BOOKS OF THE DAY:

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1984, 14 February 1914, Page 9

BOOKS OF THE DAY:

GEORCE BORROW AND HIS CIRCLE. ' A few' years ago Mr. Clement K. Shorter, .'editor; of.. "The Sphere," gave us what,must .always remain one of tho most informative and interesting books oh . tho : Bronte i sister's;-' "Charlotte Brontp and; Her, Circle" was the title. Ho has:now placed admirers of-George Borrow- under a of. gratitude by pro'ducing an- equally \;aliiable and. delightful' work.'oil the; author;of' "-The. BibleJn Spain," "Lavengro,-' and "The Romany? liye."'i It is, _by. the way, the third, book' on "Borrow' that- las been published within .the last ' eighteen months, ■ its : predecessors being Mr. - Herbert '' Jenkins's;•, . amply-documented "Life," and a study of Borrow's personality and works |by Mr: Edward Thomas. •Mr. Shorter's book has,., however, special claimu.to the - 'attention; of all good Borrovians. , From the executors-of Hen-rietta-'MacOubrey, ■ George • Borrowls step-daughter—the- "Old Hen" -of 'Borrow' s ■ letters—Mr." Short er 'purchased a largo number of .'Bortow's manuscripts and: letters, and : of'these he has made skilful use in- cbristructing'.hfs most de-. tailed -. and fascinating, portrait. of the author. ' •• • -

Borrow,'s Parentage and Youth. The' future' author of "The Bibie' in Spain'' ' was ' borii,; in 1803, at East in Norfolk; his:father, amili- , ,tia 'ca'ptamy being of, Cornish: descent, and;, in. t his„;youth' as fond of'a bout .at* fisticuffs- as: was. his 1 son.' ' His' ■mother, . Ann Perfremeiit, cam©' of a French Huguenot family.. If, as it is said ,-was /the • caSe, Borrow had, his m'other'Sf eyis •. and' features, she. .must have ■; been a - strikingly handsome ivjoihan.;.': Captain Sorrow's, pay was isjnall, ;and George// and his'.- ' "elder brother' lived ''with' the' father, whenever 'he .stationed- George was, educated partly •'■at Edinburghy at .the/High School, and partly -iii:;. Norwich,' ; wl ore toe* Borrows' settled •:< dowrt when .: the ' father filially.' •retired from'; .the'.' Arihy. Articled to "a .solicitor, Borrow neglected legal-studies for what became the passion of his life—philology. He certainly.had', the gift of tongues, for at eighteen, so Taylor, the-translator ; of Goethe, wrote to a. friend, "ho understands twelve English, Welsh, Erse, Latin,- • Greek, Hebrew, Germati, Danish, Trench, Italian, Spanish/- and - On the death of his. father,, in 1824, Borrow "walked up to London," to seek his fortuno as a. writer. ' As'to his life there you can read, in "Laverigro," which is largely autobiographical.. Between\ 1825 and 1832-' he wandered about England' and the ; Continent. In 1833-35; he was in Russia, :-and Vthen, in- the latter- year, . frent :to .Spain,' -Portugal, and.Morocco, :as -.agent, for' the Bible Society;;, " .In / .1843; "Tire; Bible. in Spain" : was.publisheß, f h^viu gbeen'- preceded-by ; "The G ( ypsies>in : . Spain." ' Ten years".'later cible--?'Layengfo." His -' bestkiibwn; works' are: "The-Romany- Rye" . sequel, to "Laverigro"—published in 1859, .. arid': "Wild Wales". (1802), In I§Bl. died at; his \ cottage at Qylton. So much;'.fQr..:.the ,iniain facts BtfrrowVSfrange-Personality, , - 'In no ipreceding book; of "Lavtingro" ;:do. .we. .get -so ."complete a' picture of as that -';Mr'..Shoi;ter/,does not disguise the' fact thaVßo'rroWywas Vain,-egotistical, truculenti-: at' times-.in manner, and a man who' bitterly resented adverse criticism. But he shows us a Borrow- who, on the whole, was a • very wonderful, if a very eccentric cliara'ctcr. ; The man's- astounding* gift for acquiring foreign'languages, his equally astounding -literary', industry, his admiration ... of all that is real, and true, his. worship of . physical and mental virility, and , above all,. his intense sympathy with, rind love of, wild nature and a simple life—all this Mr. Shorter make abund- ' antly clear. He was undoubtedly sincere in some of his prejudices. That wearisomely recurrent abuse of. "the Pope and all his works," and Ids anti-Jacob-ite: craze —which, -by the way,' led him to attaci: Sir Walter Scott sounfairly— were genuine enough. But, by .practising the Judicious art of skipping, as 1 confess- I do when reading Borrow, these fads and foibles need not'trouble '-the reader, and what a glorious feast of entertainment remains. Mr.' Shorter warns us' that Borrow is not always to he trusted as to tho accounts he gave of his wanderings, There can be little . doubt that; there- 1 is as much romance as there, is fact in "The . Bible in 'Spain," and ,l)is travels in India, to which lie would mysteriously refer, liciver to'ok place. But man who: spoke and wyote twelve language? at eighteen, 'and who, befqro he was twenty-five, '-.went .jto ; St. Petersburg and translated the :BibTp-into iMantchu—■ and supervised its printing—the. man who cb.uld, and'did, , talk with .the gypsies of Spain, arid. 7 Hungary,and England as freely.-as:to "his^brother;,the man who wrote'' "Laveilgrp,"./may well be' 'par- • doned.a'cei'tain ""embroidery' 1 of facts.

