(5 arncll UttitrcrHitg ICtbranj 3tljaca,,Nein fork BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF HENRY W. SAGE 1891 no -- — J c .T e " University Library PS 2081.A4 1918 Letters .of . Wastjlngtan Irving to Henry Br 3 1924 022 248 656 The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022248656 LETTERS OF WASHINGTON IRVING TO HENRY BREVOORT &>. 4. . I W*M-£-&t*-p 6^ * '^--' v *V LETTERS OF WASHINGTON IRVING TO HENRY BREVOORT EDITED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION, BY GEORGE S. HELLMAN " Sub Sole Sub Umbra Virens" NEW YORK G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS Cbe fmfcfterbocfter press 1918 c<0 Copyright, 19 15 BY G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS First published in 1915, in two volumes, in a Limited Edition of 255 sets. Now issued in a Library Edition, the two volumes in one. Autumn, 1918. Ube fmtcliertocfcer press. Hew Kork PUBLISHERS' NOTE G. P. Putnam's Sons present to the public with a sense of special gratification this series of letters written by Washington Irving to his friend Henry Brevoort. They believe that the volumes will be accepted as a con- tribution of exceptional value to American biography and American literature, and, in connection with the relations of close sym- pathy and of personal friendship that existed through a long series of years between Wash- ington Irving and the late G. P. Putnam, they are well pleased to have the opportunity of associating the imprint of the Putnam House with a new work that will recall to the present generation the name and character of this distinctive American author. The record of American literature presents no instance in which a great author and his publisher have proved more helpful one to the PUBLISHERS' NOTE other than were Irving and Putnam. Each in turn was able to render to the other at a time of need most valuable service. At a period late in his life, when Irving had received a discouraging report from his earlier publishers that his books were no longer attractive to the public and that there was no continued demand that justified the printing of new editions, Mr. Putnam put before the author a proposition for a complete and uniform edi- tion which should include, in addition to the new books that Irving had in train, these earlier volumes, such, for instance, as the Sketch Book and Bracebridge Hall, that had been dismissed by their publishers as belonging to " dead literature." The enterprise of Mr. Putnam more than justified the expectations of the publisher and the hopes of the author, and the publisher's sympathetic labour constituted an important factor in perpetuating and extending the fame of Irving. The letter below quoted gives PUBLISHERS' NOTE evidence that Irving was large enough as a man and wide-minded enough as an author to make frank acknowledgment of the value of the service rendered by his publisher. "Sunnyside, December 27, 1852. "Let me say how sensibly I appreciate the kind tone and expressions of your letter. You talk of obligations to me, but I am conscious of none that have not been fully counterbalanced on your part; and I take pleasure in expressing the great satisfaction I have derived, throughout all our in- tercourse, from your amiable, obliging, and honour- able conduct. Indeed, I never had dealings with any man, whether in the way of business or friend- ship, more perfectly free from any alloy. "That those dealings have been profitable is mainly owing to your own sagacity and enterprise. You had confidence in the continued vitality of my writings. You called them again into active exist- ence and gave to them a circulation that has, I believe, surprised even yourself. In rejoicing at their success, my satisfaction is doubly enhanced by the idea that you share in the benefits derived from it. . . . "I remain, very truly and heartily, yours "Washington Irving. "To George P. Putnam, Esq." PUBLISHERS' NOTE The opportunity of the author to serve his friend, the publisher, came five years later. Mr. Putnam's firm was involved in the finan- cial troubles that in 1857 undermined the business of the country and that proved par- ticularly serious for publishing undertakings; and the plates of Irving's works came into the control of the author. Irving received propositions from a number of publishing houses to take charge of the books, the value of which had now been fully recognized. He took the ground, however, that the books must remain in the hands of the Putnam publishing concern as long as the business was being carried on by a Putnam. He arranged that the plates which had comje into his ownership should, in consideration of certain annual payments, again become the property of the publisher. The returns se- cured by Mr. Putnam from the sale of the books during the two years that remained of the author's life and for his nieces, after his PUBLISHERS' NOTE death, showed that the author's confidence had not been misplaced. The present volumes contain unprinted material of unusual and intimate interest, which adds to our knowledge of the character of the great author. This production would not have been possible except with the friendly cooperation of the present owners of the manu- scripts of these letters, and for this cooperation the publishers desire to express on their own behalf, and on that of the public generally, the fullest recognition. The first acknowledgment is due to Mr. Isaac Newton Seligman, from whose famous collection of Irvingiana have been placed at the disposal of the publishers for use in this work the greater number of the letters written by Irving to Henry Brevoort. Mr. Seligman has for years interested himself in bringing together distinctive editions and original manuscripts of Irving's works. The library in his home at Irvington, which adjoins the vii PUBLISHERS' NOTE grounds at Sunnyside, contains a fascinating collection of material reminiscent of this most charming of authors. Mr. Seligman's public spirit is familiar to the community in which he lives, and he has taken a personal interest in furthering the publication of a work that should confirm and extend the memory of his favourite American author. Cordial thanks are also due to Dr. Roderick Terry for a valuable series of letters, which he has, in like manner, placed at the disposal of the editor and the publishers. Dr. Terry be- longs to a family whose home was for many years at Irvington. He has personal memory of the old-fashioned courtesy with which their neighbour, the great author, lifted his hat in response to the salute of his small neighbours, the Terry boys, as they drove by in their pony cart. He also feels a personal interest in the opportunity of collaborating in the production of a work recalling the memory of Irving. viii PUBLISHERS' NOTE Nine of the letters written to Henry Bre- voort come from the library of the editor, Mr. Hellman, who has further drawn upon his collection of the papers of Irving in present- ing in his Introduction material that had not hitherto found its way into print. Acknowledgments are also due for friendly courtesy and for material to Mr. William Henry Brevoort, Mr. William Harris Arnold, Mr. Christian Gerhardt, and Mr. Thomas F. Madigan. G. H. P. New York, June 10, 1915. INTRODUCTION The names of the two friends who figure in this correspondence have been made in many ways familiar to the New Yorker of to-day. One of our thoroughfares, reluctantly yielding old nooks and corners to the ever-grasping fingers of commerce, still retains some old- time flavor that one must hope will never quite disappear from Irving Place. Hotels, banks, schools, theatres, and business concerns of almost every conceivable nature have called into requisition the name of Irving. Nor shall we fail to find how, to a less extent yet similar- ly, has been employed the name of Brevoort, most notably in the delightful hostelry in that part of town which, in old days, included the farm of this noted family. But while these two names still play their part in the diversi- fied life of our city, the individuals whose INTRODUCTION character and achievement justified their significance have become remote figures. To renew our acquaintance with them, and to be led under their guidance into the pathways of the past, is the rich guerdon of those who shall read the letters of Washington Irving to Henry Brevoort. The life of Irving, first and still the most distinguished of New York authors, has been written once and again; no need, therefore, of any lengthy rehearsal here, or critical esti- mate of his writings. One point alone shall be accentuated: and that is, in the pages of few other authors can we — restless, hurried, and over-practical men and women, of a restless, hurried, and over-practical age — find more gracious and leisurely wisdom, more courteous human philosophy than in the pages of Irving. His is the tonic of quiet art. Henry Brevoort, Jr., the cultivated, efficient, and affluent citizen of the last century, be- INTRODUCTION longed to a family that came to America almost three hundred years ago. A curious illustration of how distinguished his family yet remains in present-day estimation is shown in the World's Almanac, which, in its genealogy of well-known American families, still records the fact that the wife of the first John Jacob Astor was the cousin of Henry Brevoort. The oldest living descendant of the seventeenth-century founder of this family, has, with appreciated courtesy, given me information concerning his ancestors; and from a letter of Mr. James Renwick Brevoort, the nephew of Irving's friend, are quoted the following passages: "My father lived in the country and rarely spoke about family matters, and my uncle died while I was yet a boy. I have only a recollection of him and of his resi- dence with the large garden, north of Ninth Street and Fifth Avenue. "I have heard my father say that Mr. Irving frequently came to see my grand- INTRODUCTION father to get facts and suggestions for his Knickerbocker History of New York. "Our family is descended from Heinrich Jan Van Brevoort who emigrated, together with his brother whose name I do not know, from Groningen in the north of Holland in the year 1642, Heinrich coming to Nieuw Amsterdam and the other brother to the Island of Nassau, now Long Island. There seem to have been two quite different types of the family, one tall, strong and light, with blue eyes, the other rather short, thick set, with dark eyes and hair. To the former belonged my grandfather and my father. My uncle Henry was of the short dark type. I have never heard anything of the descendants of the one who went to Nassau. My grandmother's name was Whetten, whose family were more or less seafaring people. My uncle William, 2nd son of my grandfather, was also a captain, and got out of N. Y. during the English blockade 18 14-15 and took his vessel to sea. Besides my uncles Henry and William there was a younger brother who died in New Orleans of yellow fever when a young man, and Margaret who married James Renwick, afterwards Professor of Chemistry INTRODUCTION and Physics in Columbia College. The Renwicks during my uncle's professorship of course lived in one of (the) college houses ; afterwards, at the corner of Fifth Av. and Ninth Street. Henry had two sons, James Carson and Henry W. — four daughters, Elizabeth, Meta, Constance and Edith. My uncle Henry's wife was from Charleston, S. C, her maiden name, Laura Carson. — My Uncle Henry as probably you know was known to most of the literary people of his day, and wrote very well himself — chiefly, I think, as critic. — At one time my grand- father owned property from 8th Street and Fourth Avenue to 13th Street, and west, I think, beyond Sixth Avenue. As the city advanced it of course became necessary to sell a good deal of the property. My grandfather died in 1840, in the 94th year of his age. It was said in the family that the bricks which built the original homestead were brought from Holland. The front of the old house which was added long after was of wood with a piazza fronting on the then Bowerie. The house stood facing what is now nth St.; this was prevented from being put through from 4th Av. to Broad- way by my grandfather. There was an XV INTRODUCTION old Dutch barn standing between 4th Av. and Broadway, the frame of which was hewn from oak timbers grown on the place. I have often heard my father say that, in his young days, there was no pavement above Chatham Square. Then the old Homestead was quite out of the City, and people would drive up to see my grandfather on a Sunday, he always having some sort of curious animal or bird of which he was fond of collecting. At one time he had a bear chained in his water melon patch west of B'way. Also a couple of deer. My grand- father was wheelwright by trade, and the shop formed a part of that old barn. In the old days traps were set on the asparagus beds and quails caught about where 10th Street and Broadway now are. "In the early part of my uncle's life, he was in the employ of the original John Jacob Astor, and made long journeys into the then wilderness of the West to collect pelts for Astor, bringing them by packhorses and canoes to Albany, thence by sloop to N. Y. "It was always said in the family that he was the first white man who ever saw the straits of Mackinaw — at that (time) spelled Mackinack. " INTRODUCTION Delightful it is to read thus of bears and deer on Broadway and of the old days when quails were caught where now the noise of traffic would drown the voices of many birds. Washington Irving was born in William Street in 1783, when the final treaty, bringing with it the fruits of the American Revolution, had not yet been signed between England and the United States, and the city of Irving's birth was still a town containing fewer inhabitants than are now housed in one or two square blocks of the crowded city of to-day. It was a sociable and intimate little city in which Irving and Brevoort grew to manhood, and perhaps the chief charm in the early letters, which began with the year 1807, is to be found in the glimpses they give of society, not alone in New York, but also in Philadelphia, Balti- more, and Washington. New York was then, in such contradiction to the present, a city of New Yorkers. We have indeed gained much from the influx of many races and nations; xvii INTRODUCTION yet a gain that does not altogether compensate for the civic solidarity of a day long past. Through the letters of Irving to Brevoort we lay firmer hold on traditions and re-enter into a heritage that the dwellers in our powerful but nervous, crude yet impressive city, have been prone to overlook. Prom the point of view of the literary historian, the present volumes are of more than ordinary significance in that the manuscripts on which they are based have, for the most part, remained heretofore unpublished. The correspondence begins and ends with hitherto unknown letters. The intervening missives were, to some extent, drawn upon by Irving 's nephew, Pierre M. Irving, in the "Life and Letters " issued some fifty years ago ; but, even for this, the editor availed himself mainly of excerpts ; and while some of the letters were printed at considerable length, others were not used at all. Of the more than ninety now included, the manuscripts of, I believe, seven INTRODUCTION are unobtainable. In some of these instances, recourse has been had to the passages from them in the biography by Irving's nephew. Apart from these, the letters are given in full, with proper names that, for obvious reasons, were omitted in the publication shortly after Irving's death. With no other friend did Washington Irving carry on so voluminous a correspondence as with Henry Brevoort. It forms a record of friendship such as the annals of our literature nowhere parallels. It is not an exciting document; it contains, indeed, introspective analyses, but not in the morbid and sometimes thrilling manner to which later literary cor- respondences have accustomed us; and the veil of Irving's reserve is only now and then lifted to disclose the precious intimacies of his chivalrous soul. Often the tribulations of business affairs interpose their shadows; but, for the most part, it is a sane and cheerful record of a famous life. INTRODUCTION And now, following the path of these letters, let us accompany Irving down the stream of the years. We find him first a genial, light- hearted youth of slight fame, prior to the publication of that book which is more inti- mately associated than any other with the name and traditions of our city — the History of New York by Diedrich Knickerbocker. He writes to Brevoort, on October 23rd, 1809, of the " minute and curious facts " which he has found in manuscripts in the Philadelphia Library, obliging him to make alterations in the first volume; and he asks his friend to forward the inscription on old Peter Stuy- vesant's tombstone, the inscription which may still be seen in the church of St. Mark's in the Bouwerie. Irving's "delectable history" is, of course, a kindly satire on the old Dutch inhabitants, a volume that does not come into the class of scholarly works based on impartial research; but its position remains uncontro- verted as the earliest production of an Amer- INTRODUCTION ican man of letters to evoke the cordial praise and to awaken the sympathetic merriment of European readers . In December ,1809, after a series of notices in the Evening Post advertis- ing the disappearance of its supposititious author, the book was published, " to discharge certain debts" (as the advertisement had it) "of Mr. Diedrich Knickerbocker, the old gentleman whose sudden and mysterious dis- appearance has been noticed." The success of Irving's humorous history was immediate, excepting among some of the descendants of those Dutch ancestors whom he satirized; and even now, after the lapse of more than a century, our city retains the sobriquet of Father Knickerbocker. In the first few letters to Brevoort we move with Irving among a host of friends, for he was a most sociable young fellow, equally at home with men and women and children. The name of Mary Fairlie brings up recollections of one of the brilliant belles of Philadelphia, and INTRODUCTION later the wife of the actor-manager Thomas A. Cooper. Among the private papers of Irving I find a letter written to him from this young girl who as "Sophy Sparkle" appears in Salmagundi, the whimsical magazine, joint venture of Irving and Paulding and Irving's brother William, which through its course of twenty numbers stimulated and amused New York in 1807. From this letter of Mary Fairlie, a few passages may be chosen to indicate the light-heartedness of the corre- spondence which she and Irving exchanged. "There was a brilliant assembly, last night, but solitude," she writes, "offered charms more congenial to my soul, and I did not go. I have grown very romantic of late, and shun the world, am enchanted with retirement, and if the fine weather continues, you may be surprised on your return to find me with book in my hand, sitting in the street, on the brink of a gutter under the shade of one of our great poplars. All your friends here INTRODUCTION (barring the anguish which your departure has caused them) remain in perfect state of salu- brity. The Hoffmans are all in good condi- tion — Ann says you are a shabby dog for not writing to her." The mention of the Hoffmans awakens a recollection of that event which overshadows all others in the record of living's life. His devotion to Matilda Hoffman, who died the year after Mary Fairlie's letter was written, continued long after her lovely life had ended. In his letter to Brevoort of May nth, 1809, he writes from the home at Kinderhook of his friend Van Ness of the calmness and serenity with which the hours move along; but even so, between the lines there is to be found, with that reticence of expression which character- izes similar allusions in later years to the loss which had overwhelmed him at life's threshold, sentences evidencing the keenness of his grief. It was in this same year that steamboat INTRODUCTION navigation began with Robert Fulton's suc- cessful voyage on the Hudson, and the mention of these early steamboats by Irving records, in passing, the discovery that has so radically affected the commerce and the intercom- munication of nations. In a more personal way we are brought into contact with events relating to the social history of early New York, referred to in Irving's comments, on the home in the New Jersey highlands of Gouverneur Kemble, where the "Lads of Kilkenny" often met for their frolics. In addition to Irving, Kemble, tnd Brevoort, there were James Paulding, Henry Ogden, Peter Irving, and Peter Kemble among the "nine worthies" who constituted the little group so known; and in later life there are no references in Irving's letters more replete with affectionate sentiment than those in which he recalls the pastimes of this circle of friends. Irving at this time was still an inmate of his mother's house at the northwest corner of William and INTRODUCTION Ann Streets. A little later — early in 1811 — we find him sharing bachelor quarters with Brevoort, on Broadway, near Bowling Green. Brevoort's library may have been one of the inducements to this change; certainly these books proved a source of consolation when his friend went to Europe in 1812, remaining abroad for almost two years. It was during this journey that Brevoort met Walter Scott to whose attention he so successfully brought the writings of Irving. On Brevoort's return to America, the two friends continued dwelling together at "a choice house kept on a most liberal scale." This house stood at the corner of Rector and Greenwich Streets, and was kept by the Mrs. Bradish to whom, in the course of his letters, Irving constantly sends the kindest of messages. Among its other inmates were Commodore Decatur and his wife, Captain Porter, the Scotchman Johnson, the Portuguese Sampayo, the wine merchant March, and other per- INTRODUCTION sonages that figure in the correspondence with Brevoort. These old homes are now but memories; yet New York still retains various houses reminiscent of Irving and his friends. The dwelling of his uncle in Irving Place is one; another is the Society Library in University Place. Irving was a trustee of this institu- tion, in whose halls there were heard the eloquence of Emerson, and the dithyrambs of Poe's Eureka. A third is the Renwick mansion, at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Ninth Street. Here the imagination wanders from the lyric years of Robert Burns, to our own days made brighter by the wit of Mark Twain, whose last years were lived in this old house. Jane Renwick, the mother of Ir- ving's friend — James, the Columbia professor — was, in her girlhood in Dumfriesshire, ad- mired of the poet, and of her Burns wrote: " While men have eyes or ears or taste She '11 always find a lover." INTRODUCTION Reverting to the year 1811 we shall meet with several lengthy letters written to Bre- voort from the city of Washington. The first of these recounts Irving's journey to the capi- tal by way of Baltimore — a journey "as full of adventurous matter and dire peril as one of Scott's pantomimic, melodramatic, romantic tales." Those were the days of the stage- coaches and amusing conversations with fel- low-passengers; nor with less humor does Irving describe figures in