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Dietary Risk Assessment in the WIC Program 1st Edition
Committee On Dietary Risk Assessment In The Wic
Program Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Committee on Dietary Risk Assessment in the WIC Program, Food
and Nutrition Board, Institute of Medicine
ISBN(s): 9780309509626, 0309509629
Edition: 1
File Details: PDF, 2.77 MB
Year: 2002
Language: english
DIETARY RISK
ASSESSMENT
IN THE
WIC PROGRAM
Committee on Dietary Risk Assessment
in the WIC Program
Food and Nutrition Board
INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE
NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS
Washington, DC
NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS · 2101 Constitution Avenue, N.W. · Washington, DC 20418
NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Gov-
erning Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from
the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of
Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee re-
sponsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with re-
gard for appropriate balance.
Support for this project was provided by the Food and Nutrition Service, U.S.
Department of Agriculture. The views presented in this report are those of the
Institute of Medicine Committee on Dietary Risk Assessment in the WIC Pro-
gram and are not necessarily those of the funding agency.
International Standard Book Number: 0-309-08284-6
Library of Congress Control Number: 2002100331
Additional copies of this report are available for sale from the National Acad-
emy Press, 2101 Constitution Avenue, N.W., Box 285, Washington, D.C.
20055. Call (800) 624-6242 or (202) 334-3313 (in the Washington metropolitan
area), or visit the NAP’s home page at www.nap.edu. The full text of this report
is available at www.nap.edu.
For more information about the Institute of Medicine, visit the IOM home page
at: www.iom.edu.
Copyright 2002 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
The serpent has been a symbol of long life, healing, and knowledge among al-
most all cultures and religions since the beginning of recorded history. The ser-
pent adopted as a logotype by the Institute of Medicine is a relief carving from
ancient Greece, now held by the Staatliche Museen in Berlin.
Knowing is not enough; we must apply.
Willing is not enough; we must do.
—Goethe
INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE
Shaping the Future for Health
The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating
society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research,
dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the
general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress
in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal gov-
ernment on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Bruce M. Alberts is president of
the National Academy of Sciences.
The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the
charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of out-
standing engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of
its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility
for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also
sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages
education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers.
Dr. Wm. A. Wulf is president of the National Academy of Engineering.
The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of
Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions
in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The
Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences
by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon
its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr.
Kenneth I. Shine is president of the Institute of Medicine.
The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of
Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology
with the Academy’s purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal
government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the
Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the
National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in
providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engi-
neering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies
and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Bruce M. Alberts and Dr. Wm. A. Wulf are
chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of Research the National Council.
COMMITTEE ON DIETARY RISK ASSESSMENT
IN THE WIC PROGRAM
VIRGINIA A. STALLINGS (chair), Division of Gastroenterology and Nutri-
tion, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
TOM BARANOWSKI, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine,
Houston, Texas
RONETTE R. BRIEFEL, Mathematica Policy Research, Washington, D.C.
YVONNE BRONNER, Public Health Program, Morgan State University, Bal-
timore, Maryland
LAURA E. CAULFIELD, Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins
University, Baltimore, Maryland
EZRA C. DAVIDSON, JR., Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Char-
les R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Los Angeles, California
THERESA O. SCHOLL, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Univer-
sity of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Stratford, New Jersey
CAROL W. SUITOR, Nutrition Consultant, Northfield, Vermont
ROBERT C. WHITAKER, Division of General and Community Pediatrics,
Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio
Staff
Romy Gunter-Nathan, Study Director
Kimberly Stitzel, Research Associate
Jaime Lanier, Project Assistant (until May 2001)
Peter Keo, Project Assistant (after May 2001)
v
FOOD AND NUTRITION BOARD
CUTBERTO GARZA (chair), Division of Nutritional Science, Cornell Uni-
versity, Ithaca, New York
ALFRED H. MERRILL, JR. (vice chair), School of Biology, Georgia Institute
of Technology, Atlanta
ROBERT M. RUSSELL (vice chair), Jean Mayer U.S. Department of Agri-
culture Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, Tufts University,
Boston, Massachusetts
VIRGINIA A. STALLINGS (vice chair), Division of Gastroenterology and
Nutrition, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
LARRY R. BEUCHAT, Center for Food Safety and Quality Enhancement,
University of Georgia, Griffin
BENJAMIN CABALLERO, Center for Human Nutrition, Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland
ROBERT J. COUSINS, Center for Nutritional Sciences, University of Florida,
Gainesville
SHIRIKI KUMANYIKA, Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics,
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia
LYNN PARKER, Child Nutrition Programs and Nutrition Policy, Food Re-
search and Action Center, Washington, D.C.
ROSS L. PRENTICE, Division of Public Health Sciences, Fred Hutchinson
Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington
A. CATHARINE ROSS, Department of Nutrition, The Pennsylvania State
University, University Park
BARBARA O. SCHNEEMAN, Department of Nutrition, University of Cali-
fornia, Davis
ROBERT E. SMITH, R.E. Smith Consulting, Inc., Newport, Vermont
STEVE L. TAYLOR, Food Processing Center, University of Nebraska, Lin-
coln
BARRY L. ZOUMAS, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Soci-
ology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park
Staff
ALLISON A. YATES, Director
LINDA D. MEYERS, Deputy Director
GAIL E. SPEARS, Administrative Assistant
GARY WALKER, Financial Associate
vi
Acknowledgments
Sincere appreciation is extended to the many individuals and groups who
were instrumental in the development of this report. First and foremost, many
thanks are due to the committee members who volunteered countless hours to
the research, deliberations, and preparation of the report. Their dedication to this
project and to a stringent timeline was commendable, and the basis of our suc-
cess.
