

Transcribed from by the 1903 Methuen & Co. edition by David Price, email
ccx074@pglaf.org.  Many thanks to Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library,
UK, for kindly supplying the images from which this transcription was made.





                                   THE
                                ROMANY RYE


                          A Sequel to 'Lavengro'

                                   _By_
                              GEORGE BORROW

                     _WITH NOTES AND AN INTRODUCTION_
                             BY JOHN SAMPSON

                          _WITH A FRONTISPIECE_

                                  LONDON
                              METHUEN & CO.
                          36, ESSEX STREET, W.C.
                                MDCCCCIII

                        [Picture: Bushbury Church]




INTRODUCTION


'Lavengro' and 'The Romany Rye' are one book, though the former was
published in 1851 and the latter not until 1857.  After a slumber of six
years the dingle re-awakes to life, Lavengro's hammer shatters the
stillness, and the blaze of his forge again lights up its shadows, while
all the strange persons of the drama take up their parts at the point
where the curtain had been so abruptly rung down.  The post-chaise
overturned in the last chapter of 'Lavengro' is repaired in the first of
this sequel, the Man in Black proceeds with his interrupted disquisition,
and Borrow resumes his cold-blooded courtship of poor Isopel, playing
with her feelings as a cat with a mouse.  The dingle episode is divided
equally between the two works; and had not 'Glorious John,' after a
series of peremptory notes from the author, at last consented to publish
'The Romany Rye' 'to oblige Mr. Borrow,' we had lost some of the most
delightful scenes of which that enchanted spot was the theatre.

What part of this narrative is _Dichtung _and what is _Wahrheit _has been
a debated question.  In his chapter on pseudo-critics in the appendix to
the present book, Borrow denies that he ever called 'Lavengro' an
autobiography, or authorized any other person to call it so.  But it had
been advertised for some months as, 'Lavengro: an Autobiography'; while
as early as 1843 Borrow writes to Murray that he is engaged upon his
life; and as late as 1862, in an account of himself written for Mr. John
Longe of Norwich, Borrow says that 'in 1851 he published "Lavengro," a
work in which he gives an account of his early life.'  There is indeed no
doubt that the earlier part of 'Lavengro' is, in the main, a true history
of the life and adventures of George Borrow, however embellished here or
there with Borrovian touches; it is only of the truth of the occurrences
just before and after leaving London that scepticism has been expressed.
Borrow's story, however, is so circumstantial that we should at least be
able to discover whether this part of his history is credible and
consistent.

Plainly, the year when Borrow leaves London is 1825.  'Somewhat more than
a year before,' in March (or rather April) {0a} of the year of Byron's
funeral, {0b} he had entered the 'Big City,' a youth verging on manhood.
In his preface to 'Lav