Chapter 23

MARCH 1844–1848

IN March 1844 Borrow, unable longer to control the _Wanderlust_ within him, gave up the struggle, and determined to make a journey to the East. He was in London on the 20th, as Lady Eastlake (then Miss Elizabeth Rigby) testifies in her Journal. “Borrow came in the evening,” she writes: “now a fine man, but a most disagreeable one; a kind of character that would be most dangerous in rebellious times—one that would suffer or persecute to the utmost. His face is expressive of wrong-headed determination.” {361}

He left London towards the end of April for Paris, from which he wrote to John Murray, 1st May:—

“Vidocq wishes very much to have a copy of my _Gypsies of Spain_, and likewise one of the Romany Gospels. On the other side you will find an order on the Bible Society for the latter, and perhaps you will be so kind as to let one of your people go to Earl Street to procure it. You would oblige me by forwarding it to your agent in Paris, the address is Monsr. Vidocq, Galerie Vivienne, No. 13 . . . V. is a strange fellow, and amongst other things dabbles in literature. He is meditating a work upon _Les Bohemiens_, about whom I see he knows nothing at all. I have no doubt that the _Zincali_, were it to fall into his hands, would be preciously gutted, and the best part of the contents pirated. By the way, could you not persuade some of the French publishers to cause it to be translated, in which event there would be no fear. Such a work would be sure to sell. I wish Vidocq to have a copy of the book, but I confess I have my suspicions; he is so extraordinarily civil.”

From Paris he proceeded to Vienna, and thence into Hungary and Transylvania, where he remained for some months. He is known to have been “in the steppe of Debreczin,” {362a} to Koloszvar, through Nagy-Szeben, or Hermannstadt, on his journey through Roumania to Bucharest. He visited Wallachia “for the express purpose of discoursing with the Gypsies, many of whom I found wandering about.” {362b}

So little is known of Borrow’s Eastern Journey that the following account, given by an American, has a peculiar interest:—

“My companions, as we rode along, related some marvellous stories of a certain English traveller who had been here [near Grosswardein] and of his influence over the Gypsies. One of them said that he was walking out with him one day, when they met a poor gypsy woman. The Englishman addressed her in Hungarian, and she answered in the usual disdainful way. He changed his language, however, and spoke a word or two in an unknown tongue. The woman’s face lighted up in an instant, and she replied in the most passionate, eager way, and after some conversation dragged him away almost with her. After this the English gentleman visited a number of their most private gatherings and was received everywhere as one of them. He did more good among them, all said, than all the laws over them, or the benevolent efforts for them, of the last half century. They described his appearance—his tall, lank, muscular form, and mentioned that he had been much in Spain, and I saw that it must be that most ubiquitous of travellers, Mr Borrow.” {362c}

This was the fame most congenial to Borrow’s strange nature. Dinners, receptions, and the like caused him to despise those who found pleasure in such “crazy admiration for what they called gentility.” It was his foible, as much as “gentility nonsense” was theirs, to find pleasure in the _rôle_ of the mysterious stranger, who by a word could change a disdainful gypsy into a fawning, awe-stricken slave. Fame to satisfy George Borrow must carry with it something of the greatness of Olympus.

A glimpse of Borrow during his Eastern tour is obtained from Mrs Borrow’s letters to John Murray. After telling him that she possesses a privilege which many wives do not (viz.), permission to open her Husband’s letters during his absence, she proceeds:—

“The accounts from him are, I am thankful to say, very satisfactory. It is extraordinary with what marks of kindness even Catholics of distinction treat him when they know who he is, but it is clearly his gift of tongues which causes him to meet with so many adventures, several of which he has recorded of a most singular nature.” {363}

At Vienna Borrow had arranged to wait until he should receive a letter from his wife, “being very anxious to know of his family,” as Mrs Borrow informed John Murray (24th July).

