BORROW, George, English traveler., lin guist and writer on gypsy life: b. East Norfolk, 1803; cL Oulton Broad, Suffolk, August 1881. On his father's side he was de scended from a Cornish family, and his moth er was of Norman extraction. His father was a recruiting officer, who was constantly chang ing his residence, and thus Borrow's early years were passed in various parts of the United Kingdom. He received part of his education in Edinburgh High School, and in 1820 was articled to a Norwich solicitor. It was about this time that he laid the foundation of his fin guistic knowledge (he attained proficiency in 20 languages) under the guidance of William Taylor, a friend of Southey. After his father's death he went to London. where he lodged in the same house as Benjamin Disraeli, and earned his livelihood by literary hackwork and edited the Newgate Calendar; but, soon tiring of this, he set out on a series of journeys through England, France, Germany, Russia and other countries, acting latterly as agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society and making gypsy life and customs a special study. During the seven years or so prior to his engagement by the Bible Society he seems to have suffered great privations, but of his movements at that time he has told us nothing. He married in 1840 and settled on a small estate of his wife's at Oulton Broad, in the northeast of Suffolk, where he died. He maintained to the last his
strong sympathy for gypsy life, and not only permitted but encouraged the gypsies to en camp on his estate. His best-known work is
Bible in Spain' (3 vols., 1843) ; and his other publications include