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The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Canyon, Gent. [pseud.]
The SketchBook of Geoffrey Canyon Gent - pseud. Author:Washington Irving General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1882 Original Publisher: G.P. Putnam's sons Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you ... more »can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: RIP VAN WINKLE. A POSTHUMOUS WRITING OF DIEDKICH KNICKERBOCKER By Woden, God of Saxons, From whence comes Wensday, that Is Wodensday, Truth is a thing that ever I will keep Unto thylke day in which I creep into My sepulchre Cartwhight. [The following Tale was found among the papers of the late Diedrich Knickerbocker, an old gentleman of New York, who was very curious in the Dutch history of the province, and the manners of the descendants from its primitive settlers. His historical researches, however, did not lie so much among books as among men ; for the former are lamentably scanty on his favorite topics ; whereas he found the old burghers, and still more their wives, rich in that legendary lore, so invaluable to true history. Whenever, therefore, he happened upon a genuine Dutch family, snugly shut up in its low-roofed farmhouse, under a spreading sycamore, he looked upon it as a little clasped volume of black-letter, and studied it with the zeal of a book-worm. The result of all these researches was a history of the province during the reign of the Dutch governors, which he published some years since. There have been various opinions as to the literary character of his work, and, to tell the truth, it is not a whit better than it should be. Its chief merit is its scrupulous accuracy, which indeed was a little questioned on its first appearance, but has since been completely established ; and it is now admitted into all historical collections, as a book of unquestionable authority. The old gentleman died shortly after the publication of his work, and...« less