ween 1860 and 1870, Borrow spent a good deal of his time in London, at
his house in Hereford Square. This was mainly on account of the
ill-health of his wife, who died there in 1869, and was buried in
Brompton Cemetery. After her death, however, he returned to Oulton,
telling Mr. Watts that he was going down into East Anglia to die.

From that time his life was lived more apart from the world than ever.
His visitors were few; and fewer still were the visits he paid to others.
During his latter years his tall, erect, somewhat mysterious figure was
often seen in the early hours of summer mornings or late at night on the
lonely pathways that wind in and out from the banks of Oulton Broad. He
loved to be mysterious, and the village children used to hush their
voices and draw aside at his approach. They looked upon him with fear
and awe--for had they not seen him stop and talk with the gipsies, who
ran away with little children? But in his heart, Borrow was fond of the
little ones, though it amused him to watch the impression his strange
personality made upon them. Older people he seldom spoke to when out on
his solitary rambles; but sometimes he would flash out such a glance from
beneath his broad-brimmed hat and shaggy eyebrows as would make timid
country-folk hasten on their way filled with vague thoughts and fears of
the evil eye. Mr. John Murray has referred to this love of mystery on
the part of his father's friend, and also to his moody and variable
temperament; while Mr. G. T. Bettany has related how he enjoyed creating
a sensation by riding about on a fine Arab horse which he brought home
with him from Turkey in 1844.

Still Borrow was not unpopular with the villagers, many of whom, long
after his death, remembered little acts of kindness on his part by which
they had benefited. To the sick and infirm he was always a good friend,
though his almost invariable remedy for all the ills that flesh is heir
to were wine and ale. He was exceedingly fond of animals, and nothing
aroused his wrath more than to see them badly treated. On one occasion,
while out walking not far from his home, he encountered some men who were
ill-using a fallen horse. He remonstrated with them, and his words,
backed by his commanding figure, prevailed upon them to desist from their
cruelty. He then sent one of them for a bowl of ale. When it was
brought, he knelt down on the road beside the exhausted animal, and
poured it down its th