The departure of Mr Petulengro and his retinue from Norwich threw
Borrow back once more upon his linguistic studies, his fishing, his
shooting, and his smouldering discontent at the constraints of school
life. It was probably an endeavour on Borrow's part to make himself
more like his gypsy friends that prompted him to stain his face with
walnut juice, drawing from the Rev. Edward Valpy the question:
"Borrow, are you suffering from jaundice, or is it only dirt?" The
gypsies were not the only vagabonds of Borrow's acquaintance at this
period. There were the Italian peripatetic vendors of weather-
glasses, who had their headquarters at Norwich. In after years he
met again more than one of these merchants. They were always glad to
see him and revive old memories of the Norwich days.

About this time he saved a boy from drowning in the Yare. {23a} It
may be this act with which he generously credits his brother John
when he says -


"I have known him dash from a steep bank into a stream in his full
dress, and pull out a man who was drowning; yet there were twenty
others bathing in the water, who might have saved him by putting out
a hand, without inconvenience to themselves, which, however, they did
not do, but stared with stupid surprise at the drowning one's
struggles." {24a}


From the first Borrow had shown a strong distaste for the humdrum
routine of school life. In a thousand ways he was different from his
fellows. He had been accustomed to meet strange and, to him, deeply