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expand1997 (1)
1Author:  Irving Washington 1783-1859Add
 Title:  A book of the Hudson  
 Published:  1997 
 Subjects:  University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 
 Description: It used to be a favorite assertion of the venerable Diedrich Knickerbocker, that there was no region more rich in themes for the writer of historic novels, heroic melodramas, and rough-shod epics, than the ancient province of the New Netherlands, and its quondam capital, at the Manhattoes. “We live,” he used to say, “in the midst of history, mystery, and romance; he who would find these elements, however, must not seek them among the modern improvements and monied people of the monied metropolis; he must dig for them, as for Kidd the pirate's treasures, in out of the way places, and among the ruins of the past.” Never did sage speak more truly. Poetry and romance received a fatal blow at the overthrow of the ancient Dutch dynasty, and have ever since been gradually withering under the growing domination of the Yankees. They abandoned our hearths when the old Dutch tiles were superseded by marble chimney pieces; when brass andirons made way for polished grates, and the crackling and blazing fire of nut wood gave place to the smoke and stench of Liverpool coal; and on the downfall of the last crow-step gables, their requiem was tolled from the tower of the Dutch Church in Nassau street, by the old bell that came from Holland. But poetry and romance still lurk unseen among us, or seen only by the enlightened few who are able to contemplate the common-place scenes and objects of the metropolis, through the medium of tradition, and clothed with the associations of foregone ages.
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