Nantes, Edict of, Borrow’s ancestors driven from France by Revocation of, 14, 39
Napier, Admiral Sir C., 130
— Col. E., 81; interesting account of Borrow by, 130–34
Nelson, Lord, a pupil of Norwich Grammar School, 45
Newgate Calendar, edited by Borrow, 67, 68
Newgate Lives and Trials, Borrow’s work on, 59
Newman, Cardinal, influenced towards Roman Catholicism by Scott, 224
New Monthly Magazine,The, 74
Ney, Marshal, trial of, included in Borrow’s volumes, 67
Nicholas, Thomas, 192
Norfolk, Duke of, 56
Nore, mutiny at the, 16
Norfolk Chronicle, missionary speech of Borrow referred to in, 110
Norman Cross, French prisoners at, 10, 30; Borrow’s memories of, 27–30
Norvicensian, William Drake’s notice in, 50
Norwich, 36, 54, 86; Borrow’s description of, 51, 52; satirised by Borrow, 61
O’Connell,Daniel, Borrow’s desire to see, 205
Oliver, Tom, pugilist, 76
Once a Week, Borrow contributes to, 248
Opie, Mrs., 37
Oracle,The, quoted, 76
Orford, Col. Lord, 23
Orgaz, Count of, Domenico’s picture of, 119
Overend and Gurney, banking firm, 37, 38
Owen, Goronwy, Borrow’s favourite Welsh bard, 242, 243
Pahlin, 136
Painter, Edward, pugilist, 76
Palgrave, R. H. I., letters to Mrs. MacOubrey from, 265
Palmer, Professor E. H., gypsy scholar, 151
Park, Mr. Justice, 72
Parker, Archbishop, descent of Thomas King from, 16
Paterson, John, work of, for Bible Society in Russia, 92
Pennell, Mrs. Elizabeth Robins, her biography of Leland, quoted, 159
Perfrement, Mary, grandmother of Borrow, 8, 14
— Samuel, grandfather of Borrow, 8, 14
Peter Schlemihl, translated by Bowring, 83
Petrie, George, correspondence of Borrow with, 218, 219
Phillips, Lady, 57
— Sir Richard, 23, 43, 59; early days of, 55–56; imprisonment of, 56; relations of, with Borrow, 57–59
Picts, the, Borrow on, 218, 219
Pilgrim, John, Borrow’s visits to, 258
Pischel, Professor Richard, criticises Borrow’s etymologies, 223
Pott, Dr. A. F., gypsy scholar, 151
Prayer Book and Homily Society, Borrow’s correspondence with, 107, 108
Prize-fighting, Borrow’s taste for, 13, 52, 74–77
Probert, witness against Thurtell, 71
Prothero, Rowland E., 161
Purland, Francis, companion of Borrow in schoolboy escapade, 46
— Theodosius, 46
Pushkin, Alexander, Russian poet, translated by Borrow, 109
Quarterly Review,The, review ofLavengroin, 186; ofRomany Ryein, 225
Rackham,Tom, 50
Rackhams, the, 66
Raising of Lazarus, picture by Haydon, 21
Ratisbon, Borrow at, 169; Dean of, 170
Reay, Martha, murdered by Hackman, 69
Reeve, Henry, 39
Res Judicatæ, by Augustine Birrell, 269
Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 68
Richmond, Legh, connection of, with Bible Society, 92
Rights of Man, Phillips charged with selling, 56
Ritson, Mrs., 119, 125
Robbards, J. W., writes memoir of William Taylor, 40
Romano Lavo-Lil, reviews of, 151, 152
Romantic Ballads, translation from the Danish by Borrow, 64–67, 82
Romany Rye,The, 199; appreciations of, 148, 149, 152, 226, 230; autobiographical nature of, 185, 188; Borrow embittered by failure of, 225; characters in, 223; defects of Appendix, 223, 224; identification of localities of, 223; philological criticism of, 223; preparation of manuscript of, 222; quoted, 116; reviews of, 225, 226
Ross, Janet,Three Generations of Englishwomen, 39
Rowe, Quartermaster, 16
Rubáiyát, Fitzgerald’s paraphrase, 227; quoted in original and translated, 229; Tennyson’s eulogy of, 231
St. Petersburg, Borrow in, 97–109
San Tomé, 119
Sampson, John, eminent gypsy expert—extraordinary suggestion of, regarding Borrow, 223; criticises Borrow’s etymologies, 223
Sayers, Dr., 40
Scott, Sir Walter, 42; Borrow’s prejudice against, 18, 223; influence of, on J. H. Newman, 224; Taylor’s influence on, 40; writings of, admired by Borrow, 223
Servian Popular Poetry, by Bowring, 82
Seville described, 124
Sharp, Granville, connection with Bible Society of, 91
Shorter, C. K.,The Brontës, 269
Sidney, Algernon, trial of, included in Borrow’s volumes, 68
Sierraina de Ronda, 124
