We find the following letter to Dr. Bowring accompanying a copy of _The Zincali_:
58 JERMYN STREET, ST. JAMES, _April 14, 1841._
MY DEAR SIR,--I have sent you a copy of my work by the mail. If you could contrive to notice it some way or other I should feel much obliged. Murray has already sent copies to all the journals. It is needless to tell you that despatch in these matters is very important, the first blow is everything. Lord Clarendon is out of town. So I must send him his presentation copy through Murray, and then write to him. I am very unwell, and must go home. My address is George Borrow, Oulton Hall, Oulton, Lowestoft, Suffolk. Your obedient servant,
Two years later we find Borrow writing to an unknown correspondent upon a phase of folk-lore:
OULTON, LOWESTOFT, SUFFOLK, _August 11, 1843._
MY DEAR SIR,--Many thanks for your interesting and kind letter in which you do me the honour to ask my opinion respecting the pedigree of your island goblin, le feu follet Belenger; that opinion I cheerfully give with a premise that it is only an opinion; in hunting for the etymons of these fairy names we can scarcely expect to arrive at anything like certainty.
I suppose you are aware that the name of Bilenger or Billinger is of occasional though by no means of frequent occurrence both in England and France. I have seen it; you have heard of Billings-gate and of Billingham, the unfortunate assassin of poor Percival,--all modifications of the same root; Belingart, Bilings home or Billing ston. But what is Billin-ger? Clearly that which is connected in some way or other with Billing. You will find _ger_, or something like it, in most European-tongues--Boulan_ger_, horolo_ger_, tal_ker_, walk_er_, ba_ker_, bre_wer_, beg_gar_. In Welsh it is of frequent occurrence in the shape of _ur_ or _gwr_--hen_ur_ (an eld_er_), her_wr_ (a prow_ler_); in Russian the ger, gwr, ur, er, appears in the shape of _ik_ or _k_--sapojgn_ik_, a shoema_ker_, Chinobu_ik_, a man possessed of rank. The root of all these, as well as of _or_ in senator, victor, etc., is the Sanscrit _ker_ or _kir_, which means lord, master, maker, doer, possessor of something or connected with something.
We want now to come at the meaning of Beling or Billing, which probably means some action, or some moral or personal attribute; Bolvile in Anglo-Saxon means honest, Danish Bollig; Wallen, in German, to wanken or move restlessly about; Baylan, in Spanish, to dance (Ball? Ballet?), connected with which are to whirl, to fling, and possibly Belinger therefore may mean a Billiger or honest fellow, or it may mean a Walter_ger_, a whirl_enger_, a flinger, or something connected with restless motion.