Between some Englishmen and gipsy women there is an extraordinary attraction—an attraction, we may say in passing, which did not exist between Borrow and the gipsy women with whom he was brought into contact. Supposing Borrow to have been physically drawn to any woman, she would have been of the Scandinavian type; she would have been what he used to call a Brynhild. It was tall blondes he really admired. Hence, notwithstanding his love of the economies of gipsy life, his gipsy women are all mere “scenic characters”—they clothe and beautify the scene; they are not dramatic characters. When he comes to delineate a heroine, Isopel Berners, she is physically the very opposite of the Romany chi—a Scandinavian Brynhild, in short. THE END Footnotes: {15} Mr. Coulson Kernahan. {17} The writer is much indebted to Mr. Coulson Kernahan for this story and much other information of life at “The Pines.” {18} ‘My Reminiscences,’ by Lord Ronald Gower. {25} Of August 13, 1881. By Mr. A. Egmont Hake. {32} Thomas Griffiths Wainewright, art-critic, who poisoned a number of his relatives for their money, a contributor to _The London Magazine_ and exhibitor at the Royal Academy. He died a convict in Tasmania in 1852. {33} C. G. Leland (“Hans Breitmann”), on whom Borrow’s books had “an incredible influence,” and caused him to take up the study of things Romany. {34} Louis Jeremiah Abershaw, better known as Jerry Abershaw, 1773?-1795, a notorious highwayman, who was the terror of the roads from London to Wimbledon and Kingston. Borrow with characteristic perversity persisted in regarding the redoubtable Jerry as a hero, in spite of the fact that he justly met his death on the gallows. {50} ‘Life, Writings, and Correspondence of George Borrow.’ Derived from Official and other Authentic Sources. By William I. Knapp, Ph.D. With Portrait and Illustrations. 2 vols. (Murray.) {60} The “reader” was Richard Ford, author of the ‘Handbook for Travellers in Spain,’ &c. He subsequently became Burrow’s warm admirer and friend. {77} ‘Dante Gabriel Rossetti, as Designer and Writer.’ Notes by William Michael Rossetti. (Cassell and Co.) {104} ‘Letters of Dante Gabriel Rossetti to William Allingham, 1854–1870.’ By George Birkbeck Hill. (Fisher Unwin.) {108} The year of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. {132} ‘Alfred, Lord Tennyson: a Memoir.’ By his Son. 2 vols. (Macmillan). {156} “My father’s words.” {168} _The Times_, October 18, 1876. {195} ‘New Poems.’ By Christina Rossetti. Edited by William Michael Rossetti. (Macmillan & Co.) {231} ‘Poems, Dramatic and Lyrical.’ By Lord de Tabley. Second Series. (Lane.) {263} ‘A Dream of John Ball and a King’s Lesson.’ ‘Signs of Change.’ {264} Written in 1888.