Irving Sketch Book Complete Edition
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Irvings Sketch Book Complete Edition By Washington Irving Classic Literature Collection World eBook Library.com Title: Irving Sketch Book Complete Edition Author: Washington Irving Language: English Subject: Fiction, Literature, Children's literature Publisher: World Public Library Association Copyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Worldwide by World Public Library, www.WorldLibrary.net World Public Library The World Public Library, www.WorldLibrary.net is an effort to preserve and disseminate classic works of literature, serials, bibliographies, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other reference works in a number of languages and countries around the world. Our mission is to serve the public, aid students and educators by providing public access to the world's most complete collection of electronic books on-line as well as offer a variety of services and resources that support and strengthen the instructional programs of education, elementary through post baccalaureate studies. 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Box 22687 Honolulu, Hawaii 96823 [email protected] Copyright © 2008, All Rights Reserved Worldwide by World Public Library, www.WorldLibrary.net HE ROLLS ABOUT THE INN YARD WITH AN AIR OF THE MOST ABSOLUTE LORDLINESS (PAGE 222) IRVING Sketch Book COMPLETE EDITION Edited by MARY E. LITCHFIELD t \ t i ^ GINN AND COMPANY COPYRIGHT, 1901, HY MARY K. UTCHKIKLD ALT, RK;HTS RESERVED PRINTED IN Tllli UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 633.11 GINN AND COMPANY BOSTON - NEW YORK CHICAGO LONDON ATLANTA DALLAS COLUMBUS SAN FRANCISCO CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION vii CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE xx THE AUTHOR S PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION . 3 THE AUTHOR S ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF n THE VOYAGE . , . .15 ROSCOE 23 THE WIFE ... 31 RIP VAN WINKLE 40 ENGLISH WRITERS ON AMERICA ... -63 RURAL LIFE IN ENGLAND .... -74 THE BROKEN HEART 83 THE ART OF BOOK-MAKING 90 A ROYAL POET 99 THE COUNTRY CHURCH 116 THE WIDOW AND HER SON 123 A SUNDAY IN LONDON 132 THE BOAR S HEAD TAVERN, EASTCHEAP . -135 THE MUTABILITY OF LITERATURE 149 RURAL FUNERALS . 162 THE INN KITCHEN 177 THE SPECTRE BRIDEGROOM 180 WESTMINSTER ABBEY 199 CHRISTMAS 213 THE STAGE COACH 220 CHRISTMAS EVE 228 CHRISTMAS DAY . .,.,... 242 v vi CONTENTS PAGE THE DINNER CHRISTMAS .,,,,.. 259 LONDON ANTIQUES 277 LITTLE BRITAIN ....... 284 STRATFORD-ON-AVON 302 TRAITS OF INDIAN CHARACTER ...... 326 PHILIP OF POKANOKET . , . o . 340 JOHN BULL . 361 THE PRIDE OF THE VILLAGE ...... 375 THE ANGLER . 386 THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW ..... 397 L ENVOY . 437 . , .440 . 447 INTRODUCTION WASHINGTON IRVING was born in the city of New York, on the third of April, 1783; the same year that the British evacuated the city and that England acknowl edged the independence of the thirteen colonies. "Wash " ington s work is ended," said the mother, and the child shall be named after him." One morning a few years later, as a Scotch maid who lived in the Irving family was walking out with her charge, she saw the great man enter a for was then in shop ; Washington living New York as President of the United States. Following him " in, she pointed to the boy, saying, Please, your honor, here s a bairn was named for the you." Whereupon President placed his hand on the head of his future biographer and gave him his blessing. Irving s father, a native of the Orkney Islands, was an upright, conscientious man and a believer in strict family discipline, while the mother, who came from the south of England, was sympathetic and vivacious. The strongest ties of affection united their large family of children, eight of whom lived to mature years. As a boy Irving was given to roguish pranks. Some times after one of his escapades his mother would look " at him mournfully and say, Oh, Washington, if you were " " only good ! One of his teachers dubbed him the general," because although constantly in mischief he never sought to shield himself by telling a lie. This Vlll THE SKETCH BOOK spirit of truthfulness existed in connection with a sensi tiveness to suffering so keen that he was allowed to leave school with the girls whenever an unlucky schoolmate was to suffer punishment. At the age of eleven he was revelling in Sindbad the