OULTON BROAD AND YARMOUTH
George Borrow wandered far and wide, but he always retraced his
footsteps to East Anglia, of which he was so justly proud. From his
marriage in 1840 until his death in 1881 he lived twenty-seven years at
Oulton or at Yarmouth. 'It is on sand alone that the sea strikes its
true music,' Borrow once remarked, 'Norfolk sand'--and it was in the
waves and on the sands of the Norfolk coast that Borrow spent the
happiest hours of his restless life. Oulton Cottage is only about two
miles from Lowestoft, and so, walking or driving, these places were
quite near one another. But both are in Suffolk. Was it because
Yarmouth--ten miles distant--is in Norfolk that it was always selected
for seaside residence? I suspect that the careful Mrs. Borrow found a
wider selection of 'apartments' at a moderate price. In any case the sea
air of Yarmouth was good for his wife, and the sea bathing was good for
him, and so we find that husband and wife had seven separate residences
at Yarmouth during the years of Oulton life.[185] But Oulton was ever to
be Borrow's headquarters, even though between 1860 and 1874 he had a
house in London. Borrow was thirty-seven years of age when he settled
down at Oulton.
[Illustration: _Copyright of Mrs. Simms Reeve_
A HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED PORTRAIT OF GEORGE BORROW
Taken in the garden of Mrs. Simms Reeve of Norwich in 1848. This is the
only photograph of George Borrow extant, although two paintings of him
exist, one by Henry Wyndham Phillips, which forms the frontispiece of
this volume, taken in 1843, and an earlier portrait by his brother John,
which will be found facing page 32]
He was, he tells us in _The Romany Rye_, 'in tolerably easy
circumstances and willing to take some rest after a life of labour.'
Their home was a cottage on the Broad, for the Hall, which was also Mrs.
Borrow's property, was let on lease to a farmer.[186] The cottage,
however, was an extremely pleasant residence with a lawn running down to
the river. A more substantial house has been built on this site since
Borrow's day. The summer-house is generally assumed to be the same, but
has certainly been reroofed since the time when Henrietta Clarke drew
the picture of it that is reproduced in this book. Probably the whole
summer-house is new, but at any rate the present structure stands on the
site of the old one. Here Borrow did his work, wrote and wrote and
wrote, until he had, as he said, 'Mountains of manuscripts.' Here first
of all he completed _The Zincali_ (1841), commenced in Seville; then he
wrote or rather arranged _The Bible in Spain_ (1843), and then at long
intervals, diversified by extensive travel holidays, he wrote _Lavengro_
(1851), _The Romany Rye_ (1857), and _Wild Wales_ (1860),--these are the
five books and their dates that we most associate with Borrow's sojourn
at Oulton. When _Wild Wales_ was published he had removed to London.
Borrow brought with him to Oulton, as we have said, a beautiful Arabian
horse, Sidi Habismilk, and a Jewish servant, Hayim Ben Attar. The horse
remained to delight the neighbourhood. It followed Borrow like a dog
when he was not riding it. The Jew had soon had enough of this rural
retreat and sighed for a sunnier clime. Thus, under date 1843, I find
among my Borrow Papers the following letter to a firm of shipbrokers:
To Messrs. Nickols and Marshal, London.
