The Parks and Cemeteries 301 



beginners at golf, who can plow up "divits" and fuzzle to 

 their heart's content without delaying or interfering with the 

 more experienced players on the regular links. 



In the southeast corner of the field, not far from the lake, 

 is a group of several locust trees. This spot is supposed to 

 have been the site of Van der Donck's farmhouse, if he had 

 any, and was the site of the house of the original Van Cort- 

 landt. In grading the surface of the field here in the spring 

 of 1903, the foundations of the old house were uncovered and 

 also numerous pieces of broken Dutch pottery — jugs, wine 

 bottles, and the like. The site is between the dam and the 

 group of trees, about one hundred and fifty feet from the 

 former. The spot has been used as a graveyard for many 

 years, and here are buried several members of the Ackerman 

 and Berrien families, descendants of Betts and Tippett and 

 connections of the Van Cortlandts. Upon a visit made to 

 the spot by the author in the fall of 1902, he found the tomb- 

 stones much defaced, with many fresh wounds, made appar- 

 ently within a few days before his visit. That very week one 

 of the cavalry squadrons or batteries of artillery had camped 

 here in the park, and the signs were unmistakable that their 

 stable tent had occupied this spot, or that they had used the 

 trees and tombstones for tethering their horses, and had either 

 carelessly or wantonly injured the monuments. Some of 

 these stones have dates before 1800. The spot has since been 

 fenced in for protection from such vandalism and desecration. 



At the northern edge of the parade ground is Vault Hill, 

 which rises 149 feet above sea-level. It gets its name from the 

 ancient burial vaults of the Van Cortlandt family which are 

 situated near its summit. Within the walled enclosure arc- 

 two grass-covered mounds within which are the stone vaults 

 containing the remains of various members and connections 