Washington life of those times, and "the blazing splendour of Mrs. Madison's drawing-room." Particularly significant in connection with the development of his character is his statement in one of his letters from the capital, that he does not suffer party feelings to bias his mind; for Washington Irving is the only instance in American history of a man who, not alone keeping aloof from partisanship, but even experiencing a decided aversion to all political office, was offered high positions in many INTRODUCTION fields of public life. That he was Minister to Spain is, of course, known to everyone; that he could have had, for the asking, a place in Congress is no less assured a fact; and that the Tammany Society "unanimously and vociferously" nominated the shy and stainless Irving to be Mayor of New York remains one of the most amusing of anomalous events in the records of our city. During the years that preceded the War of 1 812, Irving's main interest, outside of the round of social pleasures with his friends, was, I am inclined to think, not so much in literature as in the drama. We find him telling Brevoort that he has prolonged his stay at Philadelphia (in April, 181 1) in order to see Cooke act as Lear. After com- paring him with Cooper and Kemble, he writes at length of his performance, likening it to a "masterpiece of ancient statuary." In all his dramatic criticisms, Irving is able to separate essential excellence from "all the INTRODUCTION garish ornaments in which unskilfulness takes refuge. " With the war between England and Amer- ica a serious note enters into Irving's corre- spondence. Here he warns his friends of suspected spies, and comments on the unset- tled state of the times with more mature un- derstanding. But, even so, in such a letter as that of July 8th, 1812, he finds relaxation in social gossip and in amusing anecdotes con- cerning acquaintances. We meet with men- tion of the Rhinelanders, the Renwicks, and the Livingstons; we join Irving at a superb dinner given to the naval heroes, at which all the great eaters and drinkers of the city are present; and hear talk of armies, navies, and battles. The military spirit overtakes our gentle hero. He joins the staff of Governor Tompkins, and sends Brevoort accounts from Albany of the duties of his station and the progress of the campaign. On the reverse of the letter of September 26th, 18 14, Brevoort INTRODUCTION has recorded in his autograph a long list of firms that had failed within the space of a fort- night, a record that has for us the interest of coincidence when we reflect that just a century later England was to become involved in a far more decisive war. The next year, war ended, Irving was free to gratify his wish to revisit Europe, ten years after his first journey abroad. When, on board the ship "Mexico," at Sandy Hook, he wrote his farewell letter to Brevoort, he did not foresee how long a time would intervene or how many events affecting his life would occur before he was again to return to the city of his affection. The long series of letters, some of them con- taining thousands of words, in the satisfactory epistolary manner of the last century, that at comparatively short intervals he sent to Brevoort during the years in England, touch not alone on many phases of his own activities, but refer with the interest of a first-hand INTRODUCTION observer to numerous important events and notable characters of the early nineteenth century. Napoleon and Waterloo and the Treaty of Ghent; Scott and Campbell and Isaac D'Israeli; soldiers like the Duke of Wellington; statesmen, publishers, critics, ac- tors and painters, enter these pages, replete also with references to the activities of Irving, in connection with those business affairs which were to end, in one way so disastrously, in the failure of his brothers' firm with which he was associated; — and throughout there is talk of old friends, and of a longing for home. Bre- voort had in the meanwhile not remained alone the pleasant companion of youthful days, but had developed into the generous adviser of Irving on all matters. It was, therefore, but natural that when, with the downfall of business plans, there came the strongest of impulses to devote his life to literature, Irving should look to Brevoort for such cooperation as a friend might offer. INTRODUCTION Thus we have him taking charge of the pub- lication of the Sketch Book in America, attending to the copyright, printing, and sale. In sending Brevoort the manuscript, Irving wrote: "I seek only to blow a flute of ac- companiment in the national concert; and leave others to play the fiddle and French horn." But despite the modest attitude of its author, the Sketch Book did more than confirm Irving's own fame: it established the right of American letters to be accorded independent recognition. Caustic foreign critics who had hitherto looked upon our literature as a toddling and imitative infant, holding on to the apron strings of its English mother, realized that with Irving the time had come when it was worth while to read an American book. At the age of thirty-six years, Irving had thus become an object of national pride. ' ' Van- ity," he writes, "could not bring the tears into my eyes as they have been brought by the INTRODUCTION kindness of my countrymen " ; and in another letter to Brevoort, wherein he mentions Knickerbocker's History and Salmagundi, as well as the Sketch Book, we find him saying : "There is something delightful to me in the idea that you in a manner stand godfather to all my children; I feel as if it were a new tie that binds us together." By Nicholas Carter, Irving's friend who later became the author of a volume entitled Letters from Europe, was preserved an anec- dote that amusingly and convincingly em- phasizes the vogue of the Sketch Book. An English lady and her daughter were visiting an Italian gallery which contained a bust of George Washington. Carter overheard their conversation: "Mother, who was Washing- ton?" asked the young lady, after gazing a short while at the bust. "Why, my dear, don't you know?" was the astonished reply. "He wrote the Sketch Book." While Irving was engaged on this work INTRODUCTION his friend Commodore Decatur was hoping that he would accept a place in the Navy Board at Washington, a first clerkship corresponding approximately to that of Under- Secretary in England. living's brother Wil- liam sought to persuade his acceptance of this position; and here, among Irving's papers, we find William's letter in its entirety. So closely allied are the sentiments in its con- cluding portion to those that animated Wash- ington Irving himself as he grew older, that with sympathetic pleasure we rescue from oblivion the lines with which William ends his missive. He speaks of his own "only delight — retirement and seclusion from the world," and then goes on: "I never was cut out for a great politician. Trouble of every kind annoys me — I abominate parade, and like the maid servant who, when her mistress was to have a large company, asked for her supper that she might go to bed out of the way, I am for withdrawing from every scene of tumult INTRODUCTION or confusion. A levee night is my abomina- tion — and a public dinner my abhorrence. . . . I have, therefore, withdrawn, and feel most sensibly the truth of the proverb that 'home is home though never so homely. ' " If Irving, in the closing years of his life at Sunnyside, had had a younger brother in whom to confide, these might have been the identical words which he would have written. But the days of his youth show him far more susceptible to the attractions of society; though even then arose the moments of re- action. Among his papers is the draft, or perhaps a copy, of a letter written by him to Gouverneur Kemble when Irving was at Richmond, in 1807, taking a minor part at the trial of Aaron Burr. It is a long letter, too long for full rehearsal here; but the following passage shows its tenor: "For myself I find I am declining very much in popularity from having resolutely and man- fully resisted sundry temptations and invita- INTRODUCTION tions to tea parties — stews — balls and other infernal orgies which have from time to time been celebrated by the little enchantresses of this place. I tried my hand two or three times at an apology for my non attendance, but it would not do, my usual ill luck followed me; for once when I alleged the writing of letters, it was plainly proved that I was seen smoking a cigar and lolling in the porch of the Eagle, and another time when I plead a severe indisposition, I was pronounced guilty of having sat at a young lady's elbow the whole evening and listened to her piano — all which brought me into manifest disgrace and reduced me to great extremity — upon the which I forthwith summoned up my pride, girded up my loins, foreswore all apologies in future and declared that I should thenceforward consider an invitation as an insult, — since which time I have had but little to complain of on that score, and enjoy sovereign independence and a perfect command of my time and person. " INTRODUCTION Despite Irving's desire for that freedom from social obligations which the preceding lines lightly make evident, his participation in Aaron Burr's trial was merely that of the interested observer who was at the same time a student of law. The value of this episode comes, for lovers of Irving, from the realization that with Aaron Burr, as with Napoleon Bona- parte, Irving could not altogether suppress a feeling of sympathy for a man of genius overtaken by fate. He did not forget that they were the victims of little enemies, as well as of their own great faults. The mention of Burr inevitably suggests the most costly of American duels; yet it took more than the killing of Hamilton (who lies buried in the street where Brevoort and Irving dwelt together) to bring an end to a custom that led to the death of Irving's friend Com- modore Decatur. Duelling in America was yet to become as obsolete as that piracy on the high seas which was swept into the past by INTRODUCTION the victories of Decatur and his fellows in our war with Algiers. That history should repeat itself is, I fancy, merely its way of emphasizing the constancy of the human equation, the significance of recurrent forces; but when such repetitions come in a form punctuated by centuries one must surmise that it is an act of courtesy of one muse to another, history realizing how literature has a leaning towards the phrase "just one hundred years ago." — But indeed, is it not strange that just one hundred years ago the United States, alone of nations, was making a determined stand for the rights of all nations on the highways of the sea? And in that war with the piratical nations of the African coast was not alone Irving's Commo- dore Decatur — from Rector Street, — but also the "little tar" Jack Nicholson, one of the chums of Irving and Brevoort. Returning to. the letters to Brevoort, it is manifest that the success of the Sketch Book INTRODUCTION (written, for the most part, at the Birmingham home, " the Redoubtable Castle Van Tromp," of his brother-in-law, Henry Van Wart) forms the great and fortunate break in Irving' s ca- reer. With all his philosophy, the drudgery, and even more than this, the worry of mercan- tile affairs affected many of the letters written in 1815-1818 from Birmingham and Liverpool. But even in this period of business affairs we shall find, as in his description of the queer human conglomeration in the hotel at Buxton, nuggets of literary art aglow with golden humor. Between 1820 and 1825 his epistles to Bre- voort were penned, with the exception of two London letters, in the happy metropolis of France, which, many years earlier, he had first visited as a care-free youth. Apart from French people, Irving now had as Parisian companions sometimes the poet Rogers and that jolly lyricist Torn Moore; again, from America would come Gallatin, Randolph, Astor, and others, bringing news INTRODUCTION of home; while his works were ever achiev- ing more success. We find him just touch- ing upon commercial affairs, in connection with an enterprise for navigating the Seine by steam; a business in which he took a share more on account of his brothers Peter and William than for himself. There are various references to drafts on Brevoort, which of course in those days he was able to make with full knowledge of immediate repayment when due. The only note of resentment during this period of his corre- spondence was in connection with the query as to the possibility of his renouncing America, which he had left in 1815, and to which he did not return for seventeen years. His indignant denial took the convincing form, that shall be found in his letter of March 10th, 1821, and which renders manifest how truly the artist and the man was endeavoring to serve his country. And here we pause a moment to emphasize xl INTRODUCTION the entire validity and worthiness of Irving's argument. It is not alone the privilege but, it might well seem, the obligation of men of genius to follow their natural bent, yielding to their inclination in abstaining from political work, social movements and propaganda, and similar activities to which other serious and high-minded men may be devoting their en- ergies. The artist and the author often make their contribution to human development of most lasting benefit by reason of their partial remoteness from the questions of the day. They move and have their being in that world of beauty and of ideas which is not bounded by the interests of any particular epoch, and their service, although imponderable in the scales of immediate social benefit, remain the lasting heritage of countless generations. The artist who, like Irving, is true to his own talent, is, in the final analysis, the fairest benefactor of mankind. Irving's particular contribution in the field xli INTRODUCTION of creative writing was the sketch-story. In one of his Paris letters to Brevoort, he shows his realization that this form of fiction was his own invention. "For my part," he writes, "I consider it merely as a frame on which to stretch my materials. It is the play of thought and sentiment, and language; the weaving in of characters lightly yet expressive- ly delineated; the familiar and faithful exhi- bition of scenes in common life; and the half concealed vein of humour that is often playing through the whole — these are among what I aim at, and upon which I felicitate myself in proportion as I think I succeed. " Towards the end of his stay in Paris, Irving devoted considerable time to the study of Spanish, study which was to stand him in good stead during the next few years while he was engaged upon his Life of Columbus. His letters from Spain are among the most delight- fur in this correspondence, and lengthy docur ments indeed are those which he sent to xlii INTRODUCTION Brevoort from Madrid, Seville, and Valencia. His researches in Spanish history were based at first on the work of Navarrete, the noted Spanish historian, and this debt (which he fully acknowledged) led to some criticism after the publication of the Life of Columbus. But in the letters to Brevoort may be found living's refutation of every charge of plagiar- ism, and among living's private papers is an unpublished letter of Navarrete, showing that nothing had ever occurred to mar the cordial relations between the American and Spanish authors. It was during the years 1 827-1 829 that the charm of old Spain wove its spell around Ir- ving. The governor of the Alhambra had given him permission to live in a corner of the an- cient Moorish palace, and his description of his residence there contains one of the most poetical passages in all his writings, a de- scription with intermingling elements of beauty and of romance and the glamour of old days. xliii INTRODUCTION During this period, Irving became very friendly with the Russian diplomat Prince Dolgorouki, then an attache of the Russian Legation at Madrid. After Irving returned to America in 1832, the Prince wrote him a letter which has never yet appeared in type. It is a long and charming letter concerning diplomacy and art; and it contains the following anec- dote which must appeal to students of painting. "In visiting the Gallery at Amsterdam, whose chief ornament is a celebrated painting by Rembrandt, I found in one of the very last rooms of the Museum one of the most beauti- ful paintings of Murillo that I have seen since leaving Madrid. The Director of the Gallery had had it placed in the midst of a lot of bad copies of the Italian School, its frame touching the floor; and when I showed surprise that so great a master should receive so little regard, he answered that he thought ' 'twas enough honor for Murillo to find himself in the same room with a Van Dyck: ' there, indeed, being, xliv INTRODUCTION by chance, a sufficiently dubious portrait by that artist, hanging above the great master of the School of Seville." The charms of Andalusia, and all the attrac- tions of that Spain which revived for Irving scenes from Don Quixote, were left behind in 1829, when Irving accepted the position of First Secretary of Legation under his friend McLane, then Minister to the Court of St. James. The next five letters are from London, where Irving was looking forward to meeting Brevoort, who had come to Europe. The revolution of 1830 was now occupying the attention of Europe, and we find living's comments on this "grand though terrible drama. ' ' The change in the American admin- istration which led to the appointment of Ir- ving at the same time involved the withdrawal from diplomatic life of his friend Alexander H. Everett, who had been the American Min- ister to Madrid during living's stay in Spain, a position that Irving himself was to occupy in xlv INTRODUCTION later years. His letter to Everett has found its way into type, but Everett's reply has remained hitherto among the unpublished papers of Irving, and is here drawn upon in view of the literary and philosophic spirit which animates it, and which is also char- acteristic of Irving. After congratulating his young friend, Everett continues: "As regards myself, you are right in supposing that my recall has not greatly disturbed my philosophy; I have been for some time past soliciting permission to return on - leave of absence without any inten- tion of revisiting this place. My taste is rather for literary and scientific occupations than for politics and I feel a strong temp- tation to consider the recent change in my position and prospects as a signal for retreat to devote myself wholly in future to letters." In September, 1831, Irving resigned from the Legation. The end of that month marked xlvi INTRODUCTION his final meeting with Walter Scott who had been so loyal a friend since the early days when he had first come to know the genius of Irving through the copy of Knickerbocker's History which Brevoort had sent to the author of Waver ley. A few months later, Irving was at last home- ward bound. He returned to America a famous man, who for the remainder of his life remained one of the most distinguished and best beloved citizens of the republic. His career during the following years, his beauti- ful quiet life with his brothers and sisters and their children at his home of Sunnyside in Irvington, and the progress of his writings, do not come directly within the scope of this Introduction. Brevoort, with whom, of course, his correspondence now came for a time to an end, was again a near neighbor. We find an interesting reference to him in connection with the great fire which devas- tated New York in 1835, in a letter which was xlvii INTRODUCTION written on Christmas Day of that year by Irving to his brother Peter: "Poor Brevoort, " he writes, "has lost about fifty thousand dollars, and feels a little sore at the loss, but I trust will soon get over it, as he has an ample fortune left." The only letter that Irving seems to have written to his friend during these years is the brief note in which he suggests that Brevoort should join him in his visit to their old friend Gouver- neur Kemble, whither now we find Irving going accompanied by his niece, Sarah Paris. There is a boyish note in these lines, sug- gesting the high spirits of the days of their youth. In 1842 Irving and Brevoort were again separated by the width of the sea. Daniel Webster, as Secretary of State under Tyler, invited Irving to accept an appointment as Minister to the Court of Madrid. "I assure you, " writes the greatest of American orators to the first of American men of letters, "it xlviii INTRODUCTION gives me much pleasure to have been instru- mental in calling you to so distinguished a post in the public service. If a gentleman of more merit and higher qualifications had presented himself, great as is my personal regard for you, I should have yielded to higher considera- tions. ' ' — ' ' Ah ! This is a nomination everybody will concur in!" Henry Clay had exclaimed when hearing of it. "If the President would send us such names as this, we should never have any difficulty." Irving accepted, not without reluctance at the thought of leaving "dear little Sunnyside." He took with him as attach6 of Legation J. Carson Bre- voort, the son of his dear friend; and in the letter that Irving wrote to Brevoort from Paris not long after reaching Europe, he says: "I am delighted to have him with me; my heart warms toward him, not merely on his own account, but also on your own. He seems like a new link in our old friendship which commenced when we xlix INTRODUCTION were both about his age or even younger, and which I have always felt as something almost fraternal. " The final letter in this series to Brevoort is dated November 25th, 1843. It was written from Bordeaux during a two or three months' absence from Spain, a trip which Irving made in the search for health. So serious was his affliction that the Life of Washington and all his other literary labors were suspended. His income from his writings was on the wane, and we find him expressing the hope that "I may again find some bookseller to take a lease of my published works and thus, by hook and by crook, may be enabled to return home and spend some few years with my kindred and friends before I die." — It must indeed be a source of gratification to those publishers who are so appropriately issuing the present work, to recall that it was their father, George P. Putnam, who reestablished the vogue of Irving; with courage, faith, and sagacity re- INTRODUCTION printing all former writings and bringing out new ones. This last of the letters is one of those most worth reading. Touching upon literature, roy- alty, social affairs and diplomacy, it contains many paragraphs with sentiments worthy the remembrance. "In my diplomacy," we here find Irving saying, "I have depended more upon good intentions and frank and open conduct than upon any subtle management. I have an opinion that the old maxim Honesty is the best policy holds good in diplomacy." Here we have in a few lines the expression of American practice, it is to be hoped; and, certainly, of American ideals. With an amus- ing anecdote of "little Queen Victoria," the letter draws towards its end; and so it is this kind and gentle lady, a personage of our own times, who seems thus graciously to link us with the days of Irving. Here, then, we leave this chain of letters which for more than thirty-five years bound INTRODUCTION in loyal intimacy the old New Yorker, Henry Brevoort, and the old New Yorker who signs himself at the end of this correspondence with his friend: "Ever most affectionately yours, Washington Irving." courteous citizen of elder days, Gracious romance was thine, and kindly mirth. Full well it is thy genius to praise; But best, thy wisdom of goodwill on earth. George S. Hellman. New York: June, 191 5. HI CONTENTS PAGE iii Publishers' Note Introduction ...... xi I. — Skeenesborough, May 9th, 1808 . . 