The Sun.
London, England, 1862-06-09 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Life and Letters of Washington Irving. Edited
by his' nephew, Pierre M. Irving, Vol. 1.
•

Bentley, New Bnrlington..street.

Fearful, perchance, of giving us too much of a
good thing at once, Mr. Irving is publishing the
biography of his uncle in instalments, and we must
say that the present sample makes us wish
for more. The task was undert!4ken, it seems, at
tne Author's exprebs request, who placed in the bio-
grapher's bands." a mass. of material, consisting
of journals, note-books, diaries at scattered inter-
vals, and a large collection of family letters, with
files of others from various correspondents, which,
as he said, he had neither time nor spirit to exa-
mine or arrange." Other letters, too, were contri-
buted by various friends, and these have been so
used as " to make the author, in every stage of his
career, as far as possible his own biographer," a
mode of procedure which has in this case been
eminently successful. This first volume brings us
up to Washington Irving's 37th year, when he bad
published his " Sketch-book," and his reputation as
an author was established; but it commences, very
properly, with his " birth, parentage, and antes-
try. The former event took place in the city of
New York, April,3, 1783, and he was the youngest
of eleven children. His father was a native of Sha'-
pinsha, one of the Orkney Islands, and his
mother of Falmouth ; and his descent on the pater-
nal side is traced to William De Irwin, who
was the secretary and.armour bearer of Robert
Bruce. "According to the current legend, Bruce,
when a fugitive from the, court of Edward 1., was
secreted for a considerable time in the house of
William de Irwyn's father,who was of the Irvines
of Bonshaw, the oldst branch of Irvinga of which
we have any reliable record ; and on leaving, took
with him his eldest son, made him his secretary and
armour bearer, and for his continued fidelity
knighted him and conferred on him his private
coat-of arms." This coat of arms consisted of
" three holly leaves, with the motto, Sub sole sub
umbra virens." And it was adopted by Bruce from
his having lain concealed in a copse of holly, and
thus escaped his pursuers, after his defeat at,
Metlaven. Irving's father in the earlier part of his
career was a petty officer on board an armed packet
ship plying between Falmouth and New York, but
after his marriage he settled at the latter city and
engaged in trade. He, " a sedate, conscientious,
God-fearing man, with much of the strictness of
the old Scotch covenanter in his composition, had
small sympathy with' the amusements of his
children, and lost no opportunity of giving their
thoughts a serious turn. Of their two half boli-
'days for the week one was required for catechism,
and on Sunday the only variation from the regular
routine of church, morning and afternoon, with
lecture in the evenink, was the reading of the
in
which they devoured,with the deepest relishfotlloownedl
it is questionable' whether they .
the spiritual import of the narratrvaelwaeas3:
their father might have wished or deem d d
Dial character,
But his mother was a much more secl.oisteyliyn
ga2s,
religiousD6lDeSt attachment.
training
and it was to her he feltthe srfo
Indeed the father's system
" said Wash' is
offspring. " When I was younghow or oth legton,
seems to have repelled rather than sttracted
" I was led to think that swomase erevery7.
wicked."
thing that was pleasant
one, ultimately
sisters save And he,'
with At a very early age the little
joined other sects.
with all his broth
introduced to
anders
Washington wasthus his great name-
sake:—
44 Washington's work is ended," said the mother, "and
the child shall be named after him." The appellation was
the means of procuring him an early introduction to that
illustrious personage, when he came back to New York,
then the seat of Government, as President of the United
States. A young Scotch maid servant of the family, struck
with the enthucasm which everywhere greeted his arrival,
determined to present the child to his distinguished name-
sake, Accordingly, she ibllowed him one morning into a
shop, and pointing to the lad who had scarcely cutgrown
his virgin trousers—" Please your honour," said she,