diff options
Diffstat (limited to '3481-h')
| -rw-r--r-- | 3481-h/3481-h.htm | 20362 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3481-h/images/coverb.jpg | bin | 0 -> 203852 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3481-h/images/covers.jpg | bin | 0 -> 39240 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3481-h/images/fpb.jpg | bin | 0 -> 200461 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3481-h/images/fps.jpg | bin | 0 -> 37196 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3481-h/images/p170b.jpg | bin | 0 -> 201728 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3481-h/images/p170s.jpg | bin | 0 -> 38602 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3481-h/images/p330b.jpg | bin | 0 -> 282701 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3481-h/images/p330s.jpg | bin | 0 -> 38605 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3481-h/images/p336b.jpg | bin | 0 -> 222410 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3481-h/images/p336s.jpg | bin | 0 -> 38736 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3481-h/images/p338b.jpg | bin | 0 -> 233455 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3481-h/images/p338s.jpg | bin | 0 -> 39250 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3481-h/images/p34b.jpg | bin | 0 -> 223885 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3481-h/images/p34s.jpg | bin | 0 -> 39396 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3481-h/images/p358b.jpg | bin | 0 -> 205307 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3481-h/images/p358s.jpg | bin | 0 -> 38254 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3481-h/images/p36b.jpg | bin | 0 -> 250992 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3481-h/images/p36s.jpg | bin | 0 -> 38920 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3481-h/images/p42b.jpg | bin | 0 -> 234486 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3481-h/images/p42s.jpg | bin | 0 -> 40022 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3481-h/images/p450b.jpg | bin | 0 -> 83971 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3481-h/images/p450s.jpg | bin | 0 -> 29784 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3481-h/images/p64b.jpg | bin | 0 -> 322701 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3481-h/images/p64s.jpg | bin | 0 -> 38585 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3481-h/images/p8b.jpg | bin | 0 -> 268789 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3481-h/images/p8s.jpg | bin | 0 -> 38841 bytes |
27 files changed, 20362 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/3481-h/3481-h.htm b/3481-h/3481-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4222794 --- /dev/null +++ b/3481-h/3481-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,20362 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>The Life of George Borrow, by Herbert Jenkins</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + P.gutsumm { margin-left: 5%;} + P.poetry {margin-left: 3%; } + .GutSmall { font-size: 0.7em; } + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4, H5 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + table { border-collapse: collapse; } +table {margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;} + td { vertical-align: top; border: 1px solid black;} + td p { margin: 0.2em; } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-weight: normal; + color: gray; + } + img { border: none; } + img.dc { float: left; width: 50px; height: 50px; } + p.gutindent { margin-left: 2em; } + div.gapspace { height: 0.8em; } + div.gapline { height: 0.8em; width: 100%; border-top: 1px solid;} + div.gapmediumline { height: 0.3em; width: 40%; margin-left:30%; + border-top: 1px solid; } + div.gapmediumdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 40%; margin-left:30%; + border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} + div.gapshortdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; + margin-left: 40%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid; } + div.gapdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 50%; + margin-left: 25%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid;} + div.gapshortline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; margin-left:40%; + border-top: 1px solid; } + .citation {vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none;} + img.floatleft { float: left; + margin-right: 1em; + margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.floatright { float: right; + margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.clearcenter {display: block; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em} + --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<pre> + +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: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF GEORGE BORROW*** +</pre> +<p>Transcribed from the 1912 John Murray edition by David Price, +email ccx074@pglaf.org</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/coverb.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Book cover" +title= +"Book cover" + src="images/covers.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/fpb.jpg"> +<img alt= +"George Borrow from the picture in the possession of John Murray" +title= +"George Borrow from the picture in the possession of John Murray" + src="images/fps.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h1><span class="GutSmall">THE LIFE OF</span><br /> +GEORGE BORROW</h1> +<p style="text-align: center">COMPILED FROM UNPUBLISHED<br /> +OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS, HIS<br /> +WORKS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">BY HERBERT JENKINS</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">WITH A +FRONTISPIECE IN PHOTOGRAVURE, AND</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">TWELVE OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS</span></p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center">LONDON<br /> +JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.<br /> +1912</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">TO</span><br +/> +JOHN MURRARY THE FOURTH</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">IN GRATEFUL +RECOLLECTION OF THE KEEN INTEREST</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">HE HAS SHOWN IN THE WRITING OF THE LIFE +OF</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">A MAN WHOM HE WELL REMEMBERS AND MUCH +ADMIRES</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">BY THE AUTHOR</span></p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<h2>PREFACE</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">During</span> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>The Athenæum</i> and <i>The +Bookman</i>, 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Herbert +Jenkins</span>.</p> +<p><i>January</i>, 1912.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER I:<br /> +1678–MAY 1816</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">On</span> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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, <a +name="citation3"></a><a href="#footnote3" +class="citation">[3]</a> in command of a detachment of the +Coldstream Guards, at that time stationed in the duchy.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation4a"></a><a href="#footnote4a" +class="citation">[4a]</a></p> +<p>At East Dereham Thomas Borrow met Ann <a +name="citation4b"></a><a href="#footnote4b" +class="citation">[4b]</a> Perfrement, <a name="citation4c"></a><a +href="#footnote4c" class="citation">[4c]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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 <i>forty-six</i> years ago, when +he came to see his mother, Mrs P[aget]. She was also +acquainted with his sister, Miss Jane Murray, <a +name="citation5"></a><a href="#footnote5" +class="citation">[5]</a> who used to ride on horseback with her +on the Downs. She says Captain [<i>sic</i>] 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?”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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,” <a +name="citation6a"></a><a href="#footnote6a" +class="citation">[6a]</a> 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.” <a +name="citation6b"></a><a href="#footnote6b" +class="citation">[6b]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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 <a +name="citation7a"></a><a href="#footnote7a" +class="citation">[7a]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation7b"></a><a href="#footnote7b" +class="citation">[7b]</a> 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,” <a +name="citation7c"></a><a href="#footnote7c" +class="citation">[7c]</a> beside which he once paused to +contemplate “a beautiful stream . . . sparkling in the +sunshine, and . . . tumbling merrily into cascades,” <a +name="citation7d"></a><a href="#footnote7d" +class="citation">[7d]</a> which he likened to his brother.</p> +<p>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,” <a +name="citation7e"></a><a href="#footnote7e" +class="citation">[7e]</a> 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,” <a name="citation7f"></a><a href="#footnote7f" +class="citation">[7f]</a> 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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p8b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"The birthplace of George Borrow, East Dereham. Photo. H. T. +Cave, East Dereham" +title= +"The birthplace of George Borrow, East Dereham. Photo. H. T. +Cave, East Dereham" + src="images/p8s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation9a"></a><a href="#footnote9a" +class="citation">[9a]</a> 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, <a name="citation9b"></a><a href="#footnote9b" +class="citation">[9b]</a> 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.” <a name="citation9c"></a><a +href="#footnote9c" class="citation">[9c]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation10a"></a><a href="#footnote10a" +class="citation">[10a]</a></p> +<p>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. +<a name="citation10b"></a><a href="#footnote10b" +class="citation">[10b]</a> 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.” <a name="citation10c"></a><a +href="#footnote10c" class="citation">[10c]</a> His mind was +not ready for them. When the time came there was no +question of dullness: he proved an eager and earnest student.</p> +<p>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 <i>Robinson Crusoe</i>. Instantly George became +absorbed.</p> +<p>“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.” <a +name="citation11a"></a><a href="#footnote11a" +class="citation">[11a]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation11b"></a><a href="#footnote11b" +class="citation">[11b]</a> But they were all old +campaigners and accepted such adventures as incidents of a +soldier’s life.</p> +<p>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, <a +name="citation12a"></a><a href="#footnote12a" +class="citation">[12a]</a> and awakened in his heart a +superstitious awe and veneration for the child, the +<i>Sap-engro</i>, 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 <i>Robinson Crusoe</i>. +Thus it came about that George Borrow was proclaimed brother to +the gypsy’s son Ambrose, <a name="citation12b"></a><a +href="#footnote12b" class="citation">[12b]</a> who as Jasper +Petulengro figures so largely in <i>Lavengro</i> and <i>The +Romany Rye</i>, and is credited with that exquisitely phrased +pagan glorification of mere existence:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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?” <a name="citation13a"></a><a href="#footnote13a" +class="citation">[13a]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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 <i>via</i> +Norfolk, after fifteen months of prison duty and straw-plait +destroying. <a name="citation13b"></a><a href="#footnote13b" +class="citation">[13b]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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,” <a +name="citation13c"></a><a href="#footnote13c" +class="citation">[13c]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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 <a +name="citation14"></a><a href="#footnote14" +class="citation">[14]</a> sitting on the extreme verge of a +precipice, “thinking of Willie Wallace.”</p> +<p>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 +<i>via</i> 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.</p> +<p>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,” <a +name="citation15a"></a><a href="#footnote15a" +class="citation">[15a]</a> and whose works are to “rank +among the proudest pictures of England,”—the Norwich +painter, “Old Crome.” <a name="citation15b"></a><a +href="#footnote15b" class="citation">[15b]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>Lavengro</i> and <i>The Romany Rye</i>. +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.</p> +<p>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. <a +name="citation17"></a><a href="#footnote17" +class="citation">[17]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER II:<br /> +MAY 1816–MARCH 1824</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">For</span> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 +(<i>Lavengro</i>).” <a name="citation20"></a><a +href="#footnote20" class="citation">[20]</a> 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.” <a +name="citation21a"></a><a href="#footnote21a" +class="citation">[21a]</a> 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 <i>émigré</i> priest, <a +name="citation21b"></a><a href="#footnote21b" +class="citation">[21b]</a> 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.” <a +name="citation21c"></a><a href="#footnote21c" +class="citation">[21c]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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. <a name="citation22"></a><a +href="#footnote22" class="citation">[22]</a> 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 <i>gorgio</i>. 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>About this time he saved a boy from drowning in the Yare. <a +name="citation23"></a><a href="#footnote23" +class="citation">[23]</a> It may be this act with which he +generously credits his brother John when he says—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a +name="citation24"></a><a href="#footnote24" +class="citation">[24]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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. <a name="citation25a"></a><a +href="#footnote25a" class="citation">[25a]</a></p> +<p>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 <i>The Wandering Children and the Benevolent +Gentleman</i>, 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. <a +name="citation25b"></a><a href="#footnote25b" +class="citation">[25b]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>On the 30th of March 1819 Borrow was articled for five years +to Simpson & Rackham, solicitors, of Tuck’s Court, St +Giles, Norwich. <a name="citation26"></a><a href="#footnote26" +class="citation">[26]</a> He consequently left home to take +up his abode at the house of the senior partner in the Upper +Close. <a name="citation27a"></a><a href="#footnote27a" +class="citation">[27a]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation27b"></a><a +href="#footnote27b" class="citation">[27b]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.” +<a name="citation28a"></a><a href="#footnote28a" +class="citation">[28a]</a> This had occupied some three +years. The studies with the groom lasted for about twelve +months, until he left Norwich with his family. <a +name="citation28b"></a><a href="#footnote28b" +class="citation">[28b]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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. <a +name="citation30a"></a><a href="#footnote30a" +class="citation">[30a]</a> He was not only “the first +solicitor in East Anglia,” but “the prince of all +English solicitors—for he was a gentleman!” <a +name="citation30b"></a><a href="#footnote30b" +class="citation">[30b]</a> In another place Borrow refers +to him as “my old master . . . who would have died sooner +than broken his word. God bless him!” <a +name="citation30c"></a><a href="#footnote30c" +class="citation">[30c]</a> And yet again as “my +ancient master, the gentleman solicitor of East Anglia.” <a +name="citation30d"></a><a href="#footnote30d" +class="citation">[30d]</a></p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation31a"></a><a +href="#footnote31a" class="citation">[31a]</a></p> +<p>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 <i>Danica +Literatura Antiquissima</i> of Olaus Wormius, 1636, which +inspired him with the idea of adopting the name Olaus, his +subsequent contributions to <i>The New Magazine</i> being signed +George Olaus Borrow.</p> +<p>Whilst Borrow was striving to learn languages and avoid the +law, <a name="citation31b"></a><a href="#footnote31b" +class="citation">[31b]</a> 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?” +<a name="citation31c"></a><a href="#footnote31c" +class="citation">[31c]</a></p> +<p>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. <a +name="citation32a"></a><a href="#footnote32a" +class="citation">[32a]</a> Later he went to Paris to copy +Old Masters.</p> +<p>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?” <a +name="citation32b"></a><a href="#footnote32b" +class="citation">[32b]</a> 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.”</p> +<p>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).</p> +<p>Some time during the year 1820, a Jew named Levy (the Mousha +of <i>Lavengro</i>), Borrow’s instructor in Hebrew, +introduced him to William Taylor, <a name="citation33a"></a><a +href="#footnote33a" class="citation">[33a]</a> 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.</p> +<p>It is doubtful if William Taylor ever found another pupil so +apt, or a disciple so enthusiastic among all the +“harum-scarum young men” <a name="citation33b"></a><a +href="#footnote33b" class="citation">[33b]</a> that he was so +fond of taking up and introducing “into the best society +the place afforded.” <a name="citation33c"></a><a +href="#footnote33c" class="citation">[33c]</a> 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.” <a +name="citation33d"></a><a href="#footnote33d" +class="citation">[33d]</a></p> +<p>To a correspondent Taylor wrote:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“A Norwich young man is construing with me +Schiller’s <i>Wilhelm Tell</i>, 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.” <a +name="citation34a"></a><a href="#footnote34a" +class="citation">[34a]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>This was in 1821; two years later Borrow is said to have +“translated with fidelity and elegance from twenty +different languages.” <a name="citation34b"></a><a +href="#footnote34b" class="citation">[34b]</a> 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.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p34b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"William Taylor of Norwich" +title= +"William Taylor of Norwich" + src="images/p34s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>In the autobiographical notes that Borrow supplied to Mr John +Longe in 1862 there appears the following passage:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>At William Taylor’s table Borrow met “the most +intellectual and talented men of Norwich, as also those of note +who visited the city.” <a name="citation34c"></a><a +href="#footnote34c" class="citation">[34c]</a> 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. <a +name="citation35a"></a><a href="#footnote35a" +class="citation">[35a]</a> “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.” <a name="citation35b"></a><a href="#footnote35b" +class="citation">[35b]</a> Borrow has given the following +convincing picture of Taylor:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.’” <a name="citation35c"></a><a +href="#footnote35c" class="citation">[35c]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p36b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"George Borrow (1821). From a hitherto unpublished painting by +John Borrow, now in the posession of W. F. T. Jarrold, Esq." +title= +"George Borrow (1821). From a hitherto unpublished painting by +John Borrow, now in the posession of W. F. T. Jarrold, Esq." + src="images/p36s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>Borrow met at the house of his tutor and friend, in July 1821, +Dr Bowring <a name="citation36a"></a><a href="#footnote36a" +class="citation">[36a]</a> (afterwards Sir John) at a dinner +given in his honour. Bowring had recently published +<i>Specimen of Russian Poets</i>, 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, <a +name="citation36b"></a><a href="#footnote36b" +class="citation">[36b]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation38"></a><a href="#footnote38" +class="citation">[38]</a></p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a name="citation39"></a><a href="#footnote39" +class="citation">[39]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<h2>CHAPTER III<br /> +APRIL 1824–MAY 1825</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">On</span> 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.” <a +name="citation40a"></a><a href="#footnote40a" +class="citation">[40a]</a></p> +<p>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. <a +name="citation40b"></a><a href="#footnote40b" +class="citation">[40b]</a> 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.”</p> +<p>Among the bundles of papers were:</p> +<p class="gutindent">(i.) The Ancient Songs of Denmark, +heroic and romantic, translated by himself, with notes +philological, critical and historical.</p> +<p class="gutindent">(ii.) The Songs of Ab Gwilym, the +Welsh Bard, also translated by himself, with notes critical, +philological and historical. <a name="citation41"></a><a +href="#footnote41" class="citation">[41]</a></p> +<p class="gutindent">(iii.) A romance in the German +style.</p> +<p>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 <i>New +Magazine</i> he had already contributed a number of translations +of poems. He had also printed in <i>The Monthly +Magazine</i> and <i>The New Monthly Magazine</i> translations of +verse from the German, Swedish, Dutch, Danish and Spanish, and an +essay on Danish ballad writing.</p> +<p>On the morning of 2nd April there arrived at 16 Milman Street, +Bedford Row, London, W.C.,</p> +<p class="poetry">“A lad who twenty tongues can talk,<br /> +And sixty miles a day can walk;<br /> +Drink at a draught a pint of rum,<br /> +And then be neither sick nor dumb;<br /> +Can tune a song and make a verse,<br /> +And deeds of Northern kings rehearse;<br /> +Who never will forsake his friend<br /> +While he his bony fist can bend;<br /> +And, though averse to broil and strife,<br /> +Will fight a Dutchman with a knife;<br /> +O that is just the lad for me,<br /> +And such is honest six-foot-three.” <a +name="citation42a"></a><a href="#footnote42a" +class="citation">[42a]</a></p> +<p>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, <a +name="citation42b"></a><a href="#footnote42b" +class="citation">[42b]</a> in whom centred his hopes of +employment.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p42b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Sir Richard Phillips. From the painting by James Saxon in the +National Portrait Gallery" +title= +"Sir Richard Phillips. From the painting by James Saxon in the +National Portrait Gallery" + src="images/p42s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>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 <i>Lavengro</i>). 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.</p> +<p>He learned two things—first, that Sir Richard Phillips +had retired from publishing and had reserved only <i>The Monthly +Magazine</i>; <a name="citation43"></a><a href="#footnote43" +class="citation">[43]</a> 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.</p> +<p>When he had thoroughly dashed the young author’s hopes +of employment, Sir Richard informed him of a new publication he +had in preparation, <i>The Universal Review</i> [<i>The Oxford +Review</i> of <i>Lavengro</i>], 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 <i>The +Dairyman’s Daughter</i>, 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 <i>The +Dairyman’s Daughter</i>, 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>Newgate Lives and +Trials</i> of <i>Lavengro</i>], each to contain not less than a +thousand pages. <a name="citation44a"></a><a href="#footnote44a" +class="citation">[44a]</a> 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 <i>Universal +Review</i>. “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.</p> +<p>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 +<i>The Universal Review</i>; 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. <a +name="citation44b"></a><a href="#footnote44b" +class="citation">[44b]</a> If translations of Goethe into +English were a drug, Sir Richard Phillips’ <i>Proximate +Causes</i> 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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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 <i>Proximate +Causes</i>, with an injunction that he should review it in <i>The +Universal Review</i>, as well as translate it into German. +He was taken to and introduced to the working editor <a +name="citation45a"></a><a href="#footnote45a" +class="citation">[45a]</a> of the new publication, which was only +ostensibly under the control of young Phillips.</p> +<p>In the provision that he should purchase at his own expense +all the necessary materials for <i>Celebrated Trials</i>, 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 <a +name="citation45b"></a><a href="#footnote45b" +class="citation">[45b]</a> to the effect that:</p> +<blockquote><p>“A Selection of the most remarkable Trials +and Criminal Causes is printing, in five volumes. <a +name="citation46a"></a><a href="#footnote46a" +class="citation">[46a]</a> 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 <a name="citation46b"></a><a href="#footnote46b" +class="citation">[46b]</a> of the most interesting cases on +record, will appear in October next.” <a +name="citation46c"></a><a href="#footnote46c" +class="citation">[46c]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>The leisure that he allowed himself, Borrow spent in exploring +the city, or in the company of Francis Arden (Ardrey in +<i>Lavengro</i>), 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.” <a +name="citation46d"></a><a href="#footnote46d" +class="citation">[46d]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>John returned to Norwich about a fortnight later accompanied +by Haydon, who was to become the guest of his sitter, <a +name="citation47"></a><a href="#footnote47" +class="citation">[47]</a> and George was left to the compilation +of <i>Celebrated Trials</i>. 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.”</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation48a"></a><a href="#footnote48a" +class="citation">[48a]</a> 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, <a +name="citation48b"></a><a href="#footnote48b" +class="citation">[48b]</a> “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.”</p> +<p>A serious misfortune now befell Borrow in the premature death +of <i>The Universal Review</i>, 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 <a +name="citation49a"></a><a href="#footnote49a" +class="citation">[49a]</a> certainly not large, if it may be +judged by the amount agreed upon for <i>Celebrated +Trials</i>. 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 <i>Proximate +Causes</i>.</p> +<p>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 <i>Trials</i> had +created. Sir Richard became more exacting and more than +ever critical. <a name="citation49b"></a><a href="#footnote49b" +class="citation">[49b]</a> 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!”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>Proximate Causes</i> 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 <i>literally into German</i>!</p> +<p>The result of the interview was that Borrow, after what +appears to be a tactless, not to say impertinent, rejoinder, <a +name="citation50a"></a><a href="#footnote50a" +class="citation">[50a]</a> 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.”</p> +<p>The discovery of the inadequacy of the German translation +apparently urged Borrow to hasten on with <i>Celebrated +Trials</i>. <i>The Universal Review</i> was dead, the +German version of <i>Proximate Causes</i> <a +name="citation50b"></a><a href="#footnote50b" +class="citation">[50b]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>Proximate Causes</i> 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.</p> +<p>The most important result of his labours in connection with +<i>Celebrated Trials</i> 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:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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,’ <a name="citation52a"></a><a +href="#footnote52a" class="citation">[52a]</a> 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.” <a name="citation52b"></a><a +href="#footnote52b" class="citation">[52b]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation52c"></a><a href="#footnote52c" +class="citation">[52c]</a> A month after the appearance of +<i>Celebrated Trials</i> (18th April), and a little more than a +year after his arrival in London, Borrow published a translation +of Klinger’s <i>Faustus</i>. <a name="citation53a"></a><a +href="#footnote53a" class="citation">[53a]</a> 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, <a +name="citation53b"></a><a href="#footnote53b" +class="citation">[53b]</a> but there is no mention of the +amount. It would appear that the translation had long been +projected, for in <i>The Monthly Magazine</i>, July 1824, there +appeared, in conjunction with the announcement of <i>Celebrated +Trials</i>, 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.”</p> +<p><i>Faustus</i> did not meet with a very cordial +reception. <i>The Literary Gazette</i> (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.”</p> +<p>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:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>Lavengro</i>, <i>The Life and Adventures +of Joseph Sell</i>, <i>the Great Traveller</i>. 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,” <a +name="citation55a"></a><a href="#footnote55a" +class="citation">[55a]</a> 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 <i>Rasselas</i> and Beckford his +<i>Vathek</i>.” <a name="citation55b"></a><a +href="#footnote55b" class="citation">[55b]</a> This removes +all question of the <i>Life and Adventures of Joseph Sell</i> +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.”</p> +<p>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 +<i>Lavengro</i>. 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.</p> +<p><i>Joseph Sell</i> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>For a week he wrote ceaselessly at the <i>Life and Adventures +of Joseph Sell</i>, <i>the Great Traveller</i>. 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>The Dairyman’s +Daughter</i>. It was an achievement.</p> +<p>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 +<i>Celebrated Trials</i>? <a name="citation57"></a><a +href="#footnote57" class="citation">[57]</a> Above all, why +did he not realise upon Simpkin & Marshall’s bill for +<i>Faustus</i>? 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 <i>Life and Adventures of Joseph Sell</i>? +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.</p> +<p>The strongest evidence against <i>Joseph Sell</i> 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.</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation58"></a><a +href="#footnote58" class="citation">[58]</a> 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 <i>Joseph Sell</i>, 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 <i>The +Bible in Spain</i> 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.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER IV<br /> +MAY–SEPTEMBER 1825</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">Fourteen</span> 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, <a name="citation60"></a><a +href="#footnote60" class="citation">[60]</a> 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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a name="citation61a"></a><a +href="#footnote61a" class="citation">[61a]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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,” <a name="citation61b"></a><a +href="#footnote61b" class="citation">[61b]</a> 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.” <a +name="citation62a"></a><a href="#footnote62a" +class="citation">[62a]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation62b"></a><a href="#footnote62b" +class="citation">[62b]</a> Borrow had learned the +blacksmith’s art when in Ireland, and the anvil, bellows +and smith’s hammers were to prove extremely useful.</p> +<p>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.’” <a name="citation63a"></a><a +href="#footnote63a" class="citation">[63a]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>He had refused an invitation from Mr Petulengro to become a +Romany <i>chal</i> 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.</p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation64a"></a><a href="#footnote64a" +class="citation">[64a]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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, <a +name="citation64b"></a><a href="#footnote64b" +class="citation">[64b]</a> but whether or no his parting from her +was as heart-rendingly tragic as he has depicted it, is open to +very grave question.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p64b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Mumber Lane (Mumper’s Dingle)" +title= +"Mumber Lane (Mumper’s Dingle)" + src="images/p64s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>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 <i>Autobiography</i> 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>The Romany Rye</i>.</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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 <i>gorgiko</i>, something +genteel. Now Bess is of blood gorgious; if you doubt it, +look at her face, all full of <i>pawno ratter</i>, 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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Mr Petulengro sees in Bess another advantage. If +“the Flaming Tinman” <a name="citation66a"></a><a +href="#footnote66a" class="citation">[66a]</a> 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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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, <i>The +Romany Rye</i> becomes dangerous as autobiography. <a +name="citation66b"></a><a href="#footnote66b" +class="citation">[66b]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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, <a name="citation67a"></a><a +href="#footnote67a" class="citation">[67a]</a> <i>passing through +Stafford on his way to Warwick</i> 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 <i>The Gypsies of Spain</i> Mr Petulengro is made +to say:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a name="citation67b"></a><a +href="#footnote67b" class="citation">[67b]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>It has been pointed out by that distinguished scholar and +gentleman-gypsy, Mr John Sampson, <a name="citation68"></a><a +href="#footnote68" class="citation">[68]</a> 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 <i>The Romany Rye</i>, 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.</p> +<p>Mr Sampson has supported his itinerary with several very +important pieces of evidence. Borrow states in +<i>Lavengro</i> 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.</p> +<p>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!” <a name="citation69a"></a><a +href="#footnote69a" class="citation">[69a]</a> he exclaims, and +his thoughts turned instinctively to the career of his old +school-fellow, Rajah Brooke of Sarawak. <a +name="citation69b"></a><a href="#footnote69b" +class="citation">[69b]</a> 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.” <a name="citation69c"></a><a +href="#footnote69c" class="citation">[69c]</a> 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. <a name="citation69d"></a><a +href="#footnote69d" class="citation">[69d]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Sometime during the autumn (1825) Borrow returned to Norwich, +where he busied himself with literary affairs, among other things +writing to the publishers of <i>Faustus</i> 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.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER V<br /> +SEPTEMBER 1825–DECEMBER 1832</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">From</span> 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 +<i>Lavengro</i> and <i>The Romany Rye</i> 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>The Monthly Magazine</i> the +two following paragraphs:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.)</p> +<p>“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.)</p> +</blockquote> +<p>It seems to have been Borrow’s plan to run his ballads +serially through <i>The Monthly Magazine</i> and then to publish +them in book-form. His initial contribution to <i>The +Monthly Magazine</i> 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.” <a +name="citation73"></a><a href="#footnote73" +class="citation">[73]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>Kiæmpe Viser</i> 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.</p> +<p>After the publication of <i>Romantic Ballads</i>, 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:—<a +name="citation74"></a><a href="#footnote74" +class="citation">[74]</a></p> +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,—</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">Yours sincerely,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">George +Borrow</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Borrow wrote in <i>Lavengro</i>, “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.” <a name="citation75a"></a><a +href="#footnote75a" class="citation">[75a]</a> 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 +<i>Romantic Ballads</i> 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. <a +name="citation75b"></a><a href="#footnote75b" +class="citation">[75b]</a></p> +<p>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, <a name="citation75c"></a><a href="#footnote75c" +class="citation">[75c]</a> at Bayonne, <a +name="citation75d"></a><a href="#footnote75d" +class="citation">[75d]</a> Paris, <a name="citation75e"></a><a +href="#footnote75e" class="citation">[75e]</a> Madrid, <a +name="citation75f"></a><a href="#footnote75f" +class="citation">[75f]</a> the south of France. <a +name="citation75g"></a><a href="#footnote75g" +class="citation">[75g]</a> “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.” <a name="citation76a"></a><a href="#footnote76a" +class="citation">[76a]</a> “I have lived in different +parts of the world, much amongst the Hebrew race, and I am well +acquainted with their words and phraseology,” <a +name="citation76b"></a><a href="#footnote76b" +class="citation">[76b]</a> 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.” <a name="citation76c"></a><a +href="#footnote76c" class="citation">[76c]</a> 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. <a name="citation76d"></a><a +href="#footnote76d" class="citation">[76d]</a></p> +<p>“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.” <a name="citation76e"></a><a href="#footnote76e" +class="citation">[76e]</a> Again, “Once in the south +of France, when I was weary, hungry, and penniless, I observed +one of these last patterans <a name="citation76f"></a><a +href="#footnote76f" class="citation">[76f]</a> [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.” <a +name="citation76g"></a><a href="#footnote76g" +class="citation">[76g]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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. <a +name="citation77a"></a><a href="#footnote77a" +class="citation">[77a]</a> 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. <a +name="citation77b"></a><a href="#footnote77b" +class="citation">[77b]</a></p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation78"></a><a href="#footnote78" +class="citation">[78]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>On 7th December he wrote to Dr Bowring, recently returned from +Denmark:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a name="citation79"></a><a href="#footnote79" +class="citation">[79]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>On 29th December he wrote again:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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 <i>K</i>[<i>iæmpe</i>] +<i>V</i>[<i>iser</i>].”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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, +<i>for I am terribly afraid of being forestalled in the +Kiæmpe Viser by some of those Scotch blackguards</i>, who +affect to translate from all languages, of which they are fully +as ignorant as Lockhart is of Spanish.”</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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 <i>good</i> 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.”</p> +<p>The prospectus, which appeared in several publications ran as +follows:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.</p> +<p>Price to Subscribers, £1, 1s.—to Non-Subscribers +£1, 5s.</p> +<p>The First Volume will be devoted to Ancient Popular Poetry; +the Second will give the choicest productions of the Modern +School, beginning with Tullin.” <a name="citation81"></a><a +href="#footnote81" class="citation">[81]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p><i>The Songs of Scandinavia</i> now became to Borrow what the +<i>Celebrated Trials</i> 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.”</p> +<p>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:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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 <i>Songs of Scandinavia</i>, 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 <i>flightiness</i>, 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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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:</p> +<blockquote><p>“I have looked over Mr Gruntvig’s +(<i>sic</i>) 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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Another project appears to have been to obtain a post at the +British Museum. On 9th March 1830 he had written to Dr +Bowring:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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 <i>niched</i> in the +British Museum.”</p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation83"></a><a href="#footnote83" +class="citation">[83]</a></p> +<p>On 14th September he wrote to Dr Bowring:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>A year later he writes again to Dr Bowring, who once more has +been exerting himself on his friend’s behalf:</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right">“<span +class="smcap">Willow Lane</span>, <span +class="smcap">Norwich</span>,<br /> +11<i>th</i> <i>September</i> 1831.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Sir</span>,—</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>I remain,</p> +<p style="text-align: center">My Dear Sir,<br /> +Your most obliged and obedient Servant,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">George +Borrow</span>.</p> +<p><i>P.S.</i>—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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Nothing came of the project of collaboration between Bowring +and Borrow beyond an article on Danish and Norwegian literature +that appeared in <i>The Foreign Quarterly Review</i> (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.