THE OFFICIAL. HOME OF THE PRESIDENT. THE Homes of America WITH ONE HUNDRED AND THREE ILLUSTRATIONS. EDITED BY MRS. MARTHA J. LAMB, AUTHOR OP THE " HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.' " Each man's chimney is his Golden Mile-stone ; Is the central point, from which lie measures Every distance Through the gateways of the world around him." Longfellow. NEW YORK: D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 549 AND 551 BROADWAY. COPYRIGHT BT D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 1879. Cb4-t . 7: 'is I Co 1 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS The Official Home of the President Frontispiece. COLONIAL PERIOD. Initial : — Van Cortlandt House— McCurdy Mansion— Old Schuyler Mansion on the Passaic ..... Philipse Manor-House at Yonkers .... Roger Morris House ..... Apthorpe Mansion ..... Livingston House ..... " Beverley " . Verplanck House ..... Van Rensselaer Manor-House, Albany ... Hall, Van Rensselaer Manor-House Schuyler Mansion, Albany .... Sir William Pepperell's House, Kittery's Point, Maine Craddock House, Medford, Massachusetts " Hobgoblin Hall," Medford, Massachusetts Quincy Mansion, Quincy, Massachusetts Bryant Homestead, Cummington, Massachusetts Home of John Howard Payne .... Greenway Court ..... Westover, on the James, Virginia .... Maycox, on the James, Virginia Powhatan Seat, on the James, Virginia Gunston Hall, Virginia .... \ 9 1116 19 2124 29 32 34374143 46485154 565859 6062 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Mount Vernon, Virginia . . . . . . .65 Stratford House, Virginia ...,.• 68 House of General Charles Lee, Virginia . . . • .71 Residence of General Gates, Virginia . 72 " Saratoga," Residence of General Morgan, Virginia . . .75 Carroll Mansion, Maryland ...... 77 Belvedere, Maryland . . . . . . .81 Stockton Mansion, New Jersey ..... 85 Washington's Headquarters, Morristown, New Jersey . . .88 " Liberty Hall," Elizabeth, New Jersey ..... 93 LATER PERIOD. Residence of the late General Worth . . . . .98 Montgomery Place . . . . . . . 102 Bedford House, Residence of the Honorable John Jay . . . 107 " Old Morrisania," Morrisania . . . . . . 110 Entrance Hall, "Old Morrisania" . . . . . .112 Library, " Old Morrisania " . . . . . . 114 Reception-Room, " Old Morrisania " . 117 Residence of William H. Morris ..... 121 " The Grange," Residence of Alexander Hamilton . . . 123 Thirteen " Union " Trees planted by Hamilton .... 124 The Adams Homestead . . . . . . .127 " Cedarmere," Residence of William Cullen Bryant . . . 131 Home of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow . . . . .134 " Elmwood," Residence of James Russell Lowell . . . 139 Residence of Ralph Waldo Emerson ..... 142 Residence of A. Bronson Alcott ..... 144 Southern Front of the White House, Washington . . . .146 MODERN PERIOD. Cottages ........ 148 Residence of Albert Bierstadt, Tarrytown ..... 150 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE " Sunnyside," Home of Washington Irving .... 153 Residence of John Earle Williams, Irvington .... 155 Residence of Cyrus W. Field, Irvington . . . . 157 " The Castle," Residence of William B. Hatch, Tarrytown . . .158 " The Castle " at Night ...... 159 Former Residence of General Fremont, Tarrytown . . . .161 Rockwood, Residence of the late William H. Aspinwall . . . 163 Rockwood, from the South . . . . . .164 Lodge at Rockwood . . . . . . . 165 " Idlewild," Residence of the late N. P. Willis . . . .166 " Claverhurst," Summer Residence of Miss Clara Louise Kellogg . . 168 Lodge at " Claverhurst " . . . . . . .169 Residence of the late H. G. Eastman, Poughkeepsie . . 170 " Massena," Barrytown . . . . . . .172 Glass-Room, " Massena "...... 173 Lodge and Gate at " Massena " . . . . . .174 Home of Frederick E. Church . . . . . 175 View from the Grounds of Mr. Church's Residence .... 176 Armsmear, Residence of Mrs. Samuel Colt . . . . 178 Southwest Corner of Armsmear ...... 180 In the Grounds at Armsmear . . . . . . 182 Residence of H. Cabot Lodge, Nahant . . . . .184 Residence of Mrs. Dexter, Beverly Farms .... 187 Residence of George Gardner, Beverly ..... 188 " Pinebank," Home of Edward N. Perkins . . . . 191 Home of Francis Parkman . . . . • .193 Home of Colonel Theodore Lyman, Brookline . . . . 195 Residence of H. H. Hunnewell, Wellesley ..... 197 Home of John Quincy Adams . . • ¦ ¦ • 199 " Malbone," Home of Henry Bedloe, Newport . . . .201 Residence of Charlotte Cushman, Newport .... 203 Home of Thomas G. Appleton, Newport ..... 205 Residence of George E. Waring, Jr., Newport .... 207 " The Rocks," Home of General Robert B. Potter, Newport . . .209 8 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE " Cedarcroft," Home of Bayard Taylor . 212 " Lochiel," Home of the Hon. Simon Cameron, Harrisburg . . • 214 Home of Felix O. C. Darley, Claymont . . . • 216 Residence of Russell Smith, Abington . . . . • 218 Residence of A. J. Cassett, Bryn Mawr .... 219 Home of Judge Asa Packer, Mauch Chunk ..... 221 " Ogontz," former Residence of Jay Cooke .... 223 Home of J. Pratt McKean . . . . . .224 Spiegel Grove — the Ohio Home of President Hayes . . . 227 Swayne Mansion, Columbus, Ohio ...... 230 " Elmhurst," Home of William S. Groesbeck .... 233 Home of Henry Probasco, Cincinnati ..... 237 A Planter's Home on the Mississippi ..... 246 A Home on the Tennessee ...... 248 Home and Garden in Charleston ..... 250 A Home in Florida ....... 254 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. COLONIAL PERIOD. OnV^* architectural achieve ments of America prior to the Revolution were nei ther notable nor typical of any peculiar moral, religious, social, or intellectual idea. In the older civilization architecture was the mirror which reflected the char acter of a people. It was taught in the schools, and esteemed one of the most important of the arts. But the representatives of many 10 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. nations and countries, in attempting to subdue this continent, must necessarily wait for the general amalgamation of habits, tastes, fashions, and modes of life, attendant upon the growth of a new and distinct species of the human kind. Ancestral notions as various as the lands from which they sprung guided the early settlers in their construction of dwellings. There could be no uni formity of style in domestic architecture at that period characteristic of the American nation, for there was yet no American nation. At the same time all architecture has a language of its own, and the homes of America in the Colonial period reveal more trathfully than any other ex isting relics the life and history of the times. The salient features of domestic architecture are to a considerable degree the outward manifestation of the indi vidual man. It is not always that the proprietor can design his own house, or that the architect is an expert in expression. Thus instances are rare where a fine house fully reflects a fine character. But wherever ideas of beauty exist, even when the parts of a structure are not balanced through a just sense of proportion, or where the details are crude, the effect of the whole is generally spirited and pleasing, and, what is more to the point, possesses a human ele ment. Romance and poetry are not infrequently wedded to brick and mortar. Thoughts, feelings, desires, virtues, vices, and vanities are preserved in visible forms. A man's dwelling in its most complete mold may be regarded as a type of his whole private life. Independent of personal associations, however, the earlier American homes are in the highest degree interesting to us of this generation, since they illus trate the practical adaptation of principles of architecture, culled from all ages and countries, to the requirements of a young and progressive people. Rarely was a model borrowed bodily from a foreign land. The climate, necessities of pioneer life, and social conditions of an unformed community, led to the rejec tion of many useless architectural features, and the substitution of others fresh ly drawn from the inspiration of the surroundings, or suggested by a sense of local fitness. And the blending of nationalities, as in the marriages of the English and Dutch of New York, wrought a corresponding combination of architectural styles. One of the most striking examples of this class, a curious mixture of Dutch and English architecture, is the Philipse manor-house, which belongs, properly COLONIAL PERIOD. 11 speaking, to two distinct eras, 1682 and 1745. The imposing south front, given in the sketch, represents the original mansion built by Frederick Phil ipse, a genuine Hollander, who for a full quarter of a century was known as the richest man in New York. Sixty-three years later his grandson, the second lord of the manor, whose mother and wife were both accomplished Englishwomen, added The Philipse Manor-House at Yonkers. the great elegant eastern front, with its two porticoes and almost innumerable windows, and its dormitories in the gable-roof for fifty household servants, twenty of whom were negro slaves. The princely old edifice stood quite alone in the wilderness long subsequent to its erection in 1682. It overlooked the Hudson some fourteen miles above New York City, with picturesque hills and vales, thorny . dells, rocky steeps, and fenceless pastures variegated with shrubs, stinted grass, and forest flowers, 12 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. hovering upon the north and east of it, while to the south a rapid creek, in dulging in all sorts of mad and musical pranks, rushed through a narrow ravine, not infrequently fretting and fuming over Dutch mill-dams until they were upset altogether. Architecturally the house was, like its owner, severely aristocratic ; its rooms immensely large, and its whole aspect after the manner of the baronial country-seats of the Holland grandees. The bricks for the masonry, and other materials for building, were imported. The jambs of the Dutch fireplaces, still preserved, are three or more feet deep, and faced with tiles bearing Scriptural illustrations and appropriate references. The chimney was, however, purely American, and designed for the passage of something besides smoke. In its examination we are brought face to face, as it were, with tomahawks and scalping-knives, for it contains a quaintly curious secret passage way from one of the principal chambers to an underground retreat, quite large enough for the escape of a family from savage foes. The massive south outer door (as seen in the sketch), dark as ebony, and originally divided in halves, was as purely Dutch, having been made in Holland in 1681, and imported by Lady Philipse in one of her own ships. It needs but a passing glimpse into this mirror of antiquity to descry its master once more in the flesh. He was tall, well-proportioned, with a quiet gray eye which seemed to hide more than it revealed, a Roman nose, and mouth expressing strong will. He was grave even to melancholy, and talked so little that he was often pronounced excessively dull. His movements were slow and measured, he dressed with scrupulous care, wearing the full embroidery, lace cuffs, and periwig with flowing ringlets, of the period, and haughtily enter tained governors and their counselors at stated intervals with frigid ceremony. He was not a man of letters, nor of any special culture, although intelligent, apt, a close observer of men and things, and shrewd even to craftiness. For more than twenty years he was an official adviser of the King of England's commander-in-chief of New York, yet he never advised. In the political con troversies of his time, which were more deadly bitter than they have ever been since, he laid his hand upon his purse, and waited to see which party was Likely to win. During the Revolution of 1689 he so adroitly balanced himself upon the fence as to protect his property interests, and come down upon the right side in the end. COLONIAL PERIOD. 13 The way in which he became so vastly rich is colored with romance. He came to New York as penniless as many another high-born youth, in the fur- traffic days of stately Governor Stuyvesant. But he could turn his hand to almost any industry from the grinding of corn to the building of a pulpit. It is said that he actually worked at the trade of a carpenter until he could estab lish a trade with the Indians. He grew rapidly into notice until about 1662, when the wheel of his destiny went round with a whirl. He married the widow and the opulent estate of Peter Rudolphus De Vries. The world criti cised the lady as able, but not amiable, possibly because she possessed remark able business tact and talent in her own right, bought and traded in her own name, and often went to Holland in her own ships as supercargo. Philipse soon became one of the largest traders with the Five Nations at Albany, sent his own vessels to both the East and West Indies, imported slaves from Africa, and, when piracy was at its zenith, was loudly accused of unlawful commerce with the buccaneers at Madagascar. This last accusation, however, if true, was never proved. His wife finally died, and he shortly married another rich widow, who outdid the first, inasmuch as she brought him two for tunes, one from her father, the blue-blooded Oloff Stevensen Van Cortlandt, and the other from her deceased husband, John Derval. In the mean time the broad acres between Spuyten Duyvil and the Croton had been purchased by him, and erected into a manor by royal charter, and two manor-houses built, that of the sketch, in the heart of what is now the ambitious city of Yonkers, and " Castle Philipse," at Sleepy Hollow ; also the Old Mill, at Sleepy Hollow, to which his tenants brought their corn to grind, and the first toll-bridge across Spuyten Duyvil Creek, known as King's bridge. And in 1699 he and his wife together built the substantial stone church at Sleepy Hollow, which is be lieved to be the oldest church edifice in the city of New York. - When the cultivated European tastes of the second lord of the manor began to expand in 1745, a grandeur that was preeminently hospitable took the place of the cold polish of the original edifice. Even now a practiced eye can readily determine where the products of the two centuries were joined in one harmonious whole. The walls of the new part were wainscoted, the ceil ings highly ornamented in arabesque work, and marble mantels were imported from England. The two main halls of entrance were each some eighteen feet 14 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. wide, and the staircases, with mahogany hand-rails and balusters, were superbly carved. The roof was surmounted by a heavy line of balustrade, forming a terrace which commanded a magnificent view of the Hudson. The gardens and grounds were filled with valuable trees and rare shrubs and flowers, through which stretched graveled walks bordered with box, while a broad, vel vety lawn appeared in front, and a greensward sloped gradually westward to the Hudson, dotted with fine specimens of ornamental trees, which were em- parked and stocked with deer. And here again we see the individual proprie tor, a charming, generous host, undisturbed by any of the cares which accom pany the accumulation of property, with the prospect of spending a long life in the enjoyment of an inheritance, and who presided over his tenants and serfs like a right royal old feudal sovereign. He mixed somewhat in public life, being for seven years Speaker of the Assembly of New York, and for a much longer period the Baron and Second Judge of the Exchequer. He usually occupied in person the bench in the Court-leet and Court-baron of the Manor, taking cognizance of criminal as well as civil matters, administering justice, and sometimes capital punishment. His children had every advantage in the way of instruction which it was in the power of wealthy parents to bestow. He had three lovely daughters, of whom Mary, born at the manor in 1730, was reputed the most beautiful young lady in all the country. His eldest son Frederick was the third Lord of the Manor. He was graduated at King's College in New York. He was an ardent churchman, and opened his purse generously to all charitable purposes. His tastes were literary, and he mixed very little in public affairs, although he was a member of the Assembly for several years. He was known and spoken of as a courtly and scholarly gentleman of the old school, and an ornament in polite society. He lived in a style of great magnificence ; the manor-house was burnished anew, and on every side there was costly and showy display. His wife was an imperious woman of fashion. It is said that her pride was to appear upon the roads of Westchester, skillfully reining four splendid jet- . black steeds. She was killed by a fall from her carriage a short time before the Revolution. When the dispute broke out between England and her colonies, Philipse was one of those who tried to maintain so strict a neutrality as to protect his COLONIAL PERIOD. 15 property. But he signally failed. He was at heart a loyalist, and had no faith whatever in the success of the American arms. He was very soon suspected of favoring the British, and compelled to seek safety in the city until the end of the war. He was, however, at the manor-hall until after the battle of White Plains, and Washington and his generals staid several nights under his terraced roof. The old southwestern chamber, before described, was the scene of sev eral important councils of war. In 1777 he took a final farewell of his ancestral home and immense posses sions. In 1779 the State Legislature declared him attainted of treason, and the manor confiscated. When the British troops left New York in 1783, he went with them to England, and died, two years later, in Chester. In 1784 the State offered the manor for sale in tracts to suit purchasers. The manor-hall at Yonkers and lands adjacent were bought by Cornelius P. Low, of New York, and became the rallying-spot for the village. Low did not wish to occupy the mansion, and sold it again. Prior to 1813 it had had many owners. Then it fell into the hands of Lemuel Wells, who made it his resi dence for twenty-nine years. He died childless and intestate, and, as he left no will, his estate was divided among sixteen heirs. Again, the building had an uneasy and changeful proprietorship until the city of Yonkers came to the rescue and took it under its own wing, converting it into a city hall. It was necessary to alter the geography of the northern portion of the interior in order to provide space for a modern court-room. But good taste was displayed in the manner of its accomplishment, and, although the boundary-lines of former centuries were obliterated in that particular part, yet the southern and southwestern apartments have been carefully shielded from modern innovation, and, in their antique garments, serve to render this one of the most interesting of all the historic buildings in America. Of a different order of architecture was the Roger Morris house, at present known as the " Jumel Mansion," situated on Harlem Heights, at the northern extremity of Manhattan Island. It was erected within the same decade as the later geographical annexations to the Philipse manor-house, and was first occu pied in the summer of 1758. Colonel Roger Morris, its projector, was a Briton born, coming to America an officer in British service during the old French and 16 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. COLONIAL PERIOD. 17 Indian wars. He married the beautiful Mary Philipse, of Philipse Manor, who captivated Washington a few months prior to the date of her betrothal to his rival. The home prepared for the reception of the bride was one of the most elegant of its class at that epoch. The main building was nearly square, and two stories in height with an attic. A great central hall, or passage-way, opened through the entire structure, with two spacious rooms upon each side. Upon the northern side was an extension of octagonal form, containing the drawing-room below and bedrooms above. The walls of the mansion were of Holland brick, sheathed with plank, and the southern front presented a high porch with four Doric columns, and a gallery at the second story. The roof, like that of the Philipse manor-house, was crowned with a balustrade, and under the whole edifice was a cellar dug out of solid rock. This fine country-seat was located on one of the highest and most pictu resque spots which Manhattan Island afforded. From the roof, the gallery, or the porch, the eye might take in the whole of Harlem River from the Croton Aqueduct to Hell Gate, Long Island Sound and beyond, the beautiful fields of Westchester, and the entire Long Island landscape thence to Brooklyn, Staten Island in the distance, and the great intervening metropolis. The land now attached to the mansion is about one hundred acres, the remnant of sev eral hundred which originally composed the estate. Colonel Morris and his wife resided here a full quarter of a century, with the exception of the brief period when the house was converted into headquarters for Washington in the autumn of 1776. At the close of the war, Morris, who had adhered to the royal cause, retired with his wife to England ; both were attainted of treason, and their large estates confiscated to the State of New York. After a changeful proprietorship the property was in 1810 purchased by Stephen Jumel, a Frenchman and wealthy shipping merchant, whose accom plished wife transfigured the whole domain with evidences of her cultivated and exquisite taste. Jumel died in 1832, leaving all his money, houses, and lands to his widow, who in 1833 married the famous Aaron Burr. Madame Jumel lived in this old mansion more than half a century, and, being quite a connoisseur in art, selected two or three hundred fine paintings in Europe about 1816, making her home one of the rarest picture-galleries in the America of that period. She adopted a relative as a daughter, who became the wife of 18 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. Nelson Chase, and heir to the immense fortune of Madame Jumel, about the title of which the newspapers have recently been filled with legal proceedings. Benson J. Lossing says in his description of the place : " A few rods north of the mansion is the ' Marco Bozzaris Rock,' on the verge of the rugged acclivity that rises from the Harlem River. It was so named from the fact that, in a grassy nook at its foot, overlooking the Harlem River, Fitz-Greene Halleck wrote his stirring poem entitled 'Marco Bozzaris.' The late Alfred Pell, of New York, was then occupying the mansion while the family were traveling, and Halleck was his guest. That was about the year 1826. In that nook, seated in a rustic chair at a rustic table, secluded by the great rock and umbra geous cedars, pines, and oaks, the poet wrote that once most popular poem in our language." One of the choicest existing specimens of domestic architecture, before the colonies shook themselves free from kingly fetters, may be seen in the old Apthorpe Mansion, situated near the corner of Ninth Avenue and Ninety-first Street, New York City. It was built in what was then a picturesque, wooded wild, as far from the metropolis — if we may measure distance by the facilities for overcoming it — as Poughkeepsie is to-day, by Charles Ward Apthorpe, one of the counselors of the royal Governor of New York, William Tryon. The effective stateliness of the building is only eclipsed by the ancient pine- and locust-trees which stand about it like sentinels on duty. A recessed portico is supported by Corinthian columns, with corresponding pilasters, and a high, arched doorway opens into a spacious hall, with pretentious rooms upon either side. In its palmy days the house was surrounded by broad, highly cultivated grounds, with bordered walks and graveled drives. Apthorpe was not an active loyalist, and succeeded in satisfying the Committee on Conspiracy from the New York Congress of his peaceable intentions, therefore retained his New York property after the Revolution, although he had large estates in Massachu setts and in the District of Maine which were confiscated. He was a scholarly man of fifty when the war commenced, of quiet habits and social prominence. He did not leave his home when Washington made it his headquarters, for a brief few days, after the battle of Long Island, but entertained him sumptu ously. The arrangements for the perilous expedition of Nathan Hale were COLONIAL PERIOD. 19 perfected under this roof. A little later, when Washington moved on to the Roger Morris mansion, the British commander took possession of the comfort able quarters he had vacated, and Mr. Apthorpe was still the affable and cheer- The Apthorpe Mansion. ful host. He continued to reside here after the war, exercising the generous hospitality of a courtly, kind-hearted gentleman of wealth, until his death in May, 1797. At Dobb's Ferry, on the Hudson, about a half mile to the southward of the railroad station, is a substantial dwelling which was for some years the home of Peter Van Brugh Livingston, Treasurer of the New York Congress in 1776. It was originally a one-story, pointed-roofed country-house, with the gable-end 20 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. toward the street in true Dutch fashion. The entrance was under a little, antique portico, the same as seen in the sketch, beyond the stump crowned with flowers. The hall was broad, with a large, square room on each side of it, the one at the west being the parlor. There was a family-room at the end of the hall, from which two bedrooms opened. And there were sleeping accom modations in the great unfinished chamber, reached by a ladder. It was an ambitious house, built by an enterprising Dutch farmer some years before the culmination of the family quarrel with England. He was a man who had no political sympathies. But the tenor of his peaceful life was a shining mark toward which Destiny aimed her shaft. Armed legions from both of the hos tile parties marched into his door-yard, trampled down his grass-plats, picked his cherries and his apples and his pears, killed his chickens before they were half grown, ransacked his cellars for meat and vegetables, slept in his barns, fed his grain to their horses, and carried the earth from his gardens and corn fields into his mowing lands for fortifications. Officers took possession of the best rooms in his house, and made themselves vastly more at home than he was himself. It was the Americans who first invaded his precincts. Then the British came in October, 1776, after the battle of White Plains, and rendezvoused prior to their march upon Fort Washington. Lord Howe sat before a blazing wood-fire in the ancient parlor, and sketched a map of the roads in Westchester. A little later General Lee stopped here for a few days on his march from White Plains to Morristown. The following winter a division of the Americans under General Lincoln was encamped at this point for the purpose of commanding the passage of the river. Numerous redoubts were thrown up, the remains of which are still visible. The good farmer was compelled to smile in the midst of his misery, or be suspected of favoring the enemy ; and the enemy were always the absent party. One day he was driven to the very acme of human forbear ance by the piling of four barrels of gunpowder in a little shed, which was joined to the rear of his house. He expostulated in vain. " It is a good, dry- place for it," said Lincoln, then turned coolly on his heel. When the garrison was withdrawn, a few weeks afterward, the powder was left behind. The farmer made haste to remove it, but, upon rolling the last barrel out of the yard, it burst open, and was found to contain nothing more dangerous than COLONIAL PERIOD. 21 sand ! The placing it in the shed had been a ruse to deceive the British spies. With the departure of the troops came nocturnal visits from the Cow-boys and Skinners, and foraging parties from both armies. And every man who wore an epaulet must be fed and lodged according to his demands. Bullets, and even cannon-balls, from the shipping, cut the air in frightful proximity, and the old man was aghast with consternation. He began to cast about him The Livingston House. for a place of safety. Several shots pierced the house, and bricks were dis lodged in the chimney. He finally, with his family, made his way into the country to the north, far out of harm's way, and hired himself out as a day- laborer. Many of the bullets and balls, which were planted in the grounds about the house, have been exhumed within a few years. There was a native cherry-tree standing about a rod directly south of the front door of the mansion. It grew to immense proportions, was at least four- 22 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. teen feet in circumference, and had six branches, each of which would have made a huge tree of itself. In 1870 it was cut down, and a knotty protuber ance on the river-side, which had always been the subject of more or less spec ulation, was found to have been the harbor of a large-sized cannon-ball for almost a centuiy. The interesting relic is carefully preserved by Mr. Archer, the present proprietor of the property. On the 1st day of August, 1780, the main body of the American army was suddenly thrown across the Hudson, and encamped at Dobb's Ferry. Why, no one knew save the commander-in-chief. He repaired immediately to this house. His tall and well-proportioned figure nearly reached from floor to ceiling, where the heavy beams were bare and waxed smooth. He was attended by Stirling, Lafayette, Steuben, Knox, Greene, Hamilton, and other officers. It was ascer tained, August 4th, that Washington's ingenious manoeuvre had effected the object intended, that of drawing back the British expedition to Rhode Island, and the army was speedily under marching orders, and recrossed the ferry to the Jersey shore. A few troops were left, however, to erect a block-house and batteries, Dobb's Ferry having grown into a point of relative importance in the movements of armies. It was the spot first appointed for the meeting of Andre and Arnold ; and, if the latter had not been prevented from landing by the interference of a guard-boat, the interview would have taken place in the house above described. It was here that General Greene met General Robertson in conference concerning the fate of Major Andre. Robertson was the chief of three commissioners sent up the river by Sir Heniy Clinton in the schooner Greyhound with a flag of truce. Washington permitted Greene to meet Robert son as a private gentleman, but not as an officer of the army, as the case of an acknowledged spy admitted of no discussion. In the summer of 1781 Washington's headquarters were again under this roof for six or more weeks. His army was encamped in two lines, with its right resting on the Hudson. The French, under Count de Rochambeau, occu pied the left, a single line extending to the river Bronx. The latter had just arrived, having marched from Providence via Hartford. The real object of the allied armies in the present campaign was the subject of much speculation and betting among the soldiers. It was apparently the capture of New York. There were great bustle and preparation. Distinguished COLONIAL PERIOD. 23 men from every point of the compass visited Washington, and were entertained in his rustic quarters. The French ambassador spent several days with him. Colonel Laurens, the son of the American ambassador to Holland, was also here ; and nearly every general of any note in the army. Toward the last of August there was a general order for the army to move, and it became known in course of events that it was destined to Virginia, in pursuit of Lord Cornwallis. A strong garrison was left at Dobb's Ferry, which remained until the cessation of hostilities. It was in this same mansion that Washington and Sir Guy Carleton, and their respective suites, met to make arrangements for the evacuation of New York by the British. Washington came down from West Point in a barge. Sir Guy Carleton came up the river in a frigate. Four companies of American infantry acted as guards of honor, and escorted them from the ferry to the house. Livingston purchased the property soon after peace was established, which, aside from the dwelling, consisted of about five hundred acres of land. After him it belonged to his son, Van Brugh Livingston, by whom the house was repaired, raised one story, and enlarged on the eastern side. A smooth, vel vety lawn was extended from the front to the river-bank. An invisible wire fence protected the grounds from the post-road which seemed to pass through them. It had an air of simplicity and comfort, and impressed the passer-by as being the home of a gentleman of means and refinement. Since then the front has been added, and other changes effected. But the old square parlor is the same, and many other features of the ancient building. Two original forest- trees, a tulip and an elm, the latter of which may be seen in the sketch, tower one hundred and fifty feet high, not more than three rods from the southern entrance. They were both struck by lightning, at the same moment, about seven years ago, the marks of which they will bear to the end of their days. The house has a picturesque background of hill and forest, and commands an extensive view of beautiful scenery on both sides of the Hudson. " Beverley," opposite West Point, familiar to the reading public through its associations with the treason of Arnold, is a relic of the Colonial period which has undergone no material architectural alteration since its erection in 1750. 24 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. It was for many years the princely abode of a generous and courtly hospitality. Colonel Beverley Robinson, the son of Honorable John Robinson, President of the Colony of Virginia after the retirement of Governor Gooch, came in pos session of one thousand acres of fine land in this region through his wife, the sister of Mrs. Roger Morris, and daughter of the lord of Philipse manor, and together they planned and built this romantic dwelling in the wilderness for their summer home. It was fashioned after the country-seats in England, with Beverley. a central hall, wide enough for a cotillon party, running through the entire building, and imposing apartments elaborately decorated. The design of the antique staircase corresponds with those to be found in the stately homes of England. The peculiar carving, however, and the curious tiles, indicate the Holland birthright of the accomplished lady who presided over its rise and progress, while the gardens, lawns, fruit-orchards, broad, cultivated fields, and COLONIAL PERIOD. 