The Parks and Cemeteries 305 



"There were the dark cedars, with loose mossy tresses, 

 White-powder'd dog trees, and stiff hollies flaunting, 

 Gaudy as rustics in their May-day dresses, 



Blue pellorets from purple leaves upslanting 

 A modest gaze, like eyes of a young maiden 

 Shining beneath dropped lids the evening of her wedding. " 



Nature has furnished an ideal beauty spot; may man's 

 improving hand long be kept from interference ! Well might 

 Drake exclaim : 



" O ! 't was a ravishing spot, form'd for a poet's dwelling. " 



The lower portion of the stream spreads out into two lakes 

 formed by dams, the post-road crossing between them where 

 Bolton's bleacheries formerly stood at Bronxdale. About 

 the middle of the lower lake is where the patent and manor 

 lines of Fordham, West Farms, and Westchester formed a 

 corner. Through the heavy masses of woods the patriots 

 hid, or found their way for their stealthy attacks upon De 

 Lancey's Mills, just below, with the hope of capturing the arch 

 loyalist and troublesome raider, James De Lancey, in his 

 visits to his aged mother, who was brave enough to occupy 

 the mansion in the Neutral Ground during the troublous 

 times of the Revolution. 



The De Lancey mansion stood on the east bank of the stream 

 on a small plateau, which seems to have been partially arti- 

 ficial. It overlooked the stream and the mills on the opposite 

 bank; just south of the house was the Kingsbridge Road 

 continued east to Westchester, crossing the stream by a ford, 

 and in later times by a bridge; above is the mill-dam, whose 

 falling water gives out a gentle murmur which must have 

 served as a lullaby to the occupants of the mansion. Between 

 the site of the house and the stream stands an immense pine 



