New-York tribune., 1900-05-19
LIGHTS ON BORROW.
DIR. JESSOPP DECLARES THAT THE
AUTHOR OF "LAVENGRO" WAS
NOT A SCHOLAR.

The Rev. DR.. Jessopp in The London Chronicle
l cannot understand Professor Knapps warmth
in so scornfully denouncing those who regard
"Lavengro' autobiography. That that
book is faithful relation of incidents in George
true of "Lavengro' is especially true of THE
Romany Rye" Professor Knapp has been able
to fix time and place for almost every adventure.
to Identify almost every prominent person men,
toned, and TO follow Borrow step by step
through his wanderings. The fact Is that Bor-
row, if he set himself to write any story for
love or money, could only have drawn upon his
memory, and only did do He abso-
lutey wanting in the power of inventing or
creating = romantic drama in three volumes as
any man of real genius could be. He had,
to speak, no imagination to draw upon. What
ne had heard or seen. that he remembered. and
that he had the power of reproducing with
strange vvidness and in style peculiarly his
own. which in its simplicity, directness and
abruptness of rhythm the most skilled journalist
will find very hard indeed to initiate or even
parody for many pages But Borrow was not
a man of original genius. There was a substra-
tum of fact for everything he told Of and he
could no more have conceived George Meredith's
"Farina' or Rudyard Kipling's Red Dog than
Borrow making a story from his own head is
the story of Isopel Berners in this "Romany
Rye. Rye The improbabilities of every situation in
tnat story are glaring. and the dialogue is writ
longtailed: the sentiment has a false ring In II.
the exquisite let er Of Isopel on her making her
escape beats Pope's letter of Heoise to Ahela rd.
inasmuch as it is just conceivable and that is
all, that Heoise could have written the ono II
IS quite inconceivable that Isopel Berners could
ion that in Borrow's writings we have simply
and and only record of his personal experience,
that and nothing. or very little more Indeed
his intense sef-cOnsciousness made If imnossibJa
FOR his writings to be anything more.
ferty years ago there were many OF Borrow's
school fellows still living. Even at that time 7
was an ardent Borrovian and I tried to got
some "reminiscences of the man from his contem-
poraries. To my surprise there was bardl,, q
man among them that seemed to care to remem-
Der him. There had been a great gathering of
9id @ Norvicensldns to greet the Rajah Sir James
~ o,6 thAr1
of the "old boys Borrow was then I,v,nr ~
Yarmouth, and The Romany RIVE" had been
puDnsned the year before and been well re-
CeIVeo; put ne never put in an appearance at
the meeting of his school fellows NV belief is
mat ne never was popular among them that
ne never attained high place in the school and
he was free boy In those davs there were
certain number of day boys at Norwich School
VINO were nominated by members of the corpora
ton. and who paid no tuition fees They had to
submit to certain amount of snubbine at the
hands of the boarders who for the most mart
,'a me[e ane sons OF the county gentry. OF course
sucn proud boy as George Borrow would re-
sent this. and il seems to have ranked within
Elm all through his life; but he never could have
peen popular at school and never made friends
Such he continued through life To be cock oT
tne walk and king among the little ones was
M. ms ambition but he had no amiability. very
Hltle love. and was vindictive hater
There was one of his school fellows however
Win Win Whom ne kept UP a queer sort of intimacy
rms was John Gum, an eminent geologist and
q man OF considerable ability in other ways
tiunn was benefited clergyman in the Diocese
Oh NorWlCn tlll some years past seventy when
ne relinquished his orders and settled in Nor
wien. he was man of colossal frame and
must have been in his youth quite an inch taller
than Borrow He had the biggest bones and the
largest limbs L ever saw. To take his arm was
as If one took hold of an ordinary mans thigh
Borrow used TO drop in upon Gum every now
ana then for chat I earnestly begged Gum
TO let me know when Borrow came to his house
but l never did succeed in catching him am
persuaded that Borrow would not me- He
never would meet any one whom he suspected
or knowing anything he did not know Some
seventy years ago Miss Anna Gurney' who had
published translation of the Saxon Chronicle
In u Think 1870 heard of Borrow of his gifts
as lnguist and his pretension to know Anglo
saxon. She sent for MIN TO visit her at North
Repps. near Cromer. Borrow went there In
company with one of the Gurneys, but on being
questioned and examined pretty closely by the
really learned and accomplished lady he actually
ran away-disappeared. in fact-and never could
be induced TO make another call. | am sorry to
say cannot remember who my informant was
who told me this story. II very soon after
my going TO Norwich. in 1850, that / heard IT,
just then Borrow was very much the vogue for
everybody talking about "Romany Rye
but my informant was one of those who called
borrow a humbug and bit OF a charlatan
TO talk of Borrow scholar is absurd
. picker up of learning's crumbs he was; but
NJ was absolutely without any of the training or
the instincts of scholar He had had little edu-
cation TIL he came to Norwich, and was at the
Grammar School little more than two years IL