3 Business affairs — Reference to Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wakefield." II. — New York, June nth, 1808 ... 5 At Mr. Hoffman's after the death of Matilda — News of Mary Fairlie and the Moore girls. III. — Kinderhook, May nth, 1809 8 At the Van Ness home — Mention of Cooper, the actor. IV. — Kinderhook, May 20th, 1809 11 Irving awaits his manuscript by the steamboat — Mention of his friends James K. Paulding and Peter Kemble. V. — Philadelphia, October 23rd, 1809 .14 "Knickerbocker's History of New York" — Inscription on Peter Stuyvesant's tombstone — The Hoffmans. VI. — New York, September 22nd, 1810 . 16 Gouverneur Kemble's Castle in the Highlands — The "Lads of Kilkenny" — Gossip of various friends. liii CONTENTS VII. — Washington, January 13th, 1 81 1 . . 19 Journey to Baltimore by stagecoach — Mrs. Madison's levee — Description of the President and of various other characters at the Capital. VIII.— Washington, February 7th, 1 81 1 . . 29 The social round at Baltimore — Mention of Napoleon — " Cousin Knickerbocker." IX.— Washington, March 5th, 181 1 . . 36 Farewell to Washington — Mrs. Rumsey's boarders. X. — Philadelphia, March 16th, 181 1 . . 40 Description of society at Baltimore — Amusing comments on various friends. XI.— Philadelphia, March 18th, 1811 . . 44 Introducing William Rogers of Rhode Island — The ap- proaching marriage of Gouverneur Kemble. XII.— Philadelphia, April nth, 181 1 . . 45 The drama — Shakespeare's plays — The art of Cooper, Kemble, and Cooke — Sully's picture in the Academy of Arts. XIII.— New York, May 15th, 1811 50 Irving's routine as a clerk — His aspirations — The Hoffmans and Renwicks — Society gossip — Cooke and Cooper — Irving's desire for solitude. XIV.— New York, June 8th, i8ri ... 61 Gouverneur Kemble 's voyage — Peter Irving's rascality — "The Lads" — Irving's dissatisfaction with himself — Mar- garet Brevoort— -Affairs of the stage. liv CONTENTS XV.— New York, August [?1 i8u ... 66 Commodore Decatur, the Portuguese Sampayo, the wine merchant March, and other fellow-lodgers of Brevoort and Irving at Mrs. Bradish's — Reference to "Don Quixote" — Gossip and humor. XVI. — New York, March 17th, 1812 . . 70 Warning concerning a British spy named Henry — The Embargo in the War of 1812 — Dinner at Mrs. Renwick's, the heroine of several of the poems of Robert Burns — Brevoort' s commission from Governor Tompkins. XVII. — New York, March 29th, 1812 . . 74 Payment for "Knickerbocker's History of New York." XVIII— New York, July 8th, 1 812 75 Rusticating at Hell Gate — The Rhinelanders and other old New York families — Marriage of Mary Fairlie and Cooper, the actor — Amusing comments on women. XIX. — New York, January 2nd, 1813 . . 87 Excursion up the Hudson — Much gossip of friends — Success of the American navy — The ball on New Year's Eve — James Renwick and Columbia College — Progress of the War. XX. — New York, September 9th, 1814 . . 97 Message from Judge Van Ness to Brevoort. XXI. — Albany, September 26th, 18 14 . 98 Irving as aide on the staff of Governor Tompkins — Lieu- tenant-Colonel Cadwallader D. Colden — Progress of the campaign — The victory at Champlain — Failures in the commercial world owing to the War. XXII. — New York, October 16th, 1814 . . 100 Gossip concerning friends — England's terms for peace — The determination of the American spirit. lv CONTENTS XXIII.— Sandy Hook, May 25th, 1815 . 104 Departure from America on the Ship "Mexico" — Fare- well to Brevoort and other friends. XXIV. — Birmingham, July 5th, 1815 . 106 With the Van Warts at "Castle Van Tromp"—The over- throw of Napoleon — "Wonderful events in the political world" — Irving's love for children — His nieces, and his god- daughter Matilda — Comment on a dishonorable acquaintance — Actors and acting, XXV. — Liverpool, August 19th, 1815 . .116 Tour in Wales with James Renwick — American affairs at Algiers — Decatur and Jack Nicholson — Madame Bona- parte, and the fallen fortunes of "poor Boney" — Byron's " Hebrew Melodies." XXVI. — Liverpool, August 23rd, 1815 . . 122 Brevoort and John Jacob Astor's Northwest Company — The Treaty of Ghent — Thomas Campbell and his wife — Walter Scott and the failure of the Ballyntines — Discussion concerning the authorship of " Waverley" and " Guy Manner- ing" — The American traveller abroad — Departure of Bona- parte for St. Helena — Comments on the English Cabinet. XXVII. — Liverpool, September 8th, 1815 131 Peter Irving, James Renwick, and Charles King — Ma- dame Bonaparte at Cheltenham — Music for Mrs. Bradish and her daughter. XXVIII. — Liverpool, September 26th, 1815 . 135 A ducking in the Mersey — English and American chil- dren — Various new acquaintances. XXIX. — Liverpool, October 17th, 1815 . . 140 The sordid cares of the counting house — Renwick in Scot- land. lvi CONTENTS XXX. — Liverpool, November 2nd, 1815 . . 144 Muncaster, the Liverpool bookseller — Murray, the pub- lisher — Reference to the battle of Waterloo— Gossip of many friends. XXXI. — Birmingham, December 28th, 1815 . 148 Miss O'Neil, Mrs. Mardyn, Kean, Garrick, Cooper, and other actors — Thomas Campbell at London — Christmas at the Van Warts'. XXXII. — Birmingham, March 15th, 1816 . 154 Business hardships — Irving' s longing for New York — The engagement of James K. Paulding — Advice to Brevoort concerning marriage — The death of Angelica Livingston — Reference to Jack Nicholson and the pirate, Rais Hammida — Decatur's ideas concerning young officers. XXXIII. — Liverpool, April 29th, 1816 . . 171 Books for Brevoort — Comment on acting. XXXIV. — Liverpool, May 9th, 1 816 . . 175 New acquaintances among the literati of Liverpool — Expressions of old affection for Brevoort. XXXV. — Birmingham, July 16th, 1816 . 179 Business anxiety and turmoil — Brevoort helps Washing- ton's brother Ebenezer — Irving congratulates Brevoort on his betrothal— Meets with an old fisherman reminding him of Isaac Walton — Messages to Mrs. Bradish — Comment on the literary reputation of Paulding. XXXVI. — Birmingham, November 6th, 1816 . 191 Description of characters at Buxton — Peter Irving and the vagrant actors — The old fat General Trotter — The Duke of Wellington — Comparison of the feet and ankles of French and English women. lvii CONTENTS XXXVII. — Birmingham, December 9th, 1816 . 204 Congratulates Brevoon on the marriage of his sister to Ren- wick — Irving' s views on marriage — His doom to live an old bachelor — Reverend Rann Kennedy and Dr. Parr — General poverty and misery in England. XXXVIII. — Birmingham, January 29th, 1817 215 Happy times with the Van Warts — The country excur- sion with his brother Peter — Romantic ramble with various friends. XXXIX. — Liverpool, March 10th, 1817 . 226 List of books sent to Brevoort. XL. — Liverpool, March 24th, 1817 . . 230 Business affairs — Reference to the capture of Washington by the British — Charles Fox, a son of Lord Holland — Irving' s home-sickness. XLI. — Liverpool, May 20th, 1817 . . . 235 Mrs. Schmidt and her sister, Helen Bache — The death of Mrs. Verplanck and the illness of Mrs. Hoffman — Messages for various friends. XLII. — Birmingham, May 26th, 1817 . . 239 Thomas Campbell's new work — Irving' s desire that Bre- voort should find an American publisher for Campbell. XLIII. — Liverpool, June 7th, 1817 . . 244 Business troubles increase — The romantic marriage of Serena Livingston — The poetry of Thomas Moore. XLIV. — Liverpool, June nth, 1817 . . 249 Regarding payment for books — The failure of living's brother-in-law, Van Wart. lviii CONTENTS PAGE XLV. — Liverpool, June nth, 1 817 . . . 250 A second letter sent by another ship concerning payment for books. XLVI. — Liverpool, June 21st, 1817. . . 251 Introducing Mr. Coles, late secretary of President Madi- son. XLVII. — Liverpool, July nth, 1817 . . 252 Business disaster — Irving' s views regarding the mortifica- tions of dependence — Plans for the future. XLVIII. — Liverpool, July 21st, 1817 . . 256 Regarding a draft in favor of Muncaster, the bookseller. XLIX. — Edinburgh, August 28th, 1817 . 257 A day with Campbell at Sydenham — Dinner with Murray, the publisher, and meeting with Isaac D' Israeli — Voyage to Scotland — A call at Francis Jeffrey's, the critic — Visit at Abbotsford — The charm of Walter Scott. L. — Liverpool, October 10th, 1817 . . . 269 Congratulates Brevoort on his approaching marriage. LI. — Liverpool, January 28th, 1818 . . 273 Irving and his brothers pass through the Bankruptcy Act — He asks Brevoort to aid Ebenezer. LII. — Liverpool, March 22nd, 1818 . . 277 Business letter referring to drafts. LIII. — Liverpool, April 30th, 1818 . . . 279 Takes lessons in flute music — Irving wishes to send "choice music" for Mrs. Brevoort. LIV. — Liverpool, May 1st, 1818 . . . 283 Draws on Brevoort for $300. lix CONTENTS PAGE LV. — Liverpool, May 19th, 1818 . . 284 Irving is out of bankruptcy — Studies German and can "splutter" a little — James K. Paulding and Thomas Camp- bell. LVI. — Liverpool, May 23rd, 1818 . . . 288 Relating to bills and drafts. LVII. — Leamington, July 7th, 1818 . . 289 With his sister, Mrs. Van Wart — The Renwicks and Gouverneur Kemble. LVIII. — London, September 23rd, 1818 . . 292 Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Bartley of the Drury Lane Theatre. LIX. — London, September 27th, 181 8 . . 293 Congratulates Brevoort on birth of son — New edition of "Knickerbocker's History" — Leslie and Allston. LX. — London, October 16th, 1818 . . . 297 Draws on Brevoort for $300. LXI. — London, March 3rd, 1819 . . . 298 Asks Brevoort to attend to copyright, printing, and sale of the "Sketch Book" — Describes his literary aims. LXII. — London, April 1st, 1819 . . . 304 Secondnumber of the ' ' Sketch Book' ' — Verplanck's oration criticising" Knickerbocker ' ' — Mention of ' ' Rip Van Winkle. ' ' LXIII. — London, May 13th, 1819 . . . 307 Third number of the "Sketch Book" — Irving at the end of hisfortunes. LXIV. — London, July 10th, 1819 . . . 308 The "Sketch Book" again — Irving refuses political office at Washington — Comments on Paulding and " Salmagundi." lx CONTENTS PAGE LXV. — London, July 28th, 1819 . . . 313 Irving receives the printed copy of the " Sketch Book" — ■ Forwards various corrections to Brevoort. LXVI. — London, August 2nd, 1819 . . 317 Asks Brevoort to keep an eye on grammatical inaccuracies in the proof of the " Sketch Book." LXVII. — London, August 12th, 1819 . . 318 Delight at favorable reception of the "Sketch Book " — Refer- ences to "Knickerbocker" and "Salmagundi" — Expressions of gratitude to Brevoort. LXVIII. — London, August 15th, 1819 . . 324 Substitutions in articles for the "Sketch Book." LXIX. — London, September 9th, 1819 . . 326 American biography — Praise from the American press — Coleman of the " Evening Post." LXX. — London, September 21st, 1819 . . 332 First and second numbers of the "Sketch Book" — living's "intervals of literary incapacity." LXXI. — London, March 27th, 1820 . 333 Irving hears from Scott that Lockhart's article in "Black- wood's Magazine, " praising the " Sketch Book, " was written at Scott's instigation — Praise for Paulding. LXXII. — London, May 13th, 1820 337 Newton's portrait sent to Brevoort — Friendship with Isaac D' Israeli — Sees Walter Scott repeatedly — Byron and "Don Juan" — The death of Decatur. LXXIII. — London, August 15th, 1820 . . 342 Murray's drawing-room — Lady Caroline Lamb—Belzoni the traveller — Hallam the historian — Memories of old days. lxi CONTENTS LXXIV. — Paris, September 22nd, 1820 . . 349 An enterprise for navigating the Seine by steamboat. LXXV.— Paris, March 10th, 1821 . . . 352 More regarding the steamboat project — Irving 's resent- ment of the suggestion that he had renounced America — His belief as to the best exertion of his talents— Moore and the "Life of Sheridan" — Canning and Sydney Smith. LXXVL— Paris, April 5th, 1821 . . .360 Draws on Brevoort rather than on his own brothers. LXXVIL— Paris, April 5th, 1821 . . .362 Letter sent by another steamer, identical in tenor with preceding letter, but varying in wording. LXXVIIL— Paris, April 14th, 1821 . . 366 Financial matters in reference to the steamboat concern — Success of the "Sketch Book" — John Jacob Astor and his family in Paris — Renwick and Columbia College — "The North American Review." LXXIX. — Paris, April 21st, 1821 . . . 379 Business affairs — Plans for literary work. LXXX. — Paris, May 15th, 1821 . . .383 Music for Mrs. Brevoort — Awaits news of friends in New York. LXXXI. — London, June nth, 1822 . . 385 Success of Irving's writings — Social gaieties — John Randolph — Mrs. Siddons — Thomas Hope and Samuel Rogers — Matthews the comedian. LXXXII. — Paris, December nth, 1824 . . 395 The charm of New York and its environs — Irving and the critics — Irving's analysis of his own art — Bayle's " Dic- tionary" and Burton's "Anatomy of Melancholy." lxii CONTENTS LXXXIIL— Paris, May 29th, 1825 . . 403 Introducing two young Englishmen about to visit America. LXXXIV. — Paris, May 30th, 1825 . 404 Refers to preceding letter — The Cathedral at Rheims — Longs for a cosy chat with Brevoort. LXXXV.— Madrid, April 4th, 1827 . . 407 Refers to misunderstanding with Brevoort — The "Life of Columbus" — Old Spanish literature — Fenimore Cooper and his novels — William Cullen Bryant and Fit&-Greene Hai- leck — Pierre and Peter Irving. LXXXVI. — Madrid, February 23rd, 1828 417 The "History of Columbus" — Cares and troubles of Brevoort and Irving. LXXXVIL— Seville, December 20th, 1828 . 419 The success of the "History of Columbus" — Work on the "Conquest of Granada" — Life at Seville — Mention of old friends, Paulding, Nicholson, Kemble, Ogden, and Renwick. LXXXVIIL— Alhambra, May 23rd, 1829 . 425 Receives permission from Governor of the Alhambra to reside in the Palace — Its beauty and charm — Edgar Irving and Prince Dolgoruki — The Spanish historian, Navarrete, and Irving' s "History of Columbus" — Morals and manners of society in New York — Irving' s affection for his country. LXXXIX. — Valencia, August ioth, 1829 432 Leaves the Alhambra to enter diplomatic service in Lon- don — Description of the journey through Spain — "Don Quixote " — Delay at Barcelona — A rrival at London via Paris. XC. — London, May 31st, 1830 . . . 439 Activities as Secretary of Legation — Introduces Pro- fessor de Butts to Brevoort who is now in Europe. lxiii CONTENTS XCI. — London, March 31st, 1831 . . 44* Rejoices at Brevoort's recovering from an operation — Historical events at Paris. XCIL— London, July 5th, 1831 . -447 living's lack of ambition for official honor — Van Buren spoken of as successor to McLane as Minister to the Court of St. James— Lockhart's article, on Moore's "Life of Byron." XCIIL— London, November 2nd, 1831 . . 449 Regrets Brevoort's departure from London — Amusing reference to the King and a dinner of roast goose. XCIV.— Irvington, Summer of 1838 . . 45« Asks Brevoort to accompany him on a visit to Gouverneur Kemble. XCV— Paris, July 1st, 1842. . . .451 Irving's pleasure at having Brevoort's son, J. Carson Brevoort with him — Vail, Irving's predecessor as Minister to Spain — The claim of society — An episode with the Duchess of Grammont. XCVI. — Bordeaux, November 26th, 1843 . 455 /// health and mental harassment — Suspension of the "Life of Washington " and all other literary work — The char- acter of Brevoort's son, Carson — Irving's conduct as Ameri- can Minister during the exciting times at Madrid — His pro- tection of the Queen and his relation with other diplomatists — Days at Paris — Samuel Rogers and his art of story-telling — Anecdote of Queen Victoria and Lord Aberdeen — Pleasure of owning one's own home. lxiv LETTERS OF WASHINGTON IRVING TO HENRY BREVOORT yf&- 1812. (Excerpt from a missing letter of Irving to Brevoort). I have been so much occupied of late, partly by a severe indisposition of my good old mother (who has, however, recovered), and partly by my History, that I have not had time to write you a letter worth reading. I will atone for it hereafter. I have concluded my bargain with Inskeep and am about publish- ing. I receive 1,200$ at six months for an edition of 1,500 copies. He takes all the expense of printing, etc., on himself. 74 NEW YORK, JULY 8* 1812 New York, July 8- 1812. DEAR BREVOORT: — The unsettled state of the times, and the uncertainties of your movements almost dis- courage me from writing to you, lest my letter should never come to hand — which, consider- ing the great aversion I have to letter writing and the great trouble it costs me to manufac- ture an epistle, would be a vast deal of labour thrown away. But I will now draw my bow at random and trust to providence that my shot may reach you. I am at present rusticating at a little snug retreat about six miles and half from town, on one of the hills just opposite Hellgate, and within a stone's throw of William Paulding's country seat. I am very pleasantly lodged in a French family, with a wood around me and a beautiful peep at the sound. Here I have settled myself for the summer & part of the fall to read, and, if it please heaven and the muse, to write. I have a very pleasant 75 NEW YORK, JULY 8^ 1812 neighbourhood — the Rhinelanders & Grades living within ten minutes walk of me. I intend, however, in the course of three or four weeks, to voyage up the Hudson and see the fair nymphs of the Ferry House. Those exquisite creatures left town about a fortnight since, and took Miss Dallas with them. She had been about three weeks in N York, and had made great havoc round her. The heir apparent, that liquorish young rogue, having just crawled out of the powthering tub, and being well primed with Mercury — was among the first to feel the force of her charms; and followed faithfully in her train to the very last — not without suffering greatly from sundry long walks of hot days, which put him back very much in his complaint. The very day they left town he departed for the Highlands, where he and the Captain are two to two, drinking Madera, discussing politics and morals, and both disputing very positively on the same side of the question. 76 NEW YORK, JULY 8* 1812 As to the Captain he has taken me in for a coat, as I see no hopes of an increase to his family, and my bet with John King will fall due next spring. I have no chance for some months at least as the Captain is so down & out with war, that I do not believe he has animal spirits enough to go through the neces- sary operations. I am extremely anxious to hear how you conducted in respect to Henry. I was very fearful that he might be able by some plausible story told in his plausible manner, to glaze over his conduct and interest your sympathy in his favour. In the United States there is but one sentiment respecting him; that of the most thorough contempt. He is regarded as an unprincipled adventurer, with shewy but superficial talents and more cunning than wisdom. I hope the letters I wrote to you had their proper effect in detaching you from him entirely and immediately. I have not seen your parents for some time 77 NEW YORK, JULY ffih 1812 past. The distance I live from town makes it inconvenient for me to call there, particularly as I do not keep a horse, and have to depend upon chance conveyances to the city. I saw Margaret lately at Mrs. Renwick's. She in- forms me that Miss John has returned from Canada, having, according to David Ogden's account, learnt all that it was possible for mortal man to learn in his situation. I mean to call in the course of a day or two and see how the young gentleman talks and looks after his travels. The marriage has at last taken place be- tween Mary F[airlie] and Cooper. They were married at his new house. Neither Mr. nor Mrs. F. were present, nor any one except- ing King Stephen and his spouse. After the ceremony was performed Cooper attended her home and left her — and two or three days later they set off to Baltimore. The old Major was worried into a kind of half consent. That is to say, if the girl could not be happy without 78 NEW YORK, JULY 8* 1812 it, why, he supposed it must take place. Cooper has been applying for a Lieut. Col- onelcy or a Majority in the army; but I believe he's not succeeded. I was told yester- day that they had returned home again. Such is the end of a dismal courtship and the commencement I fear of an unhappy union. I hinted in the former part of my letter that the heir apparent had not been in the powther- ing tub; but I did not consider that this misfortune had happened to him since your departure. I don't know but that part of the sin lies at your door, for I believe it was from one of your virgins that he received the bless- ing. I was for some time at a loss what to make of the little man's manoeuvres. He would have a large tub of hot water brought into his room and then shut himself up for an hour with his man Torey, as if he was intent upon some informal initiations. I happened to enter his room abruptly one morning, and caught him in querpo in the middle of this 79 NEW YORK, JULY 8* 1812 narrative up to his chin in hot water. I immediately concluded Peter must be suffer- ing under a fit of the Hypo. — fancying him- self a green turtle keeping up for a corporation feast, and that I was an Alderman come to inspect his condition. I expected every mo- ment to see him dive to the bottom of his kraal. He has had a very long siege of it, but is now almost thoroughly recovered. He might have been well long since; but the little bellipotent knave cannot help toying occa- sionally with his bottle. We had the magnaminous little Dr. Earle here some short time since ; and determined to shew him the glories of our Island. To which end we embarked six of us in a coach, like so many jolly captains of vessels just landed, and took a day's journey round the Island. We dined at Manhattanville, and passed one of the merriest days I have spent for a long while. Indeed we have had three or four warm days work of late, that reminded me 80 NEW YORK, JULY 8* 1812 very much of old times. The fourth of June we dined at Captain Philips and all got very much convived by wine & wassel, what between the wine and the song of Rule Britannia the captain got into a com- plete extacy — from thence we adjourned to Battins — and finished the evening by Jim's singing under the fair Julia's window, an old song travestied and most horribly out of tune. A few days after Gen. Peter George Dallas of Phil? & myself dined on board the Presi- dent with the officers in the ward room. We had a most convivial time, but sat so late that we could not go on shore that night — and the next day we were kept on board by a perfect storm of wind & rain until evening. I believe the ward room wont forget the rouse we gave it for some time to come. The frigate is in excellent order. The officers are a set of very fine gallant young fellows, and I have no doubt if a proper opportunity presents will VOL. I. — 6. 