The Alemtejo was an unprepossessing country, consisting for the most part
+of “heaths, broken by knolls and gloomy dingles, swamps and forests of
+stunted pine,” with but few hills and mountains.  The place was infested
+with banditti, and robberies, accompanied by horrible murders, were of
+constant occurrence.  On 6th December, accompanied by his servant
+Antonio, Borrow set out for Evora, the principal town, formerly a seat of
+the dreaded Inquisition, which lies about sixty miles east of Lisbon.
+After many adventures, which he himself has narrated, including a
+dangerous crossing of the Tagus, and a meeting with Dom Geronimo Jozé
+d’Azveto, secretary to the government of Evora, Borrow arrived at his
+destination, having spent two nights on the road.  During the journey he
+had been constantly mindful of his mission; beside the embers of a
+bandit’s fire he left a New Testament, and the huts that mark the spot
+where Dom Pedro and Dom Miguel met, he sweetened with some of “the
+precious little tracts.”
+
+He had brought with him to Evora twenty Testaments and two Bibles, half
+of which he left with an enlightened shopkeeper, to whom he had a letter
+of introduction.  The other half he subsequently bestowed upon Dom
+Geronimo, who proved to be a man of great earnestness, deeply conscious
+of his countrymen’s ignorance of true Christianity.  Each day during his
+stay at Evora, Borrow spent two hours beside the fountain where the
+cattle were watered, entering into conversation with all who approached,
+the result being that before he left the town, he had spoken to “about
+two hundred . . . of the children of Portugal upon matters connected with
+their eternal welfare.”  Sometimes his hearers would ask for proofs of
+his statements that they were not Christians, being ignorant of Christ
+and his teaching, and that the Pope was Satan’s prime minister.  He
+invariably replied by calling attention to their own ignorance of the
+Scripture, for if the priests were in reality Christ’s ministers, why had
+they kept from their flocks the words of their Master?
+
+When not engaged at the fountain, Borrow rode about the neighbourhood
+distributing tracts.  Fearful lest the people might refuse them if
+offered by his own hand, he dropped them in their favourite walks, in the
+hope that they would be picked up out of curiosity.  He caused the
+daughter of the landlady of the inn at which he stopped to burn a copy of
+Volney’s _Ruins of Empire_, because the author was an “emissary of
+Satan,” the girl standing by telling her beads until the book were
+entirely consumed.
+
+Borrow had been greatly handicapped through the lack of letters of
+introduction to influential people in Portugal.  He wrote, therefore, to
+Dr Bowring, now M.P. for Kilmarnock, telling him of his wanderings among
+the rustics and banditti of Portugal, with whom he had become very
+popular; but, he continues:
+
+    “As it is much more easy to introduce oneself to the cottage than the
+    hall (though I am not utterly unknown in the latter), I want you to
+    give or procure me letters to the most liberal and influential minds
+    in Portugal.  I likewise want a letter from the Foreign Office to
+    Lord [Howard] de Walden.  In a word, I want to make what interest I
+    can towards obtaining the admission of the Gospel of Jesus into the
+    public schools of Portugal, which are about to be established.  I beg
+    leave to state that this is _my plan_ and no other person’s, as I was
+    merely sent over to Portugal to observe the disposition of the
+    people, therefore I do not wish to be named as an Agent of the B.S.,
+    but as a person who has plans for the mental improvement of the
+    Portuguese; should I receive _these letters_ within the space of six
+    weeks it will be time enough, for before setting up my machine in
+    Portugal, I wish to lay the foundations of something similar in
+    Spain.”
+
+    P.S.—“I start for Spain to-morrow, and I want letters something
+    similar (there is impudence for you) for Madrid, _which I should like
+    to have as soon as possible_.  I do not much care at present for an
+    introduction to the Ambassador at Madrid, as I shall not commence
+    operations seriously in Spain until I have disposed of Portugal.  I
+    will not apologise for writing to you in this manner, for you know
+    me, but I will tell you one thing, which is, that the letter which
+    you procured for me, on my going to St Petersburg, from Lord
+    Palmerston, assisted me wonderfully; I called twice at your domicile
+    on my return; the first time you were in Scotland—the second in
+    France, and I assure you I cried with vexation.  Remember me to Mrs
+    Bowring, and God bless you.” {159a}
+
+In this letter Borrow gives another illustration of his shrewdness.  He
+saw clearly the disadvantage of appealing for assistance as an agent of
+the Bible Society, a Protestant institution which was anathema in a Roman
+Catholic country, whereas if he posed merely as “a gentleman who has
+plans for the mental improvement of the Portuguese,” he could enlist the
+sympathetic interest of any and every broad-minded Portuguese mindful of
+his country’s intellectual gloom.  In response to this request Dr
+Bowring, writing from Brussels, sent two letters of introduction, one
+each for Lisbon and Madrid.
+
+After remaining at Evora for a week (8th to 17th December) Borrow
+returned to Lisbon, thoroughly satisfied with the results of his journey.
+The next fortnight he spent in a further examination of Lisbon, and
+becoming acquainted with the Jews of the city, by whom he was welcomed as
+a powerful rabbi.  He favoured the mistake, with the result that in a few
+days he “knew all that related to them and their traffic in Lisbon.”
+{159b}
+
+Borrow’s methods seem to have impressed Earl Street most favourably.  In
+a letter of acknowledgment Mr Brandram wrote:—
+
+    “We have been much interested by your two communications. {159c}
+    They are both very painful in their details, and you develop a truly
+    awful state of things.  You are probing the wound, and I hope
+    preparing the way for our pouring in by and by the healing balsam of
+    the Scripture.  We shall be anxious to hear from you again.  We often
+    think of you in your wanderings.  We like your way of communicating
+    with the people, meeting them in their own walks.”
+
+Thoroughly convinced as to the irreligious state of Portugal, Borrow
+determined to set out for Spain, in order that he might examine into the
+condition of the people, and report to the Bible Society their state of
+preparedness to receive the Scriptures.  On the afternoon of 1st January
+1836 he set out, bound for Badajos, a hundred miles south of Lisbon.
+From Badajos he intended to take the diligence on to Madrid, which he
+decided to make his headquarters.
+
+Having taken leave of his servant Antonio (who had accompanied him as far
+as Aldéa Galléga) almost with tears, Borrow mounted a hired mule, and
+with no other companion than an idiot lad, who, when spoken to, made
+reply only with an uncouth laugh, he plunged once more into the dangerous
+and desolate Alemtejo on a four days’ journey “over the most savage and
+ill-noted track in the whole kingdom.”  At first he was overwhelmed with
+a sense of loneliness, and experienced a great desire for someone with
+whom to talk.  There was no one to be seen—he was hemmed in by desolation
+and despair.
+
+At Montemôr Novo Borrow appears in a new light when he kisses his hand
+repeatedly to the tittering nuns who, with “dusky faces and black waving
+hair,” {160a} strove to obtain a glance of the stranger who, a few
+minutes previously, had dared to tell one of their number that he had
+come “to endeavour to introduce the gospel of Christ into a country where
+it is not known.” {160b}
+
+One adventure befel him that might have ended in tragedy.  Soon after
+leaving Arrayólos he overtook a string of carts conveying ammunition into
+Spain.  One of the Portuguese soldiers of the guard began to curse
+foreigners in general and Borrow, whom he mistook for a Frenchmen, in
+particular, because “the devil helps foreigners and hates the
+Portuguese.”  When about forty yards ahead of the advance guard, with
+which the discontented soldier marched, Borrow had the imprudence to
+laugh, with the result that the next moment two well-aimed bullets sang
+past his ears.  Taking the hint, Borrow put spurs to his mule, and,
+followed by the terrified guide, soon outdistanced these official
+banditti.  With great _naïveté_ he remarks, “Oh, may I live to see the
+day when soldiery will no longer be tolerated in any civilised, or at
+least Christian country!” {161a}
+
+For two and a half days the idiot guide had met Borrow’s most dexterous
+cross-examination with a determined silence; but on reaching a hill
+overlooking Estremóz he suddenly found tongue, and, in an epic of
+inspiration, told of the wonderful hunting that was to be obtained on the
+Serre Dorso, the Alemtejo’s finest mountain.  “He likewise described with
+great minuteness a wonderful dog, which was kept in the neighbourhood for
+the purpose of catching the wolves and wild boars, and for which the
+proprietor had refused twenty _moidores_.” {161b}  From this it would
+appear that the idiocy of the guide was an armour to be assumed at will
+by one who preferred the sweetness of his own thoughts to the
+cross-questionings of his master’s clients.
+
+At Elvas, which he reached on 5th January, Borrow showed very strongly
+one rather paradoxical side of his character.  Never backward in his
+dispraise of Englishmen and things English, in particular those
+responsible for the administration of the nation’s affairs, past and
+present, he demonstrated very clearly, in his expressions of indignation
+at the Portuguese attitude towards England, that he reserved this right
+of criticism strictly to himself.  At the inn where he stayed, he
+thoroughly discomfited a Portuguese officer who dared to criticise the
+English Government for its attitude in connection with the Spanish civil
+war.  When refused entrance to the fort, where he had gone in order to
+satisfy his curiosity, Borrow exclaims, “This is one of the beneficial
+results of protecting a nation, and squandering blood and treasure in its
+defence.” {162a}
+
+Borrow was essentially an Englishman and proud of his blood, prouder
+perhaps of that which came to him from Norfolk, {162b} and although
+permitting himself and his fellow-countrymen considerable license in the
+matter of caustic criticism of public men and things, there the matter
+must end.  Let a foreigner, a Portuguese, dare to say a word against his,
+Borrow’s, country, and he became subjected to either a biting
+cross-examination, or was denounced in eloquent and telling periods.  “I
+could not command myself,” he writes in extenuation of his unchristian
+conduct in discomfiting the officer at Elvas, “when I heard my own
+glorious land traduced in this unmerited manner.  By whom?  A Portuguese?
+A native of a country which has been twice liberated from horrid and
+detestable thraldom by the hands of Englishmen.” {162c}
+
+On 6th January 1836, {162d} having sent back the “idiot” guide with the
+two mules, Borrow “spurred down the hill of Elvas to the plain, eager to
+arrive in old, chivalrous, romantic Spain,” and having forded the stream
+that separates the two countries, he crossed the bridge over the Guadiana
+and entered the North Gate of Badajos, immortalised by Wellington and the
+British Army.  He had reached Spain “in the humble hope of being able to
+cleanse some of the foul stains of Popery from the minds of its
+children.” {162e}
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+JANUARY–OCTOBER 1836
+
+
+WHEN Borrow entered Spain she was in the throes of civil war.  In 1814
+British blood and British money had restored to the throne Ferdinand
+VII., who, immediately he found himself secure, and forgetting his
+pledges to govern constitutionally, dissolved the Cortes and became an
+absolute monarch.  All the old abuses were revived, including the
+re-establishment of the Inquisition.  For six years the people suffered
+their King’s tyranny, then they revolted, with the result that Ferdinand,
+bending to the wind, accepted a re-imposition of the Constitution.  In
+1823 a French Army occupied Madrid in support of Ferdinand, who promptly
+reverted to absolutism.
+
+In 1829 Ferdinand married for the fourth time, and, on the birth of a
+daughter, declared that the Salic law had no effect in Spain, and the
+young princess was recognised as heir-apparent to the throne.  This drew
+from his brother, Don Carlos, who immediately left the country, a protest
+against his exclusion from the succession.  When his daughter was four
+years of age, Ferdinand died, and the child was proclaimed Queen as
+Isabel II.
+
+A bitter war broke out between the respective adherents of the Queen and
+her uncle Don Carlos.  Prisoners and wounded were massacred without
+discrimination, and an uncivilised and barbarous warfare waged when
+Borrow crossed the Portuguese frontier “to undertake the adventure of
+Spain.”
+
+Spain had always appealed most strongly to Borrow’s imagination.
+
+    “In the day-dreams of my boyhood,” he writes, “Spain always bore a
+    considerable share, and I took a particular interest in her, without
+    any presentiment that I should, at a future time, be called upon to
+    take a part, however humble, in her strange dramas; which interest,
+    at a very early period, led me to acquire her noble language, and to
+    make myself acquainted with the literature (scarcely worthy of the
+    language), her history and traditions; so that when I entered Spain
+    for the first time I felt more at home than I should otherwise have
+    done.” {164a}
+
+Whilst standing at the door of the Inn of the Three Nations on the day
+following his arrival at Badajos, meditating upon the deplorable state of
+the country he had just entered, Borrow recognised in the face of one of
+two men who were about to pass him the unmistakable lineaments of Egypt.
+Uttering “a certain word,” he received the reply he expected and
+forthwith engaged in conversation with the two men, who both proved to be
+gypsies.  These men spread the news abroad that staying at the Inn of the
+Three Nations was a man who spoke Romany.  “In less than half an hour the
+street before the inn was filled with the men, women, and children of
+Egypt.”  Borrow went out amongst them, and confesses that “so much
+vileness, dirt, and misery I had never seen among a similar number of
+human beings; but worst of all was the evil expression of their
+countenances.” {164b}  He soon discovered that their faces were an
+accurate index to their hearts, which were capable of every species of
+villainy.  The gypsies clustered round him, fingering his hands, face and
+clothes, as if he were a holy man.
+
+Gypsies had always held for Borrow a strange attraction, {164c} and he
+determined to prolong his stay at Badajos in order that he might have an
+opportunity of becoming “better acquainted with their condition and
+manners, and above all to speak to them of Christ and His Word; for I was
+convinced, that should I travel to the end of the universe, I should meet
+with no people more in need of a little Christian exhortation.” {165a}
+
+Intimate though his acquaintance with the gypsies of other countries had
+been, Borrow was aghast at the depravity of those of Spain.  The men were
+drunkards, brigands, and murderers; the women unchaste, and inveterate
+thieves.  Their language was terrifying in its foulness.  They seemed to
+have no religion save a misty glimmering of metempsychosis, which had
+come down to them through the centuries, and having been very wicked in
+this world they asked, with some show of reason, why they should live
+again.  They were incorrigible heathens, keenly interested in the
+demonstration that their language was capable of being written and read,
+but untouched by the parables of Lazarus or the Prodigal Son, which
+Borrow read and expounded to them.  “Brother,” exclaimed one woman, “you
+tell us strange things, though perhaps you do not lie; a month since I
+would sooner have believed these tales, than that this day I should see
+one who could read Romany.” {165b}
+
+Neither by exhortation nor by translating into Romany a portion of the
+Gospel of St Luke could Borrow make any impression upon the minds of the
+gypsies, therefore when one of them, Antonio by name, announced that “the
+affairs of Egypt” called for his presence “on the frontiers of
+Costumbra,” and that he and Borrow might as well journey thus far
+together, he decided to avail himself of the opportunity.  It was
+arranged that Borrow’s luggage should be sent on ahead, for, as Antonio
+said, “How the _Busné_ [the Spaniards] on the road would laugh if they
+saw two _Calés_ [Gypsies] with luggage behind them.” {166a}  Thus it came
+about that an agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society, mounted
+upon a most uncouth horse “of a spectral white, short in the body, but
+with remarkably long legs” and high in the withers, set out from Badajos
+on 16th January 1836, escorted by a smuggler astride a mule; for the
+affairs of Egypt on this occasion were the evasion of the Customs dues.
+
+Towards evening on the first day the curiously assorted pair arrived at
+Mérida, and proceeded to a large and ruinous house, a portion of which
+was occupied by some connections of the gypsy Antonio’s.  In the large
+hall of the old mansion they camped, and here, acting on the gypsy’s
+advice, Borrow remained for three days.  Antonio himself was absent from
+early morning until late at night, occupied with his own affairs. {166b}
+
+The fourth night was spent in the forest by the campfire of some more of
+Antonio’s friends.  On one occasion, but for the fortunate possession of
+a passport, the affairs of Egypt would have involved Borrow in some
+difficulties with the authorities.  At another time, for safety’s sake,
+he had to part from Antonio and proceed on his way alone, picking up the
+_contrabandista_ further on the road.
+
+When some distance beyond Jaraicéjo, it was discovered that the affairs
+of Egypt had ended disastrously in the discomfiture and capture of
+Antonio’s friends by the authorities.  The news was brought by the
+gypsy’s daughter.  Antonio must return at once, and as the steed Borrow
+was riding, which belonged to Antonio, would be required by him, Borrow
+purchased the daughter’s donkey, and having said good-bye to the
+smuggler, he continued his journey alone.
+
+By way of Almaráz and Oropésa Borrow eventually reached Talavéra (24th
+Jan.).  On the advice of a Toledo Jew, with whom he had become acquainted
+during the last stage of his journey, he decided to take the diligence
+from Talavéra to Madrid, the more willingly because the Jew amiably
+offered to purchase the donkey.  On the evening of 25th Jan. Borrow
+accordingly took his place on the diligence, and reached the capital the
+next morning.
+
+On arriving at Madrid, Borrow first went to a Posada; but a few days
+later he removed to lodgings in the Calle de la Zarza (the Street of the
+Brambles),—“A dark and dirty street, which, however, was close to the
+Puerta del Sol, the most central point of Madrid, into which four or five
+of the principal streets debouche, and which is, at all times of the
+year, the great place of assemblage for the idlers of the capital, poor
+or rich.” {167a}
+
+The capital did not at first impress Borrow very favourably. {167b}
+“Madrid is a small town,” he wrote to his mother, {167c} “not larger than
+Norwich, but it is crammed with people, like a hive with bees, and it
+contains many fine streets and fountains . . .  Everything in Madrid is
+excessively dear to foreigners, for they are made to pay six times more
+than natives . . .  I manage to get on tolerably well, for I make a point
+of paying just one quarter of what I am asked.”
+
+He suffered considerably from the frost and cold.  From the snow-covered
+mountains that surround the city there descend in winter such cold blasts
+“that the body is drawn up like a leaf.” {167d}  Then again there were
+the physical discomforts that he had to endure.
+
+“You cannot think,” he wrote, {168a} “what a filthy, uncivilised set of
+people the Spanish and Portuguese are.  There is more comfort in an
+English barn than in one of their palaces; and they are rude and ill-bred
+to a surprising degree.”
+
+Borrow was angry with Spain, possibly for being so unlike his “dear and
+glorious Russia.”  He saw in it a fertile and beautiful country,
+inhabited by a set of beings that were not human, “almost as bad as the
+Irish, with the exception that they are not drunkards.” {168b}  They were
+a nation of thieves and extortioners, who regarded the foreigner as their
+legitimate prey.  Even his own servant was “the greatest thief and
+villain that ever existed; who, if I would let him, would steal the teeth
+out of my head,” {168c} and who seems actually to have destroyed some of
+his master’s letters for the sake of the postage.  Being forced to call
+upon various people whose addresses he did not know, Borrow found it
+necessary to keep the man, in spite of his thievish proclivities, for he
+was clever, and had he been dismissed his place would, in all
+probability, have been taken by an even greater rogue.
+
+At night he never went out, for the streets were thronged with hundreds
+of people of the rival factions, bent on “cutting and murdering one
+another; . . . for every Spaniard is by nature a cruel, cowardly tiger.
+Nothing is more common than to destroy a whole town, putting man, woman,
+and child to death, because two or three of the inhabitants have been
+obnoxious.” {168d}  Thus he wrote to his mother, all-unconscious of the
+anxiety and alarm that he was causing her lest he, her dear George,
+should be one of the cut or murdered.
+
+Later, Borrow seems to have revised his opinion of Madrid and of its
+inhabitants.  He confesses that of all the cities he has known Madrid
+interested him the most, not on account of its public buildings, squares
+or fountains, for these are surpassed in other cities; but because of its
+population.  “Within a mud wall scarcely one league and a half in
+circuit, are contained two hundred thousand human beings, certainly
+forming the most extraordinary vital mass to be found in the entire
+world.” {169}  In the upper classes he had little interest.  He mixed but
+little with them, and what he saw did not impress him favourably.  It was
+the Spaniard of the lower orders that attracted him.  He regarded this
+class as composed not of common beings, but of extraordinary men.  He
+admired their spirit of proud independence, and forgave them their
+ignorance.  His first impressions of Spain had been unfavourable because,
+as a stranger, he had been victimised by the amiable citizens, who were
+merely doing as their fathers had done before them.  Once, however, he
+got to know them, he regarded with more indulgence their constitutional
+dishonesty towards the stranger, a weakness they possessed in common with
+the gypsies, and hailed them as “extraordinary men.”  Borrow’s
+impulsiveness frequently led him to ill-considered and hasty conclusions,
+which, however, he never hesitated to correct, if he saw need for
+correction.
+
+The disappointment he experienced as regards Madrid and the Spaniards is
+not difficult to understand.  He arrived quite friendless and without
+letters of introduction, to find the city given over to the dissensions
+and strifes of the supporters of Isabel II. and Don Carlos.  His journey
+had been undertaken in “the hope of obtaining permission from the
+Government to print the New Testament in the Castilian language, without
+the notes insisted on by the Spanish clergy, for circulation in Spain,”
+and there seemed small chance of those responsible for the direction of
+affairs listening to the application of a foreigner for permission to
+print the unannotated Scriptures.  For one thing, any acquiescence in
+such a suggestion would draw forth from the priesthood bitter reproaches
+and, most probably, active and serious opposition.  It is only natural
+that despondency should occasionally seize upon him who sought to light
+the lamp of truth amidst such tempests.
+
+[Picture: George Villiers, Fourth Earl of Clarendon.  British Minister at
+  Madrid, 1833–1839.  From the engraving after Sir Francis Grant in the
+                        National Portrait Gallery]
+
+The man to approach was the premier, Juan Álvarez y Mendizábal, {170a} a
+Christianised Jew.  He was enormously powerful, and Borrow decided to
+appeal to him direct; for, armed with the approval of Mendizábal, no one
+would dare to interfere with his plans or proceedings.  Borrow made
+several attempts to see Mendizábal, who “was considered as a man of
+almost unbounded power, in whose hands were placed the destinies of the
+country.”  Without interest or letters of introduction, he found it
+utterly impossible to obtain an audience.  Recollecting the assistance he
+had received from the Hon. J. D. Bligh at St Petersburg, Borrow
+determined to make himself known to the British Minister at Madrid, the
+Hon. George Villiers, {170b} and, “with the freedom permitted to a
+British subject . . . ask his advice in the affair.”  Borrow was received
+with great kindness, and, after conversing upon various topics for some
+time, he introduced the subject of his visit.  Mr Villiers willingly
+undertook to help him as far as lay in his power, and promised to
+endeavour to procure for him an audience with the Premier.  In this he
+was successful, and Borrow had an interview with Mendizábal, who was
+almost inaccessible to all but the few.
+
+At eight o’clock on the morning of 7th February Borrow presented himself
+at the palace, where Mendizábal resided, and after waiting for about
+three hours, was admitted to the presence of the Prime Minister of Spain,
+whom he found—“A huge athletic man, somewhat taller than myself, who
+measure six foot two without my shoes.  His complexion was florid, his
+features fine and regular, his nose quite aquiline, and his teeth
+splendidly white; though scarcely fifty years of age, his hair was
+remarkably grey.  He was dressed in a rich morning gown, with a gold
+chain round his neck, and morocco slippers on his feet.” {171}
+
+Borrow began by assuring Mendizábal that he was labouring under a grave
+error in thinking that the Bible Society had sought to influence unduly
+the slaves of Cuba, that they had not sent any agents there, and they
+were not in communication with any of the residents.  Mr Villiers had
+warned Borrow that the premier was very angry on account of reports that
+had reached him of the action in Cuba of certain people whom he insisted
+were sent there by the Bible Society.  In vain Borrow suggested that the
+disturbers of the tranquillity of Spain’s beneficent rule in the Island
+were in no way connected with Earl Street; he was several times
+interrupted by Mendizábal, who insisted that he had documentary proof.
+Borrow with difficulty restrained himself from laughing in the premier s
+face.  He pointed out that the Committee was composed of quiet,
+respectable English gentlemen, who attended to their own concerns and
+gave a little of their time to the affairs of the Bible Society.
+
+On Borrow asking for permission to print at Madrid the New Testament in
+Spanish without notes, he was met with an unequivocal refusal.  In spite
+of his arguments that the whole tenor of the work was against
+bloodshedding and violence, he could not shake the premier’s opinion that
+it was “an improper book.”
+
+At first Borrow had experienced some difficulty in explaining himself, on
+account of the Spaniard’s habit of persistent interruption, and at last
+he was forced in self-defence to hold on in spite of Mendizábal’s
+remarks.  The upshot of the interview was that he was told to renew his
+application when the Carlists had been beaten and the country was at
+peace.  Borrow then asked permission to introduce into Spain a few copies
+of the New Testament in the Catalan dialect, but was refused.  He next
+requested to be allowed to call on the following day and submit a copy of
+the Catalan edition, and received the remarkable reply that the
+prime-minister refused his offer to call lest he should succeed in
+convincing him, and Mendizábal did not wish to be convinced.  This seemed
+to show that the Mendizábal was something of a philosopher and a little
+of a humorist.
+
+With this Borrow had to be content, and after an hour’s interview he
+withdrew.  The premier was unquestionably in a difficult position.  On
+the one hand, he no doubt desired to assist a man introduced to him by
+the representative of Great Britain, to whom he looked for assistance in
+suppressing Carlism; on the other hand, he had the priesthood to
+consider, and they would without question use every means of which they
+stood possessed to preserve the prohibition against the dissemination of
+the Scriptures, without notes, a prohibition that had become almost a
+tradition.
+
+But Borrow was not discouraged.  He wrote in a most hopeful strain that
+he foresaw the speedy and successful termination of the Society’s
+negotiations in the Peninsula.  He looked forward to the time when only
+an agent would be required to superintend the engagement of colporteurs,
+and to make arrangements with the booksellers.  He proceeds to express a
+hope that his exertions have given satisfaction to the Society.
+
+Borrow received an encouraging letter from Mr Brandram, telling him of
+the Committee’s appreciation of his work, but practically leaving with
+him the decision as to his future movements.  They were inclined to
+favour a return to Lisbon, but recognised that “in these wondrous days
+opportunities may open unexpectedly.”  In the matter of the Gospel of St
+Luke in Spanish Romany, the publication of extracts was authorised, but
+there was no enthusiasm for the project.  “We say,” wrote Mr Brandram,
+“_festina lente_.  You will be doing well to occupy leisure hours with
+this work; but we are not prepared for printing anything beyond portions
+at present.”
+
+In the meantime, however, an article in the Madrid newspaper, _El
+Español_, upon the history, aims, and achievements of the British and
+Foreign Bible Society, had determined Borrow to remain on at Madrid for a
+few weeks at least.
+
+    “Why should Spain, which has explored the New World, why should she
+    alone be destitute of Bible Societies,” asked the _Español_.  “Why
+    should a nation eminently Catholic continue isolated from the rest of
+    Europe, without joining in the magnificent enterprise in which the
+    latter is so busily engaged?” {173a}
+
+This article fired Borrow, and with the promise of assistance from the
+liberal-minded _Español_, he set to work “to lay the foundation of a
+Bible Society at Madrid.” {173b}  As a potential head of the Spanish
+organization, Borrow’s eyes were already directed towards the person of
+“a certain Bishop, advanced in years, a person of great piety and
+learning, who has himself translated the New Testament” {173c} and who
+was disposed to print and circulate it.
+
+Nothing, however, came of the project.  Mr Brandram wrote to
+Borrow:—“With regard to forming a Bible Society in Madrid, and appointing
+Dr Usoz Secretary, it is so out of our usual course that the Committee,
+for various reasons, cannot comply with your wishes—of the desirableness
+of forming such a Society at present, you and your friend must be the
+best judges.  If it is to be an independent society, as I suppose must be
+the case,” Mr Brandram continues, and the Bible Society’s aid or that of
+its agent is sought, the new Society must be formed on the principles of
+the British and Foreign Bible Society, admitting, “on the one hand,
+general cooperation, and on the other, that it does not circulate
+Apocryphal Bibles.”  There was doubt at Earl Street as to whether the
+time was yet ripe; so the decision was very properly left with Borrow,
+and he was told that he “need not fear to hold out great hopes of
+encouragement in the event of the formation of such a Society.” {174}
+
+A serious difficulty now arose in the resignation of Mendizábal (March
+1836).  Two of his friends and supporters, in the persons of Francisco de
+Isturitz and Alcala Galiano, seceded from his party, and, under the name
+of _moderados_, formed an opposition to their Chief in the Cortes.  They
+had the support of the Queen Regent and General Cordova, whom Mendizábal
+had wished to remove from his position as head of the army on account of
+his great popularity with the soldiers, whose comforts and interests he
+studied.  Isturitz became Premier, Galiano Minister of Marine (a mere
+paper title, as there was no navy at the time), and the Duke of Rivas
+Minister of the Interior.
+
+Conscious of the advantage of possessing powerful friends, especially in
+a country such as Spain, Borrow had used every endeavour to enlarge the
+circle of his acquaintance among men occupying influential positions, or
+likely to succeed those who at present filled them.  The result was that
+he was able to announce to Mr Brandram that the new ministry, which had
+been formed, was composed “entirely of _my_ friends.” {175a}  With
+Galiano in particular he was on very intimate terms.  Everything promised
+well, and the new Cabinet showed itself most friendly to Borrow and his
+projects, until the actual moment arrived for writing the permission to
+print the Scriptures in Spanish.  Then doubts arose, and the decrees of
+the Council of Trent loomed up, a threatening barrier, in the eyes of the
+Duke of Rivas and his secretary.
+
+So hopeful was Borrow after his first interview with the Duke that he
+wrote:—“I shall receive the permission, the Lord willing, in a few days . . .
+The last skirts of the cloud of papal superstition are vanishing
+below the horizon of Spain; whoever says the contrary either knows
+nothing of the matter or wilfully hides the truth.” {175b}
+
+At Earl Street the good news about the article in the _Español_ gave the
+liveliest satisfaction.  “Surely a new and wonderful thing in Spain,”
+wrote Mr Brandram {175c} in a letter in which he urged Borrow to “guard
+against becoming too much committed to one political party,” and asked
+him to write more frequently, as his letters were always most welcome.
+This letter reached Madrid at a time when Borrow found himself absolutely
+destitute.
+
+“For the last three weeks,” he writes, {175d} “I have been without money,
+literally without a farthing.”  Everything in Madrid was so dear.  A
+month previously he had been forced to pay £12, 5s. for a suit of
+clothes, “my own being so worn that it was impossible to appear longer in
+public with them.” {175e}  He had written to Mr Wilby, but in all
+probability his letter had gone astray, the post to Estremadura having
+been three times robbed.  “The money may still come,” he continues,
+{176a} “but I have given up all hopes of it, and I am compelled to write
+home, though what I am to do till I can receive your answer I am at a
+loss to conceive . . . whatever I undergo, I shall tell nobody of my
+situation, it might hurt the Society and our projects here.  I know
+enough of the world to be aware that it is considered as the worst of
+crimes to be without money.” {176b}
+
+For weeks Borrow devoted himself to the task of endeavouring to obtain
+permission to print the Scriptures in Spanish.  The Duke of Rivas
+referred him to his secretary, saying, “He will do for you what you
+want!”  But the secretary retreated behind the decrees of the Council of
+Trent.  Then Mr Villiers intervened, saw the Duke and gave Borrow a
+letter to him.  Again the Council of Trent proved to be the obstacle.
+Galiano took up the matter and escorted Borrow to the Bureau of the
+Interior, and had an interview with the Duke’s secretary.  When Galiano
+left, there remained nothing for the conscientious secretary to do but to
+write out the formal permission, all else having been satisfactorily
+settled; but no sooner had Galiano departed, than the recollection of the
+Council of Trent returned to the secretary with terrifying distinctness,
+and no permission was given.
+
+Tired of the Council of Trent and the Duke’s secretary, Borrow would
+sometimes retire to the banks of the canal and there loiter in the sun,
+watching the gold and silver fish basking on the surface of its waters,
+or gossiping with the man who sold oranges and water under the shade of
+the old water-tower.  Once he went to see an execution—anything to drive
+from his mind the conscientious secretary and the Council of Trent, the
+sole obstacles to the realisation of his plans.
+
+Borrow informed Mr Brandram at the end of May that the Cabinet was
+unanimously in favour of granting his request; nothing happened.  There
+seems no doubt that the Cabinet’s policy was one of subterfuge.  It could
+not afford to offend the British Minister, nor could it, at that
+juncture, risk the bitter hostility of the clergy, consequently it
+promised and deferred.  A petition to the Ecclesiastical Committee of
+Censors, although strongly backed by the Civil Governor of Madrid (within
+whose department lay the censorship), produced no better result.  There
+was nothing heard but “To-morrow, please God!”
+
+Foiled for the time being in his constructive policy, Borrow turned his
+attention to one of destruction.  He had already announced to the Bible
+Society that the authority of the Pope was in a precarious condition.
+
+    “Little more than a breath is required to destroy it,” he writes,
+    {177} “and I am almost confident that in less than a year it will be
+    disowned.  I am doing whatever I can in Madrid to prepare the way for
+    an event so desirable.  I mix with the people, and inform them who
+    and what the Pope is, and how disastrous to Spain his influence has
+    been.  I tell them that the indulgences, which they are in the habit
+    of purchasing, are of no more intrinsic value than so many pieces of
+    paper, and were merely invented with the view of plundering them.  I
+    frequently ask: ‘Is it possible that God, who is good, would sanction
+    the sale of sin? and, supposing certain things are sinful, do you
+    think that God, for the sake of your money, would permit you to
+    perform them?’  In many instances my hearers have been satisfied with
+    this simple reasoning, and have said that they would buy no more
+    indulgences.”
+
+Mr Brandram promptly wrote warning Borrow against becoming involved in
+any endeavour to hasten the fall of the Pope.  Although deeply interested
+in what their agent had to say, there was a strong misgiving at
+headquarters that for a few moments Borrow had “forgotten that our hopes
+of the fall of — are founded on the simple distribution of the
+Scriptures,” {178a} and he was told that, as their agent, he must not
+pursue the course that he described.  The warning was carefully worded,
+so that it might not wound Borrow’s feelings or lessen his enthusiasm.
+
+Borrow had found that the climate of Madrid did not agree with him.  It
+had proved very trying during the winter; but now that summer had arrived
+the heat was suffocating and the air seemed to be filled with “flaming
+vapours,” and even the Spaniards would “lie gasping and naked upon their
+brick floors.” {178b}  In spite of the heat, however, he was occupied
+“upon an average ten hours every day, dancing attendance on one or
+another of the Ministers.” {178c}
+
+Sometimes the difficulties that he had to contend with reduced him almost
+to despair of ever obtaining the permission he sought.  “Only those,” he
+writes, {178d} “who have been in the habit of dealing with Spaniards, by
+whom the most solemn promises are habitually broken, can form a correct
+idea of my reiterated disappointments, and of the toil of body and agony
+of spirit which I have been subjected to.  One day I have been told, at
+the Ministry, that I had only to wait a few moments and all I wished
+would be acceded to; and then my hopes have been blasted with the
+information that various difficulties, which seemed insurmountable, had
+presented themselves, whereupon I have departed almost broken-hearted;
+but the next day I have been summoned in a great hurry and informed that
+‘all was right,’ and that on the morrow a regular authority to print the
+Scriptures would be delivered to me, but by that time fresh and yet more
+terrible difficulties had occurred—so that I became weary of my life.”
+
+Mr Villiers evidently saw through the Spanish Cabinet’s policy of delay;
+for he spoke to the ministers collectively and individually, strongly
+recommending that the petition be granted.  He further pointed out the
+terrible condition of the people, who lacked religious instruction of any
+kind, and that a nation of atheists would not prove very easy to govern.
+It may have been these arguments, or, what is more likely, a desire on
+the part of the Cabinet to please the representative of Great Britain, in
+any case a greater willingness was now shown to give the necessary
+permission.  Measures were accordingly taken to evade the law and protect
+the printer into whose hands the work was to be entrusted, until an
+appropriate moment arrived for repealing the existing statute.
+
+Borrow forwarded to Earl Street the following interesting letter that he
+had received from Mr Villiers, which confirms his words as to the keen
+interest taken by the British Minister in the endeavour to obtain the
+permission to print the New Testament in Spanish
+
+    DEAR SIR,
+
+    I have had a long conversation with Mr Isturitz upon the subject of
+    printing the Testament, in which he showed himself to be both
+    sagacious and liberal.  He assured me that the matter should have his
+    support whenever the Duque de Ribas brought it before the Cabinet,
+    and that as far as he was concerned the question _might be considered
+    as settled_.
+
+    You are quite welcome to make any use you please of this note with
+    the D. de Ribas or Mr Olivan. {179a}
+
+    I am, Dear Sir,
+
+                              Yours faithfully,
+
+                                                          GEORGE VILLIERS.
+
+    _June_ 23_rd_ [1836].
+
+It was unquestionably Borrow’s personality that was responsible for Mr
+Villiers’ interest in the scheme, as when Lieutenant Graydon {179b} had
+applied to him on a previous occasion he declined to interfere.
+
+At Borrow’s suggestion the President of the Bible Society, Lord Bentley,
+wrote to Mr Villiers thanking him for the services he had rendered in
+connection with the Spanish programme.  It was characteristic of Borrow
+that he added to his letter as a reason for his request, that “I may be
+again in need of Mr V’s. assistance before I leave Spain.” {180}  Borrow
+was always keenly alive to the advantage of possessing influential
+friends who would be likely to assist him in his labours for the Society.
+He was not a profound admirer of the Society of Jesus for nothing, and
+although he would scorn to exercise tact in regard to his own concerns,
+he was fully prepared to make use of it in connection with those of the
+Bible Society.  He was a Jesuit at heart, and would in all probability
+have preferred a good compositor who had been guilty of sacrilege to a
+bad one who had not.  He saw that besides being something of a
+diplomatist, an agent of the Bible Society had also to be a good business
+man.  He has been called tactless, until the word seems to have become
+permanently identified with his name; how unjustly is shown by a very
+hasty examination of his masterly diplomacy, both in Russia and Spain.
+Diplomacy, as Borrow understood it, was the art of being persuasive when
+persuasion would obtain for him his object, and firm, even threatening,
+when strong measures were best calculated to suit his ends.  It is only
+the fool who defines tact as the gentle art of pleasing everybody.
+Diplomacy is the art of getting what you want at the expense of
+displeasing as few people as possible.
+
+“The affair is settled—thank God!!! and we may begin to print whenever we
+think proper.”  With these words Borrow announces the success of his
+enterprise.  “Perhaps you have thought,” he continues, “that I have been
+tardy in accomplishing the business which brought me to Spain; but to be
+able to form a correct judgment you ought to be aware of all the
+difficulties which I have had to encounter, and which I shall not
+enumerate.  I shall content myself with observing that for a thousand
+pounds I would not undergo again all the mortifications and
+disappointments of the last two months.” {181a}
+
+There were moments when Borrow forgot the idiom of Earl Street and
+reverted to his old, self-confident style, which had so alarmed some of
+the excellent members of the Committee.  He had achieved a great triumph,
+how great is best shown by the suggestion made by the prime minister that
+if determined to avail himself of the permission that had been obtained,
+he had better employ “the confidential printer of the Government, who
+would keep the matter secret; as in the present state of affairs he [the
+prime minister] would not answer for the consequences if it were noised
+abroad.” {181b}  By giving the license to print the New Testament without
+notes, the Cabinet was assuming a very grave responsibility.  All this
+shows how great was the influence of the British Minister upon the
+Isturitz Cabinet, and how considerable that of Borrow upon the British
+Minister.
+
+Now that his object was gained, there was nothing further to keep Borrow
+in Spain, and he accordingly asked for instructions, suggesting that, as
+soon as the heats were over, Lieutenant Graydon might return to Madrid
+and take charge, “as nothing very difficult remains to be accomplished,
+and I am sure that Mr Villiers, at my entreaty, would extend to him the
+patronage with which he has honoured me.” {181c}  In conclusion he
+announced himself as ready to do “whatever the Bible Society may deem
+expedient.” {181d}
+
+Borrow now began to suffer from the reaction after his great exertions.
+He became so languid as scarcely to be able to hold a pen.  He had no
+books, and conversation was impossible, for the heat had driven away all
+who could possibly escape, among them his acquaintances, and he
+frequently remembered with a sigh the happy days spent in St Petersburg.
+
+A few days later (25th July) he wrote proposing as a member of the Bible
+Society Dr Luis de Usoz y Rio, “a person of great respectability and
+great learning.” {182a}  Dr Usoz, who was subsequently to be closely
+associated with Borrow in his labours in Spain, was a man of whom he was
+unable to “speak in too high terms of admiration; he is one of the most
+learned men in Spain, and is become in every point a Christian according
+to the standard of the New Testament.” {182b}
+
+Dr Usoz also addressed a letter to the Society asking to be considered as
+a correspondent and entrusted with copies of the Scriptures, which he was
+convinced he could circulate in every province of Spain.  The advantage
+of having one of the editors of the principal newspaper of Spain on the
+side of the Society did not fail to appeal to Borrow.  Dr Usoz not only
+became a member of the Bible Society, but earned from Borrow a splendid
+tribute in the Preface to _The Bible in Spain_.
+
+Before advantage could be taken of the hardly earned permission to print
+the New Testament in Madrid, the Revolution of La Granja {182c} broke
+out, resulting in the proclamation of the Constitution of 1812, by which
+the press became free.  In Madrid chaos reigned as a result.  Borrow
+himself has given a vivid account of how Quesada, by his magnificent
+courage, quelled for the time being the revolution, how the ministers
+fled, how eventually the heroic tyrant was recognised and killed, and,
+finally, how, at a celebrated coffee-house in Madrid, Borrow saw the
+victorious Nationals drink to the Constitution from a bowl of coffee,
+which had first been stirred with one of the mutilated hands of the hated
+Quesada. {183a}
+
+Now that no obstacle stood in the way of the printing of the Spanish New
+Testament, Borrow was requested to return to England that he might confer
+with the authorities at Earl Street.  “You may now consider yourself
+under marching orders to return home as soon as you have made all the
+requisite arrangements; . . . you have done, we are persuaded, a good and
+great work,” {183b} Mr Brandram wrote.  It was thought by the Committee
+that the advantages to be derived from a conference with Borrow would be
+well worth the expense involved in his having to return again to Spain.
+
+To this request for his immediate presence in London Borrow replied:
+
+    “I shall make the provisional engagement as desired [as regards the
+    printing of the New Testament] and shall leave Madrid as soon as
+    possible; but I must here inform you, that I shall find much
+    difficulty in returning to England, as all the provinces are
+    disturbed in consequence of the Constitution of 1812 having been
+    proclaimed, and the roads are swarming with robbers and banditti.  It
+    is my intention to join some muleteers, and attempt to reach Granada,
+    from whence, if possible, I shall proceed to Malaga or Gibraltar, and
+    thence to Lisbon, where I left the greatest part of my baggage.  Do
+    not be surprised, therefore, if I am tardy in making my appearance;
+    it is no easy thing at present to travel in Spain.  But all these
+    troubles are for the benefit of the Cause, and must not be repined
+    at.” {183c}
+
+Leaving Madrid on 20th August, Borrow was at Granada on the 30th, as
+proved by the Visitors’ Book, in which he signed himself
+
+    “George Borrow Norvicensis.”
+
+The real object of this visit appears to have been his desire to study
+more closely the Spanish gypsies.  From Granada he proceeded to Malaga.
+Neither place can be said to be on the direct road to England; but the
+disturbed state of the country had to be taken into consideration, and it
+was a question not of the shortest road but the safest.
+
+On his return to London, early in October, Borrow wrote a report {184}
+upon his labours, roughly sketching out his work since he left Badajos.
+He repeated his view that the Papal See had lost its power over Spain,
+and that the present moment was a peculiarly appropriate one in which to
+spread the light of the Gospel over the Peninsula.  Forgetting the
+thievish propensities of the race, he wrote glowingly of the Spaniards
+and their intellectual equipment, the clearness with which they expressed
+themselves, and the elegance of their diction.  The mind of the Spaniard
+was a garden run to waste, and it was for the British and Foreign Bible
+Society to cultivate it and purge it of the rank and bitter weeds.
+
+He foresaw no difficulty whatever in disposing of 5000 copies of the New
+Testament in a short time in the capital and provincial towns, in
+particular Cadiz and Seville where the people were more enlightened.  He
+was not so confident about the rural districts, where those who assured
+him that they were acquainted with the New Testament said that it
+contained hymns addressed to the Virgin which were written by the Pope.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+NOVEMBER 1836–MAY 1837
+
+
+BORROW remained in England for a month (3rd October/4th November), during
+which time he conferred with the Committee and Officials at Earl Street
+as to the future programme in Spain.  On 4th November, having sent to his
+mother £130 of the £150 he had drawn as salary, and promising to write to
+Mr Brandram from Cadiz, he sailed from London in the steamer
+_Manchester_, bound for Lisbon and Cadiz.
+
+In a letter to his mother, he describes his fellow passengers as invalids
+fleeing from the English winter.  “Some of them are three parts gone with
+consumption,” he writes, “some are ruptured, some have broken backs; I am
+the only sound person in the ship, which is crowded to suffocation.  I am
+in a little hole of a berth where I can scarcely breathe, and every now
+and then wet through.”
+
+The horrors of the voyage from Falmouth to Lisbon he has described with
+terrifying vividness; {185a} how the engines broke down and the vessel
+was being driven on to Cape Finisterre; how all hope had been abandoned,
+and the Captain had told the passengers of their impending fate; how the
+wind suddenly “_veered right about_, and pushed us from the horrible
+coast faster than it had previously driven us towards it.” {185b}
+
+During the whole of that terrible night Borrow had remained on deck, all
+the other passengers having been battened down below.  He was almost
+drowned in the seas that broke over the vessel, and, on one occasion, was
+struck down by a water cask that had broken away from its lashings.  Even
+after he had escaped Cape Finisterre, the ordeal was not over; for the
+ship was in a sinking condition, and fire broke out on board.  Eventually
+the engines were repaired, the fire extinguished, and Lisbon was reached
+on the 13th, where Borrow landed with his water-soaked luggage, and found
+on examination that the greater part of his clothes had been ruined.  In
+spite of this experience, he determined to continue his voyage to Cadiz
+in the _Manchester_, probably for reasons of economy, indifferent to the
+fact that she was utterly unseaworthy, and that most of the other
+passengers had abandoned her.  During his enforced stay in Lisbon, whilst
+the ship was being patched up, Borrow saw Mr Wilby and made enquiry into
+the state of the Society’s affairs in Portugal.  Many changes had taken
+place and the country was in a distracted state.
+
+After a week’s delay at Lisbon the _Manchester_ continued her voyage to
+Cadiz, where she arrived without further mishap on the 21st.  During this
+voyage a fellow passenger with Borrow was the Marqués de Santa Coloma.
+“According to the expression of the Marqués, when they stepped on to the
+quay at Cadiz, Borrow looked round, saw some Gitanos lounging there, said
+something that the Marqués 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 Marqués hardly
+liked to join his comrade again after such close embraces by so dirty a
+company.” {186}
+
+Borrow now found himself in his allotted field—unhappy, miserable,
+distracted Spain.  Gomez, the Carlist leader, had been sweeping through
+Estremadura like a pestilence, and Borrow fully expected to find Seville
+occupied by his banditti; but Carlists possessed no terrors for him.
+Unless he could do something to heal the spiritual wounds of the wretched
+country, he assured Mr Brandram, he would never again return to England.
+
+On 1st December Mr Brandram wrote to Borrow expressing deep sympathy with
+all he had been through, and adding: “If you go forward . . . we will
+help you by prayer.  If you retreat we shall welcome you cordially.”  He
+appears to have written before consulting with the Committee, who, on
+hearing of the actual state of affairs in Spain, became filled with
+misgiving and anxiety for the safety of their agent, who seemed to be
+destitute of fear.  Mr Brandram had been content for Borrow to go forward
+if he so decided, but, as he wrote later, “your prospective dangers,
+while they created an absorbing interest, were viewed in different lights
+by the Committee,” who thought they had “no right to commit you to such
+perils.  My own feeling was that, while I could not urge you forward,
+there were peculiarities in your history and character that I would not
+keep you back if you were minded to go.  A few felt with me—most,
+however, thought that you should have been restrained.” {187}  It was
+decided therefore to forbid him to proceed on his hazardous adventure,
+and accordingly a letter was addressed to him care of the British Consul
+at Cadiz.  If Borrow received this he disregarded the instructions it
+contained.
+
+Cadiz proved to be in a state of great confusion.  It was reported that
+numerous bands of Carlists were in the neighbourhood, and the whole city
+was in a state of ferment in consequence.  In the coffee-houses the din
+of tongues was deafening; would-be orators, sometimes as many as six at
+one time, sprang up upon chairs and tables and ventilated their political
+views.  The paramount, nay, the only, interest was not in the words of
+Christ; but the probable doings of the Carlists.
+
+On the night of his arrival Borrow was taken ill with what, at the time,
+he thought to be cholera, and for some time in the little “cock-loft or
+garret” that had been allotted to him at the over-crowded French hotel,
+he was “in most acute pain, and terribly sick,” drinking oil mixed with
+brandy.  For two days he was so exhausted as to be able to do nothing.
+
+On the morning of the 24th he embarked in a small Spanish steamer bound
+for Seville, which was reached that same night.  The sun had dissipated
+the melancholy and stupor left by his illness, and by the time he arrived
+at Seville he was repeating Latin verses and fragments of old Spanish
+ballads to a brilliant moon.  The condition of affairs at Seville was as
+bad if not worse than at Cadiz.  There was scarcely any communication
+with the capital, the diligences no longer ran, and even the fearless
+_arrieros_ (muleteers) declined to set out.  Famine, plunder and murder
+were let loose over the land.  Bands of banditti robbed, tortured and
+slew in the name of Don Carlos.  They stripped the peasantry of all they
+possessed, and the poor wretches in turn became brigands and preyed upon
+those weaker than themselves.  Through all this Borrow had to penetrate
+in order to reach Madrid.  Had the road been familiar to him he would
+have performed the journey alone, dressed either as a beggar or as a
+gypsy.  It is obvious that he appreciated the hazardous nature of the
+journey he was undertaking, for he asked Mr Brandram, in the event of his
+death, to keep the news from old Mrs Borrow as long as possible and then
+to go down to Norwich and break it to her himself.
+
+At Seville Borrow encountered Baron Taylor, {188} whom he states that he
+had first met at Bayonne (during the “veiled period”), and later in
+Russia, beside the Bosphorus, and finally in the South of Ireland.  Than
+Baron Taylor there was no one for whom Borrow entertained “a greater
+esteem and regard . . .  There is a mystery about him which, wherever he
+goes, serves not a little to increase the sensation naturally created by
+his appearance and manner.” {189}  Borrow was much attracted to this
+mysterious personage, about whom nothing could be asserted “with
+downright positiveness.”
+
+From Seville Borrow proceeded to Cordoba, accompanied by “an elderly
+person, a Genoese by birth,” whose acquaintance he had made and whom he
+hoped later to employ in the distribution of the Testaments.  Borrow had
+hired a couple of miserable horses.  The Genoese had not been in the
+saddle for some thirty years, and he was an old man and timid.  His horse
+soon became aware of this, and neither whip nor spur could persuade it to
+exert itself.  When approaching night rendered it necessary to make a
+special effort to hasten forward, the bridle of the discontented steed
+had to be fastened to that of its fellow, which was then urged forward
+“with spur and cudgel.”  Both the Genoese and his mount protested against
+such drastic measures, the one by entreaties to be permitted to dismount,
+the other by attempting to fling itself down.  The only notice Borrow
+took of these protests was to spur and cudgel the more.
+
+On the night of the third day the party arrived at Cordoba, and was
+cordially welcomed by the Carlist innkeeper, who, although avowing
+himself strictly neutral, confessed how great had been his pleasure at
+welcoming the Carlists when they occupied the City a short time before.
+It was at this inn that Borrow explained to the elderly Genoese, who had
+indiscreetly resented his host’s disrespectful remarks about the young
+Queen Isabel, how he invariably managed to preserve good relations with
+all sorts of factions.  “My good man,” he said, “I am invariably of the
+politics of the people at whose table I sit, or beneath whose roof I
+sleep; at least I never say anything which can lead them to suspect the
+contrary; by pursuing which system I have more than once escaped a bloody
+pillow, and having the wine I drank spiced with sublimate.” {190a}
+
+Borrow remained at Cordoba much longer than he had intended, because of
+the reports that reached him of the unsafe condition of the roads.  He
+sent back the old Genoese with the horses, and spent the time in
+thoroughly examining the town and making acquaintances among its
+inhabitants.  At length, after a stay of ten or eleven days, despairing
+of any improvement in the state of the country, he continued his journey
+in the company of a _contrabandista_, temporarily retired from the
+smuggling trade, from whom he hired two horses for the sum of forty-two
+dollars.  Borrow allowed no compunction to assail him as to the means he
+employed when he was thoroughly convinced as to the worthiness of the end
+he had in view.  To further his projects he would cheerfully have
+travelled with the Pope himself.
+
+The journey to Madrid proved dismal in the extreme.  The _contrabandista_
+was sullen and gloomy, despite the fact that his horses had been insured
+against loss and the handsome fee he was to receive for his services.
+The Despeñaperros in the Sierra Morena through which Borrow had to pass,
+had, even in times of peace, a most evil reputation; but by great good
+luck for Borrow, the local banditti had during the previous day
+“committed a dreadful robbery and murder by which they sacked 40,000
+_reals_.” {190b}  They were in all probability too busily occupied in
+dividing their spoil to watch for other travellers.  Another factor that
+was much in Borrow’s favour was a change in the weather.
+
+    “Suddenly the Lord breathed forth a frozen blast,” Borrow writes,
+    “the severity of which was almost intolerable.  No human being but
+    ourselves ventured forth.  We traversed snow-covered plains, and
+    passed through villages and towns to all appearance deserted.  The
+    robbers kept close to their caves and hovels, but the cold nearly
+    killed us.  We reached Aranjuez late on Christmas day, and I got into
+    the house of an Englishman, where I swallowed nearly a pint of
+    brandy: {191a} it affected me no more than warm water.” {191b}
+
+Borrow arrived at Madrid on 26th December, having almost by a miracle
+avoided death or capture by the human wolves that infested the country.
+He took up his quarters at 16 Calle de Santiago at the house of Maria
+Díaz, who was to prove so loyal a friend during many critical periods of
+his work in Spain.  His first care was to call upon the British Minister,
+and enquire if he considered it safe to proceed with the printing without
+special application to the new Government.  Mr Villiers’ answer is
+interesting, as showing how thoroughly he had taken Borrow under his
+protection.
+
+    “You obtained the permission of the Government of Isturitz,” he
+    replied, “which was a much less liberal one than the present; I am a
+    witness to the promise made to you by the former Ministers, which I
+    consider sufficient; you had best commence and complete the work as
+    soon as possible without any fresh application, and should anyone
+    attempt to interrupt you, you have only to come to me, whom you may
+    command at any time.” {191c}
+
+Having saved the Bible Society 9000 _reals_ in its paper bill alone,
+{191d} Borrow proceeded to arrange for the printing.  He had already
+opened negotiations with Charles Wood, who was associated with Andréas
+Borrégo, {192a} the most fashionable printer in Madrid, who not only had
+the best printing-presses in Spain, but had been specially recommended by
+Isturitz.  It had been tentatively arranged that an edition of 5000
+copies of the New Testament should be printed from the version of Father
+Felipe Scio de San Miguel, confessor to Ferdinand VII., without notes or
+commentaries, and delivered within three months.
+
+Remembering the advice of Isturitz, Borrow determined to entrust the work
+to Borrégo, including the binding.  He was the Government printer, and,
+furthermore, enjoyed the good opinion of Mr Villiers.  Having persuaded
+Borrégo to reduce his price to 10 _reals_ a sheet, he placed the order.
+It was agreed that the work should be completed in ten weeks from 20th
+January.
+
+Each sheet was to be passed by Borrow.  As a matter of fact he read every
+word three times; but in order to insure absolute accuracy, he engaged
+the services of Dr Usoz, “the first scholar in Spain,” {192b} who was to
+be responsible for the final revision, leaving the question of the
+remuneration to the generosity of the Bible Society.  The result of all
+this care was that, according to Borrow the edition exhibited scarcely
+one typographical error. {192c}
+
+The question of systematic distribution had next to be considered.  After
+much musing and cogitation, Borrow came to the conclusion that the only
+satisfactory method was for him to “ride forth from Madrid into the
+wildest parts of Spain,” where the word is most wanted and where it seems
+next to an impossibility to introduce it, and this he proposed to the
+Committee.
+
+    “I will take with me 1200 copies,” he wrote, {193} “which I will
+    engage to dispose of for little or much to the wild people of the
+    wild regions which I intend to visit; as for the rest of the edition,
+    it must be disposed of, if possible, in a different way—I may say the
+    usual way; part must be entrusted to booksellers, part to
+    colporteurs, and a depôt must be established at Madrid.  Such work is
+    every person’s work, and to anyone may be confided the execution of
+    it; it is a mere affair of trade.  What I wish to be employed in is
+    what, I am well aware, no other individual will undertake to do:
+    namely, to scatter the Word upon the mountains, amongst the valleys
+    and the inmost recesses of the worst and most dangerous parts of
+    Spain, where the people are more fierce, fanatic and, in a word,
+    Carlist.”
+
+In the same letter Borrow shows how thoroughly he understood his own
+character when he wrote:
+
+    “I shall not feel at all surprised should it [the plan] be
+    disapproved of all-together; but I wish it to be understood that in
+    that event I could do nothing further than see the work through the
+    press, as I am confident that whatever ardour and zeal I at present
+    feel in the cause would desert me immediately, and that I should
+    neither be able nor willing to execute anything which might be
+    suggested.  I wish to engage in nothing which would not allow me to
+    depend entirely on myself.  It would be heart-breaking to me to
+    remain at Madrid expending the Society’s money, with almost the
+    certainty of being informed eventually by the booksellers and their
+    correspondents that the work has no sale.  In a word, to make sure
+    that some copies find their way among the people, I must be permitted
+    to carry them to the people myself.”
+
+He goes on to inform Mr Brandram that in anticipation of the acquiescence
+of the Committee in his schemes, he has purchased, for about £12, one of
+the smuggler’s horses, which he has preferred to a mule, on account of
+the expense of the popular hybrid, and also because of its enormous
+appetite, to satisfy which two pecks of barley and a proportionate amount
+of straw are required each twenty-four hours, as the beast must be fed
+every four hours, day and night.  Thus the members of the Committee
+learned something about the ways of the mule.
+
+The response to this suggestion was a resolution passed by the
+Sub-Committee for General Purposes, by which Borrow was permitted to
+enter into correspondence with the principal booksellers and other
+persons favourable to the dissemination of the Scriptures.  In a covering
+letter {194a}  Mr Brandram very pertinently enquired, “Can the people in
+these wilds read?”  Whilst not wishing to put a final negative to the
+proposal, the Secretary asked if there were no middle course.  Could
+Borrow not establish a depôt at some principal place, and from it make
+excursions occupying two or three days each, “instead of devoting
+yourself wholly to the wild people.”
+
+Borrow assured Mr Brandram that he had misunderstood.  The care of “the
+wild people” was only to be incidental on his visits to towns and
+villages to establish depôts or agencies.  “On my way,” he wrote, “I
+intended to visit the secret and secluded spots amongst the rugged hills
+and mountains, and to talk to the people, after my manner, of Christ.”
+{194b}
+
+It was on 3rd April that Borrow had received the letter from Earl Street
+authorising him “to undertake the tour suggested . . . for the purpose of
+circulating the Spanish New Testament in some of the principal cities of
+Spain.”  He was requested to write as frequently as possible, giving an
+account of his adventures.  At the same time Mr Brandram wrote: “You will
+perceive by the Resolution that nearly all your requests are complied
+with.  You have authority to go forth with your horses, and may you have
+a prosperous journey . . .  Pray for wisdom to discern between
+presumptuousness and want of Faith.” {195a}
+
+The printing of the 5000 copies of the New Testament in Spanish was
+completed early in April, but there was considerable delay over the
+binding.  The actual date of publication was 1st May.  The work had been
+well done, and was “allowed by people who have perused it, and with no
+friendly feeling, to be one of the most correct works that have ever
+issued from the press in Spain, and to be an exceedingly favourable
+specimen of typography and paper.” {195b}
+
+In addition to the _contrabandista’s_ horse, Borrow had acquired “a black
+Andalusian stallion of great size and strength, and capable of performing
+a journey of a hundred leagues in a week’s time.” {195c}  In spite of his
+unbroken state, Borrow decided to purchase the animal, relying upon “a
+cargo of bibles” to reduce him to obedience.  It was with this black
+Andalusian that he created a sensation by riding about Madrid, “with a
+Russian skin for a saddle, and without stirrups.  Altogether making so
+conspicuous a figure that [the Marqués de] Santa Coloma hesitated, and it
+needed all his courage to be seen riding with him.  At this period Borrow
+spent a good deal of money and lived very freely (i.e., luxuriously) in
+Spain.  From the point of view of the Marqués, a Spanish Roman Catholic,
+Borrow was excessively bigoted, and fond of attacking Roman Catholics and
+Catholicism.  He evidently, however, liked him as a companion; but he
+says Borrow never, as far as he saw or could learn, spoke of religion to
+his Gypsy friends, and that he soon noticed his difference of attitude
+towards them.  He was often going to the British Embassy, and he thinks
+was considered a great bore there.” {195d}
+
+The unanimous advice of Borrow’s friends, Protestant and Roman Catholic,
+was “that for the present I should proceed with the utmost caution, but
+without concealing the object of my mission.” {196a}  He was to avoid
+offending people’s prejudices and endeavour everywhere to keep on good
+terms with the clergy, “at least one-third of whom are known to be
+anxious for the dissemination of the Word of God, though at the same time
+unwilling to separate themselves from the discipline and ceremonials of
+Rome.” {196b}
+
+Thus equipped with sage counsel, Borrow was just about to start upon his
+journey into the North, when he found it necessary to dismiss his servant
+owing to misconduct.  This caused delay.  Through Mr O’Shea, the banker,
+he got to know Antonio Buchini, the Greek of Constantinople, who, of all
+the strange characters Borrow had met he considered “the most
+surprising.” {196c}  Antonio’s vices were sufficiently obvious to
+discourage anyone from attempting to discover his virtues.  He loved
+change, quarrelled with everybody, masters, mistresses, and
+fellow-servants.  Borrow engaged him; but looked to the future with
+misgiving.  Antonio unquestionably had his bad points; yet he was a
+treasure compared with the Spaniard whom he succeeded.  This man was much
+given to drink and was always engaged in some quarrel.  He drew his
+terrible knife, such as all Spaniards carry, upon all who offended him.
+On one occasion Borrow saved from his wrath a poor maid-servant who had
+incurred his ire by burning a herring she was toasting for him.
+Antonio’s virtues comprised an unquestioned honesty and devotion, and on
+the whole he was a desirable servant in a country where such virtues were
+extremely rare.
+
+It was not until 15th May that Borrow, accompanied by Antonio, was able
+to get away from Madrid.  A few days previously he had contracted “a
+severe cold which terminated in a shrieking, disagreeable cough.”  This,
+following on a fortnight’s attack of influenza, proved difficult to shake
+off.  Finding himself scarcely able to stand, he at length appealed to a
+barber-surgeon, who drew 16 oz. of blood, assuring his patient that on
+the following day he would be well enough to start.
+
+That same evening Mr Villiers sent round to Borrow’s lodgings informing
+him that he had decided to help him by every means in his power.  He
+announced his intention of purchasing a large number of the Testaments,
+and despatching them to the various British Consuls in Spain, with
+instructions “to employ all the means which their official situation
+should afford them to circulate the books in question, and to assure
+their being noticed.” {197a}  They were also to render every assistance
+in their power to Borrow “as a friend of Mr Villiers, and a person in the
+success of whose enterprise he himself took the warmest interest.” {197b}
+Mr Villiers’ interest in Borrow’s mission seems to have led him into a
+diplomatic indiscretion.  Borrow himself confesses that he could scarcely
+believe his ears.  Although assured of the British Minister’s friendly
+attitude, he “could never expect that he would come forward in so noble,
+and to say the least of it, considering his high diplomatic situation, so
+bold and decided a manner.” {197c}  This act of friendliness becomes a
+personal tribute to Borrow, when it is remembered that at first Mr
+Villiers had been by no means well disposed towards the Bible Society.
+
+Before leaving Madrid, Borrow had circularised all the principal
+booksellers, offering to supply the New Testament at fifteen _reals_ a
+copy, the actual cost price; but he was not sanguine as to the result,
+for he found the Spaniard “short-sighted and . . . so utterly
+unacquainted with the rudiments of business.” {198}  Advertisements had
+been inserted in all the principal newspapers stating that the
+booksellers of Madrid were now in a position to supply the New Testament
+in Spanish, unencumbered by obscuring notes and comments.  Borrow also
+provided for an advertisement to be inserted each week during his
+absence, which he anticipated would be about five months.  After that he
+knew not what would happen—there was always China.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+MAY–OCTOBER 1837
+
+
+THE prediction of the surgeon-barber was fulfilled; by the next morning
+the fever and cough had considerably abated, although the patient was
+still weak from loss of blood.  This, however, did not hinder him from
+mounting his black Andalusian, and starting upon his initial journey of
+distribution.  On arriving at Salamanca, his first objective, he
+immediately sought out the principal bookseller and placed with him
+copies of the New Testament.  He also inserted an advertisement in the
+local newspaper, stating that the volume was the only guide to salvation;
+at the same time he called attention to the great pecuniary sacrifices
+that the Bible Society was making in order to proclaim Christ crucified.
+This advertisement he caused to be struck off in considerable numbers as
+bills and posted in various parts of the town, and he even went so far as
+to affix one to the porch of the church.  He also distributed them as he
+progressed through the villages. {199}
+
+From Salamanca (10th June) Borrow journeyed to Valladolid, and from
+thence to León, {200a} (a hotbed of Carlism), where the people were
+ignorant and brutal and refused to the stranger a glass of water, unless
+he were prepared to pay for it.  At León he was seized by a fever that
+prostrated him for a week.  He also experienced marked antagonism from
+the clergy, who threatened every direful consequence to whosoever read or
+purchased “the accursed books” which he brought.  A more serious evidence
+of their displeasure was shown by the action they commenced in the
+ecclesiastical court against the bookseller whom Borrow had arranged with
+to act as agent for his Testaments.  The bookseller himself did not mend
+matters by fixing upon the doors of the cathedral itself one of the
+advertisements that he had received with the books.
+
+When sufficiently recovered to travel, Borrow proceeded to Astorga, which
+he reached with the utmost difficulty owing to bad roads and the fierce
+heat.
+
+    “We were compelled to take up our abode,” he writes, {200b} “in a
+    wretched hovel full of pigs’ vermin and misery, and from this place I
+    write, for this morning I felt myself unable to proceed on my
+    journey, being exhausted with illness, fatigue and want of food, for
+    scarcely anything is to be obtained; but I return God thanks and
+    glory for being permitted to undergo these crosses and troubles for
+    His Word’s sake.  I would not exchange my present situation,
+    unenviable as some may think it, for a throne.”
+
+Thus Borrow wrote when burning with fever, after having just been told to
+vacate his room at the _posada_, and having his luggage flung into the
+yard to make room for the occupants of the “waggon” from Madrid to
+Coruña.
+
+From Astorga he proceeded by way of Puerto de Manzanál, Bembibre,
+Cacabélos, Villafranca, Puerto de Fuencebadón and Nogáles, “through the
+wildest mountains and wildernesses” to Lugo.
+
+Owing to the unsafety of the roads, it was customary for travellers to
+attach themselves to the Grand Post, which was always guarded by an
+escort.  At Nogáles Borrow joined the mail courier; but as a rule he was
+too independent, too much in a hurry, and too indifferent to danger to
+wait for such protection against the perils of the robber-infested roads.
+He has given the following graphic account “of the grand post from Madrid
+to Coruña, attended by a considerable escort, and an immense number of
+travellers . . . We were soon mounted and in the street, amidst a
+confused throng of men and quadrupeds.  The light of a couple of
+flambeaus, which were borne before the courier, shone on the arms of
+several soldiers, seemingly drawn up on either side of the road; the
+darkness, however, prevented me from distinguishing objects very clearly.
+The courier himself was mounted on a little shaggy pony; before and
+behind him were two immense portmanteaus, or leather sacks, the ends of
+which nearly touched the ground.  For about a quarter of an hour there
+was much hubbub, shouting, and trampling, at the end of which period the
+order was given to proceed.  Scarcely had we left the village when the
+flambeaus were extinguished, and we were left in almost total darkness.
+In this manner we proceeded for several hours, up hill and down dale, but
+generally at a very slow pace.  The soldiers who escorted us from time to
+time sang patriotic songs . . . At last the day began to break, and I
+found myself amidst a train of two or three hundred people, some on foot,
+but the greater part mounted, either on mules or the pony mares: I could
+not distinguish a single horse except my own and Antonio’s.  A few
+soldiers were thinly scattered along the road.” {201}
+
+After about a week’s stay at Lugo, Borrow again attached himself to the
+Grand Post; but tiring of its slow and deliberate progress, he decided to
+push on alone, and came very near to falling a prey to the banditti.  He
+was suddenly confronted by two of the fraternity, who presented their
+carbines, “which they probably intended to discharge into my body, but
+they took fright at the noise of Antonio’s horse, who was following a
+little way behind.” {202}
+
+The night was spent at Betanzos, where the black Andalusian was stricken
+with “a deep, hoarse cough.”  Remembering a prophetic remark that had
+been made by a roadside acquaintance to the effect that “the man must be
+mad who brings a horse to Galicia, and doubly so he who brings an
+_entero_,” Borrow, determined to have the animal bled, sent for a
+farrier, meanwhile rubbing down his steed with a quart of _anis_ brandy.
+The farrier demanded an ounce of gold for the operation, which decided
+Borrow to perform it himself.  With a large fleam that he possessed, he
+twice bled the Andalusian, to the astonishment of the discomfited
+farrier, and saved its valuable life, also an ounce of gold.  Next day he
+and Antonio walked to Coruña, leading their horses.
+
+At Coruña were five hundred copies of the New Testament that had been
+sent on from Madrid.  So far Borrow had himself disposed of sixty-five
+copies, irrespective of those sold at Lugo and other places by means of
+the advertisement.  These books were all sold at prices ranging from 10
+to 12 _reals_ each.  Borrow made a special point of this, “to give a
+direct lie to the assertion” that the Bible Society, having no vent for
+the Bibles and New Testaments it printed, was forced either to give them
+away or sell them by auction, when they were purchased as waste paper.
+
+The condition of the roads at that period was so bad, on account of
+robbers and Carlists, that it was forbidden to anyone to travel along the
+thoroughfare leading to Santiago unless in company with the mail courier
+and his escort of soldiers.  Unfortunately for Borrow his black
+Andalusian was not of a companionable disposition, and to bring him near
+other horses was to invite a fierce contest.  On the rare occasions that
+he did travel with the Grand Post, Borrow was frequently involved in
+difficulties on account of the _entero’s_ unsociable nature; but as he
+was deeply attached to the noble beast, he retained him and suffered
+dangers rather than give up the companion of many an adventure.
+
+Some idea may be obtained of the state of rural Spain in 1837, when the
+highways teemed with “patriots” bent upon robbing friend and foe alike
+and afterwards assassinating or mutilating their victims, from a story
+that Borrow tells of how a viper-catcher, who was engaged in pursuing his
+calling in the neighbourhood of Orense, fell into the hands of these
+miscreants, who robbed and stripped him.  They then pinioned his hands
+behind him and drew over his head the mouth of the bag containing the
+_living_ vipers, which they fastened round his neck and listened with
+satisfaction to the poor wretch’s cries.  The reptiles stung their victim
+to madness, and after having run raving through several villages he
+eventually fell dead. {203a}
+
+Making Coruña his headquarters, Borrow proceeded to Santiago, “travelling
+with the courier or weekly post,” and from thence to Padrón, Pontevedra,
+and Vigo.  At Vigo he was apprehended as a spy, but immediately released.
+It was whilst at Santiago that he repeated an experiment he had
+previously made at Valladolid.
+
+    “I . . . sallied forth,” he writes, {203b} “alone and on horseback,
+    and bent my course to a distant village; on my arrival, which took
+    place just after the _siesta_ or afternoon’s nap had concluded, I
+    proceeded . . . to the market place, where I spread a horse-cloth on
+    the ground, upon which I deposited my books.  I then commenced crying
+    with a loud voice: ‘Peasants, peasants, I bring you the Word of God
+    at a cheap price.  I know you have but little money, but I bring it
+    you at whatever you can command, at four or three _reals_, according
+    to your means.’  I thus went on till a crowd gathered round me, who
+    examined the books with attention, many of them reading aloud, but I
+    had not long to wait; . . . my cargo was disposed of almost
+    instantaneously, and I mounted my horse without a question being
+    asked me, and returned to my temporary abode lighter than I came.”
+
+Borrow did not repeat the experiment for fear of giving offence to the
+clergy.  The new means of distribution was to be used only as a last
+resource.
+
+Arriving at Padrón on the return journey, Borrow found that he had only
+one book left.  He determined to send Antonio forward with the horses to
+await him at Coruña, whilst he made an excursion to Cape Finisterre.
+
+    “It would be,” he says, “difficult to assign any plausible reason for
+    the ardent desire which I entertained to visit this place; but I
+    remembered that last year I had escaped almost by a miracle from
+    shipwreck and death on the rocky sides of this extreme point of the
+    Old World, and I thought that to convey the Gospel to a place so wild
+    and remote might perhaps be considered an acceptable pilgrimage in
+    the eyes of my Maker.” {204a}
+
+Hiring a guide and a pony, he reached the Cape, after surmounting
+tremendous difficulties, and on arrival he and his guide were arrested as
+Carlist spies. {204b}  In all probability he would have been shot, such
+was the certainty of the _Alcalde_ that he was a spy, had not the
+professional hero of the place come forward and, after having
+cross-examined him as to his knowledge of “knife” and “fork,” the only
+two English words the Spaniard knew, pronounced him English, and
+eventually conveyed him to the _Alcalde_ of Convucion, who released him.
+On the man who had saved him Borrow privately bestowed a gratuity, and
+publicly the copy of the New Testament that had led to the expedition.
+He then returned to Coruña, by his journey having accomplished “what has
+long been one of the ardent wishes of my heart.  I have carried the
+Gospel to the extreme point of the Old World.” {205a}
+
+The black Andalusian was totally unfitted for the long mountainous
+journey into the Asturias that Borrow now planned to undertake, and he
+decided to dispose of him.  He was greatly attached to the creature,
+notwithstanding his vicious habits and the difficulties that arose out of
+them.  Now the _entero_ would be engaged in a deadly struggle with some
+gloomy mule; again, by rushing among a crowd outside a _posada_, he would
+do infinite damage and earn for his master and himself an evil name.
+Borrow thus announces to the Bible Society the sale of its property:
+“This animal cost the Society about 2000 _reals_ at Madrid; I, however,
+sold him for 3000 at Coruña, notwithstanding that he has suffered much
+from the hard labour which he had been subjected to in our wanderings in
+Galicia, and likewise from bad provender.” {205b}
+
+Borrow next set out upon an expedition to Orviedo in the Asturias, {205c}
+then in daily expectation of being attacked by the Carlists.  It was at
+Orviedo that he received a striking tribute from a number of Spanish
+gentlemen.
+
+    “A strange adventure has just occurred to me,” he wrote. {205d}  “I
+    am in the ancient town of Orviedo, in a very large, scantily
+    furnished and remote room of an ancient _posada_, formerly a palace
+    of the Counts of Santa Cruz, it is past ten at night and the rain is
+    descending in torrents.  I ceased writing on hearing numerous
+    footsteps ascending the creeking stairs which lead to my
+    apartment—the door was flung open, and in walked nine men of tall
+    stature, marshalled by a little hunchbacked personage.  They were all
+    muffled in the long cloaks of Spain, but I instantly knew by their
+    demeanour that they were _caballeros_, or gentlemen.  They placed
+    themselves in a rank before the table where I was sitting; suddenly
+    and simultaneously they all flung back their cloaks, and I perceived
+    that every one bore a book in his hand, a book which I knew full
+    well.  After a pause, which I was unable to break, for I sat lost in
+    astonishment and almost conceived myself to be visited by
+    apparitions, the hunchback advancing somewhat before the rest, said,
+    in soft silvery tones, ‘_Señor_ Cavalier, was it you who brought this
+    book to the Asturias?’  I now supposed that they were the civil
+    authorities of the place come to take me into custody, and, rising
+    from my seat, I exclaimed: ‘It certainly was I, and it is my glory to
+    have done so; the book is the New Testament of God; I wish it was in
+    my power to bring a million.’  ‘I heartily wish so too,’ said the
+    little personage with a sigh; ‘be under no apprehension, Sir
+    Cavalier, these gentlemen are my friends.  We have just purchased
+    these books in the shop where you have placed them for sale, and have
+    taken the liberty of calling upon you in order to return you our
+    thanks for the treasure you have brought us.  I hope you can furnish
+    us with the Old Testament also!’  I replied that I was sorry to
+    inform him that at present it was entirely out of my power to comply
+    with his wish, as I had no Old Testaments in my possession, but I did
+    not despair of procuring some speedily from England. {206}  He then
+    asked me a great many questions concerning my Biblical travels in
+    Spain and my success, and the views entertained by the Society in
+    respect to Spain, adding that he hoped we should pay particular
+    attention to the Asturias, which he assured me was the best ground in
+    the Peninsula for our labour.  After about half an hour’s
+    conversation, he suddenly said in the English language, ‘Good night,
+    Sir,’ wrapped his cloak around him and walked out as he had come.