Many individuals volunteered significant time and effort to address and
educate our committee members during the workshop and public meeting.
Workshop speakers included Jean Anliker, PhD, RD, University of Maryland;
Ann Barone, LDN, Rhode Island Department of Health; Gladys Block, PhD,
University of California at Berkeley; Graham Colditz, MD, DrPH, Harvard Uni-
versity; Cutberto Garza, MD, PhD, Cornell University; Bob Greenstein, Center
on Budget and Policy Priorities, Washington, D.C.; Jill Leppert, LD, RD, North
Dakota State Department of Health; Kristin Marcoe, MBA, RD, U.S. Depart-
ment of Agriculture; Lynn Parker, MS, RD, Food Research and Action Center,
Washington, D.C.; Carol Rankin, MS, RD, LD, Mississippi Department of
Health; Anna Maria Siega-Riz, PhD, University of North Carolina; Amy Subar,
PhD, MPH, RD, National Cancer Institute; Valerie Tarasuk, PhD, University of
Toronto; and Amanda Watkins, MD, RD, Arizona Department of Health Serv-
ices. In addition, two organizations provided oral testimony to the committee
during its public meeting: the National Association of WIC Directors and the
Food and Nutrition Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Sincere thanks and
appreciation are also extended to Barbara Ainsworth, PhD, University of South
vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Carolina, for her valuable assistance as a consultant in the field of physical ac-
tivity assessment.
This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their
diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures
approved by the NRC’s Report Review Committee. The purpose of this
independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist
the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure
that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and
responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript
remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We wish
to thank the following individuals for their review of this report:
Maxine Hayes, Washington State Department of Health
Jules Hirsch, Rockefeller University
Elvira Jarka, Health Resources and Services Administration
Louise C. Masse, National Cancer Institute
Esther Myers, American Dietetic Association
Valerie Tarasuk, University of Toronto
Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive
comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or
recommendations nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release.
The review of this report was overseen by Gail Harrison, University of
California, Los Angeles. Appointed by the National Research Council and
Institute of Medicine, she was responsible for making certain that an
independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with
institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered.
Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring
committee and the institution.
It is apparent that many organizations and individuals from a variety of
clinical and scientific backgrounds provided timely and essential support for this
project. Yet we would have never succeeded without the efforts, skills, and
grace that was provided in large measure by Romy Gunter-Nathan, MPH, RD,
our study director for this project; Kimberly Stitzel, MS, RD, research associate;
Geraldine Kennedo, project assistant; Jaime Lanier, project assistant; Peter Keo,
project assistant; and Allison A. Yates, PhD, RD, director, Food and Nutrition
Board, Institute of Medicine.
Last, as chair, I express my sincere appreciation to each member of this
committee for their extraordinary commitment to the project and the wonderful
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix
opportunity to work with them on this important task for the nutrition and policy
community and for the women and children of the WIC population whose care
we were asked to consider.
Virginia A. Stallings, MD
Chair, Committee on Dietary
Risk Assessment in the WIC Program
Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ..................................................................................1
1 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................13
The WIC Program, 14
Nutrition Risk Criteria, 15
Dietary Risk, 19
The Charge to the Committee and the Study Process, 22
Organization of the Report, 24
2 DIETARY ASSESSMENT TOOLS IN WIC..............................................27
Purposes of Dietary Data Collection, 27
Dietary Assessment Tools Currently Used by WIC Programs, 29
Eligibility Criteria in Use, 32
Summary, 33
3 USING THE DIETARY GUIDELINES AS THE BASIS OF
DIETARY RISK CRITERIA ......................................................................35
The Dietary Guidelines, WIC, and National Goals, 35
Which Dietary Guidelines Should be Targeted, 36
4 FRAMEWORK FOR EVALUATING TOOLS TO ASSESS
DIETARY RISK..........................................................................................49
Desirable Characteristics of an Assessment Tool, 49
Summary, 55
xi
xii CONTENTS
5 FOOD-BASED ASSESSMENT OF DIETARY INTAKE .........................57
A Focus on Usual Intake, 58
Overview of Research-Quality Dietary Methods for
Estimating Food or Nutrient Intake, 60
Methods to Compare Food Intakes with the Dietary Guidelines, 79
Conclusions Regarding Food-Based Dietary Assessment
Methods for Eligibility Determination, 83
6 ASSESSMENT OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY ............................................ 85
Challenges in Assessing Physical Activity, 85
Methods to Assess Physical Activity, 88
Conclusions Regarding the Role of Physical Activity
Assessment for Eligibility Determination, 90
Recommendations for Future Research, 92
7 BEHAVIORAL INDICATORS OF DIET AND PHYSICAL
ACTIVITY ..................................................................................................93
The Concept of Behavioral Indicators, 94
Behavioral Indicators of Diet, 96
Behavioral Indicators of Physical Activity, 112
Conclusions Regarding the Use of Behavioral Indicators
for Eligibility Determination, 114
8 EVIDENCE OF DIETARY RISK AMONG LOW-INCOME
WOMEN AND CHILDREN.....................................................................115
Nutritional Vulnerability of Groups Served by WIC, 115
Results from Relevant Dietary Intake Studies, 120