25 great deer-parks, were presently in accord with the refined tastes of the mili tary scholar and English gentleman. Robinson was an officer in the British army under Wolfe, and fought with signal bravery on the Plains of Abraham. When the Revolutionary contro versy commenced, he opposed the measures of the ministry, gave up the use of imported merchandise, and clad himself and his family in the fabrics of domes tic manufacture. But he opposed the separation of the colonies from the mother-country. He was not a native-bom citizen of America, and, although a retired officer, was liable to be called upon at any time in case of war. His idea of a soldier's first duty was obedience to superior authority. Hence, al though he desired to take a neutral part when hostilities were declared, the pressure was so strong that he yielded, and removed his family to New York city, where he had a costly town-house and other property of value, whence they took refuge in Great Britain at the close of the war. His immense estates were confiscated and sold. Several of his children were born at " Beverley," all of whom attained distinction. This dwelling has been the theatre of a score of stirring events. Shortly after it was vacated by its owner, the American officers at West Point selected it for a military hospital. Arnold soon found it convenient,. and domiciled him self and his family within its walls. Here he perfected his traitorous designs ; and, under the polished beams in the quaint old dining-room, he breakfasted, helping his guests to melons, grapes, and chicken in the most polite and affable manner, with his wife opposite, in pretty morning-costume, dispensing coffee and sweet smiles, on the morning when his bargain to sell his country for ten thousand pounds sterling came to naught. Every schoolboy since his time has learned the story by heart. Who does not know how he was apprised of the capture of Andre, and with what celerity he made his escape to the Vulture ? The scheme of Arnold was the pivot upon which the prospective nation balanced. Had Andre reached New York according to the programme, our grandfathers would have loomed up before us a band of rebels, instead of the founders of a great republic. We should never have known the stuff of which they were made. This ancient dwelling stands, like a triumphal flag-staff, to mark the most critical moment in American history, and it has become dear to the public heart. 26 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. It was the headquarters of General Putnam for a considerable period. Dr. Thatcher, in his " Military Journal," describes a dinner-party, given to " forty-one respectable officers " by General Muhlenberg, who occupied the southeast cham ber of the mansion for some months. He was the clerical Virginia soldier who walked into his pulpit one Sunday morning with a sword and cockade, and preached his farewell sermon, marching next day to the wars at the head of a regiment. The banquet was served in the historical dining-room, and "the table was furnished with fourteen different dishes, arranged in fashionable style. A number of toasts were pronounced " ; there were several humorous and merry songs, and military music and dancing were continued through half the night. Dinners and suppers were often given at " Beverley " in a sort of social rotation by the various officers. To accomplish themselves in dancing, they employed at one time the celebrated dancing-teacher, Mr. John Trotter. He is represented as about fifty years of age, small, genteel, well-proportioned, " every limb and joint proclaiming that he was master of the profession." In July, 1778, men tion is made of a notable dinner given here, by the officers, to Colonel Malcolm and his much-admired wife. The guests were more numerous than at any other entertainment during that season, one third of them being ladies. The quaint chronicler remarks^ " The cheering glass was not removed till evening, when we accompanied those from West Point to the river-side, and finished two bot tles of port on board their barge." Major-General Samuel Holden Parsons was quartered at " Beverley " for a considerable period. Dr. Dwight (afterward President of Yale College) was chaplain of a Connecticut regiment, stationed at West Point, dwelling mean while under this roof. Here, too, lived the soldier-poet Colonel David Hum phreys. He was an aide to General Putnam, and went with him to the top of Sugar-loaf Mountain on one occasion, where, with forty men, they spent two days amusing themselves by upsetting a ponderous rock, and seeing it roll in the end with great force, cutting a singular pathway along its route, until it found a resting-place in the bed of the river — one part of it above water, upon which the energetic commander climbed, and, holding a glass of wine above his head, gave it the name of Putnam's Rock. Colonel Humphreys was selected as aide to Washington, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, in 1780, remaining as such to the end of the war. It was he COLONIAL PERIOD. 27 who bore the captured standards from Yorktown to Congress, and received from that dignified body a handsome sword as a token of respect for his valor and distinguished services. He subsequently filled important positions in the Government. He was minister to Portugal and to Spain, and concluded treaties with Tripoli and Algiers. One of his famous poetical productions was conceived upon Sugar-loaf summit. The incomparable beauty of the outlook — thirty miles or more of landscape diversified with lofty, wood-crowned moun tains, ragged cliffs, frightful precipices, foaming cascades, darksome gorges, and, far below all, the Hudson creeping along like a huge canal cut through a con fused jungle — inspired the prophetic words — " Columbia ! Columbia ! to glory arise, The queen of the world and the child of the skies." No other house in the country was so frequently the resort of Washington during the eight years which " tried men's souls " as " Beverley." Under no other roof were so many foreigners of distinction sheltered and fed from time to time. And all of the illustrious generals of the army, as well as the great majority of the statesmen who were tinkering at the foundation of the new republic, broke bread in this long-to-be-honored dining-room. " Beverley " was in the possession of Richard D. Arden for many years, and he did himself special honor by permitting no alterations in the interior of the mansion. It was the residence of his son, Lieutenant Thomas Arden, late of the United States Army, and an officer in the Florida war. The property was purchased, some half a dozen years since, by Hon. Hamilton Fish, whose own pleasant summer home is but a few yards distant, across the way. The name of the statesman, and his well-known historical tastes, are a sufficient guarantee that this precious relic of a glorious era will continue to be protected with scrupulous care from the march of modern improvements. The Verplanck homestead, at Fishkill, is one of the oldest — probably the oldest — of the homesteads of New York. The site was purchased in 1682, Gulian Verplanck and Francis Rombouts obtaining a deed from the Indians of seventy-six thousand acres of land, described as extending back into the woods from the river " four hours' going," or sixteen miles. A patent was issued by 28 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. Governor Dongan, but, Mr. Verplanck dying in the mean time, Hon. Stephanus Van Cortlandt was joined with Rombouts and Jacob Ship as the representa tives of the Verplanck heirs. In the subsequent division of the estate the homestead fell to the children of Mr. Verplanck, and has ever since been in the family. The house given in the sketch is the veritable dwelling erected in the forest prior to the beginning of the eighteenth century. It is a combination of stone and wood, in the Dutch style of architecture, one story high, with gable-roof and dormer-windows. It has a broad, sheltering piazza on both the east and west fronts (which are nearly alike), covered by a continuation of the main roof. It stands some half a mile from the river's edge, and is surrounded by extensive gardens, handsome lawns, and broad, green fields, dotted with clumps of stately trees, save to the south, where a patch of the primeval thicket remains to this day, dense enough to ambush a whole tribe of the original lords of the hunting-grounds. It is approached by a private avenue from the main road, three fourths of a mile to the east. The house has been carefully preserved, with all its antique peculiarities. During the Revolution it was the scene of many an interesting episode. In 1778 General Lafayette was for some time dangerously sick there with a fever, and was attended by Dr. John Cochrane. During his convalescence he was visited by Dr. Thatcher, who says, in his journal, that he was received by the Marquis "in a polite and affable manner." Long before then wheat had been shipped from this place to France and exchanged for pure wine, with which the vaults of the mansion were well stocked, and it was cordially be stowed upon the young nobleman and his friends. Dr. Thatcher describes Lafayette as elegant in figure, with an "interesting face of perfect symmetry, and a fine, animated hazel • eye." It was the headquarters of Baron Steuben, the celebrated Prussian discipli narian, at the same time that Washington was in Newburg, on the opposite shore of the Hudson. It was during that most trying period of the Revolution, the year of inactivity of Congress, of distress all over the country, and of com plaint, discontent, and almost revolt among officers and soldiers throughout the army. Barracks extended along the line of the road, south of Fishkill village, for a mile and a half, beyond which there were a few log-houses, where, it was COLONIAL PERIOD. 29 said, the soldiers were sent to hide when their clothes could be mended no longer and actually fell off them. It was at the Verplanck homestead that the idea first found expression, which was proposed by Colonel Nicola, on behalf of himself and others, to The Verplanck House. Washington at Newburg, that he (Washington) should be made King of the United States, for the " national advantage " ! It is said that Washington was astonished and grieved, and severely reprimanded Nicola for entertaining such a thought for an instant. Here, too, the celebrated Society of the Cincinnati was organized. The 30 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. meeting took place on the 13th of May, 1783, in the square room to the north of the broad hall which runs through the house. Baron Steuben, as the senior officer, presided, and his chair was placed between the two windows which appear at the left hand of the door in the sketch. The society originated in the mind of General Knox, its object being to cement and perpetuate the friendship of its founders, and transmit the same sentiment to their descen dants. Washington was made its first president, and officiated until his death. The chairs used on this memorable occasion are still preserved. Some of them are of wood, and may be seen upon the veranda ' of the house. Other articles of furniture, rendered priceless through contact with illustrious men, are cherished Avith tender reverence. A mahogany sideboard, dark as ebony from years, stands in the same corner of the dining-room which it has occupied for a century. It seems invested with tongues, indeed, and harrows the visit or's mind with the eloquence, wit, learning, magnetic genius, and surprising wisdom of that by-gone and golden period. The Verplanck family are one of the oldest and most honorable of the New York families of Holland origin. Every generation has produced its good and gifted men. Judge Daniel Crommelin Verplanck was for many years a mem ber of Congress ; his city home was a large, yellow brick mansion in Wall Street. He married the daughter of President Johnson, of Columbia College. His father was Samuel Verplanck, who was betrothed to his cousin, Judith Crommelin, when seven years of age. She was the daughter of a wealthy banker of the Huguenot stock in Amsterdam. When the young man was of the proper age, he was sent to make the tour of Europe and bring home his bride. He was married in the banker's great stone house, the doors opening from the wide marble entrance-hall upon a fair Dutch garden. The counting- room was upon one side of the passage, and the drawing-room, bright with gilding, upon the other. The lady was particularly accomplished, and versed, not only in the several modern languages, but in Greek and Latin, speaking the latter fluently. It was this lady who, in her beautiful old age, trained her grandson Gulian, so well known to New York political and social life, and to all lovers of Shake speare, to love books and study. She taught him, when a mere babe, to declaim passages from Latin authors, standing on a table, and rewarded him COLONIAL PERIOD. 31 with hot pound-cake. It is said that she used to put sugar-plums near his bedside, to be at hand in case he should awake and take a fancy to repeat his lessons in the night. The boy was a born scholar. He took to books as other boys take to marbles. He entered Columbia College at eleven. The tradition is that he studied Greek lying flat on the floor, with his thumb in his mouth, and the fingers of the other hand employed in twisting a lock of the brown hair on his forehead. He rose to eminence in the law, in politics, and in literature. He served in the State Legislature, and was sent' to Congress. One of his chief acts, while in the councils of the nation, was to secure the passage of a bill (in 1831) for the additional security of literary property. In 1834 he was the Whig candi date for Mayor of New York, but Cornelius W. Lawrence, the Democratic can didate, was elected by about two hundred majority. In 1855 he was made Vice-Chancellor of the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York. He was also one of the six gentlemen " of the very highest character " who formed the Board of Commissioners of Emigration, charged with the over sight and care of the vast influx of strangers from the Old World. It took eight years for this Board (which was free altogether from party influences) to obtain the privilege of a special landing-place for immigrants. Finally, a grant from the Legislature enabled them to lease Castle Garden for this purpose. Mr. Verplanck ministered to the public welfare in innumerable ways. He was a trustee of the Society Library, and one of the trustees of the Public School Society. He was an author of no little distinction, some of his legal writings being of a high character, and he was editor of one of the best editions of Shakespeare printed in this country. He spent his summers in the old homestead, and it was here that some of his finest literary conceptions saw the light. He entertained generously ; nearly all of the celebrities of his day were from time to time invited to this lovely retreat. The new part of the mansion, of which the sketch reveals a suggestion to the left, has been in existence about seventy years. The drawing-room is a model of elegance and good taste in its appointments, and contains, among other relics, some fine specimens of cut-glass ornaments from the " Old Walton House " in New York, before it was dismantled ; also, some antique vases of great beauty, and an easy-chair of Walton memory. Another heirloom is an 32 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. arm-chair of Bishop Berkeley. Few houses in the country give more vivid ex pression to the life and character of its several occupants, or are hallowed by more varied and charming associations. The grand .old manor-house of the Van Rensselaers, at Albany, was built in 1765, as the successor to a two-stoiy brick structure, which had been the residence of former Patroons. This link, which connects us with the old feudal institutions, transferred to New York from Holland, is of brown -stone, with roomy wings, and was so much finer than COLONIAL PERIOD. 33 any other dwelling in the surrounding country at the time of its erection, that it had the effect of a palace. Its simple architectural elegance, even now, with its fine park and magnificent trees, gives it an aristocratic air in keeping with the period of high-sounding titles and lordly possessions. The Van Rensselaer manor originally comprised about seven hundred thousand acres, and such were its prerogatives of sovereignty and baronial appendages that it much more nearly resembled a principality than we, of this later generation, are wont to suspect. It seems a little remarkable that a republic, renowned throughout the civilized world for liberal policy and religious tol eration, should have fostered the most objectionable features of feudal des potism; but such was the fact. The West India Company regarded the subject only in a commercial light. New York, as a plantation, was not self- supporting — current expenses were more than the receipts ; and none of the soil was yet reclaimed, except a few acres here and there for private needs. Hence in 1627 a scheme was adopted, known as a charter of "Freedoms and Exemptions," for the purpose of inducing wealthy individuals to become great landholders, and lend their aid in the peopling of the wonderful new country. Among the oldest and richest of the directors of the company, and one of its most active founders, was Kilian Van Rensselaer, the descendant of a long line of honorable ancestors, and an educated gentleman of the old school. His own vessels had often been placed at the disposal of the corporation, and twice in its early history he had advanced money to save its credit. It is a romantic story, that of his founding the great New York manor of Rensselaerswick. He purchased through agents a tract of land forty-eight miles one way by twenty- four the other, and sent over in his own ships planters and appurtenances. There were system in his management, and order and method in the entire regu lation of the little baronial colony, which grew and prospered, while the rest of the province was in a state of turmoil through inefficient rulers and Indian wars. He appointed his own civil, military, and judiciary officers, planted his own cannon, manned by his own soldiers, and, with his own flag waving over all, justice was administered in his name. He held the independent power of an old feudal chieftain within his territorial limits ; and upon this manor there were at one time several thousand tenants, their gatherings something like those of the Scottish clans. When a Van Rensselaer died, these people 34 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. swarmed about the manor-house to do honor at the funeral. They regarded the Patroon with reverence, a feeling shared by the whole country. Jeremias Van Rensselaer, the son of Kilian, was the second Patroon, and Hall, Van Rens: presided admirably over the manor for many I years, dying in 1674. He was a singularly handsome man, judging by his portrait. He is painted in a richly embroidered, waistcoat, and large-cuffed, much-befrogged velvet coat, with ruffles about - his well-shaped hands. His wig is densely curled and powdered, and his delicate frills and necktie seem to indicate that he was a bit of a dandy. His correspondence, which still exists, shows talent and enormous industry. He wielded great influence. His wife was Maria Van Cortlandt, daughter of the blue-blooded Oloff Stevensen Van Cortlandt, COLONIAL PERIOD. 35 and sister of Stephanus Van Cortlandt, who founded Cortlandt manor, which stretched over a wide extent of territory in the region of the Croton River, resting upon the Hudson. In 1764, one year before the erection of the manor-house of the sketch, was born Stephen Van Rensselaer, fifth in the direct line from Kilian, and the last of the Patroons. His father was also Stephen, a sterling opposer of the en croachments of the Crown, and his mother the accomplished daughter of Philip Livingston, who signed the Declaration of Independence. He was graduated from Cambridge with honors in 1782 ; and was known, even while very young, as a soldier, patriot, philanthropist, and Christian. His destiny was to bridge over the chasm between the two opposite political systems. Born the subject of a king, himself a nobleman, with immense estates and baronial privileges, he favored the democratic doctrine that all men are equal, and, during his long, useful, and beautiful life, never lamented the loss of his power and circumstance. When he came into possession of his vast domains, he is said to have leased as many as nine hundred farms, of one hundred and fifty acres each, on long terms. He was much in public life ; was Lieutenant-Governor of New York in 1795 and in 1798 ; was one of the Canal Commissioners, riding on horseback with De Witt Clinton and Gouverneur Morris from Albany to Lake Erie in 1810, to explore the route of the Erie Canal ; was major-general of the State militia in 1812 ; and, at a later date, was Chancellor of the New York State University. He also represented the city and county of Albany in Congress from 1823 to 1829. He was exceptionally active in the direction of agricultural and geologi cal science, and gave considerable sums of money to educational institutions ; the Dudley Observatory of Albany is indebted to him for its real estate. He was President of the second oldest Bible Society in the country, and one of its efficient managers through life. The manor, for more than a century, was never without a representative in the Colonial Assembly of New York, and this patriotic family never furnished a member who was not notable for devotion to America. During all those years of kingly rule, whenever it was announced in New York that the Patroon Van Rensselaer was coming to the city by land, the day he was expected crowds would turn out to see him drive through Broadway with his coach and four, as if he were a prince of the blood. Stephen, the last Patroon, was a man of tall, commanding presence, with 36 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. large, dark, expressive, fascinating eyes. His wife was Margaret, daughter of the famous General Philip Schuyler. At his death in 1839 the property was divided among his numerous lineal descendants. His son Stephen remodeled the manor-house in 1840, the only radical change, however, being the addition of wings to the main edifice. On the walls of the great hall still hangs the paper brought from Holland more than a century ago, and the internal archi tecture of the original edifice remains intact. The Schuyler mansion at Albany was built about 1760 by General Philip Schuyler, the proprietor of the " noble estate in Saratoga " so often spoken of in history, and which was desolated by Burgoyne. It is a fine specimen of the domestic architecture of the country at the period, impressive without preten sion upon the outside, while the interior is rich with old-time carving and orna mentation, and the spacious wainscoted rooms have high ceilings, and the chim ney-pieces are finely wrought from mantel to ceiling. It is entered at the front by an octagonal vestibule, handsomely fashioned, with antique doors that seem fitted for the passage of stiff brocades. The out-houses were spacious, and ex tensive grounds formerly reached to the river's edge, although the cutting down of Lansing Street gives the house now the effect of being perched in the air, and is attained by innumerable steps. No name is more familiar to the readers of American history than that of Philip Schuyler. He was the great Revolutionary general, and a chivalrous, clever, sagacious, painstaking, and successful man of affairs — one of those to whom the country owes most next to Washington ; one who sacrificed immense ly, bearing the pain of official and political injustice with a patience that was sublime. He came of a gifted race. The first Schuyler in this country, Philip Pietersen Schuyler, married Margaretta, daughter of Herr Brandt Arent Van Slechtenhorst, commander of Van Rensselaer's colony, the wedding taking place in December, 1650 ; the lovers were each twenty-two years old at the time. Six years afterward young Schuyler was a magistrate and a man of importance. His wife was a lady of great mental endowments and force of character. Their ten children were all important acquisitions to the forming society of New York : Gertrude, the eldest daughter, became the wife of the " Right Honorable Stephanus Van Cortlandt," and one of the leading ladies in COLONIAL PERIOD. 37 the " court circle " of the royal Governor of the province ; Alida married first Rev. Nic- olaus Van Rensselaer, the son of the first Patroon, and afterward Robert Livingston, the famous founder of Liv- ~ ^ ingston manor; Peter, the first Mayor of Albany, cele brated for having taken five Mohawk chiefs to the Court of England, married Maria, daughter of Jeremias Van Rensselaer and Maria Van Cort landt ; Brandt married Cornelia Van Cortlandt, and settled in New York City ; Arent purchased an extensive tract of land on the Passaic River, and founded the New Jersey family of Schuylers, of which the mansion in the ini tial sketch was the home, about the middle of the last century ; and John, also Mayor of Albany — from 1703 to 1706 ; his son John married his cousin Cornelia Van Cortlandt (daughter of " Right Honorable Stephanus Van Cort landt ") ; these latter were the parents of Philip Schuyler, of whom the dwelling illustrated is a characteristic monument. In him all the virtues and talents of 38 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. not only the Schuylers, but the Van Rensselaers and Van Cortlandts, seemed to culminate. He was educated among the Huguenots of New Rochelle, and afterward went through the rigorous discipline of all the Schuylers, learning the Indian language, habits, and peculiarities of the Mohawks in their own wilderness solitudes. There was many a romantic episode in the Schuyler family ; it would be interesting to picture one and another of those energetic youths who, on attaining the age of eighteen, were presented with " a canoe and an Indian boy," and politely requested by not too indulgent parents to go off into the wilderness and prove their mettle. Thus they studied the art of woodcraft under these primeval teachers, made allies of the men of the Six Nations — heroes who were not unworthy of the pictures afterward drawn of them by novelist and painter. The Indians came to Albany once a year, or more frequently, and insisted on naming all the children of the Schuyler blood. Among those who received this savage baptism was Mrs. Alexander Hamilton, whose Indian name is still preserved in the family. She was Elizabeth, daugh ter of General Philip Schuyler, and the sister of Margaret, the wife of Ste phen Van Rensselaer. General Schuyler himself, while roaming in the woods, exchanged names with two great chieftains. In 1753 General Schuyler was a gay young society devotee. In 1755 he married Catharine Van Rensselaer, and together they dispensed a princely hospitality, from the old mansion of the sketch, for upward of forty years. Every stranger of distinction, passing between New York and Canada, was entertained under this roof. Here Franklin and Charles Carroll were housed and cared for on their famous mission to Canada ; and here Burgoyne found a kindly welcome after his surrender. It was the scene of many touching incidents. One of its " carvings," unintentionally made, remains to characterize the stormy times which the family lived through. It is the mark of a toma hawk, thrown by a hostile Indian at the retreating figure of Miss Margaret Schuy ler, afterward the wife of Stephen Van Rensselaer, in 1781, when the war was at its height. A party of Tories conceived the idea of seizing the person of General Schuyler, and carrying him off a prisoner to Canada. A man named Wattemeyer, assisted by Canadians and Indians, made the assault. The Gen eral was forewarned, but not so well prepared but that his assailants gained an entrance. Gathering his family into an upper room, his daughter suddenly COLONIAL PERIOD. 39 remembered that the baby had been forgotten, and was on the ground-floor in her cradle in the nursery. She rushed back with impulsive bravery, caught her infant sister in her arms, and bore her off in safety. An Indian hurled a sharp tomahawk at her as she ascended the stairs. It cut her dress and just escaped the child's head, striking the stair-rail, the scar of which remains. This youngest daughter of the General, so miraculously saved from the tomahawk, became Mrs. Cochrane, of Oswego. She had the singular adventure, also, of meeting at the communion-table of the Episcopal Church at Utica, sixty years after her father's death, two full-blooded Oneida chiefs by the name of Schuyler, descendants of those who had exchanged names with the young Philip in 1751. The Schuyler mansion of the initial sketch, overlooking the Passaic, oppo site Belleville, in New Jersey, was built about the middle of the last century. All the brick used in its construction was imported from Holland, and the mor tar was a year old. Its main hall is twenty or more feet broad, and is elaborately finished with antique paneling. The staircase is after the fashion of those in the homes of the Holland gentry. It was upon this old estate that a negro slave, while plowing, found a curious greenish stone, and carried it to his master. It was sent to England for analyzation, and found to contain eighty per cent, of copper. Schuyler seized upon the unexpected avenue to wealth, and great quantities of ore were subsequently shipped to the Bristol Copper and Brass Works in England. In 1761 an engine was imported to facilitate operations, and the mines were vigorously worked up to the time of the Revolution. Arent Schuyler, the founder of the New Jersey branch of the Schuyler family, had two sons, Colonel Peter Schuyler and Colonel John Schuyler, both men of mark. Colonel Peter distinguished himself in the French war, and was one of the heroes who entered Montreal on its surrender to the British in 1760. His daughter Catharine was the first wife of Archibald Kennedy, Earl of Casse- lis. Colonel John lived in the mansion on the Passaic in the time of the Revo lution, and was the owner of fifty or sixty negro slaves. A visitor during that period describes the eminences, groves, lawns, ornamental gardens, and deer- parks containing " one hundred and sixty head of deer," as exceptionally mag nificent. The illustration represents the house as it appeared at that time. It has long since passed out of the Schuyler family, and has been the subject of 40 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. modern improvement until very little of antiquity is written upon the face of it. The country home of the Van Cortlandts, so intimately connected with the Schuylers and Van Rensselaers through intermarriages in nearly every genera tion, appears also in the initial sketch. It is one of the oldest mansions on the Hudson, built about the beginning of the last century. Its solid walls of gray stone, three feet in thickness, were pierced with loopholes for musketry, it having been designed as a fort in case of hostilities with the Indians. Some of these may yet be seen in the rear walls. It has a high basement, a second story, which includes the principal apartments, and a third, lighted by dormer- windows. Around the front and ends of the mansion is a broad veranda, shaded by trailing vines. The Van Cortlandt domain, including eighty-three thousand acres purchased from the Indians, was erected into the lordship and manor of Cortlandt by royal charter, bearing date June 17, 1697, which charter, written upon parchment, is still preserved. The first lord of the manor was Stephanus Van Cortlandt, who was Mayor of the city of New York for several years, and a leading man in the Governor's Council. He married Gertrude Schuyler, the sister of Peter, first Mayor of Albany, and of Arent, on the Pas saic. He was the son of Oloff Stevensen Van Cortlandt, the first of the name in America, a descendant of the Dukes of Courland in Russia. This vast estate was equally divided among the heirs in 1734. To Philip, the eldest surviving son of Stephanus, fell the dwelling of the sketch. His fifth son, Pierre, the first Lieutenant-Governor of New York as a State, and who filled the office for eighteen successive years, ultimately became the proprietor of the home prop erty. He extended the hospitalities of the mansion to nearly all the great men of the period for more than half a century. Few houses in America are more notable for the distinction of its occupants and guests. It is still the home of the Van Cortlandts, extensive modem additions and improvements having been added to the antique structure. No two races of men could be more different than the New-Yorkers of the Colonial period, with their lordships stretched along the Hudson and far into the interior of the inhabitable portion of the State (as also over a greater por- COLONIAL PERIOD. 41 tion of the territory of Long Island), and the people of New England, who, descended from the choice sons of European culture, and wedded to their schools and colleges, cherished a higher respect for poetry and philosophy, and all that appertained to religious rhapsody, than for temporal aggrandizement. And the contrast in the habits of thought and modes of living between the two provinces is nowhere more distinctly apparent than in their old, time-worn The Puritans frowned upon all exterior show. Architectural orna- mansions. Sir William Pepperell's House, Kittery's Point, Maine. mentation in New England was tabooed alike with high-sounding titles. The men of quality were self-respectful, fenced in with more ceremonial than we have been led to believe. The wholesome traditions of wisdom pervaded the very air, and Homer and Horace were quoted by boys at the plow. Enough foreign refinement was imported to humanize, while conceits of every kind flourished, and the necessities for perpetual labor pinched the mind. Time insensibly softened the asperities of Puritanism, while foreign luxury reached 42 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. the Blue Hills in insufficient quantities to work the mischief of corrup tion. A fair example of the country-houses of early New England is that of Sir William Pepperell, at Kittery's Point, Maine. It has been curtailed some ten feet at either end of its original proportions within the past few years ; thus it must once have contained as many apartments as a good-sized hotel. The southern part of the mansion was built by the father of the conqueror of Louis- burg, and the north end was added by Sir William. Until the death of the elder Pepperell, in 1734, the families of both father and son occupied the dwelling, which accounts for its extension and multitudinous rooms. The lawn in front reached to the sea, and an avenue, a quarter of a mile in length, skirted by tall, branching trees, conducted to the house of Colonel Sparhawk, east of the village church. Commonplace as the house seems in the picture, it repre sents one of the largest fortunes of the Colonial period of New England. It was an old saying that Sir William could drive to the Saco, thirty miles distant from his home, without going off his own possessions. The baronetcy, extinct with Sir William, was revived by the King for the benefit of his grandson, who, being a loyalist, went to England in 1775, and the immense estates in Maine and elsewhere were confiscated. The last baronet is the prominent figure in West's " Reception of the American Loyalists by Great Britain." The poet Longfellow has a painting by Copley, representing children in a park, the portraits being those of William and Elizabeth Royall Pepperell. The romantic spot — Kittery's Point — is often mentioned in Whit- tier's verse. The view from the Pepperell house is superb ; as many as a hun dred sail are often riding at anchor in sight, the haven being the usual refuge for coasters caught along-shore in a northeaster. The patriarch of New England houses, one of the first, if not the very first, erected within the government of John Winthrop, and which accident has kindly left untouched until the present day, is the Craddock house, in Meet- ford, Massachusetts. It is believed to be the oldest building in the United States retaining its original form. It is a unique specimen of the early domes tic architecture of the Puritans. Hoary with age, it is yet no ruin, but a com fortable habitation. Like a veteran of many campaigns, it shows a few honor- COLONIAL PERIOD. 