rom here, wearied of her
companion's frigid regard and strange bantering, poor Isopel turned away
with her little donkey-cart and a heavy heart.

The public-house kept by the landlord in the green Newmarket coat, who
was 'the wonder and glory of the neighbourhood,' and who had fought and
beaten 'Tom of Hopton,' is still standing, though it is no longer used as
an inn, and the pious Borrovian must abandon any hopes he may have
cherished of drinking to the Lavengro's memory in 'hard old ale.' A
quaint old 'half-way house,' it lies, as Borrow describes, about two
miles east of the dingle--he saw the setting sun as he returned from his
frequent visits there--on the right-hand side of the highroad to Walsall,
along which the brewer proposed to establish 'a stage-coach and three to
run across the country', and a little nearer Willenhall, on the north
side of the road, is Bentley Hall, the 'hall' from which the postillion
must have been returning when overtaken by the thunderstorm. The church
attended by Borrow and his gypsy friends, when Mrs. Petulengro horrified
the sexton by invading the nobleman's vacant pew, may confidently be
identified with Bushbury Church, which has all the features described by
Borrow. It is rather over three miles' distance from the dingle, has a
peal of bells, a chancel entrance, and is surrounded by lofty
beech-trees. The vicar in 1825 was a Mr. Clare, but whether of
evangelical views and a widower with two daughters, the present vicar is
unable to inform me. 'The clergyman of M--, as they call him,' probably
took his name from Moseley Court or Moseley Hall, country seats in the
parish of Bushbury.

It is as a contribution to philology, Borrow tells us in the Appendix,
that he wishes 'Lavengro' and this book to be judged. Fortunately for
himself, his fame rests upon surer foundations. A great but careless
linguist, Borrow was assuredly no philologist. 'Hair-erecting'
(_haarstraubend_) is the fitting epithet which an Oriental scholar,
Professor Richard Pischel, of Berlin, finds to describe Borrow's
etymologies; while Pott, in quoting from the 'Zincali,' indicates his
horror by notes of exclamation; or, when Borrow once in a way hits on the
right etymon, confirms the statement with an ironical 'Ganz recht!'
Though Borrow had read Borde, it was reserved for a Viennese scholar, Dr.
Zupitza, to discover that the specimens of 'Egipt speche,' in our
original Merry-Andrew's 'Boke of Knowledge,' we