Souvenir of the George Borrow Celebration | Page 9

periods."
Perhaps Borrow inherited from his father--the conqueror of Big Ben Brain, "whose skin was brown and dusky as that of a toad"--the love of fisticuffs which was so prominently marked in his career. It was this which led him to become the pupil in boxing of "the terrible Thurtell," executed for the murder of Weare, January 9th, 1824 (his father, Thomas Thurtell, was Sheriff of Norwich in 1815, Mayor in 1828, and died April 8th, 1846, at the good old age of eighty-one. He lived at Harford Hall Farm, Lakenham, a largish house standing back from the highway, towards the end of the Ipswich Road, on the left-hand side going from Norwich, some little distance this side of Harford Bridges in the river valley below). The celebrated chapter on "The Bruisers of England" ("Lavengro," Chap. XXVI.) has been warmly applauded by many writers as a very fine example of Borrow's style. That it undoubtedly is, but some critics were unsympathetic about pugilism, amongst them the late Rev. Whitwell Elwin, who, in the Quarterly Review (January-April, 1857), wrote: "Mr. Borrow's notions of what constitutes cant have not always been the same. In his 'Gypsies of Spain' he speaks of pugilistic combats as 'disgraceful and brutalizing exhibitions,' but in the Appendix to 'The Romany Rye' we find that he now considers such language to be cant. This is one of the cases in which second thoughts are worst." Another reviewer deprecates Borrow's glorifying attitude towards "the very worst amongst the bad, such as David Haggart and John Thurtell; and not content with turning away the edge of an instinctive condemnation of crime, actually entitles the prize-fighters, the brutality of whose profession can scarcely be exaggerated, 'the priests of an old religion.'" More recently, while advocating the Children's Bill in the House of Commons (March 24th, 1908), Mr. Shaw said that "George Borrow never did a worse service to humanity than by writing 'Lavengro,' with its glorification of vagabond life." Though one cannot acquit Borrow of inconsistency, we must remember that "The Gypsies of Spain" was written in 1840, and that he sent a notice of it to Mr. Brandram of the Bible Society in March of that year, ending his letter with the words: "I hope yet to die in the cause of my Redeemer." For my part, I am convinced that Borrow's real opinion of pugilism is contained in several passages of the Appendix to "The Romany Rye," where he justifies "his favourite pursuits, hunting after strange characters, or analysing strange words and names," and expressed the belief that he would not be refused admission to heaven because of "some inclination to put on certain gloves, not white kid, with any friend who may be inclined for a little old-English diversion, and a readiness to take a glass of ale, with plenty of malt in it, and as little hop as may well be--ale at least two years old--with the aforesaid friend when the diversion is over." He says he is "not ashamed to speak to a beggar in rags, and will associate with anybody, provided he can gratify a laudable curiosity." More emphatically still, he asks: "Can the rolls of the English aristocracy exhibit names belonging to more heroic men than those who were called respectively Pearce, Cribb, and Spring?" Both "Lavengro" and "The Romany Rye," be it noted, were written long after Borrow's association with the Bible Society had come to an end.
Those who wish to visualize in some degree the rendezvous of "the bruisers of England, men of tremendous renown," should look upon the building, once the Bowling Green Hotel, by Chapel Field Gardens. It is now an Orphan's Home, bought for that purpose for seven hundred pounds in January, 1870, but the initials "R.G." on the north wall still recall the memory of Richard Gurney, "the retired coachman with one leg," who died August 11th, 1829, aged forty-eight. The stabling still remains in use, but the bowling green now forms part of the property of the Bethel Hospital: it adjoins the theatre, and is occupied by tennis courts for the recreation of the patients. The Bowling Green Hotel in its heyday was a place of much importance; for being so close to the theatre, it was the chosen hostelry for many great theatrical stars--Mrs. Charles Kean and others. Many amusing anecdotes are told of the guests in a booklet on "Old Norfolk Inns," published by Messrs. Jarrold in 1888, but now unfortunately out of print. Borrow gives an account of the mixed assemblage at this inn, gathered for the great fight of July 17th, 1820, between Ned Painter ("Ned Flatnose"), of Norwich, and Oliver.
He is wrong about the planting of the trees in Chapel Field "at the restoration of sporting Charles," for they were planted in 1746,