The life and letters of Washington Irving . ut acknowledging the receipt of thecopy of your work which you have hadthe kindness to send me, and expressingto you the great delight I take in theichabod Crane. perusal of it. But when I remind you that I am approaching my seventy-fourth birthday, that I am laboring tolaunch the fourth volume of my Life of Washington, and that my tableis loaded with a continually increasing multitude of unanswered letters,which I vainly endeavor to cope with, I am sure that you will excuse thetardiness of my correspondence. I hope the success of your work has been
The life and letters of Washington Irving . ut acknowledging the receipt of thecopy of your work which you have hadthe kindness to send me, and expressingto you the great delight I take in theichabod Crane. perusal of it. But when I remind you that I am approaching my seventy-fourth birthday, that I am laboring tolaunch the fourth volume of my Life of Washington, and that my tableis loaded with a continually increasing multitude of unanswered letters,which I vainly endeavor to cope with, I am sure that you will excuse thetardiness of my correspondence. I hope the success of your work has been equal to its merits. To me,your Adventures in the Wilds are a continual refreshment of thespirits. I take a volume of your work to bed with me, after fagging withmy pen, and then I ramble with you among the mountains and by thestreams in the boundless interior of our fresh, unhackneyed country, andonly regret that I can but do so in idea, and that I am not young enoughto be your companion in reality. Adventures in the Wilds of America. 204. LIFE AND LETTERS OF WASHINGTON IRVING. 205 I have taken great interest, of late, in your Expedition among theAlleghany Mountains, having been campaigning, in my work, in theupper parts of the Carolinas, and especially in the Catawba country,about which you give such graphic sketchings. Really, I look upon yourwork as a vade mecum to the American lover of the picturesque andromantic, unfolding to him the wilderness of beauties and the variety ofadventurous Hfe to be found in our great chains of mountains and systemof lakes and rivers. You are, in fact, the picturesque explorer of ourcountry. With great regard, my dear Mr. Lanman, yours ever very truly, Washington Irving. By the following brief notes to myself, it will appear that thefourth volume of the Life of Washington was going throughthe press, and that he was prone to make modifications and cor-rections during the process :— SUNNYSIDE, March 20, Dear Pierre :— Page 161 must
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