e
outcasts in Mumper's Lane. Bound up with the truthfulness and
originality of the Author is that strange absence of sycophancy, which we
may flatter ourselves is no exceptional thing, but which is in reality a
very rare phenomenon in literature.

Apart from this independence of character which he so justly prized, and
a monomania or two, such as his devotion to philology or detestation of
popery, Borrow's mental peculiarities are not by any means so extravagant
as has been supposed. His tastes were for the most part not unusual,
though they might be assorted in a somewhat uncommon manner. He was a
thorough sportsman in the best sense, but he combined with his sporting
zeal an instinctive hatred of gambling, of bad language, and of tyranny
or cruelty in any form. He entertained a love for the horse in the
stable without bowing down to worship the stage-coachmen, the jockeys,
and other ignoble heroes of "horsey" life. He loved his country and "the
quiet, unpretending Church of England." He was ready to exalt the
obsolescent fisticuffs and the "strong ale of Old England," but he was
not blind either to the drunkenness or to the overbearing brutality which
he had reason to fear might be held to disfigure the character of the
swilling and prize-fighting sections among his compatriots. {20a}

Borrow was a master of whim; but it is easy to exaggerate his
eccentricity. As a traveller who met with adventures upon the roads of
Britain he was surpassed by a dozen writers that could be named, and in
our own day--to mention one--by that truly eccentric being "The Druid."
{20b} The Druid had a special affinity with Borrow, in regard to his
kindness for an old applewoman. His applewoman kept a stall in the
Strand to which the Druid was a constant visitor, mainly for the purpose
of having a chat and borrowing and repaying small sums, rarely exceeding
one shilling. As an author, again, Borrow was as jealous as one of
Thackeray's heroines; he could hardly bear to hear a contemporary book
praised. Whim, if you will, but scarcely an example of literary
eccentricity.

Borrow developed a delightful faculty for adventure upon the high road,
but such a faculty was far less singular than his gift--akin to the
greatest painter's power of suggesting atmosphere--of investing each
scene and incident with a separate and distinct air of uncompromising
reality. Many persons may have had the advantage of hearing conversation
as brillian