Spain" was written as the letters were, on the spot. Either it was not
sent to the Society for fear of loss, or if copied and sent to them, it
was lost on the way or never returned by Borrow after he had used it in
writing the book, for the letters are just as careful in most parts as
the book, and the book is just as fresh as the letters. When he wrote to
the Society, he said that he told the schoolmaster "the Almighty would
never have inspired His saints with a desire to write what was
unintelligible to the great mass of mankind"; in "The Bible in Spain" he
said: "It [_i.e._, the Bible] would never have been written if not
calculated by itself to illume the minds of all classes of mankind."
Continuous letters or journals would be more likely to suit Borrow's
purpose than notes such as he took in his second tour to Wales and never
used. Notes made on the spot are very likely to be disproportionate, to
lay undue stress on something that should be allowed to recede, and would
do so if left to memory; and once made they are liable to
misinterpretation if used after intervals of any length. But the flow
and continuity of letters insist on some proportion and on truth at least
to the impression of the day, and a balance is ensured between the scene
or the experience on the one hand and the observer on the other.

"The Zincali" was not published before Borrow realised what a treasure he
had deposited with the Bible Society, and not long afterwards he obtained
the loan of his letters to make a new book on his travels in Spain.
Borrow's own account, in his preface to the second edition of "The
Zincali," is that the success of that book, and "the voice not only of
England but of the greater part of Europe" proclaiming it, astonished him
in his "humble retreat" at Oulton. He was, he implies, inclined to be
too much elated. Then the voice of a critic--whom we know to have been
Richard Ford--told him not to believe all he heard, but to try again and
avoid all his second hand stuff, his "Gypsy poetry, dry laws, and
compilations from dull Spanish authors." And so, he says, he began work
in the winter, but slowly, and on through summer and autumn and another
winter, and into another spring and summer, loitering and being
completely idle at times, until at last he went to his summer house daily
and finished the book. But as a matter of fact "The Zincali" had no
great success in either public or literary esteem, and Ford's criti