Pronounced Lav’en-gro, not Lav-en’gro, the two first syllables exactly like those of lavender. Borrow meant it to stand for “word-master, philologist,” but—nomen omen—already in Grellmann (1787) latcho lavengro stood for “a liar.” On 5th July 1803, at East Dereham, Norfolk, 17 miles west-north-west of Norwich. Captain Thomas Borrow (1758-1824), the youngest of a family of eight (three daughters and five sons). Trethinnick, near St. Cleer. “In Cornwall are the best gentlemen.”—Corn. Prov. (B.) Earl of Orford. Borrow’s father rose from private to sergeant in the Coldstream Guards, and, passing in 1792 to the West Norfolk Militia, was six years later promoted adjutant with the rank of captain (Knapp, i. 7-16). Dereham. Ann Perfrement (1772-1858). They married in 1793 (Knapp, i. 16-26). John Thomas Borrow (1800-1833), ensign and lieutenant in his father’s regiment, art student under Old Crome and Benjamin Haydon, and from 1826 a mining agent in Mexico. Norwegian ells—about eight feet. (B.) Dereham. Charles Hyde Wollaston (1772-1850), vicar from 1806—my mother’s uncle. James Philo (1745-1829), an old soldier, for fifty years parish clerk. In 1810. Whittlesea Mere. In 1786 it measured 3½ miles from east to west by 2½ miles, and it was drained in 1850-51. Much such a man, perhaps a descendant, travelled East Anglia about 1866. He used to visit schools to exhibit his snakes. Better bÉngesko or beng’s, devil’s. Tiny tawny is not Romany. TÁrno means “small” or “young.” Sap, snake; sapengro, snake-charmer. Berwick-upon-Tweed. Its walls are not lofty. In 1813. South-western. Borrow and his brother seem to have been at the High School in March 1814, probably only for the one winter session. James Pillans was rector, and the four under-masters were William Ritchie, Aglionby Ross Carson (Borrow’s), George Irvine, James Gray. William Bowie; probably from Gaelic buidhe, yellow, and so not Norse at all. Northern. David Haggart (1801-21), thief, was born and hanged at Edinburgh. He enlisted as a drummer in July 1813, and killed a Dumfries turnkey in 1820. His curious Autobiography is written largely in thieves’ cant. Northern. Perhaps two hundred feet. Fifteen months. Harwich. Cork Harbour. Cork. Clonmel. Elzevirs are not generally huge. In Tipperary county, twenty miles north of Clonmel. In 1816. Norwich. Till 1886 a prison, and now a museum. A square Norman keep. The tower is Norman, the spire Decorated, 215 feet high. The Bishop’s Bridge (1295) over the Wensum. Horatio, Viscount Nelson (1758-1805), was born at Burnham-Thorpe Rectory, Norfolk, near Wells. Borrow clean omits his two years (1816-18) at Norwich Grammar School, under Edward Valpy (1764-1832), headmaster 1810-29. This was probably because, horsed on James Martineau’s back, he was flogged for running away to turn smuggler or freebooter. Sir James Brooke was another schoolfellow. The Rev. Thomas D’Éterville, a Norman ÉmigrÉ. The Yare. Earlham Hall. Joseph John Gurney (1788-1847), Quaker banker of Norwich, and philanthropist, a brother of Mrs. Fry. See A. J. C. Hare’s The Gurneys of Earlham (2 vols., 1895). Tombland Fair, on Norwich Castle Hill, the day before Good Friday. Cf. Introduction, p. xxv. Snake-charmer. Monschold (pron. Muzzle) Heath, near Norwich. Better TÁrno TÍkno, little baby. PetulÉngro, farrier, the esoteric Romany name of the Smith family. It is derived from the Modern Greek pÉtalon, horse-shoe, if that, indeed, is not borrowed from the Romany. Truth, brother. Book.
