But the Essay, brilliant though it is, was not a ‘Review.’ Not until page 6 is the Hand-Book even mentioned, and but little concerning it appears thereafter. Lockhart, then editing the Quarterly, proposed to render it more suitable for the purpose for which it had been intended by himself interpolating a series
of extracts from Ford’s volumes. But Borrow would tolerate no interference with his work, and promptly withdrew the Essay, which had meanwhile been set up in type. The following letter, addressed by Lockhart to Ford, sufficiently explains the position:
London,
June 13th, 1845.Dear Ford,
‘El Gitano’ sent me a paper on the “Hand-Book” which I read with delight. It seemed just another capital chapter of his “Bible in Spain” and I thought, as there was hardly a word of ‘review,’ and no extract giving the least notion of the peculiar merits and style of the “Hand-Book,” that I could easily (as is my constant custom) supply the humbler part myself, and so present at once a fair review of the work, and a lively specimen of our friend’s vein of eloquence in exordio.
But, behold! he will not allow any tampering . . . . I now write to condole with you; for I am very sensible, after all, that you run a great risk in having your book committed to hands far less competent for treating it or any other book of Spanish interest than Borrow’s would have been . . . and I consider that, after all, in the case of a new author, it is the first duty of the “Quarterly Review” to introduce that author fully and fairly to the public.
Ever Yours Truly,
J. G. Lockhart.“Our author pictures Gibraltar as a human entity thus addressing Spain:
Accursed land! I hate thee, and far from being a defence, will invariably prove a thorn in thy side.
And so on through many sentences of excited rhetoric. Borrow forgot while he wrote that he had a book to review—a book, moreover, issued by the publishing house which issued the periodical in which his review was to appear.”—[George Borrow and his Circle, 1913, p. 257].
In 1913 Borrow’s Review was reprinted in the following Pamphlet:
A / Supplementary Chapter / to / The Bible in Spain / Inspired by / Ford’s “Handbook for Travellers in Spain.” / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.—Square demy 8vo, pp. 46. [See post, No. 10.]
(10) [A Supplementary Chapter to “The Bible in Spain”: 1913]
A / Supplementary Chapter / to / The Bible in Spain / Inspired by / Ford’s “Handbook for Travellers in Spain.” / By / George Borrow / London: / Printed for Private Circulation / 1913.
Collation:—Square demy octavo, pp. 46; consisting of: Half-title (with blank reverse) pp. 1–2; Frontispiece (with blank recto) pp. 3–4; Title-page, as above (with blank reverse) pp. 5–6; Prefatory Note (signed ‘T. J. W.’) pp. 7–10; and text of the Chapter pp. 11–46. There are head-lines throughout, each verso being headed A Supplementary Chapter, and each recto To the Bible in Spain. Following p. 46 is a leaf, with blank recto, and with the following imprint upon the reverse, “London: / Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N. W. / Edition limited to Thirty Copies.” The signatures are A to C (3 sheets, each 8 leaves), inset within each other.