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The vicar of Dereham at this time was the Rev. Charles Hyde Wollaston. The Borrows remained in Dereham only a few months, but their stay in the place was ever after a memorable one in George’s mind, for the occurrence of a great event. A young lady, a friend of the family, presented him with a copy of “Robinson Crusoe.” This book first aroused in him a desire for knowledge.
On one of these occasions, he brought the animal back reeking; when Tommy Mitcheson, the bank horse-keeper, a rough-spoken fellow, exclaimed to him: “Set such fellows as you on horseback, and you’ll soon ride to the De’il.” But Tommy Mitcheson lived to tell the joke, and to confess that, after all, there had been a better issue to George’s horsemanship than that which he predicted.
There, once in a while, was seen the thin, care-worn, melancholy visage of an old tory, with a wig that, in times long past, had perhaps figured at a Province House ball. And there, not unfrequently, sat the rough captain of a privateer, just returned from a successful cruise, in which he had captured half a dozen richly laden vessels, belonging to King George’s subjects.
Towards the end of his life, “Bobby” lived in clover, its master’s pet, doing no work; and he died at Tapton, in 1845, more than twenty years old. During one of George’s brief sojourns at the Grange, he found time to write to his son a touching account of a pair of robins that had built their nest within one of the upper chambers of the house.
But George’s secret was his perseverance. He worked out the sums in his bye-hours, improving every minute of his spare time by the engine-fire, and studying there the arithmetical problems set for him upon his slate by the master. In the evenings he took to Robertson the sums which he had “worked,” and new ones were “set” for him to study out the following day.
The second event was the proclamation, in the same year, of George the Third as king of Great Britain. The blast of the trumpet sounded from the balcony of the Town House, and awoke the echoes far and wide, as if to challenge all mankind to dispute King George’s title.
He urged his father to do the same thing, but George’s reply was characteristic. “No,” said he; “I took my shares for an investment, and not to speculate with, and I am not going to sell them now because folks have gone mad about railways.” The consequence was, that he continued to hold the £60,000 which he had invested in the shares of various railways until his death, when they were at once sold out by his son, though at a great depreciation on their original cost.
Son of Sir Walter, and grandson of Lord Beauchamp of Powick, he was a great architect in his day, although his chief work was done after his translation to Salisbury, when he was appointed by Edward IV. to superintend the works at Windsor which included the rebuilding of St. George’s Chapel where he was buried. It is said he was the first Chancellor of the Order of the Garter.
The story was not yet finished; but George’s impatience caused him to interrupt it. "How I wish that I could have helped to build that wharf!" exclaimed he. "It must have been glorious fun. Ben Franklin for ever, say I!" "It was a very pretty piece of work," said Mr. Temple. "But wait till you hear the end of the story."
But Nelson had not been accustomed to George’s style of self-assertion; and, after a great deal of abuse, he threatened to kick the brakesman, who defied him to do so. Nelson ended by challenging Stephenson to a pitched battle; and the latter accepted the challenge, when a day was fixed on which the fight was to come off.
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