+    His companions, who had hitherto not uttered a word, all repeated,
+    ‘Good night, Sir,’ and adjusting their cloaks followed him.”
+
+This anecdote greatly impressed the General Committee.  Mr Brandram wrote
+(15th November 1837): “We were all deeply interested with your ten
+gentlemen of Orviedo.  I have introduced them at several meetings.”
+
+Whilst at Orviedo, Borrow began to be very uneasy about the state of
+affairs at the capital.  “Madrid,” he wrote, {207} “is the depôt of our
+books, and I am apprehensive that in the revolutions and disturbances
+which at present seem to threaten it, our whole stock may perish.  True
+it is that in order to reach Madrid I should have to pass through the
+midst of the Carlist hordes, who would perhaps slay or make me prisoner;
+but I am at present so much accustomed to perilous adventure, and have
+hitherto experienced so many fortunate escapes, that the dangers which
+infest the route would not deter me a moment from venturing.  But there
+is no certain intelligence, and Madrid may be in safety or on the brink
+of falling.”
+
+Another factor that made him desirous of returning to the capital was
+that, ever since leaving Coruña, he had been afflicted with a dysentery
+and, later, with ophthalmia, which resulted from it, and he was anxious
+to obtain proper medical advice.  He determined, however, first to carry
+out his project of visiting Santandér, which he reached by way of Villa
+Viciosa, Colunga, Riba de Sella, Llánes, Colombres, San Vicente,
+Santillana.  It was at Santandér that he encountered the unfortunate
+Flinter, {208} as brave with his sword as with his tongue.
+
+Instructions had been given in a letter to Borrégo to forward to
+Santandér two hundred copies of the New Testament; but, much to Borrow’s
+disappointment, he found that they had not arrived.  He thought that
+either they had fallen into the hands of the Carlists, or his letter of
+instruction had miscarried: as a matter of fact they did not leave Madrid
+until 30th October, the day before Borrow arrived at the capital.  Thus
+his journey was largely wasted.  It would be folly to remain at
+Santandér, where, in spite of the strictest economy, his expenses
+amounted to two pounds a day, whilst a further supply of books was
+obtained.  Accordingly he determined to make for Madrid without further
+delay.
+
+Purchasing a small horse, and notwithstanding that he was so ill as
+scarcely to be able to support himself; indifferent to the fact that the
+country between Santandér and Madrid was overrun with Carlists, whose
+affairs in Castile had not prospered; too dispirited to collect his
+thoughts sufficiently to write to Mr Brandram, he set out, accompanied by
+Antonio, “determined to trust, as usual, in the Almighty and to venture.”
+Physical ailments, however, did not in any way cause him to forget why he
+had come to Santandér, and before leaving he made tentative arrangements
+with the booksellers of the town as to what they should do in the event
+of his being able to send them a supply of Testaments.
+
+That journey of a hundred leagues was a nightmare.  “Robberies, murders,
+and all kinds of atrocity were perpetrated before, behind, and on both
+sides” of them; but they passed through it all as if travelling along an
+English highway.  Even when met at the entrance of the Black Pass by a
+man, his face covered with blood, who besought him not to enter the pass,
+where he had just been robbed of all he possessed, Borrow, without making
+reply, proceeded on his way.  He was too ill to weigh the risks, and
+Antonio followed cheerfully wherever his master went.  Madrid was reached
+on 31st October. {209a}   The next day Borrow wrote to Mr Brandram:
+“People say we have been very lucky; Antonio says, ‘It was so written’;
+but I say, Glory be to the Lord for His mercies vouchsafed.”
+
+The expedition to the Northern Provinces had occupied five and a half
+months.  Every kind of fatigue had been experienced, dangers had been
+faced, even courted, and every incident of the road turned to further the
+end in view—the distribution of the Scriptures in Spain.  The countryside
+had proved itself ignorant and superstitious, and the towns eager, not
+for the Word of God but “for stimulant narratives, and amongst too many a
+lust for the deistical writings of the French, especially for those of
+Talleyrand, which have been translated into Spanish and published by the
+press of Barcelona, and for which I was frequently pestered.” {209b}
+Antonio had proved himself a unique body-servant and companion, and if
+with a previous employer he had valued his personal comfort so highly as
+to give notice because his mistress’s pet quail disturbed his slumbers,
+he was nevertheless utterly indifferent to the hardships and discomforts
+that he endured when with Borrow, and always proved cheerful and willing.
+
+Borrow had “by private sale disposed of one hundred and sixteen
+Testaments to individuals entirely of the lower classes, namely,
+muleteers, carmen, _contrabandistas_, etc.” {209c}  He had dared to
+undertake what perhaps only he was capable of carrying to a successful
+issue; for, left alone to make his own plans and conduct the campaign
+along his own lines, Borrow has probably never been equalled as a
+missionary, strange though the term may seem when applied to him.  His
+fear of God did not hinder him from making other men fear God’s
+instrument, himself.  His fine capacity for affairs, together with what
+must have appeared to the clergy of the districts through which he passed
+his outrageous daring, conspired to his achieving what few other men
+would have thought, and probably none were capable of undertaking.  A
+missionary who rode a noble, black Andalusian stallion, who could use a
+fleam as well as a blacksmith’s hammer, who could ride barebacked, and,
+above all, made men fear him as a physical rather than a spiritual force,
+was new in Spain, as indeed elsewhere.  The very novelty of Borrow’s
+methods, coupled with the daring and unconventional independence of the
+man himself, ensured the success of his mission.  There was something of
+the Camel-Driver of Mecca about his missionary work.  He saw nothing
+anomalous in being possessed of a strong arm as well as a Christian
+spirit.  He would endeavour to win over the ungodly; but woe betide them
+if they should attempt to pit their strength against his.  Borrow’s own
+comment upon his journey in the Northern Provinces was, “Insignificant
+are the results of man’s labours compared with the swelling ideas of his
+presumption; something, however, had been effected by the journey which I
+had just concluded.” {210}
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+NOVEMBER 1837–APRIL 1838
+
+
+GREAT changes had taken place in Madrid during Borrow’s absence.  The
+Carlists had actually appeared before its gates, although they had
+subsequently retired.  Liberalism had been routed and a _Moderado_
+Cabinet, under the leadership of Count Ofalia, ruled the city and such
+part of the country as was sufficiently complaisant as to permit itself
+to be ruled.  As the _Moderados_ represented the Court faction, Borrow
+saw that he had little to expect from them.  He was unacquainted with any
+of the members of the Cabinet, and, what was far more serious for him,
+the relations between the new Government and Sir George Villiers {211}
+were none too cordial, as the British Minister had been by no means
+favourable to the new ministry.
+
+Having written to Mr Brandram telling of his arrival in Madrid, “begging
+pardon for all errors of commission and omission,” and confessing himself
+“a frail and foolish vessel,” that had “accomplished but a slight portion
+of what I proposed in my vanity,” Borrow proceeded to disprove his own
+assertion.  He found the affairs of the Bible Society in a far from
+flourishing condition.  The Testaments had not sold to any considerable
+extent, for which “only circumstances and the public poverty” were the
+cause, as Dr Usoz explained.
+
+To awaken interest in his campaign, Borrow planned to print a thousand
+advertisements, which were to be posted in various parts of the city, and
+to employ colporteurs to vend the books in the streets.  He despatched
+consignments of books to towns he had visited that required them, and in
+the enthusiasm of his eager and active mind foresaw that, “as the circle
+widens in the lake into which a stripling has cast a pebble, so will the
+circle of our usefulness continue widening, until it has embraced the
+whole vast region of Spain.” {212a}
+
+It soon became evident that there was to be a very strong opposition.  A
+furious attack upon the Bible Society was made in a letter addressed to
+the editors of _El Español_ on 5th November, prefixed to a circular of
+the Spiritual Governor of Valencia, forbidding the purchase or reading of
+the London edition of Father Scio’s Bible.  The letter described the
+Bible Society as “an infernal society,” and referred in passing to “its
+accursed fecundity.”  It also strongly resented the omission of the
+Apocrypha from the Scio Bible.  Borrow promptly replied to this attack in
+a letter of great length, and entirely silenced his antagonist, whom he
+described to Mr Brandram (20th Nov.) as “an unprincipled benefice-hunting
+curate.”  “You will doubtless deem it too warm and fiery,” he writes,
+referring to his reply, “but tameness and gentleness are of little avail
+when surrounded by the vassal slaves of bloody Rome.” {212b}  Borrow’s
+response to the “benefice-hunting curate” not only silenced him, but was
+listened to by the General Committee of the Society “with much pleasure.”
+
+The cause of the trouble in Valencia lay with the other agent of the
+Bible Society in Spain, Lieutenant James Newenham Graydon, R.N., who
+first took up the work of distributing the Scriptures at Gibraltar in
+1835.  Here he became associated with the Rev. W. H. Rule, of the
+Wesleyan Methodist Society.  “The Lieutenant, who seems to have combined
+the personal charm of the Irish gentleman with some of the perfervid
+incautiousness of the Keltic temperament, finding himself unemployed at
+Gibraltar, resolved to do what lay in his power for the spiritual
+enlightenment of Spain.  Without receiving a regular commission from any
+society, he took up single-handed the task which he had imposed upon
+himself.” {213a}
+
+Borrow had first met Lieutenant Graydon at Madrid, in the summer of 1836,
+where he saw him two or three times.  When Graydon left, on account of
+the heat, Borrow had removed to Graydon’s lodgings as being more
+comfortable than his own.  The prohibition in Valencia was directly due
+to the indiscretion and incaution of Graydon.  The Vicar-General of the
+province gave as a reason for his action, an advertisement that had
+appeared in the _Diario Comercial_ of Valencia, undertaking to supply
+Bibles gratis to those who could not afford to buy them.  For this
+advertisement Graydon was admonished by the General Committee, which
+refused to entertain his plea that, being unpaid, he was not, strictly
+speaking, an agent of the Bible Society.  He was given to understand that
+as the Society was responsible for his acts he must be guided by its
+views and wishes.
+
+The next occasion on which Borrow came into conflict with this impulsive
+missionary free-lance was in March 1838, when he heard from the Rev. W.
+H. Rule that Graydon was on his way to Andalusia.  Borrow immediately
+wrote to Mr Brandram that he, acting on the advice of Sir George
+Villiers, had already planned an expedition into that province, and
+furthermore that he had despatched there a number of Testaments.  He
+explained to Mr Brandram that he was apprehensive “of the re-acting at
+Seville of the Valencian Drama, which I have such unfortunate cause to
+rue, as I am the victim on whom an aggravated party have wreaked their
+vengeance, and for the very cogent reason that I was within their reach.”
+{213b}  On this occasion Graydon was instructed not to start upon his
+projected journey, although Mr Brandram gave the order much against his
+own inclination. {214a}
+
+One great difficulty that Borrow had to contend with was the apathy of
+the Madrid booksellers, who “gave themselves no manner of trouble to
+secure the sale, and even withheld [the] advertisements from the public.”
+{214b}  This determined him to open a shop himself, and, accordingly,
+towards the end of November, he secured premises in the Calle del
+Principe, one of the main thoroughfares, for which he agreed to pay a
+rent of eight _reals_ a day.  He furnished the premises handsomely, with
+glass cases and chandeliers, and caused to be painted in large yellow
+characters the sign “Despacho de la Sociedad Bíblica y Estrangera” (Depôt
+of the Biblical and Foreign Society).  He engaged a Gallegan (José
+Calzado, whom he called Pepe) as salesman, and on 27th November formally
+opened his new premises.  Customers soon presented themselves; but many
+were disappointed on finding that they could not obtain the Bible.  “I
+could have sold ten times the amount of what I did,” Borrow writes.  “I
+_must_ therefore be furnished with Bibles instanter; send me therefore
+the London edition, bad as it is, say 500 copies.” {214c}
+
+To facilitate the passing of these books through the customs, Borrow
+suggested that they should be consigned to the British Consul at Cadiz,
+who was friendly to the Society and “would have sufficient influence to
+secure their admission into Spain.  But the most advisable way,” he goes
+on to explain with great guile, “would be to pack them in two chests,
+placing at the top Bibles in English and other languages, for there is a
+demand, viz., 100 English, 100 French, 50 German, 50 Hebrew, 50 Greek, 10
+Modern Greek, 10 Persian, 20 Arabic.  _Pray do not fail_.” {215a}
+
+When Sir George Villiers first obtained from Isturitz permission for
+Borrow to print and sell the New Testament in Spanish without notes, he
+had cautioned him “to use the utmost circumspection, and in order to
+pursue his vocation with success, to avoid offending popular prejudices,
+which would not fail to be excited against a Protestant and a Foreigner
+engaged in the propagation of the Gospel.” {215b}  This warning the
+British Minister had repeated frequently since.  It was without
+consulting Sir George that Borrow opened his depôt, and “imprudently
+painted upon the window that it was the Depôt of the London (sic) Bible
+Society for the sale of Bibles.  I told him,” Sir George writes “that
+such a measure would render the interference of the Authorities
+inevitable, and so it turned out.” {215c}
+
+Borrow now lost the services of the faithful Antonio, who, on the last
+day of the year, informed him that he had become unsettled and
+dissatisfied with everything at his master’s lodgings, including the
+house, the furniture, and the landlady herself.  Therefore he had hired
+himself out to a count for four dollars a month less than he was
+receiving from Borrow, because he was “fond of change, though it be for
+the worse.  _Adieu_, _mon maitre_,” he said in parting; “may you be as
+well served as you deserve.  Should you chance, however, to have any
+pressing need _de mes soins_, send for me without hesitation, and I will
+at once give my new master warning.”  A few days later Borrow engaged a
+Basque, named Francisco, who “to the strength of a giant joined the
+disposition of a lamb,” {216a} and who had been strongly recommended to
+him.
+
+On his return from a hurried visit to Toledo, Borrow found his _Despacho_
+succeeding as well as could be expected.  To call attention to his
+premises he now took an extremely daring step.  He caused to be printed
+three thousand copies of an advertisement on paper yellow, blue, and
+crimson, “with which I almost covered the sides of the streets” he wrote,
+“and besides this inserted notices in all the journals and periodicals,
+employing also a man, after the London fashion, to parade the streets
+with a placard, to the astonishment of the populace.” {216b}  The result
+of this move, Borrow declared, was that every man, woman and child in
+Madrid became aware of the existence of his _Despacho_, as well they
+might.  In spite of this commercial enterprise, the first month’s trading
+showed a sale of only between seventy and eighty New Testaments, and ten
+Bibles, {216c} these having been secured from a Spanish bookseller who
+had brought them secretly from Gibraltar, but who was afraid to sell them
+himself.  Mr Brandram’s comment upon the letter from Borrow telling of
+the posters was that its contents had “afforded us no little merriment.
+The idea of your placards and placard-bearers in Madrid is indeed a novel
+one.  It cannot but be effectual in giving publicity.  I sincerely hope
+it may not be prejudicial.” {216d}
+
+When in England, at the end of 1836, Borrow had been authorised by the
+Bible Society to find “a person competent to translate the Scriptures in
+Basque.”  On 27_th_ February 1837, he wrote telling Mr Brandram that he
+had become “acquainted with a gentleman well versed in that dialect, of
+which I myself have some knowledge.”  Dr Oteiza, the domestic physician
+of the Marqués de Salvatierra, was accordingly commissioned to proceed
+with the work, for which, when completed, he was paid the sum of “£8 and
+a few odd shillings.”  Borrow reported to Mr Brandram (7th June 1837):
+
+    “I have examined it with much attention, and find it a very faithful
+    version.  The only objection which can be brought against it is that
+    Spanish words are frequently used to express ideas for which there
+    are equivalents in Basque; but this language, as spoken at present in
+    Spain, is very corrupt, and a work written entirely in the Basque of
+    Larramendi’s Dictionary would be intelligible to very few.  I have
+    read passages from it to men of Guipuscoa, who assured me that they
+    had no difficulty in understanding it, and that it was written in the
+    colloquial style of the province.”
+
+Borrow had “obtained a slight acquaintance” with Basque when a youth,
+which he lost no opportunity of extending by mingling with Biscayans
+during his stay in the Peninsula.  He also considerably improved himself
+in the language by conversing with his Basque servant Francisco.  Borrow
+now decided to print the Gitano and Basque versions of St Luke, which he
+accordingly put in hand; but as the compositors were entirely ignorant of
+both languages, he had to exercise the greatest care in reading the
+proofs.
+
+During his stay in Spain he had found time to translate into the dialect
+of the Spanish gypsies the greater part of the New Testament. {217a}  His
+method had been somewhat original.  Believing that there is “no
+individual, however wicked and hardened, who is utterly _godless_,”
+{217b} he determined to apply his belief to the gypsies.  To enlist their
+interest in the work, he determined to allow them to do the translating
+themselves.  At one period of his residence in Madrid he was regularly
+visited by two gypsy women, and these he decided to make his translators;
+for he found the women far more amenable than the men.  In spite of the
+fact that he had already translated into Gitano the New Testament, or the
+greater part of it, he would read out to the women from the Spanish
+version and let them translate it into Romany themselves, thus obtaining
+the correct gypsy idiom.  The women looked forward to these gatherings
+and also to “the one small glass of Malaga” with which their host regaled
+them.  They had got as far as the eighth chapter before the meetings
+ended.  What was the moral effect of St Luke upon the minds of two
+gypsies?  Borrow confessed himself sceptical; first, because he was
+acquainted with the gypsy character; second, because it came to his
+knowledge that one of the women “committed a rather daring theft shortly
+afterwards, which compelled her to conceal herself for a fortnight.”
+{218a}  Borrow comforted himself with the reflection that “it is quite
+possible, however, that she may remember the contents of those chapters
+on her death-bed.” {218b}  The translation of the remaining chapters was
+supplied from Borrow’s own version begun at Badajos in 1836.
+
+It is not strange that Borrow should be regarded with suspicion by the
+Spaniards on account of his association with the Gitanos.  Sometimes
+there would be as many as seventeen gypsies gathered together at his
+lodgings in the Calle de Santiago.
+
+    “The people in the street in which I lived,” he writes, {218c}
+    “seeing such numbers of these strange females continually passing in
+    and out, were struck with astonishment, and demanded the reason.  The
+    answers which they obtained by no means satisfied them.  ‘Zeal for
+    the conversion of souls—the souls too of Gitánas,—disparáte! the
+    fellow is a scoundrel.  Besides he is an Englishman, and is not
+    baptised; what cares he for souls?  They visit him for other
+    purposes.  He makes base ounces, which they carry away and circulate.
+    Madrid is already stocked with false money.’  Others were of the
+    opinion that we met for the purposes of sorcery and abomination.  The
+    Spaniard has no conception that other springs of action exist than
+    interest or villany.”
+
+Borrow was in reality endeavouring to convey to his “little
+congregation,” as he called them, some idea of abstract morality.  He was
+bold enough “to speak against their inveterate practices, thieving and
+lying, telling fortunes,” etc., and at first experienced much opposition.
+About the result, he seems to have cherished no illusions; still, he
+wrote a hymn in their dialect which he taught his guests to sing.
+
+For some time past it had been obvious to Borrow that he was becoming
+more than ever unpopular with certain interested factions in Madrid, who
+looked upon his missionary labours with angry disapproval.  The opening
+of his _Despacho_ had caused a great sensation.  “The Priests and Bigots
+are teeming with malice and fury,” he had written to Mr Brandram, {219a}
+“which hitherto they have thought proper to exhibit only in words, as
+they know that all I do here is favoured by Mr Villiers {219b} (sic) . . .
+There is no attempt, however atrocious, which may not be expected from
+such people, and were it right and seemly for _me_, the most
+insignificant of worms, to make such a comparison, I would say that, like
+Paul at Ephesus, I am fighting with wild beasts.”  He was attacked in
+print and endeavours were made to incite the people against him as a
+sorcerer and companion of gypsies and witches.  When he decided upon the
+campaign of the posters it would appear, at first glance, that in the
+claims of the merchant Borrow had entirely forgotten the obligations of
+the diplomatist.  On the other hand, he may have foreseen that the
+priestly party would soon force the Government to action, and was
+desirous of selling all the books he could before this happened.  His own
+words seem to indicate that this was the case.
+
+    “People who know me not,” he wrote to Mr Brandram, “nor are
+    acquainted with my situation, may be disposed to call me rash; but I
+    am far from being so, as I never adopt a venturous course when any
+    other is open to me; but I am not a person to be terrified by any
+    danger when I see that braving it is the only way to achieve an
+    object.” {220}
+
+Whatever may have been Borrow’s motives, the crisis arrived on 12th
+January, when he received a peremptory order from the Civil Governor of
+Madrid (who had previously sent for and received two copies, to submit
+for examination to the Ecclesiastical Authorities) to sell no more of the
+New Testament in Spanish without notes.  At that period the average sale
+was about twenty copies a day.  “The priests have at length ‘swooped upon
+me,’” Borrow wrote to Mr Brandram, three days later.  The order did not,
+however, take him unawares.
+
+Borrow saw that little assistance was to be expected from Sir George
+Villiers, who, for obvious reasons, was not popular with the Ofalia
+ministry, and, accepting the British Minister’s advice, he promptly
+complied with the edict.  He recognised that for the time being his
+enemies were paramount.  He accuses the priests of employing the ruffian
+who, one night in a dark street, warned him to discontinue selling his
+“Jewish books,” or he would “have a knife ‘_nailed in his heart_’” to
+which he replied by telling the fellow to go home, say his prayers and
+inform his employers that he, Borrow, pitied them.  It was a few days
+after this episode that Borrow received the formal notice of prohibition.
+
+Consoling himself with the fact that he was not ordered to close his
+_Despacho_, and refusing the advice that was tendered to him to erase
+from its windows the yellow-lettered sign, he determined to continue his
+campaign with the Bibles that were on their way to him, and the Gitano
+and Basque versions of St Luke as soon as they were ready.  The
+prohibition referred only to the Spanish New Testament without notes, and
+in this Borrow took comfort.  He had every reason to feel gratified; for,
+since opening the _Despacho_, he had sold nearly three hundred copies of
+the New Testament.
+
+At Earl Street it was undoubtedly felt that Borrow had to some extent
+precipitated the present crisis.  On 8th February Mr Brandram wrote that,
+whilst there was no wish on the part of the Committee to censure him,
+they were not altogether surprised at what had occurred; for, when they
+first heard about them, “some _did_ think that your tri-coloured placards
+and placard-bearer were somewhat calculated to provoke what has
+occurred.”  In reply Borrow confessed that the view of the “some” gave
+him “a pang, more especially as I knew from undoubted sources that
+nothing which I had done, said, or written, was the original cause of the
+arbitrary step which had been adopted in respect to me.” {221a}
+
+The printing of the Gitano and Basque editions of St Luke (500 copies
+{221b} of each) was completed in March, and they were published
+respectively in March and April.  The Gitano version attracted much
+attention.  Some months later Borrow wrote:—
+
+    “No work printed in Spain ever caused so great and so general a
+    sensation, not so much amongst the Gypsies, that peculiar people for
+    whom it was intended, as amongst the Spaniards themselves, who,
+    though they look upon the Roma with some degree of contempt as a low
+    and thievish race of outcasts, nevertheless take a strange interest
+    in all that concerns them, it having been from time immemorial their
+    practice, more especially of the dissolute young nobility, to
+    cultivate the acquaintance of the Gitanos, as they are popularly
+    called, probably attracted by the wild wit of the latter and the
+    lascivious dances of the females.  The apparation, therefore, of the
+    Gospel of St Luke at Madrid in the peculiar jargon of these people,
+    was hailed as a strange novelty and almost as a wonder, and I believe
+    was particularly instrumental in bruiting the name of the Bible
+    Society far and wide through Spain, and in creating a feeling far
+    from inimical towards it and its proceedings.” {222a}
+
+The little volume appears to have sold freely among the gypsies.  “Many
+of the men,” Borrow says, {222b} “understood it, and prized it highly,
+induced of course more by the language than the doctrine; the women were
+particularly anxious to obtain copies, though unable to read; but each
+wished to have one in her pocket, especially when engaged in thieving
+expeditions, for they all looked upon it in the light of a charm.”
+
+All endeavours to get the prohibition against the sale of the New
+Testament removed proved unavailing.  Borrow’s great strength lay in the
+support he received from the British Minister, and, in all probability,
+this prevented his expulsion from Spain, which alone would have satisfied
+his enemies.  At the request of Sir George Villiers, he drew up an
+account of the Bible Society and an exposition of its views, telling
+Count Ofalia, among other things, that “the mightiest of earthly
+monarchs, the late Alexander of Russia, was so convinced of the
+single-mindedness and integrity of the British and Foreign Bible Society,
+that he promoted their efforts within his own dominions to the utmost of
+his ability.”  He pointed to the condition of Spain, which was
+“overspread with the thickest gloom of heathenish ignorance, beneath
+which the fiends and demons of the abyss seem to be holding their ghastly
+revels.”  He described it as “a country in which all sense of right and
+wrong is forgotten . . . where the name of Jesus is scarcely ever
+mentioned but in blasphemy, and His precepts [are] almost utterly unknown
+. . . [where] the few who are enlightened are too much occupied in the
+pursuit of lucre, ambition, or ungodly revenge to entertain a desire or
+thought of bettering the moral state of their countrymen.”  This report,
+in which Borrow confesses that he “made no attempts to flatter and
+cajole,” must have caused the British Minister some diplomatic
+embarrassment when he read it; but it seems to have been presented,
+although, as is scarcely surprising, it appears to have been ineffectual
+in causing to be removed the ban against which it was written as a
+protest.
+
+The Prime Minister was in a peculiarly unpleasant position.  On the one
+hand there was the British Minister using all his influence to get the
+prohibition rescinded; on the other hand were six bishops, including the
+primate, then resident in Madrid, and the greater part of the clergy.
+Count Ofalia applied for a copy of the Gipsy St Luke, and, seeing in this
+an opening for a personal appeal, Borrow determined to present the
+volume, specially and handsomely bound, in person, probably the last
+thing that Count Ofalia expected or desired.  The interview produced
+nothing beyond the conviction in Borrow’s mind that Spain was ruled by a
+man who possessed the soul of a mouse.  Borrow had been received “with
+great affability,” thanked for his present, urged to be patient and
+peaceable, assured of the enmity of the clergy, and promised that an
+endeavour should be made to devise some plan that would be satisfactory
+to him.  The two then “parted in kindness,” and as he walked away from
+the palace, Borrow wondered “by what strange chance this poor man had
+become Prime Minister of a country like Spain.”
+
+In reporting progress to the Bible Society on 17th March Borrow, after
+assuring Mr Brandram that he had “brought every engine into play which it
+was in my power to command,” asked for instructions.  “Shall I wait a
+little time longer in Madrid,” he enquired; “or shall I proceed at once
+on a journey to Andalusia and other places?  I am in strength, health and
+spirits, thanks be to the Lord! and am at all times ready to devote
+myself, body and mind, to His cause.” {224a}  The decision of the
+Committee was that he should remain at Madrid.
+
+During the time that Borrow had been preparing his Depôt in Madrid,
+Lieutenant Graydon had been feverishly active in the South.  On 19th
+April Borrow wrote to Mr Brandram:—
+
+    “Sir George Villiers has vowed to protect me and has stated so
+    publicly . . . He has gone so far as to state to Ofalia and [Don
+    Ramon de] Gamboa [the Civil Governor], that provided I be allowed to
+    pursue my plans without interruption, he will be my bail (_fiador_)
+    and answerable for everything I do, as he does me the honor to say
+    that he knows me, and can confide in _my_ discretion.”
+
+In the same letter he begs the Society to be cautious and offer no
+encouragement to any disposed “‘to run the muck’ (_sic_) (it is Sir
+George’s expression) against the religious and political _institutions_
+of Spain”; but “the delicacy of the situation does not appear to have
+been thoroughly understood at the time even by the Committee at home.”
+{224b}  They saw the astonishing success of Graydon in distributing the
+Scripture, and became infused with his enthusiasm, oblivious to the fact
+that the greater the enthusiasm the greater the possibilities of
+indiscretion.  On the other hand Graydon himself saw only the glory of
+the Gospel.  If he were indiscreet, it was because he was blinded by the
+success that attended his efforts, and he failed to see the clouds that
+were gathering. {225}  Borrow saw the danger of Graydon’s reckless
+evangelism, and although he himself had few good words for the pope and
+priestcraft, he recognised that a discreet veiling of his opinions was
+best calculated to further the ends he had in view.
+
+About this period Borrow became greatly incensed at the action of the
+Rev. W. H. Rule of Gibraltar in consigning to his care an ex-priest, Don
+Pascual Mann, who, it was alleged, had been persuaded to secede from Rome
+“by certain promises and hopes held out” to him.  He had accordingly left
+his benefice and gone to Gibraltar to receive instruction at the hands of
+Mr Rule.  On his return to Valencia his salary was naturally
+sequestrated, and he was reduced to want.  When he arrived at Madrid it
+was with a letter (12th April) from Mr Rule to Borrow, in which it was
+stated that Mann was sent that he might “endeavour to circulate the Holy
+Scriptures, Religious Tracts and books, and if possible prepare the minds
+of some with a view to the future establishment of a Mission in Madrid.”
+
+Borrow had commiserated with the unfortunate Mann, even to the extent of
+sending him 500 _reals_ out of his own pocket; but on hearing that he was
+on his way to Madrid to engage in missionary work, he immediately wrote a
+letter of protest to Mr Brandram.  He was angry at Mr Rule’s conduct in
+saddling him with Mann, and that without any preliminary correspondence.
+He had entertained Mr Rule when in Madrid, had conversed with him about
+the unfortunate ex-priest; but there had never been any mention of his
+being sent to Madrid.  Mr Rule, on the other hand, thought it had been
+arranged that Mann should be sent to Borrow.  The whole affair appears to
+have arisen out of a misunderstanding.  There was considerable danger to
+Borrow in Mann’s presence in the capital; but it was not the thought of
+the danger that incensed him so much as what he conceived to be Mr Rule’s
+unwarrantable conduct, and his own deeply-rooted objection to working
+with anyone else.  Mr Brandram repudiated the suggestion that assistance
+had been promised Mann from London (although he authorised Borrow to give
+him ten pounds in his, Brandram’s, name), and gave as an excuse for what
+Borrow described as the desertion of the ex-priest by those who were
+responsible for his conversion, that “the man had returned of his own
+accord to Rome,” Graydon vouching for the accuracy of the statement.
+
+On the other hand, Mann stated that he was persuaded to secede by
+promises made by Graydon and Rule, and induced to sign a document
+purporting to be a separation from the Roman Church.  He further stated
+that he was abandoned because he refused to preach publicly against the
+Chapter of Valencia, which in all probability would have resulted in his
+imprisonment.  Whatever the truth, there appears to have been some
+embarrassment among those responsible for bringing in the lost sheep as
+to what should be done with him.  “I hope that Mann’s history will be a
+warning to many of our friends,” Borrow wrote to Mr Rule and quoted the
+passage in his letter to Mr Brandram, {226} “and tend to a certain extent
+to sober down the desire for doing what is called at home _smart things_,
+many of which terminate in a manner very different from the original
+expectations of the parties concerned.”  Mr Brandram thought that Borrow
+was a little hard upon Graydon, and that he had not received “with the
+due _grano salis_ the statements of the unfortunate M.”  He intimated,
+nevertheless, that the Committee had no opening for Mann’s services.
+
+That Borrow was justified in his anger is shown by the fact that, as he
+had foreseen, he reaped all the odium of Mann’s conversion.  The Bishop
+of Cordoba in Council branded him as “a dangerous, pestilent person, who
+under the pretence of selling the Scriptures went about making converts,
+and moreover employed subordinates for the purpose of deluding weak and
+silly people into separation from the Mother Church.” {227a}
+
+Although Borrow was angry about the Mann episode, he did not allow his
+personal feelings to prevent him from ministering to the needs of the
+poor ex-priest “as far as prudence will allow,” when he fell ill.  He
+even went the length of writing to Mr Rule, being wishful “not to offend
+him.”  None the less he felt that he had not been well treated.  To Mr
+Brandram he wrote reminding him “that all the difficulty and danger
+connected with what has been accomplished in Spain have fallen to my
+share, I having been labouring on the flinty rock and sierra, and not in
+smiling meadows refreshed by sea breezes.” {227b}
+
+On 14th July 1838 Borrow made the last reference to the ex-priest in a
+letter to Mr Brandram: “The unfortunate M. is dying of a galloping
+consumption, brought on by distress of mind.  All the medicine in the
+world would not accomplish his cure.” {227c}
+
+The watchful eye of the law was still on Borrow, and fearful lest his
+stock of Bibles, of which 500 had arrived from Barcelona, and the Gypsy
+and Basque editions of St Luke should be seized, he hired a room where he
+stored the bulk of the books.  He now advertised the two editions of St
+Luke, with the result that on 16th April a party of _Alguazils_ entered
+the shop and took possession of twenty-five copies of the Romany Gospel
+of St Luke.
+
+On the publication of the Gypsy St Luke, a fresh campaign had been opened
+against Borrow, and accusations of sorcery were made and fears expressed
+as to the results of the publication of the book.  Application was made
+by the priestly party to the Civil Governor, with the result that all the
+copies at the _Despacho_ of the Basque and Gitano versions of St Luke had
+been seized.  Borrow states that the _Alguazils_ “divided the copies of
+the gypsy volume among themselves, selling subsequently the greater
+number at a large price, the book being in the greatest demand.” {228a}
+Thus the very officials responsible for the seizure and suppression of
+the Bible Society’s books in Spain became “unintentionally agents of an
+heretical society.” {228b}
+
+Disappointed at the smallness of the spoil, the authorities strove by
+artifice to discover if Borrow still had copies of the books in his
+possession.  To this end they sent to the _Despacho_ spies, who offered
+high prices for copies of the Gitano St Luke, in which their interest
+seemed specially to centre, to the exclusion of the Basque version.  To
+these enquiries the same answer was returned, that at present no further
+books would be sold at the _Despacho_.
+
+As evidence of the high opinion formed of the Romany version of St Luke,
+the following story told by Borrow is amusing:—
+
+    “Shortly before my departure a royal edict was published, authorising
+    all public libraries to provide themselves with copies of the said
+    works [the Basque and Gypsy St Lukes] on account of their
+    philological merit; whereupon on application being made to the Office
+    [of the Civil Governor, where the books were supposed to be stored],
+    it was discovered that the copies of the Gospel in Basque were safe
+    and forthcoming, whilst every one of the sequestered copies of the
+    Gitano Gospel had been plundered by hands unknown [to the
+    authorities].  The consequence was that I was myself applied to by
+    the agents of the public libraries of Valencia and other places, who
+    paid me the price of the copies which they received, assuring me at
+    the same time that they were authorised to purchase them at whatever
+    price which might be demanded.” {229a}
+
+Borrow’s enemies acknowledged that the Gitano St Luke was a philological
+curiosity; but that it was impossible to allow it to pass into
+circulation without notes.  How great a philological curiosity it
+actually was, is shown by the fact that the ecclesiastical authorities
+were unable to find anywhere a person, in whom they had confidence,
+capable of pronouncing upon it, consequently they could only condemn it
+on two counts of omission; firstly the notes, secondly the imprint of the
+printer from the title-page.
+
+The Basque version was by no means so popular; for one thing, “It can
+scarcely be said to have been published,” Borrow wrote, “it having been
+prohibited, and copies of it seized on the second day of its appearance.”
+{229b}  Several orders were received from San Sebastian and other towns
+where Basque predominates, which could not be supplied on account of the
+prohibition.
+
+The official remonstrance from Sir George Villiers to Count Ofalia in
+respect of the seizure of the Gypsy and Basque Gospels is of great
+interest as showing, not only the British Minister’s attitude towards
+Borrow, but how, and with what wrath, Borrow “desisted from his
+meritorious task.”  The communication runs:—
+
+                                              MADRID, 24_th_ _April_ 1838.
+
+    SIR,
+
+    It is my duty to request the attention of Your Excellency to an act
+    of injustice committed against a British subject by the Civil
+    Authorities of Madrid.
+
+    It appears that on the 16th inst., two officers of Police were sent
+    by the Civil Governor to a Shop, No. 25 Calle del Principe occupied
+    by Mr Borrow, where they seized and carried away 25 Copies of the
+    Gospel of St Luke in the Gitano language, being the entire number
+    exposed there for sale.
+
+    Mr Borrow is an agent of the British Bible Society, who has for some
+    time past been in Spain, and in the year 1836 obtained permission
+    from the Government of Her Catholic Majesty to print, at the expense
+    of the Society, Padre Scio’s translation of the New Testament.  He
+    subsequently sold the work at a moderate price and had no reason to
+    believe that in so doing he infringed any law of Spain or exposed
+    himself to the animadversion of the Authorities, otherwise, from my
+    knowledge of Mr Borrow’s character, I feel justified in assuring Your
+    Excellency that he would at once, although with regret, have desisted
+    from his meritorious task of propagating the Gospel.  Some months
+    ago, however, the late Civil Governor of Madrid, after having sent
+    for and examined a copy of the work, thought proper to direct that
+    its further sale should be suspended, which order was instantly
+    complied with.
+
+    Mr Borrow is a man of great learning and research and master of many
+    languages, and having translated the Gospel of St Luke into the
+    Gitano, he presented a copy of it to Don Ramon Gamboa, the late Civil
+    Governor, and announced his intention to advertise it for sale, to
+    which no objection was made.
+
+    Since that time neither Mr Borrow nor the persons employed by him
+    received any communication from the present Civil Governor forbidding
+    the sale of this work until it was seized in the manner I have above
+    described to Your Excellency.
+
+    I feel convinced that the mere statement of these facts without any
+    commentary on my part will be sufficient to induce your Excellency to
+    take steps for the indemnification of Mr Borrow, who is not only a
+    very respectable British subject but the Agent of one of the most
+    truly benevolent and philanthropic Societies in the world.
+
+    I have, etc., etc., etc.
+
+                                                          GEORGE VILLIERS.
+
+    His Excellency Count Ofalia.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+MAY 1–13, 1838
+
+
+ON the morning of 30th April, whilst at breakfast, Borrow, according to
+his own account, received a visit from a man who announced that he was “A
+Police Agent.”  He came from the Civil Governor, who was perfectly aware
+that he, Borrow, was continuing in secret to dispose of the “evil books”
+that he had been forbidden to sell.  The man began poking round among the
+books and papers that were lying about, with the result that Borrow led
+his visitor by the arm down the three flights of stairs into the street,
+“looking him steadfastly in the face the whole time,” and subsequently
+sending down by his landlady the official’s sombrero, which, in the
+unexpectedness of his departure, he had left behind him.
+
+The official report of Pedro Martin de Eugenio, the police agent in
+question, runs as follows:—
+
+                                              MADRID, 30_th_ _April_ 1838.
+
+        OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE POLICE AGENT OF THE LANGUAGE HELD BY MR
+                                   BORROW.
+
+    _Public Security_.—In virtue of an order from His Excellency the
+    Civil Governor, {231} I went to seize the Copies Entitled the Gospel
+    of St Luke, in the Shop Princes Street No. 25, belonging to Mr George
+    Borrow, but not finding him there; I went to his lodgings, which are
+    in St James Street, No. 16, on the third floor and presenting the
+    said order to Him He read it, and with an angry look threw it on the
+    ground saying, that He had nothing to do with the Civil Governor,
+    that He was authorised by His Ambassador to sell the Work in
+    question, and that an English Stable Boy, is more than any Spanish
+    Civil Governor, and that I had forcibly entered his house, to which I
+    replied that I only went there to communicate the order to Him, as
+    proprietor as he was of the said Shop, and to seize the Copies in it
+    in virtue of that Order, and He answered I might do as I liked, that
+    He should go to the House of His Ambassador, and that I should be
+    responsible for the consequences; to which I replied that He had
+    personally insulted the Civil Governor and all Spain, to which He
+    answered in the same terms, holding the same language as above
+    stated.
+
+    All of which I communicate to you for the objects required.
+
+                                                          THE POLICE AGENT
+                                           PEDRO MARTIN DE EUGENIO. {232a}
+
+Borrow felt that the fellow had been sent to entrap him into some
+utterance that should justify his arrest.  In any case a warrant was
+issued that same morning.  The news caused Borrow no alarm; for one thing
+he was indifferent to danger, for another he was desirous of studying the
+robber language of Spain, and had already, according to his own
+statement, {232b} made an unsuccessful effort to obtain admission to the
+city prison.
+
+The official account of the interview between Borrow and the “Police
+Agent” is given in the following letter from the Civil Governor to Sir
+George Villiers:—
+
+    To the British Minister,—
+
+                                              MADRID, 30_th_ _April_ 1838.
+
+    SIR,
+
+    The Vicar of the Diocese having, on the 16th and 26th Instant,
+    officially represented to me, that neither the publication nor the
+    sale of the Gospel of St Luke translated into the romain, or Gitano
+    Dialect ought to be permitted, until such time as the translation had
+    been examined and approved by the competent Ecclesiastical Authority,
+    in conformity with the Canonical and Civil regulations existing on
+    the matter, I gave an order to a dependent of this civil
+    administration, to present himself in the house of Mr George Borrow,
+    a British Subject, charged by the London Bible Society with the
+    publication of this work, and to seize all the Copies of it.  In
+    execution of this order my Warrant was yesterday morning {233}
+    presented to the said Mr George Borrow; who, so far from obeying it,
+    broke out in insults most offensive to my authority, threw the order
+    on the ground with angry gestures, and grossly abused the bearer of
+    it, and said that he had nothing to do with the Civil Governor.  The
+    detailed report in writing which has been made to me of this
+    disageeeable occurrence could not but deeply affect me, being a
+    question of a British Subject, to whom the Government of Her Catholic
+    Majesty has always afforded the same protection as to its own.  As
+    Executor of the Law it is my duty to cause its decrees to be
+    inviolably observed; and you will well understand, that both the
+    Canonical as the Civil Laws now existing, in this kingdom, relative
+    to writings and works published upon Dogmas, Morals, and holy and
+    religious matters, are the same without distinction for the Subjects
+    of all Countries residing in Spain.  No one can be permitted to
+    violate them with impunity, without detriment to the Laws themselves,
+    to the Royal Authority and to the Evangelical Moral which is highly
+    interested in preventing the propagation of doctrines which may be
+    erroneous, and that the purity of the sublime maxims of our divine
+    Faith should remain intact.
+
+    In conformity with these undeniable principles, which are in the Laws
+    of all civilised nations, you must acknowledge that the offensive
+    conduct of Mr George Borrow, and his disobedience to a legitimate
+    Authority sufficiently authorised the proceeding to his arrest . . .
+
+                              I have, etc., etc.
+
+                                                         DEIGO DE ENTRENA.
+
+The “Police Agent” seems to have boasted that within twenty-four hours
+Borrow would be in prison; Borrow, on the other hand, determined to prove
+the “Police Agent” wrong.  He therefore spent the rest of the day and the
+following night at a café. {234a}  In the evening he received a visit
+from Maria Diaz, {234b} his landlady and also his strong adherent and
+friend, whom he had informed of his whereabouts.  From her he learned
+that his lodgings had been searched and that the _alguazils_, who bore a
+warrant for his arrest, were much disappointed at not finding him.
+
+The next morning, 1st May, at the request of Sir George Villiers, Borrow
+called at the Embassy and narrated every circumstance of the affair, with
+the result that he was offered the hospitality of the Embassy, which he
+declined.  Whilst in conversation with Mr Sothern, Sir George Villiers’
+private secretary, Borrow’s Basque servant Francisco rushed in with the
+news that the _alguazils_ were again at his rooms searching among his
+papers, whereat Borrow at once left the Embassy, determined to return to
+his lodgings.  Immediately afterwards he was arrested, {234c} within
+sight of the doors of the Embassy, and conducted to the office of the
+Civil Governor.  Francisco in the meantime, acting on his master’s
+instructions, conveyed to him in Basque that the _alguazils_ might not
+understand, proceeded immediately to the British Embassy and informed Sir
+George Villiers of what had just taken place, with such eloquence and
+feeling that Mr Sothern afterwards remarked to Borrow, “That Basque of
+yours is a noble fellow,” and asked to be given the refusal of his
+services should Borrow ever decide to part with him.  With his dependents
+Borrow was always extremely popular, even in Spain, where, according to
+Mr Sothern, a man’s servant seemed to be his worst enemy.
+
+Borrow submitted quietly to his arrest and was first taken to the office
+of the Civil Governor (_Gefatura Politica_), and subsequently to the
+Carcel de la Corte, by two Salvaguardias, “like a common malefactor.”
+Here he was assigned a chamber that was “large and lofty, but totally
+destitute of every species of furniture with the exception of a huge
+wooden pitcher, intended to hold my daily allowance of water.” {235}  For
+this special accommodation Borrow was to pay, otherwise he would have
+been herded with the common criminals, who existed in a state of foulness
+and misery.  Acting on the advice of the _Alcayde_, Borrow despatched a
+note to Maria Diaz, with the result that when Mr Sothern arrived, he
+found the prisoner not only surrounded by his friends and furniture, but
+enjoying a comfortable meal, whereat he laughed heartily.
+
+Borrow learned that, immediately on hearing what had taken place, Sir
+George Villiers had despatched Mr Sothern to interview Señor Entrena, the
+Civil Governor, who rudely referred him to his secretary, and refused to
+hold any communication with the British Legation save in writing.
+Nothing further could be done that night, and on hearing that Borrow was
+determined to remain in durance, even if offered his liberty, now that he
+had been illegally placed there, Mr Sothern commended his resolution.
+The Government had put itself grievously in the wrong, and Sir George,
+who had already sent a note to Count Ofalia demanding redress, seemed
+desirous of making it as difficult for them as possible, now that they
+had perpetrated this wanton outrage on a British subject.  He determined
+to make it a national affair.
+
+It is by no means certain that Borrow was anxious to leave the _Carcel de
+la Corte_, even with the apologies of Spain in his pocket.  The prison
+afforded him unique opportunities for the study of criminal vagabonds.
+An entirely new phase of life presented itself to him, and, but for this
+arrest and his subsequent decision to involve the authorities in
+difficulties, _The Bible in Spain_ would have lacked some of its most
+picturesque pages.  It would have been strange if he had not encountered
+some old friend or acquaintance in the prison of the Spanish capital.  At
+the _Carcel de la Corte_ he found the notorious and immense Gitana,
+Aurora, who had fallen into the hands of the _Busné_ for defrauding a
+rather foolish widow.
+
+“A great many people came to see me,” Borrow wrote to his mother,
+“amongst others, General Quiroga, the Military Governor, who assured me
+that all he possessed was at my service.  The Gypsies likewise came, but
+were refused admittance.”  His dinner was taken to him from an inn, and
+Sir George Villiers sent his butler each day to make enquiries.  There
+was, however, one very unpleasant feature of his prison life, the
+verminous condition of the whole building.  In spite of having fresh
+linen taken to him each day, he suffered very much from what the polished
+Spaniard prefers to call _miseria_.
+
+Sir George Villiers took active and immediate steps, not only to secure
+Borrow’s release, but to obtain an unqualified apology.  Referring to the
+letter he had received from the Civil Governor (30th April), he expressed
+himself as convinced that “a gentleman of Borrow’s character and
+education was incapable of the conduct alleged,” and had accordingly
+requested Mr Sothern to enquire into the matter and then to call upon the
+Civil Governor to explain in what manner he had been misinformed.  As the
+Civil Governor refused to receive Mr Sothern, Sir George adds that he
+need trouble him no further, as the affair had been placed before Her
+Catholic Majesty’s Government; but during his five years of office at the
+Court of Madrid, he proceeded, “no circumstance has occurred likely to be
+more prejudicial to the relations between the two Countries than the
+insult and imprisonment to which a respectable Englishman has now been
+subjected upon the unsupported evidence of a Police Officer,” acting
+under the orders of the Civil Governor.
+
+On 3rd May Sir George Villiers wrote again to Count Ofalia, reminding him
+that he had not received the letter from him that he had expected.  In
+the course of a lengthy recapitulation of the occurrences of the past ten
+days, Sir George reminded Count Ofalia that, as a result of their
+interview on 30th April about the ill-usage of Borrow, the Count had
+written on 1st May to him a private letter stating that measures had been
+taken to release Borrow on _parole_, he to appear when necessary, and
+that if Sir George would abstain from making a written remonstrance,
+Count Ofalia would see that both he and Borrow received the ample
+satisfaction to which they were entitled.  Borrow had been taken by two
+Guards “like a Malefactor, to the Common Prison, where he would have been
+confined with Criminals of every description if he had not had money to
+pay for a Cell to Himself.”  The British Minister complained that every
+step that he had taken for Borrow’s protection was followed by fresh
+insult, and he further intimated that Borrow refused to leave the prison
+until his character had been publicly cleared.
+
+The Spanish Government now found itself in a quandary.  The British
+Minister was pressing for satisfaction, and he was too powerful and too
+important to the needs of Spain to be offended.  The prisoner himself
+refused to be liberated, because he had been illegally arrested, inasmuch
+as he, a foreigner, had been committed to prison without first being
+conducted before the Captain-General of Madrid, as the law provided.
+Furthermore, Borrow advised the authorities that if they chose to eject
+him from the prison he would resist with all his bodily strength.  In
+this determination he was confirmed by the British Minister.
+
+A Cabinet Council was held, at which Señor Entrena was present.  The
+Premier explained the serious situation in which the ministry found
+itself, owing to the attitude assumed by the British Minister, and he
+remarked that the Civil Governor must respect the privileges of
+foreigners.  Señor Entrena suggested that he should be relieved of his
+duties; but the majority of the Cabinet seems to have been favourable to
+him.  The _Affaire Borrow_ is said to have come up for debate even during
+a secret session of the Chamber.
+
+When Count Ofalia had called at the British Embassy (4th May) he was
+informed by Sir George Villiers that the affair had passed beyond the
+radius of a subordinate authority of the Government, and that he
+“considered that great want of respect had been shown to me, as Her
+Majesty’s Minister, and that an unjustifiable outrage had been committed
+upon a British Subject,” {238a} and that the least reparation that he was
+disposed to accept was a written declaration that an injustice had been
+done, and the dismissal of the Police Officer. {238b}
+
+The value of a British subject’s freedom was brought home to the Spanish
+Government with astonishing swiftness and decision.  The Civil Governor
+wrote to Sir George Villiers (3rd May), apparently at the instance of the
+distraught premier, discoursing sagely upon the Civil and Canon Laws of
+Spain, and adding that the 25 copies of the Gitano St Luke were seized,
+“not as being confiscated, but as a deposit to be restored in due time.”
+He concluded by hoping that he had convinced the British Minister of his
+good faith.
+
+In his reply, Sir George considered that the Civil Governor had been led
+to view the matter in a light that would not “bear the test of impartial
+examination.”  The result of this interchange of letters was twofold.
+Sir George dropped the correspondence with “that Functionary [who]
+displays so complete a disregard for fact,” {239a} and as Count Ofalia
+evaded the real question at issue, holding out “slender hopes of the
+matter ending in the reparation which I considered to be peremptorily
+called for,” {239b} he advised Borrow to claim protection from the
+Captain-General, the only authority competent to exercise any
+jurisdiction over him.  The Captain-General Quiroga, jealous of his
+authority, entered warmly into the dispute and ordered the Civil Governor
+to hand over the case to him.  There was now a danger of the _Affaire
+Borrow_ being made a party question, in which case it would have been
+extremely difficult to settle.
+
+The intervention of the Captain-General rendered all the more obvious the
+illegality of the Civil Governor’s action, and increased the
+embarrassment of Count Ofalia, who called on Sir George to ask him to
+have Borrow’s memorial to the Captain-General withdrawn.  He refused, and
+said the only way now to finish the affair was that “His Excellency
+should in an official Note declare to me that Mr Borrow left the prison,
+where he had been improperly placed, with unstained honour,—that the
+Police Agent, upon whose testimony he had been arrested, should be
+dismissed,—that all expenses imposed upon Mr Borrow by his detention
+should be repaid him by the Government,—that Mr Borrow’s not having
+availed himself of the ‘Fuero Militar’ should not be converted into a
+precedent, or in any way be considered to prejudice that important right,
+and that Count Ofalia should add with reference to maintaining the
+friendly relations between Great Britain and Spain, that he hoped I would
+accept this satisfaction as sufficient.” {240a}
+
+Borrow states that Sir George Villiers went to the length of informing
+Count Ofalia that unless full satisfaction were accorded Borrow, he would
+demand his passports and instruct the commanders of the British war
+vessels to desist from furnishing further assistance to Spain. {240b}
+There is, however, no record of this in the official papers sent by Sir
+George to the Foreign Office.  What actually occurred was that, on 8th
+May, the British Minister, determined to brook no further delay, wrote a
+grave official remonstrance, in which he stated that, “if the desire had
+existed to bring it to a close,” the case of Borrow could have been
+settled.  “Having up to the present moment,” he proceeds, “trusted that
+in Your Excellency’s hands, this affair would be treated with all that
+consideration required by its nature and the consequences that may follow
+upon it . . . I have forborne from denouncing the whole extent of the
+illegality which has marked the proceedings of the case” (viz., the Civil
+Governor’s having usurped the right of the Captain-General of the
+Province in causing Borrow’s arrest).  In conclusion, Sir George states
+that he considers the
+
+    “case of most pressing importance, for it may compromise the
+    relations now existing between Great Britain and Spain.  It is one
+    that requires a complete satisfaction, for the honor of England and
+    the future position of Englishmen in the Country are concerned; and
+    the satisfaction, in order to be complete, required to be promptly
+    given.”
+
+    “This disagreeable business,” Sir George writes in another of his
+    despatches, “is rendered yet more so by the impossibility of
+    defending with success all Mr Borrow’s proceedings . . .  His
+    imprudent zeal likewise in announcing publicly that the Bible Society
+    had a depôt of Bibles in Madrid, and that he was the Agent for their
+    sale, irritated the Ecclesiastical Authorities, whose attention has
+    of late been called to the proceedings of a Mr Graydon,—another agent
+    of the Bible Society, who has created great excitement at Malaga (and
+    I believe in other places) by publishing in the Newspapers that the
+    Catholic Religion was not the religion of God, and that he had been
+    sent from England to convert Spaniards to Protestantism.  I have upon
+    more than one occasion cautioned Mr Graydon, but in vain, to be more
+    prudent.  The Methodist Society of England is likewise endeavouring
+    to establish a School at Cadiz, and by that means to make
+    conversions.
+
+    “Under all these circumstances it is not perhaps surprising that the
+    Archbishop of Toledo and the Heads of the Church should be alarmed
+    that an attempt at Protestant Propagandism is about to be made, or
+    that the Government should wish to avert the evils of religious
+    schism in addition to all those which already weigh upon the Country;
+    and to these different causes it must, in some degree, be attributed
+    that Mr Borrow has been an object of suspicion and treated with such
+    extreme rigor.  Still, however, they do not justify the course
+    pursued by the Civil Governor towards him, or by the Government
+    towards myself, and I trust Your Lordship will consider that in the
+    steps I have taken upon the matter, I have done no more than what the
+    National honor, and the security of Englishmen in this Country,
+    rendered obligatory upon me.” {241a}
+
+Whilst Borrow was in the _Carcel de la Corte_, a grave complication had
+arisen in connection with the misguided Lieutenant Graydon.  Borrow gives
+a strikingly dramatic account {241b} of Count Ofalia’s call at the
+British Embassy.  He is represented as arriving with a copy of one of
+Graydon’s bills, which he threw down upon a table calling upon Sir George
+Villiers to read it and, as a gentleman and the representative of a great
+and enlightened nation, tell him if he could any longer defend Borrow and
+say that he had been ill or unfairly treated.  According to the Foreign
+Office documents, Count Ofalia _wrote_ to Sir George Villiers on 5th May,
+_enclosing_ a copy of an advertisement inserted by Lieutenant Graydon in
+the _Boletin Oficial de Malaga_, which, translated, runs as follows:—
+
+    “The Individual in question most earnestly calls the greatest
+    attention of each member of the great Spanish Family to this _divine_
+    Book, in order that _through it_ he may learn the chief cause, if not
+    the _sole one_, of all his terrible afflictions and of his _only_
+    remedy, as it is so clearly manifested in the Holy Scripture . . .  A
+    detestable system of superstition and fanaticism, _only greedy for
+    money_, and not so either of the temporal or eternal felicity of man,
+    has prevailed in Spain (as also in other Nations) during several
+    Centuries, by the _absolute_ exclusion of the true knowledge of the
+    Great God and last Judge of Mankind: and thus it has been plunged
+    into the most frightful calamities.  There was a time in which
+    precisely the same was read in the then _very little_ Kingdom of
+    England, but at length Her Sons recognising their imperative _Duty_
+    towards God and their Neighbour, as also their unquestionable rights,
+    and that since the world exists it has never been possible to gather
+    grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles, they destroyed the system
+    and at the price of their blood chose the Bible.  Oh that the
+    unprejudiced and enlightened inhabitants not only of Malaga and of so
+    many other Cities, but of all Spain, would follow so good an
+    example.” {242a}
+
+The result of Graydon’s advertisement was that “the people flocked in
+crowds to purchase it [the Bible], so much so that 200 copies, all that
+were in Mr Graydon’s possession at the time, were sold in the course of
+the day.  The Bishop sent the Fiscal to stop the sale of the work, but
+before the necessary measures were taken they were all disposed of.”
+{242b}  In consequence Graydon “was detained and under my [the Consul’s]
+responsibility allowed to remain at large.” {243a}  A jury of nine all
+pronounced the article to contain “matter subject to legal process”
+{243b} but a second jury of twelve at the subsequent public trial
+“unanimously absolved” Graydon.
+
+Sir George Villiers acknowledged the letter from Count Ofalia (9th May)
+saying that he had written to Graydon warning him to be more cautious in
+future.  He stated that from personal knowledge he could vouch for the
+purity of Lieutenant Graydon’s intentions; but he regretted that he
+should have announced his object in so imprudent a manner as to give
+offence to the ministers of the Catholic religion of Spain.  In a
+despatch to Lord Palmerston he states that he has not thought it in the
+interests of the Bible Society to defend this conduct of Graydon, “whose
+zeal appears so little tempered by discretion,” {243c} as he had written
+to Count Ofalia.  “Had I done so,” he proceeds, “and thereby tended to
+confirm some of the idle reports that are current, that England had a
+national object to serve in the propagation of Protestantism in Spain, it
+is not improbable that a legislative Enactment might have been introduced
+by some Member of the Cortes, which would be offensive to England, and
+render it yet more difficult than it is the task the Bible Society seems
+desirous to undertake in this Country.” {243d}  Sir George concludes by
+saying that he gave to “these Agents the best advice and assistance in my
+power, but if by their acts they infringe the laws of the Country,” it
+will be impossible to defend them.
+
+Sir George thought so seriously of the _Affaire Borrow_, as endangering
+the future liberty of Englishmen in Spain, that he went so far as to send
+a message to the Queen Regent, “by a means which I always have at my
+disposal,” {244a} in which he told her that he thought the affair “might
+end in a manner most injurious to the continuance of friendly relations
+between the two Countries.” {244b}  He received a gracious assurance that
+he should have satisfaction.  Later there reached him
+
+    “a second message from the Queen Regent expressing Her Majesty’s hope
+    that Count Ofalia’s Note [of 11th May] would be satisfactory to me,
+    and stating that Her Ministers had so fully proved their incompetency
+    by giving any just cause of complaint to the Minister of Her only
+    real Friend and Ally, The Queen of England, that she should have
+    dismissed them, were it not that the state of affairs in the Northern
+    Provinces at this moment might be prejudiced by a change of
+    Government, which Her Majesty said she knew no one more than myself
+    would regret, but at the same time if I was not satisfied I had only
+    to state what I required and it should be immediately complied with.
+    My answer was confined to a grateful acknowledgement of Her Majesty’s
+    condescension and kindness.  Count Ofalia has informed me that as
+    President of the Council He had enjoined all his Colleagues never to
+    take any step directly or indirectly concerning an Englishman without
+    a previous communication with Him as to its propriety, and I
+    therefore venture to hope that the case of Mr Borrow will not be
+    unattended with ultimate advantage to British subjects in Spain.”
+    {244c}
+
+The “Note” referred to by the Queen Regent in her message was Count
+Ofalia’s acquiescence in Sir George Villiers’ demands, with the exception
+of the dismissal of the Police Officer.  His communication runs:—
+
+                                                       “11_th_ _May_ 1838.
+
+    “SIR,—The affair of Mr Borrow is already decided by the Judge of
+    First Instance and his decision has been approved by the Superior or
+    Territorial Court of the Province.  As I stated to you in my note of
+    the fourth last, the foundation of the arrest of Mr Borrow, who was
+    detained (and not committed), was an official communication from the
+    Agent of Police, Don Pedro Martin de Eugenio, in which he averred
+    that on intimating to Mr Borrow the written order of the Civil
+    Governor relative to the seizure of a book which he had published and
+    exposed for sale without complying with the forms prescribed by the
+    Civil and Ecclesiastical Laws of Spain, he (Mr Borrow) had thrown on
+    the floor the order of the Superior Authority of the Province and
+    used offensive expressions with regard to the said Authority.
+
+    “The judicial proceedings have had for their object the ascertainment
+    of the fact.  Mr Borrow has denied the truth of the statement and the
+    Agent of Police, who it appears entered the lodgings of Mr Borrow
+    without being accompanied by any one, has been unable to confirm by
+    evidence what he alleged in his official report, or to produce the
+    testimony of any one in support of it.
+
+    “This being the case the judge has declared and the Territorial Court
+    approved the superceding of the cause, putting Mr Borrow immediately
+    at complete liberty, with the express declaration that the arrest he
+    has suffered in no wise affects his honor and good fame, and that the
+    ‘_celador_ of Public Security,’ Don Pedro Martin de Eugenio, be
+    admonished for the future to proceed in the discharge of his duty
+    with proper respect and circumspection according to the condition and
+    character of the persons whom he has to address.
+
+    “In accordance with the judicial decision and anxious to give
+    satisfaction to Mr Borrow, correcting at the same time the fault of
+    the Agent of Police in having presented himself without being
+    accompanied by any person in order to effect the seizure in the
+    lodging of Mr Borrow, Her Majesty has thought proper to command that
+    the aforesaid Don Pedro Martin de Eugenio be suspended from his
+    office for the space of Four Months, an order which I shall
+    communicate to the Minister of the Interior, and that Mr Borrow be
+    indemnified for the expenses which may have been incurred by his
+    lodging in the apartment of the Alcaide (chief gaoler or Governor)
+    for the days of his detention, although even before the expiration of
+    24 hours after his arrest he was permitted to return to his house
+    under his word of honor during the judicial proceedings, as I stated
+    to you in my note already cited.  I flatter myself that in this
+    determination you as well as your Government will see a fresh proof
+    of the desire which animates that of H.M. the Queen Regent to
+    maintain and draw closer the relation of friendship and alliance
+    existing between the two countries.  And with respect to the claim
+    advanced by Mr Borrow, and of which you also make mention in Your
+    Note of the 8th inst., I ought to declare to you that when the Judge
+    of First Instance received official information of the said claim the
+    business was already concluded in his tribunal, and consequently
+    there was nothing to be done.  Without, for this reason, there being
+    understood any innovation with respect to the matter of privilege
+    (_fuero_) according as it is now established.” {246a}
+
+Borrow was liberated with unsullied honour on 12th May, after twelve
+days’ imprisonment.  He refused the compensation that Sir George Villiers
+had made a condition, and later wrote to the Bible Society asking that
+there might be deducted from the amount due to him the expenses of the
+twelve days.  He states also that he refused to acquiesce in the
+dismissal of the Agent of Police, by which he doubtless means his
+suspension, giving as a reason that there might be a wife and family
+likely to suffer.  In any case the man was only carrying out his
+instructions.  Borrow’s reason for refusing the payment of his expenses
+was that he was unwilling to afford them, the Spanish Government, an
+opportunity of saying that after they had imprisoned an Englishman
+unjustly, and without cause, he condescended to receive money at their
+hands. {246b}
+
+The greatest loss to Borrow, consequent upon his imprisonment, no
+government could make good.  His faithful Basque, Francisco, had
+contracted typhus, or gaol fever, that was raging at the time, and died
+within a few days of his master’s release.  “A more affectionate creature
+never breathed,” Borrow wrote to Mr Brandram.  The poor fellow, who, “to
+the strength of a giant joined the disposition of a lamb . . . 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.”
+{247a}  The next day Antonio presented himself at Borrow’s lodging, and
+without invitation or comment assumed the duties he had relinquished in
+order that he might enjoy the excitements of change.  “Who should serve
+you now but myself?” he asked when questioned as to the meaning of his
+presence, “N’est pas que le sieur François est mort!” {247b}
+
+John Hasfeldt’s comment on his friend’s imprisonment was characteristic.
+In September 1838 he wrote:—
+
+    “The very last I heard of you is that you have had the great good
+    fortune to be stopping in the _carcel de corte_ at Madrid, which
+    pleasing intelligence I found in the _Preussiche Staats-Zeitung_ this
+    last spring.  If you were fatter no doubt the monks would have got up
+    an _Auto de Fé_ on your behalf, and you might easily have become a
+    nineteenth-century martyr.  Then your strange life would have been
+    hawked about the streets of London for one penny, though you never
+    obtained a fat living to eat and drink and take your ease after all
+    the hardships you have endured.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+MAY–JULY 1838
+
+
+BORROW was now to enter upon that lengthy dispute with the Bible Society
+that almost brought about an open breach, and eventually proved the
+indirect cause that led to the severance of their relations.  Graydon’s
+mistake lay in not contenting himself with printing and distributing the
+Scriptures, of which he succeeded in getting rid of an enormous quantity.
+He had advertised his association with the Bible Society and proclaimed
+Borrow as a colleague, and the authorities at Madrid were not greatly to
+blame for being unable to distinguish between the two men.  Whereas
+Graydon and Rule, who was also extremely obnoxious to the Spanish Clergy,
+were safe at Gibraltar or generally within easy reach of it, Borrow was
+in the very midst of the enemy.  He was not unnaturally furiously angry
+at the situation that he conceived to have been brought about by these
+evangelists in the south.  He referred to Graydon as the Evil Genius of
+the Society’s Cause in Spain.
+
+It may be felt that Borrow was a prejudiced witness, he had every reason
+for being so; but a despatch from Sir George Villiers to the Consul at
+Malaga shows clearly how the British Minister viewed Lieutenant Graydon’s
+indiscretion:
+
+    “You will communicate Count Ofalia’s note to Mr Graydon,” he writes,
+    “and tell him from me that, feeling as I do a lively interest in the
+    success of his mission, I cannot but regret that he should have
+    published his opinions upon the Catholic religion and clergy in a
+    form which should render inevitable the interference of
+    ecclesiastical authority.  I have no doubt that Mr Graydon, in the
+    pursuit of the meritorious task he has undertaken, is ready to endure
+    persecution, but he should bear in mind that it will not lead him to
+    success in this country, where prejudices are so inveterate, and at
+    this moment, when party spirit disfigures even the best intentions.
+    Unless Mr Graydon proceeds with the utmost circumspection it will be
+    impossible for me, with the prospect of good result, to defend his
+    conduct with the Government, for no foreigner has a right, however
+    laudable may be his object, to seek the attainment of that object by
+    infringing the laws of the country in which he resides.” {249}
+
+In writing to Mr Brandram, Borrow pointed out that although he had
+travelled extensively in Spain and had established many depôts for the
+sale of the Scriptures, not one word of complaint had been transmitted to
+the Government.  He had been imprisoned; but he had the authority of
+Count Ofalia for saying that it was not on account of his own, but rather
+of the action of others.  Furthermore the Premier had advised him to
+endeavour to make friends among the clergy, and for the present at least
+make no further effort to promote the actual sale of the New Testament in
+Madrid.
+
+On the day following his release from prison (13th May) Borrow, after
+being sent for by the British Minister, wrote to Mr Brandram as follows:—
+
+    “Sir George has commanded me . . . to write to the following
+    effect:—Mr Graydon must leave Spain, or the Bible Society must
+    publicly disavow that his proceedings receive their encouragement,
+    unless they wish to see the Sacred book, which it is their object to
+    distribute, brought into universal odium and contempt.  He has lately
+    been to Malaga, and has there played precisely the same part which he
+    acted last year at Valencia, with the addition that in printed
+    writings he has insulted the Spanish Government in the most
+    inexcusable manner.  A formal complaint of his conduct has been sent
+    up from Malaga, and a copy of one of his writings.  Sir George
+    blushed when he saw it, and informed Count Ofalia that any steps
+    which might be taken towards punishing the author would receive no
+    impediment from him.  I shall not make any observation on this matter
+    farther than stating that I have never had any other opinion of Mr
+    Graydon than that he is insane—insane as the person who for the sake
+    of warming his own hands would set a street on fire.  Sir George said
+    to-day that he (Graydon) was the cause of my _harmless_ shop being
+    closed at Madrid and also of my imprisonment.  The Society will of
+    course communicate with Sir George on the subject, I wash my hands of
+    it.”
+
+On 23rd May Borrow wrote again to Mr Brandram:
+
+    “In the name of the _Most Highest_ take steps for preventing that
+    miserable creature Graydon from ruining us all.”  Borrow’s use of the
+    term “insane” with regard to Graydon was fully justified.  The Rev.
+    W. H. Rule wrote to him on 14th May:
+
+    “Our worthy brother Graydon is, I suppose, in Granada.  I overtook
+    him in Cartagena, endured the process of osculation, saw him without
+    rhime or reason wrangle with and publicly insult our Consul there.
+    Had his company in the steamer to Almeria, much to my discomfort.
+    Never was a man fuller of love and impudence, compounded in the most
+    provoking manner.  In Malaga, just as we were to part, he broke out
+    into a strain highly disagreeable, and I therefore thought it a
+    convenient occasion to tell him that I should have no more to do with
+    him.  I left him dancing and raving like an energumen.”
+
+This letter Borrow indiscreetly sent to Mr Brandram, much to Mr Rule’s
+regret, who wrote to Mr Brandram, saying that whilst he had nothing to
+retract, he would not have written for the eyes of the Bible Society’s
+Committee what he had written to Borrow.  To Mr Rule Lieut. Graydon was
+“a good man, or at least a well-meaning [one], who has not the balance of
+judgment and temper necessary for the situation he occupies.”  He was
+given to “the promulgation of Millenianism,” and to calling the Bible
+“the true book of the Constitution.”
+
+Mann had confirmed all the rumours current about Graydon.  In order to
+remove from his shoulders “the burden of obloquy,” Borrow’s first act on
+leaving prison was to publish in the _Correo Nacional_ an advertisement
+disclaiming, in the name of the Bible Society, any writings which may
+have been circulated tending to lower the authorities, civil and
+ecclesiastical, in the eyes of the people.  He denied that it was the
+Society’s intention or wish to make proselytes from the Roman Catholic
+form of worship, and that it was at all times prepared to extend the hand
+of brotherhood to the Spanish clergy.  This notice was signed “George
+Borrow, Sole authorised Agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society in
+Spain.”
+
+_El Gazeta Oficial_ in commenting on the situation, saw in the
+anti-Catholic tracts circulated by Graydon “part of the monstrous plan,
+whose existence can no longer be called in question, concocted by the
+enemies of all public order, for the purpose of inaugurating on our
+unhappy soil a _social_ revolution, just as the political one is drawing
+to a close.”  The Government was urged to allow no longer these attacks
+upon the religion of the country.  Rather illogically the article
+concludes by paying a tribute to the Bible Society, “considered not under
+the religious but the social aspect.”  After praising its prudence for
+“accommodating itself to the civil and ecclesiastical laws of each
+country, and by adopting the editions there current,” it concludes with
+the sophisticated argument that, “if the great object be the propagation
+of evangelic maxims, the notes are no obstacle, and by preserving them we
+fulfil our religious principle of not permitting to private reason the
+interpretation of the Sacred Word.”
+
+The General Committee expressed themselves, somewhat enigmatically, it
+must be confessed, as in no way surprised at this article, being from
+past experience learned enough in the ways of Rome to anticipate her.
+
+    “That advertisement,” Borrow wrote six months later in his Report
+    that was subsequently withdrawn, “gave infinite satisfaction to the
+    liberal clergy.  I was complimented for it by the Primate of Spain,
+    who said I had redeemed my credit and that of the Society, and it is
+    with some feeling of pride that I state that it choked and prevented
+    the publication of a series of terrible essays against the Bible
+    Society, which were intended for the Official Gazette, and which were
+    written by the Licentiate Albert Lister, the editor of that journal,
+    the friend of Blanco White, and the most talented man in Spain.
+    These essays still exist in the editorial drawer, and were
+    communicated to me by the head manager of the royal printing office,
+    my respected friend and countryman Mr Charles Wood, whose evidence in
+    this matter and in many others I can command at pleasure.  In lieu of
+    which essays came out a mild and conciliatory article by the same
+    writer, which, taking into consideration the country in which it was
+    written, and its peculiar circumstances, was an encouragement to the
+    Bible Society to proceed, although with secrecy and caution; yet this
+    article, sadly misunderstood in England, gave rise to communications
+    from home highly mortifying to myself and ruinous to the Bible
+    cause.”
+
+Borrow had written from prison to Mr Brandram {252} telling him that it
+had “pleased God to confer upon me the highest of mortal honors, the
+privilege of bearing chains for His sake.”  After describing how it had
+always been his practice, before taking any step, to consult with Sir
+George Villiers and receive his approval, and that the present situation
+had not been brought about by any rashness on his, Borrow’s, part, he
+proceeds to convey the following curious piece of information that must
+have caused some surprise at Earl Street:—
+
+    “I will now state a fact, which speaks volumes as to the state of
+    affairs at Madrid.  My arch-enemy, the Archbishop of Toledo, the
+    primate of Spain, wishes to give me the kiss of brotherly Peace.  He
+    has caused a message to be conveyed to me in my dungeon, assuring me
+    that he has had no share in causing my imprisonment, which he says
+    was the work of the Civil Governor, who was incited to the step by
+    the Jesuits.  He adds that he is determined to seek out my
+    persecutors amongst the clergy, and to have them punished, and that
+    when I leave prison he shall be happy to co-operate with me in the
+    dissemination of the Gospel!!  I cannot write much now, for I am not
+    well, having been bled and blistered.  I must, however, devote a few
+    lines to another subject, but not one of rejoicing or Christian
+    exultation.  Mann arrived just after my arrest, and visited me in
+    prison, and there favoured me with a scene of despair, abject
+    despair, which nearly turned my brain.  I despised the creature, God
+    forgive me, but I pitied him; for he was without money and expected
+    every moment to be seized like myself and incarcerated, and he is by
+    no means anxious to be invested with the honors of martyrdom.”
+
+That the Primate of Spain should have sent to Borrow such a message is
+surprising; but what is still more so is that six days later Borrow wrote
+telling Mr Brandram that he had asked a bishop to arrange an interview
+between him and the Archbishop of Toledo, and Sir George Villiers, who
+was present, begged the same privilege. {253}  On 23rd May Borrow wrote
+again to Mr Brandram: “I have just had an interview with the Archbishop.
+It was satisfactory to a degree I had not dared to hope for.”  In his
+next letter (25th May) he writes:
+
+    “I have had, as you are aware, an interview with the Archbishop of
+    Toledo.  I have not time to state particulars, but he said amongst
+    other things, ‘Be prudent, the Government are disposed to arrange
+    matters amicably, and I am disposed to co-operate with them.’  At
+    parting he shook me most kindly by the hand saying that he liked me.
+    Sir George intends to visit him in a few days.  He is an old,
+    venerable-looking man, between seventy and eighty.  When I saw him he
+    was dressed with the utmost simplicity, with the exception of a most
+    splendid amethyst ring, the lustre of which was truly dazzling.”
+
+There is only one conclusion to be drawn from this archiepiscopal
+condescension, if the interview were not indeed sought by Borrow, that it
+was a political move to pacify the wounded feelings of an outraged
+Englishman at a time when the goodwill of England was as necessary to the
+kingdom of Spain as the sun itself.
