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[Illustration: George Henry Borrow
From a painting by Henry Wyndham Phillips]
GEORGE BORROW
AND HIS CIRCLE
WHEREIN MAY BE FOUND MANY HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED LETTERS OF BORROW AND HIS
FRIENDS
BY
CLEMENT KING SHORTER
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
1913
TO
AUGUSTINE BIRRELL
A FRIEND OF LONG YEARS AND A TRUE
LOVER OF GEORGE BORROW
C. K. S.
Transcriber's Notes: Minor typos have been corrected. A letter with a
macron over it has been designated with a [=], for example [=a] is an a
with a macron over it. There is Persian and Russian writing in this
book, which have been marked as [Persian] or as [Russian]. V^{m}
signifies that the m is a superscript.
PREFACE
I have to express my indebtedness first of all to the executors of
Henrietta MacOubrey, George Borrow's stepdaughter, who kindly placed
Borrow's letters and manuscripts at my disposal. To the survivor of
these executors, a lady who resides in an English provincial town, I
would particularly wish to render fullest acknowledgment did she not
desire to escape all publicity and forbid me to give her name in print.
I am indebted to Sir William Robertson Nicoll without whose kindly and
active intervention I should never have taken active steps to obtain the
material to which this biography owes its principal value. I am under
great obligations to Mr. Herbert Jenkins, the publisher, in that,
although the author of a successful biography of Borrow, he has, with
rare kindliness, brought me into communication with Mr. Wilfrid J.
Bowring, the grandson of Sir John Bowring. To Mr. Wilfrid Bowring I am
indebted in that he has handed to me the whole of Borrow's letters to
his grandfather. I have to thank Mr. James Hooper of Norwich for the
untiring zeal with which he has unearthed for me a valuable series of
notes including certain interesting letters concerning Borrow. Mr.
Hooper has generously placed his collection, with which he at one time
contemplated writing a biography of Borrow, in my hands. I thank Dr.
Aldis Wright for reading my chapter on Edward FitzGerald; also Mr. W.H.
Peet, Mr. Aleck Abrahams, and Mr. Joseph Shaylor for assistance in the
little known field of Sir Richard Phillips's life. I have further to
thank my friends, Edward Clodd and Thomas J. Wise, for reading my
proof-sheets. To Theodore Watts-Dunton, an untiring friend of thirty
years, I have also to acknowledge abundant obligations.
C. K. S.
CONTENTS
PREFACE, v
INTRODUCTION, xv
CHAPTER I
CAPTAIN BORROW OF THE WEST NORFOLK MILITIA, 1
CHAPTER II
BORROW'S MOTHER, 12
CHAPTER III
JOHN THOMAS BORROW, 18
CHAPTER IV
A WANDERING CHILDHOOD, 36
CHAPTER V
GEORGE BORROW'S NORWICH--THE GURNEYS, 54
CHAPTER VI
GEORGE BORROW'S NORWICH--THE TAYLORS, 63
CHAPTER VII
GEORGE BORROW'S NORWICH--THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL, 70
CHAPTER VIII
GEORGE BORROW'S NORWICH--THE LAWYER'S OFFICE, 79
CHAPTER IX
SIR RICHARD PHILLIPS, 87
CHAPTER X
'FAUSTUS' AND 'ROMANTIC BALLADS,' 101
CHAPTER XI
'CELEBRATED TRIALS' AND JOHN THURTELL, 112
CHAPTER XII
BORROW AND THE FANCY, 126
CHAPTER XIII
EIGHT YEARS OF VAGABONDAGE, 133
CHAPTER XIV
SIR JOHN BOWRING, 138
CHAPTER XV
BORROW AND THE BIBLE SOCIETY, 153
CHAPTER XVI
ST. PETERSBURG AND JOHN P. HASFELD, 162
CHAPTER XVII
THE MANCHU BIBLE--'TARGUM'--'THE TALISMAN,' 169
CHAPTER XVII
THREE VISITS TO SPAIN, 179
CHAPTER XIX
BORROW'S SPANISH CIRCLE, 201
CHAPTER XX
MARY BORROW, 215
