At the end of Tuck's Court was a house at which was employed a Welsh
groom, a queer fellow who soon attracted the notice of Simpson &
Rackham's clerks, young gentlemen who were bent on "mis-spending the
time which was not legally their own." {27b} They would make audible
remarks about the unfortunate and inoffensive Welsh groom, calling
out after him "Taffy"--in short, rendering the poor fellow's life a
misery with their jibes, until at last, almost distracted, he had
come to the determination either to give his master notice or to hang
himself, that he might get away from that "nest of parcupines."
Borrow saw in the predicament of the Welsh groom the hand of
providence. He made a compact with him, that in exchange for lessons
in Welsh, he, Borrow, should persuade his fellow clerks to cease
their annoyance.

From that time, each Sunday afternoon, the Welsh groom would go to
Captain Borrow's house to instruct his son in Welsh pronunciation;
for in book Welsh Borrow was stronger than his preceptor. Borrow had
learned the language of the bards "chiefly by going through Owen
Pugh's version of 'Paradise Lost' twice" with the original by his
side. After which "there was very little in Welsh poetry that I
could not make out with a little pondering." {28a} This had occupied
some three years. The studies with the groom lasted for about twelve
months, until he left Norwich with his family. {28b}

Captain Borrow's thoughts were frequently occupied with the future of
his younger son, a problem that had by no means been determined by
signing the articles that bound him to Simpson & Rackham. The boy
was frank and honest and did not scruple to give expression to ideas
of his own, and it was these ideas that alarmed his father. Once at