After an ascent of Snowdon arm in arm with Henrietta, Mrs. Borrow remaining behind, Borrow left his wife and daughter to find their way back to Yarmouth, and continued his journey, all of which is most picturesquely described in _Wild Wales_. Before that book was published, however, Borrow was to visit the Isle of Man, Scotland, and Ireland. He was to publish _Lavengro_ (1857); to see his mother die (1858); and to issue his very limited edition of _The Sleeping Bard_ (1860); and, lastly, to remove to Brompton (1860). It was at the end of the year 1862 that _Wild Wales_ was published. It had been written during the two years immediately following the tour in Wales, in 1855 and 1856. It had been announced as ready for publication in 1857, but doubtless the chilly reception of _The Romany Rye_ in that year, of which we have written, had made Borrow lukewarm as to venturing once more before the public. The public was again irresponsive. _The Cornhill Magazine_, then edited by Thackeray, declared the book to be 'tiresome reading.' The _Spectator_ reviewer was more kindly, but nowhere was there any enthusiasm. Only a thousand copies were sold,[224] and a second edition did not appear until 1865, and not another until seven years after Borrow's death. Yet the author had the encouragement that comes from kindly correspondents. Here, for example, is a letter that could not but have pleased him:
WEST HILL LODGE, HIGHGATE, _Dec. 29th, 1862._
DEAR SIR,--We have had a great Christmas pleasure this year--the reading of your _Wild Wales_, which has taken us so deliciously into the lovely fresh scenery and life of that pleasant mountain-land. My husband and myself made a little walking tour over some of your ground in North Wales this year; my daughter and her uncle, Richard Howitt, did the same; and we have been ourselves collecting material for a work, the scenes of which will be laid amidst some of our and your favourite mountains. But the object of my writing was not to tell you this; but after assuring you of the pleasure your work has given us--to say also that in one respect it has tantalised us. You have told over and over again to fascinated audiences, Lope de Vega's ghost story, but still leave the poor reader at the end of the book longing to hear it in vain.