as plentiful as blackberries." From this point, however, The Romany
Rye becomes dangerous as autobiography. {66b}

For one thing, it was unlike Borrow to remain in debt, and it is
incredible that he should have ridden away upon a horse purchased
with another man's money, without any set purpose in his mind.
Therefore the story of his employment at the Swan Inn, Stafford,
where he found his postilion friend, and the subsequent adventures
must be reluctantly sacrificed. They do not ring true, nor do they
fit in with the rest of the story. That he experienced such
adventures is highly probable; but it is equally probable that he
took some liberty with the dates.

Up to the point where he purchases the horse, Borrow's story is
convincing; but from there onwards it seems to go to pieces, that is
as autobiography. The arrival of Ardry (Arden) at the inn, {67a}
PASSING THROUGH STAFFORD ON HIS WAY TO WARWICK to be present at a dog
and lion fight that had already taken place (26th July), is in itself
enough to shake our confidence in the whole episode of the inn. In
The Gypsies of Spain Mr Petulengro is made to say:


"I suppose you have not forgot how, fifteen years ago, when you made
horseshoes in the little dingle by the side of the great north road,
I lent you fifty cottors [guineas] to purchase the wonderful trotting
cob of the innkeeper with the green Newmarket coat, which three days
after you sold for two hundred. Well, brother, if you had wanted the
two hundred instead of the fifty, I could have lent them to you, and
would have done so, for I knew you would not be long pazorrhus
[indebted] to me." {67b}