 | The works of Washington Irving |  |
THE AUTHOR'S FAREWELL.
I hold it fit that we shake hands, and part.
Hamlet.
Having taken leave of the Hall and
its inmates, and brought the history of
my visit to something like a close, there
seems to remain nothing further than to
make my bow and exit. It is my foible,
however, to get on such companionable
terms with my reader in the course of a
work, that it really costs me some pain
to part with him, and I am apt to keep
him by the hand, and have a few farewell
words at the end of my last volume.
When I cast an eye back upon the
work I am just concluding, I cannot but
be sensible how full it must be of errors
and imperfections; indeed how should it
be otherwise, writing as I do, about subjects
and scenes with which, as a stranger,
I am but partially acquainted? Many
will, doubtless, find cause to smile at
very obvious blunders which I may have
made; and many may, perhaps, be
offended at what they may conceive
prejudiced representations. Some will
think I might have said much more on
such subjects as may suit their peculiar
tastes; whilst others will think I had
done wiser to have left those subjects
entirely alone.
It will, probably, be said, too, by some,
that I view England with a partial eye.
Perhaps I do; for I can