_4th July 1843._
GENTLEMEN,--Having received a communication from Liverpool from
Harry Palmer, Esq., stating that you are his agents in London,
and that as such he has requested you to communicate with us
relative to a passage required for a man sent to Cadiz or
Gibraltar, I shall as briefly as possible state the
particulars. Mr. Palmer names £7 or £8 as the lowest which he
thinks it will cost us to get him to Gibraltar or Cadiz. This
we consider is a large sum when it is to be remembered that he
is to fare as the ship's crew fare, and with the exception of a
berth to lie down in, no difference is required at this
beautiful season of the year. I must here state as an excuse
for the above remark that this man came to England at his own
particular desire. I have been at much expense about him. He
has had good wages, but now that he wants to get back to his
own country the whole expense is thrown upon me, as he has
saved no money, and we wish it to be clearly understood by the
captain who will take him that when he is once off from England
and his passage paid that we will be responsible for no further
expense whatever. We do not want to get him to Tangier, as we
shall put money in his pocket which will enable him to pay for
a passage across if he wishes to go there, but we will pay only
to Gibraltar or Cadiz. A steam vessel sails from Yarmouth
bridge every Wednesday and Friday. This will be the most direct
and safe way to send him to London, and then trouble you to
have him met at the steamer and conveyed to the ship at once in
which he is to have his passage. All therefore that remains to
be done is to trouble you to give us a few days' notice with
time to get him up per Yarmouth steamer. I beg to thank you for
the willingness you expressed to Mr. Palmer to assist me in
this affair by getting as cheap a passage as you can and seeing
him on board and the passage _not_ paid till the ship sails.
You no doubt can quite understand our anxious feelings upon the
subject from your connection with shipping, and consequently
knowing what foreigners generally are.--I am, Sir, Your
obedient servant,
G. H. BORROW.[187]
Then we have the following document with which his cautious master
provided himself:
A Statement of Hayim Ben Attar previous to his leaving England.
I declare that it was my own wish to come to England with my
master G. H. Borrow, who offered to send me to my own country
before he left Spain. That I have regularly received the
liberal wages he agreed to give me from the first of my coming
to him. That I have been treated justly and kindly by him
during my stay in England, and that I return to my country at
my own wish and request, and at my master's expense. To this
statement, which I declare to be true, I sign my name.--HAYIM
BEN ATTAR.
Declared before me this 9 of August 1843.
W. M. HAMMOND, Magistrate for Great Yarmouth.
I find a letter among my Papers which bears no name, and is probably a
draft. It contains an interesting reference to Hayim Ben Attar, and
hence I give it here:
SIR,--I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your
letter of the 17th inst., which my friend, Mr. Murray, has just
forwarded to me. I am afraid that you attribute to me powers
and information which I am by no means conscious of possessing;
I should feel disposed to entertain a much higher opinion of
myself than I at present do could I for a moment conceive
myself gifted with the talent of inducing any endeavour to
dismiss from his mind a theory of the reasonableness of which
appears to him obvious. Nevertheless, as you do me the honour
of asking my opinion with respect to the theory of Gypsies
being Jews by origin, I hasten to answer to the following
effect. I am not prepared to acknowledge the reasonableness of
any theory which cannot be borne out by the slightest proof.
Against the theory may be offered the following arguments which
I humbly consider to be unanswerable. The Gypsies differ from
the Jews in feature and complexion--in whatever part of the
world you find the Gypsy you recognise him at once by his
features which are virtually the same--the Jew likewise has a
peculiar countenance by which at once he may be distinguished
as a Jew, but which would certainly prevent the probability of
his being considered as a scion of the Gypsy stock--in proof of
which assertion I can adduce the following remarkable instance.
I have in my service a Jew, a native of Northern Africa. Last
summer I took him with me to an encampment of Romanies or
Gypsies near my home at Oulton in Suffolk. I introduced him to
the Chief, and said, Are ye not dui patos (two brothers). The
Gypsy passed his hand over the Jew's face and stared him in the
eyes, then turning to me he answered--we are not two brothers,
not two brothers--this man is no rom--I believe him to be a
Jew. Now this Gypsy has been in the habit of seeing German and
English Jews who must have been separated from their African
brothers for a term of 1700 years--yet he recognised the Jew of
Troy for what he was--a Jew--and without hesitation declared
that he was not a rom; the Jews, therefore, and the Gypsies
have each their peculiar and distinctive features, which
disprove the impossibility of their having been originally the
same people.--Your obedient servant,
GEORGE BORROW.
I find also in this connection a letter from Tangier addressed to 'Mr.
H. George Borrow' under date 2nd November 1847. It tells us that the
worthy Jew longs once again to see the 'dear face' of his master. Since
he left his service he has married and has two sons, but he is anxious
to return to England if that same master will find him work. We can
imagine that by this time Borrow had had enough of Hayim Ben Attar, and
that his answer was not encouraging.
