know how." {34a}

This was in 1821; two years later Borrow is said to have "translated
with fidelity and elegance from twenty different languages." {34b}
In spite of his later achievements in learning languages, it seems
scarcely credible that he acquired eight separate languages in two
years, although it must be remembered that with him the learning of a
language was to be able to read it after a rather laborious fashion.
Taylor, however, uses the words "facility and elegance."

In the autobiographical notes that Borrow supplied to Mr John Longe
in 1862 there appears the following passage:-


"At the expiration of his clerkship he knew little of the law, but he
was well versed in languages, being not only a good Greek and Latin
scholar, but acquainted with French, Italian, Spanish, all the Celtic
and Gothic dialects, and likewise with the peculiar language of the
English Romany Chals or gypsies."


At William Taylor's table Borrow met "the most intellectual and
talented men of Norwich, as also those of note who visited the city."
{34c} Taylor was much interested in young men, into whose minds he
did not hesitate to instil his own ideas, ideas that not only earned
for him the name of "Godless Billy," but outraged his respectable
fellow-citizens as much as did his intemperate habits. "His face was
terribly bloated from drink, and he had a look as if his intellect
was almost as much decayed as his body," wrote a contemporary. {35a}
"Matters grew worse in his old age," says Harriet Martineau, "when