he
"Norfolk." At Oulton he was much alone and was to be heard "by startled
rowers on the lake" chanting verses after his fashion. His remarkable
appearance, his solitariness in the neglected house and tangled garden,
his conversation with Gypsies whom he allowed to camp on his land,
created something of a legend. Children called after him "Gypsy!" or
"Witch!" {316} Towards the end he was joined at Oulton by his
stepdaughter and her husband, Dr. MacOubrey. In 1879 he was too feeble
to walk a few hundred yards, and furious with a man who asked his age. In
1880 he made his will. On July 26, 1881, when he was left entirely alone
for the day, he died, after having expected death for some time. He was
taken to West Brompton to be buried in that cemetery beside his wife.

CONCLUSION

In his introduction to "The Romany Rye," {317} Hindes Groome gave a long
list of Romany Ryes to show that Borrow was neither the only one nor the
first. He went on to say that there must have been over a dozen
Englishmen, in 1874, with a greater knowledge of the Anglo-Gypsy dialect
than Borrow showed in "Romano Lavo-Lil." He added that Borrow's
knowledge "of the strange history of the Gypsies was very elementary, of
their manners almost more so, and of their folk-lore practically _nil_."
And yet, he concluded, he "would put George Borrow above every other
writer on the Gypsies. . . . He communicates a subtle insight into
Gypsydom that is totally wanting in the works--mainly philological--of
Pott, Liebich . . . and their _confreres_." Hindes Groome was speaking,
too, from the point of view of a Romany student, not of a critic of human
literature. In the same way Borrow stands above other English writers on
Spain and Wales, for the insight and life that are lacking in the works
of the authorities.

As a master of the living word, Borrow's place is high, and it is
unnecessary to make other claims for him. He was a wilful roamer in
literature and the world, who attained to no mastery except over words.
If there were many Romany Ryes before Borrow, as there were great men
before Agamemnon, there was not another Borrow, as there was not another
Homer.

He sings himself. He creates a wild Spain, a wild England, a wild Wales,
and in them places himself, the Gypsies, and other wildish men, and
himself again. His outstanding character, his ways and gestures,
irresistible even when offensive, hold us while he is in our presence. I