Souvenir of the George Borrow Celebration | Page 4

invited the lad
into their tent: "Don't be angry, and say no; but look kindly upon us,
and satisfied, my precious little God Almighty."
They had taken him for a goblin, but when he explained that he was not
"one of them there," the man said, "You are a sap-engro, a chap who
catches snakes, and plays tricks with them." Then, when the boy
proceeded to read them a bit of "Robinson Crusoe," it was voted that it
"beat the rubricals hollow." Next followed the momentous meeting
with Ambrose Smith--the Jasper Petulengro of Borrow's pages--and, as
the band of gypsies were departing, Jasper, turning round, leered into
the little Gorgio's face, held out his hand, and said, "Goodbye, Sap, I
daresay we shall meet again; remember we are brothers, two gentle
brothers." Gazing after the retreating company, the sap-engro said to
himself, "A strange set of people, I wonder who they can be." Such was
Borrow's first introduction to the Romany folk.
From July, 1811, to July, 1814, the Borrows led a nomadic life, yet at
each tarrying-place Captain Borrow sent his sons to the best school
available, and George, in these three years' travelling with the regiment,
acquired Lilly's Latin Grammar by heart. A Dereham schoolmaster had
assured Captain Borrow that "there is but one good school book in the
world--the one I use in my seminary--Lilly's Latin Grammar." There is,
it may be added, good evidence that Shakespeare was taught out of this
venerable work.

Early in 1813 our interesting family were in Edinburgh, where the
Borrow boys were sent to the celebrated High School, and George
entered with zest into the faction fights between the Auld and the New
Toon. More, and better than this, he picked up just such a wild
character as fitted in with his romantic scheme of things. This was
David Haggart, son of a gamekeeper and guilty of nearly every crime in
the Statute Book under various aliases--John Wilson, John Morrison,
John McColgan, David O'Brien, and "The Switcher." Haggart enlisted
as a drummer-boy in Captain Borrow's recruiting-party at Leith Races
in July, 1813, being then just twelve years old; but soon tiring of
discipline and scanty pay, obtained his discharge, soon after embarking
on a career of crime which culminated in his well-deserved hanging at
Edinburgh in 1821, at the age of twenty.
[Picture: Crown and Angel, St. Stephen's. From Drawing by Mr. H. W.
Tuck]
In June, 1814, the West Norfolk Regiment was ordered south; some
went by sea, those who preferred by land. Captain Borrow chose the
latter, and on July 18th his division entered Norwich, and the Earl of
Orford, colonel of the regiment, entertained the officers and their
friends at the Maid's Head Hotel. At this time Captain Borrow and his
family went to lodge at the Crown and Angel, an ancient hostelry in St.
Stephen's Street. From that convenient centre, the recruiting-parties
under Captain Borrow were very successful in obtaining men, by beat
of drum instead of by ballot, as had previously been the practice. But
troubles arose in Ireland, and in August, 1815, the West Norfolks were
again on the move. They found themselves at Cork early in September,
and marched on to Clonmel.
During their short interval at Norwich, George went to the Grammar
School, and his brother studied painting with "Old Crome."
[Picture: The Grammar School]
Captain Borrow commanded a division, and George walked by his side,
holding the stirrup-leather of his horse, while John Thomas Borrow,
gazetted ensign in May and lieutenant in December, was in his place in

the regiment. At Clonmel the Borrows lodged with a handsome athletic
man and his wife, who enthusiastically welcomed them. "I have made
bold to bring up a bottle of claret," said the Orangeman, ". . . and when
your honour and your family have dined, I will make bold too to bring
up Mistress Hyne from Londonderry, to introduce to your honour's lady,
and then we'll drink to the health of King George, God bless him; to the
'glorious and immortal'--to Boyne water--to your honour's speedy
promotion to be Lord-Lieutenant."
Here at Clonmel our hero "read the Latin tongue and the Greek letters
with a nice old clergyman, who sat behind a black oaken desk, with a
huge Elzevir Flaccus before him." "Here," says Borrow, "I was in the
habit of sitting on a large stone, before the roaring fire in the huge open
chimney, and entertaining certain of the Protestant young gentlemen of
my own age . . . with extraordinary accounts of my own adventures and
those of the corps, with an occasional anecdote extracted from the
story-books of Hickathrift and Wight Wallace, pretending to be
conning the lesson all the while." Borrow calls Hickathrift his
countryman; the legend is that Tom Hickathrift ridded