Leaving Hester Street the General rode towards Ranelagh House, then a species of Tea Gardens, out of the city, but only a little east of the present intersection of Anthony Street and West Broadway. About twenty- five years before the British occupation of New York, to which this chapter refers, this house was the residence of Major James, of the Royal Artillery, a man of great taste and considerable private means. He went on one occasion on leave to England; and, during his absence, the celebrated Riot on the arrival of the Stamps took place. A mob, which took the name of the "Sons of Liberty," having first burnt the Lieutenant-Governor in effigy, and broken his Coach of State to pieces, went off playfully to Major James's unprotected house, burned his valuable library and large collection of works of art, and ruined his beautiful garden. A few months later, it became a public-house, kept by one John Jones, who sent fireworks off in the evening, and by day and night gratified the thirst of the Sons of Liberty. It was a curious heaping of coals of fire, that a few years later it should fall to this very Major James—after a six weeks' passage from Plymouth, to bring the joyful news of the repeal of the Stamp Act. Ranelagh House had become during the War a great place for recruiting for the various Regiments raised for the King's service in New York. During General Pattison's command, no less than 4000 Loyalist Volunteers were doing duty in the city, and 3000 more were away on duty in the South. Some statistics regarding these volunteer corps may be interesting. The New Jersey Gentlemen Volunteers, embodied—as the recruiting notices said—"during this wanton rebellion," received each 20 dollars bounty, and "everything necessary to complete a gentleman soldier;" Lord Rawdon's Ireland Volunteers received each 30_s._ bounty; and men were tempted to enlist into Colonel Simcoe's Queen's Ranger Hussars by the promise of "an elegant horse, cloathing &c., to the amount of 40 guineas: the bringer to get 2_l._ 2_s._" Men enlisting into the regular army got one guinea bounty; and on one occasion when men were wanted for regiments in the West Indies, the married men of New York were tempted by the offer of 5_s._ a week for the husband, 3_s._ 9_d._ a week for his wife, and 2_s._ 6_d._ a week for each child, over and above prize-money.