But by far the best glimpses of Borrow during these years of Suffolk
life are those contained in a letter contributed by his friend,
Elizabeth Harvey, to _The Eastern Daily Press_ of Norwich over the
initials 'E.H.':[188]
When I knew Mr. Borrow he lived in a lovely cottage whose
garden sloped down to the edge of Oulton Broad. He had a wooden
room built on the very margin of the water, where he had many
strange old books in various languages. I remember he once put
one before me, telling me to read it. 'Oh, I can't,' I replied.
He said, 'You ought, it's your own language.' It was an old
Saxon book. He used to spend a great deal of his time in this
room writing, translating, and at times singing strange words
in a stentorian voice, while passers-by on the lake would stop
to listen with astonishment and curiosity to the singular
sounds. He was 6 feet 3 inches, a splendid man, with handsome
hands and feet. He wore neither whiskers, beard, nor
moustache. His features were very handsome, but his eyes were
peculiar, being round and rather small, but very piercing, and
now and then fierce. He would sometimes 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,' He was an expert
swimmer, and used to go out bathing, and dive under water an
immense time. On one occasion he was bathing with a friend, and
after plunging in nothing was seen of him for some while. His
friend began to be alarmed, when he heard Borrow's voice a long
way off exclaiming, 'There, if that had been written in one of
my books they would have said it was a lie, wouldn't they?' He
was very fond of animals, and the animals were fond of him. He
would go for a walk with two dogs and a cat following him. The
cat would go a quarter of a mile or so and then turn back home.
He delighted to go for long walks and enter into conversation
with any one he might meet on the road, and lead them into
histories of their lives, belongings, and experiences. When
they used some word peculiar to Norfolk (or Suffolk) countrymen
he would say, 'Why, that's a Danish word.' By and by the man
would use another peculiar expression, 'Why, that's Saxon'; a
little later 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. He spoke a great
number of languages, and at the Exhibition of 1851, whither he
went with his stepdaughter, he spoke to the different
foreigners in their own language, 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. He,
however, did not like to hear the English language adulterated
with the introduction of foreign words. If his wife or friends
used a foreign word in conversation, he would say, 'What's
that, trying to come over me with strange languages.'
I have gone for many a walk with him at Oulton. He used to go
on, 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. He was a great lover of nature, and very fond of his
trees. He quite fretted if, by some mischance, he lost one. He
did not shoot or hunt. He rode his Arab at times, but walking
was his favourite exercise. He was subject to fits of nervous
depression. At times also he suffered from sleeplessness, when
he would get up and walk to Norwich (25 miles), and return the
next night recovered. His fondness for the gypsies has been
noticed. At Oulton he used to allow them to encamp in his
grounds, and he would visit them, with a friend or alone, talk
to them in Romany, and sing Romany songs. He was very fond of
ghost stories and believed in the supernatural. He was keenly
sympathetic with any one who was in trouble or suffering. He
was no man of business and very guileless, and led a very
harmless, quiet life at Oulton, spending his evenings at home
with his wife and stepdaughter, generally reading all the
evening. He was very hospitable in his own home, and detested
meanness. He was moderate in eating and drinking, took very
little breakfast, but ate a very great quantity at dinner, and
then had only a draught of cold water before going to bed. He
wrote much in praise of 'strong ale,' and was very fond of good
ale, of whose virtue he had a great idea. Once I was speaking
of a lady who was attached to a gentleman, and he asked, 'Well,
did he make her an offer?' 'No,' I said. 'Ah,' he exclaimed,
'if she had given him some good ale he would.' But although he
talked so much about ale I never saw him take much. 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. He took much pleasure in music, especially of a
light and lively character. My sister would sing to him, and I
played. One piece he seemed never to tire of hearing. It was a
polka, 'The Redowa,' I think, and when I had finished he used
to say, 'Play that again, E----.' He was very polite and
gentlemanly in ladies' society, and we all liked him.