Hill. Passing bad money. Gypsies. Better gaÚjoes, non-Gypsies or Gentiles. Yes. Magistrate of the town. Child. In the town, telling fortunes. House. Going. In Vol. i. p. 320 of Etymologicon Universale (3 vols., 1822-25), by the Rev. Walter Whiter (1758-1832), from 1797 rector of Hardingham, near Wymondham, occurs this suggestion: “It will perhaps be discovered by some future inquirer that from a horde of vagrant Gipseys once issued that band of sturdy robbers, the companions of Romulus and of Remus, who laid the foundations of the Eternal City on the banks of the Tibur.” This sounds truly Borrovian; and scattered through the amazing Etymologicon are twenty-six Romany words, very correctly spelt, which I used to think Whiter must have learnt from George Borrow. But there are words that Borrow does not seem to have known—poshe, near; kam, sun; ria, sir (vocative), and petalles, horse-shoe (accusative). Whiter appears to have known Romany better than Borrow. Borrow certainly meant to write a good deal about Whiter, for in a letter to John Murray of 1st December 1842 he sketches Lavengro: “Capital subject—early life; studies and adventures; some account of my father, William Taylor, Whiter, Big Ben, etc. etc.” (Knapp, ii. 5). But he barely mentions Whiter in chap. xxiv. of Lavengro. In the Gypsy Lore Journal (i. 1888, pp. 102-4) I had an article on Whiter. That on Whiter by Mr. Courtney, in vol. lxi. of the Dictionary of National Biography (1900), shows that he was writing on the Gypsy language in 1800 and 1811. Fighter. Husband. Gentleman. London. Song. Borrow’s Wild Wales gives a full account of his Welsh studies at this period. He was articled on 30th March 1819 to Messrs. Simpson & Rackham solicitors, for five years. Klopstock. (B.) John Crome, “Old Crome” (1768-1811), the great landscape-painter of the “Norwich School.” Lodowick Muggleton (1609-98), a London Puritan tailor, founded his sect about 1651. William Taylor (1765-1836), “of Norwich,” introduced German literature to English readers, and corresponded with Southey, Scott, Godwin, etc. He seems to have made an infidel of Borrow by 1824 (Knapp, ii. 261-2). See Life of Taylor by Robberds (1843). Samuel Parr (1747-1825). See note on p. 169. John Thurtell (c. 1791-1824), the son of a Norwich alderman, was hanged at Hertford for the brutal murder in Gill’s Hill Lane of a fellow-swindler, William Weare. He figures also in Hazlitt’s “Prize-fight,” and Sir Walter Scott visited the scene of Weare’s murder. Spinoza. Rather shaky Romany. Chivios and rovel should be chÍdo si and rovÉnna. Enough. Absolutely meaningless to any English Gypsy that ever walked. Borrow seems to have fancied it was Hungarian Romany, but it isn’t. Anglo-Hanoverian victory over the French, 1759. 2nd April 1824. Sir Richard Phillips (1767-1840), schoolmaster, hosier, stationer, publisher, author, Radical, vegetarian, etc., removed from Leicester to London in 1795, was knighted in 1808, and finally retired to Brighton. By the Rev. Legh Richmond (1772-1827). Elizabeth Wallbridge, the dairyman’s daughter, is buried at Arreton, in the Isle of Wight; and 2,000,000 copies of the tract, which was written in 1809, are said to have been sold in the author’s lifetime. The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the famous Moll Flanders, by Daniel Defoe, appeared on 27th January 1722. Quite incredible. Norwich had its own papers. By Prof. Knapp identified with William Gifford (1757-1826), translator of Juvenal, editor of the Anti-Jacobin, the Quarterly Review, etc.; but Mr. Leslie Stephen argues, in Literature (April 8, 1899, p. 375), that Gifford was then a rich bachelor with a sinecure of £1000 a year, and that a much likelier identification is with John Carey (1756-1826), the “Gradus Carey,” who edited Quintilian in 1822, and did work for Sir Richard Phillips. Celebrated Trials (6 vols., 1825). The Universal Review, March 1824-Jan. 1825. 29th April 1824. The ex-mayor, Robert Hawkes. Benjamin Robert Haydon (1786-1846), who shot himself in his studio. George Borrow about this time suffered much from the horrors, and meditated suicide (Knapp, i. 96-98). Byron’s corpse, on its way from Missolonghi to Hucknall Church, near Newstead in Notts, was removed on Monday, 12th July 1814, from Sir Edward Knatchbull’s house in Great George Street, Westminster, at 11 a.m. John Murray (1778-1843), publisher, the second of the name, the first of Albemarle Street. TÁrno means simply “young” or “little.” Romantic Ballads, translated from the Danish, and Miscellaneous Pieces, by George Borrow, did appear in Norwich in 1826.
