The Life of George Borrow [201]
regarded as an intruder. I am an American, and among us such requests are parfaitment (sic) en regle.
I am, . . .
CHARLES G. LELAND.
Borrow replied on 2nd Nov.:
Sir,
I have received your letter and am gratified by the desire you express to make my acquaintance.
Whenever you please to come I shall be happy to see you.
Truly yours, GEORGE BORROW. {460a}
The meeting unquestionably took place at Hereford Square, and Leland found Borrow "a tall, large, fine-looking man who must have been handsome in his youth." {460b} The result of the interview was that Leland sent to Borrow a copy of his Ballads and also The Music Lesson of Confucius, then about to appear. At the same time he wrote to Borrow drawing his attention to one of the ballads written in German Romany jib, and enquiring if it were worth anything. Whilst deprecating his "impudence" in writing a Romany gili and telling, as a pupil might a master, of his interest in and his association with the gypsies, he continues: "My dear Mr Borrow, for all this you are entirely responsible. More than twenty years ago your books had an incredible influence on me, and now you see the results." After telling him that he can NEVER thank him sufficiently for the instructions he has given in The Romany Rye as to how to take care of a horse on a thirty mile ride, he concludes--"With apologies for the careless tone of this letter, and with sincere thanks for your kindness in permitting me to call on you and for your courteous note,--I am your sincere admirer."
The account that Leland gives of this episode in his Memoirs is puzzling and contradictory in the light of his first letter. He writes:
"There was another hard old character with whom I became acquainted in those days, and one who, though not a Carlyle, still, like him, exercised in a peculiar way a great influence on English literature. This was George Borrow. I was in the habit of reading a great deal in the British Museum, where he also came, and there I was introduced to him. {461a} [Leland seems to be in error here; see ante, page 460.] He was busy with a venerable-looking volume in old Irish, and made the remark to me that he did not believe there was a man living who could read old Irish with ease (which I now observe to myself was 'fished' out of Sir W. Betham). We discussed several Gypsy words and phrases. I met him in the same place several times." {461b}
Leland states that he sent a note to Borrow, care of John Murray, asking permission to dedicate to him his forthcoming book, The English Gypsies and Their Language; but received no reply, although Murray assured him that the letter had been received by Borrow. "He received my note on the Saturday," Leland writes--"never answered it- -and on Monday morning advertised in all the journals his own forthcoming work on the same subject." {461c} Had Borrow asked him to delay publishing his own book, Leland says he would have done so, "for I had so great a respect for the Nestor of Gypsyism, that I would have been very glad to have gratified him with such a small sacrifice." {462a}
However Borrow may have heard that Leland had in preparation a book on the English Gypsies, he seemed to feel that it was a trespass upon ground that was peculiarly his own. Having revised and prepared for the press the new edition of the Gypsy St Luke for the Bible Society (published December 1872), and the one-volume editions of Lavengro and The Romany Rye, he set to work to forestall Leland with his own Romano Lavo-Lil.
In spite of his haste, however, Borrow was beaten in the race, and Leland got his volume out first. When the Romano Lavo-Lil {462b} appeared in March 1874, Borrow found what, in all probability he had not dreamed of, that the thirty-three years intervening between its publication and that of The Zincali, had changed the whole literary world as regards "things of Egypt." In 1841 Borrow had produced a unique book, such as only one man in England could have written, and that man himself {462c}; but in 1874 he found himself
I am, . . .
CHARLES G. LELAND.
Borrow replied on 2nd Nov.:
Sir,
I have received your letter and am gratified by the desire you express to make my acquaintance.
Whenever you please to come I shall be happy to see you.
Truly yours, GEORGE BORROW. {460a}
The meeting unquestionably took place at Hereford Square, and Leland found Borrow "a tall, large, fine-looking man who must have been handsome in his youth." {460b} The result of the interview was that Leland sent to Borrow a copy of his Ballads and also The Music Lesson of Confucius, then about to appear. At the same time he wrote to Borrow drawing his attention to one of the ballads written in German Romany jib, and enquiring if it were worth anything. Whilst deprecating his "impudence" in writing a Romany gili and telling, as a pupil might a master, of his interest in and his association with the gypsies, he continues: "My dear Mr Borrow, for all this you are entirely responsible. More than twenty years ago your books had an incredible influence on me, and now you see the results." After telling him that he can NEVER thank him sufficiently for the instructions he has given in The Romany Rye as to how to take care of a horse on a thirty mile ride, he concludes--"With apologies for the careless tone of this letter, and with sincere thanks for your kindness in permitting me to call on you and for your courteous note,--I am your sincere admirer."
The account that Leland gives of this episode in his Memoirs is puzzling and contradictory in the light of his first letter. He writes:
"There was another hard old character with whom I became acquainted in those days, and one who, though not a Carlyle, still, like him, exercised in a peculiar way a great influence on English literature. This was George Borrow. I was in the habit of reading a great deal in the British Museum, where he also came, and there I was introduced to him. {461a} [Leland seems to be in error here; see ante, page 460.] He was busy with a venerable-looking volume in old Irish, and made the remark to me that he did not believe there was a man living who could read old Irish with ease (which I now observe to myself was 'fished' out of Sir W. Betham). We discussed several Gypsy words and phrases. I met him in the same place several times." {461b}
Leland states that he sent a note to Borrow, care of John Murray, asking permission to dedicate to him his forthcoming book, The English Gypsies and Their Language; but received no reply, although Murray assured him that the letter had been received by Borrow. "He received my note on the Saturday," Leland writes--"never answered it- -and on Monday morning advertised in all the journals his own forthcoming work on the same subject." {461c} Had Borrow asked him to delay publishing his own book, Leland says he would have done so, "for I had so great a respect for the Nestor of Gypsyism, that I would have been very glad to have gratified him with such a small sacrifice." {462a}
However Borrow may have heard that Leland had in preparation a book on the English Gypsies, he seemed to feel that it was a trespass upon ground that was peculiarly his own. Having revised and prepared for the press the new edition of the Gypsy St Luke for the Bible Society (published December 1872), and the one-volume editions of Lavengro and The Romany Rye, he set to work to forestall Leland with his own Romano Lavo-Lil.
In spite of his haste, however, Borrow was beaten in the race, and Leland got his volume out first. When the Romano Lavo-Lil {462b} appeared in March 1874, Borrow found what, in all probability he had not dreamed of, that the thirty-three years intervening between its publication and that of The Zincali, had changed the whole literary world as regards "things of Egypt." In 1841 Borrow had produced a unique book, such as only one man in England could have written, and that man himself {462c}; but in 1874 he found himself