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"THE SKETCH BOOK," "BRACEBRIDGE HALL,"
"TALES OF A TRAVELLER," &c.

ILLUSTRATED WITH SIX ETCHINGS,

BY WILLIAM HEATH, ESQ.


Lendor:

PRINTED FOR JOHN LUMPUS,
85, NEWGATE STREET.

MDCCCXXV.

1825

PK

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INTRODUCTION.

THE name of Washington Irving is more than sufficient to warrant the anticipation of a favourable reception for the volume now offered to the notice of the public.

In making the selection, the Publishers have endeavoured to exhibit, as far as their limits will permit, the varied excellences which characterize the genius of this highly gifted individual. In their attempt however, to concentrate within the focus of the present little tome, the intellectual light of those "gems" whose ". purest ray serene" has enshrined their author in the firmament of British literature, as a star of the first magnitude, they have in a great measure restricted themselves to those pieces, where the humour is obvious to the general reader, and avoided such as require a knowledge of the localities of the author's "father-land."

Though many of his pieces, like well harmonized landscapes, are true to nature in the various groupings and blendings, necessary to form an interesting picture; yet, as in landscapes, there are particular spots where the straggling sunbeam falls, and with the enlivening brilliancy of its tints brings forth the outline with a stronger and more beautiful effect, so, in the writings of our author, there are passages more delightfully irradiated than others

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with the splendour of his genius. To these passages thus pre-eminently distinguished, the selectors have, for the most part, confined their attention. The reader, however, in whom the present collection may excite a desire for a more intimate acquaintance with the works of our author, need not be deterred by the idea of our having exhausted the subject, as we have merely culled from amid the rich profusion, with which his writings abound, sufficient materials for a neat companionable kind of volume, such as may be conveniently disposed of in the reticule of a lady or the pocket of a gentleman; and which the Publishers have endeavoured by uniting accurate typography with tasteful embellishment to render no less deserving the approbation of the Public than becoming the reputation of the Author.

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