The New York and Albany Post Road: From Kings Bridge to "The Ferry at Crawlier, over against Albany," Being an Account of a Jaunt on Foot Made at Sundry Convenient Times between May and November, Nineteen Hundred and FiveHine, C. G. (Charles Gilbert)
History
The New York and Albany Post Road: From Kings Bridge to "The Ferry at Crawlier, over against Albany," Being an Account of a Jaunt on Foot Made at Sundry Convenient Times between May and November, Nineteen Hundred and Five
Hine, C. G. (Charles Gilbert)
Hudson River Valley (N.Y. and N.J.) -- Description and travel; Hudson River Valley (N.Y. and N.J.) -- History
As we proceed toward the land of enchantment the surroundings seem to
take on a more mysterious air. Sounds that awhile before meant nothing
more than the wind in the trees now begin to make one think of the
rush of galloping cowboys or Hessians on mischief bent; or, if
perchance we catch through the gathering dusk a glint of white on the
river below, may it not be that Flying Dutchman who, tired of the
narrow bounds of the Tappan Zee, is trying to steal out to the open
ocean while the constable sleeps, but the cause of such speculation is
gone almost before the speculation itself takes shape. However, the
abode wherein so many of these marvels were clothed in becoming
language is close at hand--Sunnyside. No better description of the
place can be had than the artist's own: "About five-and-twenty miles
from the ancient and renowned city of Manhattan ... stands a little,
old-fashioned stone mansion, all made up of gable-ends, and as full of
angles and corners as an old cocked hat.... Though but of small
dimensions, yet, like many small people, it is of mighty spirit and
values itself greatly on its antiquity.... Its origin in truth dates
back in that remote region commonly called the fabulous age, in which
vulgar fact becomes mystified and tinted up with delectable
fiction.... The seat of empire now came into the possession of Wolfert
Acker, one of the privy counsellors of Peter Stuyvesant.... During the
dark and troublous times of the Revolutionary War it was the keep or
stronghold of Jacob Van Tassel, a valiant Dutchman.... Years and years
passed over the time honored little mansion. The honeysuckle and the
sweet briar crept up its walls; the wren and the phoebe bird built
under its eaves.... Such was the state of the Roost many years since,
at the time when Diedrich Knickerbocker came into this neighborhood....
Mementoes of the sojourn of Diedrich Knickerbocker are still
cherished at the Roost. His elbow chair and antique writing desk
maintain their place in the room he occupied, and his old cocked hat
still hangs on a peg against the wall."
[Sidenote: _TARRYTOWN._]
From here to Tarrytown is but a little way. Tarwetown, "wheat-town."
It is odd that two names so dissimilar in sound as this and
Greenburgh, and both of Dutch origin, should mean the same thing. The
Indian village here was Alipconck, "the place of elms." Like all this
region the place is full of the romance which Irving created, and of
stirring incidents of Colonial and Revolutionary days. Chief among
these are the remains of the Philipse domain, the capture of Andre and
the legend of Sleepy Hollow, into which the old Dutch Church has been
woven. The church yard contains some beautiful monuments to the dead.
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