+
+The upshot of the Malaga Incident was that “the Spanish Government
+resolved to put an end to Bible transactions in Spain, and forthwith gave
+orders for the seizure of all the Bibles and Testaments in the country,
+wherever they might be deposited or exposed for sale.  They notified Sir
+George Villiers of the decision, expressly stating that the resolution
+was taken in consequence of the ‘_Ocurrido en Malaga_.’” {254a}  The
+letter in which Sir George Villiers was informed of the Government’s
+decision runs as follows:—
+
+                                                MADRID, 19_th_ _May_ 1838.
+
+    SIR,
+
+    I have the honor to inform You that in consequence of what has taken
+    place at Malaga and other places, respecting the publication and sale
+    of the Bible translated by Padre Scio, which are not complete (since
+    they do not contain all the Books which the Catholic Church
+    recognises as Canonical) nor even being complete could they be
+    printed unless furnished with the Notes of the said Padre Scio,
+    according to the existing regulations; Her Majesty has thought proper
+    to prevent this publication and sale, but without insulting or
+    molesting those British Subjects who for some time past have been
+    introducing them into the Kingdom and selling them at the lowest
+    prices, thinking they were conferring a benefit when in reality they
+    were doing an injury.
+
+    I have also to state to You that in order to carry this Royal
+    determination into effect, orders have been issued to prohibit its
+    being printed in Spain, in the vulgar tongue, unless it should be the
+    entire Bible as recognised by the Catholic Church with corresponding
+    Notes, preventing its admittance at the Frontiers, as is the case
+    with books printed in Spanish abroad; that the Bibles exposed for
+    public sale be seized and given to their owners in a packet marked
+    and sealed, upon the condition of its being sent out of the country
+    through the Custom Houses on the Frontier or at the Ports.
+
+                          I avail myself, etc., etc.
+
+                                               THE COUNT OF OFALIA. {255a}
+
+Borrow and Graydon were advised of this inhibition, and both ordered
+their establishments for the sale of books to be closed, thus showing
+that they were “Gentlemen who are animated with due respect for the Laws
+of Spain.” {255b}  At Valladolid, Santiago, Orviedo, Pontevedra, Seville,
+Salamanca, and Malaga the decree was at once enforced.  On learning that
+the books at his depôts had all been seized, Borrow became apprehensive
+for the safety of his Madrid stock of New Testaments, some three thousand
+in number.  He accordingly had them removed, under cover of darkness, to
+the houses of his friends.
+
+Borrow was not the man to accept defeat, and he wrote to Mr Brandram with
+great cheerfulness:
+
+    “This, however, gives me little uneasiness, for, with the blessing of
+    God, I shall be able to repair all, always provided I am allowed to
+    follow my own plans, and to avail myself of the advantages which have
+    lately been opened—especially to cultivate the kind feeling lately
+    manifested towards me by the principal Spanish clergy.” {255c}
+
+Later he wrote:
+
+    “Another bitter cup has been filled for my swallowing.  The Bible
+    Society and myself have been accused of blasphemy, sedition, etc.  A
+    collection of tracts has been seized in Murcia, in which the Catholic
+    religion and its dogmas are handled with the most abusive severity;
+    {256a} these books have been sworn to as having been left _by the
+    Committee of the Bible Society whilst in that town_, and Count Ofalia
+    has been called upon to sign an order for my arrest and banishment
+    from Spain.  Sir George, however, advises me to remain quiet and not
+    to be alarmed, as he will answer for my innocence.” {256b}
+
+Borrow strove to galvanise the General Committee into action.  The
+Spanish newspapers were inflamed against the Society as a sectarian, not
+a Christian institution.  “Zeal is a precious thing,” he told Mr
+Brandram, “when accompanied with one grain of common sense.”  The theme
+of his letters was the removal of Graydon.  “Do not be cast down,” he
+writes; “all will go well if the stumbling block [Graydon] be removed.”
+
+Borrow’s state of mind may well be imagined, and if by his impulsive
+letters he unwittingly harmed his own cause at Earl Street, he did so as
+a man whose liberty, perhaps his life even, was being jeopardised,
+although not deliberately, by another whom the reforming spirit seemed
+likely to carry to any excess.  It must be admitted that for the time
+being Borrow had forgotten the idiom of Earl Street.
+
+The president (a bishop) of the body of ecclesiastics that was engaged in
+examining the Society’s Spanish Bible, communicated with Borrow, through
+Mr Charles Wood, the suggestion that “the Committee of the Bible Society
+should in the present exigency draw up an exposition of their views
+respecting Spain, stating what they are prepared to do and what they are
+not prepared to do; above all, whether in seeking to circulate the Gospel
+in this Country they harbour any projects hostile to the Government or
+the established religion; moreover, whether the late distribution of
+tracts was done by their connivance or authority, and whether they are
+disposed to sanction in future the publication in Spain of such a class
+of writings.” {257a}
+
+Borrow was of the opinion that this should be done, although he would not
+take upon himself to advise the Committee upon such a point, he merely
+remarked that “the Prelate in question is a most learned and respectable
+man, and one of the warmest of our friends.” {257b}  The Society very
+naturally declined to commit itself to any such undertaking.  It would
+not have been quite logical or conceivable that a Protestant body should
+give a guarantee that it harboured no projects hostile to Rome.
+
+Undeterred by the official edict against the circulation in Spain of the
+Scriptures, Borrow wrote to Mr Brandram (14th June):
+
+    “I should wish to make another Biblical tour this summer, until the
+    storm be blown over.  Should I undertake such an expedition, I should
+    avoid the towns and devote myself entirely to the peasantry.  I have
+    sometimes thought of visiting the villages of the Alpujarra Mountains
+    in Andalusia, where the people live quite secluded from the world;
+    what do you think of my project?”
+
+All this time Borrow had heard nothing from Earl Street as to the effect
+being produced there by his letters.  On 15th or 16th June he received a
+long letter from Mr Brandram enclosing the Resolutions of the General
+Committee with regard to the crisis.  They proved conclusively that the
+officials failed entirely to appreciate the state of affairs in Spain,
+and the critical situation of their paid and accredited agent, George
+Borrow.  Their pride had probably been wounded by Borrow’s impetuous
+requests, that might easily have appeared to them in the light of
+commands.  It may have struck some that the Spanish affairs of the
+Society were being administered from Madrid, and that they themselves
+were being told, not what it was expedient to do, but what they _must_
+do.  Another factor in the situation was the Committee’s friendliness for
+their impulsive, unsalaried servant Lieut. Graydon, who was certainly a
+picturesque, almost melodramatic figure.  In any case the letter from Mr
+Brandram that accompanied the Resolutions was couched in a strain of fair
+play to Graydon that became a thinly disguised partizanship.  At the
+meeting of the Committee held on 28th May the following Resolutions had
+been adopted:—
+
+    _First_.—“That Mr Borrow be requested to inform Sir George Villiers
+    that this Committee have written to Mr Graydon through their
+    Secretary, desiring him to leave Spain on account of his personal
+    safety.”
+
+    _Second_.—“That Mr Borrow be informed that in the absence of specific
+    documents, this Committee cannot offer any opinion on the proceedings
+    of Mr Graydon, and that therefore he be desired to obtain, either in
+    original or copy, the objectionable papers alleged to have been
+    issued by Mr Graydon and to transmit them hither.”
+
+    _Third_.—“That Mr Borrow be requested not to repeat the Advertisement
+    contained in the _Corréo Nacional_ of the 17th inst., and that he be
+    cautioned how he commits the Society by advertisements of a similar
+    character.  And further, that he be desired to state to Sir George
+    Villiers that the advertisement in question was inserted by him on
+    the spur of the moment, and without any opportunity of obtaining
+    instructions from this Committee.”
+
+In justice to the Committee, it must be said that they did not appreciate
+the delicacy of the situation, being only Christians and not
+diplomatists.  Perhaps they were unaware that the _whole of Spain was
+under martial law_, or if they were, the true significance of the fact
+failed to strike them.  Mr Brandram’s letter accompanying these
+Resolutions is little more than an amplification of the Committee’s
+decision:
+
+    “I have, I assure you,” he writes, “endeavoured to place myself in
+    your situation and enter into your feelings strongly excited by the
+    irreparable mischief which you suppose Mr G. to have done to our
+    cause so dear to you.  Under the influence of these feelings you have
+    written with, what appears to us, unmitigated severity of his
+    conduct.  But now, let me entreat you to enter into our feelings a
+    little, and to consider what we owe to Mr Graydon.  If we have at
+    times thought him imprudent, we have seen enough in him to make us
+    both admire and love him.  He has ever approved himself as an
+    upright, faithful, conscientious, indefatigable agent; one who has
+    shrunk from no trials and no dangers; one who has gone through in our
+    service many and extraordinary hardships.  What have we against him
+    at present?  He has issued certain documents of a very offensive
+    character, as is alleged.  We have not seen them, neither does it
+    appear that you have, but that you speak from the recollections of Mr
+    Sothern.” {259}
+
+The letter goes on to say that if it can be shown that Lieut. Graydon is
+acting in the same manner as he did in Valencia, for which he was
+admonished,
+
+    “he will assuredly be recalled on this ground.  You wonder perhaps
+    that we for a moment doubt the fact of his reiterated imprudence; but
+    _audi alteram partem_ must be our rule—and besides, on reviewing the
+    Valencia proceedings, we draw a wide distinction.  Had he been as
+    free, as you suppose him to be, of the trammels of office in our
+    service, many would say and think that he was prefectly at liberty to
+    act and speak as he did of the Authorities, if he chose to take the
+    consequences.  Really in such a country it is no marvel if his Spirit
+    has been stirred within him!  Will you allow me to remind you of the
+    strong things in your own letter to the Valencia ecclesiastic, the
+    well pointed and oft repeated Væ!”
+
+Mr Brandram points out that strong language is frequently the sword of
+the Reformer, and that there are times when it has the highest sanction;
+but
+
+    “the judgment of all [the members of the Committee] will be that an
+    Agent of the Bible Society is a Reformer, not by his preaching or
+    denouncing, but by the distribution of the Bible.  If Mr G’s. conduct
+    is no worse than it was in Valencia,” the letter continues, rather
+    inconsistently, in the light of the assurance in the early part that
+    recall would be the punishment for another such lapse into
+    indiscretion, “you must not expect anything beyond a qualified
+    disavowal of it, and that simply as unbecoming an Agent of such a
+    Society as ours.
+
+    “After what I have written, you will hardly feel surprised that our
+    Committee could not quite approve of your Advertisement.  We have
+    ever regarded Mr Graydon as much our Agent as yourself.  In three of
+    our printed reports in succession we make no difference in speaking
+    of you both.  We are anxious to do nothing to weaken your hands at so
+    important a crisis, and we conceive that the terms we have employed
+    in our Resolution are the mildest we could have used.  Do not insert
+    the Advertisement a second time.  Let it pass; let it be forgotten.
+    If necessary we shall give the public intimation that Mr G. was, but
+    is not our agent any longer.  Remember, we entreat you, the very
+    delicate position that such a manifesto places us in, as well as the
+    effect which it may have on Mr Graydon’s personal safety.  We give
+    you full credit for believing it was your duty, under the peculiar
+    circumstances of the case, to take so decided and bold a step, and
+    that you thought yourself fully justified by the distinction of
+    salaried and unsalaried Agent, in speaking of yourself as the alone
+    accredited Agent of the Society.  Possibly when you reflect a little
+    upon the matter you may view it in another light.  There are besides
+    some sentiments in the Advertisement which we cannot perhaps fully
+    accord with . . .  If to our poor friend there has befallen the
+    saddest of all calamities to which you allude, should we not speak of
+    him with all tenderness.  If he be insane I believe much of it is to
+    be attributed to that entire devotion with which he has devoted
+    himself to our work.”
+
+No complaint can be urged against the Committee for refusing to condemn
+one of their agents unheard, and without documentary evidence; but it was
+strange that they should pass resolutions that contained no word of
+sympathy with Borrow for his sufferings in a typhus-infested prison.  It
+is even more strange that the covering letter should refer to Graydon’s
+sufferings and hardships and the danger to his person, without apparently
+realising that Borrow _had actually_ suffered what the Committee feared
+that Graydon _might_ suffer.  There is no doubt that Borrow’s impulsive
+letters had greatly offended everybody at Earl Street, where Lieut.
+Graydon appears to have been extremely popular; and the few words of
+sympathy with Borrow that might have saved much acrimonious
+correspondence were neither resolved nor written.
+
+The other side of the picture is shown in a vigorous passage from
+Borrow’s Report, which was afterwards withdrawn:
+
+    “A helpless widow [the mother of Don Pascual Mann] was insulted, her
+    liberty of conscience invaded, and her only son incited to rebellion
+    against her.  A lunatic [Lieut. Graydon] was employed as the
+    _repartidor_, or distributor, of the Blessed Bible, who, having his
+    head crammed with what he understood not, ran through the streets of
+    Valencia crying aloud that Christ was nigh at hand and would appear
+    in a short time, whilst advertisements to much the same effect were
+    busily circulated, in which the name, the noble name, of the Bible
+    Society was prostituted; whilst the Bible, exposed for sale in the
+    apartment of a public house, served for little more than a decoy to
+    the idle and curious, who were there treated with incoherent railings
+    against the Church of Rome and Babylon in a dialect which it was well
+    for the deliverer that only a few of the audience understood.  But I
+    fly from these details, and will now repeat the consequences of the
+    above proceedings to myself; for I, I, and only I, as every
+    respectable person in Madrid can vouch, have paid the penalty for
+    them all, though as innocent as the babe who has not yet seen the
+    light.”
+
+If the General Committee at a period of anxiety and annoyance failed to
+pay tribute to Borrow’s many qualities, the official historian of the
+Society makes good the omission when he describes him as “A strange,
+impulsive, more or less inflammable creature as he must have occasionally
+seemed to the Secretaries and Editorial Superintendent, he had proved
+himself a man of exceptional ability, energy, tact, prudence—above all, a
+man whose heart was in his work.” {262}
+
+Borrow’s acknowledgment of the Resolutions was dated 16th June.  It ran:—
+
+    “I have received your communication of the 30th ult. containing the
+    resolutions of the Committee, to which I shall of course attend.
+
+    “Of your letter in general, permit me to state that I reverence the
+    spirit in which it is written, and am perfectly disposed to admit the
+    correctness of the views which it exhibits; but it appears to me that
+    in one or two instances I have been misunderstood in the letters
+    which I have addressed [to you] on the subject of Graydon.
+
+    “I bear this unfortunate gentleman no ill will, God forbid, and it
+    will give me pain if he were reprimanded publicly or privately;
+    moreover, I can see no utility likely to accrue from such a
+    proceeding.  All that I have stated hitherto is the damage which he
+    has done in Spain to the cause and myself, by the—what shall I call
+    it?—imprudence of his conduct; and the idea which I have endeavoured
+    to inculcate is the absolute necessity of his leaving Spain
+    instantly.
+
+    “Take now in good part what I am about to say, and O! do not
+    misunderstand me!  I owe a great deal to the Bible Society, and the
+    Bible Society owes nothing to me.  I am well aware and am always
+    disposed to admit that it can find thousands more zealous, more
+    active, and in every respect more adapted to transact its affairs and
+    watch over its interests; yet, with this consciousness of my own
+    inutility, I must be permitted to state that, linked to a man like
+    Graydon, I can no longer consent to be, and that if the Society
+    expect such a thing, I must take the liberty of retiring, perhaps to
+    the wilds of Tartary or the Zingani camps of Siberia.
+
+    “My name at present is become public property, no very enviable
+    distinction in these unhappy times, and neither wished nor sought by
+    myself.  I have of late been subjected to circumstances which have
+    rendered me obnoxious to the hatred of those who never forgive, the
+    Bloody Church of Rome, which I have [no] doubt will sooner or later
+    find means to accomplish my ruin; for no one is better aware than
+    myself of its fearful resources, whether in England or Spain, in
+    Italy or in any other part.  I should not be now in this situation
+    had I been permitted to act alone.  How much more would have been
+    accomplished, it does not become me to guess.
+
+    “I had as many or more difficulties to surmount in Russia than I
+    originally had here, yet all that the Society expected or desired was
+    effected, without stir or noise, and that in the teeth of an imperial
+    _Ukase_ which forbade the work which I was employed to superintend.
+
+    “Concerning my late affair, I must here state that I was sent to
+    prison on a charge which was subsequently acknowledged not only to be
+    false but ridiculous; I was accused of uttering words disrespectful
+    towards the _Gefé Politico_ of Madrid; my accuser was an officer of
+    the police, who entered my apartment one morning before I was
+    dressed, and commenced searching my papers and flinging my books into
+    disorder.  Happily, however, the people of the house, who were
+    listening at the door, heard all that passed, and declared on oath
+    that so far from mentioning the _Gefé Politico_, I merely told the
+    officer that he, the officer, was an insolent fellow, and that I
+    would cause him to be punished.  He subsequently confessed that he
+    was an instrument of the Vicar General, and that he merely came to my
+    apartment in order to obtain a pretence for making a complaint.  He
+    has been dismissed from his situation and the Queen [Regent] has
+    expressed her sorrow at my imprisonment.  If there be any doubt
+    entertained on the matter, pray let Sir George Villiers be written
+    to!
+
+    “I should be happy to hear what success attends our efforts in China.
+    I hope a prudent conduct has been adopted; for think not that a
+    strange and loud language will find favour in the eyes of the
+    Chinese; and above all, I hope that we have not got into war with the
+    Augustines and their followers, who, if properly managed, may be of
+    incalculable service in propagating the Scriptures . . . _P.S._—The
+    Documents, or some of them, shall be sent as soon as possible.”
+
+Nine days later (25th June) Borrow wrote:
+
+    “I now await your orders.  I wish to know whether I am at liberty to
+    pursue the course which may seem to me best under existing
+    circumstances, and which at present appears to be to mount my horses,
+    which are neighing in the stable, and once more betake myself to the
+    plains and mountains of dusty Spain, and to dispose of my Testaments
+    to the muleteers and peasants.  By doing so I shall employ myself
+    usefully, and at the same time avoid giving offence.  Better days
+    will soon arrive, which will enable me to return to Madrid and reopen
+    my shop, till then, however, I should wish to pursue my labours in
+    comparative obscurity.”
+
+Replying to Borrow’s letter of 16th June, Mr Brandram wrote (29th June):
+“I trust we shall not easily forget your services in St Petersburg, but
+suffer me to remind you that when you came to the point of distribution
+your success ended.” {265a}  This altogether unworthy remark was neither
+creditable to the writer nor to the distinguished Society on whose behalf
+he wrote.  Borrow had done all that a man was capable of to distribute
+the books.  His reply was dignified and effective.
+
+    “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 check me with being so, after all I have undergone, and with how
+    little of that are you acquainted.” {265b}
+
+In response, Mr Brandram wrote (28th July):
+
+    “You have considered that I have taunted you with want of success in
+    St Petersburg.  I thought that the way in which I introduced that
+    subject would have prevented any such unpleasant and fanciful
+    impression.”
+
+That was all!  It became evident to all at Earl Street that a conference
+between Borrow, the Officials and the General Committee was imperative if
+the air were to be cleared of the rancour that seemed to increase with
+each interchange of letters. {265c}  Unless something were done, a breach
+seemed inevitable, a thing the Society did not appear to desire.  When
+Borrow first became aware that he was wanted at Earl Street for the
+purpose of a personal conference, he in all probability conceived it to
+be tantamount to a recall, and he was averse from leaving the field to
+the enemy.
+
+    “In the name of the Highest,” he wrote, {266} “I entreat you all to
+    banish such a preposterous idea; a journey home (provided you intend
+    that I should return to Spain) could lead to no result but expense
+    and the loss of precious time.  I have nothing to explain to you
+    which you are not already perfectly well acquainted with by my late
+    letters.  I was fully aware at the time I was writing them that I
+    should afford you little satisfaction, for the plain unvarnished
+    truth is seldom agreeable; but I now repeat, and these are perhaps
+    among the last words which I shall ever be permitted to pen, that I
+    cannot approve, and I am sure no Christian can, of the system which
+    has lately been pursued in the large sea-port cities of Spain, and
+    which the Bible Society has been supposed to sanction,
+    notwithstanding the most unreflecting person could easily foresee
+    that such a line of conduct could produce nothing in the end but
+    obloquy and misfortune.”
+
+Borrow saw that his departure from Spain would be construed by his
+enemies as flight, and that their joy would be great in consequence.
+
+The Spanish authorities were determined if possible to rid the country of
+missionaries.  The _Gazeta Oficial_ of Madrid drew attention to the fact
+that in Valencia there had been distributed thousands of pamphlets
+“against the religion we profess.”  Sir George Villiers enquired into the
+matter and found that there was no evidence that the pamphlets had been
+written, printed, or published in England; and when writing to Count
+Ofalia on the subject he informed him that the Bible Society distributed,
+not tracts or controversial writings, but the Scriptures.
+
+The next move on the part of the authorities was to produce sworn
+testimony from three people (all living in the same house, by the way)
+that they had purchased copies of “the New Testament and other Biblical
+translations at the _Despacho_ on 5th May.”  Borrow was in prison at the
+time, and his assistant denied the sale.  Documents were also produced
+proving that the imprint on the title-page of the Scio New Testament was
+false, as at the time it was printed no such printer as Andréas Borrégo
+(who by the way was the Government printer and at one time a candidate
+for cabinet rank) lived in Madrid.  In drawing the British Minister’s
+attention to these matters, Count Ofalia wrote (31st May):
+
+    “It would be opportune if you would be pleased to advise Mr Borrow
+    that, convinced of the inutility of his efforts for propagating here
+    the translation in the vulgar tongue of Sacred Writings without the
+    forms required by law, he would do much better in making use of his
+    talents in some other class of scientifical or literary Works during
+    his residence in Spain, giving up Biblical Enterprises, which may be
+    useful in other countries, but which in this Kingdom are prejudicial
+    for very obvious reasons.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+JULY–NOVEMBER 1838
+
+
+BORROW’S spirit chafed under this spell of enforced idleness.  His horses
+were neighing in the stable and “Señor Antonio was neighing in the
+house,” as Maria Diaz expressed it; and for himself, Borrow required
+something more actively stimulating than pen and ink encounters with Mr
+Brandram.  He therefore determined to defy the prohibition and make an
+excursion into the rural districts of New Castile, offering his
+Testaments for sale as he went, and sending on supplies ahead.  His first
+objective was Villa Seca, a village situated on the banks of the Tagus
+about nine leagues from Madrid.
+
+He was aware of the danger he ran in thus disregarding the official
+decree.
+
+    “I will not conceal from you,” he writes to Mr Brandram on 14th July,
+    “that I am playing a daring game, and it is very possible that when I
+    least expect it I may be seized, tied to the tail of a mule, and
+    dragged either to the prison of Toledo or Madrid.  Yet such a
+    prospect does not discourage me in the least, but rather urges me on
+    to persevere; for I assure you, and in this assertion there lurks not
+    the slightest desire to magnify myself and produce an effect, that I
+    am eager to lay down my life in this cause, and whether a Carlist’s
+    bullet or a gaol-fever bring my career to an end, I am perfectly
+    indifferent.”
+
+He was not averse from martyrdom; but he objected to being precipitated
+into it by another man’s folly.  In his interview with Count Ofalia, he
+had been solemnly warned that if a second time he came within the
+clutches of the authorities he might not escape so easily, and had
+replied that it was “a pleasant thing to be persecuted for the Gospel’s
+sake.”
+
+In his decision to make Villa Seca his temporary headquarters, Borrow had
+been influenced by the fact that it was the home of Maria Diaz, his
+friend and landlady.  Her husband was there working on the land, Maria
+herself living in Madrid that her children might be properly educated.
+Borrow left Madrid on 10th July, and on his arrival at Villa Seca he was
+cordially welcomed by Juan Lopez, the husband of Maria Diaz, who
+continued to use her maiden name, in accordance with Spanish custom.
+Lopez subsequently proved of the greatest possible assistance in the work
+of distribution, shaming both Borrow and Antonio by his energy and powers
+of endurance.
+
+The inhabitants of Villa Seca and the surrounding villages of Bargas,
+Coveja, Villa Luenga, Mocejon, Yunclér eagerly bought up “the book of
+life,” and each day the three men rode forth in heat so great that “the
+very _arrieros_ frequently fall dead from their mules, smitten by a
+sun-stroke.” {269a}
+
+It was in Villa Seca that Borrow found “all that gravity of deportment
+and chivalry of disposition which Cervantes is said to have sneered away”
+{269b} and there were to be heard “those grandiose expressions which,
+when met with in the romances of chivalry, are scoffed at as ridiculous
+exaggerations.” {269c}  Borrow so charmed the people of the district with
+the elaborate formality of his manner, that he became convinced that any
+attempt to arrest or do him harm would have met with a violent
+resistance, even to the length of the drawing of knives in his defence.
+
+In less than a week some two hundred Testaments had been disposed of, and
+a fresh supply had to be obtained from Madrid.  Borrow’s methods had now
+changed.  He had, of necessity, to make as little stir as possible in
+order to avoid an unenviable notoriety.  He carefully eschewed
+advertisements and handbills, and limited himself almost entirely to the
+simple statement that he brought to the people “the words and life of the
+Saviour and His Saints at a price adapted to their humble means.” {270a}
+
+It is interesting to note in connection with this period of Borrow’s
+activities in Spain, that in 1908 one of the sons of Maria Diaz and Juan
+Lopez was sought out at Villa Seca by a representative of the Bible
+Society, and interrogated as to whether he remembered Borrow.  Eduardo
+Lopez (then seventy-four years of age) stated that he was a child of
+eight {270b} when Borrow lived at the house of his mother; yet he
+remembers that “_El inglés_” was tall and robust, with fair hair turning
+grey.  Eduardo and his young brother regarded Borrow with both fear and
+respect; for, their father being absent, he used to punish them for
+misdemeanours by setting them on the table and making them remain
+perfectly quiet for a considerable time.  The old man remembered that
+Borrow had two horses whom he called “la Jaca” and “el Mondrágon,” and
+that he used to take to the house of Maria Diaz “his trunk full of books
+which were beautifully bound.”  He remembered Borrow’s Greek servant,
+“Antonio Guchino” (the Antonio Buchini of _The Bible in Spain_), who
+spoke very bad Spanish.
+
+The most interesting of Eduardo Lopez’ recollections of Borrow was that
+he “often recited a chant which nobody understood,” and of which the old
+man could remember only the following fragment:—
+
+    “Sed un la in la en la la
+    Sino Mokhamente de resu la.”
+
+It has been suggested, {271a} and with every show of probability, that
+“this is the Moslem _kalimah_ or creed which he had heard sung from the
+minarets”:
+
+    “La illaha illa allah
+    Wa Muhammad rasoul allah.”
+
+Borrow recognised that he must not stay very long in any one place, and
+accordingly it was his intention, as soon as he had supplied the
+immediate wants of the Sagra (the plain) of Toledo, “to cross the country
+to Aranjuez, and endeavour to supply with the Word the villages on the
+frontier of La Mancha.” {271b}  As he was on the point of setting out,
+however, he received two letters from Mr Brandram, which decided him to
+return immediately to Madrid instead of pursuing his intended route.
+
+Borrow was informed that if, after consulting with Sir George Villiers,
+it was thought desirable that he should leave Madrid, he was given a free
+hand to do so.  Furthermore, the President of the Bible Society (Lord
+Bexley), with whom Mr Brandram had consulted, was of the opinion that
+Borrow should return home to confer with the Committee.  It was clear
+from the correspondence that nothing short of an interview could remove
+the very obvious feeling of irritation that existed between Borrow and
+the Society.  In his reply (23rd July), Borrow showed a dignity and
+calmness of demeanour that had been lacking from his previous letters;
+and it most likely produced a far more favourable effect at Earl Street
+than the impassioned protests of the past two months:—
+
+    “My answer will be very brief;” he wrote, “as I am afraid of giving
+    way to my feelings; I hope, however, that it will be to the purpose.
+
+    “It is broadly hinted in yours of the 7th that I have made false
+    statements in asserting that the Government, in consequence of what
+    has lately taken place, had come to the resolution of seizing the
+    Bible depôts in various parts of this country.  [Borrow had written
+    to Mr Brandram on 25th June, “The Society are already aware of the
+    results of the visit of our friend to Malaga; all their Bibles and
+    Testaments having been seized throughout Spain, with the exception of
+    my stock in Madrid.”]
+
+    “In reply I beg leave to inform you that by the first courier you
+    will receive from the British Legation at Madrid the official notice
+    from Count Ofalia to Sir George Villiers of the seizures already
+    made, and the motives which induced the Government to have recourse
+    to such a measure.
+
+    “The following seizures have already been made, though some have not
+    as yet been officially announced:—The Society’s books at Orviedo,
+    Pontevedra, Salamanca, Santiago, Seville, and Valladolid.
+
+    “It appears from your letters that the depôts in the South of Spain
+    have escaped.  I am glad of it, although it be at my own expense.  I
+    see the hand of the Lord throughout the late transactions.  He is
+    chastening me; it is His pleasure that the guilty escape and the
+    innocent be punished.  The Government gave orders to seize the Bible
+    depôts throughout the country on account of the late scenes at Malaga
+    and Valencia—I have never been there, yet only _my_ depôts are
+    meddled with, as it appears!  The Lord’s will be done, blessed be the
+    name of the Lord!
+
+    “I will write again to-morrow, I shall have then arranged my
+    thoughts, and determined on the conduct which it becomes a Christian
+    to pursue under these circumstances.  Permit me, in conclusion, to
+    ask you:
+
+    “Have you not to a certain extent been partial in this matter?  Have
+    you not, in the apprehension of being compelled to blame the conduct
+    of one who has caused me unutterable anxiety, misery and persecution,
+    and who has been the bane of the Bible cause in Spain, refused to
+    receive the information which it was in _your_ power to command?  I
+    called on the Committee and yourself from the first to apply to Sir
+    George Villiers; no one is so well versed as to what has lately been
+    going as himself; but no.  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.
+
+    “Sir George Villiers has returned to England for a short period; you
+    have therefore the opportunity of consulting him.  I _will not_ leave
+    Spain until the whole affair has been thoroughly sifted.  I shall
+    then perhaps appear and bid you an eternal farewell. {273a}  Four
+    hundred Testaments have been disposed of in the Sagra of Toledo.
+
+    “_P.S._—I am just returned from the Embassy, where I have had a long
+    interview with that admirable person Lord Wm. Hervey [Chargé
+    d’Affaires during Sir George Villiers’ absence].  He has requested me
+    to write him a letter on the point in question, which with the
+    official documents he intends to send to the Secretary of State in
+    order to be laid before the Bible Society.  He has put into my hands
+    the last communication from Ofalia {273b} it relates to the seizure
+    of _my_ depots at Malaga, Pontevedra, etc.  I have not opened it, but
+    send it for your approval.”
+
+It is pleasant to record that the Sub-Committee expressed itself as
+unable to see in Mr Brandram’s letter what Borrow saw.  There was no
+intention to convey the impression that he had made false statements, and
+regret was expressed that he had thought it necessary to apply to the
+Embassy for confirmation of what he had written.  All this Mr Brandram
+conveyed in a letter dated 6th August.  He continues: “I am now in full
+possession of all that Mr Graydon has done, and find it utterly
+impossible to account for that very strong feeling that you have imbibed
+against him.”
+
+On 20th July Mr Brandram had written that, after consulting with two or
+three members of the Committee, they all confirmed a wish already
+expressed that their Agent should not continue to expose himself to such
+dangers.  If, however, he still saw the way open before him,
+
+    “as so pleasantly represented in your letter . . . you need not think
+    of returning . . . Do allow me to suggest to you,” he continues, “to
+    drop allusion to Mr Graydon in your letters.  His conduct is not
+    regarded here as you regard it.  I could fancy, but perhaps it is all
+    fancy, that you have him in your eye when you tell us that you have
+    eschewed handbills and advertisements.  Time has been when you have
+    used them plentifully . . .  Sir George Villiers is in England—but I
+    do not know that we shall seek an interview with him—We are afraid of
+    being hampered with the trammels of office.”
+
+The Committee, however, did not endorse Mr Brandram’s view as to Borrow
+continuing in Spain, and further, they did “not see it right,” the
+secretary wrote (6th August), “after the confidential communication in
+which you have been in with the Government, that you should be acting now
+in such open defiance of it, and putting yourself in such extreme
+jeopardy.”  Later Borrow made reference to the remark about the
+handbills.
+
+    “It would have been as well,” he wrote, “if my respected and revered
+    friend, the writer, had made himself acquainted with the character of
+    my advertisements before he made that observation.  There is no harm
+    in an advertisement, if truth, decency and the fear of God are
+    observed, and I believe my own will be scarcely found deficient in
+    any of these three requisites.  It is not the use of a serviceable
+    instrument, but its abuse that merits reproof, and I cannot conceive
+    that advertising was abused by me when I informed the people of
+    Madrid that the New Testament was to be purchased at a cheap price in
+    the _Calle del Principe_.” {275}
+
+Elsewhere he referred to these same advertisements as “mild yet
+expressive.”
+
+In spite of the strained state of his relations with the Bible Society,
+Borrow had no intention of remaining in Madrid brooding over his wrongs.
+Encouraged by the success that had attended his efforts in the Sagra of
+Toledo, and indifferent to the fact that his renewed activity was known
+at Toledo, where it was causing some alarm, he determined to proceed to
+Aranjuez, and, on his arrival there, to be guided by events as to his
+future movements.  Accordingly about 28th July he set out attended by
+Antonio and Lopez, who had accompanied him from Villa Seca to Madrid,
+proceeding in the direction of La Mancha, and selling at every village
+through which they passed from twenty to forty Testaments.  At Aranjuez
+they remained three days, visiting every house in the town and disposing
+of about eighty books.  It was no unusual thing to see groups of the
+poorer people gathered round one of their number who was reading aloud
+from a recently purchased Testament.
+
+Feeling that his enemies were preparing to strike, Borrow determined to
+push on to the frontier town of Ocaña, beyond which the clergy had only a
+nominal jurisdiction on account of its being in the hands of the
+Carlists.  Lopez was sent on with between two and three hundred
+Testaments, and Borrow, accompanied by Antonio, followed later by a
+shorter route through the hills.  As they approached the town, a man, a
+Jew, stepped out from the porch of an empty house and barred their way,
+telling them that Lopez had been arrested at Ocaña that morning as he was
+selling Testaments in the streets, and that the authorities were now
+waiting for Borrow himself.
+
+Seeing that no good could be done by plunging into the midst of his
+enemies, who had their instructions from the _corregidor_ of Toledo,
+Borrow decided to return to Aranjuez.  This he did, on the way narrowly
+escaping assassination at the hands of three robbers.  The next morning
+he was rejoined by Lopez, who had been released.  He had sold 27
+Testaments, and 200 had been confiscated and forwarded to Toledo.  The
+whole party then returned to Madrid.
+
+The unfortunate affair at Ocaña by no means discouraged Borrow.  It was
+his intention “with God’s leave” to “fight it out to the last.”  He saw
+that his only chance of distributing his store of Testaments lay in
+visiting the smaller villages before the order to confiscate his books
+arrived from Toledo.  His enemies were numerous and watchful; but Borrow
+was as cunning as a gypsy and as far-seeing as a Jew.  Thinking that his
+notoriety had not yet crossed the Guadarrama mountains and penetrated
+into Old Castile, he decided to anticipate it.  Lopez was sent ahead with
+a donkey bearing a cargo of Testaments, his instructions being to meet
+Borrow and Antonio at La Granja.  Failing to find Lopez at the appointed
+place, Borrow pushed on to Segovia, where he received news that some men
+were selling books at Abades, to which place he proceeded with three more
+donkeys laden with books that had been consigned to a friend at Segovia.
+At Abades Lopez was discovered busily occupied in selling Testaments.
+
+Hearing that an order was about to be sent from Segovia to Abades for the
+confiscation of his Testaments, Borrow immediately left the town,
+donkeys, Testaments and all, and for safety’s sake passed the night in
+the fields.  The next day they proceeded to the village of Labajos.  A
+few days after their arrival the Carlist leader Balmaceda, at the head of
+his robber cavalry, streamed down from the pine woods of Soria into the
+southern part of Old Castile, Borrow “was present at all the horrors
+which ensued—the sack of Arrevalo, and the forcible entry into Marrin
+Muñoz and San Cyprian.  Amidst these terrible scenes we continued our
+labours undaunted.” {277a}  He witnessed what “was not the war of men or
+even cannibals . . . it seemed a contest of fiends from the infernal
+pit.”  Antonio became seized with uncontrollable fear and ran away to
+Madrid.  Lopez soon afterwards disappeared, and, left alone, Borrow
+suffered great anxiety as to the fate of the brave fellow.  Hearing that
+he was in prison at Vilallos, about three leagues distant, and in spite
+of the fact that Balmaceda’s cavalry division was in the neighbourhood,
+Borrow mounted his horse and set off next day (22nd Aug.) alone.  He
+found on his arrival at Vilallos, that Lopez had been removed from the
+prison to a private house.  Disregarding an order from the _corregidor_
+of Avila that only the books should be confiscated and that the vendor
+should be set at liberty, the _Alcalde_, at the instigation of the
+priest, refused to liberate Lopez.  It had been hinted to the unfortunate
+man that on the arrival of the Carlists he was to be denounced as a
+liberal, which would mean death.  “Taking these circumstances into
+consideration,” Borrow wrote, {277b} “I deemed it my duty as a Christian
+and a gentleman to rescue my unfortunate servant from such lawless hands,
+and in consequence, defying opposition, I bore him off, though perfectly
+unarmed, through a crowd of at least one hundred peasants.  On leaving
+the place I shouted ‘Viva Isabella Segunda.’”
+
+In this affair Borrow had, not only the approval of Lord William Hervey,
+but of Count Ofalia also.  In all probability the Bible Society has never
+had, and never will have again, an agent such as Borrow, who on occasion
+could throw aside the cloak of humility and grasp a two-edged sword with
+which to discomfit his enemies, and who solemnly chanted the creed of
+Islam whilst engaged as a Christian missionary.  There was something
+magnificent in his Christianity; it savoured of the Crusades in its
+pre-Reformation virility.  Martyrdom he would accept if absolutely
+necessary; but he preferred that if martyrs there must be they should be
+selected from the ranks of the enemy, whilst he, George Borrow,
+represented the strong arm of the Lord.
+
+After the Vilallos affair, Borrow returned to Madrid, crossing the
+Guadarramas alone and with two horses.  “I nearly perished there,” he
+wrote to Mr Brandram (1st Sept.), “having lost my way in the darkness and
+tumbled down a precipice.”  The perilous journey north had resulted in
+the sale of 900 Testaments, all within the space of three weeks and
+amidst scenes of battle and bloodshed.
+
+On his return to Madrid, Borrow found awaiting him the Resolution of the
+General Committee (6th Aug.), recalling him “without further delay.”
+
+    “I will set out for England as soon as possible,” he wrote in reply;
+    {278} “but I must be allowed time.  I am almost dead with fatigue,
+    suffering and anxiety; and it is necessary that I should place the
+    Society’s property in safe and sure custody.”
+
+On 1st September he wrote to Mr Brandram that he should “probably be in
+England within three weeks.”  Shortly after this he was attacked with
+fever, and confined to his bed for ten days, during which he was
+frequently delirious.  When the fever departed, he was left very weak and
+subject to a profound melancholy.
+
+    “I bore up against my illness as long as I could,” he wrote, {279a}
+    “but it became too powerful for me.  By good fortune I obtained a
+    decent physician, a Dr Hacayo, who had studied medicine in England,
+    and aided by him and the strength of my constitution I got the better
+    of my attack, which, however, was a dreadfully severe one.  I hope my
+    next letter will be from Bordeaux.  I cannot write more at present,
+    for I am very feeble.”
+
+The actual date that Borrow left Madrid is not known.  He himself gave it
+as 31st August, {279b} which is obviously inaccurate, as on 19th
+September he wrote to Mr Brandram: “I am now better, and hope in a few
+days to be able to proceed to Saragossa, which is the only road open.”
+He travelled leisurely by way of the Pyrenees, through France to Paris,
+where he spent a fortnight.  Of Paris he was very fond; “for, leaving all
+prejudices aside, it is a magnificent city, well supplied with sumptuous
+buildings and public squares, unequalled by any town in Europe.” {279c}
+Having bought a few rare books he proceeded to Boulogne, “and thence by
+steamboat to London,” {279d} where in all probability he arrived towards
+the end of October.
+
+He had “long talks on Spanish affairs” {279e} with his friends at Earl
+Street, where personal interviews seem to have brought about a much
+better feeling.  The General Committee requested Borrow to put into
+writing his views as to the best means to be adopted for the future
+distribution of the Scriptures in Spain.  He accordingly wrote a
+statement, {280} a fine, vigorous piece of narrative, putting his case so
+clearly and convincingly as to leave little to be said for the
+unfortunate Graydon.  He expressed himself as “eager to be carefully and
+categorically questioned.”  This Report appears subsequently to have been
+withdrawn, probably on the advice of Borrow’s friends, who saw that its
+uncompromising bluntness of expression would make it unacceptable to the
+General Committee.  It was certainly presented to and considered by the
+Sub-Committee.  Another document was drawn up entitled, “Report of Mr
+Geo. Borrow on Past and Future Operations in Spain.”  This reached Earl
+Street on 28th November.  In it Borrow states that as the inhabitants of
+the cities had not shown themselves well-disposed towards the Scriptures,
+it would be better to labour in future among the peasantry.  It was his
+firm conviction, he wrote,
+
+    “that every village in Spain will purchase New Testaments, from
+    twenty to sixty, according to its circumstances.  During the last two
+    months of his sojourn in Spain he visited about forty villages, and
+    in only two instances was his sale less than thirty copies in each .
+    . . If it be objected to the plan which he has presumed to suggest
+    that it is impossible to convey to the rural districts of Spain the
+    book of life without much difficulty and danger, he begs leave to
+    observe that it does not become a real Christian to be daunted by
+    either when it pleases his Maker to select him as an instrument; and
+    that, moreover, if it be not written that a man is to perish by wild
+    beasts or reptiles he is safe in the den even of the Cockatrice as in
+    the most retired chamber of the King’s Palace; and that if, on the
+    contrary, he be doomed to perish by them, his destiny will overtake
+    him notwithstanding all the precautions which he, like a blind worm,
+    may essay for his security.”
+
+In conclusion Borrow calls attention, without suggesting intimate
+alliance and co-operation, to the society of the liberal-minded Spanish
+ecclesiastics, which has been formed for the purpose of printing and
+circulating the Scriptures in Spanish _without commentary or notes_.
+This had reference to a movement that was on foot in Madrid, supported by
+the Primate and the Bishops of Vigo and Joen, to challenge the Government
+in regard to its attempt to prevent the free circulation of the
+Scriptures.  It was held that nowhere among the laws of Spain is it
+forbidden to circulate the Scriptures either with or without annotations.
+The only prohibition being in the various Papal Bulls.  Charles Wood was
+chosen as “the ostensible manager of the concern”; but had it not been
+for the trouble in the South, Borrow would have been the person selected.
+
+It would have been in every way deplorable had Borrow severed his
+connection with the Bible Society as a result of the Graydon episode.
+Borrow had been impulsive and indignant in his letters to Earl Street, Mr
+Brandram, on the other hand, had been “a little partial,” and on one or
+two occasions must have written hastily in response to Borrow’s letters.
+There is no object in administering blame or directing reproaches when
+the principals in a quarrel have made up their differences; but there can
+be no question that the failure of the Officials and Committee of the
+Bible Society to appreciate the situation in Spain retarded their work in
+that country very considerably.  This fact is now generally recognised.
+Mr Canton has admirably summed up the situation when he says:
+
+    “Borrow had his faults, but insincerity and lack of zeal in the cause
+    he had espoused were not among them.  Both Sir George Villiers and
+    his successor [during Sir George’s visit to England], Lord William
+    Hervey, were satisfied with the propriety of his conduct.  Count
+    Ofalia himself recognised his good faith—‘_cuia buena fé me es
+    conocida_.’  To see his plans thwarted, his work arrested, the
+    objects of the Society jeopardised, and his own person endangered by
+    the indiscretion of others, formed, if not a justification, at least
+    a sufficient excuse for the expression of strong feeling.  On the
+    other hand, it was difficult for those at home to ascertain the
+    actual facts of the case, to understand the nicety of the situation,
+    and to arrive at an impartial judgment.  Mr Brandram, who in any case
+    would have been displeased with Borrow’s unrestrained speech, appears
+    to have suspected that his statements were not free from
+    exaggeration, and that his discretion was not wholly beyond reproach.
+    Happily the tension caused by this painful episode was relieved by
+    Lieut. Graydon’s withdrawal to France in June.” {282}
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+DECEMBER 1838–MAY 1839
+
+
+ON 14th December 1838 it was resolved by the General Committee of the
+Bible Society that Borrow should proceed once more to Spain to dispose of
+such copies of the Scriptures as remained on hand at Madrid and other
+depôts established by him in various parts of the country.  He left
+London on the 21st, and sailed from Falmouth two days later, reaching
+Cadiz on the 31st, after a stormy passage, and on 2nd January he arrived
+at Seville, “rather indisposed with an old complaint,” probably “the
+Horrors.”
+
+In such stirring times to be absent from the country, even for so short a
+period as two months, meant that on his return the traveller found a new
+Spain.  Borrow learned that the Duke of Frias had succeeded Count Ofalia
+in September.  The Duke had advised the British Ambassador in November
+that the Spanish authorities were possessed of a quantity of Borrow’s
+Bibles (?New Testaments) that had been seized and taken to Toledo, and
+that if arrangements were not made for them to be taken out of Spain they
+would be destroyed.  Sir George Villiers had replied that Mr Borrow, who
+was then out of the country, had been advised of the Duke’s notification,
+and as soon as word was received from him, the Duke should be
+communicated with.  Then the Duke of Frias in turn passed out of office
+and was succeeded by another, and so, politically, change followed
+change.
+
+The Government, however, had no intention of putting itself in the wrong
+a second time.  Great Britain’s friendship was of far too great
+importance to the country to be jeopardised for the mere gratification of
+imprisoning George Borrow.  An order had been sent out to all the
+authorities that an embargo was to be placed upon the books themselves;
+but those distributing them were not to be arrested or in any way harmed.
+
+At Seville he found evidences of the activity of the Government in the
+news that of the hundred New Testaments that he had left with his
+correspondent there, seventy-six had been seized during the previous
+summer.  Hearing that the books were in the hands of the Ecclesiastical
+Governor, Borrow astonished that “fierce, persecuting Papist by calling
+to make enquiries concerning them.”  The old man treated his visitor to a
+stream of impassioned invective against the Bible Society and its agent,
+expressing his surprise that he had ever been permitted to leave the
+prison in Madrid.  Seeing that nothing was to be gained, although he had
+an absolute right to the books, provided he sent them out of the country,
+Borrow decided not to press the matter.
+
+On the night of 12th Jan. 1839, he left Seville with the Mail Courier and
+his escort bound for Madrid, where he arrived on the 16th without
+accident or incident, although the next Courier traversing the route was
+stopped by banditti.  It was during this journey, whilst resting for four
+hours at Manzanares, a large village in La Mancha, that he encountered
+the blind girl who had been taught Latin by a Jesuit priest, and whom he
+named “the Manchegan Prophetess.” {284}  In telling Mr Brandram of the
+incident, Borrow tactlessly remarked, “what wonderful people are the
+Jesuits; when shall we hear of an English rector instructing a beggar
+girl in the language of Cicero?”  Mr Brandram clearly showed that he
+liked neither the remark, which he took as personal, nor the use of the
+term “prophetess.”
+
+On reaching Madrid a singular incident befell Borrow.  On entering the
+arch of the _posada_ called La Reyna, he found himself encircled by a
+pair of arms, and, on turning round, found that they belonged to the
+delinquent Antonio, who stood before his late master “haggard and
+ill-dressed, and his eyes seemed starting from their sockets.”  The poor
+fellow, who was entirely destitute, had, on the previous night, dreamed
+that he saw Borrow arrive on a black horse, and, in consequence, had
+spent the whole day in loitering about outside the _posada_.  Borrow was
+very glad to engage him again, in spite of his recent cowardice and
+desertion.  Borrow once more took up his abode with the estimable Maria
+Diaz, and one of his first cares was to call on Lord Clarendon (Sir
+George Villiers had succeeded his uncle as fourth earl), by whom he was
+kindly received.
+
+A week later, there arrived from Lopez at Villa Seca his “largest and
+most useful horse,” the famous Sidi Habismilk (My Lord the Sustainer of
+the Kingdom), “an Arabian of high caste . . . the best, I believe, that
+ever issued from the desert,” {285a} Lopez wrote, regretting that he was
+unable to accompany “The Sustainer of the Kingdom” in person, being
+occupied with agricultural pursuits, but he sent a relative named
+Victoriano to assist in the work of distributing the Gospel.
+
+Borrow’s plan was to make Madrid his headquarters, with Antonio in charge
+of the supplies, and visit all the villages and hamlets in the vicinity
+that had not yet been supplied with Testaments.  He then proposed to turn
+eastward to a distance of about thirty leagues.
+
+    “I have been very passionate in prayer,” he writes, {285b} “during
+    the last two or three days; and I entertain some hope that the Lord
+    has condescended to answer me, as I appear to see my way with
+    considerable clearness.  It may, of course, prove a delusion, and the
+    prospects which seem to present themselves may be mere palaces of
+    clouds, which a breath of wind is sufficient to tumble into ruin;
+    therefore bearing this possibility in mind it behoves me to beg that
+    I may be always enabled to bow meekly to the dispensations of the
+    Almighty, whether they be of favour or severity.”
+
+Mr Brandram’s comment on this portion of Borrow’s letter is rather
+suggestive of deliberate fault-finding.
+
+    “May your ‘passionate’ prayers be answered,” he writes. {286}  “You
+    see I remark your unusual word—very significant it is, but one rather
+    fitted for the select circle where ‘passion’ is understood in its own
+    full sense—and not in the restricted meaning attached to it
+    ordinarily.  Perhaps you will not often meet with a better set of men
+    than those who assembled in Earl Street, but they may not always be
+    open to the force of language, and so unwonted a phrase may raise odd
+    feelings in their minds.  Do not be in a passion, will you, for the
+    freedom of my remarks.  You will perhaps suppose remarks were made in
+    Committee.  This does not happen to be the case, though I fully
+    anticipated it.  Mr Browne, Mr Jowett and myself had first privately
+    devoured your letter, and we made our remarks.  We could relish such
+    a phrase.”
+
+Sometimes there was a suggestion of spite in Mr Brandram’s letters.  He
+was obviously unfriendly towards Borrow during the latter portion of his
+agency.  It was clear that the period of Borrow’s further association
+with the Bible Society was to be limited.  If he replied at all to this
+rather unfair criticism, he must have done so privately to Mr Brandram,
+as there is no record of his having referred to it in any subsequent
+letters among the Society’s archives.
+
+All unconscious that he had so early offended, Borrow set out upon his
+first journey to distribute Testaments among the villages around Madrid.
+Dressed in the manner of the peasants, on his head a _montera_, a species
+of leathern helmet, with jacket and trousers of the same material, and
+mounted on Sidi Habismilk, he looked so unlike the conventional
+missionary that the housewife may be excused who mistook him for a pedlar
+selling soap.
+
+In some villages where the people were without money, they received
+Testaments in return for refreshing the missionaries.  “Is this right?”
+Borrow enquires of Mr Brandram.  The village priests frequently proved of
+considerable assistance; for when they pronounced the books good, as they
+sometimes did, the sale became extremely brisk.  After an absence of
+eight days, Borrow returned to Madrid.  Shortly afterwards, when on the
+eve of starting out upon another expedition to Guadalajara and the
+villages of Alcarria, he received a letter from Victoriano saying that he
+was in prison at Fuente la Higuera, a village about eight leagues
+distant.  Acting with his customary energy and decision, Borrow obtained
+from an influential friend letters to the Civil Governor and principal
+authorities of Guadalajara.  He then despatched Antonio to the rescue,
+with the result that Victoriano was released, with the assurance that
+those responsible for his detention should be severely punished.
+
+Whilst Victoriano was in prison, Borrow and Antonio had been very
+successful in selling Testaments and Bibles in Madrid, disposing of
+upwards of a hundred copies, but entirely to the poor, who “receive the
+Scriptures with gladness,” although the hearts of the rich were hard.
+The work in and about Madrid continued until the middle of March, when
+Borrow decided to make an excursion as far as Talavera.  The first halt
+was made at the village of Naval Carnero.  Soon after his arrival orders
+came from Madrid warning the _alcaldes_ of every village in New Castile
+to be on the look out for the tall, white-haired heretic, of whom an
+exact description was given, who to-day was in one place and to-morrow
+twenty leagues distant.  No violence was to be offered either to him or
+to his assistants; but he and they were to be baulked in their purpose by
+every legitimate means.
+
+Foiled in the rural districts, Borrow instantly determined to change his
+plan of campaign.  He saw that he was less likely to attract notice in
+the densely-populated capital than in the provinces.  He therefore
+galloped back to Madrid, leaving Victoriano to follow more leisurely.  He
+rejoiced at the alarm of the clergy.  “Glory to God!” he exclaims, “they
+are becoming thoroughly alarmed, and with much reason.” {288a}  The
+“reason” lay in the great demand for Testaments and Bibles.  A new
+binding-order had to be given for the balance of the 500 Bibles that had
+arrived in sheets, or such as had been left of them by the rats, who had
+done considerable damage in the Madrid storehouse.
+
+It was at this juncture that Borrow’s extensive acquaintance with the
+lower orders proved useful.  Selecting eight of the most intelligent from
+among them, including five women, he supplied them with Testaments and
+instructions to vend the books in all the parishes of Madrid, with the
+result that in the course of about a fortnight 600 copies were disposed
+of in the streets and alleys.  A house to house canvass was instituted
+with remarkable results, for manservant and maidservant bought eagerly of
+the books.  Antonio excelled himself and made some amends for his flight
+from Labajos, when, like a torrent, the Carlist cavalry descended upon
+it.  Dark Madrid was becoming illuminated with a flood of Scriptural
+light.  In two of its churches the New Testament was expounded every
+Sunday evening.  Bibles were particularly in demand, a hundred being sold
+in about three weeks.  The demand exceeded the supply.  “The Marques de
+Santa Coloma,” Borrow wrote, “has a large family, but every individual of
+it, old or young, is now in possession of a Bible and likewise of a
+Testament.” {288b}
+
+Borrow appears to have enlisted the aid of other distributors than the
+eight colporteurs.  One of his most zealous agents was an ecclesiastic,
+who always carried with him beneath his gown a copy of the Bible, which
+he offered to the first person he encountered whom he thought likely to
+become a purchaser.  Yet another assistant was found in a rich old
+gentleman of Navarre, who sent copies to his own province.
+
+One night after having retired to bed, Borrow received a visit from a
+curious, hobgoblin-like person, who gave him grave, official warning that
+unless he present himself before the _corregidor_ on the morrow at eleven
+A.M., he must be prepared to take the consequences.  The hour chosen for
+this intimation was midnight.  On the next day at the appointed time
+Borrow presented himself before the _corregidor_, who announced that he
+wished to ask a question.  The question related to a box of Testaments
+that Borrow had sent to Naval Carnero, which had been seized and
+subsequently claimed on Borrow’s behalf by Antonio.  In Spain they have
+the dramatic instinct.  If it strike the majestic mind of a _corregidor_
+at midnight that he would like to see a citizen or a stranger on the
+morrow about some trifling affair, time or place are not permitted to
+interfere with the conveyance of the intimation to the citizen or
+stranger to present himself before the gravely austere official, who will
+carry out the interrogation with a solemnity becoming a capital charge.
+
+By the middle of April barely a thousand Testaments remained; these
+Borrow determined to distribute in Seville.  Sending Antonio, the
+Testaments and two horses with the convoy, Borrow decided to risk
+travelling with the Mail Courier.  For one thing, he disliked the
+slowness of a convoy, and for another the insults and irritations that
+travellers had to put up with from the escort, both officers and men.
+His original plan had been to proceed by Estremadura; but a band of
+Carlist robbers had recently made its appearance, murdering or holding at
+ransom every person who fell into its clutches.  Borrow wrote:—
+
+    “I therefore deem it wise to avoid, if possible, the alternative of
+    being shot or having to pay one thousand pounds for being set at
+    liberty . . . It is moreover wicked to tempt Providence
+    systematically.  I have already thrust myself into more danger than
+    was, perhaps, strictly necessary, and as I have been permitted
+    hitherto to escape, it is better to be content with what it has
+    pleased the Lord to do for me up to the present moment, than to run
+    the risk of offending Him by a blind confidence in His forbearance,
+    which may be over-taxed.  As it is, however, at all times best to be
+    frank, I am willing to confess that I am what the world calls
+    exceedingly superstitious; perhaps the real cause of my change of
+    resolution was a dream, in which I imagined myself on a desolate road
+    in the hands of several robbers, who were hacking me with their long,
+    ugly knives.” {290}
+
+In the same letter, which was so to incur Mr Brandram’s disapproval,
+Borrow tells of the excellent results of his latest plan for disposing of
+Bibles and Testaments, three hundred and fifty of the former having been
+sold since he reached Spain.  He goes on to explain and expound the
+difficulties that have been met and overcome, and hopes that his friends
+at Earl Street will be patient, as it may not be in his power to send
+“for a long time any flattering accounts of operations commenced there.”
+In conclusion, he assures Mr Brandram that from the Church of Rome he has
+learned one thing, “_Ever to expect evil_, _and ever to hope for good_.”
+
+Nothing could have been more unfortunate than the effect produced upon Mr
+Brandram’s mind by this letter.
+
+    “I scarcely know what to say,” he writes.  “You are in a very
+    peculiar country; you are doubtless a man of very peculiar
+    temperament, and we must not apply common rules in judging either of
+    yourself or your affairs.  What, _e.g._, shall we say to your
+    confession of a certain superstitiousness?  It is very frank of you
+    to tell us what you need not have told; but it sounded very odd when
+    read aloud in a large Committee.  Strangers that know you not would
+    carry away strange ideas . . . In bespeaking our patience, there is
+    an implied contrast between your own mode of proceeding and that
+    adopted by others—a contrast this a little to the disadvantage of
+    others, and savouring a little of the praise of a personage called
+    number one . . . Perhaps my vanity is offended, and I feel as if I
+    were not esteemed a person of sufficient discernment to know enough
+    of the real state of Spain . . .
+
+    “Bear with me now in my criticisms on your second letter [that of 2nd
+    May].  You narrate your perilous journey to Seville, and say at the
+    beginning of the description: ‘My usual wonderful good fortune
+    accompanying us.’  This is a mode of speaking to which we are not
+    well accustomed; it savours, some of our friends would say, a little
+    of the profane.  Those who know you will not impute this to you.  But
+    you must remember that our Committee Room is public to a great
+    extent, and I cannot omit expressions as I go reading on.  Pious
+    sentiments may be thrust into letters _ad nauseam_, and it is not for
+    that I plead; but is there not a _via media_?  “We are odd people, it
+    may be, in England; we are not fond of prophets or ‘prophetesses’ [a
+    reference to her of La Mancha about whom Borrow had previously been
+    rebuked].  I have not turned back to your former description of the
+    lady whom you have a second time introduced to our notice.  Perhaps
+    my wounded pride had not been made whole after the infliction you
+    before gave it by contrasting the teacher of the prophetess with
+    English rectors.”
+
+Borrow replied to this letter from Seville on 28th June, and there are
+indications that before doing so he took time to deliberate upon it.
+
+    “Think not, I pray you,” he wrote, “that any observation of yours
+    respecting style, or any peculiarities of expression which I am in
+    the habit of exhibiting in my correspondence, can possibly awaken in
+    me any feeling but that of gratitude, knowing so well as I do the
+    person who offers them, and the motives by which he is influenced.  I
+    have reflected on those passages which you were pleased to point out
+    as objectionable, and have nothing to reply further than that I have
+    erred, that I am sorry, and will endeavour to mend, and that,
+    moreover, I have already prayed for assistance to do so.  Allow me,
+    however, to offer a word, not in excuse but in explanation of the
+    expression ‘wonderful good fortune’ which appeared in a former letter
+    of mine.  It is clearly objectionable, and, as you very properly
+    observe, savours of pagan times.  But I am sorry to say that I am
+    much in the habit of repeating other people’s sayings without
+    weighing their propriety.  The saying was not mine; but I heard it in
+    conversation and thoughtlessly repeated it.  A few miles from Seville
+    I was telling the Courier of the many perilous journeys which I had
+    accomplished in Spain in safety, and for which I thank the Lord.  His
+    reply was, ‘La mucha suerte de Usted tambien nos ha acompañado en
+    este viage.’”
+
+Thus ended another unfortunate misunderstanding between secretary and
+agent.
+
+Borrow had taken considerable risk in making the journey to Seville with
+the Courier.  The whole of La Mancha was overrun with the
+Carlist-banditti, who, “whenever it pleases them, stop the Courier, burn
+the vehicle and letters, murder the paltry escort which attends, and
+carry away any chance passenger to the mountains, where an enormous
+ransom is demanded, which if not paid brings on the dilemma of four shots
+through the head, as the Spaniards say.”  The Courier’s previous journey
+over the same route had ended in the murder of the escort and the burning
+of the coach, the Courier himself escaping through the good offices of
+one of the bandits, who had formerly been his postilion.  Borrow was
+shown the blood-soaked turf and the skull of one of the soldiers.  At
+Manzanares, Borrow invited to breakfast with him the Prophetess who was
+so unpopular at Earl Street.  Continuing the journey, he reached Seville
+without mishap, and a few days later Antonio arrived with the horses.  It
+was found that the two cases of Testaments that had been forwarded from
+Madrid had been stopped at the Seville Customs House, and Borrow had
+recourse to subterfuge in order to get them and save his journey from
+being in vain.
+
+    “For a few dollars,” he tells Mr Brandram (2nd May), “I procured a
+    _fiador_ or person who engaged _that the chests_ should be carried
+    down the river and embarked at San Lucar for a foreign land.
+    Yesterday I hired a boat and sent them down, but on the way I landed
+    in a secure place all the Testaments which I intend for this part of
+    the country.”
+
+The _fiador_ had kept to the letter of his undertaking, and the chests
+were duly delivered at San Lucar; but a considerable portion of their
+contents, some two hundred Testaments, had been abstracted, and these had
+to be smuggled into Seville under the cloaks of master and servant.  The
+officials appear to have treated Borrow with the greatest possible
+courtesy and consideration, and they told him that his “intentions were
+known and honored.”
+
+Borrow had great hopes of achieving something for the Gospel’s sake in
+Seville; but the operation would be a delicate one.  To Mr Brandram he
+wrote:—
+
+    “Consider my situation here.  I am in a city by nature very
+    Levitical, as it contains within it the most magnificent and
+    splendidly endowed cathedral of any in Spain.  I am surrounded by
+    priests and friars, who know and hate me, and who, if I commit the
+    slightest act of indiscretion, will halloo their myrmidons against
+    me.  The press is closed to me, the libraries are barred against me,
+    I have no one to assist me but my hired servant, no pious English
+    families to comfort or encourage me, the British subjects here being
+    ranker papists and a hundred times more bigoted than the Spanish
+    themselves, the Consul, a _renegade Quaker_.  Yet notwithstanding,
+    with God’s assistance, I will do much, though silently, burrowing
+    like the mole in darkness beneath the ground.  Those who have
+    triumphed in Madrid, and in the two Castiles, where the difficulties
+    were seven times greater, are not to be dismayed by priestly frowns
+    at Seville.” {293}
+
+On arriving at Seville Borrow had put up at the _Posada de la Reyna_, in
+the Calle Gimios, and here on 4th May (he had arrived about 24th April)
+he encountered Lieut.-Colonel Elers Napier.  Borrow liked nothing so well
+as appearing in the _rôle_ of a mysterious stranger.  He loved mystery as
+much as a dramatic moment.  His admiration of Baron Taylor was largely
+based upon the innumerable conjectures as to who it was that surrounded
+his puzzling personality with such an air of mystery.  That May morning
+Colonel Napier, who was also staying at the _Posada de la Reyna_, was
+wandering about the galleries overlooking the _patio_.  He writes:—
+
+    “whilst occupied in moralising over the dripping water spouts, I
+    observed a tall, gentlemanly-looking man dressed in a _semarra_
+    [_zamarra_, a sheepskin jacket with the wool outside] leaning over
+    the balustrades and apparently engaged in a similar manner with
+    myself . . .  From the stranger’s complexion, which was fair, but
+    with brilliant black eyes, I concluded he was not a Spaniard; in
+    short, there was something so remarkable in his appearance that it
+    was difficult to say to what nation he might belong.  He was tall,
+    with a commanding appearance; yet, though apparently in the flower of
+    manhood, his hair was so deeply tinged with the winter of either age
+    or sorrow as to be nearly snow white.” {294a}
+
+Colonel Napier was thoroughly mystified.  The stranger answered his
+French in “the purest Parisian Accent”; yet he proved capable of speaking
+fluent English, of giving orders to his Greek servant in Romaïc, of
+conversing “in good Castillian with ‘mine host’,” and of exchanging
+salutations in German with another resident at the _fonda_.  Later the
+Colonel had the gratification of startling the Unknown by replying to
+some remark of his in Hindi; but only momentarily, for he showed himself
+“delighted on finding I was an Indian, and entered freely, and with depth
+and acuteness, on the affairs of the East, most of which part of the
+world he had visited.” {294b}
+
+No one could give any information about “the mysterious Unknown,” who or
+what he was, or why he was travelling.  It was known that the police
+entertained suspicions that he was a Russian spy, and kept him under
+strict observation.  Whatever else he was, Colonel Napier found him “a
+very agreeable companion.” {295}
+
+On the following morning (a Sunday) Colonel Napier and his Unknown set
+out on horseback on an excursion to the ruins of Italica.  As they sat on
+a ruined wall of the Convent of San Isidoro, contemplating the scene of
+ruin and desolation around, “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” some lines that the scene called up to
+his mind.
+
+    “I had been too much taken up with the scene,” Colonel Napier
+    continues, “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 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—‘_Caballeritos_, _una limosnita_!  _Dios se la pagará á
+    ustedes_!’—‘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 about
+    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, replied in the same tongue, but in broken
+    language; when, taking him by the arm, she said in Spanish, ‘Come,
+    cabellero—come to one who will be able to answer you’; and she led
+    the way down amongst 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 the 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, of
+    two men, and a decrepit old hag, who appeared busily engaged in some
+    culinary preparations.
+
+    “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’ [a sash in
+    which the Spaniard carries a formidable clasp-knife] caused in me, at
+    least, anything but a comfortable sensation; but their hostile
+    intentions, if ever entertained, 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, to the astonishment of
+    myself and what looked very like terror in our Spanish guide.
+
+    “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 those
+    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 drily 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.
+    The subject was never again broached, and we returned in silence to
+    the fonda . . .  This is a most extraordinary character, and the more
+    I see of him the more am I puzzled.  He appears acquainted with
+    everybody and everything, but apparently unknown to every one
+    himself.  Though his figure bespeaks youth—and by his own account his
+    age does not exceed thirty [he would be thirty-six in the following
+    July]—yet the snows of eighty winters could not have whitened his
+    locks more completely than they are.  But in his dark and searching
+    eye there is an almost supernatural penetration and lustre, which,
+    were I inclined to superstition, might induce me to set down its
+    possessor as a second Melmoth.” {297}
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+MAY–DECEMBER 1839
+
+
+BORROW confesses that he was at a loss to know how to commence operations
+in Seville.  He was entirely friendless, even the British Consul being
+unapproachable on account of his religious beliefs.  However, he soon
+gathered round him some of those curious characters who seemed always to
+gravitate towards him, no matter where he might be, or with what
+occupied.  Surely the Scriptures never had such a curious assortment of
+missionaries as Borrow employed?  At Seville there was the gigantic
+Greek, Dionysius of Cephalonia; the “aged professor of music, who, with
+much stiffness and ceremoniousness, united much that was excellent and
+admirable”; {298} the Greek bricklayer, Johannes Chysostom, a native of
+Morea, who might at any time become “the Masaniello of Seville.”  With
+these assistants Borrow set to work to throw the light of the Gospel into
+the dark corners of the city.
+
+Soon after arriving at Seville, he decided to adopt a new plan of living.
+
+    “On account of the extreme dearness of every article at the
+    _posada_,” he wrote to Mr Brandram on 12th June, “where, moreover, I
+    had a suspicion that I was being watched [this may have reference to
+    the police suspicion that he was a Russian spy], I removed with my
+    servant and horses to an empty house in a solitary part of the town .
+    . .  Here I live in the greatest privacy, admitting no person but two
+    or three in whom I had the greatest confidence, who entertain the
+    same views as myself, and who assist me in the circulation of the
+    Gospel.”
+
+The house stood in a solitary situation, occupying one side of the
+Plazuela de la Pila Seca (the Little Square of the Empty Trough).  It was
+a two-storied building and much too large for Borrow’s requirements.
+Having bought the necessary articles of furniture, he retired behind the
+shutters of his Andalusian mansion with Antonio and the two horses.  He
+lived in the utmost seclusion, spending a large portion of his time in
+study or in dreamy meditation.  “The people here complain sadly of the
+heat,” he writes to Mr Brandram (28th June 1839), “but as for myself, I
+luxuriate in it, like the butterflies which hover about the _macetas_, or
+flowerpots, in the court.”  In the cool of the evening he would mount
+Sidi Habismilk and ride along the _Dehesa_ until the topmost towers of
+the city were out of sight, then, turning the noble Arab, he would let
+him return at his best speed, which was that of the whirlwind.
+
+Throughout his work in Spain Borrow had been seriously handicapped by
+being unable to satisfy the demand for Bibles that met him everywhere he
+went.  In a letter (June) from Maria Diaz, who was acting as his agent in
+Madrid, {299} the same story is told.
+
+    “The binder has brought me eight Bibles,” she writes, “which he has
+    contrived to make up out of _the sheets gnawn by the rats_, and which
+    would have been necessary even had they amounted to eight thousand (y
+    era necesario se puvièran vuelto 8000), because the people are
+    innumerable who come to seek more.  Don Santiago has been here with
+    some friends, who insisted upon having a part of them.  The Aragonese
+    Gentleman has likewise been, he who came before your departure, and
+    bespoke twenty-four; he now wants twenty-five.  I begged them to take
+    Testaments, but they would not.” {300}
+
+The Greek bricklayer proved a most useful agent.  His great influence
+with his poor acquaintances resulted in the sale of many Testaments.
+More could have been done had it not been necessary to proceed with
+extreme caution, lest the authorities should take action and seize the
+small stock of books that remained.
+
+When he took and furnished the large house in the little square, there
+had been in Borrow’s mind another reason than a desire for solitude and
+freedom from prying eyes.  Throughout his labours in Spain he had kept up
+a correspondence with Mrs Clarke of Oulton, who, on 15th March, had
+written informing him of her intention to take up her abode for a short
+time at Seville.
+
+For some time previously Mrs Clarke had been having trouble about her
+estate.  Her mother (September 1835) and father (February 1836) were both
+dead, and her brother Breame had inherited the estate and she the
+mortgage together with the Cottage on Oulton Broad.  Breame Skepper died
+(May 1837), leaving a wife and six children.  In his will he had
+appointed Trustees, who demanded the sale of the Estate and division of
+the money, which was opposed by Mrs Clarke as executrix and mortgagee.
+Later it was agreed between the parties that the Estate should be sold
+for £11,000 to a Mr Joseph Cator Webb, and an agreement to that effect
+was signed.  Anticipating that the Estate would increase in value, and
+apparently regretting their bargain, the Trustees delayed carrying out
+their undertaking, and Mr Webb filed a bill in Chancery to force them to
+do so.  Mrs Clarke’s legal advisers thought it better that she should
+disappear for a time.  Hence her letter to Borrow, in replying to which
+(29th March), he expresses pleasure at the news of his friend’s
+determination “to settle in Seville for a short time—which, I assure you,
+I consider to be the most agreeable retreat you can select . . . for
+_there_ the growls of your enemies will scarcely reach you.”  He goes on
+to tell her that he laughed outright at the advice of her counsellor not
+to take a house and furnish it.
+
+    “Houses in Spain are let by the day: and in a palace here you will
+    find less furniture than in your cottage at Oulton.  Were you to
+    furnish a Spanish house in the style of cold, wintry England, you
+    would be unable to breathe.  A few chairs, tables, and mattresses are
+    all that is required, with of course a good stock of bed-linen . . .
+
+    “Bring with you, therefore, your clothes, plenty of bed-linen, etc.,
+    half-a-dozen blankets, two dozen knives and forks, a mirror or two,
+    twelve silver table spoons, and a large one for soup, tea things and
+    urn (for the Spaniards never drink tea), a few books, but not
+    many,—and you will have occasion for nothing more, or, if you have,
+    you can purchase it here as cheap as in England.”
+
+Borrow’s ideas of domestic comfort were those of the old campaigner.  For
+all that, he showed himself very thorough in the directions he gave as to
+how and where Mrs Clarke should book her passage and obtain “a passport
+for yourself and Hen.”  (Henrietta her daughter, now nearly twenty years
+of age), and the warning he gave that no attempt should be made to go
+ashore at Lisbon, “a very dangerous place.”
+
+On 7th June Mrs Clarke and her daughter Henrietta sailed from London on
+board the steam-packet _Royal Tar_ bound for Cadiz, where they arrived on
+the 16th, and, on the day following, entered into possession of their
+temporary home where Borrow was already installed, safe for the time from
+Mr Webb’s Chancery bill.  It was no doubt to Mrs and Miss Clarke that
+Borrow referred when he wrote to Mr Brandram {301} saying that “two or
+three ladies of my acquaintance occasionally dispose of some [Testaments]
+amongst their friends, but they say that they experience some difficulty,
+the cry for Bibles being great.”
+
+Borrow continued to reside at 7 Plazuela de la Pila Seca, and Mrs Clarke
+and Henrietta soon learned something of the vicissitudes and excitements
+of a missionary’s life.  On Sunday, 8th July, as Borrow “happened to be
+reading the Liturgy,” he received a visit from “various _alguacils_,
+headed by the _Alcade del Barrio_, or headborough, who made a small
+seizure of Testaments and Gypsy Gospels which happened to be lying
+about.” {302}  This circumstance convinced Borrow of the good effect of
+his labours in and around Seville.
+
+The time had now arrived, however, when the whole of the smuggled
+Testaments had been disposed of, and there was no object in remaining
+longer in Seville, or in Spain for that matter.  There were books at San
+Lucar that might without official opposition be shipped out of the
+country, and Borrow therefore determined to see what could be done
+towards distributing them among the Spanish residents on the Coast of
+Barbary.  This done, he hoped to return to Spain and dispose of the 900
+odd Testaments lying at Madrid.  On 18th July he wrote to Mr Brandram:—
+
+    “I should wish to be permitted on my return from my present
+    expedition to circulate some in La Mancha.  The state of that
+    province is truly horrible; it appears peopled partly with spectres
+    and partly with demons.  There is famine, and such famine; there is
+    assassination and such unnatural assassination [another of Borrow’s
+    phrases that must have struck the Committee as odd].  There you see
+    soldiers and robbers, ghastly lepers and horrible and uncouth maimed
+    and blind, exhibiting their terrible nakedness in the sun.  I was
+    prevented last year in carrying the Gospel amongst them.  May I be
+    more successful this.”
+
+Antonio had been dismissed, his master being “compelled to send [him]
+back to Madrid . . . on account of his many irregularities,” and in
+consequence it was alone, on the night of 31st July, that Borrow set out
+upon his expedition.  From Seville he took the steamer to Bonanza, from
+whence he drove to San Lucar, where he picked up a chest of New
+Testaments and a small box of St Luke’s Gospel in Gitano, with a pass for
+them to Cadiz.  It proved expensive, this claiming of his own property,
+for at every step there was some fee to be paid or gratuity to be given.
+The last payment was made to the Spanish Consul at Gibraltar, who claimed
+and received a dollar for certifying the arrival of books he had not
+seen.
+
+Borrow was instinctively a missionary, even a great missionary.  At the
+Customs House of San Lucar some questions were asked about the books
+contained in the cases, and he seized the occasion to hold an informal
+missionary meeting, with the officials clustered round him listening to
+his discourse.  One of the cases had to be opened for inspection, and the
+upshot of it was that, to the very officials whose duty it was to see
+that the books were not distributed in Spain, Borrow sold a number of
+copies, not only of the Spanish Testament, but of the Gypsy St Luke.
+Such was the power of his personality and the force of his eloquence.
