Irving Van Wart's humorous rhyming travelogue of a journey through Europe—largely Germany and France—was illustrated by his son Ames Van Wart. Originally published in 1864, Van Wart remarks on the prodigious quantities of beer in Germany and describes a donkey ride in Aix, France.
Irving Van Wart was named after his uncle, Washington Irving (Washington's sister Sarah was Irving Van Wart's mother). Washington Irving lived with the Van Wart family in Birmingham, England on a few separate occasions, and wrote many of his classic stories there, including "Rip Van Winkle."