_Charles Fenno Hoffman._

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=Cornwall-on-the-Hudson.=--This locality N. P. Willis selected as the
most picturesque point on the Hudson. The village lies in a lovely
valley, which Mr. Beach has styled in his able description, as "an
offshoot of the Ramapo, up which the storm-winds of the ocean drive,
laden with the purest and freshest air."

=Idlewild.=--Where Willis spent the last years of his life is a
charming spot and rich with poetic memories. E. P. Roe also chose
Cornwall for his home. Lovers of the Hudson are indebted to Edward
Bok for his realistic sketch of an afternoon visit. The "Idlewild" of
to-day is still green to the memory of the poet. Since Willis' death
the place has passed in turn into various hands, until now it belongs
to a wealthy New York lawyer, who has spent thousands of dollars on
the house and grounds. The old house still stands, and here and there
in the grounds remains a suggestion of the time of Willis. The famous
pine-drive leading to the mansion, along which the greatest literary
lights of the Knickerbocker period passed during its palmy days, still
remains intact, the dense growth of the trees only making the road the
more picturesque. The brook, at which Willis often sat, still runs on
through the grounds as of yore. In the house, everything is remodeled
and remodernized. The room from whose windows Willis was wont to look
over the Hudson, and where he did most of his charming writing, is now
a bedchamber, modern in its every appointment, and suggesting its age
only by the high ceiling and curious mantel. Only a few city blocks
from "Idlewild" is the house where lived E. P. Roe, the author of so
many popular novels, as numerous, almost, in number as the several