George Borrow's Second Tour in Wales

by T. C. Cantrill; George Borrow; J. Pringle

Transcribed from the 1910 Y Cymmrodor edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org

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George Borrow’s Second Tour in Wales.

By T. C. CANTRILL, B.Sc., F.G.S.,
and
J. PRINGLE.

The reader of Dr. Knapp’s Life of Borrow will remember that, three years after the 1854 expedition to North Wales, George Borrow made a rapid traverse through the south-western portion of the Principality. The incidents of the former excursion formed the basis of Wild Wales, but the only published record of the latter tour is the brief itinerary given in the Life. [160a]

It so happens that for several years past our professional duties have taken us into the western regions of South Wales, and into parts of the counties of Carmarthen and Pembroke traversed by Borrow in 1857. Not satisfied with the bald outline of the journal published by Dr. Knapp, one of us wrote to him in Paris with the request that he would be kind enough to furnish us with a few details as to the villages passed through, and the inns where Borrow lodged. To our gratification Dr. Knapp did far more than we had asked; he sent us a verbatim transcription from the original note book, accompanied by the following letter [160b]:—

191 r. de l’ Université, Paris.
26 Aug. 1908.

Dear Sir,—Your very interesting communication of the 1st of Aug. reached me on the 6th. My chests containing Borrow’s MSS., Letters and Note Books, are stored and sealed up, so that they are no longer readily accessible even to me, in the present state of my health and impaired strength. Besides, the Note Books are in pencil, written as he strode along the roads of England and Wales, very badly, and subsequently much thumbed as he pored over them in later years. Hence they are very trying to the eyes, and as mine are giving me much trouble, growing weaker and weaker, I dreaded to subject them to any fresh tension even with the powerful lenses I am forced to employ. However, after much reflection I decided to unscrew the boxes till I came to the Note Books, from among which I drew forth the little one for 1857. And although it has cost me two weeks to decipher and write down only ten pages, I feel that the labour is wisely bestowed if it in any way accomplishes your desire. From Lampeter into Brecknock hills to Builth I could no longer follow Borrow. He is full of badly written Welsh, is constantly losing his way, and the Welsh names of villages, hamlets and parishes cited are not in Lewis or Lett’s County Atlas as he gives them. Still, if you want the Itinerary or anything further, please let me know.

I should very much like to meet you, but I travel little. Last year we were in Norwich three months—July 1 to Oct. 1—for my wife’s health, but we went nowhere, only passing thro’ London going and coming. I was glad to learn the date of Henrietta’s death. Mr. Murray wrote me of the fact without mentioning the date. By the way I should like a picture of Borrow’s birthplace at Dumpling Green; I have the one given in “The Sphere” but cannot lay my hands on it. Could I trouble you further for the title of the best modern Welsh-English Dictionary—not Pughe’s—and a Grammar with Exercises, and of whom it could be ordered. Your letter is very valuable to me and I prize it greatly.

Yours very truly,
W. I. KNAPP.

T. C. Cantrill, Esq.

As neither of us saw any prospect of following Borrow’s route beyond St. David’s, we had refrained from troubling Dr. Knapp for details of that part of the journey.

With Dr. Knapp’s transcript in our hands we have traversed on foot much of Borrow’s route, and made personal enquiries of some of the older inhabitants, and, in some cases, of descendants of Borrow’s informants, in an attempt to rescue from oblivion some particulars of the places visited and the characters encountered by Borrow in 1857; and now, since the Note Book appears to have left Europe for a transatlantic home, it seems desirable to publish so much of the transcript as is available, together with our comments.

Apart from the usual Borrovian disregard for accuracy as to distances, directions, and orthography of place-names, the journal is remarkably straightforward, and the task of identifying the un-named localities a light one. In his passage of Milford Haven, however, it is difficult to follow Borrow, as we have pointed out. Nor perhaps shall we ever know now how he got to Laugharne, where the notes commence abruptly at an un-named inn. Presumably he availed himself of the railway, which was open at that date and would bring him to St. Clears, five miles from his starting-point.