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30-486: The Romany Rye is a novel by George Borrow , written in 1857 as a sequel to Lavengro (1851). Largely thought to be at least partly autobiographical, The Romany Rye follows from Lavengro (1851). The title can be translated from Romany as "Gypsy Gentleman". Mrs George Borrow wrote on 18 October 1853 to John Murray , his publisher, saying her husband had completed his work – "which he proposes to call The Romany Rye – A Sequel to Lavengro. " The story itself follows

60-576: A Manchu translation of the Bible completed, Borrow returned to Norwich in September 1835. In his report to the Bible Society he wrote: I quitted that country, and am compelled to acknowledge, with regret. I went thither prejudiced against that country, the government and the people; the first is much more agreeable than is generally supposed; the second is seemingly the best adapted for so vast an empire; and

90-580: A close affinity with the Romani people of Europe, who figure strongly in his work. His best-known books are The Bible in Spain and the novels Lavengro and The Romany Rye , set in his time with the English Romanichal (Gypsies). Borrow was born at East Dereham , Norfolk, the son of Thomas Borrow (1758–1824), an army recruiting officer, and Ann Perfrement (1772–1858), a farmer's daughter. His father,

120-601: A kindness." Borrow had a lifelong empathy with nomadic people such as the Romany (or Gypsy) people, especially Romany music , dance and customs. He became so familiar with the Romany language as to publish a dictionary of it. In the summer of 1835, he visited Russian Roma camped outside Moscow. His impressions formed part of the opening chapter of his The Zincali : or an account of the Gypsies of Spain (1841). With his mission of supervising

150-625: A lieutenant with the West Norfolk Militia , was quartered at the prisoner-of-war camp at Norman Cross from July 1811 to April 1813, and George spent his ninth and tenth years in the barracks there. He was educated at the Royal High School of Edinburgh and Norwich Grammar School . Borrow studied law, but languages and literature became his main interests. In 1825, he began his first major European journey, walking in France and Germany. Over

180-763: A saddle. The regiment moved to Templemore early in 1816, and Borrow began ranging around the country on foot and later on horseback. After less than a year in Ireland, the regiment returned to Norwich. As the threat of war receded, the strength of the unit was greatly reduced. Borrow's precocious linguistic skills as a youth made him a protégé of the Norwich-born scholar William Taylor , whom he depicted in his autobiographical novel Lavengro (1851) as an advocate of German Romantic literature . Recalling his youth in Norwich some 30 years earlier, Borrow depicted an old man (Taylor) and

210-507: A sprinkling of foreigners... is strictly Spanish, though a considerable portion are not natives of the place. Here are no colonies of Germans , as at Saint Petersburg; no English factories, as at Lisbon; no multitudes of insolent Yankees lounging through the streets, as at the Havannah , with an air which seems to say, the land is our own whenever we choose to take it; but a population which, however strange or wild, and composed of various elements,

240-402: A widow with a grown-up daughter called Henrietta, and a small estate at Oulton, Suffolk near Lowestoft . There Borrow began to write his books. The Zincali (1841) was moderately successful and The Bible in Spain (1843) was a huge success, making Borrow a celebrity overnight, but the eagerly awaited Lavengro (1851) and The Romany Rye (1857) puzzled many readers, who were not sure how much

270-515: A young man (Borrow) discussing the merits of German literature, including Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 's The Sorrows of Young Werther . Taylor confessed himself to be no admirer of either The Sorrows of Young Werther or its author, but he stated, "It is good to be a German [for] the Germans are the most philosophical people in the world." With Taylor's encouragement, Borrow embarked on his first translation, Friedrich Maximilian Klinger 's version of

300-498: Is Spanish, and will remain so as long as the city itself shall exist. Borrow translated the Gospel of Luke into the Romani and Basque languages. These were published in 1838, but both translations were banned for personal sale, with only public libraries being permitted copies. In 1840 Borrow's career with the British and Foreign Bible Society came to an end, and he married Mary Clarke,

