Alfred Egmont Hake

“ It was by his publication of the ‘Gipsies in Spain,’ but more especially by the ‘Bible in Spain,' that Borrow won a high place in literature. The romantic interest of these two works drew the public towards the man as much as towards the writer, and he was the Wonder' of a few years. But in the writings which followed he went too far. ‘Lavengro,’ which followed his first successes in 1850, and which, besides being a personal narrative, was a protest against the ‘kid-glove’ literature introduced by Bulwer and Disraeli, made him many enemies and lost him not a few friends. ”

“ Few men have put forth so many high qualities and maintained them untarnished throughout so long a career as did this striking figure of the nineteenth century. He died at Oulton in August 1881.
Probably Borrow was not a scientific philologist in the modern sense of the term, but it cannot be disputed that he was a great linguist. His work 'Targum' affords a proof of this, and the assertion is further borne out by the fact that at this time he translated and printed the New Testament, as well as some of the Homilies of the church of England, into Manchu, the court language of China. ”

“ The most authentic account of travel is that which he gives us in his 'Bible in Spain,' a country in which he passed through many notable adventures, and where he was imprisoned for sending home a too faithful account of General Quesada's exploits.
The following is a complete list of Borrow's works: 1. 'Faustus. His Life, Death . . . translated from the German of F. M. von Klinger, by G. B.,' 1825, 8vo. 2. 'Romantic Ballads ' (translated from the Danish of A. G. Ohlenslager and from the Kiempé Viser) and Miscellaneous Pieces from the Danish of Ewald and others, Norwich, 1826, 8vo. 3. 'Targum ”