</p> +<p>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,” <a name="citation86a"></a><a +href="#footnote86a" class="citation">[86a]</a> but if Borrow +“put a wrong construction upon his sympathy” and was +led into “a veritable <i>cul-de-sac</i> of +literature,” <a name="citation86b"></a><a +href="#footnote86b" class="citation">[86b]</a> it was no fault of +Bowring’s.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 +<i>The Sleeping Bard</i>, 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.’” <a +name="citation87a"></a><a href="#footnote87a" +class="citation">[87a]</a></p> +<p>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,” <a name="citation87b"></a><a +href="#footnote87b" class="citation">[87b]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>your +want of success in life</i> is more owing to your being unlike +other people than to any other cause.”</p> +<p>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:</p> +<blockquote><p>“I saw them [the war correspondents] during +the three days at Paris, mingled with <i>canaille</i> and +<i>gamins</i> behind the barriers, whilst the <i>mitraille</i> +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.” <a name="citation88a"></a><a href="#footnote88a" +class="citation">[88a]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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. <a +name="citation88b"></a><a href="#footnote88b" +class="citation">[88b]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 +<i>rob</i>.” 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.</p> +<p>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” <a name="citation90"></a><a href="#footnote90" +class="citation">[90]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>“‘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!’” <a +name="citation91a"></a><a href="#footnote91a" +class="citation">[91a]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation91b"></a><a href="#footnote91b" +class="citation">[91b]</a> 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.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER VI<br /> +JANUARY–JULY 1833</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">It</span> 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, <a name="citation92"></a><a +href="#footnote92" class="citation">[92]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 +<a name="citation93a"></a><a href="#footnote93a" +class="citation">[93a]</a> to the secretary, the Rev. Andrew +Brandram, the following letter:</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Lowestoft Vicarage</span>,<br /> +27<i>th</i> <i>Dec.</i> 1832.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Friend</span>,—</p> +<p>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. <a name="citation93b"></a><a +href="#footnote93b" class="citation">[93b]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Will you write me word by return of post, and believe me +ever</p> +<p>Most truly and affectionately yours,</p> +<p style="text-align: right">F. <span +class="smcap">Cunningham</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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, <a name="citation94a"></a><a href="#footnote94a" +class="citation">[94a]</a> 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, +<a name="citation94b"></a><a href="#footnote94b" +class="citation">[94b]</a> until the time should arrive for the +distribution of the books.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation95"></a><a +href="#footnote95" class="citation">[95]</a></p> +<p>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).</p> +<p>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:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.’” <a name="citation96a"></a><a +href="#footnote96a" class="citation">[96a]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation96b"></a><a href="#footnote96b" +class="citation">[96b]</a> That is to say, the Committee +voted him the sum of ten pounds.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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: <a +name="citation97"></a><a href="#footnote97" +class="citation">[97]</a> 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, <i>whatever can serve to enlighten me in respect to +Manchu Grammar</i>, for, had I a Grammar, I should in a +month’s time be able to send a Manchu translation of +<i>Jonah</i>.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Whilst in London, Borrow had discussed with Mr Brandram +“the Gypsies and the profound darkness as to religion and +morality that envolved them.” <a name="citation98"></a><a +href="#footnote98" class="citation">[98]</a> 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.”</p> +<p>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. <a +name="citation99a"></a><a href="#footnote99a" +class="citation">[99a]</a></p> +<p>In addition to learning Manchu, Borrow is credited with +correcting and passing for press the Nahuatl version of St. Luke. +<a name="citation99b"></a><a href="#footnote99b" +class="citation">[99b]</a> 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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>After seven weeks’ study Borrow wrote again to Mr +Jowett:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a name="citation100a"></a><a href="#footnote100a" +class="citation">[100a]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation100b"></a><a href="#footnote100b" +class="citation">[100b]</a> There is also a request for +“the original grammatical work of Amyot, printed in the +<i>Memoires</i>.” <a name="citation100c"></a><a +href="#footnote100c" class="citation">[100c]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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. <a name="citation101"></a><a href="#footnote101" +class="citation">[101]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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, <a name="citation102"></a><a +href="#footnote102" class="citation">[102]</a> 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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation104"></a><a href="#footnote104" +class="citation">[104]</a></p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation105"></a><a href="#footnote105" +class="citation">[105]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation106"></a><a href="#footnote106" +class="citation">[106]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER VII<br /> +AUGUST 1833–JANUARY 1834</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">On</span> 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.</p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation107a"></a><a href="#footnote107a" +class="citation">[107a]</a> Exhausted by these days of +suffering and want of sleep, the heat of the sun brought on +“a transient fit of delirium,” <a +name="citation107b"></a><a href="#footnote107b" +class="citation">[107b]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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, <a +name="citation108a"></a><a href="#footnote108a" +class="citation">[108a]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation108b"></a><a +href="#footnote108b" class="citation">[108b]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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” <a +name="citation109"></a><a href="#footnote109" +class="citation">[109]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation110"></a><a href="#footnote110" +class="citation">[110]</a> 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.”</p> +<p>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, <a name="citation111"></a><a href="#footnote111" +class="citation">[111]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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?—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Other friends Borrow made, including Nikolai Ivánovitch +Gretch, <a name="citation112a"></a><a href="#footnote112a" +class="citation">[112a]</a> the grammarian, and Friedrich von +Adelung, <a name="citation112b"></a><a href="#footnote112b" +class="citation">[112b]</a> who assisted him with the loan of +books and MSS. in Oriental tongues.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation113"></a><a +href="#footnote113" class="citation">[113]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a +name="citation114a"></a><a href="#footnote114a" +class="citation">[114a]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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,” <a name="citation114b"></a><a +href="#footnote114b" class="citation">[114b]</a> whose friendship +Borrow had “assiduously cultivated,” and who had +shown him “many condescending marks of kindness.” <a +name="citation114c"></a><a href="#footnote114c" +class="citation">[114c]</a> 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.” <a +name="citation115a"></a><a href="#footnote115a" +class="citation">[115a]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>“On calling there <i>I found that permission had been +granted to print the Manchu Scripture</i>.” <a +name="citation115b"></a><a href="#footnote115b" +class="citation">[115b]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>“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 <i>assistant</i>, which +I have found in people to whom I looked not unreasonably for +encouragement and advice.” <a name="citation116"></a><a +href="#footnote116" class="citation">[116]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation117"></a><a href="#footnote117" +class="citation">[117]</a> Borrow left nothing to chance; +he thought out every detail with great care before venturing to +put his plans into execution.</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a name="citation118a"></a><a href="#footnote118a" +class="citation">[118a]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.”<a name="citation118b"></a><a +href="#footnote118b" class="citation">[118b]</a> 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.” <a name="citation118c"></a><a +href="#footnote118c" class="citation">[118c]</a></p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation119"></a><a +href="#footnote119" class="citation">[119]</a> 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.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII<br /> +FEBRUARY–OCTOBER 1834</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">Borrow</span> 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.</p> +<p>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,</p> +<blockquote><p>“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, <a +name="citation121a"></a><a href="#footnote121a" +class="citation">[121a]</a> which properly belongs to Russia, but +the inhabitants of which are a medley of Tartary, Chinese, and +Russ (<i>sic</i>). 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.” <a name="citation121b"></a><a +href="#footnote121b" class="citation">[121b]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation121c"></a><a href="#footnote121c" +class="citation">[121c]</a></p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation121d"></a><a +href="#footnote121d" class="citation">[121d]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation123a"></a><a href="#footnote123a" +class="citation">[123a]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <a +name="citation123b"></a><a href="#footnote123b" +class="citation">[123b]</a> he tells her of that nice house at +Lakenham, <a name="citation123c"></a><a href="#footnote123c" +class="citation">[123c]</a> 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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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. <a +name="citation126a"></a><a href="#footnote126a" +class="citation">[126a]</a> The letter concludes with the +postscript: “I have got the crape.”</p> +<p>In July 1834 Borrow again changed his quarters, taking an +unfurnished floor, <a name="citation126b"></a><a +href="#footnote126b" class="citation">[126b]</a> at the same time +hiring a Tartar servant named Mahmoud, “the best servant I +ever had.” <a name="citation126c"></a><a +href="#footnote126c" class="citation">[126c]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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 +<i>fifteen months previously</i>; but he made no mention of what +was taking place with regard to the printing.</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">St +Petersburg</span>,<br /> +8<i>th</i> [20<i>th</i>] <i>October</i> 1834.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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, <i>as if +from curiosity</i>, the least possible sum per ream at which +<i>the printer himself</i> (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.</p> +<p>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. <a name="citation129"></a><a +href="#footnote129" class="citation">[129]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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; <a name="citation132a"></a><a href="#footnote132a" +class="citation">[132a]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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, <a name="citation132b"></a><a href="#footnote132b" +class="citation">[132b]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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,</p> +<p>I remain, dear Sir,</p> +<p style="text-align: center">Most truly yours,</p> +<p style="text-align: right">G. <span +class="smcap">Borrow</span>.</p> +<p>Rev. <span class="smcap">Joseph Jowett</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Testifio:—Dominum Burro ab initio +usque ad hoc tempus summa cum diligentia et studio in re +Mantshurica laborasse, Lipovzoff.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>To this further offer Mr Jowett replied:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<h2>CHAPTER IX<br /> +NOVEMBER 1834–SEPTEMBER 1835</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">Borrow</span> 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.”</p> +<p>Borrow had passed through <i>the</i> 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”<a +name="citation135a"></a><a href="#footnote135a" +class="citation">[135a]</a> 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,” <a name="citation135b"></a><a href="#footnote135b" +class="citation">[135b]</a> he himself had grown thin from the +incessant toil.</p> +<p>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:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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 <i>we</i> 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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“I allude, you perceive, to such +things,” the letter goes on to explain, “as your +journies <i>huc et illuc</i> 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.” <a name="citation136"></a><a +href="#footnote136" class="citation">[136]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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!”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>thou</i> or <i>thine</i>, 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. <a +name="citation138a"></a><a href="#footnote138a" +class="citation">[138a]</a> 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!” <a name="citation138b"></a><a +href="#footnote138b" class="citation">[138b]</a> 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.” <a +name="citation139a"></a><a href="#footnote139a" +class="citation">[139a]</a></p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation139b"></a><a +href="#footnote139b" class="citation">[139b]</a> 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.”</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation139c"></a><a href="#footnote139c" +class="citation">[139c]</a> 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.” +<a name="citation139d"></a><a href="#footnote139d" +class="citation">[139d]</a> In spite of this +discouragement, Borrow wrote to Mr Jowett with regard to the +Chinese programme, “<i>I again repeat that I am at +command</i>.” <a name="citation139e"></a><a +href="#footnote139e" class="citation">[139e]</a></p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation140"></a><a href="#footnote140" +class="citation">[140]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation141a"></a><a +href="#footnote141a" class="citation">[141a]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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. <a name="citation141b"></a><a +href="#footnote141b" class="citation">[141b]</a> 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.” <a name="citation142a"></a><a +href="#footnote142a" class="citation">[142a]</a></p> +<p>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 <i>Targum</i>, <i>or Metrical +Translations from Thirty Languages and Dialects</i>. <a +name="citation142b"></a><a href="#footnote142b" +class="citation">[142b]</a> 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 <i>The Talisman</i>, +<i>From the Russian of Alexander Pushkin</i>. <i>With Other +Pieces</i>. <a name="citation143a"></a><a href="#footnote143a" +class="citation">[143a]</a> 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. <a +name="citation143b"></a><a href="#footnote143b" +class="citation">[143b]</a></p> +<p>Writing in the <i>Athenæum</i>, <a +name="citation143c"></a><a href="#footnote143c" +class="citation">[143c]</a> 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 +<i>Lays of Ancient Rome</i>.” <a name="citation143d"></a><a +href="#footnote143d" class="citation">[143d]</a></p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation143e"></a><a +href="#footnote143e" class="citation">[143e]</a> 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.” <a name="citation144a"></a><a +href="#footnote144a" class="citation">[144a]</a></p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation144b"></a><a href="#footnote144b" +class="citation">[144b]</a></p> +<p>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 +<i>tracteer</i> 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: +<i>ah kak mi toute karmuma</i> <a name="citation145a"></a><a +href="#footnote145a" class="citation">[145a]</a>—‘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 <i>pawnee</i>, or water, to visit them.” <a +name="citation145b"></a><a href="#footnote145b" +class="citation">[145b]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>Borrow’s work at St Petersburg gave entire satisfaction +to the Bible Society. The Official Report for the year 1835 +informed the members that—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a name="citation146a"></a><a +href="#footnote146a" class="citation">[146a]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>Of the actual work itself John Hasfeldt justly wrote:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a name="citation146b"></a><a +href="#footnote146b" class="citation">[146b]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.” +<a name="citation147"></a><a href="#footnote147" +class="citation">[147]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER X<br /> +OCTOBER 1835–JANUARY 1836</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">Borrow</span> 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: <a +name="citation148"></a><a href="#footnote148" +class="citation">[148]</a></p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>On another occasion he wrote, also to his mother:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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: <a name="citation149"></a><a +href="#footnote149" class="citation">[149]</a></p> +<blockquote><p>“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:</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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. <a name="citation150a"></a><a href="#footnote150a" +class="citation">[150a]</a> “I am weary of doing +nothing, and am sighing for employment,” <a +name="citation150b"></a><a href="#footnote150b" +class="citation">[150b]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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, <a name="citation150c"></a><a +href="#footnote150c" class="citation">[150c]</a></p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a name="citation151"></a><a href="#footnote151" +class="citation">[151]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.</p> +<p>“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 . . .</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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 <i>giving</i> New Testaments.” +Furthermore, he was to be permitted to draw upon the +Society’s agents to the extent of one hundred pounds.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>On 6th November Borrow sailed from the Thames for Lisbon in +the steamship <i>London Merchant</i>. 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. <a name="citation153"></a><a +href="#footnote153" class="citation">[153]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.” +<a name="citation154a"></a><a href="#footnote154a" +class="citation">[154a]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation154b"></a><a href="#footnote154b" +class="citation">[154b]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>After spending four or five days at Lisbon, Borrow, +accompanied by Antonio, proceeded to Cintra. <a +name="citation155a"></a><a href="#footnote155a" +class="citation">[155a]</a> 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.” <a name="citation155b"></a><a +href="#footnote155b" class="citation">[155b]</a></p> +<p>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,” <a +name="citation155c"></a><a href="#footnote155c" +class="citation">[155c]</a> although few could read or write.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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?</p> +<p>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 +<i>Ruins of Empire</i>, because the author was an “emissary +of Satan,” the girl standing by telling her beads until the +book were entirely consumed.</p> +<p>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:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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 <i>my +plan</i> 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 <i>these letters</i> 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> +<p>P.S.—“I start for Spain to-morrow, and I want +letters something similar (there is impudence for you) for +Madrid, <i>which I should like to have as soon as +possible</i>. 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.” <a name="citation159a"></a><a +href="#footnote159a" class="citation">[159a]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation159b"></a><a href="#footnote159b" +class="citation">[159b]</a></p> +<p>Borrow’s methods seem to have impressed Earl Street most +favourably. In a letter of acknowledgment Mr Brandram +wrote:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“We have been much interested by your two +communications. <a name="citation159c"></a><a +href="#footnote159c" class="citation">[159c]</a> 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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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,” <a +name="citation160a"></a><a href="#footnote160a" +class="citation">[160a]</a> 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.” +<a name="citation160b"></a><a href="#footnote160b" +class="citation">[160b]</a></p> +<p>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 <i>naïveté</i> 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!” <a +name="citation161a"></a><a href="#footnote161a" +class="citation">[161a]</a></p> +<p>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 +<i>moidores</i>.” <a name="citation161b"></a><a +href="#footnote161b" class="citation">[161b]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation162a"></a><a +href="#footnote162a" class="citation">[162a]</a></p> +<p>Borrow was essentially an Englishman and proud of his blood, +prouder perhaps of that which came to him from Norfolk, <a +name="citation162b"></a><a href="#footnote162b" +class="citation">[162b]</a> 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.” <a name="citation162c"></a><a +href="#footnote162c" class="citation">[162c]</a></p> +<p>On 6th January 1836, <a name="citation162d"></a><a +href="#footnote162d" class="citation">[162d]</a> 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.” <a name="citation162e"></a><a +href="#footnote162e" class="citation">[162e]</a></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XI<br /> +JANUARY–OCTOBER 1836</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">When</span> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>Spain had always appealed most strongly to Borrow’s +imagination.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a name="citation164a"></a><a href="#footnote164a" +class="citation">[164a]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation164b"></a><a href="#footnote164b" +class="citation">[164b]</a> 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.</p> +<p>Gypsies had always held for Borrow a strange attraction, <a +name="citation164c"></a><a href="#footnote164c" +class="citation">[164c]</a> 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.” <a name="citation165a"></a><a +href="#footnote165a" class="citation">[165a]</a></p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation165b"></a><a href="#footnote165b" +class="citation">[165b]</a></p> +<p>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 +<i>Busné</i> [the Spaniards] on the road would laugh if +they saw two <i>Calés</i> [Gypsies] with luggage behind +them.” <a name="citation166a"></a><a href="#footnote166a" +class="citation">[166a]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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. +<a name="citation166b"></a><a href="#footnote166b" +class="citation">[166b]</a></p> +<p>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 <i>contrabandista</i> further on the road.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation167a"></a><a href="#footnote167a" +class="citation">[167a]</a></p> +<p>The capital did not at first impress Borrow very favourably. +<a name="citation167b"></a><a href="#footnote167b" +class="citation">[167b]</a> “Madrid is a small +town,” he wrote to his mother, <a +name="citation167c"></a><a href="#footnote167c" +class="citation">[167c]</a> “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.”</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation167d"></a><a href="#footnote167d" +class="citation">[167d]</a> Then again there were the +physical discomforts that he had to endure.</p> +<p>“You cannot think,” he wrote, <a +name="citation168a"></a><a href="#footnote168a" +class="citation">[168a]</a> “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.”</p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation168b"></a><a href="#footnote168b" +class="citation">[168b]</a> 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,” <a +name="citation168c"></a><a href="#footnote168c" +class="citation">[168c]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation168d"></a><a +href="#footnote168d" class="citation">[168d]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation169"></a><a +href="#footnote169" class="citation">[169]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p170b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"George Villiers, Fourth Earl of Clarendon. British Minister at +Madrid, 1833–1839. From the engraving after Sir Francis +Grant in the National Portrait Gallery" +title= +"George Villiers, Fourth Earl of Clarendon. British Minister at +Madrid, 1833–1839. From the engraving after Sir Francis +Grant in the National Portrait Gallery" + src="images/p170s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>The man to approach was the premier, Juan Álvarez y +Mendizábal, <a name="citation170a"></a><a +href="#footnote170a" class="citation">[170a]</a> 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, <a name="citation170b"></a><a href="#footnote170b" +class="citation">[170b]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation171"></a><a href="#footnote171" +class="citation">[171]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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, “<i>festina +lente</i>. You will be doing well to occupy leisure hours +with this work; but we are not prepared for printing anything +beyond portions at present.”</p> +<p>In the meantime, however, an article in the Madrid newspaper, +<i>El Español</i>, 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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“Why should Spain, which has explored the +New World, why should she alone be destitute of Bible +Societies,” asked the <i>Español</i>. +“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?” <a +name="citation173a"></a><a href="#footnote173a" +class="citation">[173a]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>This article fired Borrow, and with the promise of assistance +from the liberal-minded <i>Español</i>, he set to work +“to lay the foundation of a Bible Society at Madrid.” +<a name="citation173b"></a><a href="#footnote173b" +class="citation">[173b]</a> 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” <a name="citation173c"></a><a +href="#footnote173c" class="citation">[173c]</a> and who was +disposed to print and circulate it.</p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation174"></a><a href="#footnote174" +class="citation">[174]</a></p> +<p>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 +<i>moderados</i>, 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>my</i> friends.” +<a name="citation175a"></a><a href="#footnote175a" +class="citation">[175a]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation175b"></a><a +href="#footnote175b" class="citation">[175b]</a></p> +<p>At Earl Street the good news about the article in the +<i>Español</i> gave the liveliest satisfaction. +“Surely a new and wonderful thing in Spain,” wrote Mr +Brandram <a name="citation175c"></a><a href="#footnote175c" +class="citation">[175c]</a> 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.</p> +<p>“For the last three weeks,” he writes, <a +name="citation175d"></a><a href="#footnote175d" +class="citation">[175d]</a> “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.” <a name="citation175e"></a><a href="#footnote175e" +class="citation">[175e]</a> 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, <a +name="citation176a"></a><a href="#footnote176a" +class="citation">[176a]</a> “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.” <a name="citation176b"></a><a +href="#footnote176b" class="citation">[176b]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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!”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“Little more than a breath is required to +destroy it,” he writes, <a name="citation177"></a><a +href="#footnote177" class="citation">[177]</a> “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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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,” +<a name="citation178a"></a><a href="#footnote178a" +class="citation">[178a]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation178b"></a><a href="#footnote178b" +class="citation">[178b]</a> 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.” <a +name="citation178c"></a><a href="#footnote178c" +class="citation">[178c]</a></p> +<p>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, <a +name="citation178d"></a><a href="#footnote178d" +class="citation">[178d]</a> “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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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</p> +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,</p> +<p>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 <i>might be considered as settled</i>.</p> +<p>You are quite welcome to make any use you please of this note +with the D. de Ribas or Mr Olivan. <a name="citation179a"></a><a +href="#footnote179a" class="citation">[179a]</a></p> +<p>I am, Dear Sir,</p> +<p style="text-align: center">Yours faithfully,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">George +Villiers</span>.</p> +<p><i>June</i> 23<i>rd</i> [1836].</p> +</blockquote> +<p>It was unquestionably Borrow’s personality that was +responsible for Mr Villiers’ interest in the scheme, as +when Lieutenant Graydon <a name="citation179b"></a><a +href="#footnote179b" class="citation">[179b]</a> had applied to +him on a previous occasion he declined to interfere.</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation180"></a><a href="#footnote180" +class="citation">[180]</a> 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.</p> +<p>“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.” <a name="citation181a"></a><a href="#footnote181a" +class="citation">[181a]</a></p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation181b"></a><a +href="#footnote181b" class="citation">[181b]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation181c"></a><a +href="#footnote181c" class="citation">[181c]</a> In +conclusion he announced himself as ready to do “whatever +the Bible Society may deem expedient.” <a +name="citation181d"></a><a href="#footnote181d" +class="citation">[181d]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation182a"></a><a href="#footnote182a" +class="citation">[182a]</a> 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.” <a name="citation182b"></a><a +href="#footnote182b" class="citation">[182b]</a></p> +<p>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 <i>The Bible in Spain</i>.</p> +<p>Before advantage could be taken of the hardly earned +permission to print the New Testament in Madrid, the Revolution +of La Granja <a name="citation182c"></a><a href="#footnote182c" +class="citation">[182c]</a> 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. <a +name="citation183a"></a><a href="#footnote183a" +class="citation">[183a]</a></p> +<p>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,” <a name="citation183b"></a><a +href="#footnote183b" class="citation">[183b]</a> 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.</p> +<p>To this request for his immediate presence in London Borrow +replied:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a +name="citation183c"></a><a href="#footnote183c" +class="citation">[183c]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>Leaving Madrid on 20th August, Borrow was at Granada on the +30th, as proved by the Visitors’ Book, in which he signed +himself</p> +<blockquote><p>“George Borrow Norvicensis.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>On his return to London, early in October, Borrow wrote a +report <a name="citation184"></a><a href="#footnote184" +class="citation">[184]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XII<br /> +NOVEMBER 1836–MAY 1837</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">Borrow</span> 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 <i>Manchester</i>, bound for Lisbon and +Cadiz.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>The horrors of the voyage from Falmouth to Lisbon he has +described with terrifying vividness; <a +name="citation185a"></a><a href="#footnote185a" +class="citation">[185a]</a> 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 “<i>veered right +about</i>, and pushed us from the horrible coast faster than it +had previously driven us towards it.” <a +name="citation185b"></a><a href="#footnote185b" +class="citation">[185b]</a></p> +<p>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 +<i>Manchester</i>, 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.</p> +<p>After a week’s delay at Lisbon the <i>Manchester</i> +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 <i>une grappe de Gitanos</i>.’ 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.” <a +name="citation186"></a><a href="#footnote186" +class="citation">[186]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation187"></a><a href="#footnote187" +class="citation">[187]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>arrieros</i> (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.</p> +<p>At Seville Borrow encountered Baron Taylor, <a +name="citation188"></a><a href="#footnote188" +class="citation">[188]</a> 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.” <a name="citation189"></a><a +href="#footnote189" class="citation">[189]</a> Borrow was +much attracted to this mysterious personage, about whom nothing +could be asserted “with downright positiveness.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation190a"></a><a +href="#footnote190a" class="citation">[190a]</a></p> +<p>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 <i>contrabandista</i>, 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.</p> +<p>The journey to Madrid proved dismal in the extreme. The +<i>contrabandista</i> 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 <i>reals</i>.” <a +name="citation190b"></a><a href="#footnote190b" +class="citation">[190b]</a> 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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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: <a name="citation191a"></a><a href="#footnote191a" +class="citation">[191a]</a> it affected me no more than warm +water.” <a name="citation191b"></a><a href="#footnote191b" +class="citation">[191b]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a name="citation191c"></a><a +href="#footnote191c" class="citation">[191c]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>Having saved the Bible Society 9000 <i>reals</i> in its paper +bill alone, <a name="citation191d"></a><a href="#footnote191d" +class="citation">[191d]</a> Borrow proceeded to arrange for the +printing. He had already opened negotiations with Charles +Wood, who was associated with Andréas Borrégo, <a +name="citation192a"></a><a href="#footnote192a" +class="citation">[192a]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>reals</i> a sheet, he placed the +order. It was agreed that the work should be completed in +ten weeks from 20th January.</p> +<p>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,” <a name="citation192b"></a><a +href="#footnote192b" class="citation">[192b]</a> 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. <a +name="citation192c"></a><a href="#footnote192c" +class="citation">[192c]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“I will take with me 1200 copies,” he +wrote, <a name="citation193"></a><a href="#footnote193" +class="citation">[193]</a> “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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>In the same letter Borrow shows how thoroughly he understood +his own character when he wrote:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <a +name="citation194a"></a><a href="#footnote194a" +class="citation">[194a]</a> 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.”</p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation194b"></a><a href="#footnote194b" +class="citation">[194b]</a></p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation195a"></a><a +href="#footnote195a" class="citation">[195a]</a></p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation195b"></a><a href="#footnote195b" +class="citation">[195b]</a></p> +<p>In addition to the <i>contrabandista’s</i> 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.” <a +name="citation195c"></a><a href="#footnote195c" +class="citation">[195c]</a> 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.” <a name="citation195d"></a><a +href="#footnote195d" class="citation">[195d]</a></p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation196a"></a><a +href="#footnote196a" class="citation">[196a]</a> 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.” <a +name="citation196b"></a><a href="#footnote196b" +class="citation">[196b]</a></p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation196c"></a><a +href="#footnote196c" class="citation">[196c]</a> +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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation197a"></a><a +href="#footnote197a" class="citation">[197a]</a> 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.” <a +name="citation197b"></a><a href="#footnote197b" +class="citation">[197b]</a> 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.” <a name="citation197c"></a><a +href="#footnote197c" class="citation">[197c]</a> 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.</p> +<p>Before leaving Madrid, Borrow had circularised all the +principal booksellers, offering to supply the New Testament at +fifteen <i>reals</i> 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.” <a name="citation198"></a><a +href="#footnote198" class="citation">[198]</a> +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.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XIII<br /> +MAY–OCTOBER 1837</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> 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. <a name="citation199"></a><a href="#footnote199" +class="citation">[199]</a></p> +<p>From Salamanca (10th June) Borrow journeyed to Valladolid, and +from thence to León, <a name="citation200a"></a><a +href="#footnote200a" class="citation">[200a]</a> (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.</p> +<p>When sufficiently recovered to travel, Borrow proceeded to +Astorga, which he reached with the utmost difficulty owing to bad +roads and the fierce heat.</p> +<blockquote><p>“We were compelled to take up our +abode,” he writes, <a name="citation200b"></a><a +href="#footnote200b" class="citation">[200b]</a> “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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Thus Borrow wrote when burning with fever, after having just +been told to vacate his room at the <i>posada</i>, and having his +luggage flung into the yard to make room for the occupants of the +“waggon” from Madrid to Coruña.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation201"></a><a href="#footnote201" +class="citation">[201]</a></p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation202"></a><a href="#footnote202" +class="citation">[202]</a></p> +<p>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 +<i>entero</i>,” Borrow, determined to have the animal bled, +sent for a farrier, meanwhile rubbing down his steed with a quart +of <i>anis</i> 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.</p> +<p>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 +<i>reals</i> 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>entero’s</i> 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>living</i> 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. <a name="citation203a"></a><a href="#footnote203a" +class="citation">[203a]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“I . . . sallied forth,” he writes, <a +name="citation203b"></a><a href="#footnote203b" +class="citation">[203b]</a> “alone and on horseback, and +bent my course to a distant village; on my arrival, which took +place just after the <i>siesta</i> 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 <i>reals</i>, +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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a name="citation204a"></a><a +href="#footnote204a" class="citation">[204a]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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. <a +name="citation204b"></a><a href="#footnote204b" +class="citation">[204b]</a> In all probability he would +have been shot, such was the certainty of the <i>Alcalde</i> 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 <i>Alcalde</i> 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.” +<a name="citation205a"></a><a href="#footnote205a" +class="citation">[205a]</a></p> +<p>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 +<i>entero</i> would be engaged in a deadly struggle with some +gloomy mule; again, by rushing among a crowd outside a +<i>posada</i>, 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 <i>reals</i> 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.” <a name="citation205b"></a><a +href="#footnote205b" class="citation">[205b]</a></p> +<p>Borrow next set out upon an expedition to Orviedo in the +Asturias, <a name="citation205c"></a><a href="#footnote205c" +class="citation">[205c]</a> 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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“A strange adventure has just occurred to +me,” he wrote. <a name="citation205d"></a><a +href="#footnote205d" class="citation">[205d]</a> “I +am in the ancient town of Orviedo, in a very large, scantily +furnished and remote room of an ancient <i>posada</i>, 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 +<i>caballeros</i>, 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, ‘<i>Señor</i> 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. <a name="citation206"></a><a href="#footnote206" +class="citation">[206]</a> 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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>Whilst at Orviedo, Borrow began to be very uneasy about the +state of affairs at the capital. “Madrid,” he +wrote, <a name="citation207"></a><a href="#footnote207" +class="citation">[207]</a> “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.”