have pleased him:

WEST HILL LODGE, HIGHGATE,
_Dec. 29th, 1862._

DEAR SIR,--We have had a great Christmas pleasure this
year--the reading of your _Wild Wales_, which has taken us so
deliciously into the lovely fresh scenery and life of that
pleasant mountain-land. My husband and myself made a little
walking tour over some of your ground in North Wales this year;
my daughter and her uncle, Richard Howitt, did the same; and we
have been ourselves collecting material for a work, the scenes
of which will be laid amidst some of our and your favourite
mountains. But the object of my writing was not to tell you
this; but after assuring you of the pleasure your work has
given us--to say also that in one respect it has tantalised us.
You have told over and over again to fascinated audiences, Lope
de Vega's ghost story, but still leave the poor reader at the
end of the book longing to hear it in vain.

May I ask you, therefore, to inform us in which of Lope de
Vega's numerous works this same ghost story is to be found? We
like ghost stories, and to a certain extent believe in them, we
deserve therefore to know the best ghost story in the world:

Wishing for you, your wife and your Henrietta, all the
compliments of the season in the best and truest of
expression.--I am, dear sir, yours sincerely,

MARY HOWITT.[225]

[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF THE TITLE-PAGE OF _WILD WALES_

_From the original Manuscript in the possession of the Author of 'George
Borrow and his Circle.'_]

The reference to Lope de Vega's ghost story is due to the fact that in
the fifty-fifth chapter of _Wild Wales_, Borrow, after declaring that
Lope de Vega was 'one of the greatest geniuses that ever lived,' added,
that among his tales may be found 'the best ghost story in the world.'
Dr. Knapp found the story in Borrow's handwriting among the manuscripts
that came to him, and gives it in full. In good truth it is but
moderately interesting, although Borrow seems to have told it to many
audiences when in Wales, but this perhaps provides the humour of the
situation. It seems clear that Borrow contemplated publishing Lope de
Vega's ghost story in a later book. We note here, indeed, a letter of a
much later date in which Borrow refers to the possibility of a
supplement to _Wild Wales_, the only suggestion