George Borrow and His Circle Part 29

Very gladly would I follow Borrow more in detail through this interesting holiday by means of his diary,[183] but it would make my book too long. As he had his wife and daughter with him there are no letters by him from the island. But wherever Borrow went he met people who were interested in him, and so I find the following letter among his Papers, which he received a year after his return:

To George Borrow, Esq.

3 ALBERT TERRACE, DOUGLAS, _11 February 1856._

MY DEAR SIR,--If experience on report has made you acquainted with the nature of true Celtic indolence and procrastination you will be prepared to learn, without surprise, that your Runic stone still remains unerected.[184] In vain have I called time after time upon the clerk of Braddan--in vain have I expostulated. Nothing could I get but fair words and fair promises. First he was very rheumatic, having, according to his own account, contracted his dolorous aches in the course of that five-hours' job under your superintendence in the steeple, where, it seems, a merciless wind is in the habit of disporting itself. Then the weather was so unfavourable, then his wife was ailing, etc., etc. On Sat.u.r.day, however, armed with your potent note, I made another attack, and obtained a promise that the stone should be in its right place on that day of the week following. So I await the result. My own private impression is that if we see the achievement complete by Easter there will be much cause for thankfulness.

Many thanks for _The Ill.u.s.trated News_; I read the article with great interest, and subsequently studied the stone itself as well as its awkward position in its nook in the steeple would allow me. Your secret, I need hardly say, was faithfully kept till the receipt of the news a.s.sured me that it need be a secret no longer. I may just mention that the clerk thinks that the sovereign you left will be quite enough to defray the expenses. I think so too; at least if there be anything more it cannot be worth mentioning. Though no Manxman myself still I shall take the liberty of thanking you in the name of Mona--may I not add in the name of Antiquarian Science too--for your liberality in this matter. Mrs. Borrow, I trust, is convalescent by this time, and Miss Clarke well. With our united kind regards, believe me, my dear Sir, very sincerely yours,

S. W. WANTON.

And even three years later we find that Borrow has not forgotten the friends of that Manx holiday. This letter is from the Vicar of Malew in acknowledgment of a copy of _The Romany Rye_ published in the interval:

To George Borrow, Esq.

MALEW VICARAGE, BALLASALLA, ISLE OF MAN, _27 Jany. 1859._

MY DEAR SIR,--I return you my most hearty thanks for your most handsome present of _Romany Rye_, and no less handsome letter relative to your tour in the Isle of Man and the literature of the Manx. Both I value very highly, and from both I shall derive useful hints for my introduction to the new edition of the _Manx Grammar_. I hope you will have no objection to my quoting a pa.s.sage or two from the advertis.e.m.e.nt of your forthcoming book; and if I receive no intimation of your dissent, I shall take it for granted that I have your kind permission. The whole notice is so apposite to my purpose, and would be so interesting to every Manxman, that I would fain insert the whole bodily, did the Author and the limits of an Introduction permit. The _Grammar_ will, I think, go to press in March next. It is to be published under the auspices of 'The Manx Society,' inst.i.tuted last year 'for the publication of National doc.u.ments of the Isle of Man.' As soon as it is printed I hope to beg the favour of your acceptance of a copy.--I am, my dear Sir, your deeply obliged humble servant,

WILLIAM GILL.

The letter from Mr. Wanton directs us to the issue of _The Ill.u.s.trated London News_ for 8th December 1855, where we find the following note on the Isle of Man, obviously contributed to that journal by Borrow, together with an ill.u.s.tration of the Runic Stone, which is also reproduced here:

[Ill.u.s.tration: RUNIC STONE FROM THE ISLE OF MAN]

ANCIENT RUNIC STONE, RECENTLY FOUND IN THE ISLE OF MAN

For upwards of seventy years a stone which, as far as it could be discerned, had the appearance of what is called a Danish cross, has been known to exist in the steeple of Kirk Braddan, Isle of Man. It was partly bedded in mortar and stones above the lintel of a doorway leading to a loft above the gallery.

On the 19th of November it was removed from its place under the superintendence of an English gentleman who had been travelling about the island. It not only proved to be a Northern cross, but a Runic one; that is, it bore a Runic inscription. As soon as the stone had been taken out of the wall, the gentleman in question copied the inscription and translated it, to the best of his ability, in the presence of the church clerk who had removed the stone. The Runes were in beautiful preservation, and looked as fresh as if they had just come out of the workshop of Orokoin Gaut. Unfortunately the upper part of the cross was partly broken, so that the original inscription was not entire. In the inscription, as it is, the concluding word is mutilated; in its original state it was probably 'sonr,'

son; the Runic character which answers to _s_ being distinct, and likewise the greater part of one which stands for _o_. Yet there is reason for believing that sonr was not the concluding word of the original, but the penultimate, and that the original terminated with some Norwegian name: we will suppose 'Olf.' The writing at present on the stone is to this effect:

OTR. RISTI. KROS. THUNU. AFT. FRUKA FATHOR. SIN. IN. THORWIAORI. S ... (SONR OLFS) OTR RAISED THIS CROSS TO FRUKI HIS FATHER, THE THORWIAORI, SO(N OF OLF).

