end" is the fitting
epithet,' says Mr. Sampson, 'which an Oriental scholar, Professor
Richard Pischel of Berlin, finds to describe Borrow's etymologies.' But
all this is very unimportant, and the book remains in the whole of its
forty-seven chapters not one whit less a joy to us than does its
predecessor _Lavengro_, with its visions of gypsies and highwaymen and
boxers.

But then there is its 'Appendix.' That appendix of eleven petulant
chapters undoubtedly did Borrow harm in his day and generation. Now his
fame is too great, and his genius too firmly established for these
strange dissertations on men and things to offer anything but amusement
or edification. They reveal, for example, the singularly non-literary
character of this great man of letters. Much--too much--has been made of
his dislike of Walter Scott and his writings. As a matter of fact Borrow
tells us that he admired Scott both as a prose writer and as a poet.
'Since Scott he had read no modern writer. Scott was greater than
Homer,' he told Frances Cobbe. But he takes occasion to condemn his
'Charlie o'er the water nonsense,' and declares that his love of and
sympathy with certain periods and incidents have made for sympathy with
what he always calls 'Popery.'[202] Well, looking at the matter from an
entirely opposite point of view, Cardinal Newman declared that the
writings of Scott had had no inconsiderable influence in directing his
mind towards the Church of Rome.[203]

During the first quarter of this century a great poet was
raised up in the North, who, whatever were his defects, has
contributed by his works, in prose and verse, to prepare men
for some closer and more practical approximation to Catholic
truth. The general need of something deeper and more attractive
than what had offered itself elsewhere may be considered to
have led to his popularity; and by means of his popularity he
re-acted on his readers, stimulating their mental thirst,
feeding their hopes, setting before them visions, which, when
once seen, are not easily forgotten, and silently
indoctrinating them with nobler ideas, which might afterwards
be appealed to as first principles.[204]

[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF A PAGE OF THE MANUSCRIPT OF _THE ROMANY RYE_

_From the Borrow Papers in the possession of the Author of 'George
Borrow and his Circle'_]

And thus we see that Borrow had a certain prescience in this matter.