Page:1902 Encyclopædia Britannica - Volume 26 - AUS-CHI.pdf/355

 BORROWSTOUNNESS — BOSBOOM 315 matter of his, the Romany world of Great Britain, which vessels of 324,194 tons. Coal and pig-iron are the prin—if his pictures of that world are true—will keep his cipal commodities shipped, and Bo’ness is the principal writings alive. Now that the better class of gypsies have port of discharge in Scotland for pitwood from the Baltic. migrated so rapidly to America that scarcely any are left Imports were valued at £219,778 in 1888, and at £223,612 in England, Borrow’s pictures of them are challenged as in 1898; exports at £161,081 in 1888, and £219,582 in being too idealistic. It is unfortunate that no one who 1898. Iron foundries (7) and engineering works are now was brought into contact with Borrow, and with the of great importance. Shipbuilding and whale-fishing are gryengroes or horse-dealers with whom he associated, extinct. One of the schools has a well-equipped secondary and whom he depicted, has ever written about him and department. Population (1881), 5284; (1901), 9100. them. Full of “ documents ” as is Dr Knapp’s painstaking Borsz£k, a health resort of Eastern Hungary, biography, it cannot be said to give a vital picture of situated the Carpathians, 95 miles E. by N. of Borrow and his surroundings during this most interesting Kolosvar.among It is noted for its mineral springs, six of period of his life. It is this same peculiar class of gypsies which are rich in carbonic acid and one in iron oxide. (the gryengroes) with whom the present writer was brought From three to four million bottles of mineral water are into contact, and he can only refer, in justification of prepared annually. Borrow’s pictures of them, to certain publications of his own, B6rys4aw, a village in Galicia, Austria, at the foot where the whole question is discussed at length, and where he has set out to prove that Borrow’s pictures of the section of the lower northern slopes of the Carpathians, about of the English gypsies he knew are true to the life. As 6 miles S. of Drohobycz. It is the chief centre of the to the deep impression that Borrow made upon his gypsy Galician petroleum wells and ozocerite deposits. The oil friends, that is partly explained by the singular nobility beds occur immediately at the foot of the range of hills of his appearance. For the gypsies are extremely sensitive along a terrace but lightly raised above the level of the upon matters of this kind. The silvery whiteness of the plain, where the sandstone is so saturated with petroleum thick crop of hair which Borrow retained to the last as to form a soft white mass. The quality of the oil is seemed to add in a remarkable way to the nobility of inferior to that of Western Galicia and the yield has his hairless face, but also it gave to the face a kind declined, while that of ozocerite has increased. Both of strange look “not a bit like a Gorgio’s,” to use the products are refined at Boryslaw and the neighbouring words of one of his gypsy friends. Moreover, the shy, village of Wolauka. The village is connected with the defiant, stand-off way which Borrow assumed in the Austrian state railway by a branch line. Population company of his social equals left him entirely when he (1890), 10,424 (double that of 1869); (1900), 10,671. was with the gypsies. The result of this was that these Borzhom, a small watering-place of Russia, Transwanderers knew him better than did his own countrymen. caucasia, government and 93 miles S.W. of Tiflis, 18 Seven years after the events recorded in Lavengro and miles from the Transcaucasian railway. It is situated at The Romany Rye Borrow obtained the post of agent to the an altitude of about 3000 feet, in the Borzhom gorge, a Bible Society, in which capacity he visited St Petersburg narrow rift in the Little Caucasus mountains. Its warm (1833-35) (where he published Tar gum, a collection of climate, its two hot springs, and the good state in which translations), and Spain, Portugal, and Morocco (1835-39). its beautiful parks are kept (the estate belonging to a The result of these travels and adventures was the pub- member of the Russian imperial family), make it a lication, in 1841, of Zincali, or The Gypsies in Spain. In favourite summer resort in Transcaucasia, and give it its 1843 appeared The Bible in Spain, when suddenly Borrow popular name of “ the pearl of Caucasus.” The export of became famous. Every page of the book glowed with fresh- the bottled mineral waters, which was only 5350 bottles ness, picturesqueness, and vivacity. In 1840 he married in 1890, reached 653,250 in 1897. a well-to-do widow, and permanently settled at Oulton, Borzna., a district town of S.W. Russia, governnear Lowestoft, with her and her daughter. Here he began to write again. Very likely Borrow would never have told ment of Chernigov, 15 miles S. of the junction of the the world about his vagabond wanderings in England as a Desna with the Seim, and 9 miles from the Pliski station hedge-smith had not The Bible in Spain made him famous of the railway Kursk to Kieff. It is situated on sandy as a wanderer. Lavengro appeared in 1851 with a success ground and surrounded on the north with marshes. It which, compared with that of The Bible in Spain, was was annexed to Russia in 1654. Population, 12,500. only partial. He was much chagrined at this, and although Bosboom, Anna Louisa Geertruida, Lavengro broke off in the midst of a scene in the Dingle, nee Toussaestt (who assumed the name of Bosboom-Tousand only broke off there because the volumes would hold saint, after marrying at the Hague, in 1851, the wellno more, it was not until 1857 that he published the known Dutch painter, Bosboom), (1812-1886), a dissequel, The Romany Rye. In 1844 he travelled in South- tinguished Dutch novelist, was born at Alkmaar in North Eastern Europe, and in 1854 he made a tour with his Holland, on 16th September 1812. Her father, a local stepdaughter in Wales. This tour he described in Wild chemist of Huguenot descent, gave her a fair education, and Wales, published in 1862. In 1874 he brought out a at an early period of her career Miss Toussaint developed a volume of ill-digested material upon the Romany tongue, taste for historical research, fostered, perhaps, by a forced Romano Lavo-lil, or Word-book of the Gypsy Language. indoor life, the result of weak health. Her first romance, In the summer of 1874 he left London, bade adieu to Almagro, appeared in 1837, followed by the Graaf van Mr Murray and a few friends, and returned to Oulton. Devonshire {The Earl of Devonshire) in 1838; the EngelOn the 26th July 1881 he was found dead in his house schen te Rome {The English at Rome) in 1840, and Het at Oulton, in his seventy-ninth year. (t. w.-d.) Huis Lauernesse {The House of Lauernesse) in 1841, an episode of the Reformation, translated into many European Borrowstounness, or Bo’ness, a seaport, languages. These stories, mainly founded upon some of burgh of barony, and police burgh (1880), on the Firth of the most interesting epochs of Dutch history, betrayed Forth, Linlithgowshire, Scotland. The harbour has been a remarkable grasp of facts and situations, combined with largely extended in recent times. At the end of 1898 an undoubted mastery over her mother tongue, though her the port register contained 10 vessels of 2385 tons; in style is sometimes involved, and not always faultless. 1898, entered 1097 vessels of 326,167 tons, cleared 1127 Ten years (1840-50) were mainly devoted to further