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Books: The Life of George Borrow

H >> Herbert Jenkins >> The Life of George Borrow





"What is their history?" he writes apropos of his fellow-prisoners.
"The handsome black-haired man, who is now looking over my shoulder,
is the celebrated thief, Pelacio, the most expert housebreaker and
dexterous swindler in Spain--in a word, the modern Guzman
D'alfarache. The brawny man who sits by the brasero of charcoal is
Salvador, the highwayman of Ronda, who has committed a hundred
murders. A fashionably dressed man, short and slight in person, is
walking about the room: he wears immense whiskers and mustachios; he
is one of that most singular race the Jews of Spain; he is imprisoned
for counterfeiting money. He is an atheist; but, like a true Jew,
the name which he most hates is that of Christ. Yet he is so quiet
and civil, and they are all so quiet and civil, and it is that which
most horrifies me, for quietness and civility in them seems so
unnatural." {315a}


Such were the men who fraternised with an agent of a religious
society and showed him not only civility but hospitality and
kindness. It is open to question if they would have shown the same
to any other unfortunate missionary. In all probability they
recognised a fellow-vagabond, who was at much at issue with the
social conventions of communities as they were with the laws of
property.

On this occasion the period of Borrow's imprisonment was brief. He
was released late at night on 25th Nov., within thirty hours of his
arrest, and he immediately set to work to think out a plan by which
he could once more discomfit the Spanish authorities for this
indignity to a British subject. He would proceed to Madrid without
delay and put his case before the British Minister, at the same time
he would "make preparations for leaving Spain as soon as possible."



CHAPTER XX: DECEMBER 1839-MAY 1840



It was probably about this time (1839) that


"The Marques de Santa Coloma met Borrow again at Seville. He had
great difficulty in finding him out; though he was aware of the
street in which he resided, no one knew him by name. At last, by
dint of inquiry and description, some one exclaimed, 'Oh! you mean el
Brujo' (the wizard), and he was directed to the house. He was
admitted with great caution, and conducted through a lot of passages
and stairs, till at last he was ushered into a handsomely furnished
apartment in the 'mirador,' where Borrow was living WITH HIS WIFE AND
DAUGHTER. . . It is evident . . . that, to his Spanish friends at
least, he thus called Mrs Clarke and her daughter Henrietta his wife
and daughter: and the Marques de Santa Coloma evidently believed
that the young lady was Borrow's OWN daughter, and not his step-
daughter merely (!). At the time the roads from Seville to Madrid
were very unsafe. Santa Coloma wished Borrow to join his party, who
were going well armed. Borrow said he would be safe with his
Gypsies. Both arrived without accident in Madrid; the Marques's
party first. Borrow, on his arrival, told Santa Coloma that his
Gypsy chief had led him by by-paths and mountains; that they had not
slept in a village, nor seen a town the whole way." {316a}


It must be confessed that Mr Webster was none too reliable a witness,
and it seems highly improbable that Borrow would wish to pass Mrs
Clarke off as his wife before their marriage. The fact of their
occupying the same house may have seemed to their Spanish friends
compromising, as it unquestionably was; but had he spoken of Mrs
Clarke as his wife, it would have left her not a vestige of
reputation.

On arriving at Madrid Borrow found that Lord Clarendon's successor,
Mr Arthur Aston, had not yet arrived, he therefore presented his
complaint to the Charge d'Affaires, the Hon. G. S. S. Jerningham, who
had succeeded Mr Sothern as private secretary. Mr Sothern had not
yet left Madrid to take up his new post as First Secretary at Lisbon,
and therefore presented Borrow to Mr Jerningham, by whom he was
received with great kindness. He assured Mr Jerningham that for some
time past he had given up distributing the Scriptures in Spain, and
he merely claimed the privileges of a British subject and the
protection of his Government. The First Secretary took up the case
immediately, forwarding Borrow's letter to Don Perez de Castro with a
request for "proper steps to be taken, should Mr Borrow's complaint .
. . be considered by His Excellency as properly founded." Borrow
himself was doubtful as to whether he would obtain justice, "for I
have against me," he wrote to Mr Brandram (24th December), "the
Canons of Seville; and all the arts of villany which they are so
accustomed to practise will of course be used against me for the
purpose of screening the ruffian who is their instrument. . . . I
have been, my dear Sir, fighting with wild beasts."