330-669: Is buried with his wife in Brompton Cemetery , London. Borrow was said to be a man of striking appearance and deeply original character. Although he failed to find critical acclaim in his lifetime, modern reviewers often praise his eccentric and cheerful style – "one of the most unusual people to have written in English in the last two hundred years" according to one. In 1913, the Lord Mayor of Norwich bought Borrow's house in Willow Lane. It

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360-504: The Faust legend, entitled Faustus, his Life, Death and Descent into Hell , first published in St Petersburg in 1791. In his translation, Borrow altered the name of one city, so making one passage of the legend read: They found the people of the place modelled after so unsightly a pattern, with such ugly figures and flat features that the devil owned he had never seen them equalled, except by

390-406: The 1798 rebellion. Irish Catholics , and to a lesser extent Dissenters , were legally excluded from political and economic life. The Kingdom of Great Britain was at war with revolutionary France at the time, and Irish republicans were encouraged by rumours that France would invade the island . The lyrics describe the rebels as treacherous cowards and those fighting them as brave defenders of

420-569: The 1850s, moving to London in the 1860s. Borrow visited the Romanichal encampments in Wandsworth and Battersea , and wrote one more book, Romano Lavo-Lil, a wordbook of the Anglo-Romany dialect (1874). Mary Borrow died in 1869, and in 1874 he returned to Lowestoft, where he was later joined by his stepdaughter Henrietta and her husband, who looked after him until his death there on 26 July 1881. He

450-619: The FV George Borrow (LT956), was named after him. Built in 1902, the George Borrow sailed until 1915, when it was destroyed by a German U-boat (the SM UB-10 ). The skipper of the George Borrow was Thomas Crisp , who, in 1917, would go on to be awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross . Croppies Lie Down This song illustrates the deep divisions which existed in Ireland at the time of

480-539: The Protestant Academy and learned to read Latin and Greek "from a nice old clergyman". He was also introduced to the Irish language by a fellow student named Murtagh, who tutored him in return for a pack of playing cards . In keeping with the political friction of the time, he learned to sing "the glorious tune ' Croppies Lie Down '" at the military barracks. He was introduced to horsemanship and learned to ride without

510-677: The croppies lie down. Down, down, croppies lie down. In Dublin the traitors were ready to rise And murder was seen in their lowering eyes With poison, the cowards, they aimed to succeed And thousands were doomed by the assassins to bleed But the yeoman advanced, of rebels the dread And each croppy soon hid his dastardly head Down, down, croppies lie down. Should France e'er attempt, by fraud or by guile, Her forces to land on Erin's green isle, We'll show that they n'er can make free soldiers, slaves, They shall only possess our green fields for their graves; Our country's applauses our triumphs will crown, Whilst with their French brothers

540-506: The former museum in Willow Lane, Norwich. In December 2011, a plaque was unveiled on a house, 16, Calle Santiago, Madrid, where he lived from 1836 to 1840. George Borrow Road, a residential crescent in the west of Norwich, is named after him. There is a George Borrow Hotel in Ponterwyd near Aberystwyth . A pub in Dereham is named The Romany Rye after one of his principal works. A ketch ,

570-586: The inhabitants of an English town, called Norwich, when dressed in their Sunday's best. For this lampooning of Norwich society, the Norwich public subscription library burned his first publication. As a linguist adept at acquiring new languages, Borrow informed the British and Foreign Bible Society , "I possess some acquaintance with the Russian, being able to read without much difficulty any printed Russian book." He left Norwich for St Petersburg on 13 August 1833. Borrow

600-475: The innocent. " Croppies " meant people with closely cropped hair, a fashion associated with the French revolutionaries, in contrast to the wigs favoured by the aristocracy . In George Borrow 's 1862 travel book Wild Wales , the author comes upon an itinerant Irish fiddler and asks him to play the tune. "We soldiers of Erin, so proud of the name, We'll raise on the rebels and Frenchmen our fame; We'll fight to

