Transcribed from the 1907 John Murray edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org [Picture: Book cover] [Picture: East Dereham] THE ROMANY RYE A SEQUEL TO “LAVENGRO” * * * * * BY GEORGE BORROW * * * * * A NEW EDITION CONTAINING THE UNALTERED TEXT OF THE ORIGINAL ISSUE, WITH NOTES. ETC., BY THE AUTHOR OF “THE LIFE OF GEORGE BORROW” * * * * * LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET 1907 FIRST EDITION 1857 SECOND EDITION 1858 THIRD EDITION 1872 FOURTH EDITION 1888 FIFTH EDITION 1896 SIXTH (DEFINITIVE) EDITION 6/- _March_, 1900 _Reprinted_ _June_, 1903 _Reprinted_ Thin Paper _Aug._, 1905 _Reprinted_ 6/- _Oct._, 1906 _Reprinted_ _Sept._, 1907 _Reprinted_ 2/6 net _Sept._, 1907 [Picture: The original title page of the first volume of the first edition of Romany Rye, published by John Murray in 1857] ADVERTISEMENT. (1857.) IT having been frequently stated in print that the book called _Lavengro_ was got up expressly against the popish agitation in the years 1850–51, the author takes this opportunity of saying that the principal part of that book was written in the year ’43, that the whole of it was completed before the termination of the year ’46, and that it was in the hands of the publisher in the year ’48. {0a} And here he cannot forbear observing, that it was the duty of that publisher to have rebutted a statement which he knew to be a calumny; and also to have set the public right on another point dealt with in the Appendix to the present work, more especially as he was the proprietor of a Review enjoying, however undeservedly, a certain sale and reputation. But take your own part, boy! For if you don’t, no one will take it for you. With respect to _Lavengro_, the author feels that he has no reason to be ashamed of it. In writing that book he did his duty, by pointing out to his country-people the nonsense which, to the greater part of them, is as the breath of their nostrils, and which, if indulged in, as it probably will be, to the same extent as hitherto, will, within a very few years, bring the land which he most loves beneath a foreign yoke—he does not here allude to the yoke of Rome.