Transcribed from the 1908 Cassell and Company edition by DavidPrice.
By the Same Author A A Life of Sir Cheap Edition of George CASSELL ANDCO., LTD. |
BY
R. A. J. WALLING
Author of “A SeaDog of Devon”
CASSELL AND COMPANY, LIMITED
London, Paris, New York,Toronto and Melbourne
MCMVIII
One writing of Borrow since thepublication of Dr. W. I. Knapp’s “Life, Writings, andCorrespondence of George Borrow” (Murray, 1899) must ofneed acknowledge the invaluable services conferred upon thestudent by that monumental work. Its store of documents isthe harvest of a lifetime of devoted labour, and it bridges manya yawning gulf which aforetime left the Borrovian explorerdisconsolate. In this monograph, where Dr. Knapp isdirectly quoted, the fact is generally mentioned either in thetext or by way of footnote; but it seemed fitting that thereshould be some more definite expression of my indebtedness to hisaffectionate diligence in those long and fruitful researches,which alone have made possible a consecutive story ofBorrow’s life.
An inquiry into the Cornish origin of the Borrow family, intothe circumstances of Borrow’s visit to the home of hisforbears, and of his tour in Cornwall, was responsible for theinception of the present book. The astonishing contrastbetween the Borrow of the common conception and Borrow as hereally was in the flesh and in the spirit gradually forced itselfupon me. Borrow has been popularly regarded in twolights. Many people have had a vague idea that if p. vihe was not agypsy he was “half a gypsy, or something of thesort.” More instructed opinion has acc