miles south-west of Lacolle Village, and one mile north of the village
of Champlain, N.Y. and about forty miles from Montreal. The highway from
Lacolle to Champlain runs through the property. The traveller from the
north finds himself entering well-wooded lands and at length passes the
heavy low stone-walls and large, white gate of the grounds and sees the
home nearby on a slight elevation to the right. A sloping lawn and old
trees extend in front, the gardens are at the north-side, and a hundred
yards further, a wooded park of about a hundred acres. On the-opposite,
or west, side of the road, the tall old elm grove forms part of a
hillside farm. The Manorhouse itself is large, constructed of wood, and
having an extensive stone gabled wing, the whole ornamented with vines.
In front, six tall, slender, fluted pillars with Ionic capitals give
Colonial character to the verandah and meet the roof above the second
story. The massive oak front door is divided into an upper and lower
half, with large brass knocker. The interior is mostly finished in
polished hard woods, with broad fire-places and colonial mantels in most
of the rooms. The main part of the house was built in 1825 by Mrs. Henry
Hoyle, formerly Mrs. Major Henry Ten Eyck Schuyler, of Troy, N.Y., under
the following circumstances:

As Sarah Visscher she had inherited a large fortune from her grand-uncle
Lieutenant-General Garret Fisher (Visscher), a Loyalist officer of Sir
Adolphus Oughton's regiment, the 55th, which was present at the taking
of Montreal, and who died at Manchester Square, London, in 1808, after a
distinguished career. This fortune arrived at the beginning of the war
of 1812, just before the death of her first husband Major Schuyler,
nephew of General Philip Schuyler, and descendant of the well-known
colonial military family of that name. He left three daughters and a
son. They possessed other very valuable property in Troy, including a
handsome farm and mansion at the South end, shown in old pictures of the