Sigerson, Dr., Irish scholar, 34
Simeon, Charles, connection with Bible Society of, 92
Simpson, William, Borrow articled to, 50, 51; described by Borrow, 50, 51
Skepper, Anne, 93, 140, 142
— Breame, 93
— Edmund, 93, 142
Sleeping Bard,The, translation by Borrow, 80; refused by publishers, 208
Smiles, Samuel, on publication ofThe Zincali, 147
Smith, Ambrose, the Jasper Petulengro ofLavengro, 28–30
— Fäden, 29
— Thomas, 30
Songs from Scandinavia, translation by Borrow, 80
Songs of Scotland, by Allan Cunningham, Borrow’s appreciation of, 64
Southey, Robert, affection of, for William Taylor, 40; on death of Taylor, 42
Spectator,The, point of view of criticism of Borrow of, 270; reviewsWild Wales, 236
Spencer quoted, 118
State Trials, 67, 68
Stephen, Sir J. Fitzjames, 141
— Sir Leslie, 59
Stevenson, R. L., perfunctory references to Borrow in writings of, 270
Strasbourg, 169
Struensee, Count, trial of, included in Borrow’s volumes, 67
Sussex, Duke of, 40
Swan, Rev. William, 102
Targum, translation by Borrow, 195; high praise of, 99, 108, 109
Taylor, Anne, describes Borrow’s appearance, 192
— Baron, Borrow’s meeting with, 136
— Dr. John, 39
— John, 39
— Mrs. John, 37; Basil Montague on, 40
— Richard, 39
— Robert, 192
— Tom, author ofLife of B. R. Haydon, 21, 22
Taylor, William, 37, 44; dialogue inLavengrobetween Borrow and, 11; gives Borrow lessons in German, 51; gives Borrow introductions to Phillips and Campbell, 52; his love of paradox, 47; influence of, on Borrow, 40; Harriet Martineau on, 40; his friends and literary work, 40–42; correspondence with Southey, 41; his testimony to Borrow’s knowledge of German, 60
Taylors, the, at Norwich, 37, 39–43
Tennyson on enthusiasm forLycidas, 185; his eulogy of FitzGerald’s translation of theRubáiyát, 231
Thackeray, W. M., Borrow’s attitude towards, 224, 252; on Edward FitzGerald, 228
Thompson, W. H., 231
Three Generations of English women, by Janet Ross, 39
Thurtell, Alderman, 71, 73
— John, 52, 66; trial of—glimpses of, in Borrow’s books, 69–73; great authors who have commented on crime of, 69, 70
Timbs, John, 66
Toledo described, 118, 119
Treve, Captain, 16
Turner, Dawson, 157, 185
Twelve Essays on the Phenomena of Nature, Phillips anxious to produce in a German dress, 57
Twelve Essays on the Proximate Causes, Borrow unable to translate into German—published in German, 58
Universal Review,The, 58, 59; Borrow’s work on, 58
Upcher, A. W., contributes reminiscences of Borrow to theAthenæum, 204
Usóz y Rio, Don Luis de, letters from, to Borrow, 134–36
Utting, Mr., 172
Valpy,Rev. E., Borrow’s schoolmaster—story of Borrow being flogged by, 46–49
Venning, John, work of, in Russia—befriends Borrow, 95
Victoria, Queen, visits gypsy encampment, 29
Vidocq, memoirs of, translated by Borrow, 80
Vienna described, 170
Wahrheit und Dichtung, opening lines of, compared with those ofLavengro, 7
Walpole, Horace, on Mr. Fenn, 26
Watts-Dunton, Theodore, criticism of Borrow’s work, 251; on intimacy between Borrow and Hake, 250, 251; introduction toLavengroby, 269
Weare pamphlets, 71
— William, murder of, 71
Westminster Review, 82
Whewell, Dr., 188
Wilberforce, William, connection of, with Bible Society, 91
Wilcock, Rev. J., his impressions of Borrow, 220
Wild Wales, 9, 143, 246, 255; appreciations of, 233, 236, 238, 239; comparative failure of, 239; comparison of, with Borrow’s three other great works, 242; high spirits of 243; Lope de Vega’s ghost story referred to in, 237; reviews of, 236; time taken to write, 236
Wilhelm Meister, quoted, 91
William Bodham Donne and his Friends, Borrow described in, 233, 234
Williams, J. Evan, letter from Borrow to, on similarity of some Sclavonian and Welsh words, 237, 238
Woodhouses, the, 66
Wordsworth, Borrow’s estimate of, 224
Wormius, Olaus, 51
Wright, Dr. Aldis, 231
Zincali,The, work by Borrow, 29; criticisms of, 147, 148; number of copies of, sold, 158; editions of, issued, 147
The Temple PressLetchworthENGLAND
[11a]Lavengro, ch. xiv.
