at the Catskill Mountains had always been haunted by
strange beings. That it was affirmed that the great Hendrick Hudson,
the first discoverer of the river and country, kept a kind of vigil
there every twenty years, with his crew of the _Half-moon_; being
permitted in this way to revisit the scenes of his enterprise, and
keep a guardian eye upon the river, and the great city called by his
name. That his father had once seen them in their old Dutch dresses
playing at nine-pins in a hollow of the mountain; and that he himself
had heard, one summer afternoon, the sound of their balls, like
distant peals of thunder.

To make a long story short, the company broke up, and returned to the
more important concerns of the election. Rip's daughter took him home
to live with her; she had a snug, well-furnished house, and a stout
cheery farmer for a husband, whom Rip recollected for one of the
urchins that used to climb upon his back. As to Rip's son and heir,
who was the ditto of himself, seen leaning against the tree, he was
employed to work on the farm; but evinced an hereditary disposition to
attend to anything else but his business.

III

AT ABBOTSFORD WITH SCOTT[53]

I had a letter of introduction to him from Thomas Campbell the poet,
and had reason to think, from the interest he had taken in some of my
earlier scribblings,[54] that a visit from me would not be deemed an
intrusion.

[Footnote 53: From the collection of papers entitled "Crayon
Miscellany." Irving's visit was made in 1817. His account of it was
not published until nearly twenty years afterward--that is, after
Scott's death.]

[Footnote 54: Irving at that time had published little more than the
"Salmagundi" papers and "Knickerbocker's History of New York."]

On the following morning, after an early breakfast, I set off in a
post-chaise for the Abbey.

On the way thither I stopt at the gate of Abbotsford, and sent the
postilion to the house with the letter of introduction and my card, on
which I had written that I was on my way to the ruins of Melrose
Abbey, and wished to know whether it would be agreeable to Mr. Scott
(he had not yet been made a baronet) to receive a visit from me in the
course of the morning....

In a little while the "lord of the castle" himself made his
appearance. I knew him at once by the descriptions I had read and
heard, and the likeness that had been published of him. He was tall,
and of a large and powerful frame. Hi