The rather quaint reply to Borrow's charges was not forthcoming until
he had left Spain and was living at Oulton. It runs: {317a}


MADRID, 11th May 1840.

Under date of 20th December last, Mr Perez de Castro informed Mr
Jerningham that in order to answer satisfactorily his note of 8th
December re complaint made by Borrow, he required a faithful report
to be made. These have been stated by the Municipality of Seville to
the Civil Governor of that City, and are as follows:-

"When Borrow meant to undertake his journey to Cadiz towards the end
of last year, he applied to the section of public security for his
Passport, for which purpose he ought to deliver his paper of
residence which was given to him when he arrived at Seville. That
paper he had not presented in its proper time to the Alcalde of his
district, on which account this person had not been acquainted as he
ought with his residence in the district, and as his Passport could
not be issued in consequence of this document not being in order,
Borrow addressed, through the medium of a Servant, to the house of
the said district Alcalde that the defect might be remedied. That
functionary refused to do so, founded on the reasons already stated;
and for the purpose of overcoming his resistance he was offered a
gratification, the Servant with that intent presenting half a dollar.
The Alcalde, justly indignant, left his house to make the necessary
complaint respecting their indecorous action when he met Borrow, who,
surprised at the refusal of the Alcalde, expressed to him his
astonishment, addressing insulting expressions not only against his
person but against the authorities of Spain, who, he said, he was
sure were to be bought at a very small price--crying on after this,
Long live the Constitution, Death to the Religion, and Long live
England. These and other insults gave rise to the Alcalde proceeding
to his arrest and the assistance of the armed force of Veterans, and
not of the National Militia, as Borrow supposed, making a detailed
report to the Constitutional Alcalde, who forwarded it original to
the Captain General of the Province as Judge Protector of Foreigners,
leaving him under detention at his disposition. He did the same with
another report transmitted by the said functionary, in which
reference to a Lady who lived at the Gate of Xerez; he denounced
Borrow as a seducer of youth in matters of Religion by facilitating
to them the perusal of prohibited books, of which a copy, that was in
the hands of the Ecclesiastical Governor, was likewise transmitted to
the Captain General. These antecedents were sufficient to have
authorised a summary to have been formed against Borrow, but the
repeated supplications of the British Vice-Consul, Mr Williams, who
among other things stated that Borrow laboured under fits of madness,
had the effect of causing the above Constitutional Alcalde to forgive
him the fault committed and recommend to the Captain General that the
matter should be dropped, which was acceded to, and he was put at
liberty. The above facts, official proofs of which exist in the
Captain General's Office, clearly disprove the statement of Borrow,
who ungrateful for the generous hospitality which he has received,
and for the consideration displayed towards him on account of his
infirmity, and out of deference to the request of the British Vice-
Consul, makes an unfounded complaint against the very authorities who
have used attentions towards him which he is certainly not deserving;
it being worthy of remark, in order to prove the bad faith of his
procedure, that in his own expose, although he disfigures facts at
pleasure, using a language little decorous, he confesses part of his
faults, such as the offering of money TO PAY, as he says, 'THE LEGAL
OR EXTRA-LEGAL DUES THAT MIGHT BE EXACTED, and his having twice
challenged the Alcalde.'

"I should consider myself wanting towards your enlightened sense of
justice if, after the reasons given, I stopped to prove the just and
prudent conduct of Seville authorities.

"Hope he will therefore be completely satisfied, especially after the
want of exactitude on Borrow's part.

From
EVARISTO PEREZ DE CASTRO."
To Mr Aston. {319a}


And so the matter ended. The Spanish authorities knew that they no
longer had a Sir George Villiers to deal with, and had recourse to
that trump card of weak and vacillating diplomatists--delay.
Whatever Borrow's offence, the method of his arrest and imprisonment
was in itself unlawful.

It was Borrow's intention on his return to England to endeavour to
obtain an interview with some members of the House of Lords, in order
to acquaint them with the manner in which Protestants were persecuted
in Spain. They were debarred from the exercise of their religion
from being married by Protestant rites, and the common privileges of
burial were denied them. He was anxious for Protestant England, lest
it should fall a victim to Popery. This fear of Rome was a very real
one to Borrow. He marvelled at people's blindness to the danger that
was threatening them, and he even went so far as to entreat his
friends at Earl Street "to drop all petty dissensions and to comport
themselves like brothers" against their common enemy the Pope.

