im; yet should
he ever fall into evil practices, I shall always lay it to the account of
that melancholy sojourn in Ireland and the acquaintances he formed
there."

Instead of putting into his friend, the Anglo-Germanist Williams Taylor's
mouth, the opinion "that as we are aware that others frequently
misinterpret us, we are equally liable to fall into the same error with
respect to them," he alters it to the very different one, "That there is
always some eye upon us; and that it is impossible to keep anything we do
from the world, as it will assuredly be divulged by somebody as soon as
it is his interest to do so."

In the twenty-fourth chapter Borrow makes Thurtell, the friend of
bruisers, hint, with unconscious tragic irony, at his famous end--by
dying upon the gallows for the murder of Mr. William Weare. He tells the
magistrate whom he has asked to lend him a piece of land for a
prize-fight that his own name is no matter.

"However," he continues, "a time may come--we are not yet
buried--whensoever my hour arrives, I hope I shall prove myself equal to
my destiny, however high--

"Like bird that's bred amongst the Helicons."

In the original Thurtell's quotation was:

"No poor unminded outlaw sneaking home."

This chapter now ends with the magistrate's question to young Borrow
about this man: "What is his name?" In the manuscript Borrow answered,
"John Thurtell." The proof had, "John . . ." Borrow hesitated, and in
the margin, having crossed out "John," he put the initial "J" as a
substitute, but finally crossed that out also. He was afraid of names
which other people might know and regard in a different way. Thus in the
same proof he altered "the philologist Scaliger" to "a certain
philologist": thus, too, he would not write down the name of Dereham, but
kept on calling it "pretty D---"; and when he had to refer to Cowper as
buried in Dereham Church he spoke of the poet, not by name, but as
"England's sweetest and most pious bard."

{picture: Page 1 of "Lavengro," showing Borrow's corrections.
(Photographed from the Author's proof copy, by kind permission of Mr.
Kyllmann and Mr. Thos. Seccombe.) Photo: W. J. Roberts: page27.jpg}

CHAPTER IV--WHAT IS TRUTH?

These changes in the proof of what was afterwards called "Lavengro" were,
it need hardly be said, made in order to bring the words nearer to a
representation of the idea in Borrow's brain, and nearer to a perfect
harmony with one