43 able scars. The roof has swerved a little from its true outline. It has been denuded of a chimney, and has parted with a favorite dormer-window. The loopholes seen in the front were long since closed ; the race of Indians they The Craddoek House, Medford, Massachusetts. were to defend against having scarcely an existence to-day. The windows have been enlarged, with an effect of rouging the cheeks of one's grandmother — if we may indulge in the figure of speech of a well-known writer. And the winds 44 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. have held high carnival in its old chimneys for two hundred and forty-odd New England winters without disturbing its equanimity. It is supposed to have been built about 1634, as that was the date of a large grant of land to Matthew Craddock, governor of a commercial company in England, who was trying to secure the emigration of such men as Endicott, Winthrop, Dudley, Sir Richard Saltonstall, and others. He was the wealthiest and most important man connected with the settlement of Massachusetts. In building this house he probably intended it for his future residence, although events subsequently prevented him from coming to America. He sent over builders from England, who followed English types in the construction of the edifice. The bricks were burned specially for the purpose. There was some attempt at ornament, the lower course of the belt being laid with molded bricks, so as to form a cornice. The walls were half a yard in thickness, and heavy iron bars secured the arched windows at the back ; and the entrance-door was incased in iron. The fire-proof closets, huge chimney-stacks, and massive hewed timbers, remind us of houses on the Scottish border. The loopholes and narrow windows were planned with direct reference to the purposes of a fortress. A single pane of glass, set in iron, and placed in the back-wall of the western chimney, overlooked the approach from the town. The lavish expenditure of Craddock's agent elicited a sound rebuke from the straitlaced Winthrop, who built his own house of wood. And, again, when the blue-blooded Deputy. Governor Dudley exercised a little more costly taste upon the house he was to live in than Winthrop, the Governor-in-chief, had done before him, high words fell thick and fast about his head for such unreasonable outlay. A century younger, and yet bristling with antiquity, is the mansion known as " Hobgoblin Hall," on the old Boston road, some half mile from Medford village. It was built by Isaac Royall, an Antigua merchant, in 1738. Its archi tecture is singularly suggestive. It almost brings into full view the good- humored, luxury-loving, contented man of fine tastes and an overflowing purse, who completed the well-rounded years of his life under its roof. It was built of brick, three stories high, the upper tier of windows smaller than those under neath, and was sheathed entirely in wood, except on one end. It was fashioned after the palace of a nobleman in Antigua. The spaces below the windows on COLONIAL PERIOD. 45 the eastern front were filled in with panels, giving the effect of columns rising from ground to cornice. And the western front was still more highly orna mented, although turned away from the street. Spacious grounds, laid out with precision, were separated from the highway by a brick wall, the gateway of which was flanked by tall wooden columns. A carriage-drive, bordered with box, terminated in a courtyard at the west of the mansion, near which were the stables and the slave-quarters. A two-story brick building still remaining is the last visible relic of slavery in New England. The hall of entrance, with elaborately carved balusters and paneled wain scoting, retains somewhat of the atmosphere of former grandeur. To the right are a suite of drawing-rooms, separated by an arch in which sliding-doors are concealed. From floor to ceiling the walls are paneled in wood, the panels being of single pieces, some of them a yard in breadth. In the rear of these apartments are two alcoves, each flanked by fluted pilasters, supporting an arch enriched with moldings and carved ornaments, and in the recesses are broad window-seats. The chambers are large and numerous, all opening into a spa cious and airy hall. The one in the northwest corner of the mansion has alcoves corresponding with those in the parlor beneath ; but, instead of pan eled walls, it is finished above the wainscot with a covering of leather, on which are painted, in gorgeous colors, flowers, birds, and Chinese characters. The original windows, with the small glass and heavy frames, appear in this apartment — panes that quivered at the fierce cannonade of the Revolutionary outbreak. The kitchen has an enormous brick oven, still in perfect repair, with an iron chimney-back, upon which the Royall family arms are embossed. And .the dining-room has its sideboard, which old-time hospitality garnished with de canters of choice wines. The garden-front of the house overlooks an arched gateway, leading into what was in those olden times a beautiful garden, some of its box-trees and clumps of lilacs still to be seen. At the end of a graveled walk is an artificial mound with two terraces, upon which stands one of the most unique of summer-houses, a figure of Mercury poised on its summit. This little structure, a veritable curiosity, displays much beauty of design ; no one but an artist could have shaped its panels, its fluted Ionic pilasters, and its bell- shaped roof. A trap-door in the floor discloses a cellar for ice. But, when the 46 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. daughters of the West India nabob were courted by George Erving and Sir William Pepperell, it is hardly probable that the mysteries and tricks of archi- Hobgoblin Hall, Medford, Massachusetts. tecture were unriddled to their comprehension. It was just the place for a ten der declaration. Its picturesque romance would have been chilled beyond re- COLONIAL PERIOD. 47 covery had the ardent lover learned that it was an artful combination of beauty and utility — in short, an ice-house. Isaac Royall the first was succeeded by Isaac Royall the second, who lived in as much state as his sire. His sister married Colonel Vassal, who dwelt in the old mansion at Cambridge, now the home of Henry W. Longfellow, the poet. Royall was an intimate of governors and grandees, and one day he drove in his coach to Boston, and, while sipping his Madeira with some of the choice spirits of the town, the news of the battle of Lexington was received. He was afraid to return home. He never saw his handsome old house again. He was shut up in Boston for long and weary months, and, when the British army went to Halifax, he was one of the unhappy refugees who was obliged to go also. He went to England finally, where he died, endeavoring to the last to prevent the forfeiture of his estate. He was a large-hearted, benevolent man, as his many bequests prove. The Royall Professorship of Law at Harvard was founded through his bounty. This old mansion, with its appointments and its slaves, attracted General Charles Lee, that prince of egotists, who aimed to supplant Washington — the man "full of strange oaths," with a huge nose, satirical mouth, and restless eyes, who sat upon his horse like a fox-hunter, and was so slovenly in his habits that nobody grieved at his absence ; with a pack of yelping curs at his heels, he took possession, and ordered the wondering negroes about with lordly airs. It was he who first called it " Hobgoblin Hall." Washington, not pleased that Lee should take up his quarters a mile and a half from the left wing of the army, ordered him to return to duty. General Sullivan was shortly allured by the same grand old house, but was scarcely settled when his aide-de-camp handed him a letter from the commander-in-chief, which caused him to change his quar ters with celerity. The ancient Quincy mansion is less curiously antique than those we have sketched, but is a characteristic specimen of colonial architecture in New Eng land. It was built in 1770 by Colonel Josiah Quincy, on ground purchased of the local Indian sachem as early as 1635, by Edmund Quincy, of England. The estate has ever since- remained in the family. In four successive genera tions a son has borne the name of Josiah, two of whom were Mayors of Boston, 48 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. one the President of Harvard College, and all of them more or less distinguished in political life. The house was placed upon a beautiful knoll, at the extremity of the noblest private estate in Massachusetts. Five hundred broad acres of meadow and woodland surrounding it give the idea of an English park come ;&?s8§s Quincy Mansion, Quincy, Massachusetts. down by entail since the Conquest. A wide, leafy avenue leads from the high road to the mansion, from which are charming glimpses of the sea, of Boston Harbor and its islands, and of the countless white sails continually winging their way into port. COLONIAL PERIOD. 49 Colonel Josiah Quincy, the designer and builder of this house, occupied it during Washington's investment of Boston. He rode often to camp, with projects for driving the British ships to sea, or sinking them in the bottom of the harbor. When the fleet was at last under full sail, flying hence, he scratched the date with a diamond on the window-pane. Samuel A. Drake, in describing a visit to the Quincy mansion in 1875, says: "When I was fairly within the. house, which is furnished as houses were furnished a century ago — where an tique-dressed portraits looked down from the walls, and where sedan-chairs in cool corridors invited to post-prandial naps — I felt that modern life had little right to intrude itself into such a place. Every visitor, I would suggest, should be required to don a powdered periwig, laced coat, and silk stockings, in order that the prevailing idea may not be disturbed. The fragrance of the old life and manners still lingered about those wainscoted apartments, and a half- hour's visit converted the imaginary into the real. How quaint are those entries in John Adams's diary: 'Drank tea at Grandfather Quincy's,' or, ' Spent the evening at Colonel Quincy's with Colonel Lincoln ' ! The men talked politics, and the ladies talked about the fashions by the last London packet. Both the Adamses, father and son, frequented this house. Here Hull, after destroying the Guerriere, and here Decatur, were entertained." Scientists are sometimes fond of deducing a connection between the charac ter of a people and the structure of that portion of the earth's crust which they inhabit. England has been called a lump of chalk ; New England might ap propriately be styled a block of granite, since it seems to be such, thinly cov ered with soil, through which the harder substance is continually cropping out. Quincy, for instance, which owes its name to its old distinguished family, is almost a solid mass of granite, hard, inflexible, and insusceptible to polish ; but strong, valuable, and enduring. The same adjectives might with grace be ap plied to its human products. No other town in America can boast of being the birthplace of two Presidents of the United States. No roadside walls and building foundations of conglomerate in the land are more typical of the un- gesthetic but well-balanced Puritan character than those found in Quincy. No succession of illustrious men have been better known and appreciated, and more honored and glorified by a grateful people, than the Quincys and Adamses of this famous nook of creation. It was here, also, that the first railway (of 50 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. any note) in America was put in operation. This was in 1826. The rails were wooden, plated with iron, and laid on blocks of stone, the gauge being six feet. It was projected to remove the granite for the Bunker Hill Monu ment. The carriages weighed about six tons, and, when loaded with twenty tons of stone, were easily drawn over the tramway by one horse. The Adams mansion, intimately interwoven with the public and private lives of the two Presidents, and now occupied as the summer home of Hon. Charles Francis Adams, built long before the Revolution, will be found upon a future page. Two humble cottages, at the foot of Penn's Hill, are pointed out as the birthplaces of the father and son who figured so conspicuously before the world. From the eminence beyond these, John Quincy Adams and his accom plished mother watched the smoke arising from burning Charlestown on the day of the battle of Bunker Hill. The settlement of the western part of Massachusetts was much later than that of the eastern. The stony hills of Hampshire County reposed in solitude until a short time before the war. The pioneers of a large tract in the high land region, between the Connecticut and Housatonic, were Jacob Nash, a lineal descendant of Thomas Nash, the English poet and pamphleteer, and Rev. Moses Hallock. The former had obtained a grant from the Government, the latter was an energetic theological graduate. A town was laid out, which was named Cummington ; but after a few years the portion where the Nashes and Hallocks had settled was converted into a new town, and called Plainfield. The houses built upon these hills were of the most substantial character, and the tallest and trimmest of the trees of the forest were placed in rows before them, like sentinels on duty. A quaint meeting-house rifted its belfry into the sky, and a handsome curtained pulpit, under an enormous sounding-board, was occupied over half a century by the excellent divine who had been its associate founder and builder. Ebenezer Snell, a stern old Puritan magistrate, built the house of the sketch, upon a hill some two miles from the homes of Hallock and Nash, and in sight of the meeting-house ; but the dividing line of the two towns ran between, and he lived in Cummington. Dr. Peter Bryant, the first physician in that region, a man of rare scholastic attainments, married the daughter of Squire Snell, as he was popularly called, and through her the COLONIAL PERIOD. 51 house came into his possession, and has since been known as the "Bryant homestead." This was the birthplace of William Cullen Biyant, in 1794. He was a The Bryant Homestead, Cummington, Massachusetts. precocious boy, some of his verses finding their way into print before he was ten years old. Every influence in all that region tended toward the develop ment of his intellect. The families were well educated with whom he would naturally come in contact, superior indeed in mind and character to the average people of their time. He traced much of his taste for study to the instruction, example, and encouragement of both his parents. Schools were few, and he was taught chiefly at home. But the learned Plainfield minister, Moses Hal lock, taught a school in his own dwelling, in which the future poet received his final preparation for Williams College, his classmates being the sons of his pre- 52 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. ceptor, Rev. Dr. William A. Hallock, the great head of the American Tract Society ; Girard Hallock, one of the founders of the " Journal of Commerce " ; Arvin Nash, the only son of Jacob Nash, together with William and James Richards, the distinguished missionaries to the Sandwich Islands and Ceylon, and others who have since held important trusts in Church and State. A few years ago the poet purchased his youthful home, and fitted it up for a summer residence, visiting it every season, for a brief period, before taking up his more permanent abode at " Cedarmere," in Roslyn, Long Island. It was while on a visit to this last-named poetical home that a well-known author, referring to the leafy and picturesque hillside at the east of the mansion, wrote : " I was reminded — perhaps through the conversation, which touched lightly upon New England scenes and the modes of life in different countries — of another hill, less accessible and more immethodical, of a winding road up its jolting steeps, and of a bevy of rollicking boys and girls, who once took a surreptitious journey over it in a baker's wagon, to see the birthplace of the author of 'Monument Mountain.' It was during the noon recess of a Plainfield school. The baker had left his horse and wagon under a shed in the vicinity, while he went to his dinner. The distance was less than three miles, and the exploit might possibly have been accomplished within the hour, but the horse was lame. The pine bread-boxes were slippery also, and precious time was wasted by the frequent spilling of the restless freight, and the fishing of it up again. The rising cart, like a beehive on wheels, rose in the end to the very summit of juvenile hopes, but, through unskillful management in turning, was most ignominiously upset. Luckily no bones were broken, but a subdued band of culprits were arraigned and tried before an indignant and outraged teacher as the afternoon waned." The writer, who thus in childhood made a pilgrimage to the poet's mountain home, testifies to the intellectual stimulus of an atmosphere which has fostered the growth of more theologians than any other area of country of equal dimensions on this continent. And the simple and unpretending architecture thereabouts, with its secure, rocky foundation and solid masonry, is a monumental index to the type of scholarly men who first tilled the soil of the region, and laid the corner-stones of churches and schools so prolific in results. COLONIAL PERIOD. 53 The McCurdy mansion in Lyme, on the Connecticut River, illustrated in our initial cut, is a good example of the colonial homes in that portion of New England. It was built in the early part of the last century, and is one of the oldest dwellings in the State ; rarely another in the country has been protected with more generous care. It was purchased in 1750 by John McCurdy, a Scotch-Irish gentleman of wealth and education, engaged in foreign shipping. Its antique features are even now its chief charm. It has low ceilings with bare, polished beams, and its doors and windows are elaborately carved and paneled. In the south parlor is a curious buffet, built with the house, which is appropriately devoted to a choice collection of specimens of China from ances tral families — the Wolcotts, Griswolds, Dig by s, Willoughbys, Ogdens, Pitkens, Mitchells, Diodatis, and others, and is rich with historical interest. The whole house, indeed, is a museum of souvenirs of former generations. The round table is here which descended from Governor Matthew and Ursula Wolcott Griswold, around which gathered from time to time the eleven governors of the family. John McCurdy had no sympathy with the arbitrary measures of the English Government, and gloried in the Revolution. His home was the scene of many earnest conferences and discussions. It was under this roof that Rev. Stephen Johnson, the Lyme pastor, wrote the first published article pointing toward unqualified rebellion in the colonies, in case an attempt was made to enforce the Stamp Act, and McCurdy privately paid the printer a handsome sum for its issue. It was here that Lafayette was entertained for several days when the French army passed through the State during the Revolution ; and also in 1825, while on his memorable journey to Boston, Richard, the son of John McCurdy, being then the proprietor of the old homestead. The mansion is now the residence of Charles Johnson McCurdy, the son of Richard, and grand son of John McCurdy of the Revolution, who is a well-known jurist of emi nence, for many years in the Connecticut Legislature, Speaker of the House, Lieutenant-Governor of the State, United States Minister to Austria, and for a long period Judge of the Supreme Court. It was he who, when Lieutenant- Governor of Connecticut, in 1848, originated and carried into effect through the Legislature that great change in the common law by which parties may become witnesses in their own cases — a change which has since been adopted through out this country and in England. 54 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. Of quaint and commonplace architecture peculiar to the agricultural dis tricts of New England, and noticeable throughout the eastern extremity of Long Island, is the picturesque, old, shingled cottage where John Howard Payne, author of " Home, Sweet Home," passed his boyhood. It is situated in the village of East Hampton. The beautiful island where John Lion Gardiner founded the first of all the New York manors — that of Gardiner's Island — in 1639, is in the same township. East Hampton is notable for having been the resi dence for twelve years of Lyman Beecher. The Payne House is a homely home, Home of John Howard Payne. *&£?¦ but suggestive of the tender impulses and feelings that breathe from one of the best-known and best-loved lyrics in our language. The ancestors of Payne were men of eminence. His father was educated as a physician under the illus COLONIAL PERIOD. 55 trious Joseph Warren, who fell at the battle of Bunker Hill. But, owing to the condition of the country, he adopted the profession of a teacher, in which he attained distinction. Thus must we read men's lives backward if we would know the metal of which they are made. John Howard Payne was born in 1792, and was the eldest of nine precocious children ; one of his sisters, at the age of fourteen, after eight days' study of the Latin language, underwent an examination by the classical professors of Harvard College, and displayed re markable skill. The life of the poet was one of variety and travel, of effort and disappointment, and of productions of genius which made the fortunes of many people, although not of himself. But the memories of his " . . . . lowly thatched cottage," crystallizing into the sweetest of verse, have thrilled the world, expressing the memories of millions. The old house is one of the precious relics of the past, which is eloquent in its own behalf, and should be preserved as a sacred duty. The first peopling of Virginia was by the average Cavaliers of the day, under the direction of higher grades of mind, and there were soon present a large array of men of education, property, and condition. " Greenway Court " was the wilderness home of Lord Fairfax, the proprietor of about one fourth of the State of Virginia at an early day. He was an eccentric nobleman, descended from the old Scotch-English knight, Sir Thomas Fairfax, and disappointed to his heart's core in fortune and in love. Educated at Oxford, with brilliant prospects, he floated on the restless current of London life for a time, in inti mate association with Addison and Steele, and other notables of their day and generation. At last he became entangled in one of those affairs which shape the destinies of men. He fell in love with a beauty of the court, paid his ad dresses to her in due form, and was engaged to be married. He was in raptures. The day was fixed for the ceremony. He spent money lavishly for the occasion ; coaches, horses, jewels, costly presents of all descriptions were commanded. The blissful moment was near at hand. But, alas ! the young lady changed her mind. A ducal coronet was held up to her view by a rival, and she jilted Lord Fairfax, who retired to the new country of deer and wolves, a bitter cynic and 56 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. woman-hater to the day of his death. He buried himself in the vast wilder ness where fans never flirted nor ribbons fluttered. The lands which he possessed were an inheritance from his mother, the daughter of Lord Culpepper. They were comparatively unexplored, but com prised rivers, bays, mountains, rich lowlands, breezy uplands, forests, mines, towns, and wild beasts enough to have submerged all the fine estates of the Green-way Court. whole race of Fairfaxes in England. But his Virginia principality was not sufficient to make him happy. He simply existed. His days were spent in reading, hunting, and dreaming. Tall, swarthy, reserved, and with no adjuncts of place or power, he nevertheless preserved considerable state and dignity. As chief magistrate of the county, he rode to court in a chariot drawn by four horses, usually wrapped in a rich red velvet cloak. " Greenway Court " was one of the early haunts of Washington, Avhen a pale-faced youth of sixteen, COLONIAL PERIOD. 57 and for long after he was chosen to survey Lord Fairfax's vast possessions. The house stood a few miles from the Shenandoah, and not far from the base of the Blue Ridge, in the midst of beauties of landscape which the pen fails to reproduce. When the Revolution came, the boy surveyor was made command er-in-chief of the American army. "What Lord Fairfax thought," writes John Esten Cooke, " is not known ; but one last incident connects him with the ruddy boy. In 1781 the Earl was at Winchester, when a sudden commotion seized upon the people ; he inquired its meaning, and was informed that Lord Cornwallis had surrendered his army, at Yorktown, to General George Wash ington, who had thus terminated the war, and secured the liberties of North America. At this intelligence the aged Earl stood aghast. The curly pate whom he had taken by the hand, trained for the struggles of life, and molded for his work, had effected that work — the boy to whom he had paid ' a doubloon a day,' had ended by overturning the British dominion in the Western Conti nent. " Lord Fairfax is said to have uttered a groan, exclaiming to his old body- servant : " ' Take me to bed, Joe — it is time for me to die ! ' " In truth, the blow seems to have been heavier than the gray-haired Earl had the strength to bear. The fatal news reached him in October, 1781, and a few months afterward he was dead — passing away like a relic of the Old World just as the New World dawned." The region of the James River was the one first settled in Virginia, and is the most rich in antique homesteads. They possess little beauty of architecture, but have wide portals, grand staircases, lofty ceilings, and not infrequently elaborate carvings. The Virginia planters were fond of coaches and six, costly wines, silk stockings, hair-powder, coats-of-arms, and family importance. Their dwellings were roomy, and surrounded by fine trees and stretches of lawn, and to many of them were attached whole villages of smaller houses, formerly occu pied by hundreds of slaves. " Westover" is a fine example of this class of homes. It dates back to 1700. The gateways bear the coat-of-arms of the Byrds, one of the good old Virginia families of their day. Colonel William Byrd was the perfect type of a Vir- 58 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. ginia planter — stately, witty, distinguished, of great personal beauty, and reign ing like an English peer over at least one hundred thousand of the best acres in America. Both the cities of Richmond and Manchester are built upon land Westover, on the James River, Virginia. once belonging to this estate. The house is plain, with the exception of carved wainscoting, cornices, and mantel-pieces of exceptional elegance. The entrance- hall extends through the mansion, and the library and dining-room abound with evidences of wealth and taste. A broad staircase leads to upper apartments which are decorated in the same manner as those upon the lower floor. The stables are reached through a lofty gateway, the brick pillars of which are crowned each with a martlet— the crest of the family— and near a clump of trees is the graveyard, where the Byrds and their relations, the Harrisons, repose beneath old tombs covered with inscriptions and arms. One of these monuments bears the following tribute to Colonel Byrd, who was for thirty- COLONIAL PERIOD. 59 seven years receiver-general of the king's revenue in Virginia, and for some time president of the Governor's Council, and reputed one of the most brilliant personages of his generation : " The well-bred gentleman and polite companion, the splendid economist and prudent father of a family, the constant enemy of all exorbitant power, and hearty friend to the liberties of his country." His death occurred in 1744, at the age of seventy. His daughter, Evelyn Byrd, has given her name to countless lovely descendants in Virginia. Her portrait is that of a young lady of sweet seventeen, with curling hair, a com plexion all roses, a smile of exquisite innocence, and a neck as white and grace ful as a swan's. She is in a beautifully fitting blue-silk dress, which reveals to great advantage her slender, graceful figure. mmmii: j&* Mayeox, on the James River, Virginia. The seat of the Harrisons is but a step to the south of " Westover," and bears the ancient name of " Mayeox." The present mansion replaces the ori ginal dwelling of the pioneer, which was one of the oldest in Virginia. A little 60 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. farther on is " Shirley," the estate of the old and worthy Carter family ; and also " Berkeley," where President William Henry Harrison was bom. " Powhatan," the seat of the old and respectable family of the Mayos, was long supposed to have been the scene of Smith's rescue by Pocahontas. Minute Powhatan Seat, on the James River, Virginia. investigation has discovered the fact, however, that this famous incident took place (if at all) on the banks of the York, in Gloucester ; but it is clearly estab lished that the great Indian emperor Powhatan had a hunting-lodge, or summer residence, near or at this spot, and the locality thus possesses great historic attraction. Descending the river, the traveler finds himself arrested at every step by objects of antiquarian interest in the shape of old houses, whose ancient appear ance and rich internal decorations of a long-past fashion recall the past and the famous men who inhabited them. On the south bank, in Chesterfield, is COLONIAL PERIOD. 61 " Compthill," the residence of the once celebrated Archibald Cary, heir-appar ent, when he died, to the barony of Hunsdon, and called " Old Iron " ; who, when the project of making Patrick Henry dictator was agitated during the Revolution, said to Henry's brother-in-law, " Tell your brother, from me, that my dagger shall be in his heart before the sunset of that day ! " " Compthill " is still standing, and is an excellent specimen of the old Virginia mansion, with its graceful windows, heavy carving, and durable walls, and, if spared by fire, is apt to stand for centuries still. " Gunston Hall," on the banks of the Potomac, a few miles below Mount Vernon, represents a style of architecture in which all the main apartments are on one floor. It is a brick structure, with cut-stone ornaments over the win dows and the angles of the walls. The roof is immensely large and sharp- pointed, with four tall chimneys, which are visible from a considerable distance, and five dormer-windows. The porch is half octagonal in shape, and aged in the extreme ; its steps, worn with the feet of many generations, are almost hol lowed out. The broad hall, which has always been a lounging-place for the family and guests, is wainscoted and paneled in durable North Carolina pine. The baluster to its wide staircase is of solid mahogany, carved with graceful designs. The drawing-room is ornamented with curious carvings, the work, ac cording to tradition, of convicts sent from England. The doors are of mahog any, with carved panels, bordered by ornamental frames. The whole interior, indeed, is a mass of wainscoting, paneling, carvings in pine, mahogany, and other woods — dark, antique, durable, and suggestive of another age and another race than ours — the decorations being a combination of the Corinthian and the flower-and-scroll work of the old French architecture. And no better example can be found of the architectural tastes of the wealthier Virginians of the eighteenth century. When this house was in its prime, Pennsylvania Avenue, in Washington, was an alder-thicket ; there were no railways, no telegraphs, no gas, no morning newspapers ; men traveled in stage-coaches, or great, lumbering private chariots, drawn by four or six horses, over rough and uneven roads ; they burned wax or tallow candles, and sent to London for every suit of clothes, new book, or bottle of wine, they happened to want. In the mean time log- fires blazed in huge fireplaces, and long tables groaned under a profusion of 62 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. everything eatable and drinkable; attentive and well-trained servants stood ready to obey the least wish at a nod, and comfort and happiness was the rule. The chief interest which hovers about " Gunston Hall," in an historic point of view, is its having been the residence of George Mason, author of the famous " Bill of Rights," which was in some respects as remarkable a paper as the Gunston Hall, Virginia. Declaration of Independence. He was descended in the direct line from Colo nel George Mason, a member of Parliament in the reign of Charles I, who, when the civil war broke out, joined the king's standard, and afterward fought under Charles II. at Worcester. The result of that battle was the ruin of the royal cause, and Mason, imitating his sovereign, escaped from the field disguised COLONIAL PERIOD. 63 as a peasant. Virginia was then regarded as the haven of all distressed Cava liers, and hither he fled. Settling himself upon the Potomac and building " Gunston Hall," he cultivated the land, raised thorough-bred horses and fat cattle, kept open house, taking part in public affairs, and was a general favorite the country through. When the struggle with England began, the master of "Gunston Hall," the George Mason first mentioned, was selected by such men as Randolph, Jef ferson, Pendleton, and Patrick Henry, to draw up the Virginia Charter. He was a member of the House of Burgesses, a man in middle life, with a proud and composed bearing, a face browned with sun and wind, and dark, severely sad eyes. The expression of the lips and chin in his portrait indicates unmistak ably a resolute character. The costume is very rich. The hand, over which falls a fine lace cuff, is thrust into an opening in the waistcoat, embroidered heavily with "gold lace," and the whole effect is that of a handsome and attractive personage. He was intimate with Washington, who was a neigh bor, interchanging informal visits, and often hunting together. He was a man of strong convictions, shown by his separating from Washington and the others, when the United States Constitution was formed: He opposed it, and one day a neighbor stopped at "Gunston Hall," to inform him that there was so much indignation felt against him in Alexandria that they spoke of mobbing him if he made his appearance there. This aroused Mason's ire, and he mounted his horse, rode to Alexandria, and, pushing his way through the assembled crowd — for it was court-day — said to the sheriff, " Mr. Sheriff, will you make proclamation that George Mason will address the people?" Proclamation was at once made, and, standing on the steps of the court-house, he, with all the fire of youth, dissected and denounced the Constitution as the sum of every evil. He was not interrupted, and, having " said his say," mounted his horse and rode back to " Gunston." One brief anecdote illus trates the character of this stately old planter, who possessed humor as well as " biting criticism." It was related by the late Senator James M. Mason, a brave, generous, and high-toned gentleman, as well as an eminent statesman — himself a descendant of the first of the name of Gunston. George Mason was a candidate for the Legislature, and, in accordance with an old custom, " ran for the House " in Stafford County, where he was born, instead of Fairfax, 64 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. where he resided. This afforded occasion for Dick , a neighbor unfriendly to him, to say, " It is very well for Colonel Mason not to run in Fairfax, as the people well know that his mind is failing him from age." Mason heard of the speech. "Perhaps I am declining," he said, with a grim smile. "I am certainly growing old, and my mind may be failing from age. But Dick has in Ms case one consolation, at least. When Ms mind fails him, nobody will ever dis cover it ! " He died in 1792, after which "Gunston Hall "passed out of the Mason family, who had held it for six generations. It has within a few years been purchased by Colonel Edward Daniels, who has restored it to something of its former elegance. Mount Vernon, reposing peacefully upon the Virginia shore of the beau tiful river, is more tenderly familiar to the public eye than any other of the Colonial homes of America. The estate, consisting originally of twenty-five hundred acres, was one of the various pieces of property which the father of George Washington possessed at the time of his death, in 1743, and was bequeathed to his eldest son, Lawrence Washington, who was somewhat of a military genius, commanding a battalion of Americans under Admiral Vernon at Carthagena in 1740. Returning home, he married one of the lovely daugh ters of William Fairfax, an opulent English gentleman of noble lineage, who had been his military associate in the Spanish war, and who resided on the neighboring estate of " Belvoir," some eight miles from his own legacy, which, in honor of the popular naval hero, he called Mount Vernon. Upon a swell ing height, crowned with trees, and commanding a magnificent view of the Potomac for twenty or thirty miles up and down, and one of the most attrac tive landscapes in the world, he built the mansion of the sketch. Here George Washington came, a precocious boy from school, and here he made the acquaint ance of the eccentric nobleman, Lord Fairfax (the guest of William Fairfax), whose vast domain was yet unsurveyed, and Avho subsequently took up his abode at " Greenway Court." Here, too, the youthful George first fell in love, if we may credit tradition, and his own crude verse, which describes a " low land beauty." The son of the proprietor of " Belvoir," George William Fair- COLONIAL PERIOD. 