lowed in the same year by Abbotsford and Newstead Abbey, containing notices of his visits to these places,-sacred to all future ages as the homes of the greatest geniuses of many generations, and by Legends of the Conquest of Spain, which he had written while a dweller in the Alhambra, but had not before offered to the public.

In 1836 he published Astoria, or Anecdotes of an Enterprise beyond the Rocky Mountains. Many years before, during occasional visits to Canada, he had become acquainted with some of the partners of the great North-West Fur Company, who at that time lived in genial style at Montreal, and at their hospitable boards had met "Sinbads of the Wilderness," whose wanderings and perilous adventures among the Indians had made the lives of trappers and fur traders perfect romance to him; so that afterward, when the friendship of Mr. John Jacob Astor afforded him materials for a history of the enterprise undertaken by that gentleman to establish the fur trade at the mouth of the Columbia river, he engaged in its preparation with enthusiasm, and produced a work admirably fitted to gratify curiosity on the subject.

At the table of Mr. Astor Mr. Irving was accustomed to meet various persons of adventurous character, who had been connected with expeditions to the centre of the continent and to the Pacific, and with them one that "peculiarly took his fancy," Captain Bonneville, of the United States Army, who, engrafting the trapper and hunter on the soldier, had led an enterprise which occupied several years, into the heart of the fur country. From the journal which had been kept by Captain Bonneville, and various other sources, he digested the volumes entitled, The Rocky Mountains, or Scenes, Incidents, and Adventures in the Far West, which appeared in 1837.

The most recent publications of Mr. Irving are a series of sketches of manners, traditions, and travels, which appeared in the Knickerbocker Magazine for 1839 and 1840. They would make some three duodecimo volumes, two of which might appropriately be called A Continuation of the Sketch Book.

In 1841, soon after the whig national administration came into power, Mr. Irving was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to the court of Spain. In London and Paris, as he passed through those cities, he was warmly

greeted by his old friends and associates, and in Madrid, where he resided four years, he renewed his acquaintance with the distinguished Spanish scholars and men of letters whom he had known while writing in that capital his History of Columbus and Conquest of Grenada. On the election of Mr. Polk to the presidency, he was relieved, at his own request, having been absent a year and a half beyond the period contemplated when he accepted the appointment; and in the autumn of 1846 he returned to New York, and retired to "Wolfert's Roost," to spend there the remainder of his days. Although never married, he has for several years had about him a household, the daughters of a brother, who have been to him as his own children, and who bear to him all the love that a father could engage.

It is understood that Mr. Irving finished many years ago an elaborate and important historical work on the Life and Influence of Mohammed, founded on materials that he discovered in the library of the Escurial, which had never been used, and which have since by some accident been destroyed. The piracy against authors, which is sanctioned by the present iniquitous laws regarding copyright, render it unsafe to give to the press any work of great value, and Mr. Irving has retained his manuscript, it is said, in the hope that the government will at length adopt the wiser policy of justice. He at one time contemplated a history of the Conquest of Mexico, a subject that naturally suggested itself to him while writing of the discovery of this continent; but on learning that the eloquent historian of Ferdinand and Isabella was engaged upon such a work he relinquished his design.* And when he was called into the public service,

*In the Preface to the "History of Ferdinand and Isabella," I lamented, that, while occupied with that subject, two of its most attractive parts had engaged the attention of the most popular of American authors, Washington Irving. By a singular chance, something like the reverse of this has taken place in the composition of the present history, and I have found myself unconsciously taking up ground which he was preparing to occupy. It was not till I had become master of my rich collection of materials, that I was acquainted with this circumstance; and, had he persevered in his design, I should unhesitatingly have abandoned my own, if not from courtesy, at least from policy: for, though armed with the weapons of Achilles, this could give me no hope of success in a competition with Achilles himself. But no sooner was that distinguished writer informed of the preparations I had made, than, with the gentlemanly spirit which will surprise no one who has the pleasure of his acquaintance, he instantly announced to me his intention of leaving the subject open to me. While I do but justice to Mr. Irving by this statement, I feel the prejudice it does to myself in the unavailing regret 1 am exciting in the bosom of the reader.-Preface to Prescott's History of the Conquest of Mexico.

he was occupied with a Life of Washington, which was to have been illustrated in a costly manner by Mr. Chapman. Whether these works, or any others by him, will be published during his lifetime, is uncertain. It is to be hoped however that he will superintend the republication of his complete writings, including those which he has scattered in half a century through periodicals and other ephemera, so that the country may be advised under his own seal of the true extent of its indebtedness to him.

