Chapter 1

THE AFTERMATH, 434

INDEX, 438

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FULL-PAGE PLATES

GEORGE BORROW, _Frontispiece_

_A photogravure portrait from the painting by Henry Wyndham Phillips._

PAGE

THE BORROW HOUSE, NORWICH, 16

ROBERT HAWKES, MAYOR OF NORWICH IN 1824, 24

_From the painting by Benjamin Haydon in St. Andrew's Hall, Norwich._

GEORGE BORROW, 32

_From a portrait by his brother, John Thomas Borrow, in the National Portrait Gallery, London._

THE ERPINGHAM GATE AND THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL, NORWICH 72

WILLIAM SIMPSON, 80

_From a portrait by Thomas Phillips, R.A., in the Black Friars Hall, Norwich._

FRIENDS OF BORROW'S EARLY YEARS--

SIR JOHN BOWRING IN 1826, 96

JOHN P. HASFELD IN 1835, 96

WILLIAM TAYLOR, 96

SIR RICHARD PHILLIPS, 96

THE FAMILY OF JASPER PETULENGRO, 128

WHERE BORROW LIVED IN MADRID, 192

THE CALLE DEL PRINCIPE, MADRID, 192

A HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED PORTRAIT OF GEORGE BORROW, 304

_Taken in the garden of Mrs. Simms Reeve of Norwich in 1848._

OULTON COTTAGE FROM THE BROAD, 352

THE SUMMER-HOUSE, OULTON, AS IT IS TO-DAY, 352

ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT

GEORGE BORROW'S BIRTHPLACE AT DUMPLING GREEN, 35

_From a Drawing by Fortunino Matania._

TITLE-PAGES OF 'TARGUM' AND 'THE TALISMAN,' 178

PORTION OF A LETTER FROM GEORGE BORROW TO THE REV. SAMUEL BRANDRAM, 187

_Written From Madrid, 13th May 1838._

FACSIMILE OF AN ACCOUNT OF GEORGE BORROW'S EXPENSES IN SPAIN MADE OUT BY THE BIBLE SOCIETY, 190

A LETTER FROM SIR GEORGE VILLIERS, AFTERWARDS EARL OF CLARENDON, BRITISH MINISTER TO SPAIN, TO GEORGE BORROW, 211

MRS. BORROW'S COPY OF HER MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE, 222

AN APPLICATION FOR A BOOK IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM, WITH BORROW'S SIGNATURE, 230

A SHEKEL, 244

TITLE-PAGE OF BASQUE TRANSLATION BY OTEIZA OF THE GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE, 247

TITLE-PAGE OF FIRST EDITION OF ROMANY TRANSLATION OF THE GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE, 247

TWO PAGES FROM BORROW'S CORRECTED PROOF SHEETS OF ROMANY TRANSLATION OF THE GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE, 247

INSCRIPTIONS IN BORROW'S HANDWRITING ON HIS WIFE'S COPIES OF 'THE BIBLE IN SPAIN' AND 'LAVENGRO,' 275

THE ORIGINAL TITLE-PAGE OF 'LAVENGRO,' 280

_From the Manuscript in the possession of the Author of 'George Borrow and his Circle.'_

FACSIMILE OF THE FIRST PAGE OF 'LAVENGRO,' 282

_From the Manuscript in the possession of the Author of 'George Borrow and his Circle.'_

RUNIC STONE FROM THE ISLE OF MAN, 302

FACSIMILE OF A COMMUNICATION FROM CHARLES DARWIN TO GEORGE BORROW, 318

FACSIMILE OF A PAGE OF THE MANUSCRIPT OF 'THE ROMANY RYE,' 346

_From the Borrow Papers in the possession of the Author of 'George Borrow and his Circle._'

'WILD WALES' IN ITS BEGINNINGS, 365

_Two pages from one of George Borrow's Pocket-books with pencilled notes made on his journey through Wales._

FACSIMILE OF THE TITLE-PAGE OF 'WILD WALES,' 368

_From the original Manuscript in the possession of the Author of 'George Borrow and his Circle.'_