“Thus far,” she continues, “thanks be to God, he has prospered in his journey. Many and wonderful are the adventures he has met with, which I hope at no distant period may be related to his friends. Doctor Bowring was very kind in sending me flattering tidings of my Husband.”

Borrow was at Constantinople on 17th Sept. when he drew on his letter of credit. Leland tells an anecdote about Borrow at Constantinople; but it must be remembered that it was written when he regarded Borrow with anything but friendly feelings:—

“Sir Patrick Colquhoun told me that once when he was at Constantinople, Mr Borrow came there, and gave it out that he was a marvellous Oriental scholar. But there was great scepticism on this subject at the Legation, and one day at the _table d’hôte_, where the great writer and divers young diplomatists dined, two who were seated on either side of Borrow began to talk Arabic, speaking to him, the result being that he was obliged to confess that he not only did not understand what they were saying, but did not even know what the language was. Then he was tried in Modern Greek, with the same result.” {364}

The story is obviously untrue. Had Borrow been ignorant of Arabic he would not have risked writing to Dr Bowring (11th Sept. 1831; see _ante_, page 85) expressing his enthusiasm for that language. Arabic had, apparently, formed one of the subjects of his preliminary examination at Earl Street. With regard to Modern Greek he confessed in a letter to Mr Brandram (12th June 1839), “though I speak it very ill, I can make myself understood.”

Having obtained a Turkish passport, and after being presented to Abdûl Medjîd, the Sultan, Borrow proceeded to Salonika and, crossing Thessaly to Albania, visited Janina and Prevesa. He passed over to Corfù, and saw Venice and Rome, returning to England by way of Marseilles, Paris and Havre. He arrived in London on 16th November, after nearly seven months’ absence, to find his “home particularly dear to me . . . after my long wanderings.”

It is curious that he should have left no record of this expedition; but if he made notes he evidently destroyed them, as, with the exception of a few letters, nothing was found among his papers relating to the Eastern tour. There is evidence that he was occupied with his pen during this journey, in the existence at the British Museum of his _Vocabulary of the Gypsy Language as spoken in Hungary and Transylvania_, _compiled during an intercourse of some months with the Gypsies in those parts in the year_ 1844, _by George Borrow_. In all probability he prepared his _Bohemian Grammar_ at the same time. {365a}

From the time that he became acquainted with Borrow, Richard Ford had constituted himself the genius of _La Mezquita_ (the Mosque), as he states the little octagonal Summer-house was called. He was for ever urging in impulsive, polyglot letters that the curtain to be lifted. “Publish your _whole_ adventures for the last twenty years,” he had written. {365b} Ford saw that a man of Borrow’s nature must have had astonishing adventures, and with _his_ pen would be able to tell them in an astonishing manner.

As early as the summer of 1841 Borrow appears to have contemplated writing his _Autobiography_. On the eve of the appearance of _The Bible in Spain_ (17th Dec.) he wrote to John Murray: “I hope our book will be successful; if so, I shall put another on the stocks. Capital subject: early life; studies and adventures; some account of my father, William Taylor, Whiter, Big Ben, etc. etc.”

The first draft of notes for _Lavengro_, _an Autobiography_, as the book was originally advertised in the announcement, is extremely interesting. It runs:—

“Reasons for studying languages: French, Italian, D’Eterville.

Southern tongues. Dante.

Walks. The Quaker’s Home, Mousehold. Petulengro.

The Gypsies.

The Office. Welsh. Lhuyd.

German. Levy. Billy Taylor.

Danish. Kœmpe Viser. Billy Taylor. Dinner.

Bowring.

Hebrew. The Jew.

Philosophy. Radicalism. Ranters.

Thurtell. Boxers. Petulengres.” {365c}

_Lavengro_ was planned in 1842 and the greater part written before the end of the following year, although the work was not actually completed until 1846. There are numerous references in Borrow’s letters of this period to the book on which he was then engaged, and he invariably refers to it as his _Life_. On 21st January 1843 he writes to John Murray, Junr.: “I meditate shortly a return to Barbary in quest of the _Witch Hamlet_, and my adventures in the land of wonders will serve capitally to fill the thin volume of _My Life_, _a Drama_, By G. B.” Again and again Borrow refers to _My Life_. Hasfeldt and Ford also wrote of it as the “wonderful life” and “the _Biography_.”

