, whose _Lavengro_
and _Romany Rye_ he afterwards reviewed in 1857 under the title
of 'Roving Life in England,' Their interview was
characteristic of both. Borrow was just then very sore with his
snarling critics, and on some one mentioning that Elwin was a
_quartering_ reviewer, he said, 'Sir, I wish you a better
employment.' Then hastily changing the subject he called out,
'What party are _you_ in the Church--Tractarian, Moderate, or
Evangelical? I am happy to say I am the old _High_.' 'I am
happy to say I am _not_,' was Elwin's emphatic reply. Borrow
boasted of his proficiency in the Norfolk dialect, which he
endeavoured to speak as broadly as possible. 'I told him,' said
Elwin, 'that he had not cultivated it with his usual success.'
As the conversation proceeded it became less disputatious, and
the two ended by becoming so cordial that they promised to
visit each other. Borrow fulfilled his promise in the following
October, when he went to Booton,[176] and was 'full of anecdote
and reminiscence,' and delighted the rectory children by
singing them songs in the gypsy tongue. Elwin during this visit
urged him to try his hand at an article for the _Review_.
'Never,' he said; 'I have made a resolution never to have
anything to do with such a blackguard trade.'

While writing of Whitwell Elwin and his association with Borrow, which
was sometimes rather strained as we shall see when _The Romany Rye_
comes to be published, it is interesting to turn to Elwin's final
impression of Borrow, as conveyed in a letter which the recipient[177]
has kindly placed at my disposal. It was written from Booton Rectory,
and is dated 27th October 1893:

I used occasionally to meet Borrow at the house of Mr. Murray,
his publisher, and he once stayed with me here for two or three
days about 1855. He always seemed to me quite at ease 'among
refined people,' and I should not have ascribed his dogmatic
tone, when he adopted it, to his resentment at finding himself
out of keeping with his society. A spirit of self-assertion was
engrained in him, and it was supported by a combative
temperament. As he was proud of his bodily prowess, and rather
given to parade it, so he took the same view of an argument as
of a battle with fists, and thought that manliness required him
to be determined and