65 Mount Vernon, Virginia. fax, married the daughter of Colonel Carey, of Hampton, and brought his bride and her sister home to his fa ther's house ; the latter was the ob ject of the sentimental attachment to which reference is made. This maiden has, by some writers, been identified with another, the lady whom Colonel Lee married ; but it is by no means impossible that the suscep tible youth was in love with both. In 1751 George Washington accompanied his brother Lawrence to Barba- does, whither the latter repaired for the recovery of his health. Shortly after his return to Virginia, in 1752, Lawrence Washington died, at the age of thirty- 66 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. four, leaving his large fortune to an infant daughter, who did not long survive him. By will this property was given to George in the event of the child's death. And here George Washington settled when his services in the French war were no longer required, and here he brought his bride, Mrs. Martha Cus- tis, in 1759. For fifteen years he dwelt in peace and plenty, with innumerable slaves cultivating his lordly and extensive plantation, and his home the seat of a high-bred and courtly hospitality. He built wings to the mansion, and greatly enlarged and embellished the estate. He planted trees with his own hands, many of which are now pointed out to visitors. His gardens, seed-houses, tool- houses, and cottages for negroes, were perfect in their way, and the winding walks through the grounds, trodden by illustrious personages from both sides of the Atlantic, may yet be traced. During the Revolution, Washington visited Mount Vernon but once, and then took it directly in his way to Yorktown, in company with the Count de Rochambeau. But at the close of the war, in 1783, he retired to its inviting precincts, where he remained until his election to the Presidency, in 1789. The house is of wood, cut in imitation of stone, ninety-six feet long, with a portico extending the entire length, and surmounted by a cupola. It fronts the northwest, the rear looking toward the river. The rooms are many, but not large, with the exception of the great dining-room, added by the illustrious proprietor. The mantel of this room was carved in Italy, and presented to Washington ; and upon the wall hangs the painting by Rembrandt Peale of " Washington before Yorktown." In the west parlor hangs an old painting representing the attack on Carthagena by Admiral Vernon. In 1791 Washington made a tour through the Southern States, his equi page consisting of a chariot and four horses, a light baggage-wagon and two horses, four saddle-horses, besides one led for the President himself, and five servants, a valet de cJiambre, two footmen, a coachman, and a postilion. He left Philadelphia just after the meeting of Congress in March, and was five days in reaching Annapolis. The city of Washington was not yet laid out, and it was partly to confer with the landholders of the site that this journey was undertaken. As soon as the special business was concluded, the President proceeded to Mount Vernon, where he remained a week ; then started afresh for Richmond, Raleigh, Charleston, Augusta, Columbia, Savannah, and other COLONIAL PERIOD. 67 points, and was everywhere the recipient of the most distinguished courtesies. He speaks, in his circumstantial journal, of breakfasting at the handsome coun try seat of Governor Pinckney on the 2d of May, and with Mrs. Rutledge, the wife of the Chief Justice of South Carolina, on the 3d ; he dined on the 18th at the residence of Governor Telfair, in Augusta. His unconscious pic ture of life at the South in that decade is pleasing. It was on his return that he tarried for two days with his niece, the wife of Colonel Lee, of Virginia. " Stratford House," the former home of the Lee family, is a box-like relic of the Colonial age. It is called "The Castle," and stands silently remote from the beaten track of travel in Westmoreland, about a mile below the birth place of Washington. It was the home of Richard Lee, who came to Virginia some time during the reign of Charles I. or of Cromwell. He was a man of mark, " of good stature, comely visage, enterprising genius, round head, vigorous spirit, and generous nature." He possessed a great number of houses and lands, trading-vessels, and a host of African and white " indented " servants to culti vate his extensive property. He was a great friend of Sir William Berkeley, the intensely " royal " Governor of Virginia, and a member of his Council. He took a fearless part in the struggle of that decade between monarchy and republicanism, and, after the death of Cromwell, hastened to Breda to urge Charles II. to come to Virginia and erect his standard. Charles refused, either moved by cautious good sense or from indolence ; and Richard Lee hastened back to Virginia, where he soon afterward, in conjunction with Sir William Berkeley, proclaimed Charles II. " King of England, Scotland, France, Ireland, and Virginia " — two years prior to the Restoration. At least such is the record of the early historians of Virginia. Charles, in recognition of the fact, gracious ly authorized the motto " En dot Virginia qumtam " — afterward changed to quartam, when England and Scotland became one — to be placed upon the Vir ginia shield. Thus the little colony of Virginia was ranked as one of the great constituent parts of the British Empire. The mansion was evidently built with an eye to the law of primogeniture ; it was a fit dwelling-place to pass from father to son, generation after genera tion. The representative of the race was to have it in his power to represent it nobly, and die feeling that his eldest son would wear his mantle in the same 68 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. manner. It was designed on a very broad scale, with accommodations for al most any number of guests. The main portion of the edifice is of English " sun-dried " brick, and somewhat in the form of the letter H — two wings, as it were, connected by a middle building. The reception-rooms are on the second floor, above a high basement, and a flight of stone steps leads up to them, the front door being in the center of the middle building. The main reception- Stratford House, Virginia. room — an apartment about thirty feet square and thirty feet in height — is decorated with elaborate wainscoting, carved in the style of the time of Louis XIV., and reaching about half way to the ceiling, which is arched. There are fluted columns, and at one time these were gilded, a fact which may be ascer tained by scratching off the paint with which they have been covered. A wide hall runs entirely through the house, terminating in porches : from one balcony a view was obtained formerly of the Maryland shore opposite, but this is now COLONIAL PERIOD. 69 obstructed by the growth of the trees. In the wings and the basement are sleeping-rooms, drawing-rooms, dining-rooms — said by a fanciful visitor to be one hundred in number. The real number is believed to be seventeen. In these apartments the woodwork is ornamented with carving, and still in excel lent preservation, after occupying its place for more than a century. No ad juncts of comforts and convenience are wanting. Many years ago a secret and entirely unknown room was discovered in the building — walled up on all sides, without windows or other opening, and accessible only by a ladder let down through a trap-door. What this apartment was designed for is not known. In English houses such hidden retreats were often constructed to serve as places of concealment — but there never was any necessity for such in Virginia. No papers or other valuables were discovered in this room — it was entirely empty — and "romance" has therefore nothing whatever to build upon; conjecture ranges freely at its own wild will. In addition to the large apartments in the basement of the building, there are pantries ; cellars beneath ; and, still deeper down, that important accessory of every Virginia house in the days of the old regime, the wine-cellar, over which presided an imposing butler. A striking feature of this singularly designed mansion is the stack, or quad rangle, of chimneys surmounting each wing, and flanking an observatory. You ascend to these observatories by flights of stairs leading up from the second floor — there is no third floor — and the view is such as to well reward the visitor for his trouble. On one side, pressing up nearly to the house, is the dense, im penetrable forest, completely shutting out the prospect ; but, on the other side, the eye ranges over the broad bosom of the Potomac — at this point a great and majestic river — and beyond is seen, in the distance, lost in a mellow haze, the long margin of the Maryland shore. On either hand are brick out-houses ; and at a little distance may be seen the old garden, and a large brick barn and stables, sufficient, so says tradition, to afford stalls for hundreds of horses. Thomas Lee, the grandson of the founder of this estate, was distinguished in many ways. He was a member of the Council of the Governor of Virginia, President of the Colony, and Anally Governor by royal appointment. He was what they termed in those days a very " worshipful gentleman." About the middle of the eighteenth century the original manor-house was burned, and Queen Caroline sent him some eighty thousand dollars with which to replace 70 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. his loss. Thus the " Stratford House " of the sketch was fashioned, and the enduring character of the architecture is a study. The brilliant galaxy of statesmen, the sons of Thomas Lee, who spent their boyhood in this old-time castle, are familiar to American readers. Richard Henry Lee was the great orator and statesman, whose eloquence, says Mr. Wirt, stole away men's judgments ; Francis Lightfoot Lee was a scholar of elegant attainments, and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Wil liam Lee, a third brother, was an alderman of London, an active Mend of the colonies in that city ; and Arthur Lee was a writer, politician, diplomat, and the ardent, never-tiring representative of the country in France. Another nota ble, Henry Lee, a grand-nephew of Thomas Lee, fought bravely in the Revolu tion, achieving special distinction through a coup de main, which won the com pliments of Washington and his officers. He then wrote the " Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department," a brilliant military work, was elected Gov ernor of Virginia, served in Congress, and passed away full of years and honors, after having, by a marriage with his cousin Matilda Lee, come into possession of " Stratford House," and spent the latter part of his life under its roof. His son Robert Edward Lee, the famous general-in-chief of the Confederate armies in the late war, first saw the light in one of these wainscoted apartments, and thus the spot has been connected with American history for upward of two im portant centuries. Another famous Lee from the English gentry, distantly related to the Vir ginia Lees, but whose birthplace was England, made himself famous in this country during the Revolution. It was General Charles Lee. His home was a hermitage near the little hamlet of Leetown, in Virginia, in the angle formed by the waters of the Opequon and Potomac. It was a stone structure, origi nally designed for a hunting-lodge. The interior had no partitions, being divided, by imaginary lines merely, into chamber, sitting-room, kitchen, etc. ; and here, surrounded by a great number of dogs, with his saddle thrown into one corner, and only one human companion, an Italian body-servant, Lee vegetated year after year. He was the most cynical, bitter, and blasphemous of men. Even his hounds were named after the Holy Trinity and the Twelve Apostles, and he left directions in his will that his body should not be buried " in any church COLONIAL PERIOD. 71 or churchyard, or within a mile of any Presbyterian or Anabaptist meeting house ; for, since he had resided in this country, he had kept so much bad com pany when living that he did not choose to continue it when dead." His principal friend was General Horatio Gates, who lived a few miles dis- House of General Charles Lee, Virginia. tant. They were both soldiers of fortune, both Englishmen, both exiles, and both embittered by disgrace. It was a singular and striking coincidence that two such men should have come hither to rust out lives once crammed with exciting incident and crowned with honors. Lee was the son of John Lee, of the British army, who married the daughter of Sir Henry Bunbury, Bart. His strange life would furnish material for an exciting romance. He had frequented nearly all the courts of Europe, and in every turn in his career met with rebuffs and mortification. His aspirations were unlimited. He spent some time in the court of Frederick the Great, and had long talks with that monarch ; he offered his sword to Stanislas Augustus, King of Poland, who made him his aide-de camp, and admitted him- to his table and his intimacy. Shortly we find him traveling toward Constantinople, nearly perishing from cold and hunger in the 72 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. mountains of Bulgaria ; and in Turkey he was wellnigh swallowed up by an earthquake. Thence he passed back like a meteor to England ; solicited em ployment without success ; lifted his vigorous pen in a violent broadside against the ministry ; hurried to Poland again, where he was made major-general, joined the Russian allies, and fought the Turks at Chotzim, retreating with the Cos sacks, who were terribly cut up by the Turkish cavalry. This terminated his military career on the Continent. Then he traveled restlessly, tormented by gout and rheumatism, and at last reached Virginia in 1773. He was a thin, lank, angular being, and, when he visited Mount Vernon, was attended by a troop of dogs that followed him into the fine drawing-rooms, and were expected to occupy seats by him at table. With the opening of the war he was appointed major-general, but his failure to obtain the chief command soured him. His subsequent career is well known. He retired in wrath and disgust to the little m\ f8$R$?ff Residence of General Gates, Virginia. stone house of the sketch. While on a visit once to General Gates, a quarrel ensued between him and Mrs. Gates ; she passionately demanded his opinion of the merits of the controversy and of herself. This unlucky question gave Lee the opportunity to display all his Junius-like spleen. " Madam," he said, with COLONIAL PERIOD. 73 mock-ceremony and a bitter sneer, " my opinion of you is, that you are — a tra gedy m private life, and a farce to all the world." With Washington his relations remained embittered, and he wrote and pub lished " Queries : Political and Military," in which he made a fierce attack on the great soldier. In after-years, it is said that Washington forgave or forgot these old enmities, and, when once in the Valley, sent word to General Lee that he would on a certain day come and dine with him. Lee's action was prompt. He mounted his horse and rode away. When Washington reached the house, he found tacked upon the front door, which was locked, a slip of paper con taining the words, " No meat cooked here to-day ! " The home of General Gates, after he was suspended by Congress from his rank of major-general, following the battle of Camden, is still standing. It is a plain but substantial stone edifice, with rooms of convenient size, heavily wain scoted after the prevailing fashion of the day, and bears the name of the " Trav eler's Rest." Gates was as unlike Lee in his personal appearance as his desti ny was different. He was a supple, smiling, insinuating courtier, ruddy of face and rotund of figure. His star once glittered in the zenith above even that of Washington ; but his later years were dragged out in comparative obscurity, with little society save that of his wife — who is not pictured as a very agree able companion — and that of his cross and aggravating neighbor, General Lee. On a pane of one of the front windows of the house are scratched with a dia mond the initials " H. G.," surmounted by a coat-of-arms ; and on another pane is inscribed in the same manner " General C ." Gates had a residence in New York, called " Rose Hill," the ancient seat of the Watts family, where he died. The type of a class of house which studded Virginia a century ago is " Sara toga," the old residence of General Daniel Morgan, the famous conqueror of Tarleton. It stands about two miles west of the little village of Milwood, not far from " Greenway Court." It is a plain, massive, unpretending house, and reflects with peculiar emphasis the life and character of its master. Morgan's origin is said to have been humble, and he had few if any advantages of educa tion ; but the native force and energy of his character carried him onward to the highest places of honor. Coming to the Valley when a youth, from beyond 10 74 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. the Potomac, he fought the Indians west of Winchester, defending Edwards's Fort, on Lost River, against them; and in 1756 took part in Braddock's fatal expedition as a common soldier. His souvenirs of this campaign were a bullet through the neck and four hundred and ninety-nine lashes, inflicted by a British officer whom he had insulted. The sentence was five hundred, but Morgan de clared, with ironic humor, that the drummer-boy stopped one lash short of the number ! He was a rough borderer in those days, fighting with fisticuffs often at Berryville — called " Battletown " familiarly, in consequence, it is said, of these encounters — but the Revolution came, when the stalwart soldier was about forty, and his military genius soon asserted its rightful claims. He raised " a company of the finest youths in Frederick," and, joining a regiment or battalion, also recruited in the Valley, marched to join the forces of Washington, then at Boston. These were the first troops which marched northward from the South ; and the striking and affecting incident, attending the arrival at the headquarters of Washington, has been frequently described. The commanding officer of the Virginians, on reaching Boston, drew up his men, and, at Washington's appear ance, made the military salute, and reported, " From the right bank of the Poto mac, general ! " The face of Washington flushed, his eyes filled, and, dismount ing, he passed along the line grasping eveiy hand in turn — a noble incident, and very imposing picture. Morgan rose steadily by force of genius — brave, faithful, and unshrinking. In Canada, when captured, he was offered a commission in the British army if he would go over to that side, to which he replied, " I hope that you will never again insult me in my distressed and unfortunate situation, by making me offers which plainly imply that you think me a rascal ! " When, after the surrender of Burgoyne, the star of Gates was in the ascendant, and the friends of that officer sounded Morgan with a view to inducing him to join the league against Washington, Morgan, flushed with indignation, sternly replied : " I have one favor to ask of you, which is, never to mention that detestable subject to me again, for under no other man but Washington as commander-in-chief will I ever serve ! " At the Cowpens Morgan overthrew Tarleton, and his nerve and soldiership were of the greatest service at the battle of Saratoga. He is said to have named his house " Saratoga " in grim historic protest against the injustice of General COLONIAL PERIOD. 75 Gates, who scarcely mentioned him in his bulletin of the battle. The traditions of how this tall, stalwart, bony, and plain-spoken man built his house are inter esting. Some Hessian prisoners captured at Saratoga were quartered at Win chester, and some of them were stone-masons by trade. Morgan employed them to bring stone on their backs from a quarry on the Opequon many miles dis tant, riding beside them, and spurring them on with the statement that if they ' Saratoga," Residence of General Morgan, Virginia. did not work, the country could not afford to feed them. He was a man of strong religious sentiments, and told the story to his friends of how, when the sight of Tarleton's imposing forces at the Cowpens filled him with dismay, he retired to the woods near at hand, and, kneeling in an old tree-top, prayed earnestly for himself, his men, and his country. Physical health and strength made him enjoy life keenly, and relax his hold upon it with regret. A tradition remains, that on his death-bed, or in his latter 76 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. days, he said to one of his friends : " To be only twenty again, I would be willing to be stripped naked, and hunted through the Blue Ridge with wild dogs ! " " Saratoga," with its great dining-room, lofty mantel-pieces, decorated with bead-work and paneling, its elaborate wainscoting, and ponderous walls, resem bling those of some feudal castle, carries you back to a period when all things seem to have been more solid, substantial, and enduring, than at present. It is situated on a gentle knoll, half surrounded by an amphitheatre of wooded hills. In front, across the rolling Valley, rise the blue battlements of the Ridge ; a hun dred yards away bubble up the bright waters of the beautiful fountain ; and the wide-spreading willows, drooping their tassels in the stream, sigh dreamily in unison with the winds. Maryland from the outset rose upon the shoulders of persons of high birth, moved to their destination by the beat thought at home. The sentiment that the life of a country gentleman, upon his patrimonial acres, was one of the hap. piest in the world, took rise with its manors and its chief cities during the very first years of its existence. Lord Baltimore appointed Charles Carroll Attorney- General of the province in 1688, who arrived with quite a retinue of dependents at Annapolis shortly after. He was an Irishman, of the Middle Temple, bar rister, and of ample means to render his life comfortable, even in the wilder ness. He secured extensive tracts of land, which were in due course of time erected into a manor, with power to hold court-leet and court-baron. The family became one of the most important in the province, and the estate one of the most interesting of all the old Maryland manors. The country-seat or manor-house is of low, rambling architecture, with sup porting wings, a style which was very generally adopted in Maryland. Its total length is three hundred feet. It is situated on an artificial knoll, which faEs away gently front and back. The land of all this section is hilly, rolling, and wooded — a beautiful country, about a mile from the old turnpike leading to Frederick City, and six miles above Ellicott's Mills, on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, in Howard County. Attached to the manor-house, as shown in the illustration, is a large private chapel, the Carrolls having always been strict Catholics. Inside the chapel, to COLONIAL PERIOD. 77 the right of the altar, is the tomb of Charles Cae- eoll of Carroll- ton, Senator of Ma ryland and of the United States, Ma ryland's acutest and most philosophic thinker before the Revolution, and her greatest statesman after — dying with in the memory of men who them selves are not yet old — the last sur vivor of the sign ers of the Declara tion of Independ ence. Above it is a marble entabla ture by Bartholo mew, with the pen and scroll of the Declaration, the thirteen stars of the States in free dom, and over all the cross, carved in alto-riUevo. The mansion itself is entered by a wide hall, with heavy panels front and back, and with English hunting-scenes and a few old pictures on the walls, and vistas of the stately, flower-strewed lawn, with its shaven turf of more than a 78 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. hundred years, and its picturesque gnarled and knotted old trees. To the right are the library and sitting-room, heavily paneled in oak, where Charles Carroll of Carrollton, when old and feeble, passed most of his time, and where, within easy reach, were Cicero's " De Senectute," which he loved ; Milner's " End of Controversy," to which he always attributed his firmest Christian conviction ; Swift and Homer and Virgil and Blackstone. On the wall are portraits of him self, his son, and grandson. All the furniture is plain, but substantial, solid, and lasting. From there he had only to cross the hall to the dining-room, also paneled in oak, with its high clock in a recess of the wall ; and portraits, from stately gentlemen in the full wigs of Addison's day to grandams who look as though they were ready, in stomacher and ruff, to step from their frames and pace a solemn minuet. The most touching of all the portraits is that of a young lady of the family, painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds, the figure slender, the neck graceful, long, and rounded, but thin, and the face beautiful, but inexpressibly sad. In the large billiard-room in the right wing there is a quaint portrait of the lord of the manor himself, bidding adieu to an eldest son about to sail for France ; and it is a fact worthy of mention that all the eldest sons of the Carrolls were educated abroad for two hundred years, and that each one of them bore the name of Charles. The picture was painted in 1790. In the distance is the ship, in the foreground the lad, turning half reluctant to his father, whose hands are upon his shoulder, and his sisters stand near by, weeping; half in shadow, the negro servants watch the scene with sorrowful countenances. The mansion is surrounded by three hundred acres of park, lawn, and grass lands ; a half mile away are the stables, and the slave quarters, which consti tute quite a village. In its palmy days the manor is said to have supported about a thousand slaves — although documents extant hardly swell the number above four hundred. The manor-lands have never been, until of late years, divided. About one figure all the old traditions of Doughoregan Manor cluster. Chaeles Caeeoll of Caeeollton was born in 1737, at Annapolis, and edu cated chiefly at St. Omer, though he studied at two other schools of emi nence on the Continent. Later he was a student of the Middle Temple, and contemporary with Joseph Reed, of Delaware, and other Americans then study- COLONIAL PERIOD. 79 ing there. He spent in all about twenty years abroad. Late in 1764 he returned to Maryland, his mind well stored with learning and acute observation. His reasoning powers were also well developed for one so young. He found the arena astir. The Stamp Act had been imposed. He kept up a close cor respondence with his friends in London, and, curiously enough, the first thing he did was to send them the pamphlets of his great future antagonist, whom he was destined to ignominiously overthrow — Daniel Dulany. His father had given him the manor of CarroUton, in Frederick County, and he was now Charles Carroll of CarroUton, a landed gentleman with large future possessions en tailed upon him. His signature henceforth was " of CarroUton." The story that he added the name of the estate to his signature to the Declaration, as a distinctive badge of identity for that special occasion, belongs to the apocrypha of history. In fact, in writing to his friend Jennings, still in London, he used the signature, adding immediately after, " by which appeUation, if you favor me with an answer, direct to me your letter." It was a family custom. He was among the earliest to foresee the contest of 1776, and one of the bravest to meet it with word and action. He followed the proceedings of Par- Uament with intense interest, and by his letters from London was kept well informed of the temper of the King and Commons. He came triumphant out of the contest with Dulany, carried on under the respective signatures of "First Citizen" and "Antilore," and received the thanks of his fellow-citizens of Maryland, ever after holding their confidence. It was due to his exertions that the Maryland delegates were instructed to vote for independence ; he was foremost to advise the burning of the sea-vessel Peggy Stewart in broad daylight in Annapolis Harbor ; and he from the first looked, as he said to his correspondent Mr. Graves of the British Parliament, to " the bayonet as the solution of the difficulties between the mother-country and her colonies, confident that, though the British troops might march from one end of the continent to the other, they would nevertheless be masters only of the spot on which they encamped." No one more willingly, on the 2d of August, 1776, affixed his signature to the Declaration of Independence ; and the remark then made, " There go a few miUions," was not unjustified by probabilities. Although Mr. CarroU's father was then living, the family estates were entailed under the old English law sub- 80 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. ject to forfeiture ; and Charles CarroU of CarroUton was, it is said, the wealthi est of the signers. From the signing of the Declaration to the year 1801 Mr. Carroll's life was a public one. In 1801, being an ardent Federalist, he retired to Doughoregan, and became a quiet though somewhat bitter spectator of the government of the Jefferson school, after having been a member of the first committees of observa tion, twice in the Convention of Maryland, twice appointed delegate to Con gress, once chosen Representative to the Congress of the United States, and four times elected a Senator of Maryland. He was of small stature, with high forehead, large aquiline nose, and gray eyes f uU of intelligence ; his skin was so remarkably clear and thin that the blood could be seen meandering through every vein and artery. In his old age his hair was white, thick, and flowing, and he wore it brushed back from his lofty brow. He was an early riser, dressed with scrupulous nicety, and was animated and charming in conversation. He was not rhetorical, but a man of facts and logic, and a somewhat unenthusiastic speaker, but he wrote with dig nity and ease. He rarely dined out, and his habits of life at home were regu lar, although his style of living was very handsome and generous. As many as twenty guests were often in the old manor-house at one time, and yet the domes tic affairs went as if by magic, weU-trained servants anticipating every want. The hospitality of Doughoregan Manor was noted not only at home but abroad. After Mr. CarroU's granddaughters, the Misses Catons, married — the one Lord Wellesley, Viceroy of Ireland, and the others respectively the Duke of Leeds and Baron Stafford — very few Englishmen of note visited this country without caUing on Mr. Carroll The British Ministers at Washington were frequent guests ; and Washington, Jackson, Taney, Decatur, Lafayette, and others, en tered his door as intimate friends. He spent his winters in Baltimore, his city home standing on Lombard Street, near Front. He survived his only son, who married Miss Chew, of PhUa- delphia, one of the beautiful daughters of Judge Benjamin Chew, and whose only son, Charles Carroll of Homerwood, inherited the manor. He divided the estate by wiU, and Doughoregan was bought by the second son, the Hon. John Lee Carroll, President, at a recent period, of the Maryland Senate, whose wife was a daughter of Royal Phelps, of New York. COLONIAL PERIOD. 81 " Belvedere " is another Maryland home of the Colonial period, which intro duces the reader to a hospitable, hearty, bluff, curt, soldierly gentleman, of modest, bearing and exceptional bravery — one of the most gaUant officers, indeed, of the Revolution. The stately dwelling of the Howards of Maryland had a wide, regular front, with projecting portico and supporting wings, separated by recesses from the main building. On either side were iron-barred windows. From the low and spacious haU the suite of rooms were reached the windows Belvedere, Maryland. of which appear in the illustration. The principal apartment was nearly square, twenty-five feet by about thirty, while those on the sides were a trifle smaUer. The windows opened to the floor, and on a colonnaded portico. The stairway, imported from England, was partly of iron and its woodwork solid mahogany. The whole aspect of the place was one of rest — old-fashioned comfort and rest. Colonel John Eager Howard was bom in 1752, and married a second daugh ter of Judge Chew, of Philadelphia, the sister of the wife of the only son of 11 82 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. Charles Carroll of CarroUton. These brilliant young women were reigning belles in Philadelphia during its occupation by the British ; at the close of the war their mother attended the baU given to Washington, and, on returning, described to her daughter Margaret, who had refused to accompany her, in glowing colors the only gentleman present in whom she had been interested — a wounded officer, Colonel Howard, of Maryland. The young lady was curious to see the young paragon, and went to the next ball herself, losing her heart by the means. The result was their betrothal, and marriage soon afterward. She was the Miss Chew for whom Andre rode in the " Tourney " of " the Mischianza " Fete, and wrote a full description of the same, which is preserved in the family. The house stood in what is now the most valuable portion of Baltimore, one hundred feet above tide, overlooking the city through its parlor-windows to the east and south, and beyond the placid Patapsco burdened with com merce. Its broad surrounding acres originally formed a beautiful park — the pride of the city — known as Howard's Park. Of the older citizens of Balti more, and even of the younger generation, there are few who do not remember at least something of the glories of the old forest, of which a smaU body-guard of noble old oaks are among the remains of its ancient beauty. Colonel How ard contributed munificently of his grounds for public purposes, the Washing ton Monument, and some of the fine public buildings of Baltimore, having been erected upon sites which he had given. The Howards are said to be of honorable and high Uneage. The fannly escutcheon is the same as that of the Norfolk Howards, and, since one of the sons of " Howard Earl of Arundel " is known to have come to America, there is but little doubt of the identity of the Howard who, in 1699, obtained from the Crown the grant of the large tract in Baltimore County called " The For est." His grandson, Colonel John Eager Howard, seems to have inherited the military spirit, independence, and resolution with which his ancestor took up arms against Monmouth a century before, and made himself so conspicuous by his gaUantry in the field that Greene said, " He deserves a statue of gold no less than Roman and Grecian heroes." At Cowpens, Howard turned the fortunes of the day by charging without orders upon the advancing British column with the cold steel ; it is said that he held in his hands the swords of seven officers, surrendered to him personaUy, and saved the life of the British general O'Hara, C OL ONIAL PERIOD. 