Chapter I: Front Matter

NOTE

_A few passages in this monograph are taken from a short article on_ "_George Borrow_" _which appeared in_ "_Good Words_."

_W. A. D._

GEORGE BORROW IN
EAST ANGLIA

BY
WILLIAM A. DUTT

"The foregoing generations beheld God and Nature face to face; we,
through their eyes. Why should we not also enjoy an original
relation to the universe? . . . The sun shines to-day also. There is
more wool and flax in the fields. Let us demand our own works, and
laws, and worship."--EMERSON.

LONDON
DAVID NUTT, 270-271, STRAND
1896

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE I. EAST ANGLIA 7 II. EARLY DAYS 12 III. THE LAWYER'S CLERK 19 IV. DAYS IN NORWICH 29 V. LIFE AT OULTON 39 VI. BORROW AND PUGILISM 60 VII. BORROW AND THE EAST ANGLIAN GIPSIES 68

"_Apart from Borrow's undoubted genius as a writer_, _the
subject-matter of his writings has an interest that will not wane_,
_but will go on growing_. _The more the features of our_ '_Beautiful
England_,' _to use his own phrase_, _are changed by the multitudinous
effects of the railway system_, _the more attraction will readers
find in books which depict her before her beauty was marred_--_books
which picture her in those antediluvian days when there was such a
thing as space in the island_--_when in England there was a sense of
distance_, _that sense without which there can be no romance_--_when
the stage-coach was in its glory_, _when the only magician that could
convey man and his belongings at any rate of speed beyond man's own
walking rate was the horse_--_the beloved horse whose praises Borrow
loved to sing_, _and whose ideal was reached in the mighty_
'_Shales_'--_when the great high roads were alive_, _not merely with
the bustle of business_, _but with real adventure for the
traveller_--_days and scenes which Borrow_, _better than any one
else_, _could paint_."

THEODORE WATTS.