Section 1

THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW.
BY WASHINGTON IRVING.
Issued Semi-Mont,hlv.
« STUDENT'S SERIES
Vol. 1, No. 8.
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Evangeline
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Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Vision of Sir Launfal
Cotter's Saturday Night
Ancient Mariner
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Wasbinoton Urvfno
Washington Irving, a distinguished American author, was born in the city of New York, April 3, 1783. At the age of 16, entered a law office; but he profited largely by his father's well-stocked library, Chaucer and Spenser being his favorite authors. New York, at this period, was a small town of about 50,000 inhabitants, many of whom were descendants of the original Dutch settlers, having quaint manners and customs, of which Irving was a curious observer. In 1804, he visited, and traveled extensively in Europe; returned to New York in 1807, and contributed a series of genial and humorous essays to a periodical called "Salmagundi." In 1809, he wrote "A History of New York, from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty, by Diedrick Knick- erbocker, ' ' a burlesque chronicle written in so quiet a vein of humor, that it has sometimes been taken for a veritable history.
Having no inclination for law, he engaged in commerce with his brothers as a silent partner, but devoted his time to literature, and in 1813, edited the " Analectic Magazine," in Philadelphia. At the close of the war in 1815, he visited England, where he was warmly welcomed by Campbell, whose biography he had formerly written, and was introduced by him to Walter Scott. Shortly after he wrote a " Sketch Book," which has a peculiar charm in its beauty and freshness.
Irving went to Paris, and in 1822 wrote " Bracebridge Hall," and in 1824 the "Tales of a Traveler." He was then invited by Everett, the American ambassador to Spain, to accompany him to Madrid, to translate documents con- nected with the life of Columbus. With these materials he wrote his 1 ' History of the Life and Voyages of Columbus " (1828); "Voyages of the Companions of Columbus," "The Conquest of Granada," " The Alhambra "(1832), a portion of which was written in the ancient palace of the Moorish kings, " Legends of the Conquest of Spain" (1835), and "Mahomet and His Successors "(1849). In 1829 Irving returned to England as secretary to the American legation. In 1831 he received the honorary degree of LL. D. from the university of Oxford, and next year returned to America where he was received with great enthusiasm. A visit to the Rocky Mountains produced his 1 1 Tour on the Prairies. " He also contributed sketches of Abbotsford and Newstead Abbey to the " Crayon Mis- cellany," and from the papers of John Jacob Astor, wrote " Astori a" (1837), and the "Adventures of Captain Bonneville; " also a series of stories and essays in the "Knickerbocker Magazine," collected under the title of " Wolfert's Roost." In 1842, he was appointed minister to Spain.. In 1846 was published his " Life of Goldsmith," and his great work, the " Life of Washington, " was published in 1855-1859. An edition of his works in 15 volumes reached a sale of 250,000 volumes. He spent the last years of his life at Sunnyside, in his own " Sleepy Hollow," on the banks of the Hudson, near Tarrytown, with his nieces, where he died suddenly of disease of the heart, November 28, 1859.
THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW,
In the bosom of one of those spacious coves which indent the eastern shore of the Hudson, at that broad expansion of the river denominated by the ancient Dutch navigators the Tappan Zee, and where they always prudently shortened sail and implored the protection of St. Nicholas when they crossed, there lies a small market town or rural port, which by some is called Greensburgh, but which is more generally and properly known by the name of Tarry Town. This name was given, we are told, in former days, by the good housewives of the adjacent country, from the invet- erate propensity of their husbands to linger about the village tavern on market days. Be that as it may, I do not vouch for the fact, but merely advert to it, for the sake of being precise and authentic. Not far from this village, perhaps about two miles, there is a little valley or rather lap of land among high hills, which is one of the quietest places in the whole world. A small brook glides through it, with just murmur enough to lull one to repose ; and the occasional whistle of a quail or tapping of a wood- pecker is almost the only sound that ever breaks in upon the uni- form tranquillity.