8 3 who clung to his stirrup claiming quarter. After the war Howard was Govern or of Maryland, and subsequently one of her Senators. He declined the post of Secretary of War offered him by Washington. PersonaUy he was a man of medium size, long in the body, with a fine large head and prominent features ; he was full-brained, calm and grave in bearing, and curt and incisive in utter ance, with no eloquence, no pretension, and no disposition to court popularity. He talked but little, yet that little was always to the point, and he was on friendly terms with every one. Belvedere was in the direct route North and South, and worthies did not in the good olden times rush through the country by rail ; they tarried with hos pitable hosts, such as the Howards and Carrolls, sometimes for days, while on their journeys to and fro. Here came the Revolutionary Williams ; SmaUwood ; Gist and Smith, of the renowned " Old Maryland Line " ; Judge Samuel Chase, the life-long friend of Colonel Howard ; and Charles Carroll of CarroUton. From the South came Huger, Pinckney, Lowndes, and Rutledge; from the North, Adams, Winthrop, and Otis. Lafayette, in 1824, was entertained at Belvedere. And the quiet humor of Wirt ; the dogmatism of William Pinck ney tempered by the fine courtesies of social life ; the sturdy common sense of Taney, yet — to use the feUcitous phrase of a son of one of these, a true poet cut off in his prime — " o'er inform " the rooms through which they moved wel come and frequent guests. Nearly all civic ceremonies took place within the limits of Howard Park. One of the most imposing scenes in aU its history oc curred on July 20, 1826. Soon after sunrise the tolling of the beUs in the city of Baltimore announced the profound grief of the people at the nearly simulta neous deaths of Jefferson and Adams. The flags of the shipping and of aU public places, the closed doors of aU the business-houses, the dark shrouding of the chaste and beautiful Battle Monument, from the beaks of whose eagles hung in sweeping folds the black streamers of mourning, testified to the general sorrow at the national bereavement. A procession, partly military and partly civil, was formed early in the day, and a long line of carriages followed with the clergy of different denominations. Then, drawn by six noble black horses, with plumed heads and housings of black cloth, came the funeral-car, bearing two large, shrouded coffins. After the car, as chief mourners, came Charles Carroll of CarroUton, John Eager Howard, and General Samuel Smith ; 84 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. next the State authorities ; then old, gray-headed men, who could tell of '76 as of yesterday ; then the officers of the different courts and the municipal officers ; then society after society, and long lines of youths and chUdren, and seamen with their flags enveloped in crape ; and, last, a crowd of citizens and citizen soldiery, filling the streets from side to side. The head of the column entered Howard's Park by the gate of Belvedere, wound through the woods until, after passing the crown of the hill, it descended into a natural amphitheatre below. In the center of this, surrounded by seventy thousand people, who looked down upon it, was the platform for the ceremonies, and over all the broad shadows of the spreading oaks. It was the last public ceremony Colonel Howard took part in. He died in 1827, in the seventy-fifth year of his age, and the funeral procession (among the mourners was John Quincy Adams, President of the United States) which bore his remains to an honored grave was scarcely less imposing than the one in which, on that hot day one year before, he had played so conspicuous a part. The Stockton mansion, Princeton, New Jersey, is a good example of the early homes of that province prior to the birth of the nation. The owner and buUder, Richard Stockton, was one of the men who assisted at that birth, affix- ing his name to the immortal document, the Declaration of Independence. He was one of the most brilliant lawyers at the American bar, and a man who would never engage in a cause except upon the side of justice and honor. He had rendered himself excessively obnoxious to the British by his participation in the revolutionary proceedings of his time, and his home was visited and overrun whUe searching for him, and his portrait gashed in the throat. This barbaric injury, suggesting as it does a real act upon the flesh, lends a very curious interest to the placid and handsome face. It is said that Richard Stockton was at first doubtful of the policy of separating from England, but in the end cordially supported the movement. In 1776 he was appointed by the Continental Congress one of a committee to inspect the Northern army and report its condition ; after his return to New Jersey he was captured by the enemy, and confined in the common prison in New York. Congress interfered and procured his exchange, but the severity of the treatment to which he had been subjected caused his death in 1781. COLONIAL PERIOD. 85 W^wM Ills a HHIk-1 IHWKB k W ilWyjKNi ,7, > il ^^sHi if 'fa ' ' ^ " ^CTs^m- - c0 0 w g6 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. He was one of the notable seven who composed the first class that graduated from Princeton College on the memorable day when the Rev. Aaron Burr was elected its president. He studied law with Judge David Ogden, of Newark. In 1766 he visited England, where he was the recipient of distinguished cour tesies, and where he succeeded in performing valuable services for the province of New Jersey. Upon his return he was escorted with great ceremony to his residence by the people, by whom he was much beloved. He was shortly after ward made a member of the Governor's Council of New Jersey, and appointed Judge of the Supreme Court. His son Richard (the father of the Commodore), born in this house in 1764, was a distinguished lawyer and statesman. For more than a quarter of a century he was at the head of the bar of New Jersey, and was esteemed one of the most eloquent orators of his day. He was in Con gress for many years, and was several times talked of for the presidency. In 1825 he was a commissioner from New Jersey to negotiate the settlement of an important territorial controversy between that State and New York, and penned the proposed agreement appended to the report. There is an engraved portrait of Commodore Richard Field Stockton, who was born under this roof in 1796, hanging in a little frame upon the waU in the quaint parlor. He is in full dress, erect,- warlike, with his sword upon his left arm, and his huge gold epaulets swelling out a figure fine and commanding. His career was specially interesting. He entered the navy, in 1811, as a mid shipman, and became aide to Commodore Rodgers on board the frigate Presi dent, winning honorable notice for gallantry in several battles whUe yet a mere boy. At nineteen he was first lieutenant of the Spitfire in the Mediterranean, and distinguished himself by boarding with a boat's crew an Algerine war- vessel. His life was a succession of daring and successful exploits. He was one of the first men in America to advocate a steam-navy ; he had given much attention to gunnery and naval architecture, and finally originated a war-steamer, which was built under his immediate supervision in 1844, and, although pronounced impracticable by the naval constructors, it proved to be superior to any war-vessel at that time afloat, and furnished substantiaUy the model for numerous others, not only in this but in foreign countries. The next year he was sent to the Pacific, where, with a small force, and amid many romantic and thrUling adventures, he conquered California, and established the COLONIAL PERIOD. 87 Government of the United States within her boundaries. He was afterward a member of the Senate of the United States, where, among many other noble deeds, he procured the passage of a law for the abolition of flogging in the navy. The Ford mansion, at Morristown, New Jersey, is chiefly interesting from having been the headquarters of Washington during the winter of l779-'80, and through the spring of the latter year. It was then a comparatively new house, bunt (1774) in a most substantial manner of brick, covered with plank. It stands almost three fourths of a mile eastward of the center of the town, on the old Newark and Morristown turnpike. Colonel Jacob Ford, who built the house, was an efficient officer in the army of 1776. His son, Judge Gabriel Ford — who graduated from Princeton, made law a profession, and subsequently occupied the bench of the Supreme Court of New Jersey for upward of twenty years — was a boy of fifteen, and his mother was a widow, when the army in December, 1779, encamped in Morristown. The winter was one of great sever ity. The bay of New York was so firmly frozen from shore to shore that Brit ish troops and cannon were moved across, it on the ice to Staten Island. Snow was several feet deep. The Ford mansion was crowded, and Washington caused two additions to be made with logs, one for a kitchen on the east end, and the other for an office on the west ; but they were not finished until late in January. Late in December Mrs. Washington arrived, riding a spirited horse, and escorted by a guard of Virginia troops who were stationed at Trenton. For two days she had battled with the perils and discomforts of one of the most violent snow-storms she had ever known, and yet was in time to escape another, foUowing swiftly, which Dr. Thatcher in his Journal describes as so furious that " no man could endure its violence many minutes without danger of his life." The kitchen of the mansion was the warmest room, and around its roar ing wood-fire the shivering inmates gathered. Washington wrote, " Eighteen of my famUy and all of Mrs. Ford's are crowded together in her kitchen, scarce one of them able to speak for the colds they have caught." On one occasion, some of the leading ladies of society in Morristown and its vicinity agreed to visit the wife of the commander-in-chief. They obtained from her a notice of the time when it would be convenient for her to enter tain them. As they were to visit a great lady, rich and honored, they thought 88 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. it would be proper to appear in their best dresses. They accordingly attired themselves in silks and ruffles, and every appliance of art to make themselves appear elegant. And, so prepared, six of them were introduced to Mrs. Wash ington. She received them with great courtesy, and they would have felt perfect ease in her presence had they been plainly dressed and brought their knitting-work with them. They found her dressed in a very plain manner, Washington's Headquarters at Morristown, New Jersey. wearing a figured apron, and engaged in knitting. After the usual compli ments were over, she resumed her needles, while the fingers of her guests were perfectly idle. She entertained them with pleasant conversation, and once dur ing the afternoon remarked, as if half apologetically for her attention to her knitting, that, it was important for the women of America, of every class, in a time like that to be patterns of industry, and, while their husbands and sons and brothers were struggUng for liberty in the field, to assist by the needle, the COLONIAL PERIOD. gg spinning-wheel, and the loom, in acquiring a real independence of Great Brit ain, by doing without that which the Americans could not make themselves. The idle ladies felt the rebuke, though it was not given in the form of rebuke, and the example and the words of Mrs. Washington made a deep impression on their minds and led to better habits. < There we were,' said one of these ladies, ' without one stitch of work, and sitting in state, whUe General Wash ington's lady was knitting stockings for her husband.1 " Washington's life-guards were housed in about fifty log-huts in a meadow a few rods from the house. They were commanded by William Colfax, of Pomp- ton, the grandfather of ex-Vice-President Schuyler Colfax. Their alacrity in service was severely tested during the winter. The firing of a gun, at a remote point, would alarm the whole Kne of sentinels, and the life-guard would rush to the Ford mansion, barricade the doors, and throw up the windows. At each window five soldiers, with their muskets cocked and brought to a charge, were usually placed, and there they remained untU the troops from camp marched to headquarters, and the cause of the alarm was ascertained. " When the spring opened," writes Lossing, " good news from France — a royal promise of speedy and efficient aid from that kingdom, which Lafayette had pro cured — revived the hopes and spirits of all at headquarters and in the camp. It was supplemented in the middle of April by the arrival of the Chevalier de Luzerne, the French Minister, and Don Juan de MiraUes, the diplomatic agent of the Spanish Court, who had been in the country about a year. These gentle men remained at headquarters for some time, and during their sojourn no efforts were spared to make their visit agreeable. Baron Steuben, then Inspector-Gen eral of the Continental army, exhibited the disciphne and tactics of the troops by a grand review ; and a baU was given in honor of the guests at the Morris Hotel, which was attended by Washington and his wife, the officers and their wives who were then in camp, and the elite of Morristown society. 'I was permitted to accompany my mother,' said Judge Ford, ' and never had I seen anything half so attractive as that brilliant array of beauty, dresses, and move ments of the dance. Pompey, a slave belonging to my mother, was the chief fiddler, and he came home with his pockets full of money, and his stomach fuU of goodies.' "Public affairs were in such a critical situation in the spring of 1780, that 12 g0 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. Washington called to headquarters several distinguished officers and civilians for consultation. Lafayette had arrived from France, where he had been on his noted mission in search of military allies, and he and eminent officers, Ameri can and foreign, were guests at Washington's table. The unbounded confidence which Congress reposed in the commander-in-chief made him very circumspect in the assumption of responsibilities, and, as preparations were to be made to receive and dispose of the expected allies from France, he felt a strong desire for the immediate cooperation of the civil power. He asked for a smaU com mittee of Congress who should have the executive powers of that body dele gated to them, and in a communication on that subject he took occasion to say, ' There is no man that can be more useful as a member of that committee than General Schuyler.' The committee was appointed, and Schuyler, who was then a member of Congress, was placed at its head. For several weeks he was occu pied with duties divided between Congress HaU and headquarters at Morris town. At the latter place he hired a modest house, and there enjoyed the company of his wife and his daughter Elizabeth, a charming girl about twenty- two years of age. Colonel Alexander Hamilton, Washington's favorite staff- officer, had been smitten with the charms of this young lady whUe in Al bany some time before. The acquaintance was now renewed, and the gaUant young West-Indian became the accepted lover of Miss Schuyler. His evenings were usuaUy spent with her at her father's house, and not many months after ward they were married. " Liberty Hall," the country home of Governor WiUiam Livingston, stands about a mUe north of the railroad-station in Elizabeth, New Jersey, on the old Springfield turnpike — now called Morris Avenue. It is a weU-preserved monu ment of colonial architecture and domestic geography, a combination of high ceilings and smaU windows, of numerous and spacious apartments, narrow doors and wide staircases. It has been raised one story, enlarged in the rear, and modern glass has taken the place of smaU panes in many of the windows, to meet the views of later occupants ; but the great-grandf atherly fireplaces, with their antique brass andirons, still remain, only they are framed with marble mantels of a later generation ; and the flavor and sacredness of the Revolutionary period pervade its entire height and depth. The Httle piazza and enormous COLONIAL PERIOD. 91 hall of entrance are tangled bobbins, from which might be reeled many a fila ment of romance for the weaver's shuttle. And the thousand and one little cupboards and blind cubby-holes in the paneUng of the walls— artful con trivances of an age gone by— are alive with fascinating reminiscences. The house was buUt in 1773. WiUiam Livingston bought some one hun dred and twenty acres of land in this vicinity in 1760. During the next dozen years he brought the soU under a high state of cultivation, residing in New York City the whUe. His hobby was fruit-raising. He imported fruit-trees, chiefly from England, until he had sixty-five different kinds of pears; and plums, cherries, peaches, and apples, in stUl greater variety. He took so much pride in his Newtown pippins that in 1767 he shipped several barrels to a friend in Lon don. He did not succeed well with grapes, but his vegetables were the envy of all agriculturists. He removed his family to "Liberty Hall " late in Novem ber of the same year of its erection. " We are going into cloister seclusion," said Susan Livingston, as she bade adieu to her city friends. The winter of 1774 was a long and very cold one for the climate ; but there were cheery warmth, sweet song, and merry laughter, within the walls of the new homestead ; and, notwithstanding the gloomy predictions of the four young ladies, that they should be " buried from society in that sequestered part of the globe," the toil some and muddy way from New York was kept well trodden by brilliant and ever- welcome guests. WiUiam Livingston was the younger brother of Philip Livingston, who signed the Declaration of Independence, and also of Peter Van Brugh Livings ton, Treasurer of the New York Revolutionary Congress. He was a graduate of Yale CoUege, and a student of law in the office of the celebrated James Alexander. He was an apt scholar, took marvelous strides in legal knowledge, and plunged headlong into political and religious controversies even before he was admitted to the bar. And every year added to his life rendered him more independent in spirit and fearless in the expression of his opinions. He was in almost every instance arrayed on the side which had least to boast of power or present popularity. " Liberty HaU " was the first refuge of Alexander HamUton when he arrived, an unfriended stripling, from the West Indies, introduced to William Livings ton by the celebrated Hugh Knox. The second incident that renders the man- 92 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. sion interesting was the marriage of John Jay to Sarah Livingston, AprU 28, 1774, whose proud and useful career is familiar to the world. In the midst of the turbulence and the ferment of 1776, WiUiam Livingston was called from his seat in the Continental Congress at PhUadelphia to assume the Executive government of the State under its new Constitution. From that time his duties were as multifarious as they were difficult and perplexmg. New Jersey was a frontier, and exposed to aU the miseries of a frontier warfare. Petitions to pass over the lines were perpetual, involving ceaseless, troublesome, and invidious examinations into character and credentials. The people were robbed and distressed, and constant alarms of invasion kept the Governor over whelmed with prayers for guards and pecuniary assistance, whUe at the same time appeals from the prisoners in New York for deHverance, and caUs for fighting men and supphes, gave him no rest in body or spirit. The refugees were more to be dreaded and feared than the British soldiery, and their inroads resembled very nearly the border feuds and forays in Scot land. They made many attempts to burn " Liberty Hall," and threatened the Governor's life with ugly determination. He was kept constantly on the wing, and subjected to the greatest possible inconvenience and danger. The Council of Safety, over which he presided, met sometimes at Trenton, sometimes at Mor ristown, and anywhere in the mountains and woods, as policy or prudence dic tated. He had a house at Parcipany, where his family staid for a time, and, whUe visiting them, his movements were reported, and a party of refugees swooped down upon the place in the night. He had gentlemen guests, and, wishing to be sure of their prey, they concluded to lie in the grass untU day light. When roused by the morning sun, the " Knight of the most Honorable Order of Starvation," as the Governor was caUed, had risen, and, whoUy uncon scious of the assassination plot, was gaUoping over the road, miles away, to meet some important appointment. With a view solely to the protection of the place by her presence, Mrs. Liv ingston returned with her daughters from Parcipany to " Liberty Hall." And it was not long before their courage and self-possession were put to the sharpest test. A party of British troops crossed the bay at midnight with the avowed purpose of " clipping the feathers " of the " despot-in-chief of the rising State of New Jersey." A farmer's son, on a fleet horse without saddle or bridle, COLONIAL PERIOD. 93 brought the news of their approach to the Governor, who had just barely time to make his escape. His recent correspondence with Congress, the State officers, and General Washington, with other valuable documents, which would have been deadly ammunition in the hands of the enemy, he confided, in the moment of his hasty departure, to his daughter Susan. She crowded them into the box of a sulky, and had them taken to an upper room. It was a snowy morning in February, and the roads were hard to travel. ¦i$m* W" *M wmmm " Liberty Hall," Elizabeth, New Jersey. Consequently, the day had dawned before the British soldiers came in sight. Susan Livingston stepped upon the roof of the piazza, and stood with a bright- colored shawl thrown about her, watching for the red-coats. A horseman in front of the detachment rode hastily up and begged her to retire, lest some of the soldiers from a distance should mistake her for a man, and fire at her. She attempted to climb in at the window, and found it impossible, although it had been easy enough to get out. The officer, seeing her dilemma, sprang from his horse, ran into the house, and to the roof, and very gallantly lifted her through 94 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. the casement. She was a handsome young woman of magnetic presence, and, turning to thank her preserver, she inquired to whom she was indebted for the courtesy. " Lord Cathcart," was the reply. " And wiU you," she asked, with a sudden chUdishness of manner, " protect a little box which contains my own personal property ? " then added, quickly, " if you wish, I wiU unlock the library, and let you have aU my father's papers." Her ruse was a success. A guard was placed' over the box while the house was ransacked. There are cuts now upon the balusters of the staircase left by the angry Hessians as they found themselves checked in the work which they came to perform. They stuffed a large quantity of old law papers, of no pos sible use to any one, into their sacks, to which they had been directed with apparent reluctance by the young lady, and tramped back to New York. Some of the leaders of this expedition were heard afterward to remark that it did not seem possible that two such charming and amiable ladies (referring to Susan and Kitty Livingston) could be the daughters of the "arch-fiend" of whom they were in pursuit. Meanwhile the son and brother, Brockholst Livingston, who was graduated from Princeton College in 1777, and made a captain in the army, and one of the aides of General Schuyler, before he was twenty, had attained the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and, under a furlough from Congress, had sailed with Mr. and Mrs. Jay for Spain. It was he who, after the war, became so prominent a law yer in New York, and was finally made a Judge of the Supreme Court. In June, 1780, when the British made their memorable incursion into New Jersey, " Liberty HaU " met with another narrow escape. The Governor was at Morristown, and the men-servants all took refuge in the woods. The flames of Springfield, and of Connecticut Farms, were in full view, and soldiers were continually passing the house all that dreadful day. In the morning three or four officers had called, and had a short interview with Mrs. Livingston and her daughters. They went away so full of admiration at the coolness and intre pidity of the ladies, as to swear they should not be harmed. The Rivington " Gazette," the organ of British interest during the Revolution, said Susan Liv ingston gave one of the officers a rose, as a memento of protection. At all events, the house was spared, and the inmates treated with courtesy. COLONIAL PERIOD. 95 Late in the evening some British officers called and announced their intention of lodging at " Liberty Hall." It was regarded as an assurance of safety to the family, and the ladies retired. About midnight there was a great hubbub, the officers being called hastily away by some startling news. There was firing all along the road. Presently a band of drunken refugees came staggering through the grounds, and, with horrid oaths, broke into the hall. The women-servants huddled into the kitchen, and the ladies locked themselves into one of the chambers. Their retreat was soon discovered, and, finding the door was about to be burst in, Kitty Livingston stepped forward and resolutely opened it. A drunken ruffian grasped her by the arm, and she, with the quickness of thought, seized him by the coat-coUar. Just then a flash of lightning illuminated the scene, revealing the lady's white robes, as weU as white, scared face, and the wretch fell back with an oath, " Good God ! it is Mrs. CaldweU, whom we killed to-day ! " MeanwhUe the same merciful light showed to Susan Livings ton the face of one of their former neighbors among the assailants, and, taking advantage of her discovery, she secured his intervention, and the house was cleared. Governor Livingston wrote a letter shortly after this to his brother Robert, of Livingston Manor, in which, speaking of the contemplated visit of one of his daughters, he said : " I fear Susan wUl be troublesome in a house so full of com pany as yours ; but my poor girls are so terrified at the frequent incursions of the refugees, that it is a kind of cruelty to insist upon their staying at home, particularly as their mother chooses her soUtary life rather than expose them to such continual and disagreeable apprehensions. But she herself will keep the ground to save the place from ruin ; and I must quit it to save my body from the provost in New York. But, by the blessing of God, we shall soon drive the devUs to Old England." Kitty Livingston was several times during the war for weeks in camp with Lady Stirling, who was Governor Livingston's sister. She was not, strictly speak ing, a beauty ; she was darker than Mrs. Jay, and slighter and more deUcate than her sister Susan. But her vivacity and general information rendered her very attractive. She was a piquant and pleasing letter-writer, and kept Mrs. Jay informed of the condition of public affairs in America. Tidbits of gossip are sprinkled through her correspondence : on one occasion she describes the 96 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. wedding of her cousin, Lady Kitty Alexander, daughter of Lord Stirling, who was married to Colonel William Duer, at Baskingridge, New Jersey, 1779 ; and, at another time, she tells how lively it is in Morristown, and how their young friend Alexander Hamilton is engaged to Betsy Schuyler. She was often in trusted by her father with the forwarding of important documents to his Euro pean correspondents; and she always rallied him upon his ignorance of her character when he hesitated about imparting to her any unpleasant news. She was married at "Liberty Hall," soon after the close of the war, to Matthew Ridley, of Baltimore. The end finally came, after a struggle of eight years. England's colors came down, and her loyal sons put their powder-horns into their packing-boxes. It was a costly victory which had been won, and many a tear feU amid the general rejoicings. From all quarters came together the limbs and fragments of dismembered families. But charred and silent ruins greeted very many of them in place of the happy homes they had left. Governor Livingston returned to the peaceful possession of " Liberty Hall," one of the most pro foundly grateful of men. The afternoon sun again streamed through his library, which was the great west room of the mansion, and he entered with peculiar zest into aU the pleasures and affairs of his family. Society was reconstructed upon pretty nearly the old basis, and dinners, and fetes, and charming reunions, taxed his high-bred hospitality, and made him young again. There were love- romances on the piazza and stately weddings in his parlors, and he grew merry and slightly corpulent amid it aU. But his mind was Ul at ease about the new nation, which stood like a young child trying to take its first lesson in walking. Individual pecuniary ruin, a national debt, an impoverished country, a gov ernment which had not power to enforce the payment of taxes, or settle con flicting claims, and no harmony of action among the sovereign States, which had simply leagued together to resist a common enemy, made rather a dubious out look. After much visionary scheming came a convention, which framed a con stitution. Prominent among the fifty-five learned and dignified men who assem bled in Independence HaU was Governor Livingston, representing New Jersey. He had aged materially since we met him in the same place eleven years before, and intense republicanism had cropped out even in his toilet. He was now dressed in a plain suit of black. " Remember, gentlemen," said he, " our busi- COLONIAL PERIOD. 97 ness is to define for centuries, perhaps for ever, the just limits of individual liberty and public sovereignty." Washington was on familiar terms with Governor Livingston, and was often entertained at " Liberty Hall." Mrs. Washington, while journeying in her pri vate carriage from Mount Vernon to join her husband in May, 1789, was enter tained at " Liberty Hall." This last was a marked occasion. The mansion was -decorated with flowers, and Governor Livingston's chUdren — a gifted gathering of men and women — were present to help do the honors. The guest-chamber occupied by Mrs. Washington was over the Hbrary. The one set apart for the use of Mrs. Robert Morris was over the haU in the center of the front of the mansion. The following morning President Washington and suite met Mrs. Washington and her retinue of attendants, and escorted her to New York. " Liberty Hall " was shortly in mourning. Mrs. Livingston died in July, and a few months later Governor Livingston completed his useful and eventful life. Few pubHc men have inspired warmer personal friendship, or been con signed to the tomb with more touching tenderness and genuine respect. " Liberty Hall " soon passed into the hands of strangers. It had a romantic episode. It was purchased by Lord Bolingbroke, who ran away from England with the schoolgirl daughter of Baron Hompasch, leaving an estimable wife to break her heart. Other changes came swiftly. The Governor's brother, Peter Van Brugh Livingston, had a daughter Susan, who married Congressman John Kean. She was left a widow, during which period she purchased " Liberty Hall," and took up her residence there. She afterward married Count Niemcewicz, a Polish nobleman and poet. The beautiful country-seat became once more the center of attraction for statesmen, scholars, and celebrities. It has ever since been in the possession of the Kean family. The mantle of proprietorship rests at present upon the shoulders of Colonel John Kean, the grandson of the Countess Niemcewicz, great-grand-nephew of Governor Livingston, and brother-in-law of Hon. HamUton Fish. 13 II. LATER PERIOD. ^ac Residence of the late General Worth. DURING the last three decades of the eighteenth century, and one or two in the beginning of the nineteenth, domestic architecture in America was in a sort of transition state. Existing styles were more frequently copied than LATER PERIOD. 