Associations of Food Intake with Income, 124
Summary of Evidence Suggesting Dietary Risk, 126
9 FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS..............................................129
Findings, 129
Recommendation, 133
Concluding Remark, 135
10 REFERENCES ..........................................................................................137
APPENDIXES
A Allowed Nutrition Risk Criteria, 159
C Workshop Agenda and Presentations, 163
B Biographical Sketches, 165
DIETARY RISK
ASSESSMENT
IN THE
WIC PROGRAM
Executive Summary
Dietary intake patterns of individuals are complex in nature. However, as-
sessing these complex patterns has been fundamental to the Special Supple-
mental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) since its
inception. The WIC program, which provides nutritious supplemental foods,
nutrition education, and health referral services to low-income pregnant or post-
partum women, infants, and children to age 5 years, requires applicants to meet
one of several nutrition risk categories in order to be eligible for program serv-
ices; dietary risk is one of these categories. Others include anthropometric risk
(e.g., underweight, overweight), biochemical risk (e.g., low hematocrit), medical
risk (e.g., diabetes mellitus), dietary risk (e.g., inappropriate dietary patterns),
and other predisposing factors (e.g., homelessness). Since funds are not always
available to meet the needs of the number of applicants determined to be eligi-
ble, a priority system is in place in which nutrition risk criteria are categorized
based on severity of potential effect and outcome.
The role of dietary assessment in establishing eligibility for WIC is a crucial
one, especially for postpartum women and children. As stated above, although
eligibility may be based on many kinds of nutritional risks, substantial numbers
of postpartum women and children currently are found to be eligible only on the
basis of dietary risk. The practice of assessing dietary intake is widespread in part
because, for those found to be at nutritional risk, the dietary data also influence
the contents of the food package made available, nutrition education, and, some-
times, referrals. For this reason, even though many applicants are found to be at
nutritional risk for a reason other than dietary risk, 86 percent of state agencies
1
2 DIETARY RISK ASSESSMENT IN THE WIC PROGRAM
assess the dietary intake of all WIC participants. The practice consumes consid-
erable time resources on the part of both WIC personnel and their clients.
In any venue, the assessment of dietary risk poses a challenge. Indeed, in an
earlier report, the Institute of Medicine stated, “Research is urgently needed to
develop practical and valid assessment tools for the identification of inadequate
diets” (IOM, 1996). Moreover, a joint working group of the National Associa-
tion of WIC Directors and of the Food and Nutrition Service of the U.S. De-
partment of Agriculture did not find a sufficient scientific basis for developing
standardized criteria for two major types of dietary risk: failure to meet Dietary
Guidelines and inadequate diet. These are the two types of dietary risk that WIC
personnel use extensively as the sole basis for determining that postpartum
women and children are at nutritional risk.
Failure to meet Dietary Guidelines refers to the 10 guidelines in the Dietary
Guidelines for Americans (USDA/HHS, 2000; see Box ES-1). These guidelines
emphasize overall dietary and lifestyle patterns that can help to achieve favor-
able long-term health outcomes. Based on current knowledge about how dietary
and physical activity patterns may reduce the risk of major chronic diseases and
how a healthful diet may promote health, the 10 guidelines are designed to serve
as the basis for federal policy and are used to guide nutrition information, edu-
cation, and interventions for federal, state, and local agencies.
BOX ES-1 Dietary Guidelines for Americans
AIM FOR FITNESS…
• Aim for a healthy weight.
• Be physically active each day.
BUILD A HEALTHY BASE…
• Let the Pyramid guide your food choices.
• Choose a variety of grains daily, especially whole grains.
• Choose a variety of fruits and vegetables daily.
• Keep foods safe to eat.
CHOOSE SENSIBLY…
• Choose a diet that is low in saturated fat and cholesterol and moderate
in total fat.
• Choose beverages and foods to moderate your intake of sugars.
• Choose and prepare foods with less salt.
• If you drink alcoholic beverages, do so in moderation.
SOURCE: USDA/HHS (2000).
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3
FIGURE ES-1 USDA Food Guide Pyramid.
SOURCE: USDA (1992).
Embedded in the guidelines is the Food Guide Pyramid—one of the major
tools used for consumer nutrition education in the United States. The Pyramid
(Figure ES-1) incorporates many of the Dietary Guidelines and gives concrete
recommendations that promote moderation, balance, and variety in food intake.
THE TASK
Because of concern about the quality of dietary assessment methods and the
resources in WIC required for using them to establish nutritional risk, the Food
and Nutrition Service asked the Institute of Medicine (IOM) for assistance. In
particular, it contracted with the IOM’s Food and Nutrition Board to evaluate
the use of various dietary assessment tools and to make recommendations for the
assessment of inadequate or inappropriate dietary patterns, especially in the
category failure to meet Dietary Guidelines. The Food and Nutrition Service
asked that an expert committee propose a framework for assessing dietary risk
among WIC applicants and identify and prioritize areas of greatest concern
when the Dietary Guidelines are incorporated in WIC. In doing so, the commit-
tee was asked to focus on tools that could identify dietary risk of individuals
accurately and thus be suitable for eligibility determination. The committee was
also asked to recommend specific cut-off points for the criteria and to consider
4 DIETARY RISK ASSESSMENT IN THE WIC PROGRAM
both food-based and behavior-based approaches. This report addresses those
topics. However, since the Dietary Guidelines apply only to individuals ages 2
years and older, the focus is on pregnant and postpartum women and children.
