The Committee are indebted to numerous Borrovians for the loan of
Illustrations and Contributions of literary items to the text, to Miss C.
M. Nichols, R.E., for her charming Pen Pictures of nooks and corners of
Borrow's old home in Willow Lane, the Rev. F. W. Orde Ward for his
appreciative stanzas, and Mr. E. Peake for his Ode to the Flower, whilst
special mention must be made of Mr. A. J. Munnings' inspiring design of
George Borrow and Petulengro overlooking the City of Norwich for the
cover.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
George Borrow _Frontispiece_
Staircase doorway, Borrow's house _facing page_ 4
George Borrow's birthplace, 8
Dumpling Green, East Dereham
Plan of Dumpling Green, East 9
Dereham
Roger Kerrison 9
Crown and Angel, St. Stephen's 12
The grammar school 13
Borrow's house, Willow Lane 16
The winding river, near Norwich 17
The Yare at Earlham, near Norwich 17
The Strangers' Hall, Norwich 20
Earlham bridge 21
Bowling Green Inn 24
William Simpson 24
Tuck's Court, St. Giles 24
John Crome 25
The Windmill on Mousehold Heath 28
Ned Painter 29
Norwich castle and cattle market 32
in Borrow's time
Marshland Shales 33
A quaint corner in Borrow's house 36
William Taylor 40
George Borrow's house, Oulton, 40
near Lowestoft
George Borrow in 1848 40
George Borrow (painted by his 41
brother)
Corner of Borrow's bedroom 44
George Borrow's grave, Brompton 48
cemetery
[Picture: Staircase doorway to attic in Borrow's House/ By C. M.
Nichols, R.E.]
George Borrow.
1
Man of the Book, thou Pilgrim of the Road,
The love of travel
Drave thee on ever with pursuing goad;
Trust was thy burning light, Truth was thy load--
Sweet riddles for the weary to unravel,
Within thy breast
Glowed the pure fire of an Eternal Quest.
2
The Bible was thy chart, the open sky
Thy roof and rafter
Often, and thou didst learn night's mystery;
Learning some tale from each poor passer-by,
Some gracious secret for the grand Hereafter.
Master of lore
Occult, and wanderer on the wildest shore.
3
What country was not trodden by thy feet,
Nor bared its bosom
And fragrance to the life it leapt to greet?
From field and upland or where waters meet
Was stolen, the virgin dew, the veiled blossom.
Its native tongue
On stranger lips, in every climate hung.
4
Pursuer of shy paths, all hunted things
All creatures lonely,
Gypsy and fox and hawk with slanted wings;
These drank with thee at the same cosmic springs,
These were thy teachers and thy playmates only.
Nature gave up
To them and thee alike, her hidden cup.
5
Who brought its glory back to cloistered Wales,
And wrung their treasure
From sacred books and dim sequestered vales?
Who found the gold in haunted heights and dales,
And showed a wondering world its pride and pleasure?
Divine and strong
Stood out the altar, with its flame of song.
6
Thy bardlike power, the passion of thy thirst
For something greater,
Awoke old Cymric melodies the first;
Till all the mountains into music burst,
And their lost glory crowned the recreator.
Outpoured as wine
Thy magic words made every shade a shrine.
7
Priest of the portals into the Unknown,
Taught by no college,
And free of every fountain but thine own;
A waif, an exile, by the breezes blown
Hither and thither to fresh fields of knowledge,
That giant form,
Fearless, and still no moment, rode the storm.
8
From land to land a pilgrim, yet at home
Where'er thy journey
Thou didst a dweller in the Eternal come;
The dust thy floor, the heaven of stars thy dome,
To break a lance for Truth in some new tourney.
With Nature blent
Art thou, and the wide world thy monument.
9
Thou gypsy of all time, no lot seems strange,
No life was sterile
To that free spirit, wrought by rugged change;
Thy heart found rest in strife, and did outrange
The farthest fancy, and woo the sorest peril.
Hardships and lack
Were comrades, and the milestones on thy track.