hington, was a man of
extensive reading and considerable taste, culture, and refinement.
Mr. Van Wart's intercourse with the Irving family, had, no doubt, a
considerable influence in forming his character. He probably learned
from them the courtesy and kindness of manner which distinguished him
through life.

On the termination of his apprenticeship in the year 1804, Mr. Van
Wart married the youngest sister of his employer, and was despatched
by the firm, who had unbounded confidence in his integrity and
judgment, to organise a branch of the house at Liverpool. Here his
eldest son, Henry, was born in 1806, soon after which the Liverpool
concern was abandoned, and Mr. Van Wart returned to America, where he
remained for some considerable period.

Soon after the birth of his second son, Irving, in 1808, Mr. Van
Wart returned to England with his family, and commenced business in
Birmingham. He first occupied a house on the left-hand side of the
West Bromwich road, at Handsworth. The house, which is occupied by Mr.
T.R.T. Hodgson, is a stuccoed one, with its gable towards the road; it
stands near the "New Inn." After a short time he removed to the house
at the corner of Newhall Street and Great Charles Street, which was,
until recently, occupied by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

He afterwards bought a stone-built house in Icknield Street West. This
house stood on the right-hand side near the present Wesleyan Chapel.
It is now pulled down. In connection with this purchase, a curious
circumstance occurred. As already stated, Mr. Van Wart was born a few
days after England had acknowledged the independence of America. Those
few days made all the difference to him. Had his birth occurred a
month earlier, he would have been born a British subject. As it
was, he was an alien, and incapable of holding freehold property in
England. To get over this difficulty, he had to apply for, and obtain,
a special Act of Parliament to naturalise him. This having passed, he
was enabled to complete the purchase of the house, to which he soon
removed. Here his celebrated brother-in-law, Washington Irving, came
on a visit, and in this house the greater part of the "Sketch-book"
was written.

In 1814, the second American War was closed by treaty, and all the
world was at peace. Business on both sides of the Atlantic became
suddenly inflated, and there being at that time no restriction upon
the issue of bank notes, mercantile transacti