[11b]Ibid., ch. xxiii.
[15]Lavengro, ch. xxxvii.
[20]Lavengro, ch. xxv.
[21]Life of B. R. Haydon, by Tom Taylor, 1853, vol. ii. p. 21.
[22]Benjamin Robert Haydon:Correspondence and Table Talk, with a Memoir by his son, Frederic Wordsworth Haydon, vol. i. pp. 360–1.
[33a]The Bible in Spain, ch. xx.
[33b]Dr. Johnson was the first as Borrow was the second to earn this distinction. Johnson, as reported by Boswell, says:
“I have long wished that the Irish literature were cultivated.Ireland is known by tradition to have been once the seat of piety and learning,and surely it would be very acceptable to all those who are curious on the origin of nations or the affinities of languages to be further informed of the evolution of a people so ancient and once so illustrious.I hope that you will continue to cultivate this kind of learning which has too long been neglected,and which,if it be suffered to remain in oblivion for another century,may perhaps never be retrieved.”
“I have long wished that the Irish literature were cultivated.Ireland is known by tradition to have been once the seat of piety and learning,and surely it would be very acceptable to all those who are curious on the origin of nations or the affinities of languages to be further informed of the evolution of a people so ancient and once so illustrious.I hope that you will continue to cultivate this kind of learning which has too long been neglected,and which,if it be suffered to remain in oblivion for another century,may perhaps never be retrieved.”
[34]Lavengro.
[39]Three Generations of Englishwomen, by Janet Ross, vol. i. p. 3.
[42]Reprinted in Carlyle’sMiscellanies.
[47]This is a contemptuous reference in Martineau’s own words to “George Borrow, the writer and actor of romance.”
[49]Life of Frances Power Cobbe as told by Herself, ch. xvii.
[50]Norvicensian, 1888, p. 177.
[51]TheBritannianewspaper, 26th June, 1851.
[54]Mr. C. F. Martelli of Staple Inn, London, who has so generously placed this information at my disposal. Mr. Martelli writes:
“Old memories brought him to our office for professional advice, and there I saw something of him, and a very striking personality he was, and a rather difficult client to do business with. One peculiarity I remember was that he believed himself to be plagued by autograph hunters, and was reluctant to trust our firm with his signature in any shape or form, and that we in consequence had some trouble in inducing him to sign his will. I have seen him sitting over my fire in my room at that office for hours, half asleep, and crooning out Romany songs while waiting for my chief.”
“Old memories brought him to our office for professional advice, and there I saw something of him, and a very striking personality he was, and a rather difficult client to do business with. One peculiarity I remember was that he believed himself to be plagued by autograph hunters, and was reluctant to trust our firm with his signature in any shape or form, and that we in consequence had some trouble in inducing him to sign his will. I have seen him sitting over my fire in my room at that office for hours, half asleep, and crooning out Romany songs while waiting for my chief.”
[58]InLavengro.
[62]Life and Death of Faustus, p. 59.
[67a]Celebrated Trials and Remarkable Cases of Criminal Jurisprudence from the Earliest Records to the Year1825. In six volumes. London: Printed for Geo. Knight & Lacey, Paternoster Row, 1825. Price £3 12 s. in boards.
[67b]The New and Complete Newgate Calendar or Malefactors Recording Register. By William Jackson. Six vols. 1802.
[67c]Cobbett and Howell’sState Trials. In thirty-three volumes and index, 1809 to 1828. The last volume, apart from the index, was actually published the year after Borrow’sCelebrated Trials, that is, in 1826; but the last trial recorded was that of Thistlewood in 1820. The editors were William Cobbett, Thomas Bayly Howell, and his son, Thomas Jones Howell.