+
+From San Lucar Borrow returned to Bonanza and again took the boat, which
+landed him at Cadiz, where he was hospitably entertained by Mr
+Brackenbury, the British Consul, who gave him a letter of introduction to
+Mr Drummond Hay, the Consul-General at Tangier.  On 4th August he
+proceeded to Gibraltar.  It was not until the 8th, however, that he was
+able to cross to Tangier, where he was kindly received by Mr Hay, who
+found for him a very comfortable lodging.
+
+Taking the Consul’s advice, Borrow proceeded with extreme caution.  For
+the first fortnight of his stay he made no effort to distribute his
+Testaments, contenting himself with studying the town and its
+inhabitants, occasionally speaking to the Christians in the place
+(principally Spanish and Genoese sailors and their families) about
+religious matters, but always with the greatest caution lest the two or
+three friars, who resided at what was known as the Spanish Convent,
+should become alarmed.  Again Borrow obtained the services of a curious
+assistant, a Jewish lad named Hayim Ben Attar, who carried the Testaments
+to the people’s houses and offered them for sale, and this with
+considerable success.  On 4th September Borrow wrote to Mr Brandram:—
+
+    “The blessed book is now in the hands of most of the Christians of
+    Tangier, from the lowest to the highest, from the fisherman to the
+    consul.  One dozen and a half were carried to Tetuan on speculation,
+    a town about six leagues from hence; they will be offered to the
+    Christians who reside there.  Other two dozen are on their way to
+    distant Mogadore.  One individual, a tavern keeper, has purchased
+    Testaments to the number of thirty, which he says he has no doubt he
+    can dispose of to the foreign sailors who stop occasionally at his
+    house.  You will be surprised to hear that several amongst the Jews
+    have purchased copies of the New Testament with the intention, as
+    they state, of improving themselves in Spanish, but I believe from
+    curiosity.”
+
+During his stay in Tangier, Borrow had some trouble with the British
+Vice-Consul, who seems to have made himself extremely offensive with his
+persistent offers of service.  His face was “purple and blue” and in
+whose blood-shot eyes there was an expression “much like that of a
+departed tunny fish or salmon,” and he became so great an annoyance that
+Borrow made a complaint to Mr Drummond Hay.  This is one of the few
+instances of Borrow’s experiencing difficulty with any British official,
+for, as a rule, he was extremely popular.  In this particular instance,
+however, the Vice-Consul was so obviously seeking to make profit out of
+his official position, that there was no other means open to Borrow than
+to make a formal complaint.
+
+In the case of Mr Drummond Hay, he obtained the friendship of a “true
+British gentleman.”  At first the Consul had been reserved and distant,
+and apparently by no means inclined to render Borrow any service in the
+furtherance of his mission; but a few days sufficed to bring him under
+the influence of Borrow’s personal magnetism, and he ended by assuring
+him that he would be happy to receive the Society’s commands, and would
+render all possible assistance, officially or otherwise, to the
+distribution of the Scriptures “in Fez or Morocco.”
+
+Borrow was thoroughly satisfied with the result of his five weeks’ stay
+in Tangier.  He reached Cadiz on his way to Seville on 21st Sept., after
+undergoing a four days’ quarantine at Tarifa, when he wrote to Mr
+Brandram (29th Sept.):
+
+    “I am very glad that I went to Tangier, for many reasons.  In the
+    first place, I was permitted to circulate many copies of God’s Word
+    both among the Jews and the Christians, by the latter of whom it was
+    particularly wanted, their ignorance of the most vital points of
+    religion being truly horrible.  In the second place, I acquired a
+    vast stock of information concerning Africa and the state of its
+    interior.  One of my principal Associates was a black slave whose
+    country was only three days’ journey from Timbuctoo, which place he
+    had frequently visited.  The Soos men also told me many of the
+    secrets of the land of wonders from which they come, and the Rabbis
+    from Fez and Morocco were no less communicative.”
+
+Borrow had started upon his expedition to the Barbary Coast without any
+definite instructions from Earl Street.  On 29th July the Sub-Committee
+had resolved that as his mission to Spain was “nearly attained by the
+disposal of the larger part of the Spanish Scriptures which he went out
+to distribute,” the General Committee be recommended to request him to
+take measures for selling or placing in safe custody all copies remaining
+on hand and returning to England “without loss of time.”  This was
+adopted on 5th Aug.; but before it received the formal sanction of the
+General Committee Mr Browne had written (29th July) to Borrow acquainting
+him with the feeling of the Sub-Committee, thinking that he ought to have
+early intimation of what was taking place.  This letter Borrow found
+awaiting him at Cadiz on his return from Tangier.  He replied immediately
+(21st Sept.):
+
+    “Had I been aware of that resolution before my departure for Tangier
+    I certainly should not have gone; my expedition, however, was the
+    result of much reflection.  I wished to carry the Gospel to the
+    Christians of the Barbary shore, who were much in want of it; and I
+    had one hundred and thirty Testaments at San Lucar, which I could
+    only make available by exportation.  The success which it has pleased
+    the Lord to yield me in my humble efforts at distribution in Barbary
+    will, I believe, prove the best criterion as to the fitness of the
+    enterprise.
+
+    “I stated in my last communication to Mr Brandram the plan which I
+    conceived to be the best for circulating that portion of the edition
+    of the New Testament which remains unsold at Madrid, and I scarcely
+    needed a stimulant in the execution of my duty.  At present, however,
+    I know not what to do; I am sorrowful, disappointed and unstrung.
+
+    “I wish to return to England as soon as possible; but I have books
+    and papers at Madrid which are of much importance to me and which I
+    cannot abandon, this perhaps alone prevents me embarking in the next
+    packet.  I have, moreover, brought with me from Tangier the Jewish
+    youth [Hayim Ben Attar], who so powerfully assisted me in that place
+    in the work of distribution.  I had hoped to have made him of service
+    in Spain, he is virtuous and clever . . .
+
+    “I am almost tempted to ask whether some strange, some unaccountable
+    delusion does not exist: what should induce me to stay in Spain, as
+    you appear to suppose I intend?  I may, however, have misunderstood
+    you.  I wish to receive a fresh communication as soon as possible,
+    either from yourself or Mr Brandram; in the meantime I shall go to
+    Seville, to which place and to the usual number pray direct.”
+
+It would appear that the Bible Society had become aware of Borrow’s
+_ménage_ at Seville, and concluded that he meant to take up his abode in
+Spain more or less permanently.
+
+Borrow’s next plan was to order a chest of Testaments to be sent to La
+Mancha, where he had friends, then to mount his horse and proceed there
+in person.  With the assistance of his Jewish body-servant he hoped to
+circulate many copies before the authorities became aware of his
+presence.  Later he would proceed to Madrid, put his affairs in order,
+and make for France by way of Saragossa (where he hoped to accomplish
+some good), and then—home.
+
+In September a circular signed by Lord Palmerston was received by all the
+British Consuls in Spain, strictly forbidding them “to afford the
+slightest countenance to religious agents. {307a}  What was the cause of
+this last blow?” {307b}  Borrow rather unfortunately enquired of Mr
+Brandram.  The Consul at Cadiz, Mr Brackenbury, explained it, according
+to Borrow, as due to “an ill-advised application made to his Lordship to
+interfere with the Spanish Government on behalf of a certain individual
+{307c} [Lieut. Graydon] whose line of conduct needs no comment.” {307d}
+After pointing out that once the same consuls had received from a British
+Ambassador instructions to further, in their official capacity, the work
+of the Bible Society, he concludes with the following remark, as
+ill-advised as it is droll: “When dead flies fall into the ointment of
+the apothecary they cause it to send forth an unpleasant savour.” {308a}
+
+It must have been obvious to both Borrow and Mr Brandram that matters
+were rapidly approaching a crisis.  Mr Brandram seems to have been almost
+openly hostile, and draws Borrow’s attention to the fact that after all
+his distributions have been small.  Borrow replies by saying that the
+fault did not rest with him.  Had he been able to offer Bibles instead of
+Testaments for sale, the circulation would have been ten times greater.
+He expresses it as his belief that had he received 20,000 Bibles he could
+have sold them all in Madrid during the Spring of 1839.
+
+    “When the Bible Society has no further occasion for my poor labours,”
+    he wrote {308b} somewhat pathetically, “I hope it will do me justice
+    to the world.  I have been its faithful and zealous servant.  I shall
+    on a future occasion take the liberty of addressing you as a friend
+    respecting my prospects.  I have the materials of a curious book of
+    travels in Spain; I have enough metrical translations from all
+    languages, especially the Celtic and Sclavonic, to fill a dozen
+    volumes; and I have formed a vocabulary of the Spanish Gypsy tongue,
+    and also a collection of the songs and poetry of the Gitanos, with
+    introductory essays.  Perhaps some of these literary labours might be
+    turned to account.  I wish to obtain honourably and respectably the
+    means of visiting China or particular parts of Africa.”
+
+It is clear from this that Borrow saw how unlikely it was that his
+association with the Bible Society would be prolonged beyond the present
+commission.  For one thing Spain was, to all intents and purposes, closed
+to the unannotated Scriptures.  Something might be done in the matter of
+surreptitious distribution; but that had its clearly defined limitations,
+as the authorities were very much alive to the danger of the light that
+Borrow sought to cast over the gloom of ignorance and superstition.
+
+At Earl Street it was clearly recognised that Borrow’s work in Spain was
+concluded.  On 1st November the Sub-Committee resolved that it could “not
+recommend to the General Committee to engage the further services of Mr
+Borrow until he shall have returned to this country from his Mission in
+Spain.”  Again, on 10th January following, it recommends the General
+Committee to recall him “without further delay.”
+
+Although he had been officially recalled, nothing was further from
+Borrow’s intentions than to retire meekly from the field.  He intended to
+retreat with drums sounding and colours flying, fighting something more
+than a rearguard action.  This man’s energy and resource were terrible—to
+the authorities!  Seville he felt was still a fruitful ground, and
+sending to Madrid for further supplies of Testaments, he commenced
+operations.  “Everything was accomplished with the utmost secrecy, and
+the blessed books obtained considerable circulation.” {309}  Agents were
+sent into the country and he went also himself, “in my accustomed
+manner,” until all the copies that had arrived from the capital were put
+into circulation.  He then rested for a while, being in need of quiet, as
+he was indisposed.
+
+By this action Borrow was incurring no little risk.  The Canons of the
+Cathedral watched him closely.  Their hatred amounted “almost to a
+frenzy,” and Borrow states that scarcely a day passed without some
+accusation of other being made to the Civil Governor, all of which were
+false.  People whom he had never seen were persuaded to perjure
+themselves by swearing that he had sold or given them books.  The same
+system was carried on whilst he was in Africa, because the authorities
+refused to believe that he was out of Spain.
+
+There now occurred another regrettable incident, and Borrow once more
+suffered for the indiscretion of those whom he neither knew nor
+controlled.  To Mr Brandram he wrote:
+
+    “Some English people now came to Seville and distributed tracts in a
+    very unguarded manner, knowing nothing of the country or the
+    inhabitants.  They were even so unwise as _to give tracts instead of
+    money on visiting public buildings_, _etc._ [!].  These persons came
+    to me and requested my coöperation and advice, and likewise
+    introductions to people spiritually disposed amongst the Spaniards,
+    to all which requests I returned a decided negative.  But I foresaw
+    all.  In a day or two I was summoned before the Civil Governor, or,
+    as he was once called, the _Corregidor_, of Seville, who, I must say,
+    treated me with the utmost politeness and indeed respect; but at the
+    same time he informed me that he had (to use his own expression)
+    terrible orders from Madrid concerning me if I should be discovered
+    in the act of distributing the Scriptures or any writings of a
+    religious tendency; he then taxed me with having circulated both
+    lately, especially tracts; whereupon I told him that I had never
+    distributed a tract since I had been in Spain nor had any intention
+    of doing so.  We had much conversation and parted in kindness.” {310}
+
+For a few days nothing happened; then, determined to set out on an
+expedition to La Mancha (the delay had been due to the insecure state of
+the roads), Borrow sent his passport (24th Nov.) for signature to the
+_Alcalde del Barrio_.
+
+    “This fellow,” Borrow informs Mr Brandram, “is the greatest ruffian
+    in Seville, and I have on various occasions been insulted by him; he
+    pretends to be a liberal, but he is of no principle at all, and as I
+    reside within his district he has been employed by the Canons of the
+    Cathedral to vex and harrass me on every possible occasion.”
+
+In the following letter, addressed to the British _Chargé d’Affaires_
+(the Hon. G. S. S. Jerningham), Borrow gives a full account of what
+transpired between him and the _Alcalde_ of Seville:—
+
+    SIR,
+
+    I beg leave to lay before you the following statement of certain
+    facts which lately occurred at Seville, from which you will perceive
+    that the person of a British Subject has been atrociously outraged,
+    the rights and privileges of a foreigner in Spain violated, and the
+    sanctuary of a private house invaded without the slightest reason or
+    shadow of authority by a person in the employ of the Spanish
+    Government.
+
+    For some months past I have been a resident at Seville in a house
+    situated in a square called the “Plazuela de la Pila Seca.”  In this
+    house I possess apartments, the remainder being occupied by an
+    English Lady and her daughter, the former of whom is the widow of an
+    officer of the highest respectability who died in the naval service
+    of Great Britain.  On the twenty-fourth of last November, I sent a
+    servant, a Native of Spain, to the Office of the “_Ayuntamiento_” of
+    Seville for the purpose of demanding my passport, it being my
+    intention to set out the next day for Cordoba.  The “_Ayuntamiento_”
+    returned for answer that it was necessary that the ticket of
+    residence (_Billete de residencia_) which I had received on sending
+    in the Passport should be signed by the _Alcalde_ of the district in
+    which I resided, to which intimation I instantly attended.  I will
+    here take the liberty of observing that on several occasions during
+    my residence at Seville, I have experienced gross insults from this
+    _Alcalde_, and that more than once when I have had occasion to leave
+    the Town, he has refused to sign the necessary document for the
+    recovery of the passport; he now again refused to do so, and used
+    coarse language to the Messenger; whereupon I sent the latter back
+    with money to pay any fees, lawful or unlawful, which might be
+    demanded, as I wished to avoid noise and the necessity of applying to
+    the Consul, Mr Williams; but the fellow became only more outrageous.
+    I then went myself to demand an explanation, and was saluted with no
+    inconsiderable quantity of abuse.  I told him that if he proceeded in
+    this manner I would make a complaint to the Authorities through the
+    British Consul.  He then said if I did not instantly depart he would
+    drag me off to prison and cause me to be knocked down if I made the
+    slightest resistance.  I dared him repeatedly to do both, and said
+    that he was a disgrace to the Government which employed him, and to
+    human nature.  He called me a vile foreigner.  We were now in the
+    street and a mob had collected, whereupon I cried: “Viva Inglaterra y
+    viva la Constitucion.”  The populace remained quiet, notwithstanding
+    the exhortations of the _Alcalde_ that they would knock down “the
+    foreigner,” for he himself quailed before me as I looked him in the
+    face, defying him.  At length he exclaimed, with the usual obscene
+    Spanish oath, “I will make you lower your head” (Yo te haré abajar la
+    cabeza), and ran to a neighbouring guard-house and requested the
+    assistance of the Nationals in conducting me to prison.  I followed
+    him and delivered myself up at the first summons, and walked to the
+    prison without uttering a word; not so the _Alcalde_, who continued
+    his abuse until we arrived at the gate, repeatedly threatening to
+    have me knocked down if I moved to the right or left.
+
+    I was asked my name by the Authorities of the prison, which I refused
+    to give unless in the presence of the Consul of my Nation, and indeed
+    to answer any questions.  I was then ordered to the _Patio_, or
+    Courtyard, where are kept the lowest thieves and assassins of
+    Seville, who, having no money, cannot pay for better accommodation,
+    and by whom I should have been stripped naked in a moment as a matter
+    of course, as they are all in a state of raging hunger and utter
+    destitution.  I asked for a private cell, which I was told I might
+    have if I could pay for it.  I stated my willingness to pay anything
+    which might be demanded, and was conducted to an upper ward
+    consisting of several cells and a corridor; here I found six or seven
+    Prisoners, who received me very civilly, and instantly procured me
+    paper and ink for the purpose of writing to the Consul.  In less than
+    an hour Mr Williams arrived and I told him my story, whereupon he
+    instantly departed in order to demand redress of the Authorities.
+    The next morning the _Alcalde_, without any authority from the
+    Political [Civil] Governor of Seville, and unaccompanied by the
+    English Consul, as the law requires in such cases, and solely
+    attended by a common _Escribano_, went to the house in which I was
+    accustomed to reside and demanded admission.  The door was opened by
+    my Moorish Servant, Hayim Ben-Attar, whom he commanded instantly to
+    show the way to my apartments.  On the Servant’s demanding by what
+    authority he came, he said, “Cease chattering” (Deje cuentos), “I
+    shall give no account to you; show me the way; if not, I will take
+    you to prison as I did your master: I come to search for prohibited
+    books.”  The Moor, who being in a strange land was somewhat
+    intimidated, complied and led him to the rooms occupied by me, when
+    the _Alcalde_ flung about my books and papers, finding nothing which
+    could in the slightest degree justify his search, the few books being
+    all either in Hebrew or Arabic character (they consisted of the
+    Mitchna and some commentaries on the Coran); he at last took up a
+    large knife which lay on a chair and which I myself purchased some
+    months previous at Santa Cruz in La Mancha as a curiosity—the place
+    being famous for those knives—and expressed his determination to take
+    it away as a prohibited article.  The _Escribano_, however, cautioned
+    him against doing so, and he flung it down.  He now became very
+    vociferous and attempted to force his way into some apartments
+    occupied by the Ladies, my friends; but soon desisted and at last
+    went away, after using some threatening words to my Moorish Servant.
+    Late at night of the second day of my imprisonment, I was set at
+    liberty by virtue of an order of the Captain General, given on
+    application of the British Consul, after having been for thirty hours
+    imprisoned amongst the worst felons of Andalusia, though to do them
+    justice I must say that I experienced from them nothing but kindness
+    and hospitality.
+
+    The above, Sir, is the correct statement of the affair which has now
+    brought me to Madrid.  What could have induced the _Alcalde_ in
+    question to practise such atrocious behaviour towards me I am at a
+    loss to conjecture, unless he were instigated by certain enemies
+    which I possess in Seville.  However this may be, I now call upon
+    you, as the Representative of the Government of which I am a Subject,
+    to demand of the Minister of the Spanish Crown full and ample
+    satisfaction for the various outrages detailed above.  In conclusion,
+    I must be permitted to add that I will submit to no compromise, but
+    will never cease to claim justice until the culprit has received
+    condign punishment.
+
+                            I am, etc., etc., etc.
+
+                                                            GEORGE BORROW.
+
+    MADRID (no date).
+
+                                      Recorded 6th December [1839].” {313}
+
+Thus it happened that on 19th December Mr Brandram received the following
+letter:—
+
+                                    PRISON OF SEVILLE, 25_th_ _Nov._ 1839.
+
+    I write these lines, as you see, from the common prison of Seville,
+    to which I was led yesterday, or rather dragged, neither for murder
+    nor robbery nor debt, but simply for having endeavoured to obtain a
+    passport for Cordoba, to which place I was going with my Jewish
+    servant Hayim Ben-Attar.
+
+When questioned by the Vice-Consul as to his authority for searching
+Borrow’s house, the _Alcalde_ produced a paper purporting to be the
+deposition of an old woman to whom Borrow was alleged to have sold a
+Testament some ten days previously.  The document Borrow pronounced a
+forgery and the statement untrue.
+
+Borrow’s fellow-prisoners treated him with unbounded kindness and
+hospitality, and he was forced to confess that he had “never found
+himself amongst more quiet and well-behaved men.”  Nothing shows more
+clearly the power of Borrow’s personality over rogues and vagabonds than
+the two periods spent in Spanish prisons—at Madrid and at Seville.  Mr
+Brandram must have shuddered when he read Borrow’s letter telling him by
+what manner of men he was surrounded.
+
+    “What is their history?” he writes apropos of his fellow-prisoners.
+    “The handsome black-haired man, who is now looking over my shoulder,
+    is the celebrated thief, Pelacio, the most expert housebreaker and
+    dexterous swindler in Spain—in a word, the modern Guzman D’alfarache.
+    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 the 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.  Yet he is so quiet and
+    civil, and they are all so quiet and civil, and it is that which most
+    horrifies me, for quietness and civility in them seems so unnatural.”
+    {315}
+
+Such were the men who fraternised with an agent of a religious society
+and showed him not only civility but hospitality and kindness.  It is
+open to question if they would have shown the same to any other
+unfortunate missionary.  In all probability they recognised a
+fellow-vagabond, who was at much at issue with the social conventions of
+communities as they were with the laws of property.
+
+On this occasion the period of Borrow’s imprisonment was brief.  He was
+released late at night on 25th Nov., within thirty hours of his arrest,
+and he immediately set to work to think out a plan by which he could once
+more discomfit the Spanish authorities for this indignity to a British
+subject.  He would proceed to Madrid without delay and put his case
+before the British Minister, at the same time he would “make preparations
+for leaving Spain as soon as possible.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+DECEMBER 1839–MAY 1840
+
+
+It was probably about this time (1839) that
+
+    “The Marqués de Santa Coloma met Borrow again at Seville.  He had
+    great difficulty in finding him out; though he was aware of the
+    street in which he resided, no one knew him by name.  At last, by
+    dint of inquiry and description, some one exclaimed, ‘Oh! you mean el
+    Brujo’ (the wizard), and he was directed to the house.  He was
+    admitted with great caution, and conducted through a lot of passages
+    and stairs, till at last he was ushered into a handsomely furnished
+    apartment in the ‘_mirador_,’ where Borrow was living _with his wife
+    and daughter_. . .  It is evident . . . that, to his Spanish friends
+    at least, he thus called Mrs Clarke and her daughter Henrietta his
+    wife and daughter: and the Marqués de Santa Coloma evidently believed
+    that the young lady was Borrow’s _own_ daughter, and not his
+    step-daughter merely (!).  At the time the roads from Seville to
+    Madrid were very unsafe.  Santa Coloma wished Borrow to join his
+    party, who were going well armed.  Borrow said he would be safe with
+    his Gypsies.  Both arrived without accident in Madrid; the Marqués’s
+    party first.  Borrow, on his arrival, told Santa Coloma that his
+    Gypsy chief had led him by by-paths and mountains; that they had not
+    slept in a village, nor seen a town the whole way.” {316}
+
+It must be confessed that Mr Webster was none too reliable a witness, and
+it seems highly improbable that Borrow would wish to pass Mrs Clarke off
+as his wife before their marriage.  The fact of their occupying the same
+house may have seemed to their Spanish friends compromising, as it
+unquestionably was; but had he spoken of Mrs Clarke as his wife, it would
+have left her not a vestige of reputation.
+
+On arriving at Madrid Borrow found that Lord Clarendon’s successor, Mr
+Arthur Aston, had not yet arrived, he therefore presented his complaint
+to the _Chargé d’Affaires_, the Hon. G. S. S. Jerningham, who had
+succeeded Mr Sothern as private secretary.  Mr Sothern had not yet left
+Madrid to take up his new post as First Secretary at Lisbon, and
+therefore presented Borrow to Mr Jerningham, by whom he was received with
+great kindness.  He assured Mr Jerningham that for some time past he had
+given up distributing the Scriptures in Spain, and he merely claimed the
+privileges of a British subject and the protection of his Government.
+The First Secretary took up the case immediately, forwarding Borrow’s
+letter to Don Perez de Castro with a request for “proper steps to be
+taken, should Mr Borrow’s complaint . . . be considered by His Excellency
+as properly founded.”  Borrow himself was doubtful as to whether he would
+obtain justice, “for I have against me,” he wrote to Mr Brandram (24th
+December), “the Canons of Seville; and all the arts of villany which they
+are so accustomed to practise will of course be used against me for the
+purpose of screening the ruffian who is their instrument. . . .  I have
+been, my dear Sir, fighting with wild beasts.”
+
+The rather quaint reply to Borrow’s charges was not forthcoming until he
+had left Spain and was living at Oulton.  It runs: {317}
+
+                                                MADRID, 11_th_ _May_ 1840.
+
+    SIR,
+
+    Under date of 20th December last, Mr Perez de Castro informed Mr
+    Jerningham that in order to answer satisfactorily his note of 8th
+    December _re_ complaint made by Borrow, he required a faithful report
+    to be made.  These have been stated by the Municipality of Seville to
+    the Civil Governor of that City, and are as follows:—
+
+    “When Borrow meant to undertake his journey to Cadiz towards the end
+    of last year, he applied to the section of public security for his
+    Passport, for which purpose he ought to deliver his paper of
+    residence which was given to him when he arrived at Seville.  That
+    paper he had not presented in its proper time to the _Alcalde_ of his
+    district, on which account this person had not been acquainted as he
+    ought with his residence in the district, and as his Passport could
+    not be issued in consequence of this document not being in order,
+    Borrow addressed, through the medium of a Servant, to the house of
+    the said district _Alcalde_ that the defect might be remedied.  That
+    functionary refused to do so, founded on the reasons already stated;
+    and for the purpose of overcoming his resistance he was offered a
+    gratification, the Servant with that intent presenting half a dollar.
+    The _Alcalde_, justly indignant, left his house to make the necessary
+    complaint respecting their indecorous action when he met Borrow, who,
+    surprised at the refusal of the _Alcalde_, expressed to him his
+    astonishment, addressing insulting expressions not only against his
+    person but against the authorities of Spain, who, he said, he was
+    sure were to be bought at a very small price—crying on after this,
+    Long live the Constitution, Death to the Religion, and Long live
+    England.  These and other insults gave rise to the _Alcalde_
+    proceeding to his arrest and the assistance of the armed force of
+    Veterans, and not of the National Militia, as Borrow supposed, making
+    a detailed report to the Constitutional _Alcalde_, who forwarded it
+    original to the Captain General of the Province as Judge Protector of
+    Foreigners, leaving him under detention at his disposition.  He did
+    the same with another report transmitted by the said functionary, in
+    which reference to a Lady who lived at the Gate of Xerez; he
+    denounced Borrow as a seducer of youth in matters of Religion by
+    facilitating to them the perusal of prohibited books, of which a
+    copy, that was in the hands of the Ecclesiastical Governor, was
+    likewise transmitted to the Captain General.  These antecedents were
+    sufficient to have authorised a summary to have been formed against
+    Borrow, but the repeated supplications of the British Vice-Consul, Mr
+    Williams, who among other things stated that Borrow laboured under
+    fits of madness, had the effect of causing the above Constitutional
+    _Alcalde_ to forgive him the fault committed and recommend to the
+    Captain General that the matter should be dropped, which was acceded
+    to, and he was put at liberty.  The above facts, official proofs of
+    which exist in the Captain General’s Office, clearly disprove the
+    statement of Borrow, who ungrateful for the generous hospitality
+    which he has received, and for the consideration displayed towards
+    him on account of his infirmity, and out of deference to the request
+    of the British Vice-Consul, makes an unfounded complaint against the
+    very authorities who have used attentions towards him which he is
+    certainly not deserving; it being worthy of remark, in order to prove
+    the bad faith of his procedure, that in his own _exposé_, although he
+    disfigures facts at pleasure, using a language little decorous, he
+    confesses part of his faults, such as the offering of money _to pay_,
+    as he says, ‘_the legal or extra-legal dues that might be exacted_,
+    and his having twice challenged the _Alcalde_.’
+
+    “I should consider myself wanting towards your enlightened sense of
+    justice if, after the reasons given, I stopped to prove the just and
+    prudent conduct of Seville authorities.
+
+    “Hope he will therefore be completely satisfied, especially after the
+    want of exactitude on Borrow’s part.
+
+                                     From
+
+                                                EVARISTO PEREZ DE CASTRO.”
+
+    To Mr Aston. {319}
+
+And so the matter ended.  The Spanish authorities knew that they no
+longer had a Sir George Villiers to deal with, and had recourse to that
+trump card of weak and vacillating diplomatists—delay.  Whatever Borrow’s
+offence, the method of his arrest and imprisonment was in itself
+unlawful.
+
+It was Borrow’s intention on his return to England to endeavour to obtain
+an interview with some members of the House of Lords, in order to
+acquaint them with the manner in which Protestants were persecuted in
+Spain.  They were debarred from the exercise of their religion from being
+married by Protestant rites, and the common privileges of burial were
+denied them.  He was anxious for Protestant England, lest it should fall
+a victim to Popery.  This fear of Rome was a very real one to Borrow.  He
+marvelled at people’s blindness to the danger that was threatening them,
+and he even went so far as to entreat his friends at Earl Street “to drop
+all petty dissensions and to comport themselves like brothers” against
+their common enemy the Pope.
+
+Unfortunately Borrow had shown to a number of friends one of his letters
+to Mr Brandram dealing with the Seville imprisonment, and had even
+allowed several copies of it to be taken “in order that an incorrect
+account of the affair might not get abroad.”  The result was an article
+in a London newspaper containing remarks to the disparagement of other
+workers for the Gospel in Spain.  Borrow disavowed all knowledge of these
+observations.
+
+    “I am not ashamed of the Methodists of Cadiz,” he assures Mr
+    Brandram, “their conduct in many respects does them honor, nor do I
+    accuse any one of fanaticism amongst our dear and worthy friends; but
+    I cannot answer for the tittle-tattle of Madrid.  Far be it from me
+    to reflect upon any one, I am but too well aware of my own
+    multitudinous imperfections and follies.” {320}
+
+There is nothing more mysterious in Borrow’s life than his years of
+friendship with Mrs Clarke.  He was never a woman’s man, but Mary Clarke
+seems to have awakened in him a very sincere regard.  The ménage at
+Seville was a curious one, and both Borrow and Mrs Clarke should have
+seen that it was calculated to make people talk.  There may have been a
+tacit understanding between them.  Everything connected with their
+relations and courtship is very mysterious.  Dr Knapp is scarcely just to
+Borrow or gracious to the woman he married, when he implies that it was
+merely a business arrangement on both sides.  Mrs Clarke’s affairs
+required a man’s hand to administer them, and Borrow was prepared to give
+the man’s hand in exchange for an income.  The engagement could scarcely
+have taken place in the middle of November 1839, as Dr Knapp states, for
+on the day of his arrest at Seville (24th Nov.) Borrow wrote:—
+
+    MY DEAR MRS CLARKE,—Do not be alarmed, but I am at present in the
+    prison, to which place the _Alcalde_ del Barrio conducted me when I
+    asked him to sign the Passport.  If Phelipe is not already gone to
+    the Consul, let Henrietta go now and show him this letter.  When I
+    asked the fellow his motives for not signing the Passport, he said if
+    I did not go away he would carry me to prison.  I dared him to do so,
+    as I had done nothing; whereupon he led me here.—Yours truly,
+
+                                                            GEORGE BORROW.
+
+This is obviously not the letter of a man recently engaged to the woman
+who is to become his wife.  On the other hand, Borrow may have been
+writing merely for the Consul’s eye.
+
+On hearing the news of the engagement old Mrs Borrow wrote:—
+
+    “I am not surprised, my dear Mrs Clarke, at what you tell me, though
+    I knew nothing of it.  It put me in mind of the Revd. Flethers; you
+    know they took time to consider.  So far all is well.  I shall now
+    resign him to your care, and may you love and cherish him as much as
+    I have done.  I hope and trust that each will try to make the other
+    happy.  You will always have my prayers and best wishes.  Give my
+    kind love to dear George and tell him he is never out of my thoughts.
+    I have much to say, but I cannot write.  I shall be glad to see you
+    all safe and well.  Give my love to Henrietta; tell her _I_ can sing
+    ‘Gaily the Troubadour’; I only want the ‘guitar.’ {321} God bless you
+    all.”
+
+There is no doubt that a very strong friendship had existed between Mrs
+Clarke and Borrow during the whole time that he had been associated with
+the Bible Society.  She it was who had been indirectly responsible for
+his introduction to Earl Street.  It is idle to speculate what it was
+that led Mrs Clarke to select Seville as the place to which to fly from
+her enemies.  There is, however, a marked significance in old Mrs
+Borrow’s words, “I am not surprised, my dear Mrs Clarke, at what you tell
+me.”  Whatever his mother may have seen, there appears to have been no
+thought of marriage in Borrow’s mind when, on 29th September 1839, he
+wrote to Mr Brandram telling him of his wish to visit “China or
+particular parts of Africa.”
+
+Borrow paid many tributes to his wife, not only in his letters, but in
+print, every one of which she seems thoroughly to have merited.  “Of my
+wife,” he writes, {322}  “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 East Anglia.”  On another occasion he praises her
+for more general qualities, when he compares her to the good wife of the
+Triad, the perfect woman endowed with all the feminine virtues.  His wife
+and “old Hen.” (Henrietta) were his “two loved ones,” and he subsequently
+shows in a score of ways how much they had become part of his life.
+
+After his return to Seville, early in January, Borrow proceeded to get
+his “papers into some order.”  There seems no doubt that this meant
+preparing _The Zincali_ for publication.  In the excitement and
+enthusiasm of authorship, and the pleasant company of Mrs and Miss
+Clarke, he seems to have been divinely unconscious that he was under
+orders to proceed home.  Week after week passed without news of their
+Agent in Spain reaching Earl Street, and the Officials and Committee of
+the Bible Society became troubled to account for his non-appearance.  The
+last letter from him had been received on 13th January.  Early in March
+Mr Jackson wrote to Mr Brackenbury asking for news of him.  A letter to
+Mr Williams at Seville was enclosed, which Mr Brackenbury had
+discretionary powers to withhold if he were able to supply the
+information himself.  Two letters that Borrow had addressed to the
+Society it appears had gone astray, and as “one steamer . . . arrived
+after another and yet no news from Mr Borrow,” some apprehension began to
+manifest itself lest misfortune had befallen him.  On the other hand,
+Borrow had heard nothing from the Society for five months, the long
+silence making him “very, very unhappy.”
+
+In reply to Mr Brandram’s letter Borrow wrote:—
+
+    “I did not return to England immediately after my departure from
+    Madrid for several reasons.  First, there was my affair with the
+    _Alcalde_ still pending; second, I wished to get my papers into some
+    order; third, I wished to effect a little more in the cause, though
+    not in the way of distribution, as I have no books: moreover the
+    house in which I resided was paid for and I was unwilling altogether
+    to lose the money; I likewise dreaded an English winter, for I have
+    lately been subjected to attacks, whether of gout or rheumatism I
+    know not, which I believe were brought on by sitting, standing and
+    sleeping in damp places during my wanderings in Spain.  The _Alcalde_
+    has lately been turned out of his situation, but I believe more on
+    account of his being a Carlist than for his behaviour to me; that,
+    however, is of little consequence, as I have long forgotten the
+    affair.” {323a}
+
+There was no longer any reason for delay; the English winter was over, he
+had one book nearly ready for publication and two others in a state of
+forwardness.
+
+    “I embark on the third of next month [April],” he continued, “and you
+    will probably see me by the 16th.  I wish very much to spend the
+    remaining years of my life in the northern parts of China, as I think
+    I have a call for those regions, and shall endeavour by every
+    honourable means to effect my purpose.” {323b}
+
+These words would seem to imply that his marriage with Mrs Clarke was by
+no means decided upon at the date he wrote, although during the previous
+month he had been in correspondence with Mr Brackenbury regarding
+Protestants in Spain being debarred from marrying.  It is inconceivable
+that Mrs Clarke and her daughter contemplated living in the North of
+China; and equally unlikely that Mrs Clarke would marry a potential
+“absentee landlord,” or one who frankly confessed “I hope yet to die in
+the cause of my Redeemer.”
+
+Sidi Habismilk had at first presented a grave problem; but Mr
+Brackenbury, who secured the passages on the steamer, arranged also for
+the Arab to be slung aboard the Steam-Packet.  On 3rd April the whole
+party, including Hayim Ben Attar and Sidi Habismilk, boarded the _Royal
+Adelaide_ bound for London.
+
+Borrow never forgave Spain for its treatment of him, although some of the
+happiest years of his life had been spent there.  “The Spaniards are a
+stupid, ungrateful set of ruffians,” he afterwards wrote, “and are
+utterly incapable of appreciating generosity or forbearance.”  He piled
+up invective upon the unfortunate country.  It was “the chosen land of
+the two fiends—assassination and murder,” where avarice and envy were the
+prevailing passions.  It was the “country of error”; yet at the same time
+“the land of extraordinary characters.”  As he saw its shores sinking
+beneath the horizon, he was mercifully denied the knowledge that never
+again was he to be so happily occupied as during the five years he had
+spent upon its soil distributing the Scriptures, and using a British
+Minister as a two-edged sword.
+
+The party arrived in London on 16th April and put up at the Spread Eagle
+in Gracechurch Street.  On 23rd April, at St Peter’s Church in Cornhill,
+the wedding took place.  There were present as witnesses only Henrietta
+Clarke and John Pilgrim, the Norwich solicitor.  In the Register the
+names appear as:—
+
+    “George Henry Borrow—of full age—bachelor—gentleman—of the City of
+    Norwich—son of Thomas Borrow—Captain in the Army.
+
+    “Mary Clarke—of full age—widow—of Spread Eagle Inn, Gracechurch
+    Street—daughter of Edmund Skepper—Esquire.”
+
+On 2nd May an announcement of the marriage appeared in _The Norfolk
+Chronicle_.  A few days later the party left for Oulton Cottage, and
+Borrow became a landed proprietor on a small scale in his much-loved East
+Anglia.
+
+On 21st April Mr Brandram had written to Borrow the following letter:—
+
+    MY DEAR FRIEND,—Your later communications have been referred to our
+    Sub-Committee for General Purposes.  After what you said yesterday in
+    the Committee, I am hardly aware that anything can arise out of them.
+    The door seems shut.  The Sub-Committee meet on Friday.  Will you
+    wish to make any communications to them as to any ulterior views that
+    may have occurred to yourself?  I do not myself at present see any
+    sphere open to which your services in connection with our Society can
+    be transferred. . . . With best wishes—Believe me—Yours truly,
+
+                                                              A. BRANDRAM.
+
+On 24th April, the day after Borrow’s wedding, the Sub-Committee duly met
+and
+
+    “Resolved that, upon mature consideration, it does not appear to this
+    Sub-Committee that there is, at present, any opening for employing Mr
+    Borrow beneficially as an Agent of the Society . . . and that it be
+    recommended to the General Committee that the salary of Mr Borrow be
+    paid up to the 10th June next.”
+
+The Bible Society’s valediction, which appeared in the Thirty-Sixth
+Annual Report, read:—
+
+    “G. Borrow, Esq., one of the gentlemen referred to in former Reports
+    as having so zealously exerted themselves on behalf of Spain, has
+    just returned home, hopeless of further attempts at present to
+    distribute the Scriptures in that country.  Mr B. has succeeded, by
+    almost incredible pains, and at no small cost and hazard, in selling
+    during his last visit a few hundred copies of the Bible, and most
+    that remained of the edition of the New Testament printed in Madrid.”
+
+Thus ended George Borrow’s activities on behalf of the British and
+Foreign Bible Society, and incidentally the seven happiest and most
+active years of his life.  On the whole the association had been
+honourable to all concerned.  There had been moments of irritation and
+mistakes on both sides.  It would be foolish to accuse the Society of
+deliberately planting obstacles in the path of its own agent; but the
+unfortunate championing of Lieutenant Graydon was the result of a very
+grave error of judgment.  Borrow had no personal friends among the
+Committee, to whom the impetuous zeal of Graydon was more picturesque
+than the grave and deliberate caution of Borrow.  The Officials and
+Committee alike saw in Graydon the ideal Reformer, rushing precipitately
+towards martyrdom, exposing Anti-Christ as he ran.  Had Borrow been
+content to allow others to plead his cause, the history of his relations
+with the Bible Society would, in all probability, have been different.
+He felt himself a grievously injured man, who had suffered from what he
+considered to be the insane antics of another, and he was determined that
+Earl Street should know it.  On the other hand, Mr Brandram does not
+appear to have understood Borrow.  He made no attempt to humour him, to
+praise him for what he had done and the way in which he had done it.
+Praise was meat and drink to Borrow; it compensated him for what he had
+endured and encouraged him to further effort.  He hungered for it, and
+when it did not come he grew discouraged and thought that those who
+employed him were not conscious of what he was suffering.  Hence the long
+accounts of what he had undergone for the Gospel’s sake.
+
+During his six years in Spain he had distributed nearly 5000 copies of
+the New Testament and 500 Bibles, also some hundreds of the Basque and
+Gypsy Gospel of St Luke.  These figures seem insignificant beside those
+of Lieut. Graydon, who, on one occasion, sold as many as 1082 volumes in
+fourteen days, and in two years printed 13,000 Testaments and 3000
+Bibles, distributing the larger part of them.  During the year 1837 he
+circulated altogether between five and six thousand books.  But there was
+no comparison between the work of the two men.  Graydon had kept to the
+towns and cities on the south coast; Borrow’s methods were different.  He
+circulated his books largely among villages and hamlets, where the
+population was sparse and the opportunities of distribution small.  He
+had gone out into the highways, risking his life at every turn,
+penetrating into bandit-infested provinces in the throes of civil war,
+suffering incredible hardships and fatigues and, never sparing himself.
+Both men were earnest and eager; but the Bible Society favoured the wrong
+man—at least for its purposes.  But for Lieut. Graydon, Borrow would in
+all probability have gone to China, and what a book he would have
+written, at least what letters, about the sealed East!
+
+Borrow, however, had nothing to complain of.  He had found occupation
+when he badly needed it, which indirectly was to bring him fame.  He had
+been well paid for his services (during the seven years of his employment
+he drew some £2300 in salary and expenses), his £200 a year and expenses
+(in Spain) comparing very favourably with Mr Brandram’s £300 a year.
+
+He was loyal to the Bible Society, both in word and thought.  He
+honourably kept to himself the story of the Graydon dispute.  He spoke of
+the Society with enthusiasm, exclaiming, “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 in his hat.” {328a}  In spite of the
+misunderstandings and the rebukes he could write fourteen years later
+that he “bade it adieu with feelings of love and admiration.” {328b}  He
+“had done with Spain for ever, after doing for her all that lay in the
+power of a lone man, who had never in this world anything to depend upon,
+but God and his own slight strength.” {328c}  In the preface to _The
+Bible in Spain_ he pays a handsome tribute to both Rule and Graydon, thus
+showing that although he was a good hater, he could be magnanimous.
+
+It has been stated that, during a portion of his association with the
+Bible Society, Borrow acted as a foreign correspondent for _The Morning
+Herald_.  Dr Knapp has very satisfactorily disproved the statement, which
+the Rev. Wentworth Webster received from the Marqués de Santa Coloma.
+Either the Marqués or Mr Webster is responsible for the statement that
+Borrow was wrecked, instead of nearly wrecked, off Cape Finisterre.  As
+the Marqués was a passenger on the boat, the mistake must be ascribed to
+Mr Webster.  The further statement that Borrow was imprisoned at Pamplona
+by Quesada is scarcely more credible than that about the wreck.  His
+imprisonment could not very well have taken place, as stated, in 1837–9,
+because General Quesada was killed in 1836.  Mention is made of this
+foreign correspondent rumour only because it has been printed and
+reprinted.  It may be that Borrow was imprisoned at Pamplona during the
+“Veiled Period”; there is certainly one imprisonment (according to his
+own statement) unaccounted for.  It is curious how the fact first became
+impressed upon the Marqués’ mind, unless he had heard it from Borrow.  It
+is quite likely that he confused the date.
+
+It would be interesting to identify the two men whom Borrow describes in
+_Lavengro_ as being at the offices of the Bible Society in Earl Street,
+when he sought to exchange for a Bible the old Apple-woman’s copy of
+_Moll Flanders_.  “One was dressed in brown,” he writes, “and the other
+was dressed in black; both were tall men—he who was dressed in brown was
+thin, and had a particularly ill-natured countenance; the man dressed in
+black was bulky, his features were noble, but they were those of a lion.”
+{329a}  Again, in _The Romany Rye_, he makes the man in black say with
+reference to the Bible Society:—“There is one fellow amongst them for
+whom we entertain a particular aversion: a big, burly parson, with the
+face of a lion, the voice of a buffalo, and a fist like a sledge-hammer.”
+{329b}  Who these two worthies were it is impossible to say with any
+degree of certainty.  Caroline Fox describes Andrew Brandram no further
+than that he “appeared before us once more with his shaggy eyebrows.”
+{329c}  Mr Brandram was not thin and his countenance was not ill-natured.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+MAY 1840–MARCH 1841
+
+
+EARLY in May, Borrow, his wife and step-daughter left London to take up
+their residence at Oulton, in Suffolk.  After years of wandering and
+vagabondage he was to settle down as a landed proprietor.  His income, or
+rather his wife’s, amounted to £450 per annum, and he must have saved a
+considerable sum out of the £2300 he had drawn from the Bible Society, as
+his mother appears to have regarded the amounts he had sent to her as
+held in trust.  He was therefore able to instal himself, Sidi Habismilk
+and the Jew of Fez upon his wife’s small estate, with every prospect of
+enjoying a period of comfort and rest after his many years of wandering
+and adventure.
+
+         [Picture: Oulton Cottage.  Photo. C. Wilson, Lowestroft]
+
+Oulton Cottage was ideally situated on the margin of the Broad.  It was a
+one-storied building, with a dormer-attic above, hanging “over a lonely
+lake covered with wild fowl, and girt with dark firs, through which the
+wind sighs sadly. {330a}  A regular Patmos, an _ultima Thule_; placed in
+an angle of the most unvisited, out-of-the-way portion of England.”
+{330b}  A few yards from the water’s edge stood the famous octagonal
+Summer-house that Borrow made his study.  Here he kept his books, a
+veritable “polyglot gentleman’s” library, consisting of such literary
+“tools” as a Lav-engro might be expected to possess.  There were also
+books of travel and adventure, some chairs, a lounge and a table; whilst
+behind the door hung the sword and regimental coat of the sleeping
+warrior to whom his younger son had been an affliction of the spirit,
+because his mind pursued paths that appeared so strangely perilous.
+
+Here in this Summer-house Borrow wrote his books.  Here when “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
+the lonely dwelling, and the waters of the lake which lies before it, so
+quiet in general and tranquil, were fearfully agitated,” Borrow shouted,
+“‘Bring lights hither, O Hayim Ben Attar, son of the miracle!’  And the
+Jew of Fez brought in the lights,” {331a} and his master commenced
+writing a book that was to make him famous.  When tired of writing, he
+would sometimes sing “strange words in a stentorian voice, while
+passers-by on the lake would stop to listen with astonishment and
+curiosity to the singular sounds.” {331b}
+
+Life at Oulton Cottage was delightfully simple.  Borrow was a good host.
+“I am rather hospitable than otherwise,” {331c} he wrote, and thoroughly
+disliked anything in the nature of meanness.  There was always a bottle
+of wine of a rare vintage for the honoured guest.  Sometimes the host
+himself would hasten away to the little Summer-house by the side of the
+Broad to muse, his eyes fixed upon the military coat and sword, or to
+scribble upon scraps of paper that, later, were to be transcribed by Mrs
+Borrow.  Borrow would spend his evenings with his wife and Henrietta,
+generally in reading until bedtime.
+
+In the Norwich days Borrow had formed an acquaintance with another
+articled-clerk named Harvey (probably one of his colleagues at Tuck’s
+Court).  They had kindred tastes, in particular a love of the open air
+and vigorous exercise.  After settling at Oulton, the Borrows and the
+Harveys (then living at Bury St Edmunds) became very intimate, and
+frequently visited each other.  Elizabeth Harvey, the daughter of
+Borrow’s contemporary, has given an extremely interesting account of the
+home life of the Borrows.  She has described how sometimes Borrow would
+sing one of his Romany songs, “shake his fist at me and look quite wild.
+Then he would ask: ‘Aren’t you afraid of me?’  ‘No, not at all,’ I would
+say.  Then he would look just as gentle and kind, and say, ‘God bless
+you, I would not hurt a hair of your head.’” {332a}
+
+Miss Harvey has also given us many glimpses into Borrow’s character.  “He
+was very fond of ghost stories,” she writes, “and believed in the
+supernatural.” {332b}  He enjoyed music of a lively description, one of
+his favourite compositions being the well-known “Redowa” polka, which he
+would frequently ask to have played to him again.
+
+As an eater Borrow was very moderate, he “took very little breakfast but
+ate a very great quantity of dinner, and then had only a draught of cold
+water before going to bed . . .  He was very temperate and would eat what
+was set before him, often not thinking of what he was doing, and he never
+refused what was offered him.” {332c}  On one occasion when he was dining
+with the Harveys, young Harvey, seeing Borrow engrossed in telling of his
+travels, handed him dish after dish in rapid succession, from all of
+which he helped himself, entirely unconscious of what he was doing.
+Finally his plate was full to overflowing, perceiving which he became
+very angry, and it was some time before he could be appeased.  A
+practical joke made no appeal to him. {332d}
+
+Elizabeth Harvey also tells how, when a cousin of hers was staying at
+Cromer, the landlady went to her one day and said, “O, Miss, there’s such
+a curious gentleman been.  I don’t know what to think of him, I asked him
+what he would like for dinner, and he said, ‘Give me a piece of flesh.’”
+“What sort of gentleman was it?” enquired the cousin, and on hearing the
+description recognised George Borrow, and explained that the strange
+visitor merely wanted a rump-steak, a favourite dish with him.
+
+As he did not shoot or hunt, he obtained exercise either by riding or
+walking.  At times “he suffered from sleeplessness, when he would get up
+and walk to Norwich (25 miles) and return the next night recovered”
+{333a} yet Borrow has said that “he always had the health of an
+elephant.”
+
+He was proud of the Church and took great pleasure in showing to his
+friends the brasses it contained, including one bearing an effigy of Sir
+John Fastolf, whom he considered to be the original of Falstaff.  He was
+also “very fond of his trees.  He quite fretted if by some mischance he
+lost one.” {333b}
+
+His methods with the country people round Oulton were calculated to earn
+for him a reputation for queerness.  “Curiosity is the leading feature of
+my character” {333c} he confessed, and the East Anglian looks upon
+curiosity in others with marked suspicion.  It was impossible for Borrow
+to walk far without getting into conversation with someone or other.  He
+delighted in getting people to tell their histories and experiences;
+“when they used some word peculiar to Norfolk (or Suffolk) country men,
+he would say ‘Why, that’s a Danish word.’  By and bye the man would use
+another peculiar expression, ‘Why, that’s Saxon’; a little further on
+another, ‘Why, that’s French.’  And he would add, ‘Why, what a wonderful
+man you are to speak so many languages.’  One man got very angry, but Mr
+Borrow was quite unconscious that he had given any offence.” {334a}
+
+He took pleasure in puzzling people about languages.  Elizabeth Harvey
+tells {334b} how he once put a book before her telling her to read it,
+and on her saying she could not, he replied, “You ought; it’s your own
+language.”  The volume was written in Saxon.  Yet for all this he hated
+to hear foreign words introduced into conversation.  When he heard such
+adulterations of the English language he would exclaim jocosely, “What’s
+that, trying to come over me with strange languages?” {334c}
+
+Borrow’s first thoughts on settling down were of literature.  He had
+material for several books, as he had informed Mr Brandram.  Putting
+aside, at least for the present, the translations of the ballads and
+songs, he devoted himself to preparing for the press a book upon the
+Spanish Gypsies.  During the five years spent in Spain he had gathered
+together much material.  He had made notes in queer places under strange
+and curious conditions, “in moments snatched from more important
+pursuits—chiefly in _ventas_ and _posadás_” {334d}—whilst engaged in
+distributing the Gospel.  It was a book of facts that he meant to write,
+not theories, and if he sometimes fostered error, it was because at the
+moment it was his conception of truth.  Very little remained to do to the
+manuscript.  Mrs. Borrow had performed her share of the work in making a
+fair copy for the printer.  Borrow’s subsequent remark that the
+manuscript “was written by a country amanuensis and probably contains
+many ridiculous errata,” was scarcely gracious to the wife, who seems to
+have comprehended so well the first principle of wifely duty to an
+illustrious and, it must be admitted, autocratic genius—viz.,
+self-extinction.
+
+“No man could endure a clever wife,” Borrow once confided to the
+unsympathetic ear of Frances Power Cobbe; but he had married one
+nevertheless.  No woman whose cleverness had not reached the point of
+inspiration could have lived in intimate association with so capricious
+and masterful a man as George Borrow.  John Hasfeldt, in sending his
+congratulations, had seemed to suggest that Borrow was one of those
+abstruse works of nature that require close and constant study.  “When
+your wife thoroughly knows you,” he wrote, “she will smooth the wrinkles
+on your brow and you will be so cheerful and happy that your grey hair
+will turn black again.”
+
+“In November 1840 a tall athletic gentleman in black called upon Mr
+Murray, offering a manuscript for perusal and publication.” {335a}
+Fifteen years before, the same “tall athletic gentleman” had called a
+dozen times at 50a Albemarle Street with translations of Northern and
+Welsh ballads, but “never could see Glorious John.”  Borrow had
+determined to make another attempt to see John Murray, and this time he
+was successful.  He submitted the manuscript of _The Zincali_, which
+Murray sent to Richard Ford {335b} that he might pronounce upon it and
+its possibilities.  “I have made acquaintance,” Ford wrote to H. U.
+Addington, 14th Jan. 1841, “with an extraordinary fellow, _George
+Borrow_, who went out to Spain to convert the _gypsies_.  He is about to
+publish his failure, and a curious book it will be.  It was submitted to
+my perusal by the hesitating Murray.” {335c}  On Ford’s advice the book
+was accepted for publication, it being arranged that author and publisher
+should share the profits equally between them.
+
+On 17th April 1841 there appeared in two volumes _The Zincali_; {336a}
+_or_, _An Account of the Gypsies in Spain_.  _With an original Collection
+of their Songs and Poetry_, _and a copious Dictionary of their Language_.
+By George Borrow, late Agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society in
+Spain.  It was dedicated to the Earl of Clarendon, G.C.B. (Sir George
+Villiers), in “remembrance of the many obligations under which your
+Lordship has placed me, by your energetic and effectual interference in
+time of need.”  The first edition of 750 copies sufficed to meet the
+demand of two years.  Ford, however, wrote to Murray: “The book has
+created a great sensation far and wide.  I was sure it would, and I hope
+you think that when I read the MS. my opinion and advice were sound.”
+{336b}
+
+     [Picture: Richard Ford.  From the painting by Antonio Chatelain]
+
+_The Zincali_ had been begun at Badajos with the Romany songs or rhymes
+copied down as recited by his gypsy friends.  To these he had
+subsequently added, being assisted by a French courier, Juan Antonio
+Bailly, who translated the songs into Spanish.  These translations were
+originally intended to be published in a separate work, as was the
+Vocabulary, which forms part of _The Zincali_.  Had Borrow sought to make
+two separate works of the “Songs” and “Vocabulary,” there is very
+considerable doubt if they would have fared any better than the
+everlasting Ab Gwilym; but either with inspiration, or acting on some
+one’s wise counsel, he determined to subordinate them to an account of
+the Spanish Gypsies.
+
+As a piece of bookmaking _The Zincali_ is by no means notable.  Borrow
+himself refers to it (page 354) as “this strange wandering book of mine.”
+In construction it savours rather of the method by which it was
+originally inspired; but for all that it is fascinating reading,
+saturated with the atmosphere of vagabondage and the gypsy encampment.
+It was not necessarily a book for the scholar and the philologist, many
+of whom scorned it on account of its rather obvious carelessnesses and
+inaccuracies.  Borrow was not a writer of academic books.  He lacked the
+instinct for research which alone insures accuracy.
+
+It was particularly appropriate that Borrow’s first book should be about
+the Gypsies, who had always exercised so strange an attraction for him
+that he could not remember the time “when the very name of Gypsy did not
+awaken within me feelings hard to be described.” {337a}  His was not
+merely an interest in their strange language, their traditions, their
+folk-lore; it was something nearer and closer to the people themselves.
+They excited his curiosity, he envied their mode of life, admired their
+clannishness, delighted in their primitive customs.  Their persistence in
+warring against the gentile appealed strongly to his instinctive hatred
+of “gentility nonsense”; and perhaps more than anything else, he envied
+them the stars and the sun and the wind on the heath.
+
+“Romany matters have always had a peculiar interest for me,” {337b} he
+affirms over and over again in different words, and he never lost an
+opportunity of joining a party of gypsies round their camp-fire.  His
+knowledge of the Romany people was not acquired from books.  Apparently
+he had read very few of the many works dealing with the mysterious race
+he had singled out for his particular attention.  With characteristic
+assurance he makes the sweeping assertion that “all the books which have
+been published concerning them [the Gypsies] have been written by those
+who have introduced themselves into their society for a few hours, and
+from what they have seen or heard consider themselves competent to give
+the world an idea of the manners and customs of the mysterious Romany.”
+{338a}
+
+His attitude towards the race is curious.  He recognised the Gypsies as
+liars, rogues, cheats, vagabonds, in short as the incarnation of all the
+vices; yet their fascination for him in no way diminished.  He could mix
+with them, as with other vagabonds, and not become harmed by their broad
+views upon personal property, or their hundred and one tricks and
+dishonesties.  He was a changed man when in their company, losing all
+that constraint that marked his intercourse with people of his own class.
+
+He had laboured hard to bring the light of the Gospel into their lives.
+He made them translate for him the Scriptures into their tongue; but it
+was the novelty of the situation, aided by the glass of Malaga wine he
+gave them, not the beauty of the Gospel of St Luke, that aroused their
+interest and enthusiasm.  To this, Borrow’s own eyes were open.  “They
+listened with admiration,” he says; “but, alas! not of the truths, the
+eternal truths, I was telling them, but to find that their broken jargon
+could be written and read.” {338b}
+
+On one occasion, having refused to one of his congregation the loan of
+two _barias_ (ounces of gold), he proceeded to read to the whole assembly
+instead the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostle’s Creed in Romany.  Happening
+to glance up, he found not a gypsy in the room, but squinted, “the Gypsy
+fellow, the contriver of the jest, squinted worst of all.  Such are
+Gypsies.” {338c}
+
+[Picture: John Murray the Second.  The “Glorious John” of Lavengro.  From
+ a portrait by H. W. Pickersgill, R.A., in the possession of Mr. Murray]
+
+It was indeed the novelty that appealed to them.  They greeted with a
+shout of exultation the reading aloud a translation that they themselves
+had dictated; but they remained unmoved by the Christian teaching it
+contained.  For all these discouragements Borrow persisted, and perhaps
+none of his efforts in Spain produced less result than this “attempt to
+enlighten the minds of the Gitanos on the subject of religion.” {339}
+
+If the Gypsies were all that is evil, judged by conventional standards,
+they at least loyally stood by each other in the face of a common foe.
+Borrow knew Ambrose Petulengro to be a liar, a thief, in fact most things
+that it is desirable a man should not be; yet he was equally sure that
+under no circumstances would he forsake a friend to whom he stood
+pledged.  There seems to be little doubt that Borrow’s fame with the
+Gypsies spread throughout England and the Continent.  “Everybody as ever
+see’d the white-headed Romany Rye never forgot him.”
+
+Borrow was by no means the first Romany Rye.  From Andrew Boorde
+(15th-16th Century) down the centuries they are to be found, even to our
+day, in the persons of Mr Theodore Watts-Dunton and Mr John Sampson; but
+Borrow was the first to bring the cult of Gypsyism into popularity.
+Before he wrote, the general view of Gypsies was that they were
+uncomfortable people who robbed the clothes-lines and hen-roosts, told
+fortunes and incidentally intimidated the housewife if unprotected by man
+or dog.  Borrow changed all this.  The suspicion remained, so strongly in
+fact that he himself was looked at askance for consorting with such
+vagabonds; but with the suspicion was more than a spice of interest, and
+the Gypsies became epitomised and immortalised in the person of Jasper
+Petulengro.  Borrow’s Gypsyism was as unscientific as his “philology.”
+Their language, their origin he commented on without first acquainting
+himself with the literature that had gathered round their name.  Francis
+Hindes Groome, “that perfect scholar-gypsy and gypsy-scholar,” wrote:—
+
+    “The meagreness of his knowledge of the Anglo-Gypsy dialect came out
+    in his _Word Book of the Romany_ (1874); there must have been over a
+    dozen Englishmen who have known it far better than he.  For his
+    Spanish-Gypsy vocabulary in _The Zincali_ he certainly drew largely
+    either on Richard Bright’s _Travels through Lower Hungary_ or on
+    Bright’s Spanish authority, whatever that may have been.  His
+    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 I would put George Borrow above every other writer on
+    the Gypsies.  In _Lavengro_ and, to a less degree, in its sequel,
+    _The Romany Rye_, he communicates a subtle insight into Gypsydom that
+    is totally wanting in the works—mainly philological—of Pott, Liebich,
+    Paspati, Miklosich, and their confrères.” {340a}
+
+Groome was by no means partial to Borrow, as a matter of fact he openly
+taxed him {340b} with drawing upon Bright’s _Travels in Hungary_
+(Edinburgh 1819) for the Spanish-Romany Vocabulary, and was strong in his
+denunciation of him as a _poseur_.
+
+Borrow scorned book-learning.  Writing to John Murray, Junr. (21st Jan.
+1843), about _The Bible in Spain_, he says, “I was conscious that there
+was vitality in the book and knew that it must sell.  I read nothing and
+drew entirely from my own well.  I have long been tired of books; I have
+had enough of them,” {340c} he wrote later, and this, taken in
+conjunction with another sentence, viz., “My favourite, I might say my
+only study, is man,” {340d} explains not only Borrow’s Gypsyism, but also
+his casual philology.  Languages he mostly learned that he might know
+men.  In youth he read—he had to do something during the long office
+hours, and he read Danish and Welsh literature; but he did not trouble
+himself much with the literary wealth of other countries, beyond dipping
+into it.  He had a brain of his own, and preferred to form theories from
+the knowledge he had acquired first hand, a most excellent thing for a
+man of the nature of George Borrow, but scarcely calculated to advance
+learning.  He hated anything academic.
+
+    “I cannot help thinking,” he wrote, “that it was fortunate for
+    myself, who am, to a certain extent, a philologist, that with me the
+    pursuit of languages has been always modified by the love of horses .
+    . .  I might, otherwise, have become a mere philologist; one of those
+    beings who toil night and day in culling useless words for some _opus
+    magnum_ which Murray will never publish and nobody ever read—beings
+    without enthusiasm, who, having never mounted a generous steed,
+    cannot detect a good point in Pegasus himself.” {341}
+
+This quotation clearly explains Borrow’s attitude towards philology.  As
+he told the _émigré_ priest, he hoped to become something more than a
+philologist.
+
+There was nothing in the sale of _The Zincali_ to encourage Borrow to
+proceed with the other books he had partially prepared.  Nearly seven
+weeks after publication, scarcely three hundred copies had been sold.  In
+the spring of the following year (18th March) John Murray wrote: “The
+sale of the book has not amounted to much since the first publication;
+but in recompense for this the Yankees have printed two editions, one for
+twenty pence _complete_.”  As Borrow did not benefit from the sale of
+American editions, the news was not quite so comforting as it would have
+been had it referred to the English issue.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+APRIL 1841–MARCH 1844
+
+
+DURING his wanderings in Portugal and Spain Borrow had carried out his
+intention of keeping a journal, from which on several occasions he sent
+transcriptions to Earl Street instead of recapitulating in his letters
+the adventures that befell him.  Many of his letters went astray, which
+is not strange considering the state of the country.  The letters and
+reports that Borrow wrote to the Bible Society, which still exist, may be
+roughly divided as follows:—
+
+From his introduction until the end of the Russian               17.50
+expedition
+Used for _The Bible in Spain_                                    30.00
+Others written during the Spanish and Portuguese periods         52.50
+and not used for _The Bible in Spain_
+                                                                100.00
+
+Thirty per cent, of the whole number of the letters was all that Borrow
+used for _The Bible in Spain_.  In addition he had his Journal, and from
+these two sources he obtained all the material he required for the book
+that was to electrify the religious reading-public and make famous its
+writer.
+
+Between Borrow and Ford a warm friendship had sprung up, and many letters
+passed between them.  Ford, who was busily engaged upon his Hand-Book,
+sought Borrow’s advice upon a number of points, in particular about Gypsy
+matters.  There was something of the same atmosphere in his letters as in
+those of John Hasfeldt: a frank, affectionate interest in Borrow and what
+affected him that it was impossible to resent.  “How I wish you had given
+us more about yourself,” he wrote to Borrow _apropos_ of _The Zincali_,
+“instead of the extracts from those blunder-headed old Spaniards, who
+knew nothing about Gypsies!  I shall give you . . . a hint to publish
+your whole adventures for the last twenty years.”  But Hayim Ben-Attar,
+son of the miracle, had already brought lights, and _The Bible in Spain_
+had been begun.
+
+Ford’s counsel was invariably sound and sane.  He advised _El Gitano_, as
+he sometimes called Borrow, “to avoid Spanish historians and _poetry_
+like Prussic acid; to stick to himself, his biography and queer
+adventures,” {343} to all of which Borrow promised obedience.  Ford wrote
+to Borrow (Feb. 1841) suggesting that _The Bible in Spain_ should be what
+it actually was.  “I am delighted to hear,” he wrote, “that you meditate
+giving us your travels in Spain.  The more odd personal adventures the
+better, and still more so if _dramatic_; that is, giving the exact
+conversations.”
+
+In June 1841 Borrow received from Earl Street the originals of his
+letters to the Bible Society, and when he was eventually called upon to
+return them he retained a number, either through carelessness or by
+design.  It was evidently understood that there should be no reference to
+any contentious matters.  Borrow set to work with the aid of his “Country
+Amanuensis” to transcribe such portions of the correspondence as he
+required.  The work proceeded slowly.
+
+    “I still scribble occasionally for want of something better to do,”
+    he informs John Murray, Junr. (23rd Aug. 1841), and continues: “ . .
+    . A queer book will be this same _Bible in Spain_, containing all my
+    queer adventures in that queer country whilst engaged in distributing
+    the Gospel, but neither learning, nor disquisitions, fine writing, or
+    poetry.  A book with such a title and of this description can
+    scarcely fail of success.”
+
+Through a dreary summer and autumn he wrote on complaining that there was
+“scarcely a gleam of sunshine.”  Remote from the world “with not the
+least idea of what is going on save in my immediate neighbourhood,” he
+wrote merely to kill time.  Such an existence was, to the last degree,
+uncongenial to a man who for years had been accustomed to sunshine and a
+life full of incident and adventure.
+
+He grew restless and ill-content.  He had been as free as the wind, with
+occupation for brain and body.  He was now, like Achilles, brooding in
+his tent, and over his mind there fell a shadow of unrest.  As early as
+July 1841 he had thought of settling in Berlin and devoting himself to
+study.  Hasfeldt suggested Denmark, the land of the Sagas.  Later in the
+same year Africa had presented itself to Borrow as a possible retreat,
+but Ford advised him against it as “the land from which few travellers
+return,” and told him that he had much better go to Seville.  Still later
+Constantinople was considered and then the coast of Barbary.  Into his
+letters there crept a note of querulous complaint.  John Hasfeldt
+besought him to remember how much he had travelled and he would find that
+he had wandered enough, and then he would accustom himself to rest.
+
+The manuscript of _The Bible in Spain_ was completed early in January
+(1842) and despatched to John Murray, who sent it to Richard Ford.  From
+the “reader’s report” it is to be gathered that in addition to the
+manuscript Borrow sent also the letters that he had borrowed from the
+Bible Society.  Ford refers to the story of the man stung to death by
+vipers {344} “in the letter of the 16th August 1837,” and advises that
+“Mr Borrow should introduce it into his narrative.”  He further
+recommends him “to go carefully over the whole of his Letters, as it is
+very probable that other points of interest which they contain may have
+been omitted in the narrative.  Some of the most interesting letters
+relate to journies not given in the MS.”
+
+The work when it reached Ford was apparently in a very rough state.  In
+addition to many mistakes in spelling and grammar, a number of words were
+left blank.  In a vast number of instances short sentences were run
+together.  Mrs Borrow does not appear to have been a very successful
+amanuensis at this period.  Perhaps the most interesting indication of
+how much the manuscript, as first submitted, differed from the published
+work is shown by one of Ford’s criticisms:—
+
+    “In the narrative there are at present two breaks—one from about
+    March 1836 to June 1837 [Chapters XIII.–XX.],—and the other from
+    November 1837 to July 1839 [Chapters XXXVI.–XLIX.]”
+
+This represents a third of the book as finally printed.  Ford objected to
+the sudden ending; but Borrow made no alteration in this respect.  There
+were a number of other suggestions of lesser importance in this admirable
+piece of technical criticism.  Ford disliked Borrow’s striving to create
+an air of mystery as “taking an unwarrantable liberty with the reader”;
+he suggested a map and a short biographical sketch of the author, and
+especially the nature of his connection with the Bible Society.  Finally
+he gives it as his opinion that it is neither necessary nor advisable to
+insert any of his letters to the Bible Society, either in the body of the
+book or as an Appendix.
+
+    “The Dialogues are amongst the best parts of the book,” Ford wrote;
+    “but in several of them the tone of the speakers, of those especially
+    who are in humble life, is too correct and elevated, and therefore
+    out of character.  This takes away from their effect.  I think it
+    would be very advisable that Mr Borrow should go over them with
+    reference to this point, simplifying a few of the turns of expression
+    and introducing a few contractions—_don’ts_, _can’ts_, etc.  This
+    would improve them greatly.”
+
+This criticism applies to all Borrow’s books, in particular to the
+passages dealing with the Gypsies, who, in spite of their love of
+high-sounding words, which they frequently misuse, do not speak with the
+academic precision of Borrow’s works any more than do peers or princes or
+even pedagogues.  Borrow met Ford’s criticism with the assurance that
+“the lower classes in Spain are generally elevated in their style and
+scarcely ever descend to vulgarity.”
+
+Borrow’s first impulse appears to have been to disregard the suggestion
+that the two breaks should be filled in.  On 13th Jan. he wrote to John
+Murray, Junr.:
+
+    “I have received the MS. and likewise your kind letter . . . Pray
+    thank the Gentleman who perused the MS. in my name for his
+    suggestions, which I will attend to.  [By this it is clear that
+    Borrow was not told that Ford was ‘the Gentleman.’]  I find that the
+    MS. was full of trifling mistakes, the fault of my amanuensis; but I
+    am going through it, and within three days shall have made all the
+    necessary corrections.”
+
+No man, of however sanguine a temperament, could seriously contemplate
+the mere transcription of some eighty thousand words, in addition to the
+correction of twice that amount of manuscript, within three days.  Nine
+days later Borrow wrote again to John Murray, Junr.  “We are losing time;
+I have corrected seven hundred _consecutive_ pages of MS., and the
+remaining two hundred will be ready in a fortnight.”  That he had taken
+so long was due to the fact that the greater part of the preceding week
+had been occupied with other and more exciting matters than correcting
+manuscript.
+
+    “During the last week,” he continues, “I have been chiefly engaged in
+    horse-breaking.  A most magnificent animal has found his way to this
+    neighbourhood—a half-bred Arabian—he is at present in the hands of a
+    low horse-dealer; he can be bought for eight pounds, but no person
+    will have him; it is said that he kills everybody who mounts him.  I
+    have been _charming_ him, and have so far succeeded that at present
+    he does not fling me more than once in five minutes.  What a
+    contemptible trade is the Author’s compared to that of the jockey.”
+
+It was not until towards the end of February that the corrected
+manuscript of the first volume of _The Bible in Spain_ reached Albemarle
+Street.  Later and better counsels had apparently prevailed, and Borrow
+had become reconciled to filling up the breaks.
+
+Borrow had other occupations than preparing his manuscript for the
+printer’s hands.  He was ill and overwrought, and small things became
+magnified out of all proportion to their actual importance.  There had
+been a dispute between Borrow’s dog and that of the rector of Oulton, the
+Rev. E. P. Denniss, and as the place was small, the dogs met frequently
+and renewed their feud.  Finally the masters of the animals became
+involved, and an interchange of frigid notes ensued.  It appears that
+Borrow threatened to appeal to the Law and to the Bishop of the Diocese,
+and further seems to have suggested that in the interests of peace, the
+rector might do away with his own dog.  The tone of the correspondence
+may be gathered from the following notes:—{347}
+
+    “Mr Denniss begs to acknowledge Mr Borrow’s note, and is sorry to
+    hear that his dog and Mr Borrow’s have again fallen out.  Mr Denniss
+    learns from his servant that Mr D’s dog was no more in fault than Mr
+    B’s, which latter is of a very quarrelsome and savage disposition, as
+    Mr Denniss can himself testify, as well as many other people.  Mr
+    Denniss regrets that these two animals cannot agree when they meet,
+    but he must decline acceding to Mr Borrow’s somewhat arbitrary
+    demand, conceiving he has as much right to retain a favourite, and in
+    reality very harmless, animal, as Mr Borrow has to keep a dog which
+    has once bitten Mr Denniss himself, and oftentimes attacked him and
+    his family.  Mr Borrow is at perfect liberty to take any measure he
+    may deem advisable, either before the magistrates or the Bishop of
+    the Diocese, as Mr Denniss is quite prepared to meet them.”
+
+    “OULTON RECTORY, 22_nd_ _April_ 1842.”
+
+Borrow’s reply (in the rough draft found among his papers after his
+death) ran:
+
+    “Mr Borrow has received Mr Denniss’ answer to his note.  With respect
+    to Mr Denniss’ recrimination on the quarrelsome disposition of his
+    harmless house-dog, Mr Borrow declines to say anything further.  No
+    one knows better than Mr Denniss the value of his own assertions . .
+    . Circumstances over which Mr Borrow has at present no control will
+    occasionally bring him and his family under the same roof with Mr
+    Denniss; that roof, however, is the roof of the House of God, and the
+    prayers of the Church of England are wholesome from whatever mouth
+    they may proceed.”
+
+Borrow’s most partisan admirer could not excuse the outrage to all
+decency contained in the last paragraph of his note, if indeed it were
+ever sent, in any other way than to plead the writer’s ill-health.
+
+It had been arranged that _The Bible in Spain_ should make its appearance
+in May.  In July Borrow wrote showing some impatience and urging greater
+expedition.
+
+    “What are your intentions with respect to the _Bible in Spain_?” he
+    enquires of John Murray.  “I am a frank man, and frankness never
+    offends me.  Has anybody put you out of conceit with the book? . . .
+    Tell me frankly and I will drink your health in Romany.  Or would the
+    appearance of the _Bible_ on the first of October interfere with the
+    avatar, first or second, of some very wonderful lion or Divinity, to
+    whom George Borrow, who is _neither_, must of course give place?  Be
+    frank with me, my dear Sir, and I will drink your health in Romany
+    and Madeira.”
+
+He goes on to offer to release John Murray from his “share in the
+agreement” and complete the book himself remitting to the printer “the
+necessary money for the purchase of paper.”
+
+To Ford, who had acted as a sort of godfather to _The Bible in Spain_, it
+was “a rum, very rum, mixture of gypsyism, Judaism, and missionary
+adventure,” as he informed John Murray.  He read it “with great delight,”
+and its publisher may “depend upon it that the book will sell, which,
+after all, is the rub.”  He liked the sincerity, the style, the effect of
+incident piling on incident.  It reminded him of _Gil Blas_ with a touch
+of Bunyan.  Borrow is “such a _trump_ . . . as full of meat as an egg,
+and a fresh-laid one.”  All this he tells John Murray, and concludes with
+the assurance, “Borrow will lay you golden eggs, and hatch them after the
+ways of Egypt; put salt on his tail and secure him in your coop, and
+beware how any poacher coaxes him with ‘raisins’ or reasons out of the
+Albemarle preserve.” {349}
+
+Ford was never tired of applying new adjectives to Borrow and his work.
+He was “an extraordinary fellow,” “this wild missionary,” “a queer chap.”
+Borrow, on the other hand, cherished a sincere regard for the man who had
+shown such enthusiasm for his work.  To John Murray, Junr., he wrote (4th
+April 1843): “Pray remember me to Ford, who is no humbug and is one of
+the few beings that I care something about.”
+
+Throughout his correspondence with Borrow, Richard Ford showed a judgment
+and an appreciation of what the public would be likely to welcome that
+stamped him as a publishers’ “reader” by instinct.  Such advice as he
+gave to Borrow in the following letter set up a standard of what a book,
+such as Borrow had it in his power to write, actually should be.  It
+unquestionably influenced Borrow:—
+
+                                                       10_th_ _June_ 1842.
