This supposed change in Leslie's portrait of him called out the following sensitive comment in a letter to the artist, of Dec. 19.

I received a letter from Peter Powell, in which he speaks of my portrait being in the engraver's hands, and that it is painted in the old Venetian costume. I hope you have not misunderstood my meaning when I spoke about the costume in which I should like to be painted. I believe I spoke something about the costume of Newton's portrait. I meant Newton's portrait of me, not of himself. If you recollect, he painted me as if in some kind of an overcoat, with a fur cape; a dress that had nothing in it remarkable, but which merely avoided any present fashion that might in a few years appear stupid. The Venetian dress which Newton painted himself in would have a fantastic appearance, and savor of affectation. If it is not too late, I should like to have the thing altered. Let the costume be simple and picturesque, but such a one as a gentleman might be supposed to wear occasionally at the present day. I only wanted you to avoid the edges, and corners, and angles with which a modern coat is so oddly and formally clipped out at the present day. "I received yesterday yours of the 19th," writes Leslie in reply, "and hasten to relieve your mind from any apprehensions you may entertain with regard to the cos tume of your portrait, which is still in my room exactly in the state in which you last saw it. I shall finish it in a day or two strictly according to your wishes. The Venetian dress was only a phantom of Peter Powell's imagination, conjured up to disturb your evening dreams.

The whimsical personage who had thus amused himself at the expense of the author, I have heard Mr.

opera of

Irving characterize as a fine, honorable little fellow,
-with a fund of humor and a special gift for mimicry.
One of his performances was a burlesque of the
Moses in Egypt; another, an Oratorio in which he be-
gan by handing in his imaginary female singers, and
Leslie hints at a third, in an allusion to his " gallanting
that imaginary flock of geese." It was a great treat to
his friends to witness these comic exhibitions, but in all
his travesties, said Mr. Irving, in attempting an exem-
plification of one of them, there was nothing overdone.
He made his acquaintance when preparing the first
number of the Sketch Book, and introduced him after-
wards to Leslie and Newton, with the first of whom he
became a great crony.

November 30, 1820, he writes to Leslie :

I hear that you are getting on with the sketches for Knickerbocker, and that you have executed one on the same subject Allston once chose, viz., "Peter Stuyvesant rebuking the cob bler." I wish you would drop me a line and let me know what subjects you execute, and how you and Murray make out together. I hear that you have taken the "Childe" to Murray's; you have only to make him acquainted with Willis and Peter Powell, and he will then be able to make one at your tea-kettle debauches.

"The Childe " had just written to him that Willis had sent them home at four in the morning," reeling with Bohea."

The letter proceeds:

I have just made a brief but very pleasant excursion into

Lower Normandy in company with Mr. Ritchie. I must refer you to a letter scribbled to Peter Powell for a full and faithful narrative of this tour.

I have not this letter, but some pencil memoranda of the tour show that he started on the 8th November, and that his travels extended to Honfleur, at the mouth of the Seine, the scene of his story of Annette Delarbre in Bracebridge Hall.

In his answer, dated December 3, Leslie says:

The subjects I have chosen are a Dutch fireside, with an old negro telling stories to the children; William the Testy suspending a vagrant by the heels on his patent gallows; Peter Stuyvesant confuting the cobbler; and Anthony Van Corlear taking leave of the young vrows. All of them I have finished except the last, and Mr. Murray appears to be highly pleased with them.

He is delighted with Allston's picture of "Wouter Van Twiller," which will be engraved with the rest. He talks a great deal about you, whenever I see him, in terms of the highest praise and friendship. The "Sketch Book " is entirely out of print.

I like all the subjects that you have chosen for the designs, [writes the author in reply,] except that of William the Testy suspending the vagabond by the breeches. The circumstance is not of sufficient point or character in the history to be illustrated.

Leslie, in explanation, assigns as a reason for the selection, that Murray wished one design at least from the reign of each governor, and he was puzzled in find

66

ing one that could be brought within a small compass from that part of the book. "I was somewhat fearful of it myself," he adds, "but Newton thinks you would like it."

Meanwhile the new candidate for fame was steadily gaining in reputation in England. "I think you are a most fortunate fellow of an author," writes Peter Powell, Dec. 3, "in regard to your debut amongst us in this critical age, for I have not heard of your having so much as a nose or a member of any kind cut up by the anatomists of literature; on the contrary, there seems to be almost a conspiracy to hoist you over the heads of your contemporaries." And Leslie writes, Dec. 24: "Miller says Geoffrey Crayon is the most fashionable fellow of the day. I am very much inclined to think if you were here just now,' company would be the spoil of you."" Then, begging to be remembered to his brother Peter, he concludes: "All the lads join in wishing you both a merry Christmas and happy New Year. I intend appropriating a part of to-morrow to reading your Christmas article. I shall stick up your portrait before my face, and bury myself in an enormous elbow-chair I have got, over which Murphy often sheds his puppies,' relying on the book I shall hold in my hand to act as a charm against the seductions of the seat. These associations are the best means by which I can console myself for your ab

sence.'

CHAPTER II.

MAKES THE ACQUAINTANCE OF THOMAS MOORE, THE POET-VISIT TO THE PRISON OF MARIE ANTOINETTE-LETTER TO BREVOORT-REASONS FOR REMAINING ABROAD-MOORE-CANNING-MOORE'S HINT OF THE ORIGIN OF BRACEBRIDGE HALL-ANOTHER GLIMPSE OF IRVING FROM MOORE-JOHN HOWARD. PAYNETALMA-HIS PERFORMANCE OF HAMLET-LETTER TO LESLIE-KENNEY, AUTHOR OF RAISING THE WIND, ETC.-LUTTREL-INTRODUCED TO THE HOLLANDS -MURRAY BEGS HIS ACCEPTANCE OF AN ADDITIONAL ONE HUNDRED POUNDS -FOR THE SKETCH BOOK-THE AUTHOR'S LETTER THEREUPON-READS MANUSCRIPT TO MOORE-BANCROFT SETS OFF FOR ENGLAND JULY 11TH, HOPING TO HAVE SOMETHING READY FOR THE PRESS BY AUTUMN.

IT

T was at the close of this year that Mr. Irving made the acquaintance of one of the most brilliant and delightful of his contemporaries, Thomas Moore, the Irish poet, then an absentee in Paris, on account of some pending liabilities of government against him, arising out of the defalcation of his deputy at Bermuda, which he was hoping to adjust. Moore has this entry on the subject in his diary :

December 21, 1820.-Dined with McKay at the table d'hôte at Meurice's for the purpose of being made known to Mr. Washington Irving, the author of the work which has lately had success, the "Sketch Book"; a good-looking and intelligent-mannered man.