er friend.
Taylor's many books are now all forgotten. His translation of Buerger's
_Lenore_ one now only recalls by its effect upon Scott; his translation
of Lessing's _Nathan the Wise_ has been superseded. His voluminous
_Historic Survey of German Poetry_ only lives through Carlyle's severe
review in the _Edinburgh Review_[37] against the many strictures in
which Taylor's biographer attempts to defend him. Taylor had none of
Carlyle's inspiration. Not a line of his work survives in print in our
day, but it was no small thing to have been the friend and correspondent
of Southey, whose figure in literary history looms larger now than it
did when Emerson asked contemptuously, 'Who's Southey?'; and to have
been the wise mentor of George Borrow is in itself to be no small thing
in the record of letters. There is a considerable correspondence between
Taylor and Sir Richard Phillips in Robberds's _Memoir_, and Phillips
seemed always anxious to secure articles from Taylor for the _Monthly_,
and even books for his publishing-house. Hence the introduction from
Taylor that Borrow carried to London might have been most effective if
Phillips had had any use for poor and impracticable would-be authors.
FOOTNOTES:
[35] _Three Generations of Englishwomen_, by Janet Ross, vol. i, p. 3.
[36] _A Memoir of the Life and Writings of William Taylor of Norwich:
Containing his Correspondence of many years with the late Robert
Southey, Esquire, and Original Letters from Sir Walter Scott and other
Eminent Literary Men_. Compiled and edited by J. W. Robberds of Norwich,
2 vols. London: John Murray, 1843.
[37] Reprinted in Carlyle's _Miscellanies_.
CHAPTER VII
GEORGE BORROW'S NORWICH--THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL
When George Borrow first entered Norwich after the long journey from
Edinburgh, Joseph John Gurney, born 1788, was twenty-six years of age,
and William Taylor, born 1765, was forty-nine. Borrow was eleven years
of age. Captain Borrow took temporary lodgings at the Crown and Angel
Inn in St. Stephen's Street, George was sent to the Grammar School, and
his elder brother started to learn drawing and painting with John Crome
('Old Crome') of many a fine landscape. But the wanderings of the family
were not yet over. Napoleon escaped from Elba, and the West Norfolk
Militia were again put on the march. This time it was Ireland to which
they were destined, and we have already shadowed forth, with the help of
_Lavengro_, that mome
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