+
+    “My advice again and again is to avoid all fine writing, all
+    descriptions of mere scenery and trivial events.  What the world
+    wants are racy, real, genuine scenes, and the more out of the way the
+    better.  Poetry is utterly to be avoided.  If Apollo were to come
+    down from Heaven, John Murray would not take his best manuscript as a
+    gift.  Stick to yourself, to what you have seen, and the people you
+    have mixed with.  The more you give us of odd Jewish people the
+    better . . .  Avoid words, stick to deeds.  Never think of how you
+    express yourself; for good matter must tell, and no fine writing will
+    make bad matter good.  Don’t be afraid that what you may not think
+    good will not be thought so by others.  It often happens just the
+    reverse . . . New facts seen in new and strange countries will please
+    everybody; but old scenery, even Cintra, will not.  We know all about
+    that, and want something that we do not know . . . The grand thing is
+    to be bold and to avoid the common track of the silver paper, silver
+    fork, blue-stocking.  Give us adventure, wild adventure, journals,
+    thirty language book, sorcery, Jews, Gentiles, rambles, and the
+    interior of Spanish prisons—the way you get in, the way you get out.
+    No author has yet given us a Spanish prison.  Enter into the
+    iniquities, the fees, the slang, etc.  It will be a little à la
+    Thurtell, but you see the people like to have it so.  Avoid rant and
+    cant.  Dialogues always tell; they are dramatic and give an air of
+    reality.”
+
+_The Bible in Spain_ was published 10th December, and one of the first
+copies that reached him was inscribed by the author to “Ann Borrow.  With
+her son’s best love, 13th Decr. 1842.”
+
+From the critics there was praise and scarcely anything but praise.  It
+was received as a work bearing the unmistakable stamp of genius.
+Lockhart himself reviewed it in _The Quarterly Review_, confessing the
+shame he felt at not having reviewed _The Zincali_.  “Very good—very
+clever—very neatly done.  Only one fault to find—too laudatory,” was
+Borrow’s comment upon this notice.
+
+And through the clamour and din of it all, old Mrs Borrow wrote to her
+daughter-in-law telling her of the call of an old friend, whom she had
+not seen for twenty-eight years, and who had come to talk with her of the
+fame of her son, “the most remarkable man that Dereham ever produced.
+Capt. Girling is a man of few words, but when he _do_ speak it is to some
+purpose.”  Ford wrote also (he was always writing impulsive, boyish
+letters) telling how Borrow’s name would “fill the trump of fame,” and
+that “Murray is in high bone” about the book.  Hasfeldt wrote, too,
+saying that he saw his “friend ‘tall George,’ wandering over the
+mountains until I ached in every joint with the vividness of his
+descriptions.”
+
+In all this chorus of praise there was the complaint of the _Dublin
+Review_ that “Borrow was a missionary sent out by a gang of conspirators
+against Christianity.”  Borrow’s comment upon this notice was that “It is
+easier to call names and misquote passages in a dirty Review than to
+write _The Bible in Spain_.”
+
+A second edition of _The Bible in Spain_ was issued in January, to which
+the author contributed a preface, “very funny, but wild,” he assured John
+Murray, Junr., and he promised “yet another preface for the third
+edition, should one be called for.”  The third edition appeared in March,
+the fourth in June, and the fifth in July.  When the Fourth Edition was
+nearing completion Borrow wrote to Murray: “Would it be as well to write
+a preface to this _fourth_ edition with a tirade or two against the Pope,
+and allusions to the Great North Road?”  To which Murray replied, “With
+due submission to you as author, I would suggest that you should not
+abuse the Pope in the new preface.”
+
+In the flush of his success Borrow could afford to laugh at the few
+cavilling critics.
+
+    “Let them call me a nonentity if they will,” he wrote to John Murray,
+    Junr. (13th March).  “I believe that some of those, who say I am a
+    phantom, would alter their tone provided they were to ask me to a
+    good dinner; bottles emptied and fowls devoured are not exactly the
+    feats of a phantom.  No!  I partake more of the nature of a Brownie
+    or Robin Goodfellow, goblins, ’tis true, but full of merriment and
+    fun, and fond of good eating and drinking.”
+
+America echoed back the praise and bought the book in thousands.
+Publishers issued editions in Philadelphia and New York; but Borrow did
+not participate in the profits, as there was then no copyright protection
+for English books in the United States of America.  The _Athenæum_
+reported (27th May 1843) that 30,000 copies had been sold in America.  “I
+really never heard of anything so infamous,” wrote Borrow to his wife.
+The only thing that America gave him was praise and (in common with other
+countries) a place in its biographical dictionaries and encyclopædias.
+_The Bible in Spain_ was translated into French and German and
+subsequently (abridged) into Russian.
+
+What appeared to please Borrow most was Sir Robert Peel’s reference to
+him in the House of Commons, although he regretted the scanty report of
+the speech given in the newspapers.  Replying to Dr Bowring’s (at that
+time Borrow’s friend) motion “for copies of the correspondence of the
+British Government with the Porte on the subject of the Bishop of
+Jerusalem,” Sir Robert remarked: “If Mr Borrow had been deterred by
+trifling obstacles, the circulation of the Bible in Spain would never
+have been advanced to the extent which it had happily attained.  If he
+had not persevered he would not have been the agent of so much
+enlightment.” {352}
+
+There were many things that contributed to the instantaneous success of
+_The Bible in Spain_.  Apart from the vivid picture that it gave of the
+indomitable courage and iron determination of a man commanding success,
+its literary qualities, and enthralling interest, its greatest commercial
+asset lay in its appeal to the Religious Public.  Never, perhaps, had
+they been invited to read such a book, because never had the Bible been
+distributed by so amazing a missionary as George Borrow.  _Gil Blas_ with
+a touch of Bunyan, as Ford delightfully phrased it, and not too much
+Bunyan.  Thieves, murderers, gypsies, bandits, prisons, wars—all knit
+together by the missionary work of a man who was _persona grata_ with
+every lawless ruffian he encountered, and yet a sower of the seed.  The
+Religious Public did not pause to ponder over the strangeness of the
+situation.  They had fallen among thieves, and with breathless eagerness
+were prepared to enjoy to the full the novel experience.
+
+Here was a religious book full of the most exquisite material thrills
+without a suggestion of a spiritual moral.  Criminals were encountered,
+their deeds rehearsed and the customary sermon upon the evils arising
+from wickedness absent.  It was a stimulating drink to unaccustomed
+palates.  _The Bible in Spain_ sold in its thousands.
+
+The accuracy of the book has never been questioned; if it had, Borrow’s
+letters to the Bible Society would immediately settle any doubt that
+might arise.  If there be one incident in the work that appears invented,
+it is the story of Benedict Moll, the treasure-hunter; yet even that is
+authentic.  In the following letter, dated 22nd June 1839, Rey Roméro,
+the bookseller of Santiago, refers to the unfortunate Benedict Moll:—
+
+    “The German of the _Treasure_,” he writes, “came here last year
+    bearing letters from the Government for the purpose of discovering
+    it.  But, a few days after his arrival, they threw him into prison;
+    from thence he wrote me, making himself known as the one you
+    introduced to me; wherefore my son went to see him in prison.  He
+    told my son that you also had been arrested, but I could not credit
+    it.  A short time after, they took him off to Coruña; then they
+    brought him back here again, and I do not know what has become of him
+    since.” {353}
+
+Borrow now became the lion of the hour.  He was fêted and feasted in
+London, and everybody wanted to meet the wonderful white-haired author of
+_The Bible in Spain_.  One day he is breakfasting with the Prussian
+Ambassador, “with princes and members of Parliament, I was the star of
+the morning,” he writes to his wife.  “I thought to myself ‘what a
+difference!’”  Later he was present at a grand _soirée_, “and the people
+came in throngs to be introduced to me.  To-night,” he continues, “I am
+going to the Bishop of Norwich, to-morrow to another place, and so on.”
+{354}
+
+Borrow had been much touched by the news of the death of Allan Cunningham
+(1785–1842).
+
+    “Only think, poor Allan Cunningham dead!” he wrote to John Murray,
+    Junr. (25th Nov. 1842).  “A young man—only fifty-eight—strong and
+    tall as a giant; might have lived to a hundred and one, but he
+    bothered himself about the affairs of this world far too much.  That
+    statue shop was his bane; took to book making likewise, in a word too
+    fond of Mammon—awful death—no preparation—came literally upon him
+    like a thief in the dark.  Am thinking of writing a short life of
+    him; old friend—twenty years’ standing, knew a good deal about him;
+    _Traditional Tales_ his best work . . .
+
+    “Pray send Dr Bowring a copy of Bible.  Lives No. 1, Queen Square,
+    Westminster, another old friend.  Send one to Ford—capital fellow.
+    Respects to Mr M.  God bless you.  Feel quite melancholy, Ever
+    yours.”
+
+In these Jinglelike periods Borrow pays tribute to the man who praised
+his Romantic Ballads and contributed a prefatory poem.  He returned to
+the subject ten days later in another letter to John Murray, Junr.  “I
+can’t get poor Allan out of my head,” he wrote.  “When I come up I intend
+to go and see his wife.  What a woman!”
+
+Fame did not dispel from Borrow’s mind the old restlessness, the desire
+for action.  He was still unwell, worried at the sight of “Popery . . .
+springing up in every direction . . . _There’s no peace in this world_.”
+{355a}  A cold contracted by his wife distressed him to the point of
+complaining that “there is little but trouble in this world; I am nearly
+tired of it.” {355b}  Exercise failed to benefit him.  He was suffering
+from languor and nervousness.  And through it all that Spartan woman who
+had committed the gravest of matrimonial errors, that of marrying a
+genius, soothed and comforted the sick lion, tired even of victory.
+
+Small things troubled him and honours awakened in him no enthusiasm.  The
+_Times_ in reviewing _The Bible in Spain_ had inferred that he was not a
+member of the Church of England, {355c} and the statement “must be
+contradicted.”  The Royal Institution was prepared to confer an honour
+upon him, and he could not make up his mind whether or not to accept it.
+
+    “What would the Institute expect me to write?” he enquires of John
+    Murray, Junr., 25th Feb. 1843.  “(I have exhausted Spain and the
+    Gypsies.)  Would an essay on the Welsh language and literature suit,
+    with an account of the Celtic tongues?  Or would something about the
+    ancient North and its literature be more acceptable? . . . Had it
+    been the Royal Academy, I should have consented at once, and do
+    hereby empower you to accept in my name any offer which may be made
+    from that quarter.  I should very much like to become an Academician,
+    the thing would just suit me, more especially as ‘they do not want
+    _clever_ men, but _safe_ men.’  Now I am safe enough, ask the Bible
+    Society, whose secrets I have kept so much to their satisfaction,
+    that they have just accepted at my hands an English Gypsy Gospel
+    _gratis_.” {356}
+
+He declined an invitation to join the Ethnological Society.
+
+    “Who are they?” he enquires in the same letter.  “At present I am in
+    great demand.  A Bishop has just requested me to visit him.  The
+    worst of these Bishops is that they are all skinflints, saving for
+    their families; their _cuisine_ is bad and their Port-wine execrable,
+    and as for their cigars—. . . ”
+
+Borrow strove to quiet his spirit by touring about Norfolk, “putting up
+at dead of night in country towns and small villages.”  He returned to
+Oulton at the end of a fortnight, having tired himself and knocked up his
+horse.  Even the news that a new edition of _The Bible in Spain_ was
+required could not awaken in him any enthusiasm.  He was glad the book
+had sold, as he knew it would, and he would like a rough estimate of the
+profits.  A few days later he writes to John Murray, Junr., with
+reference to a new edition of _The Zincali_, saying that he finds “that
+there is far more connection between the first and second volumes than he
+had imagined,” and begging that the reprint may be the same as the first.
+“It would take nearly a month to refashion the book,” he continues, “and
+I believe a month’s mental labour at the present time would do me up.”
+The weather in particular affected, him.  For years he had been
+accustomed to sun-warmed Spain, and the gloom and greyness of England
+depressed him.
+
+    “Strange weather this,” he had written to John Murray (31st Dec.
+    1842)—“very unwholesome I believe both for man and beast.  Several
+    people dead and great mortality amongst the cattle.  Am intolerably
+    well myself, but get but little rest—disagreeable dreams—digestion
+    not quite so good as I could wish—been on the water system—won’t
+    do—have left it off, and am now taking lessons in singing.”
+
+Many men have earned the reputation of madness for less eccentric actions
+than taking lessons in singing as a cure for indigestion, after the
+failure of the water cure.
+
+Although he was receiving complimentary letters from all quarters and
+from people he had never even heard of, he seemed acutely unhappy.
+
+    “I did wrong,” he writes to his wife from London (29th May 1843),
+    “not to bring you when I came, for without you I cannot get on at
+    all.  Left to myself, a gloom comes upon me which I cannot describe.
+    I will endeavour to be home on Thursday, as I wish so much to be with
+    you, without whom there is no joy for me nor rest.  You tell me to
+    ask for _situations_, etc.  I am not at all suited for them.  My
+    place seems to be in our own dear cottage, where, with your help, I
+    hope to prepare for a better world . . . I dare say I shall be home
+    on Thursday, perhaps earlier, if I am unwell; for the poor bird when
+    in trouble has no one to fly to but his mate.”  And a few days later:
+    “I wish I had not left home.  Take care of yourself.  Kiss poor Hen.”
+
+During his stay in London, Borrow sat to Henry Wyndham Phillips, R.A.,
+for his portrait. {357}  On 21st June John Murray wrote: “I have seen
+your portrait.  Phillips is going to saw off a bit of the panel, which
+will give you your proper and characteristic height.  Next year you will
+doubtless cut a great figure in the Exhibition.  It is the best thing
+young Phillips has done.”  The painting was exhibited at the Royal
+Academy in 1844 as “George Borrow, Esq., author of _The Bible in Spain_,”
+and is now in the possession of Mr John Murray.
+
+There is a story told in connection with the painting of this portrait.
+Borrow was a bad sitter, and visibly chafed at remaining indoors doing
+nothing.  To overcome this restlessness the painter had recourse to a
+clever stratagem.  He enquired of his sitter if Persian were really a
+fine language, as he had heard; Borrow assured him that it was, and at
+Phillips’ request, started declaiming at the top of his voice, his eyes
+flashing with enthusiasm.  When he ceased, the wily painter mentioned
+other tongues, Turkish, Armenian, etc., in each instance with the same
+result, and the painting of the portrait became an easy matter.
+
+On 23rd June John Murray (the Second) died, at the age of sixty-five, and
+was succeeded by his son.  “Poor old Murray!” Ford wrote to Borrow, “We
+shall never see his like again.  He . . . was a fine fellow in every
+respect.”  In another letter he refers to him as “that Prince of
+Bibliophiles, poor, dear, old Murray.”  Borrow’s own relations with John
+Murray had always been most cordial.  On one occasion, when writing to
+his son, he says: “I shall be most happy to see you and still more your
+father, whose jokes do one good.  I wish all the world were as gay as
+he.”  Then without a break, he goes on to deplore the fact that “a
+gentleman drowned himself last week on my property.  I wish he had gone
+somewhere else.”  Such was George Borrow.
+
+  [Picture: John Murray the Third.  From a photograph by Maull and Fox]
+
+For some time past Borrow’s thoughts had been directed towards obtaining
+a Government post abroad.  The sentence, “You tell me to ask for
+situations, etc.,” in a letter to his wife had reference to this
+ambition.  He had previously (21st June 1841) written to Lord Clarendon
+suggesting for himself a consulship; but the reply had not been
+encouraging.  It was “quite hopeless to expect a consulship from Lord
+Palmerston, the applicants were too many and the appointments too few.”
+
+Borrow recognised the stagnation of his present life.
+
+    “I wish the Government would give me some command in Ireland which
+    would call forth my energies,” he wrote to John Murray (25th Oct.
+    1843).  “If there be an outbreak there I shall apply to them at once,
+    for my heart is with them in the present matter: I hope they will be
+    firm, and they have nothing to fear; I am sure that the English
+    nation will back them, for the insolence and ingratitude of the
+    Irish, and the cowardice of their humbug chief, have caused universal
+    disgust.”  Later he wrote, also to John Murray, with reference to
+    that “trumpery fellow O’Connell . . . I wish I were acquainted with
+    Sir Robert Peel.  I could give him many a useful hint with respect to
+    Ireland and the Irish.  I know both tolerably well.  Whenever there’s
+    a row I intend to go over with Sidi Habismilk and put myself at the
+    head of a body of volunteers.”
+
+He had previously written “the old Duke [Wellington] will at last give
+salt eel to that cowardly, bawling vagabond O’Connell.”  Borrow detested
+O’Connell as a “Dublin bully . . . a humbug, without courage or one
+particle of manly feeling.”  Again (17th June) he had written: “Horrible
+news from Ireland.  I wish sincerely the blackguards would break out at
+once; they will never be quiet until they have got a sound licking, and
+the sooner the better.”
+
+The finer side of Borrow’s character was shown in his eagerness to obtain
+employment.  There is a touch of pathos in the sight of this knight,
+armed and ready to fight anything for anybody, wasting his strength and
+his talents in feuds with his neighbours.
+
+In the profits on the old and the preparation of new editions of _The
+Bible in Spain_, Borrow took a keen interest.  The money he was making
+enabled him to assist his wife in disembarrassing her estate.  “I begin
+to take considerable pleasure in making money,” he wrote to his
+publisher, “which I hope is a good sign; for what is life unless we take
+pleasure in something?”  Again he enquires, “Why does not the public call
+for another edition of them [_The Gypsies of Spain_].  You see what an
+unconscionable rascal I am becoming.”  During his lifetime Borrow
+received from the firm of Murray, £3437, 19s., most of which was on
+account of _The Bible in Spain_ and, consequently, was paid to him during
+the first years of his association with Albemarle Street.
+
+Caroline Fox gives an interesting picture of Borrow at this period as he
+appeared to her:—
+
+                                                      “25_th_ _Oct._ 1843.
+
+    “Catherine Gurney gave us a note to George Borrow, so on him we
+    called,—a tall, ungainly, uncouth man, with great physical strength,
+    a quick penetrating eye, a confident manner, and a disagreeable tone
+    and pronunciation.  He was sitting on one side of the fire, and his
+    old mother on the other.  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 talked about Spain and the Spaniards; the lowest classes of whom,
+    he says, are the only ones worth investigating, the upper and middle
+    class being (with exceptions, of course) mean, selfish, and proud
+    beyond description.  They care little for Roman Catholicism, and bear
+    faint allegiance to the Pope.  They generally lead profligate lives,
+    until they lose all energy and then become slavishly superstitious.
+    He said a curious thing of the Esquimaux, namely, that their language
+    is a most complex and highly artificial one, calculated to express
+    the most delicate metaphysical subtleties, yet they have no
+    literature, nor are there any traces of their ever having had one—a
+    most curious anomaly; hence he simply argues that you can ill judge
+    of a people by their language.” {360a}
+
+One of the strangest things about Borrow’s personality was that it almost
+invariably struck women unfavourably.  That he himself was not
+indifferent to women is shown by the impression made upon him by the
+black eyes of one of the Misses Mills of Saxham Hall, where he was taken
+to dinner by Dr Hake, who states that “long afterwards, his inquiries
+after the black eyes were unfailing.” {360b}  He was also very kind and
+considerate to women.  “He was very polite and gentlemanly in ladies’
+society, and we all liked him,” wrote one woman friend {360c} who
+frequently accompanied him on his walks.  She has described him as
+walking along “singing to himself or quite silent, quite forgetting me
+until he came to a high hill, when he would turn round, seize my hand,
+and drag me up.  Then he would sit down and enjoy the prospect.” {360d}
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+MARCH 1844–1848
+
+
+IN March 1844 Borrow, unable longer to control the _Wanderlust_ within
+him, gave up the struggle, and determined to make a journey to the East.
+He was in London on the 20th, as Lady Eastlake (then Miss Elizabeth
+Rigby) testifies in her Journal.  “Borrow came in the evening,” she
+writes: “now 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.” {361}
+
+He left London towards the end of April for Paris, from which he wrote to
+John Murray, 1st May:—
+
+    “Vidocq wishes very much to have a copy of my _Gypsies of Spain_, and
+    likewise one of the Romany Gospels.  On the other side you will find
+    an order on the Bible Society for the latter, and perhaps you will be
+    so kind as to let one of your people go to Earl Street to procure it.
+    You would oblige me by forwarding it to your agent in Paris, the
+    address is Monsr. Vidocq, Galerie Vivienne, No. 13 . . . V. is a
+    strange fellow, and amongst other things dabbles in literature.  He
+    is meditating a work upon _Les Bohemiens_, about whom I see he knows
+    nothing at all.  I have no doubt that the _Zincali_, were it to fall
+    into his hands, would be preciously gutted, and the best part of the
+    contents pirated.  By the way, could you not persuade some of the
+    French publishers to cause it to be translated, in which event there
+    would be no fear.  Such a work would be sure to sell.  I wish Vidocq
+    to have a copy of the book, but I confess I have my suspicions; he is
+    so extraordinarily civil.”
+
+From Paris he proceeded to Vienna, and thence into Hungary and
+Transylvania, where he remained for some months.  He is known to have
+been “in the steppe of Debreczin,” {362a} to Koloszvar, through
+Nagy-Szeben, or Hermannstadt, on his journey through Roumania to
+Bucharest.  He visited Wallachia “for the express purpose of discoursing
+with the Gypsies, many of whom I found wandering about.” {362b}
+
+So little is known of Borrow’s Eastern Journey that the following
+account, given by an American, has a peculiar interest:—
+
+    “My companions, as we rode along, related some marvellous stories of
+    a certain English traveller who had been here [near Grosswardein] and
+    of his influence over the Gypsies.  One of them said that he was
+    walking out with him one day, when they met a poor gypsy woman.  The
+    Englishman addressed her in Hungarian, and she answered in the usual
+    disdainful way.  He changed his language, however, and spoke a word
+    or two in an unknown tongue.  The woman’s face lighted up in an
+    instant, and she replied in the most passionate, eager way, and after
+    some conversation dragged him away almost with her.  After this the
+    English gentleman visited a number of their most private gatherings
+    and was received everywhere as one of them.  He did more good among
+    them, all said, than all the laws over them, or the benevolent
+    efforts for them, of the last half century.  They described his
+    appearance—his tall, lank, muscular form, and mentioned that he had
+    been much in Spain, and I saw that it must be that most ubiquitous of
+    travellers, Mr Borrow.” {362c}
+
+This was the fame most congenial to Borrow’s strange nature.  Dinners,
+receptions, and the like caused him to despise those who found pleasure
+in such “crazy admiration for what they called gentility.”  It was his
+foible, as much as “gentility nonsense” was theirs, to find pleasure in
+the _rôle_ of the mysterious stranger, who by a word could change a
+disdainful gypsy into a fawning, awe-stricken slave.  Fame to satisfy
+George Borrow must carry with it something of the greatness of Olympus.
+
+A glimpse of Borrow during his Eastern tour is obtained from Mrs Borrow’s
+letters to John Murray.  After telling him that she possesses a privilege
+which many wives do not (viz.), permission to open her Husband’s letters
+during his absence, she proceeds:—
+
+    “The accounts from him are, I am thankful to say, very satisfactory.
+    It is extraordinary with what marks of kindness even Catholics of
+    distinction treat him when they know who he is, but it is clearly his
+    gift of tongues which causes him to meet with so many adventures,
+    several of which he has recorded of a most singular nature.” {363}
+
+At Vienna Borrow had arranged to wait until he should receive a letter
+from his wife, “being very anxious to know of his family,” as Mrs Borrow
+informed John Murray (24th July).
+
+    “Thus far,” she continues, “thanks be to God, he has prospered in his
+    journey.  Many and wonderful are the adventures he has met with,
+    which I hope at no distant period may be related to his friends.
+    Doctor Bowring was very kind in sending me flattering tidings of my
+    Husband.”
+
+Borrow was at Constantinople on 17th Sept. when he drew on his letter of
+credit.  Leland tells an anecdote about Borrow at Constantinople; but it
+must be remembered that it was written when he regarded Borrow with
+anything but friendly feelings:—
+
+    “Sir Patrick Colquhoun told me that once when he was at
+    Constantinople, Mr Borrow came there, and gave it out that he was a
+    marvellous Oriental scholar.  But there was great scepticism on this
+    subject at the Legation, and one day at the _table d’hôte_, where the
+    great writer and divers young diplomatists dined, two who were seated
+    on either side of Borrow began to talk Arabic, speaking to him, the
+    result being that he was obliged to confess that he not only did not
+    understand what they were saying, but did not even know what the
+    language was.  Then he was tried in Modern Greek, with the same
+    result.” {364}
+
+The story is obviously untrue.  Had Borrow been ignorant of Arabic he
+would not have risked writing to Dr Bowring (11th Sept. 1831; see _ante_,
+page 85) expressing his enthusiasm for that language.  Arabic had,
+apparently, formed one of the subjects of his preliminary examination at
+Earl Street.  With regard to Modern Greek he confessed in a letter to Mr
+Brandram (12th June 1839), “though I speak it very ill, I can make myself
+understood.”
+
+Having obtained a Turkish passport, and after being presented to Abdûl
+Medjîd, the Sultan, Borrow proceeded to Salonika and, crossing Thessaly
+to Albania, visited Janina and Prevesa.  He passed over to Corfù, and saw
+Venice and Rome, returning to England by way of Marseilles, Paris and
+Havre.  He arrived in London on 16th November, after nearly seven months’
+absence, to find his “home particularly dear to me . . . after my long
+wanderings.”
+
+It is curious that he should have left no record of this expedition; but
+if he made notes he evidently destroyed them, as, with the exception of a
+few letters, nothing was found among his papers relating to the Eastern
+tour.  There is evidence that he was occupied with his pen during this
+journey, in the existence at the British Museum of his _Vocabulary of the
+Gypsy Language as spoken in Hungary and Transylvania_, _compiled during
+an intercourse of some months with the Gypsies in those parts in the
+year_ 1844, _by George Borrow_.  In all probability he prepared his
+_Bohemian Grammar_ at the same time. {365a}
+
+From the time that he became acquainted with Borrow, Richard Ford had
+constituted himself the genius of _La Mezquita_ (the Mosque), as he
+states the little octagonal Summer-house was called.  He was for ever
+urging in impulsive, polyglot letters that the curtain to be lifted.
+“Publish your _whole_ adventures for the last twenty years,” he had
+written. {365b}  Ford saw that a man of Borrow’s nature must have had
+astonishing adventures, and with _his_ pen would be able to tell them in
+an astonishing manner.
+
+As early as the summer of 1841 Borrow appears to have contemplated
+writing his _Autobiography_.  On the eve of the appearance of _The Bible
+in Spain_ (17th Dec.) he wrote to John Murray: “I hope our book will be
+successful; if so, I shall put another on the stocks.  Capital subject:
+early life; studies and adventures; some account of my father, William
+Taylor, Whiter, Big Ben, etc. etc.”
+
+The first draft of notes for _Lavengro_, _an Autobiography_, as the book
+was originally advertised in the announcement, is extremely interesting.
+It runs:—
+
+    “Reasons for studying languages: French, Italian, D’Eterville.
+
+    Southern tongues.  Dante.
+
+    Walks.  The Quaker’s Home, Mousehold.  Petulengro.
+
+    The Gypsies.
+
+    The Office.  Welsh.  Lhuyd.
+
+    German.  Levy.  Billy Taylor.
+
+    Danish.  Kœmpe Viser.  Billy Taylor.  Dinner.
+
+    Bowring.
+
+    Hebrew.  The Jew.
+
+    Philosophy.  Radicalism.  Ranters.
+
+    Thurtell.  Boxers.  Petulengres.” {365c}
+
+_Lavengro_ was planned in 1842 and the greater part written before the
+end of the following year, although the work was not actually completed
+until 1846.  There are numerous references in Borrow’s letters of this
+period to the book on which he was then engaged, and he invariably refers
+to it as his _Life_.  On 21st January 1843 he writes to John Murray,
+Junr.: “I meditate shortly a return to Barbary in quest of the _Witch
+Hamlet_, and my adventures in the land of wonders will serve capitally to
+fill the thin volume of _My Life_, _a Drama_, By G. B.”  Again and again
+Borrow refers to _My Life_.  Hasfeldt and Ford also wrote of it as the
+“wonderful life” and “the _Biography_.”
+
+In his letters to John Murray, Borrow not only refers to the book as his
+_Life_, but from time to time gives crumbs of information concerning its
+progress.  The Secretary of the Bible Society has just lent him his
+letters from Russia, “which will be of great assistance in the Life, as I
+shall work them up as I did those relating to Spain.  The first volume,”
+he continues, “will be devoted to England entirely, and my pursuits and
+adventures in early life.”  He recognises that he must be careful of the
+reputation that he has earned.  His new book is to be original, as would
+be seen when it at last appears; but he confesses that occasionally he
+feels “tremendously lazy.”  On another occasion (27th March 1843) he
+writes to John Murray, Junr.: “I hope by the end of next year that I
+shall have part of my life ready for the press in 3 vols.”  Six months
+later (2nd Oct. 1843) he writes to John Murray:—
+
+    “I wish I had another _Bible_ ready; but slow and sure is my maxim.
+    The book which I am at present about will consist, if I live to
+    finish it of a series of Rembrandt pictures interspersed here and
+    there with a Claude.  I shall tell the world of my parentage, my
+    early thoughts and habits; how I became a sap-engro, or
+    viper-catcher; my wanderings with the regiment in England, Scotland
+    and Ireland . . . Then a great deal about Norwich, Billy Taylor,
+    Thurtell, etc.; how I took to study and became a lav-engro.  What do
+    you think of this as a bill of fare for the _first_ Vol.?  The second
+    will consist of my adventures in London as an author in the year ’23
+    (_sic_), adventures on the Big North Road in ’24 (_sic_),
+    Constantinople, etc.  The third—but I shall tell you no more of my
+    secrets.”
+
+In a letter to John Murray (25th Oct. 8843), the title is referred to as
+_Lavengro_: _A Biography_.  It is to be “full of grave fun and solemn
+laughter like the _Bible_.”  On 6th December he again writes:—
+
+    “I do not wish for my next book to be advertised yet; I have a
+    particular reason.  The Americans are up to everything which affords
+    a prospect of gain, and I should not wonder that, provided I were to
+    announce my title, and the book did not appear forthwith, they would
+    write one for me and send forth their trash into the world under my
+    name.  For my own part I am in no hurry,” he proceeds.  “I am writing
+    to please myself, and am quite sure that if I can contrive to please
+    myself, I shall please the public also.  Had I written a book less
+    popular than the _Bible_, I should be less cautious; but I know how
+    much is expected from me, and also know what a roar of exultation
+    would be raised by my enemies (and I have plenty) were I to produce
+    anything that was not first rate.”
+
+Time after time he insists upon his determination to publish nothing that
+is not “as good as the last.”  “I shall go on with my _Life_,” he writes,
+to Ford (9th Feb. 1844), “but slowly and lazily.  What I write, however,
+is _good_.  I feel it is good, strange and wild as it is.” {367}
+
+From 24th–27th Jan. 1844 that “most astonishing fellow” Richard Ford
+visited Borrow at Oulton, urging again in person, most likely, the
+lifting of the veil that obscured those seven mysterious years.  Ford has
+himself described this visit to Borrow in a letter written from Oulton
+Hall.
+
+    “I am here on a visit to _El Gitano_;” he writes, “two ‘rum’ coves,
+    in a queer country . . . we defy the elements, and chat over _las
+    cosas de España_, and he tells me portions of his life, more strange
+    even than his book.  We scamper by day over the country in a sort of
+    gig, which reminds me of Mr Weare on his trip with Mr THURTELL
+    [Borrow’s old preceptor]; ‘Sidi Habismilk’ is in the stable and a
+    Zamarra [sheepskin coat] now before me, writing as I am in a sort of
+    summer-house called _La Mezquita_, in which _El Gitano_ concocts his
+    lucubrations, and _paints_ his pictures, for his object is to colour
+    up and poetise his adventures.”
+
+By this last sentence Ford showed how thoroughly he understood Borrow’s
+literary methods.  A fortnight later Borrow writes to Ford:—
+
+    “You can’t think how I miss you and our chats by the fireside.  The
+    wine, now I am alone, has lost its flavour, and the cigars make me
+    ill.  I am frequently in my valley of the shadows, and had I not my
+    summer jaunt [the Eastern Tour] to look forward to, I am afraid it
+    would be all up with your friend and _Batushka_.”
+
+The Eastern Tour considerably interfered with the writing of _Lavengro_.
+There was a seven months’ break; but Borrow settled down to work on it
+again, still determined to take his time and produce a book that should
+be better than _The Bible in Spain_.
+
+Ford’s _Hand-Book for Travellers in Spain and Readers at Home_ appeared
+in 1845, a work that had cost its author upwards of sixteen years of
+labour.  In a letter to Borrow he characterised it as “a _rum_ book and
+has queer stuff in it, although much expurgated for the sake of Spain.”
+Ford was very anxious that Borrow should keep the promise that he had
+given two years previously to review the _Hand-Book_ when it appeared.
+“You will do it _magnificently_.  ‘Thou art the man,’” Ford had written
+with the greatest enthusiasm.  On 2nd June an article of thirty-seven
+folio pages was despatched by Borrow to John Murray for _The Quarterly
+Review_, with the following from Mrs Borrow:—
+
+    “With regard to the article, it must not be received as a specimen of
+    what Mr Borrow would have produced had he been well, but he
+    considered his promise to Mr Ford sacred—and it is only to be wished
+    that it had been written under more favourable circumstances.”
+    Borrow was ill at the time, having been “very unwell for the last
+    month,” as Mrs Borrow explains, “and particularly so lately.
+    Shivering fits have been succeeded by burning fever, till his
+    strength was much reduced; and he at present remains in a low, and
+    weak state, and what is worse, we are by no means sure that the
+    disease is subdued.”
+
+Ford saw in Borrow “a crack reviewer.”  “ . . . You have,” he assured him
+in 1843, “only to write a _long letter_, having read the book carefully
+and thought over the subject.”  Ford also wrote to Borrow (26th Oct.
+1843): “I have written several letters to Murray recommending them to
+_bag_ you forthwith, unless they are demented.”  There was no doubt in
+his, Ford’s, mind as to the acceptance of Borrow’s article.
+
+    “If insanity does not rule the _Q. R._ camp, they will embrace the
+    offer with open arms in their present Erebus state of dullness,” he
+    tells Borrow, then, with a burst of confidence continues, “But,
+    barring politics, I confidentially tell you that the _Ed_[_inburgh_]
+    _Rev._ does business in a more liberal and more business-like manner
+    than the _Q_[_uarterly_] _Rev._  I am always dunning this into
+    Murray’s head.  More flies are caught with honey than vinegar.  Soft
+    sawder, especially if plenty of _gold_ goes into the composition,
+    cements a party and keeps earnest pens together.  I grieve, for my
+    heart is entirely with the _Q. R._, its views and objects.”
+
+The article turned out to be, not a review of the _Hand-Book_, but a
+bitter attack on Spain and her rulers.  The second part was to some
+extent germane to the subject, but it appears to have been more concerned
+with Borrow’s view of Spain and things Spanish than with Ford’s book.
+Lockhart saw that it would not do.  In a letter to John Murray he
+explains very clearly and very justly the objections to using the article
+as it stood.
+
+    “I am very sorry,” he writes (13th June), “after Borrow has so kindly
+    exerted himself during illness, that I must return his paper.  I read
+    the MS. with much pleasure; but clever and brilliant as he is sure
+    always to be, it was very evident that he had not done such an
+    article as Ford’s merits required; and I therefore intended to adopt
+    Mr Borrow’s lively diatribe, but interweave with his matter and add
+    to it, such observations and extracts as might, I thought, complete
+    the paper in a _review sense_.
+
+    “But it appears that Mr B. won’t allow anybody to tamper with his
+    paper; therefore here it is.  It will be highly ornamental as it
+    stands to any _Magazine_, and I have no doubt either _Blackwood_ or
+    _Fraser_ or _Colburn_ will be [only] too happy to insert it next
+    month, if applied to now.
+
+    “Mr Borrow would not have liked that, when his _Bible in Spain_ came
+    out, we should have printed a brilliant essay by Ford on some point
+    of Spanish interest, but including hardly anything calculated to make
+    the public feel that a new author of high consequence had made his
+    appearance among us—one bearing the name, not of Richard Ford, but of
+    George Borrow.”
+
+Lockhart was right and Borrow was wrong.  There is no room for
+equivocation.  Borrow should have sunk his pride in favour of his
+friendship for Ford, who had, even if occasionally a little tedious in
+his epistolary enthusiasm, always been a loyal friend; but Borrow was ill
+and excuses must be made for him.  Lockhart wrote also to Ford describing
+Borrow’s paper as “just another capital chapter of his _Bible in Spain_,”
+which he had read with delight, but there was “hardly a word of _review_,
+and no extract giving the least notion of the peculiar merits and style
+especially, of the _Hand-Book_.”  “He is unwell,” continued Lockhart, “I
+should be very sorry to bother him more at present; and, moreover, from
+the little he has said of your _style_, I am forced to infer that a
+_review_ of your book by him would never be what I could feel authorised
+to publish in the _Q. R._”  The letter concludes with a word of
+condolence that the _Hand-Book_ will have to be committed to other hands.
+
+Ford realised the difficulty of the situation in which he was placed, and
+strove to wriggle out of it by telling Borrow that his wife had said all
+along that
+
+    “‘Borrow can’t write anything dull enough for your set; I wonder how
+    I ever married one of them,’—I hope and trust you will not cancel the
+    paper, for we can’t afford to lose a scrap of your queer sparkle and
+    ‘thousand bright daughters circumvolving.’  I have recommended its
+    insertion in _Blackwood_, _Fraser_, or some of those clever
+    Magazines, who will be overjoyed to get such a hand as yours, and I
+    will bet any man £5 that your paper will be the most popular of all
+    they print.”
+
+It is evident that Ford was genuinely distressed, and in his anxiety to
+be loyal to his friend rather overdid it.  His letter has an air of
+patronage that the writer certainly never intended.  The outstanding
+feature is its absolute selflessness.  Ford never seems to think of
+himself, or that Borrow might have made a concession to their friendship.
+Happy Ford!  The unfortunate episode estranged Borrow from Ford.  Letters
+between them became less and less frequent and finally ceased altogether,
+although Borrow did not forget to send to his old friend a copy of
+_Lavengro_ when it appeared.
+
+Worries seemed to rain down upon Borrow’s head about this time.  Samuel
+Morton Peto (afterwards Sir Samuel) had decided to enrich Lowestoft by
+improving the harbour and building a railway to Reedham, about half-way
+between Yarmouth and Norwich.  He was authorised by Parliament and duly
+constructed his line, which not even Borrow’s anger could prevent from
+passing through the Oulton Estate, between the Hall and the Cottage.
+Borrow could not fight an Act of Parliament, which forced him to cross a
+railway bridge on his way to church; but he never forgave the man who had
+contrived it, or his millions.  His first thought had been to fly before
+the invader.  All quiet would be gone from the place.  “Sell and be off,”
+advised Ford; “I hope you will make the railway pay dear for its
+whistle,” quietly observed John Murray.  At first Borrow was inclined to
+take Ford’s advice and settle abroad; but subsequently relinquished the
+idea.
+
+He was not, however, the man quietly to sit down before what he conceived
+to be an unjustifiable outrage to his right to be quiet.  He never
+forgave railways, although forced sometimes to make use of them.  Samuel
+Morton Peto became to him the embodiment of evil, and as “Mr Flamson
+flaming in his coach with a million” he is immortalised in _The Romany
+Rye_.
+
+It is said that Sir Samuel boasted that he had made more than the price
+he had paid for Borrow’s land out of the gravel he had taken from off it.
+On one occasion, after he had bought Somerleyton Hall, happening to meet
+Borrow, he remarked that he never called upon him, and Borrow remembering
+the boast replied, “I call on you!  Do you think I don’t read my
+Shakespeare?  Do you think I don’t know all about those highwaymen
+Bardolph and Peto?” {372}
+
+The neighbourhood of Oulton appears to have been infested with thieves,
+and poachers found admirable “cover” in the surrounding plantations, or
+small woods.  On several occasions Borrow himself had been attacked at
+night on the highway between Lowestoft and Oulton.  Once he had even been
+shot at and nearly overpowered.  John Murray (the Second) on hearing of
+one of these assaults had written (1841) artfully enquiring, “Were your
+wood thieves Gypsies, and have the _Calés_ got notice of your publication
+[_The Zincali_]?”
+
+Borrow had written to John Murray, Junr. (10th May 1842):—
+
+    “I have been dreadfully unwell since I last heard from you—a regular
+    nervous attack.  At present I have a bad cough, caught by getting up
+    at night in pursuit of poachers and thieves.  A horrible
+    neighbourhood this—not a magistrate dares do his duty.”  On 18th
+    September 1843 he again wrote to John Murray: “One of the Magistrates
+    in this district is just dead.  Present my compliments to Mr
+    Gladstone and tell him that the _The Bible in Spain_ would have no
+    objection to become ‘a great unpaid!’”
+
+Gladstone is said greatly to have admired _The Bible in Spain_, even to
+the extent of writing to John Murray counselling him to have amended a
+passage that he considered ill-advised.  Gladstone’s letter was sent on
+to Borrow, and he acknowledges its receipt (6th November 1843) in the
+following terms:—
+
+    “Many thanks for the perusal of Mr Gladstone’s letter.  I esteem it a
+    high honour that so distinguished a man should take sufficient
+    interest in a work of mine as to suggest any thing in emendation.  I
+    can have no possible objection to modify the passage alluded to.  It
+    contains some strong language, particularly the sentence about the
+    scarlet Lady, which it would be perhaps as well to omit.”
+
+The offending passage was that in which Borrow says, when describing the
+interior of the Mosque at Tangier: “I looked around for the abominable
+thing, and found it not; no scarlet strumpet with a crown of false gold
+sat nursing an ugly changeling in a niche.”  In later editions the words
+“no scarlet strumpet,” etc., were changed to “the besetting sin of the
+pseudo-Christian Church did not stare me in the face in every corner.”
+
+The amendment was little likely to please a Churchman of Gladstone’s
+calibre, or procure for the writer the magistracy he coveted, even if it
+had been made less grudgingly.  “We must not make any further alterations
+here,” Borrow wrote to Murray a few days later, “otherwise the whole
+soliloquy, which is full of vigor and poetry, and moreover of _truth_,
+would be entirely spoiled.  As it is, I cannot help feeling that [it] is
+considerably damaged.”  There seems very little doubt that this passage
+was referred to in the letter that John Murray encloses in his of 10th
+July 1843 {374} with this reference: “(The writer of the enclosed note is
+a worthy canon of St Paul’s, and has evidently seen only the 1st
+edition).”  Borrow replied:—
+
+    “Pray present my best respects to the Canon of St Paul’s and tell him
+    from me that he is a _burro_, which meaneth Jackass, and that I wish
+    he would mind his own business, which he might easily do by attending
+    a little more to the accommodation of the public in his ugly
+    Cathedral.”
+
+Borrow appears to have set his mind on becoming a magistrate.  He had
+written to Lockhart (November 1843) enquiring how he had best proceed to
+obtain such an appointment.  Lockhart was not able to give him any very
+definite information, his knowledge of such things, as he confessed,
+“being Scotch.”  For the time being the matter was allowed to drop, to be
+revived in 1847 by a direct application from Borrow to Lord Clarendon to
+support his application with the Lord Chancellor.  His claims were based
+upon (1) his being a large landed-proprietor in the district (Mrs Borrow
+had become the owner of the Oulton Hall Estate during the previous year);
+(2) the fact that the neighbourhood was over-run with thieves and
+undesirable characters; (3) that there was no magistrate residing in the
+district.  Lord Clarendon promised his good offices, but suggested that
+as all such appointments were made through the Lord-Lieutenant of the
+County, the Earl of Stradbroke had better be acquainted with what was
+taking place.  This was done through the Hon. Wm. Rufus Rous, Lord
+Stradbroke’s brother, whose interest was obtained by some of Borrow’s
+friends.
+
+After a delay of two months, Lord Stradbroke wrote to Lord Clarendon that
+he was quite satisfied with “the number and efficiency of the
+Magistrates” and also with the way in which the Petty Sessions were
+attended.  He could hear of no complaint, and when the time came to
+increase the number of J.P.’s, he would be pleased to add Borrow’s name
+to the list, provided he were advised to do so by “those gentlemen
+residing in the neighbourhood, who, living on terms of intimacy with them
+[the Magistrates], will be able to maintain that union of good feeling
+which . . . exists in all our benches of Petty Sessions.”
+
+Borrow would have made a good magistrate, provided the offender were not
+a gypsy.  He would have caused the wrong-doer more fear the instrument of
+the law rather than the law itself, and some of his sentences might
+possibly have been as summary as those of Judge Lynch.
+
+    “It was a fine thing,” writes a contemporary, “to see the great man
+    tackle a tramp.  Then he scented the battle from afar, bearing down
+    on the enemy with a quivering nostril.  If the nomad happened to be a
+    gypsy he was courteously addressed.  But were he a mere native
+    tatterdemalion, inclined to be truculent, Borrow’s coat was off in a
+    moment, and the challenge to decide there and then who was the better
+    man flung forth.  I have never seen such challenges accepted, for
+    Borrow was robust and towering.” {375}
+
+It is not strange that Borrow’s application failed; for he never refused
+leave to the gypsies to camp upon his land, and would sometimes join them
+beside their campfires.  Once he took a guest with him after dinner to
+where the gypsies were encamped.  They received Borrow with every mark of
+respect.  Presently he “began to intone to them a song, written by him in
+Romany, which recounted all their tricks and evil deeds.  The gypsies
+soon became excited; then they began to kick their property about, such
+as barrels and tin cans; then the men began to fight and the women to
+part them; an uproar of shouts and recriminations set in, and the quarrel
+became so serious that it was thought prudent to quit the scene.” {376a}
+“In nothing can the character of a people be read with greater certainty
+and exactness than in its songs,” {376b} Borrow had written. {376c}
+
+These disappointments tended to embitter Borrow, who saw in them only a
+conspiracy against him.  There is little doubt that Lord Stradbroke’s
+enquiries had revealed some curious gossip concerning the Master of
+Oulton Hall, possibly the dispute with his rector over the inability of
+their respective dogs to live in harmony; perhaps even the would-be
+magistrate’s predilection for the society of gypsies, and his profound
+admiration for “the Fancy” had reached the Lord-Lieutenant’s ears.
+
+The unfortunate and somewhat mysterious dispute with Dr Bowring was
+another anxiety that Borrow had to face.  He had once remarked, “It’s
+very odd, Bowring, that you and I have never had a quarrel.” {376d}  In
+the summer of 1842 he and Bowring seem to have been on excellent terms.
+Borrow wrote asking for the return of the papers and manuscripts that had
+remained in Bowring’s hands since 1829, when the _Songs of Scandinavia_
+was projected, as Borrow hoped to bring out during the ensuing year a
+volume entitled _Songs of Denmark_.  The cordiality of the letter may
+best be judged by the fact that in it he announces his intention of
+having a copy of the forthcoming _Bible in Spain_ sent “to my oldest, I
+may say my _only_ friend.”
+
+In 1847 Bowring wrote to Borrow enquiring as to the Russian route through
+Kiakhta, and asking if he could put him in the way of obtaining the
+information for the use of a Parliamentary Committee then enquiring into
+England’s commercial relations with China.  Borrow’s reply is apparently
+no longer in existence; but it drew from Bowring another letter raising a
+question as to whether “‘two hundred merchants are allowed to visit Pekin
+every three years.’  Are you certain this is in practice now?  Have you
+ever been to Kiakhta?”  It would appear from Bowring’s “if summoned, your
+expenses must be paid by the public,” that Borrow had suggested giving
+evidence before the Committee, hence Bowring’s question as to whether
+Borrow could speak from personal knowledge of Kiakhta.
+
+Borrow’s claim against Bowring is that after promising to use all his
+influence to get him appointed Consul at Canton, he obtained the post for
+himself, passing off as his own the Manchu-Tartar New Testament that
+Borrow had edited in St Petersburg.  There is absolutely no other
+evidence than that contained in Borrow’s Appendix to _The Romany Rye_.
+There is very little doubt that Bowring was a man who had no hesitation
+in seizing everything that presented itself and turning it, as far as
+possible, to his own uses.  In this he was doing what most successful men
+have done and will continue to do.  He had been kind to Borrow, and had
+helped him as far as lay in his power.  He no doubt obtained all the
+information he could from Borrow, as he would have done from anyone else;
+but he never withheld his help.  It has been suggested that he really did
+mention Borrow as a candidate for the Consulship and later, when in
+financial straits and finding that Borrow had no chance of obtaining it,
+accepted Lord Palmerston’s offer of the post for himself.  It is,
+however, idle to speculate what actually happened.  What resulted was
+that Bowring as the “Old Radical” took premier place in the
+Appendix-inferno that closed _The Romany Rye_. {378a}
+
+Fate seemed to conspire to cause Borrow chagrin.  Early in 1847 it came
+to his knowledge that there were in existence some valuable Codices in
+certain churches and convents in the Levant.  In particular there was
+said to be an original of the Greek New Testament, supposed to date from
+the fourth century, which had been presented to the convent on Mount
+Sinai by the Emperor Justinian.  Borrow received information of the
+existence of the treasure, and also a hint that with a little address,
+some of these priceless manuscripts might be secured to the British
+Nation.  It was even suggested that application might be made to the
+Government by the Trustees of the British Museum. {378b}  Borrow’s reply
+to this was an intimation that if requested to do so he would willingly
+undertake the mission.  Nothing, however, came of the project, and the
+remainder of the manuscript of the Greek Testament (part of it had been
+acquired in 1843 by Tischendorf) was presented by the monks to Alexander
+II. and it is now in the Imperial Library at St Petersburg.
+
+The information as to the existence of the manuscripts, it is alleged,
+was given to the Museum Trustees by the Hon. Robert Curzon, who had
+travelled much in Egypt and the Holy Land.  It was certainly no fault of
+his that the mission was not sent out, and Borrow’s subsequent antagonism
+to him and his family is difficult to understand and impossible to
+explain.
+
+Borrow had achieved literary success: before the year 1847 _The Zincali_
+was in its Fourth Edition (nearly 10,000 copies having been printed) and
+_The Bible in Spain_ had reached its Eighth Edition (nearly 20,000 copies
+having been printed).  He was an unqualified success; yet he had been far
+happier when distributing Testaments in Spain.  The greyness and inaction
+of domestic life, even when relieved by occasional excursions with Sidi
+Habismilk and the Son of the Miracle, were irksome to his temperament,
+ever eager for occupation and change of scene.  He was like a war-horse
+champing his bit during times of peace.
+
+    “Why did you send me down six copies [of _The Zincali_]?” he bursts
+    out in a letter to John Murray (29th Jan. 1846).  “Whom should I send
+    them to?  Do you think I have six friends in the world?  Two I have
+    presented to my wife and daughter (in law).  I shall return three to
+    you by the first opportunity.”
+
+In 1847, through the Harveys, he became acquainted with Dr Thomas Gordon
+Hake, who was in practice at Brighton 1832–37 and at Bury St Edmunds
+1839–53, and who was also a poet.  The two families visited each other,
+and Dr Hake has left behind him some interesting stories about, and
+valuable impressions of, Borrow.  Dr Hake shows clearly that he did not
+allow his friendship to influence his judgment when in his _Memoirs_ he
+described Borrow as
+
+    “one of those whose mental powers are strong, and whose bodily frame
+    is yet stronger—a conjunction of forces often detrimental to a
+    literary career, in an age of intellectual predominance.  His temper
+    was good and bad; his pride was humility; his humility was pride; his
+    vanity in being negative, was one of the most positive kind.  He was
+    reticent and candid, measured in speech, with an emphasis that made
+    trifles significant.” {379}
+
+This rather laboured series of paradoxes quite fails to give a convincing
+impression of the man.  A much better idea of Borrow is to be found in a
+letter (1847) by a fellow-guest at a breakfast given by the Prussian
+Ambassador.  He writes that there was present
+
+    “the amusing author of _The Bible in Spain_, a man who is remarkable
+    for his extraordinary powers as a linguist, and for the originality
+    of his character, not to speak of the wonderful adventures he
+    narrates, and the ease and facility with which he tells them.  He
+    kept us laughing a good part of breakfast time by the oddity of his
+    remarks, as well as the positiveness of his assertions, often rather
+    startling, and like his books partaking of the marvellous.” {380a}
+
+Abandoning paradox, Dr Hake is more successful in his description of
+Borrow’s person.
+
+    “His figure was tall,” he tells us, “and his bearing very noble; he
+    had a finely moulded head, and thick white hair—white from his youth;
+    his brown eyes were soft, yet piercing; his nose somewhat of the
+    ‘semitic’ type, which gave his face the cast of the young Memnon.
+    His mouth had a generous curve; and his features, for beauty and true
+    power, were such as can have no parallel in our portrait gallery.”
+    {380b}
+
+When not occupied in writing, Borrow would walk about the estate with his
+animals, between whom and their master a perfect understanding existed.
+Sidi Habismilk would come to a whistle and would follow him about, and
+his two dogs and cat would do the same.  When he went for a walk the dogs
+and cat would set out with him; but the cat would turn back after
+accompanying him for about a quarter of a mile. {381a}
+
+The two young undergraduates who drove in a gig from Cambridge to Oulton
+to pay their respects to Borrow (_circa_ 1846) described him as employed
+
+    “in training some young horses to follow him about like dogs and come
+    at the call of his whistle.  As my two friends {381b} were talking
+    with him, Borrow sounded his whistle in a paddock near the house,
+    which, if I remember rightly, was surrounded by a low wall.
+    Immediately two beautiful horses came bounding over the fence and
+    trotted up to their master.  One put his nose into Borrow’s
+    outstretched hand and the other kept snuffing at his pockets in
+    expectation of the usual bribe for confidence and good behaviour.”
+
+Borrow’s love of animals was almost feminine.  The screams of a hare
+pursued by greyhounds would spoil his appetite for dinner, and he
+confessed himself as “silly enough to feel disgust and horror at the
+squeals of a rat in the fangs of a terrier.” {381c}  When a favourite cat
+was so ill that it crawled away to die in solitude, Borrow went in search
+of it and, discovering the poor creature in the garden-hedge, carried it
+back into the house, laid it in a comfortable place and watched over it
+until it died.  His care of the much persecuted “Church of England cat”
+at Llangollen {381d} is another instance of his tender-heartedness with
+regard to animals.
+
+Borrow had ample evidence that he was still a celebrity.  “He was much
+courted . . . by his neighbours and by visitors to the sea-side,” Dr Hake
+relates; but unfortunately he allowed himself to become a prey to moods
+at rather inappropriate moments.  As a lion, Borrow accompanied Dr Hake
+to some in the great houses of the neighbourhood.  On one occasion they
+went to dine at Hardwick Hall, the residence of Sir Thomas and Lady
+Cullum.  The last-named subsequently became a firm friend of Borrow’s
+during many years.
+
+    “The party consisted of Lord Bristol; Lady Augusta Seymour, his
+    daughter; Lord and Lady Arthur Hervey; Sir Fitzroy Kelly; Mr
+    Thackeray, and ourselves.  At that date, Thackeray had made money by
+    lectures on _The Satirists_, and was in good swing; but he never
+    could realise the independent feelings of those who happen to be born
+    to fortune—a thing which a man of genius should be able to do with
+    ease.  He told Lady Cullum, which she repeated to me, that no one
+    could conceive how it mortified him to be making a provision for his
+    daughters by delivering lectures; and I thought she rather
+    sympathised with him in this degradation.  He approached Borrow, who,
+    however, received him very dryly.  As a last attempt to get up a
+    conversation with him, he said, ‘Have you read my Snob Papers in
+    _Punch_?’”
+
+    “‘In _Punch_?’ asked Borrow.  ‘It is a periodical I never look at!’
+
+    “It was a very fine dinner.  The plates at dessert were of gold; they
+    once belonged to the Emperor of the French, and were marked with his
+    “N” and his Eagle.
+
+    “Thackeray, as if under the impression that the party was invited to
+    look at him, thought it necessary to make a figure, and absorb
+    attention during the dessert, by telling stories and more than half
+    acting them; the aristocratic party listening, but appearing little
+    amused.  Borrow knew better how to behave in good company, and kept
+    quiet; though, doubtless he felt his mane.” {382}
+
+There were other moments when Borrow caused acute embarrassment by his
+rudeness.  Once his hostess, a simple unpretending woman desirous only of
+pleasing her distinguished guest, said, “Oh, Mr Borrow, I have read your
+books with so much pleasure!”  “Pray, what books do you mean, madam?  Do
+you mean my account books?” was the ungracious retort.  He then rose from
+the table, fretting and fuming and walked up and down the dining-room
+among the servants “during the whole of the dinner, and afterwards
+wandered about the rooms and passage, till the carriage could be ordered
+for our return home.” {383a}  The reason for this unpardonable behaviour
+appears to have been ill-judged loyalty to a friend.  His host was a
+well-known Suffolk banker who, having advanced a large sum of money to a
+friend of Borrow’s, the heir to a considerable estate, who was in
+temporary difficulties, then “struck the docket” in order to secure
+payment.  Borrow confided to another friend that he yearned “to cane the
+banker.”  His loyalty to his friend excuses his wrath; it was his
+judgment that was at fault.  He should undoubtedly have caned the banker,
+in preference to going to his house as a guest and revenging his friend
+upon the gentle and amiable woman who could not be held responsible for
+her husband’s business transgressions.
+
+Unfortunate remarks seemed to have a habit of bursting from Borrow’s
+lips.  When Dr Bowring introduced to him his son, Mr F. J. Bowring, and
+with pardonable pride added that he had just become a Fellow of Trinity,
+Borrow remarked, “Ah!  Fellows of Trinity always marry their bed-makers.”
+Agnes Strickland was another victim.  Being desirous of meeting him and,
+in spite of Borrow’s unwillingness, achieving her object, she expressed
+in rapturous terms her admiration of his works, and concluded by asking
+permission to send him a copy of _The Queens of England_, to which he
+ungraciously replied, “For God’s sake, don’t, madam; I should not know
+where to put them or what to do with them.”  “What a damned fool that
+woman is!” he remarked to W. B. Donne, who was standing by. {383b}
+
+There is a world of meaning in a paragraph from one of John Murray’s (the
+Second) letters (21st June 1843) to Borrow in which he enquires, “Did you
+receive a note from Mme. Simpkinson which I forwarded ten days ago?  I
+have not seen her since your abrupt departure from her house.”
+
+It is rather regrettable that the one side of Borrow’s character has to
+be so emphasised.  He could be just and gracious, even to the point of
+sternly rebuking one who represented his own religious convictions and
+supporting a dissenter.  After a Bible Society’s meeting at Mutford
+Bridge (the nearest village to Oulton Hall), the speakers repaired to the
+Hall to supper.  One of the guests, an independent minister, became
+involved in a heated argument with a Church of England clergyman, who
+reproached him for holding Calvinistic views.  The nonconformist replied
+that the clergy of the Established Church were equally liable to attack
+on the same ground, because the Articles of their Church were
+Calvinistic, and to these they had all sworn assent.  The reply was that
+the words were not necessarily to be taken in their literal sense.  At
+this Borrow interposed, attacking the clergyman in a most vigorous
+fashion for his sophistry, and finally reducing him to silence.  The
+Independent minister afterwards confessed that he had never heard “one
+man give another such a dressing down as on that occasion.” {384a}
+
+Borrow was capable of very deep feeling, which is nowhere better shown
+than in his retort to Richard Latham whom he met at Dr Hake’s table.
+Well warmed by the generous wine, Latham stated that he should never do
+anything so low as dine with his publisher.  “You do not dine with John
+Murray, I presume?” he added.  “Indeed I do,” Borrow responded with deep
+emotion.  “He is a most kind friend.  When I have had sickness in the
+house he has been unfailing in his goodness towards me.  There is no man
+I more value.” {384b}
+
+Borrow was a frequent visitor to the Hakes at Bury St Edmunds.  W. B.
+Donne gives a glimpse to him in a letter to Bernard Barton (12th Sept.
+1848).
+
+    “We have had a great man here—and I have been walking with him and
+    aiding him to eat salmon and mutton and drink port—George Borrow—and
+    what is more we fell in with some gypsies and I heard his speech of
+    Egypt, which sounded wondrously like a medley of broken Spanish and
+    dog Latin.  Borrow’s face lighted by the red turf fire of the tent
+    was worth looking at.  He is ashy-white now—but twenty years ago,
+    when his hair was like a raven’s wing, he must have been hard to
+    discriminate from a born Bohemian.  Borrow is best on the tramp: if
+    you can walk 4.5 miles per hour, as I can with ease and do by choice,
+    and can walk 15 of them at a stretch—which I can compass also—then he
+    will talk Iliads of adventures even better than his printed ones.  He
+    cannot abide those Amateur Pedestrians who saunter, and in his chair
+    he is given to groan and be contradictory.  But on Newmarket-heath,
+    in Rougham Woods he is at home, and specially when he meets with a
+    thorough vagabond like your present correspondent.” {385a}
+
+The present Mr John Murray recollects Borrow very clearly as
+
+    “tall, broad, muscular, with very heavy shoulders” and of course the
+    white hair.  “He was,” continues Mr Murray, “a figure which no one
+    who has seen it is likely to forget.  I never remember to have seen
+    him dressed in anything but black broad cloth, and white cotton socks
+    were generally distinctly visible above his low shoes.  I think that
+    with Borrow the desire to attract attention to himself, to inspire a
+    feeling of awe and mystery, must have been a ruling passion.”
+
+Borrow was frequently the guest of his publisher at Albemarle Street, in
+times well within the memory of Mr Murray, who relates how on one
+occasion
+
+    “Borrow was at a dinner-party in company with Whewell {385b} [who by
+    the way it has been said was the original of the Flaming Tinman,
+    although there is very little to support the statement except the
+    fact that Dr Whewell was a proper man with his hands] both of them
+    powerful men, and both of them, if report be true, having more than a
+    superficial knowledge of the art of self-defence.  A controversy
+    began, and waxed so warm that Mrs Whewell, believing a personal
+    encounter to be imminent, fainted, and had to be carried out of the
+    room.  Once when Borrow was dining with my father he disappeared into
+    a small back room after dinner, and could not be found.  At last he
+    was discovered by a lady member of the family, stretched on a sofa
+    and groaning.  On being spoken to and asked to join the other guests,
+    he suddenly said: Go away! go away!  I am not fit company for
+    respectable people.  There was no apparent cause for this strange
+    conduct, unless it were due to one of those unaccountable fits to
+    which men of genius (and this description will be allowed him by
+    many) are often subject.
+
+    “On another occasion, when dining with my father at Wimbledon, he was
+    regaled with a ‘haggis,’ a dish which was new to him, and of which he
+    partook to an extent which would have astonished many a hardy
+    Scotsman.  One summers day, several years later, he again came to
+    dinner, and having come on foot, entered the house by a garden door,
+    his first words—without any previous greetings—were: ‘Is there a
+    haggis to-day?’” {386}
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+LAVENGRO—1843–1851
+
+
+DURING all these years _Lavengro_ had been making progress towards
+completion, irregular and spasmodic it would appear; but still each year
+brought it nearer to the printer.  “I cannot get out of my old habits,”
+Borrow wrote to Dawson Turner (15th January 1844), “I find I am writing
+the work . . . in precisely the same manner as _The Bible in Spain_,
+viz., on blank sheets of old account books, backs of letters, etc.  In
+slovenliness of manuscript I almost rival Mahomet, who, it is said, wrote
+his _Coran_ on mutton spade bones.”  “His [Borrow’s] biography will be
+passing strange if he tells the _whole_ truth,” Ford writes to a friend
+(27th February 1843).  “He is now writing it by my advice.  I go on . . .
+scribbling away, though with a palpitating heart,” Borrow informs John
+Murray (5th February 1844), “and have already plenty of scenes and
+dialogues connected with my life, quite equal to anything in _The Bible
+in Spain_.  The great difficulty, however, is to blend them all into a
+symmetrical whole.”  On 17th September 1846 he writes again to his
+publisher:
+
+    “I have of late been very lazy, and am become more addicted to sleep
+    than usual, am seriously afraid of apoplexy.  To rouse myself, I rode
+    a little time ago to Newmarket.  I felt all the better for it for a
+    few days.  I have at present a first rate trotting horse who affords
+    me plenty of exercise.  On my return from Newmarket, I rode him
+    nineteen miles before breakfast.”
+
+Another cause of delay was the “shadows” that were constantly descending
+upon him.  His determination to give only the best of which he was
+capable, is almost tragic in the light of later events.  To his wife, he
+wrote from London (February 1847): “Saw M[urray] who is in a hurry for me
+to begin [the printing].  I will not be hurried though for anyone.”
+
+In the _Quarterly Review_, July 1848, under the heading of Mr Murray’s
+List of New Works in Preparation, there appeared the first announcement
+of _Lavengro_, _an Autobiography_, by George Borrow, Author of _The Bible
+in Spain_, etc., 4 vols. post 8vo.  This was repeated in October.  During
+the next two months the book was advertised as _Life_; _A Drama_, in _The
+Athenæum_ and _The Quarterly Review_, and the first title-page (1849) was
+so printed.  On 7th October John Murray wrote asking Borrow to send the
+manuscript to the printer.  This was accordingly done, and about
+two-thirds of it composed.  Then Borrow appears to have fallen ill.  On
+5th January 1849 John Murray wrote to Mrs Borrow:
+
+    “I trust Mr Borrow is now restored to health and tranquillity of
+    mind, and that he will soon be able to resume his pen.  I desire this
+    on his own account and for the sake of poor Woodfall [the printer],
+    who is of course inconvenienced by having his press arrested after
+    the commencement of the printing.”
+
+Writing on 27th November 1849, John Murray refers to the work having been
+“first sent to press—now nearly eighteen months.”  This is clearly a
+mistake, as on 7th October 1848, thirteen and a half months previously,
+he asks Borrow to send the manuscript to the printer that he may begin
+the composition.  John Murray was getting anxious and urges Borrow to
+complete the work, which a year ago had been offered to the booksellers
+at the annual trade-dinner.
+
+“I know that you are fastidious, and that you desire to produce a work of
+distinguished excellence.  I see the result of this labour in the sheets
+as they come from the press, and I think when it does appear it will make
+a sensation,” wrote the tactful publisher.  “Think not, my dear friend,”
+replied Borrow, “that I am idle.  I am finishing up the concluding part.
+I should be sorry to hurry the work towards the last.  I dare say it will
+be ready by the middle of February.”  The correspondence grew more and
+more tense.  Mrs Borrow wrote to the printer urging him to send to her
+husband, who has been overworked to the point of complaint, “one of your
+kind encouraging notes.”  Later Borrow went to Yarmouth, where
+sea-bathing produced a good effect upon his health; but still the
+manuscript was not sent to the despairing printer.  “I do not, God knows!
+wish you to overtask yourself,” wrote the unhappy Woodfall; “but after
+what you last said, I thought I might fully calculate on your taking up,
+without further delay, the fragmentary portions of your 1st and 2nd
+volumes and let us get them out of hand.”
+
+Letters continued to pass to and fro, but the balance of manuscript was
+not forthcoming until November 1850, when Mrs Borrow herself took it to
+London.  Another trade-dinner was at hand, and John Murray had written to
+Mrs Borrow, “If I cannot show the book then—I must throw it up.”  To Mrs
+Borrow this meant tragedy.  The poor woman was distracted, and from time
+to time she begs for encouraging letters.  In response to one of these
+appeals, John Murray wrote with rare insight into Borrow’s character, and
+knowledge of what is most likely to please him: “There are passages in
+your book equal to De Foe.”
+
+The preface when eventually submitted to John Murray disturbed him
+somewhat.  “It is quaint,” he writes to Mrs Borrow, “but so is everything
+that Mr Borrow writes.”  He goes on to suggest that the latter portion
+looks too much as if it had been got up in the interests of “Papal
+aggression,” and he calls attention to the oft-repeated “Damnation cry”.
+There appears to have been some modification, a few “Damnation Cries”
+omitted, the last sheet passed for press, and on 7th February 1851
+_Lavengro_ was published in an edition of three thousand copies, which
+lasted for twenty-one years.
+
+The appearance of _Lavengro_ was indeed sensational: but not quite in the
+way its publisher had anticipated.  Almost without exception the verdict
+was unfavourable.  The book was attacked vigorously.  The keynote of the
+critics was disappointment.  Some reviews were purely critical, others
+personal and abusive, but nearly all were disapproving.  “Great is our
+disappointment” said the _Athenæum_.  “We are disappointed,” echoed
+_Blackwood_.  Among the few friendly notices was that of Dr Hake, in
+which he prophesied that “_Lavengro’s_ roots will strike deep into the
+soil of English letters.”  Even Ford wrote (8th March):
+
+    “I frankly own that I am somewhat disappointed with the very _little_
+    you have told us about _yourself_.  I was in hopes to have a full,
+    true, and particular account of your marvellously varied and
+    interesting biography.  I do hope that some day you will give it to
+    us.”
+
+In this chorus of dispraise Borrow saw a conspiracy.  “If ever a book
+experienced infamous and undeserved treatment,” he wrote, {390} “it was
+that book.  I was attacked in every form that envy and malice could
+suggest.”  In _The Romany Rye_ he has done full justice to the subject,
+exhibiting the critics with blood and foam streaming from their jaws.  In
+the original draft of the Advertisement to the same work he expresses
+himself as “proud of a book which has had the honour of being rancorously
+abused and execrated by every unmanly scoundrel, every sycophantic
+lacquey, and _every political and religious renegade_ in Britain.”  A few
+years previously, Borrow had written to John Murray, “I have always
+myself.  If you wish to please the public leave the matter [the revision
+of _The Zincali_] to me.” {391a}  From this it is evident that Borrow was
+unprepared for anything but commendation from critics and readers.
+
+Dr Bowring had some time previously requested the editor of _The
+Edinburgh Review_ to allow him to review _Lavengro_; but no notice ever
+appeared.  In all probability he realised the impossibility of writing
+about a book in which he and his family appeared in such an unpleasant
+light.  It is unlikely that he asked for the book in order to prevent a
+review appearing in _The Edinburgh_, as has been suggested.
+
+In the Preface, _Lavengro_ is described as a dream; yet there can be not
+a vestage of doubt that Borrow’s original intention had been to
+acknowledge it as an autobiography.  This work is a kind of biography in
+the Robinson Crusoe style, he had written in 1844.  This he contradicted
+in the Appendix to _The Romany Rye_; yet in his manuscript autobiography
+{391b} (13th Oct. 1862) he says: “In 1851 he published _Lavengro_, a work
+in which he gives an account of his early life.”  Why had Borrow changed
+his mind?
+
+When _Lavengro_ was begun, as a result of Ford’s persistent appeals,
+Borrow was on the crest of the wave of success.  He saw himself the
+literary hero of the hour.  _The Bible in Spain_ was selling in its
+thousands.  The press had proclaimed it a masterpiece.  He had seen
+himself a great man.  The writer of a great book, however, does not
+occupy a position so kinglike in its loneliness as does gentleman a
+gypsy, round whom flock the _gitanos_ to kiss his hand and garments as if
+he were a god or a hero.  The literary and social worlds that _The Bible
+in Spain_ opened to Borrow were not to be awed by his mystery, or,
+disciplined into abject hero-worship by one of those steady penetrating
+gazes, which cowed jockeys and _alguacils_.  They claimed intellectual
+kinship and equality, the very things that Borrow had no intention of
+conceding them.  He would have tolerated their “gentility nonsense” if
+they would have acknowledged his paramountcy.  He found that to be a
+social or a literary lion was to be a tame lion, and he was too big for
+that.  His conception of genius was that it had its moods, and mediocrity
+must suffer them.
+
+Borrow would rush precipitately from the house where he was a guest; he
+would be unpardonably rude to some inoffensive and well-meaning woman who
+thought to please him by admiring his books; he would magnify a fight
+between their respective dogs into a deadly feud between himself and the
+rector of his parish: thus he made enemies by the dozen and,
+incidentally, earned for himself an extremely unenviable reputation.  A
+hero with a lovable nature is twice a hero, because he is possessed of
+those qualities that commend themselves to the greater number.
+Wellington could never be a serious rival in a nation’s heart to dear,
+weak, sensitive, noble Nelson, who lived for praise and frankly owned to
+it.
+
+Borrow’s lovable qualities were never permitted to show themselves in
+public, they were kept for the dingle, the fireside, or the inn-parlour.
+That he had a sweeter side to his nature there can be no doubt, and those
+who saw it were his wife, his step-daughter, and his friends, in
+particular those who, like Mr Watts-Dunton and Mr A. Egmont Hake, have
+striven for years to emphasise the more attractive part of his strange
+nature.
+
+Borrow’s attitude towards literature in itself was not calculated to gain
+friends for him.  He was uncompromisingly and caustically severe upon
+some of the literary idols of his day, men who have survived that
+terrible handicap, contemporary recognition and appreciation.
+
+He was not a deep reader, hardly a reader at all in the accepted meaning
+of the word.  He frankly confessed that books were to him of secondary
+importance to man as a subject for study.  In his criticisms of
+literature, he was apt to confuse the man with his works.  His hatred of
+Scott is notorious; it was not the artist he so cordially disliked, but
+the politician; he admitted that Scott “wrote splendid novels about the
+Stuarts.” {393a}  He hailed him as “greater than Homer;” {393b} but the
+House of Stuart he held in utter detestation, and when writing or
+speaking of Scott he forgot to make a rather necessary distinction.  He
+wrote:
+
+    “He admires his talents both as a prose writer and a poet; as a poet
+    especially. {393c} . . .  As a prose writer he admires him less, it
+    is true, but his admiration for him in that capacity is very high,
+    and he only laments that he prostituted his talents to the cause of
+    the Stuarts and gentility . . . in conclusion, he will say, in order
+    to show the opinion which he entertains of the power of Scott as a
+    writer, that he did for the spectre of the wretched Pretender what
+    all the kings of Europe could not do for his body—placed it on the
+    throne of these realms.” {393d}
+
+In later years Borrow paid a graceful tribute to Scott’s memory.  When at
+Kelso, in spite of the rain and mist, he “trudged away to Dryburgh to pay
+my respects to the tomb of Walter Scott, a man with whose principles I
+have no sympathy, but for whose genius I have always entertained the most
+intense admiration.” {393e}  It was just the same with Byron, “for whose
+writings I really entertained considerable admiration, though I had no
+particular esteem for the man himself.” {393f}
+
+With Wordsworth it was different, and it was his cordial dislike of his
+poetry that prompted Borrow to introduce into _The Romany Rye_ that
+ineffectual episode of the man who was sent to sleep by reading him.
+Tennyson he dismissed as a writer of “duncie books.”
+
+For Dickens he had an enthusiastic admiration as “a second Fielding, a
+young writer who . . . has evinced such talent, such humour, variety and
+profound knowledge of character, that he charms his readers, at least
+those who have the capacity to comprehend him.” {394a}  He was delighted
+with _The Pickwick Papers_ and _Oliver Twist_.
+
+His reading was anything but thorough, in fact he occasionally showed a
+remarkable ignorance of contemporary writers.  Mr A. Egmont Hake tells
+how:
+
+    “His conversation would sometimes turn on modern literature, with
+    which his acquaintance was very slight.  He seemed to avoid reading
+    the products of modern thought lest his own strong opinions should
+    undergo dilution.  We were once talking of Keats whose fame had been
+    constantly increasing, but of whose poetry Borrow’s knowledge was of
+    a shadowy kind, when suddenly he put a stop to the conversation by
+    ludicrously asking, in his strong voice, ‘Have they not been trying
+    to resuscitate him?’” {394b}
+
+By the time that _Lavengro_ appeared, Borrow was estranged from his
+generation.  The years that intervened between the success of _The Bible
+in Spain_ and the publication of _Lavengro_ had been spent by him in war;
+he had come to hate his contemporaries with a wholesome, vigorous hatred.
+He would give them his book; but they should have it as a stray cur has a
+bone—thrown at them.  Above all, they should not for a moment be allowed
+to think that it contained an intimate account of the life of the supreme
+hater who had written it.  When there had been sympathy between them,
+Borrow was prepared to allow his public to peer into the sacred recesses
+of his early life.  Now that there was none, he denied that _Lavengro_
+was more than “a dream”, forgetting that he had so often written of it as
+an autobiography, had even seen it advertised as such, and insisted that
+it was fiction.
+
+When _Lavengro_ was published Borrow was an unhappy and disappointed man.
+He had found what many other travellers have found when they come home,
+that in the wilds he had left his taste and toleration for conventional
+life and ideas.  The life in the Peninsula had been thoroughly congenial
+to a man of Borrow’s temperament: hardships, dangers, imprisonments,—they
+were his common food.  He who had defied the whole power of Spain, found
+himself powerless to prevent his Rector from keeping a dog, or a railway
+line from being cut through his own estate and his peace of mind
+disturbed by the rumble of trains and the shriek of locomotive-whistles.