Two' Interesting! Portraits, , As -to Borrow's, personal; appearance in.later,life, a-Norwich, friend, is quoted by.Mr. Shorter a's ! having''said;— ; . t .. As I recall/him, lie. was a line, powerfully-built man, of about six feet high. ' He-had a clean"3havcii face, 'with- a- fiesli-complexion, al- ■ most'approaohing.to'the florid, and never-a wrinkle, even; at sixty,'ex- : • cept.at.'the -corners of ,'hiß dark and over-prominent. eyes. ,He had a shock of silvery.'white hair. He al-ways-wore 'a ,very badly brushed eilk- hat, a'black frock coat,, and trousers, .the eoat all buttoned down .before; lo.v slioes and white socks. .-;He was a tireless ■ walker, -. with - ' extraordinary, powers of endurance, ■ and.iyas also ,very handy with his fists, .'as in those .days a-gentleman - . required to -be, more than he does ' now.' ! The immortal Major, Bagstock was not : better* entitled-to call'himself "tough, sir,, tough."'! than ~was the autlior = of, "Lavengro." .For Mr. Watts Dunton tells us that , ' - at seventy years of age . . . • j bo'. : would walk to Putney, meet one of . us at Rockhampton,. roam about Wimbledon and Richmond Park, batho in-' tho Een- Ponds with a ; .north-east wind, cutting across tho icy water like a razor,- and run about the grass afterwards, like a ; boy,-stride about tho park for hoiirs, and then, after fasting-ior hours, - eat a dinner that! would have. done Sir Walter Scott's!"eyes' good to',see, ■ and walk all the way home to Hereford Square. And if tho physique of ' tho inan was bracing, .his conversa"tion, unless lid happened to be suffering from one of., his occasional - , fits of depression, was still so, ■ Its frbshrioss, laciriess, and eccentric whim ; no pen could describe. , Tli'er.e is a'kind of humour the do- ' ligh'i .of which ; is. that while you • ■ smile at the pictures-it draws! you : smile quite as muc/i to think therp is'a%fnd-so!Whiiil6ieall.y,' b'6 crotth-- • ; ety, a-odd as to draw them. This ' . was .the humour of Borrow -