The names Otr and Fruki have never before been found on any of the Runic stones in the Isle of Man. The words _In_ ...

Thorwiaori, which either denote the place where the individual to whom they relate lived, or one of his attributes or peculiarities, will perhaps fling some light on the words In ... Aruthur, which appear on the beautiful cross which stands nearly opposite the door of Kirk Braddan.

The present cross is curiously ornamented. The side which we here present to the public bears two monsters, perhaps intended to represent dragons, tied with a single cord, which pa.s.ses round the neck and body of one whose head is slightly averted, whilst, though it pa.s.ses round the body of the other, it leaves the neck free. Little at present can be said about the other side of the stone, which is still in some degree covered with the very hard mortar in which it was found lying. The gentleman of whom we have already spoken, before leaving the island, made arrangements for placing the stone beside the other cross, which has long been considered one of the princ.i.p.al ornaments of the beautiful churchyard of Braddan.

FOOTNOTES:

[182] In vol. ii. of _The Romany Rye_, _vide supra_.

[183] The whole of this diary, which is the best original work that Borrow left behind him unpublished, will be issued in my edition of _The Collected Works_.

[184] Borrow found the stone had fallen, and he left money for its re-erection. He copied this stone on 13th September 1855, noting in his diary that Henrietta sketched the church while he copied and translated the inscription which ran as follows--_Thorleifr Nitki raised this Cross to Fiak, son of his brother's son_, the date being 1084 or 1194 A.D.

CHAPTER XXVIII

OULTON BROAD AND YARMOUTH

George Borrow wandered far and wide, but he always retraced his footsteps to East Anglia, of which he was so justly proud. From his marriage in 1840 until his death in 1881 he lived twenty-seven years at Oulton or at Yarmouth. 'It is on sand alone that the sea strikes its true music,' Borrow once remarked, 'Norfolk sand'--and it was in the waves and on the sands of the Norfolk coast that Borrow spent the happiest hours of his restless life. Oulton Cottage is only about two miles from Lowestoft, and so, walking or driving, these places were quite near one another. But both are in Suffolk. Was it because Yarmouth--ten miles distant--is in Norfolk that it was always selected for seaside residence? I suspect that the careful Mrs. Borrow found a wider selection of 'apartments' at a moderate price. In any case the sea air of Yarmouth was good for his wife, and the sea bathing was good for him, and so we find that husband and wife had seven separate residences at Yarmouth during the years of Oulton life.[185] But Oulton was ever to be Borrow's headquarters, even though between 1860 and 1874 he had a house in London. Borrow was thirty-seven years of age when he settled down at Oulton.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Copyright of Mrs. Simms Reeve_

A HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED PORTRAIT OF GEORGE BORROW

Taken in the garden of Mrs. Simms Reeve of Norwich in 1848. This is the only photograph of George Borrow extant, although two paintings of him exist, one by Henry Wyndham Phillips, which forms the frontispiece of this volume, taken in 1843, and an earlier portrait by his brother John, which will be found facing page 32]

He was, he tells us in _The Romany Rye_, 'in tolerably easy circ.u.mstances and willing to take some rest after a life of labour.'

Their home was a cottage on the Broad, for the Hall, which was also Mrs.

Borrow's property, was let on lease to a farmer.[186] The cottage, however, was an extremely pleasant residence with a lawn running down to the river. A more substantial house has been built on this site since Borrow's day. The summer-house is generally a.s.sumed to be the same, but has certainly been reroofed since the time when Henrietta Clarke drew the picture of it that is reproduced in this book. Probably the whole summer-house is new, but at any rate the present structure stands on the site of the old one. Here Borrow did his work, wrote and wrote and wrote, until he had, as he said, 'Mountains of ma.n.u.scripts.' Here first of all he completed _The Zincali_ (1841), commenced in Seville; then he wrote or rather arranged _The Bible in Spain_ (1843), and then at long intervals, diversified by extensive travel holidays, he wrote _Lavengro_ (1851), _The Romany Rye_ (1857), and _Wild Wales_ (1860),--these are the five books and their dates that we most a.s.sociate with Borrow's sojourn at Oulton. When _Wild Wales_ was published he had removed to London.