CURRENT PRACTICES
Since standardized criteria have not yet been established for failure to meet
Dietary Guidelines or inadequate diets, state WIC agencies currently select the
method and cut-off points to be used by their agencies. The most commonly used
methods are 24-hour diet recalls and food frequency questionnaires. WIC person-
nel generally compare dietary intake data obtained using one or both of these
methods with specified numbers of servings from each of the five basic food
groups of the Food Guide Pyramid. In most cases, the methods used appear not to
have undergone studies of accuracy or reliability. Many state WIC agencies use
the Food Guide Pyramid servings as a standard for children ages 12 to 24 months
even though the Pyramid was designed for persons ages 2 years and older.
A FRAMEWORK FOR ASSESSING DIETARY RISK
In an interim report (IOM, 2000c), the Committee on Dietary Risk Assess-
ment in the WIC Program proposed a framework that consists of eight charac-
teristics essential to a food-based and/or behavior-based tool designed for eligi-
bility determination. That framework has been modified slightly in this report.
An optimal tool should:
· use specific criteria that are related to health or disease;
· be appropriate for age and physiological condition (e.g., pregnancy or lac-
tation);
· serve three purposes: screening for eligibility, tailoring of food packages,1
and nutrition education;
· have acceptable performance characteristics (validity and reliability);
· be suitable for the culture and language of the population served;
· be responsive to operational constraints in the WIC setting;
· be standardized across states/agencies; and
· allow prioritization within the category of dietary risk.
The committee considered these characteristics as it examined possible methods
for determining dietary risk.
1
The types and amounts of foods in WIC food packages may be adjusted somewhat to accommo-
date a participant’s particular nutritional needs or food preferences.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 5
TABLE ES-1 Recommended Number of Pyramid Servings by Physiologic
Status/Energy Intake and Food Group
Moderately Teen Girls;
Children Children Active Women, Active, Preg-
Ages 2–3 Ages 4–6 yr, Some Pregnant nant, or Lac-
yr (» 1,300 Women Women (»1,800 tating Women
Food Group kcal) (»1,600 kcal) kcal) (» 2,200 kcal)
Grains group, 6 6 7 9
especially
whole grain
Vegetable group 3 3 3.3 4
Fruit group 2 2 2.3 3
Milk group, 2a 2 or 3b 2 or 3b 2 or 3b
preferably fat
free or low fat
Meat and beans 2 2, for a total 2, for a total of 6 2, for a total
group, pref- of 5 oz oz of 6 oz
erably lean or
low fat
a
Portion sizes are reduced for children ages 2–3 years, except for milk.
b
The number of servings from the milk group depends on age. Older children and
teenagers (ages 9 to 18 years) need three servings daily. Women 19 years and older
need two servings daily. During pregnancy and lactation, the recommended number of
milk group servings is the same as for nonpregnant females of the same age.
SOURCE: Adapted from USDA/HHS (2000).
FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATION
Findings
Basing Risk Criteria on the Dietary Guidelines
Focusing on the single guideline Let the Pyramid Guide Your Food Choices
was determined to be the most feasible, comprehensive, and objective approach
to using the Dietary Guidelines for establishing dietary risk for those individuals
2 years of age and older. Based on review of the Dietary Guidelines and the
scientific underpinnings of the Food Guide Pyramid, the committee determined
that this approach should use the recommended number of servings based on
energy needs as the cut-off point for each of the five basic food groups (see
Table ES-1). For example, the criterion for active, pregnant, adult women would
be at least nine servings from the grains group. A majority of state WIC
agencies already use some version of this approach as the basis for setting a
criterion that addresses the dietary risk failure to meet Dietary Guidelines.
Other documents randomly have
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of George
Borrow, the Man and His Work
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Title: George Borrow, the Man and His Work
Author: R. A. J. Walling
Release date: November 25, 2020 [eBook #63880]
Most recently updated: October 18, 2024
Language: English
Credits: Transcribed from the 1908 Cassell and Company edition
by David Price
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GEORGE
BORROW, THE MAN AND HIS WORK ***
Transcribed from the 1908 Cassell and Company edition by David
Price.
By the Same Author
A
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A Life of Sir
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GEORGE BORROW
THE MAN AND HIS WORK
BY
R. A. J. WALLING
Author of “A Sea Dog of Devon”
CASSELL AND COMPANY, LIMITED
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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
PREFACE
One writing of Borrow since the publication of Dr. W. I. Knapp’s “Life,
Writings, and Correspondence of George Borrow” (Murray, 1899)
must of need acknowledge the invaluable services conferred upon
the student by that monumental work. Its store of documents is the
harvest of a lifetime of devoted labour, and it bridges many a
yawning gulf which aforetime left the Borrovian explorer
disconsolate. In this monograph, where Dr. Knapp is directly
quoted, the fact is generally mentioned either in the text or by way
of footnote; but it seemed fitting that there should be some more
definite expression of my indebtedness to his affectionate diligence
in those long and fruitful researches, which alone have made
possible a consecutive story of Borrow’s life.
