Portugal and Morocco
(1835-1839). From 1837 to 1839 he acted as correspondent to the _Morning
Herald_. The result of these travels and adventures was the publication,
in 1841, of _Zincali, or The Gypsies in Spain_, the original MS. of
which, in the hands of the present writer, shows how careful was
Borrow's method of work. In 1843 appeared _The Bible in Spain_, when
suddenly Borrow became famous. Every page of the book glows with
freshness, picturesqueness and vivacity. In 1840 he married Mary Clarke,
the widow of a naval officer, and permanently settled at Oulton Broad,
near Lowestoft, with her and her daughter. Here he began to write again.
Very likely Borrow would never have told the world about his vagabond
life in England as a hedge-smith had not _The Bible in Spain_ made him
famous as a wanderer. _Lavengro_ appeared in 1851 with a success which,
compared with that of _The Bible in Spain_, was only partial. He was
much chagrined at this, and although _Lavengro_ broke off in the midst
of a scene in the Dingle, and only broke off there because the three
volumes would hold no more, it was not until 1857 that he published the
sequel, _The Romany Rye_. In 1844 he travelled in south-eastern Europe,
and in 1854 he made a tour with his step-daughter in Wales. This tour he
described in _Wild Wales_, published in 1862. In 1874 he brought out a
volume of ill-digested material upon the Romany tongue, _Romano
Lavo-lil, or Word-book of the Gypsy Language_, a book which has been
exhaustively analysed and criticized by Mr John Sampson. In the summer
of 1874 he left London, bade adieu to Mr Murray and a few friends, and
returned to Oulton. On the 26th of July 1881 he was found dead in his
house at Oulton, in his seventy-ninth year.

Borrow was indisputably a linguist of wide knowledge, though he was not
a scholar in the strict sense. The variety of his attainments is shown
by his translation of the Church of England _Homilies_ into Manchu, of
the Gospel of St Luke into the Git dialect of the Gitanos, of _The
Sleeping Bard_ from the Cambrian-British, and of _Bluebeard_ into
Turkish. But it is not Borrow's linguistic accomplishments that have
kept his name fresh, and will continue to keep it fresh for many a
generation to come. It is his character, his unique character as
expressed, or partially expressed, in his books. Among all the
"remarkable individuals" (to use his favourite expression) who during
the middle of the 19th century