quaint,
often humorous.... It was at Oulton that the author of _The
Bible in Spain_ spent his happiest days. The _menage_ in his
Suffolk home was conducted with great simplicity, but he always
had for his friends a bottle or two of wine of rare vintage,
and no man was more hearty than he over the glass. He passed
his mornings in his summer-house, writing on small scraps of
paper, and these he handed to his wife who copied them on
foolscap. It was in this way and in this retreat that the
manuscript of _Lavengro_ as well as of _The Bible in Spain_ was
prepared, the place of which he says, 'I hastened to my
summer-house by the side of the lake and there I thought and
wrote, and every day I repaired to the same place and thought
and wrote until I had finished _The Bible in Spain_.' In this
outdoor studio, hung behind the door, were a soldier's coat and
a sword which belonged to his father; these were household gods
on which he would often gaze while composing.

To Mr. Watts-Dunton we owe by far the best description of Borrow's
personal appearance:

What Borrow lacked in adaptability was in great degree
compensated by his personal appearance. No one who has ever
walked with him, either through the streets of London or along
the country roads, could fail to remark how his appearance
arrested the attention of the passers-by. As a gypsy woman once
remarked to the present writer, 'Everybody as ever see'd the
white-headed Romany Rye never forgot him.' When he chanced to
meet troops marching along a country road, it was noticeable
that every soldier, whether on foot or horseback, would
involuntarily turn to look at Borrow's striking figure. He
stood considerably above six feet in height, was built as
perfectly as a Greek statue, and his practice of athletic
exercises gave his every movement the easy elasticity of an
athlete under training. Those East Anglians who have bathed
with him on the east coast, or others who have done the same in
the Thames or the Ouse, can vouch for his having been an almost
faultless model of masculine symmetry, even as an old man. With
regard to his countenance, 'noble' is the only word which can
be used to describe it. When he was quite a young man his thick
crop of hair had become of a silvery whiteness.[241] There was