I recollect that, when a stripling, my first exploit in squirrel- shooting was in a grove of tall walnut-trees that shades one side of the valley. I had wandered into it at noontime, when all nature is peculiarly quiet, and was startled by the roar of my own gun, as it broke the Sabbath stillness around and was prolonged and reverberated by the angry echoes. If ever I should wish for a retreat whither I might steal from the world and its distrac-
s
4 THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW.
tions, and dream quietly away the remnant of a troubled life, I know of none more promising than this little valley.
From the listless repose of the place, and the peculiar char- acter of its inhabitants, who are descendants from the original Dutch settlers, this sequestered glen has long been known by the name of Sleepy Hollow, and its rustic lads are called the Sleepy Hollow Boys throughout all the neighboring country. A drowsy, dreamy influence seems to hang over the land, and to pervade the very atmosphere. Some say that the place was bewitched by a High German doctor, during the early days of the settle- ment; others, that an old Indian chief, the prophet or wizard of his tribe, held his powwows there before the country was discov- ered by Master Hendrick Hudson. Certain it is, the place still continues under the sway of some witching power, that holds a spell over the minds of the good people, causing them to walk in a continual reverie. They are given to all kinds of marvelous beliefs; are subject to trances and visions, and frequently see strange sights, and hear music and voices in the air. The whole neighborhood abounds with local tales, haunted spots, and twi- light superstitions; stars shoot and meteors glare oftener across the valley than in any other part of the country, and the night- mare, with her whole ninefold, seems to make it the favorite scene of her gambols.
The dominant spirit, however, that haunts this enchanted region, and seems to be commander-in-chief of all the powers of the air, is the apparition of a figure on horseback, without a head. It is said by some to be the ghost of a Hessian trooper, whose head had been carried away by a cannon-ball, in some nameless battle during the Revolutionary W ar, and who is ever and anon seen by the country folk hurrying along in the gloom of night, as if on the wings of the wind. His haunts are not confined to the valley, but extend at times to the adjacent roads, and especially to the vicinity of a church at no great distance. Indeed, certain of the most authentic historians of those parts, who have been careful in collecting and collating the .floating facts concerning this specter, allege that the body of the trooper having been buried in the churchyard, the ghost rides forth to the scene of battle in nightly quest of his head, and that the rushing speed with which he sometimes passes along the Hollow, like a midnight
THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW.
5
blast, is owing to his being belated, and in a hurry to get back to the churchyard before daybreak.
Such is the general purport of this legendary superstition, which has furnished materials for many a wild story in that region of shadows; and the specter is known at all the country firesides, by the name of the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow.
It is remarkable that the visionary propensity I have men- tioned is not confined to the native inhabitants of the valley, but is unconsciously imbibed by every one who resides there for a time. However wideawake they may have been before they entered that sleepy region, they are sure, in a little time, to inhale the witching influence of the air, and begin to grow imaginative, to dream dreams, and see apparitions.
I mention this peaceful spot with all possible laud ; for it is in such little retired Dutch valleys, found here and there embosomed in the great State of Xew York, that population, manners, and customs remain fixed, while the great torrent of migration and improvement, which is making such incessant changes in other parts of this restless country, sweeps by them unobserved. * They are like those little nooks of still water, which border a rapid stream, where we may see the straw and bubble riding quietly at anchor, or slowly revolving in their mimic harbor, undisturbed by the rush of the passing current. Though many years have elapsed since I trod the drowsy shades of Sleepy Hollow,' yet I question whether I should not still find the same trees and the same families vegetating in its sheltered bosom.
In this by-place of nature there abode, in a remote period of American history, that is to say some thirty years since, a worthy wight of the name of Ichabod Crane, who sojourned, or, as he expressed it, "tarried," in Sleepy Hollow, for the purpose of in- structing the children of the vicinity. He was a native of Con- necticut, a State which supplies the Union with pioneers for the mind as well as for the forest, and sends forth yearly its legions of frontier woodmen and country schoolmasters. The cogno- men of Crane was not inapplicable to his person. He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely* hung
6 THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW.
together. His head was small, and flat at top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and a long snipe nose, so that it looked like a weather-cock perched upon his spindle neck to tell which way the wind blew. To see him striding along the profile of a hill on a windy day, with his clothes bagging and fluttering about him, one might have mistaken him for the genius of famine descending upon the earth, or some scarecrow eloped from a cornfield.
