The winter of 1822 found Irving in Dresden. In that year was published ‘Bracebridge Hall, ‘ the groundwork of which is a charming description of country life in England, interspersed with narratives, the scene of which is laid in other countries. Of these, the Norman tale of ‘ Annette Delarbre’ seems to many readers the most beautiful and affecting thing of its kind in all his works; so beautiful, indeed, that one can hardly see how one who has once read it can resist the desire to read it again. In ‘ Bracebridge Hall’ we have the Stout Gentleman, full of certain minute paintings of familiar objects, where not a single touch is thrown in that does not heighten the comic effect of the narrative. The most popular novelists of the day have learned from this pattern the skill with which they have wrought up some of their most striking passages, both grave and gay. In composing ‘ Bracebridge Hall, ‘ Irving showed that he had not forgotten his native country; and in the pleasant tale of Dolph Heyliger he went back to the banks of that glorious river beside which he was born.
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