It is refreshing to read this tribute, from which I have omitted nothing
salient, because a very disagreeable Borrow has somehow grown up into a
tradition. I note in reading some of the reviews of Dr. Knapp's _Life_
that he is charged, or half-charged, with suppressing facts, 'because
they do not reflect credit upon the subject of his biography.' Now,
there were really no facts to suppress. Borrow was at times a very
irritable man, he was a very self-centred one. His egotism might even be
pronounced amazing by those who had never met an author. But those of us
who have, recognise that with very few exceptions they are all egotists,
although some conceal it from the unobservant more deftly than others.
Let me recall Mr. Arthur Christopher Benson's verses on 'My Poet.'
He came; I met him face to face,
And shrank amazed, dismayed; I saw
No patient depth, no tender grace,
No prophet of the eternal law.
But weakness, fretting to be great,
Self-consciousness with sidelong eye,
The impotence that dares not wait
For honour, crying 'This is I.'
The tyrant of a sullen hour,
He frowned away our mild content;
And insight only gave him power
To see the slights that were not meant.[189]
Many successful and unsuccessful authors, living and dead, are here
described, and Borrow was far from one of the worst. He was quarrelsome,
and I rather like him for that. If he was a good hater he was also a
very loyal friend, as we find Miss Elizabeth Harvey and, in after years,
Mr. Theodore Watts-Dunton testifying. Moreover, Borrow had a grievance
of a kind that has not often befallen a man of his literary power. He
had written a great book in _Lavengro_, and the critics and the public
refused to recognise that it was a great book. Many authors of power
have died young and unrecognised; but recognition has usually come to
those men of genius who have lived into middle age. It did not come to
Borrow. He had therefore a right to be soured. This sourness found
expression in many ways. Borrow, most sound of churchmen, actually
quarrelled with his vicar over the tempers of their respective dogs.
Both the vicar, the Rev. Edwin Proctor Denniss, and his parishioner
wrote one another acrid letters. Here is Borrow's parting shot:
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.[190]
Surely that is a kind of quarrel we have all had in our day, and we
think ourselves none the less virtuous in consequence. Then there was
Borrow's very natural ambition to be made a magistrate of Suffolk. He
tells Mr. John Murray in 1842 that he has caught a bad cold by getting
up at night in pursuit of poachers and thieves. 'A terrible
neighbourhood this,' he adds, 'not a magistrate dare do his duty.' And
so in the next year he wrote again to the same correspondent:
Present my compliments to Mr. Gladstone, and tell him that the
_Bible in Spain_ will have no objection to becoming one of the
'Great Unpaid.'
Mr. Gladstone, although he had admired _The Bible in Spain_, and indeed
had even suggested the modification of one of its sentences, did
nothing. Lockhart, Lord Clarendon, and others who were applied to were
equally powerless or indifferent. Borrow never got his magistracy.
To-day no man of equal eminence in literature could possibly have failed
of so slight an ambition. Moreover, Borrow wanted to be a J.P., not from
mere snobbery as many might, but for a definite, practical object. I am
afraid he would not have made a very good magistrate, and perhaps
inquiry had made that clear to the authorities. Lastly, there was
Borrow's quarrel with the railway which came through his estate. He had
thoughts of removing to Bury, where Dr. Hake lived, or to Troston Hall,
once the home of the interesting Capell Lofft. But he was not to leave
Oulton. In intervals of holidays, journeys, and of sojourn in Yarmouth
it was to remain his home to the end. In 1849 his mother joined him at
Oulton. She had resided for thirty-three years at the Willow Lane
Cottage. She was now seventy-seven years of age. She lived-on near her
son as a tenant of his tenant at Oulton Hall until her death nine years
later, dying in 1858 in her eighty-seventh year. She lies buried in
Oulton Churchyard, with a tomb thus inscribed:
Sacred to the memory of Ann Borrow, widow of Captain Thomas
Borrow. She died on the 16th of August 1858, aged eighty-six
years and seven months. She was a good wife and a good mother.