FACSIMILE OF THE FIRST PAGE OF 'WILD WALES,' 370

_From the original Manuscript in the possession of the Author of 'George Borrow and his Circle.'_

FACSIMILE OF A POEM FROM 'TARGUM,' 403

_A Translation from the French by George Borrow._

BORROW AS A PROFESSOR OF LANGUAGES--AN ADVERTISEMENT, 409

A PAGE OF THE MANUSCRIPT OF BORROW'S 'SONGS OF SCANDINAVIA'--AN UNPUBLISHED WORK, 411

A LETTER FROM BORROW TO HIS WIFE WRITTEN FROM ROME IN HIS CONTINENTAL JOURNEY OF 1844, 418

INTRODUCTION

It is now exactly seventeen years ago since I published a volume not dissimilar in form to this under the title of _Charlotte Brontë and her Circle_. The title had then an element of novelty, Dante Gabriel Rossetti's _Dante and his Circle_, at the time the only book of this particular character, having quite another aim. There are now some twenty or more biographies based upon a similar plan.[1] The method has its convenience where there are earlier lives of a given writer, as one can in this way differentiate the book from previous efforts by making one's hero stand out among his friends. Some such apology, I feel, is necessary, because, in these days of the multiplication of books, every book, at least other than a work of imagination, requires ample apology. In _Charlotte Brontë and her Circle_ I was able to claim that, even though following in the footsteps of Mrs. Gaskell, I had added some four hundred new letters by Charlotte Brontë to the world's knowledge of that interesting woman, and still more considerably enlarged our knowledge of her sister Emily. This achievement has been generously acknowledged, and I am most proud of the testimony of the most accomplished of living biographers, Sir George Otto Trevelyan, who once rendered me the following quite spontaneous tribute:

We have lately read _aloud_ for the second time your Brontë book; let alone private readings. It is unique in plan and excellence, and I am greatly obliged to you for it. Apart from the pleasure of the book, the form of it has always interested me as a professional biographer. It certainly is novel; and in this case I am pretty sure that it is right.

With such a testimony before me I cannot hesitate to present my second biography in similar form. In the case of George Borrow, however, I am not in a position to supplement one transcendent biography, as in the case of Charlotte Brontë and Mrs. Gaskell. I have before me no less than four biographies of Borrow, every one of them of distinctive merit. These are:

_Life, Writings, and Correspondence of George Borrow._ Derived from Official and other Authentic Sources. By William I. Knapp, Ph.D., LL.D. 2 vols. John Murray, 1899.

_George Borrow: The Man and his Work._ By R. A. J. Walling. Cassell, 1908.

_The Life of George Borrow._ Compiled from Unpublished Official Documents. His Works, Correspondence, etc. By Herbert Jenkins. John Murray, 1912.

_George Borrow: The Man and his Books._ By Edward Thomas. Chapman and Hall, 1912.

