other words, an attack of the "Horrors." If Mr Petulengro were
encamped upon Mousehold, the antidote lay near to hand in his
friend's pagan optimism; if, on the other hand, the tents of Egypt
were pitched on other soil, there was no remedy, unless perhaps a
prize-fight supplied the necessary stimulus to divert his thoughts
from their melancholy trend.

Borrow met at the house of his tutor and friend, in July 1821, Dr
Bowring {36a} (afterwards Sir John) at a dinner given in his honour.
Bowring had recently published Specimen of Russian Poets, in
recognition of which the Czar (Alexander I.) had presented him with a
diamond ring. He had a considerable reputation as a linguist, which
naturally attracted Borrow to him. Dr Bowring was told of Borrow's
accomplishments, and during the evening took a seat beside him.
Borrow confessed to being "a little frightened at first" of the
distinguished man, whom he described as having "a thin weaselly
figure, a sallow complexion, a certain obliquity of vision, and a
large pair of spectacles." It would be dangerous to accept entirely
the account that Borrow gives of the meeting, {36b} because when that
was written he had come to hate and despise the man whom he had begun
by regarding with such awe. Bowring appears to have ventilated his
views with some freedom, and to have had a rather serious passage of
arms with another guest whom he had rudely contradicted. It is very
probable that Borrow's dislike of Bowring prompted him to exaggerate
his account of what happened at Taylor's house that evening.

Whilst Borrow was industriously occupied in collecting vagabonds and
imbibing the dangerous beliefs of William Taylor, there sat in an
easy-chair in the small front-parlour of the little house in Willow
Lane, in a faded regimental coat, a prematurely old man, whose frame