The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Wr - Washington Irving [154]
These matters being premised, fall to, worthy reader, with good appetite; and, above all, with good-humor to what is here set before thee. If the tales I have furnished should prove to be bad, they will at least be found short; so that no one will be wearied long on the same theme. “Variety is charming,” as some poet observes.
There is a certain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse! As I have often found in travelling in a stage-coach, that it is often a comfort to shift one’s position, and be bruised in a new place.
Ever thine,
GEOFFREY CRAYON
Dated from the HOTEL DE DARMSTADT, ci-devant HOTEL DE PARIS,
MENTZ, otherwise called MAYENCE.
PART FIRST
STRANGE STORIES
BY A NERVOUS GENTLEMAN
I’ll tell you more, there was a fish taken,
A monstrous fish, with a sword by ’s side, a long sword,
A pike in ’s neck, and a gun in’s nose, a huge gun,
And letters of mart in ’s mouth from the Duke of Florence.
Cleanthes.—This is a monstrous lie.
Tony.—I do confess it.
Do you think I’d tell you truths?
FLETCHER’S WIFE FOR A MONTHjv
The Great Unknown
The following adventures were related to me by the same nervous gentleman who told me the romantic tale of the Stout Gentleman, published in “Bracebridge Hall.” It is very singular, that, although I expressly stated that story to have been told to me, and described the very person who told it, still it has been received as an adventure that happened to myself. Now I protest I never met with any adventure of the kind. I should not have grieved at this, had it not been intimated by the author of “Waverley,” in an introduction to his novel of “Peveril of the Peak,” that he was himself the stout gentleman alluded to. I have ever since been importuned by questions and letters from gentlemen, and particularly from ladies without number, touching what I had seen of the Great Unknown. jw
Now all this is extremely tantalizing. It is like being congratulated on the high prize when one has drawn a blank; for I have just as great a desire as any one of the public to penetrate the mystery of that very singular personage, whose voice fills every corner of the world, without any one being able to tell whence it comes.
My friend, the nervous gentleman, also, who is a man of very shy, retired habits, complains that he has been excessively annoyed in consequence of its getting about in his neighborhood that he is the fortunate personage. Insomuch, that he has become a character of considerable notoriety in two or three country-towns, and has been repeatedly teased to exhibit himself at blue-stocking parties, for no other reason than that of being “the gentleman who has had a glimpse of the author of ‘Waverley.’ ”
Indeed the poor man has grown ten times as nervous as ever since he has discovered, on such good authority, who the stout gentleman was; and will never forgive himself for not having made a more resolute effort to get a full sight of him. He has anxiously endeavored to call up a recollection of what he saw of that portly personage; and has ever since kept a curious eye on all gentlemen of more than ordinary dimensions, whom he has seen getting into stage-coaches. All in vain! The features he had caught a glimpse of seem common to the whole race of stout gentlemen, and the Great Unknown remains as great an unknown as ever.
Having premised these circumstances, I will now let the nervous gentleman proceed with his stories.
The Hunting-Dinner2
I was once at a hunting-dinner, given by a worthy fox-hunting old Baronet, who kept bachelor’s hall in jovial style in an ancient rook-haunted family-mansion, in one of the middle counties.