lebrated fast trotter "Marshland Shales"
at the Tombland Fair of March 19th, 1818, is an anachronism, for that
noble animal did not present himself on the Castle Hill till 1827. He
had been sold for 305 guineas in 1810, and again sold in 1827; he died in
1835, aged thirty-three. Sir Walter Gilbey states that "though the
Norfolk Hackney achieved its fame through Blaze (foaled 1733), who begat
the original Shales, foaled in 1755, and the foundations of this
invaluable breed were thus laid in George II.'s time, we must have regard
to the period during which the breed achieved its celebrity both at home
and abroad, and that period is the long reign of George III." Dr. Knapp
expresses himself as much terrified by the invasion of the free path by
"a party rushing madly up, striving to keep pace with a mettlesome steed
. . . at the sight of whose enormous hoofs and shaggy fetlocks you are
all but ready to perish." Such niggling super refinement would be quite
repugnant to Borrow's highway robustious temperament.

[Picture: Portrait of William Simpson. From Painting in Blackfriars'
Hall, by Thomas Phillips, R.A., Norwich Corporation Collection]

It was at this Horse Fair that he became conscious of being watched by
someone, till at last he was accosted: "What! the sap-engro? Lor! the
sap-engro upon the hill!" Then Jasper revealed himself. He had been
dodging about inspecting young Borrow, and said he believed Borrow had
felt his presence--"a sign, brother, that we are akin, that we are _dui
palor_--two relations. Your blood beat when mine was near, as mine
always does at the coming of a brother." The two pals walked on over
"the old Norman Bridge" till they reached the gypsy tents on Mousehold,
where Borrow had a memorable conversation with Jasper (Ambrose Smith),
and incurred the wrath of the malignant Mrs. Herne, who objected to the
strange Gorgio "stealing" her language. But he continually consorted
with Jasper, studying the language, the characters, and the manners of
the gypsies. So quickly did he pick up Romany words that Jasper said:
"We'll no longer call you Sap-engro, brother, but rather Lav-engro, which
in the language of the Gorgios meaneth Word Master." The handsome Tawno
Chikno would have preferred to call him Cooro-mengro, as he had found him
"a pure fist master." Mrs. Herne could not stand this intimacy, for she
so hated the Gorgio that she said she would like to mix a little poison
with his