And what was I myself?
No longer an innocent child but a moody man, bearing in my face, as I knew well, the marks of my strivings and strugglings; of what I had learnt and unlearnt.
But Borrow, as I have said, left Dereham in his eighth year, and the author of a _History of East Dereham_ thus accounts for several inaccuracies in his memory, both as to persons and things.
B.NORMAN CROSS AND AMBROSE SMITH .-- In _Lavengro_ Borrow recalls childish memories of Canterbury and of Hythe, at which latter place he saw the church vault filled with ancient skulls as we may see it there to-day.

And after that the book which impressed itself most vividly upon his memory was _Robinson Crusoe_.

How much he came to revere Defoe the pages of _Lavengro_ most eloquently reveal to us.

'Hail to thee, spirit of Defoe! What does not my own poor self owe to thee ?' In 1810-11 his father was in the barracks at Norman Cross in Huntingdonshire.

Here the Government had bought a large tract of land, and built upon it a huge wooden prison, and overlooking this a substantial barrack also of wood, the only brick building on the land being the house of the Commandant.
The great building was destined for the soldiers taken prisoners in the French wars.