Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, BY CHARLES B. RICHARDSON, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. CONTENTS. I. MEMORANDA OF THE LITERARY CAREER OF WASHINGTON IRVING. BY EVERT A. DUYCKINCK Original Letter from Mr. Irving concerning his Birth-place-Reminiscences of Allston- 5 II. THE FUNERAL OF WASHINGTON IRVING. BY W. FRANCIS WILLIAMS.... 22 The Scene at Tarrytown-Church Services-The Procession. III. PROCEEDINGS OF THE NEW YORK BOARD OF ALDERMEN AND COUNCILMEN. THE MAYOR'S MESSAGE AND RESOLUTIONS. IV. RESOLUTIONS OF THE ATHENÆUM CLUB.. SPEECH OF THE REV. DR. Osgood. V. PROCEEDINGS OF THE NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY............. 26 .. 28 29 REMARKS OF THE HON. LUTHER Bradish. ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT KING. ADDRESS OF MR. GEORGE BANCROFT. CHARACTERISTICS OF WASHINGTon Irving, the ADDRESS OF DR. JOHN W. FRANCIS. VI. PROCEEDINGS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY....... 36 ADDRESS OF HENRY W. Longfellow. MR. EVERETT'S ADDRESS. LETTER FROM GEORGE SUMNER. VII. SUNNYSIDE. A POEM. BY HENRY THEODORE TUCKERMAN. 40 VIII. WASHINGTON IRVING. AN EDITORIAL OF THE EVENING POST... 40 IX. THE LATE WASHINGTON IRVING, AN EDITORIAL OF THE RICHMOND (S. I.) GAZETTE.... 41 X. MR. IRVING'S RELIGIOUS CHARACTER. BY THE REV. DR. CREIGHTON. 4-2 XI. PASSAGE FROM A DISCOURSE BY THE REV. JOHN A. TODD.......... 43 44 XIII. POSTHUMOUS INFLUENCE. A PASSAGE FROM A DISCOURSE BY THE REV. DR. WILLIAM F. MORGAN.. 44 CONTENTS. XIV. GOLDSMITH AND IRVING. BY GEORGE Washington Greene.. Sunnyside in the Summer of 1857-A Drive through Sleepy Hollow-A Later Visit, XIX. ANECDOTE OF WASHINGTON IRVING.......... XX. WASHINGTON IRVING. BY GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS. 46 46 47 50 53 54 55 XXI. WASHINGTON IRVING. BY FREDERICK S. Cozzens... XXII. TABLE-TALK. BY JAMES Grant WILSON ... 56 58 XXIII. ANECDOTES. BY FREDERICK SAUNDERS 59 XXIV. ICHABOD CRANE. A LETTER FROM WASHINGTON IRVING 59 XXVIII. ANECDOTE OF WASHINGTON IRVING. FROM THE SPIRIT OF THE TIMES.. 62 XXIX. TWO POEMS BY WASHINGTON IRVING... 63 XXX. AMERICAN LITERARY COMMISSIONS IN LONDON IN 1822. AN ORIGINAL LETTER BY WASHINGTON IRVING 63 XXXI. LIFE AND LETTERS OF IRVING 64 ILLUSTRATIONS. I. ORIGINAL PORTRAIT SKETCH OF WASHINGTON IRVING AT SUNNYSIDE, IN JULY, 1848. DRAWN FROM LIFE BY FELIX O. C. DARLEY, AND ENGRAVED BY SMILLIE. II. FAO SIMILE PAGE OF THE MANUSCRIPT OF THE SKETCH BOOK. A LEAF OF "RIP VAN WINKLE," FROM THE ORIGINAL IN THE POSSESSION OF J. CARSON BREVOORT, Esq. ERRATA.—p. xiii, in lines at bottom dele "And;" for "foeman," read "soldier;" for "heard," read "told.” iv IRVINGIANA: A MEMORIAL OF WASHINGTON IRVING. MEMORANDA OF THE LITERARY CA- BY EVERT A. DUYCKINCK. WASHINGTON IRVING was born April 3, 1783, in the city of New York. As there has been some little discussion as to the particular spot of his birth, it may not be amiss, writing for an historical magazine, to produce the following decisive testimony on the subject. In a letter, the original of which is before us, to Mr. Henry Panton, dated Sunnyside, Feb. 15, 1850, Mr. Irving states precisely the place of his birth. "The house in which I was born was No. 131 William-street, about half-way between | John and Fulton streets. Within a very few weeks after my birth the family moved into a house nearly opposite, which my father had recently purchased; it was No. 128, and has recently been pulled down and a large edifice built on its site. It had been occupied by a British commissary during the war; the broad arrow was on the street door, and the garden was full of choice fruit-trees, apricots, greengages, nectarines, &c. It is the first home of which I have any recollection, and there I passed my infancy and boyhood.” Mr. Irving was the youngest son of a merchant of the city, William Irving, a native of Scotland, of an ancient knightly stock, who had married Saralı Sanders, an English lady, and been settled in his new country some twenty years. A newspaper correspondent a few years since narrated an anecdote of this early period, of a pleasing character, which, unlike many things of the kind, has, we believe, the merit of truth in its favor. The story, as related, is given from the lips of Mr. Irving at a breakfast-table in Washington City. "Mr. Irving said that he remembered General Washington perfectly. There was some celebration, some public affair going on in New York, and the General was there to participate in the ceremony. 'My nurse,' said Mr. Irving, 'a good old Scotchwoman, was very | *A portion of this paper is made up from a previous sketch, published in "The Cyclopedia of American Literature.” | | anxious for me to see him, and held me up in her arms as he rode past. This, however, did not satisfy her; so the next day, when walking with me in Broadway, she espied him in a shop, she seized my hand and darting in, exclaimed in her bland Scotch :-"Please, your Excellency, here's a bairn that's called after ye!" General Washington then turned his benevolent face full upon me, smiled, laid his hand upon my head, and gave me his blessing, which,' added Mr. Irving earnestly, 'I have reason to believe, has attended me through life. I was but five years old, yet can feel that hand upon my head even now.'"* The early direction of the mind of the boy upon whose infant head the hand of Washington had thus been laid, was much influenced by the tastes of his brothers who had occupied themselves with literature. Of these, William, who subsequently became united with him in the joint authorship of Salmagundi, was seventeen years his elder, while Peter, the editor of a later day, was also considerably his senior. With the guidance of these cultivated minds and sound family influences, the youth had the good fortune to fall in with a stock of the best old English authors of the Elizabethan as well as of the Augustan period, the study of which generously unfolded his happy natural disposition. Chaucer and Spenser were his early favorites; and a better training cannot be imagined for a youth of genius. His school education was the best the times afforded. Though something may be said of the defects of the city academies of those days in comparison with the present, we are forced to remember that however prodigally the opportunities of learning may be increased, the receptive faculties of a boy are limited. There may be more cramming in these times at the feast of the sciences; but we question whether the digestion is very materially improved. Few men, at any rate, have ever shown themselves better trained in the pursuit of literature than Washington Irving. The education which bore such early and mature fruit must have been of the right kind. *This anecdote appeared in the Buffalo Courier, in the winter of 1853. |