Lavengro. Lavengro is, of course, Borrow's masterpiece, though, oddly, enough, I met an ardent fellow Borrovian the other day who would fain convince me that VAVild Wales" merits that distinction. 11l "Lavengro/ 1 half ' autobiography, half-romancej one.gets, 1 t'hink, .more of the real Borrow, than in .all .his other books, - put; togeher. .A "Tinker Quixote" Henley calls the hero,- and, later ,on,» in. ono. of. the'.best..appreciations of Borrow that w&hav.e, gives us an inimitable little verbal. etching of' the curiously complex character' ofthe author—"the artist-tramp, who can write, tho horse-coper with-a twang of Hamlet, and-a, habit'of Monte Christo —that is George Borrow!"- The title of "Lavengro,"-as -Borrow first'would have it, was. "Life, -A Drama-.". The title finally chosen was-'"Laveiigro," the Scholar, the Gypsy,'.the Priest," and the book duly made its : apj)enranco in 1851. Borrow had high hopes-'of a■ suecess, but, -alas,* "best-seller" as rtho phrase notv goes. ■ 'The Athenaeum''',-and "Blackwood's Magazine"; pronounced it a failure. The first edition of 3000 copies was not'exhausted: for some years. It was not until 1878, when Borrow was Jiving a iemi-hermit at Oulton, a soured, disappointed and very lonely'old man, that John 'Murray ventured to put a second edition on the market. To-day, ".Laveiigro" has c'ome r to its own. Toil eaij buy the story in goodness-knows how many editions, from, a shilling .'upwards, arid 110 Victorian book', save perhaps "Pickwick," is' .more ' frequently 'quoted. '.Wo all know "Lavengro" nowadays. Mr.; Birrell has written its praises : in one of his delightful essays (in "Res. judicatae"), Mr.'.'Watts Dunton—a personal friend of Borrow in the latter's old age—Mr. Seecombe, : Mr. -Edward Thomas, Canon Beeching, and ,a_ host of others have-ijraxed enthusiastic, over, the fine fresh open-air virility and. • striking. originality' of the story. But the reading public of the Victorian 'fifties .would-have ;none of ( it.. The people who had been ■'attracted by the very,title of "The' Bible in Spain" and, who were, too, in . all probability', somewhat staggered by 'certain of the adventures of tho Bible Society's agent, were shocked at Borrow's praiso of ale. They -were not interested in the gypsies, ' and one can, well imagine how they must have sniffed" and snorted at that famous twenty-sixth chapter, wherein occurs Borrow's never-to-be-forgotten eulogy of "the bruisers of England.-" Borrow \was terribly disappointed, for ho had put his whole soul , into the book, which,, as Mr. Shorter shows very clearly, , had taken him many years to write.' Some "Lavengro" Characters. r Dr. Knapp, in his ponderous two volumes on Borrow, has - identified many of Borrow's.characters, and more, recently, Mr. - Herbert Jenkins, / whose | "Life of Borrow" (Murray) . published, about a year ago I strongly commend-to-lriy-readers, has tried his-, hand at the j same amusing game. Mr ; Shorter gives us a full-length''porti-ait of the wicked "Publisher,'Vwho was',' based upon Sir Ricliard Philips,' who published Mavcrjs, "Spelling .Book,'.' over which "Liber'" 7carT' '.we'll spending ni!W? T ts'BiiPnc>urs when .a{ child,' and other., once-famous school books. It was Phillips who gave young George some: poorly-paid,- hack-work— compiling-,'"Tho Celebrated Trials," for instance, and treated the- brilliant young linguist from the provinces with such /meanness that li.e: writes, in "Lavengro," "What a life, what a dog!s