</p> +<p>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, <a name="citation208"></a><a +href="#footnote208" class="citation">[208]</a> as brave with his +sword as with his tongue.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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. <a name="citation209a"></a><a href="#footnote209a" +class="citation">[209a]</a> 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.”</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation209b"></a><a +href="#footnote209b" class="citation">[209b]</a> 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.</p> +<p>Borrow had “by private sale disposed of one hundred and +sixteen Testaments to individuals entirely of the lower classes, +namely, muleteers, carmen, <i>contrabandistas</i>, etc.” <a +name="citation209c"></a><a href="#footnote209c" +class="citation">[209c]</a> 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.” <a name="citation210"></a><a +href="#footnote210" class="citation">[210]</a></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XIV<br /> +NOVEMBER 1837–APRIL 1838</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">Great</span> 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 +<i>Moderado</i> 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 +<i>Moderados</i> 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 <a name="citation211"></a><a href="#footnote211" +class="citation">[211]</a> were none too cordial, as the British +Minister had been by no means favourable to the new ministry.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation212a"></a><a href="#footnote212a" +class="citation">[212a]</a></p> +<p>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 <i>El +Español</i> 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.” <a name="citation212b"></a><a +href="#footnote212b" class="citation">[212b]</a> +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.”</p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation213a"></a><a href="#footnote213a" +class="citation">[213a]</a></p> +<p>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 <i>Diario Comercial</i> 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.</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation213b"></a><a +href="#footnote213b" class="citation">[213b]</a> On this +occasion Graydon was instructed not to start upon his projected +journey, although Mr Brandram gave the order much against his own +inclination. <a name="citation214a"></a><a href="#footnote214a" +class="citation">[214a]</a></p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation214b"></a><a href="#footnote214b" +class="citation">[214b]</a> 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 +<i>reals</i> 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 +<i>must</i> therefore be furnished with Bibles instanter; send me +therefore the London edition, bad as it is, say 500 +copies.” <a name="citation214c"></a><a href="#footnote214c" +class="citation">[214c]</a></p> +<p>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. <i>Pray do not fail</i>.” <a +name="citation215a"></a><a href="#footnote215a" +class="citation">[215a]</a></p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation215b"></a><a href="#footnote215b" +class="citation">[215b]</a> 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.” <a +name="citation215c"></a><a href="#footnote215c" +class="citation">[215c]</a></p> +<p>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. <i>Adieu</i>, <i>mon maitre</i>,” he said in +parting; “may you be as well served as you deserve. +Should you chance, however, to have any pressing need <i>de mes +soins</i>, 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,” <a +name="citation216a"></a><a href="#footnote216a" +class="citation">[216a]</a> and who had been strongly recommended +to him.</p> +<p>On his return from a hurried visit to Toledo, Borrow found his +<i>Despacho</i> 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.” <a name="citation216b"></a><a +href="#footnote216b" class="citation">[216b]</a> The result +of this move, Borrow declared, was that every man, woman and +child in Madrid became aware of the existence of his +<i>Despacho</i>, 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, <a name="citation216c"></a><a href="#footnote216c" +class="citation">[216c]</a> 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.” <a name="citation216d"></a><a +href="#footnote216d" class="citation">[216d]</a></p> +<p>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<i>th</i> 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):</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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. <a name="citation217a"></a><a href="#footnote217a" +class="citation">[217a]</a> His method had been somewhat +original. Believing that there is “no individual, +however wicked and hardened, who is utterly +<i>godless</i>,” <a name="citation217b"></a><a +href="#footnote217b" class="citation">[217b]</a> 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.” <a +name="citation218a"></a><a href="#footnote218a" +class="citation">[218a]</a> 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.” <a name="citation218b"></a><a +href="#footnote218b" class="citation">[218b]</a> The +translation of the remaining chapters was supplied from +Borrow’s own version begun at Badajos in 1836.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“The people in the street in which I +lived,” he writes, <a name="citation218c"></a><a +href="#footnote218c" class="citation">[218c]</a> “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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>Despacho</i> had +caused a great sensation. “The Priests and Bigots are +teeming with malice and fury,” he had written to Mr +Brandram, <a name="citation219a"></a><a href="#footnote219a" +class="citation">[219a]</a> “which hitherto they have +thought proper to exhibit only in words, as they know that all I +do here is favoured by Mr Villiers <a name="citation219b"></a><a +href="#footnote219b" class="citation">[219b]</a> (sic) . . +. There is no attempt, however atrocious, which may not be +expected from such people, and were it right and seemly for +<i>me</i>, 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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a +name="citation220"></a><a href="#footnote220" +class="citation">[220]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 ‘<i>nailed in +his heart</i>’” 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.</p> +<p>Consoling himself with the fact that he was not ordered to +close his <i>Despacho</i>, 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 <i>Despacho</i>, he had sold +nearly three hundred copies of the New Testament.</p> +<p>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 <i>did</i> 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.” <a +name="citation221a"></a><a href="#footnote221a" +class="citation">[221a]</a></p> +<p>The printing of the Gitano and Basque editions of St Luke (500 +copies <a name="citation221b"></a><a href="#footnote221b" +class="citation">[221b]</a> 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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a name="citation222a"></a><a +href="#footnote222a" class="citation">[222a]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>The little volume appears to have sold freely among the +gypsies. “Many of the men,” Borrow says, <a +name="citation222b"></a><a href="#footnote222b" +class="citation">[222b]</a> “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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation224a"></a><a +href="#footnote224a" class="citation">[224a]</a> The +decision of the Committee was that he should remain at +Madrid.</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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 (<i>fiador</i>) and answerable for everything I +do, as he does me the honor to say that he knows me, and can +confide in <i>my</i> discretion.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>In the same letter he begs the Society to be cautious and +offer no encouragement to any disposed “‘to run the +muck’ (<i>sic</i>) (it is Sir George’s expression) +against the religious and political <i>institutions</i> 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.” <a name="citation224b"></a><a +href="#footnote224b" class="citation">[224b]</a> 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. <a +name="citation225"></a><a href="#footnote225" +class="citation">[225]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>Borrow had commiserated with the unfortunate Mann, even to the +extent of sending him 500 <i>reals</i> 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.</p> +<p>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, <a name="citation226"></a><a href="#footnote226" +class="citation">[226]</a> “and tend to a certain extent to +sober down the desire for doing what is called at home <i>smart +things</i>, 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 <i>grano salis</i> the statements of the +unfortunate M.” He intimated, nevertheless, that the +Committee had no opening for Mann’s services.</p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation227a"></a><a href="#footnote227a" +class="citation">[227a]</a></p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation227b"></a><a href="#footnote227b" +class="citation">[227b]</a></p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation227c"></a><a +href="#footnote227c" class="citation">[227c]</a></p> +<p>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 <i>Alguazils</i> entered +the shop and took possession of twenty-five copies of the Romany +Gospel of St Luke.</p> +<p>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 +<i>Despacho</i> of the Basque and Gitano versions of St Luke had +been seized. Borrow states that the <i>Alguazils</i> +“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.” <a +name="citation228a"></a><a href="#footnote228a" +class="citation">[228a]</a> 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.” <a +name="citation228b"></a><a href="#footnote228b" +class="citation">[228b]</a></p> +<p>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 +<i>Despacho</i> 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 <i>Despacho</i>.</p> +<p>As evidence of the high opinion formed of the Romany version +of St Luke, the following story told by Borrow is +amusing:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” +<a name="citation229a"></a><a href="#footnote229a" +class="citation">[229a]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation229b"></a><a href="#footnote229b" +class="citation">[229b]</a> Several orders were received +from San Sebastian and other towns where Basque predominates, +which could not be supplied on account of the prohibition.</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Madrid</span>, 24<i>th</i> <i>April</i> 1838.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>I have, etc., etc., etc.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">George +Villiers</span>.</p> +<p>His Excellency Count Ofalia.</p> +</blockquote> +<h2>CHAPTER XV<br /> +MAY 1–13, 1838</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">On</span> 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.</p> +<p>The official report of Pedro Martin de Eugenio, the police +agent in question, runs as follows:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Madrid</span>, 30<i>th</i> <i>April</i> 1838.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Official Report +of the Police Agent of the Language held by Mr Borrow</span>.</p> +<p><i>Public Security</i>.—In virtue of an order from His +Excellency the Civil Governor, <a name="citation231"></a><a +href="#footnote231" class="citation">[231]</a> 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.</p> +<p>All of which I communicate to you for the objects +required.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">The Police +Agent</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Pedro Martin de Eugenio</span>. <a +name="citation232a"></a><a href="#footnote232a" +class="citation">[232a]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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, <a +name="citation232b"></a><a href="#footnote232b" +class="citation">[232b]</a> made an unsuccessful effort to obtain +admission to the city prison.</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>To the British Minister,—</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Madrid</span>, +30<i>th</i> <i>April</i> 1838.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</p> +<p>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 <a name="citation233"></a><a +href="#footnote233" class="citation">[233]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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 . . .</p> +<p style="text-align: center">I have, etc., etc.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Deigo de +Entrena</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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. <a +name="citation234a"></a><a href="#footnote234a" +class="citation">[234a]</a> In the evening he received a +visit from Maria Diaz, <a name="citation234b"></a><a +href="#footnote234b" class="citation">[234b]</a> 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 <i>alguazils</i>, who bore a warrant for +his arrest, were much disappointed at not finding him.</p> +<p>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 <i>alguazils</i> 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, <a name="citation234c"></a><a +href="#footnote234c" class="citation">[234c]</a> 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 +<i>alguazils</i> 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.</p> +<p>Borrow submitted quietly to his arrest and was first taken to +the office of the Civil Governor (<i>Gefatura Politica</i>), 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.” <a name="citation235"></a><a href="#footnote235" +class="citation">[235]</a> 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 <i>Alcayde</i>, 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>It is by no means certain that Borrow was anxious to leave the +<i>Carcel de la Corte</i>, 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, +<i>The Bible in Spain</i> 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 <i>Carcel de la Corte</i> he found +the notorious and immense Gitana, Aurora, who had fallen into the +hands of the <i>Busné</i> for defrauding a rather foolish +widow.</p> +<p>“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 <i>miseria</i>.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>parole</i>, 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>Affaire Borrow</i> is said to have come up for +debate even during a secret session of the Chamber.</p> +<p>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,” <a name="citation238a"></a><a +href="#footnote238a" class="citation">[238a]</a> 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. <a name="citation238b"></a><a +href="#footnote238b" class="citation">[238b]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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,” <a +name="citation239a"></a><a href="#footnote239a" +class="citation">[239a]</a> 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,” <a name="citation239b"></a><a +href="#footnote239b" class="citation">[239b]</a> 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 +<i>Affaire Borrow</i> being made a party question, in which case +it would have been extremely difficult to settle.</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation240a"></a><a +href="#footnote240a" class="citation">[240a]</a></p> +<p>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. <a name="citation240b"></a><a +href="#footnote240b" class="citation">[240b]</a> 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</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>“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.” +<a name="citation241a"></a><a href="#footnote241a" +class="citation">[241a]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>Whilst Borrow was in the <i>Carcel de la Corte</i>, a grave +complication had arisen in connection with the misguided +Lieutenant Graydon. Borrow gives a strikingly dramatic +account <a name="citation241b"></a><a href="#footnote241b" +class="citation">[241b]</a> 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 <i>wrote</i> to Sir George Villiers on +5th May, <i>enclosing</i> a copy of an advertisement inserted by +Lieutenant Graydon in the <i>Boletin Oficial de Malaga</i>, +which, translated, runs as follows:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“The Individual in question most earnestly +calls the greatest attention of each member of the great Spanish +Family to this <i>divine</i> Book, in order that <i>through +it</i> he may learn the chief cause, if not the <i>sole one</i>, +of all his terrible afflictions and of his <i>only</i> remedy, as +it is so clearly manifested in the Holy Scripture . . . A +detestable system of superstition and fanaticism, <i>only greedy +for money</i>, 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 <i>absolute</i> +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 <i>very little</i> Kingdom of England, but +at length Her Sons recognising their imperative <i>Duty</i> +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.” <a +name="citation242a"></a><a href="#footnote242a" +class="citation">[242a]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.” <a name="citation242b"></a><a href="#footnote242b" +class="citation">[242b]</a> In consequence Graydon +“was detained and under my [the Consul’s] +responsibility allowed to remain at large.” <a +name="citation243a"></a><a href="#footnote243a" +class="citation">[243a]</a> A jury of nine all pronounced +the article to contain “matter subject to legal +process” <a name="citation243b"></a><a href="#footnote243b" +class="citation">[243b]</a> but a second jury of twelve at the +subsequent public trial “unanimously absolved” +Graydon.</p> +<p>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,” <a name="citation243c"></a><a +href="#footnote243c" class="citation">[243c]</a> 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.” <a name="citation243d"></a><a +href="#footnote243d" class="citation">[243d]</a> 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.</p> +<p>Sir George thought so seriously of the <i>Affaire Borrow</i>, +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,” <a +name="citation244a"></a><a href="#footnote244a" +class="citation">[244a]</a> 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.” <a name="citation244b"></a><a +href="#footnote244b" class="citation">[244b]</a> He +received a gracious assurance that he should have +satisfaction. Later there reached him</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a name="citation244c"></a><a href="#footnote244c" +class="citation">[244c]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right">“11<i>th</i> +<i>May</i> 1838.</p> +<p>“<span class="smcap">Sir</span>,—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.</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>“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 ‘<i>celador</i> 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.</p> +<p>“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 (<i>fuero</i>) according as it is now +established.” <a name="citation246a"></a><a +href="#footnote246a" class="citation">[246a]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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. +<a name="citation246b"></a><a href="#footnote246b" +class="citation">[246b]</a></p> +<p>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 <i>patio</i> +of the prison, where he used to pitch the bar and wrestle with +the murderers and felons, always coming off victor.” <a +name="citation247a"></a><a href="#footnote247a" +class="citation">[247a]</a> 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!” <a name="citation247b"></a><a +href="#footnote247b" class="citation">[247b]</a></p> +<p>John Hasfeldt’s comment on his friend’s +imprisonment was characteristic. In September 1838 he +wrote:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“The very last I heard of you is that you +have had the great good fortune to be stopping in the <i>carcel +de corte</i> at Madrid, which pleasing intelligence I found in +the <i>Preussiche Staats-Zeitung</i> this last spring. If +you were fatter no doubt the monks would have got up an <i>Auto +de Fé</i> 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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<h2>CHAPTER XVI<br /> +MAY–JULY 1838</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">Borrow</span> 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.</p> +<p>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:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a name="citation249"></a><a +href="#footnote249" class="citation">[249]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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 <i>harmless</i> 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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>On 23rd May Borrow wrote again to Mr Brandram:</p> +<blockquote><p>“In the name of the <i>Most Highest</i> 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:</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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 <i>Correo Nacional</i> 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.”</p> +<p><i>El Gazeta Oficial</i> 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 <i>social</i> +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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Borrow had written from prison to Mr Brandram <a +name="citation252"></a><a href="#footnote252" +class="citation">[252]</a> 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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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. <a name="citation253"></a><a href="#footnote253" +class="citation">[253]</a> 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:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 ‘<i>Ocurrido en +Malaga</i>.’” <a name="citation254a"></a><a +href="#footnote254a" class="citation">[254a]</a> The letter +in which Sir George Villiers was informed of the +Government’s decision runs as follows:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Madrid</span>, 19<i>th</i> <i>May</i> 1838.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">I avail myself, etc., etc.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">The Count of +Ofalia</span>. <a name="citation255a"></a><a href="#footnote255a" +class="citation">[255a]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation255b"></a><a href="#footnote255b" +class="citation">[255b]</a> 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.</p> +<p>Borrow was not the man to accept defeat, and he wrote to Mr +Brandram with great cheerfulness:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a +name="citation255c"></a><a href="#footnote255c" +class="citation">[255c]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>Later he wrote:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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; <a +name="citation256a"></a><a href="#footnote256a" +class="citation">[256a]</a> these books have been sworn to as +having been left <i>by the Committee of the Bible Society whilst +in that town</i>, 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.” <a +name="citation256b"></a><a href="#footnote256b" +class="citation">[256b]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation257a"></a><a href="#footnote257a" +class="citation">[257a]</a></p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation257b"></a><a +href="#footnote257b" class="citation">[257b]</a> 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.</p> +<p>Undeterred by the official edict against the circulation in +Spain of the Scriptures, Borrow wrote to Mr Brandram (14th +June):</p> +<blockquote><p>“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?”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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 <i>must</i> +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:—</p> +<blockquote><p><i>First</i>.—“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.”</p> +<p><i>Second</i>.—“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.”</p> +<p><i>Third</i>.—“That Mr Borrow be requested not to +repeat the Advertisement contained in the <i>Corréo +Nacional</i> 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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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 +<i>whole of Spain was under martial law</i>, 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:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a name="citation259"></a><a +href="#footnote259" class="citation">[259]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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,</p> +<blockquote><p>“he will assuredly be recalled on this +ground. You wonder perhaps that we for a moment doubt the +fact of his reiterated imprudence; but <i>audi alteram partem</i> +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!”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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 <i>had actually</i> suffered what the +Committee feared that Graydon <i>might</i> 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.</p> +<p>The other side of the picture is shown in a vigorous passage +from Borrow’s Report, which was afterwards withdrawn:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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 <i>repartidor</i>, 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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation262"></a><a href="#footnote262" +class="citation">[262]</a></p> +<p>Borrow’s acknowledgment of the Resolutions was dated +16th June. It ran:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“I have received your communication of the +30th ult. containing the resolutions of the Committee, to which I +shall of course attend.</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>“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 <i>Ukase</i> which forbade the work +which I was employed to superintend.</p> +<p>“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 <i>Gefé Politico</i> 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 <i>Gefé Politico</i>, 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!</p> +<p>“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 . . . <i>P.S.</i>—The Documents, +or some of them, shall be sent as soon as possible.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Nine days later (25th June) Borrow wrote:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.” +<a name="citation265a"></a><a href="#footnote265a" +class="citation">[265a]</a> 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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a name="citation265b"></a><a +href="#footnote265b" class="citation">[265b]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>In response, Mr Brandram wrote (28th July):</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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. +<a name="citation265c"></a><a href="#footnote265c" +class="citation">[265c]</a> 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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“In the name of the Highest,” he +wrote, <a name="citation266"></a><a href="#footnote266" +class="citation">[266]</a> “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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Borrow saw that his departure from Spain would be construed by +his enemies as flight, and that their joy would be great in +consequence.</p> +<p>The Spanish authorities were determined if possible to rid the +country of missionaries. The <i>Gazeta Oficial</i> 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>Despacho</i> +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):</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<h2>CHAPTER XVII<br /> +JULY–NOVEMBER 1838</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">Borrow’s</span> 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.</p> +<p>He was aware of the danger he ran in thus disregarding the +official decree.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 +<i>arrieros</i> frequently fall dead from their mules, smitten by +a sun-stroke.” <a name="citation269a"></a><a +href="#footnote269a" class="citation">[269a]</a></p> +<p>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” <a name="citation269b"></a><a +href="#footnote269b" class="citation">[269b]</a> and there were +to be heard “those grandiose expressions which, when met +with in the romances of chivalry, are scoffed at as ridiculous +exaggerations.” <a name="citation269c"></a><a +href="#footnote269c" class="citation">[269c]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation270a"></a><a +href="#footnote270a" class="citation">[270a]</a></p> +<p>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 <a +name="citation270b"></a><a href="#footnote270b" +class="citation">[270b]</a> when Borrow lived at the house of his +mother; yet he remembers that “<i>El +inglés</i>” 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 <i>The +Bible in Spain</i>), who spoke very bad Spanish.</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Sed un la in la en la la<br /> +Sino Mokhamente de resu la.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>It has been suggested, <a name="citation271a"></a><a +href="#footnote271a" class="citation">[271a]</a> and with every +show of probability, that “this is the Moslem +<i>kalimah</i> or creed which he had heard sung from the +minarets”:</p> +<blockquote><p>“La illaha illa allah<br /> +Wa Muhammad rasoul allah.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.” +<a name="citation271b"></a><a href="#footnote271b" +class="citation">[271b]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.</p> +<p>“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.”]</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>“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 +<i>my</i> depôts are meddled with, as it appears! The +Lord’s will be done, blessed be the name of the Lord!</p> +<p>“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:</p> +<p>“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 <i>your</i> 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 <i>almost</i> 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.</p> +<p>“Sir George Villiers has returned to England for a short +period; you have therefore the opportunity of consulting +him. I <i>will not</i> leave Spain until the whole affair +has been thoroughly sifted. I shall then perhaps appear and +bid you an eternal farewell. <a name="citation273a"></a><a +href="#footnote273a" class="citation">[273a]</a> Four +hundred Testaments have been disposed of in the Sagra of +Toledo.</p> +<p>“<i>P.S.</i>—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 <a +name="citation273b"></a><a href="#footnote273b" +class="citation">[273b]</a> it relates to the seizure of +<i>my</i> depots at Malaga, Pontevedra, etc. I have not +opened it, but send it for your approval.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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,</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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 <i>Calle del Principe</i>.” <a +name="citation275"></a><a href="#footnote275" +class="citation">[275]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>Elsewhere he referred to these same advertisements as +“mild yet expressive.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Seeing that no good could be done by plunging into the midst +of his enemies, who had their instructions from the +<i>corregidor</i> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation277a"></a><a +href="#footnote277a" class="citation">[277a]</a> 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 <i>corregidor</i> of Avila that +only the books should be confiscated and that the vendor should +be set at liberty, the <i>Alcalde</i>, 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, <a name="citation277b"></a><a href="#footnote277b" +class="citation">[277b]</a> “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.’”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>On his return to Madrid, Borrow found awaiting him the +Resolution of the General Committee (6th Aug.), recalling him +“without further delay.”</p> +<blockquote><p>“I will set out for England as soon as +possible,” he wrote in reply; <a name="citation278"></a><a +href="#footnote278" class="citation">[278]</a> “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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“I bore up against my illness as long as I +could,” he wrote, <a name="citation279a"></a><a +href="#footnote279a" class="citation">[279a]</a> “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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The actual date that Borrow left Madrid is not known. He +himself gave it as 31st August, <a name="citation279b"></a><a +href="#footnote279b" class="citation">[279b]</a> 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.” <a +name="citation279c"></a><a href="#footnote279c" +class="citation">[279c]</a> Having bought a few rare books +he proceeded to Boulogne, “and thence by steamboat to +London,” <a name="citation279d"></a><a href="#footnote279d" +class="citation">[279d]</a> where in all probability he arrived +towards the end of October.</p> +<p>He had “long talks on Spanish affairs” <a +name="citation279e"></a><a href="#footnote279e" +class="citation">[279e]</a> 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, <a name="citation280"></a><a +href="#footnote280" class="citation">[280]</a> 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,</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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 +<i>without commentary or notes</i>. 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.</p> +<p>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:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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—‘<i>cuia buena +fé me es conocida</i>.’ 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.” <a name="citation282"></a><a +href="#footnote282" class="citation">[282]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<h2>CHAPTER XVIII<br /> +DECEMBER 1838–MAY 1839</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">On</span> 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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation284"></a><a href="#footnote284" +class="citation">[284]</a> 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.”</p> +<p>On reaching Madrid a singular incident befell Borrow. On +entering the arch of the <i>posada</i> 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 +<i>posada</i>. 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.</p> +<p>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,” <a name="citation285a"></a><a +href="#footnote285a" class="citation">[285a]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“I have been very passionate in +prayer,” he writes, <a name="citation285b"></a><a +href="#footnote285b" class="citation">[285b]</a> “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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Mr Brandram’s comment on this portion of Borrow’s +letter is rather suggestive of deliberate fault-finding.</p> +<blockquote><p>“May your ‘passionate’ prayers +be answered,” he writes. <a name="citation286"></a><a +href="#footnote286" class="citation">[286]</a> “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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>montera</i>, 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>alcaldes</i> +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.</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation288a"></a><a +href="#footnote288a" class="citation">[288a]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation288b"></a><a +href="#footnote288b" class="citation">[288b]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 +<i>corregidor</i> on the morrow at eleven <span +class="GutSmall">A.M.</span>, 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 <i>corregidor</i>, 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 <i>corregidor</i> 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.</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a name="citation290"></a><a +href="#footnote290" class="citation">[290]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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, +“<i>Ever to expect evil</i>, <i>and ever to hope for +good</i>.”</p> +<p>Nothing could have been more unfortunate than the effect +produced upon Mr Brandram’s mind by this letter.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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, <i>e.g.</i>, 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 . . .</p> +<p>“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 +<i>ad nauseam</i>, and it is not for that I plead; but is there +not a <i>via media</i>? “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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.’”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Thus ended another unfortunate misunderstanding between +secretary and agent.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“For a few dollars,” he tells Mr +Brandram (2nd May), “I procured a <i>fiador</i> or person +who engaged <i>that the chests</i> 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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The <i>fiador</i> 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.”</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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 <i>renegade Quaker</i>. 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.” <a +name="citation293"></a><a href="#footnote293" +class="citation">[293]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>On arriving at Seville Borrow had put up at the <i>Posada de +la Reyna</i>, 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 +<i>rôle</i> 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 <i>Posada de la Reyna</i>, was +wandering about the galleries overlooking the <i>patio</i>. +He writes:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“whilst occupied in moralising over the +dripping water spouts, I observed a tall, gentlemanly-looking man +dressed in a <i>semarra</i> [<i>zamarra</i>, 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.” +<a name="citation294a"></a><a href="#footnote294a" +class="citation">[294a]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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 <i>fonda</i>. 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.” <a +name="citation294b"></a><a href="#footnote294b" +class="citation">[294b]</a></p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation295"></a><a href="#footnote295" +class="citation">[295]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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 <i>Gitanos</i>. 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—‘<i>Caballeritos</i>, <i>una +limosnita</i>! <i>Dios se la pagará á +ustedes</i>!’—‘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.</p> +<p>“‘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.’</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>“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?’</p> +<p>“‘Some years ago, in Moultan,’ he +replied.</p> +<p>“‘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.” <a name="citation297"></a><a href="#footnote297" +class="citation">[297]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<h2>CHAPTER XIX<br /> +MAY–DECEMBER 1839</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">Borrow</span> 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”; <a name="citation298"></a><a +href="#footnote298" class="citation">[298]</a> 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.</p> +<p>Soon after arriving at Seville, he decided to adopt a new plan +of living.</p> +<blockquote><p>“On account of the extreme dearness of every +article at the <i>posada</i>,” 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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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 <i>macetas</i>, or +flowerpots, in the court.” In the cool of the evening +he would mount Sidi Habismilk and ride along the <i>Dehesa</i> +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.</p> +<p>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, <a +name="citation299"></a><a href="#footnote299" +class="citation">[299]</a> the same story is told.</p> +<blockquote><p>“The binder has brought me eight +Bibles,” she writes, “which he has contrived to make +up out of <i>the sheets gnawn by the rats</i>, 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.” <a name="citation300"></a><a +href="#footnote300" class="citation">[300]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>there</i> 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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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 . . .</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>On 7th June Mrs Clarke and her daughter Henrietta sailed from +London on board the steam-packet <i>Royal Tar</i> 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 <a +name="citation301"></a><a href="#footnote301" +class="citation">[301]</a> 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.”</p> +<p>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 +<i>alguacils</i>, headed by the <i>Alcade del Barrio</i>, or +headborough, who made a small seizure of Testaments and Gypsy +Gospels which happened to be lying about.” <a +name="citation302"></a><a href="#footnote302" +class="citation">[302]</a> This circumstance convinced +Borrow of the good effect of his labours in and around +Seville.</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.):</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.):</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>“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 . . .</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>It would appear that the Bible Society had become aware of +Borrow’s <i>ménage</i> at Seville, and concluded +that he meant to take up his abode in Spain more or less +permanently.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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. +<a name="citation307a"></a><a href="#footnote307a" +class="citation">[307a]</a> What was the cause of this last +blow?” <a name="citation307b"></a><a href="#footnote307b" +class="citation">[307b]</a> 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 <a name="citation307c"></a><a href="#footnote307c" +class="citation">[307c]</a> [Lieut. Graydon] whose line of +conduct needs no comment.” <a name="citation307d"></a><a +href="#footnote307d" class="citation">[307d]</a> 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.” <a +name="citation308a"></a><a href="#footnote308a" +class="citation">[308a]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“When the Bible Society has no further +occasion for my poor labours,” he wrote <a +name="citation308b"></a><a href="#footnote308b" +class="citation">[308b]</a> 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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation309"></a><a href="#footnote309" +class="citation">[309]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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 +<i>to give tracts instead of money on visiting public +buildings</i>, <i>etc.