The Romany Rye | Page 3

in
correspondence (as Dr. Knapp's book shows) and my impression of
Borrow is exactly the contrary of that which it would be if he in the
least resembled Dr. Jessopp's description of him. At that time George
was in the nursery and I was a child. He took a wonderfully kind
interest in us all; * * * * * * * * but the one he took most notice of was
George, chiefly because he was a very big, massive child. It was then
that he playfully christened him "Hales," because he said that the child
would develop into a second "Norfolk giant." You will remember that
he always addressed George by that pet name. But what do you think of
Dr. Jessopp's saying that Borrow's voice was not that of a man? You
yourself have spoken in some of your writings--I don't exactly
remember where and when--of the "trumpet- like clearness" of
Borrow's voice. As to his being beardless and therefore the "Narses of
Literature" it is difficult to imagine that a man of intelligence, as I
suppose Dr. Jessopp is, can really think virility depends upon the
growth of a man's whiskers, as no doubt ignorant people often do. I
should have thought that a man who knew Norfolk well would know
that it is notable for its beardless giants of great power. I really think
that, as Borrow's most intimate friend in his latest years (I mean after
my father left Roehampton for Germany), it is your duty to write
something and stand up for the dear old boy, and you are the one man
now who can defend him and do him justice. I assure you that the last
time that I ever saw him his talk was a good deal about yourself. I
remember the occasion very well; it was just outside the Bank of
England, when he was returning from one of those mysterious East-end
expeditions that you wot of: he was just partially recovering from that
sad accident which you have somewhere alluded to. As to Dr. Jessopp,
it is clear from his remarks upon a friend of Borrow's--the Rev. Mr.
John Gunn, of Norwich, that he never saw Borrow. Gunn, he says, was
of colossal frame and must have been in his youth quite an inch taller

than Borrow. And then he goes on to say that Gunn's arm was as big as
an ordinary man's thigh. Now you and I and George, are specially
competent to speak of Borrow's physical development, for we have
been with Borrow when at seventy years of age he would bathe in a
pond covered with thin ice. He then stood six feet four and his muscles
were as fully developed as those of a young man in training. If Gunn
was a more colossal man than Borrow he certainly ought to have been
put into a show. But you should read the entire article, and I wish I had
preserved it.
Yours ever affectionately, THOMAS ST. E. HAKE.
I consider this an interesting document to all Borrovians. There are
only two things in it which I have to challenge. I infer that Mr. Hake
shares the common mistake of supposing Borrow to have been an East
Anglian. Not that this is surprising, seeing that Borrow himself shared
the same mistake--a mistake upon which I have on a previous occasion
remarked. I have said elsewhere that one might as well call Charlotte
Bronte a Yorkshire woman as call Borrow an East Anglian. He was, of
course, no more an East Anglian than an Irishman born in London is an
Englishman. He had at bottom no East Anglian characteristics, and this
explains the Norfolk prejudice against him. He inherited nothing from
Norfolk save his accent--unless it were that love of "leg of mutton and
turnips" which Mr. Hake and I have so often seen exemplified. The
reason why Borrow was so misjudged in Norfolk was, as I have hinted
above, that the racial characteristics of the Celt and the East Anglian
clashed too severely. Yet he is a striking illustration of the way in
which the locality that has given birth to a man influences his
imagination throughout his life. His father, a Cornishman of a good
middle-class family, had been obliged, owing to a youthful escapade, to
leave his native place and enlist as a common soldier. Afterwards he
became a recruiting officer, and moved about from one part of Great
Britain and Ireland to another. It so chanced that while staying at East
Dereham, in Norfolk, he met and fell in love with a lady of French
extraction. Not one drop of East Anglian blood was in the veins of
Borrow's father, and very little in the veins of his mother. Borrow's
ancestry was pure