WINTER WALKS IN THE WOODS 

 SLEEPY HOLLOW AT TARRYTOWN, NEW YORK 



BY J. OTIS SWIFT 



(WITH PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR) 



FOLLOWING THE BROOK THROUGH MORE LAUREL HAUNTED WOODS WE COME TO THE 

 SHORE OF ITS SOURCE POCANTICO LAKE 



THERE is no spot in the lower Hudson River Valley 

 having greater fascination to the well-read Ameri- 

 can than Sleep Hollow, just above Tarry town. It 

 is also full of interest to the naturalist and the lover of 

 out-of-doors things. Almost every tree, shrub and plant 

 to be found in 

 this section 

 grows in the 

 forest of the 

 mystic Hollow. 

 It is frequent- 

 ed by nature- 

 lovers, pedes- 

 trians and trav- 

 elers, who reach 

 it easily from 

 New York by 

 train, automo- 

 bile, or a- foot. 

 Every inch of 

 its story 

 haunted farm 

 land, woods and 

 field is historic, 

 and its very 

 atmosphere is 

 suggestive of 

 dreams. 



Come with 

 me this winter 

 morning along 

 the old Albanv 

 Post road from 

 Has tings-on- 

 Hudson.andwe 

 will explore it. 

 As we go down 

 into the Hol- 

 low from Tar- 

 rytown, the first 

 thing that at- 

 tracts is the 

 Headless 

 Horseman 

 Bridge where, 

 the morning 

 after Ichabod 



Crane's famous ride, as told by Washington Irving, his 

 horse was found without saddle, the bridle under his 

 feet, and the hat of the unfortunate Ichabod beside a 

 shattered pumpkin. The old wooden bridge has been 

 replaced with a beautiful memorial structure, a gift of 

 William Rockefeller, who lives in the neighborhood. To 



SILVERY BEECHES 



GUARD THE PATH 

 DREAMED OF 



the west of the bridge, which is crossed by the Post Road, 

 or Broadway, is Philipse Castle, erected as early as 1683, 

 on the banks of the Pocantico Brook by Frederick 

 Philipse, the early Dutch settler, who acquired all the 

 land lying between Spuyten Duyvel and Croton Point, 



erected Flypse 

 Manor, and 

 became its first 

 lord. Oppo- 

 site Flypse-his- 

 Castle and 

 above the point 

 where- the 

 limped Pocan- 

 tico Brook 

 glides under the 

 Headless 

 Horseman 

 bridge stands 

 an old Dutch 

 church with the 

 low mounds and 

 crumbling head 

 stones marking 

 the last resting 

 place of the 

 friends and 

 n e i g hbors of 

 Brom Bones, 

 B a 1 1 a s Van 

 Tassel, and the 

 beauteous 

 Katrina Van 

 Tassel. The 

 1 i ttle stone 

 church is in 

 keeping with 

 the monuments 

 with their 

 Dutch legends. 

 Farther up the 

 hillside in 

 Sleepy Hollow 

 Cemetery, 

 among the 

 tombs of latter 

 day residents 

 grave of Wash- 



WHERE POOR ICHABOD CRANE WALKED AND 

 THE LOVELY KATRINA 



and millionaires of the section, is the 

 ington Irving himself. 



Down through the hidden ravine on 

 the cemetery Pocantico Brook tumbles, 

 gles over the dam beside which Ichabod used to walk 

 and dream of Katrina, and where stood the old mill 



the east line of 

 laughs and gur- 