</i> [!]. 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 <i>Corregidor</i>, 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.” <a name="citation310"></a><a +href="#footnote310" class="citation">[310]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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 <i>Alcalde del Barrio</i>.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>In the following letter, addressed to the British +<i>Chargé d’Affaires</i> (the Hon. G. S. S. +Jerningham), Borrow gives a full account of what transpired +between him and the <i>Alcalde</i> of Seville:—</p> +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 +“<i>Ayuntamiento</i>” of Seville for the purpose of +demanding my passport, it being my intention to set out the next +day for Cordoba. The “<i>Ayuntamiento</i>” +returned for answer that it was necessary that the ticket of +residence (<i>Billete de residencia</i>) which I had received on +sending in the Passport should be signed by the <i>Alcalde</i> 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 <i>Alcalde</i>, 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 <i>Alcalde</i> 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 <i>Alcalde</i>, 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>Patio</i>, 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 +<i>Alcalde</i>, 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 +<i>Escribano</i>, 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 <i>Alcalde</i> 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 <i>Escribano</i>, +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.</p> +<p>The above, Sir, is the correct statement of the affair which +has now brought me to Madrid. What could have induced the +<i>Alcalde</i> 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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">I am, etc., etc., etc.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">George +Borrow</span>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Madrid</span> (no date).</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Recorded 6th December [1839].” +<a name="citation313"></a><a href="#footnote313" +class="citation">[313]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>Thus it happened that on 19th December Mr Brandram received +the following letter:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Prison of Seville</span>, 25<i>th</i> <i>Nov.</i> +1839.</p> +<p>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.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>When questioned by the Vice-Consul as to his authority for +searching Borrow’s house, the <i>Alcalde</i> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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 +<i>brasero</i> 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.” <a name="citation315"></a><a +href="#footnote315" class="citation">[315]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XX<br /> +DECEMBER 1839–MAY 1840</h2> +<p>It was probably about this time (1839) that</p> +<blockquote><p>“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 +‘<i>mirador</i>,’ where Borrow was living <i>with his +wife and daughter</i>. . . 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 <i>own</i> 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.” <a +name="citation316"></a><a href="#footnote316" +class="citation">[316]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>Chargé +d’Affaires</i>, 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.”</p> +<p>The rather quaint reply to Borrow’s charges was not +forthcoming until he had left Spain and was living at +Oulton. It runs: <a name="citation317"></a><a +href="#footnote317" class="citation">[317]</a></p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Madrid</span>, 11<i>th</i> <i>May</i> 1840.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</p> +<p>Under date of 20th December last, Mr Perez de Castro informed +Mr Jerningham that in order to answer satisfactorily his note of +8th December <i>re</i> 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:—</p> +<p>“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 <i>Alcalde</i> 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 <i>Alcalde</i> 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 <i>Alcalde</i>, 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 <i>Alcalde</i>, 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 <i>Alcalde</i> 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 <i>Alcalde</i>, 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 <i>Alcalde</i> 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 +<i>exposé</i>, although he disfigures facts at pleasure, +using a language little decorous, he confesses part of his +faults, such as the offering of money <i>to pay</i>, as he says, +‘<i>the legal or extra-legal dues that might be +exacted</i>, and his having twice challenged the +<i>Alcalde</i>.’</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>“Hope he will therefore be completely satisfied, +especially after the want of exactitude on Borrow’s +part.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">From</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Evaristo Perez +De Castro</span>.”</p> +<p>To Mr Aston. <a name="citation319"></a><a href="#footnote319" +class="citation">[319]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a +name="citation320"></a><a href="#footnote320" +class="citation">[320]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">My dear Mrs +Clarke</span>,—Do not be alarmed, but I am at present in +the prison, to which place the <i>Alcalde</i> 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,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">George +Borrow</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>On hearing the news of the engagement old Mrs Borrow +wrote:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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>I</i> can sing +‘Gaily the Troubadour’; I only want the +‘guitar.’ <a name="citation321"></a><a +href="#footnote321" class="citation">[321]</a> God bless you +all.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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, <a +name="citation322"></a><a href="#footnote322" +class="citation">[322]</a> “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.</p> +<p>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 <i>The Zincali</i> +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.”</p> +<p>In reply to Mr Brandram’s letter Borrow +wrote:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“I did not return to England immediately +after my departure from Madrid for several reasons. First, +there was my affair with the <i>Alcalde</i> 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 <i>Alcalde</i> 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.” <a +name="citation323a"></a><a href="#footnote323a" +class="citation">[323a]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a name="citation323b"></a><a +href="#footnote323b" class="citation">[323b]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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 <i>Royal Adelaide</i> bound for +London.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“George Henry Borrow—of full +age—bachelor—gentleman—of the City of +Norwich—son of Thomas Borrow—Captain in the Army.</p> +<p>“Mary Clarke—of full age—widow—of +Spread Eagle Inn, Gracechurch Street—daughter of Edmund +Skepper—Esquire.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>On 2nd May an announcement of the marriage appeared in <i>The +Norfolk Chronicle</i>. 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.</p> +<p>On 21st April Mr Brandram had written to Borrow the following +letter:—</p> +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">My dear +Friend</span>,—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,</p> +<p style="text-align: right">A. <span +class="smcap">Brandram</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>On 24th April, the day after Borrow’s wedding, the +Sub-Committee duly met and</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The Bible Society’s valediction, which appeared in the +Thirty-Sixth Annual Report, read:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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!</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation328a"></a><a href="#footnote328a" +class="citation">[328a]</a> 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.” <a name="citation328b"></a><a +href="#footnote328b" class="citation">[328b]</a> 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.” <a name="citation328c"></a><a +href="#footnote328c" class="citation">[328c]</a> In the +preface to <i>The Bible in Spain</i> he pays a handsome tribute +to both Rule and Graydon, thus showing that although he was a +good hater, he could be magnanimous.</p> +<p>It has been stated that, during a portion of his association +with the Bible Society, Borrow acted as a foreign correspondent +for <i>The Morning Herald</i>. 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.</p> +<p>It would be interesting to identify the two men whom Borrow +describes in <i>Lavengro</i> 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 <i>Moll Flanders</i>. +“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.” <a +name="citation329a"></a><a href="#footnote329a" +class="citation">[329a]</a> Again, in <i>The Romany +Rye</i>, 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.” <a name="citation329b"></a><a +href="#footnote329b" class="citation">[329b]</a> 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.” <a name="citation329c"></a><a +href="#footnote329c" class="citation">[329c]</a> Mr +Brandram was not thin and his countenance was not +ill-natured.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXI<br /> +MAY 1840–MARCH 1841</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">Early</span> 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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p330b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Oulton Cottage. Photo. C. Wilson, Lowestroft" +title= +"Oulton Cottage. Photo. C. Wilson, Lowestroft" + src="images/p330s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>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. <a +name="citation330a"></a><a href="#footnote330a" +class="citation">[330a]</a> A regular Patmos, an <i>ultima +Thule</i>; placed in an angle of the most unvisited, +out-of-the-way portion of England.” <a +name="citation330b"></a><a href="#footnote330b" +class="citation">[330b]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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,” <a name="citation331a"></a><a +href="#footnote331a" class="citation">[331a]</a> 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.” <a name="citation331b"></a><a href="#footnote331b" +class="citation">[331b]</a></p> +<p>Life at Oulton Cottage was delightfully simple. Borrow +was a good host. “I am rather hospitable than +otherwise,” <a name="citation331c"></a><a +href="#footnote331c" class="citation">[331c]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.’” <a +name="citation332a"></a><a href="#footnote332a" +class="citation">[332a]</a></p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation332b"></a><a +href="#footnote332b" class="citation">[332b]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation332c"></a><a href="#footnote332c" +class="citation">[332c]</a> 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. <a name="citation332d"></a><a +href="#footnote332d" class="citation">[332d]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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” <a +name="citation333a"></a><a href="#footnote333a" +class="citation">[333a]</a> yet Borrow has said that “he +always had the health of an elephant.”</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation333b"></a><a href="#footnote333b" +class="citation">[333b]</a></p> +<p>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” <a +name="citation333c"></a><a href="#footnote333c" +class="citation">[333c]</a> 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.” <a name="citation334a"></a><a +href="#footnote334a" class="citation">[334a]</a></p> +<p>He took pleasure in puzzling people about languages. +Elizabeth Harvey tells <a name="citation334b"></a><a +href="#footnote334b" class="citation">[334b]</a> 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?” <a +name="citation334c"></a><a href="#footnote334c" +class="citation">[334c]</a></p> +<p>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 +<i>ventas</i> and <i>posadás</i>” <a +name="citation334d"></a><a href="#footnote334d" +class="citation">[334d]</a>—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.</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +<p>“In November 1840 a tall athletic gentleman in black +called upon Mr Murray, offering a manuscript for perusal and +publication.” <a name="citation335a"></a><a +href="#footnote335a" class="citation">[335a]</a> 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 <i>The Zincali</i>, which Murray sent +to Richard Ford <a name="citation335b"></a><a +href="#footnote335b" class="citation">[335b]</a> 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, <i>George Borrow</i>, +who went out to Spain to convert the <i>gypsies</i>. He is +about to publish his failure, and a curious book it will +be. It was submitted to my perusal by the hesitating +Murray.” <a name="citation335c"></a><a href="#footnote335c" +class="citation">[335c]</a> On Ford’s advice the book +was accepted for publication, it being arranged that author and +publisher should share the profits equally between them.</p> +<p>On 17th April 1841 there appeared in two volumes <i>The +Zincali</i>; <a name="citation336a"></a><a href="#footnote336a" +class="citation">[336a]</a> <i>or</i>, <i>An Account of the +Gypsies in Spain</i>. <i>With an original Collection of +their Songs and Poetry</i>, <i>and a copious Dictionary of their +Language</i>. 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.” <a name="citation336b"></a><a href="#footnote336b" +class="citation">[336b]</a></p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p336b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Richard Ford. From the painting by Antonio Chatelain" +title= +"Richard Ford. From the painting by Antonio Chatelain" + src="images/p336s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p><i>The Zincali</i> 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 <i>The Zincali</i>. 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.</p> +<p>As a piece of bookmaking <i>The Zincali</i> 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.</p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation337a"></a><a href="#footnote337a" +class="citation">[337a]</a> 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.</p> +<p>“Romany matters have always had a peculiar interest for +me,” <a name="citation337b"></a><a href="#footnote337b" +class="citation">[337b]</a> 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.” <a name="citation338a"></a><a +href="#footnote338a" class="citation">[338a]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation338b"></a><a +href="#footnote338b" class="citation">[338b]</a></p> +<p>On one occasion, having refused to one of his congregation the +loan of two <i>barias</i> (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.” <a name="citation338c"></a><a +href="#footnote338c" class="citation">[338c]</a></p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p338b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"John Murray the Second. The “Glorious John” of +Lavengro. From a portrait by H. W. Pickersgill, R.A., in the +possession of Mr. Murray" +title= +"John Murray the Second. The “Glorious John” of +Lavengro. From a portrait by H. W. Pickersgill, R.A., in the +possession of Mr. Murray" + src="images/p338s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation339"></a><a href="#footnote339" +class="citation">[339]</a></p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“The meagreness of his knowledge of the +Anglo-Gypsy dialect came out in his <i>Word Book of the +Romany</i> (1874); there must have been over a dozen Englishmen +who have known it far better than he. For his Spanish-Gypsy +vocabulary in <i>The Zincali</i> he certainly drew largely either +on Richard Bright’s <i>Travels through Lower Hungary</i> 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 <i>nil</i>. And yet I would put +George Borrow above every other writer on the Gypsies. In +<i>Lavengro</i> and, to a less degree, in its sequel, <i>The +Romany Rye</i>, he communicates a subtle insight into Gypsydom +that is totally wanting in the works—mainly +philological—of Pott, Liebich, Paspati, Miklosich, and +their confrères.” <a name="citation340a"></a><a +href="#footnote340a" class="citation">[340a]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>Groome was by no means partial to Borrow, as a matter of fact +he openly taxed him <a name="citation340b"></a><a +href="#footnote340b" class="citation">[340b]</a> with drawing +upon Bright’s <i>Travels in Hungary</i> (Edinburgh 1819) +for the Spanish-Romany Vocabulary, and was strong in his +denunciation of him as a <i>poseur</i>.</p> +<p>Borrow scorned book-learning. Writing to John Murray, +Junr. (21st Jan. 1843), about <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, 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,” <a name="citation340c"></a><a +href="#footnote340c" class="citation">[340c]</a> he wrote later, +and this, taken in conjunction with another sentence, viz., +“My favourite, I might say my only study, is man,” <a +name="citation340d"></a><a href="#footnote340d" +class="citation">[340d]</a> 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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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 <i>opus +magnum</i> 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.” <a name="citation341"></a><a href="#footnote341" +class="citation">[341]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>This quotation clearly explains Borrow’s attitude +towards philology. As he told the +<i>émigré</i> priest, he hoped to become something +more than a philologist.</p> +<p>There was nothing in the sale of <i>The Zincali</i> 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 <i>complete</i>.” 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.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXII<br /> +APRIL 1841–MARCH 1844</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">During</span> 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:—</p> +<table> +<tr> +<td><p>From his introduction until the end of the Russian +expedition</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">17.50</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Used for <i>The Bible in Spain</i></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">30.00</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Others written during the Spanish and Portuguese periods +and not used for <i>The Bible in Spain</i></p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">52.50</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">100.00</p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<p>Thirty per cent, of the whole number of the letters was all +that Borrow used for <i>The Bible in Spain</i>. 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>apropos</i> of <i>The Zincali</i>, +“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 <i>The Bible in Spain</i> had been +begun.</p> +<p>Ford’s counsel was invariably sound and sane. He +advised <i>El Gitano</i>, as he sometimes called Borrow, +“to avoid Spanish historians and <i>poetry</i> like Prussic +acid; to stick to himself, his biography and queer +adventures,” <a name="citation343"></a><a +href="#footnote343" class="citation">[343]</a> to all of which +Borrow promised obedience. Ford wrote to Borrow (Feb. 1841) +suggesting that <i>The Bible in Spain</i> 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 <i>dramatic</i>; that is, giving the exact +conversations.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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 <i>Bible in Spain</i>, 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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>The manuscript of <i>The Bible in Spain</i> 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 <a name="citation344"></a><a +href="#footnote344" class="citation">[344]</a> “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.”</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.]”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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—<i>don’ts</i>, <i>can’ts</i>, +etc. This would improve them greatly.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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 <i>consecutive</i> 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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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 <i>charming</i> 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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>It was not until towards the end of February that the +corrected manuscript of the first volume of <i>The Bible in +Spain</i> reached Albemarle Street. Later and better +counsels had apparently prevailed, and Borrow had become +reconciled to filling up the breaks.</p> +<p>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:—<a name="citation347"></a><a +href="#footnote347" class="citation">[347]</a></p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +<p>“<span class="smcap">Oulton Rectory</span>, 22<i>nd</i> +<i>April</i> 1842.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Borrow’s reply (in the rough draft found among his +papers after his death) ran:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>It had been arranged that <i>The Bible in Spain</i> should +make its appearance in May. In July Borrow wrote showing +some impatience and urging greater expedition.</p> +<blockquote><p>“What are your intentions with respect to +the <i>Bible in Spain</i>?” 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 <i>Bible</i> 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 <i>neither</i>, must of course give place? Be frank with +me, my dear Sir, and I will drink your health in Romany and +Madeira.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>To Ford, who had acted as a sort of godfather to <i>The Bible +in Spain</i>, 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 <i>Gil Blas</i> with a touch +of Bunyan. Borrow is “such a <i>trump</i> . . . 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.” <a +name="citation349"></a><a href="#footnote349" +class="citation">[349]</a></p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right">10<i>th</i> <i>June</i> +1842.</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><i>The Bible in Spain</i> 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.”</p> +<p>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 <i>The +Quarterly Review</i>, confessing the shame he felt at not having +reviewed <i>The Zincali</i>. “Very good—very +clever—very neatly done. Only one fault to +find—too laudatory,” was Borrow’s comment upon +this notice.</p> +<p>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 <i>do</i> 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.”</p> +<p>In all this chorus of praise there was the complaint of the +<i>Dublin Review</i> 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 <i>The Bible in Spain</i>.”</p> +<p>A second edition of <i>The Bible in Spain</i> 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 +<i>fourth</i> 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.”</p> +<p>In the flush of his success Borrow could afford to laugh at +the few cavilling critics.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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 <i>Athenæum</i> 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. <i>The +Bible in Spain</i> was translated into French and German and +subsequently (abridged) into Russian.</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation352"></a><a +href="#footnote352" class="citation">[352]</a></p> +<p>There were many things that contributed to the instantaneous +success of <i>The Bible in Spain</i>. 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. <i>Gil Blas</i> 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 <i>persona +grata</i> 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.</p> +<p>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. <i>The Bible in Spain</i> sold in its +thousands.</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“The German of the <i>Treasure</i>,” +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.” <a name="citation353"></a><a +href="#footnote353" class="citation">[353]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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 <i>The Bible in +Spain</i>. 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 +<i>soirée</i>, “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.” <a name="citation354"></a><a +href="#footnote354" class="citation">[354]</a></p> +<p>Borrow had been much touched by the news of the death of Allan +Cunningham (1785–1842).</p> +<blockquote><p>“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; <i>Traditional Tales</i> +his best work . . .</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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!”</p> +<p>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 . . . <i>There’s no peace in this +world</i>.” <a name="citation355a"></a><a +href="#footnote355a" class="citation">[355a]</a> 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.” <a name="citation355b"></a><a +href="#footnote355b" class="citation">[355b]</a> 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.</p> +<p>Small things troubled him and honours awakened in him no +enthusiasm. The <i>Times</i> in reviewing <i>The Bible in +Spain</i> had inferred that he was not a member of the Church of +England, <a name="citation355c"></a><a href="#footnote355c" +class="citation">[355c]</a> 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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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 +<i>clever</i> men, but <i>safe</i> 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 <i>gratis</i>.” <a +name="citation356"></a><a href="#footnote356" +class="citation">[356]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>He declined an invitation to join the Ethnological +Society.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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 <i>cuisine</i> is bad and their Port-wine +execrable, and as for their cigars—. . . ”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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 <i>The Bible in Spain</i> 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 <i>The +Zincali</i>, 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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Although he was receiving complimentary letters from all +quarters and from people he had never even heard of, he seemed +acutely unhappy.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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 <i>situations</i>, 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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>During his stay in London, Borrow sat to Henry Wyndham +Phillips, R.A., for his portrait. <a name="citation357"></a><a +href="#footnote357" class="citation">[357]</a> 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 <i>The Bible in Spain</i>,” and is +now in the possession of Mr John Murray.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p358b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"John Murray the Third. From a photograph by Maull and Fox" +title= +"John Murray the Third. From a photograph by Maull and Fox" + src="images/p358s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>Borrow recognised the stagnation of his present life.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>In the profits on the old and the preparation of new editions +of <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, 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 [<i>The Gypsies of Spain</i>]. 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 <i>The Bible in Spain</i> +and, consequently, was paid to him during the first years of his +association with Albemarle Street.</p> +<p>Caroline Fox gives an interesting picture of Borrow at this +period as he appeared to her:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right">“25<i>th</i> +<i>Oct.</i> 1843.</p> +<p>“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.” <a +name="citation360a"></a><a href="#footnote360a" +class="citation">[360a]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.” <a name="citation360b"></a><a +href="#footnote360b" class="citation">[360b]</a> 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 <a name="citation360c"></a><a +href="#footnote360c" class="citation">[360c]</a> 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.” <a name="citation360d"></a><a +href="#footnote360d" class="citation">[360d]</a></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIII<br /> +MARCH 1844–1848</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">In</span> March 1844 Borrow, unable longer +to control the <i>Wanderlust</i> 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.” <a name="citation361"></a><a +href="#footnote361" class="citation">[361]</a></p> +<p>He left London towards the end of April for Paris, from which +he wrote to John Murray, 1st May:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Vidocq wishes very much to have a copy of +my <i>Gypsies of Spain</i>, 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 <i>Les +Bohemiens</i>, about whom I see he knows nothing at all. I +have no doubt that the <i>Zincali</i>, 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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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,” <a +name="citation362a"></a><a href="#footnote362a" +class="citation">[362a]</a> 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.” <a name="citation362b"></a><a href="#footnote362b" +class="citation">[362b]</a></p> +<p>So little is known of Borrow’s Eastern Journey that the +following account, given by an American, has a peculiar +interest:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a +name="citation362c"></a><a href="#footnote362c" +class="citation">[362c]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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 <i>rôle</i> 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.</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a +name="citation363"></a><a href="#footnote363" +class="citation">[363]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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).</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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 <i>table d’hôte</i>, 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.” <a name="citation364"></a><a +href="#footnote364" class="citation">[364]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>The story is obviously untrue. Had Borrow been ignorant +of Arabic he would not have risked writing to Dr Bowring (11th +Sept. 1831; see <i>ante</i>, 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.”</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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 <i>Vocabulary of the Gypsy +Language as spoken in Hungary and Transylvania</i>, <i>compiled +during an intercourse of some months with the Gypsies in those +parts in the year</i> 1844, <i>by George Borrow</i>. In all +probability he prepared his <i>Bohemian Grammar</i> at the same +time. <a name="citation365a"></a><a href="#footnote365a" +class="citation">[365a]</a></p> +<p>From the time that he became acquainted with Borrow, Richard +Ford had constituted himself the genius of <i>La Mezquita</i> +(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 +<i>whole</i> adventures for the last twenty years,” he had +written. <a name="citation365b"></a><a href="#footnote365b" +class="citation">[365b]</a> Ford saw that a man of +Borrow’s nature must have had astonishing adventures, and +with <i>his</i> pen would be able to tell them in an astonishing +manner.</p> +<p>As early as the summer of 1841 Borrow appears to have +contemplated writing his <i>Autobiography</i>. On the eve +of the appearance of <i>The Bible in Spain</i> (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.”</p> +<p>The first draft of notes for <i>Lavengro</i>, <i>an +Autobiography</i>, as the book was originally advertised in the +announcement, is extremely interesting. It runs:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Reasons for studying languages: French, +Italian, D’Eterville.</p> +<p>Southern tongues. Dante.</p> +<p>Walks. The Quaker’s Home, Mousehold. +Petulengro.</p> +<p>The Gypsies.</p> +<p>The Office. Welsh. Lhuyd.</p> +<p>German. Levy. Billy Taylor.</p> +<p>Danish. Kœmpe Viser. Billy Taylor. +Dinner.</p> +<p>Bowring.</p> +<p>Hebrew. The Jew.</p> +<p>Philosophy. Radicalism. Ranters.</p> +<p>Thurtell. Boxers. Petulengres.” <a +name="citation365c"></a><a href="#footnote365c" +class="citation">[365c]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p><i>Lavengro</i> 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 <i>Life</i>. On 21st January 1843 he writes to John +Murray, Junr.: “I meditate shortly a return to Barbary in +quest of the <i>Witch Hamlet</i>, and my adventures in the land +of wonders will serve capitally to fill the thin volume of <i>My +Life</i>, <i>a Drama</i>, By G. B.” Again and again +Borrow refers to <i>My Life</i>. Hasfeldt and Ford also +wrote of it as the “wonderful life” and “the +<i>Biography</i>.”</p> +<p>In his letters to John Murray, Borrow not only refers to the +book as his <i>Life</i>, 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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“I wish I had another <i>Bible</i> 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 <i>first</i> +Vol.? The second will consist of my adventures in London as +an author in the year ’23 (<i>sic</i>), adventures on the +Big North Road in ’24 (<i>sic</i>), Constantinople, +etc. The third—but I shall tell you no more of my +secrets.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>In a letter to John Murray (25th Oct. 8843), the title is +referred to as <i>Lavengro</i>: <i>A Biography</i>. It is +to be “full of grave fun and solemn laughter like the +<i>Bible</i>.” On 6th December he again +writes:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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 +<i>Bible</i>, 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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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 <i>Life</i>,” he writes, to +Ford (9th Feb. 1844), “but slowly and lazily. What I +write, however, is <i>good</i>. I feel it is good, strange +and wild as it is.” <a name="citation367"></a><a +href="#footnote367" class="citation">[367]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“I am here on a visit to <i>El +Gitano</i>;” he writes, “two ‘rum’ coves, +in a queer country . . . we defy the elements, and chat over +<i>las cosas de España</i>, 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 <i>La Mezquita</i>, in which <i>El +Gitano</i> concocts his lucubrations, and <i>paints</i> his +pictures, for his object is to colour up and poetise his +adventures.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>By this last sentence Ford showed how thoroughly he understood +Borrow’s literary methods. A fortnight later Borrow +writes to Ford:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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 <i>Batushka</i>.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The Eastern Tour considerably interfered with the writing of +<i>Lavengro</i>. 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 <i>The +Bible in Spain</i>.</p> +<p>Ford’s <i>Hand-Book for Travellers in Spain and Readers +at Home</i> 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 <i>rum</i> 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 +<i>Hand-Book</i> when it appeared. “You will do it +<i>magnificently</i>. ‘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 <i>The +Quarterly Review</i>, with the following from Mrs +Borrow:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Ford saw in Borrow “a crack reviewer.” +“ . . . You have,” he assured him in 1843, +“only to write a <i>long letter</i>, 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 <i>bag</i> you forthwith, +unless they are demented.” There was no doubt in his, +Ford’s, mind as to the acceptance of Borrow’s +article.</p> +<blockquote><p>“If insanity does not rule the <i>Q. R.</i> +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 <i>Ed</i>[<i>inburgh</i>] +<i>Rev.</i> does business in a more liberal and more +business-like manner than the <i>Q</i>[<i>uarterly</i>] +<i>Rev.</i> I am always dunning this into Murray’s +head. More flies are caught with honey than vinegar. +Soft sawder, especially if plenty of <i>gold</i> goes into the +composition, cements a party and keeps earnest pens +together. I grieve, for my heart is entirely with the <i>Q. +R.</i>, its views and objects.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The article turned out to be, not a review of the +<i>Hand-Book</i>, 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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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 <i>review sense</i>.</p> +<p>“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 <i>Magazine</i>, and I have +no doubt either <i>Blackwood</i> or <i>Fraser</i> or +<i>Colburn</i> will be [only] too happy to insert it next month, +if applied to now.</p> +<p>“Mr Borrow would not have liked that, when his <i>Bible +in Spain</i> 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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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 <i>Bible in +Spain</i>,” which he had read with delight, but there was +“hardly a word of <i>review</i>, and no extract giving the +least notion of the peculiar merits and style especially, of the +<i>Hand-Book</i>.” “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 <i>style</i>, I am forced to infer that a <i>review</i> of +your book by him would never be what I could feel authorised to +publish in the <i>Q. R.</i>” The letter concludes +with a word of condolence that the <i>Hand-Book</i> will have to +be committed to other hands.</p> +<p>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</p> +<blockquote><p>“‘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 +<i>Blackwood</i>, <i>Fraser</i>, 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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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 <i>Lavengro</i> when it +appeared.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>The Romany +Rye</i>.</p> +<p>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?” <a +name="citation372"></a><a href="#footnote372" +class="citation">[372]</a></p> +<p>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 +<i>Calés</i> got notice of your publication [<i>The +Zincali</i>]?”</p> +<p>Borrow had written to John Murray, Junr. (10th May +1842):—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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 <i>The Bible in +Spain</i> would have no objection to become ‘a great +unpaid!’”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Gladstone is said greatly to have admired <i>The Bible in +Spain</i>, 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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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 <i>truth</i>, 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 <a name="citation374"></a><a +href="#footnote374" class="citation">[374]</a> 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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Pray present my best respects to the Canon +of St Paul’s and tell him from me that he is a +<i>burro</i>, 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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a name="citation375"></a><a href="#footnote375" +class="citation">[375]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation376a"></a><a href="#footnote376a" +class="citation">[376a]</a> “In nothing can the +character of a people be read with greater certainty and +exactness than in its songs,” <a name="citation376b"></a><a +href="#footnote376b" class="citation">[376b]</a> Borrow had +written. <a name="citation376c"></a><a href="#footnote376c" +class="citation">[376c]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation376d"></a><a +href="#footnote376d" class="citation">[376d]</a> 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 <i>Songs of Scandinavia</i> was projected, as +Borrow hoped to bring out during the ensuing year a volume +entitled <i>Songs of Denmark</i>. 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 <i>Bible in +Spain</i> sent “to my oldest, I may say my <i>only</i> +friend.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>The Romany +Rye</i>. 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 <i>The Romany +Rye</i>. <a name="citation378a"></a><a href="#footnote378a" +class="citation">[378a]</a></p> +<p>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. <a name="citation378b"></a><a href="#footnote378b" +class="citation">[378b]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Borrow had achieved literary success: before the year 1847 +<i>The Zincali</i> was in its Fourth Edition (nearly 10,000 +copies having been printed) and <i>The Bible in Spain</i> 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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“Why did you send me down six copies [of +<i>The Zincali</i>]?” 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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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 +<i>Memoirs</i> he described Borrow as</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a +name="citation379"></a><a href="#footnote379" +class="citation">[379]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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</p> +<blockquote><p>“the amusing author of <i>The Bible in +Spain</i>, 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.” <a +name="citation380a"></a><a href="#footnote380a" +class="citation">[380a]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>Abandoning paradox, Dr Hake is more successful in his +description of Borrow’s person.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a +name="citation380b"></a><a href="#footnote380b" +class="citation">[380b]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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. <a +name="citation381a"></a><a href="#footnote381a" +class="citation">[381a]</a></p> +<p>The two young undergraduates who drove in a gig from Cambridge +to Oulton to pay their respects to Borrow (<i>circa</i> 1846) +described him as employed</p> +<blockquote><p>“in training some young horses to follow him +about like dogs and come at the call of his whistle. As my +two friends <a name="citation381b"></a><a href="#footnote381b" +class="citation">[381b]</a> 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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.” <a name="citation381c"></a><a +href="#footnote381c" class="citation">[381c]</a> 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 <a name="citation381d"></a><a href="#footnote381d" +class="citation">[381d]</a> is another instance of his +tender-heartedness with regard to animals.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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 <i>The Satirists</i>, 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 <i>Punch</i>?’”