Transcribed from the 1913 Thomas J. Wise pamphlet by DavidPrice, .  Many thanks to Norfolk andNorwich Millennium Library, UK, for kindly supplying the imagesfrom which this transcription was made.

LETTERS
to his mother
ANN BORROW
and other correspondents

by
GEORGE BORROW

London:
printed for private circulation
1913

p. 4Copyright inthe United States of America
by Houghton, Mifflin & Co. for ClementShorter.

p.5LETTERS TO ANN BORROW
and other correspondents

Letter I.
To Ann Borrow.

Spain,
[Post-mark February 9th, 1838.]

My Dear Mama,

As I am afraid that you may not have received my last letterin consequence of several couriers having been stopped, I writeto inform you that I am quite well.

I have been in some difficulties.  I was selling so manyTestaments that the Priests became alarmed, and prevailed on thegovernment to p. 6put a stop to my selling anymore.  They were likewise talking of prosecuting me as aWitch, but they have thought better of it.

I hear it is very cold in England.  Pray take care ofyourself.  I shall send you more in a few weeks.

God bless you,
My Dear Mama,
G. B.

p.7Letter II.
To A Correspondent.

Oulton,
Lowestoft,
Suffolk.
August 11th, 1843.

My Dear Sir,

Many thanks for your interesting and kind letter, in which youdo me the honour to ask my opinion respecting the pedigree ofyour island goblin, le feu follet Belenger; that opinion Icheerfully give, with a promise that it is only an opinion; inhunting for the etymons of these fairy names we can scarcelyexpect to arrive at any thing like certainty.

I suppose you are aware that the name of Bilenger, orBillinger, is of occasional though by no means frequentoccurrence both in England p. 8andFrance.  You have heard of Billings-gate, and ofBilling-ham, the unfortunate assassin of poor Percival. Likewise of Billing-ton, all modifications of the same root:Belingart, Bilings-home or Billing-ston.  But what isBillinger?  Clearly that which is connected some wayor other with Billing.  You will find ger, orsomething like it, in most Europeantongues—Boulanger, horologer, talkerwalker, baker, brewer, beggar. In Welsh it is of frequent occurrence in the shape of uror gwr—hinur (an elder), herwr (aprowler); in Russian the ger, gwr, ur, er, appears in theshape of ik or k—Sapojgnik, ashoemaker, Chinobuik, a man possessed of rank.  Theroot of all these, as well as of or in Senator, victor,etc., is the same as ker or kir; which means, Lord,master, maker, doer, possessor of something or connected withsomething.

We want now to come at the meaning of Beling or Billing, whichprobably means some ...