CHRONOLOGY.

1783. April 3, Washington Irving was born in the city of New York. 1800. Began to study law.

1802.

Oldstyle.

Contributions to The Morning Chronicle, signed Jonathan

1804. Went to Europe.

1806.

Returned to New York; was admitted to the bar.

1807. Salmagundi, a humorous magazine; joint production of Washington Irving, James K. Paulding, and William Irving.

1809. Matilda Hoffman, his betrothed, died. Her early death gave a tinge of seriousness to his whole life.

1809. History of New York, by Diedrich Knickerbocker. Sir Walter Scott was greatly delighted with this work.

1810. Admitted as a partner with two of his brothers in the commercial business which they carried on in New York and Liverpool. 1813-14. Edited Analectic Magazine, published in Philadelphia. 1815. Second visit to Europe.

1817. Thomas Campbell, the poet, gave Irving a letter of introduction to Scott at Abbotsford, who said of Irving, "He is one of the best and pleasantest acquaintances I have made this many a day."

1818. Failure in business. Bankruptcy.

1819-20. The Sketch-Book was published in numbers in New York; collected and published in two volumes in London by John Murray, owing to the favorable representations of Walter Scott.

1822. Bracebridge Hall.

The characters in the Christmas Sketches reappear in this book. Thomas Moore, the poet, suggested the idea to Irving.

1824. Tales of a Traveller; sold for 1500 guineas to Murray, without his having seen the manuscript.

1828. The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus. While writing this book in Madrid, he met Mr. Longfellow, who had just been

appointed professor of modern languages in Bowdoin College, and was studying in Europe to prepare himself for the work.

1829. Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada.

1830. The Royal Society of Literature bestowed upon him one of the two fifty-guinea gold medals, awarded annually.

1831. The University of Oxford conferred on him the degree of

LL.D.

1831. Voyages of the Companions of Columbus.

1832. Returned to New York after seventeen years' absence. Public dinner in New York to "our illustrious guest, thrice welcome to his native land."

1832. The Alhambra. Irving lived in the old Moorish palace between two and three months "in a kind of Oriental dream," he says. Many of his letters written at the time are dated, "Alhambra, Granada."

1834. Travelled in the West, in company with commissioners appointed by the United States Government to treat with the Indians. 1835. A Tour on the Prairies. Abbotsford and Newstead Abbey (Crayon Miscellany).

1835. Legends of the Conquest of Spain (Crayon Miscellany). Included in Spanish Papers, edited by Pierre M. Irving, after the author's death.

1835. Purchased a tract of land on the Hudson, on which was a small Dutch cottage, the Van Tassel house of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, afterwards known as Wolfert's Roost, and rechristened Sunnyside. The railroad station near it is now called Irvington, some twenty-five miles from New York.

1836. Astoria: an account of John Jacob Astor's settlement on the Columbia River, scenes beyond the Rocky Mountains, the furtrade, etc.

1837. The Adventures of Captain Bonneville.

1842-46. Minister to Spain. Notified of his appointment by

Daniel Webster.

1849. Oliver Goldsmith: A Biography.

1850. Mahomet and his Successors.

1855. Wolfert's Roost.

1855-59. The Life of George Washington (five volumes).

1859. November 28, Irving died at Sunnyside.