The Pocket George Borrow, by George Borrow

Transcribed from the 1912 Chatto & Windus edition by David Price, email [email protected]

THE POCKET GEORGE BORROW
PASSAGES CHOSEN FROM THE WORKS OF BORROW
BY EDWARD THOMAS

To my brother Julian.

NOTE

When a man has read once, or twice, or three times, through Borrow’s books, he will probably dip into them here and there at intervals.  By so doing he gradually makes his own anthology; but it may be that he will yet find place for another man’s, if it has no pretension to completeness or authority, and will go into his pocket.  Borrow is not a pithy writer, nor is he best when sententious; the following passages are, therefore, somewhat longer than is usual in this series of Anthologies.  Even so, many of the best things in his books, especially from Wild Wales, have had to be omitted, because they are longer still.  But this selection aims only at giving strangers to Borrow an invitation or challenge, and lovers a few sprigs of his heather for a keepsake.  Those who find themselves disagreeing with it may at any rate have had their own taste cleared and braced in the process.

Edward Thomas.

BORROW’S WRITINGS

ROMANTIC BALLADS
TARGUM
ZINCALI: THE GYPSIES OF SPAIN
THE BIBLE IN SPAIN
LAVENGRO
ROMANY RYE
WILD WALES
THE SLEEPING BARD
ROMANO LAVO-LIL
THE TURKISH JESTER
AND OTHER TRANSLATIONS

CONTENTS

It is very possible that the reader . . . Zincali
“Are you of the least use?” . . . Lavengro
“People are becoming vastly sharp” . . . Lavengro
“Will you take a glass of wine?” . . . Lavengro
One day it happened . . . Lavengro
Because they have been known . . . Zincali
One fact has always struck us . . . Zincali
Many of them reside in caves . . . Zincali
It has always struck me . . . Lavengro
A sound was heard . . . Lavengro
After much feasting . . . Zincali
The English Gypsies . . . Zincali
“I say, Jasper!” . . . Romany Rye
“What is your opinion of death, Mr. Petulengro?” . . . Lavengro
Beating of women . . . Romany Rye
Of my wife . . . Wild Wales
In the summer. . . . Wild Wales
Fear God, and take your own part . . . Romany Rye
Soldiers and sailors . . Romany Rye
There they come, the bruisers . . . Lavengro
The writer now wishes . . . Romany Rye
“No,” said I . . . Romany Rye
Oh, genial and gladdening!  . . . Lavengro
On the whole . . . Romany Rye
On the following day . . . Romany Rye
The binding . . . Lavengro
I commenced the Bible in Spain . . . Zincali
And, as I wandered . . . Lavengro
At length the moon shone out . . . Bible in Spain
Upon the shoulder of the goatherd . . . Bible in Spain
I have always found . . . Bible in Spain
“C’est moi, mon maître” . . . Bible in Spain
After travelling four days and nights . . . Bible in Spain
The posada. . . . Bible in Spain
The landlord brought the ale . . . Wild Wales
“Young gentleman” . . . Lavengro
Becoming soon tired . . . Wild Wales
Late in the afternoon . . . Bible in Spain
I had till then . . . Bible in Spain
“What mountains are those?” . . . Bible in Spain
We had scarcely been five minutes . . . Bible in Spain
I have heard talk . . . Lavengro
“Well,” said the old man . . . Lavengro
I sat upon the bank . . . Lavengro
Ah, that Irish! . . . Lavengro
I said: “Now, Murtagh!” . . . Romany Rye
Here I interrupted . . . Romany Rye
“And who is Jerry Grant?” . . . Lavengro
“Is it a long time?” . . . Wild Wales
Now, a tinker . . . Lavengro
“Did you speak, Don Jorge” . . . Bible in Spain
Francis Ardry and myself . . . Romany Rye
After a slight breakfast . . . . Romany Rye
I did not like reviewing . . . . Lavengro
A lad, who twenty tongues can talk . . . Romantic Ballads
“He is a great fool” . . . Romany Rye
I informed the landlord . . . Romany Rye
“When you are a gentleman” . . . Romany Rye
I was bidding him farewell . . . Romany Rye
At the dead hour of night . . . Lavengro
I should say . . . Lavengro
To the generality of mankind . . . Lavengro
I cannot help thinking . . . Lavengro
O, Cheapside! . . . Lavengro
Oh, that ride! . . . Lavengro
Of one thing I am certain . . . Lavengro
My curiosity . . . Bible in Spain
The morning of the fifth of November . . . Wild Wales
“Good are the horses of the Moslems” . . . Bible in Spain
“The burra,” I replied . . . Bible in Spain
I was standing on the castle hill . . . Lavengro
In Spain I passed five years . . . Bible in Spain
On the afternoon of the 6th of December . . . Bible in Spain
I know of few things . . . Bible in Spain
It was not without reason . . . Bible in Spain
Apropos of bull-fighters . . . Bible in Spain
The waiter drew the cork . . . Romany Rye
Leaving the bridge . . . Lavengro
I went to Belle’s habitation . . . Romany Rye
I found Belle seated by a fire . . . Lavengro
I put some fresh wood on the fire . . . Lavengro
After ordering dinner . . . Wild Wales
The strength of the ox . . . The Targum
I began to think . . . Romany Rye
On I went . . . Romany Rye
As I was gazing . . . Wild Wales
“Pray, gentleman, walk in!” . . . Wild Wales
Now, real Republicanism . . . Romany Rye
“Does your honour remember?” . . . Wild Wales
I was the last of the file . . . Wild Wales
For dinner . . . Wild Wales
Came to Tregeiriog . . . Wild Wales
The name “Pump Saint” . . . Wild Wales
After the days of the great persecution . . . Zincali

GEORGE BORROW
SELECTED PASSAGES

It is very possible that the reader during his country walks or rides has observed, on coming to four cross-roads, two or three handfuls of grass lying at a small distance from each other down one of these roads; perhaps he may have supposed that this grass was recently plucked from the roadside by frolicsome children, and flung upon the ground in sport, and this may possibly have been the case; it is ten chances to one, however, that no children’s hands plucked them, but that they were strewed in this manner by Gypsies, for the purpose of informing any of their companions, who might be straggling behind, the route which they had taken; this is one form of the patteran or trail.  It is likely, too, that the gorgio reader may have seen a cross drawn at the entrance of a road, the long part or stem of it pointing down that particular road, and he may have thought nothing of it, or have supposed that some sauntering individual like himself had made the mark with his stick: not so, courteous gorgio; ley tiro solloholomus opré lesti, you may take your oath upon it that it was drawn by a Gypsy finger, for that mark is another of the Rommany trails; there is no mistake in this.  Once