The Hudson - Three Centuries of History, Romance and Invention by Wallace Bruce
page 62 of 329 (18%)
page 62 of 329 (18%)
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remove it and deposit the slab containing the inscription in one
of the outbuildings of the estate. This was done. But a few months afterward the slab was stolen, and nothing more was heard of it until thirteen years later, when Mr. Hugh Maxwell, president of the St. Andrew's Society, discovered it in a junk shop in New York. He at once purchased it and presented it to Mr. James G. King, who about this time came into possession of the Deas property, where it has since been carefully preserved." This mansion of Captain Deas afterward known as the "King House on the Cliff" was a stately residence where Washington Irving used to come and dream of his fair Manhattan across the river. It was also the head-quarters of Lafayette, after the battle of Brandywine. * * * I was an admirer of General Hamilton, and I sicken when I think of our political broils, slanders and enmities. _Washington Irving._ * * * The gardener also said: "the river road beneath us is cut directly through the spot. Originally it was simply a narrow and grassy shelf close up under the cliffs, six feet wide and eleven paces long. A great cedar tree stood at one end, and this sandbowlder, which we have also preserved, was at the other. It was about twenty feet above the river and was reached by a steep rocky path leading up from the Hudson, and, as there was then no road or path even along the base |
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