Unfortunately Borrow had shown to a number of friends one of his
letters to Mr Brandram dealing with the Seville imprisonment, and had
even allowed several copies of it to be taken "in order that an
incorrect account of the affair might not get abroad." The result
was an article in a London newspaper containing remarks to the
disparagement of other workers for the Gospel in Spain. Borrow
disavowed all knowledge of these observations.


"I am not ashamed of the Methodists of Cadiz," he assures Mr
Brandram, "their conduct in many respects does them honor, nor do I
accuse any one of fanaticism amongst our dear and worthy friends; but
I cannot answer for the tittle-tattle of Madrid. Far be it from me
to reflect upon any one, I am but too well aware of my own
multitudinous imperfections and follies."


There is nothing more mysterious in Borrow's life than his years of
friendship with Mrs Clarke. He was never a woman's man, but Mary
Clarke seems to have awakened in him a very sincere regard. The
menage at Seville was a curious one, and both Borrow and Mrs Clarke
should have seen that it was calculated to make people talk. There
may have been a tacit understanding between them. Everything
connected with their relations and courtship is very mysterious. Dr
Knapp is scarcely just to Borrow or gracious to the woman he married,
when he implies that it was merely a business arrangement on both
sides. Mrs Clarke's affairs required a man's hand to administer
them, and Borrow was prepared to give the man's hand in exchange for
an income. The engagement could scarcely have taken place in the
middle of November 1839, as Dr Knapp states, for on the day of his
arrest at Seville (24th Nov.) Borrow wrote:-


MY DEAR MRS CLARKE,--Do not be alarmed, but I am at present in the
prison, to which place the Alcalde del Barrio conducted me when I
asked him to sign the Passport. If Phelipe is not already gone to
the Consul, let Henrietta go now and show him this letter. When I
asked the fellow his motives for not signing the Passport, he said if
I did not go away he would carry me to prison. I dared him to do so,
as I had done nothing; whereupon he led me here.--Yours truly,

GEORGE BORROW.


This is obviously not the letter of a man recently engaged to the
woman who is to become his wife. On the other hand, Borrow may have
been writing merely for the Consul's eye.

On hearing the news of the engagement old Mrs Borrow wrote:-


"I am not surprised, my dear Mrs Clarke, at what you tell me, though
I knew nothing of it. It put me in mind of the Revd. Flethers; you
know they took time to consider. So far all is well. I shall now
resign him to your care, and may you love and cherish him as much as
I have done. I hope and trust that each will try to make the other
happy. You will always have my prayers and best wishes. Give my
kind love to dear George and tell him he is never out of my thoughts.
I have much to say, but I cannot write. I shall be glad to see you
all safe and well. Give my love to Henrietta; tell her _I_ can sing
'Gaily the Troubadour'; I only want the 'guitar.' {332a} God bless
you all."


There is no doubt that a very strong friendship had existed between
Mrs Clarke and Borrow during the whole time that he had been
associated with the Bible Society. She it was who had been
indirectly responsible for his introduction to Earl Street. It is
idle to speculate what it was that led Mrs Clarke to select Seville
as the place to which to fly from her enemies. There is, however, a
marked significance in old Mrs Borrow's words, "I am not surprised,
my dear Mrs Clarke, at what you tell me." Whatever his mother may
have seen, there appears to have been no thought of marriage in
Borrow's mind when, on 29th September 1839, he wrote to Mr Brandram
telling him of his wish to visit "China or particular parts of
Africa."

Borrow paid many tributes to his wife, not only in his letters, but
in print, every one of which she seems thoroughly to have merited.
"Of my wife," he writes, {322a} "I will merely say that she is a
perfect paragon of wives--can make puddings and sweets and treacle
posset, and is the best woman of business in East Anglia." On
another occasion he praises her for more general qualities, when he
compares her to the good wife of the Triad, the perfect woman endowed
with all the feminine virtues. His wife and "old Hen." (Henrietta)
were his "two loved ones," and he subsequently shows in a score of
ways how much they had become part of his life.

