House & Garden 
Erskine,) a protege of the Duke of Argyle 
and a Fellow of the Royal Society. E'.ven 
under his supervision the revenues would 
have been meagre, had not the breaking out 
of the Revolutionary War brought iron into 
sudden demand for ammunition. 
Although Erskine threw in his lot with 
his adopted country, he seems to have kept 
faith with the London Company, and made 
his remittances up to the last. He accepted 
a position on Washington’s staff as geogra¬ 
pher and surveyor-general, and enjoyed the 
intimate friendship of his chief. His career, 
however, was a short one; he died the very 
day that Andre was hanged at Tappaan, and 
Washington came from that sad spectacle to 
Ringwood to attend the funeral ot his friend. 
We can fancy the great general making 
his rapid ride from the Hudson, his heart 
burning with anger at the treachery ot 
Arnold, yet full of pity for the fate ot the 
young English officer who had suffered so 
gallantly in that traitor’s stead. Perhaps the 
peacefulness of Erskine’s death and his quiet 
burial in the little graveyard beside the Ring- 
wood Lake may have calmed the turmoil of 
Washington’s spirit, and given him instead 
the gentler sorrow of a personal regret. 
The last year of the war found the com¬ 
mander-in-chief once more at Ringwood. 
H is aide writes to announce his coming with 
Mrs. Washington and an escort ot troops, 
and suggests that an extra guard be provided 
from Pompton, owing to the unsettled state 
of the country, and provision made tor the 
party, with forage for nineteen horses. 
The lavish hospitality of Revolutionary 
times seems to have been passed on with the 
Ringwood title deeds. 'These deeds, it we 
may discount several rapid changes made at 
the end of the eighteenth century, have been 
held by only two families—the Ryersons 
and the Hewitts, and right royally have they 
preserved, through the hundred years of 
their occupancy, its Colonial reputation. 
Elizabeth E)uer. 
A YOUTHFUL TRITON, RINGWOOD MANOR 
4O9 
