Mr Simpson seems to have earned Borrow’s thorough regard, no small achievement considering in how much he differed from his illustrious articled-clerk in everything, not excepting humour, of which the delightful, old-world gentleman seems to have had a generous share. He was doubtless puzzled to classify the strange being by whose instrumentality a stream of undesirable people was admitted to his presence, whilst distinguished clients were sternly and rigorously turned away. He probably smiled at the story of the old yeoman and his wife who, in return for some civility shown to them by Borrow, presented him with an old volume of Danish ballads, which inspired him to learn the language, aided by a Danish Bible. { 30a} He was not only “the first solicitor in East Anglia,” but “the prince of all English solicitors—for he was a gentleman!” { 30b} In another place Borrow refers to him as “my old master . . . who would have died sooner than broken his word. God bless him!” { 30c} And yet again as “my ancient master, the gentleman solicitor of East Anglia.” { 30d}
Borrow was always handsome in everything he did. If he hated a man he hated him, his kith and kin and all who bore his name. His friendship was similarly sweeping, and his regard for William Simpson prompted him to write subsequently of the law as “a profession which abounds with honourable men, and in which I believe there are fewer scamps than in any other. The most honourable men I have ever known have been lawyers; they were men whose word was their bond, and who would have preferred ruin to breaking it.” { 31a}
Fortunately for Borrow there was at the Norwich Guildhall a valuable library consisting of a large number of ancient folios written in many languages. “Amidst the dust and cobwebs of the Corporation Library” he studied earnestly and, with a fine disregard for a librarian’s feelings, annotated some of the volumes, his marginalia existing to this day. One of his favourite works was the _Danica Literatura Antiquissima_ of Olaus Wormius, 1636, which inspired him with the idea of adopting the name Olaus, his subsequent contributions to _The New Magazine_ being signed George Olaus Borrow.
Whilst Borrow was striving to learn languages and avoid the law, { 31b} the question of his brother’s career was seriously occupying the mind of their father. Borrow loved and admired his brother. There is sincerity in all he writes concerning John, and there is something of nobility about the way in which he tells of his father’s preference for him. “Who,” he asks, “cannot excuse the honest pride of the old man—the stout old man?” { 31c}