THE TOWN OF MOUNT PLEASANT. 537 



Irving lot. What strikes the visitor is the perfect simplicity apparent in 

 all its appointments. Within the enclosure, ranged in two lines, are the 

 different graves. Each has a plain head-stone of marble, on which are 

 inscribed the name and age at death of the occupant. The grave of 

 Washington Irving does not differ from those of the rest of the family. 

 The inscription simply tells that 



WASHINGTON, 



Son of William and Sarah S. Ieving, 

 died 

 Nov. 28, 1859, 

 Aged 76 years, 7 mo. and 25 days.« 



" In a little while," says Irving, " this genial warmth which still lin- 

 gers around my heart, and throbs, worthy reader — throbs kindly to- 

 ward thyself, will be chilled forever. Haply this frail compound of 

 dust, which, while alive, may have given birth to naught but unprofit- 

 able weeds, may form a humble sod of the valley, whence may spring 

 many a sweet wild flower, to adorn my beloved island of Manna-hata ! " 3 

 "' Why," he writes, " should we thus seek to clothe death with unneces- 

 sary terrors, and to spread horrors around the tomb of those we love? 

 The grave should be surrounded by everything that might inspire ten- 

 derness and veneration for the dead, or that might win the living to 

 virtue. It is the place not of disgust and dismay, but of sorrow and 

 meditation." 



Irving appears to have had a special fondness for this spot. In 

 "Wolfert's Roost" he says: — 



"And now a word or two about Sleepy Hollow, which many have rashly 

 deemed a fanciful creation, like the Lubber land of mariners." 



In the Legend, in the Sketch Book, he thus fancifully describes it : — 



"From the listless repose of the place, and the peculiar character of its inhab- 

 itants, who are descendants from the original Dutch settlers, this sequestered 

 glen has long been known by the name of Sleepy Hollow, and its rustic lads are 

 called Sleepy Hollow Boys throughout all the neighboring country. A drowsy, 

 dreamy influence seems to hang over the land, and to pervade the very atmos- 

 phere. Some say that the place was bewitched by a high German doctor, during 

 the early days of the settlement ; others, that an old iDdian chief, the prophet or 

 wizard of his tribe, held his powwows there before the country was discovered 

 by Master Hendrick Hudson. Certain it is, the place still continues under the 

 sway of some witching power that holds a spell over the minds of the good 



a Reminiscence of Sleepy Hollow. 

 b History of New York. 



