The Life of George Borrow | Page 9

not unfrequently
swimming." {11b} But they were all old campaigners and accepted
such adventures as incidents of a soldier's life.
At Norman Cross George made the acquaintance of an old
snake-catcher and herbalist, a circumstance which, insignificant in
itself, was to exercise a considerable influence over his whole life.

Frequently this curious pair were to be seen tramping the countryside
together; a tall, quaint figure with fur cap and gaiters carrying a
leathern bag of wriggling venom, and an eager child with eyes that now
burned with interest and intelligence--and the talk of the two was the
lore of the viper. When the snake-catcher passed out of the life of his
young disciple, he left behind him as a present a tame and fangless
viper, which George often carried with him on his walks. It was this
well-meaning and inoffensive viper that turned aside the wrath of
Gypsy Smith, {12a} and awakened in his heart a superstitious awe and
veneration for the child, the Sap-engro, who might be a goblin, but who
certainly would make a most admirable "clergyman and God
Almighty," who read from a book that contained the kind of prayers
particularly to his taste--perhaps the greatest encomium ever bestowed
upon the immortal Robinson Crusoe. Thus it came about that George
Borrow was proclaimed brother to the gypsy's son Ambrose, {12b}
who as Jasper Petulengro figures so largely in Lavengro and The
Romany Rye, and is credited with that exquisitely phrased pagan
glorification of mere existence:
"Life is sweet, brother . . . There's night and day, brother, both sweet
things; sun, moon and stars, brother, all sweet things; there's likewise
the wind on the heath. Life is very sweet, brother; who would wish to
die?" {13a}
The Borrows were nomads, permitted by God and the king to tarry not
over long in any one place. In the following July (1811) the West
Norfolks proceeded to Colchester via Norfolk, after fifteen months of
prison duty and straw-plait destroying. {13b} Captain Borrow betook
himself to East Dereham again to seek for likely recruits. In the
meantime George made his first acquaintance with that universal
specific for success in life, for correctness of conduct, for soundness of
principles--Lilly's Latin Grammar, which to learn by heart was to
acquire a virtue that defied evil. The good old pedagogue who
advocated Lilly's Latin Grammar as a remedy for all ills, would have
traced George Borrow's eventual success in life entirely to the fact that
within three years of the date that the solemn exhortation was
pronounced the boy had learned Lilly by heart, although without in the
least degree comprehending him.
Early in 1812 the regiment turned its head north, and by slow degrees,

with occasional counter marchings, continued to progress towards
Edinburgh, which was reached thirteen months later (6th April 1813).
"With drums beating, colours flying, and a long train of
baggage-waggons behind," {13c} the West Norfolk Militia wound its
way up the hill to the Castle, the adjutant's family in a chaise forming
part of the procession. There in barracks the regiment might rest itself
after long and weary marches, and the two young sons of the adjutant
be permitted to continue their studies at the High School, without the
probability that the morrow would see them on the road to somewhere
else.
Whilst at Edinburgh George met with his first experience of racial
feeling, which, under uncongenial conditions, develops into race-
hatred. He discovered that one English boy, when faced by a throng of
young Scots patriots, had best be silent as to the virtues of his own race.
He joined in and enjoyed the fights between the "Auld and the New
Toon," and incidentally acquired a Scots accent that somewhat alarmed
his loyal father, who had named him after the Hanoverian Georges.
Proving himself a good fighter, he earned the praise of his Scots
acquaintances, and a general invitation to assist them in their "bickers"
with "thae New Toon blackguards."
He loved to climb and clamber over the rocks, peeping into "all manner
of strange crypts, crannies, and recesses, where owls nestled and the
weasel brought forth her young." He would go out on all-day
excursions, enjoying the thrills of clambering up to what appeared to be
inaccessible ledges, until eventually he became an expert cragsman.
One day he came upon David Haggart {14a} sitting on the extreme
verge of a precipice, "thinking of Willie Wallace."
For fifteen months the regiment remained at Edinburgh. In the spring of
1814 the waning star of Napoleon had, to all appearances, set, and he
was on his way to his miniature kingdom, the Isle of Elba (28th April).
Europe commenced to disband its huge armies, Great Britain among
the rest. On 21st June the West Norfolks received orders to proceed to
Norwich by