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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, Introduction, CHAPTER I CAPTAIN BORROW OF THE WEST NORFOLK MILITIA, CHAPTER II BORROW'S MOTHER, CHAPTER III JOHN THOMAS BORROW, CHAPTER IV A WANDERING CHILDHOOD, CHAPTER V GEORGE BORROW'S NORWICH—THE GURNEYS, CHAPTER VI GEORGE BORROW'S NORWICH—THE TAYLORS, CHAPTER VII GEORGE BORROW'S NORWICH—THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL, CHAPTER VIII GEORGE BORROW'S NORWICH—THE LAWYER'S OFFICE, CHAPTER IX SIR RICHARD PHILLIPS, CHAPTER X 'FAUSTUS' AND 'ROMANTIC BALLADS,' CHAPTER XI 'CELEBRATED TRIALS' AND JOHN THURTELL, CHAPTER XII BORROW AND THE FANCY, CHAPTER XIII EIGHT YEARS OF VAGABONDAGE, CHAPTER XIV SIR JOHN BOWRING, CHAPTER XV BORROW AND THE BIBLE SOCIETY, CHAPTER XVI ST. PETERSBURG AND JOHN P. HASFELD, CHAPTER XVII THE MANCHU BIBLE—'TARGUM'—'THE TALISMAN,' CHAPTER XVII THREE VISITS TO SPAIN, CHAPTER XIX BORROW'S SPANISH CIRCLE, CHAPTER XX MARY BORROW, CHAPTER XXI 'THE CHILDREN OF THE OPEN AIR,' CHAPTER XXII 'THE BIBLE IN SPAIN,' CHAPTER XXIII RICHARD FORD, CHAPTER XXIV IN EASTERN EUROPE, CHAPTER XXV 'LAVENGRO,' CHAPTER XXVI A VISIT TO CORNISH KINSMEN, CHAPTER XXVII IN THE ISLE OF MAN, CHAPTER XXVIII OULTON BROAD AND YARMOUTH, CHAPTER XXIX IN SCOTLAND AND IRELAND, CHAPTER XXX 'THE ROMANY RYE,' CHAPTER XXXI EDWARD FITZGERALD, CHAPTER XXXII 'WILD WALES,' CHAPTER XXXIII LIFE IN LONDON, CHAPTER XXXIV FRIENDS OF LATER YEARS, CHAPTER XXXV BORROW'S UNPUBLISHED WRITINGS, CHAPTER XXXVI HENRIETTA CLARKE, CHAPTER XXXVII THE AFTERMATH, INDEX,
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FULL-PAGE PLATES George Borrow, A photogravure portrait from the painting by Henry Wyndham Phillips. PAGE The Borrow House, Norwich, Robert Hawkes, Mayor of Norwich in 1824, From the painting by Benjamin Haydon in St. Andrew's Hall, Norwich. George Borrow, From a portrait by his brother, John Thomas Borrow, in the National Portrait Gallery, London. The Erpingham Gate and the Grammar School, Norwich William Simpson, 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, John P. Hasfeld in 1835, William Taylor, Sir Richard Phillips, The Family of Jasper Petulengro, Where Borrow Lived in Madrid, The Calle del Principe, Madrid, A hitherto Unpublished Portrait of George Borrow, Taken in the garden of Mrs....