In his letters to John Murray, Borrow not only refers to the book as his _Life_, but from time to time gives crumbs of information concerning its progress. The Secretary of the Bible Society has just lent him his letters from Russia, “which will be of great assistance in the Life, as I shall work them up as I did those relating to Spain. The first volume,” he continues, “will be devoted to England entirely, and my pursuits and adventures in early life.” He recognises that he must be careful of the reputation that he has earned. His new book is to be original, as would be seen when it at last appears; but he confesses that occasionally he feels “tremendously lazy.” On another occasion (27th March 1843) he writes to John Murray, Junr.: “I hope by the end of next year that I shall have part of my life ready for the press in 3 vols.” Six months later (2nd Oct. 1843) he writes to John Murray:—

“I wish I had another _Bible_ ready; but slow and sure is my maxim. The book which I am at present about will consist, if I live to finish it of a series of Rembrandt pictures interspersed here and there with a Claude. I shall tell the world of my parentage, my early thoughts and habits; how I became a sap-engro, or viper-catcher; my wanderings with the regiment in England, Scotland and Ireland . . . Then a great deal about Norwich, Billy Taylor, Thurtell, etc.; how I took to study and became a lav-engro. What do you think of this as a bill of fare for the _first_ Vol.? The second will consist of my adventures in London as an author in the year ’23 (_sic_), adventures on the Big North Road in ’24 (_sic_), Constantinople, etc. The third—but I shall tell you no more of my secrets.”

In a letter to John Murray (25th Oct. 8843), the title is referred to as _Lavengro_: _A Biography_. It is to be “full of grave fun and solemn laughter like the _Bible_.” On 6th December he again writes:—

“I do not wish for my next book to be advertised yet; I have a particular reason. The Americans are up to everything which affords a prospect of gain, and I should not wonder that, provided I were to announce my title, and the book did not appear forthwith, they would write one for me and send forth their trash into the world under my name. For my own part I am in no hurry,” he proceeds. “I am writing to please myself, and am quite sure that if I can contrive to please myself, I shall please the public also. Had I written a book less popular than the _Bible_, I should be less cautious; but I know how much is expected from me, and also know what a roar of exultation would be raised by my enemies (and I have plenty) were I to produce anything that was not first rate.”

Time after time he insists upon his determination to publish nothing that is not “as good as the last.” “I shall go on with my _Life_,” he writes, to Ford (9th Feb. 1844), “but slowly and lazily. What I write, however, is _good_. I feel it is good, strange and wild as it is.” {367}

From 24th–27th Jan. 1844 that “most astonishing fellow” Richard Ford visited Borrow at Oulton, urging again in person, most likely, the lifting of the veil that obscured those seven mysterious years. Ford has himself described this visit to Borrow in a letter written from Oulton Hall.

“I am here on a visit to _El Gitano_;” he writes, “two ‘rum’ coves, in a queer country . . . we defy the elements, and chat over _las cosas de España_, and he tells me portions of his life, more strange even than his book. We scamper by day over the country in a sort of gig, which reminds me of Mr Weare on his trip with Mr THURTELL [Borrow’s old preceptor]; ‘Sidi Habismilk’ is in the stable and a Zamarra [sheepskin coat] now before me, writing as I am in a sort of summer-house called _La Mezquita_, in which _El Gitano_ concocts his lucubrations, and _paints_ his pictures, for his object is to colour up and poetise his adventures.”

By this last sentence Ford showed how thoroughly he understood Borrow’s literary methods. A fortnight later Borrow writes to Ford:—

“You can’t think how I miss you and our chats by the fireside. The wine, now I am alone, has lost its flavour, and the cigars make me