Seeing that the individual was affected by the circumstances, he removed them to another quarter, and in so doing recognised an individual well known in the sporting circles, to whom he made a slight bow.
The reader of _Lavengro_ might speculate whether that 'young gentleman' was Borrow, but Borrow was in Norwich in January 1824, his father dying in the following month.

In his _Celebrated Trials_ Borrow tells the story of the execution with wonderful vividness, and supplies effective quotations from 'an eyewitness.' Borrow no doubt exaggerated his acquaintance with Thurtell, as in his _Robinson Crusoe_ romance he was fully entitled to do for effect.

He was too young at the time to have been much noticed by a man so much his senior.

The writer who accepts Borrow's own statement that he really gave him 'some lessons in the noble art' is too credulous,[75] and the statement that Thurtell's house 'on the Ipswich Road was a favourite rendezvous for the Fancy' is unsupported by evidence.

Old Alderman Thurtell owned the house in question, and we find no evidence that he encouraged his son's predilection for prize-fighting.