You can tell when you visit the grounds at Sunnyside (where he spent many of his years along the Hudson river), that Mr. Irving was a genuinely happy man with a creative gift. Every October I make it a point to visit Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown and pay his old stomping grounds a special visit. I thank him for his legends, for Ichabod and Rip Van Winkle and the magic folklore which managed to canonize the glorious Hudson Valley.
Cheers to you Washington Irving!

"Local tales and superstitions thrive best in these sheltered, long settled retreats; but are trampled under foot, by the shifting throng that forms the population of most of our country places. Besides, there is no encouragement for ghosts in most of our villages, for they have scarce had time to finish their first nap, and turn themselves in their graves, before their surviving friends have traveled away from the neighborhood, so that when they turn out of a night to walk the rounds, they have no acquaintance left to call upon. This is perhaps the reason why we so seldom hear of ghosts except in our long established Dutch communities.." - excerpt from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
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