THE SKETCH BOOK.

ROUTLEDGE'S POCKET LIBRARY

IN MONTHLY VOLUMES.

"A series of beautiful little books, tastefully bound."-Times. "Beautifully printed and tastefully bound."-Saturday Review. "Deserves warm praise for the taste shown in its production." -Athenæum.

"Routledge's PERFECT Pocket Library."-Punch.

1. BRET HARTE'S POEMS.

2. THACKERAY'S PARIS SKETCH BOOK.

3. HOOD'S COMIC POEMS.

4. DICKENS'S CHRISTMAS CAROL.

5. POEMS BY OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.
6. WASHINGTON IRVING'S SKETCH BOOK.
7. MACAULAY'S LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.
8. GOLDSMITH'S VICAR OF WAKEFIELD.
9. HOOD'S SERIOUS POEMS.

10. LORD LYTTON'S COMING RACE.

11. THE BIGLOW PAPERS.

12. MANON LESCAUT.

13. LONGFELLOW'S SONG OF HIAWATHA.

14. STERNE'S SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY.

15. DICKENS'S CHIMES.

16. MOORE'S IRISH MELODIES AND SONGS.

17. FIFTY 'BAB' BALLADS.

18. POEMS BY E. B. BROWNING.

19. BRET HARTE'S LUCK OF ROARING CAMP.

THE SKETCH BOOK

BY

WASHINGTON IRVING

"I have no wife nor children, good or bad, to provide for. A
mere spectator of other men's fortunes and adventures, and how
they play their parts; which, methinks, are diversely presented
unto me, as froin a common theatre or scene."-BURTON

PREFACE.

THE following papers, with two exceptions, were written in England, and formed but part of an intended series for which I had made notes and memorandums. Before I could mature a plan, however, circumstances compelled me to send them piecemeal to the United States, where they were published from time to time in portions or numbers. It was not my intention to publish them in England, being conscious that much of their contents could be interesting only to American readers, and, in truth, being deterred by the severity with which American productions had been treated by the British Press.

By the time the contents of the first volume had appeared in this occasional manner, they began to find their way across the Atlantic, and to be inserted, with many kind encomiums, in the London "Literary. Gazette." It was said, also, that a London bookseller intended to publish them in a collective form. I determined, therefore, to bring them forward myself, that they might at least have the benefit of my superintendence and revision. I accordingly took the printed numbers which I had received from the United States to Mr. John Murray, the eminent publisher, from whom I had already received friendly attentions, and left them with him for examination, informing him that should