has plans for the mental improvement
of the Portuguese; should I receive _these letters_ within the
space of six weeks it will be time enough, for before setting
up my machine in Portugal I wish to lay the foundation of
something similar in Spain. When you send the Portuguese
letters direct thus:

Mr. George Borrow,
to the care of Mr. Wilby,
Rua Dos Restauradores, Lisbon.

I start for Spain to-morrow, and I want letters something
similar (there is impudence for you) for Madrid, _which I
should like to have as soon as possible_. I do not much care at
present for an introduction to the Ambassador at Madrid, as I
shall not commence operations seriously in Spain until I have
disposed of Portugal. I will not apologise for writing to you
in this manner, for you know me, but I will tell you one
thing, which is that the letter which you procured for me, on
my going to St. Petersburg, from Lord Palmerston, assisted me
wonderfully. I called twice at your domicile on my return; the
first time you were in Scotland, the second in France, and I
assure you I cried with vexation. Remember me to Mrs. Bowring
and God bless you.

G. BORROW.

_P.S._--I am told that Mendizabal is liberal, and has been in
England; perhaps he would assist me.

During this eleven months' stay in the Peninsula Borrow made his way to
Madrid, and here he interviewed the British Minister, Sir George
Villiers, afterwards fourth Earl of Clarendon, and had received a quite
remarkable encouragement from him for the publication and distribution
of the Bible. He also interviewed the Spanish Prime Minister,
Mendizabal, 'whom it is as difficult to get nigh as it is to approach
the North Pole,' and he has given us a picturesque account of the
interview in _The Bible in Spain_. It was agreed that 5000 copies of the
Spanish Testament were to be reprinted from Scio's text at the expense
of the Bible Society, and all these Borrow was to handle as he thought
fit. Then Borrow made his way to Granada, where, under date 30th August
1836, his autograph may be read in the visitors' book of the Alhambra:

_George Borrow Norvicensis._

Here he studied his friends the gypsies, now and probably then, as we
may assume from his _Zincali_, the sordid scum on the hillside of that
great city, but now more assur