[27a] The Rev. Wm. Drake of Mundesley, in a letter which appeared in The Eastern Daily Press, 22nd September 1892:—
“ . . . I was at the Norwich Grammar School nine years, from 1820 to 1829, and during that time (probably in 1824 and 1825) George Borrow was lodging in the Upper Close . . . The house was a low old-fashioned building with a garden in front of it, and the fact of Borrow’s residence there is fixed in my memory because I had spent the first five or six years of my own life in the same house, from 1811 to 1816 or 1817. My father occupied it in virtue of his being a minor canon in Norwich Cathedral. I remember Borrow very distinctly, because he was fond of chatting with the boys, who used to gather round the railings of his garden, and occasionally he would ask one or two of them to have tea with him. I have a faint recollection that he gave us some of our first notions of chess, but I am not sure of this. I . . . remember him a tall, spare, dark-complexioned man, usually dressed in black. In person he was not unlike another Norwich man, who obtained in those days a very different notoriety from that which now belongs to Borrow’s name. I mean John Thurtell, who murdered Mr Weare.”
[27b] Wild Wales, page 3.
[28a] Wild Wales, page 157.
[28b] Forty years later Borrow wrote of these days:—“‘How much more happy, innocent, and holy I was in the days of my boyhood when I translated Iolo’s ode than I am at the present time!’ Then covering my face with my hands I wept like a child.”—Wild Wales, page 448.
[30a] There is no doubt that Borrow became possessed of a copy of Kiæmpe Viser, first collected by Anders Vedel, which may or may not have been given to him, with a handshake from the old farmer and a kiss from his wife, in recognition of the attention he had shown the pair in his official capacity. He refers to the volume repeatedly in Lavengro, and narrates how it was presented by some shipwrecked Danish mariners to the old couple in acknowledgment of their humanity and hospitality. It is, however, most likely that he was in error when he stated that “in less than a month” he was able “to read the book.”—Lavengro, pages 140–4.
[30b] Wild Wales, page 2.
[30c] Wild Wales, page 374.
[30d] Wild Wales, page 9. There is an interesting letter written to Borrow by the old lawyer’s son on the appearance of Lavengro, in which he says: “With tearful eyes, yet smiling lips, I have read and re-read your faithful portrait of my dear old father. I cannot mistake him—the creaking shoes, the florid face, the polished pate—all serve as marks of recognition to his youngest son!”
[31a] Wild Wales, page 374.