great
Victorian authors in this particular. Borrow's _Lavengro_ received no
commendation from contemporary writers of the first rank. He died in his
seventy-eighth year an obscure recluse whose works were all but
forgotten. Since that year, 1881, his fame has been continually growing.
His greatest work, _Lavengro_, has been reprinted with introductions by
many able critics;[263] notable essayists have proclaimed his worth. Of
these Mr. Watts-Dunton and Mr. Augustine Birrell have been the most
assiduous. The efforts of the former have already been noted. Mr.
Birrell has expressed his devotion in more than one essay.[264]
Referring to a casual reference by Robert Louis Stevenson to _The Bible
in Spain_,[265] in which R. L. S. speaks well of that book, Mr. Birrell,
not without irony, says:

It is interesting to know this, interesting, that is, to the
great Clan Stevenson, who owe suit and service to their liege
lord; but so far as Borrow is concerned, it does not matter, to
speak frankly, two straws. The author of _Lavengro_, _The
Romany Rye_, _The Bible in Spain_, and _Wild Wales_ is one of
those kings of literature who never need to number their tribe.
His personality will always secure him an attendant company,
who, when he pipes, must dance.

This is to sum up the situation to perfection. You cannot force people
to become readers of Borrow by argument, by criticism, or by the force
of authority. You reach the stage of admiration and even love by effects
which rise remote from all questions of style or taste. To say, as does
a recent critic, that 'there is something in Borrow after all; not so
much as most people suppose, but still a great deal,'[266] is to miss
the compelling power of his best books as they strike those with whom
they are among the finest things in literature.[267] In attempting to
interest new readers in the man--and this book is not for the sect
called Borrovians, to whom I recommend the earlier biographies, but for
a wider public which knows not Borrow--I hope I shall succeed in sending
many to those incomparable works, which have given me so many pleasant
hours.

FOOTNOTES:

[261] A word that is very misleading, as no writer was ever so little
the founder of a school.

[262] Although this fact was not known until 1908 when I published _The
Brontes: Life and Letters_. See vol. ii. p. 24, where Charlotte Bronte
writes: 'In George Borrow's works I foun