Irving was a great admirer of Kinderhook in the long ago, and used to spend months enjoying its moral and social delights. Merwin was the village pedagogue, and was the original Ichabod Crane in Irving's " Legend of Sleepy Hollow." The letter to which I allude is so charming and flowing, so rich in that eloquent description which was a graceful characteristic of the purest writer in American literature, that I obtained a copy of it by kind permission, and here it is :

SrxxvsiDB, Fbb. 12, 1851. You must excuse me, my good friend Merwin, for suffering your letter to remain so long unanswered ; you can have no idea how many letters I have to answer, besides fagging with my pen at my own literary tasks, so that it is impossible for me to avoid being behind-hand in my correspondence. Your letter was indeed most welcome, calling up, as it did, recollections of pleasant scenes

a This sketch is probably the only authentic one of the original and genuine Ichabod Crane now in existence. It Is supposed to represent the gentleman whose quann Ugure and peculiar style lirst suggested to Washington Irving the outlines of his hero of Sleepy Hollow.

THE TOWN OF MOUNT PLEASANT. 535

and pleasant days passed together in times long since at Judge Van Nbss's, at Kinderhook. Your mention of the death of good old Dominie Van Xest recalls the apostolic zeal with which he took our little sinful community in hand, when he put up for a day or twoat the Judge's ; and the wholesome castigat ion he gave us all one Sunday, beginning* with the two country belles who came fluttering into the school-house during the sermon, decked out in their city finery, and ending with the Judge himself on the stronghold of his own mansion.