Lavengro Volume I Part 38

{132a} Till 1886 a prison, and now a museum. A square Norman keep.

{132b} The tower is Norman, the spire Decorated, 215 feet high.

{133} The Bishop's Bridge (1295) over the Wensum.

{134} Horatio, Viscount Nelson (1758-1805), was born at Burnham-Thorpe Rectory, Norfolk, near Wells.

{140} Borrow clean omits his two years (1816-18) at Norwich Grammar School, under Edward Valpy (1764-1832), headmaster 1810-29. This was probably because, horsed on James Martineau's back, he was flogged for running away to turn smuggler or freebooter. Sir James Brooke was another schoolfellow.

{142} The Rev. Thomas D'Eterville, a Norman _emigre_.

{146} The Yare.

{147} Earlham Hall.

{148} Joseph John Gurney (1788-1847), Quaker banker of Norwich, and philanthropist, a brother of Mrs. Fry. See A. J. C. Hare's _The Gurneys of Earlham_ (2 vols., 1895).

{152} Tombland Fair, on Norwich Castle Hill, the day before Good Friday.

{154} _Cf._ Introduction, p. xxv.

{156} Snake-charmer.

{157} Monschold (p.r.o.n. _Muzzle_) Heath, near Norwich.

{158} Better _Tarno Tikno_, little baby.

{161} _Petulengro_, farrier, the esoteric Romany name of the Smith family. It is derived from the Modern Greek _petalon_, horse-shoe, if that, indeed, is not borrowed from the Romany.

{162a} Truth, brother.

{162b} Book.

{162c} Hill.

{163a} Pa.s.sing bad money.

{163b} Gypsies.

{163c} Better _gaujoes_, non-Gypsies or Gentiles.

{164a} Yes.

{164b} Magistrate of the town.

{165a} Child.

{165b} In the town, telling fortunes.

{166a} House.

{166b} Going.

{169a} In Vol. i. p. 320 of _Etymologicon Universale_ (3 vols., 1822- 25), by the Rev. Walter Whiter (1758-1832), from 1797 rector of Hardingham, near Wymondham, occurs this suggestion: "It will perhaps be discovered by some future inquirer that from a horde of vagrant _Gipseys_ once issued that band of st.u.r.dy robbers, the companions of Romulus and of Remus, who laid the foundations of the _Eternal City_ on the banks of the Tibur." This sounds truly Borrovian; and scattered through the amazing _Etymologicon_ are twenty-six Romany words, very correctly spelt, which I used to think Whiter must have learnt from George Borrow. But there are words that Borrow does not seem to have known--_poshe_, near; _kam_, sun; _ria_, sir (vocative), and _petalles_, horse-shoe (accusative). Whiter appears to have known Romany better than Borrow. Borrow certainly meant to write a good deal about Whiter, for in a letter to John Murray of 1st December 1842 he sketches _Lavengro_: "Capital subject--early life; studies and adventures; some account of my father, William Taylor, Whiter, Big Ben, etc. etc." (Knapp, ii. 5). But he barely mentions Whiter in chap. xxiv. of _Lavengro_. In the _Gypsy Lore Journal_ (i.

1888, pp. 102-4) I had an article on Whiter. That on Whiter by Mr.

Courtney, in vol. lxi. of the _Dictionary of National Biography_ (1900), shows that he was writing on the Gypsy language in 1800 and 1811.

{169b} Fighter.

{170a} Husband.

{170b} Gentleman.

{170c} London.

{170d} Song.

{178} Borrow's _Wild Wales_ gives a full account of his Welsh studies at this period.

{180} He was articled on 30th March 1819 to Messrs. Simpson & Rackham solicitors, for five years.

{198} Klopstock. (B.)

{199} John Crome, "Old Crome" (1768-1811), the great landscape-painter of the "Norwich School."

{208} Lodowick Muggleton (1609-98), a London Puritan tailor, founded his sect about 1651.

{211} William Taylor (1765-1836), "of Norwich," introduced German literature to English readers, and corresponded with Southey, Scott, G.o.dwin, etc. He seems to have made an infidel of Borrow by 1824 (Knapp, ii. 261-2). See Life of Taylor by Robberds (1843).

{225a} Samuel Parr (1747-1825).

{225b} See note on p. 169.

{230} John Thurtell (_c._ 1791-1824), the son of a Norwich alderman, was hanged at Hertford for the brutal murder in Gill's Hill Lane of a fellow- swindler, William Weare. He figures also in Hazlitt's "Prize-fight," and Sir Walter Scott visited the scene of Weare's murder.

{233} Spinoza.

{239} Rather shaky Romany. _Chivios_ and _rovel_ should be _chido si_ and _rovenna_.

{240} Enough.

{249} Absolutely meaningless to any English Gypsy that ever walked.

Borrow seems to have fancied it was Hungarian Romany, but it isn't.

{264} Anglo-Hanoverian victory over the French, 1759.

{265} 2nd April 1824.

{270} Sir Richard Phillips (1767-1840), schoolmaster, hosier, stationer, publisher, author, Radical, vegetarian, etc., removed from Leicester to London in 1795, was knighted in 1808, and finally retired to Brighton.