Borrow brought with him to Oulton, as we have said, a beautiful Arabian horse, Sidi Habismilk, and a Jewish servant, Hayim Ben Attar. The horse remained to delight the neighbourhood. It followed Borrow like a dog when he was not riding it. The Jew had soon had enough of this rural retreat and sighed for a sunnier clime. Thus, under date 1843, I find among my Borrow Papers the following letter to a firm of s.h.i.+pbrokers:

To Messrs. Nickols and Marshal, London.

_4th July 1843._

GENTLEMEN,--Having received a communication from Liverpool from Harry Palmer, Esq., stating that you are his agents in London, and that as such he has requested you to communicate with us relative to a pa.s.sage required for a man sent to Cadiz or Gibraltar, I shall as briefly as possible state the particulars. Mr. Palmer names 7 or 8 as the lowest which he thinks it will cost us to get him to Gibraltar or Cadiz. This we consider is a large sum when it is to be remembered that he is to fare as the s.h.i.+p's crew fare, and with the exception of a berth to lie down in, no difference is required at this beautiful season of the year. I must here state as an excuse for the above remark that this man came to England at his own particular desire. I have been at much expense about him. He has had good wages, but now that he wants to get back to his own country the whole expense is thrown upon me, as he has saved no money, and we wish it to be clearly understood by the captain who will take him that when he is once off from England and his pa.s.sage paid that we will be responsible for no further expense whatever. We do not want to get him to Tangier, as we shall put money in his pocket which will enable him to pay for a pa.s.sage across if he wishes to go there, but we will pay only to Gibraltar or Cadiz. A steam vessel sails from Yarmouth bridge every Wednesday and Friday. This will be the most direct and safe way to send him to London, and then trouble you to have him met at the steamer and conveyed to the s.h.i.+p at once in which he is to have his pa.s.sage. All therefore that remains to be done is to trouble you to give us a few days' notice with time to get him up per Yarmouth steamer. I beg to thank you for the willingness you expressed to Mr. Palmer to a.s.sist me in this affair by getting as cheap a pa.s.sage as you can and seeing him on board and the pa.s.sage _not_ paid till the s.h.i.+p sails.

You no doubt can quite understand our anxious feelings upon the subject from your connection with s.h.i.+pping, and consequently knowing what foreigners generally are.--I am, Sir, Your obedient servant,

G. H. BORROW.[187]

Then we have the following doc.u.ment with which his cautious master provided himself:

A Statement of Hayim Ben Attar previous to his leaving England.

I declare that it was my own wish to come to England with my master G. H. Borrow, who offered to send me to my own country before he left Spain. That I have regularly received the liberal wages he agreed to give me from the first of my coming to him. That I have been treated justly and kindly by him during my stay in England, and that I return to my country at my own wish and request, and at my master's expense. To this statement, which I declare to be true, I sign my name.--HAYIM BEN ATTAR.

Declared before me this 9 of August 1843.

W. M. HAMMOND, Magistrate for Great Yarmouth.

I find a letter among my Papers which bears no name, and is probably a draft. It contains an interesting reference to Hayim Ben Attar, and hence I give it here:

SIR,--I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 17th inst., which my friend, Mr. Murray, has just forwarded to me. I am afraid that you attribute to me powers and information which I am by no means conscious of possessing; I should feel disposed to entertain a much higher opinion of myself than I at present do could I for a moment conceive myself gifted with the talent of inducing any endeavour to dismiss from his mind a theory of the reasonableness of which appears to him obvious. Nevertheless, as you do me the honour of asking my opinion with respect to the theory of Gypsies being Jews by origin, I hasten to answer to the following effect. I am not prepared to acknowledge the reasonableness of any theory which cannot be borne out by the slightest proof.

Against the theory may be offered the following arguments which I humbly consider to be unanswerable. The Gypsies differ from the Jews in feature and complexion--in whatever part of the world you find the Gypsy you recognise him at once by his features which are virtually the same--the Jew likewise has a peculiar countenance by which at once he may be distinguished as a Jew, but which would certainly prevent the probability of his being considered as a scion of the Gypsy stock--in proof of which a.s.sertion I can adduce the following remarkable instance.

I have in my service a Jew, a native of Northern Africa. Last summer I took him with me to an encampment of Romanies or Gypsies near my home at Oulton in Suffolk. I introduced him to the Chief, and said, Are ye not dui patos (two brothers). The Gypsy pa.s.sed his hand over the Jew's face and stared him in the eyes, then turning to me he answered--we are not two brothers, not two brothers--this man is no rom--I believe him to be a Jew. Now this Gypsy has been in the habit of seeing German and English Jews who must have been separated from their African brothers for a term of 1700 years--yet he recognised the Jew of Troy for what he was--a Jew--and without hesitation declared that he was not a rom; the Jews, therefore, and the Gypsies have each their peculiar and distinctive features, which disprove the impossibility of their having been originally the same people.--Your obedient servant,

GEORGE BORROW.