preciations" by Mr. Watts-Dunton--and so my state of
benightedness was as I have described. It may be that those who are a
year or two older than I am and those who are younger may find this
extraordinary. You have always heard of Borrow and of his works, but I
think I am entitled to insist that when Borrow sank into his grave, an
old, and to many an eccentric and bitter man, he had fallen into the most
curious oblivion with the public that has ever come to a man, I will not
say of equal distinction, but of any distinction whatever. Mr. Egmont
Hake told the readers of the _Athenaeum_ in a biography that appeared at
the time of Borrow's death that Borrow's works were "forgotten in
England" and I find in turning to the biography of Borrow in _The
Norvicensian_, for 1882--the organ of the Norwich Grammar School--that
the writer of this obituary notice confessed that there were none of
Borrow's works in the library of the school of which Borrow had been the
most distinguished pupil.

From that time--in 1881--until 1899, a period of eighteen years, Borrow
had but little biographical recognition. A few introductions to his
books, sundry encyclopaedia articles, and one or two magazine essays made
up the sum total of information concerning the author of _Lavengro_ until
Dr. Knapp's _Life_ appeared in 1899. That _Life_ has been severely
handled by some lovers of Borrow, and lovers of Borrow are now plentiful
enough. Dr. Knapp had not the cunning of the really successful
biographer. His book still remains in the huge two-volumed form in which
it was first issued four years ago, and I do not anticipate that it will
ever be a popular book. There is no literary art in it. There is a
capacity for amassing facts, but no power of co-ordinating these facts.
Moreover Dr. Knapp did a great deal of mischief by very over-zeal. He
made too great a research into all the current gossip in Norfolk and
Suffolk concerning Borrow. If you were to make special research into the
life of any friend or acquaintance of the past you would hear much
foolish gossip and a great many wrong motives imputed, and possibly you
would not have an opportunity of checking the various statements. The
whole of Dr. Knapp's book seems to be written upon the principle of "I
would if I could" say a good many things, and, indeed, every few months
there appears in the _Eastern Daily Press_, a journal of your city that I
have read every day regularly since boyhood