+He had beaten the Flaming Tinman and Count Ofalia, but Samuel Morton Peto
+had vanquished and put him to flight by virtue of an Act of Parliament,
+in all probability without being conscious of having achieved a signal
+victory.  Borrow’s life had been built up upon a wrong hypothesis: he
+strove to adapt, not himself to the Universe; but the Universe to
+himself.
+
+It is easy to see that a man with this attitude of mind would regard as
+sheer vindictiveness the adverse criticism of a book that he had written
+with such care, and so earnest an endeavour to maintain if not improve
+upon the standard created in a former work.  It never for a moment struck
+him that the men who had once hailed him “great”, should now admonish him
+as a result of the honest exercise of their critical faculties.  No;
+there was conspiracy against him, and he tortured himself into a pitiable
+state of wrath and melancholy.  A later generation has been less harsh in
+its judgment.  The controversial parts of _Lavengro_ have become less
+controversial and the magnificent parts have become more magnificent, and
+it has taken its place as a star of the second magnitude.
+
+The question of what is actual autobiography and what is so coloured as
+to become practically fiction, must always be a matter of opinion.  The
+early portion seems convincing, even the first meeting with the gypsies
+in the lane at Norman Cross.  It has been asked by an eminent gypsy
+scholar how Borrow knew the meaning of the word “sap”, or why he
+addressed the gypsy woman as “my mother”.  When the Gypsy refers to the
+“Sap there”, the child replies, “what, the snake”?  The employment of the
+other phrase is obviously an inadvertent use of knowledge he gained
+later.
+
+In writing to Mrs George Borrow (24th March 1851) to tell her that W. B.
+Donne had been unable to obtain _Lavengro_ for _The Edinburgh Review_ as
+it had been bespoken a year previously by Dr Bowring, Dr Hake adds that
+Donne had written “putting the editor in possession of his view of
+_Lavengro_, as regards verisimilitude, vouching for the
+Daguerreotype-like fidelity of the picture in the first volume, etc.,
+etc., in order to prevent him from being _taken in by_ a spiteful
+article.”  This passage is very significant as being written by one of
+Borrow’s most intimate friends, with the sure knowledge that its contents
+would reach him.  It leaves no room for doubt that, although Borrow
+denied publicly the autobiographical nature of _Lavengro_, in his own
+circle it was freely admitted and referred to as a life.
+
+“What is an autobiography?” Borrow once asked Mr Theodore Watts-Dunton
+(who had called his attention to several bold coincidences in
+_Lavengro_).  “Is it the mere record of the incidents of a man’s life? or
+is it a picture of the man himself—his character, his soul?” {396}  Mr
+Watts-Dunton confirms Borrow’s letters when he says “That he [Borrow] sat
+down to write his own life in _Lavengro_ I know.  He had no idea then of
+departing from the strict line of fact.”
+
+At times Borrow seemed to find his pictures flat, and heightened the
+colour in places, as a painter might heighten the tone of a drapery, a
+roof or some other object, not because the individual spot required it,
+but rather because the general effect he was aiming at rendered it
+necessary.  He did this just as an actor rouges his face, darkens his
+eyebrows and round his eyes, that he may appear to his audience a living
+man and not an animated corpse.
+
+Borrow was drawing himself, striving to be as faithful to the original as
+Boswell to Johnson.  Incidents! what were they? the straw with which the
+bricks of personality are made.  A comparison of _Lavengro_ with Borrow’s
+letters to the Bible Society is instructive; it is the same Borrow that
+appears in both, with the sole difference that in the Letters he is less
+mysterious, less in the limelight than in _Lavengro_.
+
+Mr Watts-Dunton, with inspiration, has asked whether or not _Lavengro_
+and _The Romany Rye_ form a spiritual autobiography; and if they do,
+whether that autobiography does or does not surpass every other for
+absolute truth of spiritual representation.  Borrow certainly did colour
+his narrative in places.  Who could write the story of his early life
+with absolute accuracy? without dwelling on and elaborating certain
+episodes, perhaps even adjusting them somewhat?  That would not
+necessarily prove them untrue.
+
+There are, unquestionably, inconsistencies in _Lavengro_ and _The Romany
+Rye_—they are admitted, they have been pointed out.  There are many
+inaccuracies, it must be confessed; but because a man makes a mistake in
+the date of his birth or even the year, it does not prove that he was not
+born at all.  Borrow was for ever making the most inaccurate statements
+about his age.
+
+In the main _Lavengro_ would appear to be autobiographical up to the
+period of Borrow’s coming to London.  After this he begins to indulge
+somewhat in the dramatic.  The meeting with the pickpocket as a
+thimble-rigger at Greenwich might pass muster were it not for the
+_rencontre_ with the apple-woman’s son near Salisbury.  The Dingle
+episode may be accepted, for Mr John Sampson has verified even the famous
+thunder-storm by means of the local press.  Isopel Berners is not so easy
+to settle; yet the picture of her is so convincing, and Borrow was unable
+to do more than colour his narrative, that she too must have existed.
+
+The failure of _Lavengro_ is easily accounted for.  Borrow wrote of
+vagabonds and vagabondage; it did not mitigate his offence in the eyes of
+the critics or the public that he wrote well about them.  His crime lay
+in his subject.  To Borrow, a man must be ready and able to knock another
+man down if necessity arise.  When nearing sixty he lamented his
+childless state and said very mournfully: “I shall soon not be able to
+knock a man down, and I have no son to do it for me.” {398}  He glorified
+the bruisers of England, in the face of horrified public opinion.
+England had become ashamed of its bruisers long before _Lavengro_ was
+written, and this flaunting in its face of creatures that it considered
+too low to be mentioned, gave mortal offence.  That in _Lavengro_ was the
+best descriptions of a fight in the language, only made the matter worse.
+Borrow’s was an age of gentility and refinement, and he outraged it,
+first by glorifying vagabondage, secondly by decrying and sneering at
+gentility.
+
+    “Qui n’ a pas l’esprit de son âge,
+    De son âge a tout le malheur.”
+
+And Borrow proved Voltaire’s words.
+
+It is not difficult to understand that an age in which prize-fighting is
+anathema should not tolerate a book glorifying the ring; but it is
+strange that Borrow’s simple paganism and nature-worship should not have
+aroused sympathetic recognition.  Poetry is ageless, and such passages as
+the description of the sunrise over Stonehenge should have found some, at
+least, to welcome them, even when found in juxtaposition with bruisers
+and gypsies.
+
+Borrow loved to mystify, but in _Lavengro_ he had overreached himself.
+“Are you really in existence?” wrote one correspondent who was unknown to
+Borrow, “for I also have occasionally doubted whether things exist, as
+you describe your own feelings in former days.”
+
+John Murray wrote (8th Nov. 1851):—
+
+    “I was reminded of you the other day by an enquiry after _Lavengro_
+    and its author, made by the Right Honourable John Wilson Croker.
+    {399a}  Knowing how fastidious and severe a critic he is, I was
+    particularly glad to find him expressing a favourable opinion of it;
+    and thinking well of it his curiosity was piqued about you.  Like all
+    the rest of the world, he is mystified by it.  He knew not whether to
+    regard it as truth or fiction.  How can you remedy this defect?  I
+    call it a defect, because it really impedes your popularity.  People
+    say of a chapter or of a character: ‘This is very wonderful, _if
+    true_; but if fiction it is pointless.’—Will your new volumes explain
+    this and dissolve the mystery?  If so, pray make haste and get on
+    with them.  I hope you have employed the summer in giving them the
+    finishing touches.”
+
+“There are,” says a distinguished critic, {399b} “passages in _Lavengro_
+which are unsurpassed in the prose literature of England—unsurpassed, I
+mean, for mere perfection of style—for blending of strength and graphic
+power with limpidity and music of flow.”  Borrow’s own generation would
+have laughed at such a value being put upon anything in _Lavengro_.
+
+Another thing against the books success was its style.  It lacked what
+has been described as the poetic ecstacy or sentimental verdure of the
+age.  Trope, imagery, mawkishness, were all absent, for Borrow had gone
+back to his masters, at whose head stood the glorious Defoe.  Borrow’s
+style was as individual as the man himself.  By a curious contradiction,
+the tendency is to overlook literary lapses in the very man towards whom
+so little latitude was allowed in other directions.  Many Borrovians have
+groaned in anguish over his misuse of that wretched word “Individual.”  A
+distinguished man of letters {400a} has written:—“I would as lief read a
+chapter of _The Bible in Spain_ as I would _Gil Blas_; nay, I positively
+would give the preference to Señor Giorgio.”  Another critic, and a
+severe one, has written:—
+
+    “It is not as philologist, or traveller, or wild missionary, or
+    folk-lorist, or antiquary, that Borrow lives and will live.  It is as
+    the master of splendid, strong, simple English, the prose Morland of
+    a vanished road-side life, the realist who, Defoe-like, could make
+    fiction seem truer than fact.  To have written the finest fight in
+    the whole world’s literature, the fight with the Flaming Tinman, is
+    surely something of an achievement.” {400b}
+
+It is Borrow’s personality that looms out from his pages.  His mastery
+over the imagination of his reader, his subtle instinct of how to throw
+his own magnetism over everything he relates, although he may be standing
+aside as regards the actual events with which he is dealing, is worthy of
+Defoe himself.  It is this magnetism that carries his readers safely over
+the difficult places, where, but for the author’s grip upon them, they
+would give up in despair; it is this magnetism that prompts them to pass
+by only with a slight shudder, such references as the feathered tribe,
+fast in the arms of Morpheus, and, above all, those terrible puns that
+crop up from time to time.  There is always the strong, masterful man
+behind the words who, like a great general, can turn a reverse to his own
+advantage.
+
+In his style perhaps, after all, lay the secret of Borrow’s unsuccess.
+He was writing for another generation; speaking in a voice too strong to
+be heard other than as a strange noise by those near to him.  It may be
+urged that _The Bible in Spain_ disproves these conclusions; but _The
+Bible in Spain_ was a peculiar book.  It was a chronicle of Christian
+enterprise served up with _sauce picaresque_.  It pleased and astonished
+everyone, especially those who had grown a little weary of godly
+missioners.  It had the advantage of being spontaneous, having been
+largely written on the spot, whereas _Lavengro_ and _The Romany Rye_ were
+worked on and laboured at for years.  Above all, it had the inestimable
+virtue of being known to be True.  To the imaginative intellectual, Truth
+or Fiction are matters of small importance, he judges by Art; but to the
+general public of limited intellectual capacity, Truth is appreciated out
+of all proportion to its artistic importance.  If Borrow had published
+_The Bible in Spain_ after the failure of _Lavengro_, it would in all
+probability have been as successful as it was appearing before.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+SEPTEMBER 1849–FEBRUARY 1854
+
+
+ONE of the finest traits in Borrow’s character was his devotion to his
+mother.  He was always thoughtful for her comfort, even when fighting
+that almost hopeless battle in Russia, and later in the midst of bandits
+and bloody patriots in Spain.  She was now, in 1849, an old woman, too
+feeble to live alone, and it was decided to transfer her to Oulton.  An
+addition to the Hall was constructed for her accommodation, and she was
+to be given an attendant-companion in the person of the daughter of a
+local farmer.
+
+For thirty-three years she had lived in the little house in Willow Lane;
+yet it was not she, but Borrow, who felt the parting from old
+associations.  “I wish,” she writes to her daughter-in-law on 16th
+September 1849, “my dear George would not have such fancies about _the
+old house_; it is a mercy it has not fallen on my head before this.”  The
+old lady was anxious to get away.  It would not be safe, she thought, for
+her to be shut up alone, as the old woman who had looked after her could,
+for some reason or other, do so no longer.  She urges her daughter-in-law
+to represent this to Borrow.
+
+    “There is a low, noisy set close to me,” she continues.  “I shall not
+    die one day sooner, or live one day longer.  If I stop here and die
+    on a sudden, half the things might be lost or stolen, therefore it
+    seems as if the Lord would provide me a _safer home_.  I have made up
+    my mind to the change and only pray that I may be able to get through
+    the trouble.”
+
+It would appear that the move, which took place at the end of September,
+was brought about by the old lady’s appeals and insistence, and that
+Borrow himself was not anxious for it.  He felt a sentimental attachment
+to the old place, which for so many years had been a home to him.
+
+In 1853 Borrow removed to Great Yarmouth.  During the summer of that
+year, Dr Hake had peremptorily ordered Mrs George Borrow not to spend the
+ensuing winter and spring at Oulton, and the move was made in August.
+The change was found to be beneficial to Mrs Borrow and agreeable to all,
+and for the next seven years (Aug. 1853–June 1860) Borrow’s headquarters
+were to be at Great Yarmouth, where he and his family occupied various
+lodgings.
+
+Shortly before leaving Oulton, Borrow had received the following
+interesting letter from FitzGerald:—
+
+                                     BOULGE, WOODBRIDGE, 22nd _July_ 1853.
+
+    MY DEAR SIR,—I take the liberty of sending you a book [Six Dramas
+    from Calderon], of which the title-page and advertisement will
+    sufficiently explain the import.  I am afraid that I shall in general
+    be set down at once as an impudent fellow in making so free with a
+    Great Man; but, as usual, I shall feel least fear before a man like
+    yourself, who both do fine things in your own language and are deep
+    read in those of others.  I mean, that whether you like or not what I
+    send you, you will do so from knowledge and in the candour which
+    knowledge brings.
+
+    I had even a mind to ask you to look at these plays before they were
+    printed, relying on our common friend Donne for a mediator; but I
+    know how wearisome all MS. inspection is; and, after all, the whole
+    affair was not worth giving you such a trouble.  You must pardon all
+    this, and believe me,—Yours very faithfully,
+
+    EDWARD FITZGERALD.
+
+Soon after his arrival by the sea, Borrow performed an act of bravery of
+which _The Bury Post_ (17th Sept. 1852) gave the following account, most
+likely written by Dr Hake:—
+
+    “INTREPIDITY.—Yarmouth jetty presented an extra-ordinary and
+    thrilling spectacle on Thursday, the 8th inst., about one o’clock.
+    The sea raged frantically, and a ship’s boat, endeavouring to land
+    for water, was upset, and the men were engulfed in a wave some thirty
+    feet high, and struggling with it in vain.  The moment was an awful
+    one, when George Borrow, the well-known author _of Lavengro_, and
+    _The Bible in Spain_, dashed into the surf and saved one life, and
+    through his instrumentality the others were saved.  We ourselves have
+    known this brave and gifted man for years, and, daring as was this
+    deed we have known him more than once to risk his life for others.
+    We are happy to add that he has sustained no material injury.”
+
+Borrow was a splendid swimmer. {404a}  In the course of one of his
+country walks with Robert Cooke (John Murray’s partner), with whom he was
+on very friendly terms,
+
+    “he suggested a bathe in the river along which they were walking.  Mr
+    Cooke told me that Borrow, having stripped, took a header into the
+    water and disappeared.  More than a minute had elapsed, and as there
+    were no signs of his whereabouts, Mr Cooke was becoming alarmed, lest
+    he had struck his head or been entangled in the weeds, when Borrow
+    suddenly reappeared a considerable distance off, under the opposite
+    bank of the stream, and called out ‘What do you think of that?’”
+    {404b}
+
+Elizabeth Harvey, in telling the same story, says that on coming up he
+exclaimed: “There, if that had been written in one of my books, they
+would have said it was a lie, wouldn’t they?” {404c}
+
+The paragraph about Borrow’s courage was printed in various newspapers
+throughout the country, amongst others in the _Plymouth Mail_ under the
+heading of “Gallant Conduct of Mr G. Borrow,” and was read by Borrow’s
+Cornish kinsmen, who for years had heard nothing of Thomas Borrow.
+Apparently quite convinced that George was his son, they deputed Robert
+Taylor, a farmer of Penquite Farm (who had married Anne Borrow,
+granddaughter of Henry Borrow), to write to Borrow and invite him to
+visit Trethinnick.  The letter was dated 10th October and directed to
+“George Borrow, Yarmouth.”  Borrow replied as follows:—
+
+                                           YARMOUTH, 14_th_ _Octr._, 1853.
+
+    MY DEAR SIR,—I beg leave to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of
+    the 10th inst. in which you inform me of the kind desire of my
+    Cornish relatives to see me at Trethinnock (sic).  Please to inform
+    them that I shall be proud and happy to avail myself of their
+    kindness and to make the acquaintance of “one and all” {405} of them.
+    My engagements will prevent my visiting them at present, but I will
+    appear amongst them on the first opportunity.  I am delighted to
+    learn that there are still some living at Trethinnock who remember my
+    honoured father, who had as true a Cornish heart as ever beat.
+
+    I am at present at Yarmouth, to which place I have brought my wife
+    for the benefit of her health; but my residence is Oulton Hall,
+    Lowestoft, Suffolk.  With kind greetings to my Cornish kindred, in
+    which my wife and my mother join,—I remain, my dear Sir, ever
+    sincerely yours,—
+
+                                                            GEORGE BORROW.
+
+Borrow was not free to visit his kinsfolk until the following Christmas.
+First advising Robert Taylor of his intention, and receiving his approval
+and instructions for the journey, Borrow set out from Great Yarmouth on
+23rd December.  He spent the night at Plymouth.  Next morning on finding
+the Liskeard coach full, he decided to walk.  Leaving his carpet-bag to
+be sent on by the mail, and throwing over his arm the cloak that had seen
+many years of service, he set out upon his eighteen-mile tramp.  He
+arrived at Liskeard in the afternoon, and was met by his cousin Henry
+Borrow and Robert Taylor, as well as by several local celebrities.
+
+After tea Borrow, accompanied by Robert Taylor, rode to Penquite, four
+miles away.  “Ride by night to Penquite, Borrow records in his _Journal_.
+House of stone and slate on side of a hill.  Mrs Taylor.  Hospitable
+reception.  Christmas Eve.  Log on fire.”  He found alive of his own
+generation, Henry, William, Thomas, Elizabeth (who lived to be 94 years
+of age) and Nicholas, the children of Henry Borrow, Captain Borrow’s
+eldest brother.  Also Anne, daughter of Henry, who married Robert Taylor,
+and their daughter, likewise named Anne, and William Henry, son of
+Nicholas.
+
+In the Cornish Note Books there appears under the date of 3rd January the
+following entry: “Rain and snow.  Rode with Mr Taylor to dine at
+Trethinnick.  House dilapidated.  A family party.  Hospitable people.”
+On first entering his father’s old home tears had sprung to Borrow’s
+eyes, and he was much affected.  There was present at the dinner the
+vicar of St Cleer, the Rev. J. R. P. Berkeley, a pleasant Irish clergyman
+who, years later, was able to give to Dr Knapp an account of what took
+place.  He noticed the “vast difference in appearance and manners between
+the simple yet shrewd Cornish farmers and the betravelled gentleman their
+kinsman;” yet for all this there were shades of resemblance—in a look,
+some turn of thought or tone of voice.  George Borrow was not at his best
+that evening, Mr Berkeley relates of the dinner at Trethinnick:
+
+    “his feelings were too much excited.  He was thinking of the time
+    when his father’s footsteps and his father’s voice re-echoed in the
+    room in which we were sitting.  His eyes wandered from point to
+    point, and at times, if I was not mistaken, a tear could be seen
+    trembling in them.  At length he could no longer control his
+    feelings.  He left the hall suddenly, and in a few moments, but for
+    God’s providential care, the career of George Borrow would have been
+    ended.  There was within a few feet of the house a low wall with a
+    drop of some feet into a paved yard.  He walked rapidly out, and, it
+    being nearly dark, he stepped one side of the gate and fell over the
+    wall.  He did not mention the accident, although he bruised himself a
+    good deal, and it was some days before I heard of it.  His words to
+    me that evening, when bidding me good-bye, were: ‘Well, we have
+    shared the old-fashioned hospitality of old-fashioned people in an
+    old-fashioned house.’” {407a}
+
+Borrow created something of a sensation in the neighbourhood.  As a
+celebrity his autograph was much sought after; but he would gratify
+nobody.  His hosts experienced many little surprises from their guest’s
+strange ways.  He would plunge into a moorland pool to fetch a bird that
+had fallen to his gun, or, round the family fireside, he would shout his
+ballads of the North, at one time alarming his audience by seizing a
+carving-knife and brandishing it about in the air to emphasize the
+passionate nature of his song.  When a card-party proved too dull he
+slipped off and found his way into some slums, picking up all the
+disreputable characters he could find, working off his knowledge of cant
+on them, and getting out of them what he could. {407b}
+
+On one occasion when dining at the house of a local celebrity he was
+suddenly missed from table during dessert.
+
+    “A search revealed him in a remote room surrounded by the children of
+    the house, whom he was amusing by his stories and catechising in the
+    subject of their studies and pursuits.  He excused his absence by
+    saying that he had been fascinated by the intelligence of the
+    children, and had forgotten about the dinner.” {407c}
+
+His hatred of gentility led him into some actions that can only be
+characterised as childish.  Even in Cornwall he was on the lookout for
+his fetish.  On one occasion when dining with the ex-Mayor of Liskeard,
+he pulled out of his pocket and used instead of a handkerchief, a dirty
+old grease-stained rag with which he was wont to clean his gun. {408}
+This was done as a protest against something or other that seemed to him
+to suggest mock refinement.
+
+When at Wolsdon as the guest of the Pollards there arrived a lady and
+gentleman of the name of Hambly, according to the Note Books.  In spite
+of this brief reference, Borrow immediately recognised a hated name.
+Never was one of the name good, he informed Mr Berkeley.  He may even
+have been informed that they were descendants of the Headborough whom his
+father had knocked down.  He showed his detestation for the name by being
+as rude as he could to those who bore it.
+
+Borrow was as incapable of dissimulating his dislikes as he was of
+controlling his moods.  Even during his short stay at Penquite he was on
+one occasion, at least, plunged into a deep melancholy, sitting before a
+huge fire entirely oblivious to the presence of others in the room.  Mrs
+Berkeley, who, with the vicar himself, was a caller, thinking to produce
+some good effect upon the gloomy man, sat down at the piano and played
+some old Irish and Scottish airs.  After a time Borrow began to listen,
+then he raised his head, and finally “he suddenly sprang to his feet,
+clapped his hands several times, danced about the room, and struck up
+some joyous melody.  From that moment he was a different man.”  He told
+them “tales and side-splitting anecdotes,” he joined the party at supper,
+and when the vicar and his wife rose to take their leave he pressed Mrs
+Berkeley’s hands, and told her that her music had been as David’s harp to
+his soul.
+
+To the young man he met during this visit who informed him that he had
+left the Army as it was no place for a gentleman, Borrow replied that it
+was no place for a man who was not a gentleman, and that he was quite
+right in leaving it.  To speak against the Army to Borrow was to speak
+against his honoured father.
+
+How Borrow struck his Cornish kinsfolk is shown in a letter written by
+his hostess to a friend.  “I must tell you,” she writes, “a bit about our
+distinguished visitor.”  She gives one of the most valuable portraits of
+Borrow that exists.  He was to her:
+
+    “A fine tall man of about six feet three, well-proportioned and not
+    stout; able to walk five miles an hour successively; rather florid
+    face without any hirsute appendages; hair white and soft; eyes and
+    eyebrows dark; good nose and very nice mouth; well-shaped
+    hands—altogether a person you would notice in a crowd.  His character
+    is not so easy to portray.  The more I see of him the less I know of
+    him.  He is very enthusiastic and eccentric, very proud and
+    unyielding.  He says very little of himself, and one cannot ask him
+    if inclined to . . . He is a marvel in himself.  There is no one here
+    to draw him out.  He has an astonishing memory as to dates when great
+    events have taken place, no matter in what part of the world.  He
+    seems to know everything.” {409}
+
+Borrow was gratified at the welcome he received, and was much pleased
+with the neighbourhood and its people.  “My relations are most excellent
+people,” he wrote to his wife, “but I could not understand more than half
+they said.”  He was puzzled to know why the head of a family, which was
+reputed to be worth seventy thousand pounds, should live in a house which
+could not boast of a single grate—“nothing but open chimneys.”
+
+He remained at Penquite for upwards of a fortnight, at one time galloping
+over snowy hills and dales with Anne Taylor, Junr., “as gallant a girl as
+ever rode,” at another, alert as ever for fragments of folk-lore or
+philology, jotting down the story of a pisky-child from the dictation of
+his cousin Elizabeth.
+
+On 9th January Borrow left Penquite on a tour to Truro, Penzance,
+Mousehole, and Land’s End, armed with the inevitable umbrella, grasped in
+the centre by the right hand, green, manifold and bulging, that so
+puzzled Mr Watts-Dunton and caused him on one occasion to ask Dr Hake,
+“Is he a genuine Child of the Open Air?”  It was one of the first things
+to which Borrow’s pedestrian friends had to accustom themselves.  With
+this “damning thing . . . gigantic and green,” Borrow set out upon his
+excursion, now examining some Celtic barrow, now enquiring his way or the
+name of a landmark, occasionally singing in that tremendous voice of his,
+“Look out, look out, Swayne Vonved!”
+
+At Mousehole he called upon a relative, H. D. Burney (who was, it would
+seem, in charge of the Coast Guard Station), to whom he had a letter of
+introduction from Robert Taylor.  Mr Burney entertained him with stories,
+showed him places and things of interest in the neighbourhood, and
+accompanied him on his visit to St Michael’s Mount.  Borrow returned to
+Penquite on the 25th with a considerable store of Cornish legends and
+Cornish words, and the knowledge that you can only see Cornwall or know
+anything about it by walking through it.
+
+The next excursion was to the North Coast, Pentire Point, Tintagel, King
+Arthur’s Castle, etc.  On the 1st of February he left Penquite, and slept
+the night at Trethinnick.  The next morning he set out on horseback
+accompanied by Nicholas Borrow.
+
+To the vicar of St Cleer and his family, Borrow was a very welcome
+visitor.  Mr Berkeley’s eldest son, a boy of ten years of age, on being
+introduced to the distinguished caller, gazed at him for some moments and
+then without a word left the room and, going straight to his mother in
+another apartment cried, “Well, mother, that _is_ a man.”  Borrow was
+delighted when he heard of the child’s enthusiasm.  Mr Berkeley give a
+picture of his distinguished visitor far more prepossessing than many
+that exist.  He was particularly struck, as was everybody, by the beauty
+of Borrow’s hands, and their owner’s vanity over them as the legacy of
+his Huguenot ancestors.  Mr Berkeley found Borrow’s countenance pleasing,
+betokening calm firmness, self-confidence and a mind under control,
+though capable of passion.  He could on occasion prove a delightful
+talker, and he gave to the vicar’s family a new maxim to implant upon
+their Christianity, the old prize-fighters receipt for a quiet life:
+“Learn to box, and keep a civil tongue in your head.”  He would often
+drop in at the vicarage in the evening, when he would
+
+    “sit in the centre of a group before the fire with his hands on his
+    knees—his favourite position—pouring forth tales of the scenes he had
+    witnessed in his wanderings. . . . Then he would suddenly spring from
+    his seat and walk to and fro the room in silence; anon he would clap
+    his hands and sing a Gypsy song, or perchance would chant forth a
+    translation of some Viking poem; after which he would sit down again
+    and chat about his father, whose memory he revered as he did his
+    mother’s; {411} and finally he would recount some tale of suffering
+    or sorrow with deep pathos—his voice being capable of expressing
+    triumphant joy or the profoundest sadness.”
+
+It was Borrow’s intention to write a book about his visit to Cornwall,
+and he even announced it at the end of _The Romany Rye_.  He was
+delighted with the Duchy, and evidently gave his relatives to understand
+that it was his intention to use the contents of his Note Books as the
+nucleus of a book.  “He will undoubtedly write a description of his
+visit,” Mrs Taylor wrote to her friend.  “I walked through the whole of
+Cornwall and saw everything,” Borrow wrote to his wife after his return
+to London.  “I kept a Journal of every day I was there, and it fills
+_two_ pocket books.”
+
+Borrow left Cornwall the second week in February and was in London on the
+10th, where he was to break his journey home in order to obtain some data
+at the British Museum for the Appendix of _The Romany Rye_. {412a}  On
+13th February he writes to his wife:—
+
+    “For three days I have been working hard at the Museum, I am at
+    present at Mr Webster’s, but not in the three guinea lodgings.  I am
+    in rooms above, for which I pay thirty shillings a week.  I live as
+    economically as I can; but when I am in London I am obliged to be at
+    certain expense.  I must be civil to certain friends who invite me
+    out and show me every kindness.  Please send me a five pound note by
+    return of post.”
+
+His wife appears to have been anxious for his return home, and on the
+17th he writes to her:—
+
+    “It is hardly worth while making me more melancholy than I am.  Come
+    home, come home! is the cry.  And what are my prospects when I get
+    home? though it is true that they are not much brighter here.  I have
+    nothing to look forward to.  Honourable employments are being given
+    to this and that trumpery fellow; while I, who am an honourable man,
+    must be excluded from everything.”
+
+Of literature he expressed himself as tired, there was little or nothing
+to be got out of it, save by writing humbug, which he refused to do.  “My
+spirits are very low,” he continues, “and your letters make them worse.
+I shall probably return by the end of next week; but I shall want more
+money.  I am sorry to spend money for it is our only friend, and God
+knows I use as little as possible, but I can’t travel without it.” {412b}
+A few days later there is another letter with farther reference to money,
+and protests that he is spending as little as possible.  “Perhaps you had
+better send another note,” he writes, “and I will bring it home
+unchanged, if I do not want any part of it.  I have lived very
+economically as far as I am concerned personally; I have bought nothing,
+and have been working hard at the Museum.” {413}
+
+These constant references to money seem to suggest either some difference
+between Borrow and his wife, or that he felt he was spending too much
+upon himself and was anticipating her thoughts by assuring her of how
+economically he was living.  He had an unquestioned right to spend, for
+he had added considerable sums to the exchequer from the profits of his
+first two books.
+
+Borrow returned to Yarmouth on 25th February.  _The Romany Rye_ was now
+rapidly nearing completion; but there was no encouragement to publish a
+new book.  He worked at _The Romany Rye_, not because he saw profit in
+it, not because he was anxious to give another book to an uneager public;
+but because of the sting in its tail, because of the thunderbolt Appendix
+in which he paid off old scores against the critics and his personal
+enemies.  _The Romany Rye_ was to him a work of hate; it was a bomb
+disguised as a book, which he intended to throw into the camp of his
+foes.  He was tired of literature, by which he meant that he was tired of
+producing his best for a public that neither wanted nor understood it.
+He forgot that the works of a great writer are sometimes printed in his
+own that they may be read in another generation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+MARCH 1854–MAY 1856
+
+
+DURING the months that followed Borrow’s return to Great Yarmouth, the
+question of the coming summer holiday was discussed.  From the first
+Borrow himself had been for Wales.  He was eager to pursue his Celtic
+researches further north.  “I should not wonder if he went into Wales
+before he returns,” Mrs Robert Taylor had written to her friend during
+Borrow’s stay in Cornwall.  His wife and Henrietta had “a hankering after
+what is fashionable,” and suggested Harrogate or Leamington.  To which
+Borrow replied that there was nothing he “so much hated as fashionable
+life.”  He, however, gave way, the two women followed suit, as he had
+intended they should, and Wales was decided upon.  For Borrow the
+literature of Wales had always exercised a great attraction.  Her bards
+were as no other bards.  Ab Gwilym was to him the superior of Chaucer,
+and Huw Morris “the greatest songster of the seventeenth century.”  It
+was, he confessed, a desire to put to practical use his knowledge of the
+Welsh tongue, “such as it was,” that first gave him the idea of going to
+Wales.
+
+The party left Great Yarmouth on 27th July 1854, spending one night at
+Peterborough and three at Chester.  They reached Llangollen, which was to
+be their head-quarters, on 1st August.  On 9th August Mrs George Borrow
+wrote to the old lady at Oulton, “We all much enjoy this wonderful and
+beautiful country.  We are in a lovely quiet spot.  Dear George goes out
+exploring the mountains, and when he finds remarkable views takes us of
+an evening to see them.”
+
+Borrow wanted to see Wales and get to know the people, and, above all, to
+speak with them in their own language, and on 27th August he started upon
+a walking tour to Bangor, where he was to meet his wife and Henrietta,
+who were to proceed thither by rail.  It was during this excursion that
+he encountered the delightful Papist-Orange fiddler, whose fortunes and
+fingers fluctuated between “Croppies Get Up” and “Croppies Lie Down.”
+
+From Bangor Borrow explored the surrounding places of interest.  He
+ascended Snowdon arm-in-arm with Henrietta, singing “at the stretch of my
+voice a celebrated Welsh stanza,” the boy-guide following wonderingly
+behind.  In spite of the fatigues of the climb, “the gallant girl”
+reached the summit and heard her stepfather declaim two stanzas of poetry
+in Welsh, to the grinning astonishment of a small group of English
+tourists and the great interest of a Welshman, who asked Borrow if he
+were _a Breton_.
+
+There is no question that Borrow was genuinely attached to Henrietta.  “I
+generally call her daughter,” he writes, “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,” {415a}
+not to speak of her ability to play on the Spanish guitar.  She was “the
+dear girl,” or “the gallant girl,” between whom and her stepfather
+existed a true spirit of comradeship.  In 1844 she wrote to him, “And
+then that _funny_ look {415b} would come into your eyes and you would
+call me ‘poor old Hen.’”  He seemed incapable of laughing, and one
+intimate friend states that she “never saw him even smiling, but there
+was a twinkle in his eyes which told you that he was enjoying himself
+just the same.” {416}
+
+About this time Mrs George Borrow wrote to old Mrs Borrow at Oulton Hall,
+saying that all was well with her son.
+
+    “He is very regular in his morning and evening devotions, so that we
+    all have abundant cause for thankfulness . . . As regards your dear
+    son and his peace and comfort, you have reason to praise and bless
+    God on his account . . . He is fully occupied.  He keeps a _daily_
+    Journal of all that goes on, so that he can make a most amusing book
+    in a month, whenever he wishes to do so.”
+
+The first sentence is very puzzling, and would seem to suggest that
+Borrow’s moods were somehow or other associated with outbursts against
+religion.  “Be sure you _burn_ this, or do not leave it about,” the old
+lady is admonished.
+
+On the day following the ascent of Snowdon, Mrs Borrow and Henrietta
+returned to Llangollen by train, leaving Borrow free to pursue his
+wanderings.  He eventually arrived at Llangollen on 6th September, by way
+of Carnarvon, Festiniog and Bala.  After remaining another twenty days at
+Llangollen, he despatched his wife and stepdaughter home by rail.  He
+then bought a small leather satchel, with a strap to sling it over his
+shoulder, packed in it a white linen shirt, a pair of worsted stockings,
+a razor and a prayer-book.  Having had his boots resoled and his umbrella
+repaired, he left Llangollen for South Wales, upon an excursion which was
+to occupy three weeks.  During the course of this expedition he was taken
+for many things, from a pork-jobber to Father Toban himself, as whom he
+pronounced “the best Latin blessing I could remember” over two or three
+dozen Irish reapers to their entire satisfaction.  Eventually he arrived
+at Chepstow, having learned a great deal about wild Wales.
+
+One of the excursions that Borrow made from Bangor was to Llanfair in
+search of Gronwy, the birthplace of Gronwy Owen.  He found in the long,
+low house an old woman and five children, descendants of the poet, who
+stared at him wonderingly.  To each he gave a trifle.  Asking whether
+they could read, he was told that the eldest could read anything, whether
+Welsh or English.  In _Wild Wales_ he gives an account of the interview.
+
+    “‘Can you write?’ said I to the child [the eldest], a little stubby
+    girl of about eight, with a broad flat red face and grey eyes,
+    dressed in a chintz gown, a little bonnet on her head, and looking
+    the image of notableness.
+
+    “The little maiden, who had never taken her eyes off of me for a
+    moment during the whole time I had been in the room, at first made no
+    answer; being, however, bid by her grandmother to speak, she at
+    length answered in a soft voice, ‘Medraf, I can.’
+
+    “‘Then write your name in this book,’ said I, taking out a
+    pocket-book and a pencil, ‘and write likewise that you are related to
+    Gronwy Owen—and be sure you write in Welsh.’
+
+    “The little maiden very demurely took the book and pencil, and
+    placing the former on the table wrote as follows:—
+
+    “‘Ellen Jones yn perthyn o bell i gronow owen.’ {417a}
+
+    “That is, ‘Ellen Jones belonging, from afar off to Gronwy Owen.’”
+    {417b}
+
+Ellen Jones is now Ellen Thomas, and she well remembers Borrow coming
+along the lane, where she was playing with some other children, and
+asking for the house of Gronwy Owen.  Later, when she entered the house,
+she found him talking to her grandmother, who was a little deaf as
+described in _Wild Wales_.  Mrs Thomas’ recollection of Borrow is that he
+had the appearance of possessing great strength.  He had “bright eyes and
+shabby dress, more like a merchant than a gentleman, or like a man come
+to buy cattle [others made the same mistake].  But, dear me! he did speak
+_funny_ Welsh,” she remarked to a student of Borrow who sought her out,
+“he could not pronounce the ‘ll’ [pronouncing the word “pell” as if it
+rhymed with tell, whereas it should be pronounced something like
+“pelth”], and his voice was very high; but perhaps that was because my
+grandmother was deaf.”  He had plenty of words, but bad pronunciation.
+William Thomas {418a} laughed many a time at him coming talking his funny
+Welsh to him, and said he was glad he knew a few words of Spanish to
+answer him with.  Borrow was, apparently, unconscious of any imperfection
+in his pronunciation of the “ll”.  He has written: “‘Had you much
+difficulty in acquiring the sound of the “ll”?’  I think I hear the
+reader inquire.  None whatever: the double l of the Welsh is by no means
+the terrible guttural which English people generally suppose it to be.”
+{418b}
+
+Mrs Thomas is now sixty-seven years of age (she was eleven and not eight
+at the time of Borrow’s visit) and still preserves carefully wrapped up
+the book from which she read to the white-haired stranger.  The episode
+was not thought much of at the time, except by the child, whom it much
+excited. {418c}
+
+It was in all probability during this, his first tour in Wales, that
+Borrow was lost on Cader Idris, and spent the whole of one night in
+wandering over the mountain vainly seeking a path.  The next morning he
+arrived at the inn utterly exhausted.  It was quite in keeping with
+Borrow’s nature to suppress from his book all mention of this unpleasant
+adventure. {419a}
+
+The Welsh holiday was unquestionably a success.  Borrow’s mind had been
+diverted from critics and his lost popularity.  He had forgotten that in
+official quarters he had been overlooked.  He was in the land of Ab
+Gwilym and Gronwy Owen.  “There never was such a place for poets,” he
+wrote; “you meet a poet, or the birthplace of a poet, everywhere.” {419b}
+He was delighted with the simplicity of the people, and in no way
+offended by their persistent suspicion of all things Saxon.  At least
+they knew their own poets; and he could not help comparing the Welsh
+labouring man who knew Huw Morris, with his Suffolk brother who had never
+heard of Beowulf or Chaucer.  He discoursed with many people about their
+bards, surprising them by his intimate knowledge of the poets and the
+poetry of Wales.  He found enthusiasm “never scoffed at by the noble
+simple-minded genuine Welsh, whatever treatment it may receive from the
+coarse-hearted, sensual, selfish Saxon.” {419c}  Sometimes he was
+reminded “of the substantial yoemen of Cornwall, particularly . . . of my
+friends at Penquite.” {419d}  Wherever he went he experienced nothing but
+kindness and hospitality, and it delighted him to be taken for a Cumro,
+as was frequently the case.
+
+What Borrow writes about his Welsh is rather contradictory.  Sometimes he
+represents himself as taken for a Welshman, at others as a foreigner
+speaking Welsh.  “Oh, what a blessing it is to be able to speak Welsh!”
+{420a} he exclaims.  He acknowledged that he could read Welsh with far
+more ease than he could speak it.  There is absolutely no posing or
+endeavour to depict himself a perfect Welsh scholar, whose accent could
+not be distinguished from that of a native.  The literary results of the
+Welsh holiday were four Note Books written in pencil, from which _Wild
+Wales_ was subsequently written.  Borrow was in Wales for nearly sixteen
+weeks (1st Aug.—16th November), of which about a third was devoted to
+expeditions on foot.
+
+In the annual consultations about holidays, Borrow’s was always the
+dominating voice.  For the year 1855 the Isle of Man was chosen, because
+it attracted him as a land of legend and quaint customs and speech.
+Accordingly during the early days of September Mrs Borrow and Henrietta
+were comfortably settled at Douglas, and Borrow began to make excursions
+to various parts of the island.  He explored every corner of it,
+conversing with the people in Manx, collecting ballads and old,
+smoke-stained _carvel_ {420b} (or carol) books, of which he was
+successful in securing two examples.  He discovered that the island
+possessed a veritable literature in these _carvels_, which were
+circulated in manuscript form among the neighbours of the writers.
+
+The old runic inscriptions that he found on the tombstones exercised a
+great fascination over Borrow.  He would spend hours, or even days (on
+one occasion as much as a week), in deciphering one of them.  Thirty
+years later he was remembered as an accurate, painstaking man.  His
+evenings were frequently occupied in translating into English the Manx
+poem _Illiam Dhoo_, or Brown William.  He discovered among the Manx
+traditions much about Finn Ma Coul, or M‘Coyle, who appears in _The
+Romany Rye_ as a notability of Ireland.  He ascended Snaefell, sought out
+the daughter of George Killey, the Manx poet, and had much talk with her,
+she taking him for a Manxman.  The people of the island he liked.
+
+    “In the whole world,” he wrote in his ‘Note Books,’ “there is not a
+    more honest, kindly race than the genuine Manx.  Towards strangers
+    they exert unbounded hospitality without the slightest idea of
+    receiving any compensation, and they are, whether men or women, at
+    any time willing to go two or three miles over mountain and bog to
+    put strangers into the right road.”
+
+During his stay in the Isle of Man, news reached Borrow of the death of a
+kinsman, William, son of Samuel Borrow, his cousin, a cooper at
+Devonport.  William Borrow had gone to America, where he had won a prize
+for a new and wonderful application of steam.  His death is said to have
+occurred as the result of mental fatigue.  In this Borrow saw cause for
+grave complaint against the wretched English Aristocracy that forced
+talent out of the country by denying it employment or honour, which were
+all for their “connections and lick-spittles.”
+
+The holiday in the Isle of Man had resulted in two quarto note books,
+aggregating ninety-six pages, closely written in pencil.  Again Borrow
+planned to write a book, just as he had done on the occasion of the
+Cornish visit.  Nothing, however, came of it.  Among his papers was found
+the following draft of a suggested title-page:—
+
+                                 BAYR JAIRGEY
+                                     AND
+                                  GLION DOO
+
+                      THE RED PATH AND THE BLACK VALLEY
+
+                    WANDERINGS IN QUEST OF MANX LITERATURE
+
+A curious feature of Mrs Borrow’s correspondence is her friendly
+conspiracies, sometimes with John Murray, sometimes with Woodfall, the
+printer, asking them to send encouraging letters that shall hearten
+Borrow to greater efforts.  On 26th November 1850 John Murray wrote to
+her: “I have determined on engraving [by W. Holl] Phillips’ portrait
+{422} . . . as a frontispiece to it [_Lavengro_].  I trust that this will
+not be disagreeable to you and the author—in fact I do it in confident
+expectation that it will meet with _your_ assent; I do not ask Mr
+Borrow’s leave, remember.”
+
+It must be borne in mind that Mrs Borrow had been in London a few days
+previously, in order to deliver to John Murray the manuscript of
+_Lavengro_.  Mrs Borrow’s reply to this letter is significant.  With
+regard to the engraving, she writes (28th November), “_I like the idea of
+it_, and when Mr Borrow remarked that he did not wish it (as we expected
+he would) I reminded him that _his_ leave _was_ not asked.”
+
+Again, on 30th October 1852, Mrs Borrow wrote to Robert Cooke asking that
+either he or John Murray would write to Borrow enquiring as to his
+health, and progress with _The Romany Rye_, and how long it would be
+before the manuscript were ready for the printer.  “Of course,” she adds,
+“all this is in perfect confidence to Mr Murray and yourself as you
+_both_ of you know my truly excellent Husband well enough to be aware how
+much he every now and then requires an impetus to cause the large wheel
+to move round at a quicker pace . . . Oblige me by committing this to the
+flames, and write to him just as you would have done, without hearing _a
+word from me_.”  On yet another occasion when she and Borrow were both in
+London, she writes to Cooke asking that either he “or Mr Murray will give
+my Husband a look, if it be only for a few minutes . . . He seems rather
+low.  Do, _not_ let this note remain on your table,” she concludes, “or
+_mention_ it.”
+
+If Borrow were a problem to his wife and to his publisher, he presented
+equal difficulties to the country folk about Oulton.  To one he was “a
+missionary out of work,” to another “a man who kep’ ’isself to ’isself”;
+but to none was he the tired lion weary of the chase.  “His great delight
+. . . was to plunge into the darkening mere at eventide, his great head
+and heavy shoulders ruddy in the rays of the sun.  Here he hissed and
+roared and spluttered, sometimes frightening the eel-catcher sailing home
+in the half-light, and remembering suddenly school legends of
+river-sprites and monsters of the deep.” {423a}
+
+In the spring following his return from the Isle of Man, Borrow made
+numerous excursions on foot through East Anglia.  He seemed too restless
+to remain long in one place.  During a tramp from Yarmouth to Ely by way
+of Cromer, Holt, Lynn and Wisbech, he called upon Anna Gurney. {423b}
+His reason for doing so was that she was one of the three celebrities of
+the world he desired to see.  The other two were Daniel O’Connell {423c}
+and Lamplighter (the sire of Phosphorus), Lord Berners winner of the
+Derby.  Two of the world’s notabilities had slipped through his fingers
+by reason of their deaths, but he was determined that Anna Gurney, who
+lived at North Repps, should not evade him.  He gave her notice of his
+intention to call, and found her ready to receive him.
+
+    “When, according to his account, {424} 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.’”
+
+It is said that Borrow ran until he reached Old Tucker’s Inn at Cromer,
+where he ate “five excellent sausages” and found calm.  He then went on
+to Sheringham and related the incident to the Upchers.
+
+These lonely walking tours soothed Borrow’s restless mind.  He had
+constant change of scene, and his thoughts were diverted by the
+adventures of the roadside.  He encountered many and interesting people,
+on one occasion an old man who remembered the fight between Painter and
+Oliver; at another time he saw a carter beating his horse which had
+fallen down.  “Give him a pint of ale, and I will pay for it,” counselled
+Borrow.  After the second pint the beast got up and proceeded, “pulling
+merrily . . . with the other horses.”
+
+Ale was Borrow’s sovereign remedy for the world’s ills and wrongs.  It
+was by ale that he had been cured when the “Horrors” were upon him in the
+dingle.  “Oh, genial and gladdening is the power of good ale, the true
+and proper drink of Englishmen,” he exclaims after having heartened Jack
+Slingsby and his family.  “He is not deserving of the name of
+Englishman,” he continues, “who speaketh against ale, that is good ale.”
+{425a}  To John Murray (the Third) he wrote in his letter of sympathy on
+the death of his father: “Pray keep up your spirits, and that you may be
+able to do so, take long walks and drink plenty of Scotch ale with your
+dinner . . .  God bless you.”
+
+He liked ale “with plenty of malt in it, and as little hop as well may
+be—ale at least two years old.” {425b}  The period of its maturity
+changed with his mood.  In another place he gives nine or ten months as
+the ideal age. {425c}  He was all for an Act of Parliament to force
+people to brew good ale.  He not only drank good ale himself; but
+prescribed it as a universal elixir for man and beast.  Hearing from
+Elizabeth Harvey “of a lady who was attached to a gentleman,” Borrow
+demanded bluntly, “Well, did he make her an offer?”  “No,” was the
+response.  “Ah,” Borrow replied with conviction, “if she had given him
+some good ale he would.” {425d}
+
+He loved best old Burton, which, with ’37 port, were his favourites; yet
+he would drink whatever ale the roadside-inn provided, as if to
+discipline his stomach.  It has been said that he habitually drank
+“swipes,” a thin cheap ale, because that was the drink of his gypsy
+friends; but Borrow’s friendship certainly did not often involve him in
+anything so distasteful.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+_THE ROMANY RYE_.  1854–1859
+
+
+BORROW was not a great correspondent, and he left behind him very few
+letters from distinguished men of his time.  Among those few were several
+from Edward FitzGerald, whose character contrasted so strangely with that
+of the tempestuous Borrow.  In 1856 FitzGerald wrote:—
+
+                                                 31 GREAT PORTLAND STREET,
+                                            LONDON, 27_th_ _October_ 1856.
+
+    MY DEAR SIR,—It is I who send you the new Turkish Dictionary
+    [Redhouse’s Turkish & English Dictionary] which ought to go by this
+    Post; my reasons being that I bought it really only for the purpose
+    of doing that little good to the spirited Publisher of the book (who
+    thought when he began it that the [Crimean] War was to last), and I
+    send it to you because I should be glad of your opinion, if you can
+    give it.  I am afraid that you will hardly condescend to _use_ it,
+    for you abide in the old Meninsky; but if you _will_ use it, I shall
+    be very glad.  I don’t think _I_ ever shall; and so what is to be
+    done with it now it is bought?
+
+    I don’t know what Kerrich told you of my being too _lazy_ to go over
+    to Yarmouth to see you a year ago.  No such thing as that.  I simply
+    had doubts as to whether you would not rather remain unlookt for.  I
+    know I enjoyed my evening with you a month ago.  I wanted to ask you
+    to read some of the _Northern Ballads_ too; but you shut the book.
+
+    I must tell you.  I am come up here on my way to Chichester to be
+    married! to Miss Barton (of Quaker memory) and our united ages amount
+    to 96!—a dangerous experiment on both sides.  She at least brings a
+    fine head and heart to the bargain—worthy of a better market.  But it
+    is to be, and I dare say you will honestly wish we may do well.
+
+    Keep the book as long as you will.  It is useless to me.  I shall be
+    to be heard of through Geldeston Hall, Beccles.  With compliments to
+    Mrs Borrow, believe me,
+
+                                 Yours truly,
+
+                                                        EDWARD FITZGERALD.
+
+    _P.S._—Donne is well, and wants to know about you.
+
+A few months later FitzGerald wrote again:
+
+                                                  ALBERT HOUSE, GORLESTON,
+                                                        6_th_ _July_ 1857.
+
+    DEAR BORROW,—Will you send me [The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam] by
+    bearer.  I only want to look at him, for that Frenchman {427} has
+    been misquoting him in a way that will make [Professor] E. Cowell [of
+    Cambridge] answerable for another’s blunder, which must not be.  You
+    shall have ’_Omar_ back directly, or whenever you want him, and I
+    should really like to make you a copy (taking my time) of the best
+    Quatrains.  I am now looking over the Calcutta MS. which has
+    500!—very many quite as good as those in the MS. you have; but very
+    many in _both_ MSS. are well omitted.
+
+    I have been for a fortnight to Geldeston where Kerrich is not very
+    well.  I shall look for you one day in my Yarmouth rounds, and you
+    know how entirely disengaged and glad to see you I am here.  I have
+    two fresh Nieces with me—and I find I gave you the _worst_ wine of
+    two samples Diver sent me.  I wish you would send word by bearer you
+    are better—this one word written will be enough you see.
+
+    My old Parson Crabbe is bowing down under epileptic fits, or
+    something like, and I believe his brave old white head will soon sink
+    into the village Churchsward.  Why, _our_ time seems coming.  Make
+    way, Gentlemen!—Yours very truly,
+
+                                                        EDWARD FITZGERALD.
+
+What effect the sweet gentleness of FitzGerald’s nature had upon that of
+Borrow is not known, for the replies have not been preserved.  FitzGerald
+was a man capable of soothing the angriest and most discontented mind,
+and it is a misfortune that he saw so little of Borrow.  In the early
+part of the following year (24th Jan. 1857) FitzGerald wrote to Professor
+E. B. Cowell of Cambridge:—
+
+    “I was with Borrow a week ago at Donne’s, and also at Yarmouth three
+    months ago: he is well, but not yet agreed with Murray.  He read me a
+    long Translation he had made from the Turkish: which I could not
+    admire, and his Taste becomes stranger than ever.” {428a}
+
+From Wales Mrs George Borrow had written (Sept. 1854) to old Mrs Borrow:
+“He [Borrow] will, I expect at Christmas, publish his other work [_The
+Romany Rye_] together with his poetry in all the European languages.”
+{428b}  In November (1854) the manuscript of _The Romany Rye_ was
+delivered to John Murray, who appears to have taken his time in reading
+it; for it was not until 23rd December that he expressed his views in the
+following letter.  Even when the letter was written it was allowed to
+remain in John Murray’s desk for five weeks, not being sent until 27th
+January:—
+
+    MY DEAR BORROW,—I have read with care the MS. of _The Romany Rye_ and
+    have pondered anxiously over it; and in what I am about to write I
+    think I may fairly claim the privilege of a friend deeply interested
+    in you personally, as well as in your reputation as author, and by no
+    means insensible to the abilities displayed in your various works.
+    It is my firm conviction then, that you will incur the certainty of
+    failure and run the risque of injuring your literary fame by
+    publishing the MS. as it stands.  Very large omissions seem to me—and
+    in this, Elwin, {429} no mean judge, concurs—absolutely
+    indispensable.  That _Lavengro_ would have profited by curtailment, I
+    stated before its publication.  The result has verified my
+    anticipations, and in the present instance I feel compelled to make
+    it the condition of publication.  You can well imagine that it is not
+    my _interest_ to shorten a book from two volumes to one unless there
+    were really good cause.
+
+    _Lavengro_ clearly has not been successful.  Let us not then risque
+    the chance of another failure, but try to avoid the rock upon which
+    we then split.  You have so great store of interesting matter in your
+    mind and in your notes, that I cannot but feel it to be a pity that
+    you should harp always upon one string, as it were.  It seems to me
+    that you have dwelt too long on English ground in this new work, and
+    have resuscitated some characters of the former book (such as F.
+    Ardry) whom your readers would have been better pleased to have left
+    behind.  Why should you not introduce us rather to those novel scenes
+    of Moscovite and Hungarian life respecting which I have heard you
+    drop so many stimulating allusions.  Do not, I pray, take offence at
+    what I have written.  It is difficult and even painful for me to
+    assume the office of critic, and this is one of the reasons why this
+    note has lingered so long in my desk.  Fortunately, in the advice I
+    am tendering I am supported by others of better literary judgment
+    than myself, and who have also deep regard for you.  I will specify
+    below some of the passages which I would point out for omission.—With
+    best remembrances, I remain, my dear Borrow, Your faithful publisher
+    and sincere friend,
+
+                                                              JOHN MURRAY.
+
+                         _Suggestions for Omission_.
+
+    The Hungarian in No. 6.
+
+    The Jockey Story, terribly spun out, No. 7.
+
+    Visit to the Church, too long.
+
+    Interview with the Irishman, Do.
+
+    Learning Chinese, too much repetition in this part of a very
+    interesting chapter.
+
+    The Postilion and Highwayman.
+
+    Throughout the MS. condensation is indispensable.  Many of the
+    narratives are carried to a tedious length by details and repetition.
+
+    The dialogue with Ursula, the song, etc., border on the indelicate.
+    I like much Horncastle Fair, the Chinese scholar, except objection
+    noted above.
+
+    Grooming of the horse.
+
+    January 27, 1855.
+
+On 29th January, Mrs Borrow wrote to John Murray a letter that was
+inspired by Borrow himself.  Dr Knapp discovered the original draft, some
+of which was in Borrow’s own hand.  It runs:—
+
+    DEAR MR MURRAY,—We have received your letters.  In the first place I
+    beg leave to say something on a very principal point.  You talk about
+    _conditions_ of publishing.  Mr Borrow has not the slightest wish to
+    publish the book.  The MS. was left with you because you wished to
+    see it, and when left, you were particularly requested not to let it
+    pass out of your own hands.  But it seems you have shown it to
+    various individuals whose opinions you repeat.  What those opinions
+    are worth may be gathered from the following fact.
+
+    The book is one of the most learned works ever written; yet in the
+    summary of the opinions which you give, not one single allusion is
+    made to the learning which pervades the book, no more than if it
+    contained none at all.  It is treated just as if all the philological
+    and historical facts were mere inventions, and the book a common
+    novel . . .
+
+    With regard to _Lavengro_ it is necessary to observe that if ever a
+    book experienced infamous and undeserved treatment it was that book.
+    It was attacked in every form that envy and malice could suggest, on
+    account of Mr Borrow’s acquirements and the success of _The Bible in
+    Spain_, and it was deserted by those whose duty it was, in some
+    degree to have protected it.  No attempt was ever made to refute the
+    vile calumny that it was a book got up against the Popish agitation
+    of ’51.  It was written years previous to that period—a fact of which
+    none is better aware than the Publisher.  Is that calumny to be still
+    permitted to go unanswered?
+
+    If these suggestions are attended to, well and good; if not, Mr
+    Borrow can bide his time.  He is independent of the public and of
+    everybody.  Say no more on that Russian Subject.  Mr Borrow has had
+    quite enough of the press.  If he wrote a book on Russia, it would be
+    said to be like _The Bible in Spain_, or it would be said to be
+    unlike _The Bible in Spain_, and would be blamed in either case.  He
+    has written a book in connection with England such as no other body
+    could have written, and he now rests from his labours.  He has found
+    England an ungrateful country.  It owes much to him, and he owes
+    nothing to it.  If he had been a low ignorant impostor, like a person
+    he could name, he would have been employed and honoured.—I remain,
+    Yours sincerely,
+
+                                                              MARY BORROW.
+
+On 5th April 1856 Mrs Borrow wrote again, requesting Murray to return the
+manuscript, but for what purpose she does not state.  Two days later it
+was despatched by rail from Albemarle Street.
+
+Some years before, Borrow had met Rev. Whitwell Elwin, Rector of Booton,
+somewhere about the time he (Elwin) came up to London to edit _The
+Quarterly Review_, viz., 1853. {431}  The first interview between the two
+men has been described as characteristic of both.
+
+    “Borrow was just then very sore with his slashing critics, and on
+    someone mentioning that Elwin was a ‘_Quartering_ reviewer,’ he said,
+    ‘Sir, I wish you a better employment.’  Then hastily changing the
+    subject, he called out, ‘What party are you in the Church—Tractarian,
+    Moderate, or Evangelical?  I am happy to say, _I_ am the old _High_.’
+    ‘I am happy to say I am _not_,’ was Elwin’s emphatic reply.  Borrow
+    boasted of his proficiency in the Norfolk dialect, which he
+    endeavoured to speak as broadly as possible.  ‘I told him,’ said
+    Elwin, ‘that he had not cultivated it with his usual success.’  As
+    the conversation proceeded it became less disputatious, and the two
+    ended by becoming so cordial that they promised to visit each other.
+    Borrow fulfilled his promise in the following October, when he went
+    to Booton, and was ‘full of anecdote and reminiscence,’ and delighted
+    the rectory children by singing them songs in the gypsy tongue.
+    Elwin during this visit urged him to try his hand at an article for
+    the Review.  ‘Never,’ he said, ‘I have made a resolution never to
+    have anything to do with such a blackguard trade.’” {432a}
+
+Elwin became greatly interested in _The Romany Rye_.  He endeavoured to
+influence its composition, and even wrote to Borrow begging him “to give
+his sequel to _Lavengro_ more of an historical, and less of a romancing
+air.”  He was not happy about the book.  He wrote to John Murray in
+March:—
+
+    “‘It is not the statements themselves which provoke incredulity, but
+    the melodramatic effect which he tries to impart to all his
+    adventures.’  Instead of ‘roaring like a lion,’ in reply, as Elwin
+    had expected, he returned quite a ‘lamb-like’ note, which gave
+    promise of a greater success for his new work than its precursor.”
+    {432b}
+
+Borrow appears to have become tired of biding his time with regard to
+_The Romany Rye_, and on 27th Feb. 1857 he wrote to John Murray to say
+that “the work must go to press, and that unless the printing is
+forthwith commenced, I must come up to London and make arrangements
+myself.  Time is passing away.  It ought to have appeared many years ago.
+I can submit to no more delays.”  The work was accordingly proceeded
+with, and Elwin wrote a criticism of the work for _The Quarterly Review_
+from the proof-sheets:—
+
+    “When the review was almost finished, it was on the point of being
+    altogether withdrawn, owing to a passage in _Romany Rye_ which Elwin
+    said was clearly meant to be a reflection on his friend Ford, ‘to
+    avenge the presumed refusal of the latter to praise _Lavengro_ in
+    _The Quarterly Review_.’  ‘I am very anxious,’ he said, ‘to get
+    Borrow justice for rare merits which have been entirely overlooked,
+    but if he persists in publishing an attack of this kind I shall, I
+    fear, not be able to serve him.’  The objectionable paragraphs had
+    been written by Borrow under a misapprehension, and he cancelled them
+    as soon as he was convinced of his error.” {433}
+
+John Murray determined not to publish the book unless the offending
+passage were removed.  He wrote to Borrow the following letter:—
+
+                                                       8_th_ _April_ 1857.
+
+    MY DEAR BORROW,—When I have done anything towards you deserving of
+    apology I will not hesitate to offer one.  As it is, I have acted
+    loyally towards you, and with a view to maintain your interests.
+
+    I agreed to publish your present work solely with the object of
+    obliging you, and in a great degree at the strong recommendation of
+    Cooke.  I meant (as was my duty) to do my very best to promote its
+    success.  You on your side promised to listen to me in regard to any
+    necessary omissions; and on the faith of this, I pointed out one
+    omission, which I make the indispensable condition of my proceeding
+    further with the book.  I have asked nothing unfair nor
+    unreasonable—nay, a compliance with the request is essential for your
+    own character as an author and a man.
+
+    You are the last man that I should ever expect to “frighten or
+    bully”; and if a mild but firm remonstrance against an offensive
+    passage in your book is interpreted by you into such an application,
+    I submit that the grounds for the notion must exist nowhere but in
+    your own imagination.  The alternative offered to you is to omit or
+    publish elsewhere.  Nothing shall compel me to publish what you have
+    written.  Think calmly and dispassionately over this, and when you
+    have decided let me know.
+
+                            Yours very faithfully,
+
+                                                              JOHN MURRAY.
+
+The reference that had so offended Murray and Elwin had, in all
+probability been interpolated in proof form, otherwise it would have been
+discovered either when Murray read the manuscript or Elwin the proofs.
+By return of post came the following reply from Borrow, then at Great
+Yarmouth:—
+
+    DEAR SIR,—Yesterday I received your letter.  You had better ask your
+    cousin [Robert Cooke] to come down and talk about matters.  _After_
+    Monday I shall be disengaged and shall be most happy to see him.  And
+    now I must tell you that you are exceedingly injudicious.  You call a
+    chapter heavy, and I, not wishing to appear unaccommodating, remove
+    or alter two or three passages for which I do not particularly care,
+    whereupon you make most unnecessary comments, obtruding your private
+    judgment upon matters with which you have no business, and of which
+    it is impossible that you should have a competent knowledge.  If you
+    disliked the passages you might have said so, but you had no right to
+    say anything more.  I believe that you not only meant no harm, but
+    that your intentions were good; unfortunately, however, people with
+    the best of intentions occasionally do a great deal of harm.  In your
+    language you are frequently in the highest degree injudicious; for
+    example, in your last letter you talk of obliging me by publishing my
+    work.  Now is not that speaking very injudiciously?  Surely you
+    forget that I could return a most cutting answer were I disposed to
+    do so.
+
+    I believe, however, that your intentions are good, and that you are
+    disposed to be friendly.—Yours truly,
+
+                                                            GEORGE BORROW.
+
+The tone of this letter is strangely reminiscent of some of the Rev
+Andrew Brandram’s admonitions to Borrow himself, during his association
+with the Bible Society.  Borrow bowed to the wind, and the offending
+passage was deleted, and _The Romany Rye_ eventually appeared on 30th
+April 1857, in an edition of a thousand copies.  The public, or such part
+of it as had not forgotten Borrow, had been kept waiting six years to
+know what had happened on the morning after the storm.  _Lavengro_ had
+ended by the postilion concluding his story with “Young gentleman, I will
+now take a spell on your blanket—young lady, good-night,” and presumably
+the three, Borrow, Isopel Berners and their guest had lain down to sleep,
+and a great quiet fell upon the dingle, and the moon and the stars shone
+down upon it, and the red glow from the charcoal in the brazier paled and
+died away.
+
+_The Romany Rye_ is a puzzling book.  The latter portion, at least, seems
+to suggest “spiritual autobiography.”  It reveals the man, his
+atmosphere, his character, and nowhere better than among the jockeys at
+Horncastle.  It gives a better and more convincing picture of Borrow than
+the most accurate list of dates and occurrences, all vouched for upon
+unimpeachable authority.  It is impressionism applied to autobiography,
+which has always been considered as essentially a subject for
+photographic treatment.  Borrow thought otherwise, with the result that
+many people decline to believe that his picture is a portrait, because
+there is a question as to the dates.
+
+Among the reviews, which were on the whole unfriendly, was the remarkable
+notice in _The Quarterly Review_, by the Rev. Whitwell Elwin:—{435}
+
+    “Nobody,” he wrote, “sympathises with wounded vanity, and the world
+    only laughs when a man angrily informs it that it does not rate him
+    at his true value.  The public to whom he appeals must, after all, be
+    the judge of his pretensions.  Their verdict at first is frequently
+    wrong, but it is they themselves who must reverse it, and not the
+    author who is upon his trial before them.  The attacks of critics, if
+    they are unjust, invariably yield to the same remedy.  Though we do
+    not think that Mr Borrow is a good counsel in his own cause, we are
+    yet strongly of the opinion that Time in this case has some wrongs to
+    repair, and that _Lavengro_ has _not_ obtained the fame which was its
+    due.  It contains passages which in their way are not surpassed by
+    anything in English Literature.”
+
+The value of these prophetic words lies in the fine spirit of fatherly
+reproof in which the whole review was written.  It is the work of a
+critic who regarded literature as a thing to be approached, both by
+author and reviewer, with grave and deliberate ceremony, not with
+enthusiasm or prejudice.  From any other source the following words would
+not have possessed the significance they did, coming from a man of such
+sane ideas with the courage to express them:—
+
+    “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.  Far from his showing any
+    tendency to exaggeration, such of his characters as we chance to have
+    known, and they are not a few, are rather within the truth than
+    beyond it.  However picturesquely they may be drawn, the lines are
+    invariably those of nature.  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.” {436}
+
+The Appendix itself, which had drawn from Elwin the grave declaration
+that “Mr Borrow is very angry with his critics,” is a fine piece of
+rhetorical denunciation.  It opens with the deliberate restraint of a man
+who feels the fury of his wrath surging up within him.  It tells again
+the story of _Lavengro_, pointing morals as it goes.  Then the studied
+calm is lost—Priestcraft, “Foreign Nonsense,” “Gentility Nonsense,”
+“Canting Nonsense,” “Pseudo-Critics,” “Pseudo-Radicals” he flogs and
+pillories mercilessly until, arriving at “The Old Radical,” he throws off
+all restraint and lunges out wildly, mad with hate and despair.  As a
+piece of literary folly, the Appendix to _The Romany Rye_ has probably
+never been surpassed.  It alienated from Borrow all but his personal
+friends, and it sealed his literary fate as far as his own generation was
+concerned.  In short, he had burnt his boats.
+
+Borrow had sent a copy of _The Romany Rye_ to FitzGerald, which is
+referred to by him in a letter written from Gorleston to Professor Cowell
+(5th June 1857):—
+
+    “Within hail almost lives George Borrow who has lately published, and
+    given me, two new Volumes of Lavengro called _Romany Rye_, with some
+    excellent things, and some very bad (as I have made bold to write to
+    him—how shall I face him!).  You would not like the Book at all, I
+    think.” {437a}
+
+Borrow was bitterly disappointed at the effect produced by _The Romany
+Rye_.  On someone once saying that it was the finest piece of literary
+invective since Swift, he replied, “Yes, I meant it to be; and what do
+you think the effect was?  No one took the least notice of it!” {437b}
+
+_The Romany Rye_ was not a success.  The thousand copies lasted a year.
+When it appeared likely that a second edition would be required, Borrow
+wrote to John Murray urging him not to send the book to the press again
+until he “was quite sure the demand for it will at least defray all
+attendant expenses.”  He saw that whatever profits had resulted from the
+publication of the first edition, were in danger of being swallowed up in
+the preparation of a second.  When this did eventually make its
+appearance in 1858, it was limited to 750 copies, which lasted until
+1872.
+
+Borrow’s own attitude with regard to the work and his wisdom in
+publishing it is summed up in a letter to John Murray (17th Sept. 1857):—
+
+    “I was very anxious to bring it out,” he writes; “and I bless God
+    that I had the courage and perseverance to do so.  It is of course
+    unpalatable to many; for it scorns to foster delusion, to cry ‘peace
+    where there is no peace,’ and denounces boldly the evils which are
+    hurrying the country to destruction, and which have kindled God’s
+    anger against it, namely, the pride, insolence, cruelty,
+    covetousness, and hypocrisy of its people, and above all the rage for
+    gentility, which must be indulged in at the expense of every good and
+    honourable feeling.”
+
+The writing of the Appendix had aroused in Borrow all his old enthusiasm,
+and he appears to have come to the determination to publish a number of
+works, including a veritable library of translations.  At the end of _The
+Romany Rye_ appeared a lengthy list of books in preparation. {438}
+
+In August 1857 Borrow paid a second visit to Wales, walking “upwards of
+four hundred miles.”  Starting from Laugharne in Carmarthenshire, he
+visited Tenby, Pembroke, Milford Haven, Haverford, St David’s, Fishguard,
+Newport, Cardigan, Lampeter; passing into Brecknockshire, he eventually
+reached Mortimer’s Cross in Hereford and thence to Shrewsbury.  In
+October he was at Leighton, Donnington and Uppington, where he found
+traces of Gronwy Owen, the one-time curate and all-time poet.
+
+Throughout his life Borrow had shown by every action and word written
+about her, the great love he bore his mother.  When his wife wrote to her
+and he was too restless to do so himself, he would interpolate two or
+three lines to “My dear Mamma.”  She was always in his thoughts, and he
+never wavered in his love for her and devotion to her comfort; whilst she
+looked upon him as only a mother so good and so tender could look upon a
+son who had become her “only hope.”
+
+For many years of her life it had been ordained that this brave old lady
+should live alone. {439}  In the middle of August 1858 the news reached
+Borrow that his mother had been taken suddenly ill.  She was in her
+eighty-seventh year, and at such an age all illnesses are dangerous.
+Borrow hastened to Oulton, and arrived just in time to be with her at the
+last.
+
+Thus on 16th August 1858, of “pulmonary congestion,” died Anne Borrow,
+who had followed her husband about with his regiment, and had reared and
+educated her two boys under circumstances of great disadvantage.  She had
+lost one; but the other, her youngest born, whom she had so often
+shielded from his father’s reproaches, had been spared to her, and she
+had seen him famous.  Upon her grave in Oulton Churchyard the son caused
+to be inscribed the words, “She was a good wife and a good mother,” than
+which no woman can ask more. {440a}
+
+The death of his mother was a great shock to Borrow.  “He felt the blow
+keenly,” Mrs Borrow wrote to John Murray, “and I advised a tour in
+Scotland to recruit his health and spirits.”  Accordingly he went North
+early in October, leaving his wife and Henrietta at Great Yarmouth.  He
+visited the Highlands, walking several hundred miles.  Mull struck him as
+“a very wild country, perhaps the wildest in Europe.”  Many of its
+place-names reminded him strongly of the Isle of Man.  At the end of
+November he finished up the tour at Lerwick in Shetland, where he bought
+presents for his “loved ones,” having seen Greenock, Glasgow, Perth,
+Aberdeen, Inverness, Wick, Thurso among other places.  His impressions
+were not altogether favourable to the Scotch.  “A queerer country I never
+saw in all my life,” he wrote later . . . “a queerer set of people than
+the Scotch you would scarcely see in a summer’s day.” {440b}
+
+In the following year (1859) an excursion was made to Ireland by Borrow
+and his family.  Making Dublin his headquarters, where he left his wife
+and Henrietta comfortably settled, he tramped to Connemara and the
+Giant’s Causeway, the expedition being full of adventure and affording
+him “much pleasure,” in spite of the fact that he was “frequently wet to
+the skin, and indifferently lodged.”
+
+Borrow had inherited from his mother some property at Mattishall Burgh,
+one and a half miles from his birth-place, consisting of some land, a
+thatched house and outbuildings, now demolished.  This was let to a
+small-holder named Henry Hill.  Borrow thought very highly of his tenant,
+and for hours together would tramp up and down beside him as he ploughed
+the land, asking questions, and hearing always something new from the
+amazing stores of nature knowledge that Henry Hill had acquired.  This
+Norfolk worthy appears to have been possessed of a genius for many
+things.  He was well versed in herbal lore, a self-taught ’cellist,
+playing each Sunday in the Congregational Chapel at Mattishall, and an
+equally self-taught watch-repairer; but his chief claim to fame was as a
+bee-keeper, local tradition crediting him with being the first man to
+keep bees under glass.  He would solemnly state that his bees, whom he
+looked upon as friends, talked to him.  On Sundays the country folk for
+miles round would walk over to Mattishall Burgh to see old Henry Hill’s
+bees, and hear him expound their lore.  It was perforce Sunday, there was
+no other day for the Norfolk farm-labourer of that generation, who seemed
+always to live on the verge of starvation.  Borrow himself expressed
+regret to Henry Hill that it had not been possible to add the education
+of the academy to that of the land.  He saw that the combination would
+have produced an even more remarkable man.
+
+In Norfolk all strangers are regarded with suspicion.  Lifelong
+friendships are not contracted in a day.  The East Anglian is shrewd, and
+requires to know something about those whom he admits to the sacred inner
+circle of his friendship.  Borrow was well-known in the Mattishall
+district, and was looked upon with more than usual suspicion.  He was
+unquestionably a strange man, in speech, in appearance, in habits.  He
+could and would knock down any who offended him; but, worst of all, he
+was the intimate of gypsies, sat by their fires, spoke in their tongue.
+The population round about was entirely an agricultural one, and all
+united in hating the gypsies as their greatest enemies, because of their
+depredations.  Add to this the fact that Borrow was a frequenter of
+public-houses, of which there were _seven_ in the village, and was wont
+to boast that you could get at the true man only after he had been
+mellowed into speech by good English ale.  Then he would open his heart
+and unburden his mind of all the accumulated knowledge that he possessed,
+and add something to the epic of the soil.  Borrow’s overbearing manner
+made people shy of him.  On one occasion he told John, the son and
+successor of Henry Hill, that he ought to be responsible for the debt of
+his half-brother; the debt, it may be mentioned, was to Borrow.
+
+There is no better illustration of the suspicion with which Borrow was
+regarded locally, than an incident that occurred during one of his visits
+to Mattishall.  He called upon John Hill at Church Farm to collect his
+rent.  The evening was spent very agreeably.  Borrow recited some of his
+ballads, quoted Scripture and languages, and sang a song.  He was
+particularly interested on account of Mrs Hill being from London, where
+she knew many of his haunts.  He remained the whole evening with the
+family and partook of their meal; but was allowed to go to one of the
+seven public-houses for a bed, although there were spare bedrooms in the
+house that he might have occupied.  Such was the suspicion that Borrow’s
+habits created in the minds of his fellow East Anglians. {442}
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+JULY 1859–JANUARY 1869
+
+
+AFTER his second tour in Wales, Borrow had submitted to John Murray the
+manuscript of his translation of _The Sleeping Bard_, which in 1830 had
+so alarmed the little Welsh bookseller of Smithfield.  “I really want
+something to do,” Borrow wrote, “and seeing the work passing through the
+press might amuse me.”  Murray, however, could not see his way to accept
+the offer, and the manuscript was returned.  Borrow decided to publish
+the book at his own expense, and accordingly commissioned a Yarmouth man
+to print him 250 copies, upon the title-page of which John Murray
+permitted his name to appear.
+
+In the note in which he tells of the Welsh bookseller’s doubts and fears,
+Borrow goes on to assure his readers that there is no harm in the book.
+
+    “It is true,” he says, “that the Author is any thing but mincing in
+    his expressions and descriptions, but there is nothing in the
+    Sleeping Bard which can give offence to any but the over fastidious.
+    There is a great deal of squeamish nonsense in the world; let us hope
+    however that there is not so much as there was.  Indeed can we doubt
+    that such folly is on the decline, when we find Albemarle Street in
+    ’60, willing to publish a harmless but plain speaking book which
+    Smithfield shrank from in ’30.”
+
+The edition was very speedily exhausted, largely on account of an article
+entitled, _The Welsh and Their Literature_, written years before, that
+Borrow adapted as a review of the book, and published anonymously in _The
+Quarterly Review_ (Jan. 1861).  _The Sleeping Bard_ was not reprinted.