CHAPTER XXI
'THE CHILDREN OF THE OPEN AIR,' 226
CHAPTER XXII
'THE BIBLE IN SPAIN,' 237
CHAPTER XXIII
RICHARD FORD, 248
CHAPTER XXIV
IN EASTERN EUROPE, 260
CHAPTER XXV
'LAVENGRO,' 275
CHAPTER XXVI
A VISIT TO CORNISH KINSMEN, 289
CHAPTER XXVII
IN THE ISLE OF MAN, 296
CHAPTER XXVIII
OULTON BROAD AND YARMOUTH, 304
CHAPTER XXIX
IN SCOTLAND AND IRELAND, 320
CHAPTER XXX
'THE ROMANY RYE,' 341
CHAPTER XXXI
EDWARD FITZGERALD, 350
CHAPTER XXXII
'WILD WALES,' 364
CHAPTER XXXIII
LIFE IN LONDON, 379
CHAPTER XXXIV
FRIENDS OF LATER YEARS, 389
CHAPTER XXXV
BORROW'S UNPUBLISHED WRITINGS, 401
CHAPTER XXXVI
HENRIETTA CLARKE, 413
CHAPTER XXXVII
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.
CHAPTER I
CAPTAIN BORROW OF THE WEST NORFOLK MILITIA
George Henry Borrow was born at Dumpling Green near East Dereham,
Norfolk, on the 5th of July 1803. It pleased him to state on many an
occasion that he was born at East Dereham.
On an evening of July, in the year 18--, at East D----, a
beautiful little town in a certain district of East Anglia, I
first saw the light,
he writes in the opening lines of _Lavengro_, using almost the identical
phraseology that we find in the opening lines of Goethe's _Wahrheit und
Dichtung_. Here is a later memory of Dereham from _Lavengro_:
What it is at present I know not, for thirty years and more
have elapsed since I last trod its streets. It will scarcely
have improved, for how could it be better than it was? I love
to think on thee, pretty, quiet D----, thou pattern of an
English country town, with thy clean but narrow streets
branching out from thy modest market-place, with their
old-fashioned houses, with here and there a roof of venerable
thatch, with thy one half-aristocratic mansion, where resided
the Lady Bountiful--she, the generous and kind, who loved to
visit the sick, leaning on her golden-headed cane, while the
sleek old footman walked at a respectful distance behind.
Pretty, quiet D----, with thy venerable church, in which
moulder the mortal remains of England's sweetest and most pious
bard.
Then follows an exquisite eulogy of the poet Cowper, which readers of
_Lavengro_ know full well. Three years before Borrow was born William
Cowper died in this very town, leaving behind him so rich a legacy of
poetry and of prose, and moreover so fragrant a memory of a life in
which humour and pathos played an equal part. It was no small thing for
a youth who aspired to any kind of renown to be born in the
neighbourhood of the last resting-place of the author of _The Task_.
Yet Borrow was not actually born in East Dereham, but a mile and a half
away, at the little hamlet of Dumpling Green, in what was then a
glorious wilderness of common and furze bush, but is now a quiet
landscape of fields and hedges. You will find the home in which the
author of _Lavengro_ first saw the light without much difficulty. It is
a fair-sized farm-house, with a long low frontage separated from the
road by a considerable strip of garden. It suggests a prosperous yeoman
class, and I have known farm-houses in East Anglia not one whit larger
dignified by the name of 'hall.' Nearly opposite is a pond. The trim
hedges are a delight to us to-day, but you must cast your mind back to a
century ago when they were entirely absent. The house belonged to George
Borrow's maternal grandfather, Samuel Perfrement, who farmed the
adjacent land at this time. Samuel and Mary Perfrement had eight
children, the third of whom, Ann, was born in 1772.
