The Life of George Borrow

–MAY

ays when the bruisers of England were national heroes, and a fight was a fitting incident of a day's revelry, the very presence of their rivals was a sufficient challenge to the chivalry of Menheniot, and a contest became inevitable. Some unrecorded incident was accepted by both parties as a sufficient cause for battle, and th

emed inevitable, there arrived upon the scene a young man who, on seeing his townsmen in danger of being beaten,

ng his fellow townsmen by his example. The new leader had entirely turned the tide of battle, but just as the defeat of the men of Menheniot seemed certain, a diversion was created by the arrival of the local constables. Now that their

m with arrest. Goaded to desperation by the scornful attitude of the young man, the master-maltster laid hands upon him, and instantly shared the fate of the constables. With great courage and determination the headborough rose to his feet and

parish of St Cleer, two and a half miles north of Liskeard. At the age of fifteen, Thomas had begun to work upon his father's farm. At nineteen he was apprenticed to Edmund Hambley, malt

rd (1678). They were godly and law-abiding people, who had stood for the king and lost blood and harvests in his cause. If a son of the house disgrace himself, the responsibility must be his, not theirs. In the opinion of his family, Thomas Borrow had, by his vigorous conduct towards the headborough, who was al

, and for five months disappeared entirely. On 29th December he presented himself as a recruit before Capt

mained for eight years with the Coldstream Guards, most of the time being passed in London barracks. He had no money with which to purchase a commission, and his rise was slow and deliberate. At the end of nine months he was

n which "even Wellington or Napoleon would have been heartily glad to cry for quarter ere the lapse of five minutes, and even the Blacksmith Tartar would, perhaps, have shrunk from the opponent with whom, after hav

about one and a half miles out of East Dereham, was one of those who took occasion to earn a few shillings for pin-money. The Perfrements were of Huguenot stock. On the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, their ancestors had fled from their native town of Caen and taken refuge in East Anglia, there to enjoy the liberty of conscience denied them in the

it dived into Kent and for a time hovered about the Cinque Ports, Thomas Borrow in the meantime being promoted to the rank of quarter-master (27th May 1795). It was not until he ha

years later, were to be published the books of her second son, then unborn. The widow of John Murray the First had married in 1795 Lieut

Kent forty-six years ago, when he came to see his mother, Mrs P[aget]. She was also acquainted with his sister, Miss Jane Murray, [5] who used to ride on horseback with her on the Downs. Sh

ks and smiling, blue-eyed innocence. On one occasion even, an attempt was made to snatch him from the arms of his nurse as she was about to enter a coach. The parents became a prey to anxiety; for the child seems to have possessed many endearing qualities as well as good looks. He was quick and clever, and when the time came for instruction, "he mastered his

ll thought of party strife. On 5th July Ann Borrow gave birth to a second son, in the house of her father. At the time Captain Borrow was hunting for recruits in other parts of Norfolk, in order to send them to Colchester, where the regiment was stationed. In due course the child was christened George Henry [7a] at the church of East Dereham, and, within a few weeks of his birth, he

ing that one child could be unlike another, George was a gloomy, introspective creature who considerably puzzled his parents. He compares himself to "a deep, dark lagoon, shaded by black pines, cyp

ange sensation of fear, which occasionally amounted to horror," [7f] for which there was no apparent cause. In time he grew to be as much disliked as his brother was admired. On one occasion an old Jew pedlar, attracted by the latent intelligence in the smouldering

o meet and repel it. Dumouriez was preparing his great scheme of defence; Captain Thomas Borrow was doing his utmost to collect and drill men to help in carr

ld, who held and regarded it with awe and admiration, the reptile showed its displeasure towards John, his brother, by hissing and raising its head as if to strike. This happened when George was between two and three years of age. At about the same period he ate largely of some poison

years old, acutely observant of the things that interested him, but reluctant to proceed with studies which, in his eyes, seemed to have nothing to recommend them. Books possessed no attraction for him, although he knew his alphabet and

f the apparent dullness of his younger brother. George, however, was as active mentally as the elder. The one was studying men, the other books. George was absorbing impressions of the things around him: of the quaint old Norfolk town, its "clean but narrow streets branching out from thy modest market-place, with thine old-fashioned houses, with here and there a roof of venerable thatch"; of that exquisite old gentlewoman Lady Fenn, [9b] as she passed to

fly, or yet more a honey-bee, being fully convinced of the dread importance of the day which God had hallowed. And how glad I was when I had got over the Sab

pidity was, in reality, mental surfeit. His mind was occupied with other things than books, things that it eagerly took cognisance of, strove to understand and was never to forget. [10b] Hitherto he had taken "no pleasure in books . . . and bade fa

ht with her a present of a book for each of the two boys, a history of England fo

e till I had become acquainted with the import of every line. My progress, slow enough at first, became by degrees more rapid, till at last, under a 'shoulder of mutton sail,' I found myself cantering before a stead

ng the Napoleonic wars. There were sixteen large buildings roofed with red tiles. Each group of four was surrounded by a palisade, whilst another palisade "lofty and of prodigious strength" surrounded the whole. At the time when the West Norfolk Militia arrived there were some six thousand prisoners, who, with their

recent heavy rains, and at one portion of the journey the whole party had to embark in a species of punt, which was towed by horses "up to the knees in water, and, on comi

he 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 mos

ings; sun, moon and stars, brother, all sweet things; there's likewise the

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 advo

ours 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 mi

riots, 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, wh

ght 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 eve

d orders to proceed to Norwich by ship via Leith and Great Yarmouth. The Government, relieved of all apprehension of an invasion, had time to think of the personal comfort of the country's defenders. With marked consideration, the orders provided that those who wished might march instead of embarking on the sea. Accordingly C

d, had an opportunity of continuing his education at the Norwich Grammar School, whilst his brother proceeded to study drawing and painting with a "little dark man with brown coat . . . and top-b

erranean, Napoleon was preparing a bombshell that was to shatter the peace of Europe and send Captain Borrow hurrying hither and

row threw aside pencil and brush and was gazetted ensign in his father's regiment (29th May). Europe united against the unexpected and astonishing d

gust the regiment, some eight hundred strong, sailed in two vessels from Harwich for Cork, the passage occupying eight days. The ship that carried the Borr

ccasion, as they were passing through a village of low huts, "that seemed to be inhabited solely by women and children," he went up to an old beldam who sat spinning at the door of one of the hovels and asked for some water. She "appeared to consider for a moment, then tottering into her hut, presently reappeared with a small pipkin of milk, which she offered . . . with a trembling hand." When the lad tendered payment she

wery volubility. On the advice of his host Captain Borrow sent George to a Protestant school, where he met the Irish boy Murtagh, who figures so largely in Lavengr

the following January, after only a few months' stay, the West Norfolks were moved on to Templemore. It was here that George l

knowledge of the country, its people, and their language. In overcoming the difficulties of Erse, he had opened up for himsel

hemes of aggression. Napoleon was safe at St Helena, under the eye of that instinctive gaoler, Sir Hudson Lowe. The army had completed its work and was being disbanded with all possible speed. The turn