to rank them
above Macaulay's "Lays of Ancient Rome." A fine facsimile edition of
Borrow's "Romantic Ballads" was brought out by Messrs. Jarrold in the
early part of this year.

A rupture with Phillips, almost inevitable, set Borrow wandering, and
very soon he became acquainted with the old fruit-woman who found a valid
defence for theft in the history of "the blessed Mary Flanders," a
dog's-eared volume of "Moll Flanders," wherein Borrow found "the air, the
style, the spirit of the writer of the book" which first taught him to
read--Defoe, of course. This classic is "supreme as a realistic picture
of low life in the large."

A quite different figure appears in the person of Francis Arden, a
handsome young Irishman with whom Borrow became acquainted in the
coffee-room of an hotel, and with him obtained some knowledge of "the
strange and eccentric places of London." When Arden burst out laughing
one day Borrow said he would, perhaps, have joined if it were ever his
wont to laugh, and his friends said that, though he enjoyed a joke, he
did not seem to have the power of laughing. But in Borrow we expect
contrarieties, so we find him saying that when he detected a man poking
fun at him in Welsh he flung back his head, closed his eyes, and laughed
aloud; and later on, walking in Wales with the rain at his back, he flung
his umbrella over his shoulder and laughed. "Oh, how a man laughs who
has a good umbrella when he has the rain at his back" ("Wild Wales," pp.
301, 470).

Passing by Borrow's meetings with the Armenian merchant, we come to the
time when, as he says, he found himself reduced to his last half-crown,
and set about writing the "Life and Adventures of Joseph Sell, the Great
Traveller," an entirely fictitious personage. This was completed within
a week, towards the end of May, 1825, and the story brought the author a
welcome twenty pounds. Such is the record. Dr. Knapp believes that
there was such a story, probably part of a series, but Mr. Jenkins gives
good reasons for thinking that "Joseph Sell" was not written till 1829,
when Borrow would more probably be in want of money than just after
payment for his "Trials" (in every sense trials) from Phillips. Anyway,
on May 24th, 1825, Borrow left London. At starting he encountered Arden
driving a cabriolet, who asked him whither he was bound. "I don't know,"
replied Borrow, "all I can say is that I am about to leave London."
Being out of condition, he tir