The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon

Opening of the book

THE SKETCH BOOK
of
GEOFFREY CRAYON, GENT.
By Washington Irving
Original
Original
Original
Original

THE SKETCH-BOOK OF

GEOFFREY CRAYON, GENT.

“I have no wife nor children, good or bad, to provide for. A mere spectator of other men’s fortunes and adventures, and how they play their parts; which, methinks, are diversely presented unto me, as from a common theatre or scene.”—BURTON.

Original

PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION.

T HE following papers, with two exceptions, were written in

England, and formed but part of an intended series for which I had made notes and memorandums. Before I could mature a plan, however, circumstances compelled me to send them piecemeal to the

United States, where they were published from time to time in portions or numbers. It was not my intention to publish them in

England, being conscious that much of their contents could be interesting only to American readers, and, in truth, being deterred by the severity with which American productions had been treated by the British press.

By the time the contents of the first volume had appeared in this occasional manner, they began to find their way across the Atlantic, and to be inserted, with many kind encomiums, in the London

Literary Gazette. It was said, also, that a London bookseller intended to publish them in a collective form. I determined, therefore, to bring them forward myself, that they might at least have the benefit of my superintendence and revision. I accordingly took the printed numbers

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