During these years at Oulton we have many glimpses of Borrow. Dr.
Jessopp, for example, has recorded in _The Athenæum_[191] newspaper his
own hero-worship for the author of _Lavengro_, whom he was never to
meet. This enthusiasm for _Lavengro_ was shared by certain of his
Norfolk friends of those days:
Among those friends were two who, I believe, are still alive,
and who about the year 1846 set out, without telling me of
their intention, on a pilgrimage to Oulton to see George Borrow
in the flesh. In those days the journey was not an
inconsiderable one; and though my friends must have known that
I would have given my ears to be of the party, I suppose they
kept their project to themselves for reasons of their own. Two,
they say, are company and three are none; two men could ride in
a gig for sixty miles without much difficulty, and an odd man
often spoils sport. At any rate, they left me out, and one day
they came back full of malignant pride and joy and exultation,
and they flourished their information before me with boastings
and laughter at my ferocious jealousy; for they had seen, and
talked with, and eaten and drunk with, and sat at the feet of
the veritable George Borrow, and had grasped his mighty hand.
To me it was too provoking. But what had they to tell?
They found him at Oulton, living, as they affirmed, in a house
which belonged to Mrs. Borrow and which her first husband had
left her. The household consisted of himself, his wife, and his
wife's daughter; and among his other amusements he employed
himself in training some young horses to follow him about like
dogs and come at the call of his whistle. As my two friends
were talking with him Borrow sounded his whistle in a paddock
near the house, which, if I remember rightly, was surrounded by
a low wall. Immediately two beautiful horses came bounding over
the fence and trotted up to their master. One put his nose into
Borrow's outstretched hand and the other kept snuffing at his
pockets in expectation of the usual bribe for confidence and
good behaviour. Borrow could not but be flattered by the young
Cambridge men paying him the frank homage they offered, and he
treated them with the robust and cordial hospitality
characteristic of the man. One or two things they learnt which
I do not feel at liberty to repeat.
Mr. Arthur W. Upcher of Sheringham Hall, Cromer, also provided in _The
Athenæum_[192] a quaint reminiscence of Borrow in which he recalled that
Lavengro had called upon Miss Anna Gurney. This lady had, assuredly with
less guile, treated him much as Frances Cobbe would have done. She had
taken 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. 'I could not,' said Borrow,
'study the Arabic grammar and listen to her at the same time, so I threw
down the book and ran out of the room.' He soon after met Mr. Upcher, to
whom he made an interesting revelation:
He told us there were three personages in the world whom he had
always a desire to see; two of these had slipped through his
fingers, so he was determined to see the third. 'Pray, Mr.
Borrow, who were they?' He held up three fingers of his left
hand and pointed them off with the forefinger of the right: the
first Daniel O'Connell, the second Lamplighter (the sire of
Phosphorus, Lord Berners's winner of the Derby), the third,
Anna Gurney. The first two were dead and he had not seen them;
now he had come to see Anna Gurney, and this was the end of his
visit.
Mr. William Mackay, who now lives at Oulton Broad, where he has heard
all the village gossip about Borrow and his _ménage_, and we may hope
has discounted it fully, furnishes me with the following impression of
Borrow, which is of a much later date than those I have just given:
I met Borrow in 1869 at the house of Dr. Gordon Hake at Coombe
End, near the top of Roehampton Lane, Wimbledon Common. My
recollection is of a tall, broad-shouldered old man, stooping
a little, engaged in reading a small volume held close to his
eyes. Something Yorkshire about his powerful build, but little
tolerance or benevolence in his expression. A fine, strongly
marked clean shaven face, but with no kindliness or sense of
humour indicated in its lines. In loosely made broadcloth he
gave the idea of a nonconformist minister--a Unitarian, judging
from the intellectuality betrayed in his countenance. To me he
was always civil and, even, genial, for he did not know that I
was a writing fellow. But to others casually met he seemed to
be invariably and intolerably rude. He could not brook
contradiction--particularly on religious topics. He was an
earnest believer. But it was in the God of Battles that he
believed. And he would be delighted at any time to prove in a
stand-up fight the honesty of his convictions. In the union of
a deep religious fervour with an overwhelming love of
fighting--sheer physical hand-to-hand fighting--he was an
interesting study. In this curious blending of what appear to
be opposite qualities he resembled General Gordon, who, by the
way, was a cousin of Dr. Gordon Hake at whose place I met
Borrow.
