Borrow

Borrow, George Henry, writer and philologist, was born in 1803 at East Dereham, Norfolk. His early career is known only as given in his book Lavengro, a gipsy appellation meaning "wordmaster," and which was early applicable to him. He was much addicted to associating with gipsies and became intimately acquainted with their manners and customs and their language. In 1833 he became an agent of the Bible Society, and in this capacity visited Russia, Portugal, Spain, Morocco, and other continental countries. In 1840 he married Mary Clark, the widow of a naval officer, and settled on her estate at Oulton, near Lowestoft, where the gipsies always had a welcome pitch for their tents. He was fond of open-air life, a lover of horses and boxing. Besides Lavengro he also wrote The Zincali, or Gypsies of Spain, 1840, The Bible in Spain, 1843, The Romany Rye, 1851, Wild Wales, 1862, and Dictionary of the Gypsy Language, 1874. He died in 1881 at Oulton.