8l NEW YORK, JULY 8* 1812 acquit themselves handsomely. But I look upon their fate as desperate, in a war with England. The little Taylor has been here and passed some time since your departure. She is a delightful little creature, but alas, my dear Hal, she has not the pewter, as the sage Peter says. As to beauty, what is it " but a flower ! ' ' Handsome is that handsome has, — is the modern maxim. Therefore, little Taylor, "though thy little finger be armed in a thimble," yet will I set thee at defiance. In a word, she is like an ortolan, too rare and costly a dainty for a poor man to afford, but were I a nabob, 'fore George, ortolans should be my only food. As I rode into town the other day, I had nearly ran down the fair Maria M re. I immediately thought of your sudden admira- tion for her, which seemed to spring up rather late in the season, like strawberries in the fall — when every other swain's passion had died 82 NEW YORK, JULY 8* 1812 a natural & lingering death. The fair Maria (for almighty truth will out) begins in my eyes to look, as that venerable Frenchman Todd would say — D d stringy. She has been acting very much the part of the dog in the manger — she cannot enjoy her own chastity but seems unwilling to let anybody else do it. There certainly is a selfish pleasure in possess- ing a thing which is exclusively our own and which we see everybody around us coveting. And this may be the reason why we sometimes behold very beautiful women maintaining re- solute possession of their charms — and what makes me think this must be the reason is that in proportion as these women grow old, and the world ceases to long after their treasures, they seem the most ready to part with them, until they at length seem ready to sacrifice them to the first bidder, and even to impor- tune you to take them off their hands. This however I hope and believe will never be the case with the fair Maria, who, thanks to her 83 NEW YORK, JULY 8* 1812 cool temperament can still pass on "in maiden meditation, fancy free. " I forgot to mention that I received your letter just after your arrival in Paris, and giving an account of your journey thither. I hope you may have found your other excur- sions in France equally agreeable. This war completely shuts up all my prospects of visiting Europe for some time to come; though I must confess I am so well pleased with home that I have no great desire at present to leave it. Travelling is a convenient alternative to resort to, when we begin to grow sated with objects around us, and require to be stimulated by novelty and variety. I always keep it in view as a kind of succe- daneum for matrimony, and promise myself, in case I am not fortunate enough to get happily married to console myself by ranging a little about the world. While I am in the country Jim garrisons my room in town and acts as guardian to the 84 NEW YORK, JULY 8* 1812 book cases. Jim has intimated a wish to commence another work and I have agreed to join with him provided he will prepare a number of essays. I have commenced to do so myself, and unless he produces his share beforehand, I will dish mine up in some other form. I am in hope however of drawing some out of him. The Patroon had very satisfactory intelli- gence from Uncle Mik sometime since about their property in the Mediterranean. It has relieved his mind exceedingly; and for a week after, he was one of the most spirited, gay hearted beaux in the City. I don't think he is so ardent in his devoirs to the divine Julia as formerly — I suspect she has an ala- baster heart in that fair bosom — not that I think the Patroon ever made any serious attack upon it. July 9th. In coming to town this morning I stopped at your father's. The old gentle- man took me all over his territories to shew 85 NEW YORK, JULY 8& 1812 me his subjects. Margaret has been rather unwell for a week past & looks pale; but is getting better. John too has taken cold and » was indisposed, so that I did not see him. Your Mother, as you may suppose, is very anxious about the war, and wishes much that they would make peace so that you might return. The bear is in great spirits and is the wonder of the neighbouring swains. He does not seem however, to find favour in the eyes of the old man. I have to conclude this letter abruptly in order to get it aboard the vessel. Your family all desired me to send as much love to you as my letter would carry. Yours ever W. I. 86 NEW YORK, JANUARY 2* 1813 New York, Jan? 2 d 18 13. DEAR BREVOORT: — The uncertainty of your movements and my own wanderings have prevented me from keeping up any thing like a regular corre- spondence with you. Had I thought you would have wintered in England I should have written you before this — but I will not spin out excuses. I passed the early part of last Summer at a little retreat near Hell Gate, in the neighbour- hood of the Gracies, Rhinelanders, &c — and spent two months quietly and delightfully there. In August I set off for the residence of the Highland Chieftain, whither I was ac- companied by James Renwick. We passed a few days very pleasantly there, during which time Renwick took a variety of sketches of the surrounding scenery. The noble captain has completely failed in the matrimonial cam- paign — the lady shewing no symptoms of increase. I begin to despair of my coat. 87 NEW YORK, JANUARY 2* 1813 From the captain's I prowled to the country- seat of John R. L where I remained for a week, in complete fairy land. His seat is spacious and elegant with fine grounds around it — and the neighbourhood is very gay and hospitable. I dined twice at the Chancellor's and once at Mr. & Mrs. Montgomery's. Our own household was numerous and charming. In addition to the ladies of the family, there were Miss McEven & Miss Hayward. Dick McCall also, was there; who was languishing at the feet of the fair Angelica. He is engaged to be married to her. Had you but seen me, Happy rogue! up to my ears in "an ocean of peacocks' feathers" — or rather like a "Straw- berry smothered in cream." The mode of living at the manor is exactly after my own heart. You have every variety of rural amusements within your reach, and are left to yourself to occupy your time as you please. We made several charming excursions, and you may suppose how delightful they were, 88 NEW YORK, JANUARY 2 1815 rivers; I had forgotten in fact whether he lived in Denbigh or one of the neighbouring villages. I found Renwick an excellent travelling companion, and, from his uncommon memory, an exceeding good book of reference, so as to save me a vast deal of trouble in con- sulting my travelling books. The professor is now in Liverpool & will remain here until Smedburg sails, when he intends paying Scot- land a visit. My Brother is still an invalid, but recovering from the flames of St. Anthony, in which he has been almost consumed. He has been troubled for a few days past with rheumatic pains in one of his legs. I hope however that he will soon be well enough to make an excur- sion to Birmingham & that a visit to some watering place will completely restore him. About the subject of Lee's conduct, I gave you my opinion in a former letter and am happy to find it accords so perfectly with your own. Indeed I was sure from your correct- 117 LIVERPOOL, AUGUST 19* 181 5 ness of mind, you could not but revolt from such a gross unnecessary imposition, set on elaborate tissue of fabrication ; above all, such an unwarrantable abuse of a lady's name, whose character & conduct would awe any being of the most ordinary delicacy into scrupulous respect. Upon my. soul, the more I think of it, the more I am surprised at the hardihood of Lee in daring to treat with such licentious tongue, the name of such a pure and delicate creature as S L. But I need not dwell on this subject as I know you feel exactly as I do, and I think the manner in which you treated Lee exactly right. You may be assured I shall never mention the matter to any other being but yourself — though, as Dennis was in some measure in Lee's wide spread confidence I question whether he has not proclaimed it on the house tops. I received a very good, that is to say a very characteristic Letter yesterday from that 118 LIVERPOOL, AUGUST 19* 1815 worthy little Tar, Jack Nicholson, dated 7 July on Board the Flambeau off Algiers, & giving a brief account of our affairs with Algiers. He mentions that "they fell in with & captured the Admiral's ship and killed him." As this is all that Jack's brevity will allow him to say on the subject I should be at a loss to know whether they killed the admiral before or after his capture. The well known hu- manity of our tars however, induces me to the former conclusion. He informs me that he had written to the Livingstons & sent them Otto of Roses, &c This triumph will completely fix Decatur's Reputation — he may now repose on his Laurels & have wherewithal to solace himself under their shade. Give my hearty congratu- lations to Mrs. Decatur, & tell her that now I am willing she shall have the Commodore to herself, and with all her comfort & happi- ness with him. — A gallanter fellow never stepped a quarter deck — God bless him. 119 LIVERPOOL, AUGUST 19* 1815 The Wiggins family & Madame Bonaparte passed thro here while I was in Wales. I understand that they are at Cheltenham, but it is probable they will soon pass over to the continent, as the ladies are very anxious to visit Paris, though Wiggins wishes to stop a while in England. I think the poor man has his hands full with such a bevy of beautiful women under his charge, and all doubtless bent on pleasure and admiration. Scott & Mercer likewise passed thro' here while I was abroad. What think you of Poor Boney in America — his fallen fortunes have awakened sympathy even in England. For my part I feel a kindness for him in his distresses, & think the cabinet here have acted with much littleness in their treatment of him. I rec d a letter from Colden declaring the fallacy of his project. I had long before lost all faith in it & had taken no steps concerning it, in this country. I beg you will remember me with great , LIVERPOOL, AUGUST 19M1 1815 regard to Mrs. & Miss Bradish & Miss Clay- poole. I sent a No. of Byron's Hebrew Melodies to Miss B by Mr. Clay which I hope she received. Give my hearty recollections to those two worthies Walker and Johnson and my good wishes to all the household — I shall write you more particularly soon. Yours ever W.I. P.S. Should you in the course of your journeyings see my fair friend Mrs. Campbell of Philadelphia give her my sincere regards. If you visit Philadelphia I am sure their home will be one of your favorite resorts. I shall attend to your request concerning Old Books, and shall peep into all the little stalls that I meet with. i LIVERPOOL, AUGUST 23d 1815 Liverpool, August 23- 18 15. DEAR BREVOORT: — I wrote you a hasty letter a few days since which you will receive per the Gen 1 Hamilton. — Since then I have rec d your letter by the Pacific, and have again to express my sense of this attention. I had purposed writing you a long & particular letter; but have been so much engaged in scribbling to various per- sons, and in attending a little to our business here, on account of Peter's indisposition, that I have no time to write leisurely & fully. I am very glad to hear that you are likely, to make an arrangement with the N. W. Co. on advantageous terms. I am satisfied that in your hands it will turn to profitable ac- count, though I think with you that nothing but a prospect of very considerable & certain gain should tempt you in any wise to link your fortunes with others, or place your inde- pendence of life & action in any wise in their control. 122 LIVERPOOL, AUGUST 2 3 <* 1815 I trust your operations on this side of the water will be successful, though you made rather a bad outset in remitting specie. Our business I trust will be very good — it certainly will be very great, this year, and will give us credit, if not. profit. Not withstanding that Peter has been an invalid, and confined to the house almost continually since the Treaty of Ghent,. yet he has managed to get through an immensity of business. He is slowly getting over his complaint; but is very much afflicted at present with the rheumatism. He has very comfortable & handsome apartments in Bold St. where I reside at present with him. Thomas, that mirror of silent & discreet domestics, still acts as his Squire; and retains the same immovable solemnity of muscle that marked his countenance when you were here. I do not know whether I mentioned to you my having become acquainted with Little Booth, during my short visit to London. I visited her several times and was very much 123 LIVERPOOL, AUGUST 23d 1815 charmed with her. She frequently mentioned you with great regard. Little Fidel is still in full fire & vigour — and one of the most tyranni- cal little villains that ever existed. He ramps & roars & rages at his little mistress with such tremendous violence that I was more than ever afraid that he would swallow her alive. While at London I made an excursion to Sydenham to visit Mr. Campbell — unfortu- nately he was not at home. I spent an hour in conversation with Mrs. Campbell — who is a most engaging & interesting woman. Camp- bell was still engaged in getting his critical work through the press — and as he is a rigid censor of his own works — correcting is as laborious as composition to him. He alters & amends until the last moment. I am in hopes when he has this work off his hands, he will attempt another poem. Mrs. C gave 1 me some anecdotes of Scott — but none so remarkable as to dwell in my memory. He has lost much by the failure of the Ballan- 124 LIVERPOOL, AUGUST 23d 1815 tynes, but is as merry & unconcerned to all appearance as ever — one of the happiest fellows that ever wrote poetry. I find it is very much doubted whether he is the Author of Waverly & Guy Mannering — Brown, one of the publishers, positively says he is not. It is reported that another novel will soon make its appearance from the same hand, called the Antiquarian. I was agreeably surprised the other day by the arrival of long Peter Ogden — the hero ot New Orleans (to use an American expression). He is likely to be a good deal in Liverpool and will have lodgings in our neighborhood. Lawrence and his wife (late Fanny Ogden) have likewise arrived. I saw them just after their landing. They have had a remarkably fine voyage. This place swarms with Ameri- cans — you never saw a more motley race of beings — some seem as if just from the woods, and yet stalk about the streets & public places with all the easy nonchalance that they would 125 LIVERPOOL, AUGUST 23d 1815 about their own villages. Nothing can sur- pass the dauntless independence of all form, ceremony, fashion or regulation of a down- right, unsophisticated American. Since the war too, particularly, one lad seems to think they are "salt of the earth," and the legiti- mate lords of creation. It would delight you to see some of them playing Indians when surrounded by the wonders & improvements of the old world. It is impossible to match these fellows with anything on this side of the water. Let an Englishman talk of the Battle of Waterloo & they will immediately bring New Orleans & Plattsburgh. A thorough bred, thoroughly appointed soldier, is nothing to a Kentucky Rifleman — as to British Lakes & rivers they are completely drowned in Lake Superior & the Mississippi. The Welsh Mountains are mole hills to the Alleghany— and as to all mechanical improvements they are totally eclipsed & annihilated by an American Steam Boat. 126 LIVERPOOL, AUGUST 23d 1815 I have had no letter from Thomas since I have been in England — which rather sur- prises me, knowing his great propensity to write even when he has nothing to say. How does the magazine come on? I shall continue to find out periodical works for it until I can make some arrangement in London to take the troublesome duty off our hands. I should like to see the National Intelli- gencer, now, that Jim is writing for it. These late triumphs on the continent will be sore blows to Jim's plans — they will materially delay the great object of his life — the over- throw of the British Empire. His grand coadjutor Poor Boney has at length left the coast — for St. Helena. I must say I think the Cabinet has acted with littleness toward him. In spite of all his misdeeds he is a noble fellow, — and I am confident will eclipse in the eyes of Posterity, all the crowned wiseacres that have crushed him by their overwhelming confederacy. 127 LIVERPOOL, AUGUST 23d 1815 If any thing could place the Prince Regent in a more ridiculous light, it is Bonaparte su- ing for his magnanimous protection. — E very- compliment paid to this bloated sensual- ist, this inflation of sack & sugar, turns to the keenest sarcasm — and nothing shows more completely the caprices of fortune and how truly she delights in reversing the relative situations of persons & baffling the flights of intellect & enterprizes — than that, of all the monarchs of Europe, Bonaparte should be brought to the feet of the Prince Regent. "An eagle towering in his pride of place Was by a mousing owl hawked at & killed." In mentioning Mrs. Campbell I ought to have told you that she spoke very particu- larly and very kindly of you. You were also inquired after by various good people of Birmingham, particularly the Binghams, where Renwick & myself dined. You may recollect the family. The old Gentleman is a hearty good humoured, right down John Bull, 128 LIVERPOOL, AUGUST 23d 1815 has very pretty & amiable daughters, one of them a little lame & a charming woman for a wife. It is a family where Peter is fond of visiting. During the short stays I have made at Birmingham I have found several very agree- able acquaintances among the neighbours. My only acquaintances as yet in this place are the families of Mr. Richard & Mr. Woolsey. Mr. Richards is at present out of town. Mrs. Woolsey you must certainly recollect. She is a perfect lady and a most amiable interesting woman — she likewise mentioned you in very flattering terms. Remember me to Mrs. Bradishes family & household. Peter Ogden tells me that my old friend & quondam Vassal William served him as Valet de place during his residence in N York. The good old man must feel much comfort in the restoration of the Bourbons. Yours ever W.I. VOL. I. 9. 129 LIVERPOOL, AUGUST 23d 1815 P.S. If you can at any time find me pam- phlets, newspapers &c I should be very glad to see them — you may leave them at our counting room to be forwarded by private hand. By a regulation of the last parliament all letters &c arriving from abroad are subject to full postage — and from a blunder in the Act, Newspapers &c are subject to equal postage with letters, so that a parcel of News- papers will come to perhaps a couple of Guineas; This prevents their being taken out of the post office & completely balks us in the reception of news in that way. It is expected that a provision will be made when parliament meets permitting them to be delivered with light postage — until then how- ever the only mode of getting them to us is privately, by the hands of Captains or passengers. 130 LIVERPOOL, SEPTEMBER 8* 1815 Liverpool, Sept. 8- 18 15. DEAR BREVOORT: — I have just returned from accompanying Peter as far as Manchester, on his way to Harrowgate. He bore his journey so far very well, and yesterday I saw him off from Manchester, very comfortably stowed away in a Chaise, loaded with as many conveniences as the "Happy Man" whom you encountered of yore in Wales, and attended by his faithful, discreet, and taciturn man, Thomas — or as we more correctly call him "Solemn Silence." I trust the waters of Harrowgate will com- pletely restore both skin & bone, which is nearly all that remains of him. I shall remain here as long as the fall business requires my presence, and then join him at Harrowgate. I have not heard any thing of Conger since I saw him in London, except when in Bath, on my way to Wales. He had promised to meet me in Bath and accompany Renwick and myself on our Welsh Tour, but on inquir- 131 LIVERPOOL, SEPTEMBER 8* 1815 ing for him in that city I heard that he was at some watering place & would not return in some days. I am in hopes of soon seeing Charles King in Liverpool to await the arrival of his family. I saw much of him while in London and, as you may suppose, found him a most desirable companion, in the Metro- polis. Charles is exactly what an American should be abroad — frank, manly & unaffected in his habits & manners, liberal & independent in his opinions, generous & unprejudiced in his sentiments towards other nations, but most loyally attached to his own. Peter received a letter some few days since, from Colin Robertson, dated on the Banks of the Superior. — He was to return by the way of Hudson Bay. He mentions having heard of your intention of doing business with the N W — but hoped that it is only Commission business — as he thought that Comp? on the decline. He seems very sanguine as to the business in which he is engaged. 132 LIVERPOOL, SEPTEMBER 8^ 1815 I have not heard any thing of Madame Bonaparte since her arrival in this country, except that the newspapers mention her being at Cheltenham. There are so many huge stars and comets thrown out of their orbits & whirling about the world at present, that a little star, like Mad™ B. attracts but slight attention, even though she draws after her so sparkling a tail as the Wiggins family. I regret very much that I was not in Liver- pool when she arrived. I should have liked to have congratulated the little lady on the prospect of a speedy consummation of the great wish of her heart, a visit to Paris — and I should have delighted to bask in the sweet smiles of Mrs. W. and her charming sister. We were very uneasy some few days since from news from the family of the Van Tromps that little Irving had received a violent contusion in the head by a fall from a Pony — he however is now perfectly recovered, having inherited a solid Dutch head from his father. 