George Henry Borrow

From a painting by Henry Wyndham Phillips

GEORGE BORROW

AND HIS CIRCLE

WHEREIN MAY BE FOUND MANY HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED LETTERS OF BORROW AND HISFRIENDS

BY

CLEMENT KING SHORTER

BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
1913

TO

AUGUSTINE BIRRELL

A FRIEND OF LONG YEARS AND A TRUE

LOVER OF GEORGE BORROW

C. K. S.

Transcriber's Notes: Minor typos have been corrected. There is Persian and Russian writing in thisbook, which have been marked as [Persian] or as [Russian]. In this text, full page illustrations usedthe same page number as the previous non illustration page, so, for example, there were two page 16. I haveadded an a after the illustration page number for the sake of clarity.

[Pg v]

PREFACE

I have to express my indebtedness first of all to the executors ofHenrietta MacOubrey, George Borrow's stepdaughter, who kindly placedBorrow's letters and manuscripts at my disposal. To the survivor ofthese executors, a lady who resides in an English provincial town, Iwould particularly wish to render fullest acknowledgment did she notdesire to escape all publicity and forbid me to give her name in print.I am indebted to Sir William Robertson Nicoll without whose kindly andactive intervention I should never have taken active steps to obtain thematerial to which this biography owes its principal value. I am undergreat obligations to Mr. Herbert Jenkins, the publisher, in that,although the author of a successful biography of Borrow, he has, withrare kindliness, brought me into communication with Mr. Wilfrid J.Bowring, the grandson of Sir John Bowring. To Mr. Wilfrid Bowring I amindebted in that he has handed to me the whole of Borrow's letters tohis grandfather. I have to thank Mr. James Hooper of Norwich for theuntiring zeal with which he has unearthed for me a valuable series ofnotes including[Pg vi] certain interesting letters concerning Borrow. Mr.Hooper has generously placed his collection, with which he at one timecontemplated writing a biography of Borrow, in my hands. I thank Dr.Aldis Wright for reading my chapter on Edward FitzGerald; also Mr. W.H.Peet, Mr. Aleck Abrahams, and Mr. Joseph Shaylor for assistance in thelittle known field of Sir Richard Phillips's life. I have further tothank my friends, Edward Clodd and Thomas J. Wise, for reading myproof-sheets. To Theodore Watts-Dunton, an untiring friend of thirtyyears, I have also to acknowledge abundant obligations.

C. K. S.

[Pg vii]

CONTENTS