CHAPTER X.

A LITERARY FREAK.-THE OLD MOORISH CHRONICLES.-THE SADDLE-HORSE.COMPLETION OF HIS IMPROVEMENTS.-NEW YORK AS IT WAS AND IS.-HIS LAST JOB.-HARD AT WORK ON THE "LIFE OF WASHINGTON."-LETTER TO MISS CATHERINE IRVING.

R. IRVING had for some time had it in contemplation to publish a revised and uniform

edition of his works, to which he had been strongly urged. He was apt to be dilatory, however, in the execution of his literary purposes; and the intimation thrown out to me in his late letter, quoted in the last chapter, of the "rubbish" he had been working up to pay for his new building, had awakened some concern lest he should be losing sight of this object. I replied to it therefore, that, though glad to learn he had been at work with his pen in any way, I was chiefly anxious at present to have him commence with the uniform edition of his works, for which there was an expectation and demand. "You lost the 'Conquest of Mexico,'" I remark in the letter now before me, "by not acting upon the motto of Carpe diem; and I am a little afraid you may let slip the present opportunity for a favorable sale of a uni

form edition of your works, by suffering your pen to be diverted in a new direction. A literary harvest is before you from this source, on which you could reckon with confidence now, but which might turn to barrenness under a future pressure in the money market, of which many are not without misgivings at this moment. Therefore

Now's the day and now's the hour."

He writes, in reply, April 14th :—

Don't snub me about my late literary freak. I am not letting my pen be diverted in a new direction. I am, by a little agreeable exertion, turning to account a mass of matter that has been lying like lumber in my trunks for years. When I was in Madrid, in 1826-27, just after I had finished "Columbus," I commenced a series of Chronicles illustrative of the wars between the Spaniards and the Moors; to be given as the productions of a monk, Fray Antonio Agapida. The "Conquest of Granada" was the only one I finished, though I roughly sketched out parts of some others. Your uncle Peter was always anxious for me to carry out my plan, but, somehow or other, I let it grow cool. The "Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada" was not so immediately successful as I had anticipated, though it has held its way better than many other of my works which were more taking at first. I am apt to get out of conceit of anything I do; and I suffered the manuscript of these Chronicles to lie in my trunks like waste paper. About four or five weeks since, I was tired, one day, of muddling over my printed works, and yet wanted occupation. I don't know how the idea of one of these Chronicles came into my head. It was the "Chronicle of Count Fernan Gonzalez,” one of the early Counts of Castile. It makes about sixty or eighty pages of my writing. I took it up, was amused with it, and found I had hit the

right vein in my management of it. I went to work and rewrote it, and got so in the spirit of the thing, that I went to work, con amore, at two or three fragmentary Chronicles, filling up the chasms, rewriting parts. In a word, I have now complete, though not thoroughly finished off, "The Chronicle of Pelayo;" "The Chronicle of Count Fernan Gonzalez ;" "The Chronicle of the Dynasty of the Ommiades in Spain," giving the succession of those brilliant sovereigns, from the time that the Moslem empire in Spain was united under the first, and fell to pieces at the death of the last of them; also the "Chronicle of Fernando the Saint," with the reconquest of Seville. I may add others to the series; but if I do not, these, with additions, illustrations, etc., will make a couple of volumes; and I feel confident that I can make the work a taking one-giving a picture of Spain at various periods of the Moorish domination, and giving illustrations of the places of noted events, from what I myself have seen 'in my rambles about Spain. Some parts of these Chronicles run into a quiet, drolling vein, especially in treating of miracles and miraculous events; on which occasion Fray Antonio Agapida comes to my assistance, with his zeal for the faith, and his pious hatred of the infidels. You see, all this has cost me but a very few weeks of amusing occupation, and has put me quite in heart again, as well as in literary vein. The poring over my published works was rather muddling me, and making me feel as if the true literary vein was extinct. I think, therefore, you will agree with me that my time for the last five weeks has been well employed. I have secured the frame and part of the finish of an entire new work, and can now put it by to be dressed off at leisure.

Before I received this letter, having heard from a relative who was staying with him that he had been busy with some of his old Moorish Chronicles, I wrote him that I had a very agreeable though indistinct recollection of the manuscripts, and had no doubt of his working them up with effect, but still suggested a suspension of

the publication, adding that the reading world might not be content with these literary "skimmings," while waiting with impatience the appearance of a uniform edition of his works now out of print. I added: "Make all dispatch with the preparation of your uniform edition, and then to work to complete your 'Life of Washington,' and take your ease forever after."

In reading the reply which I give below, the reader will bear in mind that my ill-starred epistle was dispatched in advance of the receipt of the author's interesting letters of the 14th, giving me an insight into the character of his new labors, dwelling with such evident satisfaction on his "literary freak," and showing the attraction he felt in the theme.

MY DEAR PIERRE :

SUNNYSIDE, April 15, 1847.

I am glad I did not receive your note of this morning before my new work was beyond the danger of being chilled by a damper. You can know nothing of the work, excepting what you may recollect of an extract of one of the Chronicles which I once published in the “Knickerbocker.”* The whole may be mere "skimmings," but they pleased me in the preparation; they were written when I was in the vein, and that is the only guide I go by in my writings, or which has led me to success. Besides, I write for pleasure as well as profit; and the pleasure I have recently enjoyed in the recurrence, after so long an interval, of my old literary vein, has been so great, that I am content to forego any loss of profit it may occasion me by a slight postponement of the republication of my old works.

These old Morisco Spanish subjects have a charm that makes me con

* Pelayo and the Merchant's Daughter.

tent to write about them at half price. They have so much that is highminded and chivalrous and quaint and picturesque and adventurous, and at times half comic about them.

However, I'll say no more on the subject, but another time will ride my hobby privately, without saying a word about it to anybody. I have generally found that the best way. I am too easily dismounted, if any one jostles against me.

The letter of the 14th, which, had it been received earlier, would have prevented my second unlucky epistle, like a thing "born out of due time," came straggling in on the 17th, two days after the letter just cited had been received by me. I was sufficiently annoyed at the consequences of the untimely potion I had so unwittingly administered, especially with the insight now afforded of the character of the work; and I wrote him immediately, explaining and recanting as far as I could, but in vain. He had been disconcerted, and would not resume the theme.

In the following letter, however, written a fortnight later, he returns to the subject in his characteristically playful vein, his annoyance having passed off almost with the letter that gave expression to it.

please.

[To Mrs. Pierre M. Irving.]

SUNNYSIDE, April 30, 1847.

The girls say you can come up to Sunnyside as soon as you .. To-day my 66 women kind" of the kitchen remove bag and baggage into the new tower, which is getting its outside coat of