133 LIVERPOOL, SEPTEMBER 8* 1815 By mistake one of our clerks has just put a small parcel of music, for Miss Bradish, in the letter bag of the Pacific — I had intended to have sent it by private hand. They are merely a few fashionable songs. I can't say much as to the selection. Liverpool is not the best place to get new music, & these were chosen by another hand. Give my regards to Mrs. Bradish & her daughter — and my hearty remembrances to Johnson Walker & all the household. In great haste, Yours sincerely W. I. 134 LIVERPOOL, SEPTEMBER 26ft 1815 Liverpool, Sept. 26- 181 5. MY DEAR BREVOORT: — I have at this moment so many things to attend to and letters to write, and the ship by which I send this is so immediately on the wing, that I have barely time to scrawl a few lines. I cannot lose a moment, however, in returning you a thousand thanks for your delightful letters by the Minerva Smyth. They were exactly such as a man wishes, when away from home; and if you knew how much they gratified me, I am sure you would think the trouble of them compensated a hundred fold. The Minerva Smyth arrived the night before last. Yesterday morning I heard of her being in the river, and to my utter astonishment, that the worthy Governor was on board. I was ready to exclaim, "Stands Scotland where it did?" for it really seemed as if one of the pillars of the earth had quit its base to take a ramble. The world is surely topsy-turvy 135 LIVERPOOL, SEPTEMBER 26^ 181 5 and its inhabitants all shaken out of place. Emperors and kings, statesmen and philoso- phers, Bonaparte, Alexander, Johnson, and the Wiggins's, all strolling about the face of the earth. No sooner did I hear of the interesting group that had come out in the Minerva Smyth, than, with my usual excitement, which is apt to put me in a fever, and make me over- shoot my mark, I got a boat and set off for the ship, which lay about three miles off. The weather was boisterous — the Mersey rough. I got well ducked; and, when I arrived on board, had the satisfaction to hear that my eagerness had, as usual, led me upon a wild-goose chase, and that, had I made the least inquiry, I should have found the pas- sengers had all landed early in the morning. Away then I paddled across the river; and the tide being contrary, was landed at the upper part of Liverpool; had to trudge two miles through dirty lanes and alleys; was two or 136 LIVERPOOL, SEPTEMBER 26^ 1815 three times entangled among the docks, and baulked by drawbridges thrown open, so that it was afternoon before I got to the Liverpool Arms, where I found the party all comfortably housed. I cannot tell you how rejoiced I was to take the worthy Governor by the hand and to find myself in the delightful little circle which brought New York so completely home to my recollection and feelings. Mrs. King has made an excellent sailor — and the children are in fine health and spirits. Little Eliza is as wild as an Indian and delighted with everything around her. Little Hatty is a beautiful creature and the Boy a noble animal ! I never saw a nobler child. I dined with them and passed four hours most happily in talking over past scenes and distant friends. Charles King has not arrived yet, but I expect he will be here to-morrow or next day. Mrs. King is in better health than when I left New York and is in excellent spirits. The 137 LIVERPOOL, SEPTEMBER 26* 1815 children have absolutely astonished the people at the hotel. You know the great decorum of the English and the system of quiet and reserve by which their children are brought to behave like little men and women — whereas the little Kings, who are full of spirits and health, are just as noisy and frolicksome as if out at Hellgate — and racket about the hotel just as they would at Papa Grade's in State St. I was infinitely amused with their rantipole gambols — the little creatures are like birds let loose from a cage. Eliza King showed me, with great pride, a certificate of the good behaviour of herself and Hatty, during the voyage, signed by the passengers. Peter is at Harrowgate, taking the waters — he writes that he finds himself much better — though still troubled with the rheumatism. I am remaining in Liverpool to finish our fall business and get the establishment here in perfect order — after which I shall join Peter. I will write you more particularly when I 138 LIVERPOOL, SEPTEMBER 26!* 1815 have a moment's time. Remember me to all the household and to your family. Yours truly W.I. I mentioned in a previous letter that little Booth had been ill at Hertford during a Dramatic Tour. She is perfectly recovered and performs in London. She was so dan- gerously ill that at one time she was given over by the Physicians. I have become acquainted with the Graemes who speak of you with great kindness. I shall give you further account of them when I write particularly. I am very much pleased with them. I have met them with a Mrs. Donovan, a very young and beautiful woman. She looks something like Mrs. Murphy — do you recol- lect her? By the way I am glad to hear that Mrs. Murphy is over now in New York — remember me to her with great regard. I hope she retains her beauty. 139 LIVERPOOL, OCTOBER 17* 18 15 Liverpool, Oct. 1/- 18 15. DEAR BREVOORT: — I write merely to tell you that you must not think me negligent in my correspondence. I will most certainly write to you amply when I have time; but for several weeks past I have been more really busy than I ever was in my life. As I am a complete novice in business it of course takes up my whole time and completely occupies my mind, so that at present I am as dull commonplaced a fellow as ever figured upon Change. When I once more emerge from the mud of Liverpool, and shake off the sordid cares of the Counting House, you shall hear from me. Indeed the present life I lead is utterly destitute of anecdote, or anything that could furnish interest or embellishment to a letter — & my imagination is too much jaded by pounds shillings and pence to be able to invent facts or adorn realities. By my last letter from Peter I learn that he 140 LIVERPOOL, OCTOBER 17* 1815 was about to leave Harrowgate & limp toward Birmingham. His health was generally better, but his inveterate rheumatic complaint still torments him and renders him so much a crip- ple that he can scarcely walk about the room. I am in hope of being able to visit the good folks at Birmingham in a little while & shall feel right glad to turn my back upon Liverpool for a season. I have been too much occupied here to think much of society or amusement, otherwise I should have found the place rather triste. As I did not expect to pass any time in Liverpool, I brought out no letters for the place & of course know scarce any one except those with whom I have dealings in business. I have experienced very hospitable treatment from Mr. Woolsey, Davidson & Macgregor & find honest Richards' house quite a home. But there is a great lack of companions of my own taste and turn. I have become very well acquainted with the Graemes and am very much pleased with 141 LIVERPOOL, OCTOBER 17* 1815 them — Lawrence Graeme has lately returned home on furlough. I am sorry he was not able to pass through N York on his return from Canada — he appears to be a very fine young man. Miss Grace is as blooming as Hebe. She is very much given to write poetry, not withstanding the severe criticisms of the Old Colonel, who like honest Burchell, cries fudge ! at the end of every stanza. Renwick is still in Scotland figuring amongst the Caledonian Hunts. I have not had a letter from him since his departure for the North, but hear of him occasionally through David- son. I expect he has mounted a pair of Leather Breeches and is playing off the know- ing one of the turf. I have not heard anything of little Madame Bonaparte for sometime. My last accounts mentioned her as being still at Cheltenham enjoying herself greatly. The Wiggins were likewise there, honest Wiggins confined to his room by the rheumatism. 142 LIVERPOOL, OCTOBER 17* 1815 Johnson is still in Liverpool. I occasionally meet him at Dinner & on Change — and we talk over old times and the many illustrious events that happened under his merciful & glorious government. I hope you will accept this as an apology for a letter. I am writing in real hurry — give my affectionate remembrances to Mrs. & Miss Bradish & Miss Claypoole if still with you & my hearty regards to the household. Your friend W.I. 143 LIVERPOOL, NOVEMBER 2«l 1815 Liverpool, Nov. 2 l 1815. DEAR BREVOORT: — Mr. Richards put in my hands some few days since a letter from you, ordering a num- ber of Books. As honest Richards seldom meddles with any books beyond his counting house library he handed the order to me requesting I would attend to it. I have put it in the hands of Mr. Muncaster, a Bookseller of this place, who will gather together the works, and get as many of them as possible in sheets, that they may be bound up here, according to my directions. He has promised to put them at as favorable terms as they could be procured from any of the trade. He is the Bookseller from whom Peter has been in the habit of procuring all the periodical and other publications sent out to me for two or three years past, and is very fair and reasonable in his dealings. As Murray is not the publisher of the greater part of the works, he would not be able to af- 144 LIVERPOOL, NOVEMBER 2* 1815 ford them cheaper than Mr, Muncaster. They shall be forwarded to you as soon as possible. I wish I had anything interesting or agree- able to tell you, but I have been for some time past completely occupied in the concerns of our Liverpool establishment, and as I am a novice in business, they have engrossed my whole attention and render me good for nothing else. Peter is in Birmingham where I hope to join him next week, and have a little relaxation from my labours. I anticipate much gratification from the assemblage of our family forces in the redoubtable castle of the Van Tromps. I was introduced a day or two since to Mrs. Wood, lately returned from Scotland, one of the ladies of New Abbey, where you used to figure during your Scottish campaign. She appears to be a very frank, pleasant woman and I have no doubt I shall be still more pleased on further acquaintance. The Graeme and his clan are all well. The VOL. I. — 10. I45 LIVERPOOL, NOVEMBER 2* 1815 fair Grace continues most desperately poetical, in spite of the criticisms of the old Colonel and the rest of the family, who treat her poor Muse in the most unfeeling manner. I have unfortunately got entangled in an obstinate critical warfare with her on a passage in one of her poems, where she compares the eye of her hero to a sparkling gem set in a pearly sea. To this I objected most stoutly, inasmuch as I have never heard of anything set in the sea except the sun. I would allow her hero a pearly tear, or what was more probably the case, a drop in his eye, or if she pleased a cataract, but as to having a sea in his eye, it was altogether inadmissible — unless he was some aspiring dignitary of the Church. The Colonel's son George is home on fur- lough. He was wounded in the Battle of Waterloo — he is a fine animated handsome little fellow and extremely agreeable. The Colonel's little family group is unconsciously pleasing and interesting. 146 LIVERPOOL, NOVEMBER 2^ 181 5 Andrew Hamilton arrived here about a fortnight since and has gone up to London, from whence, when regularly equipped and fitted out he was to go to Cheltenham where Mrs. O'Berne has been passing the fashion- able season. I have heard nothing of Mad. Bonaparte excepting that she was fashionable at Cheltenham and had taken lodgings sepa- rate from the Wiggins's. Johnson is still in Liverpool and will remain here some time longer. Peter Ogden is likewise here and waxing very fat. James Renwick is playing the roaring blade in Scotland. I am told by good authority that he has fleeced all the old ladies in Dumfries at cards — and has got the character among them of a perfect leg. Yours ever W. I. 147 BIRMINGHAM, DECEMBER 28* 181 5 Birmingham, Dec. 28- 1815. DEAR BREVOORT: — It is a long while since I have heard from you, and since your last, we have been very uneasy in consequence of hearing of your being dangerously ill. Subsequent accounts, however, have again put you on your legs and relieved us from our anxiety. I have lately been on a short visit to London; merely to see sights and visit public places. Our worthy friend, Johnson, and his brother arrived in town while I was there, and we were frequently together. The Governor enjoyed the amuse- ments of London with high zest, and like myself, was a great frequenter of the theatres — particularly when Miss O'Nealle performed. We both agreed that were you in England you would infallibly fall in love with this "divine perfection of a woman." She is, to my eyes, the most soul subduing actress I ever saw. I do not mean from her personal charms, which are great, but from the truth, 148 BIRMINGHAM, DECEMBER 28* 1815 force and pathos of her acting. I never have been so completely melted, moved and over- come at a theatre as by her performances. I do not think much of the other novelties of the day. Mrs. Mardyn, about whom much has been said and written, is vulgar without humour and hoydenish without real whim *and vivacity. She is pretty, but a very bad actress. Kean — the prodigy — is to me in- sufferable. He is vulgar — full of trick and a complete mannerist. This is merely my opinion. He is cried up as a second Garrick — as a reformer of the stage, etc., etc., — it may be so. He may be right and all other actors wrong — this is certain, he is either very good or very bad. I think decidedly the latter; and I find no medium opinions concerning him. I am delighted with Young, who acts with great judgment, discrimination and feeling, I think him much the best actor at present on the English stage. His Hamlet is a very 149 BIRMINGHAM, DECEMBER 28* 1815 fine performance, as is likewise his Stranger, Pierre, Chamout, etc. I have not seen his Macbeth, which I should not suppose could equal Cooper's. In fact in certain characters, such as may be classed with Macbeth, I do not think that Cooper has his equal in England. Young is the only actor I have seen that can be compared with him. I cannot help think- ing if Cooper had a fair chance, and the public were to see him in his principal characters, he would take the lead at one of the London theatres. But there is so much party work, managerial influence, and such a widely spread and elaborate system of falsehood and mis- representation connected with the London theatres, that a stranger who is not peculiarly favored by the managers, or assisted by the prepossessions of the public, stands no chance. I shall never forget Cooper's acting in Mac- beth last spring, when he was stimulated to exertion by the presence of a number of British officers. I have seen nothing equal to it in 150 BIRMINGHAM, DECEMBER 28* 18 15 England. Cooper requires excitement, to arouse him from a monotonous, commonplaced manner he is apt to fall into, in consequence of acting so often before indifferent houses. I presume the crowded audiences which I am told have filled our theatres this season, must bring him out in full splendour. While at London, I saw Campbell, who is busily employed printing his long promised work. The publisher has been extremely dilatory, and has kept poor Campbell linger- ing over the pages of this work for months longer than was necessary. He will in a little while get through with the printing of it, but it will not be published before spring. As usual, he is busy correcting, al- tering and adding to it, to the last, and cannot turn his mind to anything else until this is out of hand. I am writing this letter at the warehouse, while waiting for Van Wart to go home to dinner — he is nearly ready and I must con- 151 BIRMINGHAM, DECEMBER 28* 1815 elude; but will write to' you again soon, and give you more chit-chat. Peter continues a cripple from the rheuma- tism and is confined to the house; I do not think he will be able to go abroad before spring. He, however, is very cheerful under his maladies. All the Van Tromps are well and in high spirits from the Christmas holidays. I saw Charles King and family the very day I left London, where they had just arrived. They were in fine health and spirits. They tell me James Renwick was enjoying himself in Edinburgh. I have not heard from him for a long time. I had a long letter from Mrs. Renwick some time since and meant to have answered it before this, but have not been in the letter writing mood. I shall soon however pay off all debts of the kind. Remember me affectionately to Mrs. and Miss Bradish and your family. I rejoice to hear Gouv Kemble has returned safe and hope his voyage has 152 BIRMINGHAM, DECEMBER 28* 1815 been advantageous, but the war was too short to yield much pickings. I am, dear Brevoort (in great haste and hunger) Affectionately yours W.I. 153 BIRMINGHAM, MARCH 15* 18 16 Birmingham, March 15- 1816. MY DEAR BREVOORT: — I have received your most kind letter of Feby 10th and also the Magazines and News- papers forwarded by Mr. Selden. I believe I am also still in your debt for your letter of the 1 Jarf; but indeed I have been so com-- pletely driven out of my usual track of thought and feeling, by "stress of weather" in business that I have not been able to pen a single line on any subject that was not connected with traffic. I have therefore a host of friendly letters by me, unanswered, but shall now endeavour to reply to them without further procrastination. We have, in common with most American houses here, had a hard winter of it in many manners, owing to the cross pur- poses of last fall's business, and have been harassed to death to meet our engagements. I have never passed so anxious a time in my life — my rest has been broken & my health & spirits almost prostrated; but thank heavens 154 BIRMINGHAM, MARCH 15* 1816 we have weathered the storm & got into smooth waters; and I begin to feel myself again. Brown has done wonders, and proved himself an able financeer, and, tho' a small man, a perfect giant in business. I cannot help maintaining that James Renwick has behaved in the most gratifying manner. At a time when we were exceedingly straightened I wrote to him begging to know if he could in any way assist us to a part of the amount we were deficient. He immediately opened a credit to us for the full amount, guaranteeing the payment of it and asking no security from us than our bare word. The manner in which this was done heightened the merit of it — from the contrast it formed to the extreme distrust and tenfold caution that had universally prevailed through the commercial world of England, in the present distressed times. I mention this because I know you will delight to hear anything that tends to illustrate the worth of Renwick — whom, the more I know 155 BIRMINGHAM, MARCH 15* 1816 of him, the more I find reason to value & admire. You mention that Renwick's letters induce you to imagine that his spirits are depressed and harassed. I have not ob- served this — you know he is not one of those mercurial beings that are readily excited or cast down ; and whatever may be the state of his mind,, it has no remarkable operation on the even tenor of his deportment. I believe he has been worried with law business in England, which is not the most pleasant occupation: but he has been spending his win- ter very agreeably & advantageously in Edin- burgh, and is now on a short tour in France ; on his return he will embark at Liverpool for New York, where he is very anxious to be. I was delighted with your information that Gouv Kemble intended coming out to remain at Liverpool. Peter has since had a letter from him confirming it, and it has occasioned great joy in the castle of the Van Tromps. What would I not give if you could likewise 156 BIRMINGHAM, MARCH 15ft 1816 join us; but it would be selfish to wish it; as I am sure your interest will be better consulted by remaining in New York; and eventually your happiness also. Whatever gratifica- tion you might derive from wandering for a while about Europe, the enjoyment would but be temporary; and dependent upon continual novelty & frequent change of plan; but the solid permanent happiness of life must spring from some settled home: and where would you find a home like N York? I declare to you, now that I find myself likely to be detained in Europe by unexpected employment I often feel my heart yearning toward N York and the dear circle of friends I have left there. I recollect the thousand charms of existence which surrounded us there, and am astonished to think how in- sensible we were to them — but so it is, we are always regretting the past, or languishing for the distant; every spot is fresh & green but the one we stand on. 157 BIRMINGHAM, MARCH 15th 1816 Your account of James Paulding's engage- ment & probability of the marriage soon taking place somewhat surprised, but at the same time gratified me. I am satisfied Paulding's talents will secure his fortunes with the ruling party and he will make a good husband and be all the happier for the change of condition. It is what we must all come to at last. I see you are hankering after it, and I confess I have done so for a long time past. We are however past that period when a man marries suddenly & inconsiderately — we may be longer making a choice, and consulting the convenience & concurrence of every circum- stance, but we shall both come to it sooner or later. I therefore recommend you to marry without delay — you have sufficient means, connected with your knowledge & habits of business, to support a genteel establishment and I am certain that as soon as you are married you will experience a change in your ideas. All those vagabond, 158 BIRMINGHAM, MARCH 15* 1816 roving propensities will cease. They are the offspring of idleness of mind and a want of something to fix the feelings. You are like a bark without an anchor, that drifts about at the mercy of every vagrant breeze, or trifling eddy — get a wife & she'll anchor you. But don't marry a fool because she has a pretty face — and don't seek after a great Belle — get such a girl as Mary Baillie — or get her if you can; though I am afraid she has still an un- lucky kindness at heart for poor Bibby, which will stand in the way of her fortunes. I wish to God they were rich, and married, and happy. By the bye, Bibby arrived in London while I was there and put up at the same Hotel with me, so that we were daily together. He is shortly to make his debut at Covent Garden in Sir Pertinax. It is a most hazardous attempt. I feel very anxious for his success, but entertain strong apprehensions that the public may not take his imitations in the right 159 BIRMINGHAM, MARCH 15* 1816 way. In these matters, it is all luck. I wished him to make his first appearance in some character suitable to his age, appearance & manner such as Belcom; which he would certainly play at least tolerably & prepossess by his personal advantages and appropriate deportment, & thus secure some foothold with the public — but he was determined to go for the whole & perhaps he is right. But should he fail, he falls into utter D n, whereas my plan would have given him a leading place in public opinion. Before this you will have learnt the fate of poor Angelica Livingston. — I will not make any trite remarks on such an event — in my short experience I have seen so many lovely beings swept from the circle of my intimacy that I almost have grown callous to the shock — but the news of poor Angelica's death reached me in a moment of loneliness & depression and affected me most deeply. I have heard that Serena's health is likewise 160 BIRMINGHAM, MARCH 15* 1816 extremely delicate. — I hope she may take warning by the irreparable losses she has sustained, and take more care of her fragile frame, — she always looked too delicate and spiritual for this rough, coarse world. You say she often inquires after me. — Give her assurances of my constant recollection — she is the heroine of all my poetical thoughts where they would picture anything very feminine and lovely. But where is the hero of romance worthy to bear away so peerless a face? — Not among the worthy young traders of New York most certainly. I have had much gratification from the epistles of that worthy little Tar, Jack Nichol- son; who I find still sighs in the bottom of his heart for the fair Serena; though he declares that his hopes do not aspire to such perfection. Why did not the Varlet bring home the head of Rais Hammida & lay it at her feet; that would have been a chivalric exploit few ladies could have withstood — and if Paulding had VOL. I. — II. I6l BIRMINGHAM, MARCH 15* 1816 only dished him up in full length (if I may be allowed' the word) in a wood-cut in the Naval Chronicle like little David of yore with the head of Goliah in his fist; I think his suit would have been irresistible. In his last letter Nicholson talks something of the possibility of his visiting England this year. I hope government will keep him better employed, though I should receive him with open arms and be more than glad at the meeting. But I want him to continue in the career of honour and promotion and hope before many years to greet him as a Commodore. You desire me in your letters to give you anecdotes of characters that I meet with and of anything interesting or amusing that occurs in the course of my rovings. But in truth I had been so much engrossed by the cares of this world for some time past that I have not sought any society of the kind you are conscious about. My last stay in London which was for two months was a period of 162 BIRMINGHAM, MARCH 15* 18 16 great anxiety and I felt in no mood to form new acquaintances, or even to enjoy scenes around me. I seem to have lost my cast, and to have lost also all relish and aptitude for my usual pursuits. I hope to be able hereafter to give you more interesting letters. I think I shall visit Scotland this Summer, and if I can arrange matters shall previously make a short excursion to Paris, in May or June. My movements however must depend on various circumstances connected with busi- ness and Peter's health. He is still confined to the house; but more from extreme delicacy, in consequence of long nursing, than from any positive indisposition. When the Spring advances & the weather becomes settled & warm he will be able to take air & exercise. I long to have him reinstated, that he may accompany me in my outdoor rambles. I almost begin to lose all idea of him as a man of health & vigour. During my last visit to London, as I was 163 BIRMINGHAM, MARCH 15* 1816 one day strolling in Bond Street whom should I encounter but little cousin John, alias Tophet. You may be sure I was astonished at the reconnoitre ; and not less pleased. The surprise was equal on his part, as he knew nothing of my being in England, and indeed had heard at one time that I was dead. He gave me another Volume of his eventful history; which certainly rivals that of Gil Bias. He is in great favour with the Governor of Trinidad, and has an office worth 2,000$ per ann. besides other casual employments which assist to keep him comfortable. He has come to England in quest of a new office which it was expected would be made by Parliament, this session — but as it does not at present seem probable he thinks of returning. I saw him almost daily during the remainder of my stay in town. He is just the same honest, warm hearted, queer, amusing little fish — and is full of his recollections of New York which he thinks rather a preferable place to heaven. 