ERALD.

In a letter to George Crabbe the third, and the grandson of the poet, in
1862, FitzGerald tells him that he has just been reading Borrow's _Wild
Wales_, 'which _I_ like well because I can hear him talking it. But I
don't know if others will like it.' 'No one writes better English than
Borrow in general,' he says. But FitzGerald, as a lover of style, is
vexed with some of Borrow's phrases, and instances one: '"The scenery
was beautiful _to a degree_," _What_ degree? When did this vile phrase
arise?' The criticism is just, but Borrow, in common with many other
great English authors whose work will live was not uniformly a good
stylist. He has many lamentable fallings away from the ideals of the
stylist. But he will, by virtue of a wonderful individuality, outlive
many a good stylist. His four great books are immortal, and one of them
is _Wild Wales_.

We have a glimpse of FitzGerald in the following letter in my
possession, by the friend who had introduced him to Borrow, William
Bodham Donne:[217]

To George Borrow, Esq.

40 WEYMOUTH STREET, PORTLAND PLACE, W., _November 28/62._

MY DEAR BORROW,--Many thanks for the copy of _Wild Wales_
reserved for and sent to me by Mr. R. Cooke.[218] Before this
copy arrived I had obtained one from the London Library and
read it through, not exactly _stans pede in uno_, but certainly
almost at a stretch. I could not indeed lay it down, it
interested me so much. It is one of the very best records of
home travel, if indeed so strange a country as Wales is can
properly be called _home_, I have ever met with.

Immediately on closing the third volume I secured a few pages
in _Fraser's Magazine_ for _Wild Wales_, for though you do not
stand in need of my aid, yet my notice will not do you a
mischief, and some of the reviewers of _Lavengro_ were, I
recollect, shocking blockheads, misinterpreting the letter and
misconceiving the spirit of that work. I have, since we met in
Burlington Arcade, been on a visit to FitzGerald. He is in
better spirits by far than when I saw him about the same time
in last year. He has his pictures and his chattels about him,
and has picked up some acquaintance among the merchants and
mariners of Woodbridge, who, although far below his level, are
yet better company than the two old skippers he was consorting
with in 1861. They--his