ning, he did. The reader of _The
Bible in Spain_ will note some seventy separate towns and villages that
Borrow visited, not without countless remarkable adventures on the way.
'I felt some desire,' he says in _The Romany Rye_, 'to meet with one of
those adventures which upon the roads of England are generally as
plentiful as blackberries in autumn.' Assuredly in this tour of Spanish
villages Borrow met with no lack of adventures. The committee of the
Bible Society authorised this tour in March 1837, and in May Borrow
started off on horseback attended by his faithful servant, Antonio. This
tour was to last five months, and 'if I am spared,' he writes to his
friend Hasfeld, 'and have not fallen a prey to sickness, Carlists,
banditti, or wild beasts, I shall return to Madrid.' He hopes a little
later, he tells Hasfeld, to be sent to China. We have then a glimpse of
his servant, the excellent Antonio, which supplements that contained in
_The Bible of Spain_. 'He is inordinately given to drink, and is of so
quarrelsome a disposition that he is almost constantly involved in some
broil.'[121] Not all his weird experiences were conveyed in his letters
to the Bible Society's secretary. Some of these letters, however--the
more highly coloured ones--were used in _The Bible in Spain_, word for
word, and wonderful reading they must have made for the secretary, who
indeed asked for more, although, with a view to keeping Borrow
humble--an impossible task--Mr. Brandram takes occasion to say 'Mr.
Graydon's letters, as well as yours, are deeply interesting,' Graydon
being a hated rival, as we shall see. The question of L.S.D. was also
not forgotten by the assiduous secretary. 'I know you are no
accountant,' he writes, 'but do not forget there are some who are,' and
a financial document was forwarded to Borrow about this time which we
reproduce in facsimile.

[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF AN ACCOUNT OF GEORGE BORROW'S EXPENSES IN
SPAIN MADE OUT BY THE BIBLE SOCIETY]

But now Borrow was happy, for next to the adventures of five glorious
months in the villages between Madrid and Coruna nothing could be more
to the taste of Borrow than a good wholesome quarrel. He was imprisoned
by order of the Spanish Government and released on the intervention of
the British Embassy.[122] He tells the story so graphically in _The
Bible in Spain_ that it is superfluous to repeat it; but here he does
not tell of the great quarrel with regard to Lieutenant Gr