164 BIRMINGHAM, MARCH 15th 1816 When I was last in Liverpool (about 2 mo?, since) your Books were in a state of great forwardness — I have not heard since about them but trust they must have been shipped. I shall write down on the subject & likewise attend to your request in purchasing & send- ing out others. You do not mention whether you are likely to make any arrangement with McTavish & the N. W. Company. I really feel great interest in your temporal as well as spiritual concerns and should like to know how you are making out in the world & what are your plans. If you remain in N York I think you ought to have some regular employment that should occupy part of your time and claim your personal attention. It would prevent that ennui of which you complain, and under which, in my days of Idleness I have so often suffered. Mere study will not do — it must be employment for the hands, where no great intellect is required; so that it may be attended 165 BIRMINGHAM, MARCH 15* 1816 to in every mood of mind; and engage the attention when too enfeebled or relaxed for more intellectual pursuits. By letters from Johnson, at Liverpool, I find he is on the point of sailing for New York, to resume the Government of a Colony. I can fancy the great joy that will be diffused throughout the establishment on his return & would give more than I choose to mention to be present on the occasion. He will give you some idea of the gay dissipated life we lead in London; where he figured in great style in the west end of the town. I am very happy to hear that Mrs. Bradish and Eliza have recovered their health in a great degree, and hope to hear in my next letters of their perfect reestablishment. Give them my most affectionate regards and tell Mrs. Bradish that often & often this winter in London, when I have been suffering in my solitary chamber from a cold and indisposi- tion, have I wished myself under her fostering 166 BIRMINGHAM, MARCH 15* 1816 care and partaking of her grand specific, wine whey. By the mass, I look back with as much longing to her bounteous establishment, as ever the children of Israel did to the flesh pots of Egypt, or Tom Philips, to Norton's kitchen. I wish you would give me a particular account of the whole household not forgetting old William, Fanny, and Flora & her offspring. — I hope the latter are cherished for my sake. I shall endeavour in a day or two to pay off my arrearages to Mrs. Renwick for her long & delightful letter received last November. — I have not been in the vein of writing since or it should have long since been answered. William Renwick arrived in Liverpool during my absences so that I have not seen him. I have had also a very agreeable letter from Sam Swartwout giving a promising account of his farm and his little wife, both of which promise to be very productive. I hope he may have abundant cause of rejoicing from both. 167 BIRMINGHAM, MARCH 15M1 1816 And now I must bring this garrulous scrawl to a conclusion, as I have many other letters to write now I am in the vein. — What a scrimble-scramble letter I have written ! How- ever, I have scribbled away just as I have been accustomed to talk to you — perfectly un- studied and unreserved, trusting to your friendship to excuse weaknesses and your discretion not to repeat confidings. Many parts of this letter I would not have trusted to any eye but yours, for though there are no matters of great secrecy, yet they are foolish thoughts & feelings that I would not wish repeated — so keep them to yourself. I wish you would send me the numbers of the Analectic Mag. that have the traits of Indian character — & the story of King Philip; like- wise a copy of the History of New York — send them by the first opportunity. By the bye I have never heard whether a quantity of music that Peter sent out for me, & which must have arrived shortly after I left 168 BIRMINGHAM, MARCH 15* 1816 America, was ever delivered according to my di- rection to the Misses Livingston; and if so, how it pleased. I wish you would let me know. And now, my dear fellow, with my best remembrances to your worthy parents and family I have only to give you the affectionate regards & hearty blessing of your friend W.I. P. S. I am highly pleased with a favourable account I have received from others as well as yourself, of little Newman. I have had no letter from him, at which I am disappointed, but suppose he did not know where I was exactly. I wish, should his Ship come to New York, you would be attentive to him & see if he wants any assistance in procuring Books; or anything that may be of real service to him in acquiring useful information. His other wants will be taken care of; and perhaps Decatur's idea is correct, — that young officers should be taught to live on their pay, as it makes them careful managers. 169 BIRMINGHAM, MARCH 15* 1816 King Stephen must have arrived long before this letter with his cargo of live stock. I have seen none of the folks act that he has taken out; but should think that Barnes & his wife would be acquisitions. He offered Miss O'Neale 6,ooo£ for one year's engagement to perform in the American Theatres — but her engagements here would not permit her to accept the offer. She continues in great currency & is shortly to appear in comedy. Little Booth is well & often speaks of you — she has lost Fidele, who died of the gout in his stomach from high living — thank God for this dispensation — he was a cursed noisy nasty little cur though his little mistress took on sadly for his loss. Charles King & his family are all alive & merry in London where I have frequently the pleasure of seeing them. It was like being in New York to get among his joyous household. Farewell. W.I. LIVERPOOL, APRIL 29* 1816 Liverpool, April 2Q l - 18 16. MY DEAR BREVOORT: — I wrote you a rigmarole letter some time since from Birmingham. Since then I have been most of the time at Liverpool leading a most dreary life; for the hard times here make every body dismal. Peter is still at Birmingham, and the Spring has been so backward that he has not been able to trust his rheumatic limbs out of the house. Your books were forwarded some time since by Ogden Richards & Selden. They ought to have been sent out long before but the Book- seller sent the Box thro' mistake to our Ware- house instead of Richards', and our clerks had no directions concerning them. So they reclined quietly in a corner until my arrival. By this opportunity I send you the last num- ber of the Edinburgh Review, which is just out — it will come in the letter bag. There is a Surtout, close Bodied coat & Waist coat for you at our Counting House. I shall forward 171 LIVERPOOL, APRIL 29th 1816 it by the Rosalie, Capt. Murray, to sail 8th of next month. I presume before this you have seen accounts from the London Papers of Bibby's first appearance in Sir Pertinax. The criticisms are favourable beyond my hopes. Even that stern critic the Examiner speaks in the highest terms of him. These favourable accounts are confirmed by a letter from Miss Booth to my Brother, who says "he acted excellently well." She says the Boxes were uncommonly brilliant; that there was occasional disturb- ance from the Galleries which were crowded by holiday people who had come to see a new afterpiece and who, not being able to hear themselves, determined that nobody else should. — At length the pit rose, hats waved, & pit & boxes united in applause long and loud, after which the piece went admirably; and he made his exit amidst "the most general applause she ever heard." This is a very satisfactory account, as we may depend upon 172 LIVERPOOL, APRIL 29th 18 16 it — which we cannot do on newspaper criticisms. She added, "I don't know why the play has not yet been repeated; a few days I believe will decide the determination of the managers in his behalf. I hear they wish him to act some other character instead of Sir Pert* which, if he does, he will be lost, for it will be the general opinion that he failed in that — and if he plays Shylock he brings Kean's friends upon him before he has sufficient hold of the town to crush any attempt of party." You see poor Bibby has his hands full and a very difficult card to play. These London managers are hard fellows to deal with. I should not be surprised if the real object is their wish to make a three years engagement with Bibby — which they hinted at when he first applied, in case he should succeed, but which he told me he should not agree to on any account. — One thing is certain, that it must do him great good with American audi- 173 LIVERPOOL, APRIL 29* 1816 ences that he has played in a London theatre with success. Having said this much about Bibby, I have little more to add ; for I have nothing interest- ing new in the present round of my existence to write about. Davidson had a letter from James Renwick some days since, dated at Paris which he was about leaving for Holland on his way to England. I hope to see him here before long. Give my affectionate regards to Mrs. Bradish & the girls, and if the worthy Governor has returned, shake hipa heartily by the hand for me and give my good wishes to the rest of the household. Your friend W.I. 174 LIVERPOOL, MAY 9^ 1816 Liverpool, May p^ 1816. My dear brevoort: — By the Rosalie, under care of Capt. Murray, I sent a Trunk of clothes to my Brother Ebn- in which are a surtout, Blk. Coat and Blk. cloth waistcoat for you. I have also directed a Bookseller to send some books, in a paper parcel, to Messrs. Ogden, Richards & Selden to be forwarded to you — they will probably come by this ship. I have nothing new to tell you. I wrote to you recently, giving an account of Bibby's first appearance. He plays again tomorrow night in Shylock and Sir Archy. I was in hopes of hearing from you by the Rosalie, but was disappointed. A letter from you is like a gleam of sunshine through the darkness that seems to lower upon my mind. I am here alone, attending to business — and the times are so hard that they sicken my very soul. Good God, what would I give to be once more with you, and all this mortal coil LIVERPOOL, MAY 9* 1816 shuffled, off of my heart. I must say however that I have received very kind attention from some of the Liverpool families of late & could easily form a very polite and agreeable circle of acquaintances — but the cares of business, in these gloomy times harass my mind & unfit me for society, and I have therefore avoided it as much as possible. There is one Lady here however, a Mrs. Rathbone with whom I am much pleased — she is amiable, intelligent, and has a charming simplicity of manners. She has the person and looks of our little friend Ann McMasters, and a few even- ings since I found her in a gown of a kind of mulberry coloured silk similar to that little Greatheart used to wear. All this made her look like an old acquaintance and there were a thousand recollections of home, and distant friends, & past scenes, conjured up by the trifling circumstance, that almost made my heart overflow. I met with a Mr. Shepherd at dinner some 176 LIVERPOOL, MAY 9* 1816 days since, he is a clergyman, a friend of Roscoe's, and one of the Literati of Liverpool. He is very excentric & facetious in conversa- tion. He has since sent me a book of his editing — accompanied with some civil compliments about my history of N York, and an invita- tion to dine with him at his residence in the country. I have evaded his invitation, for truly I am not in the vein just now. My dear Brevoort what would I not give to have you with me. In my lonely hours I think of the many many happy days we have passed together — and feel that there is no friend in the world to whom my heart turns so com- pletely as it does to you. For some time before I left New York I thought you had grown cold & indifferent to me. I felt too proud to speak frankly on the subject but it grieved me bitterly. Your letters have con- vinced me that I was mistaken, and they were like cordials to my feelings. I am writing very weakly & very garrulously VOL. I. 12. I77 LIVERPOOL, MAY 9* 18 16 — but I have no restraint in writing to you — as I am convinced that what I write will be Tec- with indulgence. You know all my failings & foolishness and regard them with a friendly eye ; but do not let any one else see my nonsense. In the trunk which contains the clothes is a number of Lord Byron's Hebrew Melodies. It is for Eliza Bradish — will you see that she gets it? Let me know how she & her mother and all the family do. Write to me, my dear fellow, as often as you have half an hour to bestow on an old friend. I expect James Renwick here in eight or ten days. I suppose he will soon take passage for America. Peter is still at Birmingham but I hope his health will permit him to come to Liverpool in about a week. Your friend W.I. 178 BIRMINGHAM, JULY 16* 1816 Birmingham, July 16- 1816. MY DEAR BREVOORT: — I have tried repeatedly to arouse myself to the exertion of answering your long and delightful letter of May 18th, but found as •often, that I might as well attempt to raise spirits from "the vasty deep" as to raise my own spirits to anything like animation. I have been so harassed & over ridden by the cares & anxieties of business for a long time past, that I have at times felt almost broken down in health and spirits. This was par- ticularly the case this spring, when I was for a long time alone at Liverpool, brooding over the hardships of these disordered times. Peter's return to Liverpool enabled me to crawl out of the turmoil for a while, and I have for some time past been endeavouring to renovate myself in the dear little circle of my sister's family. I have attempted to divert my thoughts into other channels; to revive the literary feeling & to employ myself 179 BIRMINGHAM, JULY 16* 1816 with my pen; but at present it is impossible. My mind is in a sickly state and my imagina- tion so blighted that it cannot put forth a blossom nor even a green leaf — time & cir- cumstances must restore them to their proper tone. I thank you in the most heartfelt manner for your assistance to my worthy brother Eben- ezer. The difficulties he must experience give me more anxiousness than anything else. I hope he may be able to surmount them all, and that he may work through the present stormy season without any material injury. I am happy to find from your letter that your own circumstances are so good — as to your not having added much to your fortune since I left you, it is not a matter of concern. I was only apprehensive lest you should have experienced heavy losses in these precarious times — and your silence on the subject for a considerable while filled me with uneasiness. I rejoice in the confidence you express of your 180 BIRMINGHAM, JULY id* 1816 future prospects, and in the intention you seem to entertain of forming a matrimonial con- nexion. I am sure it will be a worthy one; and though as a Bachelor I might lament you as lost to the fraternity, and feel conscious that some of those links were broken which as bachelors bound us together, yet I could not suffer myself to regret a change of situation which would give you so large an accession of domestic homeful enjoyment. As to my return to America, to which you advert in terms that fill my heart, I must say it partakes of that uncertainty which at this moment envelops all my future prospects — I must wait here awhile in a passive state, watching the turn of events, and how our affairs are likely to turn out. " My bread is indeed cast upon the waters" — and I can only say that I hope to "find it after many days. " It is not long since I felt myself quite sure of fortune's smiles, and began to entertain what I thought very sober and 181 BIRMINGHAM, JULY 16* 1816 rational schemes for my future comfort & establishment. At present, I feel so tempest tossed and weather beaten that I shall be content to be quits with fortune for a very moderate portion and give up all my sober schemes as the dreams of fairy-land. But I will make no promises or resolutions at present, as I know they would be like those formed at Sea in a storm, which are forgotten as soon as we tread the shore or the weather grows propitious. This you may be assured of — all my ideas of home and settled life center in New York — and I have had too little pleas- ure or even comfort in England to wean me from that delightful little spot of earth. * I have written this letter more to account for my not writing a better one. Indeed I have scarcely anything to write about even if I were in vein. I am merely vegetating for the present, and quite out of the way of interesting characters or interesting incidents. On my way up here from Liverpool, I came down by 182 BIRMINGHAM, JULY i6£ 1816 Shrewsbury & stopped for a couple of days with a young gentleman of my acquaintance, at his father's seat a few miles beyond Chester on the border of Wales. In one of our morning strolls along the banks of the Alun, a beautiful little pastoral stream that rises along the Welsh Mountains & throws itself into the Dee, we encountered a Veteran angler of old Isaac Walton's school. He was an old Greenwich outdoor pensioner — had lost one leg in the battle at Camperdown, had been in America in his youth & indeed had been quite a rover, but for many years past had settled himself down in his native village not far distant, where he lived very independently on his pension & some other small annual sums amounting in all to about 4o£. His great hobby & indeed the business of his life was to angle — I found he had read Isaac Walton very attentively — he seemed to have imbibed all his simplicity of heart, contentment of mind and fluency of tongue. We kept company 183 BIRMINGHAM, JULY i6* 1816 with him almost the whole day — wandering along the beautiful banks of the river, admir- ing the ease and elegant dexterity with which the old fellow managed his angle, throwing the fly with unerring certainty at a great dis- tance & among overhanging banks, and wav* ing it gracefully in the air to keep it from entangling, as he stumped with his staff & wooden leg from one bend of the river to another. He kept up a continual flow of cheerful and entertaining talk, and what I particularly liked him for was, that though we tried everyway to entrap him into some abuse of America & its inhabitants, there was no getting him to utter an ill natured word concerning us. His whole conversation and deportment illustrated old Isaac's maxims as to the benign influence of angling over the human heart. I wished continually that you had been present, as I know you would have enjoyed with exquisite relish, this genuine Angler, & 184 BIRMINGHAM, JULY 16*1 1816 the characteristic scenes through which we rambled with him. I ought to mention that he had two companions, one a ragged pictur- esque varlet, that had all the air of a veteran poacher & I warrant could have found every fish pond in the neighbourhood in the darkest night — the other was a disciple of the old philosopher's, studying the art under him & was son & heir apparent to the Landlady of the Village tavern. This amusing rencontre brought all the beauties of old Isaac Walton to my recollec- tion — and awakened so many pleasant associa- tions and rural feelings that I have had a hankering ever since to take a ramble in Derbyshire, where I believe the scene of his book is laid — and if I can only muster up spirits enough to take a solitary excursion for a week or ten days, I do not know but I shall go that way as soon as the rainy weather, which has prevailed for some two months past, has given place to a little gleam of summer and 185 BIRMINGHAM, JULY 16* 1816 sunshine. Should that be the case, I may pick up something in my rambles to scribble to you about — but it is very possible that dismal letters from N York may intervene & take away all disposition from the excursion. I cannot go into notice of the many very inter- esting anecdotes of my friends which your letter contains. I am much gratified by the prospects of McT s settling in N. Y. and making such an agreeable matrimonial con- nexion. The Catons arrived at Liverpool since I left there. Peter dined in company with them and was very much pleased with them. I shall make a point of cultivating the acquaintance of Betsey Caton should I meet with her & she be disposed to be sociable. As to your concern in business with McT I think it might prove a very advantageous' connexion — and he is certainly a charming companion — but beware of partnerships — they throw you at the mercy of another person's discretion; over whose judgment or 186 BIRMINGHAM, JULY 16* 1816 inclination you may have no control. You can make your fortune