</p> +<p>“‘In <i>Punch</i>?’ asked Borrow. +‘It is a periodical I never look at!’</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>“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.” <a name="citation382"></a><a +href="#footnote382" class="citation">[382]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.” <a name="citation383a"></a><a +href="#footnote383a" class="citation">[383a]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>The Queens of +England</i>, 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. <a name="citation383b"></a><a +href="#footnote383b" class="citation">[383b]</a></p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation384a"></a><a href="#footnote384a" +class="citation">[384a]</a></p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation384b"></a><a +href="#footnote384b" class="citation">[384b]</a></p> +<p>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).</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a +name="citation385a"></a><a href="#footnote385a" +class="citation">[385a]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>The present Mr John Murray recollects Borrow very clearly +as</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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</p> +<blockquote><p>“Borrow was at a dinner-party in company +with Whewell <a name="citation385b"></a><a href="#footnote385b" +class="citation">[385b]</a> [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.</p> +<p>“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?’” <a name="citation386"></a><a +href="#footnote386" class="citation">[386]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIV<br /> +LAVENGRO—1843–1851</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">During</span> all these years +<i>Lavengro</i> 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 <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, 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 <i>Coran</i> on mutton spade bones.” +“His [Borrow’s] biography will be passing strange if +he tells the <i>whole</i> 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 +<i>The Bible in Spain</i>. The great difficulty, however, +is to blend them all into a symmetrical whole.” On +17th September 1846 he writes again to his publisher:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>In the <i>Quarterly Review</i>, July 1848, under the heading +of Mr Murray’s List of New Works in Preparation, there +appeared the first announcement of <i>Lavengro</i>, <i>an +Autobiography</i>, by George Borrow, Author of <i>The Bible in +Spain</i>, etc., 4 vols. post 8vo. This was repeated in +October. During the next two months the book was advertised +as <i>Life</i>; <i>A Drama</i>, in <i>The Athenæum</i> and +<i>The Quarterly Review</i>, 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:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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 <i>Lavengro</i> was published in an edition of three +thousand copies, which lasted for twenty-one years.</p> +<p>The appearance of <i>Lavengro</i> 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 +<i>Athenæum</i>. “We are disappointed,” +echoed <i>Blackwood</i>. Among the few friendly notices was +that of Dr Hake, in which he prophesied that +“<i>Lavengro’s</i> roots will strike deep into the +soil of English letters.” Even Ford wrote (8th +March):</p> +<blockquote><p>“I frankly own that I am somewhat +disappointed with the very <i>little</i> you have told us about +<i>yourself</i>. 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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>In this chorus of dispraise Borrow saw a conspiracy. +“If ever a book experienced infamous and undeserved +treatment,” he wrote, <a name="citation390"></a><a +href="#footnote390" class="citation">[390]</a> “it was that +book. I was attacked in every form that envy and malice +could suggest.” In <i>The Romany Rye</i> 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 <i>every political and religious +renegade</i> 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 <i>The Zincali</i>] to me.” <a +name="citation391a"></a><a href="#footnote391a" +class="citation">[391a]</a> From this it is evident that +Borrow was unprepared for anything but commendation from critics +and readers.</p> +<p>Dr Bowring had some time previously requested the editor of +<i>The Edinburgh Review</i> to allow him to review +<i>Lavengro</i>; 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 <i>The Edinburgh</i>, as has +been suggested.</p> +<p>In the Preface, <i>Lavengro</i> 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 <i>The Romany Rye</i>; yet in his manuscript autobiography <a +name="citation391b"></a><a href="#footnote391b" +class="citation">[391b]</a> (13th Oct. 1862) he says: “In +1851 he published <i>Lavengro</i>, a work in which he gives an +account of his early life.” Why had Borrow changed +his mind?</p> +<p>When <i>Lavengro</i> 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. <i>The Bible in Spain</i> 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 +<i>gitanos</i> to kiss his hand and garments as if he were a god +or a hero. The literary and social worlds that <i>The Bible +in Spain</i> 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 +<i>alguacils</i>. 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation393a"></a><a +href="#footnote393a" class="citation">[393a]</a> He hailed +him as “greater than Homer;” <a +name="citation393b"></a><a href="#footnote393b" +class="citation">[393b]</a> 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:</p> +<blockquote><p>“He admires his talents both as a prose +writer and a poet; as a poet especially. <a +name="citation393c"></a><a href="#footnote393c" +class="citation">[393c]</a> . . . 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.” <a name="citation393d"></a><a href="#footnote393d" +class="citation">[393d]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.” <a name="citation393e"></a><a +href="#footnote393e" class="citation">[393e]</a> 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.” <a name="citation393f"></a><a +href="#footnote393f" class="citation">[393f]</a></p> +<p>With Wordsworth it was different, and it was his cordial +dislike of his poetry that prompted Borrow to introduce into +<i>The Romany Rye</i> that ineffectual episode of the man who was +sent to sleep by reading him. Tennyson he dismissed as a +writer of “duncie books.”</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation394a"></a><a +href="#footnote394a" class="citation">[394a]</a> He was +delighted with <i>The Pickwick Papers</i> and <i>Oliver +Twist</i>.</p> +<p>His reading was anything but thorough, in fact he occasionally +showed a remarkable ignorance of contemporary writers. Mr +A. Egmont Hake tells how:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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?’” <a name="citation394b"></a><a +href="#footnote394b" class="citation">[394b]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>By the time that <i>Lavengro</i> appeared, Borrow was +estranged from his generation. The years that intervened +between the success of <i>The Bible in Spain</i> and the +publication of <i>Lavengro</i> 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 <i>Lavengro</i> 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.</p> +<p>When <i>Lavengro</i> 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>Lavengro</i> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>In writing to Mrs George Borrow (24th March 1851) to tell her +that W. B. Donne had been unable to obtain <i>Lavengro</i> for +<i>The Edinburgh Review</i> 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 +<i>Lavengro</i>, 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 <i>taken in by</i> +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 <i>Lavengro</i>, in his own circle +it was freely admitted and referred to as a life.</p> +<p>“What is an autobiography?” Borrow once asked Mr +Theodore Watts-Dunton (who had called his attention to several +bold coincidences in <i>Lavengro</i>). “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?” +<a name="citation396"></a><a href="#footnote396" +class="citation">[396]</a> Mr Watts-Dunton confirms +Borrow’s letters when he says “That he [Borrow] sat +down to write his own life in <i>Lavengro</i> I know. He +had no idea then of departing from the strict line of +fact.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>Lavengro</i> 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 <i>Lavengro</i>.</p> +<p>Mr Watts-Dunton, with inspiration, has asked whether or not +<i>Lavengro</i> and <i>The Romany Rye</i> 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.</p> +<p>There are, unquestionably, inconsistencies in <i>Lavengro</i> +and <i>The Romany Rye</i>—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.</p> +<p>In the main <i>Lavengro</i> 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 +<i>rencontre</i> 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.</p> +<p>The failure of <i>Lavengro</i> 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.” <a name="citation398"></a><a href="#footnote398" +class="citation">[398]</a> He glorified the bruisers of +England, in the face of horrified public opinion. England +had become ashamed of its bruisers long before <i>Lavengro</i> +was written, and this flaunting in its face of creatures that it +considered too low to be mentioned, gave mortal offence. +That in <i>Lavengro</i> 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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“Qui n’ a pas l’esprit de son +âge,<br /> +De son âge a tout le malheur.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>And Borrow proved Voltaire’s words.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Borrow loved to mystify, but in <i>Lavengro</i> 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.”</p> +<p>John Murray wrote (8th Nov. 1851):—</p> +<blockquote><p>“I was reminded of you the other day by an +enquiry after <i>Lavengro</i> and its author, made by the Right +Honourable John Wilson Croker. <a name="citation399a"></a><a +href="#footnote399a" class="citation">[399a]</a> 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, <i>if true</i>; 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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>“There are,” says a distinguished critic, <a +name="citation399b"></a><a href="#footnote399b" +class="citation">[399b]</a> “passages in <i>Lavengro</i> +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 <i>Lavengro</i>.</p> +<p>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 <a +name="citation400a"></a><a href="#footnote400a" +class="citation">[400a]</a> has written:—“I would as +lief read a chapter of <i>The Bible in Spain</i> as I would +<i>Gil Blas</i>; nay, I positively would give the preference to +Señor Giorgio.” Another critic, and a severe +one, has written:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a +name="citation400b"></a><a href="#footnote400b" +class="citation">[400b]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>The Bible in Spain</i> disproves these conclusions; but +<i>The Bible in Spain</i> was a peculiar book. It was a +chronicle of Christian enterprise served up with <i>sauce +picaresque</i>. 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 <i>Lavengro</i> +and <i>The Romany Rye</i> 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 <i>The Bible in +Spain</i> after the failure of <i>Lavengro</i>, it would in all +probability have been as successful as it was appearing +before.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXV<br /> +SEPTEMBER 1849–FEBRUARY 1854</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">One</span> 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>the old house</i>; 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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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 <i>safer home</i>. +I have made up my mind to the change and only pray that I may be +able to get through the trouble.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Shortly before leaving Oulton, Borrow had received the +following interesting letter from FitzGerald:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Boulge</span>, <span +class="smcap">Woodbridge</span>, 22nd <i>July</i> 1853.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Sir</span>,—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.</p> +<p>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,</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Edward FitzGerald</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Soon after his arrival by the sea, Borrow performed an act of +bravery of which <i>The Bury Post</i> (17th Sept. 1852) gave the +following account, most likely written by Dr Hake:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“<span +class="smcap">Intrepidity</span>.—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 <i>of +Lavengro</i>, and <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, 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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Borrow was a splendid swimmer. <a name="citation404a"></a><a +href="#footnote404a" class="citation">[404a]</a> In the +course of one of his country walks with Robert Cooke (John +Murray’s partner), with whom he was on very friendly +terms,</p> +<blockquote><p>“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?’” <a name="citation404b"></a><a +href="#footnote404b" class="citation">[404b]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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?” <a name="citation404c"></a><a +href="#footnote404c" class="citation">[404c]</a></p> +<p>The paragraph about Borrow’s courage was printed in +various newspapers throughout the country, amongst others in the +<i>Plymouth Mail</i> 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:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Yarmouth</span>, 14<i>th</i> <i>Octr.</i>, +1853.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Sir</span>,—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” <a +name="citation405"></a><a href="#footnote405" +class="citation">[405]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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,—</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">George +Borrow</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>After tea Borrow, accompanied by Robert Taylor, rode to +Penquite, four miles away. “Ride by night to +Penquite, Borrow records in his <i>Journal</i>. 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.</p> +<p>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:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.’” <a +name="citation407a"></a><a href="#footnote407a" +class="citation">[407a]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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. <a name="citation407b"></a><a +href="#footnote407b" class="citation">[407b]</a></p> +<p>On one occasion when dining at the house of a local celebrity +he was suddenly missed from table during dessert.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a name="citation407c"></a><a +href="#footnote407c" class="citation">[407c]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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. <a +name="citation408"></a><a href="#footnote408" +class="citation">[408]</a> This was done as a protest +against something or other that seemed to him to suggest mock +refinement.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a name="citation409"></a><a +href="#footnote409" class="citation">[409]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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!”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>is</i> 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</p> +<blockquote><p>“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; <a name="citation411"></a><a +href="#footnote411" class="citation">[411]</a> 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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>It was Borrow’s intention to write a book about his +visit to Cornwall, and he even announced it at the end of <i>The +Romany Rye</i>. 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 +<i>two</i> pocket books.”</p> +<p>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 <i>The Romany Rye</i>. <a name="citation412a"></a><a +href="#footnote412a" class="citation">[412a]</a> On 13th +February he writes to his wife:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>His wife appears to have been anxious for his return home, and +on the 17th he writes to her:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.” <a name="citation412b"></a><a +href="#footnote412b" class="citation">[412b]</a> 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.” <a +name="citation413"></a><a href="#footnote413" +class="citation">[413]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Borrow returned to Yarmouth on 25th February. <i>The +Romany Rye</i> was now rapidly nearing completion; but there was +no encouragement to publish a new book. He worked at <i>The +Romany Rye</i>, 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. <i>The Romany Rye</i> 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.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXVI<br /> +MARCH 1854–MAY 1856</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">During</span> 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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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 <i>a Breton</i>.</p> +<p>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,” <a name="citation415a"></a><a href="#footnote415a" +class="citation">[415a]</a> 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 <i>funny</i> look <a +name="citation415b"></a><a href="#footnote415b" +class="citation">[415b]</a> 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.” <a name="citation416"></a><a href="#footnote416" +class="citation">[416]</a></p> +<p>About this time Mrs George Borrow wrote to old Mrs Borrow at +Oulton Hall, saying that all was well with her son.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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 <i>daily</i> Journal +of all that goes on, so that he can make a most amusing book in a +month, whenever he wishes to do so.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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 <i>burn</i> +this, or do not leave it about,” the old lady is +admonished.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>Wild Wales</i> he gives an +account of the interview.</p> +<blockquote><p>“‘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.</p> +<p>“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.’</p> +<p>“‘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.’</p> +<p>“The little maiden very demurely took the book and +pencil, and placing the former on the table wrote as +follows:—</p> +<p>“‘Ellen Jones yn perthyn o bell i gronow +owen.’ <a name="citation417a"></a><a href="#footnote417a" +class="citation">[417a]</a></p> +<p>“That is, ‘Ellen Jones belonging, from afar off to +Gronwy Owen.’” <a name="citation417b"></a><a +href="#footnote417b" class="citation">[417b]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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 <i>Wild +Wales</i>. 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 <i>funny</i> +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 <a +name="citation418a"></a><a href="#footnote418a" +class="citation">[418a]</a> 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.” <a name="citation418b"></a><a +href="#footnote418b" class="citation">[418b]</a></p> +<p>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. <a +name="citation418c"></a><a href="#footnote418c" +class="citation">[418c]</a></p> +<p>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. <a name="citation419a"></a><a href="#footnote419a" +class="citation">[419a]</a></p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation419b"></a><a +href="#footnote419b" class="citation">[419b]</a> 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.” +<a name="citation419c"></a><a href="#footnote419c" +class="citation">[419c]</a> Sometimes he was reminded +“of the substantial yoemen of Cornwall, particularly . . . +of my friends at Penquite.” <a name="citation419d"></a><a +href="#footnote419d" class="citation">[419d]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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!” <a name="citation420a"></a><a href="#footnote420a" +class="citation">[420a]</a> 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 <i>Wild Wales</i> 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>carvel</i> <a name="citation420b"></a><a +href="#footnote420b" class="citation">[420b]</a> (or carol) +books, of which he was successful in securing two examples. +He discovered that the island possessed a veritable literature in +these <i>carvels</i>, which were circulated in manuscript form +among the neighbours of the writers.</p> +<p>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 <i>Illiam Dhoo</i>, or Brown William. He discovered +among the Manx traditions much about Finn Ma Coul, or +M‘Coyle, who appears in <i>The Romany Rye</i> 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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center">BAYR JAIRGEY<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">AND</span><br /> +GLION DOO</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">THE RED PATH +AND THE BLACK VALLEY</span></p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">WANDERINGS +IN QUEST OF MANX LITERATURE</span></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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 <a +name="citation422"></a><a href="#footnote422" +class="citation">[422]</a> . . . as a frontispiece to it +[<i>Lavengro</i>]. 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 <i>your</i> assent; +I do not ask Mr Borrow’s leave, remember.”</p> +<p>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 <i>Lavengro</i>. Mrs Borrow’s reply to +this letter is significant. With regard to the engraving, +she writes (28th November), “<i>I like the idea of it</i>, +and when Mr Borrow remarked that he did not wish it (as we +expected he would) I reminded him that <i>his</i> leave +<i>was</i> not asked.”</p> +<p>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 <i>The Romany +Rye</i>, 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 <i>both</i> 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 +<i>a word from me</i>.” 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, <i>not</i> let this note remain on your table,” she +concludes, “or <i>mention</i> it.”</p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation423a"></a><a href="#footnote423a" +class="citation">[423a]</a></p> +<p>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. <a +name="citation423b"></a><a href="#footnote423b" +class="citation">[423b]</a> 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 <a +name="citation423c"></a><a href="#footnote423c" +class="citation">[423c]</a> 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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“When, according to his account, <a +name="citation424"></a><a href="#footnote424" +class="citation">[424]</a> 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.’”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation425a"></a><a href="#footnote425a" +class="citation">[425a]</a> 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.”</p> +<p>He liked ale “with plenty of malt in it, and as little +hop as well may be—ale at least two years old.” <a +name="citation425b"></a><a href="#footnote425b" +class="citation">[425b]</a> The period of its maturity +changed with his mood. In another place he gives nine or +ten months as the ideal age. <a name="citation425c"></a><a +href="#footnote425c" class="citation">[425c]</a> 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.” <a +name="citation425d"></a><a href="#footnote425d" +class="citation">[425d]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXVII<br /> +<i>THE ROMANY RYE</i>. 1854–1859</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">Borrow</span> 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:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right">31 <span +class="smcap">Great Portland Street</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">London</span>, 27<i>th</i> <i>October</i> +1856.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Sir</span>,—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 +<i>use</i> it, for you abide in the old Meninsky; but if you +<i>will</i> use it, I shall be very glad. I don’t +think <i>I</i> ever shall; and so what is to be done with it now +it is bought?</p> +<p>I don’t know what Kerrich told you of my being too +<i>lazy</i> 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 <i>Northern Ballads</i> too; but you shut the +book.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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,</p> +<p style="text-align: center">Yours truly,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Edward +FitzGerald</span>.</p> +<p><i>P.S.</i>—Donne is well, and wants to know about +you.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>A few months later FitzGerald wrote again:</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Albert House</span>, <span +class="smcap">Gorleston</span>,<br /> +6<i>th</i> <i>July</i> 1857.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Borrow</span>,—Will you send me +[The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam] by bearer. I only want to +look at him, for that Frenchman <a name="citation427"></a><a +href="#footnote427" class="citation">[427]</a> 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 ’<i>Omar</i> 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 +<i>both</i> MSS. are well omitted.</p> +<p>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 <i>worst</i> 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.</p> +<p>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, <i>our</i> time +seems coming. Make way, Gentlemen!—Yours very +truly,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Edward +FitzGerald</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a +name="citation428a"></a><a href="#footnote428a" +class="citation">[428a]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>From Wales Mrs George Borrow had written (Sept. 1854) to old +Mrs Borrow: “He [Borrow] will, I expect at Christmas, +publish his other work [<i>The Romany Rye</i>] together with his +poetry in all the European languages.” <a +name="citation428b"></a><a href="#footnote428b" +class="citation">[428b]</a> In November (1854) the +manuscript of <i>The Romany Rye</i> 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:—</p> +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">My dear Borrow</span>,—I +have read with care the MS. of <i>The Romany Rye</i> 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, <a name="citation429"></a><a href="#footnote429" +class="citation">[429]</a> no mean judge, +concurs—absolutely indispensable. That +<i>Lavengro</i> 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 <i>interest</i> to shorten a book from two +volumes to one unless there were really good cause.</p> +<p><i>Lavengro</i> 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,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">John +Murray</span>.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>Suggestions for +Omission</i>.</p> +<p>The Hungarian in No. 6.</p> +<p>The Jockey Story, terribly spun out, No. 7.</p> +<p>Visit to the Church, too long.</p> +<p>Interview with the Irishman, Do.</p> +<p>Learning Chinese, too much repetition in this part of a very +interesting chapter.</p> +<p>The Postilion and Highwayman.</p> +<p>Throughout the MS. condensation is indispensable. Many +of the narratives are carried to a tedious length by details and +repetition.</p> +<p>The dialogue with Ursula, the song, etc., border on the +indelicate. I like much Horncastle Fair, the Chinese +scholar, except objection noted above.</p> +<p>Grooming of the horse.</p> +<p>January 27, 1855.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">Dear Mr +Murray</span>,—We have received your letters. In the +first place I beg leave to say something on a very principal +point. You talk about <i>conditions</i> 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.</p> +<p>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 . . .</p> +<p>With regard to <i>Lavengro</i> 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 <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, 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?</p> +<p>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 <i>The +Bible in Spain</i>, or it would be said to be unlike <i>The Bible +in Spain</i>, 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,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Mary +Borrow</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Some years before, Borrow had met Rev. Whitwell Elwin, Rector +of Booton, somewhere about the time he (Elwin) came up to London +to edit <i>The Quarterly Review</i>, viz., 1853. <a +name="citation431"></a><a href="#footnote431" +class="citation">[431]</a> The first interview between the +two men has been described as characteristic of both.</p> +<blockquote><p>“Borrow was just then very sore with his +slashing critics, and on someone mentioning that Elwin was a +‘<i>Quartering</i> 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>I</i> am the old <i>High</i>.’ +‘I am happy to say I am <i>not</i>,’ 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.’” <a +name="citation432a"></a><a href="#footnote432a" +class="citation">[432a]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>Elwin became greatly interested in <i>The Romany +Rye</i>. He endeavoured to influence its composition, and +even wrote to Borrow begging him “to give his sequel to +<i>Lavengro</i> more of an historical, and less of a romancing +air.” He was not happy about the book. He wrote +to John Murray in March:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“‘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.” <a name="citation432b"></a><a +href="#footnote432b" class="citation">[432b]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>Borrow appears to have become tired of biding his time with +regard to <i>The Romany Rye</i>, 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 +<i>The Quarterly Review</i> from the proof-sheets:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“When the review was almost finished, it was +on the point of being altogether withdrawn, owing to a passage in +<i>Romany Rye</i> which Elwin said was clearly meant to be a +reflection on his friend Ford, ‘to avenge the presumed +refusal of the latter to praise <i>Lavengro</i> in <i>The +Quarterly Review</i>.’ ‘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.” <a +name="citation433"></a><a href="#footnote433" +class="citation">[433]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>John Murray determined not to publish the book unless the +offending passage were removed. He wrote to Borrow the +following letter:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right">8<i>th</i> <i>April</i> +1857.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Borrow</span>,—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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">Yours very faithfully,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">John +Murray</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">Dear +Sir</span>,—Yesterday I received your letter. You had +better ask your cousin [Robert Cooke] to come down and talk about +matters. <i>After</i> 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.</p> +<p>I believe, however, that your intentions are good, and that +you are disposed to be friendly.—Yours truly,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">George +Borrow</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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 <i>The +Romany Rye</i> 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. +<i>Lavengro</i> 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.</p> +<p><i>The Romany Rye</i> 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.</p> +<p>Among the reviews, which were on the whole unfriendly, was the +remarkable notice in <i>The Quarterly Review</i>, by the Rev. +Whitwell Elwin:—<a name="citation435"></a><a +href="#footnote435" class="citation">[435]</a></p> +<blockquote><p>“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 <i>Lavengro</i> has +<i>not</i> obtained the fame which was its due. It contains +passages which in their way are not surpassed by anything in +English Literature.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a name="citation436"></a><a +href="#footnote436" class="citation">[436]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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 <i>Lavengro</i>, 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 +<i>The Romany Rye</i> 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.</p> +<p>Borrow had sent a copy of <i>The Romany Rye</i> to FitzGerald, +which is referred to by him in a letter written from Gorleston to +Professor Cowell (5th June 1857):—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Within hail almost lives George Borrow who +has lately published, and given me, two new Volumes of Lavengro +called <i>Romany Rye</i>, 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.” <a name="citation437a"></a><a href="#footnote437a" +class="citation">[437a]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>Borrow was bitterly disappointed at the effect produced by +<i>The Romany Rye</i>. 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!” <a +name="citation437b"></a><a href="#footnote437b" +class="citation">[437b]</a></p> +<p><i>The Romany Rye</i> 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.</p> +<p>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):—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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 <i>The Romany Rye</i> appeared +a lengthy list of books in preparation. <a +name="citation438"></a><a href="#footnote438" +class="citation">[438]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>For many years of her life it had been ordained that this +brave old lady should live alone. <a name="citation439"></a><a +href="#footnote439" class="citation">[439]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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. <a name="citation440a"></a><a href="#footnote440a" +class="citation">[440a]</a></p> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation440b"></a><a href="#footnote440b" +class="citation">[440b]</a></p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>seven</i> +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.</p> +<p>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. <a +name="citation442"></a><a href="#footnote442" +class="citation">[442]</a></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXVIII<br /> +JULY 1859–JANUARY 1869</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">After</span> his second tour in Wales, +Borrow had submitted to John Murray the manuscript of his +translation of <i>The Sleeping Bard</i>, 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The edition was very speedily exhausted, largely on account of +an article entitled, <i>The Welsh and Their Literature</i>, +written years before, that Borrow adapted as a review of the +book, and published anonymously in <i>The Quarterly Review</i> +(Jan. 1861). <i>The Sleeping Bard</i> was not +reprinted.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation445a"></a><a +href="#footnote445a" class="citation">[445a]</a></p> +<p>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 +“<i>ought</i> 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.” <a name="citation445b"></a><a +href="#footnote445b" class="citation">[445b]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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</p> +<blockquote><p>“something about the imperfect education of +women, and he said it was <i>right</i> 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 <i>was +greater than Homer</i>! 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 <i>the</i> +authority; a most extraordinary writer.’ ‘Well, +I should call him the Geoffrey of Monmouth of +Ireland.’ (Mr B. changing the <i>venue</i>), ‘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 +<i>you</i> 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!” <a +name="citation446"></a><a href="#footnote446" +class="citation">[446]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>These were some of the neighbourly little pleasantries +indulged in by Miss Cobbe, regarding a man who was a frequent +guest at her house.</p> +<blockquote><p>“His has indeed been a fantastic +fate!” writes Mr Theodore Watts-Dunton. “When +the shortcomings of any illustrious man save Borrow are under +discussion, ‘<i>les défauts de ses +qualités</i>’ 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. <i>His</i> 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!” <a +name="citation447a"></a><a href="#footnote447a" +class="citation">[447a]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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 <i>Targum</i> 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?</p> +<p>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</p> +<blockquote><p>“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 <i>The Romany Rye</i>.” <a +name="citation447b"></a><a href="#footnote447b" +class="citation">[447b]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>“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.” <a name="citation448"></a><a +href="#footnote448" class="citation">[448]</a> 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</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a name="citation449a"></a><a href="#footnote449a" +class="citation">[449a]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation449b"></a><a href="#footnote449b" +class="citation">[449b]</a></p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation449c"></a><a +href="#footnote449c" class="citation">[449c]</a> 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.” <a +name="citation450"></a><a href="#footnote450" +class="citation">[450]</a> Borrow hated the literary man, +he was at war with the whole genus.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p450b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"The Rev. Andrew Brandram. From an old silhouette in the +possession of the British and Foreign Bible Society" +title= +"The Rev. Andrew Brandram. From an old silhouette in the +possession of the British and Foreign Bible Society" + src="images/p450s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.</p> +<p>“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 <i>that</i>.’ ‘Well I should rather +think you <i>did</i>, 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!’</p> +<p>“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.” <a +name="citation451a"></a><a href="#footnote451a" +class="citation">[451a]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Many people have testified to the pleasure of being in the +company of the whimsical, eccentric, humbug-hating Borrow.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a +name="citation451b"></a><a href="#footnote451b" +class="citation">[451b]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>Since the tour in Wales in 1854, from which he returned with +the four “Note Books,” Borrow had been working +steadily at <i>Wild Wales</i>. 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:—</p> +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">Dear Mrs +Borrow</span>,—The MS. of <i>Wild Wales</i> has occupied my +thoughts almost ever since Friday last.</p> +<p>I approached this MS. with some diffidence, recollecting the +unsatisfactory results, on the whole, of our last +publication—<i>Romany Rye</i>. 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.</p> +<p>In my hands at least I cannot think it would succeed even as +well as <i>Romany Rye</i>—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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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,</p> +<p style="text-align: center">Your faithful friend,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">John +Murray</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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 <i>Wild Wales</i> 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>The Romany +Rye</i> could have so restrained itself as to write <i>Wild +Wales</i>. Borrow had evidently read and carefully digested +Whitwell Elwin’s friendly strictures upon <i>The Romany +Rye</i>. 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, <a name="citation453"></a><a +href="#footnote453" class="citation">[453]</a> 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 <i>Saesneg</i>, 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.</p> +<p>The most curious thing about <i>Wild Wales</i> 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.</p> +<p>In spite of its simple charm and convincing atmosphere, +<i>Wild Wales</i> 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). <i>The Spectator</i> 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 <i>Wild Wales</i> +as “the first really clever book . . . in which an honest +attempt is made to do justice to Welsh literature.”</p> +<p>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 <i>Romano +Lavo-Lil</i>. 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 <i>Wild Wales</i> appeared, +until he published <i>The Romano Lavo-Lil</i> in 1874, his +literary output consisted of only some translations contributed +to <i>Once a Week</i> (January 1862 to December 1863).</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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 <i>not</i> 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 <i>a</i> 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.” +<a name="citation456"></a><a href="#footnote456" +class="citation">[456]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIX<br /> +JANUARY 1869–1881</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> 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:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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 <i>rude</i>, 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 <i>dare said</i> Mr L— +did not, either! Who was Mr L—?’ I +described that <i>obscure</i> 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 +<i>bets</i>?’ I explained who Sir Charles was, <a +name="citation459a"></a><a href="#footnote459a" +class="citation">[459a]</a> (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.’” <a +name="citation459b"></a><a href="#footnote459b" +class="citation">[459b]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>In the Autumn of 1870 Borrow became acquainted with Charles G. +Leland (“Hans Breitmann”) as the result of receiving +from him the following letter:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Brighton</span>, 24<i>th</i> <i>October</i> +1870.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,—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 <i>The Bible in Spain</i> and <i>Wild +Wales</i>, which I have only read once—you will perfectly +understand why I should be so desirous of meeting you.</p> +<p>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 <i>Hans Breitmann</i>.</p> +<p>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 <i>outré</i>, 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 <i>parfaitment</i> (sic) <i>en +régle</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">I am, . . .</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Charles G. +Leland</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Borrow replied on 2nd Nov.:</p> +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</p> +<p>I have received your letter and am gratified by the desire you +express to make my acquaintance.</p> +<p>Whenever you please to come I shall be happy to see you.