He was a splendid liar too. Not in the ordinary domestic
meaning of the word. But he lied largely, picturesquely, like
Baron Munchausen. That is one of the reasons that he did not
take to the literary persons whom he met at Hake's. Perhaps he
was afraid that some of them would steal his thunder, or
perhaps he had a contempt for their serious pose. But to those
whom he did not suspect of literary leanings he lied
delightfully. That fine boys' book, _The Bible in Spain_, is, I
should say, chiefly lies. I have heard him reel off adventures
as amazing as any in the Spanish reminiscences, related as
having happened on the very Common which we were crossing.
Theodore Watts, who first met Borrow at Hake's, appears to have
got on all right with him. But then Watts would get on with
anybody. Besides, the two men had a common topic in Romany
lore. But toward the literary man in general his attitude was
pretty much that of Carlyle. He was contemptuous towards those
who followed his own trade.
At one moment of the correspondence we obtain an interesting glimpse of
a great man of science. Mr. Darwin sent the following inquiry through
Dr. Hooker, afterwards Sir Joseph Hooker, and it reached Borrow through
his friend Thomas Brightwell:
Is there any Dog in Spain closely like our English Pointer, in
_shape_ and size, and _habits_,--namely in pointing, backing,
and not giving tongue. Might I be permitted to quote Mr.
Borrow's answer to the query? Has the improved English pointer
been introduced into Spain?
C. DARWIN.
[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF A COMMUNICATION FROM CHARLES DARWIN TO
GEORGE BORROW.]
Borrow took constant holidays during these Oulton days. We have
elsewhere noted his holidays in Eastern Europe, in the Isle of Man, in
Wales, and in Cornwall. Letters from other parts of England would be
welcome, but I can only find two, and these are but scraps. Both are
addressed to his wife, each without date:
To Mrs. George Borrow
OXFORD, _Feb. 2nd._
DEAR CARRETA,--I reached this place yesterday and hope to be
home to-night (Monday). I walked the whole way by Kingston,
Hampton, Sunbury (Miss Oriel's place), Windsor, Wallingford,
etc., a good part of the way was by the Thames. There has been
much wet weather. Oxford is a wonderful place. Kiss Hen., and
God bless you!
GEORGE BORROW.
To Mrs. George Borrow
TUNBRIDGE WELLS, _Tuesday evening._
DEAR CARRETA,--I have arrived here safe--it is a wonderful
place, a small city of palaces amidst hills, rocks, and woods,
and is full of fine people. Please to carry up stairs and lock
in the drawer the little paper sack of letters in the parlour;
lock it up with the bank book and put this along with it--also
be sure to keep the window of my room fastened and the door
locked, and keep the key in your pocket. God bless you and Hen.
GEORGE BORROW.
One of the very last letters of Borrow that I possess is to an unknown
correspondent. It is from a rough 'draft' in his handwriting:
OULTON, LOWESTOFT, _May 1875._
SIR,--Your letter of the eighth of March I only lately
received, otherwise I should have answered it sooner. In it you
mention Chamberlayne's work, containing versions of the Lord's
Prayer translated into a hundred languages, and ask whether I
can explain why the one which purports to be a rendering into
Waldensian is evidently made in some dialect of the Gaelic. To
such explanation as I can afford you are welcome, though
perhaps you will not deem it very satisfactory. I have been
acquainted with Chamberlayne's work for upwards of forty years.
