[41] In particular Borrow believed in Ab Gwilym “the greatest poetical genius that has appeared in Europe since the revival of literature” (Wild Wales, page 6). “The great poet of Nature, the contemporary of Chaucer, but worth half-a-dozen of the accomplished word-master, the ingenious versifier of Norman and Italian Tales.” (Wild Wales, page xxviii.).
[42a] Lines to Six-Foot-Three. Romantic Ballads. Norwich 1826.
[42b] Sir Richard Phillips (1767–1840) before becoming a publisher was a schoolmaster, hosier, stationer, bookseller, and vendor of patent medicines at Leicester, where he also founded a newspaper. In 1795 he came to London, was sheriff in 1807, and received his knighthood a year later.
[43] It has been urged against Borrow’s accuracy that Sir Richard Phillips had retired to Brighton in 1823, vide The Dictionary of National Biography. In the January number (1824) of The Monthly Magazine appeared the following paragraph: “The Editor [Sir Richard Phillips], having retired from his commercial engagements and removed from his late house of business in New Bridge Street, communications should be addressed to the appointed Publishers [Messrs Whittakers]; but personal interviews of Correspondents and interested persons may be obtained at his private residence in Tavistock Square.” This proves conclusively that Sir Richard was to be seen in London in the early part of 1824.
[44a] Celebrated Trials and Remarkable Cases of Criminal Jurisprudence from the Earliest Records to the Year 1825, 6 vols., with plates. London, 1825.
[44b] Proximate Causes of the Material Phenomena of the Universe. By Sir Richard Phillips. London, 1821.
[45a] Dr Knapp identified the editor as “William Gifford, editor of The Quarterly Review from 1809 to September 1824.” (Life of George Borrow, i. 93.) The late Sir Leslie Stephen, however, cast very serious doubt upon this identification, himself concluding that the editor of The Universal Review was John Carey (1756–1826), whose name was actually associated with an edition of Quintilian published in 1822. Carey was a known contributor to two of Sir Richard Phillips’ magazines.
[45b] The Monthly Magazine, July 1824.
[46a] It appeared in six volumes.
[46b] The work when completed contained accounts of over 400 trials.