Quarterly Bulletin his kindly sympathy and his generous encouragement of young authors account for the esteem in which he was held for half a century. His friendliness with Spain brought him the appointment of United States Minister at Madrid in 1841 and he continued his historical writing until he came home for good in 1849, welcomed with national honor in recognition of the "good neighbor policy" he had so long and consistently practiced abroad. Forthwith he went to Sunnyside, his home on the Hudson; where he set himself to the grateful task of giving happiness to his kinsfolk and friends, among whom he spread that good humor which was for him "the oil and wine for a merry meeting." It was said that "his life was as beautiful and wholesome as his books," and no finer tribute could be paid to him than the motto adopted by the most modern high school in the world, taken from his own Bracebridge Hall: "The fire of hospitality in the hall, The genial flame of charity in the heart." Sources: The Life and Letters of Washington Irving, by his nephew, Pierre M. Irving (1863). Irving's A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada. • Philip Hone's Diary. Letters from John Pintard to His Daughter, Eliza Noel Pintard Davidson, 1816- 1833. (The New-York Historical Society, 1940-41.) Harry Hansen, in the New York World Telegram, September 28, 1944. Knickerbocker's History of New York, by Washington Irving (1809 and 1867 editions).