+
+The next event of importance in Borrow’s life was his removal to London
+with Mrs Borrow and Henrietta.  Towards the end of the Irish holiday (4th
+Nov. 1859), Mrs Borrow had written to John Murray: “If all be well in the
+Spring, I shall wish to look around, and select a pleasant, healthy
+residence within from three to ten miles of London.”  Borrow may have
+felt more at liberty to make the change now that his mother was dead,
+although whilst she was at Oulton he was as little company for her at
+Great Yarmouth as he would have been in London.  Whatever led them to the
+decision to take up their residence in London, Borrow and his wife left
+Great Yarmouth at the end of June, and immediately proceeded to look
+about them for a suitable house.  Their choice eventually fell upon
+number 22 Hereford Square, Brompton, which had the misfortune to be only
+a few doors from number 26, where lived Frances Power Cobbe.  The rent
+was £65 per annum.  The Borrows entered upon their tenancy at the
+Michaelmas quarter, and were joined by Henrietta, who had remained behind
+at Great Yarmouth during the house-hunting.
+
+Miss Cobbe has given in her Autobiography a very unlovely picture of
+George Borrow during the period of his residence in Hereford Square.  No
+woman, except his relatives and dependants, will tolerate egoism in a
+man.  Borrow was an egoist.  If not permitted to lead the conversation,
+he frequently wrapped himself in a gloomy silence and waited for an
+opportunity to discomfit the usurper of the place he seemed to consider
+his own.  Among his papers were found after his death a large number of
+letters from poor men whom Borrow had assisted.  His friend the Rev.
+Francis Cunningham once wrote to him a letter protesting against his
+assisting Nonconformist schools.  He gave to Church and Chapel alike.
+This disproves misanthropy, and leaves egoism as the only explanation of
+his occasional lapses into bitterness or rudeness.  When in happy vein,
+however, “his conversation . . . was unlike that of any other man;
+whether he told a long story or only commented on some ordinary topic, he
+was always quaint, often humorous.” {445a}
+
+Miss Cobbe would not humour an egoist, because constitutionally women,
+especially clever women, dislike them, unless they wish to marry them.
+When she heard it said, as it very frequently was said, that Borrow was a
+gypsy by blood, she caustically remarked that if he were not he “_ought_
+to have been.”  Miss Cobbe had living with her a Miss Lloyd who, “amused
+by his quaint stories and his (real or sham) enthusiasm for Wales, . . .
+cultivated his acquaintance.  I,” continued Miss Cobbe frankly, “never
+liked him, thinking him more or less of a hypocrite.” {445b}
+
+On one occasion Borrow had accepted an invitation from Miss Cobbe to meet
+some friends, but subsequently withdrew his acceptance “on finding that
+Dr Martineau was to be of the party . . . nor did he ever after attend
+our little assemblies without first ascertaining that Dr Martineau would
+not be present!”  This she explained by the assertion that Dr Martineau
+had “horsed” Borrow when he was punished for running away from school at
+Norwich.  It appeared “irresistibly comic” to her mind.
+
+There is an amusing account given by Miss Cobbe of how she worsted
+Borrow, which is certainly extremely flattering to her accomplishments.
+Once when talking with him she happened to say
+
+    “something about the imperfect education of women, and he said it was
+    _right_ they should be ignorant, and that no man could endure a
+    clever wife.  I laughed at him openly,” she continues, “and told him
+    some men knew better.  What did he think of the Brownings?  ‘Oh, he
+    had heard the name; he did not know anything of them.  Since Scott,
+    he read no modern writer; Scott _was greater than Homer_!  What he
+    liked were curious, old, erudite books about mediæval and northern
+    things.’  I said I knew little of such literature, and preferred the
+    writers of our own age, but indeed I was no great student at all.
+    Thereupon he evidently wanted to astonish me; and, talking of
+    Ireland, said, ‘Ah, yes; a most curious, mixed race.  First there
+    were the Firbolgs,—the old enchanters, who raised mists.’  . . .
+    ‘Don’t you think, Mr Borrow,’ I asked, ‘it was the Tuatha-de-Danaan
+    who did that?  Keatinge expressly says that they conquered the
+    Firbolgs by that means.’  (Mr B. somewhat out of countenance), ‘Oh!
+    Aye!  Keatinge is _the_ authority; a most extraordinary writer.’
+    ‘Well, I should call him the Geoffrey of Monmouth of Ireland.’  (Mr
+    B. changing the _venue_), ‘I delight in Norse-stories; they are far
+    grander than the Greek.  There is the story of Olaf the Saint of
+    Norway.  Can anything be grander?  What a noble character!’  ‘But,’ I
+    said, ‘what do _you_ think of his putting all those poor Druids on
+    the Skerry of Shrieks, and leaving them to be drowned by the tide?’
+    (Thereupon Mr B. looked at me askant out of his gipsy eyes, as if he
+    thought me an example of the evils of female education!)  ‘Well!
+    Well!  I forgot about the Skerry of Shrieks.  Then there is the story
+    of Beowulf the Saxon going out to sea in his burning ship to die.’
+    ‘Oh, Mr Borrow! that isn’t a Saxon story at all.  It is in the
+    Heimskringla!  It is told of Hakon of Norway.’  Then, I asked him
+    about the gipsies and their language, and if they were certainly
+    Aryans?  He didn’t know (or pretended not to know) what Aryans were;
+    and altogether displayed a miraculous mixture of odd knowledge and
+    more odd ignorance.  Whether the latter were real or assumed I know
+    not!” {446}
+
+These were some of the neighbourly little pleasantries indulged in by
+Miss Cobbe, regarding a man who was a frequent guest at her house.
+
+    “His has indeed been a fantastic fate!” writes Mr Theodore
+    Watts-Dunton.  “When the shortcomings of any illustrious man save
+    Borrow are under discussion, ‘_les défauts de ses qualités_’ is the
+    criticism—wise as charitable—which they evoke.  Yes, each one is
+    allowed to have his angularities save Borrow.  Each one is allowed to
+    show his own pet unpleasant facets of character now and then—allowed
+    to show them as inevitable foils to the pleasant ones—save Borrow.
+    _His_ weaknesses no one ever condones.  During his lifetime his
+    faults were for ever chafing and irritating his acquaintances, and
+    now that he and they are dead, these faults of his seem to be chafing
+    and irritating people of another generation.  A fantastic fate, I
+    say, for him who was so interesting to some of us!” {447a}
+
+On occasion Borrow could be inexcusably rude, as he was to a member of
+the Russian Embassy who one day called at Hereford Square for a copy of
+_Targum_ for the Czar, when he told him that his Imperial master could
+fetch it himself.  Again, no one can defend him for affronting the “very
+distinguished scholar” with whom he happened to disagree, by thundering
+out, “Sir, you’re a fool!”  Such lapses are deplorable; but why should we
+view them in a different light from those of Dr Johnson?
+
+What would have been regarded in another distinguished man as a pleasant
+vein of humour was in Borrow’s case looked upon as evidence of his
+unveracity.  A contemporary tells how, on one occasion, he went with him
+into “a tavern” for a pint of ale, when Borrow pointed out
+
+    “a yokel at the far end of the apartment.  The foolish bumpkin was
+    slumbering.  Borrow in a stage whisper, gravely assured me that the
+    man was a murderer, and confided to me with all the emphasis of
+    honest conviction the scene and details of his crime.  Subsequently I
+    ascertained that the elaborate incidents and fine touches of local
+    colour were but the coruscations of a too vivid imagination, and that
+    the villain of the ale-house on the common was as innocent as the
+    author of _The Romany Rye_.” {447b}
+
+If Borrow had been called upon to explain this little pleasantry he would
+in all probability have replied in the words of Mr Petulengro, that he
+had told his acquaintance “things . . . which are not exactly true,
+simply to make a fool of you, brother.”
+
+It is strange how those among his contemporaries who disliked him, denied
+Borrow the indulgence that is almost invariably accorded to genius.
+Those who were not for him were bitterly against him.  In their eyes he
+was either outrageously uncivil or insultingly rude.  Dr Hake, although a
+close friend, saw Borrow’s dominant weakness, his love of the outward
+evidences of fame.  Dr Hake’s impartiality gives greater weight to his
+testimony when he tells of Borrow’s first meeting with Dr Robert Latham,
+the ethnologist, philologist and grammarian.  Latham much wanted to meet
+Borrow, and promised Dr Hake to be on his best behaviour.  He was
+accordingly invited to dinner with Borrow.  Latham as usual began to show
+off his knowledge.  He became aggressive, and finally very excited; but
+throughout the meal Borrow showed the utmost patience and courtesy, much
+to his host’s relief.  When he subsequently encountered Latham in the
+street he always stopped “to say a kind word, seeing his forlorn
+condition.”
+
+Dr Hake had settled at Coombe End, Roehampton, and now that the Borrows
+were in London, the two families renewed their old friendship.  Borrow
+would walk over to Coombe End, and on arriving at the gate would call
+out, “Are you alone?”  If there were other callers he would pass by, if
+not he would enter and frequently persuade Dr Hake, and perhaps his sons,
+to accompany him for a walk.
+
+“There was something not easily forgotten,” writes Mr A. Egmont Hake, “in
+the manner in which he would unexpectedly come to our gates, singing some
+gypsy song, and as suddenly depart.” {448}  They had many pleasant tramps
+together, mostly in Richmond Park, where Borrow appeared to know every
+tree and showed himself very learned in deer.  He was
+
+    “always saying something in his loud, self-asserting voice; sometimes
+    stopping suddenly, drawing his huge stature erect, and changing the
+    keen and haughty expression of his face into the rapt and half
+    fatuous look of the oracle, he would without preface recite some long
+    fragment from Welsh or Scandinavian bards, his hands hanging from his
+    chest and flapping in symphony.  Then he would push on again, and as
+    suddenly stop, arrested by the beautiful scenery, and exclaim, ‘Ah!
+    this is England, as the Pretender said when he again looked on his
+    fatherland.’  Then on reaching any town, he would be sure to spy out
+    some lurking gypsy, whom no one but himself would have known from a
+    common horse-dealer.  A conversation in Romany would ensue, a
+    shilling would change hands, two fingers would be pointed at the
+    gypsy, and the interview would be at an end.” {449a}
+
+One day he asked Dr Hake’s youngest boy if he knew how to fight a man
+bigger than himself, and on being told that he didn’t, advised him to
+“accept his challenge, and tell him to take off his coat, and while he
+was doing it knock him down and then run for your life.” {449b}
+
+Once Borrow arrived at Dr Hake’s house to find another caller in the
+person of Mr Theodore Watts-Dunton, and they “went through a pleasant
+trio, in which Borrow, as was his wont, took the first fiddle . . .
+Borrow made himself agreeable to Watts [-Dunton], recited a fairy tale in
+the best style to him, and liked him.” {449c}  Borrow did not recognise
+in Mr Watts-Dunton the young man whom he had seen bathing on the beach at
+Great Yarmouth, pleased to be near his hero, but too much afraid to
+venture to address him.  Writing of this meeting at Coombe End, Mr
+Watts-Dunton says: “There is however no doubt that Borrow would have run
+away from me had I been associated in his mind with the literary calling.
+But at that time I had written nothing at all save poems, and a prose
+story or two of a romantic kind.” {450}  Borrow hated the literary man,
+he was at war with the whole genus.
+
+    [Picture: The Rev. Andrew Brandram.  From an old silhouette in the
+           possession of the British and Foreign Bible Society]
+
+Mr Watts-Dunton confesses that he made great efforts to enlist Borrow’s
+interest.  He touched on Bamfylde Moore Carew, beer, bruisers, philology,
+“gentility nonsense,” the “trumpery great”; but without success.  Borrow
+was obviously suspicious of him.  Then with inspiration he happened to
+mention what proved to be a magic name.
+
+    “I tried other subjects in the same direction,” Mr Watts-Dunton
+    continues, “but with small success, till in a lucky moment I
+    bethought myself of Ambrose Gwinett, . . . the man who, after having
+    been hanged and gibbeted for murdering a traveller with whom he had
+    shared a double-bedded room at a seaside inn, revived in the night,
+    escaped from the gibbet-irons, went to sea as a common sailor, and
+    afterwards met on a British man-of-war the very man he had been
+    hanged for murdering.  The truth was that Gwinett’s supposed victim,
+    having been attacked on the night in question by a violent bleeding
+    of the nose, had risen and left the house for a few minutes’ walk in
+    the sea-breeze, when the press-gang captured him and bore him off to
+    sea, where he had been in service ever since.  The story is true, and
+    the pamphlet, Borrow afterwards told me (I know not on what
+    authority), was written by Goldsmith from Gwinett’s dictation for a
+    platter of cow-heel.
+
+    “To the bewilderment of Dr Hake, I introduced the subject of Ambrose
+    Gwinett in the same manner as I might have introduced the story of
+    ‘Achilles’ wrath,’ and appealed to Dr Hake (who, of course, had never
+    heard of the book or the man) as to whether a certain incident in the
+    pamphlet had gained or lost by the dramatist who, at one of the minor
+    theatres, had many years ago dramatized the story.  Borrow was caught
+    at last.  ‘What?’ said he, ‘you know that pamphlet about Ambrose
+    Gwinett?’  ‘Know it?’ said I, in a hurt tone, as though he had asked
+    me if I knew ‘Macbeth’; ‘of course I know Ambrose Gwinett, Mr Borrow,
+    don’t you?’  ‘And you know the play?’ said he.  ‘Of course I do, Mr
+    Borrow,’ I said, in a tone that was now a little angry at such an
+    insinuation of crass ignorance.  ‘Why,’ said he, ‘it’s years and
+    years since it was acted; I never was much of a theatre man, but I
+    did go to see _that_.’  ‘Well I should rather think you _did_, Mr
+    Borrow,’ said I.  ‘But,’ said he, staring hard at me, ‘you—you were
+    not born!’  ‘And I was not born,’ said I, ‘when the “Agamemnon” was
+    produced, and yet one reads the “Agamemnon,” Mr Borrow.  I have read
+    the drama of “Ambrose Gwinett.”  I have it bound in morocco, with
+    some more of Douglas Jerrold’s early transpontine plays, and some
+    Æschylean dramas by Mr Fitzball.  I will lend it to you, Mr Borrow,
+    if you like.’  He was completely conquered, ‘Hake!’ he cried, in a
+    loud voice, regardless of my presence, ‘Hake! your friend knows
+    everything.’  Then he murmured to himself.  ‘Wonderful man!  Knows
+    Ambrose Gwinett!’
+
+    “It is such delightful reminiscences as these that will cause me to
+    have as long as I live a very warm place in my heart for the memory
+    of George Borrow.” {451a}
+
+After this, intercourse proved easy.  At Borrow’s suggestion they walked
+to the Bald-Faced Stag, in Kingston Vale, to inspect Jerry Abershaw’s
+sword.  This famous old hostelry was a favourite haunt of Borrow’s, where
+he would often rest during his walk and drink “a cup of ale” (which he
+would call “swipes,” and make a wry face as he swallowed) and talk of the
+daring deeds of Jerry the highwayman.
+
+Many people have testified to the pleasure of being in the company of the
+whimsical, eccentric, humbug-hating Borrow.
+
+    “He was a choice companion on a walk,” writes Mr A. Egmont Hake,
+    “whether across country or in the slums of Houndsditch.  His
+    enthusiasm for nature was peculiar; he could draw more poetry from a
+    wide-spreading marsh with its straggling rushes than from the most
+    beautiful scenery, and would stand and look at it with rapture.”
+    {451b}
+
+Since the tour in Wales in 1854, from which he returned with the four
+“Note Books,” Borrow had been working steadily at _Wild Wales_.  In 1857
+the book had been announced as “ready for the press”; but this was
+obviously an anticipation.  The manuscript was submitted to John Murray
+early in November 1861.  On the 20th of that month he wrote the following
+letter, addressing it, not to Borrow, but to his wife:—
+
+    DEAR MRS BORROW,—The MS. of _Wild Wales_ has occupied my thoughts
+    almost ever since Friday last.
+
+    I approached this MS. with some diffidence, recollecting the
+    unsatisfactory results, on the whole, of our last publication—_Romany
+    Rye_.  I have read a large part of this new work with care and
+    attention, and although it is beautifully written and in a style of
+    English undefiled, which few writers can surpass, there is yet a want
+    of stirring incident in it which makes me fearful as to the result of
+    its publication.
+
+    In my hands at least I cannot think it would succeed even as well as
+    _Romany Rye_—and I am fearful of not doing justice to it.  I do not
+    like to undertake a work with the chance of reproach that it may have
+    failed through my want of power to promote its circulation, and I do
+    wish, for Borrow’s own sake, that in this instance he would try some
+    other publisher and perhaps some other form of publication.
+
+    In my hands I am convinced the work will not answer the author’s
+    expectations, and I am not prepared to take on me this amount of
+    responsibility.
+
+    I will give the best advice I can if called upon, and shall be only
+    too glad if I can be useful to Mr Borrow.  I regret to have to write
+    in this sense, but believe me always, Dear Mrs Borrow,
+
+                            Your faithful friend,
+
+                                                              JOHN MURRAY.
+
+The reply to this letter has not been preserved.  It would appear that
+some “stirring incidents” were added, among others most probably the
+account of Borrow blessing the Irish reapers, who mistook him for Father
+Toban.  This anecdote was one of John Murray’s favourite passages.  It is
+evident that some concession was made to induce Murray to change his
+mind.  In any case _Wild Wales_ appeared towards the close of 1862 in an
+edition of 1000 copies.  The publisher’s misgivings were not justified,
+as the first edition produced a profit, up to 30th June 1863, of £531,
+14s., which was equally divided between author and publisher.  The
+second, and cheap, edition of 3000 copies lasted for thirteen years, and
+the deficiency on this absorbed the greater part of the publisher’s
+profit.
+
+In a way it is the most remarkable of Borrow’s books; for it shows that
+he was making a serious effort to regain his public.  It is an older,
+wiser and chastened Borrow that appears in its pages, striding through
+the land of the bards at six miles an hour, his satchel slung over his
+shoulder, his green umbrella grasped in his right hand, shouting the
+songs of Wales, about which he knew more than any man he met.  There are
+no gypsies (except towards the end of the book a reference to his meeting
+with Captain Bosvile), no bruisers, the pope is scarcely mentioned, and
+“gentility-nonsense” is veiled almost to the point of elimination.  It
+seems scarcely conceivable that the hand that had written the appendix to
+_The Romany Rye_ could have so restrained itself as to write _Wild
+Wales_.  Borrow had evidently read and carefully digested Whitwell
+Elwin’s friendly strictures upon _The Romany Rye_.  Instead of the pope,
+the gypsies and the bruisers of England, there were the vicarage cat, the
+bards and the thousand and one trivial incidents of the wayside.  There
+were occasional gleams of the old fighting spirit, notably when he
+characterises sherry, {453} as “a silly, sickly compound, the use of
+which will transform a nation, however bold and warlike by nature, into a
+race of sketchers, scribblers, and punsters,—in fact, into what
+Englishmen are at the present day.”  He has created the atmosphere of
+Wales as he did that of the gypsy encampment.  He shows the jealous way
+in which the Welsh cling to their language, and their suspicion of the
+_Saesneg_, or Saxon.  Above all, he shows how national are the Welsh
+poets, belonging not to the cultured few; but to the labouring man as
+much as to the landed proprietor.  Borrow earned the respect of the
+people, not only because he knew their language; but on account of his
+profound knowledge of their literature, their history, and their
+traditions.  No one could escape him, he accosted every soul he met, and
+evinced a desire for information as to place-names that instantly
+arrested their attention.
+
+The most curious thing about _Wild Wales_ is the omission of all mention
+of the Welsh Gypsies, who, with those of Hungary, share the distinction
+of being the aristocrats of their race.  Several explanations have been
+suggested to account for the curious circumstance.  Had Borrow’s
+knowledge of Welsh Romany been scanty, he could very soon have improved
+it.  The presence of his wife and stepdaughter was no hindrance; for, as
+a matter of fact, they were very little with him, even when they and
+Borrow were staying at Llangollen; but during the long tours they were
+many miles away.  In all probability the Welsh Gypsies were sacrificed to
+British prejudice, much as were pugilism and the baiting of the pope.
+
+In spite of its simple charm and convincing atmosphere, _Wild Wales_ did
+not please the critics.  Those who noticed it (and there were many who
+did not) either questioned its genuineness, or found it crowded with
+triviality and self-glorification.  It was full of the superfluous, the
+superfluous repeated, and above all it was too long (some 250,000 words).
+_The Spectator_ notice was an exception; it did credit to the critical
+faculty of the man who wrote it.  He declined “to boggle and wrangle over
+minor defects in what is intrinsically good,” and praised _Wild Wales_ as
+“the first really clever book . . . in which an honest attempt is made to
+do justice to Welsh literature.”
+
+Borrow had much time upon his hands in London, which he occupied largely
+in walking.  He visited the Metropolitan Gypsyries at Wandsworth, “the
+Potteries,” and “the Mounts,” as described in _Romano Lavo-Lil_.
+Sometimes he would be present at some sporting event, such as the race
+between the Indian Deerfoot and Jackson, styled the American Deer—tame
+sport in comparison with the “mills” of his boyhood.  He did very little
+writing, and from 1862, when _Wild Wales_ appeared, until he published
+_The Romano Lavo-Lil_ in 1874, his literary output consisted of only some
+translations contributed to _Once a Week_ (January 1862 to December
+1863).
+
+In 1865 he was to lose his stepdaughter, who married a William MacOubrey,
+M.D., described in the marriage register as a physician of Sloane Street,
+London, and subsequently upon his tombstone as a barrister.  In the July
+of 1866 Borrow and his wife went to Belfast on a visit to the newly
+married pair.  From Belfast Borrow took another trip into Scotland,
+crossing over to Stranraer.  From there he proceeded to Glen Luce and
+subsequently to Newton Stewart, Castle Douglas, Dumfries, Ecclefechan,
+Gretna Green, Carlisle, Langholm, Hawick, Jedburgh, Yetholm (where he saw
+Esther Blyth of Kirk Yetholm), Kelso, Abbotsford, Melrose, Berwick,
+Edinburgh, Glasgow, and so back to Belfast, having been absent for nearly
+four weeks.
+
+Mrs Borrow’s health had been the cause of the family leaving Oulton for
+Great Yarmouth, and about the time of the Irish visit it seems to have
+become worse.  When Borrow was away upon his excursion he received a
+letter at Carlisle in which his wife informed him that she was not so
+well; but urging him not to return if he were enjoying his trip and it
+were benefiting his health.
+
+In the autumn of the following year (1867) they were at Bognor, Mrs
+Borrow taking the sea air, her husband tramping about the country and
+penetrating into the New Forest.  On their return to town Mrs Borrow
+appears to have become worse.  There was much correspondence to be
+attended to with regard to the Oulton Estate, and she had to go down to
+Suffolk to give her personal attention to certain important details.
+Miss Cobbe throws a little light on the period in a letter to a friend,
+in which she says:
+
+    “Mr Borrow says his wife is very ill and anxious to keep the peace
+    with C. (a litigious neighbour).  Poor old B. was very sad at first,
+    but I cheered him up and sent him off quite brisk last night.  He
+    talked all about the Fathers again, arguing that their quotations
+    went to prove that it was _not_ our gospels they had in their hands.
+    I knew most of it before, but it was admirably done.  I talked a
+    little theology to him in a serious way (finding him talk of his
+    ‘horrors’) and he abounded in my sense of the non-existence of Hell,
+    and of the presence and action on the soul of _a_ Spirit, rewarding
+    and punishing.  He would not say ‘God’; but repeated over and over
+    again that he spoke not from books but from his own personal
+    experience.” {456}
+
+On 24th January (1869) Mrs Borrow was taken suddenly ill and the family
+doctor being out of town, Borrow sent for Dr W. S. Playfair of 5 Curzon
+Street.  A letter from Dr Playfair, 25th January, to the family doctor is
+the only coherent testimony in existence as to what was actually the
+matter with Mrs Borrow.  It runs:—
+
+    “I found great difficulty in making out the case exactly,” he writes,
+    “since Mr Borrow himself was so agitated that I could get no very
+    clear account of it.  I could detect no marked organic affection
+    about the heart or lungs, of which she chiefly complained.  It seemed
+    to me to be either a very aggravated form of hysteria, or, what
+    appears more likely, some more serious mental affection.  In any
+    case, the chief requisite seemed very careful and intelligent nursing
+    or management, and I doubt very much, from what I saw, whether she
+    gets that with her present surroundings.  If it is really the more
+    serious mental affection, I should fancy that the sooner means are
+    taken to have her properly taken care of, the better.”
+
+Dr Playfair saw in Borrow’s highly nervous excitable nature, if not the
+cause of his wife’s breakdown, at least an obstacle to her recovery, and
+was of opinion that Mrs Borrow’s disorder had been greatly aggravated by
+her husband’s presence.
+
+Mrs Borrow never rallied from the attack, and on the 30th she died of
+“valvular disease of the heart and dropsy,” being then in her
+seventy-seventh year.  On 4th February she was buried in Brompton
+Cemetery, and the lonely man, her husband, returned to Hereford Square.
+The grave bears the inscription, “To the Beloved Memory of My Mother,
+Mary Borrow, who fell asleep in Jesus, 30th January 1869.”  It is strange
+that this should be in Henrietta’s and not Borrow’s name.
+
+Mrs Borrow evidently made over her property to her husband during her
+lifetime, as there is no will in existence, and no application appears to
+have been made either by Borrow or anyone else for letters of
+administration.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+JANUARY 1869–1881
+
+
+THE death of his wife was a last blow to Borrow, and he soon retired from
+the world.  At first he appears to have sought consolation in books, to
+judge from the number of purchases he made about this time; but it was,
+apparently, with pitiably unsuccessful results.  In a letter to a friend
+Miss Cobbe gives a picture in his lonliness:
+
+    “Poor old Borrow is in a sad state,” she wrote.  “I hope he is
+    starting in a day or two for Scotland.  I sent C. with a note begging
+    him to come and eat the Welsh mutton you sent me to-day, and he sent
+    back word, ‘Yes.’  Then, an hour afterwards, he arrived, and in a
+    most agitated manner said he had come to say ‘he would rather not.
+    He would not trouble anyone with his sorrows.’  I made him sit down,
+    and talked as gently to him as possible, saying: ‘It won’t be a
+    trouble Mr. Borrow, it will be a pleasure to me.’  But it was all of
+    no use.  He was so cross, so _rude_, I had the greatest difficulty in
+    talking to him.  I asked about his servant, and he said I could not
+    help him.  I asked him about Bowring, and he said: ‘Don’t speak of
+    it.’  (It was some dispute with Sir John Bowring, who was an
+    acquaintance of mine, and with whom I offered to mediate.)  ‘I asked
+    him would he look at the photos of the Siamese,’ and he said: ‘Don’t
+    show them to me!’  So, in despair, as he sat silent, I told him I had
+    been at a pleasant dinner-party the night before, and had met Mr L—,
+    who told me of certain curious books of mediæval history.  ‘Did he
+    know them?’  ‘No, and he _dare said_ Mr L— did not, either!  Who was
+    Mr L—?’  I described that _obscure_ individual, (one of the foremost
+    writers of the day), and added that he was immensely liked by
+    everybody.  Whereupon Borrow repeated at least twelve times,
+    ‘Immensely liked!  As if a man could be immensely liked!’ quite
+    insultingly.  To make a diversion (I was very patient with him as he
+    was in trouble), ‘I said I had just come home from the Lyell’s and
+    had heard—’ . . .  But there was no time to say what I had heard!  Mr
+    Borrow asked: ‘Is that old Lyle I met here once, the man who stands
+    at the door (of some den or other) and _bets_?’  I explained who Sir
+    Charles was, {459a} (of course he knew very well), but he went on and
+    on, till I said gravely: ‘I don’t think you will meet those sort of
+    people here, Mr Borrow.  We don’t associate with blacklegs,
+    exactly.’” {459b}
+
+In the Autumn of 1870 Borrow became acquainted with Charles G. Leland
+(“Hans Breitmann”) as the result of receiving from him the following
+letter:—
+
+                                          BRIGHTON, 24_th_ _October_ 1870.
+
+    DEAR SIR,—During the eighteen months that I have been in England, my
+    efforts to find some mutual friend who would introduce me to you have
+    been quite in vain.  As the author of two or three works which have
+    been kindly received in England, I have made the acquaintance of many
+    literary men and enjoyed much hospitality; but I assure you very
+    sincerely that my inability to find you out or get at you has been a
+    source of great annoyance to me.  As you never published a book which
+    I have not read through five times—excepting _The Bible in Spain_ and
+    _Wild Wales_, which I have only read once—you will perfectly
+    understand why I should be so desirous of meeting you.
+
+    As you have very possibly never heard of me before, I would state
+    that I wrote a collection of Ballads satirising Germany and the
+    Germans under the title of _Hans Breitmann_.
+
+    I never before in my life solicited the favour of any man’s
+    acquaintance, except through the regular medium of an introduction.
+    If my request to be allowed the favour of meeting and seeing you does
+    not seem too _outré_, I would be to glad to go to London, or wherever
+    you may be, if it can be done without causing you any inconvenience,
+    and if I should not be regarded as an intruder.  I am an American,
+    and among us such requests are _parfaitment_ (sic) _en régle_.
+
+                                 I am, . . .
+
+                                                        CHARLES G. LELAND.
+
+Borrow replied on 2nd Nov.:
+
+    SIR,
+
+    I have received your letter and am gratified by the desire you
+    express to make my acquaintance.
+
+    Whenever you please to come I shall be happy to see you.
+
+    Truly yours,
+
+                                                     GEORGE BORROW. {460a}
+
+The meeting unquestionably took place at Hereford Square, and Leland
+found Borrow “a tall, large, fine-looking man who must have been handsome
+in his youth.” {460b}  The result of the interview was that Leland sent
+to Borrow a copy of his _Ballads_ and also _The Music Lesson of
+Confucius_, then about to appear.  At the same time he wrote to Borrow
+drawing his attention to one of the ballads written in German Romany
+_jib_, and enquiring if it were worth anything.  Whilst deprecating his
+“impudence” in writing a Romany _gili_ and telling, as a pupil might a
+master, of his interest in and his association with the gypsies, he
+continues: “My dear Mr Borrow, for all this you are entirely responsible.
+More than twenty years ago your books had an incredible influence on me,
+and now you see the results.”  After telling him that he can _never_
+thank him sufficiently for the instructions he has given in _The Romany
+Rye_ as to how to take care of a horse on a thirty mile ride, he
+concludes—“With apologies for the careless tone of this letter, and with
+sincere thanks for your kindness in permitting me to call on you and for
+your courteous note,—I am your sincere admirer.”
+
+The account that Leland gives of this episode in his _Memoirs_ is
+puzzling and contradictory in the light of his first letter.  He writes:
+
+    “There was another hard old character with whom I became acquainted
+    in those days, and one who, though not a Carlyle, still, like him,
+    exercised in a peculiar way a great influence on English literature.
+    This was George Borrow.  I was in the habit of reading a great deal
+    in the British Museum, where he also came, and there I was introduced
+    to him. {461a}  [Leland seems to be in error here; see _ante_, page
+    460.]  He was busy with a venerable-looking volume in old Irish, and
+    made the remark to me that he did not believe there was a man living
+    who could read old Irish with ease (which I now observe to myself was
+    ‘fished’ out of Sir W. Betham).  We discussed several Gypsy words and
+    phrases.  I met him in the same place several times.” {461b}
+
+Leland states that he sent a note to Borrow, care of John Murray, asking
+permission to dedicate to him his forthcoming book, _The English Gypsies
+and Their Language_; but received no reply, although Murray assured him
+that the letter had been received by Borrow.  “He received my note on the
+Saturday,” Leland writes—“never answered it—and on Monday morning
+advertised in all the journals his own forthcoming work on the same
+subject.” {461c}  Had Borrow asked him to delay publishing his own book,
+Leland says he would have done so, “for I had so great a respect for the
+Nestor of Gypsyism, that I would have been very glad to have gratified
+him with such a small sacrifice.” {462a}
+
+However Borrow may have heard that Leland had in preparation a book on
+the English Gypsies, he seemed to feel that it was a trespass upon ground
+that was peculiarly his own.  Having revised and prepared for the press
+the new edition of the Gypsy St Luke for the Bible Society (published
+December 1872), and the one-volume editions of _Lavengro_ and _The Romany
+Rye_, he set to work to forestall Leland with his own _Romano Lavo-Lil_.
+
+In spite of his haste, however, Borrow was beaten in the race, and Leland
+got his volume out first.  When the _Romano Lavo-Lil_ {462b} appeared in
+March 1874, Borrow found what, in all probability he had not dreamed of,
+that the thirty-three years intervening between its publication and that
+of _The Zincali_, had changed the whole literary world as regards “things
+of Egypt.”  In 1841 Borrow had produced a unique book, such as only one
+man in England could have written, and that man himself {462c}; but in
+1874 he found himself not only out of date, but out-classed.
+
+The title very thoroughly explains the scope of the work.  The Vocabulary
+had existed in manuscript for many years.  For some reason, difficult to
+explain, Borrow had omitted from this Vocabulary a number of the gypsy
+words that appeared in _Lavengro_ and _The Romany Rye_.  In spite of this
+“Mr Borrow’s present vocabulary makes a goodly show,” wrote F. H. Groome,
+“. . . containing no fewer than fourteen hundred words, of which about
+fifty will be entirely new to those who only know Romany in books.”
+{463a}
+
+After praising the Gypsy songs as the best portion of the book, Groome
+proceeds:
+
+    “Of his prose I cannot say so much.  It is the Romany of the study
+    rather than of the tents [!]  Mr Borrow has attempted to rehabilitate
+    English Romany by enduing it with forms and inflections, of which
+    some are still rarely to be heard, some extinct, and others
+    absolutely incorrect; while Mr Leland has been content to give it as
+    it really is.  Of the two methods I cannot doubt that most readers
+    will agree with me in thinking that Mr Leland’s is the more
+    satisfactory.” {463b}
+
+The _Athenæum_ sternly rebuked Borrow for seeming “to make the mistake of
+confounding the amount of Rommanis which he has collected in this book
+with the actual extent of the language itself.”  The reviewer pays a
+somewhat grudging tribute to other portions of the book, the accounts of
+the Gypsyries and the biographical particulars of the Romany worthies,
+but the work suffers by comparison with those of Paspati and Leland.  He
+acknowledges that Borrow was one of the pioneers of those who gave
+accounts of the Gypsies in English, who gave to many their present taste
+for Gypsy matters,
+
+    “but,” he proceeds, “we cannot allow merely sentimental
+    considerations to prevent us from telling the honest truth.  The fact
+    is that the _Romano Lavo-Lil_ is nothing more than a _réchauffé_ of
+    the materials collected by Mr Borrow at an early stage of his
+    investigations, and nearly every word and every phrase may be found
+    in one form or another in his earlier works.  Whether or not Mr
+    Borrow _has_ in the course of his long experience become the _deep_
+    Gypsy which he has always been supposed to be, we cannot say; but it
+    is certain that his present book contains little more than he gave to
+    the public forty years ago, and does not by any means represent the
+    present state of knowledge on the subject.  But at the present day,
+    when comparative philology has made such strides, and when want of
+    accurate scholarship is as little tolerated in strange and remote
+    languages as in classical literature, the _Romano Lavo-Lil_ is, to
+    speak mildly, an anachronism.”
+
+This notice, if Borrow read it, must have been very bitter to him.  All
+the loyalty to, and enthusiasm for, Borrow cannot disguise the fact that
+his work, as far as the Gypsies were concerned, was finished.  He had
+first explored the path, but others had followed and levelled it into a
+thoroughfare, and Borrow found his facts and theories obsolete—a
+humiliating discovery to a man so shy, so proud, and so sensitive.
+
+The _Romano Lavo-Lil_ was Borrow’s swan song.  He lived for another seven
+years; but as far as the world was concerned he was dead.  In an obituary
+notice of Robert Latham, Mr Watts-Dunton tells a story that emphasizes
+how thoroughly his existence had been forgotten.  At one of Mrs Procter’s
+“at homes” he was talking of Latham and Borrow, but when he happened to
+mention that both men were still alive, that is in the early Seventies,
+and that quite recently he had been in the company of each on separate
+occasions, he found that he had lost caste in the eyes of his hearers for
+talking about men as alive “who were well known to have been dead years
+ago.” {464}
+
+There is an interesting picture of Borrow as he appeared in the
+Seventies, given by F. H. Groome, who writes:
+
+    “The first time I ever saw him was at Ascot, the Wednesday evening of
+    the Cup week in, I think, the year 1872.  I was stopping at a wayside
+    inn, half-a-mile on the Windsor road, just opposite which inn there
+    was a great encampment of Gypsies.  One of their lads had on the
+    Tuesday affronted a soldier; so two or three hundred redcoats came
+    over from Windsor, intending to wreck the camp.  There was a babel of
+    cursing and screaming, much brandishing of belts and tent-rods, when
+    suddenly an arbiter appeared, a white-haired, brown-eyed, calm
+    Colossus, speaking Romany fluently, and drinking deep draughts of
+    ale—in a quarter of an hour Tommy Atkins and Anselo Stanley were
+    sworn friends over a loving-quart.  “Mr Burroughs,” said one of the
+    Gypsies (it is the name by which Gypsies still speak of him), and I
+    knew that at last I had met him whom of all men I most wished to
+    meet.  Matty Cooper, the ‘celebrated Windsor Frog’ (_vide_ Leland),
+    presented me as ‘a young gentleman, _Rya_, a scholard from Oxford’;
+    and ‘H’m,’ quoth Colossus, ‘a good many fools come from Oxford.’  It
+    was a bad beginning, but it ended well, by his asking me to walk with
+    him to the station, and on the way inviting me to call on him in
+    London.  I did so, but not until nearly a twelve-month afterwards,
+    when I found him in Hereford Square, and when he set strong ale
+    before me, as again on the occasion of my third and last meeting with
+    him in the tent of our common acquaintance, Shadrach Herne, at the
+    Potteries, Notting Hill.  Both these times we had much talk together,
+    but I remember only that it was partly about East Anglia, and more
+    about ‘things of Egypt.’  Conversations twenty years old are easy to
+    imagine, hard to reproduce . . .  Probably Borrow asked me the Romany
+    for ‘frying-pan,’ and I modestly answered, ‘Either _maasalli_ or
+    _tasseromengri_’ (this is password No. 1), and then I may have asked
+    him the Romany for ‘brick,’ to which he will have answered, that
+    ‘there is no such word’ (this is No. 2).  But one thing I do
+    remember, that he was frank and kindly, interesting and interested; I
+    was only a lad, and he was verging on seventy.  I could tell him
+    about a few ‘travellers’ whom he had not recently seen—Charlie
+    Pinfold, the hoary polygamist, Plato and Mantis Buckland, Cinderella
+    Petulengro, and Old Tom Oliver (‘Ha! so he has seen Tom Oliver,’ I
+    seem to remember that).” {466a}
+
+There was nothing now to keep Borrow in London.  Nobody wanted to read
+his books, other stars had risen in the East.  His publisher had
+exclaimed with energy, as Borrow himself would relate, “I want to meet
+with good writers, but there are none to be had: I want a man who can
+write like Ecclesiastes.”  There is something tragic in the account that
+Mr Watts-Dunton gives of his last encounter with Borrow:
+
+    “The last time I ever saw him,” he writes, “was shortly before he
+    left London to live in the country.  It was, I remember well, on
+    Waterloo Bridge, where I had stopped to gaze at a sunset of singular
+    and striking splendour, whose gorgeous clouds and ruddy mists were
+    reeling and boiling over the West-End.  Borrow came up and stood
+    leaning over the parapet, entranced by the sight, as well he might
+    be.  Like most people born in flat districts, he had a passion for
+    sunsets.  Turner could not have painted that one, I think, and
+    certainly my pen could not describe it . . . I never saw such a
+    sunset before or since, not even on Waterloo Bridge; and from its
+    association with ‘the last of Borrow,’ I shall never forget it.”
+    {466b}
+
+In 1874 Borrow withdrew to Oulton, there to end his lonely life, his
+spirit seeming to enjoy the dreary solitude of the Cottage, with its
+mournful surroundings.  His stepdaughter, the Henrietta of old, remained
+in London with her husband, and Borrow’s loneliness was complete.
+Sometimes he was to be seen stalking along the highways at a great pace,
+wearing a broad-brimmed hat and a Spanish cloak, a tragic figure of
+solitude and despair, speaking to no one, no one daring to speak to him,
+who locally was considered as “a funny tempered man.”
+
+In a fragment of a letter from Edward FitzGerald to W. B. Donne (June
+1874), there is an interesting reference to Borrow:—
+
+    “Wait!” he writes.  “I have one little thing to tell you, which,
+    little as it is, is worth all the rest, if you don’t know already.
+
+    “_Borrow_—has got back to his own Oulton Lodge.  My Nephew, Edmund
+    Kerrich, now Adjutant to some Volunteer Battalion, wants a house
+    _near_, not _in_, Lowestoft: and got some Agent to apply for
+    Borrow’s—who sent word that he is himself there—an old Man—wanting
+    Retirement, etc.  This was the account Edmund got.
+
+    “I saw in some Athenæum a somewhat contemptuous notice of G. B.’s
+    ‘Rommany Lil’ or whatever the name is.  I can easily understand that
+    B. should not meddle with _science_ of any sort; but some years ago
+    he would not have liked to be told so, however Old Age may have
+    cooled him now.” {467}
+
+Borrow sent a message to FitzGerald through Edmund Kerrich of Geldeston,
+asking him to visit Oulton Cottage.  The reply shows all the sweetness of
+the writer’s nature:—
+
+                                                LITTLE GRANGE, WOODBRIDGE,
+                                                             _Jan._ 10/75.
+
+    DEAR BORROW,—My nephew Kerrich told me of a very kind invitation that
+    you sent to me, through him, some while ago.  I think the more of it
+    because I imagine, from what I have heard, that you have slunk away
+    from human company as much—as I have!  For the last fifteen years I
+    have not visited any one of my very oldest friends, except the
+    daughters of my old [?friend] George Crabbe, and Donne—once only, and
+    for half a day, just to assure myself by—my own eyes how he was after
+    the severe illness he had last year, and which he never will quite
+    recover from, I think; though he looked and moved better than I
+    expected.
+
+    Well—to tell you all about _why_ I have thus fallen from my company
+    would be a tedious thing, and all about one’s self too—whom,
+    Montaigne says, one never talks about without detriment to the person
+    talked about.  Suffice to say, ‘so it is’; and one’s friends, however
+    kind and ‘loyal’ (as the phrase goes), do manage to exist and enjoy
+    themselves pretty reasonably without one.
+
+    So with me.  And is it not much the same with you also?  Are you not
+    glad now to be mainly alone, and find company a heavier burden than
+    the grasshopper?  If one ever had this solitary habit, it is not
+    likely to alter for the better as one grows older—as one grows _old_.
+    I like to think over my old friends.  There they are, lingering as
+    ineffaceable portraits—done in the prime of life—in my memory.
+    Perhaps we should not like one another so well after a fifteen-years
+    separation, when all of us change and most of us for the worse.  I do
+    not say _that_ would be your case; but you must, at any rate, be less
+    inclined to disturb the settled repose into which you, I suppose,
+    have fallen.  I remember first seeing you at Oulton, some twenty-five
+    years ago; then at Donne’s in London; then at my own happy home in
+    Regent’s Park; then _ditto_ at Gorleston—after which, I have seen
+    nobody, except the nephews and nieces left me by my good sister
+    Kerrich.
+
+    So shall things rest?  I could not go to you, after refusing all this
+    while to go to older—if not better—friends, fellow Collegians, fellow
+    schoolfellows; and yet will you still believe me (as I hope _they_
+    do)
+
+    Yours and theirs sincerely,
+
+                                                        EDWARD FITZGERALD.
+
+Borrow was still a remarkably robust man.  Mr Watts-Dunton tells how,
+
+    “At seventy years of age, after breakfasting at eight o’clock in
+    Hereford Square, he would walk to Putney, meet one or more of us at
+    Roehampton, roam about Wimbledon and Richmond Park with us, bathe in
+    the Fen Ponds with a north-east wind cutting across the icy water
+    like a razor, run about the grass afterwards like a boy to shake off
+    some of the water-drops, stride about the park for hours, and then,
+    after fasting for twelve hours, eat a dinner at Roehampton that would
+    have done Sir Walter Scott’s eyes good to see.  Finally, he would
+    walk back to Hereford Square, getting home late at night.  And if the
+    physique of the man was bracing, his conversation, unless he happened
+    to be suffering from one of his occasional fits of depression, was
+    still more so.  Its freshness, raciness and eccentric whim no pen
+    could describe.  There is a kind of humour the delight of which is
+    that while you smile at the pictures it draws, you smile quite as
+    much or more to think that there is a mind so whimsical, crotchetty,
+    and odd as to draw them.  This was the humour of Borrow.” {469a}
+
+He was seventy years of age when, one March day during a bitterly-cold
+east wind, he stripped and plunged into one of the Fen Ponds in Richmond
+Park, which was covered with ice, and dived and swam under the water for
+a time, reappearing some distance from the spot where he had entered the
+water. {469b}
+
+The remaining years of Borrow’s life were spent in Suffolk.  He would
+frequently go to Norwich, however; for the old city seemed to draw him
+irresistibly from his hermitage.  He would take a lodging there, and
+spend much of his time occupying a certain chair in the Norfolk Hotel in
+St Giles.  There were so many old associations with Norwich that made it
+appear home to him.  He was possessed of sentiment in plenty, it had
+caused his old mother to wish that “dear George would not have such
+fancies about _the old house_” in Willow Lane.
+
+Later, Dr and Mrs MacOubrey removed to Oulton (about 1878), and Borrow’s
+life became less dismal and lonely; but he was nearing his end.
+Sometimes there would be a flash of that old unconquerable spirit.  His
+stepdaughter relates how,
+
+    “on the 21st of November [1878], the place [the farm] having been
+    going to decay for fourteen months, Mr Palmer [the tenant] called to
+    demand that Mr Borrow should put it in repair; otherwise he would do
+    it himself and send in the bills, saying, ‘I don’t care for the old
+    farm or you either,’ and several other insulting things; whereupon Mr
+    Borrow remarked very calmly, ‘Sir, you came in by that door, you can
+    go out by it’—and so it ended.” {470a}
+
+It was on an occasion such as this that Borrow yearned for a son to knock
+the rascal down.  He was an infirm man, his body feeling the wear and
+tear of the strenuous open-air life he had led.  In 1879, according to
+Mrs MacOubrey, he was “unable to walk as far as the white gate,” the
+boundary of his estate.  He was obviously breaking-up very rapidly.  The
+surroundings appear to have reflected the gloomy nature of the master of
+the estate.  The house was dilapidated, “with everything about it more or
+less untidy,” {470b} although at this period his income amounted to
+upwards of five hundred pounds a year.
+
+    “During his latter years,” writes Mr W. A. Dutt, “his tall, erect,
+    somewhat mysterious figure was often seen in the early hours of
+    summer mornings or late at night on the lonely pathways that wind in
+    and out from the banks of Oulton Broad . . . the village children
+    used to hush their voices and draw aside at his approach.  They
+    looked upon him with fear and awe. . . .  In his heart, Borrow was
+    fond of the little ones, though it amused him to watch the impression
+    his strange personality made upon them.  Older people he seldom spoke
+    to when out on his solitary rambles; but sometimes he would flash out
+    such a glance from beneath his broad-brimmed hat and shaggy eyebrows
+    as would make timid country folk hasten on their way filled with
+    vague thoughts and fears of the evil eye.” {470c}
+
+Even to the last the old sensitiveness occasionally flashed out, as on
+the occasion of a visit from the Vicar of Lowestoft, who drove over with
+an acquaintance of Borrow’s to make the hermit’s acquaintance.  The
+visitor was so incautious as to ask the age of his host, when, with
+Johnsonian emphasis, came the reply: “Sir, I tell my age to no man!”
+This occurred some time during the year 1880.  Immediately his
+discomfited guest had departed, Borrow withdrew to the summer-house,
+where he drew up the following apothegm on “People’s Age”:—
+
+    “Never talk to people about their age.  Call a boy a boy, and he will
+    fly into a passion and say, ‘Not quite so much of a boy either; I’m a
+    young man.’  Tell an elderly person that he’s not so young as he was,
+    and you will make him hate you for life.  Compliment a man of
+    eighty-five on the venerableness of his appearance, and he will
+    shriek out: ‘No more venerable than yourself,’ and will perhaps hit
+    you with his crutch.”
+
+On 1st December 1880 Borrow sent for his solicitor from Lowestoft, and
+made his will, by which he bequeathed all his property, real and
+personal, to his stepdaughter Henrietta, devising that it should be held
+in trust for her by his friend Elizabeth Harvey.  It was evidently
+Borrow’s intention so to tie up the bequest that Dr MacOubrey could not
+in any way touch his wife’s estate.
+
+The end came suddenly.  On the morning of 26th July 1881 Dr and Mrs
+MacOubrey drove into Lowestoft, leaving Borrow alone in the house.  When
+they returned he was dead.  Throughout his life Borrow had been a
+solitary, and it seems fitting that he should die alone.  It has been
+urged against his stepdaughter that she disregarded Borrow’s appeals not
+to be left alone in the house, as he felt himself to be dying.  He may
+have made similar requests on other occasions; still, whatever the facts,
+it was strange to leave so old and so infirm a man quite unattended.
+
+On 4th August the body was brought to London, and buried beside that of
+Mrs George Borrow in Brompton Cemetery.  On the stone, which is what is
+known as a saddle-back, is inscribed:
+
+                           IN LOVING REMEMBRANCE OF
+
+                          GEORGE HENRY BORROW, ESQ.,
+
+    WHO DIED JULY 26TH, 1881 (AT HIS RESIDENCE “OULTON COTTAGE, SUFFOLK”)
+
+                              IN HIS 79TH YEAR.
+
+          (AUTHOR OF THE BIBLE IN SPAIN, LAVENGRO—AND OTHER WORKS.)
+
+                    “IN HOPE OF A GLORIOUS RESURRECTION.”
+
+A fruitless effort was made by the late J. J. Colman of Carrow to
+purchase the whole of Borrow’s manuscripts, library, and papers for the
+Carrow Abbey Library; but the price asked, a thousand pounds, was
+considered too high, and they passed into the possession of another.
+Eventually they found their way into the reverent hands of the man who
+subsequently made Borrow his hero, and who devoted years of his life to
+the writing of his biography—Dr W. J. Knapp.
+
+It was Borrow’s fate, a tragic fate for a man so proud, to outlive the
+period of his fame.  Not only were his books forgotten, but the world
+anticipated his death by some seven or eight years.  His was a curiously
+complex nature, one that seems specially to have been conceived by
+Providence to arouse enmity among the many, and to awaken in the hearts
+of the few a sterling, unwavering friendship.  It is impossible to
+reconcile the accounts of those who hated him with those whose love and
+respect he engaged.
+
+He was in sympathy with vagrants and vagabonds—a taste that was perhaps
+emphasised by the months he spent in preparing _Celebrated Trials_.  If
+those months of hack work taught him sympathy with pariahs, it also
+taught him to write strong, nervous English.
+
+He was one of the most remarkable characters of his century—whimsical,
+eccentric, lovable, inexplicable; possessed of an odd, dry humour that
+sometimes failed him when most he needed it.  He lived and died a
+stranger to the class to which he belonged, and was the intimate friend
+and associate of that dark and mysterious personage, Mr Petulengro.  He
+hated his social equals, and admired Tamerlane and Jerry Abershaw.  It
+has been said {473} that he was born three centuries too late, and that
+he belonged to the age when men dropped mysteriously down the river in
+ships, later to return with strange stories and great treasure from the
+Spanish Main.  Mr Watts-Dunton has said:—
+
+    “When Borrow was talking to people in his own class of life there was
+    always in his bearing a kind of shy, defiant egotism.  What Carlyle
+    called the ‘armed neutrality’ of social intercourse oppressed him.
+    He felt himself to be in the enemy’s camp.  In his eyes there was
+    always a kind of watchfulness, as if he were taking stock of his
+    interlocutor and weighing him against himself.  He seemed to be
+    observing what effect his words were having, and this attitude
+    repelled people at first.  But the moment he approached a gypsy on
+    the heath, or a poor Jew in Houndsditch, or a homeless wanderer by
+    the wayside, he became another man.  He threw off the burden of
+    restraint.  The feeling of the ‘armed neutrality’ was left behind,
+    and he seemed to be at last enjoying the only social intercourse that
+    could give him pleasure.  This it was that enabled him to make
+    friends so entirely with the gypsies.  Notwithstanding what is called
+    ‘Romany guile’ (which is the growth of ages of oppression), the basis
+    of the Romany character is a joyous frankness.  Once let the
+    isolating wall which shuts off the Romany from the ‘Gorgio’ be broken
+    through, and the communicativeness of the Romany temperament begins
+    to show itself.  The gypsies are extremely close observers; they were
+    very quick to notice how different was Borrow’s bearing towards
+    themselves from his bearing towards people of his own race, and
+    Borrow used to say that ‘old Mrs Herne and Leonora were the only
+    gypsies who suspected and disliked him.’” {474a}
+
+This convincing character sketch seems to show the real Borrow.  It
+accounts even for that high-piping, artificial voice (a gypsy trait) that
+he assumed when speaking with those who were not his intimate friends,
+and which any sudden interest in the conversation would cause him to
+abandon in favour of his own deep, rich tones.  Mr F. J. Bowring, himself
+no friend of Borrow’s for very obvious reasons, has described this
+artificial intonation as something between a beggar’s whine and the
+high-pitched voice of a gypsy—in sort, a falsetto.  He tells how, on one
+occasion, when in conversation with Borrow, he happened to mention to him
+something of particular interest concerning the gypsies, Borrow became
+immensely interested, immediately dropped the falsetto and spoke in his
+natural voice, which Mr Bowring describes as deep and manly.
+
+Even his friends were led sometimes into criticisms that appear
+unsympathetic. {474b}  He was, Dr Hake has said, “essentially
+hypochondriacal.  Society he loved and hated alike: he loved it that he
+might be pointed out and talked of; he hated it because he was not the
+prince that he felt himself in its midst.” {474c}  It is the son who
+shows the better understanding, although there is no doubt about Dr
+Hake’s loyalty to Borrow.  There is a faithful presentation of a man such
+as Borrow really seems to have been, in the following words:—
+
+    “Few men have ever made so deep an impression on me as George Borrow.
+    His tall, broad figure, his stately bearing, his fine brown eyes, so
+    bright yet soft, his thick white hair, his oval beardless face, his
+    loud rich voice and bold heroic air were such as to impress the most
+    indifferent lookers-on.  Added to this there was something not easily
+    forgotten in the manner in which he would unexpectedly come to our
+    gates, singing some gypsy song, and as suddenly depart.” {475a}
+
+If Borrow wrote that he was ashamed of being an Englishman and referred
+to their “pinched and mortified expressions,” if he found the virtues of
+the Saxons “uncouth and ungracious,” he never permitted others to make
+disparaging remarks about his country or his countrymen. {475b}  He was
+typically English in this: agree with his strictures, add a word or two
+of dispraise of the English, and there appeared a terrifying figure of a
+patriot; “not only an Englishman but an East Englishman,” which in
+Borrow’s vocabulary meant the finest of the breed.  He might with more
+truth have said a Cornishman.  “I could not command myself when I heard
+my own glorious land traduced in this unmerited manner,” {475c} he once
+exclaimed.  He permitted to himself, and to himself only, a certain
+latitude in such matters.
+
+That Borrow exaggerated is beyond all question, but it must not be called
+deliberate.  He desired to give impressions of scenes and people, and he
+was inclined to emphasize certain features.  Isopel Berners he wished it
+to be known was a queenly creature, and he described her as taller than
+himself (he was 6 feet 2 inches without his shoes).  Exaggeration is
+colour, not form.  A disbelief in his having encountered the convict son
+of the old apple-woman near Salisbury does not imply that the old woman
+herself is a fiction.  Borrow insisted upon Norfolk as his county, “where
+the people eat the best dumplings in the world, and speak the purest
+English.”  He even spoke with a strong, if imperfect, East Anglian
+accent.  As a matter of fact his father was Cornish and his mother of
+Huguenot stock.  It would be absurd to argue from this obvious
+exaggeration of the actual facts that Borrow was a myth.
+
+Then he has been taken to task for not being a philologist as well as a
+linguist.  He may have used the word philologist somewhat loosely on
+occasion.  “Think what the reader would have lost,” says one eminent but
+by no means prejudiced critic {476} with real sympathy and insight, “had
+Borrow waited to verify his etymologies.”  In all probability Nature will
+never produce a Humboldt-Le Sage combination of intellect.  Language was
+to Borrow merely the key that permitted him access to the chamber of
+men’s minds.  It must be confessed that sometimes he invaded the sacred
+precincts of philology.  His chapter on the Basque language in _The Bible
+in Spain_ has been described as “utterly frantic,” and German
+philologists, speechless in their astonishment, have expressed themselves
+upon his conclusions in marks of exclamation!  He was not qualified to
+discourse upon the science of language.
+
+He was a staunch member of the Church of England, because he believed
+there was in it more religion than in any other Church; but this did not
+hinder him from consorting with the godless children of the tents, or
+contributing towards the upkeep of Nonconformist-schools.  The gypsies
+honoured and trusted him because, crooked themselves, they appreciated
+straightness and clean living in another.  They had never known him use a
+bad word or do a bad thing.  He was, on occasion, arrogant, overbearing,
+ungracious, in short all the unattractive things that a proud and
+masterful man can be; but his friendship was as strong as the man
+himself; his charity above the narrow prejudices of sect.  When he threw
+his tremendous power into any enterprise or undertaking, it was with the
+determination that it should succeed, if work and self-sacrifice could
+make it.  “The wisest course,” he thought, was, “ . . . to blend the
+whole of the philosophy of the tombstone with a portion of the philosophy
+of the publican and something more, to enjoy one’s pint and pipe and
+other innocent pleasures, and to think every now and then of death and
+judgment.” {477}
+
+Borrow loved mystery for its own sake, and none were ever able quite to
+penetrate into the inner fastness of his personality.  Those who came
+nearest to it were probably Hasfeldt and Ford, whose persistent
+good-humour was an armour against a reserve that chilled most men.  Of
+all Borrow’s friends it is probable that none understood him so well as
+Hasfeldt.  He recognised the strength of character of the white-haired
+man who sang when he was happy, and he refused to be affected by his
+gloomy moods.  “Write and tell me,” he requests, “if you have not fallen
+in love with some nun or Gypsy in Spain, or have met with some other
+romantic adventure worthy of a roaming knight.”  On another occasion
+(June 1845) he boasts with some justification, “Heaven be praised, I can
+comprehend you as a reality, while many regard you as an imaginary,
+fantastic being.  But they who portray you have not eaten bread and salt
+with you.”
+
+Borrow’s contemporary recognition was a chance; he was writing for
+another generation, and some of the friends that he left behind have
+loyally striven to erect to him the only monument an artist desires—the
+proclaiming of his works.
+
+Nature it appeared had framed Borrow in a moment of magnificence, and,
+lest he should be enticed away from her, had instilled into his soul a
+hatred of all things artificial and at variance with her august decrees.
+He was shy and suspicious with the men and women who regulated their
+lives by the narrow standards of civilisation and decorum; but with the
+children of the tents and the vagrants of the wayside he was a
+single-minded man, eager to learn the lore of the open air.  He
+recognised in these vagabonds the true sons and daughters of “the Great
+Mother who mixes all our bloods.”
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+                                 THE END
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF BORROW’S WORKS
+
+
+1825
+
+
+_Celebrated Trials_, _and Remarkable Cases of Criminal Jurisprudence_,
+_from the Earliest Records to the Year_ 1825.  Six volumes, with plates.
+London.
+
+_Faustus_: _His Life_, _Death_, _and Descent into Hell_.  Translated from
+the German [of F. M. von Klinger].  W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, London.
+
+
+
+1826
+
+
+_Romantic Ballads_.  Translated from the Danish: and Miscellaneous
+Pieces.  S. Wilkin, Norwich.
+
+
+
+1835
+
+
+_Targum_: _or_, _Metrical Translations from Thirty Languages and
+Dialects_.  St Petersburgh.  Reprinted later by Jarrold & Sons, Norwich.
+
+_The Talisman_.  From the Russian of Alexander Pushkin.  With _Other
+Pieces_.  St Petersburg.
+
+
+
+1841
+
+
+_The Zincali_; _or_, _An Account of the Gypsies of Spain_.  With an
+Original Collection of their Songs and Poetry, and a Copious Dictionary
+of their Language.  Two volumes.  John Murray, London.
+
+
+
+1842
+
+
+_The Bible in Spain_; _or_, _the Journeys_, _Adventures_, _and
+Imprisonments of an Englishman in an Attempt to Circulate the Scriptures
+in the Peninsula_.  Three volumes.  John Murray, London.
+
+_Lavengro_: The Scholar—The Gypsy—The Priest.  Three volumes.  John
+Murray, London.
+
+_The Romany Rye_: _a Sequel to Lavengro_.  Two volumes.  John Murray,
+London.
+
+_The Sleeping Bard_; _or_, _Visions of the World_, _Death_, _and Hell_.
+By Elis Wyn.  Translated from the Cambrian British.  John Murray, London.
+
+
+
+1862
+
+
+_Wild Wales_: _Its People_, _Language_, _and Scenery_.  Three volumes.
+John Murray, London.
+
+_Romano Lavo-Lil_: _Word-Book of Romany_; _or_, _English Gypsy Language_.
+With Many Pieces in Gypsy, Illustrative of the Way of Speaking and
+Thinking of the English Gypsies; with Specimens of Their Poetry, and an
+Account of Certain Gypsyries or Places Inhabited by Them, and of Various
+Things Relating to Gypsy Life in England.  John Murray, London.
+
+
+
+1884
+
+
+_The Turkish Jester_; _or_, _the Pleasantries of Cogia Nasr Eddin
+Effendi_.  Translated from the Turkish.  Jarrold & Sons, Norwich.
+
+
+
+1892
+
+
+_The Death of Balder_.  Translated from the Danish of Evald.  Jarrold &
+Sons, Norwich.
+
+From the foregoing list has been omitted the mysterious _Life and
+Adventures of Joseph Sell_, _the Great Traveller_, and those works that
+Borrow edited or translated for the British and Foreign Bible Society.
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES
+
+
+{3}  Afterwards General Morshead and friend of the Duke of York.  Captain
+Morshead, himself a Cornishman, is credited with doing everything in his
+power to dissuade Thomas Borrow from enlisting, but without result.
+
+{4a}  _Lavengro_, page 2.  References to Borrow’s works throughout this
+volume are to the Standard Edition, published by John Murray.
+
+{4b}  Ann, the third of eight children born to Samuel Perfrement and Mary
+his wife, 23rd January 1772.
+
+{4c}  Locally, the name is pronounced “_Par_frement.”  This is quite in
+accordance with the Norfolk dialect, which changes “e” into “a.”  Thus
+“Ernest” becomes “Arnest”; “Earlham,” “Arlham”; “Erpingham,” “Arpingham,”
+and so on.  In Norfolk there are grave peculiarities of pronunciation,
+which have caused many a stranger to wish that he had never enquired his
+way, so puzzling are the replies hurled at him in an incomprehensible
+vernacular.
+
+{5}  Married the Rev. Wm. Holland, rector of Walmer and afterwards rector
+of Brasted, Kent.
+
+{6a}  _Lavengro_, page 5.
+
+{6b}  _Lavengro_, page 5.
+
+{7a}  George in honour of the King, it is said, and Henry after his
+father’s eldest brother.
+
+{7b}  _Lavengro_, page 6.
+
+{7c}  _Lavengro_, page 6.
+
+{7d}  _Lavengro_, page 6.
+
+{7e}  _Lavengro_, page 7.
+
+{7f}  _Lavengro_, page 7.
+
+{9a}  _Lavengro_, page 16.
+
+{9b}  The widow of Sir John Fenn, editor of the _Paston Letters_.
+
+{9c}  _Lavengro_, page 15.
+
+{10a}  _Lavengro_, pages 398–9.
+
+{10b}  “Many years have not passed over my head, yet during those which I
+can call to remembrance, how many things have I seen flourish, pass away,
+and become forgotten, except by myself, who, in spite of all my
+endeavours, never can forget anything.”—_Lavengro_, page 166.
+
+{10c}  _Lavengro_, page 16.
+
+{11a}  _Lavengro_, pages 19–20.
+
+{11b}  _Lavengro_, page 22.
+
+{12a}  The gypsies “have a double nomenclature, each tribe or family
+having a public and private name, one by which they are known to the
+Gentiles, and another to themselves alone . . .  There are only two names
+of trades which have been adopted by English gypsies as proper names,
+Cooper and Smith: these names are expressed in the English gypsy dialect
+by _Vardo-mescro_ and _Petulengro_ (_Romano Lavo-Lil_, page 185).  Thus
+the Smiths are known among themselves as the Petulengros.  Petul, a horse
+shoe, and engro a “masculine affix used in the formation of figurative
+names.”  Thus Boshomengro (a fiddler) comes from Bosh a fiddle,
+Cooromengro (a soldier, a pugilist) from Coor = to fight.
+
+{12b}  The Rev. Wentworth Webster heard narrated at a provincial Bible
+Society’s meeting that when Borrow first called at Earl Street “he said
+that he had been stolen by gypsies in his boyhood, had passed several
+years with them, but had been recognised at a fair in Norfolk and brought
+home to his family by his uncle.”  There is, however, nothing to confirm
+this story.
+
+{13a}  _Lavengro_, page 164.
+
+{13b}  The prisoners occupied much of their time in straw-plait making;
+but the quality of their work was so much superior to that of the English
+that it was forbidden, and consequently destroyed when found.
+
+{13c}  _Lavengro_, page 45.
+
+{14}  David Haggart, born 24th June 1801, was an instinctive criminal,
+who, at Leith Races, in 1813, enlisted, whilst drunk, as a drummer in the
+West Norfolks.  Eventually he obtained his discharge and continued on his
+career of crime and prison-breaking, among other things murdering a
+policeman and a gaoler, until, on 18th July 1821, he was hanged at
+Edinburgh.
+
+{15a}  _Lavengro_, page 138.
+
+{15b}  John Crome (1768–1821), landscape painter.  Apprenticed 1783 as
+sign-painter; introduced into Norwich the art of graining; founded the
+Norwich School of Painting; first exhibited at the Royal Academy 1806.
+
+{17}  Borrow was always a magnificent horseman.  “Vaya! how you ride!  It
+is dangerous to be in your way!” said the Archbishop of Toledo to him
+years later.  In _The Bible in Spain_ he wrote that he had “been
+accustomed from . . . childhood to ride without a saddle.”  The Rev.
+Wentworth Webster states that in Madrid “he used to ride with a Russian
+skin for a saddle and _without stirrups_.”
+
+{20}  Letter from “A School-fellow of _Lavengro_” in _The Britannia_,
+26th April 1851.
+
+{21a}  “It is probable, that had I been launched about this time into
+some agreeable career, that of arms, for example, for which, being the
+son of a soldier, I had, as was natural, a sort of penchant, I might have
+thought nothing more of the acquisition of tongues of any kind; but,
+having nothing to do, I followed the only course suited to my genius
+which appeared open to me.”—_Lavengro_, page 89.
+
+{21b}  The Rev. Thomas D’Eterville, M.A., “Poor Old Detterville,” as the
+Grammar School boys called him, of Caen University, who arrived at
+Norwich in 1793.  He acquired a small fortune by teaching languages.
+There were rumours that he was engaged in the contraband trade, an
+occupation more likely to bring fortune than teaching languages.
+
+{21c}  Letter from “A School-fellow of _Lavengro_” in _The Britannia_,
+26th April 1851.
+
+{22}  It was here, in 1827, that he saw the world’s greatest trotter,
+Marshland Shales, and in common with other lovers of horses lifted his
+hat to salute “the wondrous horse, the fast trotter, the best in mother
+England.”  In _Lavengro_ Borrow antedated this event by some nine years.
+
+{23}  Manuscript autobiographical notes supplied by Borrow to Mr John
+Longe, 1862.
+
+{24}  _Lavengro_, page 134.
+
+{25a}  This account is taken from a letter by “A Schoolfellow of
+_Lavengro_” in _The Britannia_, 26th April 1851.
+
+{25b}  In a letter to Borrow, dated 15th October 1862, John Longe, J.P.,
+of Spixworth Park, Norwich, in acknowledging some biographical
+particulars that Borrow had sent him for inclusion in Burton’s
+_Antiquities of the Royal School of Norwich_, wrote:—
+
+    “You have omitted an important and characteristic anecdote of your
+    early days (fifteen years of age).  When at school you, with
+    Theodosius and Francis W. Purland, _absented_ yourself from home and
+    school and took up your abode in a certain ‘Robber’s Cave’ at Acle,
+    where you _resided_ three days, and once more returned to your
+    homes.”
+
+{26}  According to the original manuscript of _Lavengro_, it appears that
+Roger Kerrison, a Norwich friend of Borrow’s, strongly advised the law as
+“an excellent profession . . . for those who never intend to follow
+it.”—_Life of George Borrow_, by Dr Knapp, i., 66.
+
+{27a}  The Rev. Wm. Drake of Mundesley, in a letter which appeared in
+_The Eastern Daily Press_, 22nd September 1892:—
+
+    “ . . . I was at the Norwich Grammar School nine years, from 1820 to
+    1829, and during that time (probably in 1824 and 1825) George Borrow
+    was lodging in the Upper Close . . .  The house was a low
+    old-fashioned building with a garden in front of it, and the fact of
+    Borrow’s residence there is fixed in my memory because I had spent
+    the first five or six years of my own life in the same house, from
+    1811 to 1816 or 1817.  My father occupied it in virtue of his being a
+    minor canon in Norwich Cathedral.  I remember Borrow very distinctly,
+    because he was fond of chatting with the boys, who used to gather
+    round the railings of his garden, and occasionally he would ask one
+    or two of them to have tea with him.  I have a faint recollection
+    that he gave us some of our first notions of chess, but I am not sure
+    of this.  I . . . remember him a tall, spare, dark-complexioned man,
+    usually dressed in black.  In person he was not unlike another
+    Norwich man, who obtained in those days a very different notoriety
+    from that which now belongs to Borrow’s name.  I mean John Thurtell,
+    who murdered Mr Weare.”
+
+{27b}  _Wild Wales_, page 3.
+
+{28a}  _Wild Wales_, page 157.
+
+{28b}  Forty years later Borrow wrote of these days:—“‘How much more
+happy, innocent, and holy I was in the days of my boyhood when I
+translated Iolo’s ode than I am at the present time!’  Then covering my
+face with my hands I wept like a child.”—_Wild Wales_, page 448.
+
+{30a}  There is no doubt that Borrow became possessed of a copy of
+_Kiæmpe Viser_, first collected by Anders Vedel, which may or may not
+have been given to him, with a handshake from the old farmer and a kiss
+from his wife, in recognition of the attention he had shown the pair in
+his official capacity.  He refers to the volume repeatedly in _Lavengro_,
+and narrates how it was presented by some shipwrecked Danish mariners to
+the old couple in acknowledgment of their humanity and hospitality.  It
+is, however, most likely that he was in error when he stated that “in
+less than a month” he was able “to read the book.”—_Lavengro_, pages
+140–4.
+
+{30b}  _Wild Wales_, page 2.
+
+{30c}  _Wild Wales_, page 374.
+
+{30d}  _Wild Wales_, page 9.  There is an interesting letter written to
+Borrow by the old lawyer’s son on the appearance of _Lavengro_, in which
+he says: “With tearful eyes, yet smiling lips, I have read and re-read
+your faithful portrait of my dear old father.  I cannot mistake him—the
+creaking shoes, the florid face, the polished pate—all serve as marks of
+recognition to his youngest son!”
+
+{31a}  _Wild Wales_, page 374.
+
+{31b}  During the five years that he was articled to Simpson & Rackham,
+Borrow, according to Dr Knapp, studied Welsh, Danish, German, Hebrew,
+Arabic, Gaelic, and Armenian.  He already had a knowledge of Latin,
+Greek, Irish, French, Italian, and Spanish.
+
+{31c}  _Lavengro_, page 235.
+
+{32a}  Benjamin Robert Haydon (1786–1846), the historical painter.
+
+{32b}  _Lavengro_, page 166.
+
+{33a}  William Taylor (1765–1836) was an admirer of German literature and
+a defender of the French Revolution.  He is credited with having first
+inspired his friend Southey with a liking for poetry.  He travelled much
+abroad, met Goethe, attended the National Assembly debates in 1790,
+translated from the German and contributed to a number of English
+periodicals.
+
+{33b}  Harriet Martineau’s _Autobiography_, 1877.
+
+{33c}  Harriet Martineau’s _Autobiography_, 1877.
+
+{33d}  Letter from “A School-fellow of _Lavengro_” in The Britannia, 26th
+April 1851.
+
+{34a}  _Memoir of Wm. Taylor_, by J. W. Robberds.
+
+{34b}  _Memoir of Wm. Taylor_, by J. W. Robberds.
+
+{34c}  Letter from “A School-fellow of _Lavengro_” in The Britannia, 26th
+April 1851.
+
+{35a}  The Rev. Whitwell Elwin, in a letter, 17th February 1887.
+
+{35b}  Harriet Martineau’s _Autobiography_, 1877.
+
+{35c}  _Lavengro_, page 355.
+
+{36a}  John Bowring, F.R.S. (1792–1872), began life in trade, went to the
+Peninsula for Milford & Co., army contractors, in 1811, set up for
+himself as a merchant, travelled and acquired a number of languages.  He
+was ambitious, energetic and shrewd.  He became editor of _The
+Westminster Review_ in 1824, and LL.D., Grönigen, in 1829.  He was sent
+by the Government upon a commercial mission to Belgium, 1833; to Egypt;
+Syria and Turkey, 1837–8; M.P. for Clyde burghs, 1835–7, and for Bolton,
+1841; was instrumental in obtaining the issue of the florin as a first
+step toward a decimal system of currency; Consul of Canton, 1847;
+plenipotentiary to China; governor, commander-in-chief, and vice-admiral
+of Hong Kong, 1854; knighted 1854; established diplomatic and commercial
+relations with Siam, 1855.  He published a number of volumes of
+translations from various languages.  He died full of years and honours
+in 1872.
+
+{36b}  _The Romany Rye_, page 368, _et seq._
+
+{38}  _Lavengro_, pages 177–8.
+
+{39}  _Lavengro_, pages 179–80.  Captain Borrow was in his sixty-sixth
+year at his death; b. December 1758, d. 28th February 1824.  He was
+buried in St Giles churchyard, Norwich, on 4th March 1824.
+
+{40a}  _The Romany Rye_, page 302.
+
+{40b}  In his will Captain Borrow bequeathed to George his watch and “the
+small Portrait,” and to John “the large Portrait” of himself; his mother
+to hold and enjoy them during her lifetime.  Should Mrs Borrow die or
+marry again, elaborate provision was made for the proper distribution of
+the property between the two sons.
+
+{41}  In particular Borrow believed in Ab Gwilym “the greatest poetical
+genius that has appeared in Europe since the revival of literature”
+(_Wild Wales_, page 6).  “The great poet of Nature, the contemporary of
+Chaucer, but worth half-a-dozen of the accomplished word-master, the
+ingenious versifier of Norman and Italian Tales.” (_Wild Wales_, page
+xxviii.).
+
+{42a}  Lines to Six-Foot-Three.  _Romantic Ballads_.  Norwich 1826.
+
+{42b}  Sir Richard Phillips (1767–1840) before becoming a publisher was a
+schoolmaster, hosier, stationer, bookseller, and vendor of patent
+medicines at Leicester, where he also founded a newspaper.  In 1795 he
+came to London, was sheriff in 1807, and received his knighthood a year
+later.
+
+{43}  It has been urged against Borrow’s accuracy that Sir Richard
+Phillips had retired to Brighton in 1823, vide _The Dictionary of
+National Biography_.  In the January number (1824) of _The Monthly
+Magazine_ appeared the following paragraph: “The Editor [Sir Richard
+Phillips], having retired from his commercial engagements and removed
+from his late house of business in New Bridge Street, communications
+should be addressed to the appointed Publishers [Messrs Whittakers]; but
+personal interviews of Correspondents and interested persons may be
+obtained at his private residence in Tavistock Square.”  This proves
+conclusively that Sir Richard was to be seen in London in the early part
+of 1824.
+
+{44a}  _Celebrated Trials and Remarkable Cases of Criminal Jurisprudence
+from the Earliest Records to the Year_ 1825, 6 vols., with plates.
+London, 1825.
