lead his critics.
{0o} But why should Borrow pretend to have written this book? Chiefly,
I think, to emphasize that independence of character of which he so
frequently boasts, and which, after his marriage fifteen years later to a
well-to-do widow, he is perhaps a little apt to antedate. {0p} However
Borrow obtained the money which enabled him to leave London, it is plain
that it was not by writing 'Joseph Sell' at the time and in the manner
described. If he were in as desperate circumstances as he represents, he
probably accepted Mr. Petulengro's offer, {0q} unless we are to suppose
that he imitated the methods of Jerry Abershaw, Galloping Dick, or some
of the 'fraternity of vagabonds' whose lives Borrow had chronicled in his
'Celebrated Trials.'

Borrow's narrative after his arrival at Stafford becomes dull, shadowy,
and unconvincing--a strong argument against its truth; for while Borrow
easily lived the life romantic, he seems to have lacked the power to
imagine it. He describes himself as accepting a somewhat nondescript
office at the posting-inn on the Great North Road, where he remains for
an undefined but considerable period, and meets again with Francis Ardrey
and the Rev. Mr. Platitude. On leaving the inn he refuses to accept the
landlord's offer of an honorarium of 10 pounds, and sets off with _his
_horse to Horncastle Fair. He meets with an accident a day's journey
from his destination, which confines him for eight days in the house of
the old man who could read Chinese crockery, but could not tell what was
o'clock. Ultimately he reaches Horncastle before the end of the fair,
sells his horse to Jack Dale the jockey, and journeys towards Norwich,
where we part with him at Spalding.

These statements are mutually irreconcilable. Horncastle Fair was held
from August 10 (the Feast of St. Lawrence) to August 21, and had 'just
begun' on the day following his accident; but, as his journey lasted six
days, this leaves no time at all for his experiences at the inn, where he
must have stopped for some weeks, and apparently a much longer period, as
'a kind of overlooker in the stables.' If, on the other hand, we allow
even a fortnight for his stop at the inn, for which 10 pounds would be
handsome payment, then he could not have arrived at Horncastle before the
end of the fair. Which part of his story, if any, are we to accept?

The Stafford story is decidedly weak. Borrow, being no fool, would not
have jou