In 1842 he received the unexpected and unsolicited honor of appointment as Minister to Spain. For four years he continued in office, performing his duties with tact and discretion. In 1846 he returned finally to his home, where he devoted his last days to a long-contemplated "Life of Washington," a task almost beyond his powers. On the 28th of November, 1850, he died, honored as no American man of letters had ever been.
REFERENCES
Biography
Warner: Washington Irving.
Boynton: Washington Irving.
Criticism
Howells: My Literary Passions.
Thackeray: Nil Nisi Bonum (Roundabout Papers).
Richardson: American Literature.
NOTES TO "RIP VAN WINKLE"
This story appeared with four other papers in the first number of "The Sketch-Book," which was published in America in May, 1819, as the work of one Geoffrey Crayon.
Page [1]. Diedrich Knickerbocker: the supposed author of "The Knickerbocker History of New York." All this prefatory matter is merely to carry out the pretence, as do the Note and Postscript at the end.
[2]. Peter Stuyvesant: last Dutch governor of New York, born in Holland in 1592, died in New York in 1672. A man of short temper and with a wooden leg from the knee. Fort Christina: built by the Swedes on the Delaware River near the present city of Wilmington. There was no fighting.
[15]. Federal or Democrat: the two political parties after the close of the Revolutionary War. tory: name applied to all followers of the king during the war.
[16]. Stony Point: this promontory on the west bank of the Hudson was captured by the British, and later recaptured by the Americans under General Anthony Wayne. Antony's Nose: a bold cliff, in the shape of a nose, on the east bank of the river. The name is now usually spelled with an h.
[18]. Hendrick Hudson: really Henry Hudson, an Englishman in the employ of the Dutch East India Company. He was on a voyage to discover a north-east passage, when he explored the river which bears his name. The Half Moon was the name of his boat.