</p> +<p>Truly yours,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">George +Borrow</span>. <a name="citation460a"></a><a href="#footnote460a" +class="citation">[460a]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.” <a +name="citation460b"></a><a href="#footnote460b" +class="citation">[460b]</a> The result of the interview was +that Leland sent to Borrow a copy of his <i>Ballads</i> and also +<i>The Music Lesson of Confucius</i>, then about to appear. +At the same time he wrote to Borrow drawing his attention to one +of the ballads written in German Romany <i>jib</i>, and enquiring +if it were worth anything. Whilst deprecating his +“impudence” in writing a Romany <i>gili</i> 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 <i>never</i> thank him sufficiently for the +instructions he has given in <i>The Romany Rye</i> 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.”</p> +<p>The account that Leland gives of this episode in his +<i>Memoirs</i> is puzzling and contradictory in the light of his +first letter. He writes:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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. <a name="citation461a"></a><a href="#footnote461a" +class="citation">[461a]</a> [Leland seems to be in error +here; see <i>ante</i>, 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.” <a name="citation461b"></a><a +href="#footnote461b" class="citation">[461b]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>Leland states that he sent a note to Borrow, care of John +Murray, asking permission to dedicate to him his forthcoming +book, <i>The English Gypsies and Their Language</i>; 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.” <a +name="citation461c"></a><a href="#footnote461c" +class="citation">[461c]</a> 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.” <a name="citation462a"></a><a +href="#footnote462a" class="citation">[462a]</a></p> +<p>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 <i>Lavengro</i> and <i>The Romany Rye</i>, +he set to work to forestall Leland with his own <i>Romano +Lavo-Lil</i>.</p> +<p>In spite of his haste, however, Borrow was beaten in the race, +and Leland got his volume out first. When the <i>Romano +Lavo-Lil</i> <a name="citation462b"></a><a href="#footnote462b" +class="citation">[462b]</a> 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 <i>The Zincali</i>, 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 <a name="citation462c"></a><a +href="#footnote462c" class="citation">[462c]</a>; but in 1874 he +found himself not only out of date, but out-classed.</p> +<p>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 <i>Lavengro</i> and <i>The Romany Rye</i>. 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.” <a +name="citation463a"></a><a href="#footnote463a" +class="citation">[463a]</a></p> +<p>After praising the Gypsy songs as the best portion of the +book, Groome proceeds:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a name="citation463b"></a><a +href="#footnote463b" class="citation">[463b]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>The <i>Athenæum</i> 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,</p> +<blockquote><p>“but,” he proceeds, “we cannot +allow merely sentimental considerations to prevent us from +telling the honest truth. The fact is that the <i>Romano +Lavo-Lil</i> is nothing more than a +<i>réchauffé</i> 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 <i>has</i> in the +course of his long experience become the <i>deep</i> 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 <i>Romano Lavo-Lil</i> is, to speak mildly, an +anachronism.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>The <i>Romano Lavo-Lil</i> 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.” <a name="citation464"></a><a +href="#footnote464" class="citation">[464]</a></p> +<p>There is an interesting picture of Borrow as he appeared in +the Seventies, given by F. H. Groome, who writes:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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’ +(<i>vide</i> Leland), presented me as ‘a young gentleman, +<i>Rya</i>, 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 +<i>maasalli</i> or <i>tasseromengri</i>’ (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).” <a name="citation466a"></a><a href="#footnote466a" +class="citation">[466a]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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:</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a +name="citation466b"></a><a href="#footnote466b" +class="citation">[466b]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>In a fragment of a letter from Edward FitzGerald to W. B. +Donne (June 1874), there is an interesting reference to +Borrow:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.</p> +<p>“<i>Borrow</i>—has got back to his own Oulton +Lodge. My Nephew, Edmund Kerrich, now Adjutant to some +Volunteer Battalion, wants a house <i>near</i>, not <i>in</i>, +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.</p> +<p>“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 <i>science</i> of any sort; but some years ago he would not +have liked to be told so, however Old Age may have cooled him +now.” <a name="citation467"></a><a href="#footnote467" +class="citation">[467]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Little Grange</span>, <span +class="smcap">Woodbridge</span>,<br /> +<i>Jan.</i> 10/75.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Borrow</span>,—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.</p> +<p>Well—to tell you all about <i>why</i> 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>old</i>. 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 <i>that</i> 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 <i>ditto</i> at Gorleston—after +which, I have seen nobody, except the nephews and nieces left me +by my good sister Kerrich.</p> +<p>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 <i>they</i> do)</p> +<p>Yours and theirs sincerely,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Edward +FitzGerald</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Borrow was still a remarkably robust man. Mr +Watts-Dunton tells how,</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a name="citation469a"></a><a href="#footnote469a" +class="citation">[469a]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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. <a +name="citation469b"></a><a href="#footnote469b" +class="citation">[469b]</a></p> +<p>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 <i>the old +house</i>” in Willow Lane.</p> +<p>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,</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” +<a name="citation470a"></a><a href="#footnote470a" +class="citation">[470a]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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,” <a name="citation470b"></a><a href="#footnote470b" +class="citation">[470b]</a> although at this period his income +amounted to upwards of five hundred pounds a year.</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” +<a name="citation470c"></a><a href="#footnote470c" +class="citation">[470c]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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”:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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:</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">In +Loving Remembrance of</span></p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">George Henry +Borrow</span>, <span class="smcap">Esq</span>.,</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">WHO DIED +JULY 26TH, 1881 (AT HIS RESIDENCE “OULTON COTTAGE, +SUFFOLK”)</span></p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">IN HIS 79TH +YEAR.</span></p> +<p style="text-align: center">(<span class="smcap">Author of The +Bible in Spain</span>, <span +class="smcap">Lavengro</span>—<span class="smcap">and other +works</span>.)</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">“IN +HOPE OF A GLORIOUS RESURRECTION.”</span></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>He was in sympathy with vagrants and vagabonds—a taste +that was perhaps emphasised by the months he spent in preparing +<i>Celebrated Trials</i>. If those months of hack work +taught him sympathy with pariahs, it also taught him to write +strong, nervous English.</p> +<p>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 <a +name="citation473"></a><a href="#footnote473" +class="citation">[473]</a> 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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.’” <a name="citation474a"></a><a +href="#footnote474a" class="citation">[474a]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Even his friends were led sometimes into criticisms that +appear unsympathetic. <a name="citation474b"></a><a +href="#footnote474b" class="citation">[474b]</a> 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.” <a +name="citation474c"></a><a href="#footnote474c" +class="citation">[474c]</a> 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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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.” <a name="citation475a"></a><a href="#footnote475a" +class="citation">[475a]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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. +<a name="citation475b"></a><a href="#footnote475b" +class="citation">[475b]</a> 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,” <a +name="citation475c"></a><a href="#footnote475c" +class="citation">[475c]</a> he once exclaimed. He permitted +to himself, and to himself only, a certain latitude in such +matters.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <a name="citation476"></a><a +href="#footnote476" class="citation">[476]</a> 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 <i>The +Bible in Spain</i> 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.</p> +<p>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.” <a name="citation477"></a><a href="#footnote477" +class="citation">[477]</a></p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center">THE END</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<h2>LIST OF BORROW’S WORKS</h2> +<h3>1825</h3> +<p><i>Celebrated Trials</i>, <i>and Remarkable Cases of Criminal +Jurisprudence</i>, <i>from the Earliest Records to the Year</i> +1825. Six volumes, with plates. London.</p> +<p><i>Faustus</i>: <i>His Life</i>, <i>Death</i>, <i>and Descent +into Hell</i>. Translated from the German [of F. M. von +Klinger]. W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, London.</p> +<h3>1826</h3> +<p><i>Romantic Ballads</i>. Translated from the Danish: and +Miscellaneous Pieces. S. Wilkin, Norwich.</p> +<h3>1835</h3> +<p><i>Targum</i>: <i>or</i>, <i>Metrical Translations from Thirty +Languages and Dialects</i>. St Petersburgh. Reprinted +later by Jarrold & Sons, Norwich.</p> +<p><i>The Talisman</i>. From the Russian of Alexander +Pushkin. With <i>Other Pieces</i>. St Petersburg.</p> +<h3>1841</h3> +<p><i>The Zincali</i>; <i>or</i>, <i>An Account of the Gypsies of +Spain</i>. With an Original Collection of their Songs and +Poetry, and a Copious Dictionary of their Language. Two +volumes. John Murray, London.</p> +<h3>1842</h3> +<p><i>The Bible in Spain</i>; <i>or</i>, <i>the Journeys</i>, +<i>Adventures</i>, <i>and Imprisonments of an Englishman in an +Attempt to Circulate the Scriptures in the Peninsula</i>. +Three volumes. John Murray, London.</p> +<p><i>Lavengro</i>: The Scholar—The Gypsy—The +Priest. Three volumes. John Murray, London.</p> +<p><i>The Romany Rye</i>: <i>a Sequel to Lavengro</i>. Two +volumes. John Murray, London.</p> +<p><i>The Sleeping Bard</i>; <i>or</i>, <i>Visions of the +World</i>, <i>Death</i>, <i>and Hell</i>. By Elis +Wyn. Translated from the Cambrian British. John +Murray, London.</p> +<h3>1862</h3> +<p><i>Wild Wales</i>: <i>Its People</i>, <i>Language</i>, <i>and +Scenery</i>. Three volumes. John Murray, London.</p> +<p><i>Romano Lavo-Lil</i>: <i>Word-Book of Romany</i>; <i>or</i>, +<i>English Gypsy Language</i>. 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.</p> +<h3>1884</h3> +<p><i>The Turkish Jester</i>; <i>or</i>, <i>the Pleasantries of +Cogia Nasr Eddin Effendi</i>. Translated from the +Turkish. Jarrold & Sons, Norwich.</p> +<h3>1892</h3> +<p><i>The Death of Balder</i>. Translated from the Danish +of Evald. Jarrold & Sons, Norwich.</p> +<p>From the foregoing list has been omitted the mysterious +<i>Life and Adventures of Joseph Sell</i>, <i>the Great +Traveller</i>, and those works that Borrow edited or translated +for the British and Foreign Bible Society.</p> +<h2>FOOTNOTES</h2> +<p><a name="footnote3"></a><a href="#citation3" +class="footnote">[3]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote4a"></a><a href="#citation4a" +class="footnote">[4a]</a> <i>Lavengro</i>, page 2. +References to Borrow’s works throughout this volume are to +the Standard Edition, published by John Murray.</p> +<p><a name="footnote4b"></a><a href="#citation4b" +class="footnote">[4b]</a> Ann, the third of eight children +born to Samuel Perfrement and Mary his wife, 23rd January +1772.</p> +<p><a name="footnote4c"></a><a href="#citation4c" +class="footnote">[4c]</a> Locally, the name is pronounced +“<i>Par</i>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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote5"></a><a href="#citation5" +class="footnote">[5]</a> Married the Rev. Wm. Holland, +rector of Walmer and afterwards rector of Brasted, Kent.</p> +<p><a name="footnote6a"></a><a href="#citation6a" +class="footnote">[6a]</a> <i>Lavengro</i>, page 5.</p> +<p><a name="footnote6b"></a><a href="#citation6b" +class="footnote">[6b]</a> <i>Lavengro</i>, page 5.</p> +<p><a name="footnote7a"></a><a href="#citation7a" +class="footnote">[7a]</a> George in honour of the King, it +is said, and Henry after his father’s eldest brother.</p> +<p><a name="footnote7b"></a><a href="#citation7b" +class="footnote">[7b]</a> <i>Lavengro</i>, page 6.</p> +<p><a name="footnote7c"></a><a href="#citation7c" +class="footnote">[7c]</a> <i>Lavengro</i>, page 6.</p> +<p><a name="footnote7d"></a><a href="#citation7d" +class="footnote">[7d]</a> <i>Lavengro</i>, page 6.</p> +<p><a name="footnote7e"></a><a href="#citation7e" +class="footnote">[7e]</a> <i>Lavengro</i>, page 7.</p> +<p><a name="footnote7f"></a><a href="#citation7f" +class="footnote">[7f]</a> <i>Lavengro</i>, page 7.</p> +<p><a name="footnote9a"></a><a href="#citation9a" +class="footnote">[9a]</a> <i>Lavengro</i>, page 16.</p> +<p><a name="footnote9b"></a><a href="#citation9b" +class="footnote">[9b]</a> The widow of Sir John Fenn, +editor of the <i>Paston Letters</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote9c"></a><a href="#citation9c" +class="footnote">[9c]</a> <i>Lavengro</i>, page 15.</p> +<p><a name="footnote10a"></a><a href="#citation10a" +class="footnote">[10a]</a> <i>Lavengro</i>, pages +398–9.</p> +<p><a name="footnote10b"></a><a href="#citation10b" +class="footnote">[10b]</a> “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.”—<i>Lavengro</i>, page 166.</p> +<p><a name="footnote10c"></a><a href="#citation10c" +class="footnote">[10c]</a> <i>Lavengro</i>, page 16.</p> +<p><a name="footnote11a"></a><a href="#citation11a" +class="footnote">[11a]</a> <i>Lavengro</i>, pages +19–20.</p> +<p><a name="footnote11b"></a><a href="#citation11b" +class="footnote">[11b]</a> <i>Lavengro</i>, page 22.</p> +<p><a name="footnote12a"></a><a href="#citation12a" +class="footnote">[12a]</a> 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 <i>Vardo-mescro</i> and <i>Petulengro</i> (<i>Romano +Lavo-Lil</i>, 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote12b"></a><a href="#citation12b" +class="footnote">[12b]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote13a"></a><a href="#citation13a" +class="footnote">[13a]</a> <i>Lavengro</i>, page 164.</p> +<p><a name="footnote13b"></a><a href="#citation13b" +class="footnote">[13b]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote13c"></a><a href="#citation13c" +class="footnote">[13c]</a> <i>Lavengro</i>, page 45.</p> +<p><a name="footnote14"></a><a href="#citation14" +class="footnote">[14]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote15a"></a><a href="#citation15a" +class="footnote">[15a]</a> <i>Lavengro</i>, page 138.</p> +<p><a name="footnote15b"></a><a href="#citation15b" +class="footnote">[15b]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote17"></a><a href="#citation17" +class="footnote">[17]</a> 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 <i>The Bible in Spain</i> 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 <i>without stirrups</i>.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote20"></a><a href="#citation20" +class="footnote">[20]</a> Letter from “A +School-fellow of <i>Lavengro</i>” in <i>The Britannia</i>, +26th April 1851.</p> +<p><a name="footnote21a"></a><a href="#citation21a" +class="footnote">[21a]</a> “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.”—<i>Lavengro</i>, +page 89.</p> +<p><a name="footnote21b"></a><a href="#citation21b" +class="footnote">[21b]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote21c"></a><a href="#citation21c" +class="footnote">[21c]</a> Letter from “A +School-fellow of <i>Lavengro</i>” in <i>The Britannia</i>, +26th April 1851.</p> +<p><a name="footnote22"></a><a href="#citation22" +class="footnote">[22]</a> 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 <i>Lavengro</i> Borrow antedated this +event by some nine years.</p> +<p><a name="footnote23"></a><a href="#citation23" +class="footnote">[23]</a> Manuscript autobiographical notes +supplied by Borrow to Mr John Longe, 1862.</p> +<p><a name="footnote24"></a><a href="#citation24" +class="footnote">[24]</a> <i>Lavengro</i>, page 134.</p> +<p><a name="footnote25a"></a><a href="#citation25a" +class="footnote">[25a]</a> This account is taken from a +letter by “A Schoolfellow of <i>Lavengro</i>” in +<i>The Britannia</i>, 26th April 1851.</p> +<p><a name="footnote25b"></a><a href="#citation25b" +class="footnote">[25b]</a> 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 <i>Antiquities of the +Royal School of Norwich</i>, wrote:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“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, <i>absented</i> yourself from home and school and took +up your abode in a certain ‘Robber’s Cave’ at +Acle, where you <i>resided</i> three days, and once more returned +to your homes.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><a name="footnote26"></a><a href="#citation26" +class="footnote">[26]</a> According to the original +manuscript of <i>Lavengro</i>, 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.”—<i>Life of George Borrow</i>, by Dr +Knapp, i., 66.</p> +<p><a name="footnote27a"></a><a href="#citation27a" +class="footnote">[27a]</a> The Rev. Wm. Drake of Mundesley, +in a letter which appeared in <i>The Eastern Daily Press</i>, +22nd September 1892:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“ . . . 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.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><a name="footnote27b"></a><a href="#citation27b" +class="footnote">[27b]</a> <i>Wild Wales</i>, page 3.</p> +<p><a name="footnote28a"></a><a href="#citation28a" +class="footnote">[28a]</a> <i>Wild Wales</i>, page 157.</p> +<p><a name="footnote28b"></a><a href="#citation28b" +class="footnote">[28b]</a> 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.”—<i>Wild Wales</i>, page 448.</p> +<p><a name="footnote30a"></a><a href="#citation30a" +class="footnote">[30a]</a> There is no doubt that Borrow +became possessed of a copy of <i>Kiæmpe Viser</i>, 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 <i>Lavengro</i>, 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.”—<i>Lavengro</i>, pages 140–4.</p> +<p><a name="footnote30b"></a><a href="#citation30b" +class="footnote">[30b]</a> <i>Wild Wales</i>, page 2.</p> +<p><a name="footnote30c"></a><a href="#citation30c" +class="footnote">[30c]</a> <i>Wild Wales</i>, page 374.</p> +<p><a name="footnote30d"></a><a href="#citation30d" +class="footnote">[30d]</a> <i>Wild Wales</i>, page 9. +There is an interesting letter written to Borrow by the old +lawyer’s son on the appearance of <i>Lavengro</i>, 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!”</p> +<p><a name="footnote31a"></a><a href="#citation31a" +class="footnote">[31a]</a> <i>Wild Wales</i>, page 374.</p> +<p><a name="footnote31b"></a><a href="#citation31b" +class="footnote">[31b]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote31c"></a><a href="#citation31c" +class="footnote">[31c]</a> <i>Lavengro</i>, page 235.</p> +<p><a name="footnote32a"></a><a href="#citation32a" +class="footnote">[32a]</a> Benjamin Robert Haydon +(1786–1846), the historical painter.</p> +<p><a name="footnote32b"></a><a href="#citation32b" +class="footnote">[32b]</a> <i>Lavengro</i>, page 166.</p> +<p><a name="footnote33a"></a><a href="#citation33a" +class="footnote">[33a]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote33b"></a><a href="#citation33b" +class="footnote">[33b]</a> Harriet Martineau’s +<i>Autobiography</i>, 1877.</p> +<p><a name="footnote33c"></a><a href="#citation33c" +class="footnote">[33c]</a> Harriet Martineau’s +<i>Autobiography</i>, 1877.</p> +<p><a name="footnote33d"></a><a href="#citation33d" +class="footnote">[33d]</a> Letter from “A +School-fellow of <i>Lavengro</i>” in The Britannia, 26th +April 1851.</p> +<p><a name="footnote34a"></a><a href="#citation34a" +class="footnote">[34a]</a> <i>Memoir of Wm. Taylor</i>, by +J. W. Robberds.</p> +<p><a name="footnote34b"></a><a href="#citation34b" +class="footnote">[34b]</a> <i>Memoir of Wm. Taylor</i>, by +J. W. Robberds.</p> +<p><a name="footnote34c"></a><a href="#citation34c" +class="footnote">[34c]</a> Letter from “A +School-fellow of <i>Lavengro</i>” in The Britannia, 26th +April 1851.</p> +<p><a name="footnote35a"></a><a href="#citation35a" +class="footnote">[35a]</a> The Rev. Whitwell Elwin, in a +letter, 17th February 1887.</p> +<p><a name="footnote35b"></a><a href="#citation35b" +class="footnote">[35b]</a> Harriet Martineau’s +<i>Autobiography</i>, 1877.</p> +<p><a name="footnote35c"></a><a href="#citation35c" +class="footnote">[35c]</a> <i>Lavengro</i>, page 355.</p> +<p><a name="footnote36a"></a><a href="#citation36a" +class="footnote">[36a]</a> 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 <i>The Westminster Review</i> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote36b"></a><a href="#citation36b" +class="footnote">[36b]</a> <i>The Romany Rye</i>, page 368, +<i>et seq.</i></p> +<p><a name="footnote38"></a><a href="#citation38" +class="footnote">[38]</a> <i>Lavengro</i>, pages +177–8.</p> +<p><a name="footnote39"></a><a href="#citation39" +class="footnote">[39]</a> <i>Lavengro</i>, 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote40a"></a><a href="#citation40a" +class="footnote">[40a]</a> <i>The Romany Rye</i>, page +302.</p> +<p><a name="footnote40b"></a><a href="#citation40b" +class="footnote">[40b]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote41"></a><a href="#citation41" +class="footnote">[41]</a> In particular Borrow believed in +Ab Gwilym “the greatest poetical genius that has appeared +in Europe since the revival of literature” (<i>Wild +Wales</i>, 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.” (<i>Wild Wales</i>, page xxviii.).</p> +<p><a name="footnote42a"></a><a href="#citation42a" +class="footnote">[42a]</a> Lines to Six-Foot-Three. +<i>Romantic Ballads</i>. Norwich 1826.</p> +<p><a name="footnote42b"></a><a href="#citation42b" +class="footnote">[42b]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote43"></a><a href="#citation43" +class="footnote">[43]</a> It has been urged against +Borrow’s accuracy that Sir Richard Phillips had retired to +Brighton in 1823, vide <i>The Dictionary of National +Biography</i>. In the January number (1824) of <i>The +Monthly Magazine</i> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote44a"></a><a href="#citation44a" +class="footnote">[44a]</a> <i>Celebrated Trials and +Remarkable Cases of Criminal Jurisprudence from the Earliest +Records to the Year</i> 1825, 6 vols., with plates. London, +1825.</p> +<p><a name="footnote44b"></a><a href="#citation44b" +class="footnote">[44b]</a> <i>Proximate Causes of the +Material Phenomena of the Universe</i>. By Sir Richard +Phillips. London, 1821.</p> +<p><a name="footnote45a"></a><a href="#citation45a" +class="footnote">[45a]</a> Dr Knapp identified the editor +as “William Gifford, editor of <i>The Quarterly Review</i> +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 <i>The Universal Review</i> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote45b"></a><a href="#citation45b" +class="footnote">[45b]</a> <i>The Monthly Magazine</i>, +July 1824.</p> +<p><a name="footnote46a"></a><a href="#citation46a" +class="footnote">[46a]</a> It appeared in six volumes.</p> +<p><a name="footnote46b"></a><a href="#citation46b" +class="footnote">[46b]</a> The work when completed +contained accounts of over 400 trials.</p> +<p><a name="footnote46c"></a><a href="#citation46c" +class="footnote">[46c]</a> It appeared on 19th March +following.</p> +<p><a name="footnote46d"></a><a href="#citation46d" +class="footnote">[46d]</a> <i>Lavengro</i>, page 210.</p> +<p><a name="footnote47"></a><a href="#citation47" +class="footnote">[47]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote48a"></a><a href="#citation48a" +class="footnote">[48a]</a> Letter from Roger Kerrison to +John Borrow, 28th May 1824.</p> +<p><a name="footnote48b"></a><a href="#citation48b" +class="footnote">[48b]</a> <i>Memoirs</i>, <i>C. G. +Leland</i> 1893.</p> +<p><a name="footnote49a"></a><a href="#citation49a" +class="footnote">[49a]</a> Borrow himself gave the sum as +“eighteen-pence a page.” The books themselves +apparently did not become the property of the +reviewer.—<i>The Romany Rye</i>, page 324.</p> +<p><a name="footnote49b"></a><a href="#citation49b" +class="footnote">[49b]</a> 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.”—<i>Lavengro</i>, pages +245–6.</p> +<p><a name="footnote50a"></a><a href="#citation50a" +class="footnote">[50a]</a> “‘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.’”—<i>Lavengro</i>, page 254.</p> +<p><a name="footnote50b"></a><a href="#citation50b" +class="footnote">[50b]</a> A German edition of the work +appeared in Stuttgart in 1826.</p> +<p><a name="footnote52a"></a><a href="#citation52a" +class="footnote">[52a]</a> This sentence is quoted in +<i>The Gypsies of Spain</i> as a heading to the section “On +Robber Language,” page 335.</p> +<p><a name="footnote52b"></a><a href="#citation52b" +class="footnote">[52b]</a> <i>Lavengro</i>, pages +216–7.</p> +<p><a name="footnote52c"></a><a href="#citation52c" +class="footnote">[52c]</a> <i>Lavengro</i>, page 271.</p> +<p><a name="footnote53a"></a><a href="#citation53a" +class="footnote">[53a]</a> <i>Faustus</i>: <i>His Life</i>, +<i>Death and Descent into Hell</i>. Translated from the +German. London: W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, 1825, pages +xxii., 251. Coloured Plate.</p> +<p><a name="footnote53b"></a><a href="#citation53b" +class="footnote">[53b]</a> 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:</p> +<blockquote><p>Dear Sir,—</p> +<p>As your bill will become payable in a few days, I am willing +to take thirty copies of <i>Faustus</i> instead of the +money. The book has been <i>burnt</i> 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. +<span class="smcap">Borrow</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><a name="footnote55a"></a><a href="#citation55a" +class="footnote">[55a]</a> <i>Lavengro</i>, page 310.</p> +<p><a name="footnote55b"></a><a href="#citation55b" +class="footnote">[55b]</a> <i>The Romany Rye</i>, Appendix, +page 303.</p> +<p><a name="footnote57"></a><a href="#citation57" +class="footnote">[57]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote58"></a><a href="#citation58" +class="footnote">[58]</a> Dr Knapp’s <i>Life of +George Borrow</i>, i., page 141.</p> +<p><a name="footnote60"></a><a href="#citation60" +class="footnote">[60]</a> Dr Knapp gives the date as the +22nd; but Mr John Sampson makes the date the 24th, which seems +more likely to be correct.</p> +<p><a name="footnote61a"></a><a href="#citation61a" +class="footnote">[61a]</a> <i>The Athenæum</i>, 25th +March 1899.</p> +<p><a name="footnote61b"></a><a href="#citation61b" +class="footnote">[61b]</a> <i>Lavengro</i>, page 362.</p> +<p><a name="footnote62a"></a><a href="#citation62a" +class="footnote">[62a]</a> <i>Lavengro</i>, page 362.</p> +<p><a name="footnote62b"></a><a href="#citation62b" +class="footnote">[62b]</a> <i>Lavengro</i>, page 374.</p> +<p><a name="footnote63a"></a><a href="#citation63a" +class="footnote">[63a]</a> <i>Lavengro</i>, pages +431–2.</p> +<p><a name="footnote64a"></a><a href="#citation64a" +class="footnote">[64a]</a> <i>Lavengro</i>, page 451.</p> +<p><a name="footnote64b"></a><a href="#citation64b" +class="footnote">[64b]</a> Mr Watts-Dunton in a review of +Dr Knapp’s <i>Life of Borrow</i> says that she “was +really an East-Anglian road-girl of the finest type, known to the +Boswells, and remembered not many years +ago.”—<i>Athenæum</i>, 25th March 1899.</p> +<p><a name="footnote66a"></a><a href="#citation66a" +class="footnote">[66a]</a> Mr Petulengro is made to say the +“Flying Tinker.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote66b"></a><a href="#citation66b" +class="footnote">[66b]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote67a"></a><a href="#citation67a" +class="footnote">[67a]</a> It will be remembered that in +<i>The Romany Rye</i> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote67b"></a><a href="#citation67b" +class="footnote">[67b]</a> <i>The Gypsies of Spain</i>, +page 360.</p> +<p><a name="footnote68"></a><a href="#citation68" +class="footnote">[68]</a> Introduction to <i>The Romany +Rye</i> in The Little Library, Methuen & Co., Ltd.</p> +<p><a name="footnote69a"></a><a href="#citation69a" +class="footnote">[69a]</a> <i>The Romany Rye</i>, page +162.</p> +<p><a name="footnote69b"></a><a href="#citation69b" +class="footnote">[69b]</a> <i>The Romany Rye</i>, page +162.</p> +<p><a name="footnote69c"></a><a href="#citation69c" +class="footnote">[69c]</a> <i>The Romany Rye</i>, page +50.</p> +<p><a name="footnote69d"></a><a href="#citation69d" +class="footnote">[69d]</a> “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.”—<i>Lavengro</i>, page 16.</p> +<p><a name="footnote73"></a><a href="#citation73" +class="footnote">[73]</a> They appeared as <i>Romantic +Ballads</i>, <i>translated from the Danish</i>, <i>and +Miscellaneous Pieces</i>, by George Borrow. Norwich. +S. Wilkin, 1826. Included in the volume were translations +from the <i>Kiæmpe Viser</i> and from +Oehlenschlæger.</p> +<p><a name="footnote74"></a><a href="#citation74" +class="footnote">[74]</a> <i>Correspondence and Table-Talk +of B. R. Haydon</i>. London, 1876. The position of +the letter in the <i>Haydon Journal</i> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote75a"></a><a href="#citation75a" +class="footnote">[75a]</a> <i>Lavengro</i>, page 9.</p> +<p><a name="footnote75b"></a><a href="#citation75b" +class="footnote">[75b]</a> There was a tradition that +Borrow became a foreign correspondent for the <i>Morning +Herald</i>, 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote75c"></a><a href="#citation75c" +class="footnote">[75c]</a> <i>The Gypsies of Spain</i>, +page 11.</p> +<p><a name="footnote75d"></a><a href="#citation75d" +class="footnote">[75d]</a> <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, page +219.</p> +<p><a name="footnote75e"></a><a href="#citation75e" +class="footnote">[75e]</a> Letter to his mother, August +1833.</p> +<p><a name="footnote75f"></a><a href="#citation75f" +class="footnote">[75f]</a> <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, page +172.</p> +<p><a name="footnote75g"></a><a href="#citation75g" +class="footnote">[75g]</a> <i>The Gypsies of Spain</i>, +page 31.</p> +<p><a name="footnote76a"></a><a href="#citation76a" +class="footnote">[76a]</a> <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, page +703.</p> +<p><a name="footnote76b"></a><a href="#citation76b" +class="footnote">[76b]</a> <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, page +67.</p> +<p><a name="footnote76c"></a><a href="#citation76c" +class="footnote">[76c]</a> <i>The Gypsies of Spain</i>, +page 19.</p> +<p><a name="footnote76d"></a><a href="#citation76d" +class="footnote">[76d]</a> <i>Excursions Along the Shores +of the Mediterranean</i>, by Lt.-Col. E. H. D. E. Napier. +London, 1842.</p> +<p><a name="footnote76e"></a><a href="#citation76e" +class="footnote">[76e]</a> <i>The Gypsies of Spain</i>, +pages 10–11.</p> +<p><a name="footnote76f"></a><a href="#citation76f" +class="footnote">[76f]</a> <i>Patteran</i>, or +<i>Patrin</i>; 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote76g"></a><a href="#citation76g" +class="footnote">[76g]</a> <i>The Gypsies of Spain</i>, +page 31.</p> +<p><a name="footnote77a"></a><a href="#citation77a" +class="footnote">[77a]</a> 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:</p> +<p class="gutindent">27th July 1833, to St Petersburg;</p> +<p class="gutindent">2nd November 1836 and 20th December 1838, to +Spain,</p> +<p>as far as the F. O. Registers show.</p> +<p><a name="footnote77b"></a><a href="#citation77b" +class="footnote">[77b]</a> 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.)</p> +<p><a name="footnote78"></a><a href="#citation78" +class="footnote">[78]</a> The incident is given in +<i>Lavengro</i> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote79"></a><a href="#citation79" +class="footnote">[79]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote81"></a><a href="#citation81" +class="footnote">[81]</a> In <i>The Monthly Review</i>, +March 1830, there appeared among the literary announcements a +paragraph to the same effect.</p> +<p><a name="footnote83"></a><a href="#citation83" +class="footnote">[83]</a> From the original draft of his +letter of 20th May to Dr Bowring, omitted from the letter +itself.</p> +<p><a name="footnote86a"></a><a href="#citation86a" +class="footnote">[86a]</a> Mr Thomas Seccombe in +<i>Bookman</i>, February 1902.</p> +<p><a name="footnote86b"></a><a href="#citation86b" +class="footnote">[86b]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote87a"></a><a href="#citation87a" +class="footnote">[87a]</a> Preface to <i>The Sleeping +Bard</i>, 1860.</p> +<p><a name="footnote87b"></a><a href="#citation87b" +class="footnote">[87b]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p><a name="footnote88a"></a><a href="#citation88a" +class="footnote">[88a]</a> <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, page +201.</p> +<p><a name="footnote88b"></a><a href="#citation88b" +class="footnote">[88b]</a> Dr Knapp gives the date as +during the early days of September, but without mentioning his +authority.</p> +<p><a name="footnote90"></a><a href="#citation90" +class="footnote">[90]</a> <i>The Romany Rye</i>, page +362.</p> +<p><a name="footnote91a"></a><a href="#citation91a" +class="footnote">[91a]</a> <i>Lavengro</i>, page 403.</p> +<p><a name="footnote91b"></a><a href="#citation91b" +class="footnote">[91b]</a> <i>Lavengro</i>, page 446.</p> +<p><a name="footnote92"></a><a href="#citation92" +class="footnote">[92]</a> Vicar of Pakefield, in Norfolk, +1814–1830; Lowestoft, 1830–63. He married a +sister of J. J. Gurney of Earlham Hall.</p> +<p><a name="footnote93a"></a><a href="#citation93a" +class="footnote">[93a]</a> 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.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote93b"></a><a href="#citation93b" +class="footnote">[93b]</a> T. Pell Platt, formerly the Hon. +Librarian of the Society; W. Greenfield, its lately deceased +Editorial Superintendent.</p> +<p><a name="footnote94a"></a><a href="#citation94a" +class="footnote">[94a]</a> 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 <i>Athenæum</i>, +5th March 1836.</p> +<p><a name="footnote94b"></a><a href="#citation94b" +class="footnote">[94b]</a> Asmus, Simondsen & Co., +Sarepta House.</p> +<p><a name="footnote95"></a><a href="#citation95" +class="footnote">[95]</a> Borrow’s report upon +Puerot’s translation, 23rd September 5th October, 1835.</p> +<p><a name="footnote96a"></a><a href="#citation96a" +class="footnote">[96a]</a> <i>The Journal of the Gypsy Lore +Society</i>, 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote96b"></a><a href="#citation96b" +class="footnote">[96b]</a> Letter from Borrow to the Rev. +Francis Cunningham, to whom he wrote on his return home, +<i>circa</i> 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.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote97"></a><a href="#citation97" +class="footnote">[97]</a> Borrow always writes Mandchow, +but, for the sake of uniformity his spelling is corrected +throughout.</p> +<p><a name="footnote98"></a><a href="#citation98" +class="footnote">[98]</a> Letter to Rev. Francis +Cunningham, <i>circa</i> January 1833.</p> +<p><a name="footnote99a"></a><a href="#citation99a" +class="footnote">[99a]</a> 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.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote99b"></a><a href="#citation99b" +class="footnote">[99b]</a> <i>Life of George Borrow</i>, by +Dr Knapp, i., page 157.</p> +<p><a name="footnote100a"></a><a href="#citation100a" +class="footnote">[100a]</a> Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, 18th +March 1833.</p> +<p><a name="footnote100b"></a><a href="#citation100b" +class="footnote">[100b]</a> Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, 18th +March 1833.</p> +<p><a name="footnote100c"></a><a href="#citation100c" +class="footnote">[100c]</a> Letter to Rev J. Jowett, 18th +March 1833.</p> +<p><a name="footnote101"></a><a href="#citation101" +class="footnote">[101]</a> Caroline Fox wrote in her +<i>Memories of Old Friends</i> (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].”</p> +<p><a name="footnote102"></a><a href="#citation102" +class="footnote">[102]</a> 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 <i>own</i> +spelling of his name, in order to preserve some uniformity.</p> +<p><a name="footnote104"></a><a href="#citation104" +class="footnote">[104]</a> Minutes of the Editorial +Sub-Committee, 29th July 1833.</p> +<p><a name="footnote105"></a><a href="#citation105" +class="footnote">[105]</a> Harriet Martineau’s +<i>Autobiography</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote106"></a><a href="#citation106" +class="footnote">[106]</a> Letter to his mother, 30th July +1833.</p> +<p><a name="footnote107a"></a><a href="#citation107a" +class="footnote">[107a]</a> Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, 4th +August 1833.</p> +<p><a name="footnote107b"></a><a href="#citation107b" +class="footnote">[107b]</a> Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, 4th +August 1833.</p> +<p><a name="footnote108a"></a><a href="#citation108a" +class="footnote">[108a]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote108b"></a><a href="#citation108b" +class="footnote">[108b]</a> Letter to his mother.</p> +<p><a name="footnote109"></a><a href="#citation109" +class="footnote">[109]</a> “If I had my choice of all +the cities of the world to live in, I would choose Saint +Petersburg.”—<i>Wild Wales</i>, page 665.</p> +<p><a name="footnote110"></a><a href="#citation110" +class="footnote">[110]</a> Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, +undated: received 26th September 1833.</p> +<p><a name="footnote111"></a><a href="#citation111" +class="footnote">[111]</a> 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.”—<i>Memorials +of John Venning</i>, 1862.</p> +<p><a name="footnote112a"></a><a href="#citation112a" +class="footnote">[112a]</a> Best known for his Grammar, +written in German.</p> +<p><a name="footnote112b"></a><a href="#citation112b" +class="footnote">[112b]</a> Nephew of J. C Adelung, the +philologist.</p> +<p><a name="footnote113"></a><a href="#citation113" +class="footnote">[113]</a> Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, +undated, but received 26th September 1833.</p> +<p><a name="footnote114a"></a><a href="#citation114a" +class="footnote">[114a]</a> Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, 20th +January/1st February 1834.</p> +<p><a name="footnote114b"></a><a href="#citation114b" +class="footnote">[114b]</a> Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, 20th +January/1st February 1834.</p> +<p><a name="footnote114c"></a><a href="#citation114c" +class="footnote">[114c]</a> Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, 20th +January/1st February 1834.</p> +<p><a name="footnote115a"></a><a href="#citation115a" +class="footnote">[115a]</a> Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, 20th +January/1st February 1834.</p> +<p><a name="footnote115b"></a><a href="#citation115b" +class="footnote">[115b]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote116"></a><a href="#citation116" +class="footnote">[116]</a> 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.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote117"></a><a href="#citation117" +class="footnote">[117]</a> Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, +4th/16th February 1834.</p> +<p><a name="footnote118a"></a><a href="#citation118a" +class="footnote">[118a]</a> Letter to the Rev. J. Jowett, +20th Jan./1st Feb. 1834.</p> +<p><a name="footnote118b"></a><a href="#citation118b" +class="footnote">[118b]</a> Letter to the Rev. J. Jowett, +20th Jan./1st Feb. 1834.</p> +<p><a name="footnote118c"></a><a href="#citation118c" +class="footnote">[118c]</a> Letter to the Rev. F. +Cunningham, 17th/29th Nov. 1834.</p> +<p><a name="footnote119"></a><a href="#citation119" +class="footnote">[119]</a> 1st/13th May 1834.</p> +<p><a name="footnote121a"></a><a href="#citation121a" +class="footnote">[121a]</a> This spelling is adopted +throughout for uniformity. Borrow writes Chiachta.</p> +<p><a name="footnote121b"></a><a href="#citation121b" +class="footnote">[121b]</a> Letter to the Rev. J. Jowett, +4th/16th February 1834.</p> +<p><a name="footnote121c"></a><a href="#citation121c" +class="footnote">[121c]</a> Letter to the Rev. J. Jowett, +4th/16th February 1834.</p> +<p><a name="footnote121d"></a><a href="#citation121d" +class="footnote">[121d]</a> Letter to the Rev. J. Jowett, +4th/16th February 1834.</p> +<p><a name="footnote123a"></a><a href="#citation123a" +class="footnote">[123a]</a> Letter to the Rev. J. Jowett, +15th/23rd April 1834.</p> +<p><a name="footnote123b"></a><a href="#citation123b" +class="footnote">[123b]</a> In a letter dated 1st/13th May +1834.</p> +<p><a name="footnote123c"></a><a href="#citation123c" +class="footnote">[123c]</a> A suburb of Norwich.</p> +<p><a name="footnote126a"></a><a href="#citation126a" +class="footnote">[126a]</a> Mrs Borrow eventually received +from Allday Kerrison £50, 11s. 1d., the amount realised +from the sale of John’s effects.</p> +<p><a name="footnote126b"></a><a href="#citation126b" +class="footnote">[126b]</a> 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.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote126c"></a><a href="#citation126c" +class="footnote">[126c]</a> Letter to John P. Hasfeldt from +Madrid, 29th April 1837.</p> +<p><a name="footnote129"></a><a href="#citation129" +class="footnote">[129]</a> 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.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote132a"></a><a href="#citation132a" +class="footnote">[132a]</a> “My letters to my private +friends have always been written during gleams of sunshine, and +traced in the characters of hope.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote132b"></a><a href="#citation132b" +class="footnote">[132b]</a> “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.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote135a"></a><a href="#citation135a" +class="footnote">[135a]</a> John Hasfeldt.</p> +<p><a name="footnote135b"></a><a href="#citation135b" +class="footnote">[135b]</a> Letter to Mr J. Tarn, Treasurer +of the Bible Society, 15th/27th December 1834.</p> +<p><a name="footnote136"></a><a href="#citation136" +class="footnote">[136]</a> Letter to the Rev. Joseph +Jowett, 3rd/15th May 1835.</p> +<p><a name="footnote138a"></a><a href="#citation138a" +class="footnote">[138a]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote138b"></a><a href="#citation138b" +class="footnote">[138b]</a> Letter, 31st Dec. 1834.