WALKS IN THE WOODS 



(III) WITH WASHINGTON IRVING ALONG THE CROTON AQUEDUCT 

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



(PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR) 



THE warming sun entices us forth this spring morn- 

 ing for a walk along the top jjfe the Old Croton 

 Aqueduct from Hastings-on-Hudson to Tarrytown. 

 The Aqueduct was built many years ago to supply New 

 York City with drinking water. It has long since be- 

 come an integral part of the landscape. It skirts the 



of the path one may look, these spring evenings, straight 

 down the river past the Palisades, and see the myriad 

 twinkling lights of Manhattan, it is for the most part a 

 secluded country lane, fenced, and dashed here and there 

 with weirdly fantastic and lovely scenery. 



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 Lane, in the Revolution. We come out on 

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

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

 where tradition says that Louis Napcleon 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 UP 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 



WASHINGTON'S HEADQUARTERS. AT DOBBS FERRY, WHERE HE PLANNED THE YORK- 

 TOWN CAMPAIGN 



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 

 sympathetic 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 



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 whispering giants are dust, but the 

 blessings bestowed by them go on from generation to 



IMS 



