lately read _aloud_ for the second time your Bronte
book; let alone private readings. It is unique in plan and
excellence, and I am greatly obliged to you for it. Apart from
the pleasure of the book, the form of it has always interested
me as a professional biographer. It certainly is novel; and in
this case I am pretty sure that it is right.

With such a testimony before me I cannot hesitate to present my second
biography in similar form. In the case of George Borrow, however, I am
not in a position to supplement one transcendent biography, as in the
case of Charlotte Bronte and Mrs. Gaskell. I have before me no less than
four biographies of Borrow, every one of them of distinctive merit.
These are:

_Life, Writings, and Correspondence of George Borrow._ Derived
from Official and other Authentic Sources. By William I. Knapp,
Ph.D., LL.D. 2 vols. John Murray, 1899.

_George Borrow: The Man and his Work._ By R. A. J. Walling.
Cassell, 1908.

_The Life of George Borrow._ Compiled from Unpublished Official
Documents. His Works, Correspondence, etc. By Herbert Jenkins.
John Murray, 1912.

_George Borrow: The Man and his Books._ By Edward Thomas.
Chapman and Hall, 1912.

All of these books have contributed something of value and importance to
the subject. Dr. Knapp's work it is easiest to praise because he is
dead.[2] His biography of Borrow was the effort of a lifetime. A scholar
with great linguistic qualifications for writing the biography of an
author whose knowledge of languages was one of his titles to fame, Dr.
Knapp spared neither time nor money to achieve his purpose. Starting
with an article in _The Chautauquan Magazine_ in 1887, which was
reprinted in pamphlet form, Dr. Knapp came to England--to Norwich--and
there settled down to write a _Life_ of Borrow, which promised at one
time to develop into several volumes. As well it might, for Dr. Knapp
reached Norfolk at a happy moment for his purpose. Mrs. MacOubrey,
Borrow's stepdaughter, was in the humour to sell her father's
manuscripts and books. They were offered to the city of Norwich; there
was some talk of Mr. Jeremiah Coleman, M.P., whose influence and wealth
were overpowering in Norwich at the time, buying them. Finally, a very
considerable portion of the collection came into the hands of Mr.
Webber, a bookseller of Ipswich, who later became associated with the
firm of Jarrold