In February 1793 Ann Perfrement, aged twenty-one, married Thomas Borrow,
aged thirty-five, in the Parish Church of East Dereham, and of the two
children that were born to them George Henry Borrow was the younger.
Thomas Borrow was the son of one John Borrow of St. Cleer in Cornwall,
who died before this child was born, and is described by his
grandson[3] as the scion 'of an ancient but reduced Cornish family,
tracing descent from the de Burghs, and entitled to carry their arms.'
This claim, of which I am thoroughly sceptical, is endorsed by Dr.
Knapp,[4] who, however, could find no trace of the family earlier than
1678, the old parish registers having been destroyed. When Thomas Borrow
was born the family were in any case nothing more than small farmers,
and Thomas Borrow and his brothers were working on the land in the
intervals of attending the parish school. At the age of eighteen Thomas
was apprenticed to a maltster at Liskeard, and about this time he joined
the local Militia. Tradition has it that his career as a maltster was
cut short by his knocking his master down in a scrimmage. The victor
fled from the scene of his prowess, and enlisted as a private soldier in
the Coldstream Guards. This was in 1783, and in 1792 he was transferred
to the West Norfolk Militia; hence his appearance at East Dereham,
where, now a serjeant, his occupations for many a year were recruiting
and drilling.[5] It is recorded that at a theatrical performance at East
Dereham he first saw, presumably on the stage of the county-hall, his
future wife--Ann Perfrement. She was, it seems, engaged in a minor part
in a travelling company, not, we may assume, altogether with the
sanction of her father, who, in spite of his inheritance of French
blood, doubtless shared the then very strong English prejudice against
the stage. However, Ann was one of eight children, and had, as we shall
find in after years, no inconsiderable strength of character, and so may
well at twenty years of age have decided upon a career for herself. In
any case we need not press too hard the Cornish and French origin of
George Borrow to explain his wandering tendencies, nor need we wonder at
the suggestion of Nathaniel Hawthorne, that he was 'supposed to be of
gypsy descent by the mother's side.' You have only to think of the
father, whose work carried him from time to time to every corner of
England, Scotland, and Ireland, and of the mother with her reminiscence
of life in a travelling theatrical company, to explain in no small
measure the glorious vagabondage of George Borrow.
Behold then Thomas Borrow and Ann Perfrement as man and wife, he being
thirty-five years of age, she twenty-one. A roving, restless life was in
front of the pair for many a day, the West Norfolk Militia being
stationed in some eight or nine separate towns within the interval of
ten years between Thomas Borrow's marriage and his second son's birth.
The first child, John Thomas Borrow, was born on the 15th April 1801.[6]
The second son, George Henry Borrow, the subject of this memoir, was
born in his grandfather's house at Dumpling Green, East Dereham, his
mother having found a natural refuge with her father while her husband
was busily recruiting in Norfolk. The two children passed with their
parents from place to place, and in 1809 we find them once again in
East Dereham. From his son's two books, _Lavengro_ and _Wild Wales_, we
can trace the father's later wanderings until his final retirement to
Norwich on a pension. In 1810 the family were at Norman Cross in
Huntingdonshire, when Captain Borrow had to assist in guarding the
French prisoners of war; for it was the stirring epoch of the Napoleonic
conflict, and within the temporary prison 'six thousand French and other
foreigners, followers of the Grand Corsican, were now immured.'
What a strange appearance had those mighty casernes, with their
blank blind walls, without windows or grating, and their
slanting roofs, out of which, through orifices where the tiles
had been removed, would be protruded dozens of grim heads,
feasting their prison-sick eyes on the wide expanse of country
unfolded from that airy height. Ah! there was much misery in
those casernes; and from those roofs, doubtless, many a wistful
look was turned in the direction of lovely France. Much had the
poor inmates to endure, and much to complain of, to the
disgrace of England be it said--of England, in general so kind
and bountiful. Rations of carrion meat, and bread from which I
have seen the very hounds occasionally turn away, were unworthy
entertainment even for the most ruffian enemy, when helpless
and a captive; and such, alas! was the fare in those casernes.