An inquiry into the Cornish origin of the Borrow family, into the
circumstances of Borrow’s visit to the home of his forbears, and of
his tour in Cornwall, was responsible for the inception of the present
book. The astonishing contrast between the Borrow of the common
conception and Borrow as he really was in the flesh and in the spirit
gradually forced itself upon me. Borrow has been popularly
regarded in two lights. Many people have had a vague idea that if
he was not a gypsy he was “half a gypsy, or something of the sort.”
More instructed opinion has accepted his affection for East Anglia,
the country of his birth, and his glorification of Anglo-Saxonism, as
sufficient evidence that he was himself an Anglo-Saxon. Both views
are wrong. He was of Celtic origin; his genius was Celtic, though its
attributes were modified by many influences. Here is the
explanation of many things in Borrow’s life and work which can be
explained in no other way. If the part of the book referring to his
Cornish associations appears to be out of proportion to the rest, my
excuse lies here also.
Further, the Cornish episodes are those least known in Borrow’s life.
My object has been, so far as the narrative is concerned, to
strengthen the connecting links between those portions of his career
which he set forth in his autobiographies, rather than to re-traverse
ground where he himself trailed the pen.
Gratitude must be expressed for much assistance given to me in the
elucidation of obscure points and in the tracing of documents. First,
I am indebted to Mr. Theodore Watts-Dunton, not only for liberty to
draw upon his rich store of recollections of his friend, but for much
advice, assistance, and suggestion, the value of which it is difficult to
overestimate. No little of the revival of interest in Borrow and the
subjects with which he dealt is due to the vogue given to “gypsyism”
in literature by the extraordinary success of that wonderful novel,
“Aylwin,” and the fascinations of its heroine, Sinfi Lovel, of whom Mr.
Watts-Dunton and Borrow conversed during those walks
commemorated in Dr. Gordon Hake’s sonnet:
While he, Lavengro, towering by your side,
With rose complexion and bright silvery hair,
Would stop amid his swift and lounging stride
To tell the legends of the fading race—
As at the summons of his piercing glance,
Its story peopling his brown eyes and face,
While you called up that pendant of romance
To Petulengro with his boxing glory,
Your Amazonian Sinfi’s noble story!
Mr. Francis Edwards, of Marylebone, has generously given
permission for the reproduction of exceedingly interesting passages
from unique copies of Borrow’s books in his possession. To the
kindness of Mrs. Ford, of Pencarrow, is due some of the additional
information about the relations of Borrow with her husband, Richard
Ford. For East Anglian memories I have consulted, among others,
Mr. William Dutt, of Lowestoft, and Mr. William Mackay, of Oulton.
Family documents and reminiscences have been contributed by Mr.
W. H. Borrow, of South Hampstead; Mr. E. Pollard, of Penquite; Mr.
William Pollard, of Woolston, and, above all, by Dr. Reginald Taylor,
of Gray’s’ Inn Road (son of the “gallant girl” of the ’fifties in
Cornwall), to whom my thanks are due especially for the material of
the detailed account of Borrow’s Cornish tour.
In the biographical sense, the most important new matter is the
correspondence between Borrow and Sir John Bowring, supplied by
the courtesy of Sir John’s sons, Mr. Lewin B. Bowring, of Torquay,
and Mr. F. H. Bowring, of West Hampstead. This throws a little light
on the mysterious “Veiled Period.” The quarrel between Borrow and
Bowring will possibly never be explained quite fully; the
correspondence now summarised or printed for the first time shows
that for more than twenty years Bowring was a good friend of
Borrow—“my only friend,” as he said in 1842. Judgment on the
merits of the dispute, so far as the evidence can be taken at
present, must go against Borrow.
I have entered with some diffidence upon the discussion of Borrow’s
“gypsyism”; any degree of confidence which may appear is the
offspring of the enthusiastic aid afforded to me by Mr. R. A. Scott-
Macfie, the secretary of the Gypsy Lore Society.
R. A. J. W.
Plymouth,
October, 1908.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
1. The Wind on the Heath 1
2. A Wandering Youth 21
3. Publisher’s Hack and Hedgesmith 46
4. Borrow and Bowring 67
5. In Foreign Parts 85
6. The Summer House at Oulton 106
7. “Lavengro” and his Critics 128
8. “Success to Old Cornwall!” 146
9. A Gallant Girl and her Family 168
10. The Book that was Not Written 189
11. The Land of Elis Wyn 208
12. London Again 224
13. Death of Mrs. Borrow 238
14. The Passing of The Romany Rye 251
15. Borrow’s Gypsyism 264
16. Borrow’s Books 293
17. Characteristics 337
INDEX 349
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
George Borrow Frontispiece
After the Portrait by Henry Phillips, by permission of Mr.
John Murray, the owner of the Painting.
Page of Borrow’s Draft of “The Zincali” page 276
By permission of Mr. Watts-Dunton.
Portion ofPage of Borrow’s Copy of the “Romantic Ballads” page 331
with his MS. Revision
By permission of Mr. Francis Edwards
CHAPTER I
THE WIND ON THE HEATH
“What is your opinion of death, Mr. Petulengro?” . . . “There’s
night and day, brother, both sweet things; sun, moon, and stars,
brother, all sweet things; there’s likewise a wind on the heath.