630-545: The journey of a learned young man living with Romanies . It is a philosophical adventure story of sorts. The book involves meetings with a number of eccentric characters. It also contains what could be called ethnographic material on the customs and views of the Romani women. The author obtains a valuable horse from his Romani friend Jasper Petulengro and eventually sells it to a Hungarian at the Horncastle horse fair. As with Lavengro,

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660-490: The last in the honest old cause, And guard our religion, our freedom and laws; We'll fight for our country, our King and his crown, And make all the traitors and croppies lie down. Down, down, croppies lie down. The rebels so bold, when they've none to oppose, To houses and haystacks are terrible foes; They murder poor parsons and likewise their wives, At the sight of a soldier they run for their lives; Whenever we march over country and town In ditches and cellars

690-548: The next few years he visited Russia, Portugal, Spain and Morocco , acquainting himself with the people and languages of countries he visited. After his marriage on 23 April 1840, he settled in Lowestoft , Suffolk, but continued to travel inside and outside the United Kingdom. Having a military father, Borrow grew up at various army posts. In the autumn of 1815, he accompanied the regiment to Clonmel in Ireland, where he attended

720-637: The story ends rather abruptly with the author's realisation that the Romani language has close links to the Northern Indian languages: he resolves to travel to India but Borrow himself did not do so. A pub located in Colman Road, Norwich , was named The Romany Rye , and later The Romany Beer House before it ceased trading in November 2008. The Wetherspoons public house chain used the name Romany Rye for their pub, opened in Dereham , Norfolk, in 2011. Borrow

750-413: The third, even the lowest classes, are in general kind, hospitable, and benevolent. Such was Borrow's success that on 11 November 1835 he set off for Spain, once more as a Bible Society agent. Borrow said that he stayed in Spain for nearly five years. His reminiscences of Spain were the basis of his travelogue The Bible in Spain (1843). He wrote: [T]he huge population of Madrid , with the exception of

780-490: The writer Alexander Pushkin , who was out on a social visit. He left two copies of his translations of Pushkin's literary works and later Pushkin expressed regret at not meeting him. Borrow described the Russian people as "the best-natured kindest people in the world, and though they do not know as much as the English, they have not the fiendish, spiteful dispositions, and if you go amongst them and speak their language, however badly, they would go through fire and water to do you

810-549: Was born in the town. This article about an 1850s novel is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . See guidelines for writing about novels . Further suggestions might be found on the article's talk page . This Romani -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . George Borrow George Henry Borrow (5 July 1803 – 26 July 1881) was an English writer of novels and of travel based on personal experiences in Europe. His travels gave him

840-598: Was charged by the Bible Society with supervising a translation of the Bible into Manchu . As a traveller, he was overwhelmed by the beauty of St Petersburg: "Notwithstanding I have previously heard and read much of the beauty and magnificence of the Russian capital.... There can be no doubt that it is the finest City in Europe, being pre-eminent for the grandeur of its public edifices and the length and regularity of its streets." During his two-year stay in Russia, Borrow called upon

870-680: Was fact and how much fiction – a question debated to this day. Borrow made one more overseas journey, across Europe to Istanbul in 1844, but the rest of his travels were in the UK: long walking tours in Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Cornwall and the Isle of Man . Of these, only the Welsh tour yielded a book, Wild Wales (1862). Borrow's restlessness, perhaps, led to the family, which had lived in Great Yarmouth , Norfolk, in

900-520: Was renamed Borrow House, presented to the City of Norwich, and for many years open to the public as the Borrow Museum. The museum was closed and the house sold in 1994, but the proceeds went to establish a George Borrow Trust that aims to promote his works. There are memorial blue plaques marking his residences at 22 Hereford Square , South Kensington , Fjaerland Hotel, Trafalgar Road, Great Yarmouth, and

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