But here we have only to do with Thomas Borrow, of whom we get many a
quaint glimpse in _Lavengro_, our first and our last being concerned
with him in the one quality that his son seems to have inherited, as the
associate of a prize-fighter--Big Ben Brain. Borrow records in his
opening chapter that Ben Brain and his father met in Hyde Park probably
in 1790, and that after an hour's conflict 'the champions shook hands
and retired, each having experienced quite enough of the other's
prowess.' Borrow further relates that four months afterwards Brain 'died
in the arms of my father, who read to him the Bible in his last
moments.' Dr. Knapp finds Borrow in one of his many inaccuracies or
rather 'imaginings' here, as Brain did not die until 1794. More than
once in his after years the old soldier seems to have had a shy pride in
that early conflict, although the piety which seems to have come to him
with the responsibilities of wife and children led him to count any
recalling of the episode as a 'temptation.' When Borrow was about
thirteen years of age, he overheard his father and mother discussing
their two boys, the elder being the father's favourite and George the
mother's:
'I will hear nothing against my first-born,' said my father,
'even in the way of insinuation: he is my joy and pride; the
very image of myself in my youthful days, long before I fought
Big Ben, though perhaps not quite so tall or strong built. As
for the other, God bless the child! I love him, I'm sure; but I
must be blind not to see the difference between him and his
brother. Why, he has neither my hair nor my eyes; and then his
countenance! why, 'tis absolutely swarthy, God forgive me! I
had almost said like that of a gypsy, but I have nothing to say
against that; the boy is not to be blamed for the colour of his
face, nor for his hair and eyes; but, then, his ways and
manners!--I confess I do not like them, and that they give me
no little uneasiness.'[7]
Borrow throughout his narrative refers to his father as 'a man of
excellent common sense,' and he quotes the opinion of William Taylor,
who had rather a bad reputation as a 'freethinker' with all the
church-going citizens of Norwich, with no little pride. Borrow is of
course the 'young man' of the dialogue. He was then eighteen years of
age:
'Not so, not so,' said the young man eagerly; 'before I knew
you I knew nothing, and am still very ignorant; but of late my
father's health has been very much broken, and he requires
attention; his spirits also have become low, which, to tell you
the truth, he attributes to my misconduct. He says that I have
imbibed all kinds of strange notions and doctrines, which will,
in all probability, prove my ruin, both here and hereafter;
which--which----'
'Ah! I understand,' said the elder, with another calm whiff. 'I
have always had a kind of respect for your father, for there is
something remarkable in his appearance, something heroic, and I
would fain have cultivated his acquaintance; the feeling,
however, has not been reciprocated. I met him the other day, up
the road, with his cane and dog, and saluted him; he did not
return my salutation.'
'He has certain opinions of his own,' said the youth, 'which
are widely different from those which he has heard that you
profess.'
'I respect a man for entertaining an opinion of his own,' said
the elderly individual. 'I hold certain opinions; but I should
not respect an individual the more for adopting them. All I
wish for is tolerance, which I myself endeavour to practise. I
have always loved the truth, and sought it; if I have not found
it, the greater my misfortune.'[8]
When Borrow is twenty years of age we have another glimpse of father and
son, the father in his last illness, the son eager as usual to draw out
his parent upon the one subject that appeals to his adventurous spirit,
'I should like to know something about Big Ben,' he says:
'You are a strange lad,' said my father; 'and though of late I
have begun to entertain a more favourable opinion than
heretofore, there is still much about you that I do not
understand. Why do you bring up that name? Don't you know that
it is one of my temptations? You wish to know something about
him? Well, I will oblige you this once, and then farewell to
such vanities--something about him. I will tell you--his--skin
when he flung off his clothes--and he had a particular knack in
doing so--his skin, when he bared his mighty chest and back
for combat; and when he fought he stood, so--if I remember
right--his skin, I say, was brown and dusky as that of a toad.
