North Wales. Dr. Knapp
prints two kindly letters from Mrs. Borrow to her mother-in-law written
from Llangollen on this tour. 'We are in a lovely quiet spot,' she
writes, 'Dear George goes out exploring the mountains.... The poor here
are humble, simple, and good.' In the second letter Mrs. Borrow records
that her husband 'keeps a _daily_ journal of all that goes on, so that
he can make a most amusing book in a month.' Yet Borrow took eight years
to make it. The failure of _The Romany Rye_, which was due for
publication before _Wild Wales_, accounts for this, and perhaps also the
disappointment that another book, long since ready, did not find a
publisher. In the letter from which I have quoted Mary Borrow tells Anne
Borrow that her son will, she expects at Christmas, publish _The Romany
Rye_, 'together with his poetry in all the European languages.' This
last book had been on his hands for many a day, and indeed in _Wild
Wales_ he writes of 'a mountain of unpublished translations' of which
this book, duly advertised in _The Romany Rye_, was a part.[223]

After an ascent of Snowdon arm in arm with Henrietta, Mrs. Borrow
remaining behind, Borrow left his wife and daughter to find their way
back to Yarmouth, and continued his journey, all of which is most
picturesquely described in _Wild Wales_. Before that book was published,
however, Borrow was to visit the Isle of Man, Scotland, and Ireland. He
was to publish _Lavengro_ (1857); to see his mother die (1858); and to
issue his very limited edition of _The Sleeping Bard_ (1860); and,
lastly, to remove to Brompton (1860). It was at the end of the year 1862
that _Wild Wales_ was published. It had been written during the two
years immediately following the tour in Wales, in 1855 and 1856. It had
been announced as ready for publication in 1857, but doubtless the
chilly reception of _The Romany Rye_ in that year, of which we have
written, had made Borrow lukewarm as to venturing once more before the
public. The public was again irresponsive. _The Cornhill Magazine_, then
edited by Thackeray, declared the book to be 'tiresome reading.' The
_Spectator_ reviewer was more kindly, but nowhere was there any
enthusiasm. Only a thousand copies were sold,[224] and a second edition
did not appear until 1865, and not another until seven years after
Borrow's death. Yet the author had the encouragement that comes from
kindly correspondents. Here, for example, is a letter that could not but