Note 225 — Chapter XXXII
Reading edition
Mary Botham (1799-1888) was born at Coleford, Gloucestershire, and married William Howitt in 1821. The pair compiled many books together. The statement in the Dictionary of National Biography that 'nothing that either of them wrote will live' is quite unwarranted. William Howitt's Homes and Haunts of the most eminent British Poets (Bentley, 2 vols., 1847) is still eagerly sought after for every good library. In Mary Howitt: An Autobiography (Isbister, 2 vols., 1889), a valuable book of reminiscences, there is no mention of Borrow.