</p> +<p><a name="footnote139a"></a><a href="#citation139a" +class="footnote">[139a]</a> Letter, 31st Dec. 1834.</p> +<p><a name="footnote139b"></a><a href="#citation139b" +class="footnote">[139b]</a> Letter, 20th Feb./4th Mar. +1835.</p> +<p><a name="footnote139c"></a><a href="#citation139c" +class="footnote">[139c]</a> Letter, 20th Feb./4th Mar. +1835.</p> +<p><a name="footnote139d"></a><a href="#citation139d" +class="footnote">[139d]</a> Letter to the Rev. J. Jowett, +3rd/15th May 1835.</p> +<p><a name="footnote139e"></a><a href="#citation139e" +class="footnote">[139e]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p><a name="footnote140"></a><a href="#citation140" +class="footnote">[140]</a> Letter to the Rev. J. Jowett, +3rd/15th May 1835.</p> +<p><a name="footnote141a"></a><a href="#citation141a" +class="footnote">[141a]</a> Letter to Mr J. Tarn.</p> +<p><a name="footnote141b"></a><a href="#citation141b" +class="footnote">[141b]</a> 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.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote142a"></a><a href="#citation142a" +class="footnote">[142a]</a> Letter to Rev. F. Cunningham, +27th/29th Nov. 1834.</p> +<p><a name="footnote142b"></a><a href="#citation142b" +class="footnote">[142b]</a> 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.:—</p> +<table> +<tr> +<td><p>Ancient British.</p> +</td> +<td><p>Gaelic.</p> +</td> +<td><p>Portuguese.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p> “ Danish.</p> +</td> +<td><p>German.</p> +</td> +<td><p>Provençal</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p> “ Irish.</p> +</td> +<td><p>Greek.</p> +</td> +<td><p>Romany.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p> “ Norse.</p> +</td> +<td><p>Hebrew.</p> +</td> +<td><p>Russian.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Anglo-Saxon.</p> +</td> +<td><p>Irish.</p> +</td> +<td><p>Spanish.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Arabic.</p> +</td> +<td><p>Italian.</p> +</td> +<td><p>Suabian.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Cambrian British.</p> +</td> +<td><p>Latin.</p> +</td> +<td><p>Swedish.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Chinese.</p> +</td> +<td><p>Malo-Russian.</p> +</td> +<td><p>Tartar.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Danish.</p> +</td> +<td><p>Manchu.</p> +</td> +<td><p>Tibetan.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Dutch.</p> +</td> +<td><p>Modern Greek.</p> +</td> +<td><p>Turkish.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Finnish.</p> +</td> +<td><p>Persian.</p> +</td> +<td><p>Welsh.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>French.</p> +</td> +<td><p>Polish.</p> +</td> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<p> </p> +<p><a name="footnote143a"></a><a href="#citation143a" +class="footnote">[143a]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote143b"></a><a href="#citation143b" +class="footnote">[143b]</a> These two volumes were printed +in one and published at a later date by Messrs Jarrold & Son, +London & Norwich.</p> +<p><a name="footnote143c"></a><a href="#citation143c" +class="footnote">[143c]</a> 5th March 1836.</p> +<p><a name="footnote143d"></a><a href="#citation143d" +class="footnote">[143d]</a> From a letter to Borrow from Dr +Gordon Hake.</p> +<p><a name="footnote143e"></a><a href="#citation143e" +class="footnote">[143e]</a> Borrow’s Report to the +Committee of the Bible Society, received 23rd September 1835.</p> +<p><a name="footnote144a"></a><a href="#citation144a" +class="footnote">[144a]</a> Borrow’s Report to the +Committee of the Bible Society, received 23rd September 1835.</p> +<p><a name="footnote144b"></a><a href="#citation144b" +class="footnote">[144b]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p><a name="footnote145a"></a><a href="#citation145a" +class="footnote">[145a]</a> <i>Kak my tut kamasa</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote145b"></a><a href="#citation145b" +class="footnote">[145b]</a> Borrow’s Report to the +Committee of the Bible Society, received 23rd September +1835. He gives an account of the episode in <i>The Gypsies +of Spain</i>, page 6.</p> +<p><a name="footnote146a"></a><a href="#citation146a" +class="footnote">[146a]</a> The Thirty-First Annual +Report.</p> +<p><a name="footnote146b"></a><a href="#citation146b" +class="footnote">[146b]</a> <i>Athenæum</i>, 5th +March 1836.</p> +<p><a name="footnote147"></a><a href="#citation147" +class="footnote">[147]</a> Borrow’s Report to the +Committee of the Bible Society, received 23rd September 1835.</p> +<p><a name="footnote148"></a><a href="#citation148" +class="footnote">[148]</a> 18th/30th June 1834.</p> +<p><a name="footnote149"></a><a href="#citation149" +class="footnote">[149]</a> 27th October 1835.</p> +<p><a name="footnote150a"></a><a href="#citation150a" +class="footnote">[150a]</a> His salary was paid +continuously, and included the period of rest between the Russian +and Peninsula expeditions.</p> +<p><a name="footnote150b"></a><a href="#citation150b" +class="footnote">[150b]</a> Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, 26th +October 1835.</p> +<p><a name="footnote150c"></a><a href="#citation150c" +class="footnote">[150c]</a> In a letter dated 27th October +1835.</p> +<p><a name="footnote151"></a><a href="#citation151" +class="footnote">[151]</a> Minutes of the General Committee +of the Bible Society, 2nd Nov. 1835.</p> +<p><a name="footnote153"></a><a href="#citation153" +class="footnote">[153]</a> 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 +<i>The Bible in Spain</i>, pages 1–3.</p> +<p><a name="footnote154a"></a><a href="#citation154a" +class="footnote">[154a]</a> <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, +pages 73–4.</p> +<p><a name="footnote154b"></a><a href="#citation154b" +class="footnote">[154b]</a> Letter to the Rev. J. Jowett, +30th Nov. 1835.</p> +<p><a name="footnote155a"></a><a href="#citation155a" +class="footnote">[155a]</a> 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.—<i>Life of George Borrow</i>, i., page 234.</p> +<p><a name="footnote155b"></a><a href="#citation155b" +class="footnote">[155b]</a> Letter to Rev. J. Jowett, 30th +Nov. 1835.</p> +<p><a name="footnote155c"></a><a href="#citation155c" +class="footnote">[155c]</a> Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, +15th Dec. 1835.</p> +<p><a name="footnote159a"></a><a href="#citation159a" +class="footnote">[159a]</a> Letter to Dr Bowring, 26th +December 1835.</p> +<p><a name="footnote159b"></a><a href="#citation159b" +class="footnote">[159b]</a> <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, page +67.</p> +<p><a name="footnote159c"></a><a href="#citation159c" +class="footnote">[159c]</a> Dated 8th and 10th January +1836, giving an account of his journey to Evora.</p> +<p><a name="footnote160a"></a><a href="#citation160a" +class="footnote">[160a]</a> <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, page +78.</p> +<p><a name="footnote160b"></a><a href="#citation160b" +class="footnote">[160b]</a> <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, +pages 77–8.</p> +<p><a name="footnote161a"></a><a href="#citation161a" +class="footnote">[161a]</a> <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, page +87.</p> +<p><a name="footnote161b"></a><a href="#citation161b" +class="footnote">[161b]</a> <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, page +88.</p> +<p><a name="footnote162a"></a><a href="#citation162a" +class="footnote">[162a]</a> <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, page +99.</p> +<p><a name="footnote162b"></a><a href="#citation162b" +class="footnote">[162b]</a> <i>Lavengro</i>, page 191.</p> +<p><a name="footnote162c"></a><a href="#citation162c" +class="footnote">[162c]</a> <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, +pages 97–8.</p> +<p><a name="footnote162d"></a><a href="#citation162d" +class="footnote">[162d]</a> Not 5th Jan., as given in +<i>The Bible in Spain</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote162e"></a><a href="#citation162e" +class="footnote">[162e]</a> <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, page +103.</p> +<p><a name="footnote164a"></a><a href="#citation164a" +class="footnote">[164a]</a> <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, +Preface, page vi.</p> +<p><a name="footnote164b"></a><a href="#citation164b" +class="footnote">[164b]</a> <i>The Gypsies of Spain</i>, +page 179.</p> +<p><a name="footnote164c"></a><a href="#citation164c" +class="footnote">[164c]</a> “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.”—<i>The Gypsies of Spain</i>, page +1.</p> +<p><a name="footnote165a"></a><a href="#citation165a" +class="footnote">[165a]</a> <i>The Gypsies of Spain</i>, +pages 184–5.</p> +<p><a name="footnote165b"></a><a href="#citation165b" +class="footnote">[165b]</a> <i>The Gypsies of Spain</i>, +page 186.</p> +<p><a name="footnote166a"></a><a href="#citation166a" +class="footnote">[166a]</a> <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, page +109.</p> +<p><a name="footnote166b"></a><a href="#citation166b" +class="footnote">[166b]</a> Dr Knapp states that the +wedding described in <i>The Gypsies of Spain</i> took place +during these three days.—<i>Life of George Borrow</i>, by +Dr Knapp, i., page 242.</p> +<p><a name="footnote167a"></a><a href="#citation167a" +class="footnote">[167a]</a> <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, page +162.</p> +<p><a name="footnote167b"></a><a href="#citation167b" +class="footnote">[167b]</a> “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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote167c"></a><a href="#citation167c" +class="footnote">[167c]</a> 24th February 1836.</p> +<p><a name="footnote167d"></a><a href="#citation167d" +class="footnote">[167d]</a> Letter to his mother, 24th +February 1836.</p> +<p><a name="footnote168a"></a><a href="#citation168a" +class="footnote">[168a]</a> Letter to his mother, 24th +February 1836</p> +<p><a name="footnote168b"></a><a href="#citation168b" +class="footnote">[168b]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p><a name="footnote168c"></a><a href="#citation168c" +class="footnote">[168c]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p><a name="footnote168d"></a><a href="#citation168d" +class="footnote">[168d]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p><a name="footnote169"></a><a href="#citation169" +class="footnote">[169]</a> <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, page +173.</p> +<p><a name="footnote170a"></a><a href="#citation170a" +class="footnote">[170a]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote170b"></a><a href="#citation170b" +class="footnote">[170b]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote171"></a><a href="#citation171" +class="footnote">[171]</a> <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, page +165.</p> +<p><a name="footnote173a"></a><a href="#citation173a" +class="footnote">[173a]</a> Extracts accompanying letter to +Rev. A. Brandram, 22nd March 1836.</p> +<p><a name="footnote173b"></a><a href="#citation173b" +class="footnote">[173b]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p><a name="footnote173c"></a><a href="#citation173c" +class="footnote">[173c]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p><a name="footnote174"></a><a href="#citation174" +class="footnote">[174]</a> Letter of 22nd March 1837.</p> +<p><a name="footnote175a"></a><a href="#citation175a" +class="footnote">[175a]</a> Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, +22nd May 1836.</p> +<p><a name="footnote175b"></a><a href="#citation175b" +class="footnote">[175b]</a> Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, +22nd May 1836.</p> +<p><a name="footnote175c"></a><a href="#citation175c" +class="footnote">[175c]</a> Letter dated 6th April +1836.</p> +<p><a name="footnote175d"></a><a href="#citation175d" +class="footnote">[175d]</a> Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, +20th April 1836.</p> +<p><a name="footnote175e"></a><a href="#citation175e" +class="footnote">[175e]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p><a name="footnote176a"></a><a href="#citation176a" +class="footnote">[176a]</a> Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, +20th April 1836.</p> +<p><a name="footnote176b"></a><a href="#citation176b" +class="footnote">[176b]</a> <i>Ibid.</i> +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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote177"></a><a href="#citation177" +class="footnote">[177]</a> Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 20th +April 1836.</p> +<p><a name="footnote178a"></a><a href="#citation178a" +class="footnote">[178a]</a> Letter of 9th May 1836.</p> +<p><a name="footnote178b"></a><a href="#citation178b" +class="footnote">[178b]</a> Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, +30th June 1836.</p> +<p><a name="footnote178c"></a><a href="#citation178c" +class="footnote">[178c]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p><a name="footnote178d"></a><a href="#citation178d" +class="footnote">[178d]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p><a name="footnote179a"></a><a href="#citation179a" +class="footnote">[179a]</a> The Duke’s secretary who +had shown so profound a respect for the decrees of the Council of +Trent.</p> +<p><a name="footnote179b"></a><a href="#citation179b" +class="footnote">[179b]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote180"></a><a href="#citation180" +class="footnote">[180]</a> Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 30th +June 1836.</p> +<p><a name="footnote181a"></a><a href="#citation181a" +class="footnote">[181a]</a> Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 7th +July 1836.</p> +<p><a name="footnote181b"></a><a href="#citation181b" +class="footnote">[181b]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p><a name="footnote181c"></a><a href="#citation181c" +class="footnote">[181c]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p><a name="footnote181d"></a><a href="#citation181d" +class="footnote">[181d]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p><a name="footnote182a"></a><a href="#citation182a" +class="footnote">[182a]</a> Dr Usoz was a Spaniard of noble +birth, a pupil of Mezzofanti, and one of the editors of <i>El +Español</i>. 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote182b"></a><a href="#citation182b" +class="footnote">[182b]</a> Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, +25th December 1837.</p> +<p><a name="footnote182c"></a><a href="#citation182c" +class="footnote">[182c]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote183a"></a><a href="#citation183a" +class="footnote">[183a]</a> <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, +pages 197–206.</p> +<p><a name="footnote183b"></a><a href="#citation183b" +class="footnote">[183b]</a> 30th July 1836.</p> +<p><a name="footnote183c"></a><a href="#citation183c" +class="footnote">[183c]</a> Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, +10th August 1836.</p> +<p><a name="footnote184"></a><a href="#citation184" +class="footnote">[184]</a> 17th October 1836.</p> +<p><a name="footnote185a"></a><a href="#citation185a" +class="footnote">[185a]</a> <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, +pages 209–11.</p> +<p><a name="footnote185b"></a><a href="#citation185b" +class="footnote">[185b]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, page 211.</p> +<p><a name="footnote186"></a><a href="#citation186" +class="footnote">[186]</a> The Rev. Wentworth Webster in +<i>The Journal of Gypsy Lore Society</i>, vol. i., July +1888–Oct. 1889.</p> +<p><a name="footnote187"></a><a href="#citation187" +class="footnote">[187]</a> Letter from Rev. A. Brandram, +6th Jan. 1837.</p> +<p><a name="footnote188"></a><a href="#citation188" +class="footnote">[188]</a> Isidor Just Severin, Baron +Taylor (1789–1879), was a naturalised Frenchman and a great +traveller. In 1821 he, with Charles Nodier, wrote the play +<i>Bertram</i>, which was produced with great success at Paris in +1821. Later he was made Commissaire du Théâtre +Français, and authorised the production of <i>Hernani</i> +and <i>Le Mariage de Figaro</i>. Later he became +Inspecteur-Général des Beaux Arts (1838). +When seen by Borrow in Seville he was collecting Spanish pictures +for Louis-Philippe.</p> +<p><a name="footnote189"></a><a href="#citation189" +class="footnote">[189]</a> <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, page +221.</p> +<p><a name="footnote190a"></a><a href="#citation190a" +class="footnote">[190a]</a> <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, page +237.</p> +<p><a name="footnote190b"></a><a href="#citation190b" +class="footnote">[190b]</a> Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, +26th Dec. 1836.</p> +<p><a name="footnote191a"></a><a href="#citation191a" +class="footnote">[191a]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote191b"></a><a href="#citation191b" +class="footnote">[191b]</a> <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, page +254.</p> +<p><a name="footnote191c"></a><a href="#citation191c" +class="footnote">[191c]</a> Borrow’s letter to Rev. +A. Brandram, 14th Jan. 1837.</p> +<p><a name="footnote191d"></a><a href="#citation191d" +class="footnote">[191d]</a> He was authorised to purchase +600 reams at 60 <i>reals</i> per ream, whereas he paid only 45 +<i>reals</i> a ream for a paper “better,” he wrote, +“than I could have purchased at 70.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote192a"></a><a href="#citation192a" +class="footnote">[192a]</a> Author of <i>La Historia de las +Córtes de España durante el Siglo XIX</i>. (1885) +and other works of a political character. He was also +proprietor and editor of <i>El Español</i>. Isturitz +had intended raising Borrégo to the position of minister +of finance when his government suddenly terminated.</p> +<p><a name="footnote192b"></a><a href="#citation192b" +class="footnote">[192b]</a> 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 <i>General Report</i>, +<i>Withdrawn</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote192c"></a><a href="#citation192c" +class="footnote">[192c]</a> To Rev. A. Brandram, 14th Jan. +1837.</p> +<p><a name="footnote193"></a><a href="#citation193" +class="footnote">[193]</a> To Rev. A. Brandram, 14th Jan. +1837.</p> +<p><a name="footnote194a"></a><a href="#citation194a" +class="footnote">[194a]</a> 27th January 1837.</p> +<p><a name="footnote194b"></a><a href="#citation194b" +class="footnote">[194b]</a> Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, +27th Feb. 1837.</p> +<p><a name="footnote195a"></a><a href="#citation195a" +class="footnote">[195a]</a> Letter from Rev. A. Brandram to +Borrow, 22nd March 1837.</p> +<p><a name="footnote195b"></a><a href="#citation195b" +class="footnote">[195b]</a> Letter from Borrow to Rev. A. +Brandram, 25th Dec. 1837.</p> +<p><a name="footnote195c"></a><a href="#citation195c" +class="footnote">[195c]</a> Letter from Borrow to Rev. A. +Brandram, 27th February 1837.</p> +<p><a name="footnote195d"></a><a href="#citation195d" +class="footnote">[195d]</a> Rev. Wentworth Webster in +<i>The Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society</i>, vol. i., July +1888–October 1889.</p> +<p><a name="footnote196a"></a><a href="#citation196a" +class="footnote">[196a]</a> <i>General Report</i> +withdrawn.</p> +<p><a name="footnote196b"></a><a href="#citation196b" +class="footnote">[196b]</a> <i>General Report</i>, +withdrawn.</p> +<p><a name="footnote196c"></a><a href="#citation196c" +class="footnote">[196c]</a> Borrow to Richard Ford. +<i>Letters of Richard Ford</i> 1797–1858. Ed. R. E. +Prothero. Murray, 1905.</p> +<p><a name="footnote197a"></a><a href="#citation197a" +class="footnote">[197a]</a> Letter from Borrow to Rev. A. +Brandram, 7th June 1837.</p> +<p><a name="footnote197b"></a><a href="#citation197b" +class="footnote">[197b]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p><a name="footnote197c"></a><a href="#citation197c" +class="footnote">[197c]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p><a name="footnote198"></a><a href="#citation198" +class="footnote">[198]</a> Letter from Borrow to the Rev. +A. Brandram, 27th February 1837.</p> +<p><a name="footnote199"></a><a href="#citation199" +class="footnote">[199]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote200a"></a><a href="#citation200a" +class="footnote">[200a]</a> Via Pitiegua, Pedroso, Medina +del Campo, Dueñas Palencia.</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote200b"></a><a href="#citation200b" +class="footnote">[200b]</a> Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 5th +July 1837.</p> +<p><a name="footnote201"></a><a href="#citation201" +class="footnote">[201]</a> <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, pages +352–4.</p> +<p><a name="footnote202"></a><a href="#citation202" +class="footnote">[202]</a> <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, page +364.</p> +<p><a name="footnote203a"></a><a href="#citation203a" +class="footnote">[203a]</a> This is the story particularly +referred to by Richard Ford in report upon the MS. of <i>The +Bible in Spain</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote203b"></a><a href="#citation203b" +class="footnote">[203b]</a> In the Report to the General +Committee of the Bible Society on Past and Future Operations in +Spain, November 1838.</p> +<p><a name="footnote204a"></a><a href="#citation204a" +class="footnote">[204a]</a> <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, page +409.</p> +<p><a name="footnote204b"></a><a href="#citation204b" +class="footnote">[204b]</a> In <i>The Bible in Spain</i> +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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote205a"></a><a href="#citation205a" +class="footnote">[205a]</a> Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, +15th September 1837.</p> +<p><a name="footnote205b"></a><a href="#citation205b" +class="footnote">[205b]</a> Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, +29th September 1837.</p> +<p><a name="footnote205c"></a><a href="#citation205c" +class="footnote">[205c]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote205d"></a><a href="#citation205d" +class="footnote">[205d]</a> To the Rev. A. Brandram, 29th +Sept. 1837. The story also appears in <i>The Bible in +Spain</i>, pages 479–480.</p> +<p><a name="footnote206"></a><a href="#citation206" +class="footnote">[206]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote207"></a><a href="#citation207" +class="footnote">[207]</a> To Rev. A. Brandram, 29th +September 1837.</p> +<p><a name="footnote208"></a><a href="#citation208" +class="footnote">[208]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote209a"></a><a href="#citation209a" +class="footnote">[209a]</a> By way of Ontanéda, +Oña, Búrgos, Vallodolid, Guadarrama.</p> +<p><a name="footnote209b"></a><a href="#citation209b" +class="footnote">[209b]</a> <i>General Report</i>, +withdrawn.</p> +<p><a name="footnote209c"></a><a href="#citation209c" +class="footnote">[209c]</a> Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 1st +November 1837.</p> +<p><a name="footnote210"></a><a href="#citation210" +class="footnote">[210]</a> <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, page +507.</p> +<p><a name="footnote211"></a><a href="#citation211" +class="footnote">[211]</a> He was created G.C.B. 19th Oct. +1837.</p> +<p><a name="footnote212a"></a><a href="#citation212a" +class="footnote">[212a]</a> Letter from Borrow to the Rev. +A. Brandram, 20th Nov. 1837.</p> +<p><a name="footnote212b"></a><a href="#citation212b" +class="footnote">[212b]</a> To the Rev. A. Brandram, 20th +Nov. 1837.</p> +<p><a name="footnote213a"></a><a href="#citation213a" +class="footnote">[213a]</a> <i>History of the British and +Foreign Bible Society</i>, W. Canton.</p> +<p><a name="footnote213b"></a><a href="#citation213b" +class="footnote">[213b]</a> Letter from Borrow to Rev. A. +Brandram, 30th March 1838.</p> +<p><a name="footnote214a"></a><a href="#citation214a" +class="footnote">[214a]</a> 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.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote214b"></a><a href="#citation214b" +class="footnote">[214b]</a> Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, +20th November 1837.</p> +<p><a name="footnote214c"></a><a href="#citation214c" +class="footnote">[214c]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote215a"></a><a href="#citation215a" +class="footnote">[215a]</a> Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, +28th November 1837.</p> +<p><a name="footnote215b"></a><a href="#citation215b" +class="footnote">[215b]</a> Sir George Villiers to Viscount +Palmerston, 5th May 1838.</p> +<p><a name="footnote215c"></a><a href="#citation215c" +class="footnote">[215c]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p><a name="footnote216a"></a><a href="#citation216a" +class="footnote">[216a]</a> <i>The Gypsies of Spain</i>, +page 241.</p> +<p><a name="footnote216b"></a><a href="#citation216b" +class="footnote">[216b]</a> Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, +25th Dec. 1837.</p> +<p><a name="footnote216c"></a><a href="#citation216c" +class="footnote">[216c]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote216d"></a><a href="#citation216d" +class="footnote">[216d]</a> Letter dated 16th Jan. +1838.</p> +<p><a name="footnote217a"></a><a href="#citation217a" +class="footnote">[217a]</a> In <i>The Bible in Spain</i> he +says “the greater part,” in <i>The Gypsies of +Spain</i> he says “the whole.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote217b"></a><a href="#citation217b" +class="footnote">[217b]</a> <i>The Gypsies of Spain</i>, +page 275.</p> +<p><a name="footnote218a"></a><a href="#citation218a" +class="footnote">[218a]</a> <i>The Gypsies of Spain</i>, +page 280.</p> +<p><a name="footnote218b"></a><a href="#citation218b" +class="footnote">[218b]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p><a name="footnote218c"></a><a href="#citation218c" +class="footnote">[218c]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, page 282.</p> +<p><a name="footnote219a"></a><a href="#citation219a" +class="footnote">[219a]</a> On 25th December 1837.</p> +<p><a name="footnote219b"></a><a href="#citation219b" +class="footnote">[219b]</a> 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 <i>Despacho</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote220"></a><a href="#citation220" +class="footnote">[220]</a> 15th January 1838.</p> +<p><a name="footnote221a"></a><a href="#citation221a" +class="footnote">[221a]</a> Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, +30th March 1838.</p> +<p><a name="footnote221b"></a><a href="#citation221b" +class="footnote">[221b]</a> In <i>The Gypsies of Spain</i> +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:—</p> +<table> +<tr> +<td><p>Of Testaments</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">962</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Of Gospels in the Gypsy Tongue</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">286</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Of ditto in Basque</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right">394</p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<p><a name="footnote222a"></a><a href="#citation222a" +class="footnote">[222a]</a> Original Report, withdrawn.</p> +<p><a name="footnote222b"></a><a href="#citation222b" +class="footnote">[222b]</a> <i>The Gypsies of Spain</i>, +pages 280–1.</p> +<p><a name="footnote224a"></a><a href="#citation224a" +class="footnote">[224a]</a> Letter from Borrow to Rev. A. +Brandram, 17th March 1838.</p> +<p><a name="footnote224b"></a><a href="#citation224b" +class="footnote">[224b]</a> <i>The History of the British +and Foreign Bible Society</i>, by W. Canton.</p> +<p><a name="footnote225"></a><a href="#citation225" +class="footnote">[225]</a> Mr Canton writes in <i>The +History of the British and Foreign Bible Society</i>: “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.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote226"></a><a href="#citation226" +class="footnote">[226]</a> [11th] May 1838.</p> +<p><a name="footnote227a"></a><a href="#citation227a" +class="footnote">[227a]</a> Letter from George Borrow to +Rev. A. Brandram [11th] May 1838.</p> +<p><a name="footnote227b"></a><a href="#citation227b" +class="footnote">[227b]</a> 23rd April 1838.</p> +<p><a name="footnote227c"></a><a href="#citation227c" +class="footnote">[227c]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote228a"></a><a href="#citation228a" +class="footnote">[228a]</a> <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, page +536.</p> +<p><a name="footnote228b"></a><a href="#citation228b" +class="footnote">[228b]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p><a name="footnote229a"></a><a href="#citation229a" +class="footnote">[229a]</a> Original Report, withdrawn.</p> +<p><a name="footnote229b"></a><a href="#citation229b" +class="footnote">[229b]</a> Original Report, withdrawn.</p> +<p><a name="footnote231"></a><a href="#citation231" +class="footnote">[231]</a> Sometimes this personage is +referred to in official papers as the “Political +Chief,” a too literal translation of <i>Gefé +Politico</i>. 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote232a"></a><a href="#citation232a" +class="footnote">[232a]</a> This is the official +translation among the Foreign Office papers at the Record +Office.</p> +<p><a name="footnote232b"></a><a href="#citation232b" +class="footnote">[232b]</a> <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, page +539.</p> +<p><a name="footnote233"></a><a href="#citation233" +class="footnote">[233]</a> There is an error in the dating +of this letter. It should be 1st May.</p> +<p><a name="footnote234a"></a><a href="#citation234a" +class="footnote">[234a]</a> 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.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote234b"></a><a href="#citation234b" +class="footnote">[234b]</a> Borrow pays a magnificent and +well-deserved tribute to this queen among landladies. +(<i>The Bible in Spain</i>, 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote234c"></a><a href="#citation234c" +class="footnote">[234c]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote235"></a><a href="#citation235" +class="footnote">[235]</a> <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, page +547.</p> +<p><a name="footnote238a"></a><a href="#citation238a" +class="footnote">[238a]</a> Dispatch from Sir George +Villiers to Viscount Palmerston, 5th May.</p> +<p><a name="footnote238b"></a><a href="#citation238b" +class="footnote">[238b]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p><a name="footnote239a"></a><a href="#citation239a" +class="footnote">[239a]</a> Despatch from Sir George +Villiers to Viscount Palmerston, 12th May 1838.</p> +<p><a name="footnote239b"></a><a href="#citation239b" +class="footnote">[239b]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p><a name="footnote240a"></a><a href="#citation240a" +class="footnote">[240a]</a> Despatch from Sir George +Villiers to Viscount Palmerston.</p> +<p><a name="footnote240b"></a><a href="#citation240b" +class="footnote">[240b]</a> Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, +17th May 1838.</p> +<p><a name="footnote241a"></a><a href="#citation241a" +class="footnote">[241a]</a> Despatch from Sir George +Villiers to Viscount Palmerston, 5th May 1838.</p> +<p><a name="footnote241b"></a><a href="#citation241b" +class="footnote">[241b]</a> In a letter to the Rev. A. +Brandram, 17th May 1838.</p> +<p><a name="footnote242a"></a><a href="#citation242a" +class="footnote">[242a]</a> The Official Translation among +the Foreign Office Papers at the Record Office.</p> +<p><a name="footnote242b"></a><a href="#citation242b" +class="footnote">[242b]</a> Mr William Mark’s (the +British Consul at Malaga) Official account of the occurrence, +16th May 1838.</p> +<p><a name="footnote243a"></a><a href="#citation243a" +class="footnote">[243a]</a> Mr William Mark’s (the +British Consul at Malaga) Official account of the occurrence, +16th May 1838.</p> +<p><a name="footnote243b"></a><a href="#citation243b" +class="footnote">[243b]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p><a name="footnote243c"></a><a href="#citation243c" +class="footnote">[243c]</a> Despatch to Viscount +Palmerston, 12th May 1838.</p> +<p><a name="footnote243d"></a><a href="#citation243d" +class="footnote">[243d]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p><a name="footnote244a"></a><a href="#citation244a" +class="footnote">[244a]</a> Despatch to Viscount +Palmerston, 12th May 1838.</p> +<p><a name="footnote244b"></a><a href="#citation244b" +class="footnote">[244b]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p><a name="footnote244c"></a><a href="#citation244c" +class="footnote">[244c]</a> Sir George +Villiers’ Despatch to Viscount Palmerston, 12th May +1838.</p> +<p><a name="footnote246a"></a><a href="#citation246a" +class="footnote">[246a]</a> The Official Translation among +the Foreign Office Papers at the Record Office.</p> +<p><a name="footnote246b"></a><a href="#citation246b" +class="footnote">[246b]</a> <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, page +578.</p> +<p><a name="footnote247a"></a><a href="#citation247a" +class="footnote">[247a]</a> <i>The Gypsies of Spain</i>, +page 241.</p> +<p><a name="footnote247b"></a><a href="#citation247b" +class="footnote">[247b]</a> <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, page +579.</p> +<p><a name="footnote249"></a><a href="#citation249" +class="footnote">[249]</a> <i>History of the British and +Foreign Bible Society</i>. By W. Canton.</p> +<p><a name="footnote252"></a><a href="#citation252" +class="footnote">[252]</a> On [11th] May 1838.</p> +<p><a name="footnote253"></a><a href="#citation253" +class="footnote">[253]</a> Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 17th +May 1838.</p> +<p><a name="footnote254a"></a><a href="#citation254a" +class="footnote">[254a]</a> Letter from Borrow to Rev. A. +Brandram, 25th May 1838.</p> +<p><a name="footnote255a"></a><a href="#citation255a" +class="footnote">[255a]</a> The Official Translation among +the Foreign Office Papers at the Record Office.</p> +<p><a name="footnote255b"></a><a href="#citation255b" +class="footnote">[255b]</a> Sir George Villiers to Count +Ofalia, 25th May 1838.</p> +<p><a name="footnote255c"></a><a href="#citation255c" +class="footnote">[255c]</a> Letter to Mr A. Brandram, 25th +May 1838.</p> +<p><a name="footnote256a"></a><a href="#citation256a" +class="footnote">[256a]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote256b"></a><a href="#citation256b" +class="footnote">[256b]</a> Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, +14th June 1838.</p> +<p><a name="footnote257a"></a><a href="#citation257a" +class="footnote">[257a]</a> Letter from Borrow to Rev. A. +Brandram, 14th June 1838.</p> +<p><a name="footnote257b"></a><a href="#citation257b" +class="footnote">[257b]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p><a name="footnote259"></a><a href="#citation259" +class="footnote">[259]</a> 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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">Extracts</span>.</p> +<p><i>Page</i> 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.</p> +<p><i>Page</i> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote262"></a><a href="#citation262" +class="footnote">[262]</a> <i>The History of the British +and Foreign Bible Society</i>, by W. Canton.</p> +<p><a name="footnote265a"></a><a href="#citation265a" +class="footnote">[265a]</a> 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.” +<i>General Report</i>, withdrawn.</p> +<p><a name="footnote265b"></a><a href="#citation265b" +class="footnote">[265b]</a> Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, +14th July 1838.</p> +<p><a name="footnote265c"></a><a href="#citation265c" +class="footnote">[265c]</a> 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).</p> +<p><a name="footnote266"></a><a href="#citation266" +class="footnote">[266]</a> Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 14th +July 1838.</p> +<p><a name="footnote269a"></a><a href="#citation269a" +class="footnote">[269a]</a> <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, page +602.</p> +<p><a name="footnote269b"></a><a href="#citation269b" +class="footnote">[269b]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, page 606.</p> +<p><a name="footnote269c"></a><a href="#citation269c" +class="footnote">[269c]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, page 606.</p> +<p><a name="footnote270a"></a><a href="#citation270a" +class="footnote">[270a]</a> Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, +27th July 1838.</p> +<p><a name="footnote270b"></a><a href="#citation270b" +class="footnote">[270b]</a> This would have been +impossible. If his age were seventy-four, he would of +necessity have been four years old in 1838.</p> +<p><a name="footnote271a"></a><a href="#citation271a" +class="footnote">[271a]</a> By Mr A. G. Jayne in +“Footprints of George Borrow,” in <i>The Bible in the +World</i>, July 1908.</p> +<p><a name="footnote271b"></a><a href="#citation271b" +class="footnote">[271b]</a> Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, +17th July 1838.</p> +<p><a name="footnote273a"></a><a href="#citation273a" +class="footnote">[273a]</a> 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 <i>they must see you</i>, and I +will only add that it is <i>utterly foreign to their wishes</i> +that you should <i>expose yourself in the daring manner you are +now doing</i>. I lose not a post in conveying this +impression to you.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote273b"></a><a href="#citation273b" +class="footnote">[273b]</a> 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.</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote275"></a><a href="#citation275" +class="footnote">[275]</a> <i>General Report</i>, +withdrawn.</p> +<p><a name="footnote277a"></a><a href="#citation277a" +class="footnote">[277a]</a> Borrow’s letter to the +Rev. A. Brandram, 1st Sept. 1838.</p> +<p><a name="footnote277b"></a><a href="#citation277b" +class="footnote">[277b]</a> To Lord William Hervey, +Chargé d’Affaires at Madrid (23rd Aug. 1838).</p> +<p><a name="footnote278"></a><a href="#citation278" +class="footnote">[278]</a> To Rev. G. Browne, one of the +Secretaries of the Bible Society, 29th Aug. 1838.</p> +<p><a name="footnote279a"></a><a href="#citation279a" +class="footnote">[279a]</a> To Rev. A. Brandram, 19th +September 1838.</p> +<p><a name="footnote279b"></a><a href="#citation279b" +class="footnote">[279b]</a> <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, page +621.</p> +<p><a name="footnote279c"></a><a href="#citation279c" +class="footnote">[279c]</a> Letter to Dr Usoz, 22nd Feb. +1839.</p> +<p><a name="footnote279d"></a><a href="#citation279d" +class="footnote">[279d]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p><a name="footnote279e"></a><a href="#citation279e" +class="footnote">[279e]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p><a name="footnote280"></a><a href="#citation280" +class="footnote">[280]</a> The Report has here been largely +drawn upon and has been referred to as “Original Report, +withdrawn.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote282"></a><a href="#citation282" +class="footnote">[282]</a> <i>History of the British and +Foreign Bible Society</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote284"></a><a href="#citation284" +class="footnote">[284]</a> On the publication of <i>The +Bible in Spain</i> 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 <i>Inglés +rubio</i>, the blonde Englishman.</p> +<p><a name="footnote285a"></a><a href="#citation285a" +class="footnote">[285a]</a> <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, page +627.</p> +<p><a name="footnote285b"></a><a href="#citation285b" +class="footnote">[285b]</a> To Rev. A. Brandram, 25th Jan. +1839.</p> +<p><a name="footnote286"></a><a href="#citation286" +class="footnote">[286]</a> On 6th Feb. 1839.</p> +<p><a name="footnote288a"></a><a href="#citation288a" +class="footnote">[288a]</a> Letter to Mr W. Hitchin of the +Bible Society, 9th March 1839.</p> +<p><a name="footnote288b"></a><a href="#citation288b" +class="footnote">[288b]</a> Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, +26th March 1839.</p> +<p><a name="footnote290"></a><a href="#citation290" +class="footnote">[290]</a> Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 10th +April 1839.</p> +<p><a name="footnote293"></a><a href="#citation293" +class="footnote">[293]</a> Letter to the Rev. A. Brandram, +2nd May 1839.</p> +<p><a name="footnote294a"></a><a href="#citation294a" +class="footnote">[294a]</a> <i>Excursions Along the Shores +of the Mediterranean</i>, by Lt.-Col. E. Napier, 46th Regt. +Colburn, 1842, 2 vols.</p> +<p><a name="footnote294b"></a><a href="#citation294b" +class="footnote">[294b]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p><a name="footnote295"></a><a href="#citation295" +class="footnote">[295]</a> <i>Excursions Along the Shores +of the Mediterranean</i>, by Lt.-Col. E. Napier, 46th Regt. +Colburn, 1842, 2 vols.</p> +<p><a name="footnote297"></a><a href="#citation297" +class="footnote">[297]</a> A reference to Charles Robert +Maturin’s <i>Melmoth the Wanderer</i>, 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote298"></a><a href="#citation298" +class="footnote">[298]</a> <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, page +663.</p> +<p><a name="footnote299"></a><a href="#citation299" +class="footnote">[299]</a> 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 <i>Despacho</i>]. 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 <i>Despacho</i> eventually +illuminated a beer-shop.</p> +<p><a name="footnote300"></a><a href="#citation300" +class="footnote">[300]</a> Letter from Borrow to the Rev. +A. Brandram, 28th June 1839.</p> +<p><a name="footnote301"></a><a href="#citation301" +class="footnote">[301]</a> 28th June.</p> +<p><a name="footnote302"></a><a href="#citation302" +class="footnote">[302]</a> Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 18th +July 1839.</p> +<p><a name="footnote307a"></a><a href="#citation307a" +class="footnote">[307a]</a> Letter from Borrow to Rev. A. +Brandram, 29th Sept. 1839.</p> +<p><a name="footnote307b"></a><a href="#citation307b" +class="footnote">[307b]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p><a name="footnote307c"></a><a href="#citation307c" +class="footnote">[307c]</a> 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.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote307d"></a><a href="#citation307d" +class="footnote">[307d]</a> Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, +29th Sept. 1839.</p> +<p><a name="footnote308a"></a><a href="#citation308a" +class="footnote">[308a]</a> Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, +29th Sept. 1839.</p> +<p><a name="footnote308b"></a><a href="#citation308b" +class="footnote">[308b]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p><a name="footnote309"></a><a href="#citation309" +class="footnote">[309]</a> Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 25th +Nov. 1839.</p> +<p><a name="footnote310"></a><a href="#citation310" +class="footnote">[310]</a> Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 25th +Nov. 1839.</p> +<p><a name="footnote313"></a><a href="#citation313" +class="footnote">[313]</a> From the Public Record +Office.</p> +<p><a name="footnote315"></a><a href="#citation315" +class="footnote">[315]</a> Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, 25th +Nov. 1839.</p> +<p><a name="footnote316"></a><a href="#citation316" +class="footnote">[316]</a> Rev. Wentworth Webster in <i>The +Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote317"></a><a href="#citation317" +class="footnote">[317]</a> The phrasing of the official +translation has everywhere been followed.</p> +<p><a name="footnote319"></a><a href="#citation319" +class="footnote">[319]</a> The Official Translation among +the Foreign Office Papers at the Record Office.</p> +<p><a name="footnote320"></a><a href="#citation320" +class="footnote">[320]</a> 28th Dec. 1839.</p> +<p><a name="footnote321"></a><a href="#citation321" +class="footnote">[321]</a> Henrietta played +“remarkably well on the guitar—not the trumpery +German thing so-called—but the real Spanish +guitar.”—<i>Wild Wales</i>, page 6.</p> +<p><a name="footnote322"></a><a href="#citation322" +class="footnote">[322]</a> <i>Wild Wales</i>, page 6.