After his return to Seville, early in January, Borrow proceeded to
get his "papers into some order." There seems no doubt that this
meant preparing The Zincali for publication. In the excitement and
enthusiasm of authorship, and the pleasant company of Mrs and Miss
Clarke, he seems to have been divinely unconscious that he was under
orders to proceed home. Week after week passed without news of their
Agent in Spain reaching Earl Street, and the Officials and Committee
of the Bible Society became troubled to account for his non-
appearance. The last letter from him had been received on 13th
January. Early in March Mr Jackson wrote to Mr Brackenbury asking
for news of him. A letter to Mr Williams at Seville was enclosed,
which Mr Brackenbury had discretionary powers to withhold if he were
able to supply the information himself. Two letters that Borrow had
addressed to the Society it appears had gone astray, and as "one
steamer . . . arrived after another and yet no news from Mr Borrow,"
some apprehension began to manifest itself lest misfortune had
befallen him. On the other hand, Borrow had heard nothing from the
Society for five months, the long silence making him "very, very
unhappy."

In reply to Mr Brandram's letter Borrow wrote:-


"I did not return to England immediately after my departure from
Madrid for several reasons. First, there was my affair with the
Alcalde still pending; second, I wished to get my papers into some
order; third, I wished to effect a little more in the cause, though
not in the way of distribution, as I have no books: moreover the
house in which I resided was paid for and I was unwilling altogether
to lose the money; I likewise dreaded an English winter, for I have
lately been subjected to attacks, whether of gout or rheumatism I
know not, which I believe were brought on by sitting, standing and
sleeping in damp places during my wanderings in Spain. The Alcalde
has lately been turned out of his situation, but I believe more on
account of his being a Carlist than for his behaviour to me; that,
however, is of little consequence, as I have long forgotten the
affair." {323a}


There was no longer any reason for delay; the English winter was
over, he had one book nearly ready for publication and two others in
a state of forwardness.


"I embark on the third of next month [April]," he continued, "and you
will probably see me by the 16th. I wish very much to spend the
remaining years of my life in the northern parts of China, as I think
I have a call for those regions, and shall endeavour by every
honourable means to effect my purpose." {323b}


These words would seem to imply that his marriage with Mrs Clarke was
by no means decided upon at the date he wrote, although during the
previous month he had been in correspondence with Mr Brackenbury
regarding Protestants in Spain being debarred from marrying. It is
inconceivable that Mrs Clarke and her daughter contemplated living in
the North of China; and equally unlikely that Mrs Clarke would marry
a potential "absentee landlord," or one who frankly confessed "I hope
yet to die in the cause of my Redeemer."

Sidi Habismilk had at first presented a grave problem; but Mr
Brackenbury, who secured the passages on the steamer, arranged also
for the Arab to be slung aboard the Steam-Packet. On 3rd April the
whole party, including Hayim Ben Attar and Sidi Habismilk, boarded
the Royal Adelaide bound for London.

Borrow never forgave Spain for its treatment of him, although some of
the happiest years of his life had been spent there. "The Spaniards
are a stupid, ungrateful set of ruffians," he afterwards wrote, "and
are utterly incapable of appreciating generosity or forbearance." He
piled up invective upon the unfortunate country. It was "the chosen
land of the two fiends--assassination and murder," where avarice and
envy were the prevailing passions. It was the "country of error";
yet at the same time "the land of extraordinary characters." As he
saw its shores sinking beneath the horizon, he was mercifully denied
the knowledge that never again was he to be so happily occupied as
during the five years he had spent upon its soil distributing the
Scriptures, and using a British Minister as a two-edged sword.

The party arrived in London on 16th April and put up at the Spread
Eagle in Gracechurch Street. On 23rd April, at St Peter's Church in
Cornhill, the wedding took place. There were present as witnesses
only Henrietta Clarke and John Pilgrim, the Norwich solicitor. In
the Register the names appear as:-


"George Henry Borrow--of full age--bachelor--gentleman--of the City
of Norwich--son of Thomas Borrow--Captain in the Army.

"Mary Clarke--of full age--widow--of Spread Eagle Inn, Gracechurch
Street--daughter of Edmund Skepper--Esquire."


On 2nd May an announcement of the marriage appeared in The Norfolk
Chronicle. A few days later the party left for Oulton Cottage, and
Borrow became a landed proprietor on a small scale in his much-loved
East Anglia.

On 21st April Mr Brandram had written to Borrow the following
letter:-


MY DEAR FRIEND,--Your later communications have been referred to our
Sub-Committee for General Purposes. After what you said yesterday in
the Committee, I am hardly aware that anything can arise out of them.
The door seems shut. The Sub-Committee meet on Friday. Will you
wish to make any communications to them as to any ulterior views that
may have occurred to yourself? I do not myself at present see any
sphere open to which your services in connection with our Society can
be transferred. . . . With best wishes--Believe me--Yours truly,

A. BRANDRAM.


On 24th April, the day after Borrow's wedding, the Sub-Committee duly
met and


"Resolved that, upon mature consideration, it does not appear to this
Sub-Committee that there is, at present, any opening for employing Mr
Borrow beneficially as an Agent of the Society . . . and that it be
recommended to the General Committee that the salary of Mr Borrow be
paid up to the 10th June next."


