He was now, by virtue of his wife, a "landed proprietor," and filled the part with unction, though but little satisfaction. For he was not a magistrate, and he had to get up in the middle of the night to look after "poachers and thieves," as he says in giving a reason for an illness. In the summer-house at Oulton hung his father's coat and sword, but it is to be noticed that to the end of his life an old friend held it "doubtful whether his father commenced his military career with a commission." Borrow probably realised the importance of belonging to the ruling classes and having a long steady pedigree. "If report be true," says the same friend, {201} "his mother was of French origin, and in early life an actress." The foreignness as an asset overcame his objection to the French, and "an actress" also sounded unconventional. The friend continues: "But the subject of his family was one on which Borrow never touched. He would allude to Borrowdale as the country whence they came, and then would make mysterious allusions to his father's pugilistic triumphs. But this is certain, that he has not left a single relation behind him." Yet he had many relatives in Cornwall and did not scorn to visit their houses. He would only talk of his works to intimate friends, and "when he went into company it was as a gentleman, not because he was an author." Lady Eastlake, in March, 1844, calls him "a fine man, but a most disagreeable one; a kind of character that would be most dangerous in rebellious times--one that would suffer or persecute to the utmost. His face is expressive of wrong-headed determination." A little earlier than this, in October, 1843, Caroline Fox saw him "sitting on one side of the fire and his old mother on the other." It was known to her that "his spirits always sink in wet weather, and to-day was very rainy, but he was courteous and not displeased to be a little lionised, for his delicacy is not of the most susceptible." He was "a tall, ungainly, uncouth man," in her opinion, "with great physical strength, a quick penetrating eye, a confident manner, and a disagreeable tone and pronunciation." In no place does he make anyone praise his voice, and, as he said, it reminded one Spanish woman of a German clockmaker's.