lifel I would frequently exclaim after escaping from tho presence of the Publisher:" Personally, I prefer the country episodes, although, for.example. in tho famous meeting, with the mysterious old woman who was . found reading '"Mojl Flanders" ■ on London Bridge, there is. a fine smack of Defoe himself, indeed the Defoe influence is to s my mind quite afeature'bf the'whole book. Mr. Potulengro. My own favourite character in' "Lavengro" will always be that philosophicyagabond, the quaint-spoken gypsy, Petulengro, the great and only Jasper. Who that read "Lavengro" can. forget that; famous passage (in . tho_ twenty-fifth chapter) where, Jasper philosophises' on death—and life: — ,* "Life is sweet, brother." ■ "Do you think so?" ; "Think sol There's night and day, both sweet things; sun, moon, and stars, brother, all sweot things; there's likewise the •wind on .the heath.- Life is swee't, brother: who would wish to . ' die?" • • Mr. Jenkins, in his "Life of Borrow," tells us much abmit Jasper, who was one .of "the'gipsies whom schoolboy George had met at. a country fair." Even as a mere lad, Borrow had Bohemian inclinaOije of his schoolfellows—he was under the famous Dr.' Valpy,. of , Latin grammar_ fame at the Free Grammar School, Norwich—described' li.im as an. "odd, • wild boy,. always. ' wanting, to turn Robinson Crusoe' or buccaneer." Oil one occasion Borrow'and two other, boys "determined, to ;i'iin away and play pirates." Two of the,lads were promptly recaptured, but Borrow-got away ,to .Yarmouth, and "lived on tho .Caister Deiies tor. a few-days":" ; 1 Mr.,Shorter's book contains a (lumber of portraits of Borrow, his family, and. his friends," also facsimiles of .his Manuscripts,.'and -pictures of variwi's places iintimately connected witli; his life and-works. :. On ! every! , book-shelf which houses a set of Borrow, this, fas- 1 cinatiiigand valuable book-of Mr. Shortens should'find a place. Thoscwlio do not know'Borrow's books .should get a copy' of "The-J3oo,kman'.'; (for October, 1013 1 ), which contains a long and interesting article on-tho author of "Lavengro:" There are several cheap editions of tho work's, in. 'Everyman's Library," and other-scries of reprints. Personally I ,prefer the edition published.,by John Lane: For library editions you must go to Borrow's,old 'publisherj John Murray. • "TICHRLAND." Another (interesting work, this time dealing with big game shooting, not photographing,' which has recently been published, is "Tigerland" (George Bell and Sons, per Whitenmbe and Tombs); by Mr. C. E.' Gouldsbury, whose capital book, "Jiifo in the Indian Policc," was so much discussed) a year or two ago. Mr. Gouldsbury- has edited the sporting recollections of a veteran .fellow Anglo-Indian, like himself a keen sportsman,* but who prefers, however, to remain anonymous. This gentleman was a stowaway on a sailing, ship, bound for Newfoundland, in the early fifties, and eventually found' himself an ab'e seaman board anEast Indian man. At. Calcutta he deserted—it was the timo of the Indian Mutiny—and joined the Bengal Mounted Constabulary. At tho end of the Mutiny he was appointed to the new semi-military police or constabulary, for the whole of India. In'this force lie became a .-junior otiicor, and in duo course rose to high rank. It is not, however,'with his experiences of Indian crime and criminals, that the ' .reminiscences are concerned, but- with big game shooting, especially the shooting: of tigers and leopards, and it may