Oh me! I wish my elder son was here!'
Concerning the career of Borrow's father there seem to be no documents
other than one contained in _Lavengro_, yet no _Life of Borrow_ can
possibly he complete that does not draw boldly upon the son's priceless
tributes. And so we come now to the last scene in the career of the
elder Borrow--his death-bed--which is also the last page of the first
volume of _Lavengro_. George Borrow's brother has arrived from abroad.
The little house in Willow Lane, Norwich, contained the mother and her
two sons sorrowfully awaiting the end, which came on 28th February 1824.
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 up 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 stupefied, 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 Serjeant, 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.
Did Borrow's father ever really fight Big Ben Brain or Bryan in Hyde
Park, or is it all a fantasy of the artist's imagining? We shall never
know. Borrow called his _Lavengro_ 'An Autobiography' at one stage of
its inception, although he wished to repudiate the autobiographical
nature of his story at another. Dr. Knapp in his anxiety to prove that
Borrow wrote his own memoirs in _Lavengro_ and _Romany Rye_ tells us
that he had no creative faculty--an absurd proposition. But I think we
may accept the contest between Ben Brain and Thomas Borrow, and what a
revelation of heredity that impressive death-bed scene may be counted.
Borrow on one occasion in later life declared that his favourite hooks
were the Bible and the Newgate Calendar. We know that he specialised on
the Bible and Prize-Fighting in no ordinary fashion--and here we see his
father on his death-bed struggling between the religious sentiments of
his maturity and the one great worldly escapade of his early manhood.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] In the year 1870 Borrow was asked for material for a biography by
the editor of _Men of the Time_, a publication which many years later
was incorporated in the present _Who's Who_. He drew up two drafts in
his own handwriting, which are so interesting, and yet vary so much in
certain particulars, that we are tempted to print both here, or at least
that part of the second draft that differs from the first. The
concluding passages of both drafts are alike. The biography as it stands
in the 1871 edition of _Men of the Time_ appears to have been compiled
from the earlier of these drafts. It must have been another copy of
Draft No. 1 that was forwarded to the editor:
DRAFT I.--George Henry Borrow, born at East Dereham in the county of
Norfolk in the early part of the present century. His father was a
military officer, with whom he travelled about most parts of the United
Kingdom. He was at some of the best schools in England, and also for
about two years at the High School at Edinburgh. In 1818 he was articled
to an eminent solicitor at Norwich, with whom he continued five years.
He did not, however, devote himself much to his profession, his mind
being much engrossed by philology, for which at a very early period he
had shown a decided inclination, having when in Ireland acquired the
Irish language. At the age of twenty he knew little of the law, but was
well versed in languages, being not only a good classical scholar but
acquainted with French, Italian, Spanish, all the Celtic and Gothic
dialects, and also with the peculiar language of the English Romany
Chals or Gypsies. This speech, which, though broken and scanty, exhibits
evident signs of high antiquity, he had picked up amongst the wandering
tribes with whom he had formed acquaintance on a wild heath near
Norwich, where they were in the habit of encamping. At the expiration of
his clerkship, which occurred shortly after the death of his father, he
betook himself to London, and endeavoured to get a livelihood by
literature. For some time he was a hack author. His health failing he
left London, and for a considerable time lived a life of roving
adventure. In the year 1833 he entered the service of he British and
Foreign Bible Society, and being sent to Russia edited at Saint
Petersburg the New Testament in the Manchu or Chinese Tartar. Whilst at
Saint Petersburg he published a book called _Targum_, consisting of
metrical translations from thirty languages. He was subsequently for
some years agent of the Bible Society in Spain, where he was twice
imprisoned for endeavouring to circulate the Gospel. In Spain he mingled
much with the Calóre or Zincali, called by the Spaniards Gitanos or
Gypsies, whose language he found to be much the same as that of the
English Romany. At Madrid he edited the New Testament in Spanish, and
translated the Gospel of Saint Luke into the language of the Zincali.
