George Borrow and His Circle

Borrow and His Circle, by
Clement King Shorter

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Title: George Borrow and His Circle Wherein May Be Found Many
Hitherto Unpublished Letters Of Borrow And His Friends
Author: Clement King Shorter
Release Date: November 12, 2006 [EBook #19767]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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BORROW AND HIS CIRCLE ***

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[Illustration: George Henry Borrow

From a painting by Henry Wyndham Phillips]

GEORGE BORROW
AND HIS CIRCLE
WHEREIN MAY BE FOUND MANY HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED
LETTERS OF BORROW AND HIS FRIENDS
BY
CLEMENT KING SHORTER
BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
1913
TO
AUGUSTINE BIRRELL
A FRIEND OF LONG YEARS AND A TRUE
LOVER OF GEORGE BORROW
C. K. S.

Transcriber's Notes: Minor typos have been corrected. A letter with a
macron over it has been designated with a [=], for example [=a] is an a
with a macron over it. There is Persian and Russian writing in this book,
which have been marked as [Persian] or as [Russian]. V^{m} signifies
that the m is a superscript.

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, v
INTRODUCTION, xv
CHAPTER I
CAPTAIN BORROW OF THE WEST NORFOLK MILITIA, 1

CHAPTER II
BORROW'S MOTHER, 12
CHAPTER III
JOHN THOMAS BORROW, 18
CHAPTER IV
A WANDERING CHILDHOOD, 36
CHAPTER V
GEORGE BORROW'S NORWICH--THE GURNEYS, 54
CHAPTER VI
GEORGE BORROW'S NORWICH--THE TAYLORS, 63
CHAPTER VII
GEORGE BORROW'S NORWICH--THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL, 70
CHAPTER VIII
GEORGE BORROW'S NORWICH--THE LAWYER'S OFFICE, 79
CHAPTER IX
SIR RICHARD PHILLIPS, 87
CHAPTER X
'FAUSTUS' AND 'ROMANTIC BALLADS,' 101
CHAPTER XI

'CELEBRATED TRIALS' AND JOHN THURTELL, 112
CHAPTER XII
BORROW AND THE FANCY, 126
CHAPTER XIII
EIGHT YEARS OF VAGABONDAGE, 133
CHAPTER XIV
SIR JOHN BOWRING, 138
CHAPTER XV
BORROW AND THE BIBLE SOCIETY, 153
CHAPTER XVI
ST. PETERSBURG AND JOHN P. HASFELD, 162
CHAPTER XVII
THE MANCHU BIBLE--'TARGUM'--'THE TALISMAN,' 169
CHAPTER XVII
THREE VISITS TO SPAIN, 179
CHAPTER XIX
BORROW'S SPANISH CIRCLE, 201
CHAPTER XX
MARY BORROW, 215

CHAPTER XXI
'THE CHILDREN OF THE OPEN AIR,' 226
CHAPTER XXII
'THE BIBLE IN SPAIN,' 237
CHAPTER XXIII
RICHARD FORD, 248
CHAPTER XXIV
IN EASTERN EUROPE, 260
CHAPTER XXV
'LAVENGRO,' 275
CHAPTER XXVI
A VISIT TO CORNISH KINSMEN, 289
CHAPTER XXVII
IN THE ISLE OF MAN, 296
CHAPTER XXVIII
OULTON BROAD AND YARMOUTH, 304
CHAPTER XXIX
IN SCOTLAND AND IRELAND, 320
CHAPTER XXX

'THE ROMANY RYE,' 341
CHAPTER XXXI
EDWARD FITZGERALD, 350
CHAPTER XXXII
'WILD WALES,' 364
CHAPTER XXXIII
LIFE IN LONDON, 379
CHAPTER XXXIV
FRIENDS OF LATER YEARS, 389
CHAPTER XXXV
BORROW'S UNPUBLISHED WRITINGS, 401
CHAPTER XXXVI
HENRIETTA CLARKE, 413
CHAPTER XXXVII
THE AFTERMATH, 434
INDEX, 438

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS