ool. Archdeacon Groome
recalled having seen Borrow 'reserved and solitary' haunting the
precincts of the playground; another schoolboy, William Drake,
remembered him as 'tall, spare, dark-complexioned.'[44] Here is Borrow's
account of his master and of his work:

A more respectable-looking individual was never seen; he really
looked what he was, a gentleman of the law--there was nothing
of the pettifogger about him: somewhat under the middle size,
and somewhat rotund in person, he was always dressed in a full
suit of black, never worn long enough to become threadbare. His
face was rubicund, and not without keenness; but the most
remarkable thing about him was the crown of his head, which was
bald, and shone like polished ivory, nothing more white,
smooth, and lustrous. Some people have said that he wore false
calves, probably because his black silk stockings never
exhibited a wrinkle; they might just as well have said that he
waddled, because his boots creaked; for these last, which were
always without a speck, and polished as his crown, though of a
different hue, did creak, as he walked rather slowly. I cannot
say that I ever saw him walk fast.

He had a handsome practice, and might have died a very rich
man, much richer than he did, had he not been in the habit of
giving rather expensive dinners to certain great people, who
gave him nothing in return, except their company; I could never
discover his reasons for doing so, as he always appeared to me
a remarkably quiet man, by nature averse to noise and bustle;
but in all dispositions there are anomalies. I have already
said that he lived in a handsome house, and I may as well here
add that he had a very handsome wife, who both dressed and
talked exceedingly well.

So I sat behind the deal desk, engaged in copying documents of
various kinds; and in the apartment in which I sat, and in the
adjoining ones, there were others, some of whom likewise copied
documents, while some were engaged in the yet more difficult
task of drawing them up; and some of these, sons of nobody,
were paid for the work they did, whilst others, like myself,
sons of somebody, paid for being permitted to work, which, as
our principal observed, was but reasonable, forasmuch as we not
unfrequently utterly spoiled the greater part