without perplexing or thwarting yourself with anyone. From the little I have seen of business I am satisfied there is nothing that a man should be more wary & considerate about, than entering into partnership. Long before this reaches you Renwick will have returned and you will have had many a long talk with him about his travels. I have not been able to enjoy his society in Europe as I expected. We made a charming tour in Wales together last summer — and I had antici- pated a delightful journey to Scotland; but I had to halt in Liverpool to attend to business, and then again I have troubles. Remember me affectionately to Mrs. Ren- wick and her family. I envy you the happy hours you will pass at their summer retreat. I recollect the place as a beautiful one — but Mrs. Renwick has a talent of diffusing happi- ness around her wherever she is. 187 BIRMINGHAM, JULY 16* 18 16 I must also beg you to remember me most heartily to my worthy inmates at Mrs. Bra- dishes, particularly that good man & true Gov- Wharton, who I hope will never have need to break the Guinea he got from me in London. I trust his worthy compeer Walker is yet with you, as usual on the wing for Virginia. I hope to find him unflown on my return. I wrote some time since to Eliza Bradish and hope the letter reached her in safety, as I would not have all the secrets it contained known to the world on any account. Give my warmest remembrances to her and her mother, and intreat the latter to refrain from further purchases, lest she ruin herself with good bargains. I am extremely pained to hear from you of the continued ill health of Serena L If her father wishes to preserve her from fol- lowing the lovely beings that have been swept from her side — he should send her at once to the south of France — were she to go out there BIRMINGHAM, JULY 16* 1816 in the early part of the Autumn and remain in those climates until next summer she might be fully restored — but the misfortune is that these expeditions are always taken too late. I beg you to give my particular remembrances to her and her sisters. This is a sad lackadaisical scrawl but I had no idea, when I began that I should have been able to scrawl so much. Do not let the meagreness of my letters discourage you from writing. In my present listless & comfortless state of mind your letters are inexpressively gratifying — and the last I received I have kept by me as a cordial against low spirits. Give my sincere regards to your worthy parents and your sister and believe me my dear fellow Most truly yours W.I. If that worthy little Tar Jack Nicholson is with you tell him I return him a thou- 189 BIRMINGHAM, JULY i6«i 1816 sand thanks for his letter and will answer it soon. I am afraid that we must give up all expec- tation of seeing Gouv Kemble out here. — The disappointment will be great to us all; but I hope. his present scheme will be a profit- able one, in which case I shall not repine — I would write to him but he is such a bird of passage that it is like shooting flying; there is no knowing when a letter would reach him. I shall be happy to hear that James K. P. is married to. G and divorced from the Analectic. I think James is in the way of fortune and preferment, if he has spirit & judgment to manage his opportunities, & I think he will make a good husband & she certainly will make an excellent wife. But his connexion with the magazine, tho' it yields present profit, is I am afraid of no advantage to his literary reputation, for the Naval Chronicle is, in every respect, executed in his worst style. 190 BIRMINGHAM, NOVEMBER 6* 1816 Birmingham, Nov. 6— 1816. MY DEAR BREVOORT: — I received some time since your letter of Sept. 8th, and feel most grateful for these repeated proofs of kind recollections especially when I consider the poor returns I make. You threaten to charge me with something more than want of punctuality if I do not write oftener and I am sensible my silence exposes me to many hard imputations, but I cannot help it — I can only say it is not for want of having you continually in my thoughts and near my heart, nor for want of the constant desire and frequent resolve to write. But some how or other there has been such a throng of worldly cares hurrying backward & forward through my mind for a long time past, that it is even as bare as a market place ; and when I do take hold of my pen, I feel so poverty struck, such mental sterility, that I throw it down again in despair of writing anything that should give you gratification. 191 BIRMINGHAM, NOVEMBER 6* 1816 In fact I was always a poor precarious animal — but am just now worse than ever. So bear with my present delinquency & perhaps at some future moment, when the fit is on me and I am fresh of thought & ready of word (as I sometimes am when I least expect it) I will repay you tenfold. In my last letter, which I am ashamed to say was written so long ago as July last, I talked of an excursion into Derbyshire and promised you particulars if anything presented worth writing about. Not having been in a narrative mood since my return, I have suffered so long a time to elapse, that impressions made on my mind have been effaced — incidents have lost the freshness of novelty and all the little associa- tions of thought, & feeling & fancy that con- stitute the enjoyment of a ramble and the charm of its recital have completely evapo- rated. To attempt to give you a detail there- fore would be useless, though I cannot help iq? BIRMINGHAM, NOVEMBER 6* 1816 talking a little about it, as I have scarcely anything else to furnish out a letter, and as I know it will bring up a thousand agreeable recollections to your mind of similar rambles you have taken in this country. According to arrangements made by letter with Peter I met him at Buxton, to which place he travelled from Liverpool, in the identical Tilbury in which you and he per- formed your Scottish peregrinations. I ar- rived rather late in the evening so that he had dined & gone out ; but as I knew his old haunts I asked the way to the theatre & was shewn to what had once been a barn, but was now converted to the seat of Empire & the epitome of all the Kingdoms of the earth. Here I found Peter enjoying with the most perfect complacency & satisfaction, some old stock play, which he had seen performed a hundred times by the best actors in the world, & which was now undergoing murder & profanation from the very worst. You know of old his vol. 1.— 13. !93 BIRMINGHAM, NOVEMBER 6* 1816 accommodating palate in this particular; and what relishing appetite he will either "feed on the mountain" or "batten on the moor." The worst of the matter however is, that in his unbounded good will towards the vagrant race, he takes the whole company under his pro- tection and won't allow you to laugh at any of them. This troop seemed almost an estab- lishment — the Manager, his wife & daughter performed in the play and four of his children danced a garland dance. I understood the establishment was somewhat on the plan of poor Twaits' theatrical commonwealth — & the company divided on an average of about 7/6 each per week. : At the hotel where we put up we had a most singular & whimsical assemblage of beings. I don't know whether you were ever at an- English watering place, but if you have not been, you have missed the best opportunity at studying English oddities, both moral and physical. — I no longer wonder at the English 194 BIRMINGHAM, NOVEMBER 6* 1816 being such excellent caricaturists, they have such an inexhaustible number & variety of sub- jects to study from. The only care should be not to follow fact too closely for I'll swear I have met with characters & figures that would be condemned as extravagant; if faithfully delineated by pen or pencil. At a watering place like Buxton where people really resort for health, you see the great tendency of the English to run into excrescences and bloat out into grotesque deformities. As to noses I say nothing of them, though we had every variety. Some snubbed and turned up, with distended nostrils, like a dormer window on the roof of a house — others convex and twisted like a Buck handled knife & others magnifi- cently efflorescent like a full blown cauliflower. But as to the persons that were attached to their noses, fancy every distortion, tuberance & pompous embellishment that can be pro- duced in the human form by high and gross feeding, by the bloating operations of malt 195 BIRMINGHAM, NOVEMBER 6* 1816 liquors, by the rheuming influence of a damp foggy vaporish climate. One old fellow was an exception to this, for instead of acquiring that expansion and sponginess to which old people are prone in this country from the long course of internal & external soaking they experience, he had grown dry & stiff in the process of years. The skin of his face had so shrunk away that he could not close eyes or mouth — the latter therefore stood on a per- petual ghastly grin; and the former on an incessant stare. He had but one serviceable joint in his body which is at the bottom of the back bone, and that creaked & grated when- ever he bent. He could not raise his feet from the ground, but skated along the drawing room carpet, whenever he wished to ring the bell. The only signs of moisture in his whole body was a pellucid drop that I occasionally noticed on the end of a long dry nose. He used generally to shuffle about in company with a little fellow who was fat on one side and 196 BIRMINGHAM, NOVEMBER 6^ 1816 lean on the other. That is to say, he was warped on one side as if he had scorched before the fire; he had a wry neck, which made his head lean on one shoulder — his hair was snugly powdered and he had a round, srnirky smiling apple face with a bloom on it like that of a frost bitten leaf in Autumn. We had an old fat general by the name of Trotter who had, I suspect, been promoted to his high rank to get him. out of the way of more able and active officers, being an instance that a man may occasionally rise in the world through absolute lack of merit. I could not help watching the movements of this redoubtable Old Hero, who, I'll warrant had been the champion & safe guard of half the garrison towns in England, and fancying to myself how Bonaparte would have delighted in having such toast & butter generals to deal with. This old lad is doubt- less a sample of those generals that flourished in the old military school — when armies would manoeuvre & watch each other for months; 197 BIRMINGHAM, NOVEMBER 6«i 1816 now and then have a desperate skirmish and after marching & countermarching about the "low countries" through a glorious campaign, retire on the first pinch of cold weather, into snug winter quarters in some fat Flemish town, and eat & drink & fiddle through the winter. Boney must have sadly disconcerted the comfortable system of these old warriors by the harassing restless cut & slash mode of warfare that he introduced. He has put an end to all the old carte and tierce system in which the cavaliers of the old school fought so decorously as it were with a small sword in one hand and a chapeau in the other. During his career there has been a sad laying on the shelf of old generals who could not keep up with the hurry, the fierceness and dashing of the system ; and among the number I presume has been my worthy housemate old Trotter. The old gentleman, in spight of his warlike title, had a most pacific appearance. He was large and fat — with a broad hazy massive face, a sleepy 198 BIRMINGHAM, NOVEMBER 13* 1816 eye and a full double chin. He had a deep ravine from each corner of his mouth, not occasioned by any irascible contraction of the muscles, but apparently the deep worn chan- nels of two rivulets of gravy that oozed out from the huge mouthfuls that he masticated. But I forbear to dwell on the odd beings that were congregated together in our Hotel. I have been thus prolix about the old general because you desired me in one of your letters to give you ample details whenever I appeared to be in company with the "great and glorious " and old Trotter is more deserving of the epithets than any other personages I have lately encountered. Nov. 13th. From the foregoing scribbling you will perceive that after setting out with many apologies for having nothing to say, I had absolutely got into a most garrulous vein, and had I not been interrupted I believe I 190 BIRMINGHAM, NOVEMBER 13* 1816 should have scribbled off a very long & very- flippant letter. I was obliged however to break off to attend to some other matter and have not been able since to get into the nar- rative vein again. As I hear the Pacific is about sailing from Liverpool I must e'en hurry off this letter as it is, lest another long period elapse before you get a line from me. Should I at any time feel in the mood to give you some more Derbyshire Sketches I will not fail to take pen in hand. I must now say a word or two in reply to your letter of the 8th Sept! I rejoice to find that Mac is absolutely linked to Miss Caton, and wish all happiness to their union. I have not met with the Catons in England, though I have heard of them. They were greatly ad- mired & noticed at Cheltenham. The Duke of Wellington paid them particular attention to the great annoyance of many dowagers who had daughters anxious for fashion & notoriety. BIRMINGHAM, NOVEMBER 13* 1816 Your account of the brevity of the old lady's nether garments really distresses me — what will become of the world when these land marks of primitive decorum & staid discretion are carried away by the tide of fashion. If she does not return to her former sobriety of apparel and demean herself like a most grave & reverend young gentlewoman, I insist that you take Flora from under her guardianship. By the way, I cannot help observing that this fashion of short skirts must have been invented by the French ladies as a complete trick upon John Bull's "women- folk. " It was introduced just at the time the English flocked in such crowds to Paris. The French women you know are remarkable for pretty feet and ankles and can display them in perfect serenity. The English are remarkable for the contrary. Seeing the proneness of the English women to follow French fashions, they therefore led them into this disastrous one; and sent them home with BIRMINGHAM, NOVEMBER 13* 1816 their petticoats up to their knees exhibiting such a variety of sturdy little legs, as would have afforded Hogarth an ample choice to match one of his assemblages of queer heads. It is really a great source of curiosity & amuse- ment on the promenade of a Watering place, to observe sturdy English women, trudging about in their stout leather shoes, and to study the various understandings brought to view by this mischievous fashion. I must conclude as this scrawl will be too long. When you write next let me know something about the movements of that great Scavenger Swartwout & how his peat marshes came on, how are Mr. & Mrs. Cooper making out, where he is acting &c; what is Charles Nicholson doing — &c. Remember me most affectionately to Mrs. Renwick and her family & let me know when the worthy professor quits this transitory state — of celibacy. Give my warmest regards to your good lady BIRMINGHAM, NOVEMBER 13* 1816 Hostess, and also the ladies of the little parlour. — I wrote to the old gentlewoman a long while since, when I sent her Moore's Sacred Melodies. I expect an answer from her. — Remember me to Johnson & the rest of the household. Yours most heartily W. I. 203 BIRMINGHAM, DECEMBER 9^ 1816 Birmingham, Dec. Q—1816. MY DEAR BREVOORT: — Since I last wrote I have received your letter of October 16th. I congratulate you with all my soul on the marriage of your sister with our invaluable friend Renwick. It cannot but prove a happy union, and must add largely to your means of domestic happiness. I trust, my dear fellow, providence is laying a solid foundation for the welfare of yourself and your relatives and that you will all go on to flourish in well merited and honorable pros- perity. I feel deeply sensible of the sympathy you evince in my cares and troubles. I assure you however that they were chiefly occasioned by my apprehensions for my connections, and being now confident that my brothers in New York will be able to weather the storm and spread their sails cheerily on the return of fair weather, I shall not let present difficulties give me any uneasiness. I thank you again 204 BIRMINGHAM, DECEMBER 9^ 1816 and again for your kind assistance to my worthy brother the Major. He is one of the most excellent little men living and I feel any good office done to him ten times more than' if it were rendered to myself. I beg you will continue to give him an occasional call. Your advice will often be of service to him as you have a better idea of general business than he probably has, from his being exclusively oc- cupied by one branch of trade. Frank Ogden and his brother Peter passed a couple of days in Birmingham, not long since. Frank gave me a great many enter- taining anecdotes about the establishment at the Battery and its dependent colony, and made me completely homesick. Your letters also, have frequently the same effect. They contain so many allusions to old jokes that have passed between us — so many character- istic sketches of persons and scenes about which we have so often gossiped and laughed in our little chamber councils, that they 205 BIRMINGHAM, DECEMBER 9* 1816 awaken a thousand recollections and delight- ful associations. After all, it is the charm of existence to have some crony who exactly jumps with our humour; in whose company we can completely unbutton and throw loose the garb of cautious reserve in which our minds are generally so straightly clad — and can give every thought and whim free scope. I do delight in these snug confidings, wherein we canvas the events of the day and amuse ourselves with the odd characters and cir- cumstances we have witnessed. It is really doubling existence, and living over past moments with increased enjoyment ; for there seems to be more brightness in the reflected gleams of gay hours, than there was in their original sunshine. You will smile when I tell you that, after all the grave advice once I gave you about getting married, I really felt regret on fancying, from the purport of one of your letters, that you had some serious thoughts of the kind; 206 BIRMINGHAM, DECEMBER 9* 1816 and that I have indulged in selfish congratula- tion on finding nothing in your subsequent letters to warrant such an idea. All this too, notwithstanding that I wish you happiness, and am certain that the married state is most likely to insure it. But we are all selfish beings. Fortune by her tardy favours and capricious freaks seems to discourage all my matrimonial resolves, and, if I am doomed to live an old bachelor, I am anxious to have good company. I cannot bear that all my old companions should launch away into the mar- ried state and leave me alone to tread this desolate and sterile shore and it is a consoling and a cherished thought with me, under every vicissitude; that I shall still be able to return home, nestle down comfortable beside you, and have wherewithal to shelter me from the storms and buffetings of this uncertain world. Thank heaven I was brought up in simple and inexpensive habits, and I have satisfied myself that, if need be, I can resume them without 207 BIRMINGHAM, DECEMBER 9^ 1816 repining or inconvenience. Though I am willing, therefore, that fortune should shower her blessings upon me, and think I can enjoy them as well as most men, yet I shall not make myself unhappy if she chooses to be scanty, and shall take the portion allotted me with a cheerful and contented mind. I am writing you a queer rigmarole letter containing no news in return for your delightful letters which are perfect chronicles of domestic events. You have the best knack of writing domestic letters of any one I know — every sentence presents me a picture, or gives me a bulletin about some one or another of my friends and the very careless, ready manner in which they are dashed off gives them truth and spirit. I wish I had something to give you in exchange, but just now I am sterile. Birmingham anec- dotes would give you little entertainment. Yet I must say I have found many good people here, and some few that are really choice. Among them I must especially mention my 208 BIRMINGHAM, DECEMBER 9^ 1816 particular friend the Revd. Rann Kennedy, of whom I may some day or other give you a more full account. He is a most eccentric character, and is both my admiration and amusement. He is a man of real genius — preaches admirable sermons — and has for a long time past been on the point of producing two or three poetic works, though he has not as yet committed any of his poetry to paper. He however says he has it all in his brain — and indeed has occasionally recited some passages of it to Peter and myself that have absolutely delighted us. With all this he has the naivet6 of a child; is somewhat hypochondriacal and in short is one of the queerest mortals living. He is a great favourite of Doctor Parr's and is very anxious to make me acquainted with that formidable old Grecian. He has two or three likenesses of Parr hanging about his house and the old fellow is a great deal at Kennedy's when in Birmingham to the great annoyance of Miss Kennedy. For Parr is a VOL. I. — 14. 