But I am sorry to say Borrow was not always on his best behaviour in company. He once went with me to a dinner at Mr. Bevan’s country house, Rougham Rookery, and placed me in an extremely awkward position.
Mr. Bevan was a Suffolk banker, a partner of Mr. Oakes. He was one of the kindest and most benevolent of men. His wife was gentle, unassuming, attentive to her guests. In fact, not only they, but their sons and daughters were beloved on account of their amiable dispositions.
A friend of Borrow, the heir to a very considerable estate, had run himself into difficulties, and owed money, which was not forthcoming, to the Bury banking house; and in order to secure repayment, Mr. Bevan was said to have “struck the docket.” I knew this beforehand from Borrow, who, however, accepted the invitation, and was seated at dinner at Mrs. Bevan’s side.
This lady, a simple, unpretending woman, desirous of pleasing him, said, “Oh, Mr. Borrow, I have read your books with so much pleasure!” On which he exclaimed, “Pray, what books do you mean, madam? Do you mean my account books?” On this he fretted and fumed, rose from the table and walked up and down among the servants, during the whole of dinner, and afterwards wandered about the rooms and passage, till the carriage could be ordered for our return home.
Mr. J. W. Donne, the librarian of the London library, and afterwards reader of plays, told me, while he was a resident at Bury, that Borrow had behaved in a somewhat like manner to Miss Agnes Strickland, who, hearing that Borrow was in the same room with her, at a reception, urged him to make her acquainted with her brother-author. Borrow was unwilling to be introduced, but was prevailed on to submit. He sat down at her side; before long, she spoke with rapture of his works, and asked his permission to send him a copy of her “Queens of England.” He exclaimed, “For God’s sake, don’t, madame; I should not know where to put them or what to do with them.” On this he rose, fuming, as was his wont when offended, and said to Mr. Donne, “What a damned fool that woman is!”
The fact is that, whenever Borrow was induced to do anything unwillingly, he lost his temper.
XLVI.
The Bullers, a political family, had a son who filled the rectory of Troston, and were often on a visit to him there. They were the parents of Charles Buller, Lord Durham’s secretary in Canada, afterwards member for Liskeard, and the pet of the House.
These Bullers were much of the Lord John Russell set; were friends of the Grotes, the Nussau Seniors, the Thackerays, the Sidney Smiths, the Walshams, and their like, not to mention the Bunburys, all more or less philosophers of the advanced type.