The Hudson: Three Centuries of History, Romance and InventionBruce, Wallace
History
The Hudson: Three Centuries of History, Romance and Invention
Bruce, Wallace
Hudson River (N.Y. and N.J.) -- Guidebooks
All the way from Anthony's Nose to Beverley Dock, where we have been
lingering over the story of Andre, we have been literally turning a
kaleidoscope of blended history and beauty, with scarcely time to note
the delightful homes on the west bank, just above Fort Montgomery.
Among them J. Pierpont Morgan's and the Pells', John Bigelow's and
"Benny Havens'," or on the east bank of Hamilton Fish, just above
Beverley Dock, Samuel Sloan and the late William H. Osborn, just north
of Sugar Loaf Mountain; the mountain being so named as it resembles,
to one coming up the river, the old-fashioned conical-shaped
sugar-loaf, which was formerly suspended by a string over the centre
of the hospitable Dutch tables, and swung around to be occasionally
nibbled at, which in good old Knickerbocker days, was thought to be
the best and only orthodox way of sweetening tea.
=Buttermilk Falls=, so christened by Washington Irving, is a pretty
little cascade on the west bank. Like sparkling wit, it is often dry,
and the tourist is exceptionally fortunate who sees it in full-dress
costume after a heavy shower, when it rushes over the rocks in floods
of snow-white foam. Highland Falls is the name of a small village a
short distance west of the river, on the bluff, but not seen from the
deck of the steamer.
The large building above the rocky channel is Lady Cliff, the Academy
of Our Lady of Angels, under the Franciscan Sisters at Peekskill,
opened September, 1900. It was originally built for a hotel, and
widely known as Cranston's Hotel and Landing. As the steamer is now
approaching the west bank we see above us the Cullum Memorial Hall,
completed in 1899, a bequest of the late George W. Cullum of the class
of 1833. The still newer structure to the south is the officers'
messroom, crowning the crest above the landing.
* * *
Then, as you nearer draw, each wooded height
Puts off the azure hues by distance given!
And slowly breaks upon the enamored sight,
Ravine, crag, field and wood in colors true and bright.
_Theodore S. Fay._
* * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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