Leaving the service of the Bible Society he returned to England in 1839,
and shortly afterwards married a Suffolk lady. In 1841 he published _The
Zincali_, or an account of the Gypsies of Spain, with a vocabulary of
their language, which he proved to be closely connected with the
Sanskrit. This work obtained almost immediately a European celebrity,
and was the cause of many learned works being published on the continent
on the subject of the Gypsies. In 1842 he gave to the world _The Bible
in Spain_, or an account of an attempt to circulate the Gospel in the
peninsula, a work which received a warm and eloquent eulogium from Sir
Robert Peel in the House of Commons. In 1844 he was wandering amongst
the Gypsies of Hungary, Walachia, and Turkey, gathering up the words of
their respective dialects of the Romany, and making a collection of
their songs. In 1851 he published _Lavengro_, in which he gives an
account of his early life, and in 1857 _The Romany Rye_, a sequel to the
same. His latest publication is _Wild Wales_. He has written many other
works, some of which are not yet published. He has an estate in Suffolk,
but spends the greater part of his time in wandering on foot through
various countries.
* * * * *
DRAFT II.--George Henry Borrow was born at East Dereham in the county of
Norfolk on the 5th July 1803. His father, Thomas Borrow, who died
captain and adjutant of the West Norfolk Militia, was of an ancient but
reduced Cornish family, tracing descent from the de Burghs, and entitled
to carry their arms. His mother, Ann Perfrement, was a native of
Norfolk, and descended from a family of French Protestants banished from
France on the revocation of the edict of Nantes. He was the youngest of
two sons. His brother, John Thomas, who was endowed with various and
very remarkable talents, died at an early age in Mexico. Both the
brothers had the advantage of being at some of the first schools in
Britain. The last at which they were placed was the Grammar School at
Norwich, to which town their father came to reside at the termination of
the French war. In the year 1818 George Borrow was articled to an
eminent solicitor in Norwich, with whom he continued five years. He did
not devote himself much to his profession, his mind being engrossed by
another and very different subject--namely philology, for which at a
very early period he had shown a decided inclination, having when in
Ireland with his father acquired the Irish language. At the expiration
of his clerkship he knew little of the law, but was well versed in
languages, being not only a good Greek and Latin scholar, but acquainted
with French, Italian, and Spanish, all the Celtic and Gothic dialects,
and likewise with the peculiar language of the English Romany Chals or
Gypsies. This speech or jargon, amounting to about eleven hundred and
twenty-seven words, he had picked up amongst the wandering tribes with
whom he had formed acquaintance on Mousehold, a wild heath near Norwich,
where they were in the habit of encamping. By the time his clerkship was
expired his father was dead, and he had little to depend upon but the
exercise of his abilities such as they were. In 1823 he betook himself
to London, and endeavoured to obtain a livelihood by literature. For
some time he was a hack author, doing common work for booksellers. For
one in particular he prepared an edition of the Newgate Calendar, from
the careful study of which he has often been heard to say that he first
learned to write genuine English. His health failed, he left London, and
for a considerable time he lived a life of roving adventure.
[4] Knapp's _Life of Borrow_, vol. i. p. 6.
[5] The writer recalls at his own school at Downham Market in Norfolk an
old Crimean Veteran--Serjeant Canham--drilling the boys each week, thus
supplementing his income precisely in the same manner as did Serjeant
Borrow.
[6] The date has always hitherto been wrongly given. I find it in one of
Ann Borrow's notebooks, but although every vicar of every parish in
Chelmsford and Colchester has searched the registers for me, with
agreeable courtesy, I cannot discover a record of John's birthplace, and
am compelled to the belief that Dr. Knapp was wrong in suggesting one or
other of these towns.
[7] _Lavengro_, ch. xiv.
[8] _Lavengro_, ch. xxiii.