Murray left town yesterday for some watering-place, so that I have had no further talk with him, but am to keep my eye on his advertisements and write to him when anything offers that I may think worth republishing in America.

I shall find him a most valuable acquaintance on my return to London." A business in Liverpool, in which, with his brother, he was a partner, proved a failure, and in 1818 he was engaged on his famous "Sketch Book," which he wrote in England, and sent to his brother Ebenezer in New York to be published there.

The work appeared in three parts in the course of the year 1819.

Several of the articles were copied in English periodicals and were read with great admiration.

A writer in _Blackwood_ expressed surprise that Mr.Irving had thought fit to publish his "Sketch Book" in America earlier than in Britain, and predicted a large and eager demand for such a work.