FULL-PAGE PLATES
| George Borrow, | [Frontispiece] |
| A photogravure portrait from the painting by Henry Wyndham Phillips. | |
| PAGE | |
| The Borrow House, Norwich, | [16] |
| Robert Hawkes, Mayor of Norwich in 1824, | [24] |
| From the painting by Benjamin Haydon in St. Andrew's Hall, Norwich. | |
| George Borrow, | [32] |
| From a portrait by his brother, John Thomas Borrow, in the National Portrait Gallery, London. | |
| The Erpingham Gate and the Grammar School, Norwich | [72] |
| William Simpson, | [80] |
| From a portrait by Thomas Phillips, R.A., in the Black Friars Hall, Norwich. | |
| Friends of Borrow's Early Years— | |
| Sir John Bowring in 1826, | [96] |
| John P. Hasfeld in 1835, | [96] |
| William Taylor, | [96] |
| Sir Richard Phillips, | [96] |
| The Family of Jasper Petulengro, | [128] |
| Where Borrow Lived in Madrid, | [192] |
| The Calle del Principe, Madrid, | [192] |
| A hitherto Unpublished Portrait of George Borrow, | [304] |
| Taken in the garden of Mrs. Simms Reeve of Norwich in 1848. | |
| Oulton Cottage from the Broad, | [352] |
| The Summer-House, Oulton, as it is to-day, | [352] |
ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT
| George Borrow's Birthplace at Dumpling Green, | [35] |
| From a Drawing by Fortunino Matania. | |
| Title-Pages of 'Targum' and 'The Talisman,' | [178] |
| Portion of a Letter From George Borrow To the Rev. Samuel Brandram, | [187] |
| Written From Madrid, 13th May 1838. | |
| Facsimile of an Account of George Borrow's Expenses in Spain made out by the Bible Society, | [190] |
| A Letter from Sir George Villiers, afterwards Earl of Clarendon, British Minister to Spain, to George Borrow, | [211] |
| Mrs. Borrow's Copy of her Marriage Certificate, | [222] |
| An Application for a Book in the British Museum, with Borrow's Signature, | [230] |
| A Shekel, | [244] |
| Title-Page of Basque Translation by Oteiza of the Gospel of St. Luke, | [247] |
| Title-Page of First Edition of Romany Translation of the Gospel of St. Luke, | [247] |
| Two Pages From Borrow's Corrected Proof Sheets of Romany Translation of the Gospel of St. Luke, | [247] |
| Inscriptions in Borrow's Handwriting on his Wife's Copies Of 'The Bible in Spain' and 'Lavengro,' | [275] |
| The Original Title-Page of 'Lavengro,' | [280] |
| From the Manuscript in the possession of the Author of 'George Borrow and his Circle.' | |
| Facsimile of the First Page of 'Lavengro,' | [282] |
| From the Manuscript in the possession of the Author of 'George Borrow and his Circle.' | |
| Runic Stone From the Isle of Man, | [302] |
| Facsimile of a Communication from Charles Darwin to George Borrow, | [318] |
| Facsimile of a Page of the Manuscript of 'The Romany Rye,' | [346] |
| From the Borrow Papers in the possession of the Author of 'George Borrow and his Circle.' | |
| 'Wild Wales' in its Beginnings, | [365] |
| Two pages from one of George Borrow's Pocket-books with pencilled notes made on his journey through Wales. | |
| Facsimile of the Title-Page of 'Wild Wales,' | [368] |
| From the original Manuscript in the possession of the Author of 'George Borrow and his Circle.' | |
| Facsimile of the First Page of 'Wild Wales,' | [370] |
| From the original Manuscript in the possession of the Author of 'George Borrow and his Circle.' | |
| Facsimile of a Poem from 'Targum,' | [403] |
| A Translation from the French by George Borrow. | |
| Borrow as a Professor of Languages—an Advertisement, | [409] |
| A Page of the Manuscript of Borrow's 'Songs of Scandinavia'—an unpublished work, | [411] |
| A Letter from Borrow to his Wife written from Rome in his Continental Journey of 1844, | [418] |
INTRODUCTION
It is now exactly seventeen years ago since I published a volume not dissimilar in form to this under the title of Charlotte Brontë and her Circle. The title had then an element of novelty, Dante Gabriel Rossetti's Dante and his Circle, at the time the only book of this particular character, having quite another aim. There are now some twenty or more biographies based upon a similar plan.[1] The method has its convenience where there are earlier lives of a given writer, as one can in this way differentiate the book from previous efforts by making one's hero stand out among his friends. Some such apology, I feel, is necessary, because, in these days of the multiplication of books, every book, at least other than a work of imagination, requires ample apology. In Charlotte Brontë and her Circle I was able to claim that, even though following in the footsteps of Mrs. Gaskell, I had added some four hundred new letters by Charlotte Brontë to the world's knowledge of that interesting woman, and still more considerably enlarged our knowledge of her sister Emily. This achievement has been generously acknowledged, and I am most proud of the testimony of the most accomplished of living biographers, Sir George Otto Trevelyan, who once rendered me the following quite spontaneous tribute:
We have lately read aloud for the second time your Brontë book; let alone private readings. It is unique in plan and excellence, and I am greatly obliged to you for it. Apart from the pleasure of the book, the form of it has always interested me as a professional biographer. It certainly is novel; and in this case I am pretty sure that it is right.
With such a testimony before me I cannot hesitate to present my second biography in similar form. In the case of George Borrow, however, I am not in a position to supplement one transcendent biography, as in the case of Charlotte Brontë and Mrs. Gaskell. I have before me no less than four biographies of Borrow, every one of them of distinctive merit. These are: