[161] Petuléngro, farrier, the esoteric Romany name of the Smith family. It is derived from the Modern Greek pétalon, horse-shoe, if that, indeed, is not borrowed from the Romany.
[162a] Truth, brother.
[162b] Book.
[162c] Hill.
[163a] Passing bad money.
[163b] Gypsies.
[163c] Better gaújoes, non-Gypsies or Gentiles.
[164a] Yes.
[164b] Magistrate of the town.
[165a] Child.
[165b] In the town, telling fortunes.
[166a] House.
[166b] Going.
[169a] In Vol. i. p. 320 of Etymologicon Universale (3 vols., 1822-25), by the Rev. Walter Whiter (1758-1832), from 1797 rector of Hardingham, near Wymondham, occurs this suggestion: “It will perhaps be discovered by some future inquirer that from a horde of vagrant Gipseys once issued that band of sturdy robbers, the companions of Romulus and of Remus, who laid the foundations of the Eternal City on the banks of the Tibur.” This sounds truly Borrovian; and scattered through the amazing Etymologicon are twenty-six Romany words, very correctly spelt, which I used to think Whiter must have learnt from George Borrow. But there are words that Borrow does not seem to have known—poshe, near; kam, sun; ria, sir (vocative), and petalles, horse-shoe (accusative). Whiter appears to have known Romany better than Borrow. Borrow certainly meant to write a good deal about Whiter, for in a letter to John Murray of 1st December 1842 he sketches Lavengro: “Capital subject—early life; studies and adventures; some account of my father, William Taylor, Whiter, Big Ben, etc. etc.” (Knapp, ii. 5). But he barely mentions Whiter in chap. xxiv. of Lavengro. In the Gypsy Lore Journal (i. 1888, pp. 102-4) I had an article on Whiter. That on Whiter by Mr. Courtney, in vol. lxi. of the Dictionary of National Biography (1900), shows that he was writing on the Gypsy language in 1800 and 1811.
[169b] Fighter.
[170a] Husband.
[170b] Gentleman.
[170c] London.
[170d] Song.
[178] Borrow’s Wild Wales gives a full account of his Welsh studies at this period.
[180] He was articled on 30th March 1819 to Messrs. Simpson & Rackham solicitors, for five years.
[198] Klopstock. (B.)
[199] John Crome, “Old Crome” (1768-1811), the great landscape-painter of the “Norwich School.”
[208] Lodowick Muggleton (1609-98), a London Puritan tailor, founded his sect about 1651.
[211] William Taylor (1765-1836), “of Norwich,” introduced German literature to English readers, and corresponded with Southey, Scott, Godwin, etc. He seems to have made an infidel of Borrow by 1824 (Knapp, ii. 261-2). See Life of Taylor by Robberds (1843).
[225a] Samuel Parr (1747-1825).
[225b] See note on p. 169.
[230] John Thurtell (c. 1791-1824), the son of a Norwich alderman, was hanged at Hertford for the brutal murder in Gill’s Hill Lane of a fellow-swindler, William Weare. He figures also in Hazlitt’s “Prize-fight,” and Sir Walter Scott visited the scene of Weare’s murder.
[233] Spinoza.
[239] Rather shaky Romany. Chivios and rovel should be chído si and rovénna.
[240] Enough.
[249] Absolutely meaningless to any English Gypsy that ever walked. Borrow seems to have fancied it was Hungarian Romany, but it isn’t.
[264] Anglo-Hanoverian victory over the French, 1759.
[265] 2nd April 1824.
[270] Sir Richard Phillips (1767-1840), schoolmaster, hosier, stationer, publisher, author, Radical, vegetarian, etc., removed from Leicester to London in 1795, was knighted in 1808, and finally retired to Brighton.
[278] By the Rev. Legh Richmond (1772-1827). Elizabeth Wallbridge, the dairyman’s daughter, is buried at Arreton, in the Isle of Wight; and 2,000,000 copies of the tract, which was written in 1809, are said to have been sold in the author’s lifetime.
[287] The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the famous Moll Flanders, by Daniel Defoe, appeared on 27th January 1722.
[293] Quite incredible. Norwich had its own papers.
[306] By Prof. Knapp identified with William Gifford (1757-1826), translator of Juvenal, editor of the Anti-Jacobin, the Quarterly Review, etc.; but Mr. Leslie Stephen argues, in Literature (April 8, 1899, p. 375), that Gifford was then a rich bachelor with a sinecure of £1000 a year, and that a much likelier identification is with John Carey (1756-1826), the “Gradus Carey,” who edited Quintilian in 1822, and did work for Sir Richard Phillips.
[316a] Celebrated Trials (6 vols., 1825).
[316b] The Universal Review, March 1824-Jan. 1825.
[324] 29th April 1824.
[326] The ex-mayor, Robert Hawkes.
[328] Benjamin Robert Haydon (1786-1846), who shot himself in his studio.
[335] George Borrow about this time suffered much from the horrors, and meditated suicide (Knapp, i. 96-98).
[340] Byron’s corpse, on its way from Missolonghi to Hucknall Church, near Newstead in Notts, was removed on Monday, 12th July 1814, from Sir Edward Knatchbull’s house in Great George Street, Westminster, at 11 a.m.
[365] John Murray (1778-1843), publisher, the second of the name, the first of Albemarle Street.
[386] Tárno means simply “young” or “little.”
[397] Romantic Ballads, translated from the Danish, and Miscellaneous Pieces, by George Borrow, did appear in Norwich in 1826.