It has been the good
fortune of the writer to spend many a delightful day in the very
centre of Merrie England, in the quiet town of Stratford-on-Avon,
and feel the gentle companionship of Irving. Of all writers who have
brought to Stratford their heart homage Irving stands the acknowledged
chief. The sitting-room in the "Red Horse Hotel," where he was
disturbed in his midnight reverie, is still called Irving's room, and
the walls are hung with portraits taken at different periods of his
life. Mine host said that visitors from every land were as much
interested in this room as in Shakespeare's birth-place. The remark
may have been intensified to flatter an American visitor, but there
are few names dearer to the Anglo-Saxon race than that on the plain
headstone in the burial-yard of Sleepy Hollow. Sunnyside is scarcely
visible to the Day Line tourist. A little gleam of color here
and there amid the trees, close to the river bank, near a small
boat-house, merely indicates its location; and the traveler by train
has only a hurried glimpse, as it is within one hundred feet of the
New York Central Railroad.
Pages:
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116