bo said at once that not even tho "Old Shekarry" himself told more exciting yiir'ns of Indian sporting adventure Jhan are sot forth from tho veteran's notes, by Mr. Gouldsbury. Many hairbreadth escapes aro recorded, some of tlicin _ recalling similar and equally astonishing "near squeaks" of which so many of .us have read in that famous be ok, "The Man-Eaters of Tsavo." It has-aHyays been a matter of discussion with big game-hunters as to which is tlib more dangerous wild animal, the lion or the tiger. Mr. Itoosevelt, if I remember rightly, holds that tho African buffalo'is a far nioro dangerous beast than tho lion—but undoubtedly, the tiger is more cunning than tho so-called "king of beasts." As to size, the . record tiger of Mr. Gouldsbury's book : measured from tip of nose to end of tail ten feet seven inches, the length from tip of nose to root of tail being exactly seven feet. One of tho most sensational Stories in the book is that of_ a man who, when • carried off in the of a. tiger, .succeeded in drawing a pistol from his belt , and blowing the animal's heart into, frag- ■, the hunter recovering with tho loss 'of an arm. In cunning, the leopard is quite th'e equal of the.tiger,.and is almost/equally dreaded by the ludian villagers.

A Man-eating. Leopard. . Oiio 'of the author's most curious stores .is that of a -roan-eating 'leopard, whose 1 -exploits, worthy of the famous lions of Tsavo, of which so much has been written by 'travellers in East ■Africa,-drove the people of a certain group of,villages into a state of terror, which, after a time, almost paralysed them. ' This-leopard, which eventually became : known as the "L —- ManEaster," hegan by carrying- off a girl of foV .years . p of-age, who was playing in the courtyard, of her father's house. Later on,..in the same month, it killed •a .boy of eight and devoured an infant of -one and a half years. From January to the end-of December in that, year the brute had filled and wholly or partially devoured exactly one-hundred persons, mostly women and. children, and'in "the following .year,.up to-April, when it was shot, it had accounted for ' fifty-four more—a.total of one- hundred and 1 fiftyfour persons killecl within a. space of twenty-one'm<?nths'!Says. Mr'. Gouldsbury:—

oury: — , ■ . 1 The terror created by such /a , wholesale slaughter of human lie- . -iiigs. in oiie particular group of vil'lages m'ajr be-mbrei easily-imagined ;that described; ■ a The people wero , fairly .panic-stricken. Some ' sought refugo iu. distant, villages; ' others, abandoning all, thoughts of steep, - barricaded their .doors and \ windows', and kept on tho. watch all • night, while some of the younger and able-bodied men, goaded to des-' p'eration by tho. loss of-wife, child, r or some other near relative, lay in' wait for tho-; demon in feline form, -, and when it next made its onslaught attacked it in a body, armed with sticks and stones, but only to lose .' some.of their own number., For tho bloodthirsty brute, encouraged by - former successes,,and wholly devoid ' of- fear, charged boldly into the crowd,' sometimes.killing one or two, and always mauiiiig others before • making its escape, which it invariably did, practically uninjured. The terror of the : poor natives was sensibly' increased by tho extraordinarily rapid movements of the brute. As itigot more daring it never relaxed itscunning, and it was impassible to say when or. where it would next appear. •.For instance.; oho afternoon- at.- 6 o'clock,'it kiiled a woman in a ham- . tlet four' miles-to. the. south..of thej.- ' -"ikaiiii village; tlio- very next 'afterr . '' iioon'it' killed and'devoured,a boy..; at a place five miles to the east; and; again, the next evening, at- ■ ' so s . a v .. Jui-.-at-. •'villiige "four'miles.;-.t0.: the : •'east! Oil twelve occasions it killed" ,• two people iu one.-dav, -and three; times, as' many ns 'thrqe. ai'. day. " ' Fjxcept in the first year of its mur-' derous, career, seventeen days was tho longest interval it allowed to pass without killing, someone. Taking refuge in the "dense sugarcane crops which covered tho face of the country,, it could not well; bo driven 'out by elephants. Poisoning, the "kills" was tried, but one of the wily;monst : er's peculiarities it never returned to its kill after~making the first meal of it,-a practice which, says the author, "while.entirely opposed to all recognised and well-established theories as ~to. the habits common to all animals of the cat tribe', secured for it an".'absolute "immunity from any, such attempts at its destruction." The pitcher,, went: once too often-to the well, and'the Man-Eator was.finally shot by soriio English . officials. . Curiously enough, except for'an abnormally largp head and immensely powerful shoulders, the carcass proved to be somewhat below the averago in weight : and hulk. Its. identity- was proved by the fact that aftefc-its deqth, no more humanbeings tfere killed in the district for some years. . v ' : Mr. Gouldsbury recounts a, number of interesting stories, about other animals —some!of his elephant yarns,, in particular, are most exciting—and woven into 'the narrative are descriptions of many curious native customs and super-: stition's. There is also a haunted house story, whicli is almost as gruesome as somo of Kipling's yarns! Tho illustrations .are numerous and. well produced from- photographs!' (New Zealand price 95.). . ■ , . - ;