Life is very sweet, brother; who would wish to die?”
The speakers were two young men, met casually on breezy
Household Heath outside the city of Norwich; the time towards
sunset on a fine evening; the year at the beginning of the
nineteenth century. The tall young Englishman who questioned and
the lithe swart gypsy who answered were friends of some years’
standing, but of infrequent intercourse. The one, with an absorbing
curiosity in all things rare and strange, especially in rare and strange
dialects and languages, the other, with a gypsy’s agile, half-
developed intellect and pagan philosophy, had a common bond in
their love of The Wild and their passion for pugilism and horse-
dealing.
The quality of this friendship was peculiar, but not more remarkable
than the manner of its origin. Norman Cross, on the North Road, is
a lonely place, remote from the trafficking of the world, peopled
mainly now by ghosts. In the year 1810 it was the home of several
thousands of sorrowful men. There was enacted the sequel of many
an incident in the world-tragedy of the Great Conflict, for on that
solitary cross-road the Government had built sixteen prisons to hold
six thousand Frenchmen, human spoil of war, and fenced them
round with a palisade. Outside were barracks for the militia who
guarded the prisoners and captives, and wooden houses for the
officers who commanded the militia. It was a fantastic environment
for an episode which determined the career and directed the effort
of such genius as was latent in a boy of seven.
In one of the wooden huts on the roadside dwelt Captain Thomas
Borrow, a Cornishman, adjutant of the West Norfolk Militia. With
him were his wife, formerly Ann Perfrement, the descendant of
Huguenot refugees, and their two sons, John, aged ten, and George,
aged seven. The younger boy, even at that age, was fond of self-
communion, of solitary wandering; shy of normal relations with his
fellows and prone to scrape acquaintance with the oddest people he
could find. He absorbed impressions readily; he never forgot what
he saw or heard. He observed how the unhappy prisoners earned
some scanty comforts by straw-plaiting; his dark face was often lit
up by the light of the bonfires on which callous authority threw the
dainty work of French fingers, prohibited and condemned because it
interfered with the prosperity of the Bedfordshire straw industry. He
was one of the astonished listeners to the adventure of the French
officer who hid himself in a refuse bin and was shot out of prison
and collected by the scavengers. He picked up the friendship of a
snake-collector, who told him the tale of the King of the Vipers, and
made him a present of a toothless snake, which thereafter he
carried about in his bosom as a pet.
This companion of his lonely excursions was with him on the day
when he strolled into a green lane where the gypsies had
encamped. With it he turned the tables on the pair of vagabonds
who threatened to assault him and drown him in the toad pond for
prying into their tents; and, for his supposititious occult power over
a poisonous reptile, he was endowed by them with the title of
“sapengro,” or snake-master. Who had been, one moment before, a
“young highwayman” and a “Bengui’s bantling” [3] became a
“precious little gentleman” and a “gorgeous angel” when the snake
“stared upon his enemy with its glittering eyes”; and presently was
introduced with ceremony to their son, a lad of thirteen, ruddy and
roguish of face, with whom he swore eternal brotherhood.
The gypsies camped in the green lane at Norman Cross were of the
mighty tribe of Smith, and the roguish lad was Ambrose. It was
Ambrose Smith who figured thereafter in the writings of the little
sapengro as Jasper Petulengro. It was he who uttered the pæan of
the sun, moon and stars, and the wind on the heath, when George
Borrow met him eight or nine years afterwards near the
encampment outside the city of Norwich.
George was then a youth pretending to learn law in the respectable
office of Simpson and Rackham, in Tuck’s Court, but was far more
ardently engaged in studying the by-products of human society and
threading the byways of literature. He had been wandering on the
heath until he “came to a place where, beside a thick furze, sat a
man, his eyes fixed intently on the red ball of the setting sun.” The
conversation, which may be found in the twenty-fifth chapter of
“Lavengro,” is one of the most remarkable and most poetical
dialogues in the English tongue. It strikes with perfect accuracy the
keynote of George Borrow’s life. The whole chapter is a microcosm
of Borrow, his philosophy, his morals, and his tastes. Its exordium is
a passionate statement of his efforts in search of the heart of things,
his pursuit of the elusive answer to the eternal Question. Its middle
includes some reflections on philological research, mingled in
Borrow’s incomparable manner with the pathos of failure and the
humour of success. It has its fling at the metaphysicians. It reports
in vivid words the earnest sermon of a field preacher; it describes
with great wealth of comparison and eloquence the singing of a
hymn on that Norfolk moor by a crowd of commonplace people
elevated to a pitch of intense feeling by religious enthusiasm: a
hymn which echoed in the ears of the listener many times in after
years when in the great cathedrals of the world he was disappointed
with religion decked out in all the panoply of pomp and
circumstance; its peroration is Mr. Petulengro’s immortal
pronouncement on the problem of mortality—and its epilogue is the
gypsy’s invitation to his brother to “put on the gloves, and I will try
to make you feel what a sweet thing it is to be alive.”
This is the very essence of Borrow—languages, religion, hedge-
philosophy, and pugilism. The only element missing from the
mixture is one of his characteristic outbursts in praise of the brown
ale of old England. “There’s likewise a wind on the heath” lets us
some way into the heart of Borrow’s secret.
