s that have gone to make up its history, as though conscious of its
ability to send forth into the world sons who would do honour to her
record and old foundations and traditions. From that old school they
have gone out into every walk of life, carrying with them over land and
sea, into court and pulpit, to bench and bar, hallowed memories of days
spent within its walls. Not ten years before Borrow's name was entered
on its roll, its most brilliant star had set at Trafalgar, where Nelson
found amidst the hailing death that poured upon the decks of the battered
_Victory_ the passport to immortal fame and glory.

CHAPTER III: THE LAWYER'S CLERK

When, at the end of his fifteenth year, George Borrow completed his term
of study at the Norwich Grammar School, his parents had considerable
difficulty in determining upon a profession for their erratic son. In
the solution of this problem he, himself, could help them but little
towards a satisfactory conclusion. His strange disposition and tastes
were a source of continual astonishment and mystification to the old
people. What, they asked themselves, could be done with a lad whose only
decided bent was in the direction of philological studies, who at an
early age had attained a knowledge of Erse, and whose great pleasure it
was to converse in Romany with the gipsies whom he met at the fair-ground
on Norwich Castle Hill? His father was anxious that he should enter the
Church; but George's unsettled disposition was an effectual bar against
his taking such a step, for he would never have been able to apply
himself with sufficient attention to the necessary routine course of
college study.

In the midst of the warm controversy that the question excited he fell
ill, and firmly believed that he was going to die. His near approach to
dissolution found him quite resigned. A listless willingness to let life
go, grew upon him during the dreary days of helpless inactivity.
"Death," he said, "appeared to him little else than a pleasant sleep, and
he wished for sleep." But a long life was before him, and, after
spending weeks upon his bed, his strength came back to him, and with it
the still unsolved problem of a suitable vocation. It was at last
decided that he should enter upon a legal career.

There is little doubt that the legal profession was one for which Borrow
was the least adapted, and of this he was well aware. When, however, in
1819, the time arrived for him