tage at Sunnyside, although
without a mistress, was truly a home.

It was with great reluctance that he left it after his appointment as
minister to Spain, and all the pleasure he received from that high mark
of the appreciation of his country did not compensate him for the
hardship of leaving home. During this third visit to Europe "it is easy
to see that life has grown rather sombre to Irving,--the glamour is
gone, he is subject to few illusions. The show and pageantry no longer
enchant; they only weary." He writes home: "Amidst all the splendors of
London and Paris I find my imagination refuses to take fire, and my
heart still yearns after dear little Sunnyside." Those were exciting
times in Spain, and Irving entered into all the dramatic interest of the
situation with a real enthusiasm, and wrote most interesting letters to
friends at home, describing the melodrama in which he had sometimes an
even perilous interest. Throughout his four years' stay the excitement
continued, and the duties of minister were sometimes perplexing enough.
From the midst of court life, in 1845, he wrote:--

"I long to be back once more at dear little Sunnyside, while I have
yet strength and good spirits to enjoy the simple pleasures of the
country, and to rally a happy family group once more around me. I
grudge every year of absence that rolls by. To-morrow I shall be
sixty-two years old. The evening of life is fast drawing over me;
still I hope to get back among my friends while there is a little
sunshine left."

In 1846 he did return, and enjoyed thirteen years more of happy life
there.

George W. Curtis thus delightfully sketches the man:--

"Irving was as quaint a figure as Diedrich Knickerbocker in the
preliminary advertisement of the 'History of New York.' Thirty
years ago he might have been seen on an autumnal afternoon,
tripping with an elastic step along Broadway, with low-quartered
shoes neatly tied, and a Talma cloak,--a short garment that hung
from his shoulders like the cape of a coat. There was a chirping,
cheery, old-school air in his appearance, which was undeniably
Dutch, and most harmonious with the associations of his writings.
He seemed, indeed, to have stepped out of his own books; and the
cordial grace and humor of his address were delightfully
characteristic."

Through all the honors which he received--and he was one of