Transcription
[EMBOSSED LETTERHEAD]
Feb 24 / 97
Dear Sir
The admirers of Washing - / ton Irving in Great Britain / will, I am sure, join heartily / with you in desiring that Sun - / nyside, his home, should be / purchased and preserved in tact / for all time to come in / commemoration of his genius /
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Here in England we have done / the same thing for Carlyle’s / house at Chelsea and for / Wordsworth’s at Grasmere . It is / a form of memorial very suitable / to a great literary man, be - / cause it brings before the eyes of / later generations the surroundings / among which he lived: and it / is in some ways better than a
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statue, because statues, at least / here in England, are not often / successful works of art.
Washington Irving seems to / have a great claim upon / the continued affection of Amer - / cans, not merely in respect of / his intrinsic merits, which are / great, but because he was one /
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Of the first American writers / who made the force and vitality / of American letters manifest to / Europe; and because no one / better shewed how American imag / ination tends to lay hold of and / adorn Old World legends.
Wishing all success to your / enterprise, I am
Faithfully ours
James Bryce
J. B. Best, Esq’rTranscriber
Kathryn AlexanderLanguage
English
