“‘Borrow can’t write anything dull enough for your set; I wonder how I ever married one of them,’—I hope and trust you will not cancel the paper, for we can’t afford to lose a scrap of your queer sparkle and ‘thousand bright daughters circumvolving.’ I have recommended its insertion in Blackwood, Fraser, or some of those clever Magazines, who will be overjoyed to get such a hand as yours, and I will bet any man £5 that your paper will be the most popular of all they print.”
It is evident that Ford was genuinely distressed, and in his anxiety to be loyal to his friend rather overdid it. His letter has an air of patronage that the writer certainly never intended. The outstanding feature is its absolute selflessness. Ford never seems to think of himself, or that Borrow might have made a concession to their friendship. Happy Ford! The unfortunate episode estranged Borrow from Ford. Letters between them became less and less frequent and finally ceased altogether, although Borrow did not forget to send to his old friend a copy of Lavengro when it appeared.
Worries seemed to rain down upon Borrow’s head about this time. Samuel Morton Peto (afterwards Sir Samuel) had decided to enrich Lowestoft by improving the harbour and building a railway to Reedham, about half-way between Yarmouth and Norwich. He was authorised by Parliament and duly constructed his line, which not even Borrow’s anger could prevent from passing through the Oulton Estate, between the Hall and the Cottage. Borrow could not fight an Act of Parliament, which forced him to cross a railway bridge on his way to church; but he never forgave the man who had contrived it, or his millions. His first thought had been to fly before the invader. All quiet would be gone from the place. “Sell and be off,” advised Ford; “I hope you will make the railway pay dear for its whistle,” quietly observed John Murray. At first Borrow was inclined to take Ford’s advice and settle abroad; but subsequently relinquished the idea.
He was not, however, the man quietly to sit down before what he conceived to be an unjustifiable outrage to his right to be quiet. He never forgave railways, although forced sometimes to make use of them. Samuel Morton Peto became to him the embodiment of evil, and as “Mr Flamson flaming in his coach with a million” he is immortalised in The Romany Rye.
It is said that Sir Samuel boasted that he had made more than the price he had paid for Borrow’s land out of the gravel he had taken from off it. On one occasion, after he had bought Somerleyton Hall, happening to meet Borrow, he remarked that he never called upon him, and Borrow remembering the boast replied, “I call on you! Do you think I don’t read my Shakespeare? Do you think I don’t know all about those highwaymen Bardolph and Peto?” [372]
The neighbourhood of Oulton appears to have been infested with thieves, and poachers found admirable “cover” in the surrounding plantations, or small woods. On several occasions Borrow himself had been attacked at night on the highway between Lowestoft and Oulton. Once he had even been shot at and nearly overpowered. John Murray (the Second) on hearing of one of these assaults had written (1841) artfully enquiring, “Were your wood thieves Gypsies, and have the Calés got notice of your publication [The Zincali]?”
Borrow had written to John Murray, Junr. (10th May 1842):—
“I have been dreadfully unwell since I last heard from you—a regular nervous attack. At present I have a bad cough, caught by getting up at night in pursuit of poachers and thieves. A horrible neighbourhood this—not a magistrate dares do his duty.” On 18th September 1843 he again wrote to John Murray: “One of the Magistrates in this district is just dead. Present my compliments to Mr Gladstone and tell him that the The Bible in Spain would have no objection to become ‘a great unpaid!’”
Gladstone is said greatly to have admired The Bible in Spain, even to the extent of writing to John Murray counselling him to have amended a passage that he considered ill-advised. Gladstone’s letter was sent on to Borrow, and he acknowledges its receipt (6th November 1843) in the following terms:—
“Many thanks for the perusal of Mr Gladstone’s letter. I esteem it a high honour that so distinguished a man should take sufficient interest in a work of mine as to suggest any thing in emendation. I can have no possible objection to modify the passage alluded to. It contains some strong language, particularly the sentence about the scarlet Lady, which it would be perhaps as well to omit.”