George Borrow and His Circle | Page 2

FULL-PAGE PLATES

GEORGE BORROW, Frontispiece
A photogravure portrait from the painting by Henry Wyndham Phillips.
PAGE
THE BORROW HOUSE, NORWICH, 16
ROBERT HAWKES, MAYOR OF NORWICH IN 1824, 24
From the painting by Benjamin Haydon in St. Andrew's Hall, Norwich.
GEORGE BORROW, 32
From a portrait by his brother, John Thomas Borrow, in the National
Portrait Gallery, London.
THE ERPINGHAM GATE AND THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL,
NORWICH 72
WILLIAM SIMPSON, 80
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, 96
JOHN P. HASFELD IN 1835, 96
WILLIAM TAYLOR, 96
SIR RICHARD PHILLIPS, 96
THE FAMILY OF JASPER PETULENGRO, 128
WHERE BORROW LIVED IN MADRID, 192

THE CALLE DEL PRINCIPE, MADRID, 192
A HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED PORTRAIT OF GEORGE BORROW,
304
Taken in the garden of Mrs. Simms Reeve of Norwich in 1848.
OULTON COTTAGE FROM THE BROAD, 352
THE SUMMER-HOUSE, OULTON, AS IT IS TO-DAY, 352
ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT
GEORGE BORROW'S BIRTHPLACE AT DUMPLING GREEN, 35
From a Drawing by Fortunino Matania.
TITLE-PAGES OF 'TARGUM' AND 'THE TALISMAN,' 178
PORTION OF A LETTER FROM GEORGE BORROW TO THE
REV. SAMUEL BRANDRAM, 187
Written From Madrid, 13th May 1838.
FACSIMILE OF AN ACCOUNT OF GEORGE BORROW'S
EXPENSES IN SPAIN MADE OUT BY THE BIBLE SOCIETY, 190
A LETTER FROM SIR GEORGE VILLIERS, AFTERWARDS EARL
OF CLARENDON, BRITISH MINISTER TO SPAIN, TO GEORGE
BORROW, 211
MRS. BORROW'S COPY OF HER MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE, 222
AN APPLICATION FOR A BOOK IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM,
WITH BORROW'S SIGNATURE, 230
A SHEKEL, 244
TITLE-PAGE OF BASQUE TRANSLATION BY OTEIZA OF THE

GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE, 247
TITLE-PAGE OF FIRST EDITION OF ROMANY TRANSLATION
OF THE GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE, 247
TWO PAGES FROM BORROW'S CORRECTED PROOF SHEETS
OF ROMANY TRANSLATION OF THE GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE,
247
INSCRIPTIONS IN BORROW'S HANDWRITING ON HIS WIFE'S
COPIES OF 'THE BIBLE IN SPAIN' AND 'LAVENGRO,' 275
THE ORIGINAL TITLE-PAGE OF 'LAVENGRO,' 280
From the Manuscript in the possession of the Author of 'George
Borrow and his Circle.'
FACSIMILE OF THE FIRST PAGE OF 'LAVENGRO,' 282
From the Manuscript in the possession of the Author of 'George
Borrow and his Circle.'
RUNIC STONE FROM THE ISLE OF MAN, 302
FACSIMILE OF A COMMUNICATION FROM CHARLES
DARWIN TO GEORGE BORROW, 318
FACSIMILE OF A PAGE OF THE MANUSCRIPT OF 'THE
ROMANY RYE,' 346
From the Borrow Papers in the possession of the Author of 'George
Borrow and his Circle.'
'WILD WALES' IN ITS BEGINNINGS, 365
Two pages from one of George Borrow's Pocket-books with pencilled
notes made on his journey through Wales.
FACSIMILE OF THE TITLE-PAGE OF 'WILD WALES,' 368

From the original Manuscript in the possession of the Author of
'George Borrow and his Circle.'
FACSIMILE OF THE FIRST PAGE OF 'WILD WALES,' 370
From the original Manuscript in the possession of the Author of
'George Borrow and his Circle.'
FACSIMILE OF A POEM FROM 'TARGUM,' 403
A Translation from the French by George Borrow.
BORROW AS A PROFESSOR OF LANGUAGES--AN
ADVERTISEMENT, 409
A PAGE OF THE MANUSCRIPT OF BORROW'S 'SONGS OF
SCANDINAVIA'--AN UNPUBLISHED WORK, 411
A LETTER FROM BORROW TO HIS WIFE WRITTEN FROM
ROME IN HIS CONTINENTAL JOURNEY OF 1844, 418

INTRODUCTION
It is now exactly seventeen years ago since I published a volume not
dissimilar in form to this under the title of Charlotte Brontë and her
Circle. The title had then an element of novelty, Dante Gabriel
Rossetti's Dante and his Circle, at the time the only book of this
particular character, having quite another aim. There are now some
twenty or more biographies based upon a similar plan.[1] The method
has its convenience where there are earlier lives of a given writer, as
one can in this way differentiate the book from previous efforts by
making one's hero stand out among his friends. Some such apology, I
feel, is necessary, because, in these days of the multiplication of books,
every book, at least other than a work of imagination, requires ample
apology. In Charlotte Brontë and her Circle I was able to claim that,
even though following in the footsteps of Mrs. Gaskell, I had added
some four hundred new letters by Charlotte Brontë to the world's

knowledge of that interesting woman, and still more considerably
enlarged our knowledge of her sister Emily. This achievement has been
generously acknowledged, and I am most proud of the testimony of the
most accomplished of living biographers, Sir George Otto Trevelyan,
who once rendered me the following quite spontaneous tribute:
We have lately read aloud for the second time your Brontë book; let
alone private readings. It is unique in plan and excellence, and I am
greatly obliged to you for it. Apart from the pleasure of the book, the
form of it has always interested me as a