But that Borrow _did _buy a horse with money lent by Petulengro, and sold it at a profit, we have some reason to credit. Nearly ten years before Borrow wrote 'The Romany Rye,' in the second edition of his 'Zincali,' published in 1843, he quotes a speech of Mr. Petulengro's 'on the day after _mol-divvus_, {0r} 1842.' 'I am no _hindity mush_, {0s} as you well know,' says Jasper. 'I suppose you have not forgot, how, fifteen years ago, when you made horse-shoes in the little dingle by the side of the Great North Road, I lent you fifty _cottors_ {0t} to purchase the wonderful trotting cob of the innkeeper with the green Newmarket coat, which three days later you sold for two hundred.' This earlier version seems more probably the true one, and since three days would find Borrow in Stafford, it seems reasonable to conclude that he sold his horse there and not in Lincolnshire. Personally, however, I must confess to feeling little interest in the fate of the animal--Belle's donkey were a dearer object. Mumpers' Dingle might well become the Mecca of true Borrovians, could we but determine the authentic spot. Somewhere or other--who will find it for us?--in west central Shropshire {0u} is a little roadside inn called the Silent Woman; {0v} a little further to the east is a milestone on the left hand side, and a few yards from the milestone the cross-road where Petulengro parted from Borrow. Ten miles further still is a town, and five miles from the town the famous dingle. Mr. Petulengro describes it as 'surprisingly dreary'; 'a deep dingle in the midst of a large field about which there has been a law-suit for some years past; the nearest town five miles distant, and only a few huts and hedge public-houses in the neighbourhood;' {0w} and Borrow speaks of it as 'a deep hollow in the midst of a wide field; the shelving sides overgrown with trees and bushes, a belt of sallows surrounding it on the top, and a steep winding path leading down into the depths.' {0x} It was surrounded by a copse of thorn bushes, {0y} and the mouth of the dingle fronted the east, {0z} while the highroad lay too far distant for the noise of traffic to reach Borrow's ears. {0z1}