209 BIRMINGHAM, DECEMBER 9* 1816 great gourmand and epicure and when he dines with any of his particular friends is very apt to extend his domineering spirit to the con- cerns of the larder and the kitchen, and order matters to his own palate; an assumption of privilege which no true housewife can tolerate. I have not seen Peter for four months past. In fact not since our little excursion into Derbyshire, which I delight to look back upon, as a green spot in this barren year. I should have joined him before this at Liverpool but he has been continually giving us hopes of his coming up here, and we now look confidently for him in a day or two to remain and eat his Christmas dinner with us. You cannot think how heartfelt the gratification is at these little family assemblages, particularly with us who are "strangers and sojourners in the land" and see nothing but gloom and troubles around us. You have no idea of the distress and misery that prevails in this country; it is beyond the power of description. In 210 BIRMINGHAM, DECEMBER 9^ 1816 America you have financial difficulties, the em- barrassments of trade and the distress of mer- chants but here you have what is far worse, the distress of the poor — not merely mental suf- ferings — but the absolute miseries of nature, hunger, nakedness, wretchedness of all kinds that the labouring people in this country are liable to. In the best of times they do but subsist, but in adverse times they starve. How this country is to extricate itself from its present embarrassments, how it is to emerge from the poverty that seems to be over- whelming it, and how the government is to quiet the multitudes that are already tur- bulent and clamorous, and are yet but in the beginning of their real miseries, I cannot con- ceive, but I have somehow or other rambled away into a theme which would neither edify nor amuse you, so we will not pursue it. I have ordered Mr. Muncaster to forward the books you wrote for and shall occasionally send such new works as I think you may BIRMINGHAM, DECEMBER 9^ 1816 relish; except it be such light popular works as are likely to be immediately reprinted in America at a much cheaper rate. The books lent me by Colonel Gibbs are at Liverpool and when I go down there I will pack them up and take care that he shall receive them in good order. You may tell him I shall be happy to be of any service to him in Europe. I wish when next you see Mrs. Renwick, you would give her my congratulations on the various changes and increasings of her family. I think I can see her, the centre of a happy domestic system, which is seasoned and glad- dened by the emanations of her generous heart. God bless her! say I — and grant that the happiness she delights to shed around her may all be reflected back upon herself — and then I'm sure she will be the happiest of mortals. Remember me likewise to your worthy parents, who are enjoying the greatest bless- BIRMINGHAM, DECEMBER 9M1 1816 ing of old age, that of seeing their children prosperous and happy. I feel greatly indebted to my good friend Mrs. Bradish for dreaming so often about me, and indeed I value it as no trifling visitation of kindness & good will, that she who has so many domesticated with her occasionally, should bestow such particular recollection upon me. I am glad to hear such favorable accounts of Eliza's health, and that the dissipa- tion of Elizabethtown has agreed with her so well. How I should delight to spend a cosy hour in the little parlour! Well, well! We. shall all get together again by and bye and have merry times once more. You mention the prosperity of the theatre. I wish you could interest yourselves for the Johnsons, they are old friends of mine and both Peter and myself are very anxious for their success. Ellen Johnson is a charming girl and I think must prove a good actress. I have never seen her perform. How is Bibby 213 BIRMINGHAM, DECEMBER 9^ 1816 making out? I presume he is giving touches of Kean as I perceive he acts some of Kean's characters. How does his affair with Mary Bailly go on? Give my best regards to the worthy Gover- nor and the rest of the household. I am my dear Brevoort yours ever W. I. 214 XH^C SH~~>£ ^<4*tl. ol^A) t^^y^. M^^, ^c^_/U^^_ ^ j^^ x£u^> ^tu^ ^ J /^^^_ <*U. '*-~¥ £-er/*- plain of my not writing to them, tell them I have lost the art. God Bless you my dear Brevoort. Your friend W. I. 25s LIVERPOOL, JULY 21* 1817 Liverpool, July 21- 1817. DEAR BREVOORT: — Sometime since I forwarded to you our Bill on Moses Thomas for 70 £ Stg. in favour of Mr. Thomas Muncaster, with a request that you would collect it and forward the proceeds to Muncaster. This was for the purpose of securing a debt to the latter for books pur- chased for Thomas. We have lately re- ceived a remittance from Thomas of ioo£. Should therefore our Draft on him have been presented & accepted, you need not present it for pay.' but cancel it & return it to us. By Mr. M. Evers, who sails in the Anna Maria, I send you a collection of discoveries &c. in Africa. I write in haste as the bag is about to be taken away in which this letter goes. Your friend W. I. 256 EDINBURGH, AUGUST 28^ 1817 Edinburgh, August 28- 18 17. MY DEAR BREVOORT: I received your letter of July 26. a few days since, while in London, but had not time to answer it from there, and I now am in such a hurry of mind and body that I can scarce collect my thoughts & settle myself down long enough to write. I was in London for about three weeks, when the town was quite deserted. I found however sufficient objects of curiosity & interest to keep me in a worry; and amused myself by exploring various parts of the City; which in the dirt and gloom of winter would be almost impossible. I passed a day with Campbell at Sydenham. He is still simmer- ing on his biographical & critical labours and has promised to forward more letter press to you. He says he will bring it out the coming autumn. He has now been taxing his brain with this cursed work some years, a most lamentable waste of time and poetic talent. Campbell seems to have an inclination to pay VOL. I. 17. 257 EDINBURGH, AUGUST 28* 1817 America a visit, having a great desire to see the country, and to visit his brother, whom he has not seen for many years. The expense however is a complete obstacle. I think he might easily be induced to cross the seas, and his visit made a very advantageous one to our Country. He has twelve lectures written out, on Poetry & Belles Letters, which he has delivered with great applause to the most bril- liant London audiences. I believe you have heard one or two of them. They are highly spoken of by the best judges. Now could not subscription lists be set on foot in New York and Philadelphia, among the first classes of people, for a course of Lectures in each City and when a sufficient number of names are procured to make it an object, the lists sent to Campbell with an invitation to come over and deliver the lectures? It would be highly complimentary to him, would at once remove all pecuniary difficulties and if he accepted the invitation his lectures would have a great ef- 258 EDINBURGH, AUGUST 28^ 1817 feet in giving an impulse to American literature and a proper direction to the public taste. Say the subscription was $10 for the course of lectures — I should think it an easy matter to fill up a large list at that rate, for how many are there in New York who would give that price to hear a course of lectures on Belles Letters from one of the first Poets of Great Britain? I sounded Campbell on the subject and have no doubt that he would accept such an invitation. Speak to Renwick on the subject and if you will take it in hand I am sure it will succeed. Charles King would no doubt promote a thing of this kind, and Dr. Hosack would be delighted to give his assist- ance, and would be a most efficient aid. While at London I made the acquaintance of Murray the Bookseller, who you know is a most valuable acquaintance to a stranger, as by his means considerable access is gaineeTto the literary world. I dined with him and met among two or three rather interesting char- 259 EDINBURGH, AUGUST 28^ 1817 acters, old D 'Israeli, with whom I was much entertained. He is a cheerful, social old gentleman, full of talk and anecdote. He was curious about America and seemed much pleased with the idea of his works being re- printed and circulated there. I saw two or three of the Lions of the Quarterly Review in Murray's deii, but almost all the literary people are out of town; and those that have not the means of travelling lurk in their garrets and affect to be in the country; for you know these poor devils have a great desire to be thought fashionable. I have no doubt I shall find Murray's den a great source of gratifica- tion when I return to London. Ogilvie was at London and had just finished a short course of his exhibitions. He had lectured in Free- masons Hall. His lectures had been very well attended considering the season; his audiences applauded and the papers speak well of him. I did not hear any of his orations in London and cannot tell how his success was promoted 260 EDINBURGH, AUGUST 28* 1817 by the exertions of American and Scotch friends. He however seems to be very well satisfied and has gone to Cheltenham. He intends to deliver orations at a few of the provincial towns and return to London toward winter. I have not time to detail more par- ticulars of London gossip. I left there on the 25th inst. in a packet for Berwick on Tweed, having some occasion to visit Edinburgh & intending to make a short excursion into the Highlands. I found myself among a motley, but characteristic assemblage of passengers. All Scotch and some of them fit studies for Walter Scott. The first part of the voyage was tedious; head winds & bad weather, the latter part however was delightful. I am always in high health & spirits at sea and I cannot express to you how much I was excited when we came on the coast of Northumberland so gloriously sketched off in the second canto of Marmion. We had a smacking breeze and dashed 261 EDINBURGH, AUGUST 28* 181 7 gallantly through the waters. We passed by " Dunkanborough's caverned shore" and saw the old Castle of that name seated on a rocky eminence, but half shrouded in morning mist. The day brightened up as we approached Bamborough Castle, which stands in stern and lordly solitude on the sea coast — Scott's description of it is very poetical but accurate. Thy town proud Bamborough, marked they these King Idas castle, huge and square, From its tall rock look grimly down And on the swelling ocean frown. We sailed close by this old ruin and then skirted the Holy isle, where Scott lays the scene of Constance de Beverly's trial and above the remains of St. Cuthberts monastery are still visible. You may imagine the excite- ment of my feelings in this romantic part of my voyage. I landed at Berwick after being four days on the water, and having satisfied my curiosity with this old and celebrated 262 EDINBURGH, AUGUST 28<* 1817 place, I took coach & rattled off for Edinburgh — and here I am. This place surpasses my utmost expectations, in regards to its situation and appearance. I think it the most picturesque romantic place I have ever seen except Naples. I had several letters of introduction but almost everybody is out of town, Mrs. Fletcher and her family are in the Highlands and rather secluded — about four months since they had the misfortune to lose her first daughter (Grace) by a typhus fever. The day before yesterday I dined with Mrs. Renwick's brother, Mr. Jeffrey, who has been extremely attentive to me. I was very much pleased with him and his family. Mrs. Jeffrey is a very pleasant woman & they have a fine family of children. I left a card the same day at Mr. Francis Jeffrey's (the Re- viewer) house. His family are about 3 miles off in the country. He called on me yesterday and invited me to dine with him en famille. 263 EDINBURGH, AUGUST 28* 181 7 I accordingly footed it out to his little castle yesterday in company with his brother John Jeffrey. He has leased for thirty-two years, an old castelated mansion, situated at the foot of a beautiful romantic range of hills, and in a perfect seclusion though but three miles from Edinburgh. He has made considerable additions & alterations, is ornamenting his grounds with great taste, and has altogether one of the most picturesque poetical little domains that the heart of an author would desire. I passed a most agreeable afternoon ; my reception was frank, cordial & hospitable and I found Jeffrey an amiable & pleasant man in his own house. I never saw him to such advantage before. Mrs. Jeffrey looks thin & nervous; but is in good spirits, and seems happy, and I think has reasons to be so. They have a charming little daughter of whom Jeffrey seems both fond and proud. I am to dine there again to-day — when I am to meet Dugald Stewart, who, most luck- 264 EDINBURGH, AUGUST 28* 181 7 ily for me, happens just now on a visit to Edinburgh, I shall also meet Madame LaVoisin, late Comtesse de Rumford and the Lady of Sir Humphrey Davy formerly Mrs. Aprecel. Sept. 6th. I must scrawl a conclusion to this letter as fast as possible as I am very much pressed for time. I dined at Jeffreys the day mentioned ; but was disappointed in meet- ing Mr. Stewart ; he was detained home by in- disposition. His wife and daughter were there and we had a large party among whom were also Lord Webb Seymour, whom you may have met as he resides almost continually at Edin- burgh. He is brother to the Duke of Somer- set, and is a very agreeable unaffected well informed man. Also Mr. Murray an advocate of Edinburgh and one of the writers for the review & several others. Lady Davy talked at a great rate and in charming style — I was very much pleased with her. But allons — the next day I set off for Wilson and reached 265 EDINBURGH, AUGUST 28** 1817 Selkirk that evening from whence on Saturday morning early I take chaise for the Abbey. On my way I stopped at the gate of Abbots- ford & sent in my letter of introduction to Walter Scott, with a card & request to know whether it would be possible for him to receive a visit from me in the course of the day. Mr. Scott himself came out to see me and welcomed me to his home with the genuine hospitality of the olden-times. In a moment I found myself at his breakfast table, and felt as if I was at the social board of an old friend. In- stead of a visit of a few hours I was kept there several days — and such days ! You know the charms of Scott's conversation but you have not lived with him in the country — you have not rambled with him about his favorite hills and glens and burns — you have not seen him dispensing happiness around him in his little rural domain. I came prepared to admire him, but he completely won my heart and made me love him. He has a charming family around 266 EDINBURGH, AUGUST 28^ 181 7 him — Sophia Scott who must have been quite a little girl when you were here, is grown up, and is a sweet little mountain lassie. She partakes a great deal of her father's character — is light-hearted ingenuous, intelligent, and amiable. Can tell a whimsical story and sing a border song with the most captivating naivete. Scott was very attentive in showing me the neighboring country. I was with him from morning to night and was constantly aston- ished and delighted by the perpetual and varied flow of his conversation. It is just as entertaining as one of his novels, and exactly like them in style, point, humour, character & picturesqueness. I parted with him with the utmost regret but received a cordial invitation to repeat my visit on my way back to England, which I think I shall do. I should not forget to mention that he spoke of you in the most friendly terms ; and reproached him- self for not having written to you; but says he is extremely remiss in letter writing. 267 EDINBURGH, AUGUST 28* 1817 Since my return to Edinburgh I have dined with Constable the Bookseller, whom I met with Professor Leslie. Little Blackwood the Bookseller speaks of you with great regard. He says he shall send you the number of a new monthly magazine which he is publishing and which possesses considerable merit. I must conclude, as I have to hurry to Court to hear Jeffrey plead and must make preparations for a short excur- sion to the highlands. God bless you. Your friend W. I. P. S. I have received a letter from Carey informing me of the arrangement with East- burn for Campbell's works; which is very satisfactory. Remember me to all friends — I have heard you repeatedly spoken of in Edinburgh with the highest regard. 268 LIVERPOOL, OCTOBER 10* 1817 Liverpool, Oct. i<& 1817. MY DEAR BREVOORT: — I have received your letter of Aug. 20th, and congratulate you most heartily on the happy change you are about to make in your situation. I had heard rumours of the affair before I received your letters, and my account represented the Lady of your choice exactly such an one as your best friend could have wished for. I am almost ashamed to say that at first the news had rather the effect of making me feel melancholy than glad. It seemed in a manner to divorce us forever; for marriage is the grave of bachelors' intimacy, and after having lived & grown together for many years, so that our habits, thoughts & feelings were quite banded & intertwined, a separation of this kind is a serious matter — not so much to you, who are transplanted into the garden of matrimony, to flourish and fructify and be caressed into prosperity, — but for poor me, left lonely and forlorn, and 269 LIVERPOOL, OCTOBER io* 1817 blasted by every wind of heaven. — However, I don't mean to indulge in lamentations on the occasion. Though this unknown piece of perfection has completely escaped my plan, I bear her no jealousy or ill will; but hope you may long live happily together and that she may prove as constant & faithful to you as I have been. — Indeed I already feel a regard for her, on your account, and have no doubt I shall at some future day feel a still stronger one on her own. I am writing hastily with a mind occupied by various concerns, and in a hurried moment which must account for the insufficiency of this scrawl. I have written to Campbell on the subject of his work. — I had expected long since to have received further portions from him but he is a dilatory being and is simmering over this work like an old woman over a pipkin. I am glad Eastburn did not begin to print, as I perceive there is no depending on Campbell's promptness. — I shall transmit the work as 270 LIVERPOOL, OCTOBER 10* 1817 fast as I receive it. I feel gratified by the execution my friends are making to get me the situation in London, though I doubt their success. These places are generally given to political favourites. I merely wanted such a situation for a little while. I have no desire to remain long in Europe still while I am here, I should like to be placed on good ground and look around me advantageously. A situation of the kind would have that effect, and would enable me to return home at a proper season, and under favourable circumstances; not to be driven to my native shores like a mere wreck. The letter enclosed from Smedley & Co. to P. E. Irving & Co. has been forwarded to them and acknowledged & have drawn on them for 6o£ of which P & E I & Co are regularly advised. I must again apologize to you my dear Brevoort for this miserable scrawl but I am excessively hurried. 271 LIVERPOOL, OCTOBER 10* 1817 Give my love to all the good beings around yqu — and to your wife too, if by this time you are married and believe me, as ever Affectionately yours W. I. 272 LIVERPOOL, JANUARY 28*1 1818 Liverpool, Jan. 28- 1818. MY DEAR BREVOORT: — I have not written to you for some time past for in fact the monotonous life I lead, being passed almost continually within doors, leaves me little to communicate. I have just written to Campbell, stating the contents of your letter of Dec. 4th, and shall let you know his reply the moment I receive it. I enclose a reply to the kind letter of Mrs. B. but it expresses nothing of what I feel. How happy a period of my life it will be when I once more return home and feel myself among true friends. But I cannot bring myself to think of returning home under pre- sent circumstances. We are now in train to pass through the Bankrupt Act. It is a humiliating alternative but my mind is made up to any thing that will extricate me from this loathsome entangle- ment in which I have so long been involved — I am eager to get from under this murky VOL. I.— 18. 273 LIVERPOOL, JANUARY 29* 1818 cloud before it completely withers & blights me. For upward of two years have I been bowed down in spirit and harassed by the most sordid cares — a much longer continuance of such a situation would indeed be my ruin. As yet I trust my mind has not lost its elas- ticity, and I hope to recover some cheerful standing in the world. Indeed I feel very little solicitude about my own prospects — I trust something will turn up to promise me subsistence & am convinced, however scanty & precarious may be my lot I can bring myself to be content. But I feel harassed in mind at times on behalf of my brothers. It is a dismal thing to look round on the wrecks of such a family connexion. This is what, in spite of every exertion, will some times steep my very soul in bitterness. Above all, the situation of my poor brother Ebenezer and his family distresses me. My dear Brevoort, whatever friendship you feel for me, never trouble yourself on my account, but lend a 274 LIVERPOOL, JANUARY 28* 1818 helping hand, when he is extricated from present difficulties, once more to put him in a way to get forward. He is a capable & inde- fatigable man of business & in a regular line cannot but make out well. His ruin has been occasioned by circumstances over which he had no control. Do not suppose I am wishing you to jeopard your own interests in the least — but the mere advice and countenance of two or three prosperous men to one in his situation have the most reviving effect. Once get him under way, and he has a cheerful perseverance & steady application that will carry him regularly forward. Excuse me writing on these irksome sub- jects — I had determined not to do so any more, but they are upper most in my thoughts and will some time find their way to my pen. In the course of two or three months I hope to have finally got through difficulties here, and to close this gloomy page of existence — what the next will be that I shall turn over, is 275 LIVERPOOL, JANUARY 28* 1818 all uncertainty; but I trust in a kind provi- dence that shapes all things for the best, and yet I hope to find future good springing out of these present adversities. I am my dear Brevoort Affectionately yours W. I. 276 LIVERPOOL, MARCH 22<* 1818 Liverpool, March 22- 1818. MY DEAR BREVOORT: — If you have not already done so I wish you to remit by the first opportunity to Mess. A. & S. Richards the amount of the Draft paid you by Moses Thomas some time since, I think it was about 7o£ Sterling. It was to pay for Books purchased for him, and I have had to borrow of Richards for that purpose. You can tell A. & S. Richards that the money is to be on my account subject to my orders. I now inclose you a draft on Mr. Thomas for five hundred dollars, which I will thank you to collect. You need not put it in circula- tion, but account privately with Mr. Thomas for it. I shall draw on you, (probably in favour of A. & S. Richards), as my current expenses require and you may depend on my putting you in funds either by drafts on Mr. Thomas, or in some other way. I will write in reply to your letter from 277 LIVERPOOL, MARCH 22 1843 upon the art of telling a story until he has brought it to the most perfect simplicity, where there is not a word too much or a word too little; and where every word has its effect. His manner too is the most quiet, natural and unpretending that can be imagined. I was very much amused by an anecdote he gave us of little Queen Victoria and her nautical vagaries. Lord Aberdeen has had to attend her in her cruisings very much against his will; or, at least, against his stom- ach. You know he is one of the gravest and most laconic men in the world. The Queen one day undertook to reconcile him to his fate. "I believe my lord" said she gra- ciously ' ' you are not often sea sick. " " A Iways madam" was the grave reply. "But" — still more graciously, "Not very sea sick." With prof bunder gravity— "VERY Madam!" Lord Aberdeen declares that if her Majesty persists in her cruisings he will have to resign. I rejoice to hear of Mrs. Brevoort's improved 461 BORDEAUX, NOVEMBER 26^ 1843 health and think you are right, should you find the sea coast of Long Island favorable to the health of your family, to set up a re- treat there. You might build a very pleasant summer lodge at a cheap rate; and I can say from experience that a man has ten-fold more enjoyment from any rural retreat that belongs to himself than from any that he hires as temporary sojourn. Give my kind remembrances to Mrs. Bre- voort and to all the young folks, and believe me my dear Brevoort ever most affectionately yours Washington Irving. 462 *-*-s-i- a_^/ /o^£^J2) td&^Sr £~£*~**~*~f~ t~*~ 4^ZtA> -^ J^ • • - • _ / a^J &,%, L~u-* <^ . ►*! «>«y ^ *^-<' f Z W £X— "^- e^^**^^a*^ aU^^tL^LU?. - ^ *i^i. 'f a*~«r **^*£e<^J y^ sl*-& *iCls £u*t s ^ *%*t I S*J ^t^C ^^. jS&Ly <*-x*> £zCs£ sh~~*A y£^F-z_ ^^W=0 'Z-^ZCyts . ^^^ ^^^_ ^j^ ^X_ 4 /^-^ ^u^> ^zu^ ^ j /^^^_ ^_ /^**-*Sf Art