The extraordinary thing, indeed, is the many points of likeness between Borrow and Bowring.

Both were remarkable linguists; both had spent some time in Spain and Russia; both had found themselves in foreign prisons.

They were alike associated in some measure with Norwich--Bowring through friendship with Taylor--and I might go on to many other points of likeness or of contrast.

It is natural, therefore, that the penniless Borrow should have welcomed acquaintance with the more prosperous scholar.

Thus it is that, some thirty years later, Borrow described the introduction by Taylor: The writer had just entered into his eighteenth year, when he met at the table of a certain Anglo-Germanist an individual, apparently somewhat under thirty, of middle stature, a thin and weaselly figure, a sallow complexion, a certain obliquity of vision, and a large pair of spectacles.