XXXII INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS 



and here were, as Herbert says — "hills of every shape and 

 size, here bold, bare and rocky — there swelling up in grand 

 round masses, pile above pile of verdure to the blue firma- 

 ment of autumn." It was at a spot five miles before they 

 reached what is now the golf links gate of Tuxedo that the 

 sporting party lunched and rested their "cattle", as Fores- 

 ter loved to describe the horses; and when they had cover- 

 ed the five miles "there down a wild-looking glen, on the 

 left hand, comes brawling over stump and stone a tribu- 

 tary streamlet, by the side of which a rough track, made 

 by the charcoal burners and iron miners, intersects the 

 main road; and up this miserable looking path, for it was 

 no more, Harry wheeled at full trot." 



We must pause a moment and explain, for the present 

 generation will wonder at iron mining in the Catskill 

 Mountains; but near there was the Sterling Furnace 

 where, during the Revolutionary War, was forged the 

 chain which stretched across the Hudson at West Point 

 to stop the English vessels from going up the river, it is 

 written in history that "It Was The Chain That Never 

 Broke." It was made of links two feet long which weighed 

 one hundred and forty pounds each, and held in place by 

 logs and anchors and stretched from West Point to Con- 

 stitution Island. Other chains made in other localities 

 were stretched across the river but the chain forged at 

 Sterling was the only chain that never broke. 



Our motor sped on with the entrance to Tuxedo Park 

 on the left and the charming station of the Erie Railroad 

 on the right. The next turn was to the left passing one 

 of the Park gates near the golf links and then the main 

 road turned sharp right-handed, but slowing up, the sign- 

 post showed the name WarwicJi and bending in a southerly 

 direction we picked ovir way most cautiously until wh 

 espied on the right a rough-looking road and from a party 

 nearby inquired the way to Warwick. They pointed up 

 what was, even to this day, "a miserable looking path" 

 and still further recalling Herbert's description. 



"of winding along the brow of precipices ***** 

 would have stared aghast at the steep zigzags up 

 the hills, the awkward turns on the descents 

 ***■* through a bottom filled with gigantic timber 

 trees, cedar and pine, ***** about six miles by 

 three almost precipitous zigzags till we scaled the 

 highest ridge of the hills." 



