How all his pages glow with creative fijel Who is there writing English among our contemporaries, if not of him, of whom it can be said that he has a genius of the first order?" "The emj)ire of the sea," says the Edinburf/h Review, " has been conceded to him by acclamation ; " and the samejournal adds, " In the lonely desert or untrodden prairie, among the savage Indians, or scarcely less savage settlers, all equally acknowledge his dominion."

Of all the writers who have in any way been associated with tlie history of Westchester County, Washington Irving is perhai)s the most illustrious. Born in New York City, his whole life, with brief intervals, was spent within the borders of the county, and some of his very best work bears the impress of ' local influences. On the " lordly Hudson " Irving I " chose and built the home where he lived for many years, and in which he did much of his life's best work, and here he died."

" Westchester," said another eulogist of Irving, " has a claim peculiarly her own, for, while we are jointheirs with others of his fame, Irving was here honored during his life for other qualities besides

1 Address of Chief .Tustice Noah Davis at the Irving anniversary, at Tanytown, N. Y., April :), 1883.

i those of the gifted author, as he was here also known as the good citizen, the genial neighbor and the Christian gentleman." , Irving first came to know Tarrytown and Sleepy I Hollow when a lad of fourteen or fifteen. He ( spent some of his holidays here, and formed an f attachment for the spot which never left him. Irving was born on the 8d of April, 1783, in a house which stood on William Street, New York City, next to the i corner of Fulton.