THE TOWN OF PELHAM. 85 



well known as a favorite resort for anglers, when the tide serves, fish of 

 various kinds, and particularly the largest sized bass are taken. On the 

 3d of June, 1S4.], Mr. Benjamin Fowler captured a striped bass, weigh- 

 ing sixty-three pounds ; when measured, it was found to be four feet six 

 inches long. A single steak of this fish weighed eight pounds. The late 

 Des Brosses Hunter, Esq., also caught a bass here weighing fifty pounds. 



During the summer, 1841, a bass drifted on the neighboring beach, 

 weighing forty-three pounds j and Mr. George Cox Furman, with a reel, 

 caught another weighing twenty pounds. In the Fall of 1S38, a former 

 proprietor of the bridge informed me that seven hundred and sixty-nine 

 bass of various sizes were taken at this place by angling. September 

 and October are considered the best fishing months. Sheepshead are, 

 also, occasionally taken here. A few years since a monstrous seal was 

 shot in the bay, opposite the bridge, weighing eight hundred pounds. 



Pelham Bridge was originally commenced by a company of gentlemen 

 in the immediate neighborhood, who after sustaining severe losses, were 

 compelled to relinquish the enterprize, which was reserved for the late 

 George Rapelye, Esq., to complete. The bridge was afterwards pur- 

 chased of his heirs and rented out annually, until the present iron struc- 

 ture was erected a few years since at a cost of $60,000. It is said to re- 

 quire three men and a boy to open the draw. A little west of this structure 

 is the bridge and draw of the New Haven and Harlem River Railroad. 



From the Pelham Bridge there is a most extensive view of Hutchin- 

 son's Bay, terminated only by the shores of Long Island, the fertile val- 

 ley through which the Aqueanounck winds on its passage to the former, 

 and the heights of Westchester. On the south-east shore of Pelham is 

 situated the estate of the late Robert Bartow, Esq. This property was 

 once a portion of the estate of Thomas Pell, third Lord of the Manor, 

 eldest son and heir of John Lord Pell. In March, 1790, Thomas Pell, 

 grandson of the above Thomas and Phcebe, his wife, conveyed the same 

 to John Bartow, a and Ann Pell, his wife, third daughter of Joseph Pell, 

 grand-parents of the late Robert Bartow, Esq. The dwelling house 

 which is constructed of native stone, presents a fine Grecian front to the 

 road, with wings on the east and west. The old manor house which was 

 pulled down, not many years ago, stood near the summer house in the 

 garden a little south-west of the present stone mansion. Here the 

 manor courts were held and tenants came to do suit and service from 

 time to time to the Mesne Lord. 



In a small cemetery south of the site of the old manor-house, repose 



a The father of John Bartow was Theophilus Bartow, who married Bathsheba, daughter of 

 Thomas Pell, eldest son of John Lord Pell. 