+
+{44b}  _Proximate Causes of the Material Phenomena of the Universe_.  By
+Sir Richard Phillips.  London, 1821.
+
+{45a}  Dr Knapp identified the editor as “William Gifford, editor of _The
+Quarterly Review_ from 1809 to September 1824.”  (Life of George Borrow,
+i. 93.)  The late Sir Leslie Stephen, however, cast very serious doubt
+upon this identification, himself concluding that the editor of _The
+Universal Review_ was John Carey (1756–1826), whose name was actually
+associated with an edition of Quintilian published in 1822.  Carey was a
+known contributor to two of Sir Richard Phillips’ magazines.
+
+{45b}  _The Monthly Magazine_, July 1824.
+
+{46a}  It appeared in six volumes.
+
+{46b}  The work when completed contained accounts of over 400 trials.
+
+{46c}  It appeared on 19th March following.
+
+{46d}  _Lavengro_, page 210.
+
+{47}  The picture was duly painted in the Heroic manner, the artist
+lending to the ex-mayor, for some reason or other, his own unheroically
+short legs.  Haydon received his fee of a hundred guineas, and the
+picture now hangs in St Andrew’s Hall, Norwich.
+
+{48a}  Letter from Roger Kerrison to John Borrow, 28th May 1824.
+
+{48b}  _Memoirs_, _C. G. Leland_ 1893.
+
+{49a}  Borrow himself gave the sum as “eighteen-pence a page.”  The books
+themselves apparently did not become the property of the reviewer.—_The
+Romany Rye_, page 324.
+
+{49b}  Borrow says that he demanded lives of people who had never lived,
+and cancelled others that Borrow had prepared with great care, because be
+considered them as “drugs.”—_Lavengro_, pages 245–6.
+
+{50a}  “‘Sir,’ said he, ‘you know nothing of German; I have shown your
+translation of the first chapter of my Philosophy to several Germans: it
+is utterly unintelligible to them.’  ‘Did they see the Philosophy?’ I
+replied.  ‘They did, sir, but they did not profess to understand
+English.’  ‘No more do I,’ I replied, ‘if the Philosophy be
+English.’”—_Lavengro_, page 254.
+
+{50b}  A German edition of the work appeared in Stuttgart in 1826.
+
+{52a}  This sentence is quoted in _The Gypsies of Spain_ as a heading to
+the section “On Robber Language,” page 335.
+
+{52b}  _Lavengro_, pages 216–7.
+
+{52c}  _Lavengro_, page 271.
+
+{53a}  _Faustus_: _His Life_, _Death and Descent into Hell_.  Translated
+from the German.  London: W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, 1825, pages xxii.,
+251.  Coloured Plate.
+
+{53b}  A letter from Borrow to the publishers, which Dr Knapp quotes, and
+dates 15th September 1825, but without giving his reasons, was written
+from Norwich, and runs:
+
+    Dear Sir,—
+
+    As your bill will become payable in a few days, I am willing to take
+    thirty copies of _Faustus_ instead of the money.  The book has been
+    _burnt_ in both the libraries here, and, as it has been talked about,
+    I may, perhaps, be able to dispose of some in the course of a year or
+    so.—Yours, G. BORROW.
+
+{55a}  _Lavengro_, page 310.
+
+{55b}  _The Romany Rye_, Appendix, page 303.
+
+{57}  Probably it was only a portion of the whole amount of £50 that
+Borrow drew after the completion of the work.  One thing is assured, that
+Sir Richard Phillips was too astute a man to pay the whole amount before
+the completion of the work.
+
+{58}  Dr Knapp’s _Life of George Borrow_, i., page 141.
+
+{60}  Dr Knapp gives the date as the 22nd; but Mr John Sampson makes the
+date the 24th, which seems more likely to be correct.
+
+{61a}  _The Athenæum_, 25th March 1899.
+
+{61b}  _Lavengro_, page 362.
+
+{62a}  _Lavengro_, page 362.
+
+{62b}  _Lavengro_, page 374.
+
+{63a}  _Lavengro_, pages 431–2.
+
+{64a}  _Lavengro_, page 451.
+
+{64b}  Mr Watts-Dunton in a review of Dr Knapp’s _Life of Borrow_ says
+that she “was really an East-Anglian road-girl of the finest type, known
+to the Boswells, and remembered not many years ago.”—_Athenæum_, 25th
+March 1899.
+
+{66a}  Mr Petulengro is made to say the “Flying Tinker.”
+
+{66b}  Dr Knapp sees in the account of Murtagh’s story of his travels
+Barrow’s own adventures during 1826–7, but there is no evidence in
+support of this theory.  Another contention of Dr Knapp’s is more likely
+correct, viz., that the story of Finn MacCoul was that told him by Cronan
+the Cornish guide during the excursion to Land’s End.
+
+{67a}  It will be remembered that in _The Romany Rye_ Borrow takes his
+horse to the Swan Inn at Stafford, meets his postilion friend and is
+introduced by him to the landlord, with the result that he arranges to
+act as “general superintendent of the yard,” and keep the hay and corn
+account.  In return he and his horse are to be fed and lodged.  Here
+Borrow encounters Francis Ardry, on his way to see the dog and lion fight
+at Warwick, and the man in black.
+
+{67b}  _The Gypsies of Spain_, page 360.
+
+{68}  Introduction to _The Romany Rye_ in The Little Library, Methuen &
+Co., Ltd.
+
+{69a}  _The Romany Rye_, page 162.
+
+{69b}  _The Romany Rye_, page 162.
+
+{69c}  _The Romany Rye_, page 50.
+
+{69d}  “Let but the will of a human being be turned to any particular
+object, and it is ten to one that sooner or later he achieves
+it.”—_Lavengro_, page 16.
+
+{73}  They appeared as _Romantic Ballads_, _translated from the Danish_,
+_and Miscellaneous Pieces_, by George Borrow.  Norwich.  S. Wilkin, 1826.
+Included in the volume were translations from the _Kiæmpe Viser_ and from
+Oehlenschlæger.
+
+{74}  _Correspondence and Table-Talk of B. R. Haydon_.  London, 1876.
+The position of the letter in the _Haydon Journal_ is between November
+1825 and January 1826; but it is more likely that it was written some
+months later.  Unfortunately, Borrow’s portrait cannot be traced in any
+of Haydon’s pictures.
+
+{75a}  _Lavengro_, page 9.
+
+{75b}  There was a tradition that Borrow became a foreign correspondent
+for the _Morning Herald_, and it was in this capacity that he travelled
+on the Continent in 1826–7; but Dr Knapp clearly showed that such a
+theory was untenable.
+
+{75c}  _The Gypsies of Spain_, page 11.
+
+{75d}  _The Bible in Spain_, page 219.
+
+{75e}  Letter to his mother, August 1833.
+
+{75f}  _The Bible in Spain_, page 172.
+
+{75g}  _The Gypsies of Spain_, page 31.
+
+{76a}  _The Bible in Spain_, page 703.
+
+{76b}  _The Bible in Spain_, page 67.
+
+{76c}  _The Gypsies of Spain_, page 19.
+
+{76d}  _Excursions Along the Shores of the Mediterranean_, by Lt.-Col. E.
+H. D. E. Napier.  London, 1842.
+
+{76e}  _The Gypsies of Spain_, pages 10–11.
+
+{76f}  _Patteran_, or _Patrin_; a gypsy method of indicating by means of
+grass, leaves, or a mark in the dust to those behind the direction taken
+by the main body.
+
+{76g}  _The Gypsies of Spain_, page 31.
+
+{77a}  If he went abroad, he certainly did so without obtaining a
+passport from the Foreign Office.  The only passports issued to him
+between the years 1825–1840 were:
+
+  27th July 1833, to St Petersburg;
+
+  2nd November 1836 and 20th December 1838, to Spain,
+
+as far as the F. O. Registers show.
+
+{77b}  Dr Knapp takes Borrow’s statement, made 29th March 1839, “I have
+been three times imprisoned and once on the point of being shot,” as
+indicating that he was imprisoned at Pamplona in 1826.  The imprisonments
+were September 1837, Finisterre; May 1838, Madrid; and another unknown.
+The occasion on which he was nearly shot, which may be assumed to be
+connected with one of the imprisonments (otherwise he was more than “once
+nearly shot”), was at Finisterre, when he, with his guide, was seized as
+a Carlist spy “by the fishermen of the place, who determined at first on
+shooting us.”  (Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 15th September 1837.)
+
+{78}  The incident is given in _Lavengro_ under date of 1818, when
+Marshland Shales was fifteen years old.  It was not, however, until 1827
+that he appeared at the Norwich Horse Fair and was put up for auction.
+“Such a horse as this we shall never see again; a pity that he is so
+old,” was the opinion of those who lifted their hats as a token of
+respect.
+
+{79}  This and subsequent letters from Borrow to Sir John Bowring not
+specially acknowledged have been courteously placed at the writer’s
+disposal by Mr Wilfred J. Bowring, Sir John Bowring’s grandson.
+
+{81}  In _The Monthly Review_, March 1830, there appeared among the
+literary announcements a paragraph to the same effect.
+
+{83}  From the original draft of his letter of 20th May to Dr Bowring,
+omitted from the letter itself.
+
+{86a}  Mr Thomas Seccombe in _Bookman_, February 1902.
+
+{86b}  It is only fair to add that Mr Seccombe wrote without having seen
+the correspondence quoted from above.  His words have been given as
+representing the opinion held by most people regarding the Borrow-Bowring
+dispute.  It has been said that Bowring sought to suck Borrow’s brains;
+it would appear, however, that Borrow strove rather to make every
+possible use that he could of Bowring.
+
+{87a}  Preface to _The Sleeping Bard_, 1860.
+
+{87b}  _Ibid._
+
+{88a}  _The Bible in Spain_, page 201.
+
+{88b}  Dr Knapp gives the date as during the early days of September, but
+without mentioning his authority.
+
+{90}  _The Romany Rye_, page 362.
+
+{91a}  _Lavengro_, page 403.
+
+{91b}  _Lavengro_, page 446.
+
+{92}  Vicar of Pakefield, in Norfolk, 1814–1830; Lowestoft, 1830–63.  He
+married a sister of J. J. Gurney of Earlham Hall.
+
+{93a}  Dr Knapp was in error when he credited J. J. Gurney with the
+introduction.  In a letter to the Rev. J. Jowett, 10th Feb. 1833, Borrow
+wrote, “I must obtain a letter from him [Rev. F. Cunningham] to Joseph
+Gurney.”
+
+{93b}  T. Pell Platt, formerly the Hon. Librarian of the Society; W.
+Greenfield, its lately deceased Editorial Superintendent.
+
+{94a}  S. V. Lipovzoff (1773–1841) had studied Chinese and Manchu at the
+National College of Pekin, and had lived in China for 20 years; belonged
+to the Russian Foreign Office (Asiatic section); head of Board of Censors
+for books in Eastern languages printed in Russia: Corresponding member of
+Academy of Sciences for department of Oriental Literature and
+Antiquities.  “A gentleman in the service of the Russian Department of
+Foreign Affairs, who has spent the greater part of an industrious life in
+Peking and the East.”—J. P. H[asfeldt] in the _Athenæum_, 5th March 1836.
+
+{94b}  Asmus, Simondsen & Co., Sarepta House.
+
+{95}  Borrow’s report upon Puerot’s translation, 23rd September 5th
+October, 1835.
+
+{96a}  _The Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society_, vol. i., July 1888 to
+October 1899.  In the MS. autobiographical note he wrote later for Mr
+John Longe, Borrow stated that he walked from London to Norwich in
+November 1825.  He may have performed the journey twice.
+
+{96b}  Letter from Borrow to the Rev. Francis Cunningham, to whom he
+wrote on his return home, _circa_ January, acquainting him with what had
+transpired in London, assuring him that “I am returned with a firm
+determination to exert all my energies to attain the desired end [the
+learning of Manchu]; and I hope, Sir, that I shall have the benefit of
+your prayers for my speedy success, for the language is one of those
+which abound with difficulties against which human skill and labour,
+without the special favour of God, are as blunt hatchets against the oak;
+and though I shall almost weary Him with my own prayers, I wish not to
+place much confidence in them, being at present very far from a state of
+grace and regeneration, having a hard and stony heart, replete with
+worldy passions, vain wishes, and all kinds of ungodliness; so that it
+would be no wonder if God to prayers addressed from my lips were to turn
+away His head in wrath.”
+
+{97}  Borrow always writes Mandchow, but, for the sake of uniformity his
+spelling is corrected throughout.
+
+{98}  Letter to Rev. Francis Cunningham, _circa_ January 1833.
+
+{99a}  Dr Knapp ascribes the translation to Dr Pazos Kanki, who undertook
+it at the instance of the Bishop of Puebla, but gives no authority.  Dr
+Kanki was a native of La Paz, Peru, and translated St Luke into his
+native dialect Aimará.  He had no more connection with Mexico than “stout
+Cortez” with “a peak in Darien.”
+
+{99b}  _Life of George Borrow_, by Dr Knapp, i., page 157.
+
+{100a}  Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, 18th March 1833.
+
+{100b}  Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, 18th March 1833.
+
+{100c}  Letter to Rev J. Jowett, 18th March 1833.
+
+{101}  Caroline Fox wrote in her _Memories of Old Friends_ (1882):
+“Andrew Brandram gave us at breakfast many personal recollections of
+curious people.  J. J. Gurney recommended George Borrow to their
+Committee [!]; so he stalked up to London, and they gave him a hymn to
+translate into the Manchu language, and the same to one of their own
+people to translate also.  When compared they proved to be very
+different.  When put before their reader, he had the candour to say that
+Borrow’s was much the better of the two.  On this they sent him to St
+Petersburg, got it printed [!] and then gave him business in Portugal,
+which he took the liberty greatly to extend, and to do such good as
+occurred to his mind in a highly executive manner [22nd August 1844].”
+
+{102}  Mr Lipovzoff’s unfortunate name was a great stumbling-block.
+Borrow spelt it many ways, varying from Lipoffsky to Lipofsoff.  It has
+been thought advisable to adopt Mr Lipovzoff’s _own_ spelling of his
+name, in order to preserve some uniformity.
+
+{104}  Minutes of the Editorial Sub-Committee, 29th July 1833.
+
+{105}  Harriet Martineau’s _Autobiography_.
+
+{106}  Letter to his mother, 30th July 1833.
+
+{107a}  Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, 4th August 1833.
+
+{107b}  Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, 4th August 1833.
+
+{108a}  Borrow is always puzzling when concerned with dates.  He writes
+to his mother telling her that he left on the 7th, and later gives the
+date, in a letter to Mr Jowett, as 24th July, O.S. (5th August).  The 7th
+seems to be the correct date.
+
+{108b}  Letter to his mother.
+
+{109}  “If I had my choice of all the cities of the world to live in, I
+would choose Saint Petersburg.”—_Wild Wales_, page 665.
+
+{110}  Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, undated: received 26th September 1833.
+
+{111}  In a letter dated 3rd/15th August, the Prince wrote to Mr Venning
+at Norwich, “On returning thence, your son came to introduce to me the
+Englishman who has come over here about the translation of the Manchu
+Bible, and who brought with him your letter.”—_Memorials of John
+Venning_, 1862.
+
+{112a}  Best known for his Grammar, written in German.
+
+{112b}  Nephew of J. C Adelung, the philologist.
+
+{113}  Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, undated, but received 26th September
+1833.
+
+{114a}  Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, 20th January/1st February 1834.
+
+{114b}  Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, 20th January/1st February 1834.
+
+{114c}  Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, 20th January/1st February 1834.
+
+{115a}  Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, 20th January/1st February 1834.
+
+{115b}  Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, 20th January/1st February 1834.
+Probably this means the New Testament only, as there was no intention of
+printing the Old Testament at that date.
+
+{116}  In a letter to his mother, dated 1st/13th Feb., Borrow writes:
+“The Bible Society depended upon Dr Schmidt and the Russian translator
+Lipovzoff to manage this business [the obtaining of the official
+sanction], but neither the one nor the other would give himself the least
+trouble about the matter, or give me the slightest advice how to
+proceed.”
+
+{117}  Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, 4th/16th February 1834.
+
+{118a}  Letter to the Rev. J. Jowett, 20th Jan./1st Feb. 1834.
+
+{118b}  Letter to the Rev. J. Jowett, 20th Jan./1st Feb. 1834.
+
+{118c}  Letter to the Rev. F. Cunningham, 17th/29th Nov. 1834.
+
+{119}  1st/13th May 1834.
+
+{121a}  This spelling is adopted throughout for uniformity.  Borrow
+writes Chiachta.
+
+{121b}  Letter to the Rev. J. Jowett, 4th/16th February 1834.
+
+{121c}  Letter to the Rev. J. Jowett, 4th/16th February 1834.
+
+{121d}  Letter to the Rev. J. Jowett, 4th/16th February 1834.
+
+{123a}  Letter to the Rev. J. Jowett, 15th/23rd April 1834.
+
+{123b}  In a letter dated 1st/13th May 1834.
+
+{123c}  A suburb of Norwich.
+
+{126a}  Mrs Borrow eventually received from Allday Kerrison £50, 11s.
+1d., the amount realised from the sale of John’s effects.
+
+{126b}  This was partly on account of the Bible Society for storage
+purposes.  In the minutes of the Sub-Committee, 18th August 1834, there
+is a record of an advice having been received from Borrow that he had
+drawn “for 400 Roubles for one year’s rent in advance for a suitable
+place of deposit for the Society’s paper, etc., part of which had been
+received.”
+
+{126c}  Letter to John P. Hasfeldt from Madrid, 29th April 1837.
+
+{129}  In the minutes of the Sub-Committee, 18th August (N.S.) 1834,
+there is a note of Borrow having drawn 210 roubles “to pay for certain
+articles required to complete the Society’s fount of Manchu type.”
+
+{132a}  “My letters to my private friends have always been written during
+gleams of sunshine, and traced in the characters of hope.”
+
+{132b}  “You may easily judge of the state of book-binding here by the
+fact that for every volume, great or small, printed in Russia, there is a
+duty of 30 copecks, or threepence, to be paid to the Russian Government,
+if the said volume be exported unbound.”
+
+{135a}  John Hasfeldt.
+
+{135b}  Letter to Mr J. Tarn, Treasurer of the Bible Society, 15th/27th
+December 1834.
+
+{136}  Letter to the Rev. Joseph Jowett, 3rd/15th May 1835.
+
+{138a}  Letter from Borrow to the Rev. J. Jowett, 20th Feb./4th March
+1834.  In his Report on Puerot’s translation, received on 23rd Sep. 1835,
+Borrow writes: “To translate literally, or even closely, according to the
+common acceptation of the term, into the Manchu language is of all
+impossibilities the greatest; partly from the grammatical structure of
+the language, and partly from the abundance of its idioms.”  The lack of
+“some of those conjunctions generally considered as indispensable” was
+one of the chief difficulties.
+
+{138b}  Letter, 31st Dec. 1834.
+
+{139a}  Letter, 31st Dec. 1834.
+
+{139b}  Letter, 20th Feb./4th Mar. 1835.
+
+{139c}  Letter, 20th Feb./4th Mar. 1835.
+
+{139d}  Letter to the Rev. J. Jowett, 3rd/15th May 1835.
+
+{139e}  _Ibid._
+
+{140}  Letter to the Rev. J. Jowett, 3rd/15th May 1835.
+
+{141a}  Letter to Mr J. Tarn.
+
+{141b}  None of these translations ever appeared, owing to the refusal of
+the Russian Government to grant permission.  John Hasfeldt wrote to
+Borrow, June 1837, apropos of the project: “You know the Russian
+priesthood cannot suffer foreigners to mix themselves up in the affairs
+of the Orthodox Church.  The same would have happened to the New
+Testament itself.  You may certainly print in the Manchu-Tartar or what
+the d-l you choose, only not in Russian, for that the long-bearded
+he-goats do not like.”
+
+{142a}  Letter to Rev. F. Cunningham, 27th/29th Nov. 1834.
+
+{142b}  The principal interest in Targum lies in the number of languages
+and dialects from which the poems are translated; for it must be
+confessed that Borrow’s verse translations have no very great claim to
+attention on account of their literary merit.  The “Thirty Languages”
+were, in reality, thirty-five, viz.:—
+
+Ancient British.        Gaelic.            Portuguese.
+   “    Danish.         German.            Provençal
+   “    Irish.          Greek.             Romany.
+   “    Norse.          Hebrew.            Russian.
+Anglo-Saxon.            Irish.             Spanish.
+Arabic.                 Italian.           Suabian.
+Cambrian British.       Latin.             Swedish.
+Chinese.                Malo-Russian.      Tartar.
+Danish.                 Manchu.            Tibetan.
+Dutch.                  Modern Greek.      Turkish.
+Finnish.                Persian.           Welsh.
+French.                 Polish.
+
+
+
+{143a}  A copy was presented by John Hasfeldt to Pushkin, who expressed
+in a note to Borrow his gratification at receiving the book, and his
+regret at not having met the translator.
+
+{143b}  These two volumes were printed in one and published at a later
+date by Messrs Jarrold & Son, London & Norwich.
+
+{143c}  5th March 1836.
+
+{143d}  From a letter to Borrow from Dr Gordon Hake.
+
+{143e}  Borrow’s Report to the Committee of the Bible Society, received
+23rd September 1835.
+
+{144a}  Borrow’s Report to the Committee of the Bible Society, received
+23rd September 1835.
+
+{144b}  _Ibid._
+
+{145a}  _Kak my tut kamasa_.
+
+{145b}  Borrow’s Report to the Committee of the Bible Society, received
+23rd September 1835.  He gives an account of the episode in _The Gypsies
+of Spain_, page 6.
+
+{146a}  The Thirty-First Annual Report.
+
+{146b}  _Athenæum_, 5th March 1836.
+
+{147}  Borrow’s Report to the Committee of the Bible Society, received
+23rd September 1835.
+
+{148}  18th/30th June 1834.
+
+{149}  27th October 1835.
+
+{150a}  His salary was paid continuously, and included the period of rest
+between the Russian and Peninsula expeditions.
+
+{150b}  Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, 26th October 1835.
+
+{150c}  In a letter dated 27th October 1835.
+
+{151}  Minutes of the General Committee of the Bible Society, 2nd Nov.
+1835.
+
+{153}  In his first letter from Spain, addressed to Rev. J. Jowett (30th
+Nov. 1835), Borrow tells of this incident in practically the same words
+as it appears in _The Bible in Spain_, pages 1–3.
+
+{154a}  _The Bible in Spain_, pages 73–4.
+
+{154b}  Letter to the Rev. J. Jowett, 30th Nov. 1835.
+
+{155a}  Dr Knapp states that upon this expedition he was accompanied by
+Captain John Rowland Heyland of the 35th Regiment of Foot, whose
+acquaintance he had made on the voyage out.—_Life of George Borrow_, i.,
+page 234.
+
+{155b}  Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, 30th Nov. 1835.
+
+{155c}  Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 15th Dec. 1835.
+
+{159a}  Letter to Dr Bowring, 26th December 1835.
+
+{159b}  _The Bible in Spain_, page 67.
+
+{159c}  Dated 8th and 10th January 1836, giving an account of his journey
+to Evora.
+
+{160a}  _The Bible in Spain_, page 78.
+
+{160b}  _The Bible in Spain_, pages 77–8.
+
+{161a}  _The Bible in Spain_, page 87.
+
+{161b}  _The Bible in Spain_, page 88.
+
+{162a}  _The Bible in Spain_, page 99.
+
+{162b}  _Lavengro_, page 191.
+
+{162c}  _The Bible in Spain_, pages 97–8.
+
+{162d}  Not 5th Jan., as given in _The Bible in Spain_.
+
+{162e}  _The Bible in Spain_, page 103.
+
+{164a}  _The Bible in Spain_, Preface, page vi.
+
+{164b}  _The Gypsies of Spain_, page 179.
+
+{164c}  “Throughout my life the Gypsy race has always had a peculiar
+interest for me.  Indeed I can remember no period when the mere mention
+of the name Gypsy did not awaken within me feelings hard to be described.
+I cannot account for this—I merely state it as a fact.”—_The Gypsies of
+Spain_, page 1.
+
+{165a}  _The Gypsies of Spain_, pages 184–5.
+
+{165b}  _The Gypsies of Spain_, page 186.
+
+{166a}  _The Bible in Spain_, page 109.
+
+{166b}  Dr Knapp states that the wedding described in _The Gypsies of
+Spain_ took place during these three days.—_Life of George Borrow_, by Dr
+Knapp, i., page 242.
+
+{167a}  _The Bible in Spain_, page 162.
+
+{167b}  “I am not partial to Madrid, its climate, or anything it can
+offer, if I except its unequalled gallery of pictures.”—Letter to Rev. A.
+Brandram, 22nd March 1836.
+
+{167c}  24th February 1836.
+
+{167d}  Letter to his mother, 24th February 1836.
+
+{168a}  Letter to his mother, 24th February 1836
+
+{168b}  _Ibid._
+
+{168c}  _Ibid._
+
+{168d}  _Ibid._
+
+{169}  _The Bible in Spain_, page 173.
+
+{170a}  Born 1790, commissariat contractor in 1808 during the French
+invasion, he was of great assistance to his country.  In 1823 he fled
+from the despotism of Ferdinand VII.; he returned twelve years later as
+Minister of Finance under Toreno.  He resigned in 1837, was again in
+power in 1841, and died in 1853.
+
+{170b}  George William Villiers, afterwards 4th Earl of Clarendon, born
+12th Jan. 1800; created G.C.B., 19th Oct. 1837; succeeded his uncle as
+Earl of Clarendon, 1838; K.G., 1849.  He twice refused a Marquisate, also
+the Governor-generalship of India.  He refused the Order of the Black
+Eagle (Prussia) and the Legion of Honour.  Lord Privy Seal, 1839–41;
+Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, 1840–1, 1864–5; Lord-Lieutenant of
+Ireland, 1847–52.  Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 1853–8,
+1865–6, 1868–9.  Died 27th June 1870.
+
+{171}  _The Bible in Spain_, page 165.
+
+{173a}  Extracts accompanying letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 22nd March
+1836.
+
+{173b}  _Ibid._
+
+{173c}  _Ibid._
+
+{174}  Letter of 22nd March 1837.
+
+{175a}  Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 22nd May 1836.
+
+{175b}  Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 22nd May 1836.
+
+{175c}  Letter dated 6th April 1836.
+
+{175d}  Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 20th April 1836.
+
+{175e}  _Ibid._
+
+{176a}  Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 20th April 1836.
+
+{176b}  _Ibid._  Borrow’s destitution was entirely accidental, and
+immediately that his letter was received at Earl Street the sum of
+twenty-five pounds was forwarded to him.
+
+{177}  Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 20th April 1836.
+
+{178a}  Letter of 9th May 1836.
+
+{178b}  Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 30th June 1836.
+
+{178c}  _Ibid._
+
+{178d}  _Ibid._
+
+{179a}  The Duke’s secretary who had shown so profound a respect for the
+decrees of the Council of Trent.
+
+{179b}  Late of the Royal Navy, who for sheer love of the work
+distributed the Scriptures in Spain, and who later was to come into grave
+conflict with Borrow.
+
+{180}  Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 30th June 1836.
+
+{181a}  Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 7th July 1836.
+
+{181b}  _Ibid._
+
+{181c}  _Ibid._
+
+{181d}  _Ibid._
+
+{182a}  Dr Usoz was a Spaniard of noble birth, a pupil of Mezzofanti, and
+one of the editors of _El Español_.  He occupied the chair of Hebrew at
+Valladolid.  He was deeply interested in the work of the Bible Society,
+and was fully convinced that in nothing but the reading of the Bible
+could the liberty in Spain be found.
+
+{182b}  Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 25th December 1837.
+
+{182c}  La Granja was a royal palace some miles out of Madrid, to which
+the Queen Regent had withdrawn.  On the night of 12th August, two
+sergeants had forced their way into the Queen Regent’s presence, and
+successfully demanded that she should restore the Constitution of 1812.
+This incident was called the Revolution of La Granja.
+
+{183a}  _The Bible in Spain_, pages 197–206.
+
+{183b}  30th July 1836.
+
+{183c}  Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 10th August 1836.
+
+{184}  17th October 1836.
+
+{185a}  _The Bible in Spain_, pages 209–11.
+
+{185b}  _Ibid._, page 211.
+
+{186}  The Rev. Wentworth Webster in _The Journal of Gypsy Lore Society_,
+vol. i., July 1888–Oct. 1889.
+
+{187}  Letter from Rev. A. Brandram, 6th Jan. 1837.
+
+{188}  Isidor Just Severin, Baron Taylor (1789–1879), was a naturalised
+Frenchman and a great traveller.  In 1821 he, with Charles Nodier, wrote
+the play _Bertram_, which was produced with great success at Paris in
+1821.  Later he was made Commissaire du Théâtre Français, and authorised
+the production of _Hernani_ and _Le Mariage de Figaro_.  Later he became
+Inspecteur-Général des Beaux Arts (1838).  When seen by Borrow in Seville
+he was collecting Spanish pictures for Louis-Philippe.
+
+{189}  _The Bible in Spain_, page 221.
+
+{190a}  _The Bible in Spain_, page 237.
+
+{190b}  Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 26th Dec. 1836.
+
+{191a}  In letter to the Rev. A. Brandram (26th Dec. 1836), Borrow gives
+the quantity of brandy as two bottles.  This letter was written within a
+few hours of the act and is more likely to be accurate.
+
+{191b}  _The Bible in Spain_, page 254.
+
+{191c}  Borrow’s letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 14th Jan. 1837.
+
+{191d}  He was authorised to purchase 600 reams at 60 _reals_ per ream,
+whereas he paid only 45 _reals_ a ream for a paper “better,” he wrote,
+“than I could have purchased at 70.”
+
+{192a}  Author of _La Historia de las Córtes de España durante el Siglo
+XIX_. (1885) and other works of a political character.  He was also
+proprietor and editor of _El Español_.  Isturitz had intended raising
+Borrégo to the position of minister of finance when his government
+suddenly terminated.
+
+{192b}  General report prepared by Borrow in the Autumn of 1838 for the
+General Committee of the Bible Society detailing his labours in Spain.
+This was subsequently withdrawn, probably on account of its somewhat
+aggressive tone.  In the course of this work the document will be
+referred to as _General Report_, _Withdrawn_.
+
+{192c}  To Rev. A. Brandram, 14th Jan. 1837.
+
+{193}  To Rev. A. Brandram, 14th Jan. 1837.
+
+{194a}  27th January 1837.
+
+{194b}  Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 27th Feb. 1837.
+
+{195a}  Letter from Rev. A. Brandram to Borrow, 22nd March 1837.
+
+{195b}  Letter from Borrow to Rev. A. Brandram, 25th Dec. 1837.
+
+{195c}  Letter from Borrow to Rev. A. Brandram, 27th February 1837.
+
+{195d}  Rev. Wentworth Webster in _The Journal of the Gypsy Lore
+Society_, vol. i., July 1888–October 1889.
+
+{196a}  _General Report_ withdrawn.
+
+{196b}  _General Report_, withdrawn.
+
+{196c}  Borrow to Richard Ford.  _Letters of Richard Ford_ 1797–1858.
+Ed. R. E. Prothero.  Murray, 1905.
+
+{197a}  Letter from Borrow to Rev. A. Brandram, 7th June 1837.
+
+{197b}  _Ibid._
+
+{197c}  _Ibid._
+
+{198}  Letter from Borrow to the Rev. A. Brandram, 27th February 1837.
+
+{199}  As the method adopted was practically the same in every town he
+visited, no further reference need be made to the fact, and in the brief
+survey of the journeys that Borrow himself has described so graphically,
+only incidents that tend to throw light upon his character or
+disposition, and such as he has not recorded himself, will be dealt with.
+
+{200a}  Via Pitiegua, Pedroso, Medina del Campo, Dueñas Palencia.
+
+“I suffered dreadfully during this journey,” Borrow wrote, “as did
+likewise my man and horses, for the heat was the fiercest which I have
+ever known, and resembled the breath of the simoon or the air from an
+oven’s mouth.”—Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 5th July 1837.
+
+{200b}  Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 5th July 1837.
+
+{201}  _The Bible in Spain_, pages 352–4.
+
+{202}  _The Bible in Spain_, page 364.
+
+{203a}  This is the story particularly referred to by Richard Ford in
+report upon the MS. of _The Bible in Spain_.
+
+{203b}  In the Report to the General Committee of the Bible Society on
+Past and Future Operations in Spain, November 1838.
+
+{204a}  _The Bible in Spain_, page 409.
+
+{204b}  In _The Bible in Spain_ Borrow says he was arrested on suspicion
+of being the Pretender himself; but in a letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 15th
+September 1837, he says that he and his guide were seized as Carlist
+spies, and makes no mention of Don Carlos.
+
+{205a}  Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 15th September 1837.
+
+{205b}  Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 29th September 1837.
+
+{205c}  By way of Ferrol, Novales, Santa María, Coisa d’Ouro, Viviero,
+Foz, Rivadéo, Castro Pól, Naváia, Luarca, the Caneiro, Las Bellotas, Soto
+Luiño, Muros, Avilés and Gijon.
+
+{205d}  To the Rev. A. Brandram, 29th Sept. 1837.  The story also appears
+in _The Bible in Spain_, pages 479–480.
+
+{206}  Borrow’s original idea in printing only the New Testament was that
+in Spain and Portugal he deemed it better not to publish the whole Bible,
+at least not “until the inhabitants become christianised,” because the
+Old Testament “is so infinitely entertaining to the carnal man,” and he
+feared that in consequence the New Testament would be little read.  Later
+he saw his mistake, and was constantly asking for Bibles, for which there
+was a big demand.
+
+{207}  To Rev. A. Brandram, 29th September 1837.
+
+{208}  George Dawson Flinter, an Irishman in the service of Queen
+Isabella II., who fought for his adopted Queen with courage and
+distinction, and eventually committed suicide as a protest against the
+monstrously unjust conspiracy to bring about his ruin, September 1838.
+
+{209a}  By way of Ontanéda, Oña, Búrgos, Vallodolid, Guadarrama.
+
+{209b}  _General Report_, withdrawn.
+
+{209c}  Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 1st November 1837.
+
+{210}  _The Bible in Spain_, page 507.
+
+{211}  He was created G.C.B. 19th Oct. 1837.
+
+{212a}  Letter from Borrow to the Rev. A. Brandram, 20th Nov. 1837.
+
+{212b}  To the Rev. A. Brandram, 20th Nov. 1837.
+
+{213a}  _History of the British and Foreign Bible Society_, W. Canton.
+
+{213b}  Letter from Borrow to Rev. A. Brandram, 30th March 1838.
+
+{214a}  Mr Brandram wrote to Graydon (12th April 1838): “Mr Rule being at
+Madrid and having conferred with Mr Borrow and Sir George Villiers, it
+appears to have struck them all three that a visit on your part to Cadiz
+and Seville could not at present be advantageous to our cause.”
+
+{214b}  Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 20th November 1837.
+
+{214c}  Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 28th November 1837.  The comment on
+the badness of the London edition had reference to the translation, which
+Borrow had condemned with great vigour; he subsequently admitted that he
+had been too sweeping in his disapproval.
+
+{215a}  Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 28th November 1837.
+
+{215b}  Sir George Villiers to Viscount Palmerston, 5th May 1838.
+
+{215c}  _Ibid._
+
+{216a}  _The Gypsies of Spain_, page 241.
+
+{216b}  Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 25th Dec. 1837.
+
+{216c}  These Bibles fetched, the large edition (Borrow wrote “I would
+give my right hand for a thousand of them”) 17s. each, and the smaller
+7s. each, whereas the New Testaments fetched about half-a crown.
+
+{216d}  Letter dated 16th Jan. 1838.
+
+{217a}  In _The Bible in Spain_ he says “the greater part,” in _The
+Gypsies of Spain_ he says “the whole.”
+
+{217b}  _The Gypsies of Spain_, page 275.
+
+{218a}  _The Gypsies of Spain_, page 280.
+
+{218b}  _Ibid._
+
+{218c}  _Ibid._, page 282.
+
+{219a}  On 25th December 1837.
+
+{219b}  It is strange that Borrow should insist that he had Sir George
+Villiers’ approval; for Sir George himself has clearly stated that he
+strongly opposed the opening of the _Despacho_.
+
+{220}  15th January 1838.
+
+{221a}  Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 30th March 1838.
+
+{221b}  In _The Gypsies of Spain_ Borrow gives the number as 500 (page
+281); but the Resolution, confirmed 20th March 1837, authorised the
+printing of 250 copies only.  In all probability the figures given by
+Borrow are correct, as in a letter to Mr Brandram, dated 18th July 1839,
+he gives his unsold stock of books at Madrid as:—
+
+Of Testaments                           962
+Of Gospels in the Gypsy Tongue          286
+Of ditto in Basque                      394
+
+{222a}  Original Report, withdrawn.
+
+{222b}  _The Gypsies of Spain_, pages 280–1.
+
+{224a}  Letter from Borrow to Rev. A. Brandram, 17th March 1838.
+
+{224b}  _The History of the British and Foreign Bible Society_, by W.
+Canton.
+
+{225}  Mr Canton writes in _The History of the British and Foreign Bible
+Society_: “His [Graydon’s] opportunity was indeed unprecedented; and had
+he but more accurately appreciated the unstable political conditions of
+the country, the susceptibilities, suspicious and precarious tenure of
+ministers and placemen, the temper of the priesthood, their sensitive
+attachment to certain tenets of their faith, and their enormous influence
+over the civil power, there is reason to believe that he might have
+brought his mission to a happier and more permanent issue.”
+
+{226}  [11th] May 1838.
+
+{227a}  Letter from George Borrow to Rev. A. Brandram [11th] May 1838.
+
+{227b}  23rd April 1838.
+
+{227c}  The Marin episode is amazing.  The object of distributing the
+Scriptures was to enlighten men’s minds and bring about conversion, and a
+priest was a distinct capture, more valuable by far than a peasant, and
+likely to influence others; yet when they had got him no one appears to
+have known exactly what to do, and all were anxious to get rid of him
+again.
+
+{228a}  _The Bible in Spain_, page 536.
+
+{228b}  _Ibid._
+
+{229a}  Original Report, withdrawn.
+
+{229b}  Original Report, withdrawn.
+
+{231}  Sometimes this personage is referred to in official papers as the
+“Political Chief,” a too literal translation of _Gefé Politico_.  In all
+cases it has been altered to Civil Governor to preserve uniformity.  Many
+of the official translations of Foreign Office papers can only be
+described as grotesque.
+
+{232a}  This is the official translation among the Foreign Office papers
+at the Record Office.
+
+{232b}  _The Bible in Spain_, page 539.
+
+{233}  There is an error in the dating of this letter.  It should be 1st
+May.
+
+{234a}  In a letter to Count Ofalia, Sir George Villiers states that
+“George Borrow, fearing violence, prudently abstained from going to his
+ordinary place of abode.”
+
+{234b}  Borrow pays a magnificent and well-deserved tribute to this queen
+among landladies.  (_The Bible in Spain_, pages 256–7.)  She was always
+his friend and frequently his counsellor, thinking nothing of the risk
+she ran in standing by him during periods of danger.  She refused all
+inducements to betray him to his enemies, and, thoroughly deserved the
+eulogy that Borrow pronounced upon her.
+
+{234c}  It was subsequently stated that the arrest was ordered because
+Borrow had refused to recognise the Civil Governor’s authority and made
+use “of offensive expressions” towards his person.  The Civil Governor
+had no authority over British subjects, and Borrow was right in his
+refusal to acknowledge his jurisdiction.
+
+{235}  _The Bible in Spain_, page 547.
+
+{238a}  Dispatch from Sir George Villiers to Viscount Palmerston, 5th
+May.
+
+{238b}  _Ibid._
+
+{239a}  Despatch from Sir George Villiers to Viscount Palmerston, 12th
+May 1838.
+
+{239b}  _Ibid._
+
+{240a}  Despatch from Sir George Villiers to Viscount Palmerston.
+
+{240b}  Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 17th May 1838.
+
+{241a}  Despatch from Sir George Villiers to Viscount Palmerston, 5th May
+1838.
+
+{241b}  In a letter to the Rev. A. Brandram, 17th May 1838.
+
+{242a}  The Official Translation among the Foreign Office Papers at the
+Record Office.
+
+{242b}  Mr William Mark’s (the British Consul at Malaga) Official account
+of the occurrence, 16th May 1838.
+
+{243a}  Mr William Mark’s (the British Consul at Malaga) Official account
+of the occurrence, 16th May 1838.
+
+{243b}  _Ibid._
+
+{243c}  Despatch to Viscount Palmerston, 12th May 1838.
+
+{243d}  _Ibid._
+
+{244a}  Despatch to Viscount Palmerston, 12th May 1838.
+
+{244b}  _Ibid._
+
+{244c}   Sir George Villiers’ Despatch to Viscount Palmerston, 12th May
+1838.
+
+{246a}  The Official Translation among the Foreign Office Papers at the
+Record Office.
+
+{246b}  _The Bible in Spain_, page 578.
+
+{247a}  _The Gypsies of Spain_, page 241.
+
+{247b}  _The Bible in Spain_, page 579.
+
+{249}  _History of the British and Foreign Bible Society_.  By W. Canton.
+
+{252}  On [11th] May 1838.
+
+{253}  Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 17th May 1838.
+
+{254a}  Letter from Borrow to Rev. A. Brandram, 25th May 1838.
+
+{255a}  The Official Translation among the Foreign Office Papers at the
+Record Office.
+
+{255b}  Sir George Villiers to Count Ofalia, 25th May 1838.
+
+{255c}  Letter to Mr A. Brandram, 25th May 1838.
+
+{256a}  At the time of writing Borrow had not seen any of these tracts
+himself; but Sir George Villiers, who had, expressed the opinion that
+“one or two of them were outrages not only to common sense but to
+decency.”—Borrow to the Rev. A. Brandram, 25th June 1838.
+
+{256b}  Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 14th June 1838.
+
+{257a}  Letter from Borrow to Rev. A. Brandram, 14th June 1838.
+
+{257b}  _Ibid._
+
+{259}  The quotations from Lieut. Graydon’s tracts were not sent by
+Borrow to Mr Brandram until some weeks later.  They ran:—A True History
+of the Dolorous Virgin to whom the Rebellious and Fanatical Don Carlos
+Has Committed His Cause and the Ignorance which It Displays.
+
+                                EXTRACTS.
+
+_Page_ 17.  You will readily see in all those grandiose epithets showered
+upon Mary, the work of the enemy of God, which tending essentially
+towards idolatry has managed, under the cloak of Christianity, to
+introduce idolatry, and endeavours to divert to a creature, and even to
+the image of that creature, the adoration which is due to God alone.
+Without doubt it is with this very object that on all sides we see
+erected statues of Mary, adorned with a crown, and bearing in her arms a
+child of tender years, as though to accustom the populace intimately to
+the idea of Mary’s superiority over Jesus.
+
+_Page_ 30.  This, then, is our conclusion.  In recognising and
+sanctioning this cult, the Church of Rome constitutes itself an
+idolatrous Church, and every member of it who is incapable of detecting
+the truth behind the monstrous accumulation of impieties with which they
+veil it, is proclaimed by the Church as condemned to perdition.  The
+guiding light of this Church, which they are not ashamed to smother or to
+procure the smothering of, by which nevertheless they hold their
+authority, to be plain, the word of God, should at least teach them, if
+they set any value on the Spirit of Christ, that their Papal Bulls would
+be better directed to the cleansing of the Roman Church from all its
+iniquities than to the promulgation of such unjust prohibitions.  Yet in
+struggling against better things, this Church is protecting and hallowing
+in all directions an innumerable collection of superstitions and false
+cults, and it is clear that by this means it is abased and labelled as
+one of the principal agents of Anti-Christ.
+
+{262}  _The History of the British and Foreign Bible Society_, by W.
+Canton.
+
+{265a}  This letter reached Borrow when his “foot was in the stirrup,” as
+he phrased it, ready to set out for the Sagra of Toledo.  He felt that it
+could only have originated with “the enemy of mankind for the purpose of
+perplexing my already harrassed and agitated mind”; but he continues,
+“merely exclaiming ‘Satan, I defy thee,’ I hurried to the Sagra. . . .
+But it is hard to wrestle with the great enemy.”  _General Report_,
+withdrawn.
+
+{265b}  Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 14th July 1838.
+
+{265c}  Mr Brandram informed Borrow that the General Committee wished him
+to visit England if he could do so without injury to the cause (29th
+June).
+
+{266}  Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 14th July 1838.
+
+{269a}  _The Bible in Spain_, page 602.
+
+{269b}  _Ibid._, page 606.
+
+{269c}  _Ibid._, page 606.
+
+{270a}  Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 27th July 1838.
+
+{270b}  This would have been impossible.  If his age were seventy-four,
+he would of necessity have been four years old in 1838.
+
+{271a}  By Mr A. G. Jayne in “Footprints of George Borrow,” in _The Bible
+in the World_, July 1908.
+
+{271b}  Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 17th July 1838.
+
+{273a}  This letter, in which there was a hint of desperation, disturbed
+the officials at Earl Street a great deal.  Mr Brandram wrote (28th July)
+that he was convinced that the Committee would “still feel that if you
+are to continue to act with them _they must see you_, and I will only add
+that it is _utterly foreign to their wishes_ that you should _expose
+yourself in the daring manner you are now doing_.  I lose not a post in
+conveying this impression to you.”
+
+{273b}  The Translation of this communication runs:—“Madrid, 7th July
+1838—I have the honour to inform your Excellency that according to
+official advices received in the first Secretary of State’s Office, it
+appears that in Malaga, Murcia, Valladolid, and Santiago, copies of the
+New Testament of Padre Scio, without notes, have been exposed for sale,
+which have been deposited with the political chiefs of the said
+provinces, or in the hands of such persons as the chiefs have entrusted
+with them in Deposit; it being necessary further to observe that the
+parties giving them up have uniformly stated that they belonged to Mr
+Borrow, and that they were commissioned by him to sell and dispose of
+them.
+
+“Under these circumstances, Her Majesty’s Government have deemed it
+expedient that I should address your Excellency, in order that the above
+may be intimated to the beforementioned Mr Borrow, so that he may take
+care that the copies in question, as well as those which have been seized
+in this City, and which are packed up in cases or parcels marked and
+sealed, may be sent out of the Kingdom of Spain, agreeably to the Royal
+order with which your Excellency is already acquainted, and through the
+medium of the respective authorities who will be able to vouch for their
+Exportation.  To this Mr Borrow will submit in the required form, and
+with the understanding that he formally binds himself thereto, they will
+remain in the meantime in the respective depots.”
+
+{275}  _General Report_, withdrawn.
+
+{277a}  Borrow’s letter to the Rev. A. Brandram, 1st Sept. 1838.
+
+{277b}  To Lord William Hervey, Chargé d’Affaires at Madrid (23rd Aug.
+1838).
+
+{278}  To Rev. G. Browne, one of the Secretaries of the Bible Society,
+29th Aug. 1838.
+
+{279a}  To Rev. A. Brandram, 19th September 1838.
+
+{279b}  _The Bible in Spain_, page 621.
+
+{279c}  Letter to Dr Usoz, 22nd Feb. 1839.
+
+{279d}  _Ibid._
+
+{279e}  _Ibid._
+
+{280}  The Report has here been largely drawn upon and has been referred
+to as “Original Report, withdrawn.”
+
+{282}  _History of the British and Foreign Bible Society_.
+
+{284}  On the publication of _The Bible in Spain_ the Prophetess became
+famous.  Thirty-six years later Dr Knapp found her still soliciting alms,
+and she acknowledged that she owed her celebrity to the _Inglés rubio_,
+the blonde Englishman.
+
+{285a}  _The Bible in Spain_, page 627.
+
+{285b}  To Rev. A. Brandram, 25th Jan. 1839.
+
+{286}  On 6th Feb. 1839.
+
+{288a}  Letter to Mr W. Hitchin of the Bible Society, 9th March 1839.
+
+{288b}  Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 26th March 1839.
+
+{290}  Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 10th April 1839.
+
+{293}  Letter to the Rev. A. Brandram, 2nd May 1839.
+
+{294a}  _Excursions Along the Shores of the Mediterranean_, by Lt.-Col.
+E. Napier, 46th Regt.  Colburn, 1842, 2 vols.
+
+{294b}  _Ibid._
+
+{295}  _Excursions Along the Shores of the Mediterranean_, by Lt.-Col. E.
+Napier, 46th Regt.  Colburn, 1842, 2 vols.
+
+{297}  A reference to Charles Robert Maturin’s _Melmoth the Wanderer_, 4
+vols., 1820.  This book was republished in 3 vols. in 1892, an almost
+unparalleled instance of the reissue of a practically forgotten book in a
+form closely resembling that of the original.  Melmoth the Wanderer was
+referred to in the most enthusiastic terms by Balzac, Thackeray and
+Baudelaire among others.
+
+{298}  _The Bible in Spain_, page 663.
+
+{299}  Maria Diaz had written on 24th May: “Calzado has been here to see
+if I would sell him the lamps that belong to the shop [the _Despacho_].
+He is willing to give four dollars for them, and he says they cost five,
+so if you want me to sell them to him, you must let me know.  It seems he
+is going to set up a beer-shop.”  It is not on record whether or no the
+lamps from the Bible Society’s _Despacho_ eventually illuminated a
+beer-shop.
+
+{300}  Letter from Borrow to the Rev. A. Brandram, 28th June 1839.
+
+{301}  28th June.
+
+{302}  Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 18th July 1839.
+
+{307a}  Letter from Borrow to Rev. A. Brandram, 29th Sept. 1839.
+
+{307b}  _Ibid._
+
+{307c}  Mr John M. Brackenbury, in writing to Mr Brandram, made it quite
+clear that he had no doubt that the “inhibition was assuredly
+accelerated, if not absolutely occasioned, by the indiscretion of some of
+those who entered Spain for the avowed object of circulating the
+Scriptures, and of others who, not being Agents of the British and
+Foreign Bible Society, were nevertheless considered to be connected with
+it, as they distributed your editions of the Old and New Testaments.  Our
+objects were defeated and your interests injured, therefore, when the
+Spanish Government required the departure from this country of those who,
+by other acts and deeds wholly distinct from the distribution of Bibles
+and Testaments, had been infracting the Laws, Civil and Ecclesiastical.”
+
+{307d}  Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 29th Sept. 1839.
+
+{308a}  Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 29th Sept. 1839.
+
+{308b}  _Ibid._
+
+{309}  Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 25th Nov. 1839.
+
+{310}  Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 25th Nov. 1839.
+
+{313}  From the Public Record Office.
+
+{315}  Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 25th Nov. 1839.
+
+{316}  Rev. Wentworth Webster in _The Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society_.
+
+{317}  The phrasing of the official translation has everywhere been
+followed.
+
+{319}  The Official Translation among the Foreign Office Papers at the
+Record Office.
+
+{320}  28th Dec. 1839.
+
+{321}  Henrietta played “remarkably well on the guitar—not the trumpery
+German thing so-called—but the real Spanish guitar.”—_Wild Wales_, page
+6.
+
+{322}  _Wild Wales_, page 6.
+
+{323a}  Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 18th March 1840.
+
+{323b}  _Ibid._
+
+{328a}  _The Romany Rye_, page 312.
+
+{328b}  _Ibid._, page 313.
+
+{328c}  _Wild Wales_, page 289.
+
+{329a}  _Lavengro_, page 261.
+
+{329b}  _The Romany Rye_, page 22.
+
+{329c}  _The Journals of Caroline Fox_.
+
+{330a}  _The Letters of Richard Ford_ 1797–1858.—Edited, R. E. Prothero,
+M.V.O., 1905.
+
+{330b}  _Ibid._
+
+{331a}  _The Gypsies of Spain_, page xiv.
+
+{331b}  E[lizabeth] H[arvey] in _The Eastern Daily Press_, 1st Oct. 1892.
+
+{331c}  _The Gypsies of Spain_, page 238.
+
+{332a}  E[lizabeth] H[arvey] in _The Eastern Daily Press_, 1st Oct. 1892.
+
+{332b}  _Ibid._
+
+{332c}  _Ibid._
+
+{332d}  _Ibid._
+
+{333a}  E[lizabeth] H[arvey] in _The Eastern Daily Press_, 1st Oct. 1892.
+
+{333b}  _Ibid._
+
+{333c}  _The Bible in Spain_, page 41.
+
+{334a}  E[lizabeth] H[arvey] in _The Eastern Daily Press_, 1st Oct. 1892.
+
+{334b}  In _The Eastern Daily Press_, 1st Oct. 1892.  She also tells how
+“at the Exhibition in 1851, whither we went with his step-daughter, he
+spoke to the different foreigners in their own languages, until his
+daughter saw some of them whispering together and looking as if they
+thought he was ‘uncanny,’ and she became alarmed, and drew him away.”
+
+{334c}  _Ibid._
+
+{334d}  _The Gypsies of Spain_, page vii.
+
+{335a}  _A Publisher and His Friends_.  Samuel Smiles.
+
+{335b}  Richard Ford, 1796–1858.  Critic and author.  Spent several years
+in touring about Spain on horseback.  Published in 1845, _Hand-Book for
+Travellers in Spain_.  Contributed to the _Edinburgh_, _Quarterly_, and
+_Westminster_ Reviews from 1837.
+
+{335c}  _The Letters of Richard Ford_, 1797–1858.  Ed. R. E. Prothero,
+M.V.O., 1905.
+
+{336a}  Dr. Knapp points out that the title is inaccurate, there being no
+such word as “Zincali.”  It should be “Zincalé.”
+
+{336b}  _The Letters of Richard Ford_, 1797–1858.  Ed. R. E. Prothero,
+M.V.O., 1905.
+
+{337a}  _The Gypsies of Spain_, page 1.  As the current edition of _The
+Zincali_ has been retitled _The Gypsies of Spain_, reference is made to
+it throughout this work under that title and to the latest edition.
+
+{337b}  _The Gypsies of Spain_, page 32.
+
+{338a}  _The Gypsies of Spain_, page 81.
+
+{338b}  _Ibid._, page 186.
+
+{338c}  _Ibid._, page 283.
+
+{339}  _The Gypsies of Spain_, page 274.
+
+{340a}  Introduction to _Lavengro_.  The Little Library, Methuen, 2
+vols., 1, xxiii.-xxiv.  C. G. Leland expressed himself to the same
+effect.
+
+{340b}  _Academy_, 13th July 1874.
+
+{340c}  _Wild Wales_, page 186.
+
+{340d}  _The Bible in Spain_, page 64.
+
+{341}  _Lavengro_, page 81.
+
+{343}  Ford to John Murray.  _The Letters of Richard Ford_, 1797–1858.
+Ed. R. E. Prothero, M.V.O., 1905.
+
+{344}  Ford to John Murray.  _The Letters of Richard Ford_, 1797–1858.
+Ed. R. E. Prothero, M.V.O., 1905.
+
+{347}  Dr Knapp’s _Life of George Borrow_.
+
+{349}  _The Letters of Richard Ford_, 1797–1858.  Edited, R. E. Prothero,
+M.V.O., 1905.
+
+{352}  _Times_, 12th April 1843, Hansard’s summary reads: “It might have
+been said, to Mr Borrow with respect to Spain, that it would be
+impossible to distribute the Bible in that country in consequence of the
+danger of offending the prejudices which prevail there; yet he, a private
+individual, by showing some zeal in what he believed to be right,
+succeeded in triumphing over many obstacles.”
+
+{353}  This is obviously the letter that Borrow paraphrases at the end of
+Chapter XLII. of _The Bible in Spain_.
+
+{354}  In the Appendix to _The Romany Rye_ Borrow wrote, “Having the
+proper pride of a gentleman and a scholar, he did not, in the year ’43,
+choose to permit himself to be exhibited and made a zany of in London.”
+Page 355.
+
+{355a}  Letters to John Murray, 27th Jan. and 13th March, 1843.
+
+{355b}  Letters to John Murray, 27th Jan. and 13th March, 1843.
+
+{355c}  Borrow wrote later on that he was “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” (_The Romany Rye_, page 346).  On another occasion he gave the
+following reason for his adherence to it: “Because I believe it is the
+best religion to get to heaven by” (_Wild Wales_, page 520).
+
+{356}  No trace can be found among the Bible Society Records of any such
+translation.
+
+{357}  This portrait has sometimes been ascribed to Thomas Phillips,
+R.A., in error.
+
+{360a}  _Memories of Old Friends_ (1835–1871).  London 1882.
+
+{360b}  _Memories of Eighty Years_, page 164.
+
+{360c}  E[lizabeth] H[arvey] in _The Eastern Daily Press_, 1st Oct. 1892.
+
+{360d}  E[lizabeth] H[arvey] in _The Eastern Daily Express_, 1st Oct.
+1892.
+
+{361}  _Journals and Correspondence of Lady Eastlake_, ed. by C. E.
+Smith, 1895.
+
+{362a}  _The Romany Rye_, page 344.
+
+{362b}  Dr Knapp’s _Life of George Borrow_, ii. 44.
+
+{362c}  _Hungary in_ 1851.  By Charles L. Brace.
+
+{363}  Mrs Borrow to John Murray, 4th June 1844.
+
+{364}  _Memoirs_, C. G. Leland, 1893.
+
+{365a}  Both these MSS. were acquired by the Trustees of the British
+Museum in 1892 by purchase.  The _Gypsy Vocabulary_ runs to fifty-four
+Folios and the _Bohemian Grammar_ to seventeen Folios.
+
+{365b}  24th April 1841.
+
+{365c}  Dr Knapp’s _Life of George Borrow_, ii. page 5.
+
+{367}  As late even as 13th March 1851, Dr Hake wrote to Mrs Borrow: “He
+[Borrow] had better carry on his biography in three more volumes.”
+
+{372}  Mr A. Egmont Hake in _Athenæum_, 13th Aug. 1881.
+
+{374}  There is something inexplicable about these dates.  On 6th
+November Borrow agrees to alter a passage that in the 14th of the
+previous July he refers to as already amended.
+
+{375}  _Vestiges of Borrow_: _Some Personal Reminiscences_, _The Globe_,
+21st July 1896.
+
+{376a}  Mr A. Egmont Hake in _Athenæum_, 13th Aug. 1881.
+
+{376b}  _The Gypsies of Spain_, page 287.
+
+{376c}  “His sympathies were confined to the gypsies.  Where he came they
+followed.  Where he settled, there they pitched their greasy and horribly
+smelling camps.  It pleased him to be called their King.  He was their
+Bard also, and wrote songs for them in that language of theirs which he
+professed to consider not only the first, but the finest of the human
+modes of speech.  He liked to stretch himself large and loose-limbed
+before the wood fires of their encampment and watch their graceful
+movements among the tents” (_Vestiges of Borrow_: _Some Personal
+Reminiscences_, _Globe_, 21st July 1896).
+
+{376d}  This was said in the presence of Mr F. G. Bowring, son of Dr
+Bowring.
+
+{378a}  Mr F. J. Bowring writes: “I was myself present at Borrow’s last
+call, when he came to take tea _as usual_, and not a word of the kind [as
+given in the Appendix], was delivered.”
+
+{378b}  There is no record of any correspondence with Borrow among the
+Museum Archives.  Dr F. G. Kenyon, C.B., to whom I am indebted for this
+information, suggests that the communications may have been verbal.
+
+{379}  _Memoirs of Eighty Years_.  By Dr Gordon Hake, 1892.
+
+{380a}  _Annals of the Harford Family_.  Privately printed, 1909.  Mr
+Theodore Watts-Dunton, in the _Athenæum_, 25th March 1899, has been
+successful in giving a convincing picture of Borrow: “As to his
+countenance,” he writes, “‘noble’ is the only word that can be used to
+describe it.  The silvery whiteness of the thick crop of hair seemed to
+add in a remarkable way to the beauty of the hairless face, but also it
+gave a strangeness to it, and this strangeness was intensified by a
+certain incongruity between the features (perfect Roman-Greek in type),
+and the Scandinavian complexion, luminous and sometimes rosy as an
+English girl’s.  An increased intensity was lent by the fair skin to the
+dark lustre of the eyes.  What struck the observer, therefore, was not
+the beauty but the strangeness of the man’s appearance.”
+
+{380b}  _Memoirs of Eighty Years_.  By Dr Gordon Hake, 1892.
+
+{381a}  E[lizabeth] H[arvey] in _The Eastern Daily Press_, 1st Oct. 1892.
+
+{381b}  The story is narrated by Dr Augustus Jessopp in the _Athenæum_,
+8th July 1893.
+
+{381c}  _Wild Wales_, page 487.
+
+{381d}  _Wild Wales_, page 36 et seq.
+
+{382}  _Memoirs of Eighty Years_.  By Dr Gordon Hake, 1892.
+
+{383a}  _Memoirs of Eighty Years_.  By Dr Gordon Hake, 1892.
+
+{383b}  _Memoirs of Eighty Years_.  By Dr Gordon Hake, 1892.
+
+{384a}  _George Borrow in East Anglia_.  W. A. Dutt.
+
+{384b}  _Memoirs of Eighty Years_.  By Dr Gordon Hake, 1892.
+
+{385a}  _William Bodham Donne and His Friends_.  By Catherine B. Johnson.
+
+{385b}  William Whewell (1794–1866), Master of Trinity College,
+Cambridge, 1848–66; Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University, 1843–56;
+secured in 1847 the election of the Prince Consort as Chancellor;
+enlarged the buildings of Trinity College and founded professorship and
+scholarships for international law.  Published and edited many works on
+natural and mathematical science, philosophy, theology and sermons.
+
+{386}  Mr John Murray in _Good Words_.
+
+{390}  To John Murray; the letter is in Mrs Borrow’s hand but drafted by
+Borrow himself, 29th Jan. 1855.
+
+{391a}  16th April 1845.
+
+{391b}  See post.
+
+{393a}  _The Romany Rye_, page 338.
+
+{393b}  _Life of Frances Power Cable_, by herself.
+
+{393c}  Borrow goes on to an anti-climax when he states that he “believes
+him [Scott] to have been by far the greatest [poet], with perhaps the
+exception of Mickiewicz, who only wrote for unfortunate Poland, that
+Europe has given birth to during the last hundred years.”
+
+{393d}  _The Romany Rye_, pages 344–5.
+
+{393e}  _Romano Lavo-Lil_, page 274.
+
+{393f}  _The Romany Rye_, page 134.
+
+{394a}  Letter from Borrow to Dr Usoz, 22nd Feb. 1839.
+
+{394b}  _Macmillan’s Magazine_, vol. 45.
+
+{396}  “Notes upon George Borrow” prefaced to an edition of _Lavengro_.
+Ward, Lock & Co.
+
+{398}  Mr W. Elvin in the _Athenæum_, 6th Aug. 1881.
+
+{399a}  John Wilson Croker (1780–1857): Politician and Essayist; friend
+of Canning and Peel.  At one time Temporary Chief Secretary for Ireland
+and later Secretary of the Admiralty.  Supposed to have been the original
+of Rigby in Disraeli’s _Coningsby_.
+
+{399b}  Mr Theodore Watts-Dunton, “Notes upon George Borrow” prefaced to
+an edition of _Lavengro_.  Ward, Lock & Co.
+
+{400a}  The Rt. Hon. Augustine Birrell in _Obiter Dicta_, and Series,
+1887.
+
+{400b}  Francis Hindes Groome in _Bookman_, May 1899.
+
+{404a}  “Swimming is a noble exercise, but it certainly does not tend to
+mortify either the flesh or the spirit.”—_The Bible in Spain_, page 688.
+
+{404b}  Mr John Murray in _Good Words_.
+
+{404c}  In _The Eastern Daily Press_, 1st October 1892.
+
+{405}  Borrow’s reference is to the county motto, “One and All.”
+
+{407a}  _The Life of George Borrow_, by Dr Knapp, ii., 79–80.
+
+{407b}  _George Borrow_, by R. A. J. Walling.
+
+{407c}  _George Borrow_, by R. A. J. Walling.
+
+{408}  _George Borrow_, by R. A. J. Walling.
+
+{409}  _The Life of George Borrow_, by Dr Knapp.
+
+{411}  This is rather awkwardly phrased, as Mrs Borrow was alive at that
+date.
+
+{412a}  The first reference to the famous Appendix is contained in a
+letter to John Murray (11th Nov. 1853) in which Borrow writes: “In answer
+to your inquiries about the fourth volume of _Lavengro_, I beg leave to
+say that I am occasionally occupied upon it.  I shall probably add some
+notes.”
+
+{412b}  _The Life of George Borrow_, by Dr Knapp.
+
+{413}  _The Life of George Borrow_, by Dr Knapp.
+
+{415a}  _Wild Wales_, page 6.
+
+{415b}  There appears to have been a slight cast in his (Borrow’s) left
+eye.  The Queen of the Nokkums remarked that, like Will Faa, he had “a
+skellying look with the left eye” (_Romano Lavo-Lil_, page 267).  Mr F.
+H. Bowring, who frequently met him, states that he “had a slight cast in
+the eye.”
+
+{416}  E[lizabeth] H[arvey] in _The Eastern Daily Press_, 1st Oct. 1892.
+
+{417a}  Ellen Jones actually wrote—
+
+       Ellen Jones
+    yn pithyn pell
+    i gronow owen
+
+{417b}  _Wild Wales_, pages 227–8.
+
+{418a}  This was the mason of whom Borrow enquired the way, and who
+“stood for a moment or two, as if transfixed, a trowel motionless in one
+of his hands, and a brick in the other,” who on recovering himself
+replied in “tolerable Spanish.”—_Wild Wales_, page 225.
+
+{418b}  _Wild Wales_, page 5.
+
+{418c}  These particulars have been courteously supplied by Mr George
+Porter of Denbigh, who interviewed Mrs Thomas on 27th Dec. 1910.
+Borrow’s accuracy in _Wild Wales_ was photograph.  The Norwich jeweller
+Rossi mentioned in _Wild Wales_ (page 159 _et seq._) was a friend of
+Borrow’s with whom he frequently spent an evening: conversing in Italian,
+“being anxious to perfect himself in that language.”  I quote from a
+letter from his son Mr Theodore Rossi.  “There was an entire absence of
+pretence about him and we liked him very much—he always seemed desirous
+of learning.”
+
+{419a}  This story is told by Mr F. J. Bowring, son of Sir John Bowring.
+He heard it from Mrs Roberts, the landlady of the inn.
+
+{419b}  _Wild Wales_, page 274.
+
+{419c}  _Wild Wales_, page 130.
+
+{419d}  _Wild Wales_, page 130.
+
+{420a}  _Wild Wales_, page 150.
+
+{420b}  These carvels were written by such young people as thought
+themselves “endowed with the poetic gift, to compose carols some time
+before Christmas, and to recite them in the parish churches.  Those
+pieces which were approved of by the clergy were subsequently chanted by
+their authors through their immediate neighbourhoods.”  (Introduction to
+_Bayr Jairgey_, Borrow’s projected book on the Isle of Man.)
+
+{422}  Painted by H. W. Phillips in 1843.
+
+{423a}  _Vestiges of Borrow_: _Some Personal Reminiscences_.  _The
+Globe_, 21st July 1896.
+
+{423b}  The Anglo-Saxon scholar (1795–1857), who though paralysed during
+the whole of her life visited Rome, Athens and other places.  She was the
+first woman elected a member of the British Association.
+
+{423c}  To judge from Borrow’s opinion of O’Connell previously quoted,
+“notoriety” would have been a more appropriate word in his case.
+
+{424}  Given to the Rev. A. W. Upcher and related by him in _The
+Athenæum_, 22nd July 1893.
+
+{425a}  _Lavengro_, page 361.
+
+{425b}  _The Romany Rye_, page 309.
+
+{425c}  _Wild Wales_, page 285.
+
+{425d}  _The Eastern Daily Press_, 1st Oct. 1892.
+
+{427}  Garcin de Tassy.  Note sur les Rubâ’ïyât de ’Omar Khaïyam, which
+appeared in the _Journal Asiatique_.
+
+{428a}  _Letters and Literary Remains of Edward FitzGerald_, 1889.
+
+{428b}  _Songs of Europe_, _or Metrical Translations from All the
+European Languages_, _With Brief Prefatory Remarks on Each Language and
+its Literature_.  2 vols.  (Advertised as “Ready for the Press” at the
+end of _The Romany Rye_.  See page 438.)
+
+{429}  Rev. Whitwell Elwin, editor of _The Quarterly Review_.  See
+_post_, p. 431.
+
+{431}  Elwin could not very well have known Borrow all his, Borrow’s
+life, as Dr Knapp states, for he was fifteen years younger, being born
+26th Feb. 1816.
+
+{432a}  _Some XVIII. Century Men of Letters_.  Ed. Warwick Elwin, 1902.
+
+{432b}  _Some XVIII. Century Men of Letters_.  Ed. Warwick Elwin, 1902.
+
+{433}  _Some XVIII. Century Men of Letters_.  Ed. Warwick Elwin, 1902.
+
+{435}  Entitled _Roving Life in England_.  March 1857.
+
+{436}  Elwin had already testified, also in _The Quarterly Review_, to
+the accuracy of Borrow’s portrait of B. R. Haydon in _Lavengro_, as
+confirmed by documentary evidence, and this after first reading the
+account as “a comic exaggeration.”
+
+{437a}  _Letters and Literary Remains of Edward FitzGerald_, 1889.
+
+{437b}  Mr A. Egmont Hake in _Athenæum_, 13th Aug. 1881.
+
+{438}  Works by the Author of _The Bible in Spain_, ready for the Press.
+
+In Two Volumes, Celtic Bards, Chiefs, and Kings.—In Two Volumes, Wild
+Wales, Its People, Language, and Scenery.—In Two Volumes, Songs of
+Europe; or, Metrical Translations From all the European Languages.  With
+brief Prefatory Remarks on each Language and its Literature.—In Two
+Volumes, Koempe Viser; Songs about Giants and Heroes.  With Romantic and
+Historical Ballads, Translated from the Ancient Danish.  With an
+Introduction and Copious Notes.—In One Volume, The Turkish Jester; or,
+The Pleasantries of Cogia Nasr Eddin Efendi.  Translated from the
+Turkish.  With an Introduction.—In Two Volumes, Penquite and Pentyre; or,
+The Head of the Forest and the Headland.  A Book on Cornwall.—In One
+Volume, Russian Popular Tales, With an Introduction and Notes.
+Contents:—The Story of Emelian the Fool; The Story of the Frog and the
+Hero; The Story of the Golden Mountain; The Story of the Seven
+Sevenlings; The Story of the Eryslan; The Story of the Old Man and his
+Son, the Crane; The Story of the Daughter of the Stroey; The Story of
+Klim; The Story of Prince Vikor; The Story of Prince Peter; The Story of
+Yvashka with the Bear’s Ear.—In One Volume, The Sleeping Bard; or,
+Visions of the World, Death, & Hell.  By Master Elis Wyn.  Translated
+from the Cambrian British.—In Two Volumes (Unfinished), Northern-Skalds,
+Kings, and Earls.—The Death of Balder; A Heroic Play.  Translated from
+the Danish of Evald.—In One Volume, Bayr Jairgey and Glion Doo: The Red
+Path and the Black Valley.  Wanderings in Quest of Manx Literature.
+
+{439}  “She was a lady of striking figure and very graceful manners,
+perhaps more serious than vivacious.”—Mr A. Egmont Hake in _The
+Athenæum_, 13th August 1881.
+
+{440a}  She bequeathed to her son by will “all and every thing” of which
+she died possessed, charging him with the delivery of any gift to any
+other person she might desire.
+
+{440b}  _Wild Wales_, page 548.
+
+{442}  These particulars have been kindly supplied by Mr D. B. Hill of
+Mattishall, Norfolk.
+
+{445a}  Mr. A. Egmont Hake in _The Athenæum_, 13th Aug. 1881.
+
+{445b}  _The Life of Frances Power Cobbe_, by Herself, 1894.
+
+{446}  _The Life of Frances Power Cobbe_, by Herself, 1894.
+
+{447a}  “In Defence of Borrow,” prefixed to _The Romany Rye_.  Ward,
+Locke & Co.
+
+{447b}  _Vestiges of Borrow_; _Some Personal Reminiscences_.  _The
+Globe_, 21st July 1896.
+
+{448}  _The Athenæum_, 13th August 1881.
+
+{449a}  Mr A. Egmont Hake in _Macmillan’s Magazine_, November 1881.
+
+{449b}  Mr A. Egmont Hake in _The Athenæum_, 13th August 1881.
+
+{449c}  _Memoirs of Eighty Years_, by Dr Gordon Hake, 1892.
+
+{450}  _The Athenæum_, 10th September 1881.
+
+{451a}  _The Athenæum_, 10th September 1881.
+
+{451b}  _The Athenæum_, 13th August 1881.
+
+{453}  “Sherry drinkers, . . . I often heard him say in a tone of
+positive loathing, he _despised_.  He had a habit of speaking in a
+measured syllabic manner, if he wished to express dislike or contempt,
+which was certainly very effective.  He would say: ‘If you want to have
+the Sherry _tang_, get Madeira (that’s a gentleman’s wine), and throw
+into it two or three pairs of old boots, and you’ll get the taste of the
+pig skins they carry the Sherry about in.”—Rev. J. R. P. Berkeley’s
+_Recollections_.  _The Life of George Borrow_, by Dr Knapp.
+
+{456}  _Life of Frances Power Cobbe_, by Herself, 1894.
+
+{459a}  _The Geologist_, 1797–1875.
+
+{459b}  _The Life of Frances Power Cobbe_, by Herself, 1894.
+
+{460a}  _Charles Godfrey Leland_, by E. R. Pennell, 1908
+
+{460b}  _Memoirs_, by C. G. Leland, 1893.
+
+{461a}  In her biography of Leland, Mrs Pennell states that an American
+woman, a Mrs Lewis (“Estelle”) introduced Leland to Borrow at the British
+Museum and that they talked Gypsy.  “I hear he expressed himself as
+greatly pleased with me,” was Leland’s comment.  The correspondence
+clearly shows that Leland called on Borrow.
+
+{461b}  _Memoirs_ of C. G. Leland, 1893.
+
+{461c}  _Memoirs_ of C. G. Leland, 1893.
+
+{462a}  Leland’s annoyance with Borrow did not prevent him paying to his
+memory the following tribute:—
+
+“What I admire in Borrow to such a degree that before it his faults or
+failings seem very trifling, is his absolutely vigorous, marvellously
+varied originality, based on direct familiarity with Nature, but guided
+and cultured by the study of natural, simple writers, such as Defoe and
+Smollett.  I think that the ‘interest’ in, or rather sympathy for
+gypsies, in his case as in mine, came not from their being curious or
+dramatic beings, but because they are so much a part of free life, of
+out-of-doors Nature; so associated with sheltered nooks among rocks and
+trees, the hedgerow and birds, river-sides, and wild roads.  Borrow’s
+heart was large and true as regarded English rural life; there was a
+place in it for everything which was of the open air and freshly
+beautiful.”—_Memoirs_ of C. G. Leland, 1893.
+
+{462b}  _Romano Lavo-Lil_.  Word-Book of the Romany, or English Gypsy
+Language.  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.
+
+{462c}  “There were not two educated men in England who possessed the
+slightest knowledge of Romany.”—F. H. Groome in _Academy_,—13th June
+1874.
+
+{463a}  F. H. Groome in _Academy_, 13th June 1874.
+
+{463b}  _Ibid._
+
+{464}  _The Athenæum_, 17th March 1888.
+
+{466a}  _The Bookman_, February 1893.
+
+{466b}  _The Athenæum_, 10th Sept. 1881.
+
+{467}  _William Bodham Donne and His Friends_.  Edited by Catherine B.
+Johnson, 1905.
+
+{469a}  Mr T. Watts-Dunton, in _The Athenæum_, 3rd Sept. 1881.
+
+{469b}  Mr A. Egmont Hake, in _The Athenæum_, 13th Aug. 1881.
+
+{470a}  _The Life of George Borrow_, by Dr Knapp.
+
+{470b}  _East Anglia_, by J. Ewing Ritchie, 1883.
+
+{470c}  _George Borrow in East Anglia_.
+
+{473}  W. E. Henley.
+
+{474a}  _The Athenæum_, 25th March 1899.
+
+{474b}  Many attacks have been made upon Borrow’s memory: one well-known
+man of letters and divine has gone to lengths that can only be described
+as unpardonable.  It is undesirable to do more than deplore the lapse
+that no doubt the writer himself has already deeply regretted.
+
+{474c}  _Memoirs of Eighty Years_, 1892.
+
+{475a}  Mr A. Egmont Hake in _The Athenæum_, 13th August 1881.
+
+{475b}  In _The Bible in Spain_.  “Next to the love of God, the love of
+country is the best preventative of crime.”  (Page 53.)
+
+{475c}  _The Bible in Spain_, page 97.
+
+{476}  Mr Thomas Seccombe in _The Bookman_, Feb. 1892.
+
+{477}  _Wild Wales_, page 628.
+
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF GEORGE BORROW***
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