ichenda
married Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, the well-known judge, and the
brother of Sir Leslie Stephen. But to return to Francis Cunningham,
whose acquaintance with Borrow was brought about through Mrs. Clarke.
Cunningham was a great supporter of the British and Foreign Bible
Society, and was the founder of the Paris branch. It was speedily
revealed to him that Borrow's linguistic abilities could be utilised by
the Society, and he secured the co-operation of his brother-in-law,
Joseph John Gurney, in an effort to find Borrow work in connection with
the Society. There is a letter of Borrow's to Mrs. Clarke of this period
in my Borrow Papers which my readers will already have read.[137]

We do not meet Mary Clarke again until 1834, when we find a letter from
her to Borrow addressed to St. Petersburg, in which she notifies to him
that he has been 'mentioned at many of the Bible Meetings this year,'
adding that 'dear Mr. Cunningham' had spoken so nicely of him at an
Oulton gathering. 'As I am not afraid of making you proud,' she
continues, 'I will tell you one of his remarks. He mentioned you as one
of the most extraordinary and interesting individuals of the present
day.' Henceforth clearly Mary Clarke corresponded regularly with Borrow,
and one or two extracts from her letters are given by Dr. Knapp. Joseph
Jowett of the Bible Society forwarded Borrow's letters from Russia to
Cunningham, who handed them to Mrs. Clarke and her parents. Borrow had
proposed to continue his mission by leaving Russia for China, but this
Mary Clarke opposed:

I must tell you that your letter chilled me when I read your
intention of going as a Missionary or Agent, with the Manchu
Scriptures in your hand, to the Tartars, that land of
incalculable dangers.[138]

In 1835 Borrow was back in England at Norwich with his mother, and on a
visit to Mary Clarke and the Skeppers at Oulton. Mrs. Skepper died just
before his arrival in England--that is, in September 1835--while her
husband died in February 1836. Mary Clarke's only brother died in the
following year.[139]

Thus we see Mary Clarke, aged about forty, left to fight the world with
her daughter, aged twenty-three, and not only to fight the world but her
own family, particularly her brother's widow, owing to certain
ambiguities in her father's will which are given forth in dreary detail
in Dr. Knapp's _Life_.[140] It was these legal quarrels that led Mary
Clarke and her d