in Borrow's views was that he had touched the depths of failure.
Here was an opening that promised much. He was a diplomatist when it
suited his purpose, and if the old poison were not quite gone out of
his system, he would hide his wounds, or allow the secretaries to
bandage them with mild reproof.

Very different from the attitude of Harriet Martineau was that of
John Venning, an English merchant resident at Norwich and recently
returned from St Petersburg, where his charity and probity had placed
him in high favour with the Emperor and the Goverment officials. Mr
Venning gave Borrow letters of introduction to a number of
influential personages at St Petersburg, including Prince Alexander
Galitzin and Baron Schilling de Canstadt. Dr Bowring obtained a
letter from Lord Palmerston to someone whose name is not known.
There were letters of introduction from other hands, so that when he
was ready to sail Borrow found himself "loaded with letters of
recommendation to some of the first people in Russia. Mr Venning's
packet has arrived with letters to several of the Princes, so that I
shall be protected if I am seized as a spy; for the Emperor is
particularly cautious as to the foreigners whom he admits. It costs
2 pounds, 7s. 6d. merely for permission to go to Russia, which alone
is enough to deter most people." {106a}

Before leaving England, Borrow paid into his mother's account at her
bank the sum of seventeen pounds, an amount that she had advanced to
him either during his unproductive years, or on account of his
expenses in connection with the expedition to St Petersburg.