Sailor, Robinson Crusoe, and The World Displayed, the last a collection of voyages that made him long to fly to the ends of the earth. A few years later his desire to become a sailor drove him to a diet of salt and a bed on the hard floor but the pork ; preparatory discipline proving too severe, his imagination sought an outlet through other channels. The New York of Irving s boyhood was a community of varied interests and marked social contrasts; a minia ture metropolis where staid Dutch families lived side by side with comers from every quarter of the globe. In 1789, when Irving was six years old, the city had a popu lation of twenty-nine thousand souls, of whom two thou sand three hundred were negro slaves. Slave labor was 1 employed in every household of importance. Except in the business sections the houses were scat tered and surrounded by gardens. There were a number of the old Dutch dwellings, with peaked roofs and gable ends toward the street, but frame buildings with brick fronts and tiled roofs predominated. The streets were lighted with oil lamps, for gas was not introduced until 1825. Perhaps the most primitive institution of all was the sewerage system, which consisted of negro slaves, " a long line of whom might be seen late at night wending their way to the river, each with a tub on his head." The gallows, which was much used in those days on account of the large number of crimes punished with death, was placed in a gaudily painted Chinese pagoda. 1 For further details consult The Work of Washington In<ing by Charles Dudley Warner (1893). INTRODUCTION IX Near this were the stocks and the whipping post. An hour in the stocks was the penalty for profane swearing if the offender could not pay the fine of three shillings. In 1789 the city could boast of but one bank, one fire insurance company, and one theatre, while it had twenty- two churches representing thirteen denominations. At this time Columbia College had about thirty students. The costumes of the early New Yorkers must have given to their city a touch of the picturesque. A man was considered simply dressed who wore a long blue riding-coat with steel buttons, a scarlet waistcoat, and yellow kerseymere knee-breeches. John Ramage, the miniature-painter, is described as wearing a scarlet coat with mother-of-pearl buttons, a white silk waistcoat em broidered with colored flowers, black satin breeches with paste knee buckles, white silk stockings, large silver shoe buckles, and, on the upper part of his powdered hair, a small cocked hat which left the curls at his ears displayed. He carried a gold snuff-box and a gold-headed cane. The costumes of the women were as varied and as gay in color as those of the men, and it is interesting to learn that the size and height of their hats called forth fre quent remonstrances. Although there were in the community many persons of intelligence and good breeding, the social customs were not over-refined. Drinking to excess was a common vice, and in their amusements the young men were free, even boisterous. The people were keenly interested in politics but cared little for art, literature, or music. Travelling by land in Irving s youth was something of a hardship. The lumbering stage coach made slow prog ress over almost impassable roads and across dangerous streams. The trip from New York to Philadelphia occu three could be reached in three or pied days ; Albany X THE SKETCH BOOK to the season of the but whoever four, according year ; was daring enough to attempt the journey to Boston was obliged to travel from three o clock in the morning till ten 1 at night, for six days, before reaching his destination. When Irving was sixteen he left school and entered a lawyer s office not following the example of his brothers, who went to Columbia College. His biographer asserts that he learned more literature than law while preparing for his profession. Ill health was no doubt one cause of his lack of close for when he came of application ; age, he was so far from robust that his brothers sent him abroad, hoping that he might benefit by change of air and scene. He possessed in a high degree the qualities that make a good traveller. Hard beds and poor fare the fre quent portion of the wanderer in those days could not disturb his equanimity. He wrote to one of his brothers : " For my part I endeavor to take things as they come, with cheerfulness when I cannot a dinner to suit ; get my taste, I endeavor to get a taste to suit my dinner.