His schoolhouse was a low building of one large room, rudely constructed of logs; the windows partly glazed, and partly patched with leaves of old copybooks. It was most ingeniously secured at vacant hours, by a withe twisted in the handle of the door, and stakes set against the window shutters ; so that though a thief might get in with perfect ease, he would find some embar- rassment in getting out — an idea most probably borrowed by the architect, Yost Van Houten, from the mystery of an eelpot. The schoolhouse stood in a rather lonely but pleasant situation, just at the foot of a woody hill, with a brook running close by, and a formidable birch-tree growing at one end of it. From hence the low murmur of his pupils' voices, conning over their lessons, might be heard in a drowsy summer's day, like the hum of a bee- hive ; interrupted now and then by the authoritative voice of the master, in the tone of menace or command ; or, peradventure, by the appalling sound of the birch, as he urged some tardy loiterer along the flowery path of knowledge. Truth to say, he was a conscientious man, and ever bore in mind the golden maxim, "Spare the rod and spoil the child." Ichabod Crane's scholars certainly were not spoiled.
I would not have it imagined, however, he was one of those cruel potentates of the school who joy in the smart of their sub- jects; on the contrary, he administered justice with discrimina- tion rather than severity ; taking the burden off the backs of the weak, and laying it on those of the strong. Your mere puny stripling, that winced at the least flourish of the rod, was passed by with indulgence; but the claims of justice were satisfied by inflicting a double portion on some little tough, wrong-headed, broad-skirted Dutch urchin, who sulked and swelled and grew dogged and sullen beneath the birch. All this he called "doing his duty by their parents;" and he never inflicted a chastisement
THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 7
without following it by the assurance, so consolatory to the smarting urchin, that "he would remember it and thank him for it the longest day he had to live."
When school hours were over, he was even the companion and playmate of the larger boys ; and on holiday afternoons would convoy some of the smaller ones home, who happened to have pretty sisters, or good housewives for mothers, noted for the com- forts of the cupboard. Indeed, it behooved him to keep on good terms with his pupils. The revenue arising from his school was small, and would have been scarcely sufficient to furnish him with daily bread, for he was a huge feeder, and, though lank, had the dilating powers of an anaconda; but to help out his main- tenance, he^ was, according to country custom in those parts, boarded and lodged at the houses of the farmers whose children he instructed. With these he lived successively a week at a time, thus going the rounds of the neighborhood, with all his worldly effects tied up in a cotton handkerchief.
That all this might not be too onerous on the purses of his rustic patrons, who are apt to consider the costs of schooling a grievous burden, and schoolmasters as mere drones, he had vari- ous ways of rendering himself both useful and agreeable. He assisted the farmers occasionally in the lighter labors of their farms, helped to make hay, mended the fences, took the horses to water, drove the cows from pasture, and cut wood for the winter fire. He laid aside, too, all the dominant dignity and absolute sway with which he lorded it in his little empire, the school, and became wonderfully gentle and ingratiating. He found favor in the eyes of the mothers by petting the children, particularly the youngest ; and like the lion bold, which whilom so magnani- mously the lamb did hold, he would sit with a child on one knee, and rock a cradle with his foot for whole hours together.
In addition to his other vocations, he was singing-master .of the neighborhood, and picked up many bright shillings by in- structing the young folks in psalmody. It was a matter of no little vanity to him on Sundays, to take his station in front of the church gallery, with a band of chosen singers ; where, in his own mind, he completely carried away the palm from the parson. Certain it is, his voice resounded far above all the rest of the congregation ; and there are peculiar quavers still to be heard in