The little sapengro of Norman Cross, the inquisitive youth who
discussed Death with Jasper Petulengro, and was boxed out of the
mood of morbid introspection, in which he declared, “I would wish to
die,” into a healthy appreciation of the sweetness of Life, played
many parts in his long career. He became scoffing sceptic, Bible
missionary and Papist-hater, traveller, and recluse, philologist and
poet. But his principal service to his day and generation and to their
posterity had nothing to do with philosophy or religion, with
belabouring “Romanisers” or with evangelical propagandism, with
topography or with languages, or with poetry in the academic
sense. It had everything to do with his wanderings in green lanes,
his “love of Nature unconfined,” his acquaintance with the gypsies,
his passion for The Wild, and his devotion to the ruder athletics.
Many an artist imagines that he would make a reputation as a man
of business; many a wizard of accounts has secret dreams of literary
fame. Borrow had an impotent desire for scholarship and the
celebrity of learning; but he laboured better than he knew. His
invaluable bequest is to be disinterred from the numerous pages of
five books, dug out from a mass of irrelevance and banality; and its
inspiration will be found in the words of Mr. Petulengro: “There’s
likewise a wind on the heath. Life is very sweet, brother; who would
wish to die?” [6]
The man who, preaching from this text, imposed worship on the
English-speaking world, was intensely alive, intensely egoistic. Often
“engrossed with the sufferings of himself and of his soul,” as one has
written of his hero Byron, he yet had a keen outlook upon that part
of society in which he could move freely, and, as he saw intensely,
was able to produce intense impressions of his visions upon his
readers. He was a strange, romantic, wayward, irresponsible man—
irresponsible, that is, to any but his own code of honour, manliness
and virtue.
He was a very Don Quixote of letters. He went about the world
tilting at every windmill he encountered; not infrequently he would
construct windmills on which to break his lance. If he was often
unhorsed and maimed, that did not matter; it merely made his next
onslaught more severe. In one of his contests with persons who
had offended him he speaks of them as malignant pseudo-critics, by
whom he would not allow himself to be poisoned. “No, no! he will
rather hold them up by their tails, and show the creatures wriggling,
blood and foam streaming from their broken jaws.” Possibly only a
man who had been worsted in his battle could have been guilty of
this. But—furor arma ministrat; this was Borrow on the war-path
against his critics. The true Borrovian likes to think of Borrow at
another period and in different circumstances. It was a crabbed
literary person who mangled and was mangled in this fashion. The
lover of his genius pictures him otherwise—the young and handsome
and vigorous Lavengro, stalking over the high roads and the byways
of England, disputing with scholar or with gypsy, camping in lonely
dingles, conjugating Armenian verbs with Isopel Berners. He has six
feet three inches of height. His hair is white, but he has the
complexion of healthy youth, and eyes dark and deep as mountain
tarns. He revels in the friendship of gypsies and all the vagrants of
earth, and cares for few other friends. He would rather sing ballads
in the tent of a Romany chal than be entertained in the palace of a
prince; he prefers the society of a prize-fighter to the converse of
any duke. Recall his picture of himself:
“A lad who twenty tongues can talk,
And sixty miles a day can walk;
Drink at a draught a pint of rum,
And then be neither sick nor dumb;
Can tune a song and make a verse,
And deeds of northern kings rehearse;
Who never will forsake a friend
While he his bony fist can bend;
And, though averse to brawl and strife,
Will fight a Dutchman with a knife;
Oh, that is just the lad for me,
And such is honest six-foot-three.”
Or, again, in his riper age, as he is described by Mr. Egmont Hake
(Dr. Gordon Hake’s fourth son)—a huge figure of a fine old man,
eccentric of humour, rich beyond measure in the experience from
which he drew anecdote, full of quaint whimsy and natural conceit.
He was, says Mr. Hake (Athenæum, August 13th, 1881), “a choice
companion on a walk, whether across country or in the slums of
Houndsditch. His enthusiasm for nature was peculiar; he could draw
more poetry from a widespreading marsh with its straggling rushes
than from the most beautiful scenery, and would stand and look at it
with rapture.” He rejoiced in a hedge-alehouse, or a coaching inn;
he was moved to passionate delight by local reminiscences of
highway robbers, vagrom scoundrels, pugilists, and vagabonds of all
degrees; good beer was a poem to him. Under all these impressions
he expanded nobly; contact with conventional respectability
shrivelled him up; his bête noire was “gentility.” His strength and
vigour remained unimpaired almost to the end of his life; at seventy
he would break the ice on a pond and plunge in to bathe.
No man less fit than this for literary controversy was ever born into
the world. It was an evil fate that launched him upon those sordid
disputations disfiguring the Appendices to “The Romany Rye,” from
which the “blood and foam” passage I have quoted is drawn.
Few men bringing to the literary mart so slight a cargo as Borrow
brought have obtained so great a price for it. Some of his work,
judged by any conventional standard, is remarkably poor. The best
of it, judged by the only proper standard (which is entirely
unconventional) is so good that immortality might be predicted for it
by a person inclined to take the risk of being confuted in some
remotely future incarnation. A great number of the enterprises in
which Borrow dissipated many years of his life may be dismissed as
of no literary importance and of no possible value to any other son
of man. His philology, quâ philology, is grossly unscientific; its uses
are, in fact, not scientific but artistic. They reside in the quaint hues
it helped him to mix on his palette, the whimsical, half-serious, half-
humorous disquisitions into which an unusual word would lead him,
the ease with which it enabled him to glorify his picture with the
tints of foreign skies and the forms of strange men. If we are to
assess his linguistic achievements by their practical and immediate
results, the years Borrow spent upon them were squandered. The
seeds of his philological learning,
“Like Hebrew roots, were found
To flourish most in barren ground.”
