olburn), 1842.

[129] See _Dictionary of National Biography_, vol. xl. pp. 54-55.

[130] A sheepskin jacket with the wool outside, a costume much worn here
in cold weather.

[131] 'panee' is masculine (marginal note in pencil).

[132] In the folds of the sash is concealed the 'navaja,' or formidable
clasp-knife, always worn by the Spaniard.

[133] His principal work was _Voyages pittoresques et romantiques dans
l'ancienne France_.

[134] _The Bible in Spain_, ch. xv.

[135] Many interesting letters from Villiers will be found in _Memoirs
and Memories_, by his niece, Mrs. C. W. Earle, 1911.

CHAPTER XX

MARY BORROW

Among the many Borrow manuscripts in my possession I find a page of
unusual pathos. It is the inscription that Borrow wrote for his wife's
tomb, and it is in the tremulous handwriting of a man weighed down by
the one incomparable tragedy of life's pilgrimage:

_Sacred to the Memory of Mary Borrow,
the Beloved and Affectionate Wife of
George Borrow, Esquire, who departed
this Life on the 30th Jan. 1869._

GEORGE BORROW.

The death of his wife saddened Borrow, and assisted to transform him
into the unamiable creature of Norfolk tradition. But it is well to bear
in mind, when we are considering Borrow on his domestic and personal
side, that he was unquestionably a good and devoted husband throughout
his married life of twenty-nine years. It was in the year 1832 that
Borrow and his wife first met. He was twenty-nine; she was a widow of
thirty-six. She was undeniably very intelligent, and was keenly
sympathetic to the young vagabond of wonderful adventures on the
highways of England, now so ambitious for future adventure in distant
lands. Her maiden name was Mary Skepper. She was one of the two children
of Edmund Skepper and his wife Anne, who lived at Oulton Hall in
Suffolk, whither they had removed from Beceles in 1805. Mary's brother
inherited the Oulton Hall estate of three hundred acres, and she had a
mortgage the interest of which yielded L450 per annum. In July 1817 Mary
married, at Oulton Church, Henry Clarke,[136] a lieutenant in the Navy,
who died eight months later of consumption. Two months after his death
their child Henrietta Mary, the 'Hen' who was Borrow's life companion,
was born. There is a letter among my Borrow Papers addressed to the
widow by her husband's father at this time. It is dated 17th June 1818,
and runs as follows:

I r