It has been the custom to speak of Mr. Irving as an author in his sympathies, tastes, and execution, much more English than American, but no such judgment has been formed from an intelligent and candid study of his works. His subjects are as three American and two Spanish to one English; the periods of his residence in America, Spain, and England, in the years of his literary activity, bear to each other about the same proportion; and the productions which have won for him the most reputation, even in Europe, are not only such as had no models in the literatures of the world, but such as could have been written only by one intimately acquainted with the peculiar life and manners by which they were suggested. The History of New York, to the end of the Dutch Dynasty, by Diedrich Knickerbocker, and the various tales and sketches written in the character of that imaginary author, are the foundations of Mr. Irving's fame, and are broad and deep enough always to sustain it. As to the Sketch Book, there is no intimation in many of the most admirable pieces which it contains that they are designed to illustrate English life, and certainly The Wife, and many others, are quite as American as English, to say the least. The truth is, that a certain sort of persons who attempt criticism in Great Britain, seem to regard us as a species of outside barbarians, and demand of us a literature corresponding with our supposed character, and whenever one of our authors produces a book in which is evinced a mastery of our mother tongue, and which has in it unquestionable signs of vitality, they declare it to be thoroughly English; and the key note of cant which they strike is sounded by all those persons at home who are but too happy to impute the public's neglect of themselves to their "uncompromising Americanism." It is not intended in what is here written to as

sert that Mr. Irving's works are preeminently distinguished for the highest sort of nationality; but merely to deny the justice and reasonableness of a common opinion in respect to his English affinities. It is not in any degree improbable that if Addison, Goldsmith, or Mackenzie had never lived, he would have written exactly as he has written, and upon every subject, except the life of Goldsmith, which has ever occupied his attention.

Mr. Irving has a genuine poetical temperament, and unites to a peculiar sensibility to beauty, in all its manifestations, a quick observation of the follies of society, which he has the art of setting in the most comic and whimsical point of view, without ever sacrificing his refinement or delicacy. His humour is bold, original, and indigenous, but never offends the most fastidious by unchasteness or vulgarity. He has a great deal of common sense, and the most perfect candour; and as the true course is usually the middle one, and calls for no special subserviency or acrimony, his tone, which is manly, though gentle, conciliates all, while it shuts him from the sympathies of none. He has a very great variety of scenes and characters, to all of which his manner is adapted with singular skill and felicity. It would scarcely be supposed that the Spanish history, the English essay, and the American legend, were by one author, or that Fray Antonio Agapida, Geoffrey Crayon, and Diedrich Knickerbocker, had ever even read each other's works.

His style has the ease and purity and more than the grace and polish of Franklin; without the intensity of Brown, the compactness of Calhoun, or the strength and splendour of Webster,-American authors who preceded him, or were in the strictest sense his contemporaries. His words are selected with the most careful taste, and so arranged as to produce the effect of finished versification. He is not always correct: such unauthorized forms as "from thence," and others, occur frequently, and evince more regard for a nice modulation than for perfect grammatical accuracy; but his variously constructed periods, his remarkable elegance, sustained sweetness, and distinct and delicate painting, place him in the very front rank of the masters of our language. It may be said of him, that in whatever he has proposed to himself to do, he has been among the most successful of all authors. S

PRIMITIVE HABITS IN NEW AMSTERDAM.

FROM THE SAME.

In those happy days a well-regulated family always rose with the dawn, dined at eleven, and went to bed at sun-down. Dinner was invariably a private meal, and the fat old burghers showed incontestable symptoms of disapprobation and uneasiness at being surprised by a visit from a neighbour on such occasions. But though our worthy ancestors were thus singularly averse to giving dinners, yet they kept up the social bands of intimacy by occasional banquetings, called tea-partics.

