Irving Vignettes: Vignette Illustrations of the Writings of Washington Irving

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Sampson Low, Son & Company, 1858 - 287 pages

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Page 209 - I put the cork into the bottle, desired he would be calm, and began to talk to him of the means by which he might be extricated. He then told me that he had a novel ready for the press, which he produced to me. I looked into it, and saw its merit; told the landlady I should soon return, and having gone to a bookseller sold it for sixty pounds. I brought Goldsmith the money, and he discharged his rent, not without rating his landlady in a high tone for having used him so ill.
Page 205 - I perceived that he had already changed my guinea, and had a bottle of Madeira and a glass before him. I put the cork into the bottle, desired he would be calm, and began to talk to him of the means by which he might be extricated. He then told me that he had a novel ready for the press, which he produced to me.
Page 92 - To sweeten the beverage, a lump of sugar was laid beside each cup, and the company alternately nibbled and sipped with great decorum, until an improvement was introduced by a shrewd and economic old lady, which was to suspend a large lump directly over the tea-table, by a string from the ceiling, so that it could be swung from mouth to mouth, — an ingenious expedient, which is still kept up by VOL. I. — 17 some families in Albany, but which prevails without exception in Communipaw, Bergen, Flatbush,...
Page 25 - I beg you to accept my best thanks for the uncommon degree of entertainment which I have received from the most excellently jocose history of New York. I am sensible that as a stranger to American parties and politics, I must lose much of the concealed satire of the piece; but I must own that, looking at the simple and obvious meaning only, I have never read anything so closely resembling the style of Dean Swift as the annals of Diedrich Knickerbocker.
Page 62 - I sha'n't run directly against my own preaching, And having just laughed at their Raphaels and Dantes, Go to setting you up beside matchless Cervantes ; But allow me to speak what I honestly feel, — To a true poet-heart add the fun of Dick Steele...
Page 102 - As the vine, which has long twined its graceful foliage about the oak, and been lifted by it into sunshine, will, when the hardy plant is rifted by the thunderbolt, cling round it with its caressing tendrils, and bind up its shattered boughs ; so...
Page 104 - There is in every true woman's heart a spark of heavenly fire, which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity, but which kindles up, and beams, and blazes in the dark hour of adversity.
Page 22 - Scott reached the gate, he called out in a hearty tone, welcoming me to Abbotsford, and asking news of Campbell. Arrived at the door of the chaise, he grasped me warmly by the hand: " Come, drive down, drive down to the house," said he; " Ye're just in time for breakfast, and afterwards ye shall see all the wonders of the Abbey.
Page 131 - Nina, however, being a good sailer, pressed forward to ascertain the fact. In a little while a flag was hoisted at her mast-head, and a gun discharged, being the preconcerted signals for land. New • joy was awakened throughout the little squadron, and every eye was turned to the west. As they advanced, however, their cloud-built hopes faded away, and before evening the fancied land had again melted into...
Page 90 - ... worn out by the very precautions taken for its preservation. The whole house was constantly in a state of inundation...

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