[70]Another witness attained fame by her answer to the inquiry, “Was supper postponed?” with the reply, “No, it was pork.”
[79]Only thus can we explain Borrow’s later declaration that he hadfourtimes been in prison.
[80a]Memoirs of Vidocq,Principal Agent of the French Police until1827,and now proprietor of the paper manufactory at St. Mandé. Written by himself. Translated from the French. In Four Volumes. London: Whittaker, Treacher and Arnot, Ave Maria Lane, 1829.
[80b]This with other documents I have presented to the Borrow Museum, Norwich.
[80c]In 1830 Borrow had another disappointment. He translatedThe Sleeping Bardfrom the Welsh. This also failed to find a publisher. It was issued in 1860, under which date we discuss it.
[91a]Keep not standing, fixed and rooted,Briskly venture, briskly roam:Head and hand, where’er thou foot it,And stout heart, are still at home.In each land the sun does visit:We are gay whate’er betide.To give room for wandering is it,That the world was made so wide.(Carlyle’s translation.)
[91a]Keep not standing, fixed and rooted,Briskly venture, briskly roam:Head and hand, where’er thou foot it,And stout heart, are still at home.In each land the sun does visit:We are gay whate’er betide.To give room for wandering is it,That the world was made so wide.
(Carlyle’s translation.)
[91b]Through the will of his stepdaughter, Henrietta MacOubrey.
[92]Canton’sHistory of the Bible Society, vol. i. 195.
[102]Letters of George Borrow to the British and Foreign Bible Society, published by Direction of the Committee. Edited by T. H. Darlow. Hodder and Stoughton, 1911. The Russian Correspondence occupies pages 1–97.
[103a]Darlow:Letters to the Bible Society, p. 32.
[103b]Ibid., p. 47.
[103c]Ibid., pp. 60, 61.
[104]Mr. Glen.
[105]Darlow:Letters to the Bible Society, p. 96.
[106]Darlow:Letters to the Bible Society, p. 65.
[107]Darlow:Letters to the Bible Society, p. 81.
[110]Norfolk Chronicle, 17th October, 1835.
[113]When in Madrid in May, 1913, I called upon Mr. William Summers, the courteous Secretary of the Madrid Branch of the British and Foreign Bible Society in the Flor Alta. Mr. Summers informs me that the issues of the British and Foreign Bible Society, Bibles and Testaments, in Spain for the years 1910–12 are as follows:
Year.
Bibles.
Testaments.
Portions.
Total.
1910
5,309
8,971
70,594
84,874
1911
5,665
11,481
79,525
96,671
1912
9,083
11,842
85,024
105,949
The Calle del Principe is now rapidly being pulled down and new buildings taking the place of those Borrow knew.
[145a]The following suggestion has, however, been made to me by a friend of Henrietta MacOubrey,néeClarke:
“I think Borrow intended ‘Carreta’ for ‘dearest.’ It is impossible to think that he would call his wife a ‘cart.’ Perhaps he intended ‘Carreta’ for ‘Querida.’ Probably their pronunciation was not Castillian, and they spelled the word as they pronounced it. In speaking of her to ‘Hen.’ Borrow always called her ‘Mamma.’ Mrs. MacOubrey took a great fancy to me because she said I was like ‘Mamma.’ She meant in character, not in person.”
“I think Borrow intended ‘Carreta’ for ‘dearest.’ It is impossible to think that he would call his wife a ‘cart.’ Perhaps he intended ‘Carreta’ for ‘Querida.’ Probably their pronunciation was not Castillian, and they spelled the word as they pronounced it. In speaking of her to ‘Hen.’ Borrow always called her ‘Mamma.’ Mrs. MacOubrey took a great fancy to me because she said I was like ‘Mamma.’ She meant in character, not in person.”
[148]Knapp’sLife, vol. i. p. 378.
[151]The Academy, 13th June, 1874.
[155]This was Miss Catherine Gurney, who was born in 1776, in Magdalen Street, Norwich, and died at Lowestoft in 1850, aged seventy-five. She twice presided over the Earlham home. The brother referred to was Joseph John Gurney.
[159]4750 copies were sold in the three volume form in 1843, and a sixth and cheaper edition the same year sold 9000 copies.
[164]The Times, 12th April, 1843.
