WALKS IN THE WOODS 



(III) WITH WASHINGTON IRVING ALONG THE CROTON AQUEDUCT 

 BY J. OTIS SWIFT, ALTHOR OF "WOODLAND MAGIC" 



(PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR) 



THE warmiiicj sun entices us forth this spring morn- of the path one may look, these spring evenings, straight 

 ing for a walk along the top of the Old Croton down the river past the Palisades, and see the myriad 

 Aqueduct from Hastings-on-Hudson to Tarr\town. twinkling lights of Manhattan, it is for the most part a 

 The Aqueduct was huilt many years ago to supply New secluded country lane, fenced, and dashed here and there 

 York City with drinking water. It has long since be- with weirdly fantastic and lovely scenery, 

 come an integral part of the landscape. It skirts the We go down through the garden here at the Manor in 



Hastings, past the big white oak guarding the upper 

 end of the little ravine where the Americans lay in 

 ambush to surprise the Hessians at the Battle of 

 Edgar's I.ane, in the Revolution. We come out on 

 the Aqueduct at "Locustwood," the old Minturn es- 

 tate, now the home of Alajor Frederick G. Zinsser, 

 where tradition says that Louis Napc^eon was once 

 a guest and where Admiral Farragut, who lived on 

 the other side of the village at a later date, was often 

 a visitor. 



The fine colonial mansion, back from Broadway, is 

 bowered among mammoth horsechestnuts that are 

 glorious in blossom ; white pines that may have 

 soughed above the heads of Colonial troopers; two 

 beautiful old English lindens brought over and 

 planted here by the early Minturns ; one of the most 



LOOKING ur THE AQUEDUCT 

 NEAR THE GOULD ESTATE 



eastern bank of the Hudson 

 for many miles, paralleling 

 Broadway, the ancient post 

 road that stretches from the 

 Battery in the city to the 

 Capital at Albany. 



It meanders through the 

 most historic region near the 

 metropolis, and for eight 

 miles through what are per- 

 haps the richest private es- 

 tates in America. It is a level 

 stretch of grassy banks bor- 

 dered most of the way with 

 giant old forest trees. It is 

 the easy path of communi- 

 cation between sleepy villages of the Hudson Valley; 

 the Lovers' Lane where Darby and Joan saunter hand 

 in hand on summer evenings, with none to see save the 

 sym])athetic moon. It winds through a country made 

 famous by Henry Hudson, Washington Irving, George 

 Washington, Rochambeau, and incidentally by Major 

 Andre, the British spy. Though from picturesque turns 



WASHINGTON'S HEADQIIARTERS, AT noHnS KKRin, WHERE HE PLANNED THE YORK- 

 TOWN ca.mi'.M(;n 



imposing copper beeches in all the Washington Irving 

 country ; locusts from which the old place gets its name, 

 and many other interesting trees. 



A sanctuary of trees, shrubs, and wild birds, are the 

 private estates along the Hudson. The patient hands 

 that planted these whis])ering giants are dust, but the 

 blessings bestowed by them go on from generation to 



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