ad been residing so long on our own little estate
that we had become tired of the objects around us, and conceived that we
should be all the better for changing the scene for a short period. We
were undetermined for some time with respect to where we should go. I
proposed Wales from the first, but my wife and daughter, who have always
had rather a hankering after what is fashionable, said they thought it
would be more advisable to go to Harrogate or Leamington. On my
observing that these were terrible places for expense, they replied that
though the price of corn had of late been shamefully low we had a spare
hundred pounds or two in our pockets and could afford to pay for a little
insight into fashionable life. I told them that there was nothing I so
much hated as fashionable life, but that, as I was anything but a selfish
person, I would endeavour to stifle my abhorrence of it for a time and
attend them either to Leamington or Harrogate. By this speech I obtained
my wish, even as I knew I should, for my wife and daughter instantly
observed that, after all, they thought we had better go into Wales,
which, though not so fashionable as either Leamington or Harrogate, was a
very picturesque country, where they had no doubt they should get on very
well, more especially as I was acquainted with the Welsh language."

This is Borrow's account of how he obtained his own way; it would have
been interesting had his wife and step-daughter also recorded their
version of the affair.

Borrow's mother, who had given up her house in Willow Lane, died at
Oulton, in 1860. The same year Borrow published a small volume, entitled
"The Sleeping Bard," a translation from the Welsh of Elis Wyn. During
the years 1862-3 various translations of his appeared in _Once a Week_, a
magazine that then numbered amongst its contributors such writers as
Harriet Martineau and S. Baring-Gould, and artists as Leech, Keene,
Tenniel, Millais and Du Maurier. Amongst these translations were "The
Hailstorm, or the Death of Bui," from the ancient Norse; "The Count of
Vendal's Daughter," from the ancient Danish; "Harald Harfagr," from the
Norse; "Emelian the Fool," and "The Story of Yashka with the Bear's Ear,"
from the Russian; and several ballads from the Manx. Other translations
from the Danish of Oehlenschlaeger are still in the possession of Mrs.
MacOubrey, and have never been printed. His last book, "The Romano
Lavo-Lil," was issued in 1872.

Bet