s. It must have been another copy of
Draft No. 1 that was forwarded to the editor:
DRAFT I.--George Henry Borrow, born at East Dereham in the county of
Norfolk in the early part of the present century. His father was a
military officer, with whom he travelled about most parts of the United
Kingdom. He was at some of the best schools in England, and also for
about two years at the High School at Edinburgh. In 1818 he was articled
to an eminent solicitor at Norwich, with whom he continued five years.
He did not, however, devote himself much to his profession, his mind
being much engrossed by philology, for which at a very early period he
had shown a decided inclination, having when in Ireland acquired the
Irish language. At the age of twenty he knew little of the law, but was
well versed in languages, being not only a good classical scholar but
acquainted with French, Italian, Spanish, all the Celtic and Gothic
dialects, and also with the peculiar language of the English Romany
Chals or Gypsies. This speech, which, though broken and scanty, exhibits
evident signs of high antiquity, he had picked up amongst the wandering
tribes with whom he had formed acquaintance on a wild heath near
Norwich, where they were in the habit of encamping. At the expiration of
his clerkship, which occurred shortly after the death of his father, he
betook himself to London, and endeavoured to get a livelihood by
literature. For some time he was a hack author. His health failing he
left London, and for a considerable time lived a life of roving
adventure. In the year 1833 he entered the service of he British and
Foreign Bible Society, and being sent to Russia edited at Saint
Petersburg the New Testament in the Manchu or Chinese Tartar. Whilst at
Saint Petersburg he published a book called _Targum_, consisting of
metrical translations from thirty languages. He was subsequently for
some years agent of the Bible Society in Spain, where he was twice
imprisoned for endeavouring to circulate the Gospel. In Spain he mingled
much with the Calore or Zincali, called by the Spaniards Gitanos or
Gypsies, whose language he found to be much the same as that of the
English Romany. At Madrid he edited the New Testament in Spanish, and
translated the Gospel of Saint Luke into the language of the Zincali.
Leaving the service of the Bible Society he returned to England in 1839,
and shortly afterwards married a Suffolk lady. In 1841 he published _The
Zincali_, or
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