[197]The whole of this diary will be issued in my edition ofThe Collected Works. It has appeared, with my permission, in the Manx Folk Lore Magazine,Mannin, November, 1914.
[199]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.
[229]I am indebted to Mr. Edward Heron-Allen for the information that this is the original of the last verse but one in FitzGerald’s first version of theRubáiyát:
r 74.Ah Moon of my Delight, who knowest no wane,The Moon of Heaven is rising once again,How oft, hereafter rising, shall she lookThrough this same Garden after me—in vain.
r 74.
Ah Moon of my Delight, who knowest no wane,The Moon of Heaven is rising once again,How oft, hereafter rising, shall she lookThrough this same Garden after me—in vain.
[255]Henrietta’s guitar is now in my possession and is a very handsome instrument.
[256]Henrietta MacOubrey put every difficulty in the way of Dr. Knapp, and I hold many letters from her strongly denouncing hisLife.
[268]A word that is very misleading, as no writer was ever so little the founder of a school.
[269a]Although this fact was not known until 1908 when I publishedThe Brontës:Life and Letters. See vol. ii. p. 24, where Charlotte Brontë writes: “In George Borrow’s works I found a wild fascination, a vivid graphic power of description, a fresh originality, an athletic simplicity, which give them a stamp of their own.”
[269b]Theodore Watts-Dunton, Augustine Birrell and Francis Hindes Groome. Lionel Johnson’s essay on Borrow is the more valuable in its enthusiasm in that it was written by a Roman Catholic. Writing in theOutlook(1st April, 1899) he said:
“What the four books mean and are to their lovers is upon this sort. Written by a man of intense personality, irresistible in his hold upon your attention, they take you far afield from weary cares and business into the enamouring airs of the open world, and into days when the countryside was uncontaminated by the vulgar conventions which form the worst side of ‘civilised’ life in cities. They give you the sense of emancipation, of manumission into the liberty of the winding road and fragrant forest, into the freshness of an ancient country-life, into amilieuwhere men are not copies of each other. And you fall in with strange scenes of adventure, great or small, of which a strange man is the centre as he is the scribe; and from a description of a lonely glen you are plunged into a dissertation upon difficult old tongues, and from dejection into laughter, and from gypsydom into journalism, and everything is equally delightful, and nothing that the strange man shows you can come amiss. And you will hardly make up your mind whether he is most Don Quixote, or Rousseau, or Luther, or Defoe; but you will always love these books by a brave man who travelled in far lands, travelled far in his own land, travelled the way of life for close upon eighty years, and died in perfect solitude. And this will be the least you can say, though he would not have you say it—Requiescat in pace Viator.”
“What the four books mean and are to their lovers is upon this sort. Written by a man of intense personality, irresistible in his hold upon your attention, they take you far afield from weary cares and business into the enamouring airs of the open world, and into days when the countryside was uncontaminated by the vulgar conventions which form the worst side of ‘civilised’ life in cities. They give you the sense of emancipation, of manumission into the liberty of the winding road and fragrant forest, into the freshness of an ancient country-life, into amilieuwhere men are not copies of each other. And you fall in with strange scenes of adventure, great or small, of which a strange man is the centre as he is the scribe; and from a description of a lonely glen you are plunged into a dissertation upon difficult old tongues, and from dejection into laughter, and from gypsydom into journalism, and everything is equally delightful, and nothing that the strange man shows you can come amiss. And you will hardly make up your mind whether he is most Don Quixote, or Rousseau, or Luther, or Defoe; but you will always love these books by a brave man who travelled in far lands, travelled far in his own land, travelled the way of life for close upon eighty years, and died in perfect solitude. And this will be the least you can say, though he would not have you say it—Requiescat in pace Viator.”
[269c]InRes Judicatæ, 1892 (a paper reprinted fromThe Reflector, 8th January, 1888), in his introduction toLavengro(Macmillan, 1900), in an essay entitled “The Office of Literature,” in the second series ofObiter Dicta, and in an address at Norwich, on 5th July, 1913, reprinted in full in theEastern Daily Pressof 7th July, 1913.
[270a]There are but three references to Borrow in Stevenson’s writings, all of them perfunctory. These are inMemories and Portraits(“A Gossip on a Novel of Dumas’”), inFamiliar Studies of Men and Books(“Some Aspects of Robert Burns”), and inThe Ideal House.
[270b]The Spectator, 12th July, 1913.