So great was his beauty in infancy, that people, especially those of the poorer classes, would follow the nurse who carried him about in order to look at and bless his lovely face.

At the age of three months an attempt was made to snatch him from his mother's arms in the streets of London, at the moment she was about to enter a coach; indeed, his appearance seemed to operate so powerfully upon every person who beheld him, that my parents were under continual apprehension of losing him; his beauty, however, was perhaps surpassed by the quickness of his parts.

He mastered his letters in a few hours, and in a day or two could decipher the names of people on the doors of houses and over the shop-windows.
John received his early education at the Norwich Grammar School, while the younger brother was kept under the paternal wing.

Father and mother, with their younger boy George, were always on the move, passing from county to county and from country to country, as Serjeant Borrow, soon to be Captain, attended to his duties of drilling and recruiting, now in England, now in Scotland, now in Ireland.

We are given a fascinating glimpse of John Borrow in _Lavengro_ by way of a conversation between Mr.and Mrs.Borrow over the education of their children.