99 new forms and features introduced. Solidity of foundation, enormous chimneys, gambrel-roofs, wide entrance-halls, spacious apartments, and a bald exterior, dis appeared only by slow degrees before the march of modern invention with its Gothic points and verandas, its patent heating apparatuses, and bay-windows. At the same time a subtile preparation was in progress for the more pretentious villa of recent years. Many of the structures of this period are now the homes of gentlemen of taste and refinement. Some of them are rich with the indications of antiquity, while others have undergone repairs and alterations, appearing in new roofs, windows, and wings, until, Hke Sydney Smith's ancient green chariot with its new wheels, axles, and springs, there is Kttle to show just where the old ends and the new begins. They present a unique combination of characteristics which are neither colonial nor modern, and yet partaking of the elements of both. An effort for strictly scientific architecture may be traced in a class of stately dweUings that were erected about this time at various points along the shore of the Hudson and in Virginia, as at Arlington, opposite the city of Washington. An example is the mansion which was the temporary home of the late famous General William Jenkins Worth, on the road to Troy above Albany. In following Greek prototypes almost as much space was devoted to porticoes and colonnades as to rooms. The fashion soon declined, for it was better adapted to public than private buildings. Faultless pediments, Doric and Ionic columns, and the window tracery of temples, were by no means the expression of domestic feeling ; it was impracticable to make cheerful homes of reduced copies of the Parthenon. The illustration introduces us to a large, square, roomy edifice overlooking the Hudson, the broad portico of which with its Ionic columns extends across the entire front. The view from this point is one of the finest on the river, and the grounds are delightfully shaded with handsome old trees, the forest-growth of centuries. General Worth was born in Hudson, New York, in 1794, and died in San Antonio, Texas, in 1849. His distinction, so pleasantly associated with this old-time mansion, was honestly earned. He was in the mUitary service of the United States for a period cov ering some thirty-six years, including the War of 1812-15, that with the Flor ida Indians of 1840-42, and a conspicuous figure in the Mexican straggle of 1846-48. He was a man of imposing martial presence and agreeable manners, 100 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. as brave and chivalrous as an accomplished tactician. The house which he owned and occupied for a few years when not in active warfare is hardly less a monument to his memory than that which has been erected by the city of New York in his honor on the little triangle at the junction of Fifth Avenue and Broadway, fronting Madison Square, and beneath which his remains are interred. Montgomery Place, standing upon an elevation overlooking the Hudson from the east and almost directly opposite the CatskiUs, has less of architectural individuality than many of the homes of America, but it is a mansion which has recently passed its one hundredth birth-year, and in point of romantic inter est, historical associations, and local charms, is almost unsurpassed in this coun try. It was built by the wife of General Richard Montgomery, who feU in the unfortunate expedition of the Americans against Quebec in December, 1775. She was of the notable family of Livingston, the sister of Chancellor and Ed ward Livingston, two of New York's prominent jurists and statesmen. And what gives the place additional attraction is the fact of its having been the home of Edward Livingston himself after the death of Mrs. Montgomery. He had been sixteen years in Congress, Secretary of State to the nation, Minister to France, and a lawgiver known and revered in all civilized countries, when he retired from public life, and resigned himself to the enjoyment of domestic happiness under this roof. Mrs. Montgomery had bought the property — several hundred acres of land — from an old Dutch farmer just prior to her husband's departure for Canada. It had originally formed a part of the Schuyler patent. It was a few mUes south of the Livingston Manor. The mansion was projected in the autumn of 1775, and completed in the spring, a few months after the death of General Montgomery. He never saw it ; but in one of his last letters to his wife he re marked : " I long to see you in your new house, and wish you could get a stove fixed in the hall ; they are the most comfortable things imaginable." Hon. Wil liam Jones, the nephew of Montgomery, superintended the erection of the edi fice, giving as a plan that of his father's (Lord Ranelagh) house in Ireland. The views from all sides of the mansion are beautiful. The river below is very wide, and so full of little islands that it reminds travelers of the English LATER PERIOD. 101 lakes. To the north a stretch of picturesque scenery for forty miles completes as fine a picture as the most exacting artist could desire. And yet the home- landscape of rich woods and lawns, with the receding mountains beyond, the half -hidden vaUeys threaded with dark, intricate, and mazy walks, the bold and noisy waterfaUs dashing down romantic steeps, and a pretty lake gleaming from an avalanche of shadows, is so restful that you almost consign yourself to the five or more miles from the landing of private roads and rambles, with their cozy nooks and rustic seats, without any care for the beautiful beyond. The main part of the house is about sixty feet in length by fifty feet wide. The wings were added by Mrs. Edward Livingston in the early part of the present century. At a stiU later date an elegant Corinthian portico was added by Mrs. Barton, the daughter of Edward Livingston. All the additions have been made with such singular taste that the harmony of the original structure is preserved intact. A broad veranda with an Itahan balustrade extends around two thirds of the house. The northern wing, or pavilion, is a delightful summer parlor, and constantly used as such ; it is furnished with china, chairs, and vases, and marble table. The entrance-haU is peculiar. It is a sort of antechamber. The frames of the doors are of the most unique description, with old-fashioned inverted col umns, such as belong to the architecture of the seventeenth century. The library is just as it was furnished by Mrs. Montgomery one hundred years ago in old Beauvais tapestry. The most prominent object of interest within this apartment is a bust of Edward Livingston, by Ball Hughes. Numerous fanuly portraits cover the waUs. The drawing-room is next to the library. The decorations were, by order of Mrs. Edward Livingston, in imitation of one of Mrs. Madison's rooms at the White House, which was greatly admired at that period. The only portrait in this apartment is that of Mrs. Edward Livingston herself. It represents her in the heyday of her youth and beauty, at the age of about seventeen. The dress is that of the Empire, and resembles the pictures of the court beauties at Ver- saUles. The countenance is remarkable for the mind which shines through the perfect outUne and symmetry of feature. To those who are familiar with the principal events of Mrs. Livingston's life this portrait possesses a rare fascination, and seems pervaded with that mag- 102 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. netic influence which has rendered her personal beauty, remarkable culture, and many gifts and graces, historical in the annals of the higher social life of Amer- 0 01c0 2 ica. She was born on the island of St. Domingo, in 1772. Her father, Jean Pierre Valentin Joseph d' Avezac de Castera, was a scion of the French nobUity, LATER PERIOD. 103 and one of the wealthiest and most important and influential men on the isl and. Louise (Mrs. Livingston) was precocious as a chUd, and educated with her brothers. She studied the classics both ancient and modern while a mere infant, as it were, and retained them in her memory through life. Her brother Auguste was near her own age and her student-companion. Louise was mar ried at the age of thirteen to M. Moreau de Lasse, a French gentleman of for tune, who took her to reside in Jamaica. At eighteen she was a widow in the home of her parents. Then came the Revolution, with all its tragic scenes. Her father was kiUed ; her mother, almost broken-hearted, resolved to remain and protect the plantation; and Louise, with a Uttle sister six years old, an aged grandmother, and an aunt with two young lady daughters, attended by a few faithful slaves, crept through a dense forest in a circuitous way, concealed themselves a day and a night in the underbrush, and finally reached a boat which had been engaged to take them to an English frigate, that had agreed to furnish them the means of escape. The boat, with its precious freight, was but a few rods from the shore when it was detected by a band of negro despera does, who fired, killing instantly the aged grandmother and one of the slaves. The remainder of the party reached the frigate, and after a long and perilous voyage, and confusion and distress and the most thrilling incidents at sea, were finaUy landed in New Orleans. They were penniless, but sold their jewels, rented a smaU cottage, and took in sewing for a Uvelihood. New Orleans at that period was a somewhat primitive town. It had, nev ertheless, a cultivated social circle, meeting informally every week. The D'Ave- zac name was well known, and the young widow and her cousins were cordiaUy received into the clique, and quickly became stars of the first magnitude. Ma dame Moreau was frank, easy, and winning, was fond of music, painting, and sculpture, and possessed a poetic fancy, which gave coloring to her thoughts and opinions. She was the recipient of homage from the most gifted and learned, and was admired and courted by all. It was here that she made the acquaintance of Edward Livingston. They were married on the 3d of June, 1805. Their home in New Orleans was the central point of attraction for the learned and the gay, and the resort of every foreigner of distinction who visited this country. Their breakfast-table, spread upon the broad veranda, and shaded by orange- and fig-trees, was often enlivened by literary readings. Their do- 104 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. mestic circle was a charming one, and none were admitted within its confines, and Ustened to the clear and silvery voice of its fair young mistress as she talked law and literature, but carried away memories destined to live for ever. In the course of years the wheel of destiny removed Mrs. Livingston to Wash ington. Her husband occupied a seat in the Senate of the United States for ten years, and was then appointed Secretary of State. During this latter pe riod she assisted the ladies of President Jackson's family in presiding at the White House. She accompanied her husband to Paris when he went to fill his appointment as Minister to France. She was received in the most cordial and flattering manner by the royal family. The Queen and Madame Adelaide be came excessively fond of her, and invited her often to visit them unceremo niously. She was esteemed the most gifted as weU as beautiful woman at the French court. After the return of Mr. and Mrs. Livingston to America, they took up their abode at Montgomery Place, which had descended to him from his sister, Mrs. Montgomery, where he died. Mrs. Livingston continued to reside at Montgomery Place to the end of her romantic life, more than a quarter of a century after her husband's death. Up stairs is the little law library from which Edward Livingston wrote the great penal code which rendered his name illustrious all over the civilized world. The desk of the great lawgiver is sacredly preserved, besides the books which bear the marks of use as well as antiquity. His fishing-rod and fishing- tackle hang in the very places where he last left them ; and his hat rests upon its accustomed hook. The drawing-room opens into the dining-room with old-fashioned portes a deux battants. In the dining-room you find a large collection of family por traits. Chief among them are those of Chancellor Livingston, Edward Living ston, and General Montgomery. The latter is the only original portrait of the hero of Quebec which we have in this country. It represents him when a young man of about twenty-five, a captain in the British army. The countenance is frank, gallant, and handsome, and indicates a generous and amiable temper. After Mrs. Edward Livingston, Montgomery Place was owned and occupied by her daughter, Mrs. Cora Livingston Barton. It is now in the possession of the collateral descendants of Mrs. Edward Livingston, Mr. Carlton Hunt and his sisters. LATER PERIOD. 105 " Bedford House," the seat of the Jays, in Westchester County, some forty- five mUes north of the city of New York, was buUt soon after the Revolution. It stands upon an eminence overlooking a wide extent of rolling country, about midway between the Hudson River and Long Island Sound. It is one of the most commanding in situation, as weU as picturesque in surroundings, interest ing in association, and unpretentious in its arrangements, of the " Homes of America." The prospect from the mansion embraces valleys of rare beauty stretching off in the distance, to where a circle of hills seems to girt the region — a landscape varied with sunny slopes, graceful undulations, and bits of river peeping through rich foliage, and dotted with farms and villages. The Hud son, fifteen miles away, is just hidden by the line of hills upon its eastern shore, conspicuous above which tower the Highlands opposite, with Dunderberg rest ing against the western sky. The whole scene is one great nest of cloud-shad ows in the summer days. And nowhere are sunsets more gorgeous. Crimson blazes along the western hills, graduaUy changing into orange and purple, and finally merging into a deep, glowing brown, while the heavens pale and darken, and the softness of shade creeps over all above and below. The Jay property extends over eight hundred acres, and, although railways have long since cut their capricious way through the country to the east and to the west of it, no car-whistle has ever penetrated its rural quietude. The man sion is four mUes from the station, and a half-mile or more from the main road ; it is reached by a private avenue, which winds artistically up a smooth eleva tion, curving and bending about venerable oaks, maples, birches, and umbrella- elms, passing well-cultivated gardens, and finally cuts a circle in a wide velvet lawn, and terminates under the shadow of four superb lindens in front of the dwelling. A hall sixteen feet wide extends through the entire buUding, the rear door opening upon a background of hill crowned with oaks, chestnut-trees, and gi gantic wUlows. The walls of the entrance-hall are hung with rare old paint ings, among which are the portraits of De Witt Clinton, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, John Adams, James Monroe, WilUam Jay, son of the Chief Justice, the Hon. John Jay, and the present owner of the estate. Here is, also, a remarkable unfinished painting, by Benjamin West, of the signing of the definitive treaty between this country and England, containing portraits 14 106 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. of Chief Justice Jay, Franklin, Adams, Laurens, and Temple FrankUn. The artist was evidently obliged to pause in his work through inability to obtain the portrait of David Hartley, the English commissioner. Two large parlors at the left extend through the house, and are connected by old-time glass doors. There is a quiet elegance about the antique appointments in keeping with the structure itself, which charms, while the variety bewUders. A broad divan, with heavy Oriental coverings and pillows, curious cabinets and tables, ancient mirrors, rare porcelain, exquisite vases, and fireplaces, with the brass andirons and quaint bellows of eighty years ago, divide attention with masterpieces of art upon the walls, and the faces of men who helped to fashion our national structure. The portrait of Chief Justice Jay in his robes of office, by Stuart, is one of the best paintings ever executed by that artist. It repre sents Jay in the vigor of his manhood, about the time when he, through excep tional foresight, diplomatic ability, and firmness, obtained the three most impor tant and valuable concessions ever gained by the United States from foreign countries — the navigation of the Mississippi, the participation in the British fisheries, and the trade with the West Indies. The portrait of the beautiful wife of the Chief Justice, who was the daughter of Governor WiUiam Living ston, the master of "Liberty Hall," illustrated on a former page, also graces this apartment, and is a gem in itself, independent of the historical interest which clusters about one so distinguished as a leader in the social circles of the infant repubUc. Ancestral pictures hang upon every side. Governor WUUam Livingston as a boy, in full-sleeved coat and elaborate costume of his time, with sword hanging by his side ; the strong, expressive features, in wig setting, of Augustus Jay, grandfather of the Chief Justice, who settled among us at the time the Huguenot movement sent so much of the best blood of France to our shores — a study, the brush of a master-hand having done justice to the refined and accomplished character of the man ; and, in the back parlor, one of Hun tington's finest productions, a life-size portrait of Mrs. John Jay, the present mistress of " Bedford House " — are perhaps the three most notable in this gal lery of treasures. The dining-room, upon the right of the entrance-hall, some twenty feet square, is invested with the same air — antique and artistic. High, old-fashioned sideboards, elaborately carved, straight-backed chairs, tall silver candlesticks, LATER PERIOD. 107 $| w WM if c s, o 3. «0a 0 0) m -. . 108 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. quaint mirrors, and the rarest of ancient porcelain, are overlooked by the works of TrumbuU and Stuart, and some of the old masters. Trumbull's "Alexan der Hamilton " is the best portrait in the room, and rarely any picture of the great financier reveals more distinctly the nature which inspired such warm attachments among his friends, and such bitter hatred among his foes. The Patroon, Van Rensselaer," and " Judge Egbert Benson," by Stuart, are choice mementos of a period which we never tire of reviewing. A bust of the Chief Justice, finely cut, stands upon a marble pedestal in one corner ; and a painting, which represents his wife in a picturesque hat, with two chUdren by her side, hangs upon the opposite waU. Among the other portraits of interest are those of Peter Jay and his wife, Mary Van Cortlandt, the father and mother of the Chief Justice ; it was through this lady that the large landed estate in Bedford came into the Jay family, it being a part of what was formerly Cortlandt Manor. The Ubrary occupies one of the wings of the mansion, which were added by the Chief Justice when he retired from pubUc life in 1801, having served his country faithfully in every department of legislative, diplomatic, and judi cial trust, and been twice Governor of his own State. He resided here in the enjoyment of his family, his books, and his friends, for a full quarter of a cen tury. It was then a two days' journey to the city, and a maU-coach visited the retreat not oftener than once a week. But the man who had conducted to a successful conclusion the definitive treaty of peace with England, and then vir- tuaUy filled the office of prime minister to a new nation, regulating the whole foreign correspondence of a government which was experimenting upon its first effort to stand alone — the proposal of plans and treaties, and instructions to ministers abroad — and afterward worn the ermine of the chief judicial robe, was not likely to be forgotten by a grateful people. The waUs of " Bedford House " echoed from time to time to the voices of his distinguished associates, and notable Europeans sought him, as a species of homage to public virtue. The library is some twenty-five feet square, with windows on three sides. One division contains the favorite authors of the Chief Justice, weighty foUos of Grotius, Puffendorf, Vattel, and other masters of the science of international law, standard theological and miscellaneous works, and the classic authors of antiquity. Some of the curious heirlooms in the way of furniture deserve LATER PERIOD. 109 mention, particularly four stiff antique chairs, which came from the old Federal HaU, in WaU Street, where Washington was inaugurated the first President of the United States. The floor is nearly covered with a superb India rug, with aU its artistic irregularities ; the same table is in use, by the present Mr. Jay, which his grandfather, whose name he bears so honorably, placed in this room ; and over the mantel may be seen Huntington's famous " RepubUcan Court." Creeping over this side of the house is a wistaria, fiUed with a profusion of blossoms, and honeysuckle climbers adorn the pillars of the wide veranda, whUe rose-bushes peep over the raUing. Upon the wooded height in the rear is a pretty school- or summer-house of stone, which the Chief Justice built for his chUdren. The barns, carriage-houses, and the farmhouse of the tenant who has the supervision of the property, are off a little distance — beyond shrubbery, and a clump of locust-trees — to the northeast, upon the outskirts of a fine garden. " Morrisania," the seat of the Morrises, comprising originally about three thousand acres of land north of the Harlem River, was so named by Captain Richard Morris, an English gentleman of fortune who came to New York about 1661, and obtained a grant of the property from Governor Stuyvesant, with baronial privUeges. His son Lewis was the famous Chief Justice of New York and Governor of New Jersey under the Crown, who married Isabella Graham, granddaughter of the Scotch Earl of Montrose. Their two sons were Lewis, who was a Judge, Speaker of the Assembly, and Counselor to the Gov ernor, and Robert Hunter, Chief Justice of New Jersey and Governor of Penn sylvania under the Crown. Lewis, the Judge, had four sons, all remarkable men : Lewis signed the Declaration of Independence ; Staats Long married the Duchess of Gordon, daughter of the Earl of Aberdeen, and became a fuU general in the British army ; Richard was Chief Justice of New York from 1779 to 1790 ; and Gouverneur, the younger son, whose mother was of the scholarly French family of Gouverneurs, was the distinguished Morris of the Revolution, whose name is so intimately associated with that of Jay, Hamilton, and the other striking and individual men of that epoch. The Morrises were of a strong and gifted race, original, peculiar, and fear lessly republican in spirit. Gouverneur Morris stands out amid his contempo- 110 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. 0 0 % 0 LATER PERIOD. Ill raries, broad, generous, gay, witty, with both popular and commanding talents — a man whom men respected and whom women admired. He went through life eating the sunny side of the peach, but not throwing away the stone, a mixture of self-indulgence and self-control, of warm blood and of cool brain, dashing, enterprising, aristocratic, and always in positions of trust. In all generations the Morrises have been men of wealth, and have erected many mansions. The one now designated as " Old Morrisania " was buUt by Gouverneur Morris in 1800, shortly after his return from France. The design was from a French chateau. It is situated on the Harlem River just where it joins the East River, and is nearly opposite the vexed waters of HeU Gate, although islands intervene. It stands to-day with some of the apartments as Morris left them, and with much of the old furniture stiU in use which graced his rooms in France. It is one of the few historical houses of our country which have been continuously in the hands of descendants of the original family. With great natural skill in argument and aptitude for the practice of law, Gouverneur Morris began early to exhibit his genius, eloquence, and versatility. His first essay in coUege was a treatise on " Wit and Beauty." Ere he had reached his eighteenth year he was writing upon political subjects with much force and elegance for one so young. A pamphlet deprecating the evUs of paper currency as a mischievous pretense for putting off the day of payment, which he produced about that time, would not be inappropriate in this en lightened age. Three months before he was twenty he was admitted to the bar. His aristocratic family connection, his good looks, his extraordinary and precocious talents, had aU been fighting his battle for him, and he knew that he could step into a large practice at once, but his active spirit demanded a wider sphere. Perhaps he thought, with Valentine, that " home-staying youths have ever homely wits." He longed to go to England, to form his mind and manners on some worthy model. " Nothing is so dangerous," says this wise, witty, flattered boy — "nothing is so dangerous as that vain seU-sufficiency which arises from comparing ourselves with companions who are inferior to us." A boy of twenty who knew enough to say that was beyond being hurt by the fact itself. But his mother, his friends, and his small fortune, kept him at home for a few years. He went into his profession industriously, and worked man- folly. 112 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. Fortunately he remained in this country, and was a member of the first Provincial Congress of New York in 1775, serving on the various committees with such well-balanced judgment as to command the respect of men twice his age and experience. He rendered most valuable assistance in the building of the curious fabric, so strong and so weak, so vague and so peculiar, which we call the American Republic, and which has been, in spite of its mistakes, so Entrance Hall, " Old Morrisania.' marvelously successful. He became a warm friend of Washington, a vigorous member of Congress, chairman of three committees for carrying on the war — the Commissary's, Quartermaster's, and Medical Department — and in a multiplicity of ways displayed an energy that was simply gigantic. He wrote essays on aU subjects, particularly the revenue and the currency, practiced law for his sup port while in Congress, and was concerned in almost every patriotic endeavor of the period — all this before he was twenty-eight years of age. LATER PERIOD. 113 Then came an accident which would have crushed a less indomitable wiU. He was thrown from a carriage in PhUadelphia and broke his leg. His physi cians advised immediate amputation. It was said later that this was a proof of unskillful management and rashness of decision. Be that as it may, he bore it with courage, elasticity, and cheerfulness. A clergyman called on him to advise patience, teUing him that perhaps this sad event might improve his char acter, and diminish the inducements to lead a gay Ufe which otherwise sur rounded him. " My good sir," said Mr. Morris, " you argue the matter so handsomely that I am almost induced to part with my other leg." A plain wooden leg was fitted to the stump, and carried him through the rest of his life. He was tall and personable, and proud of his remaining leg, which was very handsome. He visited Morrisania after the peace, for the first time in seven years. In writing to his uncle he speaks of drinking his health " in a bottle of Cape wine which has stood on the shelf for twenty years." The Morrisania estate had claims for depredations committed by the British army during the war, which were afterward paid to the amount of eight thousand dollars. He saUed for Europe in 1788, and, reaching Paris and visiting Lafayette, records in his diary that one of the famous nobleman's little daughters sang for him, after dinner, a song of his own composition. A popular writer asks, ' " When did this busy young American statesman find time to write songs ? " The diary of his Ufe in Paris reads like an historical romance. He was present at the opening of the States-General at Versailles, which has been caUed " the first day of the French Revolution," and writes, under date of May 4, 1789 : " I can not help feeUng the mortification which the poor Queen meets with, for I see only the woman, and it seems unmanly to treat a woman with unkind- ness. Madame de ChasteUux teUs me a sprightly reply of Madame Adelaide, the King's aunt, who, when the Queen, in a fit of resentment, speaking of this nation, said, ' Ces indignes Francais ! ' exclaimed, ' Dites indignes, madame.' Poor Marie Antoinette ! " He was appointed Minister from the United States to the Court of France in 1792, thus adding ambassadorial honors to those which he had won for him self. 15 114 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. LATER PERIOD. 115 It is really curious, in looking over the full records of this iUustrious man, to observe the aid, pecuniary and otherwise, which he extended to distinguished persons. He lent money to Madame de Lafayette, to Louis Philippe, to the Duchess of Orleans, and to hundreds of others less distinguished. Among his papers are found to-day letters from many titled personages to whom he extended his Uberal hand. Of his efforts for the escape of the King and Queen, and his noble care of the trusts committed to him by them, history is full. In the Ubrary of his Morrisania home (the floor of which is parquet im ported from France, as indeed are all the floors of the mansion) may be seen the desk at which he wrote his letters and dispatches during the Reign of Ter ror ; also the secret drawer where he deposited the seven hundred and forty- eight thousand livres which the poor weak King sent him to aid in the Monciel scheme for the project of removing the royal famUy from Paris — money which did no good to the depositors, and which must have been an inconvenient charge to the Minister. We find him later paying back the money left in his hands to the unhappy Duchess d'Angouleme, the daughter of Louis XVI. — she who bore in her sad face untU death the marks of indelible grief. This fine old desk is of mahogany, dark with age, and is brass-bound. It is said to have been a present to Mr. Morris from some of the royal family whom he so weU served. There are three or four other pieces of furniture of the same date and history. The old desk leads now a luxurious and tranquil existence in the midst of quiet domestic bUss, serving the lady of the house, sUently, as she writes her graceful notes of invitation or of friendship, as it did her grandfa ther when he wrote letters of encouragement and helpful sympathy to a queen, besought Austria to reUeve Lafayette from the horrors of Olmutz, defended himself against the intrigues of Tom Paine, corresponded with the Bishop d'Autun, Madame de Stael, or the. Duchess of Orleans, wrote those rose-colored epistles, no doubt, which belong to one side of the character of this pleasure- loving, gaUant, gay man, who foUowed out Luther's motto amid his full career of usefulness ; and where he recorded the sanguinary horrors of the French Revolution, until even his beloved journal had to be given up ; and he wrote at this same desk these words : " The situation of things is such that, to con tinue this journal would compromise many people, unless I go on as I have 116 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. done since the end of August, in which case it must be insipid and useless. I prefer, therefore, the more simple measure of putting an end to it." The library is wainscoted and ceUed with Dutch cherry panels, also im ported, and was in the early days hung with white-and-gold tapestry, like Marie Antoinette's boudoir at VersaiUes — tapestry which has long ago suc cumbed to " Chronos' iron tooth." A deep bay-window commands the sunset, and modern taste has hung a Chinese lantern in the window, indicative of that march toward the East which humanity is always making. This lantern, with the prehistoric dragon, and the curious reversed perspective of the Chinese, the circled emblem of the serpent, with his taU in his mouth — aU is suggestive of phUosophical reflection ; it seems to say, " So do we go back whence we came, nor pause except for a moment to think over even the French Revolution, but as one of the hideous and bloody tints which the monster shows as he slowly creeps away." The reception-room, twenty-two by thirty, and fourteen feet high, is also a paneled room, with mirrors buUt into the waU in true French style. Here stands a gilt sofa which might have come from VersaiUes — rumor has it that it was given by Marie Antoinette to Mr. Morris ; chairs of the same set accom pany it. It is recovered with a modern tapestry, which records the taste, although it can not equal the magnificence of white sUk, embroidered in gold, which originally covered it. The modern Eastlake judicious restorations have kept much that was good in this fine old room ; have respected the memories of 1789; but have added the freshness and comfort of to-day. Morrisania is very fortunate in its present ownership; the furniture, and tapestries, and bronzes, and china, do not miss the fairy fingers of a queen and her court, nor decay in uncongenial solitudes. These meubles play their part as weU in the republican simpUcity of our new land as their owner once played his in the fastidious circles of an hereditaiy nobUity. Like him, they are sincere — all that they pretend to be. Of his house at Sainport in France, where he Uved during his ambassa dorship, and whither he had retired to escape the horrors of the Revolution and the disorders of the capital, Morris writes this interesting description: " My prospect is rural, not extensive. At a mile and a half on the southwest are the ruins of baths which once belonged to the fair Gabrielle, favorite mistress LATER PERIOD. 117 ¦d 0 oo a a 0 118 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. of Henry IV., and at half of that distance, in the opposite direction, stands on a high plain the magnificent paviUon built by Bouret, who is here called an Jwmme de finance. He expended on that building and its gardens about half a million sterling, and, after squandering in the whole about two mUUons ster- Ung, he put himself to death because he had nothing to live on. I think you wUl acknowledge that the objects just mentioned are well calculated to show the vanity of human pursuits and possessions." Morris made no such mistake at Morrisania ; his expenditures were judi cious, within the means of a now ample fortune gained by his own intelligence and industry. His biographer says : " Nature had fully accompUshed her part in affording him one of the finest sites in the world, embracing a beautiful va riety of grounds, a prospect of intermingled islands and waters, and in the distance the changing tints of Long Island Sound. The plan of his house conformed to a French model, and, though spacious and weU contrived, was suited rather for convenience and perhaps splendor within than for a show of architectural magnificence without." The house was afterward improved by Morris's son, who succeeded him, and its present appearance is much more picturesque than it was when Morris left it ; according to a print in the posses sion of the famUy, it then had a square and rather barren look. Morris wrote to Madame de Stael, who proposed visiting this country : " As soon as you arrive you wiU come to Morrisania, partake what our dairy affords, and refresh yourself. In the beginning of July you shaU set out to visit your lands and the interior country, and return by the middle of September to re pose after your fatigues, to gather peaches, take walks, make verses, romances ; in a word, to do what you please." That last phrase shows that Morris was a model host ; indeed, contempora neous history speaks of the boundless and elegant hospitality of this house, a character which it has never lost for an hour since. But, accepting a position as Senator of New York, he was obliged to leave his deUghtful American- French chateau to reside for a time in Washington. He writes the following humorous accounts of life in our new capital in 1800 to his iUustrious friend the Princess de la Tour and Taxis : " We want nothing here but houses, cellars, kitchens, well-informed men, amiable women, and other little trifles of this kind, to make our city perfect, for we can walk LATER PERIOD. 