Here be mysteries. The author of "The Bible in Spain" is not only taken for a Gypsy, but once upon a time made horse-shoes in a dingle beside the great north road and trafficked in horses. When Borrow told John Murray of the Christmas meeting with Ambrose Smith, whom he now called "The Gypsy King," he said he was dressed in "true regal fashion." On the last day of that year he told Murray that he often meditated on his "life" and was arranging scenes. That reminder about the dingle and the wonderful trotting cob, and the Christmas wine, was stirring his brain. In two months time he had begun to write his "Life." He got back from the Bible Society the letters written to them when he was their representative in Russia, and these he hoped to use as he had already used those written in Spain. Ford encouraged him, saying: "Truth is great and always pleases. Never mind nimminy-pimminy people thinking subjects _low_. Things are low in manner of handling." In the midsummer of 1843 Borrow told Murray that he was getting on--"some parts are very wild and strange," others are full of "useful information." In another place he called the pictures in it Rembrandts interspersed with Claudes. At first the book was to have been "My Life, a Drama, by George Borrow"; at the end of the year it was "Lavengro, a Biography," and also "My Life." He was writing slowly "to please himself." Later on he called it a biography "in the Robinson Crusoe style." Nearly three years passed since that meeting with Mr. Petulengro, and still the book was not ready. Ford had been pressing him to lift a corner of the curtain which he had gradually let fall over the seven years of his life preceding his work for the Bible Society, but he made no promise. He was bent on putting in nothing but his best work, and avoiding haste. In July, 1848, Murray announced, among his "new works in preparation," "Lavengro, an Autobiography, by George Borrow." The first volume went to press in the autumn, and there was another announcement of "Lavengro, an Autobiography," followed by one of "Life, a Drama." Yet again in 1849 the book was announced as "Lavengro, an Autobiography," though the first volume already bore the title, "Life, a Drama." In 1850 publication was still delayed by Borrow's ill health and his reluctance to finish and have done with the book. It was still announced as "Lavengro, an Autobiography." But at the end of the year it was "Lavengro: the Scholar--the Gypsy--the Priest," and with that title it appeared early in 1851. Borrow was then forty-six years old, and the third volume of his book left him still in the dingle beside the great north road, when he was, according to the conversation with Mr. Petulengro, a young man of twenty-one. {picture: East Dereham Church, Norfolk. Photo: H. T. Cave, East Dereham: page21.jpg} CHAPTER III--PRESENTING THE TRUTH