These fashionable parties were generally confined to the higher classes, or noblesse, that is to say, such as kept their own cows, and drove their own wagons. The company commonly assembled at three o'clock, and went away about six, unless it was in winter time, when the fashionable hours were a little earlier, that the ladies might get home before dark. The tea-table was crowned with a huge earthen dish well stored with slices of fat pork, fried brown, cut up into morsels, and swimming in gravy. The company being seated around the genial board, and each furnished with a fork, evinced their dexterity in lanching at the fattest pieces in this mighty dish-in much the same manner as sailors harpoon porpoises at sea, or our Indians spear salmon in the lakes. Sometimes the table was graced with immense apple-pies, or sauces full of preserved peaches and pears; but it was always sure to boast an enormous dish of balls of sweetened dough, fried in hog's fat, and called doughnuts, or olykoeks-a delicious kind of cake, at present scarce known in this city, excepting in genuine Dutch families.

The tea was served out of a majestic delft teapot, ornamented with paintings of fat little Dutch shepherds and shepherdesses tending pigs-with boats sailing in the air, and houses built in the clouds, and sundry other ingenious Dutch fantasies. The beaux distinguished themselves by their adroitness in replenishing this pot from a huge copper tea-kettle, which would have made the pigmy macaronies of these degenerate days sweat merely to look at it. To sweeten the beverage, a lump of sugar was laid beside each cup-and the company alternately nibbled and sipped with great decorum, until an improvement was introduced by a shrewd and economic old lady, which was to suspend a large lump directly over the tea-table by a string from the ceiling, so that it could be swung from mouth to mouth-an ingenious expedient which is still kept up by some families in Albany; but which prevails without exception in Communipaw, Bergen, Flatbush, and all our uncontaininated Dutch villages.

At these primitive tea-parties the utmost propriety and dignity of deportment prevailed. No flirting nor coqueting-no gambling of old ladies, nor hoyden chattering and romping of young ones -no self-satisfied struttings of wealthy gentlemen, with their brains in their pockets-nor amusing conceits and monkey divertisements of smart young

gentlemen with no brains at all. On the contrary, the young ladies seated themselves demurely in their rush-bottomed chairs, and knit their own woollen stockings; nor ever opened their lips, excepting to say yaw Mynher, or yah yah Vrouw, to any question that was asked them; behaving in all things like decent, well-educated damsels. As to the gentlemen, each of them tranquilly smoked his pipe, and seemed lost in contemplation of the blue and white tiles with which the fire-places were decorated; wherein sundry passages of scripture were piously portrayed-Tobit and his dog figured to great advantage; Haman swung conspicuously on his gibbet; and Jonah appeared most manfully bouncing out of the whale, like Harlequin through a barrel of fire.

The parties broke up without noise and without confusion. They were carried home by their own carriages, that is to say, by the vehicles Nature had provided them, excepting such of the wealthy as could afford to keep a wagon. The gentlemen gallantly attended their fair ones to their respective abodes, and took leave of them with a hearty smack at the door; which, as it was an established piece of etiquette, done in perfect simplicity and honesty of heart, occasioned no scandal at that time, nor should it at the present-if our great-grandfathers approved of the custom, it would argue a great want of reverence in their descendants to say a word against it.

LADIES OF THE GOLDEN AGE. FROM THE SAME.

In this dulcet period of my history, even the female sex, those arch innovators upon the tranquillity, the honesty, and gray-beard customs of society, seemed for awhile to conduct themselves with incredible sobriety and comeliness.

Their hair, untortured by the abominations of art, was scrupulously pomatumed back from their foreheads with a candle, and covered with a little cap of quilted calico, which fitted exactly to their heads. Their petticoats of linsey-woolsey were striped with a variety of gorgeous dyes-though I must confess these gallant garments were rather short, scarce reaching below the knee; but then they made up in the number, which generally equalled that of the gentlemen's small clothes; and what is still more praiseworthy, they were all of their own manufacture-of which circumstance, as may well be supposed, they were not a little

vain.

These were the honest days in which every woman stayed at home, read the Bible, and wore pockets-ay, and that too of a goodly size, fashioned with patchwork into many curious devices, and ostentatiously worn on the outside. These, in fact, were convenient receptacles where all good housewives carefully stored away such things as they wished to have at hand; by which means they often came to be incredibly crammed-and I remember there was a story current when I was a boy, that the lady of Wouter Van Twiller once