The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-05-26


Life.
I cannot understand Professor
Knapp's warmth in SO scornfully de-
nouncing those who regard "Lavengro'
as an autobiography. That that book is
a faithful relation of incidents in George
Borrow's career none can doubt and
what is 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
mentioned and to follow Borrow step
by step through his wanderings, The
fact is that Borrow, if he set himselt to
write any story, for love or money,
could only have drawn upon his memo
ry, and only did So He was as abso-
lutely wanting in the power Of invent
ing or creating a romantic drama in
three volumes as any man of real gen
JUS could be- He had, so to speak, no
imagination to draw upon. What he
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and that he had the power of reproduc
ing with a strange Vividness ana IN
style peculiarly his own, which in It's
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 substratum of fact for eve
rything he told of, and he could no more
have conceived George Meredltbs pa
rina" or Rudyard Kipling's Red Dog
than he could have flown. The only eX-
ample of Borrow making story from
his own head is the story of lsopel Ber-
ners in this "Romany Rye. The i'm
probabilities of every situation in that
story are glazing, and the dialogue IS
writ longtailed; the sentiment has a
false ring in it; the exquisite letter OF
Isopel on her making her escape beats
Pope's letter of Heloise to Abelard; in
asmuch as it is just conceivable, ana
that is all, that Heloise could have writ
ten the one it is quite inconceivable
that Isopel Berners could have written
the other. am strongly of opinion that
in Borrow's writings we have simply
and only record of his personal eXpe-
rience, that and nothing, or very little
more. Indeed, his intense self-con-
seriousness made it impossible Tor MS
writings to be anything more.
Forty years ago there were many OF
BorroW's school fellows still living.
Even at that time 1 was an ardent Bor-
rowan, and tried to get some reminls-
cences of the man from his contempora-
ries. To my surprise there was hardly
q man among them that seemed to care
TO remember him. There had been a
great gathering of old Norvicensians to
greet the Rajah Sir James Brooke in
1858. and there was a great whip" of
the "old boys" Borrow was then living
at Yarmouth, and THE Romany Rye"
had been published the year before and
been well received; but he never put in
an appearance at the meeting of his
school fellows. My belief is that he
never was popular among them, that
he never attained a high place in the
school, and he was free boy In
those days there were certain number
of day boys at Norwich school who We're
nominated by members of the corpora
ton, and who paid no tuition fees
They had to submit to certain amount
of snubbng at the hands of the board
ers. who for the most part We're the sons
of the country gentry. OF course, such
a proud boy as George Borrow would
resent this, and it seems to have ranked
within him all through his life; but he
never could have been popular at school
and never made friends. Such he con-
tinued through life. To be cock of the
walk and king among the little ones
was his ambition, but he had no amibil-
ity. very little love, and was vindic-
tive hater.S
There was one of his school fellows,
however, with whom he kept up queer
sort of intimacy. This was John Gum,
an eminent geologist and man OF con-
siderable ability in other ways. Gum
was a benefited clergyman in the do
cese of Norwich till some years past
seventy, when he relinquished his orders
and settled in Norwich. 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 i 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 and then
Tor Il CIldl. cal lltSlAS pCS5cN - S'iifi ~
let me know when Borrow came to his
house. but never did succeed in catch
ing him. I am persuaded that Borrow
would not see me. He never would
meet any one whom he suspected OF
knowing anything he did not know.
Some seventy years ago Miss Anna Cur
ney. who had published translation of
the "Saxon Chronicle" in q think 1920,
heard of Borrow, of his gifts as lin
guist and his pretension to know Anglo
Saxon. She sent for him to visit her at
North Repps, near Cromer. Borrow
went there in company with one or the
Gurneys, but on being questioned and
examined pretty closely by the really
learned and accomplished lady he actu-
ally ran away-disappeared, i'll fact
and never could be induced to make an
other call | am sorry to say l cannot
remember who my informant was who
told me this story. 1t was very soon af-
ter my going to Norwich in 1860, that l
heard it. Just then Borrow was very
much the vogue, for everybody was
talking about "Romany Rye" but my
informant was one of those who called
Borrow humbug and bit of charla-
tan.
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