I first saw it at St. Petersburg in 1834, and the translation
in question very soon caught my attention. I at first thought
that it was an attempt at imposition, but I soon relinquished
that idea. I remembered that Helvetia was a great place for
Gaelic. I do not mean in the old time when the Gael possessed
the greater part of Europe, but at a long subsequent period:
Switzerland was converted to Christianity by Irish monks, the
most active and efficient of whom was Gall. These people
founded schools in which together with Christianity the Irish
or Gaelic language was taught. In process of time, though the
religion flourished, the Helveto Gaelic died away, but many
pieces in that tongue survived, some of which might still
probably be found in the recesses of St. Gall. The noble abbey
is named after the venerable apostle of Christianity in
Helvetia; so I deemed it very possible that the version in
question might be one of the surviving fruits of Irish
missionary labour in Helvetia, not but that I had my doubts,
and still have, principally from observing that the language
though certainly not modern does not exhibit any decided marks
of high antiquity. It is much to be regretted that Chamberlayne
should have given the version to the world under a title so
calculated to perplex and mislead as that which it bears, and
without even stating how or where he obtained it. This, sir, is
all I have to say on the very obscure subject about which you
have done me the honour to consult me.--Yours truly,
GEORGE BORROW.
FOOTNOTES:
[185] They lived first at 169 King Street, then at two addresses
unknown, then successively at 37, 38 and 39 Camperdown Terrace, their
last address was 28 Trafalgar Place.
[186] Borrow's letters were frequently addressed to Oulton Hall, but he
never lived here. Oulton Hall was the name given to the farm house which
went with Oulton Hall Farm. 'Old inhabitants,' writes Mr. William Mackay
of Oulton Broad to me, 'remember that seventy years ago it was occupied
by Skepper, who was succeeded by Grimmer, who was succeeded by Smith.'
'I can find no one,' continues Mr. Mackay, 'who recollects old Mrs.
Borrow lodging at the farm house. But what more likely? And it was
characteristic of Borrow--don't you think?--that he should hold out
"Oulton Hall" as an address to those who were not likely to visit him.'
When Mrs. Borrow, senior, was persuaded to leave Willow Lane, Norwich,
for Oulton, her son took lodgings for her at the 'Hall,' and here she
died. Very commonplace farm houses in East Anglia are frequently called
'halls,' to the great amazement of visitors from other counties,
although there are some very noble ones, as, for example, Kirkstead,
Swineshead, Parham and Dalling.
[187] This was in reply to a letter from Mr. Harry Palmer which ran as
follows:--'When in London on Thursday I saw the captain and brothers of
several vessels bound to Gibraltar and Cadiz, and the passage money
required will be about £10. The _Warblington_ will leave to-morrow, the
latter part of next week, and should you decide upon sending your
servant I have requested Messrs. Nickols and Marshal to attend to any
communication you may make to them, who will do their utmost to get him
out at the least possible expense, and pay the passage money upon his
leaving England, and make arrangements with the captain for his passage
to Tangier. As Gibraltar would be as convenient as Cadiz, have little
doubt Messrs. Nickols and Co. would be able to get him out for £7 or £8.
I have a vessel now loading in this port for Barcelona, to which port
(if you could send him to Liverpool) should be happy to take him and
then send him forward to his destination.'
[188] _The Eastern Daily Press_, 1st October 1892. The Harveys were
great friends of Borrow, and he left one of them co-executor with Mrs.
MacOubrey of his estate. Miss Harvey's impressions make an interesting
contrast to those of Miss Frances Power Cobbe. I have to thank Mr. A.
Cozens-Hardy, the editor of _The Eastern Daily Press_, for courteously
furnishing me with copies of these letters, and for giving me permission
to use them here.
[189] _The Poems of A. C. Benson_, p. 213: Published by John Lane, 1909.
[190] Dr. Knapp's _Life_, vol. ii, p. 41.
[191] _The Athenæum_, July 8, 1893. Dr. Jessopp's feeling for Borrow was
much more kindly then than when he supplied to the London _Daily
Chronicle_ of 30th April 1900 an article which had better not have been
written.
[192] Letter to _The Athenæum_, July 22, 1893.