</p> +<p><a name="footnote323a"></a><a href="#citation323a" +class="footnote">[323a]</a> Letter to Rev. A. Brandram, +18th March 1840.</p> +<p><a name="footnote323b"></a><a href="#citation323b" +class="footnote">[323b]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p><a name="footnote328a"></a><a href="#citation328a" +class="footnote">[328a]</a> <i>The Romany Rye</i>, page +312.</p> +<p><a name="footnote328b"></a><a href="#citation328b" +class="footnote">[328b]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, page 313.</p> +<p><a name="footnote328c"></a><a href="#citation328c" +class="footnote">[328c]</a> <i>Wild Wales</i>, page +289.</p> +<p><a name="footnote329a"></a><a href="#citation329a" +class="footnote">[329a]</a> <i>Lavengro</i>, page 261.</p> +<p><a name="footnote329b"></a><a href="#citation329b" +class="footnote">[329b]</a> <i>The Romany Rye</i>, page +22.</p> +<p><a name="footnote329c"></a><a href="#citation329c" +class="footnote">[329c]</a> <i>The Journals of Caroline +Fox</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote330a"></a><a href="#citation330a" +class="footnote">[330a]</a> <i>The Letters of Richard +Ford</i> 1797–1858.—Edited, R. E. Prothero, M.V.O., +1905.</p> +<p><a name="footnote330b"></a><a href="#citation330b" +class="footnote">[330b]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p><a name="footnote331a"></a><a href="#citation331a" +class="footnote">[331a]</a> <i>The Gypsies of Spain</i>, +page xiv.</p> +<p><a name="footnote331b"></a><a href="#citation331b" +class="footnote">[331b]</a> E[lizabeth] H[arvey] in <i>The +Eastern Daily Press</i>, 1st Oct. 1892.</p> +<p><a name="footnote331c"></a><a href="#citation331c" +class="footnote">[331c]</a> <i>The Gypsies of Spain</i>, +page 238.</p> +<p><a name="footnote332a"></a><a href="#citation332a" +class="footnote">[332a]</a> E[lizabeth] H[arvey] in <i>The +Eastern Daily Press</i>, 1st Oct. 1892.</p> +<p><a name="footnote332b"></a><a href="#citation332b" +class="footnote">[332b]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p><a name="footnote332c"></a><a href="#citation332c" +class="footnote">[332c]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p><a name="footnote332d"></a><a href="#citation332d" +class="footnote">[332d]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p><a name="footnote333a"></a><a href="#citation333a" +class="footnote">[333a]</a> E[lizabeth] H[arvey] in <i>The +Eastern Daily Press</i>, 1st Oct. 1892.</p> +<p><a name="footnote333b"></a><a href="#citation333b" +class="footnote">[333b]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p><a name="footnote333c"></a><a href="#citation333c" +class="footnote">[333c]</a> <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, page +41.</p> +<p><a name="footnote334a"></a><a href="#citation334a" +class="footnote">[334a]</a> E[lizabeth] H[arvey] in <i>The +Eastern Daily Press</i>, 1st Oct. 1892.</p> +<p><a name="footnote334b"></a><a href="#citation334b" +class="footnote">[334b]</a> In <i>The Eastern Daily +Press</i>, 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.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote334c"></a><a href="#citation334c" +class="footnote">[334c]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p><a name="footnote334d"></a><a href="#citation334d" +class="footnote">[334d]</a> <i>The Gypsies of Spain</i>, +page vii.</p> +<p><a name="footnote335a"></a><a href="#citation335a" +class="footnote">[335a]</a> <i>A Publisher and His +Friends</i>. Samuel Smiles.</p> +<p><a name="footnote335b"></a><a href="#citation335b" +class="footnote">[335b]</a> Richard Ford, +1796–1858. Critic and author. Spent several +years in touring about Spain on horseback. Published in +1845, <i>Hand-Book for Travellers in Spain</i>. Contributed +to the <i>Edinburgh</i>, <i>Quarterly</i>, and <i>Westminster</i> +Reviews from 1837.</p> +<p><a name="footnote335c"></a><a href="#citation335c" +class="footnote">[335c]</a> <i>The Letters of Richard +Ford</i>, 1797–1858. Ed. R. E. Prothero, M.V.O., +1905.</p> +<p><a name="footnote336a"></a><a href="#citation336a" +class="footnote">[336a]</a> Dr. Knapp points out that the +title is inaccurate, there being no such word as +“Zincali.” It should be +“Zincalé.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote336b"></a><a href="#citation336b" +class="footnote">[336b]</a> <i>The Letters of Richard +Ford</i>, 1797–1858. Ed. R. E. Prothero, M.V.O., +1905.</p> +<p><a name="footnote337a"></a><a href="#citation337a" +class="footnote">[337a]</a> <i>The Gypsies of Spain</i>, +page 1. As the current edition of <i>The Zincali</i> has +been retitled <i>The Gypsies of Spain</i>, reference is made to +it throughout this work under that title and to the latest +edition.</p> +<p><a name="footnote337b"></a><a href="#citation337b" +class="footnote">[337b]</a> <i>The Gypsies of Spain</i>, +page 32.</p> +<p><a name="footnote338a"></a><a href="#citation338a" +class="footnote">[338a]</a> <i>The Gypsies of Spain</i>, +page 81.</p> +<p><a name="footnote338b"></a><a href="#citation338b" +class="footnote">[338b]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, page 186.</p> +<p><a name="footnote338c"></a><a href="#citation338c" +class="footnote">[338c]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, page 283.</p> +<p><a name="footnote339"></a><a href="#citation339" +class="footnote">[339]</a> <i>The Gypsies of Spain</i>, +page 274.</p> +<p><a name="footnote340a"></a><a href="#citation340a" +class="footnote">[340a]</a> Introduction to +<i>Lavengro</i>. The Little Library, Methuen, 2 vols., 1, +xxiii.-xxiv. C. G. Leland expressed himself to the same +effect.</p> +<p><a name="footnote340b"></a><a href="#citation340b" +class="footnote">[340b]</a> <i>Academy</i>, 13th July +1874.</p> +<p><a name="footnote340c"></a><a href="#citation340c" +class="footnote">[340c]</a> <i>Wild Wales</i>, page +186.</p> +<p><a name="footnote340d"></a><a href="#citation340d" +class="footnote">[340d]</a> <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, page +64.</p> +<p><a name="footnote341"></a><a href="#citation341" +class="footnote">[341]</a> <i>Lavengro</i>, page 81.</p> +<p><a name="footnote343"></a><a href="#citation343" +class="footnote">[343]</a> Ford to John Murray. +<i>The Letters of Richard Ford</i>, 1797–1858. Ed. R. +E. Prothero, M.V.O., 1905.</p> +<p><a name="footnote344"></a><a href="#citation344" +class="footnote">[344]</a> Ford to John Murray. +<i>The Letters of Richard Ford</i>, 1797–1858. Ed. R. +E. Prothero, M.V.O., 1905.</p> +<p><a name="footnote347"></a><a href="#citation347" +class="footnote">[347]</a> Dr Knapp’s <i>Life of +George Borrow</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote349"></a><a href="#citation349" +class="footnote">[349]</a> <i>The Letters of Richard +Ford</i>, 1797–1858. Edited, R. E. Prothero, M.V.O., +1905.</p> +<p><a name="footnote352"></a><a href="#citation352" +class="footnote">[352]</a> <i>Times</i>, 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.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote353"></a><a href="#citation353" +class="footnote">[353]</a> This is obviously the letter +that Borrow paraphrases at the end of Chapter XLII. of <i>The +Bible in Spain</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote354"></a><a href="#citation354" +class="footnote">[354]</a> In the Appendix to <i>The Romany +Rye</i> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote355a"></a><a href="#citation355a" +class="footnote">[355a]</a> Letters to John Murray, 27th +Jan. and 13th March, 1843.</p> +<p><a name="footnote355b"></a><a href="#citation355b" +class="footnote">[355b]</a> Letters to John Murray, 27th +Jan. and 13th March, 1843.</p> +<p><a name="footnote355c"></a><a href="#citation355c" +class="footnote">[355c]</a> 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” (<i>The Romany Rye</i>, 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” (<i>Wild Wales</i>, page 520).</p> +<p><a name="footnote356"></a><a href="#citation356" +class="footnote">[356]</a> No trace can be found among the +Bible Society Records of any such translation.</p> +<p><a name="footnote357"></a><a href="#citation357" +class="footnote">[357]</a> This portrait has sometimes been +ascribed to Thomas Phillips, R.A., in error.</p> +<p><a name="footnote360a"></a><a href="#citation360a" +class="footnote">[360a]</a> <i>Memories of Old Friends</i> +(1835–1871). London 1882.</p> +<p><a name="footnote360b"></a><a href="#citation360b" +class="footnote">[360b]</a> <i>Memories of Eighty +Years</i>, page 164.</p> +<p><a name="footnote360c"></a><a href="#citation360c" +class="footnote">[360c]</a> E[lizabeth] H[arvey] in <i>The +Eastern Daily Press</i>, 1st Oct. 1892.</p> +<p><a name="footnote360d"></a><a href="#citation360d" +class="footnote">[360d]</a> E[lizabeth] H[arvey] in <i>The +Eastern Daily Express</i>, 1st Oct. 1892.</p> +<p><a name="footnote361"></a><a href="#citation361" +class="footnote">[361]</a> <i>Journals and Correspondence +of Lady Eastlake</i>, ed. by C. E. Smith, 1895.</p> +<p><a name="footnote362a"></a><a href="#citation362a" +class="footnote">[362a]</a> <i>The Romany Rye</i>, page +344.</p> +<p><a name="footnote362b"></a><a href="#citation362b" +class="footnote">[362b]</a> Dr Knapp’s <i>Life of +George Borrow</i>, ii. 44.</p> +<p><a name="footnote362c"></a><a href="#citation362c" +class="footnote">[362c]</a> <i>Hungary in</i> 1851. +By Charles L. Brace.</p> +<p><a name="footnote363"></a><a href="#citation363" +class="footnote">[363]</a> Mrs Borrow to John Murray, 4th +June 1844.</p> +<p><a name="footnote364"></a><a href="#citation364" +class="footnote">[364]</a> <i>Memoirs</i>, C. G. Leland, +1893.</p> +<p><a name="footnote365a"></a><a href="#citation365a" +class="footnote">[365a]</a> Both these MSS. were acquired +by the Trustees of the British Museum in 1892 by purchase. +The <i>Gypsy Vocabulary</i> runs to fifty-four Folios and the +<i>Bohemian Grammar</i> to seventeen Folios.</p> +<p><a name="footnote365b"></a><a href="#citation365b" +class="footnote">[365b]</a> 24th April 1841.</p> +<p><a name="footnote365c"></a><a href="#citation365c" +class="footnote">[365c]</a> Dr Knapp’s <i>Life of +George Borrow</i>, ii. page 5.</p> +<p><a name="footnote367"></a><a href="#citation367" +class="footnote">[367]</a> 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.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote372"></a><a href="#citation372" +class="footnote">[372]</a> Mr A. Egmont Hake in +<i>Athenæum</i>, 13th Aug. 1881.</p> +<p><a name="footnote374"></a><a href="#citation374" +class="footnote">[374]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote375"></a><a href="#citation375" +class="footnote">[375]</a> <i>Vestiges of Borrow</i>: +<i>Some Personal Reminiscences</i>, <i>The Globe</i>, 21st July +1896.</p> +<p><a name="footnote376a"></a><a href="#citation376a" +class="footnote">[376a]</a> Mr A. Egmont Hake in +<i>Athenæum</i>, 13th Aug. 1881.</p> +<p><a name="footnote376b"></a><a href="#citation376b" +class="footnote">[376b]</a> <i>The Gypsies of Spain</i>, +page 287.</p> +<p><a name="footnote376c"></a><a href="#citation376c" +class="footnote">[376c]</a> “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” (<i>Vestiges of Borrow</i>: <i>Some +Personal Reminiscences</i>, <i>Globe</i>, 21st July 1896).</p> +<p><a name="footnote376d"></a><a href="#citation376d" +class="footnote">[376d]</a> This was said in the presence +of Mr F. G. Bowring, son of Dr Bowring.</p> +<p><a name="footnote378a"></a><a href="#citation378a" +class="footnote">[378a]</a> Mr F. J. Bowring writes: +“I was myself present at Borrow’s last call, when he +came to take tea <i>as usual</i>, and not a word of the kind [as +given in the Appendix], was delivered.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote378b"></a><a href="#citation378b" +class="footnote">[378b]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote379"></a><a href="#citation379" +class="footnote">[379]</a> <i>Memoirs of Eighty +Years</i>. By Dr Gordon Hake, 1892.</p> +<p><a name="footnote380a"></a><a href="#citation380a" +class="footnote">[380a]</a> <i>Annals of the Harford +Family</i>. Privately printed, 1909. Mr Theodore +Watts-Dunton, in the <i>Athenæum</i>, 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.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote380b"></a><a href="#citation380b" +class="footnote">[380b]</a> <i>Memoirs of Eighty +Years</i>. By Dr Gordon Hake, 1892.</p> +<p><a name="footnote381a"></a><a href="#citation381a" +class="footnote">[381a]</a> E[lizabeth] H[arvey] in <i>The +Eastern Daily Press</i>, 1st Oct. 1892.</p> +<p><a name="footnote381b"></a><a href="#citation381b" +class="footnote">[381b]</a> The story is narrated by Dr +Augustus Jessopp in the <i>Athenæum</i>, 8th July 1893.</p> +<p><a name="footnote381c"></a><a href="#citation381c" +class="footnote">[381c]</a> <i>Wild Wales</i>, page +487.</p> +<p><a name="footnote381d"></a><a href="#citation381d" +class="footnote">[381d]</a> <i>Wild Wales</i>, page 36 et +seq.</p> +<p><a name="footnote382"></a><a href="#citation382" +class="footnote">[382]</a> <i>Memoirs of Eighty +Years</i>. By Dr Gordon Hake, 1892.</p> +<p><a name="footnote383a"></a><a href="#citation383a" +class="footnote">[383a]</a> <i>Memoirs of Eighty +Years</i>. By Dr Gordon Hake, 1892.</p> +<p><a name="footnote383b"></a><a href="#citation383b" +class="footnote">[383b]</a> <i>Memoirs of Eighty +Years</i>. By Dr Gordon Hake, 1892.</p> +<p><a name="footnote384a"></a><a href="#citation384a" +class="footnote">[384a]</a> <i>George Borrow in East +Anglia</i>. W. A. Dutt.</p> +<p><a name="footnote384b"></a><a href="#citation384b" +class="footnote">[384b]</a> <i>Memoirs of Eighty +Years</i>. By Dr Gordon Hake, 1892.</p> +<p><a name="footnote385a"></a><a href="#citation385a" +class="footnote">[385a]</a> <i>William Bodham Donne and His +Friends</i>. By Catherine B. Johnson.</p> +<p><a name="footnote385b"></a><a href="#citation385b" +class="footnote">[385b]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote386"></a><a href="#citation386" +class="footnote">[386]</a> Mr John Murray in <i>Good +Words</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote390"></a><a href="#citation390" +class="footnote">[390]</a> To John Murray; the letter is in +Mrs Borrow’s hand but drafted by Borrow himself, 29th Jan. +1855.</p> +<p><a name="footnote391a"></a><a href="#citation391a" +class="footnote">[391a]</a> 16th April 1845.</p> +<p><a name="footnote391b"></a><a href="#citation391b" +class="footnote">[391b]</a> See post.</p> +<p><a name="footnote393a"></a><a href="#citation393a" +class="footnote">[393a]</a> <i>The Romany Rye</i>, page +338.</p> +<p><a name="footnote393b"></a><a href="#citation393b" +class="footnote">[393b]</a> <i>Life of Frances Power +Cable</i>, by herself.</p> +<p><a name="footnote393c"></a><a href="#citation393c" +class="footnote">[393c]</a> 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.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote393d"></a><a href="#citation393d" +class="footnote">[393d]</a> <i>The Romany Rye</i>, pages +344–5.</p> +<p><a name="footnote393e"></a><a href="#citation393e" +class="footnote">[393e]</a> <i>Romano Lavo-Lil</i>, page +274.</p> +<p><a name="footnote393f"></a><a href="#citation393f" +class="footnote">[393f]</a> <i>The Romany Rye</i>, page +134.</p> +<p><a name="footnote394a"></a><a href="#citation394a" +class="footnote">[394a]</a> Letter from Borrow to Dr Usoz, +22nd Feb. 1839.</p> +<p><a name="footnote394b"></a><a href="#citation394b" +class="footnote">[394b]</a> <i>Macmillan’s +Magazine</i>, vol. 45.</p> +<p><a name="footnote396"></a><a href="#citation396" +class="footnote">[396]</a> “Notes upon George +Borrow” prefaced to an edition of <i>Lavengro</i>. +Ward, Lock & Co.</p> +<p><a name="footnote398"></a><a href="#citation398" +class="footnote">[398]</a> Mr W. Elvin in the +<i>Athenæum</i>, 6th Aug. 1881.</p> +<p><a name="footnote399a"></a><a href="#citation399a" +class="footnote">[399a]</a> 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 <i>Coningsby</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote399b"></a><a href="#citation399b" +class="footnote">[399b]</a> Mr Theodore Watts-Dunton, +“Notes upon George Borrow” prefaced to an edition of +<i>Lavengro</i>. Ward, Lock & Co.</p> +<p><a name="footnote400a"></a><a href="#citation400a" +class="footnote">[400a]</a> The Rt. Hon. Augustine Birrell +in <i>Obiter Dicta</i>, and Series, 1887.</p> +<p><a name="footnote400b"></a><a href="#citation400b" +class="footnote">[400b]</a> Francis Hindes Groome in +<i>Bookman</i>, May 1899.</p> +<p><a name="footnote404a"></a><a href="#citation404a" +class="footnote">[404a]</a> “Swimming is a noble +exercise, but it certainly does not tend to mortify either the +flesh or the spirit.”—<i>The Bible in Spain</i>, page +688.</p> +<p><a name="footnote404b"></a><a href="#citation404b" +class="footnote">[404b]</a> Mr John Murray in <i>Good +Words</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote404c"></a><a href="#citation404c" +class="footnote">[404c]</a> In <i>The Eastern Daily +Press</i>, 1st October 1892.</p> +<p><a name="footnote405"></a><a href="#citation405" +class="footnote">[405]</a> Borrow’s reference is to +the county motto, “One and All.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote407a"></a><a href="#citation407a" +class="footnote">[407a]</a> <i>The Life of George +Borrow</i>, by Dr Knapp, ii., 79–80.</p> +<p><a name="footnote407b"></a><a href="#citation407b" +class="footnote">[407b]</a> <i>George Borrow</i>, by R. A. +J. Walling.</p> +<p><a name="footnote407c"></a><a href="#citation407c" +class="footnote">[407c]</a> <i>George Borrow</i>, by R. A. +J. Walling.</p> +<p><a name="footnote408"></a><a href="#citation408" +class="footnote">[408]</a> <i>George Borrow</i>, by R. A. +J. Walling.</p> +<p><a name="footnote409"></a><a href="#citation409" +class="footnote">[409]</a> <i>The Life of George +Borrow</i>, by Dr Knapp.</p> +<p><a name="footnote411"></a><a href="#citation411" +class="footnote">[411]</a> This is rather awkwardly +phrased, as Mrs Borrow was alive at that date.</p> +<p><a name="footnote412a"></a><a href="#citation412a" +class="footnote">[412a]</a> 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 <i>Lavengro</i>, I beg leave +to say that I am occasionally occupied upon it. I shall +probably add some notes.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote412b"></a><a href="#citation412b" +class="footnote">[412b]</a> <i>The Life of George +Borrow</i>, by Dr Knapp.</p> +<p><a name="footnote413"></a><a href="#citation413" +class="footnote">[413]</a> <i>The Life of George +Borrow</i>, by Dr Knapp.</p> +<p><a name="footnote415a"></a><a href="#citation415a" +class="footnote">[415a]</a> <i>Wild Wales</i>, page 6.</p> +<p><a name="footnote415b"></a><a href="#citation415b" +class="footnote">[415b]</a> 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” (<i>Romano Lavo-Lil</i>, +page 267). Mr F. H. Bowring, who frequently met him, states +that he “had a slight cast in the eye.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote416"></a><a href="#citation416" +class="footnote">[416]</a> E[lizabeth] H[arvey] in <i>The +Eastern Daily Press</i>, 1st Oct. 1892.</p> +<p><a name="footnote417a"></a><a href="#citation417a" +class="footnote">[417a]</a> Ellen Jones actually +wrote—</p> +<blockquote><p> Ellen Jones<br /> +yn pithyn pell<br /> +i gronow owen</p> +</blockquote> +<p><a name="footnote417b"></a><a href="#citation417b" +class="footnote">[417b]</a> <i>Wild Wales</i>, pages +227–8.</p> +<p><a name="footnote418a"></a><a href="#citation418a" +class="footnote">[418a]</a> 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.”—<i>Wild +Wales</i>, page 225.</p> +<p><a name="footnote418b"></a><a href="#citation418b" +class="footnote">[418b]</a> <i>Wild Wales</i>, page 5.</p> +<p><a name="footnote418c"></a><a href="#citation418c" +class="footnote">[418c]</a> These particulars have been +courteously supplied by Mr George Porter of Denbigh, who +interviewed Mrs Thomas on 27th Dec. 1910. Borrow’s +accuracy in <i>Wild Wales</i> was photograph. The Norwich +jeweller Rossi mentioned in <i>Wild Wales</i> (page 159 <i>et +seq.</i>) 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.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote419a"></a><a href="#citation419a" +class="footnote">[419a]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote419b"></a><a href="#citation419b" +class="footnote">[419b]</a> <i>Wild Wales</i>, page +274.</p> +<p><a name="footnote419c"></a><a href="#citation419c" +class="footnote">[419c]</a> <i>Wild Wales</i>, page +130.</p> +<p><a name="footnote419d"></a><a href="#citation419d" +class="footnote">[419d]</a> <i>Wild Wales</i>, page +130.</p> +<p><a name="footnote420a"></a><a href="#citation420a" +class="footnote">[420a]</a> <i>Wild Wales</i>, page +150.</p> +<p><a name="footnote420b"></a><a href="#citation420b" +class="footnote">[420b]</a> 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 <i>Bayr Jairgey</i>, Borrow’s projected +book on the Isle of Man.)</p> +<p><a name="footnote422"></a><a href="#citation422" +class="footnote">[422]</a> Painted by H. W. Phillips in +1843.</p> +<p><a name="footnote423a"></a><a href="#citation423a" +class="footnote">[423a]</a> <i>Vestiges of Borrow</i>: +<i>Some Personal Reminiscences</i>. <i>The Globe</i>, 21st +July 1896.</p> +<p><a name="footnote423b"></a><a href="#citation423b" +class="footnote">[423b]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote423c"></a><a href="#citation423c" +class="footnote">[423c]</a> To judge from Borrow’s +opinion of O’Connell previously quoted, +“notoriety” would have been a more appropriate word +in his case.</p> +<p><a name="footnote424"></a><a href="#citation424" +class="footnote">[424]</a> Given to the Rev. A. W. Upcher +and related by him in <i>The Athenæum</i>, 22nd July +1893.</p> +<p><a name="footnote425a"></a><a href="#citation425a" +class="footnote">[425a]</a> <i>Lavengro</i>, page 361.</p> +<p><a name="footnote425b"></a><a href="#citation425b" +class="footnote">[425b]</a> <i>The Romany Rye</i>, page +309.</p> +<p><a name="footnote425c"></a><a href="#citation425c" +class="footnote">[425c]</a> <i>Wild Wales</i>, page +285.</p> +<p><a name="footnote425d"></a><a href="#citation425d" +class="footnote">[425d]</a> <i>The Eastern Daily Press</i>, +1st Oct. 1892.</p> +<p><a name="footnote427"></a><a href="#citation427" +class="footnote">[427]</a> Garcin de Tassy. Note sur +les Rubâ’ïyât de ’Omar Khaïyam, +which appeared in the <i>Journal Asiatique</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote428a"></a><a href="#citation428a" +class="footnote">[428a]</a> <i>Letters and Literary Remains +of Edward FitzGerald</i>, 1889.</p> +<p><a name="footnote428b"></a><a href="#citation428b" +class="footnote">[428b]</a> <i>Songs of Europe</i>, <i>or +Metrical Translations from All the European Languages</i>, +<i>With Brief Prefatory Remarks on Each Language and its +Literature</i>. 2 vols. (Advertised as “Ready +for the Press” at the end of <i>The Romany Rye</i>. +See page 438.)</p> +<p><a name="footnote429"></a><a href="#citation429" +class="footnote">[429]</a> Rev. Whitwell Elwin, editor of +<i>The Quarterly Review</i>. See <i>post</i>, p. 431.</p> +<p><a name="footnote431"></a><a href="#citation431" +class="footnote">[431]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote432a"></a><a href="#citation432a" +class="footnote">[432a]</a> <i>Some XVIII. Century Men of +Letters</i>. Ed. Warwick Elwin, 1902.</p> +<p><a name="footnote432b"></a><a href="#citation432b" +class="footnote">[432b]</a> <i>Some XVIII. Century Men of +Letters</i>. Ed. Warwick Elwin, 1902.</p> +<p><a name="footnote433"></a><a href="#citation433" +class="footnote">[433]</a> <i>Some XVIII. Century Men of +Letters</i>. Ed. Warwick Elwin, 1902.</p> +<p><a name="footnote435"></a><a href="#citation435" +class="footnote">[435]</a> Entitled <i>Roving Life in +England</i>. March 1857.</p> +<p><a name="footnote436"></a><a href="#citation436" +class="footnote">[436]</a> Elwin had already testified, +also in <i>The Quarterly Review</i>, to the accuracy of +Borrow’s portrait of B. R. Haydon in <i>Lavengro</i>, as +confirmed by documentary evidence, and this after first reading +the account as “a comic exaggeration.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote437a"></a><a href="#citation437a" +class="footnote">[437a]</a> <i>Letters and Literary Remains +of Edward FitzGerald</i>, 1889.</p> +<p><a name="footnote437b"></a><a href="#citation437b" +class="footnote">[437b]</a> Mr A. Egmont Hake in +<i>Athenæum</i>, 13th Aug. 1881.</p> +<p><a name="footnote438"></a><a href="#citation438" +class="footnote">[438]</a> Works by the Author of <i>The +Bible in Spain</i>, ready for the Press.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote439"></a><a href="#citation439" +class="footnote">[439]</a> “She was a lady of +striking figure and very graceful manners, perhaps more serious +than vivacious.”—Mr A. Egmont Hake in <i>The +Athenæum</i>, 13th August 1881.</p> +<p><a name="footnote440a"></a><a href="#citation440a" +class="footnote">[440a]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote440b"></a><a href="#citation440b" +class="footnote">[440b]</a> <i>Wild Wales</i>, page +548.</p> +<p><a name="footnote442"></a><a href="#citation442" +class="footnote">[442]</a> These particulars have been +kindly supplied by Mr D. B. Hill of Mattishall, Norfolk.</p> +<p><a name="footnote445a"></a><a href="#citation445a" +class="footnote">[445a]</a> Mr. A. Egmont Hake in <i>The +Athenæum</i>, 13th Aug. 1881.</p> +<p><a name="footnote445b"></a><a href="#citation445b" +class="footnote">[445b]</a> <i>The Life of Frances Power +Cobbe</i>, by Herself, 1894.</p> +<p><a name="footnote446"></a><a href="#citation446" +class="footnote">[446]</a> <i>The Life of Frances Power +Cobbe</i>, by Herself, 1894.</p> +<p><a name="footnote447a"></a><a href="#citation447a" +class="footnote">[447a]</a> “In Defence of +Borrow,” prefixed to <i>The Romany Rye</i>. Ward, +Locke & Co.</p> +<p><a name="footnote447b"></a><a href="#citation447b" +class="footnote">[447b]</a> <i>Vestiges of Borrow</i>; +<i>Some Personal Reminiscences</i>. <i>The Globe</i>, 21st +July 1896.</p> +<p><a name="footnote448"></a><a href="#citation448" +class="footnote">[448]</a> <i>The Athenæum</i>, 13th +August 1881.</p> +<p><a name="footnote449a"></a><a href="#citation449a" +class="footnote">[449a]</a> Mr A. Egmont Hake in +<i>Macmillan’s Magazine</i>, November 1881.</p> +<p><a name="footnote449b"></a><a href="#citation449b" +class="footnote">[449b]</a> Mr A. Egmont Hake in <i>The +Athenæum</i>, 13th August 1881.</p> +<p><a name="footnote449c"></a><a href="#citation449c" +class="footnote">[449c]</a> <i>Memoirs of Eighty Years</i>, +by Dr Gordon Hake, 1892.</p> +<p><a name="footnote450"></a><a href="#citation450" +class="footnote">[450]</a> <i>The Athenæum</i>, 10th +September 1881.</p> +<p><a name="footnote451a"></a><a href="#citation451a" +class="footnote">[451a]</a> <i>The Athenæum</i>, 10th +September 1881.</p> +<p><a name="footnote451b"></a><a href="#citation451b" +class="footnote">[451b]</a> <i>The Athenæum</i>, 13th +August 1881.</p> +<p><a name="footnote453"></a><a href="#citation453" +class="footnote">[453]</a> “Sherry drinkers, . . . I +often heard him say in a tone of positive loathing, he +<i>despised</i>. 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 <i>tang</i>, 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 <i>Recollections</i>. <i>The Life of +George Borrow</i>, by Dr Knapp.</p> +<p><a name="footnote456"></a><a href="#citation456" +class="footnote">[456]</a> <i>Life of Frances Power +Cobbe</i>, by Herself, 1894.</p> +<p><a name="footnote459a"></a><a href="#citation459a" +class="footnote">[459a]</a> <i>The Geologist</i>, +1797–1875.</p> +<p><a name="footnote459b"></a><a href="#citation459b" +class="footnote">[459b]</a> <i>The Life of Frances Power +Cobbe</i>, by Herself, 1894.</p> +<p><a name="footnote460a"></a><a href="#citation460a" +class="footnote">[460a]</a> <i>Charles Godfrey Leland</i>, +by E. R. Pennell, 1908</p> +<p><a name="footnote460b"></a><a href="#citation460b" +class="footnote">[460b]</a> <i>Memoirs</i>, by C. G. +Leland, 1893.</p> +<p><a name="footnote461a"></a><a href="#citation461a" +class="footnote">[461a]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote461b"></a><a href="#citation461b" +class="footnote">[461b]</a> <i>Memoirs</i> of C. G. Leland, +1893.</p> +<p><a name="footnote461c"></a><a href="#citation461c" +class="footnote">[461c]</a> <i>Memoirs</i> of C. G. Leland, +1893.</p> +<p><a name="footnote462a"></a><a href="#citation462a" +class="footnote">[462a]</a> Leland’s annoyance with +Borrow did not prevent him paying to his memory the following +tribute:—</p> +<p>“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.”—<i>Memoirs</i> of C. G. Leland, 1893.</p> +<p><a name="footnote462b"></a><a href="#citation462b" +class="footnote">[462b]</a> <i>Romano Lavo-Lil</i>. +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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote462c"></a><a href="#citation462c" +class="footnote">[462c]</a> “There were not two +educated men in England who possessed the slightest knowledge of +Romany.”—F. H. Groome in <i>Academy</i>,—13th +June 1874.</p> +<p><a name="footnote463a"></a><a href="#citation463a" +class="footnote">[463a]</a> F. H. Groome in <i>Academy</i>, +13th June 1874.</p> +<p><a name="footnote463b"></a><a href="#citation463b" +class="footnote">[463b]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> +<p><a name="footnote464"></a><a href="#citation464" +class="footnote">[464]</a> <i>The Athenæum</i>, 17th +March 1888.</p> +<p><a name="footnote466a"></a><a href="#citation466a" +class="footnote">[466a]</a> <i>The Bookman</i>, February +1893.</p> +<p><a name="footnote466b"></a><a href="#citation466b" +class="footnote">[466b]</a> <i>The Athenæum</i>, 10th +Sept. 1881.</p> +<p><a name="footnote467"></a><a href="#citation467" +class="footnote">[467]</a> <i>William Bodham Donne and His +Friends</i>. Edited by Catherine B. Johnson, 1905.</p> +<p><a name="footnote469a"></a><a href="#citation469a" +class="footnote">[469a]</a> Mr T. Watts-Dunton, in <i>The +Athenæum</i>, 3rd Sept. 1881.</p> +<p><a name="footnote469b"></a><a href="#citation469b" +class="footnote">[469b]</a> Mr A. Egmont Hake, in <i>The +Athenæum</i>, 13th Aug. 1881.</p> +<p><a name="footnote470a"></a><a href="#citation470a" +class="footnote">[470a]</a> <i>The Life of George +Borrow</i>, by Dr Knapp.</p> +<p><a name="footnote470b"></a><a href="#citation470b" +class="footnote">[470b]</a> <i>East Anglia</i>, by J. Ewing +Ritchie, 1883.</p> +<p><a name="footnote470c"></a><a href="#citation470c" +class="footnote">[470c]</a> <i>George Borrow in East +Anglia</i>.</p> +<p><a name="footnote473"></a><a href="#citation473" +class="footnote">[473]</a> W. E. Henley.</p> +<p><a name="footnote474a"></a><a href="#citation474a" +class="footnote">[474a]</a> <i>The Athenæum</i>, 25th +March 1899.</p> +<p><a name="footnote474b"></a><a href="#citation474b" +class="footnote">[474b]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote474c"></a><a href="#citation474c" +class="footnote">[474c]</a> <i>Memoirs of Eighty Years</i>, +1892.</p> +<p><a name="footnote475a"></a><a href="#citation475a" +class="footnote">[475a]</a> Mr A. Egmont Hake in <i>The +Athenæum</i>, 13th August 1881.</p> +<p><a name="footnote475b"></a><a href="#citation475b" +class="footnote">[475b]</a> In <i>The Bible in +Spain</i>. “Next to the love of God, the love of +country is the best preventative of crime.” (Page +53.)</p> +<p><a name="footnote475c"></a><a href="#citation475c" +class="footnote">[475c]</a> <i>The Bible in Spain</i>, page +97.</p> +<p><a name="footnote476"></a><a href="#citation476" +class="footnote">[476]</a> Mr Thomas Seccombe in <i>The +Bookman</i>, Feb. 1892.</p> +<p><a name="footnote477"></a><a href="#citation477" +class="footnote">[477]</a> <i>Wild Wales</i>, page 628.</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF GEORGE BORROW***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 3481-h.htm or 3481-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/4/8/3481 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, +and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive +specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this +eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook +for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports, +performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given +away--you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks +not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the +trademark license, especially commercial redistribution. + +START: FULL LICENSE + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full +Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at +www.gutenberg.org/license. + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or +destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your +possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a +Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound +by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the +person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph +1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this +agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the +Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection +of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual +works in the collection are in the public domain in the United +States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the +United States and you are located in the United States, we do not +claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, +displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as +all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope +that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting +free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm +works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the +Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily +comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the +same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when +you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are +in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, +check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this +agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, +distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any +other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no +representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any +country outside the United States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other +immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear +prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work +on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, +performed, viewed, copied or distributed: + + 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. + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is +derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not +contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the +copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in +the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are +redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply +either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or +obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm +trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any +additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms +will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works +posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the +beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including +any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access +to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format +other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official +version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site +(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense +to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means +of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain +Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the +full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +provided that + +* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed + to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has + agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid + within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are + legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty + payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in + Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg + Literary Archive Foundation." + +* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all + copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue + all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm + works. + +* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of + any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of + receipt of the work. + +* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than +are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing +from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The +Project Gutenberg Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm +trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project +Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may +contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate +or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or +other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or +cannot be read by your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium +with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you +with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in +lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person +or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second +opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If +the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing +without further opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO +OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of +damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement +violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the +agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or +limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or +unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the +remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in +accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the +production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, +including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of +the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this +or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or +additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any +Defect you cause. + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of +computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It +exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations +from people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future +generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see +Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at +www.gutenberg.org Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by +U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the +mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its +volunteers and employees are scattered throughout numerous +locations. Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt +Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to +date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and +official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact + +For additional contact information: + + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND +DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular +state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To +donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project +Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be +freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and +distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of +volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in +the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not +necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper +edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search +facility: www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +</pre></body> +</html> diff --git a/3481-h/images/coverb.jpg b/3481-h/images/coverb.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1b130f4 --- /dev/null +++ b/3481-h/images/coverb.jpg diff --git a/3481-h/images/covers.jpg b/3481-h/images/covers.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..509346f --- /dev/null +++ b/3481-h/images/covers.jpg diff --git a/3481-h/images/fpb.jpg b/3481-h/images/fpb.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..df61789 --- /dev/null +++ b/3481-h/images/fpb.jpg diff --git a/3481-h/images/fps.jpg b/3481-h/images/fps.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3827c60 --- /dev/null +++ b/3481-h/images/fps.jpg diff --git a/3481-h/images/p170b.jpg b/3481-h/images/p170b.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c9976e8 --- /dev/null +++ b/3481-h/images/p170b.jpg diff --git a/3481-h/images/p170s.jpg b/3481-h/images/p170s.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a2b6887 --- /dev/null +++ b/3481-h/images/p170s.jpg diff --git a/3481-h/images/p330b.jpg b/3481-h/images/p330b.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8c00da5 --- /dev/null +++ b/3481-h/images/p330b.jpg diff --git a/3481-h/images/p330s.jpg b/3481-h/images/p330s.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e388683 --- /dev/null +++ b/3481-h/images/p330s.jpg diff --git a/3481-h/images/p336b.jpg b/3481-h/images/p336b.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..98761a2 --- /dev/null +++ b/3481-h/images/p336b.jpg diff --git a/3481-h/images/p336s.jpg b/3481-h/images/p336s.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e6e0904 --- /dev/null +++ b/3481-h/images/p336s.jpg diff --git a/3481-h/images/p338b.jpg b/3481-h/images/p338b.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..006127e --- /dev/null +++ b/3481-h/images/p338b.jpg diff --git a/3481-h/images/p338s.jpg b/3481-h/images/p338s.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6d87f48 --- /dev/null +++ b/3481-h/images/p338s.jpg diff --git a/3481-h/images/p34b.jpg b/3481-h/images/p34b.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ff2463f --- /dev/null +++ b/3481-h/images/p34b.jpg diff --git a/3481-h/images/p34s.jpg b/3481-h/images/p34s.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8cb3423 --- /dev/null +++ b/3481-h/images/p34s.jpg diff --git a/3481-h/images/p358b.jpg b/3481-h/images/p358b.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a0b8773 --- /dev/null +++ b/3481-h/images/p358b.jpg diff --git a/3481-h/images/p358s.jpg b/3481-h/images/p358s.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9ead62a --- /dev/null +++ b/3481-h/images/p358s.jpg diff --git a/3481-h/images/p36b.jpg b/3481-h/images/p36b.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..49ca026 --- /dev/null +++ b/3481-h/images/p36b.jpg diff --git a/3481-h/images/p36s.jpg b/3481-h/images/p36s.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..489c73e --- /dev/null +++ b/3481-h/images/p36s.jpg diff --git a/3481-h/images/p42b.jpg b/3481-h/images/p42b.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ee0283e --- /dev/null +++ b/3481-h/images/p42b.jpg diff --git a/3481-h/images/p42s.jpg b/3481-h/images/p42s.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1f38c05 --- /dev/null +++ b/3481-h/images/p42s.jpg diff --git a/3481-h/images/p450b.jpg b/3481-h/images/p450b.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4bafecb --- /dev/null +++ b/3481-h/images/p450b.jpg diff --git a/3481-h/images/p450s.jpg b/3481-h/images/p450s.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0c8a9fd --- /dev/null +++ b/3481-h/images/p450s.jpg diff --git a/3481-h/images/p64b.jpg b/3481-h/images/p64b.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..936d81a --- /dev/null +++ b/3481-h/images/p64b.jpg diff --git a/3481-h/images/p64s.jpg b/3481-h/images/p64s.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fe26fc0 --- /dev/null +++ b/3481-h/images/p64s.jpg diff --git a/3481-h/images/p8b.jpg b/3481-h/images/p8b.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..10ad6f7 --- /dev/null +++ b/3481-h/images/p8b.jpg diff --git a/3481-h/images/p8s.jpg b/3481-h/images/p8s.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..17d4deb --- /dev/null +++ b/3481-h/images/p8s.jpg |