The Bible Society's valediction, which appeared in the Thirty-Sixth
Annual Report, read:-


"G. Borrow, Esq., one of the gentlemen referred to in former Reports
as having so zealously exerted themselves on behalf of Spain, has
just returned home, hopeless of further attempts at present to
distribute the Scriptures in that country. Mr B. has succeeded, by
almost incredible pains, and at no small cost and hazard, in selling
during his last visit a few hundred copies of the Bible, and most
that remained of the edition of the New Testament printed in Madrid."


Thus ended George Borrow's activities on behalf of the British and
Foreign Bible Society, and incidentally the seven happiest and most
active years of his life. On the whole the association had been
honourable to all concerned. There had been moments of irritation
and mistakes on both sides. It would be foolish to accuse the
Society of deliberately planting obstacles in the path of its own
agent; but the unfortunate championing of Lieutenant Graydon was the
result of a very grave error of judgment. Borrow had no personal
friends among the Committee, to whom the impetuous zeal of Graydon
was more picturesque than the grave and deliberate caution of Borrow.
The Officials and Committee alike saw in Graydon the ideal Reformer,
rushing precipitately towards martyrdom, exposing Anti-Christ as he
ran. Had Borrow been content to allow others to plead his cause, the
history of his relations with the Bible Society would, in all
probability, have been different. He felt himself a grievously
injured man, who had suffered from what he considered to be the
insane antics of another, and he was determined that Earl Street
should know it. On the other hand, Mr Brandram does not appear to
have understood Borrow. He made no attempt to humour him, to praise
him for what he had done and the way in which he had done it. Praise
was meat and drink to Borrow; it compensated him for what he had
endured and encouraged him to further effort. He hungered for it,
and when it did not come he grew discouraged and thought that those
who employed him were not conscious of what he was suffering. Hence
the long accounts of what he had undergone for the Gospel's sake.

During his six years in Spain he had distributed nearly 5000 copies
of the New Testament and 500 Bibles, also some hundreds of the Basque
and Gypsy Gospel of St Luke. These figures seem insignificant beside
those of Lieut. Graydon, who, on one occasion, sold as many as 1082
volumes in fourteen days, and in two years printed 13,000 Testaments
and 3000 Bibles, distributing the larger part of them. During the
year 1837 he circulated altogether between five and six thousand
books. But there was no comparison between the work of the two men.
Graydon had kept to the towns and cities on the south coast; Borrow's
methods were different. He circulated his books largely among
villages and hamlets, where the population was sparse and the
opportunities of distribution small. He had gone out into the
highways, risking his life at every turn, penetrating into bandit-
infested provinces in the throes of civil war, suffering incredible
hardships and fatigues and, never sparing himself. Both men were
earnest and eager; but the Bible Society favoured the wrong man--at
least for its purposes. But for Lieut. Graydon, Borrow would in all
probability have gone to China, and what a book he would have
written, at least what letters, about the sealed East!

Borrow, however, had nothing to complain of. He had found occupation
when he badly needed it, which indirectly was to bring him fame. He
had been well paid for his services (during the seven years of his
employment he drew some 2300 pounds in salary and expenses), his 200
pounds a year and expenses (in Spain) comparing very favourably with
Mr Brandram's 300 pounds a year.

He was loyal to the Bible Society, both in word and thought. He
honourably kept to himself the story of the Graydon dispute. He
spoke of the Society with enthusiasm, exclaiming, "Oh! the blood
glows in his veins! oh! the marrow awakes in his old bones when he
thinks of what he accomplished in Spain in the cause of religion and
civilisation with the colours of that society in his hat." {328a} In
spite of the misunderstandings and the rebukes he could write
fourteen years later that he "bade it adieu with feelings of love and
admiration." {328b} He "had done with Spain for ever, after doing
for her all that lay in the power of a lone man, who had never in
this world anything to depend upon, but God and his own slight
strength." {328c} In the preface to The Bible in Spain he pays a
handsome tribute to both Rule and Graydon, thus showing that although
he was a good hater, he could be magnanimous.