to suffer, from the lack of appreciation which was
all in all to him, and his career went out in a veritable blizzard. He
published nothing after his _Romano Lavo-Lil_ appeared in 1874.[150] He
was then indeed a broken and a bitter man, with no further interest in
life. Dedications of books to him interested him not at all. In any
other mood, or a few years earlier, Leland's book, _The English
Gypsies_,[151] would have gladdened his heart. In his preface Leland
expresses 'the highest respect for the labours of Mr. George Borrow in
this field,' he quotes Borrow continually and with sympathy, and renders
him honour as a philologist, that has usually been withheld. 'To Mr.
Borrow is due the discovery that the word _Jockey_ is of gypsy origin
and derived from _chuckiri_, which means a whip,' and he credits Borrow
with the discovery of the origin of 'tanner' for sixpence; he vindicates
him as against Dr. A. F. Pott,--a prince among students of gypsydom--of
being the first to discover that the English gypsies call the Bible the
_Shaster_. But there is a wealth of scientific detail in Leland's books
that is not to be found in Borrow's, as also there is in Francis Hindes
Groome's works. What had Borrow to do with science? He could not even
give the word 'Rumani' its accent, and called it 'Romany.' He 'quietly
appropriated,' says Groome, 'Bright's Spanish gypsy words for his own
work, mistakes and all, without one word of recognition. I think one
has the ancient impostor there.'[152] 'His knowledge of the strange
history of the gypsies was very elementary, of their manners almost more
so, and of their folk-lore practically _nil_,' says Groome
elsewhere.[153] Yet Mr. Hindes Groome readily acknowledges that Borrow
is above all writers on the gypsies. 'He communicates a subtle insight
into gypsydom'--that is the very essence of the matter.[154] Controversy
will continue in the future as in the present as to whether the gypsies
are all that Borrow thought them. Perhaps 'corruption has crept in among
them' as it did with the prize-fighters. They have intermarried with the
gorgios, thrown over their ancient customs, lost all their picturesque
qualities, it may be. But Borrow has preserved in literature for all
time, as not one of the philologists and folk-lore students has done, a
remarkable type of people. But this is not to be found in his first
original work, _The Zincali_, nor in his last, _The Romano Lavo-Lil_.
This glamour is to