[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.
CHAPTER XXXV
BORROW'S UNPUBLISHED WRITINGS
To many in our day, less utilitarian than those of an earlier era, Borrow must have been an interesting man of letters had he not written his four great books. Single-minded devotion to the less commercially remunerative languages has now become respectable and even estimable. Students of the Scandinavian languages, and of the Celtic, abound in our midst. Borrow was a forerunner with Bowring of much of this 'useless' learning. Borrow came to consider Bowring's apparent neglect of him to be unforgivable. But that time had not arrived, when in 1842 he wrote to him as follows:
To Dr. John Bowring
Oulton, Lowestoft, Suffolk, July 14th, 1842.