ro," D'Eterville says he found friends here, and was able to ride
a good horse to visit pupils in the country; also that he always carried
pistols, which Borrow said he had seen. Here, then, was another
character after Borrow's heart, especially as he told his pupil that one
day he would be a great philologist. Of course, young Borrow was by no
means the sort of lad to spend all his time on books. He loved to sally
forth with an old condemned musket, and did such execution that he seldom
returned (sad to say!) without a string of bullfinches, blackbirds, and
linnets hanging round his neck. Yet, as Mr. Jenkins says, Borrow's "love
of animals was almost feminine." With less zest he went fishing--too
listless a pastime to interest him much, for he often fell into a doze by
the water side, and sometimes let his rod drop into the stream. His
poetical but strictly accurate account of Earlham is worth quoting:

"At some distance from the city, behind a range of hilly ground which
rises towards the south-west, is a small river, the waters of which,
after many meanderings, eventually enter the principal river of the
district, and assist to swell the tide which it rolls down to the
ocean. It is a sweet rivulet, and pleasant it is to trace its course
from its spring-head, high up in the remote regions of East Anglia,
till it arrives in the valley behind yon rising ground; and pleasant
is that valley, truly a goodly spot, but most lovely where yonder
bridge crosses the little stream. Beneath its arch the waters rush
garrulously into a blue pool, and are there stilled for a time, for
the pool is deep, and they appear to have sunk to sleep. Farther on,
however, you hear their voice again, where they ripple gaily over yon
gravelly shallow. On the left, the hill slopes gently down to the
margin of the stream. On the right is a green level, a smiling
meadow, grass of the richest decks the side of the slope; mighty
trees also adorn it, giant elms, the nearest of which, when the sun
is nigh at its meridian, fling a broad shadow upon the face of the
pool; through yon vista you catch a glimpse of the ancient brick of
an old English hall. It has a stately look, that old building,
indistinctly seen, as it is, among those umbrageous trees; you might
almost suppose it an earl's home; and such it was, or rather upon its
site stood an earl's home, in