"I have derived much pleasure," says Washington Irving, "from observing the fair Julia and her lover.... I observed them yesterday in the garden advancing along one of the retired walks. The sun was shining with delicious warmth, making great masses of bright verdure and deep blue shade. The cuckoo, that harbinger of spring, was faintly heard from a distance; the thrush piped from the hawthorn, and the yellow butterflies sported, and toyed and coquetted in the air.
"The fair Julia was leaning on her lover's arm, listening to his conversation with her eyes cast down, a soft blush on her cheek and a quiet smile on her lips, while in the hand which hung negligently by her side was a bunch of flowers. In this way they were sauntering slowly along, and when I considered them, and the scenery in which they were moving, I could not but think it a thousand pities that the season should ever change or that young people should ever grow older, or that blossoms should give way to fruit or that lovers should ever get married." The harmony here between author and illustrator needs no comment.
The fair Julia and her Lover
There were 120 drawings made for Bracebridge Hall, remarkable for artistic qualities and fully sustaining the reputation of the artist.
The originals were drawn about one third larger, in pen and ink, photographed on wood and engraved in facsimile. The effect of many of the drawings in the first editions was injured by the want of margin on the printed page; but an édition de luxe is now printed with Old Christmas and Bracebridge Hall in one volume.