Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/388

360 IRVING, Washington, author, b. in New York city, 3 April, 1783 ; d. at Sunnyside, Irvington, N. Y., 28 Nov., 1859. His father was William Irving, of the Orkneys, a man of good lineage, who a little after the middle of the last century had taken to a sea-faring life ; and it was while serving as petty officer upon a British armed packet, which plied between Falmouth and New York, that he encountered at the former port a beautiful girl — Sarah Sanders by name — who became his wife. He married in 1761, and in 1763 migrated with her to New York, where he established himself in trade in William street, at a point midway be- tween Pulton and John. There are no traces now of that first Irving home into which were born eleven children, eight of them reaching maturity ; of these, Washington, the subject of this notice, and the author of the " Sketch-Book," was the youngest. The father did fairly well in his business ventures, but had his tribulations, growing out of his fervid patriotism in the days of the Revolution, when his house lay within easy gun-shot of the Brit- ish war-ships. Once, indeed, he had been compelled to decamp and take refuge in the Jerseys, but in 1784 — a year after the birth of his son Washington — he was established in a new and commodious home. There are old New-Yorkers who remember its quaint gables, and our author's biographer tells us of a visit that Washington Irving made to this home of his boyhood ten years before his death, and of the merry twinkle of the eye with which he told of his escapades over this or that loft or through this or that window in the peaked gables, for a run to the theatre in John street, or for a foray upon adjoining roofs, whence he could safe- ly discharge a little volley of pebbles down the chimney of some wondering neighbor. Such sto- ries were not needed by any reader of the Knicker- bocker chronicle to convince him of the love of mischief in the lad. Indeed, mischievous propen- sities declared themselves the more strongly in all likelihood because the father, Deacon Irving, was a strict disciplinarian. He was, indeed, a man of all probity, with a high sense of honor, and uni- formly respected; but he held all play-houses in detestation, counted dancing a sin, and looked askance upon any Sunday reading in his house- hold beyond the catechism or Bible story, or — de- lightful exception for the boy — Bunyan's "Pil- grim's Progress." The mother of Washington had more of toleration in her judgments and of sun- shine in her temperament ; all accounts represent her as a dear, good, lively, cheery, sympathetic person, beloved in her household, and doubtless taking away the edge from many a paternal rebuke by her forgiving caresses.

At the age of four Irving went to a woman's school in Ann street, and shortly afterward to that of an old soldier in Fulton street. But these were not the busy thoroughfares that we know by those names. In going and coming, the lad must have caught sight many times, between the houses, of East river and of the heights of Long Island. There were gardens in his own street which reached down to the water, the old Dutch church had its green yard abutting upon Nas- sau street, and beyond Chambers cows were at pasture. The boy's schooling was not of a thor- ough sort, and when it ended, he being then six- teen, he had only, beyond the ordinary English branches, a smattering of Latin and of music, and such dancing skill as he had come by furtively. But he had read intelligently and voraciously such books as " Sindbad," " Gulliver," and '• Robinson Crusoe." Why he was not presented for a course in Columbia college, which two of his elder broth- ers had taken, does not appear; instead, he entered a law-office, relieving his studies there (which, it would seem, were not very strenuous) by literary squibs, under the pen-name of "Jonathan Old- style," for the " Morning Chronicle," and later by a memorable sloop voyage up the Hudson, tacking and scudding under the Highlands, and floating for days together in sight of the blue Kaatskills, on his way to visit some kinsfolk who lived in the wilds of northern New York. The trip was under- taken partly for his health ; continued invalidism, with threat of pulmonary trouble, determined his friends in the spring of 1804 to send him upon European voyagings. It was largely at the instance of his brother William, who was seventeen years his senior, and well established, that this scheme was effected. Washington was at that date twenty-one, a little below the average height, delicate, handsome of feature — Vanderlyn's some- what too effeminate portrait of him gives doubtless a good notion of his appearance in that day — full of all courtesies, too, and with a most winning manner. He had even then given token of strong literary aptitude and of a keen humor. He carried abundant letters, and was warmly received at Bordeaux, at Genoa, at Naples ; a glamour of ro- mance hangs over his story of the trip in home letters. Off Messina he saw the great fleet of Nelson, which was presently a-wing for Trafalgar ; at Rome he met Washington Allston, and by in- terfusion of minds became almost mated to All- ston's life of art. Meantime admonitory letters were coming from the staid brother William to see Florence, to see Venice, to improve his opportuni- ties. But he had determined to make a straight way for Paris. He heard that excellent lectures on chemistry and botany were within free reach there, besides the chances for the language. And he goes, and has a gay " outing " in that capital ; there is, indeed, mention in his record of the costs of a botanical dictionary, and for two months' tuition in French ; but there is more mention of Talma and of the theatres, which he takes by turn and follows up with alacrity and method.

He goes thence to London, via Holland, and is " put out there," as he says, by his " gray coat, em- broidered white vest, and colored small-clothes," a gay young fellow! He is enraptured with Mrs. Siddons, who is playing in those days ; is in the theatre, indeed, when news of Nelson's death comes to England like a thunderbolt. On his return to New York in 1806 with re-established health and with critical faculty whetted by foreign life, he undertook, in conjunction with his friend James K. Paulding (q. v.) and his brother William, the publication of " Salmagundi," a periodical of the " Spectator " stamp, but lacking its finish and vitality. He took up law again, but never showed a love for it. There entered also a disturbing element into his studies of whatever sort at this period, by reason of a strong attachment with tragic ending which he formed for the accomplished daughter of his friend and legal instructor, Judge Hoffman. In a confidential communication to an intimate friend many years later he says: "I was by her when she died ; all the family were assembled round her, some praying, others weeping, for she was adored by them all. I was the last one she looked upon. The despondency I had suffered for a long time in the course of this attachment, and the anguish that attended its catastrophe, seemed to give a turn to my whole character and throw some clouds into my disposition, which have ever since hung about it. When 1 be-