119 here as if in the fields and woods, and, considering the hard frost, the air of the city is very pure. I enjoy more of it than anybody else, for my room is filled with smoke whenever the door is shut. If, then, you are desirous of coming to live at Washington, in order to confirm you in so fine a project, I hasten to as sure you that freestone is very abundant here, that exceUent bricks can be burned here, that there is no want of sites for magnificent hotels ; that contem plated canals can bring a vast commerce to this place, that the wealth which is the natural consequence must attract the fine arts hither ; in short, that it is the very best city in the world for a future residence. As, however, I am not one of those good people whom we call posterity, I should like very well to remove to old Ratisbon, because I should then have the happiness of seeing you, and of repeating to you with my own Ups the assurances of my respect and attach ment." At Morrisania were received the French princes Louis Philippe and his brothers, whom the generous-hearted Minister had aided with loans from his private funds. Every distinguished stranger who came to America was re ceived at Morrisania. Morris writes to Madame de Damas in 1809: "I can walk three leagues if the weather is fine and the road not rough. My employ ment is to labor for myself a little, for others more ; to receive much company, and forget half those who come. I think of pubUc affairs a Uttle, read a little, play a Uttle, and sleep a great deal. With good air, a good cook, fine water and wine, a good constitution, and a clear conscience, I descend graduaUy to ward the grave, fuU of gratitude to the Giver of all good." " A good cook " was ever a necessity with this man, who knew how to live ; and we see in his dining-room at Morrisania full preparations for the great event of each day — dinner. This room is of singular shape — a half octagon, paneled, Uke the rest of the house, in dark wood. It commands a beautiful prospect of river and sound. It is hung with family portraits, and possesses one of those records of his early Revolutionary experience in both countries — a dumb waiter, such as was placed near each guest, that the servants should not be admitted to overhear the conversation. At the age of sixty-four Mr. Morris married a lady with the beautiful name of Annie Carey Randolph, who became the mother of his only son. In 1816 he died calmly, cheerfully, bravely, as he had Uved. His remains were interred on his own estate at Morrisania. 120 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. The mansion at Morrisania to-day stands amid fine old trees ; a circle of elms of great beauty and height forms an attractive group from the front en trance. Curious, gnarled, old cherry-trees produce excellent subjects for the pencil of the artist ; a perfect lawn, green until snow covers it, surrounds the house. Tasteful verandas break agreeably the monotony of its gray, time-hon ored waUs. The roof is improved by a turret which has been added since the death of Mr. Morris, but it stiU has its French look unimpaired. Upon an eminence some distance inland from the Sound, surrounded by handsomely shaded grounds, and overlooking Fleetwood trotting-park, stands the residence of WUliam H. Morris, built in the early part of this century by the late James Morris, the father of the present proprietor. The property was a portion of the Morrisania estate which belonged to Lewis, the signer of the Declaration of Independence — elder brother of Gouverneur. James was his fourth son, known in Westchester as " Sheriff Morris," from having held that office about 1820 ; he married Helen Van Cortlandt, the youngest of the two daughters and only children of Augustus Van Cortlandt of Cortlandt House, Lower Yonkers, who was descended through Jacobus Van Cortlandt and Eve Philipse from the Van Cortlandts and PhiUpses of old feudal New York. Au gustus Van Cortlandt was the first cousin of Chief Justice John Jay (his mother was Frances, the sister of Peter Jay), and when the Revolution broke out was Clerk of the city of New York ; remaining loyal to the crown, he was obUged to make sudden choice between ignominious flight or prison fare ; and, untU he could reach the British army on Staten Island, was concealed for a consider able time, writes Judge Thomas Jones, in the cow-house of a Dutch farmer at Bedford, Long Island, the conscientious man (Lefferts) going backward when he carried him his meals, that in case of necessity he might safely swear that he had not seen him. When James Morris was about to build this great, square, elegant mansion, he submitted the plan of it to Peter Jay Munro, the celebrated lawyer, who was a near relative of Mrs. Morris, asking him to examine it carefully and give his opinion. Munro noticed that Morris had left no place for stairs to the sec ond story and called his attention to the fact. " By G — ! I never thought of that," was his quick rejoinder. It was an instance of the vein of whimsicality LATER PERIOD. 121 % ' Hit! . sKBfflBl If ' '-.*T* wl IB fflB sffiffi i msB ^^HH^Sh MKhhI MB «m5 ill-¦P tra-lv-ff ft. ' • mm* wM'ife¦I? 2 o©oa 122 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. which crops out occasionally in the Morrises even to this day. It is superfluous to add that the house was graciously accorded the regulation staircase. It was finished in the most approved manner, and has ever been one of the substantial homes of affluence and luxurious comfort which abound plentifully within easy distance of the metropolis. While Gouverneur Morris was building his home in Morrisania, Alexander Hamilton was planning and projecting a country seat on the upper part of Manhattan Island, which he called " The Grange," from the ancestral seat of his grandfather in Ayrshire, Scotland. The house is situated upon an elevation of nearly two hundred feet above and about half way between the Hudson and Harlem Rivers, on what is now known as Washington Heights. It com mands, through vistas, delightful views of Harlem River and Plains, East River, Long Island, and the fertile fields of Morrisania. It is just within the outer Unes of the intrenchments thrown up by the Americans in 1776. At the time of its erection it was completely in the country, some eight miles north from the city limits. Hamilton completed and removed his family to this mansion in 1802. It stands now, in an architectural point of view, precisely as he left it on that fatal morning when he went to Weehawken to meet Aaron Burr, with the ex ception of the wear of Time's bleak winds for three fourths of a century. It is a square wooden structure of two stories, with large, roomy basement, orna mental balustrades, and immense chimney-stacks. The timber for the house is said to have been a present from Mrs. Hamilton's father, General Philip Schuy ler, whose Albany home has been Ulustrated on a former page. It is con structed in a style befitting the character of the Ulustrious man who was to dweU under its broad roof, its rooms spacious and numerous, and its workman ship solid and substantial. The doors of the drawing-rooms were mirrors ; and until recently a quaint, old-fashioned, round dining-table, which was made for the dining-room by order of Hamilton, has remained as one of the fixtures of the house. While living here Hamilton generally drove to and from the city in a two-wheeled carriage with a single horse. His family consisted of his wife, five sons, two daughters, and a young lady, the orphan daughter of an officer LATER PERIOD. 123 who was kiUed in the Revolutionary war ; this young lady was educated and treated in all respects as his own daughter. He took great pride in his home, and devoted much time to its embelUshment. He attended personally to the 53 1 1 ( The Grange," Residence of Alexander Hamilton. arrangement of the grounds, the planting of flowers, of shrubbery, and of trees. One of the most remarkable features of the place is a grove of thirteen 124 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. Thirteen " Union ' Trees planted by Hamilton. majestic gum - trees which General Ham- Uton planted with his own hand on the lawn a few rods from the mansion, about a year before his death. These trees were to symboUze the thirteen original States of the Union, and were named af ter them respectively. "The Grange" was the residence of HamUton's famUy for some years after his death, but it fi nally passed into oth er hands. WiUiam G. Ward became its owner in 1845, and since his death it has been in the posses sion of his heirs. It has stood vacant, of ten for many seasons in succession, and in the mean time the city has been creep ing up and around it, and the whole face of Manhattan Island changed. LATER PERIOD. 125 And yet one can hardly contemplate this touching relic of the soldier, states man, and jurist — whose career is perhaps better known to the people of to day than that of any other man save Washington, and whose fame is identified with the beginnings of our republic — without seeing, through the mind's eye, the slight, erect figure, with weU-poised head, powdered hair thrown back from a .fine forehead and collected in a club behind, fair complexion and flushed cheeks, his singularly expressive features sometimes grave and thoughtful, and again Ughted with intelligence and sweetness. His genius for the solution of financial problems was exceptional ; and there were point and originality in his views, and electricity in his movements. He belongs to the history, the science, and the art of government, and his position is estabUshed by the universal ver dict of mankind. He came to America in the crisis of our affairs, bringing from the Antilles the Scotch strength of his father and the French vivacity of his mother, the blood and brain of two mighty races ; and, when our Constitu tion went into effect, was caUed to the chief control of the Treasury, his prac tical management establishing the national credit. As an individual he prob ably inspired warmer attachments among his friends and more bitter hatred in his foes than any other man in American history. The home of the Adamses, father, son, and grandson — John Adams and John Quincy Adams, the two Presidents of the nation, and Charles Francis Adams, who occupies the mansion at the present writing as a summer residence — embodies several distinct periods. It came into the possession of the Adams family immediately after the Revolution. It was buUt much earUer by a rich EngUsh planter who had made a fortune in Jamaica, but the changes and addi tions have been so many and various that it would be somewhat difficult to point out the original structure. John Adams was at the Court of St. James as the first Minister from the new Government of the United States when his agent purchased this house. Returning from his residence abroad he took up his abode within its waUs, sub jecting it to many alterations in accordance with his cultivated taste. From here he went to take his place, first as Vice-President, then as President, of the Union. And in one of the rooms of this dwelling, the great statesman, who possessed the grand historical sense which sees civilization in its continuity as 126 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. well as the combination of its laws and forces, passed away at the age of ninety-two, just fifty years to a day after he had signed the Declaration of In dependence, and forty-three years after he had affixed his signature to the defini tive treaty of peace with England. This apartment is preserved in the same condition in which it was left by him. The bedstead is an old-time, massive, four-post article of furniture, with curiously carved legs, an importation from HoUand. The mansion descended naturally to his son John Quincy Adams, who made further additions and improvements. Among the many portraits which adorn the rooms is one of this second President Adams, by Copley, painted in Eng land when the subject was a young man of twenty. The coloring is superb. There is another portrait of the same, painted by Stuart, at a later date, as also the well-known Stuart portraits of the first President Adams and his wife Abigail Adams, and many others of exceptional merit. There is a portrait here of Washington in military garb, by Edward Sav age, a painter little known in this country. Samuel A. Drake writes of the picture, " it possesses but Uttle merit beyond that of being an undoubted Uke- ness, as attested by John Adams ; but the artist had no genius for coloring, nor for those touches that put life into a face. Another portrait, of Lady Washing ton, by the same hand, with a head-dress • fearfully and wonderfully made,' hangs beside that of the General. Savage was in this country about 1791. He also painted General Knox, and engraved copies of this work on copperplate." One of the apartments of the house is wainscoted from floor to ceiUng with mahogany which has aged into a deep rich color harmonizing with the pictured tiles, fire-irons, and antiquated furniture. The great, cheerful, deep fireplaces are suggestive of bygones ; nearly all the famous men identified with the early life of our nation must have discussed events within the circle of their light and hospitable warmth. John Quincy Adams died, like Pitt, in harness. He was a man of extraor dinary physical and intellectual vigor. He was an early riser, taking long walks before other people were astir. His studies for the day were usuaUy finished before he took his breakfast. He wrote and talked admirably. When he was Minister at Berlin he wrote the " Letters on Silesia," published in Lon don in 1804, from which Carlyle quotes in his " Frederick." The day before LATER PERIOD. 127 •8 av < his last Ulness he composed a piece of poetry to a young lady of Springfield. His letters to his sister were models in beauty of thought and expression ; and his conversation was fascinating and instructive to a degree which few men have equaled. Born in the day of colonial vassalage, he Uved to see his country strong and prosperous. 128 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. When stricken down on the floor of the House, he had in his hand the memorial of M. Vattemare relative to his collection. The House was consid ering a joint resolution of thanks to General Twiggs and other officers of our army in Mexico. The members arose in confusion, and Mr. Adams was carried into the Speaker's room. This was the 21st of February. The Senate ad journed, on motion of Mr. Benton, as soon as the news of Mr. Adams's illness reached the chamber. Mr. Clay entered the room and held the dying man's hand a long time without speaking, while the tears roUed down his rugged face. AU present were much affected. The Mexican treaty, but just arrived, was forgotten. On the 23d John Quincy Adams passed away. Daniel Web ster, then a Senator, wrote the inscription for his coffin, and his remains were laid with the ashes of his ancestors in the old churchyard of Quincy. The annals of the Adams family present some interesting coincidences. Father, son, and grandson have been Ministers to the same court. Francis Dana, who was the first envoy of the United States to St. Petersburg, accom panied the elder Adams to Paris as Secretary of Legation in 1779. John Quincy Adams was our Ambassador to the same court during the invasion by Napoleon. Charles Francis Adams passed his boyhood with his father at St. Petersburg, and was also with him in England from 1815 to 1817, and from 1861 to 1868 fiUed the position of Minister to England, which his father and grandfather had done before him. The library of the elder Adams was given by him to the town of Quincy, thus founding the Adams Academy. He also gave the lot on which it stands, on condition that the institution should be erected on the site of the birthplace of the two Quincys and John Hancock. A wing or separate building of stone has been added to the house by Charles Francis Adams as a library for the reception of his father's valuable books and manuscripts. The shelves are filled from floor to ceiling with price less treasures. The busy pen of the statesman and man of letters has pro duced many stout volumes from this storehouse, which are welcome to aU Americans. The house is as deep as it is long ; its rooms are numerous as weU as spa cious, and its hall of entrance is wide and attractive. There is an air of sub stantial comfort about the whole place It stands on a gentle elevation to the LATER PERIOD. 129 right of the raUway-track approaching Quincy from Boston. It is shaded by a broad veranda, and surrounded by fine old oaks and elms, with a turfy lawn descending from the rear of the dwelling by a natural slope to a brook which courses along under the wiUows and down to the sea. A charming combination of the antique and modern in domestic architec ture, and a home which appeals directly to the sense of the beautiful, is that of the late WiUiam Cullen Bryant at Roslyn, Long Island. It is set within a nook of exquisite loveliness upon the hiUy shore of Hempstead Bay ; and the mansion, gardens, grounds, and distant fields, aU show how perfectly nature and art may be wedded in one harmonious whole. Cedarmere is Uke the finished and impressive poems of its master. The house is nearly a century old, having been built by a Quaker in 1787. Mr. Bryant purchased the property about thirty-three years ago, and it has since undergone great transformations. It is a large, square structure, with the old-fashioned gable-roof, modern bay-windows, attractive verandas, and antique balconies. It is so embowered with handsome, rare, and stately trees, and so artisticaUy ornamented with honeysuckle, codea, clematis, and other aspiring vines, that but a mere suggestion of its style can be obtained from the ap proach. The entrance is in the center, and a broad haU Uned with choice pictures extends quite to the rear of the buUding, where a quaint, old-time door, cut open in the middle, leads to a smooth, velvety lawn, decorated with mounds of bright-colored flowers. The staircase is of the pattern in vogue before the Revolution, and teems with historic associations. The parlor, a large, restful apartment, with two graceful bay-windows com manding a long stretch of out-of-door beauties, is upon the left, and the dining- room upon the right of the entrance. In the former are two ancient cabinets buUt deep into the wall, one upon each side of an antiquarian fireplace, with tUed jams, brass andirons, and massive hearthstone ; they contain valuable curi osities and interesting heirlooms, which are treasured with scrupulous care. The furniture is so tastefully blended that no one feature stands out promi nently before the mind ; but the soft cushions, dressed in cool chintz, the fine paintings and engravings, and fresh-cut flowers, declare the perfect embodiment 17 130 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. of personal comfort and the refinement of high culture. The appointments of the dining-room are in the same rare good taste. Pictures and books and flow ers occupy every spare place, and seem exactly fitted to the space they occupy. A broad bay-window overlooks a magnificent rhododendron, and a bit of bewitching landscape beyond, whUe a smaller window upon the eastern side reveals glimpses of a leafy and picturesque hiUside. The poet's Ubrary and study-room is in the northwestern corner of the mansion. It is separated from the parlor by an immense forefatherly chimney. The original fireplace has disappeared in favor of a patent fire-frame, where curUng flames dance merrily in chilly weather ; but the Dutch tUes, with their Scriptural references, remain. The room is of the same size as the parlor, and it has two bay-windows courting the sunshine and the magnoUa-shades, with patches of water-prospect, and romantic and wooded undulations upon the op posite side of the bay. The entire walls to the ceUing are Uned with books. Nearly aU that genius has created or industry achieved in the way of letters has; found its way to these shelves. A large library-table occupies the center of the room, and is strewed with periodicals and literary novelties. In the Western bay-window stands a smaU writing-desk, which, like the pen of the poet and the scholar, seems to have caught inspiration from the ceaseless hum of rustling foliage and the poesy of birds. Pictures and choice engravings upon easels, coaxing arm chairs, and brilliant rugs, add to the subtUe charms of this incomparable room, from which has emanated so much of the best thought in our language. The upper rooms are large and luxurious, and nearly all of them open upon balconies, commanding views which are a perpetual fascination. Of the guest- chamber, directly over the library, a recent writer has drawn this brief picture : " Easy-chairs and sofas, curtains in daintiest chintz, matching the oak furniture, which appear to be the spontaneous product of the carpet, a little bookcase fiUed, a table before it with inkstand and fancy pen-wiper, and works of art." The chief glory of Cedarmere, however, is in its grounds and surroundings. From the house no fences or boundaries can be seen, only vistas of exceeding beauty reaching off to where the trees and mountains seem to come together, or the water dwindles to a point bridged with overhanging foliage. A fanciful, artificial lake glimmers from below the house, between which LATER PERIOD. 131 fPilllMill ¦I H f'-I-WB 'Ki'V1'.'''! ^MF1' ^ .IMP ^pili i f§fflBS?«S'r<' 'iC'i'.^f ill. ¦ . "III!! !'ih!.| , ¦ 0-9! •0 3 rSR ' IP > mMMmmMmm 132 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. and the bay an irregular embankment has been constructed, which is fiUed with trees and shrubbery. The Quaker proprietor of Cedarmere, many years ago, gathered the hill-side springs into this basin for the practical purpose of running a small manufacturing estabUshment, little dreaming that it would be converted into a " joy for ever " to the admiring eye. The garden, spreading over an acre, or possibly two, is disposed along the slope between the house and the bay, and is encircled on all sides by grand old trees and luxuriant shrubs. It is fiUed with the choicest specimens of floral culture. Here and there fruit-trees of gentle birth and foreign lineage, such as the persimmon, the Portuguese quince, the Chickasaw plum, and the Chinese sand-pear, which de- cUne the associations of a common orchard, flourish in haughty isolation with out casting ever a grim shadow among the flowers. Grapes abound. In the lower part of the garden seven or eight varieties are cultivated under glass, and there are at least ten other varieties in different places. Mr. Bryant was a skilled horticulturist, and in his various and extensive travels never omitted an opportunity of securing the products of other cUmes, and experimenting upon their culture at Cedarmere. As a natural result, the garden itself is a remarkable and instructive botanical cyclopaedia, as weU as a continual artistic surprise. On the southern edge of an extensive and well-regulated strawberry-patch, near the foot of the slope, is a unique Uttle miU which contains saws and ma chinery, with power to force water into a reservoir upon the top of the hill. It is nestled in shrubbery and oppressed with vines, and has the outward appear ance of a summer-house. The trees of Cedarmere, to do them justice, would require a special article to themselves. Like the plants, they have been brought from aU quarters of the globe. They present a curious combination of natural wildness with arti ficial planting. Not far from the house stands a Turkish oak, indigenous in the islands of the Archipelago and throughout Greece ; and by its side, as if jealous of so much foreign arrogance, sulks an old American oak, with a head broader than the height of its trunk ; in the immediate vicinity another mem ber of the oak family offers leaves destitute of flexible points or bristles. In the remote boundaries of Cedarmere are some gigantic natives of hoary age. A huge black walnut, for instance, is some twenty-five feet in circumference, LATER PERIOD. 133 and about one hundred and eighty feet high. It is supposed to be at least one hundred and seventy years old. It has several branches equal in size to giant trees. Along the road to Glen Cove, Mr. Bryant formed a sort of belt to his property by planting several thousand European larches — similar to the Ameri can hackmatack. One high point of land overlooks even many of the trees, and from it is obtained a magnificent view of the Sound seven miles distant, with the village of the Methodist camping-ground in the intervening space. It is a walk of mUes to visit the various points of interest with which Ce darmere abounds. Cottages, pretty and picturesque, spring upon the rambler from the most unexpected quarters, each presenting a different phase of archi tecture. There are some eight or ten, aU of Mr. Bryant's buUding, and de signed for members of his family or personal friends. The handsome dwelUng of Parke Godwin, Mr. Bryant's son-in-law, is just to the north of the one illus trated, hedged in by weeping-willows and stately elms. Fruit, shade, ornamen tal, and forest trees are in every part of this vast domain ; standing singly, standing in rows, standing in clusters, as if they had been distributed through some convulsion of the elements, without order or method. And yet the most consummate method is discernible in their arrangement. They become a study the moment it is remembered that the hand of the poet himself planted the greater part of them. And they acquire a sacred charm through the knowl edge that under their shade the gifted Bryant drew inspiration for some of his noblest works. Within the classic shades of old Cambridge, Massachusetts — " Somewhat back from the village street, Stands the old-fashioned country seat " — the home to which Henry Wadsworth LongfeUow so pleasantly aUudes in his pretty domestic poem, " The Old Clock on the Stairs." It is a great, square, substantial, unpretending, two-story structure, with a front of some fifty feet in width, overlooking the placid river Charles, as it winds through a meadow, one fourth of a mile distant. Upon both sides of the edifice are spacious covered piazzas, where guests may loiter in the hot summer days, inhaling poetry from the sun-charged air as perfumes are breathed from floral gardens. The house 134 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. Home of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. -:^ is situated about half a mile west of the university for which Cam bridge is noted, in the center of a plot of some ten acres of ground. On either side of the walk from the gate is a closely trimmed lawn, and on the sides and in the rear of the mansion are clumps of tall, wide-spreading elms, with lilac and other bushes and shrubs scattered here and there near the LATER PERIOD. 135 boundaries. Admitted to the entrance-hall, your eye lights directly upon the antique, massive staircase, with the clock upon the landing, as shown in the sketch, and your mind runs naturally into the rhythm of your host : " And from its station in the hall, An ancient timepiece says to all, ' For ever — never ! Never — for ever ! ' " The library is a long, spacious room upon the main floor, filled with handsome bookcases, one of which is located between two Corinthian columns at the end of the apartment, and aU are teeming with wealth of various lore. A few shelves contain strictly Uterary curiosities ; and evidences of taste and scholar ship are upon every side. A small table by the window which opens upon the garden is the customary seat of the poet. The connecting room in front — the smaUer of the two rooms — is more distinctively the " study " of Mr. Longfel low, and it is also the favorite resort of the family circle in winter. It is a repository for books as well as the Ubrary, and is strewed with the graceful detaU of an elegant household. Upon its waUs hang crayon portraits of Emerson, Sumner, LoweU, and Hawthorne. This " study " possesses a charm over all the other rooms of the mansion from having been used as the dining-room of Washington for nine months, when this mansion was his residence during the siege, prior to driving the British out of Boston in March, 1776. The apartment in the rear (now the Ubrary) was his council-room and private sitting-room, and from here he sent forth every morning his orders for the day. The room directly above the study was his bedchamber. When Mrs. Washington arrived she converted the spacious drawing-rooms, which had already been the scene of innumerable receptions and old-time banquets, to cheerful and constant usage. Sixty or more years later, the poet, coming into possession of the house, embalmed with dainty verse its historic memories : " Once — ah, once ! — within these walls, One whom memory oft recalls, The Father of his Country dwelt, 136 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. And yonder meadows, broad and damp, The fires of the besieging camp Encircled with a burning belt. Up and down these echoing stairs, Heavy with the weight of cares, Sounded his majestic tread ; Yes, within this very room, Sat he in those hours of gloom, Weary both in heart and head." The precise age of this interesting mansion is not known. It was gen erously buUt by Colonel John Vassal, a colonial aristocrat, some years before the Revolution, although it has since been enlarged. Vassal had made a for tune in the West India trade, and married the daughter of the rich Isaac Royall before consigning himself to Cambridge, domestic feUcity, and the exercise of a lordly and generous hospitality. After his death and burial, with due pomp, in the churchyard, where his moss-grown tombstone may stiU be seen, his son reigned in his stead. The latter was living upon the estate in a grand style when the war rendered the vicinity of Boston dangerous for the devotees of royalty, and he hastily closed his house and left the country. The Massachusetts colony promptly confiscated the property, and assigned the resi dence to Washington for several months. With the return of peace the house feU into the hands of Thomas Tracy, a personage who was notable for lavish expenditure, and banquets at which a hundred guests were seated. He was the owner of ships, and sent privateers scouring the ocean for golden sands. He came to grief at last, and no more vessels anchored in Boston Bay laden with riches from every zone. Servants drank no more costly wines from carved pitchers, and the Ught of the pretty Ulumination upon this one chapter in the history of the house was completely extinguished. Joseph Lee, the brother of Mrs. Tracy, afterward dwelt here for a long period, and then the property was bought by Andrew Craigie, apoth ecary-general of the army. He was a man of social tastes, and liberal whUe his money lasted. He enlarged and repaired the mansion, built a bridge over the Charles River, constructed a summer-house and an aqueduct — both of which have disappeared — and gave dinner-parties every Saturday, on one occasion, LATER PERIOD. 137 according to tradition, entertaining Talleyrand. He faded, and after him Mrs. Craigie, wisiing to retain the mansion, let rooms. Edward Everett, Jared Sparks, Willard PhUlips, and Worcester, the gentle and genial lexicographer, were among her lodgers. Here came LongfeUow soon after his second Euro pean visit and his appointment to a professorship in Harvard College, and was shortly quartered snugly in the historical chamber over the " study," in which he wrote "Hyperion" in 1838-39. In 1843 he purchased the property, and has ever since resided in the stately old dweUing. It is consecrated, as it were, to the delicate rendering of universal emotions through the little facts of life strung into fitting measures for the exquisite music of the soul. Thus with its antiquity, its legends and its lore, its romance, its history, and its poesy, the home of LongfeUow is one of the most precious gems in the galaxy, and will ever hold a prominent place in the great American heart. " Elmwood," the residence of James RusseU Lowell, is not far from that of LongfeUow. It stands on gently rising ground a considerable distance back from the avenue, and has such a snug and dreamy air that it looks even more like the ideal abode of reverie and poetry than its neighbor. It was built over a century ago by Thomas Oliver, the last royal Lieutenant-Gov ernor of Massachusetts, a man of letters, courteous, affable, and of large, ami able nature, as denoted by his design of what was then esteemed the finest mansion in the neighborhood of Boston. It is substantial, square, roomy, aris tocratic-looking, and a fine example of the type of domestic architecture which flourished in many portions of New England and New York during the half century immediately foUowing. A miniature forest is scattered about the lawn, consisting of noble elms, fruit-trees, and choice shrubs ; so thickly, indeed, is the place hemmed in during the summer that the mansion can scarcely be dis cerned from the street. A high gate leads to a long, broad walk, bordered on both sides by shrubs and flowers ; and at the back and on either side of the house are orchards, gardens, and shrubberies. The grounds comprise about thirteen acres, and adjoin Mount Auburn Cemetery upon one side. In this house Lowell was born, and here he has always Uved. Never was poet more lovingly content with his home. He has sung its praises in some of his most captivating strains. Like LongfeUow, he catches from his windows is 1 3g THE HOMES OF AMERICA. charming glimpses of the river Charles across the marshes, whici inspired the lines — " Below, the Charles— a strip of nether sky, JSTow bid by rounded apple-trees between, Whose gaps the misplaced sail sweeps bellying by, Now flickering golden through a woodland screen, Then spreading out at his next turn beyond, A silver circle like an inland pond — Slips seaward silently through marshes purple and green." Approaching the house by the broad walk, a very tall and ancient elm is passed — the pride of the poet, the centennial of which he has thus quaintly celebrated in verse : " And one tall elm, this hundredth year, Doge of our leafy Venice here, Who, with an annual ring, doth wed The blue Adriatic overhead, Shadows, with his palatial mass, The deep canal of flowing grass, Where glow the dandelions sparse, For shadows of Italian stars." Broad stone steps lead to the portal, within which is a glass door, giving a gUmpse of the cozy hall beyond. The interior of " Elmwood " has aU the old-fashioned elegance and air of comfort to be found in houses of its age and style. On the right is the drawing-room, furnished in the soUd and rich fashion of the last century, and with many ornaments chosen with a poet's taste. Passing along the hall to the rear, Lowell's study and favorite " den " is reached on the left. It is a fascinating room, with its great, open fireplace and spacious chimney, where enormous logs blaze on winter nights ; its windows shaded, and looking out upon the flowers and plants ; its bronzes, vases, relics of the war, and many literary and artistic curiosities ; its air of confusion ; its tables and writing-desks littered with books, papers, pamphlets, meerschaum- pipes, pens, and little conveniences ; its large easy-chair, from Avhich many an eloquent discourse has proceeded to familiar friends on politics, letters, and art ; and its book-shelves, choked up with rich and various lore. Another smaller LATER PERIOD. 139 'Elm-wood," Residence of James Russell Lowell, study opens from this, with desks, books, and portraits — a room but little used. The pictures which Lowell has woven into the texture of his minstrelsy have been drawn directly from Nature. His descriptions of scenery are full of local coloring, as in his "Indian Sum mer Reverie" he portrays the gay and careless tanglement of shrubbery just by his house : 140 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. " O'er yon low wall, which guards our unkempt zone, Where vines, and weeds, and scrub-oaks intertwine Safe from the plow, whose rough, discordant stone Is massed to one soft gray by lichens fine, The tangled blackberry, crossed and recrossed, weaves A prickly network of ensanguined leaves ; Hard by, with coral beads, the prim black-alders shine." The ancestors of Lowell were among the most eminent of the early settlers of New England. The founder of the LoweU famUy in Massachusetts was Percival Lowell, who settled in Newbury in 1639. Hon. John LoweU, the poet's grandfather, was a lawyer, member of Congress, and one of the framers of the State Constitution. Rev. Charles Lowell, the poet's father, the distin guished divine who preached in Boston for haU a century, purchased " Elm- wood " of the famous Elbridge Gerry, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and Vice-President of the United States, whose residence it had been for many years. It was this clerical author who refitted and restored the house, making numerous important additions, and planting many of the stately elms from which the estate has been named. The poet was named after his father's maternal grandfather, Judge James RusseU. The plain, square, white dwelling of Ralph Waldo Emerson, purchased by him in 1835, is of a similar antique pattern, although erected many years later than that of James RusseU LoweU. Situated in Concord, Massachusetts, one hour's raUroad ride from Boston, and scarcely ten mUes from the university at Cambridge, encircled with rural beauties, it lifts its venerable head like a se vere, unimaginative picket guard, invested with a city rather than a country air. A thick grove of pine- and fir-trees almost brush with their branches the panes of glass in the library -windows. Upon one side of the house is a smooth lawn upon which a graceful rustic summer-house long stood, the handicraft of Amos Bronson Alcott ; upon the other is an ample pear- and apple-orchard ; in front a row of thick-leaved horse-chestnuts flourish, now nearly half a century old ; and in the rear the land slopes gently to a little streamlet which flows into the Concord River but a short distance away. The site of the house is not historical. No legend, as far as known, ever LATER PERIOD. 