of seeing your well-
remembered and most remarkable physiognomy?'"
Borrows answers: "It was in the south of Ireland, if I mistake not. Was
it not there that I introduced you to the sorcerer who tamed the savage
horses by a single whisper into their ear? But tell me, what brings you
to Spain and Andalusia, the last place where I should have expected to
find you."
Baron Taylor (Isidore Justin Severin, Baron Taylor, 1789-1879) now
introduces him to a friend as "My most cherished and respectable friend,
one who is better acquainted with Gypsy ways than the Chef de Bohemiens a
Triana, one who is an expert whisperer and horse-sorcerer, and who, to
his honour I say it, can wield hammer and tongs, and handle a horse-shoe,
with the best of the smiths amongst the Alpujarras of Granada."
Borrow then lightly portrays his accomplished and extraordinary
cosmopolitan friend, with the conclusion:
"He has visited most portions of the earth, and it is remarkable enough
that we are continually encountering each other in strange places and
under singular circumstances. Whenever he descries me, whether in the
street or the desert, the brilliant hall or amongst Bedouin haimas, at
Novgorod or Stamboul, he flings up his arms and exclaims, 'O ciel! I
have again the felicity of seeing my cherished and most respectable B---.'"
Borrow could not avoid making himself impressive and mysterious. He was
impressive and mysterious without an effort; the individual or the public
was impressed, and he was naturally tempted to be more impressive. Thus,
in December of the year 1832 he had to go to London for his first meeting
with the Bible Society, who had been recommended to give him work where
he could use his knowledge of languages. As he was at Norwich, the
distance was a hundred and twelve miles, and as he was poor he walked. He
spent fivepence-halfpenny on a pint of ale, half-pint of milk, a roll of
bread and two apples during the journey, which took him twenty-seven
hours. He reached the Society's office early in the morning and waited
for the secretary. When the secretary arrived he hoped that Borrow had
slept well on his journey. Borrow said that, as far as he knew, he had
not slept, because he had walked. The secretary's surprise can be
imagined from this alone, or if not, from what followed. For Borrow went
on talking, and told the man, among other things, that he was stolen by
Gypsies when he was a boy--had passed several
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