Part 9 (1/2)
Here Lord Grey disembarked in October, 1778, and crossed to Hackensack Valley, ”surprising and ma.s.sacring Col. Bayler's patriots, despite their surrender and calls for mercy.”
Indian Head (510 feet) about two miles north of Alpine Gorge, is the highest point of the Palisades.
Eve o'er our path is stealing fast; Yon quivering splendors are the last; His latest glories fringe the height Behind us with their golden light.
_Robert C. Sands._
=Yonkers to West Point=
Pa.s.sing Glenwood, now a suburban station of Yonkers, conspicuous from the Colgate mansion near the river bank, built by a descendant of the English Colgates who were familiar friends of William Pitt, and leaders of the Liberal Club in Kent, England, and ”Greystone,” once the country residence of the late Samuel J. Tilden, Governor of New York, and presidential candidate in 1876, we come to
=Hastings=, where a party of Hessians during the Revolutionary struggle were surprised and cut to pieces by troops under Colonel Sheldon. It was here also that Lord Cornwallis embarked for Fort Lee after the capture of Fort Was.h.i.+ngton, and here in 1850 Garibaldi, the liberator of Italy, whose centennial was observed July 4, 1907, frequently came to spend the Sabbath and visit friends when he was living at Staten Island. Although there is apparently little to interest in the village, there are many beautiful residences in the immediate neighborhood, and the Old Post road for two miles to the northward furnishes a beautiful walk or driveway, well shaded by old locust trees. The tract of country from Spuyten Duyvil to Hastings was called by the Indians Kekesick and reached east as far as the Bronx River.
=Dobbs Ferry= is now at hand, named after an old Swedish ferryman. The village has not only a delightful location but it is also beautiful in itself. In 1781 it was Was.h.i.+ngton's headquarters, and the old house, still standing, is famous as the spot where General Was.h.i.+ngton and the Count de Rochambeau planned the campaign against Yorktown; where the evacuation of New York was arranged by General Clinton and Sir Guy Carleton the British commander, and where the first salute to the flag of the United States was fired by a British man-of-war. A deep glen, known as Paramus, opposite Dobbs Ferry, leads to Tappan and New Jersey. Cornwallis landed here in 1776. It is now known as Snedden's Landing.
A lovely country for a summer encampment, breezy hills commanding wide prospects, shady valleys watered by bright pastoral streams, the Bronx, the Spraine and the Neperan.
_Was.h.i.+ngton Irving._
At Dobbs Ferry, June 14, 1894, the base-stone of a memorial shaft was laid with imposing ceremony by the New York State Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, which erected the monument. There were one thousand Grand Army veterans in line, and addresses by distinguished orators and visitors. The Society and its guests, including members of the cabinet, officers of the army and navy, and prominent men of various States, accompanied by full Marine Band of the navy yard, with a detachment of Naval Reserves, partic.i.p.ated in the event.
Voyagers up the river that day saw the ”Miantonomoh” and the ”Lancaster,” under the command of Rear-Admiral Gherardi, anch.o.r.ed mid-stream to take part in the exercises. During the Revolution this historic house was leased by a Dutch farmer holding under Frederick Phillipse as landlord. After the war it was purchased by Peter Livingston and known since as the Livingston House. Arnold and Andre were to have met here but providentially for the American cause, the meeting took place at Haverstraw.
The Indian name of Dobbs Ferry was Wecquaskeck, and it is said by Ruttenber that the outlines of the old Indian village can still be traced by numerous sh.e.l.l-beds. It was located at the mouth of Wicker's Creek which was called by the Indians Wysquaqua.
=Tappan Zee.=--The steamer is now entering Irving's rich domain, and Tappan Zee lapping the threshold of ”Sunnyside,” seems almost a part of his very dooryard. The river, which has averaged about a mile in breadth, begins to gradually widen at Hastings, and almost seems like a gentle, reposeful lake.
=Piermont=, whose ”mile-long-pier,” built many years ago by the Erie Railroad, hardly mars the landscape so great is the majesty of the river, is seen on the west bank with Tower Hill rising above it from which four states are seen. The view includes Long Island, the Sound and the Orange Mountains on the south, with the Catskills to the north and Berks.h.i.+res to the northeast. Louis g.a.y.l.o.r.d Clark, a friend of Irving, and an early literary a.s.sociate had a cottage on Piermont Hills.
We have a charming position for our French encampment along the Hudson among rocks and under magnificent tulip trees.
_Count Dumas._
Turning to the eastern sh.o.r.e, we see ”Nuits,” the Cottinet residence, Italian in style, built of Caen stone, ”Nevis,” home of the late Col.
James Hamilton, son of Alexander Hamilton, the George L. Schuyler mansion, the late Cyrus W. Field's, and many pleasant places about Abbotsford, and come to
=Irvington=, on the east bank, 24 miles from New York, once known as Dearman's, but changed in compliment to the great writer and lover of the Hudson, who after a long sojourn in foreign lands, returned to live by the tranquil waters of Tappan Zee. In a letter to his brother he refers to Sleepy Hollow as the favorite resort of his boyhood, and says: ”The Hudson is in a manner my first and last love, and after all my wanderings and seeming infidelities, I return to it with a heartfelt preference over all the rivers of the world.” As at Stratford-on-Avon every flower is redolent of Shakespeare, and at Melrose every stone speaks of Walter Scott, so here on every breeze floats the spirit of Was.h.i.+ngton Irving. A short walk of half a mile north from the station brings us to his much-loved