FOOTNOTES:
[237] Theodore Watts-Dunton's memoir of Thomas Gordon Hake in the Athenæum, January 19, 1895.
An interesting letter that I have received from Mr. Watts-Dunton clears up several points and may well have place here:—
'The Pines, 11 Putney Hill, S.W., 31st May 1913.
'You ask me what I have written upon George Borrow. When Borrow died (26th July 1881), the first obituary notice of him in the Athenæum was not by me, but by W. Elwin. This appeared on the 6th August 1881. At this time the general public had so forgotten that Borrow was alive that I remember once, at one of old Mrs. Procter's receptions, it had been discussed, as Lowell and Browning afterwards told me, as to whether I was or was not "an archer of the long bow" because I said that on the previous Sunday I had walked with Borrow in Richmond Park, and was frequently seeing him, and that on the Sunday before I had walked in the same beautiful park with Dr. Gordon Latham, another celebrity of the past "known to be dead." The fact is, Borrow's really great books were Lavengro and The Romany Rye, and the latter had fallen almost dead from the press, smothered by Victorian respectability and philistinism. He was thoroughly soured and angry, and no wonder! He fought shy of literary society. He quite resented being introduced to strangers.
'Elwin's article was considered very unsatisfactory. Knowing that the most competent man in England to write about Borrow was my old friend, Dr. Gordon Hake, I suggested that MacColl should ask the doctor (one of the few men whom Borrow really loved) to furnish the Athenæum with another article. This was agreed to, and another article was written, either by Dr. Hake himself, or by one of his sons—I don't quite remember at this distance of time. It appeared in the Athenæum of the 13th August 1881. But even this article did not seem to MacColl to vitalise one of the most remarkable personalities of the 19th century; and as I was then a leading writer in the literary department of the Athenæum, MacColl asked me to give him an article upon Borrow whom I had known so well. I did so, and the article "caught on," as MacColl said, more than had any Athenæum article for a long time. This appeared 3rd September 1881. When MacColl read the article he was so much pleased with it that he urged me to follow it up with an article on Borrow in connection with the Children of the Open Air—a subject upon which I had previously written a good deal in the Athenæum. This appeared on the 10th September 1881, and became still more popular, and the Athenæum containing it had quite an exceptional sale.
'The Hake whom you inquire about, Egmont Hake, has drifted out of my ken. He at one time lived in Paris, and wrote a book called Paris Originals. I know that he did, at one time, contemplate writing upon Borrow, and corresponded with Mrs. MacOubrey with this view; but the affair fell through. As a son of Dr. Hake's he could not fail to know Borrow. He wrote a brief article about him, in the Dictionary of National Biography. But the two Hakes who were thrown across Borrow most intimately were Thomas Hake and George Hake, the latter of whom lately died in Africa. Thomas Hake, the eldest of the family, knew Borrow in his own childhood, which the other members of the family did not. After Dr. Gordon Hake went to live in Germany, after the Roehampton home was broken up, I saw a good deal of Borrow. He always thought that no one sympathised with him and understood him so thoroughly as I did,—Ever most cordially yours,
'Theodore Watts-Dunton.'
Since receiving this letter I have been in communication with Mr. Egmont Hake, who generously offered to place his Borrow material at my disposal, but this offer came too late to be of service. Mr. Hake will, however, shortly publish his Memoirs in which he will include some interesting impressions of George Borrow which it has been my privilege to read in manuscript.
[238] Dr. Hake was equally severe in his references to Thackeray, of whom scarcely any one has spoken ill. 'Thackeray spent a good deal of his time on stilts,' he says. ' ... He was a very disagreeable companion to those who did not want to boast that they knew him.'—Memoirs, p. 86. 'Thackeray,' he says elsewhere, 'as if under the impression that the party was invited to look at him, thought it necessary to make a figure.... Borrow knew better how to behave in good company.'—Memoirs, p. 166.
[239] Theodore Watts-Dunton: Poet, Novelist, Critic. By James Douglas. Hodder and Stoughton, 1904, p. 96.
[240] 'Recollections of George Borrow,' by A. Egmont Hake in The Athenæum, Aug. 13, 1881.
[241] Borrow's hair was black until he was about twenty years of age, when it turned white.
[242] Chambers's Cyclopaedia of English Literature, vol. iii. p. 430.
[243] The Athenæum, September 3, 1881.
[244] The Athenæum, September 10, 1881. I am indebted to my friend Mr. John Collins Francis., of The Athenæum newspaper, for generously placing the columns of that journal at my disposal for the purposes of this book.