could have suited him so well at the time with which we
are dealing. Apparently the tasks set him were so light that he had
ample opportunity for the pursuance of the philological investigations
that he delighted in. His efforts in this direction attracted the
attention of Dr. William Taylor, who had returned to his native city
after his wanderings in France and Germany. As is well known, the
accomplished scholar and translator was an intimate friend of Southey's,
and it was to the poet he wrote: "A Norwich young man is construing with
me Schiller's 'Wilhelm Tell,' with the view of translating it for the
press. His name is George Henry Borrow, and he has learnt German with
extraordinary rapidity; indeed, he has the gift of tongues, and though
not yet eighteen understands twelve languages--English, Welsh, Erse,
Latin, Greek, Hebrew, German, Danish, French, Italian, Spanish, and
Portuguese."

Describing Taylor, when he and Lavengro are discussing together the
possibility of becoming a good German scholar without being an ardent
smoker, Borrow writes: "The forehead of the elder individual was high,
and perhaps appeared more so than it really was, from the hair being
carefully brushed back, as if for the purpose of displaying to the best
advantage that part of the cranium; his eyes were large and full, and of
a light brown, and might have been called heavy and dull, had they not
been occasionally lighted up by a sudden gleam not so brilliant, however,
as that which at every inhalation shone from the bowl of a long clay pipe
which he was smoking, but which, from a certain sucking sound which about
this time began to be heard from the bottom, appeared to be giving notice
that it would soon require replenishment from a certain canister which,
together with a lighted taper, stood upon the table beside him."

That the elderly German student and his youthful emulator were kindred
spirits, there is no doubt; and Taylor seems to have instilled into
Borrow's mind many of his own tastes and admirations. Amongst these was
a sincere admiration for Southey, whom Borrow, with his love of
superlatives, looked upon not so much as a poet as England's best prose
writer, and probably the purest and most noble character to which she had
ever given birth.

We have no sure knowledge of whether, while in Norwich, Borrow made the
acquaintance of Old Crome. We know, however, that he was an enthusiastic
admirer of the self-taught master of t