But _nil desperandum est_, if ever my health mends, and possibly it may by the time my clerkship is expired, I intend to live in London, write plays, poetry, etc., abuse religion and get myself prosecuted, for I would not for an ocean of gold remain any longer than I am forced in this dull and gloomy town.
I have no news to regale you with, for there is none abroad, but I live in the expectation of shortly hearing from you, and being informed of your plans and projects; fear not to be prolix, for the slightest particular cannot fail of being interesting to one who loves you far better than parent or relation, or even than the God whom bigots would teach him to adore, and who subscribes himself, Yours unalterably, GEORGE BORROW.[47] Borrow might improve his German--not sufficiently as we shall see in our next chapter--but he would certainly never make a lawyer.

Long years afterwards, when, as an old man, he was frequently in Norwich, he not seldom called at that office in Tuck's Court, where five strange years of his life had been spent.

A clerk in Rackham's office in these later years recalls him waiting for the principal as he in his youth had watched others waiting.[48] FOOTNOTES: [44] _Norvicensian_, 1888, p.

177.
[45] _Lavengro_, ch.

xix.
[46] The _Britannia_ newspaper, 26th June 1851.
[47] This letter is in the possession of Mr.J.C.Gould, Trap Hill House, Loughton, Essex.
[48] Mr.C.F.Martelli of Staple Inn, London, who has so generously placed this information at my disposal.