I know that Mr. Lockhart has expressed a wish that I
should do it for the _Quarterly Review_. Now, a wish from my liege
master is a command. I had half engaged myself elsewhere, thinking that
he did not quite appreciate such a _trump_ as I know Borrow to be. He is
as full of meat as an egg, and a fresh laid one--not one of your Inglis
breed, long addled by over-bookmaking. Borrow will lay you golden eggs,
and hatch them after the ways of Egypt; put salt on his tail and secure
him in your coop, and beware how any poacher coaxes him with 'raisins'
or reasons out of the Albemarle preserves. When you see Mr. Lockhart
tell him that I will do the paper. I owe my entire allowance to the _Q.
R_. flag ... Perhaps my understanding the _full force_ of this 'gratia'
makes me over partial to this wild Missionary; but I have ridden over
the same tracks without the tracts, seen the same people, and know that
_he_ is true, and I believe that he believes all that he writes to be
true."

Mr. Lockhart himself, however, wrote the review for the _Quarterly_ (No.
141, December 1842). It was a temptation that he could not resist, and
his article was most interesting. "The Gypsies in Spain" and "The Bible
in Spain" went through many editions, and there is still a large demand
for both works. Before we leave George Borrow we will give a few
extracts from his letters, which, like his books, were short, abrupt,
and graphic. He was asked to become a member of the Royal Institution.

_Mr. George Borrow to John Murray_.

_February_ 26, 1843.

"I should like to become a member. The thing would just suit me, more
especially as they do not want _clever_ men, but _safe_ men. Now, I am
safe enough; ask the Bible Society, whose secrets I have kept so much to
their satisfaction, that they have just accepted at my hands an English
Gypsy Gospel gratis. What would the Institution expect me to write? I
have exhausted Spain and the Gypsies, though an essay on Welsh language
and literature might suit, with an account of the Celtic tongue. Or,
won't something about the ancient North and its literature be more
acceptable? I have just received an invitation to join the Ethnological
Society (who are they?), which I have declined. I am at present in great
demand; a bishop has just requested me to visit him. The worst of these
bishops is that they are skin-flints, saving for their families. Their
cuisine is bad, and their port wine execrable, and as for their
ciga