r' at the head of a letter was the only variation. You
will look in vain in the Bible Society correspondence for many a pearl
that is contained in _The Bible in Spain_, and you will look in vain in
_The Bible in Spain_ for many a sentence which concludes some of the
original letters. In one case, indeed, a letter concludes with Heber's
hymn--

'From Greenland's Icy Mountains,'

with which Borrow's correspondent must already have been sufficiently
familiar. But Borrow could not be other than Borrow, and the secretaries
of the Bible Society had plentiful matter with which to astonish them.
The finished production, however, is a fascinating book. You read it
again and it becomes still more entertaining. No wonder that it took the
world by storm and made its author the lion of a season. 'A queer book
will be this same _Bible in Spain_,' wrote Borrow to John Murray in
August 1841, 'containing all my queer adventures in that queer country
... it will make two nice foolscap octavo volumes.'[159] It actually
made three volumes, and Borrow was as irritated at Mr. Murray's delay in
publishing as that publisher afterwards became at Borrow's own delay
over _Lavengro_. The whole book was laboriously copied out by Mrs.
Borrow. When this copy was sent to Mr. Murray, it was submitted to his
'reader,' who reported 'numerous faults in spelling and some in
grammar,' to which criticism Borrow retorted that the copy was the work
of 'a country amanuensis.' The book was published in December 1842, but
has the date 1843 on its title-page.[160] In its three-volumed form 4750
copies of the book were issued by July 1843, after which countless
copies were sold in cheaper one-volumed form. Success had at last come
to Borrow. He was one of the most talked-of writers of the day. His
elation may be demonstrated by his discussion with Dawson Turner as to
whether he should leave the manuscript of _The Bible in Spain_ to the
Dean and Chapter's Library at Norwich or to the British Museum, by his
gratification at the fact that Sir Robert Peel referred to his book in
the House of Commons, and by his pleasure in the many appreciative
reviews which, indeed, were for the most part all that an ambitious
author could desire. 'Never,' said _The Examiner_, 'was book more
legibly impressed with the unmistakable mark of genius.' 'There is no
taking leave of a book like this,' said the _Athenaeum_. 'Better
Christmas fare we have never had it in our power to offe