They produced a meagre crop of translations, of no consequence
either as exercises or as poetry. But that would be a perverse view
to take of Borrow’s studies. Their virtue was not in their verbal
fruits, but in the quality they added to his later work. For example,
those “deeds of northern kings rehearsed” were rehearsed a great
deal better by other people, and the works of Elis Wyn had been
more efficiently dealt with by a Welshman. But would the shining
history of Isopel Berners have been as glorious if Lavengro had not
been the sort of man to compare her with Ingeborg, the northern
queen who engaged and defeated in single combat each of her long
string of redoubtable brothers? Or would not the fascinating
converse of Lavengro with the Methodist preacher, Peter Williams,
have lost half its charm if the young man had not been able to talk
familiarly with him of Master Elis Wyn and the Bardd Cwsg? It is the
reflected colour of all this word-learning that gives it a high place in
Borrow’s development.
He began to study languages almost before he was out of frocks.
He did not find his métier till he was thirty-eight: “The Zincali; or,
The Gypsies of Spain” was published in 1841. This was late for a
man who had been so deeply devoted to the pen. His processes
were slow, too. His other books of any significance numbered only
four, and they occupied twenty-one years in gestation. “The Bible in
Spain” was dated 1842, “Lavengro” appeared in 1850, “The Romany
Rye” in 1857, and “Wild Wales” in 1862. Much was concentrated in
these few works, laboriously elaborated as they were, and produced
with horrible pangs of travail. They crystallised—if such a term may
be used of Borrow—the experiences of a long life of wandering
through the world, and they recorded the opinions collected or
developed by a self-centred man of violent prejudices. They provide
an almost unparalleled conglomeration of good and bad, of false and
sound. They commit inexcusable crimes against every canon of
taste—and they have in them the true stuff of poetry and romance.
The glamour of these last is over them all. The poetry of Borrow,
one of the most natural poets who have written in English, takes its
spring in the keen observation and appreciation of the elemental
joys found in Nature’s least-trodden ways, and the elemental
humours of her least sophisticated children. It recalls Sidney’s
epigram of the excellent poets that never versified and the versifiers
that need never answer to the name of poets. For Borrow’s verse,
on the whole, is villainous, and much of his prose is truest poetry.
He restored to us, at any rate for a time, the picaresque element in
romantic literature, and revived our indulgent fondness for the good-
humoured villains of low life.
With the jovial virtues of Le Sage, however, Borrow combined in a
remarkable way some of the quaintest characteristics of Sterne. The
mark of “Shandyism” is strong upon portions of his work—but let it
be said at once that the philo-pugilist Borrow is absolutely free from
any taint of the pornographic double entendre of the Rev. Laurence
Sterne, M.A. Captain Tom Borrow often rivals My Uncle Toby, and
the battle with Ben Bryan in Hyde Park may be compared as a staple
reminiscence with the Siege of Namur; but there is no Widow
Wadman in “Lavengro.” Ab Gwilym becomes in some points as
delightful as Slawkenbergius, and there are episodes in “The Bible in
Spain” and “Lavengro” which may compare with the stories of the
Dead Ass and of Lefevre, the Monk and Maria; but it can be said of
Borrow’s books with more truth than a sententious critic once said it
of Sterne’s, that they may be submitted to the taste, feeling, good
sense, and candour of the public “without the least apprehension
that the perusal of any part of them will be followed by
consequences unfavourable to the interests of society.” It may be a
negative virtue that a book fails “to bring the blush of shame to the
cheek of innocence”; but, for what it is worth, any book of Borrow’s
has that merit.
Interesting as these comparisons may be to his admirers, Borrow
must not be judged by any purely literary standards. One discerning
critic, Mr. Thomas Seccombe, has observed that he “wrote with
infinite difficulty.” That is evident in almost every page. He had no
fatal facility in composition. He developed no graces of style. The
man who loves Stevenson is probably a man who will also love
Borrow, but for reasons quite apart from style. Borrow’s awkward
forms and ugly lapses were calculated to make Stevenson’s
delicately tuned literary organism shudder in its marrow. Their
likeness lies in their love of Out-of-Doors, their capacity for
discovering and enjoying the unusual adventure in the commonplace
environment.
I doubt whether Borrow definitely and consciously copied his style
from anybody, or modelled it on any man’s writings; but if we are to
go anywhere for his master we must go to Defoe, whose “wondrous
volume” was his “only study and principal source of amusement” in
his very small boyhood at East Dereham. How he apostrophises the
wizard! “Hail to thee, spirit of Defoe! What does not my own poor
self owe to thee? England has better bards than either Greece or
Rome, yet I could spare them easier far than Defoe, ‘unabashed
Defoe,’ as the hunchbacked rhymer styled him.” England may not
owe to Defoe all that Borrow declares she does of her “astonishing
discoveries both by sea and land,” and her “naval glory,” but she
certainly owes to him some of the gift that Borrow bestowed upon
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