Excerpt from Dolph Heyliger: A Story From Bracebridge Hall Dolph Heyliger is one of the stories contained in the volume entitled "Bracebridge Hall or The Humorists," a medley by Geoffrey Crayon, Gentleman, which Washington Irving published in 1822. It consists of a series of brief papers descriptive of English country life and character as he himself saw, knew, and loved it, intermingled with stories that are supposed to be told by the visitors at the Hall, which is a typical old English homestead, or by members of the family living there; the whole volume reminding us very much of the Roger de Coverley Papers in the "Spectator," which were written one hundred and ten years before. Dolph Heyliger is one of the stories which the author describes himself as telling to the assembled family and their guests. It belongs to the group of legendary tales of the Dutch settlers in New York State, with which Irving's name will be forever associated. It contains some of Irving's best writing, and supplies admirable models for imitation by students of narrative and description. Although Washington Irving had a tendency in his youth to a fatal disease, he lived beyond the allotted span of three score years and ten, for he was born in 1783 and died in 1859, thus illustrating the old saying that "creaking doors last longest on their hinges." He was never married, but remained faithful to the love of his youth, - a beautiful girl, who was taken from him by death. He was full of chivalry and delicacy in his attitude toward the other sex, and he often refers to them in his writings in language of commiserative tenderness, mingled sometimes with a tendency to banter their weaknesses good-humoredly. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.