All of these books have contributed something of value and importance to the subject. Dr. Knapp's work it is easiest to praise because he is dead.[2] His biography of Borrow was the effort of a lifetime. A scholar with great linguistic qualifications for writing the biography of an author whose knowledge of languages was one of his titles to fame, Dr. Knapp spared neither time nor money to achieve his purpose. Starting with an article in _The Chautauquan Magazine_ in 1887, which was reprinted in pamphlet form, Dr. Knapp came to England--to Norwich--and there settled down to write a _Life_ of Borrow, which promised at one time to develop into several volumes. As well it might, for Dr. Knapp reached Norfolk at a happy moment for his purpose. Mrs. MacOubrey, Borrow's stepdaughter, was in the humour to sell her father's manuscripts and books. They were offered to the city of Norwich; there was some talk of Mr. Jeremiah Coleman, M.P., whose influence and wealth were overpowering in Norwich at the time, buying them. Finally, a very considerable portion of the collection came into the hands of Mr. Webber, a bookseller of Ipswich, who later became associated with the firm of Jarrold of Norwich. From Webber Dr. Knapp purchased the larger portion, and, as his bibliography indicates (_Life_, vol. ii. pp. 355-88), he became possessed of sundry notebooks which furnish a record of certain of Borrow's holiday tours, about a hundred letters from and to Borrow, and a considerable number of other documents. The result, as I have indicated, was a book that abounded in new facts and is rich in new material. It was not, however, a book for popular reading. You must love the subject before you turn to this book with any zest. It is a book for your true Borrovian, who is thankful for any information about the word-master, not for the casual reader, who might indeed be alienated from the subject by this copious memoir. The result was somewhat discouraging. There were not enough of true Borrovians in those years, and the book was not received too generously. The two volumes have gone out of print and have not reached a second edition. Time however, will do them justice. As it is, your good Borrow lover has always appreciated their merits. Take Lionel Johnson for example, a good critic and a master of style. After saying that these 'lengthy and rich volumes are a monument of love's labour, but not of literary art or biographical skill,' he adds: 'Of his over eight hundred pages there is not one for which I am not grateful' and every new biographer of Borrow is bound to re-echo that sentiment. Dr. Knapp did the spade work and other biographers have but entered into his inheritance. Dr. Knapp's fine collection of Borrow books and manuscripts was handed over by his widow to the American nation--to the Hispanic Society of New York. Dr. Knapp's biography was followed nine years later by a small volume by Mr. R. A. J. Walling, whose little book adds considerably to our knowledge of Borrow's Cornish relatives, and is in every way a valuable monograph on the author of _Lavengro_. Mr. Herbert Jenkins's book is more ambitious. Within four hundred closely printed pages he has compressed every incident in Borrow's career, and we would not quarrel with him nor his publisher for calling his life a 'definitive biography' if one did not know that there is not and cannot be anything 'definitive' about a biography except in the case of a Master. Boswell, Lockhart, Mrs. Gaskell are authors who had the advantage of knowing personally the subjects of their biographies. Any biographer who has not met his hero face to face and is dependent solely on documents is crippled in his undertaking. Moreover, such a biographer is always liable to be in a manner superseded or at least supplemented by the appearance of still more documents. However, Mr. Jenkins's excellent biography has the advantage of many new documents from Mr. John Murray's archives and from the Record Office Manuscripts. His work was the first to make use of the letters of George Borrow to the Bible Society, which the Rev. T. H. Darlow has published as a book under that title, a book to which I owe him an acknowledgment for such use of it as I have made, as also for permission to reproduce the title-page of Borrow's Basque version of St. Luke's gospel. There only remains for me to say a word in praise of Mr. Edward Thomas's fine critical study of Borrow which was published under the title of _George Borrow: The Man and his Books_. Mr. Thomas makes no claim to the possession of new documents. This brings me to such excuse as I can make for perpetrating a fifth biography. When Mrs. MacOubrey, Borrow's stepdaughter, the 'Hen.' of _Wild Wales_ and the affectionate companion of his later years, sold her father's books and manuscripts--and she always to her dying day declared that she had no intention of parting with the manuscripts, which were, she said, taken away under a misapprehension--she did not, of course, part with any of his more private documents. All the more intimate letters of Borrow were retained. At her death these passed to her executors, from whom I have purchased all legal rights in the publication of Borrow's hitherto unpublished manuscripts and letters. I trust that even to those who may disapprove of the discursive method with which--solely for my own pleasure--I have written this book, will at least find a certain biographical value in the many new letters by and to George Borrow that are to be found in its pages. The book has taken me ten years to write, and has been a labour of love.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] As for example, _Garrick and his Circle_; _Johnson and his Circle_; _Reynolds and his Circle_; and even _The Empress Eugénie and her Circle_.

[2] William Ireland Knapp died in Paris in June 1908, aged seventy-four. He was an American, and had held for many years the Chair of Modern Languages at Vassar College. After eleven years in Spain he returned to occupy the Chair of Modern Languages at Yale, and later held a Professorship at Chicago. After his _Life of Borrow_ was published he resided in Paris until his death.