(9) [Review of Ford’s “Hand-book for Travellers in Spain”: 1845]
Art.—Hand-book for Travellers in Spain. London: 2 Vols. / post 8vo. 1845.
Collation:—Folio, pp. 12. There is no Title-page proper, the title, as above, being imposed upon the upper portion of the first page, after the manner of a ‘dropped head.’ The head-line is Spanish Hand-book throughout, upon both sides of the page. There is no printer’s imprint. There are also no signatures; but the pamphlet is composed of three sheets, each two leaves, making twelve pages in all.
Issued stitched, and without wrappers. The leaves measure 13½ × 8½ inches. The pamphlet is undated. It was printed in 1845.
This Review is unquestionably the rarest of the First Editions of Borrow’s Works. No more than two copies would appear to have been struck off, and both are fortunately extant to-day. One of these was formerly in the possession of Dr. William I. Knapp, and is now the property of the Hispanic Society, of New York. The second example is in my own library. This was Borrow’s own copy, and is freely corrected in his characteristic handwriting. A greatly reduced facsimile of the last page of the pamphlet is given herewith.
In 1845 Richard Ford published his Hand-Book for Travellers in Spain and Readers at Home [2 Vols. 8vo.], a work, the compilation of which is said to have occupied its author for more than sixteen years. In conformity with the wish of Ford (who had himself favourably reviewed The Bible in Spain) Borrow undertook to produce a study of the Hand-Book for The Quarterly Review. The above Essay was the result.
But the Essay, brilliant though it is, was not a ‘Review.’ Not until page 6 is the Hand-Book even mentioned, and but little concerning it appears thereafter. Lockhart, then editing the Quarterly, proposed to render it more suitable for the purpose for which it had been intended by himself interpolating a series
of extracts from Ford’s volumes. But Borrow would tolerate no interference with his work, and promptly withdrew the Essay, which had meanwhile been set up in type. The following letter, addressed by Lockhart to Ford, sufficiently explains the position:
London,
June 13th, 1845.Dear Ford,
‘El Gitano’ sent me a paper on the “Hand-Book” which I read with delight. It seemed just another capital chapter of his “Bible in Spain” and I thought, as there was hardly a word of ‘review,’ and no extract giving the least notion of the peculiar merits and style of the “Hand-Book,” that I could easily (as is my constant custom) supply the humbler part myself, and so present at once a fair review of the work, and a lively specimen of our friend’s vein of eloquence in exordio.
But, behold! he will not allow any tampering . . . . I now write to condole with you; for I am very sensible, after all, that you run a great risk in having your book committed to hands far less competent for treating it or any other book of Spanish interest than Borrow’s would have been . . . and I consider that, after all, in the case of a new author, it is the first duty of the “Quarterly Review” to introduce that author fully and fairly to the public.
Ever Yours Truly,
J. G. Lockhart.“Our author pictures Gibraltar as a human entity thus addressing Spain:
Accursed land! I hate thee, and far from being a defence, will invariably prove a thorn in thy side.
And so on through many sentences of excited rhetoric. Borrow forgot while he wrote that he had a book to review—a book, moreover, issued by the publishing house which issued the periodical in which his review was to appear.”—[George Borrow and his Circle, 1913, p. 257].
In 1913 Borrow’s Review was reprinted in the following Pamphlet:
A / Supplementary Chapter / to / The Bible in Spain / Inspired by / Ford’s “Handbook for Travellers in Spain.” / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.—Square demy 8vo, pp. 46. [See post, No. 10.]