141 entwined itself about a root or a branch belonging to the estate. Concord itself enjoys the fame of having been one of the spots where the first coUision occurred between the British and Americans in 1775. And an eminent figure in the history of Hawthorne's " Old Manse " is said to have checked the stream of talk while entertaining distinguished guests upon his doorstep, to answer the question of a servant : " Into what pasture shaU I turn the cow to-night ? " " Into the battle-field, Nicodemus — into the battle-field ! " But the home of Emerson has no lot or part in the Revolutionary distinc tion of this tranquU and attractive New England village. It stands not far from the public square, at the junction of the old Lexington turnpike and the road to Boston. Even its prospect is limited. The level, lonely pastures, the placid, curving river half sleep amid the turf and shrubbery ; the quaint, old- fashioned houses, varied now and then by newer and more showy buddings ; the shaded streets, the trim, unambitious gardens, the blue lake with its " depths profound," the swells or ridges of land which border the meadows and give the town from a distance the appearance of having fallen by chance among wooded hills, and the smiling fields — form a restful and heart-satisfying land scape, easily seen upon the pages of its master, though not from the windows of the mansion. And UteraUy true are the following Unes : " . . . . dell and crag, Hollow and lake, hillside and pine-arcade, Are touched with genius." At the same time this snug, unpretentious, convenient, and thoroughly built country residence is the bower of the literary artist, from whatever source inspiration may be drawn, and through its charmed portals well the precious results of contemplation and poetic impulse. Ralph Waldo Emerson is of clerical blood and birth, having had a minister for an ancestor in every successive generation for eight generations back, either on the paternal or maternal side. His grandfather, Rev. WiUiam Emerson, built the " Old Manse " a few years before the Revolution, to which he brought his bride, the daughter of his predecessor in the Concord church, Rev. Daniel Bliss. It was here that the Rev. WiUiam Emerson, of Boston, the father of 142 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. Residence of Ralph "Waldo Emerson. Ralph Waldo, was born. The latter's birthplace was Boston, in 1803, but Con cord was the paradise of his boyhood, he spending much time at the " Old Manse " with his grandparents. The scenery was congenial, and his subse quent choice of a home natural. His writings have no imported flavor. The most interesting room is the library. It is square, and gravely plain. There are no architectural bookcases, but two sides are lined to the ceiling with choice tomes arranged upon simple wooden shelves. A large fireplace, with high brass andirons, occupies one end, over which is an antique mantel support ing busts and statuettes of men prominent in the great reforms of the age, and LATER PERIOD. 143 a curious little idol brought from the Nile. Above this hangs a fine copy of Michael Angelo's " Fates." In the center of the room stands a large mahogany table covered with books, and by the morocco writing-pad lies the pen which has had so great an influence for twenty -five years upon the thought of two continents. Within these study-walls have occurred many of the famous " Conversations " of Mr. Alcott, and here came Henry David Thoreau, the nat uralist and scholar. He lived three years in the family of Emerson. Then he built him a little house with his own hands in the berry-pasture, alongside of Walden Pond. Emerson, Alcott, and a few others helped him raise the struc ture. He was known in his studious retirement as an oddity, but was appre ciated by Emerson, and often welcomed in this study. Hawthorne resorted frequently hither while dweUing in the " Old Manse " ; and Margaret Fuller, WilUam EUery Channing, the celebrated divine, Charles Sumner, Theodore Parker, Lord Amberley, LongfeUow, Whittier, LoweU, Holmes, WendeU Phillips, Higginson, George WilUam Curtis, Bret Harte, and hundreds of others who have made for themselves world-wide reputations in poetry, art, Uterature, or politics, have been from time to time familiar visitors under this roof. Thomas Wentworth Higginson writes : " Though Mr. Emerson is often as signed to the class of metaphysicians or phUosophers, yet the actual traits of his inteUect clearly rank him rather among poets or literary men." And yet, speaking of his methods and structural defects, he goes on to say : " Even in his poems, his genius is like an ^Eolian harp, that now gives, now willfully withholds its music ; whUe some of his essays seem merely accidental collec tions of loose leaves from a note-book. Yet as one makes this criticism, one is shamed into silence by remembering many a passage of prose and verse so ma jestic in thought and rhythm, of quality so rare and utterance so delicious, as to form a permanent addition to the highest Uterature of the human race." The home of Amos Bronson Alcott, one of the intellectual lights and strik ing personages of Concord, is in the immediate vicinity of that of Mr. Emer son, even as the names of the two great thinkers are inseparably associated. It is the veritable farmhouse under the hiUside on the Lexington road, which Hawthorne takes as the abode of one of his heroes in " Septimius Felton." It 144 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. has long since received from the artistic hand of the ideal reformer and trans- cendentaUst such alterations and additions as have converted the plain cottage into a picturesque home for scholarship and literature. It is cozily nestled Residence of A. Bronson Alcott. among beautiful elms, while orchards bloom and sweet pastures stretch away on either hand. Until recently the domain was shut off from the street by a unique rustic fence of Mr. Alcott's own construction — a kind of work of which he makes a pastime, and executes with exceptional taste and skill. LATER PERIOD. 145 The house is low-studded but spacious, with an abundance of room. It is specially rich in odd nooks and corners, and it is ornamented and furnished in a manner which indicates the refinement and varied gifts of its occupants. The presence of an artist is revealed at a glance. It has been said of Mr. Alcott that " his best contribution to Uterature is his daughter Louisa," author of " Little Women " and other works which have carried her fame to the world's end ; but the rising star of his younger daughter Mary in the profession of art is the secret of many of the graceful attractions of the old homestead. The prospect from the front of the house is open and pleasant : in the rear it is overtopped by the familiar pine-wood of the Concord landscape, and gentle hUls and sequestered pathways afford many a charming ramble. Mr. Alcott was born in Wolcott, Connecticut, in 1799. He says he was educated on the " Pilgrim's Progress." He borrowed the book of a neighbor, and after keeping it six months returned it — and then borrowed it again ! This he did every six months until the book was given to him. His memory is unrivaled. He is chiefly distinguished for his conversational powers. He is a taU, weU-proportioned, sunny old gentleman of eighty well-rounded years, with long, sUvery hair, a merry twinkle in his eye, and life and animation lighting up his countenance with every new topic of discussion or disquisition. The " White House," at Washington, the official home of the President of the United States, illustrated in our frontispiece, is a striking example of the tendency of the national taste during the early years of our republic toward the severely classical in domestic architecture. This edifice was projected, and the corner-stone laid with appropriate ceremonies, in 1792. It was destroyed by the British in 1814, and rebuUt after the original plan in 1815. It occupies the center of a twenty-acre lot situated upon an elevation forty-four feet above the level of the Potomac River, the grounds cultivated in keeping with the dignified aspect of the mansion itself. Two large gateways constitute the en trances from the avenue, and a broad drive and a foot-walk sweep in a sym metrical semicircular curve past the main portico. It is built of white stone, and has a frontage of one hundred and seventy feet, with a depth of eighty-six feet. The grand northern portico is graced by ten massive Ionic columns, comprehending two lofty stories, and the whole 19 146 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. building is crowned by a stone balustrade. An outer inter-columniation for carriages to drive under enables guests to alight under shelter, and the middle space between the columns on either side of the portico is provided with a flight of steps for visitors who walk. The southern front of the house over- "vmmMMm'' i hHMHn Southern Front of the White House, Washington. looks the Potomac, a portion of which is shown in the accompanying sketch ; it is finished with a lofty, semicircular projecting portico with six Ionic columns resting upon a rustic basement, which being above-ground, the facade is reaUy three stories. The central northern door opens into a spacious entrance-hall elaborately frescoed, forty by fifty feet deep ; a sash-screen divides this hall into two une qual parts. Upon the right is a small reception-room, upon the left a staircase LATER PERIOD. 147 leading to the anteroom of the President. Inside the screen the hall leads directly to the famous East Room, forty by eighty feet, and twenty-two feet high, the decorations of which are of the Grecian order. The Blue Room, where the President and his wife hold pubUc receptions, is a splendid apart ment, thirty by forty feet, finished and furnished in blue and gold. The Green Room is of less size, connecting the Blue Room with the great East Room. The Red Room is the fannly parlor, and is located directly between the Blue Room and the State Dining-Room. The latter is a stately apartment, thirty by forty feet, with a dining-table for thirty-six covers. The President's household occupy the second floor, with the exception of the Cabinet Room at the east end, anterooms, etc. The Ubrary is a great, cheerful apartment over the Blue Room, where intimate personal friends are entertained informaUy. Seven large and handsomely furnished sleeping-apart ments are also upon this floor. The servants' quarters are in the commodious basement, as are also the kitchens and store-rooms. The private dining-room of the President's famUy is on the first floor at the right of the main entrance, just beyond the little reception-room. Its appointments are elegant and in exceptional good taste. The conservatory is connected with the southwestern part of the structure, and is reached by a passage from this floor. When the Executive Mansion was erected, the city of Washington was in vested with a courtly tone, and the new house was styled " The Palace." The flavor of royalty clung to the manners and mode of speech of the early heads of the government. Mrs. Madison was approached as " The Queen," and in her day every recognized form of etiquette was rigidly observed. Mrs. Monroe first carried into execution the custom of never returning visits. It was John Quincy Adams who, finding a social revolution imminent, drew up the formula which has ever since regulated the etiquette of the social superstructure. Mrs. Hayes in the present administration adheres strictly to the conventionalities of her station, and presides over the presidential home with unostentatious ele gance and stately grace. As we study the characteristics of the home which the nation has erected for its Presidents, we seem to be brought in palpable connection with the long train of distinguished men and women who have from time to time dwelt under its broad roof. III. MODERN PERIOD. WITHIN the pres ent half century domestic architecture has been running a race with the general development and prosperity of America. Countless styles from all climes, with modifications and abbreviations, have been made subservient to the convenience and tastes of a mixed population. Cottages and viUas combining the beautiful with the practical and useful in design, and as variously adorned as the idiosyncrasies of the human character, dot the length and breadth of our land. Many of these are in themselves the expression of sentiment, self-respect, and artistic culture. MODERN PERIOD. 149 One feature of the striking departure of recent years from the old-school severity of architectural form and outline is the adaptation of budding to site. Beauty that is not original and independent often arises from association, as individuality is one of the cardinal principles of domestic taste. Nature has contributed largely to the embeUishment of America. When a house is placed amid scenes of grandeur and sublimity with harmonious results, we are apt to attribute the complex and pleasurable emotions produced to the nature of the architecture alone. The same structure, however, denuded of its surroundings, would unquestionably lose its special charms. Not a little of the romance and poetry hovering about viUa residences depends upon the acces sories of vines, creepers, shrubbery, and foUage, as weU as the happy fitness of architectural plan to the pecuUarities of landscape. The shores of the Hudson River, " the Rhine of America," are rich with picturesque and beauti ful homes which seem to have caught up and developed in outward form and in interior arrangement the very spirit of the scenery. The Palisades, a wall of soUd rock twenty mUes long, are graced with country-seats, one of which, constructed of stone, in quaint keeping with its granite foundation, is so ar ranged that the windows of every apartment command magnificent views up and down the noble river ; even the staircase winding into a unique tower is agreeably varied with restful landings emphasized by oriel and balcony. The natural slope of the dizzy height is converted into a factor of the general effect, the sky-lines rising in broken forms culminating in the tower as the ground- lines descend ; thus the dwelling partakes of the imposing character, as if a product, of the rugged cliffs themselves. WhUe the Palisades represent grandeur, the sloping hills about the Tappan Zee merge into repose. The beautiful villa of Albert Bierstadt, the great land scape artist, is situated upon an eminence overlooking this scene. It is in Ir vington, twenty-four mUes from New York City. It is some three fourths of a mUe from the river's edge, and in the immediate foreground is Washington Irving's far-famed Sunnyside, and the homes of Moses H. Grinnell, of Philip R. Paulding — one of the finest specimens of the pointed Tudor style of domestic architecture in this country — and of many other persons of wealth, promi nence, and aesthetic tastes. It is a large, substantial house, built of rough blue- 150 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. stone gneiss, crowned with towers, surrounded with galleries, and adorned with oriel-windows, at once picturesque, unusual, and sincere. Residence of Albert Bierstadt. Mr. Bierstadt was five years in selecting the site for his dwelling. It no doubt commands one of the best views on the Hudson, taking in, beyond the placid Tappan Zee, a landscape of hill and dale and water reaching fully thirty MODERN PERIOD. 151 mUes. De TocqueviUe, the political economist, during a visit to Irving, was conducted to this spot, and pronounced the view one of the finest he had ever seen in any country. Being an artist, Mr. Bierstadt naturaUy buUt his house to paint pictures in, and one half of it is given to studio. This room is three stories in height, starting from the second floor ; on the same floor is a library, separated by doors twenty feet high, curtained with striped Algerine stuff, one side of which is composed entirely of glass. When thrown together, Ubrary and studio em brace a length of seventy feet. The studio is finished in wood, with oUed pine floors. A large, cheerful fireplace, surmounted by a picture, graces one side of the room, while a gallery running across the end enables the artist to obtain distant views of his own work. The furniture is of carved oak, and the deco rations chiefly from the owner's own brush. Looking northwest from this studio, Mr. Bierstadt painted " The Home of Irving," one of his choice contributions to art, a picture subsequently pur chased by the gentleman who had formerly owned and improved the site of the artist's villa. It is an autumnal scene pervaded by a deep poetic sentiment, and with much tenderness of expression. It embraces the stately trees and the ripe foUage in the near view, graduaUy receding to the dreamy shades of Sleepy HoUow and other points of legendary and historic interest, no single object receiving undue attention, but all blended with artistic sense, together with the shining waters of the Tappan Zee, while above and below the romantic river winds its quiet way through the narrowing valley to the blue mountains, fading into a soft mist among the CatskiUs. Over aU the buoyant clouds float in a sky of azure, reflected in the placid Hudson with marvelous truth. The glory of the picture is in the perfect balance of its composition, and in the accuracy with which the prospect from the studio-window is transferred to the broad canvas. Above the Ubrary, and holding the highest oriel-window, is an artist's bed room. By an ingenious contrivance this communicates with the gaUery over the studio, and a sliding door admits the occupant into the beauties of the room below. The parlors and sleeping-apartments aU open upon wide verandas and balconies, from which the cultivated eye may rapturously survey Nature's great landscape-garden. 152 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. A name which we ever invoke with grateful remembrance is that of Wash ington Irving. He called the Hudson River his " first love," and, after many wanderings and sojournings in foreign lands, and seeming infidelities, returned to adore it above all the other rivers of the world. His choice of a home was upon the site of his boyhood's haunts, and amid the early inspirations of his muse. Sunnyside lies hidden with jealous foliage, its open, sunlit lawn so affection ately embraced by protecting trees and shrubbery as to deny aU vagrant obser vation. When Irving first took up his abode here, thirty-three years ago, the river-shore was not profaned by a railroad, and he was nearly alone in his pic turesque seclusion ; now every inch of the adjacent country is gardened and viUaed, yet all so charmingly under the rose that it is like the discovering of birds' nests among the forest-leaves to pursue explorations. The absence of dividing walls, and the deceptive, elfish, winding walks and carriage-drives lead you constantly astray ; while you think you are roaming over the grounds of one estate, you suddenly bring up among the flower-beds of another. The edifice is delightfully unique, and totally unlike any other home in America. Irving speaks of it as being " one of the oldest edifices for its size " in the coun try, " and, though of small dimensions, yet, like many small people of mighty spirit, valuing itself greatly upon its antiquity." It was a Dutch cottage which he purchased and remodeled into a captivating abode. It is cut up into odd, snug little rooms and boudoirs, according to the signs of promise from the peak-roofed and gable-ended exterior. The eastern side of the house is over grown with ivy presented to Irving by Sir Walter Scott, of the famous stock of Melrose Abbey. Sunnyside is like a place bewitched with thrilling memories of great and gaUant deeds, and with the enchantment of song and story. The legends so gracefully woven about every striking feature of the lovely scene, overflow with quaint humor, harmless superstition, and pensive sentiment. Irving's pen- portraiture of the peaceful valley, whether in weird fiction or poetic history, is as singularly truthful as the brush of Albert Bierstadt. The whole bias of Irving's genius was artistic, and the color thrown into his pictures is indelible. When he tells us that Sleepy Hollow won its name from a charm laid by a rival sachem upon its original lords, a charm so potent that the warriors sleep MODERN PERIOD. 153 to this day among its rocks and recesses with their bows and arrows beside them, we can hardly resist watching for their waking. As for Ichabod Crane, who has not made his acquaintance, and, becoming interested in the blooming Katrina, been shocked with the sequel — finding it difficult to be persuaded that ¦-A;m < ; ' Sunnyside," Home of Washington Irving. these personages were only the phantasies of the brain ? And where is the reader who has not thirsted for a taste of cool water from the mysterious spring which the wife of one of the first settlers of the region brought from HoUand in a chum ? Irving says she took it up in the night from beside their 20 154 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. house at Rotterdam, unbeknown to her husband, being sure she should find no water equal to it in the new country. The success attending the republication of Irving's writings proves the per manent value of a clear, direct, simple, and natural style. His felicities of theme, thought, and expression have won for him a place in national affection which can never be superseded. Literary composition was usually a slow and laborious process with him. " The Sketch-Book " contains the widest variety of examples, touching every chord of feeling, of any of his famous works. And yet nothing, not even his irresistible drollery, was dashed off with the traditional flow of genius ; his was the laborious though unseen art which con ceals art. Sunnyside, both in unity and detaU, was in its palmy days a striking reflex of Irving's character, and it might almost be said of his physique and manner. Its modest proportions accorded with the figure, erect and healthful, which scarcely reached the middle stature of manhood. Its dignified air, its mis chievous hiding-places, its dreamy stillness while apparently fuU of thought, its pretty fancies and surprises, its unconscious way of observing aU things far and near while apparently in remotest seclusion, its reserve without coldness, creat ing instinctively a respectful deference, and its twists, turns, and vagaries, were in harmony with the freshness and fullness of invention, individuality of con ception, honest manliness of thought, and whimsical yet refined and delicate humors of its illustrious master. Napoleon III. was at one time a visitor to Sunnyside, and Daniel Webster was some days a guest in 1842, bearing Irving's appointment and credentials as Minister to Spain. Upon one of the billowy ridges in the mystic precincts of Irvington stands the imposing mansion of John Earle Williams, a picturesque structure by no means discordant with the well-balanced irregularity of the landscape, though of somewhat erratic architecture. It suggests about equaUy the Elizabethan cottage, the Gothic lodge, and the Swiss chalet. It was buUt by a gentleman who was killed by lightning while standing in the front door, and was after ward improved by Mr. Williams. An ingenious architect has wrought the com bination with excellent effect, and no incongruity appears. The granite con- MODERN PERIOD. 155 struction has the aspect of great durability and strength. The grounds of the mansion slope from woods in the rear to a wide expanse of field inclosed by a low granite waU, while near the house flowers blossom from tasteful beds, and choice shrubbery is nurtured tenderly. The first impression given by the edifice is a mass of turrets, points, and -^^^-^T^^rr* Residence of John Earle Williams, Irvington. LAf^ %5§^%: eaves— an old Warwick cottage modernized and Americanized, for instance, with a mild trace of the peaked turrets of Normandy thrown in. The front of the house is highest at the southwest corner, the walls and the roof almost equaUy dividing the altitude. The outlook from every window and from every point of the grounds includes a series of beautiful landscapes of the river and 156 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. its environs ; the Tappan Zee, the hazy town of Nyack, with its roofs silvered by the sun, and the frowning Palisades changing in hue as the spells-of cloud and sunshine vary. Each window is indeed the frame of a picture in which Nature expresses herself, and obviates the great master's art — expresses herself not only in one key alone, but in all her variety of moods, and especially those that are lovely. The interior is the embodiment of refined common sense. Its drawing- rooms, sitting-rooms, bedrooms, dressing-rooms, and play-rooms are aU inexpres sibly cheery and radiant with the spirit of domestic life. They are richly fur nished and decorated, but elegance is subordinate to comfort and utiUty. It is essentiaUy a home. The entrance-hall is spacious, and finished in oak, pine, and walnut, the floor uncovered except by mats and a few skins. An old and exceedingly handsome cabinet-clock of foreign handiwork stands opposite the door, and a few elegant vases are distributed among the corners. The principal sitting-room is finished in butternut elaborately carved, and upholstered in warm, bright, suitable colors. A little retiring-room is called the " Growlery." Long, rambUng pas sage-ways lead everywhere and nowhere, and are most deUghtfuUy bewildering. Art-treasures are variously disposed through the house, including works of R. Swain Gifford, Eastman Johnson, Colman, Kensett, and other American artists, with one genuine Salvator Rosa. In this romance-inspiring atmosphere of historical incident is the summer residence of Cyrus West Field, the projector of the Atlantic Cable. The mansion was buUt by John A. Stewart, President of the United States Trust Company, and without any striking peculiarities is a good example of a class of substantial American homes which embellish the continent. The situation is exceptionally attractive. The river here seems like a thing of life, and the echo of wonder that rang through these hUls from the prow of the adventurous craft which first stirred its waters two hundred and seventy years ago seems tossing along its beating bosom, ringing more audibly now than then as the dweller upon its charmed shore commands the lightning to convey his morning salutations to friends in London, Paris, or any other portion of the Old World. The name and the fame of Cyrus W. Field have gone to the remotest corners MODERN PERIOD. 157 of the earth. He not only succeeded, after thirteen years of unceasing labor and two disheartening faUures, in stretching the electric cable from one conti nent to the other, crossing the Atlantic in person fifty times during the period, but he has since been actively interested in estabUshing telegraphic communica- JTBHMI mum i[''M$mi!&m 'i&tiSXBt$. mgm Residence of Cyrus West Field, Irvington. tion between Europe, India, China, Australia, and with the West Indies and South America. He is a son of Rev. Dr. David D. Field, of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, at which place he was born in 1819. Crowning conspicuously a steep, grassy lawn upon a picturesque height two or three hundred feet above the level of the Hudson, in Tarrytown, just north 158 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. of Irvington, is an imposing dwelling of peculiar architecture, known to the inhabitants thereabouts as " The Castle." Its site would have been well chosen for the old feudal or castellated architectural style which prevailed so generally in foreign countries at periods when the necessity existed for private fortifica- 'The Castle," Residence of William B. Hatch, Tarrytown. tions ; and in its elements of structural solidity it compares favorably with its prototypes in older countries than America. Indeed, what it lacks in associa tion and tradition is more than compensated for by the magnificence of its loca tion, which the fairest views on the Rhine or in the Highlands of Scotland do not excel. It is always visible from the river, and is a notable landmark to tourists traveling by steamer, but in summer it is completely hidden by a pro fusion of foliage from the village below. MODERN PERIOD. 159 This mansion is literaUy kindred to the earth and elements, the buUding- stone having been quarried from the rocky soil upon which it stands. The waUs have a uniform thickness of twenty-six inches, the stone having been all fitted to seem irregular, presenting an extraordinary degree of elegance ; the portico, which is revealed in the sketch, is of heavy granite, and one of the finest in America. It was projected in 1859 by John T. Herrick, a wealthy " The Castle " at Kight. flour-merchant, since which time over two hundred thousand dollars have been expended upon it, and with such exceptional taste that it is an object of beauty as weU as princely grandeur. The house fronts the south, and measures from end to end about a hundred 160 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. and eighty feet, .exclusive of balconies. The main entrance leads into an im mense hall, eleven feet wide, twenty-six feet long, and forty feet high, opening on the first floor, where are situated the main apartments. The parlor is round, and its handsomely frescoed ceiling is supported by groined arches, irradiating in the Gothic style from a cluster of twelve pillars in the center ; and three alcove-windows look northward, southward, and westward upon the incompar able prospect from Croton Point to the sharp escarpment of the Palisades with their abutments of detritus. There is a charming reception-room upon one side of the entrance-haU, and a biUiard-room upon the other. The dining-room is a stately apartment measuring twenty-two feet by nineteen, exclusive of a bay-window which is eight feet deep and fifteen wide, and looks upon as lovely a view as ever blessed mortal sight. It is furnished in soUd carved oak and green morocco. The breakfast-room, with its diamond-pane windows and at mosphere of cozy warmth, is a gentle reminder of the sedate quiet and comfort of an old English hall. The Ubrary opens from the dining-room, and the smoking-room opens appropriately from the library ; and the wine-ceUars on the basement floor open through doors with hoUow panels ingeniously devised to hold cigars and tobacco. The modern furnace sends hospitable warmth into every room, each furnished, however, with an open grate in addition to the fur nace-radiator, the mantels being aU of separate patterns and material, one of the most unique being of black petrified wood, the grain of which is seen in veins of yellow and pink. The house and views culminate in a grand tower sixty-five feet from the ground, commanding on a clear day an uninterrupted stretch of forty or fifty mUes of landscape beauties of every variety compre hended in the panorama. The approach to " The Castle " is sufficiently wide to drive six carriages abreast. The hills of Tarrytown are planted with villas many of which are marvels of beauty, surrounded as they are with lawns and gardens, and adorned in every manner which wealth can afford and fancy suggest. The town is an ancient burgh, mossed and lichened with traditions and histori cal reminiscences. Irving says, " There is a story that in the olden time its name was given to it by the good housewives of the adjacent country from the inveterate propensity of their husbands to linger about the vUlage tavern MODERN PERIOD. 161 on market-days." Thus even its ancient attractions are in a certain sense im- mortaUzed. About two mUes to the north of " The Castle " is a pretty detached vUla which was formerly owned and occupied by General Fremont. It was erected Wm v mm mm mm Mil iite^W^ """ " iff jr\i™pyV i ^n'/iaft .i^SFL ..,..,., .. ifiBr l ^^^K-v^-- 9HSI Former Residence of General Fremont, Tarrytown. by General James Watson Webb, United States Minister to Brazil for several years, who after dweUing here for a time sold the property to its later miUtary master. It is of a pleasing though unpretentious order of architecture, and a fair specimen of the suburban home. The exterior ornamentation is of wood, which is used lavishly. Fine old forest-trees encroach lovingly upon the bal 21 162 THE HOMES OF AMERICA. cony, shading the house on the brightest day. The grounds are picturesquely uneven, and the view quite as beguiling as that of other points of the same altitude in the vicinity. Rockwood, the beautiful home of the late William H. Aspinwall, near Tar rytown, chaUenges comparison with the best homes of any country. It may not boast of an avenue of trees ending in a Gothic church which dates back five hundred years, as is the privilege of the demesne of the Marquis of West minster at Eaton HaU, who enjoys a fortune which has been carefully nursed for him since the days of WiUiam the Conqueror, but it is a noble villa-estate, and would be esteemed worthy of a distinguished place even in England among those of the opulent gentry which have been ripening for centu ries. It stands in a park of about two hundred acres, with a front of a mile on the bank of the Hudson, and two lodges and entrance-gates upon the road. The structure has an extremely castellated appearance, and reminds the traveler fresh from the Rhine of those majestic outlines with which the hand of man has crowned Nature's charming heights in that part of the world. It is built of gneiss of two shades, the walls being of cold gray, whUe the sUls and chimneys are of a warm dark gray. It is in the latest style of EngUsh Gothic architecture, having perpendicular traceries in the windows, and other fine pecuUarities of that order. It was designed by an EngUsh architect, and is not only a fine specimen of mechanical skill, but a work of art and architectural propriety. The eastern front is one hundred and forty feet in length, flanked by a grand tower eighty feet high, twenty-eight feet square, and is lighted by richly decorated windows in every story. This front is otherwise diversified by the carriage-porch mantled with ivy, and the bay-window of a delightful sitting-room which rises to the whole height of the house, and which is also pierced by handsome windows. Beyond the main building the connecting range extends for a height of two stories, and this is again flanked on the northerly end by the wing three stories high. The other fronts of the house architecturally correspond with the one described. The drawing-room is lighted with two bay-windows; the ceiUng is pan- MODERN PERIOD. 163 ¦ft